Best Reasons To Consider E-Commerce Personalization

Marketing has come a long way from the simple printing press to pamphlets handed out in the streets. Today’s marketers rely heavily on gathered information, data analytics and personalization. In fact, personalization is no longer just a buzz word; it has become important in helping businesses reap the rewards of marketing.

Personalization generally refers to creating content through software that makes it easier for businesses to interact with clients and customers to make them feel that their interests are taken into consideration. Companies and marketers create content that is tailored for individual clients or customers based on their characteristics and preferences gleaned from data gathered.

What can e-commerce personalization do for your business? Let’s find out.

1. Improved Customer Experience

E-commerce personalization helps to improve customer experience because it helps to build a long term relationship with them. When landing pages, ads and email messages are personalized; it makes it easier for them to find relevant content that appeal to their needs. This projects businesses as being customer-oriented rather than business oriented. E-commerce personalization can lead to better customer satisfaction and lifetime value associated to the company by the customer.

2. Improved Conversions

Customers today are very volatile and have shorter attention spans, which mean to say that your window to sell is very limited. Personalization can help improve conversion by presenting information to customers that are relevant to them. According to Demand Generation, leads coming from targeted content can help to boost sales opportunities by 20%.

Personalization can improve conversion rates by helping target customers better by catching their attention and enticing them to buy.

3. Boosts Order Size

A good example of e-commerce personalization is supplying customers with related information. For example, a customer looking to buy a laptop from your website can be enticed to consider accessories like a laptop bag, mouse, speakers and other peripherals. This can be done by featuring a related products segment at a strategic point as the sale is completed or throwing in recommendations to improve selling more products in the same transaction. These types of strategies can help boost order size.

4. Improves Brand Loyalty

Remember the “Share a Coke” campaign by Coca-Cola in 2014? It gave consumers a chance to customize their bottles. This was a smart move by the company as it gave customers something shareable and letting them actively participate in the campaign with their friends.

Amazon is another company that capitalizes on e-commerce personalization. They remember purchase history, offer product recommendations and uses personalized emails for their customers.

Also, according to a study conducted by Swirl, 87% of customers say that customized experience off line and in-store helps to improve brand loyalty.

5. Gives Competitive Advantage

The internet is teeming with e-commerce websites. How can you stand up against all the competition?

E-commerce personalization does just that. It helps to differentiate your website from those of your competitors. A website that has better or friendlier customer experience will appeal to more people and clients. Customers like it better when they feel as if they are highly regarded or important by businesses.

Businesses online and in the real world need to remember that there is no “average customer”. Customers are inevitably diverse not only in their choices but in their personalities too. E-commerce personalization can help deliver a better purchasing experience which in turn helps to boost customer loyalty, conversion and revenue.

Do you agree that eCommerce Personalization works? What are some of your best strategies? Tell us by leaving your comments below.

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Web Design Acronyms Your Web Designer Wish You Knew

 

LOL, HTTP and JPEG. For many of us, it seems like the internet is speaking a whole new language. You’re not wrong or alone. These types of abbreviations and many web design acronyms can be very confusing especially for lay men. If you’re having a website set up, learning about these acronyms can help conversations and discussions flow more easily. If you are new to web design or e-commerce, here are some common web design acronyms.

• SEO

SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of getting traffic from organic sources. Search engines like Google and Bing show search results based on what users think is the most relevant search term. The goal for any website owner is to show up on the first page of the result pages to get noticed and attract more visitors.

• CTA

Call-to-action or more popularly CTA is a vital philosophy for inbound marketing. It is best described as the action you want your reader to do; whether it is contacting you, leaving their email or purchasing a product. You can think of a CTA as the final push your guest needs to get them to act.

• CTR

CTR or click-through-rate refers to the number of people who clicked on a specific ad compared to the number of people who saw it. This metric is usually used in pay-per-click (PPC) ads but can also be used within your website. For example, if you have a promotion or campaign running you will want to measure how many people actually clicked on the link versus how many ignored it. The number will tell you if your graphic or promotion was attractive enough to persuade readers to click.

• KPI

Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are statistics that can tell you if your website is doing well. Companies and websites have different KPIs. Here are common examples.

• Visits or sessions refer to the number of people who visited your site in a month including repeat visits during the same period.
• Average time on site is the time spent by users on your website.
• Bounce rate refers to single page visits to your website.

 

• HTML

This is short for Hyper Text Markup Language, a.k.a. the building block of websites. It is a standardized system for tagging text files to determine color, graphics and other elements of a website.

• CMS

CMS or Content Management Systems allows you to manage the content of your website behind the scenes. It allows you to answer comments, add keywords, edit content or change copy on a product. CMS are generally easy to use regardless of web development experience.

