How to Create an Impactful Triggered Email Workflow

Triggered emails can help to build long-lasting relationships with prospects and customers alike. According to GetResponse, these emails show a 38.03% open rate and a 6.76% click-through rate.

One of the biggest advantages of triggered emails is their longevity. It is quite possible that visitors who receive these emails engage with them some months later. According to statistics, around 18 to 23% of engagement is noticed after 24 hours of deployment.

So, how will you make your triggered email campaigns more impactful for readers?

Here is a detailed article to help.

#1. Segment your audience according to the customer journey

The spray-and-pray technique of email marketing is no longer effective. Instead, marketing professionals must take a customer-centric approach and try to send triggered emails that are relevant for the readers.

According to a 2017 report by Mailchimp, segmented campaigns exhibit better performance when compared to non-segmented ones.

They show:

• 31% higher open rates
• 64% higher unique open rates
• 37% lower unsubscribes

While segmenting, you can start with basic customer journey parameters like:

• New subscribers
• New customers
• Active subscribers or customers
• Inactive subscribers or customers
• Re-engaged subscribers or customers

If you want to go for complex segmentation criteria, you can consider demographics, geographical location, purchase history, products browsed for, and resources downloaded.

#2. Send relevant emails based on user behavior

Your triggered emails must be aligned with the trigger event. In other words, if a customer has placed an order, he or she will expect a confirmation email with all the necessary order details. No wonder, these emails have a 60% open rate.

Let me share an example with you.

A few days back, I searched for plus-size products on an eCommerce store. They sent me a triggered email promoting their “Plus Size Store”.

#3. Use data to create a personalized experience

The key to sending impactful triggered emails is data. If you collect more data about the customer’s interests, purchase preferences, and behaviors, you will be able to target them better. After all, 71% of customers believe that personalized experiences will affect their decision to interact with emails.

Having enough data will help you set engaging triggers that are more appealing for your customers. For example, if you are in the banking and finance sector, you can send out triggered emails whenever an EMI payment is due or there has been an update to the credit report.

Executing triggered emails at different stages of the buyer’s journey

First Stage: Brand New Subscribers

Visitors who have filled out your sign-up form in the expectation of getting a freebie or discount can be categorized as new subscribers.

Optimove suggests that 80% of prospects complete the first purchase on the day they register. 7% of them do so within the first week of registration. You must aim to crack the purchase within the first seven days.

Welcome emails help to build a strong relationship with the new subscriber. Through these emails, you can let your subscribers know about your offerings and encourage them to make their first purchase from you.

Take a look at this welcome email by Moo in which they have offered a discount coupon code and featured their unique selling points (USPs).

Image Source

Second Stage: New Customers

Leads who make their first purchase on your website will be considered new customers.

According to research, only 15% of first-time online customers will become repeat buyers. Repeat buyers contribute to one-third of online shopping revenue and spend three times more than one-time shoppers.

Use triggered emails to nurture these customers and make them purchase yet again. You can even incentivize them with an exciting offer.

eCommerce email marketers can trigger a post-purchase feedback email to increase subscriber engagement.

Similarly, SaaS business owners can ask customers for their input about how they liked the services.

See how HubSpot has sent out a short, yet engaging feedback email to interact with their customers.

Image Source

Third Stage: Active Customers

When a customer downloads several resources from your website and makes repeat purchases, you can categorize them as active customers. They are likely to be brand evangelists who will help you acquire new customers.

You can make loyal customers feel special by sending out VIP offers and bonuses. In addition, you can also invite them for exclusive interviews and then include their responses on your website testimonials or blog posts.

The BuzzSumo team, in partnership with Mantis Research, sent a survey invitation email to their loyal audience asking them to participate in it and invite their friends and family too.

Fourth Stage: Dormant Subscribers and Inactive Customers

Subscribers who have not engaged with your emails in the last few months are considered to be dormant. Lost customers, on the other hand, are the ones who have not purchased from you in quite some time.

As obvious as it may seem, the longer the inactive time, the tougher it becomes to revive them.

You can reactivate such users with the help of re-engagement emails. Remind them that you are grateful for their association with your brand. You can also share all the USPs that make you stand out from the competitors.

Take a look at this re-engagement email by Noom that works like a charm to bring back inactive customers.

                                                     Image Source

Wrapping up

Hitting the marketing triad of delivering the right content to the right person at the right time has become a breeze by setting up triggered email workflows. They not only help to engage prospective and existing customers but also assist customer retention.

If you have not started investing in triggered email workflows just yet, now is the right time.

Tools like Salesforce and Marketo can prove to be extremely useful for this.

Guest author: Kevin George is Head of Marketing at Email Uplers, one of the fastest growing custom email design and coding companies, and specializes in crafting professional email templates, PSD to HTML email conversion and free responsive HTML email templates in addition to providing email automation, campaign management, and data integration & migration services. He loves gadgets, bikes, jazz and eats and breathes email marketing. He enjoys sharing his insights and thoughts on email marketing best practices on his blog.

The post How to Create an Impactful Triggered Email Workflow appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

* This article was originally published here

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How to Create an Effective LinkedIn B2B Strategy (Little-Known Tips That Really Work)

LinkedIn is, undoubtedly, the best platform to generate leads and grow your business – hands down!

