Though AMP isn't a ranking signal, non-compliant pages won't appear in Top Stories or other AMP-specific slots in search results.
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If you've been involved in marketing for a while, you've probably heard the phrase: “The money is in the list.” With new technologies on the rise, email marketing can feel antiquated. In reality, email marketing is still incredibly effective – both in terms of long-term brand building as well as generating profits. In a 2016 study, 86% of marketers stated that they were planning to increase their upcoming email marketing budgets. For those willing to take the time to grow their lists and regularly craft high value, personalized messages for their audiences, the rewards can be exceptional. According to DMA, email has an average ROI of $38 for every $1 spent. For online services and ecommerce businesses alike, growing your email list as quickly as possible should be a priority. Here are some of my favorite growth hacks that you can immediately deploy to increase your list of email subscribers. 1. Content UpgradesOftentimes, marketers will create useful lead magnets in the form of ebooks, webinars and checklists. All of these things are great, but it's hard to create a lead magnet that resonates with everyone. For instance, look at the huge umbrella of internet marketing. A visitor that would be interested in a free ebook about infographic design may not care for information about longtail keyword research, and vice versa. In order to capture the maximum amount of leads, it's important to think about context. Instead of offering a one-size-fits-all lead magnet, consider including a content upgrade at the end of your most popular posts. A content upgrade is simply a lead magnet that relates to an existing article and delivers extended information and value in exchange for contact information. They look like this: Content upgrades are laser-focused on the reader's interests. If someone is reading an article about DIY whiteboard explainer videos, then a checklist containing useful resources about video design would make an excellent content upgrade. Or if they're viewing an article titled “5 Google Analytics hacks” then the content upgrade may offer “Download these 3 super-powerful hacks that have been a secret until now.” You'll then ask for name and email and in return they get a PDF containing those 3 hacks. Consult Google Analytics and identify your most popular posts. Next, think of a way to enhance the informational value of the post by including a content upgrade at the end. If you add a unique content upgrade to a handful of your best posts, you'll dramatically grow your list. If you can aim for a 5% conversion rate, this can have a big impact on your email subscriber list. 2. Leverage InstagramThanks to the rapid rise of mobile internet access in recent years, photo sharing platforms are more popular than ever before. Marketers are very aware of this trend. According to Emarketer, 70.7% of US businesses are now using Instagram, compared to just 48.8% in 2016. In my opinion, Instagram is a great platform for engaging your audience with compelling imagery, but it's also extremely useful for converting your audience into email subscribers. The following Instagram tactic is ridiculously simple, yet underutilized. Instead of using your Instagram bio to link to your homepage, link to a landing page containing a lead magnet that users can download in exchange for contact details. It's important that your lead magnet is something that provides genuine value to your audience. Hopefully you've done some buyer persona research and know exactly what frustrations and pain points people have – so you can offer a solution with a free ebook. Given Instagram's significant mobile user base, it's important to ensure your landing page is optimized for all devices. Next, visit the Instagram pages of competing brands in your niche (or any accounts that would have followers who would be interested in your brand) and start following everyone who leaves positive comments. A percentage of people who you follow will follow you back. If you spend several hours per day doing this and you're regularly posting high quality images to keep people engaged, you will notice a consistent stream of Instagram users clicking through to your landing page and hopefully, converting. 3. RetargetingIf someone arrives on your website and doesn't make a purchase or subscribe to your email list, it's easy to assume that they're simply not interested in what you have to offer. In my experience, this is often not the case. We're living in a world of perpetual distractions, and there are millions of reasons why a person wouldn't engage with your site on their first visit. For instance, I notice that conversions are very low during the night hours, yet if the same person arrived on my website during the afternoon, they'd be much more likely to sign up to my list. Fortunately, you can use Facebook retargeting to reconnect with these lost visitors and give them a second chance at subscribing to your list. First, you will need to create a pixel in Facebook ads manager. Next, install this code onto your site so that you can track the interactions and movements of your visitors. Next, click on the “Audiences” tab in ads manager and create a new custom audience. I recommend creating one audience for all website visitors, then a separate audience for all the people who have visited your lead magnet landing page but who haven't converted. This can be achieved by including people who have visited the URL of the landing page, but excluding people who have seen the thank you page for your email list subscription. You can fire off adverts promoting your lead magnet to both audiences, and see which converts better. In my experience, retargeted visitors always convert at a higher rate than cold traffic – since they're already familiar with your brand. 4. Cross PromotionThe quickest way to grow your list is to grab people from someone else's list. Make a list of other companies who serve a similar demographic, but who are not competitors. For instance, if you sell dog training books and courses, a company that sells dog food and accessories would be a wise choice. Next, get in contact and suggest a mutually beneficial agreement where you recommend each other's products and services to your own lists. You can promote special deals, free giveaways or even just a lead magnet if you think it will entice people to subscribe. When people receive an email from an unknown brand, they're immediately thinking: “What's in it for me?” Begin your email by mentioning that you want to promote their products to your list for free, then you can ask for something in return afterwards. 5. Contests and Free GiveawaysYou know who likes something for free? Everyone. As a consumer, I always feel a sense of excitement when someone offers me something for free – even if I probably wouldn't have purchased it in the first place. Running a contest can be a great way to build a sense of community around a brand, but it's also useful for generating email leads that you can market to at a later date. So long as you promote your contest properly and the prize is something that is genuinely valuable to your audience (hint: you should know your audience intimately), you'll definitely receive an abundance of entries. Obviously, it's important to ensure that people submit their entries via email so you can add them to your list. Alternatively, free giveaways can be a great way to get people on your list. However, it's important to have a good understanding of your customer lifetime value (CLV) before you consider free giveaways. If you know that your average email list subscriber is worth $30 in revenue for the first 6 months they're on your list, then it's a no brainer to send them a free product which costs $5 to manufacture in exchange for their contact information. So long as you keep tabs of the numbers, this tactic will scale your email list rapidly. The more money you put into free giveaways, the more money you generate on the back end. 6. Exit Intent PopupsExit intent popups are used to capture leads that are about to leave your website. This technology works by monitoring mouse movements. If it appears that the user is likely to leave the page, then a popup will appear imploring them to sign up for a free lead magnet. When using exit intent popups, it's important to keep user experience in mind. When done poorly, a popup can look spammy and annoying. Google is already penalizing mobile sites with spammy pop ups. This change may occur for desktop as well in the near future. An exit popup should be displayed clearly and in an unobstructive manner. Remember, it's there to provide something of value to your audience, not just to acquire an email address by any means necessary. Concise copy with a clear call-to-action is recommended. Also, you may wish to incorporate colors which contrast with the rest of your site in order to grab attention (think about the neutral themed ecommerce site which feature bright orange “Buy Now” buttons). Here is an example of a nice concise exit intent popup by Wishpond, which ironically corresponds to the subject of creating a great exit intent popup. ConclusionWhile there are many marketing techniques that promise a faster ROI than email marketing, it's important not to neglect one of the best methods for staying in contact with your audience. Techniques for acquiring customers come and go, but building a relationship with your existing customers is essential if you want to stand the test of time. If you're serious about building a long-term brand rather than a short-term money making enterprise, growing your email list must be a priority. Can you think of any other growth hacks to boost your email subscribers? Please let me know in the comments below. About the Author: Mo Harake brings over 12 years of ecommerce and digital marketing experience