MarketingJam

8 ways to reduce e-commerce drop off rates

I did some analysis of best-practices for e-comm cart abandonment. Here's some of what I found.

1.Eliminate registration. According to Forester Research, 23% of shoppers will abandon when asked to register before checking out. Unless you absolutely must require registration, test a guest checkout can increase the number of customer purchases by 45 percent. While every business hopes to increase the lifetime value of a customer—and registration makes that easier–some customers don’t want to register.

2.Hide the Coupon Field. This little field usually sits innocently on the check-out page, right above the “buy now” button, and it is a major cause of shopping cart abandonment. When shoppers see that field, they will frequently leave your site in search of a coupon code, and once they are gone they usually do not come back. Kill the coupon field and see what that does for your sales.

3.According to Forester, using live chat can lift sales up to 45%. Brother could test the placement of the live chat (and phone number for live orders) and test the live chat graphics closer to the cart graphics.

4.Send an email to customers who have been idle and have items in their cart. The email would ask if they want to get help with the order via live chat or phone.

5.Use search re-targeting to reach customers who have abandoned. Expose them to a display ad that reminds them that they have items in their cart and offer live chat or a phone number on landing page to assist and answer questions.

6.Make the purchaser aware of shipping cost upfront, not after credit card information is requested. High shipping costs are the number one source of cart abandonment according to ComScore.

7.If a prospective customer has been browsing a web page for a period of time, reach out with an email invitation to chat that is tailored to the product or page your customer is looking at and then routes the chat according. Average order sizes increase when you route calls to operators and specialists according to specific areas of expertise or focus.

8.Display product availability. Few things are more frustrating than finding out at checkout that an item is not in stock. Either show stock levels on the product page itself or alert the customer when they try to add that item to their cart. Don’t worry about displaying an actual number; “In stock!” or “Currently out of stock” is sufficient.

Say Goodbye To iGoogle.

I like using iGoogle as my homepage because I find the aggregation of personalized apps on one page pretty useful. But all that is changing and, hopefully, there will be a better solution.

Google’s explanation is that with modern apps that run on platforms like Chrome and Android, the need for something like iGoogle has eroded over time, so it will be winding down iGoogle on November 1, 2013, giving you a full 16 months to adjust or easily export your iGoogle data.

Google says it has some options: On your mobile device, Google Play offers applications ranging from games to news readers to home screen widgets. If you’re a fan of Google Chrome, the Chrome Web Store provides a similar range of options like productivity tools and applications to check the weather. Say goodbye to iGoogle and learn what’s coming.  Click here for more information.

Change is Good, Like it or Not.

Microsoft’s acquisition of Yammer changes everything. That’s because Enterprise Social Networking changes the way fundamental way we work, and ESN is capable of making employees more collaborative and productive.

ESN encompasses modifications to corporate intranets and other classic software used by companies to organize their communication, collaboration and other aspects of their intranets. Open Graph—the integration standard pioneered by consumer companies like Facebook—is now available for enterprise applications. Yammer and third-party developers use this protocol to build seamless connections between business applications, adding value to an enterprise’s existing investments.

I was impressed with Yammer's value proposition. Here's a link to the site.

Standby for Verizon's new rate plans!

Verizon’s got you either coming or going. This week Verizon announced a major overhaul to its rate plans and plans to charge customers almost exclusively on how much data they use versus how many phone calls they make or text messages they send. And I thought I was finally, after 15 years as a wireless customer, beginning to get a good deal with my family plan’s unlimited text and data; they said unlimited free text was “for life”. Verizon’s new “Share Everything” plans give users an unlimited number of calls and texts, and also let up to 10 devices share usage on one account. The new rate plans will be available starting June 28 and will also include mobile hotspot service on all devices at no additional charge. Plans start at U.S. $50 for unlimited text and messages, and a shared data allowance of 1 GB.

According to Yankee Group Senior Analyst Rich Karpinski, Verizon has surprised us every step of the way as it’s leaked out details of its shared data plan intentions. Following last month's everything's-a-shared-account shocker, today came a final surprise: making unlimited voice and SMS a required part of the shared bundle. If customers were clamoring for that, we must have missed it, but the impact is large. It makes the per-phone ‘entry’ fee into these plans more substantial than we would have expected—though overall many customers will pay about the same or less, depending on their usage profile—while pushing the idea of a data-only customer out to the margins. Indeed, by making unlimited voice and SMS basically a feature of every service plan, not unlike voice mail or caller ID, it also somehow makes those declining services relevant again. Why bother looking for voice/text alternatives when they are just there, like air, and more interoperable and reliable than OTT rivals?

“That shared plan approach also results in relatively high data pricing. Users don't reach the now fairly standard U.S.$10 for 1 GB of data level until they purchase 10 GB, the highest published tier—with overages, it seems, getting tacked on at that same rate. Again, this has interesting implications. Light data users get hit very hard price-wise—U.S. $50 for 1 GB of shared data!—but even the heaviest users don't see a significant discount. Those facts discourage the usage of mobile video and other high-bandwidth mobile apps, making the plans work best for families with a handful of devices consuming data rather conservatively. All of which means that while Verizon has succeeded in overhauling how it monetizes its mobile customer relationships, it has done so without necessarily anticipating—or more likely and to the point—encouraging new or additional types of mobile usage. Which means it either missed the mark, or, we'd argue, has yet another shoe to drop in how it delivers and prices mobile video. We already see hints in its mobile FioS and Viewdini offerings. Stay tuned.”

How Landmark Bank Increased SEO-generated Web Traffic 360 Percent

Marketers still struggle to effectively engage prospects on the web. This
interesting example, published by Marketing Sherpa, describes a process
that organizations should use to increase web presence with SEO and paid search
(PPC), along with optimizing web content around keywords.