B2B marketers and other businesses have undervalued this platform for a long time but since it has been acquired by Microsoft, its business-friendly features have made it the top platform for B2B lead generation. 

• It is one of the top platforms for relationship building. 
• By publishing personalized content, and taking part in industry conversations, LinkedIn helps you establish a great reputation. 
• 90% of B2B marketers have acknowledged that LinkedIn is great for lead generation, and it has brought significant improvements in their sales pipeline.
• LinkedIn is responsible for 80% of total B2B traffic. 

Now that you know how important LinkedIn is for B2B marketing, you must be wondering how to craft an effective LinkedIn marketing strategy for your business. 

This article includes a list of tactics and ideas that you can use to create an effective LinkedIn B2B marketing strategy in 2021.

#1. Build a professional brand

This sounds like a very obvious strategy yet many B2B marketers seem to miss it. 

If you want to create a large network of relevant people or build relationships with them, it’s very crucial to build a strong brand that people will like and trust. 

For that, make sure your personal LinkedIn profile is professional, attractive, and optimized. While setting up your personal profile or company page, keep in mind the needs and interests of your target audience. 

Add all the details about what you offer and how your offering can solve your customers’ problems. When they visit your profile, they should be able to quickly get what they have been looking for. Be genuine and personal. 

Add a proper headline and well-thought summary. Get more endorsements and recommendations as it will add to your profile authority and help you build a trustworthy personal brand. 

#2. Publish quality content that drives engagement

Posting personalized content on LinkedIn can generate amazing results. The more genuine and relevant your content is, the better your engagement rate will be. 

Good content that includes strategies about how customers can grow their business or solve business problems attracts people’s attention right away. 

On LinkedIn, you can post content in the form of articles, images, and videos. It’s better if you use all of these three options to offer your followers and connections some value. Take some time to create informative and useful content that provides a unique perspective to your audience. 

To create interesting and relevant content, you first need to understand your target audience and their interests. If done right; you can easily establish your brand authority in the industry. 

#3. Let LinkedIn automation tools do repetitive tasks

A great part of the success of your B2B lead generation depends on how much effort you have put into connecting and building a relevant network. There are more than 760 million+ prospects and finding the right ones is challenging. 

Sure, you can use basic filters and find your prospects manually, but it will take a lot of time, energy, and resources which as a B2B marketer you can’t afford. 

A single keyword search such as ‘B2B marketing analyst in New York’ will give you thousands of results. Now, do you have the time to look through each profile, collect data, send connection requests, type notes or messages? It will consume hundreds of hours. 

So why not save yourself a lot of time by automating such repetitive and boring tasks using LinkedIn automation tools. 

A great number of successful B2B marketers and businesses are already using the best LinkedIn automation tools to perform these tasks such as searching, connecting, sending messages, running campaigns. 

The benefit of using these tools is that they perform tasks more efficiently in a short time thus speeding up your B2B lead generation process. 

#4. Leverage the potential of LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn groups are great places where you can find blocks of B2B leads. Search for groups that are relevant to your industry using specific keywords. Choose a group that is active – its members actively post and comment in the group. 

Once you have found relevant groups, you will get a chance to interact with like-minded people from the B2B world. You can make efforts to foster relationships with them.

Participate, comment on posts, and once you have established a reputation, you can start posting in the group as well. However, make sure you don’t post sales or promotional content, post content that will establish you as an industry leader. 

#5. Build a network and foster relationships

Above all, know that LinkedIn is an incredibly powerful platform when it comes to networking and building relationships. It’s a professional network where millions of professionals belonging to 150+ industries are present.  Find relevant people and try to engage with them. Don’t bombard them with spammy sales messages. 

Build a community of relevant people where you can share things related to B2B. Eventually, you will gain authority and then you can easily move leads down the sales funnel.

Remember that using social selling practices on LinkedIn has become the most popular way to build relationships and B2B marketers are actively using these practices to gain long-term benefits. 

Wrapping up

LinkedIn is an ideal platform for B2B marketing, and it offers countless opportunities. However, without the right strategy, it will become just another time-consuming and useless platform. To leverage the potential of this platform, you must think beyond the traditional way and start using the latest strategies that will really turn leads into sales. 

Guest author: I’m a content writer and marketer strategist at LinkedCamp with 4 years of experience in the SaaS and automation universe. I am passionate about automation and how it will change the future of the world. Other than that, I am a traveler who loves to explore the world.

The post How to Create an Effective LinkedIn B2B Strategy (Little-Known Tips That Really Work) appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

* This article was originally published here

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How to Create the Perfect Pitch Deck

If you’ve launched a startup, chances are you’ve heard of a pitch deck. A pitch deck is a marketing presentation designed to convince investors or lenders to give your business capital. Ultimately, it provides potential investors with a high-level overview of your business plan, success thus far, and growth potential.

Any time you land a meeting with an investor, expect to present your pitch deck to several people – and expect them to ask plenty of questions. Think of your pitch deck as the bridge between your company and future startup financing. And oftentimes, financing plays a critical role in your business’s ability to grow. With half of all small businesses failing within five years, your pitch deck can mean the difference between establishing a fruitful brand and becoming another statistic.