• CSS

Cascading Style Sheets or CSS is used by developers to change the look and feel of your website. If HTML defines structure, CSS is responsible for design and layout.

• GIF

GIF is short for Graphics Interchange Format and is familiar to many social media users. Most of us have seen short videos that go on a loop which are all good examples of GIF. It is created by multiple images in one file forming a short animated clip.

• PNG

Portable Network Graphics or PNG are graphic images. If you’re familiar with JPG format, GIF offers a clearer and sharper image. Web developers prefer to use PNG for graphic design like your logo.

• UX

User Experience or UX covers the end-user’s interaction with your company, website, service or product. Web designers nowadays want users to have a positive experience so that they will keep coming back to the site. Creating a positive UX might be common sense but it can be challenging for designers.

Did we miss any acronyms? What other abbreviations do you want to learn about? Let us know by leaving your comments.

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What you need to know about Google AdWords

Content

For someone inexperienced in Google Ads, the idea can be both exciting and terrifying. If done right, Ads can transform your business. If done wrong, a business can spend thousands and get nothing in turn.

In July 2018, Google rebranded Google Adwords to Google Ads. Since then, this is the main door for advertisers to buy on display ads, Google Maps, YouTube videos, Google Play, location listing and other Google surfaces.

Explaining the benefits or losses that come with Google Ads cannot make someone understand what the platform is and how it works.

About Smart Campaign

This is the first new solution under Google’s new brand, Google Ads. It provides a great opportunity for local and small businesses to engage in their paid advertising, without having to hire a full-time marketing employee or an agency.

Customers can launch Smart Campaigns easily because Google has designed automated campaigns to help businesses get started on Google Ads easily and quickly.

The process for building Smart Campaigns includes audience building, automated ad creation, ad delivery selection, and later this year will include landing pages!

Definition of Google Ads

Google Ads is one of the major pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platforms. Google Ads differ from other PPC platforms such as Facebook because it reaches the audience in two basic ways:

* Through the Google Display Network

* Through the Google Search Network

As is much as the approaches function in very different ways, they both use a PPC bidding system, where businesses bid to get their ads shown to relevant audiences.

-Google Search Network

With the Google Search Network, you can show ads to people searching for the keywords you have chosen. If you are a roofing business, you bid for your ad to show up every time someone types in “Roofer in Brisbane.”

-Google Display Network

Unlike Google Search Network that shows ads to users who are searching a service or product online, the Google Display Network places “banner ads” or ‘display ads” on websites you think your potential customer will be on.

People don’t actively search for the service or product you are selling, so there are low chances they’ll click banner ads. Although, in some instances, people don’t know what they want until they see it. This means display ads can give your business more exposure to potential customers who might not find it on their own.

Display ads are also excellent for re-engagement campaigns. In this case, you show ads to previous visitors with expectations they will come back again. Experts call this “retargeting.”

Why Google Ads?

Currently, there are several PPC platforms including Twitter Ads, Facebook, Pinterest Promoted Pins, and Instagram Ads Platform. As well, there are other search engine Ad platforms including Yahoo Search Ads and Bing Ads.

Despite the intense competition, Google Ads is among the best ways businesses can reach their target audience.

Other PPC platforms, especially Facebook work exceptionally well too, so you may be spoilt for choice. This means by being able to reach people looking for content, products, and brands like yours is a wonderful opportunity. It might help you make quick sales ahead of your competitor.

Benefits of Google Ads

1. Can Attract Customers Quickly

Studies show that approximately 90 percent of all Google searches are for products and services. This means having your website at the top attracts more visitors.

If you bid on the right keywords for your industry, your website can get listed at the top of the first page instantly.

2. It is faster than SEO

If you would like to use SEO to get to the top of Google, you have to be very patient as it can take months to bear fruit. If using Ads, you just need to combine your landing page and copy, and ad bid – then your ads will go to the first page of search results in no time.

3. You can find out what Converts

By simply linking your Google Analytics and Google Ads accounts you can get accurate reports about what marketing works for your business and what doesn’t.

This will also save you money as you find out which ads or keywords don’t work and remove them so you can save money.

4. You have Control over Advertising Costs

You only pay for clicks on your ad and not when it is shown as a search result. In other words, you only pay when there is a probability of making a conversion on your site.

There is an option to set a daily budget for your campaigns so there are minimal chances of accidentally overspending.

5. Location Targeting

If you sell localised services of products, Ads can help you make sure only searchers in your locations see your ads. You can tell Google to show ads to individuals searching in your town or a selected radius of your business.

We, in Marketing Media, are taking advantage of these benefits.

