You’re browsing on a typical e-commerce website, looking for a new hair dryer. You poke around a few product pages until you find what you’re after, and add your product (Power Dry 500) to your basket.
Once at the checkout page, you realize you forgot to see if the appliance comes with a diffuser – the last thing you want are dried out locks. You decide to go back to the product page to be sure. You move your mouse confidently to the top of the screen to the navigation bar to make your way back – but lo and behold, it’s disappeared!No nav bar in site on the checkout page.
Slightly annoyed, you exit the site entirely – you’re late for drinks with friends anyway – and tell yourself you’ll buy it over the weekend. But Friday night, you pass by a department store on the way home. You pop in and find the perfect Pro Dryer Soft and Smooth appliance. The e-commerce site is out a purchase.
So, as a Conversion Rate Optimization professional, now you’re wondering – should that site have kept the navigation bar on the checkout page?
Let’s see if it’s CRO myth, fact, or fiction.
The Navigation Bar: Problematic Distraction or Useful Cross and Upsell Enabler?
There are generally two schools of thought when it comes to the question of whether to include a navigation bar on the checkout page. The first school argues that it’s important to keep the visitor oriented, and that it can increase upsell and cross-sell opportunities, like in the example vignette above. The second school argues it’s mainly a hindrance, distracting the visitor from the immediate goal of finalizing the purchase already underway.
At AB Tasty, we’re generally of the second school – a navigation bar on the checkout page is usually a distraction.
Navigation Bars on Checkout Pages are Distracting
Why? Because we’ve rarely seen an experiment where adding the nav bar has helped, and not hindered, finalizing a transaction. And you don’t have to take our word for it – Amazon, the e-commerce page design expert par excellence, was the pioneer of throwing the checkout page nav bar to the curb.
Amazon was one of the first e-commerce sites to ditch the navigation bar during checkout.
Just look at the example above – as soon as you put an item in your basket and proceed to check out, the standard navigation bar, plus the search bar, vanish. They’re replaced by a short, focused (and unclickable) progression bar to tell them just where they are in the checkout process, and some very visible next step CTAs.
And really, this makes sense. There are a fair amount of steps to go through before finalizing a purchase – confirming your address, payment info, shipping times. At this stage, a navigation bar is just one more glittery object that could pull a website visitor out of a ‘buy now’, goal-oriented mindset and back into browsing mode. And while browsing can obviously lead to sales, when you have someone so close to converting, you want to focus on closing the deal at hand.
Breadcrumb Compromise
Now, we’re not saying to drop your visitors on a desert island with no escape route, of course. Keeping your company logo, say in the corner of the page, will at least enable them to get back to the homepage.
And if you still think your website visitors need a bit more orientation, you can compromise by adding a breadcrumb navigation path to your checkout page. This way, they can at least easily backtrack, to say, double check they chose the right mailing address or payment option. This still keeps them in the goal-oriented ‘buy now’ mindset, and enables them to convert the current opportunity.
We saw this type of compromise work very well for our client Sephora. In part by adding a breadcrumb style navigation (Your Basket – Your Delivery – Your Payment) to their purchase pages, they were able to increase transactions by 12%.
Sephora launched a multivariate test to determine the best checkout page design. The winning variation included a breadcrumb navigation bar, shown above.
So, final conclusion? The idea that it’s better to keep a navigation bar on your checkout page is a MYTH, with the caveat that a breadcrumb navigation system can be an effective compromise.
CRO Myth Busters is a mini series for conversion rate optimization professionals. We take a quick look at commonly held CRO beliefs and determine if they’re true, sometimes true, or simply CRO myths!
Facebook’s Ads Manager is a marketing powerhouse. Even with a $5 daily budget, you could reach hundreds of thousands of people in your target audience. A report by Buffer estimated that as many as 91% of marketers use Facebook ads. Facebook marketing continues to push full steam ahead.
Although Facebook ads can be great for drumming up brand awareness, knowing how to A/B test your ads is the secret to long term success. Without it, you’re just guessing at what works instead of rigorously analyzing and improving your approach. Consistent A/B testing (also known as split testing) provides the analytics you need to improve your strategy, boost engagement, and increase your click-through rate.
Read on for a step-by-step guide on how to A/B test your Facebook ads. By the end, you’ll know how to set up your own A/B ads on Facebook, and the best presets to choose for each option along the way.
But First, What is an A/B Test?
A/B testing your Facebook ads can teach you more about your audience’s preferences.
A and B refer to the versions of the ad. Your A version acts as the control. It’s the ad version you’ve seen work in the past or believe will work best. Your B ad version implements a variable. It’s a variation of A and is meant to compete with your A version.
If A beats out B, then you keep running the A ad and make a different change to B to try again.
Once the B version performs better than A, B becomes your new control – your new A. Your original A is discarded or archived. The new A now acts as the baseline to beat when you split test again in the future.
Split testing is meant to help identify which variables pull the most weight and altering the parts that don’t support conversions.
Before you begin split testing, be sure you’re clear on what specific goal you have for that ad. Usually, you’ll be looking for post engagement, such as a click-through to the website or increasing sign-ups.
Don’t forget to check that the click-through destination matches the promise of the ad. If you were offering a discount on a pair of sneakers, make sure that’s precisely where your audience ends up.
Three Options to Get Started in Facebook’s Ad Manager
Facebook gives you three options to create a split test.
Guided creation: Facebook will walk you through the process of creating a split test. Once you complete their questions, your ads will be ready to go. This method works best if you’re new at Facebook advertising or prefer a step-by-step guide. The screenshots below show walkthrough this method.
Quick creation: Facebook lets you design the structure for a split test. This structure can be saved and deployed at a later time. This can be helpful if you know what you plan to test, but your campaign doesn’t start for another week.
Duplication: If you’ve run Facebook Ads before, the Duplication method allows you to add a new ad set or alter an existing campaign for your split test. We’d recommend this if you want to test one variable in an ad you’ve already run.
There’s no wrong choice since it’ll depend on your preference and history of running Facebook ads. For more detailed steps on each option, review their Help page here.
Select Your Ad’s Objective & Variable
Select the objective that you decided on earlier. Once you choose one of these options, a menu will appear. Select “Create Split Test”, then select the variable you plan to change. The dropdown menu options are creative, delivery optimization, audience, and placement.
Creative: Design changes such as video, image, description, etc.
Delivery Optimization: Delivers ads to the Audience that is most likely to do your desired action (landing page views, link clicks, impressions, daily unique reach).
Audience: Change the target audience for the ad.
Placement: Changing which platforms your ad appears.
Once you choose that, Facebook will walk you through the next several decisions you need to make. This includes deciding where you want to drive traffic, creating an offer, choosing an audience, optimize for ad delivery, and setting a budget. Here are menu screenshots of each. As you can see, there’s a high-level of customizability available for each ad set you run.
Variable
Although you selected this already, you have the option to change it again here. In Facebook’s Ads Manager, you’re only allowed to select one variable at a time. Like we recommended earlier, this is the best way to know which variables caused which change.
