Social media will continue to be a prominent channel for marketing in 2013. It has forever changed the way brands interact with customers and prospects. While the majority of marketers are utilizing social media as a key communication channel, there are still a lot of question marks about the true value of marketing through social forums. Marketers need to change their mindset about how to use and derive value from these newer channels and eventually maximize the revenue potential of these captive audiences.
When marketers post a campaign to Facebook they may ask, how many likes will this drive or how many users will view this? Those aren’t necessarily the right questions as it relates to social media. These forums are different than other forms of communication and marketers need to start looking at the big picture. Social media is part of the consumers’ daily life, with over 1 billion Facebook users, reaching a vast amount of consumers through a forum they use nearly every day has a special value.
A recent survey found that 62 percent of marketers are leveraging social media profile data (e.g., profile ID, likes, and, interests). Yet, many marketers need to effectively leverage this profile data across... Read more
Tagged 'personalization' 
4 Ways E-commerce Can Drive Conversions From Green Initiatives
Going green, online—is it worth it? The short answer is yes.
3 Reasons Online Customers Never Return
It doesn’t take a record-breaking holiday shopping season to realize that most online shoppers are vulnerable to the advances of competing online retailers.
Debunking the Myths of Mobile Marketing: Delivering a Personalized Offer
Now that we know targeting is all about understanding how one behaves, versus who they are (see my previous post), the term ‘personalization’ should take on a whole new meaning. If your marketing approach is smart enough to define and monitor individual customer behaviors, then the delivery of personalized offers should follow suit.
THE MYTH: Segmentation equals personalization.
Does everyone who falls into a certain behavioral profile have the same needs and wants at any given time? Most likely not.
Although the availability of dynamic customer data is helping mobile marketers shift their focus from demographical profiles to behavioral ones, there’s still an all too common practice that stands in the way of true personalization.
You probably know it well. It’s segmentation.
You track and analyze how different customer behaviors impact desired actions. You define behavioral profiles, i.e. high spenders, moderate users, balance hoarders, etc. You identify segments of customers based on these profiles. You send offers to each segment.
That’s personalization, right? Well, not exactly.
What about the behaviors that someone displays before they become a ‘moderate user’? Or the predicted behaviors that may alter this classification? What about the customer’s current context? Or their motivations for action after receiving an initial offer? What about... Read more
Two Must-Haves for True Website Optimization
Brands that regard their websites as a primary revenue source have three distinct priorities: give customers an optimal experience, create loyalty and convert potentially passive browsers into active buyers.
It’s not a coincidence that experience and loyalty precede sales in this short priority list; the relationship between exceptional customer experiences and revenue growth is fairly direct. The better your website speaks to your visitors, the more loyal they will become and the more sales you will generate.
The good news is that customers can (and should) be very active in the optimization process. Through their clicks, page views, bounces, reviews and purchases, our online customers are offering us helpful feedback about their online experiences, in real time.
So what can you do with all this data?
1. Testing
Using A/B and multivariate testing to discover your problem areas is a great first step. In fact, if you’re running an ecommerce site without testing in place, you’re probably losing valuable conversions and dollars as you read this.
No matter where you begin, whether it’s with shopping cart funnels, homepage bounce rates, search or call-to-actions, testing different variations of elements encountered along the path to purchase — and deciding which ones produce the highest conversions — will begin... Read more