Pitch decks are typically created using presentation software such as Powerpoint, Prezi, Keynote, or Google Slides. Within a span of a few slides, your pitch deck should be both informational and compelling. Your slides should be clear, include high-resolution images, be visually aesthetic, and stay light on text. But creating the perfect pitch deck is easier said than done. Here’s what you need to know to increase your chances of success:

#1. Company introduction

The first part of your pitch deck should be an introduction to the company. Your goal here is to attract potential investors with just a few sentences. This is where your elevator pitch comes into play. An elevator pitch is a quick description of your company that allows the listener to understand its concept within a short period of time. It shouldn’t take more than 30 seconds to get your pitch across.

This was an introduction included in Facebook’s original pitch deck, and while the platform has changed over time, you can see that Facebook’s objective was to deliver a clear message. Overall, there are three elements your introduction must include:

• Your elevator pitch
• A description of your company and what it does
• Your value proposition.

#2. Problem and solution

Next, it’s time to talk about the problem your target market faces and the solution you can offer. Ideally, your business would provide a solution that addresses a gap in the market. No investor wants to hear about a problem that already has several solutions in the market (and if this describes your business, your solution should be unique).

A good way to describe the problem is to create a narrative and put yourself in the shoes of your target customer. How would a real person experience the problem and what would they do and/or need to find a solution? You should find two to three problems and solutions and keep your slide text simple and easy to follow.

Here’s a pitch deck sample of a problem and solution for Airbnb:

And this is an example of a problem-solution slide for Castle, a property management startup:

At the end of the day, investors want to be involved in projects that solve real issues. They want to work with you to create innovative solutions, but they need to be convinced that your company is the one to do the job.

#3. Market opportunity

No matter how great your product is, if there’s no market for it, there’s no money for it. The “Market” section of your pitch deck should be anywhere between 1-4 slides, depending on market size, segments, and deck design. Because of this, your market size will be one of the most crucial data points in your presentation.

There are several ways to present market data in your deck. They include:

• Value theory, which predicts the consumer’s willingness to pay;
• Existing in-house market data, and
• Industry-based research.

Many companies will use a combination of these tactics to illustrate their market potential. Your key statistics and industry revenue numbers will help potential investors understand market potential and trajectory. 

#4. Product

This is the part of your pitch deck where you go in-depth about your product or service. Up until this point, you’ve talked about your company, the problems it solves, and what makes it stand strong in your industry. Create a simple statement with images, screenshots, or videos to communicate what the product is and how it works. Highlight the features and key differentiators of your product and what differentiates it from comparable products. Here’s a sample illustration of how Uber could communicate their product:

#5. Traction and growth potential

At the end of the day, investors want to see a return on their investment, and the success you’ve achieved thus far is one of the greatest indicators of future success. Traction describes what your startup has achieved so far. Essentially, the traction slide presents data that proves your product or service is desirable. For example, you might display a graph that shows your sales growth or rise in customer adoption.

It’s important to note that you don’t necessarily have to have sales to show traction. This is common for early-stage startups who need funding to achieve future milestones. If you don’t have revenue, there are other ways to show traction. Trial sign-ups, beta sign-ups, pre-orders, and letters of intent are viable options. You can also show how many people are visiting your website, as site traffic is a good demonstration of heightened interest.

#6. Competitors

Your potential investors need to know what they’re up against. Your “Competitors” slide shows who your competing businesses are and what makes you different. Many startups choose to use a “Magic Quadrant” graph to show where they stand against competitors. Developed by Gartner, this graphical representation consists of a graph with a vertical and horizontal axis, which creates four quarters.

Another option is the Power Grid, which offers a more detailed analysis of how your startup beats the competition. In a Power Grid, columns represent competitors while rows represent benefits or features. Here’s an example from Dreamit:

#7. Team

This is the part where you get to talk about the core people behind your product. Describe their role, mention previous accomplishments, and the value they bring to the business today. Though this slide is fairly straightforward, it goes a long way towards humanizing your company and helping investors understand not only what they’re investing in, but who they’re investing in.

#8. Financials

The financials slide helps investors understand what projected revenue will look like over the next several years. It should contain detailed numbers about your business and finances. At this point, you should have already completed a business plan, and you can pull plenty of data from the financials section of your plan. Take a look at a startup business plan template if you need to create both a pitch deck and an official business plan before your investor meeting.

Because this section is so numbers-heavy, it’s important for you to create financial models that are easy to read and simple to understand. After you’ve left the room, your potential investors are going to spend the most time analyzing these details, so it’s important that your economic plan – including your distribution channels and operating structure – are clear.

#9. Investment ask and use of funds

This slide tells investors what you need and what you’ll do with the money. Being transparent about how you intend to use your funds helps build credibility and trust early on.

Your investment ask should be realistic and purposeful; don’t ask for a high number for the sake of getting more money. On the other hand, don’t ask for less money than you need to reach your goals for the sake of increasing your chances of investment. Asking for less doesn’t make your business any less risky. Instead, focus on asking for the right amount to cover your goals.

Guest author: Dave Lavinsky is an internationally renowned business plan consultant who specializes in capital raising and new venture development. He is the co-founder of Growthink, a firm that has helped over 1 million companies develop business plans to start and grow their companies.

