shopping-cart-abandonment

How to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment with a Seamless Checkout

by Website Development

It has happened to all of us. We pick products on a website, add them to the shopping cart, and for one reason or another, finally, we do not buy and the order remains in the limbo of unpaid orders.

Facing the abandonment of a shopping cart by customers is something that creates a lot of insecurity in online stores. It is also a problem for many online business owners.

Fortunately, more and more studies reveal the different reasons why abandoned carts appear, which allows companies to improve the sales process and adapt it to improve the conversion rates in their stores.

Reasons for having abandoned carts

There are many reasons why consumers abandon full shopping carts in an online store. Although, difficult navigation or a complicated interface to use are some of the main reasons for the abandonment of the shopping cart.

The following are also some of the major reasons shopping carts are abandoned:

1. The inability to save in order to validate later
2. The number of shipping costs is not visible
3. The impossibility of contacting customer support
4. The impossibility of using a third payer
5. The volume of information requested is too high
6. The complexity of the payment process

Seamless checkout tips that can solve the problem of abandoned carts

We will discuss the issue of how to reduce shopping cart abandonment in your online store. Fortunately, more and more studies reveal different reasons why this happens, which allows companies to improve the sales process and adapt to improve the conversion rates in their stores. We have tried to collect the potential solutions that can be helpful in creating a better experience for your shoppers.

1. Quality customer service

We must pay special attention to communication with the client. E-commerce creates a new way of relating to the consumer, a relationship that is essential for the purchase process to be formalized successfully. Customer service is key. It has to be accessible and impeccable, we must realize that it is the only “contact” the client has with the company, so, even if it is virtual, it must provide adequate trust and demand from the client.

It is proven that when customer support is available at a single click, the abandonment of the shopping cart is reduced by 30%.

In the United States, 21% of online shoppers prefer a chat conversation with the company’s own support.

The ability to respond and the need for more information from the users have made companies rethink their sales process and bring a change in their strategy. The importance of knowing each client individually and building a lasting relationship will ensure better sales numbers.

2. Free shipping or discounts

Many online buyers abandon their shopping cart either due to a high shipping cost or the seller has not mentioned it during the entire purchase process, which may be an unpleasant surprise when they find it on the checkout page.

Also, keep in mind that customers are more likely to buy more products when you offer Free shipping.

3. Show the break-up of the cost

In the shopping cart, there must be a clear break-up of tax, shipping cost, and the final price, as it can mean a considerable difference that causes the customer to abandon their purchase.

Not indicating the final price on the products until the end of the transaction, can shoot the number of abandoned carts on your website

 

 

 

 

 

4.

The shopping cart must always be visible

Keeping it this way reminds customers to buy. Sometimes the product itself could distract the buying activity so a visible shopping cart will bring the customers to engage with the website.

5. Give them fewer steps

The customers are there to purchase, not just to fill out some irrelevant data. This may seem obvious, but there are still thousands of stores that put obstacles to their customers by adding an increasingly longer purchase process. You should minimize the number of clicks and make the customers buy the product at ease.

Analyze the heatmaps and study the behavior of your website visitors to know where you are failing.

6. Offer several payment options

You need to provide the clients with all possible payment options. The ideal thing would be to be able to pay by credit card, by conventional methods such as bank transfer or counter-reimbursement, by Paypal, or even other alternative methods.

There are many payment alternatives, the more the better. This will eliminate one of the most important barriers that a consumer would encounter.

SUPERCOMPUTER

Why Countries Are Competing To Build Supercomputers?

by Artificial Intelligence

Controlling supremacy in the technology world largely involves computers. Countries have realized this fact hence the effort in investing in supercomputers. Supercomputers are defined by speed and efficiency. Companies with a vision to lead different industries are at the forefront to acquire modern equipment and invest in fast processors.

The rapid changes in technology leave no room for delay in investment. While we still want to explore other factors to identify winners in different industries based on business strategies, nothing beats the investment in supercomputers.

The modern supercomputer

The size and performance of a supercomputer are compared to the size of a parking field with a capacity of 50 cars. The computation capability is immense; it takes a day to solve complex calculations that would take thousands of years with an average computer. However, personal computers are also improving in performance in the same way as supercomputers.

There are various terms you have to learn to understand how supercomputers work and how they differ from personal computers. A ‘bit’ is a unit of data measurement, ‘bytes’ is a measure of digital information storage and ‘flop’ is a measure of computation speed. Floating-point otherwise known as flop allows computers to process long numbers and post results within a short time. This is a distinguishing characteristic of supercomputers

Who controls the best supercomputers?

As mentioned, every country is keen to invest as much as they can in the development or acquiring fast processors that distinguish supercomputers from average computers. Of course, there are super economic powers in the globe that you will expect to be on top of this list. The United States, UK, Japan, China, and selected EU states battle for the top position in controlling supercomputers.

It is difficult to point out a specific country based on their investment level; however, we can filter these major players in the tech industry by analyzing the top supercomputers.

Here are the top 10 supercomputers in 2018

1. AI Bridging Cloud | Japan | 130 petaflops
2. Sunway TaihuLight | China | 93 petaflops
3. Tianhe-2 | China | 34 petaflops
4. SuperMUC-NG | Germany | 27 petaflops
5. Piz Daint | Switzerland | 20 petaflops
6. Gyoukou | Japan | 19 petaflops
7. Titan | United States | 18 petaflops
8. Sequoia | United States | 17 petaflops
9. Trinity | United States | 14 petaflops
10. Cori | United States | 14 petaflops

While featuring in the top 10 list of 2018 is big for any country, it does not amount to controlling the industry. The availability of resources and share of developing tools is key. On this basis, China beats all the countries. It enjoys a big share of supercomputers’ resources thus controlling the industry.