Audience & Placements
The next two sections are audience and placement. These will both depend on your specific brand and location, so you’ll need to navigate this on your own. Audience can be narrowed down by location, sex, age, and even by past engagement with your page. Consider your target audience’s personality, including their hobbies, interests, and lifestyle. Once you determine a target audience, you can save that cohort and alter it in the future.
Because Facebook placements cover such a broad range of formats and platforms (think everything from Instagram stories to Messenger Inbox), it’s probably best to leave it on recommended. Facebook’s Ads Manager uses its database of ad analytics to determine the best combination of placements for your ad. As you continue to analyze your results, you can create custom placements in the future.
Delivery Optimization
In this section, you can optimize your ad delivery for specific conversions such as link clicks, landing page views, impressions, and daily unique reach. This should reflect the original goal you set out for your ad. You also have a choice between getting charged per impression, or per click.
For ad scheduling, we recommend narrowing your time to when your audience is most likely to be interested in your ad, or at the very least awake. For example, if you’ve seen that your ads tend to convert in the morning, that’s when you should schedule your ads, you get the best chance at ROI.
Split Test Budget & Schedule
This is where you can determine how much to spend, and the runtime of your ads. Here you have the choice of a daily budget vs. a lifetime budget. For example, if you decide to spend $70 a day for a 4-day campaign, your daily budget would be $70, and your lifetime budget would be $280.
If you choose daily budget, Facebook will spend up to that amount per day, regardless of performance on the account. Daily budgets don’t allow for ad scheduling since it’ll be working to spend that set amount.
Facebook is more budget and result-conscious with the lifetime budget option. Choosing lifetime budget means Facebook will alter daily spend levels in response to campaign results.
Don’t forget to keep an eye on the “Estimated Test Power”. This percentage is the likelihood of detecting a difference in your ad sets if there is one to detect. Facebook recommends you keep this test power at 80% or above for a worthwhile split test.
Once you’ve made your selections, you can click continue to upload and design your ad control.
Design Two Versions of your Ad
A/B Test of the Same Ad: Photo Credit to Jeff Bullas
To split test, you’ll need to create one control (A), and one variable (B). Regardless of which variable you’re testing, it’s best only to change one so the results are clear. Some audience-facing variables you might switch could include changing your call-to-action, using a different image, or remove the image entirely.
Regardless of which you choose, be sure the final ad is noticeably different than before and is an aspect that’s broad enough to be applied in the future.
For example, if you’re marketing a winter holiday, don’t A/B test between two different photos of a decorative table setting. Choose a photo with a person, add text to the image, or remove the image entirely. That way if you’re advertising a summer holiday in the future, you’ll be able to paint a more generalized picture of what sparks interest in your audience.
Once you’re ready, input your ad into Facebook’s platform. Be sure to preview your ad (top right) and create URL parameters (bottom left) so you can track which engagement came from where.
When you’re ready, click the “Continue to ad B” button in the bottom right corner. This page auto-fills with the same information as ad A. It’s here that you introduce any variables, such as changing the audience, ad format, or other specs.
Finally, you click the green “Confirm” button to finalize and purchase the ad.
Review the Results
Once your ads are finished running, it’s time to review the results of your A/B test. Drawing actionable conclusions is the most important step in increasing your ad’s CTR. Thankfully, Facebook Ads Manager makes this easy.
First, apply a filter so that only relevant campaigns and ad sets that were part of the split tests will show in the reporting table. To do this, click Filter and choose Split Test from the menu.
For a quick initial result, ads Manager puts a star next to the winning ad set. Facebook determines the winning set by comparing the cost per result of each ad set and other variables.
Facebook Ads Manager will also send you a detailed email report, that includes:
Their Winning Ad Determination
Your A/B Test Settings
Results
Cost
Amount Spent
From these results, you can determine what worked and what changes you’d like to make for your next Facebook campaign.
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Understanding Facebook advertising and split test marketing is a worthwhile investment for any marketer worth their salt. 80% of all internet users have a Facebook Account, meaning that you’re practically guaranteed to reach your target audience on the platform.
Using their Ads Manager, you can build a robust and ever-improving marketing strategy using their analytics. Over time, you’ll see an increase in revenue, sales, and lead generation. Once you have everything prepared, it only takes minutes to set up a Facebook Ad, so get started today!
A central element of digital marketing is conversion rate optimization (or refining the user experience on webpages, campaigns, and so on) so visitors are more likely to complete a desired action. This action, which is often referred to as a conversion, could be completing a form, downloading a white paper or even making a purchase, depending on what goal a company is focused on measuring at that point in time.
If you’re new to the world of conversion rate optimization, the digital marketing industry, or just want to brush up on your knowledge of CRO, we’ve listed nine great books from industry professionals and thought leaders in this field to help.
These books are fantastic resources packed with guidance and tips that can help create successful campaigns that ultimately increase the number of conversions for your business.
Time to update your reading list.
1. Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide To Testing and Tuning for Conversions by Tim Ash
Considered a voice of authority when it comes to landing pages, SEO, and all things search marketing, the author and marketer Tim Ash has put pen to paper to share his knowledge on creating high-converting landing pages. Despite originally being published in 2008, Tim’s advice has stood the test of time and remains highly relevant for anyone reading it today. It’s a top recommendation from us.
Get the book here, or check out this dedicated section of our blog for more on refining landing pages.
2. Making Websites Win by Dr. Karl Blanks and Ben Jesson
This book is a collaboration between two well-known marketing whizzes—Dr Karl Blanks and Ben Jesson—who have spent their professional lives deeply involved in the world of digital marketing and run a company called Conversion Rate Experts. It’s safe to say that reading this will place you in great hands. The two marketers decided to write down their very own customer-centric methodology they’ve spent years applying with excellent CRO results. This book is bursting with tips and suggestions they’ve learned along the way, along with reflections on mistakes they made (so you can avoid them). This is a great book to consult when it comes to defining CRO strategy or when looking for mentorship on how to succeed in this field.
While this book incorporates some great advice on improving conversion rates, Don’t Make Me Think is a must-read for designers, user experience specialists, and digital marketers. Steve Krug examines how users navigate websites and the science behind creating a web page that converts. Steve says the secret to success is giving users all the information they need upfront and removing the need for them to think, which in turn creates more intuitive interfaces and overall easier user experience.
This is a great read for anyone wanting to improve their UX and gain more insight into how people typically browse.
4. Website Optimization: An Hour a Day – A Conversion Rate Optimization and A/B Testing Guide by Rich Page
Rich Page outlines all the basics when it comes to improving conversion rates and optimizing your web campaigns. This book breaks down CRO tools, metrics, and important elements on a webpage to test, referencing an hour a day approach for professionals looking to deepen their understanding. Rich dives in to email marketing, search optimization, and personalization, imparting his own wisdom from spending years in this industry.
This book is a great investment for anyone who may be new to the world of conversion rate optimization and is looking to get up to speed.