leading brands like FIJI Water, 7Diamonds, Kill Cliff and venture-backed startups to his work as Managing Director of Stray Digital. For more on his approach to ecommerce, content marketing and growth hacking, visit him on LinkedIn or at the Stray Digital blog. How well do you know your competition? Depending on your industry or location, the market may be saturated with businesses providing the same services or offering the same products as your company does. Not everyone will survive. Sooner or later, one or two companies will separate themselves from the crowd. If you want to be an expert in your niche, you'll need to learn effective competitor analysis skills. Otherwise, you could put yourself at risk of falling behind those businesses that adopt these strategies first. As a marketing expert who founded several startup companies, I'm well aware of how competitive certain spaces can be. It's not easy to operate a business, especially when you're worried about the guy down the street taking customers away from you. Whether you're a small-town business or a global ecommerce store, you need to analyze your competition. If you've never done this before, I'll show you how to get started. My techniques will help you improve your business and increase profits fast. Identify your competitorsKnowing your competitors may sound obvious to you, but you'd be surprised how many people I meet can't name their competitors. Those of you who fall into this category have to identify your top competitors before you do anything else. Even if you know who your competition is, it won't hurt to start here. You may be find new information. Let's say you're a local business selling sandwiches in Seattle. Run a search on Yelp: Simple. The top results will be advertisements, but that doesn't mean those aren't your competitors. Don't disregard them completely just yet. Here's something else to keep in mind. You're looking only for your direct competition. If your sandwich shop also sells cookies or pies, you're not looking for bakeries or specialty dessert shops. You're also not competing with every bar in your neighborhood that has a sandwich on the menu. Make sense? So filter your search to get more accurate results: If you click on the “all filters” tab, you can narrow the results. For this example, I'd recommend picking a price range similar to yours and a place in the same neighborhood. If your most expensive menu item is $12, you don't care about the gourmet restaurant 8 miles away selling $45 sirloin steak sandwiches on their dinner menu. Now that you've got a more accurate list, write down your top competitors. In a busy city, like Seattle, you may find upward of 30 sandwich shops in your neighborhood alone. That's way too many. Look for businesses with the most reviews and the highest ratings. Narrow that list down to 5 or 10 at most. Yelp isn't your only resource. Depending on your business, you can also reference Google Local or Angie's List. However, these platforms may not be helpful if you're trying to identify competitors in a digital marketplace. If your operations are run completely through a blog, website, or ecommerce store, you'll need to use other tools to identify your competitors. Try using a service like SimilarWeb: They offer lots of competitor analysis tools, including competitor identification. All you need to do is put in the name of your website, and they'll generate a list of your competitors. They have a free sign-up option, but to maximize your research, I would recommend paying for an upgraded subscription. If you don't want to pay for a subscription, consider reaching out to your current customers. Creating an effective customer survey can help you learn more about their habits. Send a survey to your subscriber list asking them to identify other websites they shop at or blogs they read. Who is their target audience?Now that you've identified your top competitors, it's time for you to see whom they are targeting. You can't assume their target market is the same as yours. Don't believe me? Let's continue with the local sandwiches example. Here's a chain sandwich shop called Cheba Hut: Take a look at the names of the sandwiches on their menu. Also, notice how they refer to their different sizes. Based on your research, you may have identified this company as a top competitor. They have the same hours as you; they're close to you; and they sell sandwiches at the same price point. But it's clear this business is trying to appeal to a certain crowd. It works. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying you need to adopt this strategy and look for a niche market to focus your marketing strategy on. All I'm saying is you need to identify the target market of your top competitors. After further analysis, you may determine you want to make some adjustments, but we're not quite there yet. Here are some things to consider when you're identifying your competition's target audience:
Your results won't be perfect, but try to come up with an accurate customer profile based on their advertising campaigns. Your Google ranking is essentialHow can you be better than your competitors? You both have the same type of content on your website. You're targeting the same customers. They even update their site, services, and products as frequently as you do. Why are they ranked so much higher on a Google search than you are? You need to understand the components of Google's ranking algorithm: Visit your competitors' websites. Evaluate their SEO. Determine how they are using keywords to boost their search ranking. Look for keywords and phrases in the following places on their sites:
Do you notice a pattern? See what words are getting used the most in these places. It may have an impact on their rankings. Compare their content to the keywords on your site. Are you using long-tail keywords? You should be. Incorporating a long-tail strategy into your content creation will improve your ranking because it's more specific. Ecommerce sites use this tactic all the time to get more hits. If you're selling a pillow, adding the word “pillow” all throughout your content isn't as effective as using terms like “down pillow for side sleepers.” Is your competition using this strategy? If so, that's probably why they're outranking you in related search results. Analyze competitor contentTake your analysis one step further. Getting customers to your platform is only half the battle. But what do these people see once they arrive? Here are some other things to look for on your competitor's page:
Compare these to your own website. They may have certain features you've omitted from your site. I'm not saying you should automatically mimic the structure of their pages, but see what's working for them. For example, let's say you discover your top three competitors have a blog. And all three outrank you on Google. You should consider adding a blog to your site. This data about the benefits of blogging speaks for itself. Adding a blog to your website will help you:
And that will lead to increased profits. Something else to keep an eye on while you're analyzing their website is their calls to action. How is your competition adding subscribers, generating leads, or converting sales? Look at their sales pitches. See what benefits they are offering. How do their top features compare to yours? You may realize your product and service are significantly better than those of your competition. But that doesn't mean anything if you can't relay that information to your customers. Look at how marketers are failing to use CTAs: Reviewing the CTA on your competition's website could be an eye-opening experience for your marketing department. Your competitors may excel in areas where you're lacking. That's okay for now. But it needs to be fixed before you fall too far behind. Look at their social media presenceAll businesses should have a presence on social media platforms. For now, I'm going to assume your company is active on at least some of the most popular platforms:
If not, you need to follow my social media guide. For those of you who already have profiles set up, navigate to your competitors' pages. How active are they? What are they posting? Are their customers engaged with their posts, photos, videos, and comments? Here's an idea. Start adding their followers. These people are obviously interested in your industry if they are following your competitors. Maybe they don't know your company exists. Don't be selective. Add all of them. The more people you add, the greater your chances of getting customers to follow you back will be. Understand why consumers follow brands on social media: Once they start following you, it's essential you keep them engaged. Keep in mind, some of these people may have already established a brand loyalty with your competition. You really need to blow them away to convince them your brand is better. See what kind of promotions your competitors are running on social media. Try to run one that's more appealing. How do they incorporate videos into their social media marketing strategy? Video content makes up more than 90% of Internet traffic. You should be using live video to engage with your customers. Even if that's something your competition isn't doing, it's a great way to stay ahead of them. Recognize areas needing improvementNow that you've analyzed your competitors' customers, websites, marketing strategies, and social platforms, it's time to adjust your business. Based on your research, what areas of your business need improvement? Where do your competitors excel while you struggle? There's always room for improvement. Don't be biased. It's okay to recognize your competitors are doing well. Run a SWOT analysis: Here are some questions to ask yourself. Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