Why do countries compete for supremacy?

China hosts 500 supercomputers, which is way ahead of America’s 144 supercomputers. While how a country uses supercomputers matters more than the number, China still enjoys the top position by controlling 35% of supercomputers’ resources in the world. The United States of America follows at 30%.

Why all the statistics? Why are countries competing in developing the best supercomputers?

The answer is in the use of supercomputers. As mentioned, the distinguishing characteristic is the speed of solving long numbers. This is important in analyzing data in weather forecasting, nuclear weapons, biology, and astrophysics. Scientists and engineers of any country will benefit from the fast speeds hence boost innovation and efficiency in various industries.

High computation speeds increase the profitability of the private sector and boost service delivery in public sectors. A country’s economy is guaranteed to rise with supercomputers. Geopolitical standings and military accuracy and efficiency are also dependent on supercomputers. Countries are competing for supremacy in developing supercomputers because it is the future.

Breaking the exaflop barrier

Of course, the United States is not bowing to China, especially after the 2017 statistics. Soon after the 2017 results, President Obama launched the National Strategic Computing Initiative, which is a partnership between the Department of Defense, Department of Justice, and the National Science Foundation.

The initiative comes along with huge funding to developers in the private sector to come up with the best processors in terms of speed and quality. The initiative targets to develop the first exaflop computer, known as Aurora, which is equivalent to 1,000 petaflops.

The computation speed is unimaginable; it is compared to 500 supercomputers and a trillion times faster than a personal computer. The exaflop computer is set to be released in 2021 to help with research and accuracy in the FBI, Homeland Security, and NASA.

The US government-funded channeled $600 million dollars to the development of the following exaflop computers.

  • ORNL System delivered in 2021 and accepted in 2022 (ORNL system)
  • LLNL System delivered in 2022 and accepted in 2023 (LLNL system)
  • ANL Potential System delivered in 2022 and accepted in 2023 (ANL system)
  • Definitely, China is also working on an exaflop computer, probably a more superior one.

 

Benefits of supercomputers

Scientists reap a lot from the continuous enhancement of supercomputers. Accuracy and high computation speeds are everything in research and decision-making in biology, security, agriculture, and other crucial fields in a country. The efficiency of artificial intelligence also depends on supercomputers.

AUGMENTED-REALITY-AR-IN-MARKETING

Augmented Reality in Marketing

by Artificial Intelligence

At the moment, Augment Reality (AR) is still new and under-explored. This novelty makes it the latest solution for sharing information. It is set to beat the amount print, online, and TV advertisements combined. AR can capture people’s attention for at least 85 seconds, raise interaction by 20%, and raise the click-through rate to buy by a further 33%. Soon it will be the mainstream and competition will rise—as is the case with all other industries.

With time, there will be more companies focusing on AR-inspired experiences. A rise in people incorporating AR into marketing will yield an equal rise in competition. The quality of campaigns will improve in quality as companies seek to impress audiences. Creativity will determine the best performing products. You will, therefore, need to improve your ingenuity and innovativeness to retain relevance.

Here’s Why Apple Acquired a Small Augmented Reality Startup

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook predicts that AR will become part of our daily lives. It is, therefore, of vital importance for marketers to learn how it works. Let us explore companies that already utilize the technology. These leading companies focus on innovativeness and are keen on taking risks on future technology.

Sephora

Purchasing products online is continuously easy and convenient for most people. However, there are certain products such as makeup, which needs trying on first. Women make up the target group for beauty products and face a problem of having to try on desirable products.

 

Sephora’s Virtual Artist App with ModiFace is an AR tool responsible that helps you view makeup on a similar face. Not only does the app reveal how your face will appear when you apply that product but also suggests tools you need. It also shows the appropriate equipment for application and things you would need to accompany the product.

Virtual Artist also reveals the long-term effects of the consistent use of skincare. This is not possible with beauty professionals.

 

Timberland

Many people are not fond of utilizing dressing rooms when shopping. They prefer to try outfits in the comfort of their homes. Most stores allow returning dresses, shoes, hats, and other items if they do not fit. As a result, many shoppers choose to purchase items but retain the right to return them if they are not satisfied. No one likes to carry a pile of clothes into a public dressing room and wait in a line.

Timberland created a virtual fitting room to help people who want to avoid the hassle in stores. It is, therefore, designed for convenience and comfort. Using Kinect motion sensing technology, the AR lets shoppers view their image. You can see a model body with your size in various outfits.

 

Home Depot

Decorating homes is trendy and exciting but very cumbersome and involving. It is not easy to predict the outcome of a color, for example. Working on your house requires a predictive image to confirm if you will like the results. Products may seem impressive online but fail to give you the level of satisfaction you expected. You may end up with a bathroom that is too bright due to the wrong kind of paint.

Furniture can also go wrong. A piece of furniture may fail to impress you. For example, you may purchase a bulky coffee table at a high cost that does not fit in your living room like you wanted. Going through the hassle of acquiring and transporting an item that does not fit is demoralizing.

Project Color App is Home Depot’s AR tool. It uses patent technology to depict the outcome of colors in rooms. The technology is capable of incorporating a variety of conditions. For example, it takes into consideration, the lighting, objects, and shadows in the room of choice. You can see the real version of your room and share with friends to help you assess it.

 

StubHub

For Super Bowl lovers, StubHub provided an AR feature on their mobile app. The app allowed ticket buyers to view a virtual 3D model of the U.S bank stadium. They could visualize their experience at the stadium before purchasing it.

