Cheap isn’t necessarily bad
The word cheap can have bad connotations - as in, poorly made, or won’t last for long. This may be true for many products. But when it comes to services, cheap can be good, because it forces you to wring the maximum value out of a modest research investment. Thankfully, in the case of customer insights, you don’t have to spend much to get the customer feedback you need.
In fact, assuming that your website gets a significant amount of traffic (more than 100K visitors per month), you can collect a critical mass of feedback - from which you can glean key initial customer insights - for less than $1000. In this post I share how you or an analysis-capable colleague can make this happen.
I’ll start by discussing the automated feedback side. Then I’ll cover the human feedback channels you can tap…
Social Media Essentials: The biggest changes in social last year and upcoming updates
Happy New Year to all our readers. Last year we saw some exciting social media updates here are our top 3:
Instagram rolled out their “paid partnership with” tag. Allowing influencers to clearly mark the image as paid and it will also do the same on stories. This feature was a great move on Instagrams behalf as it increases transparency on the platform and enforces the new rules being put in place by The Federal Trade Commission, who are looking to clamp down on social media campaigns that mislead consumers.
We also saw Twitter expand their tweets from 140 characters to 280. Their reasoning for expanding the character count was because, for those tweeting in some languages such as Japanese, Korean or Chinese, they require fewer characters than tweets in English or Spanish. Twitter believes that when people have more character they are…
Referral marketing is a great way to harness the love that customers have for your brand and in turn drive new customer acquisition
Research consistently shows that consumers are most likely to listen to recommendations from friends and family than traditional advertising channels.
Of course, for someone to refer your product, it needs to be something they love and believe their friends will love too. Nobody wants to put their name behind something that might damage their reputation.
Whilst a quality product or service means that refer-a-friend can drive new sales, there are some elements which can take referral to another level.
So, what are the secrets of highly referable brands?
1. Unique
Disruptor brands typically identify a pain point for customers and seek to remedy it with a unique solution. These brands tend to extremely referable. Not only are they solving an issue with a great customer experience, people love to share something they feel…
Chart of the Day: Compare desktop and mobile social media platform reach benchmarks across various counties
In a recent report by Ofcom, 'The international communications market 2017', global comparisons of social media reach has been revealed. The use of social media in marketing is vastly popular because of the potential reach of worldwide customers, and although it's become a 'pay-to-play' arena for most businesses, there is still potential for organic reach if used correctly and strategically.
With the vast range of social media platforms readily available for marketers and advertisers to promote their products and services, one of the hardest challenges is determining which platform is best. However, not only do you need to know which platform your target audience is using, but which device they using and what geographical demo-graph is most popular to get a holistic view of where you need to target. All this customer research is vital to achieving…
How to integrate digital media and technology to increase the contribution of digital marketing
Please see our latest 2019 marketing trends posts for our most recent insights.
I feel fortunate to have followed some of the amazing major changes in digital marketing and technology over the last 15 or 20 years. I'm sure you will have enjoyed living through, following and acting on these changes too. Looking back, we've seen a phenomenal growth in the importance of organic, then paid search, then social media and more recently, incredible worldwide growth in mobile and particularly smartphone usage.
As well as this article, to help Smart Insights members, we also have a more detailed free download of the marketing megatrends, which are 9 digital marketing and martech megatrends that will help give you an edge in 2017.
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Chart of the day: Most marketers are running 1-2 Conversion Rate Optimization tests, such as AB testing, every month.
It's worth noting though that around 7% also run 20 or more tests, the majority run no more than 4 tests per month.
It's no doubt testing is hugely important to marketers, I don't see to sell anyone the benefit of AB testing or Multivariate testing, but for those who'd like to know the difference, I've summarised below.
I've taken the following definitions from Dr David Travis who is a UX consultant, has produced a very popular UX course on Udemy and has a Psychology PhD. The definitions are from his Udemy course.
AB testing - a comparison of two designs, tested with live users and a large number of users. You can run tests until you have a "winner" for example, one which outperforms the other one statistically
Multivariate testing - where there…
How to successfully source and create an influencer marketing plan for 2018
Who are you more likely to trust before buying a product?
Pose this question to contemporary audiences, and they’ll predictably — and understandably — say friends, family, and people who have previously used the product. Consumers have hit a new level of advertising fatigue, making us wary of any traditional messages and advertisements sellers throw our way.
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That hasn’t stopped customers from buying though. It’s just that now those purchases get nudged along thanks to recommendations from the tweets, images, and posts a potential buyer sees online. After all, those aren’t talking at you; they’re talking to you in a subtle, casual, and unscripted way.
This is a familiar trip through the sales funnel for the customer, except this time the guide isn’t…
Learn the benefits of progressive web apps (PWAs) and why you should be using them
This year has been huge for the mobile web. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), which have enabled the rapid delivery of news content, have muscled their way to the top of Google search results. Furthermore, Comscore reports that mobile is the leading digital platform, with 52% of mobile media engagement being made via apps.
As mobile consumption continues to grow, providing users with a fast and efficient experience is paramount in boosting impressions, conversions, and sales.
It is because of this that Google is seeking to blur the lines between a mobile website and the native app experience, with the introduction of Progressive Web Apps (PWA).
There is a problem with the mobile web
Think about how quickly the Facebook, Instagram or BBC news apps load on your phone. A world of information is available almost instantly with just one…
A visual checklist to the essential features of an ecommerce site to ensure success
Your site needs to have quality products that attract customers and a user-friendly design to convert users into loyal and recurring customers.
There is already a well-established set of standards regarding the features of an ecommerce site. But a beautiful site with great products won’t ensure the success of your online store. You need to know which features are really important to convert your customers.
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Typically about 60 - 80% of customers leave ecommerce sites without making a purchase. And only 22% businesses are satisfied with their conversion rates. But by introducing the proper design elements…