The post How to Create the Perfect Pitch Deck appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

* This article was originally published here

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5 Reasons Why Avoiding Plagiarism is Necessary for SEO

Is your site’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization) at risk due to plagiarism? Do you have questions about how plagiarism affects your ranking on the SERP (Search Engine Result Page)? How does blog writing relate to plagiarism?

If you have these questions, this article is for you. Being a professional writer, you need to consider writing plagiarism-free writing because not only Google but other search engines hate copied content.  

So, avoiding plagiarism is necessary for SEO, and it is an essential aspect of writing content that you should consider at all times. This can be achieved by first understanding what plagiarism is. It is illegal to copy other people’s work, whether it is a blog post or other content.

Here, I’ll explain why avoiding plagiarism is necessary for SEO. Let’s take a bird’s eye view of what plagiarism is.

What is plagiarism?

Copying content from a website or publication and claiming it as your own without proper attribution to the original author is plagiarism.

The definition of plagiarism by Wikipedia states:

“Plagiarism is the representation of another author’s language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one’s original work”

In some cases, unknowingly written content could duplicate previous content. The act of plagiarizing refers to appropriating the intellectual property and passing it off as the writer’s own. In addition to written content, you can also find plagiarism in images. Plagiarism typically violates copyright that serves to protect the creations of individuals.

Plagiarism and SEO

An SEO strategy or practice is designed to improve a website’s search engine ranking. All web pages want to be on top of the Google index, so they stay clear of things that might hurt their rankings. One example of such bad factors is plagiarism.

The negative impact of a plagiarism penalty on your SEO efforts doesn’t stop there. Slander can legitimize your work for someone else to plagiarize, which may result in your punishment. 

It’s true; thieves can take advantage of you and then outrank you for it. In this way, plagiarized content will confuse search engines. Plagiarism usually occurs on cheap websites. Your users will surely doubt your credibility if they discover that you’re copying.

In most cases, they search for an original site and move on if it’s copied – this results in constantly decreasing traffic for the owner. Accordingly, plagiarism has severe bad impacts on SEO techniques and ranking scores. 

Importance of avoiding plagiarism for SEO

The act of plagiarism cheats both your viewers and search engines bots. Copying content from another site and publishing it on your site is trying to fool your visitors into thinking you created the content.

This is the reason Google may penalize your site in SERPs because it always prioritizes high-quality content that includes original writing.

Below, I mention the 5 reasons why avoiding plagiarism is important for SEO.

5 Reasons to avoid plagiarism for SEO

Firstly, plagiarism decreases the worth of your website. Plagiarized content will always go against your SEO and this may lead to a penalty from Google.

Here are some reasons that will reveal the importance of plagiarism to protect the SEO of your site. 

1. Avoid copyright strikes

Plagiarism occurs when an idea is copied, but a copyright violation occurs when a fixed expression is copied (for example, a sequence of words or an image). 

It is plagiarism when you use someone else’s work without their permission. It is likely copyright infringement when you reproduce and distribute copies (two rights granted to rights holders) of protected works without permission. So, plagiarism will cause copyright issues.

How is copyright related to plagiarism?

A piece of work is plagiarized when it is used without acknowledgment. An ethical issue arises when one claims credit for work one did not create. There is no difference between plagiarizing another person’s work regardless of the copyright status.

The act of copying an article or book, the copyright of which has expired, is nevertheless plagiarism. In addition, it is plagiarism to use data from an unacknowledged source. Material like data can be infringed upon, even if it is accurate. However, plagiarism is easily avoided with proper citations to the source.

An infringement of copyright occurs when another’s work is unauthorized. Having acknowledged the source will not solve excessive or unauthorized copies of a protected work. To avoid the risk of an infringement charge, you must seek permission from the copyright holder before publishing. These two terms are quite different but similar to one another. 

2. Protect against search engine penalties

If your site has been penalized, your ranked pages in SERPs may have disappeared, or your ranking may have dropped dramatically for your targeted keywords. In the event of a penalty from Google, your target audience will not be able to find you.

Google can easily find plagiarized content on your site and the result is the same as a penalty: a loss of rankings for your website. Plagiarized content will degrade your SEO ranking for many reasons. Google penalties result in your website not ranking.

In addition to consuming Google’s crawl budget, plagiarized content also prevents previously indexed pages from appearing in SERPs. Plagiarized content on Google is not appreciated.

In other words, when crawlers find plagiarized content on your website, they immediately look for the most relevant page. A website’s visibility will be diluted when only one page is indexed and shown on SERPs instead of five pages being indexed and shown.

Plagiarized content does not technically lead to a penalty but may still negatively impact search engine rankings. Search engines can struggle to determine which version of the content, as Google refers to them as “appreciably similar” on the Internet, is more relevant for a search query when there are multiple contents on the same topic. So, to solve this SEO ranking issue, avoiding plagiarism is necessary.

Look at the screenshot below to see the guidelines about duplicate content by Google.

3. Save SEO effort

You can never win the race of ranking higher with plagiarized content despite having a high authority website with better keywords.

There’s no doubt that writing original content is a time-consuming process with extra effort but in actuality, it is very important.

