Customer surveys may not be exciting, but they're still crucial to business success

Customer surveys are a traditional marketing research method. The advancement of technology has attempted to push them to the side in favour of other means, such as email. However, there are many reasons not to renounce this particular practice and instead, see them as an addition to the typical advanced strategy. Customer surveys are not a novelty, but they are still relevant in today’s digital marketing environment. Here are 10 good reasons to convince you.

1.    Offer Better Services

The primary purpose of any customer survey is getting feedback from clients. However, this feedback is only the means to an end. Just collecting your client’s opinion is useless if you don’t do anything with it. The expected outcome of any marketing research is an improvement. If you have struggled to…

Smart Insights and Adestra report on customer engagement 2018

Engagement is one of digital’s most prickly talking points. Increasingly Digital Natives expect brands to understand needs deeply and then deliver answers promptly.  Thanks to technology, professional, personalized automated Marcoms programmes help ensure that such responses are not simply addressed, they exceed average expectations. We live in a society where all generations see the world through the lens of technology. Engaging with Digital Natives calls for deeper insights into their lifecycles. Fortified by such knowledge, brands can provide accessible services that are easy to act upon via unified frictionless experiences that cross all divides and devices. [add link to report when uploaded] According to a recent report from Smart Insights and Adestra around 41% of marketers take advantage of a single welcome email. Inactive subscribers are contacted by 34% of marketers. Behaviour-based triggers (such as abandoned carts) trigger around 30% response. …

How can online marketers handle the new challenges with the help of one KPI – Customer Lifetime Value?

Marketers are facing a new era in online retail, combining both technology and customer-centricity. It might not be a new thing for most of you and yet a survey shows that most companies are in “digital denial”, not accepting that it is tools and technologies now to help marketers acquire and retain their customers. Important as it is, one-to-one personalization is a challenge as well, which Chloë Thomas indicates in her recent book. Why that matters in eCommerce? Customers are more demanding than ever. eCommerce is more competitive than ever. Marketing tools, channels and data flows are more overwhelming than ever. Online retail marketers today need to be present at the right time with the right message to the right prospect. So how can we address that? Let’s try an ACKNOWLEDGE – LEARN – ACT –…

Simplifying the purchase journey will help ensure you provide a happy customer experience.

The customer journey can be a long and arduous one for consumers as they move through the buying maze/funnel from initial research all the way to receiving their goods. These same consumers are demanding more and more from retail brands with, buy in-store for delivery, click and collect, and same hour delivery. At every turn, you are potentially putting off the customer from making their purchase. WorldPay surveyed over 2,500 consumers and analyzed their behavior cross buying channels, generating in-depth insights into their behavior to give you a deeper understanding of what they want from retailers. Worldpay found that while 28% of consumers are being frustrated with the lack of delivery options, a combined 31% of people are struggling with finding a product and then understanding the product when they finally do. This…

Showing how integrating personalisation and automation can deliver a more personal experience

Long gone are the days when a website was a 'one size fits all' online brochure.  Now your web presence needs to play a fundamental role not just in reaching prospects, but also leading them through a personalised customer journey toward conversion to customers and long-term engagement.

According to Econsultancy, 77% of companies are currently planning to increase their digital marketing spend in 2016.  Whilst 38% of companies are focussed most heavily on acquisition, 62% recognise that retention is either as important or more important.  It’s vital to remember that getting visitors to a website through acquisition tools is an expensive exercise if you don’t also successfully convert the customer and grow your customer equity.   Estimates of how much it costs to acquire a new customer vary wildly from the conservative 3 times to an eye-watering…

Taking action with the collection and analysis of survey data to help improve the customer journey and strengthen company processes.

Data collected from online surveys can do so much more than tell you what your customers are thinking. Research is a vital addition to any B2B and B2C marketing toolkit. Successful companies are developing their business strategy - with the aid of data - to make marketing decisions that identify and resolve customer issues. The team at SmartSurvey (the UK’s leading online survey provider) have put together a guide to demonstrate effective use of online questionnaires and how to utilise surveys to shape your marketing strategy. Sections covered in this guide include: The Benefits of Collecting Customer Data How to Collect Reliable, Honest Feedback Designing Effective Online Surveys The Market Research Society (MRS) recently published an article demonstrating that the UK research market has increased by 62% to £4.8 billion. A recent comprehensive…

Tips for brands adapting to Digital from the author of Youtility

Many brands are struggling to adapt to a digital first culture and more seriously, struggling to remain relevant. It’s clear that brands moving from the industrial revolution to the connected economy need to be doing a lot more than creating a digital marketing dept in their organisational chart. Rather, they need to be adjusting and adapting their culture. I interviewed Jay Baer, author of the New York Times best seller, Youtility and one of my favourite business books. We discuss the challenges for brands that struggle to grasp “digital”, what brands can do to differentiate themselves in competitive markets and Jay’s latest book, Hug Your Haters.

Q. Many brands struggle to grasp how “digital” is structured within their organisation with many treating their digital activities within a silo -what words of wisdom could you provide brands to adapt a digital…

New research highlights different approaches to engaging retail customers

The DMA has identified four different types of consumers when it comes to brand loyalty. Some customers are always loyal, others only loyal for certain purchases. But whatever their natural propensity for brand loyalty, you need to engage them and build trust. The DMA's 2016 research presented below shows that over half of consumers will stick to a brand that provides good service when they know they could get a cheaper deal elsewhere. In addition in found customers don't particularly like being asked to provide reviews, yet brands are keen to do this. One the flip side, almost half of customers would like to receive free gifts from brands, but only one in ten companies do this. There is clearly currently a big mismatch between consumer desires and brand actions, and this needs to close. Find out more by checking out the infographic below. …

How to build and nurture online communities

A surefire way to build trust and foster brand loyalty is to establish an online community or membership site. It provides your audience with a sense of belongingness, exclusiveness, and the reassurance that your company is looking out for your valued customers. However, before you get ahead of yourself, remember that a successful community is not easy to establish. It requires extensive planning, research, and time and effort in order to set up an engaging platform. The first step in creating an evergreen community is understand the how the best in the business have done it in their respective markets. Below are seven of the best online communities or membership sites operating today:

1. Blogging on Your Own Terms

Membership sites do not have to be complicated. For example, Blogging on Your Own Terms by Daniela Uslan is built completely on Facebook. It is a community…

The latest GRIT report reveals that marketers and market researchers are embracing social media analytics more than ever.

Greenbook Research Industry Trends Report (GRIT) is conducted with market research buyers (clients) as well as market research consultants and agencies (researchers); it aims to track the research methods being used and how those methods are changing over time. They found that whilst mobile surveys and insight communities are now mainstream, there is a wide range of techniques that are gaining widespread adoption, highlighted in the chart below. A few years ago insight communities were new and exciting, they were threatening the use of research panels but now they really are mainstream. Brands are turning to their own research communities to conduct surveys, online/offline qualitative research, mobile surveys and qualitative projects. Social media analytics and text analytics are gaining widespread use whilst mobile for qualitative research is…