The different views helped them select seats. Hesitant buyers could not resist the offer. Sales increased tremendously.

 

Pepsi

Pepsi is responsible for designing one of the most exciting tools with AR technology. The tool was made in a London bus shelter. One side of the structure appears as though thrilling objects such as flying saucers, and a tiger is headed for the commuters.

This AR technique was used to amuse the public. It reveals the playful personality of the company. It entertains the Londoners with an exceptional experience. A video of the shelter’s exceptional design made 6 million views on YouTube. This became the most viewed advertising campaign ever.

 

AMC Theaters

AMC Theaters sought to enhance delivery of latest movie trailers in time. When movie lovers come across a movie poster in a theater, they can launch the AMC app and scan the poster. They will instantly receive information about it and a trailer too.

Technology accuracy and timing has given mankind a vital piece of technology of the future.

Billion-Dollar-Business-Model

Billion-Dollar Business Models

by Digital Marketing

A business model helps you define your customer value proposition and pricing. It provides a helpful guide on how to organize your business, whom you should partner with to generate revenue, and how to structure and manage your supply chain accordingly.

Airbnb, Amazon, Netflix, and Uber are among the most innovative tech companies. Their success lies in the viability of their respective business models. Any creative mind can design an attractive brand image to lure potential customers. Without a realistic business model, however, it would be impossible to monetize the attention. The ultimate goal of a business is to capture and retain customers to enable consistent growth. Failure to achieve this would prove costly to the firm.

For the best examples of business models, we sampled four innovative tech companies.

Amazon

Amazon has risen to become one of the most successful companies on the globe beating the biggest retail stores in the game. With a revenue of approximately $177.8 billion, the company surpasses Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Macy’s and other biggest retail stores combined.

Constant innovation that enables it to reach millions of people globally is responsible for this success. Amazon has diversified to as many markets as possible to achieve the widest variety of revenue options.

The company makes 67% of its revenue from retail. Negotiating with wholesalers for low prices helps boost their profit. Since they are dealing with massive amounts of products, the profit margin immensely increases. Over time, the company has developed a network of warehouses and lately manufactured its own products.

There are currently over 45000 robots working in the Amazon Warehouses

Amazon marketplace makes up to 17% of net sales according to their latest reports. The platform allows third-party sellers to conduct business on the company website. These sellers may also purchase Fulfillment By Amazon, which is a service that stores, packs, and ships products with world-class facilities.

Web Services contribute 9% of net sales for the company. Cloud computing infrastructure allows customers to access the software at any location and with any device.

A further 5% of net sales are derived from Amazon Prime. Through monthly subscriptions, Amazon Prime provides customers with shipping options, offers no-cost, unlimited space, and gifts.

Netflix

Netflix generated USD 11.6 billion from big data and analytics making it a major tech company. They buy and create content that resonates with subscribers. They can monitor and predict subscribers’ behavior and preferences with precision.

Netflix aims for 700 original series, movies in 2018

The streaming services come with free monthly trials. After the trials, the subscribers may continue with membership by paying for three plans. The plans are; Basic, Standard, and Premium. The basic plan is the cheapest and allows you to watch Netflix on one screen. The standard plan has an average price. It allowed you to watch Netflix on two screens simultaneously while the premium plan offers four screens running concurrently. It is the most expensive.

Most of the revenue comes from streaming but they still maintain DVD services.

Uber

Uber set out to revolutionize taxi tradition. It transformed the perception of the business. It has changed into a lucrative and efficient business. Since 2009, the company quickly increased its success in providing quality services. Today, it manages 15 million rides a day without owning a single vehicle. At the close of the previous financial year, Uber recorded $ 37 Billion in revenue.

The management-focused their effort on perfecting convenience for riders. They strove to increase speed and lower the cost of service. The company succeeded in addressing the issues facing most city dwellers. It made it possible for customers to book a ride with the nearest driver. They can also see the prices and track the driver’s location on the app.

Uber’s continued customer-related strategy attracted a huge following.

Customers may cancel a request before their driver arrives but at a minimum cost. If it takes too long to meet the driver, they hold the right to cancel the deal. Drivers can also accept or reject the request based on a user’s rating. The request immediately goes to the next available driver nearby.

Uber says it has 2 million drivers globally and 750,000 in the United States. They are the backbone of the company, which is valued at $70 billion.

Uber charges customers depending on the estimated time and distance of their route. Another contributing factor to pricing is the current demand for rides in the area. Your choice of the type of car also contributes to the rate. For example, for your comfort, there are four categories namely; economy, premium, extra seats, and more.

Economy level offers average carpool opportunities with other customers in a sedan. Premium level, on the other hand, offers a luxury ride with a professional driver. The extra-seats option offers space for 6 with a professional driver in an SUV or Uber XL. The final option named ‘more’ offers space for special cases such as wheelchairs.

Uber keeps between 20% to 25% of the revenue and leaves the rest to the drivers. Prices hike during rush hour, bad weather, holidays, and whenever there is high demand.

With the app, it is easy to track users. The app generates massive revenue for the firm due to its popular use by over 40 million active users. Other businesses can also advertise on the app and earn Uber more income.

Airbnb

Airbnb connects over 140,000 travelers with hosts in 190 countries every day. Like Uber, it owns no single property but manages accommodation services. It reached USD 2.6 billion by the end of 2017.

Airbnb became popular because of the creative ideas that give hosts a chance to use their property as a side hustle.

Airbnb have accommodated over 60 million people in 34,000 cities around the world.

Guests simply book rooms in a home that come at affordable prices in comparison to hotel rooms. Spending nights in a foreign home gives you the feeling of the local culture. This is not possible in a hotel.