Within this, there are some other steps that SEO experts take to make an article SEO-friendly:

• Start your abstract with the two most important keywords and findings.
• 3-6 repetitions of your keywords.
• Keywords should be included in the title (1-2), abstract (2-2), and keyword fields (5-7) and include keywords in headings as well.
• Keyword tools for Google Adwords and Google Trends are used to find specific keywords.
• Let keywords flow naturally and contextually.
• Maintain consistency.
• Build links in articles using social media, networking sites, and institutional websites. 

All these steps take time, energy, and consistency that is collectively called SEO effort. The best SEO efforts will be in vain if your content is plagiarized, even if you follow search engine optimization guidelines. So, to save SEO effort, you should avoid plagiarism. 

If you still want to save your time by not writing everything original then a paraphrasing tool can be helpful to at least change the words of the original content. But remember, this tool will not completely make your content unique.

4. Gain traffic

Publishing high-quality, unique, and fresh content gains more and more organic traffic. As plagiarized content lacks relevance, readability, and coherence throughout the content, all of this will cause a low SEO ranking score. 

Websites have to avoid issues with plagiarism to succeed. Learn what constitutes plagiarism and what you can do if your website is scraped via the Internet. It is very risky for your SEO if you use the words of others without permission.

Remember, Google can detect plagiarism easily and it is recommended to check your content with a plagiarism checker before publishing content on your site.

In addition to using proper keyword density within a page’s copy, creating title tags with relevant keywords and updating a website with fresh and relevant content regularly can decrease the negative effect. You will become the first source for a search engine if you post content first, and it will engage organic traffic to your site. 

Your content will be considered good by search engines, especially Google. You will enhance branding in the long run by using original content-focused SEO strategies. On the search engine results pages (SERPs), your content may appear high on the list. As a result, your website will have a greater chance of generating organic traffic that is highly relevant. 

5. Maintain your brand’s reputation

Plagiarized content will damage your brand’s reputation. There are 70 million pieces of content uploaded on the Internet every month, making it extremely difficult to gain a reputation in the online world for any small or large business website.

As a brand strives to build its reputation online, it focuses on offering genuine products and services, creating original content, and considering the benefits of its website. Uniqueness is a requirement for this process. A website’s reputation can be permanently damaged by plagiarism, and it can permanently damage a website’s SEO. 

Conclusion

Google loves unique content and it will bring rewards for you in terms of a better ranking. Plagiarized content is a disgrace to your website.

Just think that users come to your site to read something new and unique but they find content that is already published somewhere else.

Of course, they are not going to come back again and will probably have bad thoughts about your website.

For SEO, it’s better to publish a single unique article rather than hundreds of plagiarized content.

Guest author: Asad Shehzad writes SEO articles for online business marketers and SEO tools users to make their Google rankings surge. His articles have appeared in a number of websites i.e., eLearning Industry, seoblog, and Inside Tech Box. 

The post 5 Reasons Why Avoiding Plagiarism is Necessary for SEO appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

* This article was originally published here

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7 Ways to Improve Online Customer Retention for eCommerce

The internet has changed the way we shop, making it possible to buy almost anything online. Products ranging from groceries to clothes are now delivered right to our front door. Yet, despite this convenience, many people are reluctant to make purchases online for fear of not receiving what they ordered or being scammed by a dishonest seller.

As a result, eCommerce companies struggle with low customer retention rates that can lead them into bankruptcy if they aren’t able to turn things around quickly enough. Fortunately, there are some simple strategies you can use that will help your business retain more customers and grow stronger every day.

Image Source: MarketingCharts

In the following article, I’ll outline 8 ways you can improve online customer retention for your eCommerce company so that you don’t find yourself in the red.

#1. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly

Mobile devices are the most popular way to access the internet today. If you’re looking for your next big customer acquisition channel, focusing on mobile should be a top priority.

So how do you attract new customers on mobile? First and foremost, ensure that your website is designed for mobile devices. Your visitors will appreciate it, and it will also increase the likelihood that they’ll purchase on your site.

Also, consider SEO for mobile as well. Google is becoming increasingly mobile-friendly, and this will give your site a boost in rankings: you’ll be found more easily by customers searching for products on their mobile devices.

If you haven’t done so already, focus on designing a mobile-first website to attract new customers and improve customer retention rates.

#2. Provide customer service that exceeds expectations

Customer service is so important that it’s been said that 90% of your customers will quit if faced with one major problem while on a website.

Remember, too, that many shoppers are using their mobile devices to browse the internet while they’re in stores or strolling around town. So if you haven’t already, invest in tools or services to help them easily contact you for customer service issues on the go.

You might also consider creating a live chat function on your website as well: studies show live chat has proven especially effective at reducing shopping cart abandonment and improving customer satisfaction.

Image Source: Marketing Week

Give your team members good training, give them the right resources (such as video conferencing software designed to make it easy to solve common customer problems), and make sure they know you mean business about providing superior customer service.

#3. Offer free shipping on orders over a specific dollar amount

One of the biggest reasons customers hesitate to make purchases online is because they’re accustomed to free shipping offers at brick-and-mortar stores.

These days, consumers are very savvy, and they’re all looking for a bargain: offering free shipping on orders over a specific dollar amount will convince them that your site is worth it.

Keep in mind that you should still calculate shipping fees and/or order minimums in your pricing. After all, you’ll want to make a profit too. Otherwise, your company will struggle, and so will your customers.

The reality is that sometimes, perception will go a long way.