These questions are just a starting point. You can take this SWOT analysis much further to make the necessary changes and improvements. ConclusionIf you want to increase profits, start by analyzing your competition. Competitor analysis is an effective strategy for businesses in all industries, whether your company is large, small, or somewhere in the middle. The first thing you need to do is identify your top competitors. Narrow this list down to 5 or 10 at the most. Only look for direct competitors-not just any business similar yours. Once you've identified these companies, you need to focus on their customers. What's their target market? How are they appealing to these customers? Focus on your Google ranking: Analyze your competition's website to see what kind of SEO tactics they're using. Review their content, and compare it to your own. What pages on their site generate the most user engagement? Consider adding a blog to your website if you don't have one already. Check out the social media profiles of your top competitors. Start adding their followers in an attempt to draw more customers to your business. Use the SWOT analysis to recognize and implement any necessary changes. Making these changes can help improve your business and increase profits. Which online tools will you use to identify the top 5 direct competitors in your industry? These days, just about anyone can create and send out email campaigns to their list of prospects. But just because it's nearly push-button simple to do, doesn't mean it always gets the results you want. And if your beautifully-designed, precisely-formatted and succinctly-written email went over like a lead balloon, it doesn't mean the end of the world. It just means that you should take a step back and consider making some changes to your approach. The thing is, you know your email marketing isn't working as well as it could. The results you're getting are tepid at best and engagement levels are plateauing, or worse, falling. You're just not sure what to do to fix it. The good news is, you're about to learn. And even better, it's easy to implement these changes and start seeing a measurable increase in all the email engagement metrics that matter - opens, clicks and conversions. 1. The Sign: Your Email List Isn't Growing as Fast as it Once DidMuch like a doctor diagnoses your symptoms to determine the best course of action to make you better, you've got a sick email campaign (and I don't mean that in a good way!) and you've got to find a remedy. One of the key signs of a floundering email campaign is that the list just isn't growing. People may subscribe, but they also leave just as quickly - if they even subscribe at all. The rate of growth for your list has slowed, plateaued, or worse, reversed. The Fix: Create a New OfferTake a look at what you're offering your prospects in order to get them to join your list in the first place. Oftentimes this is an eBook or a video. But how old is it? Is the information you're sharing outdated or no longer applicable? Try creating a new offer - a new ebook, a new video, or something completely different. Things like templates that your prospects can just “fill in the blanks” with or roadmaps that outline different strategies in a step-by-step way are always popular no matter what industry you're in. 2. The Sign: Prospects Simply Don't Engage With Your MessageMaybe you've got a sizeable email list, but the open rate barely registers as a blip on the email marketing radar. And the click-through rate is even more abysmal. If you only send emails out when you want to sell something, and you don't take the time to get to know your prospects and their goals as they relate to what you're selling, no matter how great your sale is, it will find itself squarely in the recipient's trashcan. The Fix: Start an Email Marketing CalendarThe best email newsletters don't just sell - they go much further. They share stories of the people behind the company. They ask subscribers to share their own stories. They go behind the scenes and share insights about their product - where it comes from, who makes it, why people love it. And they don't do this once or twice, but consistently. They establish rapport with their subscribers so that the subscribers actively look forward to receiving the company's messages. One of the easiest ways to start building an email strategy like this is through the use of an email marketing calendar. Just as you schedule out sales emails now, look for ways to fit in emails about other things your customers value. Are there any new laws that are going to change your industry? Any big developments on the horizon that customers should know about? Any interesting stories about where their product comes from or how it got started? Schedule these into the calendar as well. It's a different type of marketing - one that fosters open communication and mutual respect between subscriber and sender. 3. The Sign: You're Sending Out a Blanket Message to All Your Subscribers – And Getting Little in Terms of InteractionIf you're sending out the same message to everyone, don't be surprised if your open and click-through rates are low. This happens because not everyone is at the same stage in the customer journey or the sales cycle. Some users are simply looking for more information, while others are ready to buy. Still others may be somewhere in between. By sending the same message to all of them, you're mistakenly assuming that they're all starting at the same place. As a result, readers will find that your sales announcement or any other message you send them isn't really tailored to their needs - and that your product may not be, either. The Fix: Start Segmenting Your ListMost modern email marketing platforms allow you to segment your list, and it doesn't cost you anything except a little time to make it happen. The great thing about segmentation is that you can segment by nearly any criteria. Want to segment your users by demographic? By product purchased? By whether or not they even bought in the first place? Provided you have that information, you can do that. And if you're looking to convert people from prospect to customer, you can put together a drip campaign that overtime builds prospects interest to eventually getting them to convert. And if you don't have that information, it may be time to upgrade to a platform that collects it for you, like Kissmetrics. 4. The Sign: Everyone's Getting the Same Message So You're Not Sure What's Causing Opens and Clicks to Rise or FallIf you haven't segmented your list yet, but you've just sent out a campaign and are seeing a surprisingly high response - that's great! What caused it? Was it the subject line? The design? The offer? Not sure? Wouldn't it be great if you could find out? You can. The Fix: Start A/B Testing Your EmailsJust like with ab/b testing your landing pages and other areas of your site, so too should you be a/b testing your emails. This works even better when paired with list segmentation since you can determine what, precisely, encouraged customers to click or convert. What resonates with one group of people (for example, customers just looking for information) may not necessarily “click” with people who are ready to buy. By segmenting and a/b testing your emails, you'll see exactly what energizes each segment of your list and propels them to convert. 5. The Sign: People Open Your Message or Click, But Don't PurchaseIt could be that your open rate or click-through rate is good, but you're not getting that all-important conversion. People just aren't buying. And while the reason could lie in your site itself - that's a topic for another post. For the purpose of this article, we'll assume that your site is also converting at a steady clip, but conversions from emails directly aren't getting the results you'd hoped for. The Fix: Start Retargeting CampaignsMost prospects come to a site, look around, and leave. You've worked hard and spent money getting them this far. Are you just going to let them go so easily? No! Which is why it's a good idea to get started with retargeting campaigns. Retargeting can show your customer a relevant ad for your site across a wide range of other web properties - even those you don't own. What if they could be reminded of a product they looked at yesterday while browsing the morning's news or weather? This is just one example of what a retargeting campaign can do. Done correctly, it serves to not only remind customers of your product or service, but also capture their attention again - essentially giving you a second chance to make that connection. A Makeover Doesn't Just Mean a Fresh, New DesignAs you can see, an email marketing makeover doesn't mean slapping up a fresh coat of paint on your existing email design. It means digging below the surface to find out why users aren't acting when they receive your message. You want every email you send to be something a user looks forward to receiving – and when that happens, you'll discover that it wasn't so much a makeover, but a rebirth - of email that's more relevant, more social, and more compelling than before. About the Authors: Sherice Jacob helps business owners improve website design and increase conversion rates through compelling copywriting, user-friendly design and smart analytics analysis. Learn more at iElectrify.com and download your free web copy tune-up and conversion checklist today! Conversions are in the toilet. Traffic is still coming in. But your bottom line isn't changing. Sales are slower than ever. People simply aren't buying right now. It's not the holiday season. It's probably just the “off-season” for online sales. No need to worry, right? It's normal for this time of year… But it's not. Selling online isn't only seasonal. Conversions just aren't happening for you. But there's a reason. Your conversion rate optimization tactics are outdated. Or you simply don't have any in place. Those instant on-site popups aren't compelling users to buy from you. Social share buttons don't lead to buying decisions. As the online landscape changes and new technologies arise, user behavior changes. And when user behavior