5. Conversion Optimization: The Art and Science of Converting Prospects to Customers by Khalid Saleh and Ayat Shukairy
Another collaborative success on the topic of conversation optimization, this time from the co-founders of Invesp: Khalid Saleh and Ayat Shukairy. Both Khalid and Ayat have spent many years working in the digital marketing sphere and come together to help other professionals work out the science behind a well-performing, high-converting webpage. The Art and Science of Converting Prospects to Customers covers everything from establishing customer personas, how to understand your current web usability, and how to spot and overcome current issues that may be staving off conversions.
One of the defining features of AB Tasty is our dedication to experimentation. We are strong advocates of testing, and have seen time-and-again the precision it brings to optimization. Which is why we highly recommend reading John Caples’ Tested Advertising Methods.
While it was originally released in 1932, this book has been revised many times throughout the years, with Fred Hahn providing the latest version for marketers in the digital sphere. Testing Advertising Methods is more content-focused, honing in on what copy engages consumers and ultimately convinces them to act. Reading this book will certainly incentivize you to start A/B testing your messaging (if you haven’t already) while also shedding light on some timeless principles for effectively reaching your target audience.
7. Web Design for ROI: Turning Browsers Into Buyers and Prospects Into Leads by Lance Loveday and Sandra Niehaus
This book dives into the role of design in sales and lead generation (with the authors saying the right design can increase these two metrics by 10—50%, potentially). Both Lance and Sandra have a wealth of experience when it comes to creating high-performing websites, and the pair have come together to share their wisdom.
This book covers a range of tips and tricks that look specifically at improving conversions online as well as increasing a digital presence—explaining how design needs to go beyond aesthetics and also take into account metrics and business goals.
8. Kill Your Conversion Killers with The Dexter Method™ by Joris Bryon
The nod to fictional TV serial killer Dexter in the title gives a glimpse into Joris Byron’s style of writing and overall intent: to talk about the common pitfalls of conversion rate optimization in an engaging, conversational tone.
Joris quickly gives readers a framework for applying great conversion rate optimization tactics, and highlights common practices that could actually be a detriment to your strategy. Joris spent three months on a sabbatical writing his books, Kill Your Conversion Killers offers great insight into his own experiences while working agency-side. If you’re looking to expand your knowledge on conversion rate optimization (and want to be able to prioritize which tests to run, for one example) this is the book for you!
Last (but by no means least) on our list of top CRO books to read is Predictably Irrational—a book that looks at the sometimes irrational way humans make decisions and applies these insights to the world of marketing. Author Dan Ariely intended to help his readers change the way they thought about marketing and their understanding of what consumers want.
While this book was released in 2008, it’s still very relevant to anyone wanting to better understand (and communicate with) their target audience with Ariely’s fun, experimental approach making the material a fun, thought-provoking, read!
Developing your professional skill-set is essential for growth, and these books promise to provide key learnings and important perspectives on the multi-faceted discipline of conversion rate optimization. Whether you’re an experienced marketer or new to the industry, it’s important to be open to continuous learning, and even revisiting the basics through the lens of your real-life experience. These books are a great place to start.
Gone are the days when shops and retailers could measure sales conversions by counting the physical customers in their shop and dividing it by the number of sales that went through the till, as the change in shopping behaviors and the huge shift to online shopping has meant retailers need to adapt, too.
The one major online retail site that sellers are eager to have a presence on, and as one of the most visited websites in the world, Amazon Marketplace offers great exposure to 12 markets around the globe. Whether you’ve just started selling or you’re an established presence in the marketplace, conversion rates are a very important metric for any retailer, as it is often considered a measure of how successful their business is. With more retailers looking to understand the secret to increasing their conversions on the e-commerce giant, we explore what a ‘good’ Amazon conversion rate looks like, and how you can optimize your listings to increase conversion rates – something all budding Amazon sellers will be keen to invest in!
First, let’s cover conversion rates and what ‘good’ looks like:
What is Conversion Rate?
Conversion rate is calculated by dividing the number of sales by the number of times people have visited a product. Conversion rates apply to any sales made – both on and offline- and they are often affected by things like the volume of people clicking through to the advert or from visiting the store, the competition level from other sellers as well as price comparison and seasonal discounts, etc.
What is an Amazon Conversion Rate?
Amazon conversion rate is the same, but focuses just on sales made through the platform. It is automatically calculated by the retail giant and can be accessed by logging into your ‘Sellers Central Business Reports’, under the header ‘Business Report’. Within this section, there is a row called ‘Order Item Session Percentage’, which is the conversion rate Amazon attributes to each item.
Amazon breaks conversion rate down for sellers to see the conversion rate of each product, by viewing the ‘By ASIN’ reports.
Whilst those figures look impressive, there are a few other factors at play to help increase conversion rates on Amazon. Our tips look to optimize Amazon listings to help increase conversion as well as improve the ranking of listings on the digital marketplace.
Strengthening Your Amazon SEO
When looking to improve conversion rates on Amazon, the first thing to review is the keywords you are targeting and the placement of these words within your product listing. Amazon SEO is a relatively new concept for online retailers but is a very important part of achieving success on the world’s biggest-selling site. Conduct keyword research before writing any listing, make sure you are aware of what people are looking for when it comes to your products and target the most relevant search terms. In a previous article, we cover how to conduct keyword research using some free tools that are widely available – so there’s no excuse for poorly performing listings. There are several opportunities to use keywords when creating a product listing, so make sure these terms feature in the product title, features, description as well as the URL of the item.
Write Accurate and Engaging Product Descriptions
In order to potentially increase conversion rate, you need to increase the click-throughs on a listing, which means creating engaging and descriptive titles that encourage users to click and learn more. Remember, conversion rates are calculated based on the number of people viewing, or clicking your listing, so get writing those ‘click-worthy’ headings. Make sure to accurately describe your product too, don’t be vague or mislead potential customers, as this will affect your opportunity to rank higher in search on Amazon which will directly affect your conversion rates, too.
Offer Competitive Pricing and Other Perks
This is particularly important for sellers who are in a highly competitive market, as offering competitive pricing can make the difference between people clicking through or not. If you are able to do this, offer reduced shipping – or even free delivery. If you are the only seller offering free delivery, people will be far more likely to convert. Often, sellers who have sales on products or offer discount codes see an increase in conversions, so try experimenting with a sale or offering money off for returning customers. Of course, the most prominent perk for Amazon sellers is joining the FBA, as this automatically makes your products eligible for Prime; the next-day subscription delivery service Amazon offers paid subscribers. As one of the most successful subscription models online, Amazon Prime significantly increases conversions as Prime members are much more likely to convert each time they visit the website.
Trial Amazon Pay Per Click
Another great way to potentially increase conversion rates is to secure the top spot, by paying for an advert. Amazon pay per click, or PPC, is identical to search giant’s Google in that sellers can pay to secure the top spot with relevant adverts. By targeting known search terms, sellers have the opportunity to buy the search space and appear in relevant results, with listings that are marked as ‘sponsored’.
Upsell Relevant Items
Upselling items by offering related or complementary products that people may find useful when they are looking to buy will increase the potential of selling further products. By making ‘suggested’ or related items visible at the ‘add to basket’ stage, customers will be more inclined to add more products. Upselling relevant items will not only have a positive impact on conversion, but it will also encourage repeat purchases and indicates your online store has further products to explore.