#4. Sell products in the right quantities

Sell products in quantities customers want, like 3 or 6 items per package rather than 1 item at a time. This allows you to offer discounts for buying more at one time and gives customers a healthy discount that makes them feel good about their purchase.

Some customers will want to grab one item, but others will be happy to buy in bulk. It’s a win-win for everyone – especially resellers selling products in the eCommerce industry.

#5. Offer trial periods and free-to-paid conversions

Some customers are hesitant to make purchases online because they’re afraid of buying the wrong thing.

Don’t make it any harder for them: offer a trial period or free-to-play conversions, where customers can test your product or service before forking over their money. This allows you to increase sales while also increasing customer retention rates.

It’s easier than you think to set this up once you have good software on your side: Shopify offers free trials, as does BigCommerce. If you already own a Magento powered eCommerce store then there is an open-source module available that will log the time when the customer requested a free sample, during which he can freely pick up the product, keep it for a limited amount of time, and if he decided not to buy it, then he can return it without any charge.

#6. Use email marketing

Email marketing can be used to announce new products. People are more likely to buy from brands they already know and trust via email marketing than from unknown brands online – so make sure you’re doing a good job of marketing your email subscribers.

If these customers trust you enough to be on your mailing list, they may just contact you when they want to buy something or have a problem with what they bought.

Studies also show that repeat customers are more valuable than new ones. Not only will email marketing help you keep repeat customers coming back for more, but some might even recommend your company to friends and family members.

#7. Give special perks and discounts to customers

This is especially important when it comes to customers who use social media to publicize your business, talk about their experience with your products or recommend you to others.

Giving out special discounts or perks to customers who follow your business on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites encourage more people to talk about you, which leads to more customers. The ones who get the most benefits (discounts) will be the cheerleaders for your company.

Image Source: My Venture Pad

Encourage these customers to share their positive experiences with others via social media using software that allows you to automatically tweet customer service-related conversations or comments from your site – this makes it easy for others to spread the word about how easy it was for them to buy from you.

Improve online customer retention for eCommerce – FAQ

How can I improve customer retention rates?

It is possible to improve the retention rate by using various strategies.

The most effective ones to look into include:

A/B testing, targeted email campaigns, personalization, social media integration, and gamification of a loyalty program.

What exactly does A/B testing do?

A/B testing allows online businesses to make crucial decisions based on user feedback and results. It serves as an effective strategy for determining what marketing methods work best and it provides you with actionable insights that will contribute significantly to improving online customer retention rates through techniques such as personalization.

Personalization refers to showing different content depending on who we are talking to in the sales process and can also change based on the sales funnel stage the person is at.

How is personalization different from market segmentation?

While you can achieve both of them through a variety of methods, such as social media integration and retargeting, personalization allows you to determine the needs and interests of individuals to better connect with them.

This method has seen significant success mainly because it makes things more unique for your customers while encouraging them to engage more often with your brand online.

How can I recover my lost sales?

If you are seeing losses in customer retention rates, there are a few strategies that could help: upselling, retargeting, and re-engagement campaigns can all be used to reignite interest in your brand.

How can I measure customer retention?

Measuring customer retention means determining what factors contribute to loyal customers or those with a high propensity to purchase your personal brand products again. A few of the most effective ways for doing so is through tracking information such as:

Web traffic, engagement rates and time on site, email open rates, bounce rates, social media shares, and retweets.

Image Source: Nexcess

These metrics give you a better understanding of both new and existing customers. Tracking data helps you identify commonalities among your best-performing customers which in turn allows you to adjust your strategy accordingly.

Is there any way I can keep costs low?

Using various methods such as free themes/plugins, tools, and out-of-the-box solutions will allow you to save a considerable amount of money.

This is especially helpful if your company is just starting and you are still working on establishing its brand identity online.

However, keep in mind that free themes/plugins have an expiry date so make sure to check their terms and conditions before using them.

Final thoughts on improving online customer retention for eCommerce

In conclusion, it is possible to improve online customer retention rates. By using solutions like A/B testing, social media integration, and gamification you can reach a loyal client base that will positively affect your business in the long run.

When it comes to your bottom line, this means that you will be able to reduce operating expenses by reducing the number of customer service requests that you receive daily.

What is important is that you remember that not every solution works for every brand.

Always keep in mind how you can present yourself and engage with both existing and new customers to ensure that you reach your goals.

Guest author: Hanson Cheng is the founder of Freedom to Ascend. He empowers online entrepreneurs and business owners to 10x their business and become financially independent. You can connect with him here.

The post 7 Ways to Improve Online Customer Retention for eCommerce appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

* This article was originally published here

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7 Ways to Become a Better Project Manager

Managing projects is not simple. As a project manager, it’s your job to uphold the principles of project management and bring your projects to a successful end.

Your projects should adhere to the basics and remain within fixed constraints in terms of time, budget, scope, and standards of quality.

So whether you’re a beginner in the field of project management or someone with years of experience, there’s always room to improve and grow.

That’s why in this post, we’ll equip you with top strategies to take your project management skills to the next level.

Becoming a better project manager

Here are the best practices you can put into action right away in order to become a better project manager.

Ensure Adequate Communication

Effective communication is crucial to the success of any project. You must have transparent and timely communication methods to keep all the project stakeholders on the same page at all times.

