The 5 best tools for collecting and showcasing customer reviews
Reviews have become essential to buying and selling online with customers trusting customer reviews over 10 times more than descriptions or claims made by the brand itself. Reviews can also benefit a brands’ search marketing efforts, as often they will feature highly in SERPS, particularly for local results. They enable marketers to collect and request product and customer service reviews. Some tools also curate conversations happening on social media for brands to use as social proof on their websites.
Customer review and ratings tools enable marketers to collect and request product and customer service reviews. Some tools also curate conversations happening on social media for brands to use as social proof on their websites. We've researched five of the best customer review and ratings tools so you can decide which is best for your business. These tools have been selected to be particularly useful…
Two-thirds of carts are abandoned. Here's how to win those customers back.
When a consumer reaches the final stages of making a purchase but decides to abandon their shopping cart, it’s clear there is some level of objection. Shopping cart abandonment is one of the largest obstacles for ecommerce retailers to overcome and the extent of the problem is shocking.
On average, 67% of online shopping carts are abandoned (Shopify) meaning businesses who are failing to proactively engage with these potential customers are missing out on a huge opportunity to recover lost interest to generate conversions and, ultimately, sales.
It’s easy to assume the majority of cart abandonments happen because consumers are undecided over a purchase, when actually there are numerous underlying reasons that are directly linked to your business’ sales process - ’not being ready for purchase’ only takes third place according to Business Insider’s top eight reasons for shopping…
Pre-flight checklist for email campaigns
Sending an email campaign can be a nerve-wracking experience for any marketer. There can be questions, doubts, and even a little fear running through your mind before you push send. Do all the links work? Are there typos that were missed? Will readers be engaged and respond to the email? Proofing and editing are a must, of course, but is that enough to ensure you haven’t overlooked anything? Sometimes you spend so much time looking at an email you miss the little details. And with email marketing being an important strategy for any business, it’s crucial that each email sent be the best possible.
To help alleviate this sending fear and also avoid the most common email errors, Campaign Monitor is happy to share this email campaign preflight checklist. It covers each part of an email, like…
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16 Jun 2017
Exploring the difference between Omnichannel and Multichannel and the implications for designing effective User Experiences
We've all been hearing and reading quite a bit about Omnichannel Marketing of late. It’s great that companies and brands are embracing the ethos behind the term to make their products and services more connected, open and oriented towards the individual. For this reason I feel it must then share and indeed integrate with many aspects of user experience online. This article aims to summarise my thoughts on how UX approaches and the principles of UX contribute to effective omnichannel Marketing.
What is Omnichannel Marketing?
Okay, so we have to say Omnichannel is simply buzzword or phrase to describe something not new in real terms along with the related but similar multichannel marketing term. Omnichannel marketing is as a strategic marketing activity helps to define the marketing decisions that are driven by the choices that consumers have in how they engage a brand. It…
Simple recipes and tips to get you started with your Marketing Automation
Are you still sending out blanket e-shot campaigns to large, anonymous lists? The latest research from the Smart Insights - GetResponse Email Marketing and Marketing Excellence research 2017 shows that many businesses aren't yet tapping into marketing automation. More than half (54%) rated their use of marketing automation as limited including around 20% who weren't using it all. If this describes you, then the 'shot' part might turn out to mean 'shot in the dark.' In an age where PPC and SEO let you reach a target audience actively looking for companies like yours, blunt emails are rapidly becoming a thing of the past or should be.
Most companies already have all the ingredients - an email platform, a CRM full of client data, and an incoming source of leads gives you everything you need. Getting started can seem daunting,…
Auto-play video and banner ads are seen to be least effective digital formats by global CMOs
What digital ad formats should you use to get the best ROI online? One way to answer the question is to flip it on its head, and ask, what are the least effective formats?
According to a survey of global CMOs, the worst ad formats are auto-play videos and standard banners. Standard banners are hardly surprising, as ad blockers and 'banner blindness' have taken their toll of the years. It's gotten so bad that on many sites the majority of banner ad clicks are actually accidental.
It's interesting that no CMOs thought that sponsored content was an ineffective technique, and very few thought pre-roll ads were ineffective. This shows that it isn't video ads that are ineffective, just video ads starting when the user hasn't opted in to watch anything.
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Have you ever wondered what your SMS referrals are doing after they've clicked?
A whopping 98% of text messages sent are read, putting SMS in a completely different league to other forms or communication in terms of open-rate. But with its simple style and 160-character limit, it can be tricky to track how your campaigns are performing once you’ve pressed send. Including a link in your SMS means you can direct recipients through to richer online content by adding the ability to track who and how many people are clicking through to your website.
Tracking how many clickthroughs you receive on a campaign is awesome if you’re looking for data and statistics on how well the campaigns are performing and who’s interacting – but what about what they do after they’ve clicked on your SMS link? This is where this handy tool from Google really comes into play; adding additional information into your SMS…
Boost your conversion rate with ecommerce personalisation
When it comes to giving customers a better shopping experience it is crucial to make them feel like they are valued. In a brick and mortar store, this can be done through personal greetings, in-store perks, and personalized offers based on feedback that results from in-store conversations.
Running an ecommerce business presents an additional layer of challenges for businesses trying to nurture personal relationships with customers. But these challenges are not insurmountable when using ecommerce personalization for better conversions.
What is Ecommerce Personalization?
Ecommerce personalization involves giving customers a customized shopping experience based on their demographics, likes and dislikes, tastes, previous purchases, interests, and buying behavior.
Ecommerce personalization for better conversions has proven itself to be a great investment both qualitatively and quantitatively. Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon has been quoted saying, “If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of…
Offline information sources remain important, supplemented by new online sources
High-value B2B purchase decisions are typically complex, involving multiple decision makers. They often involve interactions with sales staff to check the fit between product and service and what the client is looking for. Higher in the funnel, when purchasers are comparing the features of suppliers they will use multiple sources.
This research from Global Web Index across a large sample of B2B buyers show the range of information sources that are used. These include both traditional sources such as sales presentations and direct mailing which remain important and newer techniques. For example, communities created by the business or independent communities are surprisingly important. Company pages are on social media are also used are slightly more important that trade ads today.
The chart doesn't clarify 'relevant industry website', we can assume this includes both supplier sites and specialist industry news sites. 'News story' is…
How influencer and affiliate marketing can work in tandem to win you more loyal customers
In life and in marketing, it’s always tempting to create dichotomies: those who like piña coladas and getting caught in the rain and those who don’t, for example.
But times have changed, and technology has fundamentally transformed how we consume information and make decisions. Even Jimmy Buffett isn’t taking out personal ads in the newspaper anymore, just as consumers are no longer waiting for brands to give them the information they want.
Instead, people have access to instant information at the click of a button. Through social media, they can also post to large followings, whip up their own movements, and educate themselves — all before reaching out to brands.
These changes mean marketers need to constantly think about how to engage and connect with consumers. Plus, they need to avoid false dichotomies when it comes to prioritizing who can…