Link to Products From Other Online Places
Be sure to share your products on other online channels such as social media and websites. Featuring products on other selling sites such as eBay and Gumtree will target a wider audience. If you are exclusively selling on Amazon Marketplace, consider using targeted adverts across relevant websites online, using cookie data to retarget people who have viewed or previously purchased from you. Increasing the exposure of your products via banner adverts and sponsored listings on social feeds can significantly increase conversion rates.
Trial and Error Testing!
These tips are some great options to help improve conversion rates whilst making sure listings are well optimized, however, there is no real magic ingredient to producing high-converting product listings on the world’s biggest marketplace. We highly recommend testing what works well for you as an individual seller. From tweaking product descriptions, using shorter or longer titles and even including emoji’s to entice readers to click through- try testing subtle differences with product listings to find something that works for you.
Key Takeaways
Whilst there are many ways to optimize your Amazon listings with the view to increase conversion rates, there is no real magic recipe that fits for every business. Some optimization techniques may work really well for some retailers, whilst others have found their success through trial and error. Applying just one change won’t make a difference to conversion rate so try to work on a few different elements of your product listings. For this, A/B tests are an excellent way to find out what does and doesn’t work.
Conversion rates are an excellent way to measure success, and by looking to make some or all of the changes listed above, sellers will also automatically benefit from increased visibility on the platform, as the Amazon A9 algorithm appears to consider sales velocity and conversion rate as two of the most important factors when it comes to ranking well on the digital marketplace. With the opportunity to rank your products higher in Amazon search, potentially increase click-through rates and ultimately increase conversions, there are some great reasons to optimize on Amazon and reap the rewards via a better click-through rate and hopefully higher conversions.
Neuromarketing is a very science-oriented aspect of marketing. It aims to investigate why people respond to and remember certain products or elements of an advert, compared to others. Applying neuroscience – i.e. the assessment of how our brain responds to stimuli, such as TV adverts and posters – avoids any vague or bias feedback from consumers, as no-one can control how they immediately respond to things. The response is tracked using two methods; either an MRI or functional magnetic resonance imaging, and electroencephalography, which is also known as EEG. Both of these methods track and measure the impulses and activity in the brain that are both subconscious and conscious, as we are only in control our conscious reaction and feelings. As you can imagine, both options come with a hefty price tag, but companies often justify the high costs if it means securing more sales!
So, how is it used in marketing?
Well, the process of neuromarketing is basically put in place by brands to get a much better and more in-depth understanding of just how powerful their message or product is, by studying the reaction it causes in consumers. Brands can also get a far better understanding of the potential market available to them, by looking at the influential factors and then designing their packaging or product accordingly. In fact, there’s every chance your favorite brand has done just that when it comes to creating the ideal product that appeals to you!
We explore five examples of neuromarketing research conducted and what the findings have meant for the world of marketing in 2019.
#1 – Chips Ahoy and Their Boring Biscuits
America’s favorite cookie company decided to conduct some neuromarketing research when it came to creating the perfect packet to sell their cookies. Nabisco, the owners of Chips Ahoy, decided to test their old packaging and found people were actually having a negative response when looking at it. Consumers said it was too difficult to read the wording due to the colors used and the picture of the cookie made them feel bored or neutral towards the brand. So the makers behind Chips Ahoy took to the drawing board for their next draft and re-designed the package to include a resealable tub, better wording and colors. The most obvious change was the cookie image was more engaging and fun!
Key takeaway: Nabisco used the eye-tracking element from electroencephalography, or EEG, to identify how customers were reacting visually to their packaging. This kind of research is really popular among other food brands, which use it to design crisps, confectionery and other cookie packaging. In fact, chances are, your favorite brands have carefully chosen the packaging you’re so familiar with and that may be why you buy them!
#2 – A Sticky Situation With Jam and Decision-Making
Do you feel suddenly overwhelmed and incapable of making decisions when it comes to browsing a wide selection in a shop? Well, you’re not alone, as a study conducted by Sheena Iyengar, a professor of business at Columbia University, discovered. The author, Professor Iyengar, and her researchers chose to use Wilkin & Son’s jam jars at a sampling booth and regularly mixed the selection of jams available, between 24 jars to just six. Whilst 60% were drawn to the sampling booth when 24 different jars were available, compared to just 40% when there were just 6 to choose from, nearly all customers sampled just two flavors. Here’s the interesting bit; whilst 40% of people came to try the smaller selection of jams, 30% then decided to buy some, compared to just 3% of people who bought when there were 24 flavors to choose from!
#3 – Why Counting Cans Mattered for Campbell’s Soup
Here we have another example of decision-making under pressure, but this time due to a seemingly limited supply of soup! A study by Wansink, Kent, and Hoch, was conducted to understand the concept of ‘anchoring’ in marketing; the process of comparing products or services against similar products to create a sense of superiority or importance. Using the well-known soup brand Campbell’s, Wansink et al created one display of cans with a price of $0.79 and a sign that said ‘No Limit’, and another that said ‘Limit of 12 per person’. The result showed that shoppers who had no limit only bought an average of 3 cans, whereas the shoppers who saw the limited shelf ended up buying 7! The results support the ‘anchoring’ concept within marketing, where the brain fixates or ‘anchors’ on the key message, in this case, the fact that the soup is limited to 12, making consumers think ‘I can only have 12 – it must be good!’.
Key takeaway: This approach is definitely still alive and present in modern-day marketing tactics, with so many brands using the ‘comparison’ approach to create a feeling of limited availability when it comes to a product or service, creating a simulated sense of urgency and making consumers think it must be a great product or service because it’s really popular!
#4 – PayPal And Speed – The Modern Way to Handle Money
Another fan of using EEG, or electroencephalography, to understand how consumers respond visually to their brand, is money transfer site, PayPal. PayPal has spent a lot of time researching how best to position their product online, and in particular what will make their consumers’ experience with them easy. Users of their services online will be familiar with their quick, convenient money transfer system and the reason behind this slick service is PayPal have discovered e-shoppers expect an almost-instant payment service that is convenient to use. Whilst PayPal thought their ‘high security’ approach was appealing to online customers, it turned out their one-click payment model was the real attraction!
Key takeaway: This example shows just how effective neuromarketing can be to refocus a large brand like PayPal, on what really matters for their customers; convenience when buying online. Changing the business focus can be a real challenge for large corporations and PayPal is a shining example of how using marketing as a science can help them understand their audiences far better than feedback forms and reviews.
#5 – Even Search Engines Lean On Science
A slightly more surprising use of neuromarketing in modern marketing is that of Yahoo and their use of EEG to encourage more people in the US to use their search engine instead of their competitors’. Yahoo created a 60 second TV commercial that featured people around the world celebrating an ambiguous occasion, dancing and generally looking very happy. They played it to a selection of people who agreed to wear EEG caps so their brainwave activity could be measured. The study proved Yahoo’s theory of evoking positive emotions and even stimulating the memory part of the brain, indicating to their researchers that the ad would be highly memorable to anyone who then watched the advert, therefore making Yahoo top of mind, encouraging people to use their search engine next time they were browsing online. And it worked! The advert became their best performing piece of marketing to date.