Drawbacks for Google Ads

Google is one of the companies that play a great role in improving the quality of our personal and professional lives. Most of Google’s products including Ads are great, but it has a negative side too.

1. Customers Pay For Clicks

With Google Ads, you pay for clicks, and clicks do not necessarily result in sales. New or start-up businesses may have to pay $5 to get users to visit their site. In some instances, a click can cost as much as $60.

As long as someone clicks, you must pay Google regardless you make sale or not. Most companies

2. Small Companies and Start-ups can’t compete with big Businesses

Ads are all about money, meaning small companies and start-ups find it hard to compete with big companies.

Larger companies have consistent cash flow and can drop hundreds of thousands of dollars per month on Google Ads campaign.

Because big companies have the time and resources for campaigns, it means by the time establishing businesses launch, all relevant keywords have been taken and their price has gone up.

3. Limited Number of Characters

Ads limits the number of characters to and this restriction may at times make it hard to use Ads.

To get the most out of Ads, users must choose their words carefully.

4. Small Mistakes can be Catastrophic

Small problems such as failing to turn an ad off and making a spelling error can be very costly.

Indirect mistakes can as well be costly. For example, forgetting to update your landing page because you are busy with your Ads campaign will attract a penalty from Google.

Another mistake is making an error during Ads Conversion Tracking implementation, such as confusing it with analytics. This will prevent you from getting real-time information, and end up costing in gaining conversions.

5. Google Ads may not be suitable for your Niche

Google Ads just doesn’t fit all markets. This is because Ads can at times be broad because it is concerned with the most relevant choice on the page.

It’s recommended that before you invest in an Ads campaign, you research your audience and ways for reaching them. Don’t invest in Ads until you find that your audience can be reached on Google.

Conclusion

Running Google Ads can be both time and money consuming. If done properly, it can be a good investment with good returns. The search network can help your ads to rank properly in searches of internet users who are looking for brands similar to yours. As well the display network can assist in discovery or re-engagement campaigns.

As much as the Google Ads system can be complex, there are many benefits to using it. Good thing is, if you get a good PPC expert, they can run a profitable campaign with low CPCs no matter the size of your marketing budget. As always, t is recommended that business owners consult an expert before running ads on Google.

 

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How to Combine Email Marketing and Social Media

Combining two of the most common marketing methods can help you save time, improve your branding, make your message consistent, and maximize the impact you have on your audience and potential customers.

Creating campaign experiences that are cohesive between email and social can save you time purely in asset management. Using similar headlines, body copy, and images from your email to social posts means no more one-off copy needs to be done on a regular basis.

This consolidation of efforts also keeps your message consistent. Not to say that you can’t spice things up from one post to the next—but combining these efforts will make sure every line you create has the same impact and carries the same message.

All of this will strengthen your brand. As your audience sees your campaigns over and over again amidst email and social posts, your message is rooted into their memories by sheer volume and consistency. This builds on your voice and reach, ensuring your audience brings the right image to mind when thinking about your company.

Check out this infographic below to see how you can begin combing your email and social media strategies to improve your marketing today.

Source: How to Combine Email Marketing and Social Media by Campaign Monitor

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How to use Google Analytics: Tools to Analyze Your Website’s Data

So your business is doing well. Your website receives traffic, and activity occurs on its pages. Though, nothing is storing this valuable information which can be used to make data-driven decisions. There is a lack of insight generation. To reverse this untapped potential, you decide to employ Google’s free Analytics application that is housed within their Marketing Platform. This product provides an array of features to help analyze your site’s data with the goal of generating insights on behaviors, trends, and associations useful for improving your online presence and future business. The time has now come to set the service up and dig into its features.

Setting It Up

To start, make sure you have a personal Google account and head to https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/. From there, click “Start for free,” and then “website.” The next entry asks you to create an account name, which will serve as the Google Analytics account associated with your personal one. Then, enter your website name, url, industry category, and time zone. Your industry category does not impact tracking or data collection but rather enables Google to create customizable reports that suit your industry-specific needs. Once completed, you will receive a tracking ID unique to the site that was just set up. In order to enable tracking, some web hosts or website builders like Wix provide features or plugins that allow you to input the tracking ID right into a field. If this is not an option in your case, you can enter this tracking ID into a specific section of a tracking snippet, and then paste that snippet into the code of each of your site’s pages that you want to track. Though tracking snippets can come in different forms to account for functionality, basic tracking snippets work fine for most purposes to start. If you want more information on this, Google’s tutorial pages provide details regarding additional snippet specifications. In general, it is a good idea to browse the various resources Google provides for powering up your website with their analytics.

