Archives for August 2016
Building Trust to Know Your Consumer’s Preferences Is Key for Return Customers
A recent study surveyed consumers in the US and the UK about their shopping preferences. They were asked questions like, do you prefer shopping online or going to a physical store? They took it even further and asked the consumers if they felt that the retailers, both online and brick and mortar shops knew what types of products they are interested in.
This is where it gets tough. The consumer wants you to give them product suggestions that are relevant to their interests, but most consumers don't want their data used.
In this article, we will give you the stats on what the consumer wants out of their shopping experience.
Consumer preference is a general term applied to all facets of marketing products and services. This is not to be confused with the more-specific term brand preference, which relates to consumers preferring one brand over competing brands. If one brand is unavailable, consumers will likely choose another brand to fill the gap. A revealed preference is also a subset of consumer preferences in that companies determine consumption behavior based upon sales numbers. The theory is that companies can change strategies if consumers buy one product over another. The revealed preference theory was first promulgated in 1938.
Website or Brick and Mortar?
When asked which method they like best 83% of American and 77% of UK consumers would rather shop at a physical store versus a website. Millennials (ages 18 – 29) also prefer shopping in brick and mortar stores, but use their digital technology to find what they need and pay for it faster. This represents a major challenge for retails known as showrooming.
Consistent Pricing
Customers expect the price of a product to be the same in the actual store as it is online. It angers people who research a product online and then decide to get it at the store because they want it that day, only to find out it costs more. Out of the Americans surveyed 55% of them say they expect the prices to be consistent between the store and online. The UK consumer stats are the same. Only about 25% American and 23% UK consumers said they would expect the online price to be cheaper. About 20% of both sets of consumers said they don't check to see if there is a price difference.
Do You Know What They Want?
About 42% of consumers feel that online stores know their product preferences while only 11% of consumers feel that the physical stores do. Approximately 66% percent of consumers feel that the shopping websites don't have a clue when it comes to the products they are interested in and 30% feel the same way about the brick and mortar shops. On that note, only about 25% of consumers say business should link online and brick and mortar browsing/purchasing data to improve the shopper's experience. Also, just over 60% of consumers don't want their data to be used.
In conclusion, despite the convenience of online shopping people still, prefer to physically go to the store. They want consistent prices between both avenues and they to want the retailer to be more in tune with their interests. But they are very afraid of their information being stolen or used in the wrong way. There is most likely a trust issue here. Retailers will have to find a way to gain the trust of their customers, most likely through better security technology in order for everyone to get what they want.
Queen of the Machine for Viral Solutions LLC
“If a brand genuinely wants to make a social contribution, it should start with who they are, not what they do. For only when a brand has defined itself and its core values can it identify causes or social responsibility initiatives that are in alignment with its authentic brand story.” ~ Simon Mainwaring
Up Your Blog Game: How to Wrap It Up
Ah, youâve come to the end. All of your thoughts and research have been organized into an engaging quick read that your audience is sure to love. But there is one last step, the closing paragraph. âThe conclusion of things is the good. The good is, in other words, the conclusion at which all things arrive. Letâs leave doubt for tomorrow,â Komatsu said. âThat is the point.â – Haruki Murakami. In the end, you want to exit on a good note and leave no sense of want or confusion as to what the article was really about.
This article is about how to finish while keeping the reader at ease. Let's talk about how to wrap it up!
Affirm Your Thoughts
In the conclusion, you should always recap the important objectives of the article. Do not add any new thoughts. New information does not belong in the conclusion. If you want to say more, than add a new paragraph in the body. You do not want to leave your reader pondering what the article was actually about. Remember to stay on track. “If you start out with a solid topic, a good knowledge of your audience, and a reasonable degree of writing ability, youâll usually end up with a pretty good piece of writing.” ~ D. Bnonn Tennant at CopyBlogger
Donât Make it Wordy
Your closing paragraph should always be brief. You want a short but sweet close that will leave the reader satisfied with knowledge. “You are a one-of-a-kind person, with your own emotions, passions, and desires. So speak out. Seek to right a wrong. Take your joy and spread it around. Great things can happen.” ~ Carol Tice
Jump Start Your Reader
Often our blog posts are about accomplishing important goals. Whether itâs nailing an interview, asking for a raise, or even learning a new trade/craft. Whatever it is, command your audience to get out there and do it. Sometimes they need a swift kick in the pants. Donât we all?