Key takeaway: Yahoo recognized they had a huge obstacle to overcome when it came to being top of mind compared to other search engine giants, so they decided to create something that would make them hard to forget – and using neuromarketing science, it worked! The key to success for this campaign was to make the viewer feel positively towards it, prompting them to think of Yahoo in a positive light, as well as making them a more memorable brand.
You’ve clicked on a CTA before. Whether it was adding an item to a shopping cart, opting in to an email list, or submitting a form, you were guided by a succinct but clear button that served as a call to action.
These calls to action, or CTAs, are peppered throughout the customer journey. They appear on web pages, social posts, emails, etc. and are like gold for marketers because—when they have the right wording, design, and placement—they secure conversions and/or move visitors forward through the funnel.
We gathered 14 examples of convincing CTAs to examine the elements that go into creating an effective call to action. Keep reading to see how brands tackled these short but essential phrases to gain an upswing in clicks and conversions.
1. Amazon’s Audible
Amazon’s Audible entices users with a free trial, using the all-important buzzword (free) for CTA success. They also eliminate any hesitancy or skepticism that could come with signing up—like the possibility of hidden fees—by making the timeframe clear from the get-go.
2. Netflix
Netflix also uses a free trial to appeal to audiences. The language is conversational, clear, and accompanied by explanatory text that gives users a quick rundown of how the trial works. Any fears of being charged during the trial, or forgetting to cancel the subscription before the trial ends, are dissuaded by Netflix’s promise to send an email reminder and that users can cancel at any time (without incurring a fee) during the allotted 30 days.
3. Meditation app Calm
The meditation app Calm also uses the word free to encourages clicks, further highlighting this popular and effective trend. Unlike Netflix and Amazon, Calm doesn’t include a timeframe in its CTA, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it could be more of sway to get interested users to click and learn more about trying the app without having to commit to a payment (just yet).
Paired with their message of happiness guaranteed, as seen above, Bloom&Wild includes the CTA, “Send Joy,” that brings visitors to the pages that display their flower collections.
This is a catchy and unique CTA that has an emotional appeal for users. It isn’t just a matter of buying or sending flowers, but brightening people’s day with a beautiful bouquet and sweet gesture.
5. Ancestry
The world-renowned DNA and genealogy site Ancestry uses actionable and informative language to encourage people to sign up. Like Netflix, they include an explanation above the CTA that succinctly tells visitors what they’re able to do with the service: explore your family history.
6. AB Tasty
Not to blow our own horn here at AB Tasty, we are quite proud of the CTA used on our own homepage. As a company that specializes in creating personalized customer experiences, we wanted to be clear that a demo of our platform would be tailored to each business interested in using our services.
7. Zoom
Screen-sharing and conference call company Zoomuses a combination of two tried-and-tested phrases for its homepage CTA. It is simple and direct which is a major element of any well-performing call to action, while also taking on a confident tone that doesn’t come across as too pushy.
8. HelloFresh
Food delivery company, HelloFresh, use their business model as a clever CTA on their homepage, to showcase their tasty-looking food options in a ‘no strings attached’ manner. HelloFresh are confident their food will do all the talking when it comes to actual subscriptions, as their fun, non-committal CTA shows!
9. Graze
UK-based snack company graze opt for a simple prompt on their CTA, get started, which takes visitors to a landing page that shows the different box options available to them.
10. Homesense
TK Maxx’s home and furniture company, Homesense, recently ran a campaign to increase sales of their gift cards online. The CTA, buy now, was straight to the point and the only call to action on the homepage during the entire campaign.
11. Go Ape
The UK-based adventure park Go Ape used just two words for their effective homepage CTA, to ensure visitors are guided to their one and only conversion measure- booking tickets!
12. Space NK
Make-up company Space NK recently ran a campaign for visitors in which they offered money off. Their main CTA simply being ‘shop now’ which definitely speaks to their target audiences.
13. Buzzfeed
Buzzfeed, ran a recent campaign to increase subscribers to its newsletter on the upcoming 2020 election in the US. The CTA is paired with a field that’s faded text tells users to enter their email address to start receiving updates—making the entire process fast and simple, two essential elements in any user interaction with your brand.
14. TransferGo
Money-transfer site TransferGo also adopt the simple-but-effective approach when it comes to their CTA, to encourage users to act quickly. While the company offers a couple of services, the main draw is the money transfer, which is tactfully reflected in the CTA.
Conclusion
What were the common threads between the CTAs listed above? For one, they were written with a clear intent as to what the desired conversion was for the brand. These calls to action were quickly recognizable, with colors often contrasting the page, email, or post they were presented in. Some implicitly appealed to a sense of urgency, (telling visitors to shop now, buy now, start now) —an effective marketing tactic. Others recognized the importance of price among users and offered free trials.
While there are many other variations to consider when creating a great call to action, the trick is to find what works for your individual business. As always, testing variants for a CTA will give a much better understanding of what works for your target audience.
Tweaking small elements of a CTA such as the language, colors and even placement will give the best insight on creating an irresistible CTA.
One-to-one personalization, also known as personalization marketing, is a strategy that creates content based on audience segments and user behavior to encourage conversions, collect data, or start engaging and building a relationship with prospective customers. Personalization marketing is one of the most popular and successful ways for companies to truly engage with existing clients as well as prospects—when done well.
The key to success when it comes to personalization marketing is building a trusted and established relationship between the brand and the customer. When it comes to retail (particularly online retailers) personalization marketing can take on many forms, such as:
Recommended emails
Geo-location data requests
Special discount codes
Reminder emails to customers who haven’t browsed in a while.
We looked at 7 brands that really nail one-to-one personalization and explore some of the reasons why customers respond so well to these campaign tactics.
1. ASOS’s Social Connection
Online retailer ASOS prides itself on offering both new and existing customers a range of personalized discounts and deals, which vary depending on if:
It’s a new customer
It’s a returning customer that’s demonstrated a particular interest (e.g. shoes)
A regular customer (who could then be offered premium next-day delivery, for example)
But how does ASOS get this information? One method they might use is encouraging customers to log in to the site using social media platforms, which would allow ASOS to access further details such as age, gender, and location—which can then be used to tailor even more personalized messages.
Why it works: The ability to use a social platform for account creation makes the process simple for shoppers, while giving ASOS more insight into what deals or promotions would be of the most interest to them.
2. Nordstrom Remembers Your Size
Nordstrom gave its online shopping cart a simple-yet-effective personal touch: remembering returning customers’ clothing size. This may not seem like a massive approach to deliver a personal experience, but it creates a more seamless checkout for the user and brings them one step closer to the purchase. It’s a rather clever move from Nordstrom that hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Why it works: Remembering the customers’ preferred size (based on previous purchases) instantly shows the brand’s attentiveness while making checkout even more simple.
3. Amazon’s ‘Recommended For You’ Approach
Amazon is no stranger to personalization marketing. In fact, it could be argued they were the first major e-commerce retailer to really put personalization into action. The company has become known for its product recommendation emails and personalized homepages for logged-in customers. Using their own algorithm, A9, Amazon goes above and beyond to first understand customers’ buying habits and then deliver an experience that’s been deliberately designed for relevance.