In contrast, miscommunication is extremely dangerous. It can cause discrepancies in timeline and budget, along with triggering conflict among team members.

Image Source: 2020 Project Management

Apart from email communication, there are several collaboration and project management tools in the market to make sure everyone is updated on the project activities.

With features such as @mentions, priority assignments, and project notes, these tools make a project manager’s life easier and bring much-needed transparency to the process. 

In addition, you can also consider scheduling short stand-up meetings on a regular basis. These check-ins can go a long way in nipping potential issues in the bud.

Plan Contingencies for Potential Risks

Just like with anything else in life, projects rarely go 100% as planned. There are hundreds of variables that can lead to thousands of unforeseen possibilities. 

That’s why another part of being a better project manager is developing the foresight to identify what can go wrong. You need to come up with as many ‘what if’ situations as you can and make contingency plans for the team to handle those scenarios.

That way if the project starts going out of control, you can activate plan B and mitigate any risks that may arise.

Keep the Budget in Sight

49.5% of manufacturing managers consider cost as their biggest issue with regard to project management, according to a study. So being able to navigate project budgeting is one of the best ways to improve as a project manager. For example, here’s a template you can use to make things easier.

Image Source: Wall Street Mojo

By efficient budgeting, you can prevent many complications a project may face and keep it moving on schedule. When planning a project, focus on adopting a proper budgeting process and making reasonable assumptions to avoid going overboard.

Engage High-Level Stakeholders

Does this sound familiar? You and your team worked hard to complete phase one of your project and presented the results to a client or senior-level manager. Unfortunately, it was not at all in line with what they expected.

Now you and your team will have to carry out some big changes that will increase your cost and billable hours.

Not involving key stakeholders early on in shaping the project is a big mistake. An uninvolved client or decision-maker can cause a lot of issues near the end of the project.

So make sure to invite your clients and other top stakeholders as soon as possible to share their inputs in shaping the project. Keep them in the loop and address their concerns as frequently as possible.

Keep Scope Creep in Check

Some level of scope creep is normal and will always sneak into a project. In fact, 52% of project teams have acknowledged the same. In excess, however, it can wreck the whole endeavor.

Clients who don’t seem to make up their minds about what they want and have ambiguous requirements are a big challenge for any project manager.

Image Source: Knowledge Hut

One way to deal with this issue is to proactively engage clients in the planning phase and don’t accept vague answers. Help them with zero in on the aspects that you need to be concrete before moving on. In addition, walk them through the consequences of what might happen if they later change their mind.

Identify and Bridge the Skill Gap

It is said that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and this is 100% true for project management as well. When multiple people come together to work on a single project, their performance isn’t just their own, but highly depends on the skills of all the individuals on the team.

If each of your team members does not possess the skills corresponding to their role in the team, it’s not going to end well for anyone.

That’s why effective project managers make a list of skills they need for a project in advance, assess the resources they have, and identify the gaps they need to fill. They can then decide to recruit new team members or train existing ones accordingly.

Adopt Concrete Goal-Setting and Planning

If we were to pick just one requirement for the successful completion of a project, it would be clear goals and a concrete plan to achieve those goals.

Clarity can make a tremendous difference to project outcomes, while the lack of it can lead to serious issues. As a project manager, it is crucial that you form a system of quantifying the progress of your projects.

For example, you can set up milestones and quality checks to be used at different intervals during the project. In addition, popular approaches such as SMART goal setting can help you set the right goals and keep your team working as a single, cohesive unit.

Image Source: Orangescrum

Over to you

Project management is a huge field. As such, there are hundreds of ways to become a better project manager and dozens of good tools to support you. But not every method will apply to your specific project and situation. Your experience and experimentation play a major role in your development as a project manager.

As you use these best practices, you’ll get to the point where you’ll be able to generate your own unique ways to get better at project management. And that’s when you’ll know that you’re on the right track. Good luck!

Guest author: Hitesh Sahni is a content strategy consultant, editor, and founder of Smemark, an upscale content marketing studio helping brands and agencies in multiple niches accelerate growth with superior, scalable content writing for 10+ years. Get his 5 essential templates & worksheets to kickstart content creation, free.

The post 7 Ways to Become a Better Project Manager appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

* This article was originally published here

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YouTube Optimization 101: From Zero To Hero In No Time

With a rise in the kind of content being published, the race for getting better rankings is becoming increasingly cutthroat. What used to be limited to just Google Search Results has trickled down into other platforms like YouTube, Amazon, Twitter, and more.

As content guidelines are being updated, so is the type of content being published. And with the newest genre of “influencers” out there, working on YouTube has become one of the biggest things. There are 149 billion videos on YouTube, which is almost 19 videos per person in the world.

So, how do you make sure that your videos end up in front of the right eyeballs like PewDiePie? Well, the answer is simple! YouTube Optimization or YouTube SEO, as they call it. This is one thing that helped his channel snowball to the tune of 110 million subscribers to date. Like Google, there are some tips and tricks of the trade that beginners can use for YouTube optimization. Read on!

“If you are going to post content, you might as well take the time to make sure Google takes notice.”- The Content Factory.