According to this Fortune article, Airbnb bookings will increase from around 79 million “room nights” in 2016 to one billion per year by 2025.

The booking is easy and cheap. 3% of every booking goes to Airbnb. Guests, on the other hand, are charged 5% to 15% of the booking cost. Hosts can review their guests online before accenting to the deal.

YouTube-Marketing-Tips

YouTube Marketing Tips, Trends, & Strategies

by Digital Marketing

To achieve success online, a serious business cannot ignore the significance of YouTube as a marketing tool. Today there are over 1.3 million users and millions of visitors every day. Experts expect that by the end of 2018, video marketing will be the main marketing tool online.

Today, videos play a massive role in influencing the audience of any product. By the end of 2017, at least 80% of Internet traffic was video. A further 50% of all web traffic, especially in the evenings and nighttime, is YouTube and Netflix videos among other platforms. YouTube has proven to be the biggest and most promising marketing tool of the future.

6 out of 10 people prefer online video platforms to live TV.

Videos give the businesses a chance to address their audience. This is a great way to build a connection as you explain to the viewer why your product/service is good for them. It could also be an idea that you are trying to rally people around. YouTube marketing should, therefore, be part of your online marketing strategy. Take advantage of the great shift towards video with the trend of the moment.

We watch over 1 billion hours of YouTube videos a day, more than Netflix and Facebook video combined

Learn the tricks and tips to making appropriate videos that will give you the edge of the competition. Here are some marketing tips, trends, and strategies.

YouTube Channels

If you want your business to have a successful online presence, you need to view YouTube as the second website. This will help you to use your channels strategically. Change your perception of the platform from a social place for sharing fun videos into a marketing tool. First, create a channel and make it your homepage. Think of it as the website and the videos as web pages.

The logic is each video point back to the main page, which is your channel. Use the rules of web designing to YouTube too. The more commanding your channel is; the better your ‘site’ will rank. Make your videos aligned with the theme of your core mission depicted by the channel. It will help you build authority.

Creating a Good Video

Before creating a video, be clear on the role it is supposed to play on your channel. Determine exactly what you want the audience to get from the video as the initial plan. Let us explore some of the most common targets that businesses aim for using YouTube videos.

Growing readership

Since video gives you a good chance to encourage visitors to check your main website, use it to advertise by directing them to it. This will improve the readership on your website.

Lead Capture

Videos are among the best tools for capturing leads. Use them to direct the viewer to a link visible below your video. Let the visitor know what to expect if they choose to visit the page.

Building the Brand

This should be one of the main long-term missions of your videos. Seek to build your business website profile and visibility.

Direct Sales

YouTube videos help businesses to present the crucial CALL-To-Action. You can directly address the viewers and ask them to try out your product/service with the details of how to conduct the transaction.

Video Sequence

After creating your channels with the appropriate theme that addresses your business correctly, it is time to create the communicative video.

The ideal length of your video is extremely important in the process of video sequencing. Most businesses squeeze all the information they need to pass into a 3-minute video. Our recommendation would be to avoid a video that is 10 minutes or longer.

To make a good video, Introduce yourself and declare the brand. Be brief and precise in your content. Make sure you connect with your brand passionately if possible. Remember to give Facebook and Twitter connections.

Proceed by informing the viewers what they will gain by watching your video. Explain the benefits they should expect. Address the issues you promised in your introduction. Be detailed but brief and clear. Your summary should re-highlight and emphasize the key things in the presentation for the remembrance of the visitors.

Daniel Middleton, better known as DanTDM, is the highest earning YouTuber, bringing in $16.5m in 2017

Be kind and polite to advise them instead of begging or commanding the potential customers. You may encourage them, give a recommendation or tell them the merits of your product/service and how it would add value to their lives.

Do not forget to call the audience to take an action. Request them to take the next step and subscribe to your list and make a purchase. Find a creative way to make this call-to-action work. Do not be pushy.

Avoid sudden cuts

Let the video run a little for emphasis. For example, to avoid a boring end, use an arrow pointing to the download link or the subscription button. Abrupt ends will limit the time the audience can focus on the link as the video jumps to another on YouTube.

Content

Try to keep the content flowing. This is very important because you will keep the potential customers busy watching more of your stuff. Keep the video uploads frequent so that they may have daily or weekly check on your channel. More content will also increase the chances of the video being shared, which improves your secondary marketing technique- Referral visits.

Traffic and Connections

Connect your channel to other social media profiles to direct more traffic to your channel. Direct the traffic by advertising on the social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to increase the views of your videos.

short-term-vs-long-term-marketing-strategy

Short Term vs. Long Term Digital Marketing Strategies

by Digital Marketing

The business world has turned digital; In fact, if you do not have a responsive website or blog you are lagging behind the competitors in your business. Traditional marketing techniques of physically talking to your audience or potential customers are no longer effective; printing posters and hiring sales representatives is a thing of the past.

Besides effectiveness with respect to sales, such marketing strategies are expensive so you need to spend extra time and money hence there is a need to consider a better alternative- Invest in a website.

After investing in a professional website, the next step is to build your brand by increasing traffic and converting the numbers to sales. It can be overwhelming but you really have no better option. Irrespective of your business industry and niche, consumers expect to find your products and services online, competitors have the same resources, and opportunities hence there’s a definite need for a creative marketing strategy to increase sales.

Here are some long term and short term digital marketing strategies you should consider.

Short-term strategies

These techniques are often used to get a quicker result. Short-term strategies result in a significant boost in sales but for a limited time.