Why it works: Customers feel valued and understood by the retailer when seeing emails and recommended “picks” that are tailored to their interests. Consistency also plays a part in Amazon’s approach, as they continue to deliver an even more granular personalized approach for customers.
4. Nike and Their Customized Approach
Nike always goes the extra mile to personalize the shopping experience, as we’ve seen with their SNKRs app that allows premium (loyalty, Nike+ shoppers) access to a large catalog of products that they can then customize. It’s the perfect way to cement customer loyalty by offering them the unique opportunity to tailor items to their exact liking.
Why it works: By giving customers a certain degree of autonomy with design, Nike is giving customers the freedom to express their individuality, even while the company continues to produce the same style shoe around the world. Despite being a huge brand, Nike has created a great loyalty program that engages customers and stokes their excitement about buying Nike products.
5. Net-A-Porter’s Personalized Touch
Luxury online retailer Net-A-Porter has adopted the ‘recommended for you’ approach but with a unique twist to appeal to its high-end customers that want a more premium service when they shop. The company gives away freebie products to customers based on previous purchases, adding a personal touch to an otherwise standard online shopping experience. This is not dissimilar to Amazon’s recommended emails, except Net-A-Porter customers receive a physical product — and who doesn’t like a gift!
Why it works: These gifts show the appreciation Net-A-Porter has for its customers and helps to bring the luxury shopping experience online.
6. Coca-Cola’s Name Campaign
In 2011, Coca-Cola launched its Share a Coke campaign in Australia, printing thousands of names on their diet and original soft drink. This simple-yet-effective campaign made sales skyrocket, supporting the notion that consumers engage with brands that address them by their first name (albeit in a rather broad sense!) Personalized bottles became all the rage, with people trying to find their own names along with those of their friends and family members. The campaign was globally recognized and started the ball rolling for other brands such as Marmite, which also saw great success with a naming campaign.
Why it works: Is it the simple notion of vanity that makes these name campaigns so popular? Consumers love to see their own names on popular products, making them almost ‘gimmicky’ with a collectible edge that makes people feel special!
7. Target’s Guest ID
The US retail giant Target decided to up its personalized campaign game by assigning each customer a guest identification number on their first interaction with the brand. Target then used the data to obtain customer details like buying behavior and even job history! Target used the data to understand the consumer habits of its customers and to create a view of their individual lifestyles. Target focused particularly on customers who also had a baby registry with them and even used their marketing data to make ‘pregnancy predictability scores’ for customers who were browsing particular items!
Why it works: Arguably, delivering a personalized experience for every customer visiting a physical store is a tough job for any retailer. By assigning a ‘guest ID’, Target was able to understand buying behaviors and patterns from their customers in-store and use the information to make suggestions on products they may be interested in.
Conclusion
Personalization can take many forms: emails that address customers by their first name, freebies based on behavioral analysis, previous purchase history, geo-targeting… The level of success from a one-to-one personalization campaign relies on a number of factors, such as the level of trust the consumer feels with the brand, the accuracy of the campaign, and how personalized messages are delivered (and even the platform they’re delivered on).
When it comes to analyzing web traffic, there are so many different angles to view performance from and even measure ‘what success looks like’, as companies will value different metrics and view success as something different. It can be rather confusing for businesses to know exactly where to start when looking at the figures, but if you rely on your website for generating money and leads, or want to increase exposure online, understanding how people find your website and what they do once they click through is vital.
Whether you’re new to the world of analytics and web traffic analysis or simply want to know what you’re looking at when it comes to really understanding the numbers, we’ve pulled together 5 ways to analyze your website traffic in a bid to help businesses make the most of their online presence and hopefully even improve the numbers with a few tips!
First things first, you will need to understand where all that traffic is coming from…
Understand Where Traffic Is Coming From
Whether it’s through paid adverts, organic traffic from search or regular social campaigns, knowing where your traffic is coming from is vital to understanding just how the world sees – or finds – your website. Depending on which reporting tool you use, the ‘source’ and ‘source medium’ reports will give you all the information you will need to see exactly where people are coming from when they click through to your website. The source of traffic will be labeled in your analytics software, depending on the platform, as ‘Google’, ‘Yahoo Search’ etc.
Use this data to analyze the success of previous campaigns you have run, have you recently invested in an email marketing campaign that has performed better than you thought? Or has that recent article on a hot topic brought in an influx of organic traffic from search results pages? Use the historical data to improve on campaigns too – don’t just measure the success of your campaigns with source traffic reports. If you invest money and time into running a campaign, make sure to analyze whether it’s worth the same investment next time round by seeing how much traffic actually came from the campaign content.
If you’re a content-generating website, then organic traffic and referral source will be a great metric to use to measure success. If you’re running regular paid campaigns, make sure to analyze the different channels you are paying to feature on – be it social, Google Ads or other paid channels. Once you have established which channels are working and which need a bit more investment, you can really start to measure true success as well as applying a smarter way of analyzing your web traffic.
Recognize The Difference Between Page Views, Visits, And Unique Visitors
Getting the right measurement when looking at the visits is also a very important metric – after all, you wouldn’t want to miss all those returning visits! Whilst this may seem a bit basic, understanding the difference between page views, visits, and unique visitors can really help understand what content works and what doesn’t!
Pageviews – This is the metric which will tell you how many times a page has been viewed by visitors on your website, within whatever time frame you are looking at. This is a great metric for understanding just how many pages are viewed and which ones are more popular. Use this to analyze your more popular products or pages as well as improving the pages that may not be getting the same amount of traffic.
Visits – This metric is different from page views in that it looks at the number of visits a person has made; whether they are new or returning and groups together the total number of visits to your website in any given time period. Not to be confused with unique visits which count each individual visit once, the number of visits tends to be a higher number which can appeal to marketers who want to show off the figures!
Unique visits – This is possibly one of the more important metrics for understanding how many individual visits your website gets, as this gives a true picture of the exposure your website has online and where you may need to improve. Unlike visits, unique visits are measured by each individual on their first point of contact. They may decide to return the same day but their first visit is the one recorded as unique. Unique visits are a great way to analyze the ‘true’ performance of your site for potential new leads too.
Review Your Bounce rate
Another smart way to work out just how well your website is performing is by measuring the bounce rate. This is a great metric to use to understand the pages visitors like and dislike on your website, as bounce rate is the percentage of people who have viewed a page then literally ‘bounced’ off, or left the site.
If you’re wondering what a good bounce rate looks like, generally speaking, it’s between 26- 40%, but this, of course, varies from page to page and of course, website and industry. Your analytics will give you an overall bounce rate for the performance of your whole website as well as individual pages. Use the individual bounce rate attributed to each page to understand which are performing well and which may need improving. By addressing the pages that have high bounce rate, your overall bounce rate figure should start to reduce. Keep track of the figure to measure if your efforts are having a positive impact on this metric- after all, it’s working on user experience which will have a more positive impact on your web performance as a whole.