shifts, marketers can't stick to the same old tactics and fall behind. If you don't keep up to date with user behavior, your business and livelihood could be at risk. Thankfully, there are a few data-backed conversion hacks you can implement that are sure to get you a better conversion rate. So, what are you waiting for? 1. Include different checkout optionsWhat if I told you that a few simple minutes of work (without paying anything for setup) could net you 44% more conversions? Would you call me crazy? Maybe a used car salesman? Fair enough. But let me explain. Is your website optimized for mobile traffic? If not, is your name Fred Flintstone? In all seriousness, if you don't have a mobile site that's optimized for mobile sales, you're doomed. Why? Because the majority of website traffic is mobile now. If you're not optimizing for mobile, you're risking tons of conversions. Mobile intent is big, too. Think about it. When you're on the go, and you see someone wearing a shoe that looks awesome, what do you do? You probably open up your smartphone and Google it. You want it now. You don't want to wait. Why? Because you saw someone wearing it and you liked it. Mobile intent is high because people often see something they like on the go. They don't sit around wondering if they should really buy it. So, where am I going with this? You can improve your checkout conversions by up to 44% by incorporating multiple payment gateways, such as PayPal. Pretty amazing, right? According to Nielsen research data, PayPal transactions also have a 70% higher checkout conversion rate than non-PayPal transactions. You need any trick in the book when cart abandonment hovers around 70%. Alternative payment methods are especially important on mobile, where people are otherwise forced to whip their credit cards out in public. Adding other payment options is one of the easiest ways to solve that problem. 2. Use more videosVideo marketing is literally the future. Research predicts that video will account for 70% of mobile traffic by 2021. Video is already dominating the landscape of marketing. HubSpot's 2017 State of Inbound Report has shown that more and more marketing professionals are investing their budgets into video platforms like YouTube and Facebook Video: All of the top content distribution channels are heading towards video. And for good reason. Adding videos to your landing pages or product pages gives you a 50x higher chance of showing up on Google searches. More visibility = more traffic and more conversions. Even the simple mention of video in your email subject line can increase open rates. That's how popular video is right now. If you are struggling to get conversions on your landing pages, consider creating a simple product video to help explain what your product does and why it can help the user. People don't like reading text anymore. The majority of people skim text-based content online. Including that long-form sales page you just put finishing touches on. People want you to get straight to the point. Video marketing can help you do just that. If you don't know where to start, try using a site like Biteable to create free videos for your landing pages. You can create free business-style videos that have dozens of animated templates. Plus, it's free. It doesn't cost you a cent. And according to the latest data, implementing videos on your page will increase conversions. The top companies are using videos on their landing pages right now. Check out this landing page from Leadpages: They use an explainer-style video to show how you can benefit from their product. Seeing a video demo in action is much more compelling than reading a block of text about how great your product is. 3. Increase site speedIf you want to increase your conversion rates, speed is one the best ways to do it. Why? Because we are impatient people. Nobody wants to wait ten seconds for a site to load. Seriously: nobody. Not when there are hundreds of companies out there selling or offering similar products/services. Google recently released some amazing data backing this all up. The latest data shows that if your site is slow, your bounce rate is going to increase: And an increase in bounce rate means fewer conversions. Even a few seconds can cost you valuable traffic. When it comes to an online business, traffic is money. Walmart found that their conversions dropped rapidly when load times jumped from one to four seconds. Every second of improvement resulted in a 2% increase in conversions. General data shows us an even worse outlook on site speed. For each second that your website takes to load, you can expect a 7% decrease in conversions. Speed has the power to make or break your website. It can truly determine whether or not you find profit and scalable growth. Even a single second could be costing you money. According to Google, the majority of websites in any given industry fall way too short: The best practice for site speed is three seconds or less. But most of us are taking longer than eight full seconds. That's bad. So, what can you do about it? The first step is to diagnose your website with Google's PageSpeed Insights tool. Enter your website URL into the tool and analyze it. From here, you get your website's overall speed score for both mobile and desktop. The great thing about this tool is the free insight that it will give you into how you can fix your site problems. Most of the time, images are going to be the biggest culprit. They take up tons of space on your site, slowing your speeds dramatically. If you can compress a few images, you've got a good shot at improving your site speed and increasing conversions. WordPress has tons of plugins that you can use to automatically compress your images and increase site speed. Try using Smush It: It's a free tool that you can install on your WordPress site in just a few minutes. You can also try TinyPNG or ImageOptim (Mac only). When it comes to increasing conversions, speed is the name of the game. 4. Shorten landing pagesLong-form content wins the day when it comes to blogging. Data proves it. The longer the content, the higher chance you've got to rank well on Google. We hear it all the time: the longer, the better (no innuendo intended). Content is king. Especially long-form content. But does that same principle apply to landing pages? Do long-form landing pages convert better? Well, it makes sense that a long-form landing page would be good right? You can tell a user all about your product without them having to leave the page to find more info. Product features, demos, and descriptions are amazing when it comes to pushing a customer to buy. Every sector of your business can have their featured spot on a landing page. It sounds great when you think about it. But the data actually shows us otherwise. Shortening your landing page can increase conversion rates dramatically: In a case study, one company reduced the size of its landing page and found a 13% increase in sign-ups and a 35% higher click-through rate to pricing pages. This isn't a one-off case study either. Neil Patel found a 13% increase in conversions on his Crazy Egg site by reducing the content amount by 60%. Patel also worked with a client on their landing page to increase conversions. They were using a long-form style landing page, but Neil recommended using a short-form page with video-based content. They reduced the size of the landing page dramatically. In the end, the conversion rate for the website jumped by 40%. Data consistently shows that short-form landing page content converts better. Why? Because Americans read headlines and not much else. Typical Americans, am I right? But seriously, Buffer found that 55% of visitors to your site will only read your content for 15 seconds or less. If you want more conversions, try shortening your landing page and getting straight down to business. Slack has one of the best landing pages in the SaaS industry right now. It's short-form and gets straight down to business with a clear-cut headline and call to action: There is almost nothing on the homepage besides a headline, description, CTA, and a bit of social proof. Bonus Hack: Social proof is one of the best data-backed hacks to increasing your conversion rate in seconds. Include a few statistics on your site about how many users you've helped or big companies you've served. Orbit Media increased their conversions by 1400% using social proof. ConclusionConversions are worse than ever. You're still driving tons of traffic to your site and product pages. But nothing is budging. All of that work you've put in to bring people to your site isn't leading to sales. You're screwed (kidding). You feel trapped, scared, and worried about your business. Without conversions, you don't have a business. It's probably just the slow season, right? Wrong. There is no real slow season when it comes to generating conversions and sales online. There is just bad conversion rate optimization. Thankfully, it's not that hard to fix. There are actually multiple data-backed ways to increase your conversions for free. Including PayPal at checkout can increase your conversions by up to 44%. Want a fast increase in conversions on your landing pages? Include some product explainer videos. Site speed should be a big focus, too. The slower your site is, the higher your bounce rate will be and the lower your conversion rate. Try shortening your landing pages. It's proven to increase conversions. Getting conversions doesn't require you to spend thousands on an agency to fix your site. It just requires a few simple tweaks to make it easier and faster to buy from you. About KissmetricsKissmetrics combines behavioral analytics with email automation. Our software tracks actions of your users across multiple devices allowing you to analyze, segment and engage your customers with automatic, behavior-based emails in one place. We call it Customer Engagement Automation. Get, keep and grow more customers with Kissmetrics.