Pay-per-click

Paid advertising strategy is probably the fastest way to generate sales and traffic to your website. Common tools are Google Adwords and Facebook Lead Ads where an investor creates a link attached to a sensible investment idea.

It is about attracting online users to the platform with a form of payment when they click on advertisements. You have probably clicked on several advertisements without your knowledge because of the attractive rewards presented. This is the easiest and reasonable way to generate traffic as a technique in online marketing. $300 is the standard or least investment in implementing the short-term strategy.

Tradeshows

Attending tradeshows exposes your company to a wide audience. You also have a chance to physically introduce your products and services to your target audience; Also, you are able to answer any queries from potential customers.

Tradeshows give you a platform to explain why people should subscribe to your services; you have an opportunity to pick consumer reactions to each of your strategies and product types. Face to face interactions with the target audience is important for any business.

Today, Companies incorporate landing pages and email marketing techniques to reach out to a wider audience. Tradeshows are no longer out in the field; you can interact with consumers over a given link and share your website as a lead to your products and services. Tradeshows are characterized by promotions and offers, which attract customers.

Limited time promotions

Gifts-on-purchase, referral incentives, and price discounts are modern digital techniques in boosting sales. The promotions and offers are made attractive by setting a time limit to increase urgency. Consumers tend to rush to make purchases and enjoy the discounts hence boosting traffic and sales over a short period.

Long-term strategies

While short-term strategies are important for any business, they are temporary. You need to sustain the positive results through with long-term strategies.

Search Engine Optimization

Success in online marketing is defined by targeting specific audience and frequency on search engine pages. This can only be realized through proper search engine optimization techniques. After settling on a niche, you have to identify keywords based on the type of your audience and how they search for products or services.

50% of visitors are more likely to click a result if the brand appears multiple times in search engine results

Customizing content to suit a specific audience is the goal of SEO. There are billions of e-commerce websites and blogs meaning the competition is extremely high; you can easily be irrelevant. Search engine optimization increases visibility on search engine hence higher chances of sales. Also, you will no longer have to pay for advertising space on other platforms because search engines like Google present your company on top of its pages making it easily accessible to consumers. You also win confidence and trust with customers if you appear on top of Google first page.

Social media

Social media platforms are increasingly becoming popular in the business world. It can be a short-term and long-term strategy. Quick results can be demonstrated from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter because of the ease of access and graphics effect. Also, the platforms offer an opportunity to build networks and a huge following, which increases your chance of sales. It is not easy to gather 1000 likes on your Facebook page, it takes time and effort, but it pays in the long run.

61% of all visits from social media websites come from Facebook

With huge followers on social media, you are sure to reach people three times the number because, with every follower, there is a network of friends who would view your post. The beauty of this long-term strategy is the cost element; you won’t spend a dime for the following years while the network will be generating sales.

Content creation

Customize your content not only to suit the current target audience but potential customers in the future. This is in relation with SEO techniques; All you have to do is identify keywords and tailor content around that in relation to your business. If need be, regularly update the content posted on your blog to match business trends.

Companies who blog have 434% more indexed pages than those who don’t. That means more leads!

The digital business world is more interesting and effective; however, you are still expected to work for your success. Marketing is irreplaceable in any business; you have to be creative and apply relevant techniques to rise above the flooding online world.

Identify-Target-Audience-and-Increase-Sales

How to Identify Your Target Audience and Increase Your Sales Online

by Digital Marketing

Defining a specific target market is important more than ever before in the business world. If you keep to old strategies of focusing on traffic, you have no place in the competition; Today, it is more of conversions other than traffic.

The online webspace is flooding; every retail/product-based business is investing in an e-commerce website. Billions are accessing online stores and blogs every minute, The only way to draw attention to your page is by offering relevant products and services to your target audience. The generic Ad term “Anyone who needs our services” no longer works in the 21st century; you need to focus on age, location, sex, and income level among other elements in society depending on your type of business.

Of what good is huge traffic to our website without sales?

Identifying and specifying your target audience is crucial. Find out what they want, how and when they want it and then customize your products and services based on these factors.

Why it’s important to identify your target audience?

First, you should know who your potential customers are. This defines what kind of content they are searching online, how they want the information delivered, and when exactly they search for a specific term. It is important to define your audience on “who” to customize your blog or website based on these qualities.

After identifying the “who,” figure out how they perceive and describe the services you are offering. It is important to have these details when designing and optimizing your website. Search engine optimization techniques vary widely, old marketing techniques may not work here. However, it is crucial to consider specific words popular in your target audience to title your services.

Identifying your audience helps in prioritizing services and products on your blog. Understanding how they choose and compare different products lays a basis for making the priority decisions. Resources are limited, you don’t want to invest unnecessarily unless it is translating into sales. Structuring the content and design of your blog is dependent on how your target chooses products and services.

Figuring out the exact needs of your audience is crucial in the sense that you only focus on relevant products and services. Advertisements and marketing techniques online should be relevant lest you lose customers. Honestly, people no longer have time for shopping and this is why online shopping is increasingly becoming popular.

Once a consumer spots any irrelevance, your blog will be dismissed; probably never to visit again. While you should focus on the value proposition, 99% of the content should be relevant to your target audience.

Identifying a target audience for your business saves time and costs

You will not invest in graphics and animation if kids are not your focus. Baby boomers are less interested in color and graphics, brief and preciseness sell for such an audience. You also save space on your blog for posting relevant products and services.

Relevance is key in online business

Be sure to identify a target audience and let your offer match the state of mind. No business can offer relevant services to everyone; it is a lie, if anything, you are wasting time and resources.