Aim To Increase Time Spent On Page
Once you’ve looked at page views and number of visits, the next metric to analyze is Time Spent on Page. This is another great way of working out whether people like what they’ve found or not. Time spent on your website is a great indication of which content works and which don’t; the pages with less time spent overall may need editing.
A great comparison metric to use when looking at Time Spent On Page is the source – work out where these visitors who spent little time on your page, came from. Was it organic search, a social post or paid advertising? Is the page they were directed to relevant to their search or journey? Does it aim to address their query or could it be improved? Analyzing the time spent on the page will give a good indication of how relevant visitors find your content, make sure to look into this metric and consider where things could be improved in their journey to keep them on your website.
Review Your Goals Set
Another smart way of reviewing your data to check your website performance, is to review any goals you have set up. Goals will vary from site to site, but these can typically be to measure the amount of time someone completes an action you want to measure. For example; completing a form, downloading a document and even adding items to a basket.
Whatever your website’s function is, setting goals, even if they’re not eCommerce (don’t generate actual money) will definitely help you understand what your web visitors are doing and whether your call to actions are working well or not. Setting up goal tracking should be relatively easy, if you’re using Google Analytics, for example, there is an easy step-by-step process to creating goals within the analytics software that will track how many goals users complete.
If you haven’t already, set up goal tracking on all of the ‘accountable’ calls to actions you have across your site and start to review how well these are performing. You will quickly be able to spot the call to actions that may need tweaking, just from analyzing how many completed goals are tracked.
Goals are another smart way to analyze what you’re website traffic is doing, not only does it measure how many people are completing the call to actions you have set out but it gives a great indication into how simple (or not) your actionable goals are for users to understand.
Key Takeaways
When it comes to analyzing your website traffic, there are a few key metrics that will give you a great indication of what’s working and what isn’t. Get to know your analytics software and start by finding the reports we mentioned above. Then set some achievable targets for the metrics that matter most to your business, whether it’s increasing the number of unique visitors, decreasing the bounce rate or simply trying to increase the time spent on page – these are all great metrics to use for measuring the continual success of your website.
By taking an interest and regularly checking in on the analytics, businesses are able to keep on top of what works well and what doesn’t as well as understanding what visitors experience when they interact with your website. Understanding data – even just the reports we mention, is imperative for any business looking to improve their online presence and develop their digital marketing.
Don’t forget – your website is unique to your business and brand so working out what works and what doesn’t for the visitors using it is a great way to develop the brand whilst learning more about the people who visit your website.
The sign of an excellent product or service is one that’s designed to suit the customer – whether that’s addressing a problem they may have or simply providing them with an experience that puts them at the center of it. Whether you’re running a B2B or B2C business, gaining customer feedback on their experience is essential for growing and developing your business, as well as improving on areas they found issues with. Customer satisfaction is imperative for the ongoing success of any business but it can sometimes prove to be rather tricky to get customers to give feedback on their experience in the first place.
Unlike NPS surveys where the purpose is to keep it short and sweet, the user satisfaction survey allows businesses to ask more in-depth questions and can enable customers to give more details about their experiences. But how do you write a survey that engages and interacts with customers enough to gain responses from them?
We explore some great tips to writing good user satisfaction surveys that will not only get you the responses you’re looking for, but help improve your business based on previous customer experiences.
Open With The Right Questions
In a previous article on NPS surveys, I touched on starting with the ‘right’ questions and the same applies for starting with a good user satisfaction survey – start by asking them directly about the product or service they have just used. Opening a satisfaction survey with the right type of question will enable customers to answer directly, avoiding any vague responses or possible misinterpretation. After all, you’re looking for constructive feedback about your business, so make sure your questions allow them to do this. Here are some great opening questions to try:
How often do you use the product or service?
What do you like best about the product or service?
What area would you improve on?
Encourage customers to give you more detailed responses with open text replies. By giving them the freedom and space to explain or describe their experience in detail, you will gain much more insight and obtain more information than simply asking them to tick a box or answer a simple yes or no.
Use Scales or Star Ratings
Having a scale of 1-10 or 1-5 will allow customers to measure their satisfaction by attributing a number to their experience. It’s up to you to decide which way the scale goes – with 1 being best or worst. Having a scale can be a great way to quantify satisfaction from customers when using a particular service, for example, but it can also mean customers don’t feel able to share their experiences as they give a number instead. A great way to tackle this is to elaborate after your scale, with a leading question like:
‘Why did you rate your experience with this score?’
The leading question after your scale will empower customers who do want to give a bit more detail about why they scored your business they way they did. There will be a number of customers who don’t feel compelled to elaborate on why they have scored your business with that particular number, so make sure to use their score to help understand what kind of experience they had and perhaps how you can improve for next time.
Remember, the whole purpose is to improve your business from their feedback so if you use a scale, make sure you are clear on what the numbers mean and apply metrics that will look to improve your product or service.
Include Yes Or No Questions
A great user satisfaction survey should have a mix of quick answers and ‘open-ended’ options to allow customers to give more details should they want to. Some customers are going to be immediately put off when faced with lots of open-ended questions, as they won’t want to take the time to give you the appropriate feedback, so make sure to mix it up. Include some simple ‘yes ‘ or ‘no’ style questions too to encourage those customers who are time-poor, to answer your survey quickly. Try questions like:
Would you use our services again?
Would you recommend us to friends and family?
Did our services meet your expectations? – Ask ‘if not, could you give us a bit more detail’ to allow a customer to describe their experience
Did you find what you were looking for? – Try offering different responses if they click yes or no here if no – ask them why
Yes or no answers may not appear to give a company enough feedback, but when followed up with a further leading question and open answer, it empowers customers to divulge more about their experience, allowing the brand to learn and look to improve on the particular experience.
Start to Explore Demographics
This isn’t compulsory for your customer satisfaction guide but it does really help businesses develop if they have a better profile and understanding of their demographics, as you can really start to segment your audience. If you haven’t already, try to gain further information from existing customers about their personal situation: how old they are, what their employment status is and even where they are in the world. Obtaining this kind of information can really help businesses improve their personalization approach whilst creating a more accurate depiction of the types of customers the brand appeals to. Try asking the following:
How old are you? – We recommend giving a range of ages, e.g.: 35-50, 51-65
Where do you live? – Again, if being town-specific will help, use specific locations. Otherwise, per country is fine
What is your marital status? – Be inclusive and try not to unintentionally alienate anyone
What is your employment status? – Try to angle it with ‘self-employed’, ‘Contractor’, etc
Try Multiple Choice Questions
If you’re looking to create customer profiles from their survey answers, try incorporating some multiple-choice questions, too. Giving customers options to choose from often encourages them to complete your survey, as it means they will spend less time overall giving their feedback, but also means you can obtain further details about them as an individual as well as their experience with your brand. Try incorporating the following questions in your next user satisfaction survey:
Which best describes the reason for your visit today – ‘Leisure’, ‘Business’, ‘just browsing’ etc
What services/products have you bought from us in the past? Are you looking for similar products/ services?
