An example of separating the Wheat from the Chaff and Why BANT isn't dead
Lead qualification criteria are characteristics that help to classify a lead by the degree of its willingness and readiness to buy. As a result of this qualification, one can distinguish, in terms of making a purchase, the leads with the most and least potential: hot, warm, and cold.
In lead generation there are usually two stages of qualification: marketing and sales qualification. The first one is done by a team responsible for a marketing activity. The sales qualification is done to confirm the information from a sales perspective.
Ideally, a number of marketing and sales qualified leads must coincide. If a sales department rejects lots of leads, you most likely need to correct your marketing qualification criteria or to add a new criterion. Of course, sometimes it happens that the criteria are correct, but a sales department determines, through reasons…
Recommended design patterns and best practices for your Basket/Shopping Bag
Here is the 6th in my series of posts on recommended Ecommerce page layouts. We've been working our way down the funnel, so now we move from product pages to improving your Basket or Shopping Bag Page. Given it's the launchpad to checkout, it plays a vital driver in pushing the buyer down the conversion path.
As with checkout, the basket page has to serve two user types:
1. New users: Reduce barriers to purchase and persuade them to trust your brand and website, with their payment.
2. Returning users: Provide a quick transition to check-out, summarising key information which commit buyers to purchase.
If you work in an ecommerce team at a retailer, or are involved in design for your client’s accounts, then I hope these templates and tips will guide you along the design/re-evaluation process to maximise results for your pages.
Key Ecommerce Basket Page…
Recommended best practices for Product Listing Pages
This is the third in my series of posts to share best practices on design and user experience for retail sites. My post aims to give you some tips to consider for testing improvements and designing your Product Listing Page (PLP). For each site page template type I have created a wireframe summary of a typical responsive site layout for desktop or tablet rendering showing key design elements, to give you a toolkit to review and optimize your pages.
If you work in design or merchandising for a retailer, or are involved in design at an agency for retail client’s accounts, then I hope these templates and tips will help you along the design/re-evaluation process to maximise results from your pages.
For retail sites, PLP pages sit within the category hierarchy and provide a list of all products available within a chosen category. For large catalogue retailers, these are usually…
Recommended design patterns and best practices for retail Home Pages
This is the first in a series of posts from me in which I hope to give you ideas to consider for testing improvements to page elements on Ecommerce sites following emerging best practices. In each post I will provide a wireframe summary of a typical layout showing key design elements, to give you a toolkit to review and optimize your pages.
In this first guide, we have focused on Desktop and tablet design and merchandising elements since in today's era of mobile responsive and adaptive web designs, the smartphone experience is usually simplified in style and content - so it needs separate treatment which we cover in our mobile marketing guide.
If you work in an ecommerce team at a retailer, or are involved in design for your client's accounts, then I hope these templates and tips will guide you along the design/re-evaluation process to…
A review of page load times and mobile effectiveness for different Ecommerce platforms
More than $12 trillion in B2B transactions are expected for the year 2020. That's up from $5.5 trillion in 2012, according to projections from Frost & Sullivan. B2B online sales are nearly double those of B2C sales. No matter what sphere of digital marketing you work in, it's time to hone in on e-commerce. Clients are hungry for a piece of the ecommerce pie. By staying informed on the existing software solutions, you will have the information you need to lead them towards smart platform choices.
61% of consumers report improved sentiments toward a brand as a result of a positive mobile experience and by 2017, m-commerce is expected to account for 25% of US sales. Mobile shoppers also spend more than users on other devices.Features like…
You've invested in personalisation for email, so why is your site the same for all users?
Your email marketing is up to par; it’s personalized, automated and monitored. Exactly like it should be. But what about your website, does it adhere to the same standards? Probably not, since 95% of anonymous website visitors, remain just that - anonymous.
The main reason behind this is that your Website Visitor Experience isn’t personalized. Which is strange, since ALL B2B conversion action is happening on-site. The same way your email marketing is personalized, so the on-site experience you offer to visitors should be.
Why 95% of Anonymous Visitors Don’t Convert?
It’s a staggering number, one that marketers need to stare at. There are three main reasons for this:
Irrelevant content, product or services
False promises
Sometimes people are just not in the mood…
Acquisition cost, lead gen, cost per lead, customer life-time value, ROI... Making sense of customer acquisition metrics
We live in a world of supply and demand, this applies to customer acquisition. Gaining a customer isn’t free, nor is it cheap. It’s a necessary expense when running a business, but it is possible to overspend. It’s important to find a good balance when it comes to customer acquisition, but that’s no easy feat.
It’s difficult to keep costs down because of the competition that’s inherent in any industry. Marketing costs are necessary to beat out the competitors. With so many more demands for customer attention circulating in the modern world, your draw needs to stand out in order to succeed.
Looking at the overall economics of the situation can help with this.
Supply and Demand
The idea of customer acquisition isn’t much different from the way the stock market runs. It’s driven by supply and demand.…
5 powerful nudges that influence human behaviour
Consider the following puzzle:
A bat and ball cost £1.10.
The bat costs one pound more than the ball.
How much does the ball cost?
The number that many people arrive at is 10p, dividing up £1.10 neatly into £1 and 10 pence. However, the correct answer is 5p (if the ball costs 10p then the total cost will be £1.20 - 10p for the ball and £1.10 for the bat).
Now consider another question:
How many animals of each kind did Moses take into the ark?
This question is commonly referred to as the ‘Moses Illusion’. Moses took no animals into the ark; Noah did.
The incorrect answers many people give to these questions offers just a glimpse into the overwhelming evidence that indicates that one of the underlying assumptions of social science, that humans are generally rational and their thinking normally sound, is flawed.
Many of us believe that we know…
Do you know what pages are drawing valuable traffic and which aren't pulling their weight?
For all of the discussion about creative content marketing campaigns, and for all of the plaudits that they attract, there is an elephant in the room that many brands are ignoring. These brands are investing significant sums in producing campaign-led creative content, but it is the content that they already have that is arguably where that investment should be focused.
Functional content, on-site content, static content or whatever term you prefer to use, is the lifeblood of your digital presence. It is what drives your search visibility, guides your users through the customer journey and reflects your brand personality. But it is all too often neglected.
As search engines continue to change their approach to assessing on-page content, many organisations fail to review and update their content to keep pace with the ever changing, and ever-growing list of…
Are you really getting the most value from your landing page?
While businesses often focus on getting the word out to consumers, they often fail to give the same attention to setting up the best trail of breadcrumbs. Landing pages are key to conversion, and if your snappy email sends people to a confusing or bland landing page, good luck getting anyone to answer your call to action.
To create a better landing page and improve your conversion rates, you must understand the challenges in front of you, recognize your areas of weakness, and implement a data-based strategy to overcome your flaws.
Common Landing Page Mistakes
The modern Internet user has an attention span of about eight seconds. If your page requires too much focus from your site’s visitors, you’ll struggle to convince them to do anything but close the page and go elsewhere. For every second your page takes to load, say goodbye…