Links
The conclusion is a great time to throw in some links if you havenât already. Think of it as giving them a next step or a sort of chance for extra credit. With the links, they can learn more if they decide to take their interest further. Plus, you should link to other experts and their blog articles – like a form of social proof. Take for example what Neil Patel says over at Moz; “You draw others into the conversation â By linking to others opens yourself up to discussing the topic at hand. This allows you to listen and trade ideas with others, learning things you didnât know before you startedâŠand creating relationships. You get the authority juice â Inbound links no doubt have high impact on your search rankings. But so do outbound linksâŠespecially if you are linking to authority sites.”
Ask a Question
âSay what?â Yes, ask a question. Questions give your readers a chance to post comments when they are done. This could start some good conversations that would move the subject forward. I remember a line from Mr. Miyagi in Karate Kid Two, âSomeone always knows more.â This is true, someone reading your post might have some beneficial information to add that can help your readers learn more on the subject matter.
In conclusion, restate your main thoughts, make it brief, tell them to get moving, add in some relative links, and ask a question. Now that you know all the ins and outs of the close, get going on writing some amazing posts. Blogging is one of those jobs that seems easy until you have to do it. Fortunately, it does get easier, and with time and practice, youâll be blogging like a pro in no time.
Here's a bonus thought.
Now that you have learned how to improve your copy and produce consistent effective content, how can you use the content you already have to maximize your leads?
Queen of the Machine for Viral Solutions LLC
“If a brand genuinely wants to make a social contribution, it should start with who they are, not what they do. For only when a brand has defined itself and its core values can it identify causes or social responsibility initiatives that are in alignment with its authentic brand story.” ~ Simon Mainwaring
Outstanding Sources for Digital Marketing Statistics
If youâre going to be serious about digital marketing, you need to be serious about statistics and analytics as well. Itâs impossible to set yourself up for success in a marketing campaign without looking closely at the statistics. Fortunately, there are a wide variety of free tools available to you online to give you comprehensive looks at the best means of achieving digital marketing success.
Here are a few of the best free digital marketing statistic sources youâll find on the internet:
- Global WebIndex: Global WebIndex may be a primarily paid service, but they provide a lot of their statistics on their blog and through various free reports. For example, one insightful report showed an in-depth breakdown of the online activities of users between the ages of 16 and 24, and compared laptop users versus mobile users. Age and platform information is extremely important for companies with very specific demographics they want to hit. Define your target audiences with custom segments from 4,500 data points. Then explore their digital behaviors and make better decisions.
Digital Marketing Tips | Purpose, Perfect Customer, Spark, & Kindling Strategies — Whether you are starting or starting over, branding your online business is paramount. Having an idea of a product or service is one thing, but having that idea with the branding that supports directing people to you and you to them is a whole other ballgame.
- Similar Web: Similar Web is a great tool that comes in both a free and premium version. It shows traffic sources for specific sites, with the premium version also featuring categories and keywords. Discover your competitor's website traffic statistics.
- Marketing Charts/Pew Internet: Marketing Charts has existed for many years, and now pays special attention to digital marketing as well. It aggregates information about business and consumer adoption of specific technologies. Marketing Charts often partners with Pew Internet Statistics, one of the webâs best locations to find statistics about how people across America are using digital technology.
- eMarketer: eMarketer is known across the digital marketing industry for its outstanding blog, but it contains plenty of statistics as well. Some of its studies are only available for premium customers, but many studies and statistics are published on its blog and on other sections of the website. It contain a compilation of digital statistics in a wide variety of areas.
- International Telecomms Union: ITU is primarily used for internet usage breakdown on a global and nation-by-nation scale. It is primarily used for big picture usage of digital devices, showing a variety of trends across countries and some general internet usage trends.
- IAB Research: The IAB is a hub for thought leadership in the interactive advertising industry. Resources in this section will help you make the case for interactive and implement strategies for successful campaigns. IAB provides reports about ad spending, media investments and their effectiveness.