Top 10 YouTube optimization tips for beginners

#1. Search for the right keywords

Like any SEO optimization, YouTube needs the right keywords in the right places. So, if you already have a topic finalized, make sure to use the various keyword research tools to help you decide the right target keywords as per your audience’s interests. And if you are already well acquainted with your space, the right keywords you want to target are already in your mind.

#2. Use the correct keywords in your title

To make sure your video always shows up in search results, you have to use the right keywords in the video title. Ensuring that the title makes sense while using the target keyword is the best way to go. One way to rank better and higher is to use keywords with lower competition than some generic ones.

#3. Optimize your video description

The next step is to make sure your video description is relevant. You can keep an entire script, the transcript, or just a brief intro about your video. If you are making a video listicle, you can even write the requisite points into the video description.

#4. Analyze your competition

Not admitting that there is competition on YouTube is like acknowledging that cows don’t give milk. To make sure that your video does better, you have to outrank and outperform your competitors. Analyzing their videos, descriptions, dialogue delivery, presentation, and all the other details will only help you fine-tune your content after preliminary scripting.

Understanding which videos of your competitors are the top performers and why they are the top performers is where you determine the “Why does it rank?”. So, like any startup, analyzing your competitors is one of the critical things to make sure of doing.

#5. Tag your video with popular keywords that relate to your topic

Hashtagging or simply tagging a video has become a phenomenon of its own. Some of them have gone on to create revolutions of their own (#MeToo- we are looking at you!). It categorizes and indexes your video and allows it to show up only for relevant queries.

Searching the exact keywords or tags will make the search narrower, and it might increase the chances of your YouTube video coming higher up the rankings. So, tagging will increase your chances of accessing new audiences.

#6. Categorize your video

When you are starting with YouTube, the Creator Academy allows you to understand the various ways videos are categorized. This could fall into the length, the topic, the competition, and many other directions.

#7. Upload a custom thumbnail image

Previously, the thumbnail on a YouTube search result used to be one of the scenes from the actual video. However, as content creation has evolved, the overall bar for creativity has been set high. So now, you can design a custom thumbnail for every video, and YouTube will show that banner every time someone searches.

So, to make sure your users can understand what you want them to remember, use a custom-designed thumbnail image. A step further, a pattern has also emerged where the custom thumbnail uses four specific colors to stand out to the user.

They are called BOGY or:

• Blue
• Orange
• Green
• Yellow

This is because it stands out from the conventional Black, White, and Red color scheme of YouTube. Hence, it instantly pops out to the user and manages to garner their attention. Whether they click can subconsciously be decided by the choice of standing out or blending in.

One of the biggest examples of this color scheme usage is Neil Patel. Most of his videos have a custom thumbnail that uses his own signature colors that are Orange and White, as below:

Another example of the BOGY (Blue, Orange, Green, and Yellow) thumbnail approach is the YouTube channel “How it Should Have Ended,” which has 10.1 million subscribers. Here is how their thumbnails look:

#8. Use an SRT file to add subtitles & closed captions

Pro Tip – Sometimes, your potential audience does not speak your tongue. A study revealed that a video was able to generate 48% in terms of overall intended action. So, adding captions or subtitles makes your video relevant to audiences that do not understand your vocal delivery.

If you manage to do a product demonstration video, you are already on track for 57% more conversion. But add subtitles to the mix, and you automatically become more relevant for the video to get the intended action. It will also result in a 40% increase in the watching time of your YouTube Video.

#9. Add cards and end screens to increase viewership

It is often said that the devil is in the details. With YouTube, that cannot be truer. Because small things like adding cards or end screens to videos automatically improve the likelihood of a subscription. The term used is called “YouTube Rabbit Hole.” Adding relevant cards and end screens allows you to expand your video’s possibility of succeeding in YouTube search results. There are several types of cards:

• Video or playlist: A way of starting the rabbit hole or increase your views
• Channel: Promote your own channel, an associate channel, or someone else’s channel
• Donation: Encourage viewers to donate to a cause via a non-profit or an NGO
• Poll: Engage viewers by giving them a chance to decide on what they can get to see
• Link: Add a link to a website on your YouTube videos

#10. Optimize for Google Search as usual

YouTube, being a Google product, allows your video to get noticed in Google Search. So, while optimizing for YouTube, using an alternate approach to search on Google should be done.

Some of the most critical factors of the July 2021 Page Experience Update are:

• Content relevance
• Well placed and definitive keywords
• Questions around the topic are being answered
• The loading time on the requisite device is optimal
• Images add value to the content
• Usage of infographics, animations, and relatable graphics
• The length of the content is relevant – not too long, and not too short

So, while you may not be able to change the user interface of YouTube, you can still make sure that the content in the video adheres to the norms that the people of your industry will appreciate.

So is YouTube optimization a real thing?

With the way Google is rolling out updates for most of its products, it is only natural that YouTube will get the same treatment. Hence, the need for optimization arises.

So, Yes! YouTube Optimization is a big thing, and if you use it properly you could reach the top like PewDiePie!

Guest author: Bhavik Soni is a Creative Writer at Auto Monkey. We provide an original analysis of the latest happenings in the social media industry. Connect with Latest Social Media Trends and News plus tips on Twitter, Facebook and other social tools on the web.

The post YouTube Optimization 101: From Zero To Hero In No Time appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

* This article was originally published here

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