About the Author: Brad Smith is the founder of Codeless, a B2B content creation company. Frequent contributor to Kissmetrics, Unbounce, WordStream, AdEspresso, Search Engine Journal, Autopilot, and more. What's your company's growth strategy? Businesses need continuous development to get out of a plateau. I've spoken to many people about their marketing plans, and most of them are trying to come up with new ways to add more customers. While customer acquisition is great, it's not always necessary if your primary goal is to increase revenue. Focusing on your existing customers will save and make you money too. Don't believe me? Calculate your customer acquisition cost: That's how much money it takes for you to get just one new customer. Was it higher than you thought it would be? If you're spending too much money on customer acquisition, it could bleed your company's bank account dry. Now, divide that number by 7. Do you think that's a little bit more reasonable? Well, that's how much it will cost you to retain an existing customer: Plus, it's easier to retain a customer. They are already familiar with your brand, products, or services. There's no learning curve and no need for the proof of concept with these customers. You just have to keep them engaged and give them a reason to keep coming back. If your current growth strategy isn't working, it's time to put a new one to the test. Instead of focusing on new customers, put more effort into your existing ones. Emphasize the customer experienceEvaluate your process. What's the step-by-step procedure a customer needs to go through to complete a sale? Put yourself in the shoes of a consumer, and build a customer journey map. This will help you determine the strengths of your organization as well as areas needing some improvement. Having repeat customers doesn't mean your system is perfect. Your customers may not be completely satisfied, but they're waiting for you to make the necessary adjustments. Anything you can do to make things easier for the customer will improve their experience. That's why nearly 90% of businesses say customer experience is a driving force for loyalty and retention. Here's why that's important. Eighty-eight percent of consumers said they would pay more for a better customer experience. That's right. Your existing customers are willing to pay more for your products and services if you can improve the existing process. But here's a problem I see all the time. Businesses don't know how to identify those areas that need improvement. Earlier I suggested building a customer journey map, but that doesn't work for everyone. You need to ask your customers directly. Create surveys. Conduct interviews. Give your customers an opportunity to speak their minds. Even if they are complaining, it's good for your business. For every 26 unhappy customers, 25 will leave without saying a word. You still have the opportunity to salvage the relationships with the ones who complained. Chances are if one customer has feedback about your company's product or service, they aren't the only one who feels that way. Take the results of your surveys and interviews very seriously. Here are some examples of improvements you can make:
I realize it's tough to implement lots of changes at the same time. But don't get overwhelmed. Focus on one thing at a time, and make sure each adjustment improves the customer experience. Enhance customer loyaltyLoyalty is a key factor in customer retention. Just because your repeat customers continue to buy from your business does not mean they are loyal. Your company may just be convenient for them at the current time. Here's a hypothetical scenario to illustrate my point. Let's say you own a local coffee shop. You have a customer who comes in nearly every day for their morning espresso. This customer doesn't like going to national chains, and you're the closest local spot to their home. They don't mind the 10-minute drive each day as long as they are supporting a local business. However, a new local coffee shop just opened up, and it's only 2 minutes away from the customer's house. A loyal customer will continue to make the 10 minute drive to your place. See the difference? It also depends on your industry: Look at where coffee is in this graphic. It's a retention-dependent industry whereas a low-frequency purchase, such as a vehicle, is more dependent on acquisition. The average American has a car for 6.5 years. It's difficult for an auto sales company to maintain customer loyalty over such a long period of time. But it's not impossible, especially if you can get that customer to keep coming back for regular maintenance and services on their vehicle. What's the best way to create loyalty? In the ecommerce industry, you have to have strong email and social media marketing skills. Both of these channels keep customers engaged, allowing you to establish personalized connections with them. I'll elaborate more on these topics as we continue. Master your email marketing strategyDon't make it complicated. Email marketing may be simple, but it's super effective. Make sure your messages provide value to the recipient. Don't send emails just for the sake of starting a new campaign. Consider the following reasons for contacting your subscriber list via email:
Don't spam your customers. Receiving emails too frequently can be a major turn off for them and cause them to unsubscribe from your list. That's counterproductive. For retail businesses, email marketing had the most significant impact on customer retention rates: Here's something else to consider. Not all your current customers are subscribed to your email list. Converting your existing customers into your subscribers should be part of your retention strategy. You just have to give them an incentive to sign up. Offer a discount. Look at how Perry Ellis does this on their website: You can use the same strategy on your site as well. Ecommerce stores can also include an opt-in CTA in the order confirmation messages to those who checked out as guests. You're contacting these people regardless, so it makes sense to give them this option. To give the customer some extra incentive, you can include a discount or exclusive offer here as well. Personalize your communication when contacting customers via email. Include their first name in the message. Consider your tone when you're writing. Your voice shouldn't sound robotic (even though the message might be automated). Which one of these opening lines sounds better to you?
or
The second option is much more personal. This strategy will increase your open rates. You can use your email marketing strategy to re-engage with customers who haven't been active in a while. This message will show them you appreciate their business. If you can re-connect with a customer who hasn't bought anything from your brand in the last 6 months, it will help increase your revenue. Here's an example from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital: Even if your company isn't a nonprofit organization, you can still employ the “we miss you” tactic. Embrace social media to connect with your customersIf you want to have high customer retention rates, you can't slack off in the social media department. Consumers use Facebook for much more than just uploading pictures from their most recent vacations. They want to interact with brands as well. There are over 65 million local businesses on Facebook's platform. Your customers are significantly more active on these social channels than they are on your website. It's much more convenient for them to contact you here. This goes back to what we discussed earlier regarding the customer experience. If the only way your customers can contact you is Monday through Friday via telephone between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM, that's going to limit customer satisfaction. But if you're active on social platforms like:
your customers have more options and can select one based on their preference. If you can find ways to increase engagement with your current customers, your revenue will grow as a result. Live video streaming can help you accomplish this. Consumers love live video content. Compared to a pre-recorded video, people watch live streams three times longer, which means they're engaged. Think of your stream as a television show. Don't just come on randomly whenever you feel like it. Schedule a time once a week to broadcast so your followers know exactly when they can expect to hear from you. Getting weekly viewers can establish brand loyalty, which we discussed earlier. Marketers who currently use live video to engage their existing customers believe it establishes a more authentic interaction with the viewers. Here are some additional social media engagement tips:
That last point is one of my favorite techniques, especially if you're trying to create an effective customer retention strategy. Everyone loves to get something free. So, give the people what they want. Or at least give them a chance to win. Starbucks does this all time: Their #RedCupContest encourages customers to design a cup and share their photos on social media. It's a brilliant strategy in terms of brand exposure in addition to the customer retention benefits. Learn how to cross-sell and upsellYou can generate more revenue from your current customers by getting them to spend more money each time they make a purchase. Here's how it works. Upselling encourages a customer to buy something similar to their initial purchase, but “higher end” (and more expensive). Cross-selling entices the customer to make a purchase that will compliment something else they've bought. These strategies are effective regardless of your industry. It doesn't have to be a tangible product. For example, if you run a website to generate revenue, you can offer a more expensive monthly subscription to your users as an upselling strategy. Businesses offering a service such as insurance cross-sell to their customers by offering home insurance as well as auto insurance. Make sense? Find out how you can apply these strategies to your business. B2B companies have adopted this strategy too. The more products or services your customers buy from you, the more likely they are to become emotionally invested in your business. This establishes customer loyalty, the importance of which cannot be overstated. ConclusionWhile getting new customers is always exciting for a business, it's not the only way to increase your revenue stream. Look at your customer retention strategy first. It's often easier and significantly less expensive to implement than the customer acquisition strategy. The customer experience is vital. Focus on ways you can make adjustments that enhance your current process, structure, and platforms. If you're struggling to identify areas needing improvement, ask your customers for feedback through a survey or interview. You need to increase customer loyalty. Recognize that repeat customers are not necessarily loyal customers. It's important to know the difference. The top two ways to increase loyalty and retention are:
Mastering these strategies will improve retention rates throughout the customer life cycle: Personalize your email campaigns. Make sure your email provides value to the subscriber. Try to get your existing customers to opt in to your email list if they haven't subscribed yet. When you're interacting with customers on social media, you need to encourage engagement. That's why live video streams are such an effective strategy. You can also increase revenue by getting your existing customers to spend more money each time they purchase something. Cross-selling and upselling techniques can accomplish this for you. You need to promote your most profitable products and services while learning how to recommend other complementary purchases. If you follow these tips, you'll generate more revenue without having to add new customers. What kind of social media promotion are you going to run in order to engage your followers and increase customer retention? Whether you're a new business or have been in business for several years, getting more ecommerce sales will benefit your company. Unfortunately, businesses go through plateaus and declines. These things happen, but don't get discouraged. If you're having trouble coming up with new ways to get more customers and increase revenue, I can give you some pointers. Your previous methods may have worked at one point, but eventually, the same old strategies can grow stale. It's essential your business is constantly keeping up with new trends. Consumer habits have changed, especially in the ecommerce industry. As a marketing expert, I've analyzed these trends and come up with a list of tips that will actually work. Here are the top 11 ways to generate more sales on your ecommerce site. 1. Target your existing customersWhen businesses have trouble growing, they immediately think it's because they don't have enough customers. This is a common misconception, so don't jump to conclusions. Instead of focusing all your effort on customer acquisition, you should improve your customer retention strategy. Look at the impact loyal customers have on an ecommerce site: Compared to new customers and customers who only made one purchase on your website, loyal customers:
Don't get me wrong. Obviously, it's great for your business if you can keep getting new customers. But that's a more expensive marketing strategy. It's much more cost efficient to go after your existing customer base. Why? These people are already familiar with your brand. They know how to use your products, and there's no learning curve. So focus on ways to improve their experience. Try to come up with a customer loyalty program that gives people an incentive to spend more money each time they shop. Each dollar spent can translate to a rewards point. When a customer accumulates a certain number of points, they can redeem them for discounts or other promotions. 2. Display icons that show your site is trustworthyNobody will want to shop on your ecommerce site if it appears sketchy or otherwise untrustworthy. One of the first things you need to do is make sure your website is secure. Check out this example from Foot Locker: Cyber security is a major concern for shoppers these days. In the last five years, 46% of Americans have been the victims of credit card fraud. Security of their information is a priority for online shoppers. You need to recognize this and make the necessary adjustments. But what can you do to prove you're trustworthy? Proudly display any security badges your website is using. These are some examples of popular choices. I know this should go without saying, but I want to be clear. Make sure you're not lying or misleading your customers. Don't just go slapping these badges all over your website unless you actually have a relationship with these companies. Otherwise, you can find yourself in some legal trouble as well. Which one of these security measures is the best? I don't want to talk about performance, but I can tell you which one speaks to customers the most. Norton Antivirus won by a landslide in terms of public perception. So if you're using Norton and don't have the badge displayed, you need to change that as soon as possible. For those of you shopping for new potential website security providers, it's not a bad idea to check them out as a top consideration. 3. Use video demonstrationsConsumers love videos. In fact, over half of marketing experts across the globe say that video has the top return on investment compared to other marketing tactics. Websites that have videos can get the average user to spend 88% more time on their pages. In addition, videos do as well as ads. That's how the ecommerce brand Robo generated $4.7 million in revenue running video ads. This creates an increase in engagement as well as interest in whatever you're trying to sell. Videos resonate more with people, so it's likely that they'll remember what they watched as opposed to just reading about it. What's a reasonable way to include relevant videos on your ecommerce site? Create product demonstrations like Nato does with their smart mount: The video shows users how they can use this product in their daily lives. Their website explains that the mount works for smartphones, tablets, GPS devices, and lightweight laptops. Listing this is one thing, but showing customers how it works through video demonstrations is much more effective. The video shows a demonstration of the product in the kitchen, car, bedroom, boat, office, and even bathroom. So it appeals to a wider range of people. This strategy won't necessarily work for all products. For example, if you're selling a shirt, you won't need to demonstrate how to put on a shirt. But if there's something special about your clothing in terms of usage and functionality, a video is a great way to convey that message. It's also an ideal strategy for ecommerce sites selling new products that may be unique or creative. 4. Use photos when you include customer testimonialsUser reviews and testimonials are a great way to show proof of concept. But reading text from some nameless and faceless person isn't really that convincing. Take your testimonials one step further. Add a photo and include the person's full name and title (if relevant to your product). Here's a great example from Pangea Organics: Autumn Bree Fata is an integrative health coach, so her title establishes some authority and knowledge for this product. Including a picture of her face shows she's a real person and not just somebody you made up. What do you think looks better and more professional? The example above or: âThis product is great!â â Daniel L. It's obvious. The example from Pangea Organics will resonate more with the people visiting your website. This testimonial can encourage others to make a purchase and drive more sales. Here's another example from Naturally Curly: This ecommerce store sells beauty products designed specifically for customers with curly hair. Their website allows users to share their story and includes a picture as well. If your product is solving a problem, customers will be happy to share their story. I've explained before how storytelling can engage and persuade people. Combining storytelling and photographs with your testimonials will help drive more sales on your site. 5. Recognize your customers want to shop from their mobile devicesJust because you have an ecommerce website doesn't mean you can assume your customers are shopping only from their computers. The reality is that people use mobile phones and tablets to shop online. Research shows 40% of mobile users have bought something online from their devices. Furthermore, 63% of Millenials shop on their phone. These numbers can't be ignored. Make sure that your website is optimized for mobile devices. If your site isn't mobile friendly, it will turn potential sales away. So for those of you without an optimized mobile site, it could be one of the reasons you're seeing a decline in sales. I'd make that a top priority on your to-do list. Something else you can consider is building a mobile app. Look at why customers prefer apps compared to a mobile website. All of these reasons make things easier for the customer. Improving the customer experience will help you get more sales increase your revenue. Find a way to focus on what customers want.
If your website, mobile site, and mobile application can provide these things, you won't have an issue getting more sales. 6. Offer more discountsIt may sound simple, but not enough companies are offering discounts to their customers. If you're worried about your profit margins, just use a marketing strategy that's as old as time. Jack up the base price of each product and then put it on sale. It's simple. Take a look at this example from Express. They are offering 40% off of everything on their website. So many times I'll see websites offer âup toâ a certain percent off of âselect items.â Sure, that works too. But that's nothing compared to 40% off everything site wide. Everyone loves getting a good deal, so this is a great way to drive sales. 7. Showcase your top selling itemsGive your customers some direction. Show them what people are buying the most of. I like it when websites include a âbest sellerâ category on the homepage. Not everyone browsing your site will know exactly what they're looking for. If your company sells a wide range of different products, it can be overwhelming, especially for a new customer. So when someone stumbles upon your site, they may get drawn to products that are popular. Here's how Black Yeti does this on their ecommerce site. You can also take this opportunity to promote products with the highest margins. Even if they aren't actually your top seller (nobody needs to know that), you can put them on your homepage. In a perfect world, your top selling products are also your most profitable products, so try to make that happen if you make adjustments to increase profit margins. 8. Ramp up promotions for the holidaysSpecial events are a time when people are looking to shop and spend more money than on a normal day of the year. That's why I always tell ecommerce sites to actively promote holiday sales. You've got a small window of opportunity to get massive sales during these events. Take a look at these statistics for ecommerce sites during cyber week. So break out your best offers during this time of year. The shopping malls are packed, so it's more convenient for consumers to shop from home. Use that to your advantage. I said this earlier, but here's another opportunity for you to target your current customers. Send out emails to your subscriber list to entice them to buy during the holiday season. Keep in mind; people are buying gifts for friends and family as well as themselves. So make sure you promote your products accordingly. Market items as âthe perfect giftâ or âthe best ways to show someone you care.