Looking for more useful resources for digital marketing statistics? Contact us today at Viral Solutions.
Thomas von Ahn
Chief Elephant Slayer for Viral Solutions LLC
“Achievement seems to be connected with action. Successful
men and women keep moving. They make mistakes but they
donât quit.” — Conrad Hilton
Let's Chat! Set up an appointment with me HERE.
Up The Content Game to Optimize Sales Enablement
Sales enablement is key to doing business. A great sales team has the know-how, skills, and the right behaviors to get the most out of every customer interaction. It is marketingâs job to bestow the knowledge that the sales team needs. These days a big chunk of that knowledge is given through content. When Seismic surveyed 375 business-to-business executives they found that most of them were unsatisfied with the content that their marketing teams were producing.
In this post, we will discuss the stats from the Seismic and CSO Insights studies, and find out what the executives favorite types of content are.
Just under half (48.6%) of the executives in the study think their marketing teams are shooting par or better when it comes to the amount of content they can submit to sales. A few less (43.9%) say the content is of standard or greater quality.
Most Effective Customer – Facing Content Tools
You know what sales is. You know what enablement is. So you should know what sales enablement is … right? The truth is that sales enablement differs significantly among different companies. While one team might solely focus on providing content for the sales force, another might also have a hand in event planning, or cross-selling. At one organization, sales enablement might sit in Sales, while at the company down the road, it might make its home in Marketing, or Product. What is the definition of sales enablement? Study participants identified nine different tasks that could fall under the sales enablement umbrella, including coaching, onboarding, content creation, and other duties. ~ HubSpot
Product collateral, the main support system of the ad campaign is considered the most effective type of content. Out of the executives that were surveyed, 55% of them were satisfied with the content in this area. Even though it is ranked the highest 55% isn't that great. That means there are a lot of marketing teams out there that need to step it up. Technical and product presentations are the next best content tool with 53% of the executives approving the quality of this content. These two content tools are the types favored by tech buyers.
Content Tools that Need an Overhaul
Client – focused presentations are one of the content tools that is holding back sales enablement. Most of the executives in the study say this tool needs greater development (43.6%) or a completely new blueprint (12.8). Customer case studies are lacking in luster as well. These are very important because according to a study from LiveHive, this type of content that corporate executives respond well to. Only 42% of executives surveyed feel that their marketing teams are producing acceptable customer case studies. Last but not least the executives would like to see a progression in collaboration with corporate functions. This time, 51% of the executives think that this content needs to be enhanced or transformed.
The organizational challenge of sales enablement
The vast majority of executives have sales reports funnel through the highest levels in structured organizations with over seventy-five percent of sales teams in compliance. The annual expenditures of these organizations are $250,000 annually on sales enablement tools and processes. When firms roll-out sales enablement processes the goals are to decrease new sales team member ramp up time, increase time that sales team members are actually selling, improve client communications and to streamline opportunity management.
The problem is that the goals do not seem to be aligning with the execution of the sales enablement processes as implemented. Over half of the executives reported that the training process was informal at best, thus the uptake by the sales team was not correlating to efficient and effective use of the tools. In fact, 64% of executives reported that such tools are being taken away from sales teams in order to have them revamped. Over 80% of executives blamed the lack of cross-collaboration when creating sales enablement tools.
In conclusion focus on your product collateral and the technical & product presentations, as the tech buyers eat these up. Depending on the performance of your marketing team, the client – focused presentations, customer case studies, and cross – functional collaboration tools may need a complete change to get the results you want. Having the right tools in the hands of your sales team is only a fraction of the overall implementation. It is clear through this study that sales teams need formal training and on-site implementation followed by revisions that are triggered by actual use versus developer assumptions of use.
No nonsense, all honesty.
When the team at Viral Solutions brings their minds to your business, you are getting all of our collective experiences. We will never sugar coat the reasons behind our input. We will not withhold our best solutions. We will not limit our implementation strategies.
Instead, we tell you exactly how we see it and how you can proceed with your digital marketing to experience the best results. These results will be the sum of your strategy, your defined target audience, your commitment to serve your customer and our process of delivery. That means we are an integral part of your team!