Start with assumptions

If you are starting off with limited facts about the niche you intend to focus on, work with assumptions. Of course, informed choices. Typically, age, income level, sex, and location are used to determine the needs of a target audience. However, geographical location is not a concern for online businesses. E-commerce websites offer delivery services to various parts of the country.

Once you settle on a niche, you can evaluate your expenses and the kind of people you expect to buy before setting a price. If you are targeting baby boomers in a certain location, quick research on the neighborhood gives an insight on how to customize your content. Data on every region in the world may not be available but that doesn’t mean you can’t define your audience and be successful in your business.

Engage people

Of course, there is more than enough data on the Internet, which you can access from the comfort of your bed. But entrepreneurship is less convenient, you need to get out of that house or office and find concrete information. There are no facts inside buildings, only theories, and unestablished conclusions. One of the causes of business failure is the poor relationship with consumers; you need to talk to your audience and find out their specific needs and preferences.


You are missing a lot when relying on general information about a certain group of people. Why not spare some time and talk to people among your target audience in different locations. Get the general feeling on the type of products. If you are lucky to profile and engage an existing customer for your business the better. Increasing sales involves research, there is no option; you have to invest time and resources to realize results.

Search engine optimization techniques are of no use if they cannot translate to sales. The primary goal of any business is making profits; every minute and dollar you spend in establishing a business should convert to income. Investing in e-commerce websites can only translate to desirable results if you learn and commit to identifying your online target audience.

google-rank

10 Reasons why your website is not ranked on the search results

by Website Development

If you have a website, your ultimate objective is to get it ranked on the leading search engines such as Google. Unfortunately, most of the website owners out there in the world struggle hard to get their websites ranked. If you don’t experience any positive results in getting the website ranked, you need to take a look at the reasons behind it.

Here is a list of 10 prominent reasons that indicate why your website is not getting ranked on the search results.

1. High Bounce Rate
2. Frequent Hosting downtime
3. Duplicate content
4. Links to suspicious websites
5. Poor website architecture
6. Not Mobile Friendly
7. Lacks Depth in content
8. Over optimization
9. Too many 403 and 404 errors
10. Poor grammar and spelling in content

High Bounce Rate

What is a Bounce Rate? It represents the percentage of visitors who enter the site and then leave (“bounce”) rather than continuing to view other pages within the same site.

If the visitors exit your page without browsing further then your bounce rate will increase. When you have a higher bounce rate, the search engines will assume that your website is irrelevant or it doesn’t provide adequate information to the visitors.

Therefore, you need to add more relevant content, make your website more user-friendly and engage your visitors, so that you will be able to minimize the bounce rate.

Frequent Hosting downtime

If your website cannot be accessed by the search engine crawlers, it will not be indexed. This usually happens when your web hosting keeps going down frequently.

Best Web Hosting Services in 2018: Reviews & Comparison

If you are having any such issues, you are strongly recommended to change your web hosting service provider. Then you will be able to make your website visible for the search engine crawlers.

Duplicate content

You should never copy content from other websites and paste them on to your website. It is true that you need to have quality content to assure higher rankings in the search engine results page. But this doesn’t mean that you can copy content. Instead, you need to put efforts and come up with unique content that adds value to your audience.

If you find it difficult to come up with content on your own, you can seek the assistance of a professional to get the job done.

Links to suspicious websites

If your website has outbound links to suspicious websites, the search engines will not rank you in higher positions on the search results. It is important that you keep an eye on whether your website has links pointing out to suspicious, unethical and adult websites. If you find any, quickly disavow them.- How to Use Google’s Disavow Tool Correctly 

You also need to be vigilant on inbound links as well. If you notice any suspicious links, which you have not added, you will need to take appropriate steps to get them removed. This will let you minimize the damage caused on the website.

Poor website architecture

There is a strong relationship between the architecture of your website and the search engine rankings. That’s because the search engine crawlers find it as a difficult task to go through your website and properly index content if the site architecture is bad.

Therefore, you will need to spend your time and effort to come up with a proper architecture of the website. If you can do it, you will be able to secure amazing results in the search engine results.

Not Mobile Friendly

Most of the users in today’s world prefer to browse the internet via their mobile devices. The leading search engines tend to present mobile responsive websites to those users. If your website is not mobile responsive, it will not be seen by most of your potential customers.

Google has announced mobile friendliness as an important ranking signal. The change has affected the websites all over the world and made a significant impact on the search results. Optimizing your website to be mobile friendly will result in reaching scores of mobile users.

Lacks Depth in content

Your content should offer value to the readers. That’s why it is important for you to be concerned about the depth of content available on your website. Even if you post 10 articles in your website each day, you will not be able to secure top placements in the search engine results.

That’s because the search engines will reject your content because they don’t have enough depth. Due to this reason, you must extremely be concerned about the quality and depth of the content available on your website.

Over optimization

Website optimization should be done moderately. If you over optimize your website for the search engines, you will not be able to get ranked.

For example, most of the people tend to increase the number of keywords that appear inside content. In other words, they believe that increasing the keyword density is in a position to provide a tremendous assistance to them with securing better results in the search engines.

This fact is not true at all. If you do this, you will become a victim of keyword stuffing and won’t be able to get the website ranked. Therefore, it is important to use the keywords in your website in moderate amounts.

Too many 403 and 404 errors

If you don’t link the pages of your website properly, you will end up with 403 and 404 errors. These errors are in a position to create a negative impact on the search engine results.

Therefore, you should continuously audit your website and locate the broken links. Once you notice such broken links, you will need to take immediate steps to get them fixed.

Poor grammar and spelling in content

Having poor grammar and spelling in web content can also make the leading search engines reject your website from indexing in the top of the search engine results. Most of the website owners who live out there use article spinners to come up with content.