â Phrases like that should do the trick. 9. FOMO (fear of missing out)You've got to create a sense of urgency when you're selling products on your ecommerce site. This will get shoppers to act fast, instead of waiting to complete the purchase at a later date (which they may never do). So tell your customers that you have a limited quantity of items remaining, even if that's not necessarily the case. Airlines do this all of the time. Check out this example from Delta. 4 out of the 6 prices on this page show a limited quantity remaining. The lowest ticket price is for $303.20, but there's only one ticket left at this price. This strategy can get a price sensitive customer (so most people) to make an impulse buying decision. It creates a fear that if they don't buy it now, they'll end up spending more money if they wait. Another way to do this is by running flash sales. Here's an example of something you could email your customers or put directly on your website. Again, this creates a sense of urgency. The sale ends at midnight, so if the customer doesn't act now, they could miss out on getting a great deal. It's much more effective than sending out a coupon that expires at the end of the month. Doing that just gives people an excuse to put it off. Make sure your marketing campaigns are actionable, and you'll get more sales. 10. Accept different payment optionsYou've got to give people different options to pay for the products and services on your website. If you only accept Visa and MasterCard, you're alienating lots of potential customers. Make sure you have the capability to accept debit cards in addition to credit cards. Look at this checkout page from Best Buy. Best Buy accepts 6 different types of credit cards on their website. They also give customers the option of paying through their PayPal accounts. The last thing you want is a customer who wants to make a purchase, but can't because you don't take their primary payment method. Continue to adapt to the new trends as well. Alternative payment options such as Apple Pay are growing in popularity too. If you have a mobile application, like I suggested earlier, customers can easily pay for items via Apple Pay with just a few clicks. Making the checkout process as simple as possible will help you get more ecommerce sales. 11. Focus on your value propositionWhat's the customer see when they get to your website? Is it your phone number? Your company's mission statement? Those aren't effective. Instead, put more emphasis on value. Tell your customers what separates your product from similar items on the market. Look how effectively Square does this with their point of sale systems. Their value proposition tells you everything and anything you'd need to know about the product. It has a headline that captures the consumer's attention. Next, a brief description explains exactly what the product does. They include a bullet list of their top features for customers to focus on. Square also included a photograph of their POS system to show customers what it looks like. If you can create a highly effective value proposition, you'll be able to drive more sales on your ecommerce site. ConclusionIf sales are starting to slow down or get stagnant, it's time for you to come up with some new and creative ways to market products and services on your ecommerce site. Rather than trying to find new customers, focus your marketing efforts on your existing customer base. Make sure your website is secure, so customers feel comfortable entering their personal information as well as their credit card numbers. Use video demonstrations to show customers how to use your products. If you're currently using customer testimonials, that's great. But if you want to improve those testimonials, add a photograph to them as well. Offering lots of promotions and advertising during special times of the year, such as the holidays, can help you improve sales as well. Create a sense of urgency to entice customers to make an impulse buy. Don't forget about mobile users. At the very least, your website needs to be optimized for mobile devices. If you want to go the extra mile, consider developing a mobile application too. Promote your top selling items. Come up with a unique and actionable value proposition. All of these tips will help you boost sales on your website. What methods have you used to help you grow your ecommerce site fast? Just in case you've been living under a rock for the past five years, Tinder is a hugely popular mobile dating app that matches potential partners based on user data and proximity. Since the application was launched in 2012, it has experienced explosive growth. Within two years, Tinder boasted 800 million swipes every single day. As of 2017, that daily figure is 1.6 billion. So what makes Tinder so special, and what can we learn from Tinder's growth that we can apply to other businesses? You've probably heard the phrase âsex sells.â That's certainly part of the picture, but there are many other facets of Tinder's growth engine that are worth admiring. Conceptual DesignIf you look at all the major case studies for growth hacking in recent years, from Airbnb to PayPal, they all have one thing in common: an excellent product. On a conceptual level, Tinder is ingenious. All marketers know that consumer behavior is driven by emotions rather than logic. To be specific, people are motivated to act due to two reasons:
Tinder's users are motivated by seeking out romantic encounters (pleasure) while simultaneously avoiding rejection (pain). We're not talking about mild emotions here. These are core human desires with an evolutionary basis. It's theorized that the fear of rejection stems from when humans lived in primitive hunter-gatherer societies. With limited amounts of potential mates in a small tribe, being rejected could entail the end of your lineage and in some cases, would lead to ostracization and death. Today, rejection is a stinging emotional experience that people don't want to go through. Google the term âapproach anxietyâ and you'll find a library of articles on the subject â indicating how serious of a problem it is for people. Since both parties have indicated a mutual attraction before a Tinder match is made, daters don't need to go through the experience of approaching someone they're attracted to while hoping the other person feels the same, and don't have to worry about being approached by someone they have no interest in. Additionally, Tinder uses the intermittent reward system. New matches are a ârewardâ. You get excited when you swipe right and it's a match, you get the push notification telling you there's a new match waiting for you when you open the app. When using Tinder, you likely won't get 5+ matches a day, or even a match a day. So when matches become scarcer, they are more valued, and then when they come, it's a huge (and addicting) reward. You get back into the app, keep swiping, keep messaging, and it becomes a âmust haveâ in your life. Rewards come early (the critical first few tries for a user, when it determines if they'll be sticky, they quickly see the first signs of value from the app when they get new matches. Overtime, the rate of new matches will diminish, but by then you're already hooked on the app. You get more matches because it's suspected that new Tinder users are shown to more people, and thus achieve more matches.) The emotional drivers of pleasure and pain are the cornerstones of Tinder's success. User ExperienceEven with a great concept, Tinder's success would have been severely limited if the user experience was inadequate. Fortunately, Tinder's creators were wise to the fact that we're living in a culture of instant gratification. While traditional dating sites require you to read long-winded profiles for potential dates, Tinder gives you an avalanche of potential partners that you can accept or dismiss in one hand gesture based on first impressions. In many ways, Tinder replicates real life. People make snap judgments all the time, and you're unlikely to get to know someone's favorite artists or movies unless there is an initial physical attraction. Tinder's CEO, Sean Rad, states: âWe want to create experiences that emulate human behavior. What we do on Tinder is no different than what we already do.â In order for word of mouth marketing to be effective, it's important for user onboarding to be smooth and efficient. If your friend has got you excited about an application but you're having trouble logging in or understanding how to use it, then it's not very useful. If you have a Facebook account, you simply connect it to Tinder, pick your photos, and start swiping. You don't even have to include photos to start swiping (but you probably should considering this is dating). And while there's a bio section, you don't even have to go through the pains of creating a witty bio before you can start swiping. Tinder already looks at your Facebook Likes, Friends, and creates âshared interestsâ and âMutual Friendsâ with potential matches. Compare this to the wringer that most dating sites put new users through. You have to write your bio, list your favorite books, movies, what you're looking for, etc. By the time you can actually start viewing profiles you've already used 20 minutes of time writing a bio that few people will read. Unlike the desktop, the smartphone is an ideal device for Tinder's fast-paced dating action. Swiping left or right on a smartphone just feels natural â akin to swiping through a deck of cards. Given that smartphone displays are image-centric, you're compelled to make snap decisions primarily based on looks. Some would argue that this is superficial, but maybe dating is more superficial than we'd like to admit? With an excellent product, in both concept and execution, the team at Tinder deployed some powerful growth marketing tactics in order to generate attention. The Two-Sided NetworkAccording to Wikipedia, two-sided networks are: âeconomic platforms having two distinct user groups that provide each other with network benefits.