What was your main reason for visiting the website/ store today – To find out more information? to purchase a specific item? to speak to us directly?
These multiple choice answers give enough details about the customers’ experience for business to learn from and will appear to ‘save time’ as they offer an answer instead of openly asking customers to respond – a win, win situation for both business and customer!
Use It To Test New Experiences
User satisfaction surveys aren’t exclusive to improving customer experience, they can also be used when looking to launch new products or test a new digital experience, such as a new website or online journey. The best way to get good, productive feedback on prototypes or new designs is to let customers use them and give their own feedback on how it went!
For instance, if you have developed a new website or want to test how well received a new product is, give users the option to use it and create a survey around their experience. Twitter is a great example of a platform that looks for active user feedback each time it rolls out an update, by offering certain users access to their ‘new look’ platform. The survey allows for tweaks to be made, if required, and saves both time and money addressing any issues further down the line once the product is properly launched.
If you’re looking to try this approach try questions like:
Did you find what you were looking for today? A ‘Yes or No’ would be a great option here, with a follow-up if they respond ‘no’
How would you rate your experience using the new website? – Use a scale
What do you think of the new layout? – Perhaps offer multiple choice answers here to avoid vague answers
Ultimately, a good user satisfaction survey can use any or a combination of all of the above elements, as long as the overall intention of measuring satisfaction and experience is easily quantified, the way you ask customers doesn’t really matter. As long as the responses enable your business to learn and improve areas that customers highlight, the general structure of your survey is up to you!
Don’t forget – the journey of providing a great customer experience starts at the first point of contact with your business, whether that’s via social channels, adverts, email marketing or from your website, so next time you’re looking to improve things, start by looking at the experience a customer may get at these various touch points.
Modern technology and intelligent social targeting have meant marketing professionals now have their work cut out for them when looking to reach both existing customers as well as prospective consumers, as consumer behaviors have evolved to demand a more personal and individualized experience with brands.
With more opportunities than ever before to influence consumers as they move down the purchase funnel, it is now crucial for companies to change their approach in communicating with prospective as well as returning consumers. Understanding who your buyer personas are is not a new concept for businesses, but rather has always been at the foundation of every successful campaign. However, the drastic change in consumer behavior in recent years, coupled with the new ability to obtain even more detailed insights, means that marketers now have to actively look to develop their strategies in order to keep their products or services relevant to their audiences.
To this end, we explore the differences between segmentation and personalization and the role audience buckets can play in executing successful campaigns, ensuring businesses don’t get left behind.
Segmentation
Segmentation is the process of grouping together consumers who share similar traits, to target them directly with highly relevant content. In today’s very busy and rather noisy consumer-focused world, companies struggle to identify who and more importantly – where their target audiences are. Audience segmentation looks to assist companies by segmenting consumers into the following categories, among others:
Age, gender, occupation, ethnicity, etc.
Where they are in the sales journey; unaware of the brand, showing initial interest, have abandoned a cart, has previously purchased, etc.
Creating personas – based on the above information being obtained, more detailed personas are then created to help the business understand and depict their potential audiences
Segmentation helps businesses look at their audience in more granular detail in an attempt to understand and even empathize with them. Segmenting consumers into different groups, based on common attributes, helps businesses address their wants and needs whilst trying to be as relevant as possible to them.
Personalization
Personalization is more the strategy that happens after segmentation to complement the relevant grouping by communicating to small groups, using more detailed and dynamic messages. It aims to communicate to an individual, tailoring a message that specifically addresses, or seemingly addresses someone as an individual. In order to have a detailed understanding of an individual to speak to them as one person, businesses need to have gathered enough sufficient and accurate data about their profile, to tap into their interests. In the past, many businesses have simply addressed consumers by their name but failed to tailor the message or offer to interest the person further.
Personalization no longer consists of the ‘lazy’ approach of adding a person’s first name on a blanket message, sent to a large database, in a bid to gain some albeit very small traction.
In the example below, this message sent to this person’s connections on LinkedIn, offering to help with aspects of travel marketing, was sent to people who weren’t travel-business owners and don’t have any connections to the travel industry. The message is impersonal and vague and frankly, doesn’t leave a great impression!
With the use of data-collecting technology that is now widely available, businesses can understand far more about the individuals they are trying to reach, creating personalized messages that appeal directly to the person receiving them. Meaning there is far less need to be sending blanket messages to a weak database of contacts, with a very low response rate.
The most successful marketers will not only be aware of the differences between segmentation and personalization but also how they can work together to compliment a campaign. This leads us to what to do once you have established your segments…
What Are Audience Buckets?
Audience buckets is a term used in marketing to group together people who share the same or similar demographics, behavior or interest. Creating audience buckets will ensure a campaign focuses on specific needs and interests from smaller groups of consumers. By grouping them based on similar traits, you can target them with highly relevant and engaging content that aims to steer them into some kind of buying journey. The more detailed these buckets are, the more likely your brand is to see success from the campaign, as audiences respond best to targeted and relevant messaging when they see it on platforms they know and trust.
Understanding your audiences will help to reach out to them on their most favored platforms online, in the hope of nurturing them into a journey that looks to eventually convert them. By reaching them on relevant platforms, your content will also have a far greater impact on them, significantly increasing the potential of converting.
Obtaining the right information needed to bucket your audience into relevant categories has now been made easier, with a wide range of personalized marketing tools and methods available to help businesses find new customers, as well as creative ways to nurture prospective and returning customers – there’s an approach to fit every business.
The Personalized Marketing Approach
The personalized marketing approach is all about being as relevant as possible, as your content is far more likely to resonate with audiences you have profiled through segmentation. Then, grouping them in audience buckets, your personalization strategycan really start to take shape, targeting these groups on the platforms they are frequenting. Having detailed data will help establish well-informed audience personas to help understand who you are addressing. And with so many ways to obtain data from consumers, there is no excuse for not utilizing this level of detail to your advantage. From email surveys, banner ads and retargeting using cookies, there is a host of different approaches to gaining customer data.
A water-tight personalized marketing campaign will be comprised of segmentation, audience buckets and insights gained from a reputable marketing tool. By showing your brand understands the audiences’ needs and tailoring content to address them, it should grab their attention just long enough to entice them in, or at least begin to engage with your business.
There is, of course, a balance between attention-grabbing and showing a ‘creepy’ level of personalization, as consumers are quickly turned off from brands who approach them at the wrong time, with the wrong messages, appear to know too much without asking, or simply with an offer that isn’t appropriate. With smartphone technology using location tracking, some consumers are finding campaigns are too personalized with Google’s own review platform sending push notifications when people walk past places of interest – even if the person hasn’t visited the venue! If your business is considering a more granular personalization campaign, make sure to be transparent about the information you are obtaining, giving consumers the option to opt-in or out.
There is an increasing need for businesses to improve their personalization efforts, with consumers demanding a more personal experience when they interact with brands. Gathering demographic information such as age, gender, family, location and even ethnicity has been made it much easier for marketers, with tools such as Google Analytics offering these segmentation groups in web traffic reports. Having easy access to this type of information can help create solid foundations to successfully reach and appeal to potential consumers.