The article spinners just duplicate content. They don’t care about the quality of the content. Hence, you need to make sure that you come up with high quality, unique and manually written content on the website.

Brand Awareness

Best Way To Gain Brand Awareness In 2018

by Digital Marketing

 

Introducing your business to the community or target market might be easy but building a brand is surely not. As Mark Cuban says “Focus on building the best possible business. If you are great, people will notice and opportunities will appear.”

As a business owner, It is important that you make it easier for people to find the products and services you offer. Following are some of the ideas that could help your business get more attention and build the brand.

1. Make use of Social media 
2. Launch an effective PR Campaign
3. Brand Exhibition 
4. Partner with another Business
5. Be a Sponsor
6. Have a strong web Identity
7. Invest in Content Marketing
8. Make use of Video Strategy
9. Host Live Events
10. Participate in Referral Programs

 

Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.- Jeff Bezos

 

1. Utilize social media

Social media offers a platform for companies to promote themselves. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, enable the companies to build their brand infront of millions of audiences worldwide.

If you are using social media to build brand awareness, you need to keep your business profile active by posting regular updates and answering your customer’s queries. Responding to comments, tweets consistently will increase the interaction with your followers and it creates a strong influence on your brand in the minds of your audience. 

2. Public Relation campaign

Press coverage is substantive and way better than free advertising because the editorial has the ability to persuade potential customers to check your brand. You have to identify the media that is newsworthy for your brand or product, Is it the print media, the radio, or television? Do what works best for your industry.

Coming up with a good story to lure the journalist to cover your business will make the press coverage more effective.

Before you start contacting journalists or writing Press Releases, you need to decide the objective of your campaign and set a realistic timeframe for it. If you are about to launch a product or announce a huge offer on your products, you should set measurable goals- such as an increase in traffic by 20% or increase in sales by 10%, etc. Your message should always focus on the problem you promise to solve for your potential customers.

Exhibition of your brand

Amplify the reach of your brand in trade shows, business meetups, Ads, cultural festivals etc. This is one of the most effective ways to create local brand awareness and a best bet for a better return on investment.

If you are an online service provider, You could do a podcast or a webinar or the tested and proven pay-per-click campaigns. Many awesome online products provide a free trial, allowing the users to try out the entire features and upgrade if satisfied. With the freemium account, you get more people to use your product/service which will not only get them to talk about it but eventually upgrade to be a paying customer. 

In order to make people remember your brand, You can always provide freebies. Everyone loves free stuff! Put your brand name on t-shirts, pens etc, and distribute at the local event or business conference. A free advertisement is done right. 

77 percent of B2B marketing leaders say branding is critical to growth.

 

Partner with other businesses

Joining forces with other businesses would be a win-win situation for both. Find other businesses targeting similar customers but not competing with you directly. 

It is very crucial for your business to partner with other businesses to increase the awareness of your brand. If you own a Spa, you can provide exclusive discounts for customers at the nearby Hotel. For an established business it’s a way to reward their customers at no cost and effort. 

Sponsorship

Sponsoring an event or a product is another great way to create brand awareness. Sponsorships put your brand visuals in front of large audiences who haven’t heard of your business. The bigger the event, the more press and social media mentions you get before, during, and after the event day. 

It also enables you to engage directly with the customers and create a good network with potential customers. Ensure that you choose to sponsor any event or product wisely, it should be in line and relevant to what your brand stands for. 

Have a well-designed logo

The logo has always been crucial for branding. It serves as the face of your business and should convey your company’s motto/story. One-third (33%) of the top 100 brands use the color blue in their logo.

Although consumers form a first impression of a brand’s logo within 10 seconds, it takes 5-7 impressions for consumers to remember the logo.

A logo should always fit your brand and speak to your target audience so you should work with a well-experienced designing team.

Content Marketing

Keep in mind that the main objective of Google is to provide users with useful and relevant search results. All you need to do is, Create helpful content that benefits people. If you have a product or provide a specific service, Talk about it on blogs. Let the readers know how your product/service adds value to people’s lives.

Companies with blogs produce 67 percent more leads per month than companies who don’t have a blog. In fact, blogs account for 434 percent more of indexed pages on Google.

Make sure that your content resonates with your targeted customer that will encourage them to interact with you. Your content may also help you build an active community that is ready to be converted into a purchasing customer.

Video marketing

Video marketing has raised its popularity, with YouTube, Facebook Live, and Instagram videos and it has redefined the way people consume content. Facebook live videos have grown increasingly popular and now competing against the 1 billion daily viewers on YouTube.

500 million people watch Facebook videos every day

It has become obvious that your target audience is likely to be more engaged in video content than text. You need to have a strong video marketing strategy to take advantage of the current trend. 

Hosting live events

Hosting a live event is an effective way of not only promoting your brand but also getting the attention of potential clients. It may seem like a hassle but you create a lot more reason for people to visit your brand. 

Nowadays Live events are not just for large broadcasting companies but for small businesses as well. You can even launch your brand or business in a live event to increase awareness since a live event will trigger a lot more attention and bring a bigger audience.

Here are 5 reasons to use Facebook and Instagram live in your marketing campaigns. 

#1   To Connect with Your Audience in the Most Genuine, Human Way Possible
#2   To answer questions in Real-Time
#3   To Showcase an Event to People Who Couldn’t Attend In Real Life
#4   To Share Industry-Related Updates
#5   To Show Off Your Company Culture

Holding a live event is an effective initiative to give you one-on-one time with your clients, It also offers the customers the opportunity to feel and experience your brand. Though hosting live events may seem expensive and time-consuming, it has a lot of benefits like meeting potential customers who may end up staying loyal to your brand.