â In the case of Airbnb, the brand was only successful because there were enough hosts and guests to facilitate each other's interests. Simple laws of supply and demand. For Tinder, both men and women would be required to make the app work. Additionally, a significant portion of the user base needed to be attractive â otherwise there would be insufficient matches. In order to get heterosexual men on the platform, there needed to be heterosexual women already present, and vice versa. So, which demographic would need to come first? Tinder came up with a smart solution to this quandary. Having enjoyed her experience in a sorority at college, Tinder's Vice President of Marketing at the time, Whitney Wolfe, set off to acquire campus VIPs as early adopters. Tinder also got a fair amount of publicity during the 2014 Winter Olympics when snowboarder Jamie Anderson and others revealed that they've been using Tinder. This added to the social proof of Tinder, which only helped its user base grow more. Interestingly, former UFC champion Ronda Rousey stated that she didn't have much luck with Tinder because of her fame, and actually signed up using a fake name before being found out. Given the UFC's predominantly male fan base, I'm sure a significant number of UFC fans became Tinder users upon hearing the news. With âhigh qualityâ models and sorority leaders using the application, this would do away with the negative stigma that digital dating is for lonely people. Instead, Tinder would be an application that social, attractive people use to make their good dating lives even better. Campus PresentationsOn a tour of numerous campuses in the United States, Wolfe gave group presentations about Tinder to sorority houses. At the end of the presentation, Wolfe insisted that all the girls sign up for the application. Immediately afterwards, she would go to the corresponding brother fraternity and encourage the guys to sign up. Right away, the guys would see profiles for the attractive girls that they already knew, but hadn't had the opportunity to interact with in a romantic context. Because campuses have a dense population of single students in close proximity, initial users had more than enough potential matches to keep them engaged with the application. Parties and OutreachIn another display of Tinder's marketing ingenuity, Tinder hosted a party for a USC student's birthday and went the extra mile to make it amazing. Tinder paid the bill for the party in exchange for putting a bouncer at the door that only let people in after downloading the application. When Wolfe returned after her college tour, Tinder's user base jumped from 5,000 to 15,000. This is when word of mouth marketing gained momentum. Parties would still play a prominent role in Tinder's marketing strategy as the application expanded beyond the American college system. With launch parties in Mexico, Japan and England, Tinder brought nights of fun and entertainment to singletons around the world â while simultaneously promoting the Tinder brand. As a result, Tinder's user base expanded. In the initial months, 85% of Tinder's users were within the 18-23 ages, but by the following year that same age range represented only 57% of all users. ConclusionThe growth of Tinder can be attributed to a quick onboarding system, an addicting product with random rewards (matches), a unique dating product that was different than current options, and successful launch parties. Have you used Tinder? If so, what about the application encourages you to keep coming back? Please let me know in the comments below. About the Author: Aaron Agius, CEO of worldwide digital agency Louder Online is, according to Forbes, among the world's leading digital marketers. Working with clients such as Salesforce, Coca-Cola, IBM, Intel, and scores of stellar brands, Aaron is a Growth Marketer â a fusion between search, content, social, and PR. Find him on Twitter, LinkedIn, or on the Louder Online blog. Woo-hoo! Your team just clinched another new customer. That's great news. But before you celebrate, think about the next step in the sales process. Communication plays a critical role in fostering customer loyalty. To transform buyers into die-hard advocates, it's important to improve your post-purchase emails. âFor a business to thrive, it must provide customers with long-term value that translates into repeat purchases and, thus, increases the customer's lifetime value to the company. And that is where carefully crafted post-purchase emails come in,â says entrepreneur and marketer Danny Wong. It's time to lay the groundwork for more sales. Let's learn five strategies to ace post-purchase emails. 1. Focus on Relevant InterestsWhen you're not interested in something, the easiest thing to do is to ignore it. You mentally set whatever it is aside and move to tasks that hold more value. In the world of email marketing, relevancy matters to your customer. If it doesn't offer value or bring an inkling of benefit to the individual, there's really no reason why they should care. A relevant message after a purchase may include a receipt with the total amount, a status update about the delivery of the item, or contact information to connect with customer support. Customers desire transparency and want reassurance that they made the right purchasing decision. âKeeping customers up to date with the status of their purchase, especially if there is a delay or another issue, is important. In fact, consumers decide not to do business again with a brand because of lack of transparency about the status of their purchase delivery,â writes Alexa Lemzy, a customer service expert and content author at TextMagic. Below is a post-purchase email from Amazon. Along with the order total, you'll notice a proposed delivery date and recommended items. As you create a post-purchase email, it's vital to ask: why should my customer care? The goal is to exceed customer expectations by delivering messages that speak to the buyer's needs and interests. 2. Segment to Nurture RelationshipsEmail marketing isn't a cookie-cutter tool because every customer isn't the same. You may cater to eight different buyer personas-each with distinct characteristics. So sending a generic post-purchase email will get overlooked by your audience. To nurture more customers, you'll want to use segmentation to send relevant emails.
Segmentation enhances relationship building, giving you a chance to effectively communicate with consumers. You can drop the blanket language in your email conversations. For instance, a major holiday may be around the corner. So your team wants to send all new customers post-purchase welcome campaigns wishing them a wonderful holiday season. Rather than delivering a bland message to every new customer, segmentation by location makes it possible to tailor your email to mention nearby festivities happening in the customer's area. You also can segment emails when it's necessary to speak your customers' dialect. (Your team doesn't want to get caught describing a carbonated beverage as âpopâ in Louisiana.) Segmentation is the focal point to personalizing the post-purchase experience. You'll build better relationships quickly. 3. Engage Based on BehaviorOnly a few decades ago, business teams made wild guesses about their customers' spending habits and shopping behaviors. Marketers relied on gut feeling and historical data to drive their future campaigns. Lucky for you, technology is advancing rapidly and you can get real-time data about your consumers with a few clicks. And thanks to Kissmetrics Campaigns your team can nudge customers toward brand loyalty with behavior-based emails. Â You can determine which post-purchase messages to send based on customer behavior, like purchase amounts, website visits to a specific product page, date of last purchase, or a combination of these actions. Let's say you want to invite only your most loyal customers to a VIP rewards program. You may segment your list to deliver this post-purchase email to customers who've purchased more than $5000 in the last month and rated your support team with 4 stars or above. If you sent the same email to everyone on your list, you may engage people still getting to know your brand. Consequently, they wouldn't be ready to be part of the loyalty program. New Thrive Market customers receive 20% off their first three orders. After the first order, the eCommerce retailer sends a post-purchase reminder email (below) to entice consumers to take advantage of the remaining offer. Pinpoint opportunities to customize your post-purchase emails. Sometimes it takes monitoring and understanding your audience's behaviors. 4. Evaluate Email FrequencyYour customers receive emails on a daily basis, whether it's from their best friends or work colleagues. So knowing how often to send an email is just as crucial as the content of that email. Nailing down the right email frequency for your target audience helps you understand when to engage and when to leave your customer alone. People need personal space online, too. Your post-purchase emails can add up fast. There's the order confirmation, the shipping confirmation, the product review request, and the reorder email. And don't forget your five-part welcome campaign. Before you know it, you've sent your customers 10 emails in one week. Sending lots of emails in a short period of time can lead your subscribers to email fatigue. This problem results in customers ignoring and deleting your emails or worse, unsubscribing from your mailing list. You can combat email fatigue by observing your engagement metrics. Check your open, click-through, and unsubscribe rates to spot any fluctuations in activity. Experiment with delaying general email campaigns until after a customer receives her post-purchase emails. Swamping customers with emails isn't ideal. So assess the value of each message and whether another email helps or hurts your brand. 5. Run Tests to Optimize CampaignsIt's easy to set up your post-purchase email campaigns and forget about them as you work on more pressing issues. When specific business operations are working well, complacency may have your team missing opportunities to do better. Running routine tests to optimize your campaigns is not only a good business practice, but also an essential process to learn which emails resonate with your audience. Plus, you can identify changes in customer behavior and adapt your campaigns accordingly. With Kissmetrics, your team can track purchases from email campaigns. You'll know exactly which campaign engaged consumers when they bought your product or service. This report is valuable for tailoring your email campaigns. For example, if a customer bought your product after engaging with your blog newsletter, your post-purchase campaigns may include recommendations to specific blog posts to encourage repeat orders. Or what if you notice a sharp increase when you send 15% discount reorder emails compared to a 5% savings? Now, your team can adjust your strategy to fit the customer's desires. Don't be afraid to run multiple tests to learn your post-purchase email sweet spot. It's only by analyzing the data that you can satisfy your audience and boost your sales. The Power of EmailEmail isn't reserved just for gaining a prospect's attention pre-sale. It's also an effective tool for nurturing customers into retention. Revamp your post-purchase email by staying relevant to the recipient's needs. Send emails that engage customers based on their behavior, not unfounded hunches. And optimize your campaigns by running experiments. There's power in email. Now, it's your turn. About the Author: Shayla Price lives at the intersection of digital marketing, technology and social responsibility. Connect with her on Twitter @shaylaprice. |
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