Overview

Once within the Google Analytics interface, you will see an audience overview dashboard that reports different types of data such as sessions, users, and pageviews, among several others. Scrolling down will pull up demographic splits like language and country. The information displayed in this view comes from the combination of all pages on your site. You can refine the insights displayed on this overview page by date range as well as audience segments. Lastly, a menu resting on the left of the screen provides ease of navigation throughout a majority of Google Analytics’ capabilities.

Segments

Segmenting the audience will isolate a subset of traffic to be juxtaposed against overall site traffic or other segments you wish to analyze. To define (create) a segment, you must set specific conditions related to user, session, or hit data. If the correct combination of those aspects fulfill their conditions, the associated data point enters the segment. Sessions and hits differ in that hits are specific user interactions (click, pageview, transaction, etc) on your site that occur during a session, whereas sessions are the group of hits occurring in a certain time frame or before a defined ending activity.

For your analysis, you might create a segment of users in the United Kingdom who spend at least 2 minutes on your home page — in order to separate them from the rest of your data in reports and dashboards. You can also combine conditions using “or” or “and” operators in order to produce more specific segmentations.

Essentially, segments allow for breaking traffic into more nuanced groups that could be of particular interest. The tool might also highlight important details or lucrative adjustments regarding your site, content, or product, as revealed through the groups targeted with the segment.

Goal Setting and Alerts

Google Analytics lets you define goals — specific on-site activities that you tell the platform to view as a conversion. You may, for example, set a goal that checks if users visit five pages in a session. Every user that visits five or more pages will subsequently be entered as a conversion for that goal. Creating your own definitions for conversions empowers generation of custom ratios and statistics to gauge occurrences on your site.

Site owners commonly utilize goals for monitoring key performance indicators such as purchases, submitting contact information, signing up for a service, or viewing a certain piece of content. Indicators of performance vary across businesses and sites. For example, a commerce entity may value and track purchases, while a marketing one might define performance by the number of email signups. When setting goals for your objective, make sure to contemplate what signifies success, or conversion, in addition to what might provide clues on the broader spectrum of behaviors that make up the critical sales funnel. People might not be purchasing your product today, but they could have viewed it three times, indicating high likelihood of future purchase. Some may decide to set both of those activities as goals. Lastly, alerts function just like goals, but instead of logging conversion, they simply notify you (via email if desired) when a set condition fulfills.

Views

Thus far, you’ve become familiar with creating segments and goals for one particular view – the default overview – that shows combined data from all pages on your website. With this said, the analytics platform lets you add views for up to 25 subdomains per property. Each view you create houses its own segments, goals, alerts, reports, and dashboards. If you create these tools for one view, they can be copied to any other. Within each view, you can also apply filters to exclude certain data from the dashboard or to restrict viewing access for members of your organization.

Reports and Dashboards

You can create reports that – well, report – on different metrics. These forms let you create custom visualizations of data that can be cut in a number of different dimensions. All created reports exist in the “reports” section of the menu, but you can place ones you so choose into each view’s dashboard. In addition to reports, dashboards can house segments and individual widgets including: Metrics, Timelines, Geomaps, Tables, Pies, and Bars.

Integration

Google Analytics provides a supports integration with tons of other services, some of which include: Campaign Manager, Google Ad Manager, Search Ads 360 Reporting, Display and Video 360 Remarketing, and Salesforce Sales Cloud. The platform’s help pages accommodate integration inquiries with rundowns for each service. A host of 3rd party solutions, perfect for integration with Google Analytics, lie on the Partner Solutions page. This page essentially functions as an app store for extensions that connect the analytics arm with existing business services. Instituting such integrations allows aspects of the business solution apps to serve as elements within dashboards or on reports. If you have data housed within a business solution app, it will also pop up in Google Analytics.

When checking out the Solutions Gallery, you will see where individuals post their custom analytics creations for all to download and use. In some cases, it may more efficient to find an existing dashboard, report, or segment than generate your own, especially if the desired creation proves to be quite complex. The Partner Solutions and the Solutions Gallery both provide descriptions of the various plugins in addition to comment sections that serve as references when perusing options.

As you may tell, Google Analytics offers quite a powerful suite full of functionality and possibilities for customization that are useful in examining your website’s data. Taking advantage of all the various features may require some familiarization. Though, thanks to the accommodative help pages provided by Google and the many online discussions, you should be able to find your way. Now, go on and generate some insights with all of that information connected to your site!

 

Author Bio:

Sara is an experienced tech expert who writes with her colleagues on Enlightened Digital, to share her passion with others around the web. After 15 years in the industry, her goal is to bring information on all technology to the masses. Her philosophy is to create each article so that anyone can understand the content, whether they are a consumer or a technology expert. Check out her site at Enlightened-Digital.com.

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