Copyright 2016 Viral Solutions LLC
Prior to joining Viral Solutions, Christine held executive leadership roles at some of the largest small business consulting firms in the USA. Her experience includes leading direct reports of over 130 remote sales agents who generated $38mm in annual revenue. She obtained her Marketing degree from British Columbia Institute of Technology. Bring her C-Suite experience to your small business. Although our company is virtual, and we can work with you wherever you are located, she is located in Denver, Colorado and owns a second home in Vancouver, BC Canada.
Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner and an Infusionsoft Certified Consultant.
We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again.
Up Your Blog Game: Using Media in Your Blog Posts
Blog posts sometimes need a little extra pizazz to attract more readers. Images and videos can be used in many ways in a blog post. But you have to make sure you are using the right ones for the job and that you are posting them legally.
This blog post will tell you how to use media in your blog posts.
Written content may be what keeps users on your website, but the quality of your graphic design is what makes a great first impression and prevents them from instantly clicking away.Visual content is incredibly important in the world of digital marketing. Unprofessional images or use of colors reflects poorly on your business and could severely damage your ability to create sales online. The Viral Solutions graphic design team works with you to create custom graphics that are both professional and eye-appealing.
Using Media to Emphasize Your Main Ideas
Images can be used to enhance your articles subject matter. They can be used to show examples or simply to brighten up your blog. Pictures and videos can entice the reader to keep reading. Try using them with an interesting fact as the caption as long as it is related to the points of that certain paragraph.
Use the Best Resolution Images and Videos
You donât want to write a sub-par blog, so why would you use sub-par media. To get the most attention and intrigue for your time use images and videos that are high resolution, that seem to pop right out of the screen.
Make Sure It Is Legal
Some images and videos are not legal for you to use. It is possible for you to get sued if you use media without permission. Never fear I have made a list of some websites where you can find legal to use images. Keep in mind some of these may or may not allow for free use for commercial purposes, so do your due diligence first.
ShutterStock: Search millions of royalty-free stock photos, illustrations, and vectors. Get inspired by ten thousand new, high-resolution images added daily.
Stock Photos For Free: There are never any fees to download our stock photos, and they come with a royalty free license so you can use them in all types of media, for worldwide distribution, forever! You can even use them in commercial projectsâalways free!
Morgue File: Free photos, by creatives, for creatives that are in post production.
Death to the Stock Photo: A % of the profit from Premium Memberships pours right back into our community, to fund photography trips, creative projects, and adventures for our members around the world. The creatives you fund send stuff right back at you, as new image packs, stories, and inspiration galore. It's a sustainable business model for pushing art forward.
Site the Author
Just like citing sources in a research paper, you must cite the author of the media that you will be using. Some photos have different regulations but these are basic guidelines that you should follow:
- You must give the title of the photo (if titled on website)
- Provide the link to the website
- Give the author's name
- The license (CC 3.0)
Tap Into Your Creative Side
Donât want to go through the hassle of searching and citing photographs? Try making your own images. Itâs fun and it will make your blogs more authentic. There are many free tools out there to help you. Here are a few:
- Canva: Canvaâs awesome suite of features make it easy to turn ideas into stunning designs. Simply search for the best graphics, photos, and fonts, then use Canvaâs drag and drop tool to create a design.
- PicMonkey: Edit photos like a boss. Sure, you could just crop and be done, but why not make photos that will set everyoneâs âLikeâ buttons on fire? Add dimension with one-click effects, or take it to the next level with advanced tools.
- Gimp: Whether you are a graphic designer, photographer, illustrator, or scientist, GIMP provides you with sophisticated tools to get your job done. You can further enhance your productivity with GIMP thanks to many customization options and 3rd party plugins.
Creating blog posts are fun, using media can defiantly up the fun level. It's a great chance to be creative and lets your readers see a different side of you. Remember to search the free image websites and to also site the author to make it legit. If you are feeling crafty, customize your own images. However you use media, be sure to enjoy it.
Queen of the Machine for Viral Solutions LLC
“If a brand genuinely wants to make a social contribution, it should start with who they are, not what they do. For only when a brand has defined itself and its core values can it identify causes or social responsibility initiatives that are in alignment with its authentic brand story.” ~ Simon Mainwaring