Referral programs

The referral program is the smartest marketing strategy. It entails customers referring their friends to your product thus creating a strong buying influence. A referral is a more credible method than any other type of advertising as once you get a recommendation from a friend or a person you trust you will feel obligated to check it out.

77% of consumers are more likely to buy a new product when learning about it from friends or family. – Nielsen

Knowing about your service or a product from a friend will have a great impact than seeing the ad in a billboard. Referral programs also reward and incentivize the person who refers your product, thus motivating them to act as your brand ambassador.  

ONLINE-SHOPPING-STATS-AND-TRENDS

Online Shopping Stats and Trends

by Digital Marketing

Technology has become the backbone of almost everything we do in our daily lives. This is from agriculture, business, education, government systems and creative arts just to mention a few. The growth in technology has led to the introduction of new products and business processes.

Online shopping has been one of the introduced technologies. Most of the businesses if not all, have adopted this technology just to increase their networks, market and getting customer feedback to improve their products. It provides a platform where businesses engage themselves virtually directly with their customers. Here are some of the statistics and trends in online shopping.

E-commerce Statistics

E-commerce is growing at the rate of 11.9% annually-up from 3.9% a decade ago. The millennial’s desire to get instant and quick access to products has contributed a lot to this growth. There are 80 million of them in the US. They spend $600 billion annually and that’s 28% of all daily per-person consumer spending. They are forecasted to be 35% of spending by 2030.

Retailers should now able to keep track of the growing number of users and also set effective measures in driving sales.

  • By 2040, it is thought 95% of purchases will be facilitated by eCommerce (Nasdaq)
  • 54% of the online purchases are done by millennials.
  • 71% of Shoppers Prefer Online Stores.
  • Retail E-Commerce Sales will Grow to $4.5 Trillion by 2021.
  • 35% of Online Shoppers Start with Big E-Commerce Marketplaces.
  • 56% of online shoppers abandon their online basket because they were presented with unexpected costs at the checkout
  • 52% of people say they’re less likely to re-engage with a brand following a bad mobile experience (Google)
  • Email accounts as the biggest source of traffic to eCommerce sites after organic (SocialMediaToday)
Curated and Subscription statistics
  • 23% of shoppers will abandon their shopping basket if they are forced to register an account.
  • By 2020, personalization technology that recognizes customer intent will enable digital businesses to increase profits by up to 15%

  • A staggering 35% of Amazon’s revenue is generated by its recommendation engine
  • The average order value (AOV) of purchases from basket abandonment emails is 14.2% higher than typical purchases.
  • 74% of customers feel frustrated when website content is not personalized.
Customer reviews statistics
  • It only takes 1-3 negative review for an online buyer to make their decision whether to buy the product or not.
  • 70% of potential customers are lost if there are 4 or more articles talking negatively about your company or products.
  • 40% of online buyers create an opinion of a company or business just only after reading 1 to 3 customer reviews.
  • 48% will visit a company’s website after reading positive reviews.

  • Reliability (27%), expertise (21%) and professionalism (18%) remain the most important attributes to consumers.
  • Reviews produce an average of 18% uplift in sales.
  • At least 55% of shoppers agree that online reviews influence on whether they make a purchase or not
  • About 88% of consumers agree that they trusted reviews made online as much as they did personal recommendations.
  • Reviews of a business can impact it up to 10% in the search rankings.
  • Only 72% of buyers make a purchase upon reading a good review. 
  • It’s 7 times more expensive to get a new customer than retain an existing one.
Social media Statistics
  • 48 percent of Americans have interacted with companies or institutions on at least one social media network.
  • 23% of online purchases are through social media.
  • 51% said that they would unfollow brands on social media if they posted irritating posts and 27% said they would mark/report the brand and page as spam and block them.
  • Facebook still reigns supreme as the most popular social media network, with 79% of internet users in the US logging on the site.

 

 

  • Facebook videos were 109% higher than on YouTube videos.
  • Instagram ads grew by 28% in the second half of 2017.
  • Instagram drives the most engagement per post compared to any social network – 84 times more than Twitter, 54 times more than Pinterest and 10 times more than Facebook.
  • 47% of marketers agreed Twitter was the best social media channel for customer engagement.
  • 94% B2B organizations rely on LinkedIn for content marketing and distribution.
  • More than 400 million Snapchat stories are created per day.
Marketplace Statistics
  • Amazon was the most popular marketplace with a total score of 6.12 on a 10-point scale. (Statista)
  • Only 63% sell on marketplaces.
  • 55% sellers have a profit margin above 20%. Profit margins on Amazon and eBay are almost identical.
  • 29% are not satisfied with their channel management tool.
  • 36% of people begin their search in a marketplace.
Mobile Statistics
  • Users spend on average 69% of their media time on smartphones.
  • Mobile devices will drive 80% of global internet usage.
  • 69% of consumers worldwide between the ages of 18 and 39 use mobile devices to research products before they buy. (Aumcore)
  • 78% of mobile searches for local business information result in a purchase. That’s higher than from any other kind of device. (Comscore)

 

  • Mobile-influenced offline spending is already over $1 trillion. People do heavy mobile research before indulging in offline purchasing in almost all categories. (Forrester)
  • 57% of users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly-designed mobile site. (Socpub)
  •  It’s estimated that US mobile search spending will reach $25.11 billion in 2018 and $28.25 billion in 2019. (Aumcore)
  • By 2019, mobile advertising is expected to represent 72% of all U.S. digital ad spending. (Marketingland)