The real lesson here is that successful marketing organizations don’t force themselves to choose between PPC and SEO,they use both.

MarketingSherpa recently released a case study detailing the SEO efforts of Landmark Bank, which serves business and personal accounts. The bank significantly improved organic and paid search traffic by analyzing its website and launching a keyword-focused content marketing strategy.

The bank started by doing in-depth site analysis and conducting keyword research. It moved on to optimizing and developing site content around core keywords. Developing original website content and engaging sharing it to engage prospects and current clients with social media marketing helped Landmark make its website an industry resource and an engine for leads.

According to the report, Landmark also used different organic link building strategies to drive traffic and improve its overall presence on the web. Moreover, its PPC campaigns were altered based on the trends discovered in its keyword research, and it found that its SEO efforts boosted paid search performance.

“One of the benefits of doing both SEO and paid search is that we are able to do as much overlap as possible with our keyword selection, and that we could support the paid search campaign with the content that was on the site,” said Landmark’s marketing manager, Andy Craig.

As a result of its all-encompassing SEO campaign, Landmark experienced a 30 percent increase in organic search traffic and a 360 percent jump in website visits generated by PPC campaigns.

The success of Landmark demonstrates why PPC needs SEO and content, as well as the banking sector’s increased interest in improving website quality. Brafton reported at the end of 2011 that the industry as a whole was struggling to effectively engage prospects on the web with just 19 percent reporting satisfaction with their existing new media marketing use.

How Social Media Can Promote Thought Leadership

Many organizations have multiple Twitter, Facebook and other social accounts that have very little connection with one another. Integrating these and other types of corporate social sites helps to build a more complete network, encourages the consumption and sharing of content, and increases the value of corporate social sites by driving interest and, eventually, demand. Content is the glue that forms these connections, not only in terms of spreading reach but also exposing individuals to the existence of other social properties. Leveraging social content ensures that as many social sites as possible are addressed without expending unfocused efforts.

An example used by Jonathan Blcok of SiriusDecisions makes the point. An organization sponsors a webcast with a third-party analyst. In most cases, the organization would promote the event by leveraging traditional tactics such as email and perhaps banner ads. If the organization uses social channels, it’s often in broadcast mode such as tweeting “Join us with industry analyst X for thought-provoking content laser-focused on giving you greater ROI.” This message is then repurposed on the company’s Facebook page and LinkedIn group, with the same tweet copied and pasted or retweeted by multiple employees. In some cases, organizations automate such tweets, then forget to suspend the automatic posts after the event date. Such activities are labeled as the “social media program,” but response rates are not measured or analyzed to determine the impact of social tactics.

A better approach would be to promote the event as a thought leadership opportunity rather than a thinly veiled demand creation vehicle. This approach should highlight the value of the organization’s social properties as well as driving more attendees.

Use quotes from the analyst as a teaser for the event — shorter bursts through Twitter and more in-depth content through other social outlets. Longer content that dives deeper into the subject matter of the webcast can be pushed through a series of blog posts, podcasts and posts on Facebook and LinkedIn. This content should be published steadily over a series of weeks but should not dominate any particular social site. Once the event has been held, post the presentation on SlideShare and use other social properties to drive downloads on a media sharing site. The key is to use all of the organization’s social sites to constitute an integrated social experience, recognizing the realities and restrictions of each site (e.g. Twitter’s 140-character limit). Instead of following every post with a link to register to the event, link to other social sites.

A short post in Twitter can link to a longer post in the blog or a podcast series. This way, as much content as possible can reach as many individuals as possible across multiple social sites. Many organizations object that they don’t want to repeat similar content across multiple sites — even though they have no problem repeating the exact same content for weeks on end within the same site (e.g. tweeting the same post through the same accounts). Refreshing and rotating content with an optimized social content publishing schedule will ensure that even users who read all of the organization’s social sites will rarely see excessive duplication of content.

The Next Trend in Digital Marketing

The answer is Near Field Communications (NFC). Although QR codes are becoming the darling of digital marketing companies around the world, one has to ask whether they're here to stay or are they just an interim technology before more user-friendly technologies come of age? QR codes will be trumped by NFC solutions in terms of usability, security and capacity. However, NFC is far from prolific today, and QR codes will fill a necessary gap in the interim.

It's true that QR code are becoming mainstream, and the rise in smartphone ownership from 31 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers currently to 54 percent by 2015 increases the addressable audience of users capturing information from QR codes. 

QR code scanning will drop as NFC comes closer to reality. Yankee Group, of Boston, MA, forecasts the percentage of people scanning QR codes will rise to 8 percent of mobile users in 2012. However, as NFC becomes more entrenched in 2015, the percentage of people scanning QR codes will drop to 5 percent.

QR codes are vulnerable to misuse. In a recent study, AppSec Labs tested 14 commonly used QR code-reading applications for smartphones and found that 35 percent were vulnerable to Web site redirection—without the knowledge of the user. 

A brand manager at a large regional chain of petroleum retailersrecently asked me  what the next trend in digital marketing will be. Today I know it will "QR codes for now, but NFC after 2012".

Consumers say Mobile Devices Top Wish Lists

This year its easier than ever to figure out what people want for holiday gifts. With accererated innovation in technology, everybody wants to upgrade their online experience. Here's the top wish list from Yankee Group.

 

The Rise of Facebook vs. the Demise of MySpace - via Google Trends

Look at this interesting trend in social media use....downloaded from Google Trends.   The first chart is worldwide and the second is U.S.A. only. What do you think? What will replace Facebook?

Gaining Buy-in For Social Media Initiatives

If you want to learn how to convince managment that social media is worth funding, this is a must read.

Gaining buy-in and support for social media initatives

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