What is a Virtual Branded Experience

A virtual branded experience is something like an online store that’s 100x more interactive and immersive than a typical e-commerce website. Virtual brand experiences typically incorporate comprehensive virtual displays that enable consumers to interact with the brand in ways typical stores and websites don’t allow. That might include 360-degree shopping, virtual try-ons for clothing, in-app or virtual voice chat to interact with brand reps, social gaming, and guided tours to help you find what you’re looking for.

Bringing Bricks-and-Mortar Shops Into the Virtual World

With virtual branded experiences, companies can move their best in-person shopping experiences online, either creating a virtual, 360-degree version of their flagship stores, or by building newer, better experiences that enable their customers to immerse themselves in the brand from the comfort of their homes.

Virtual Brand Experiences From Some of the World’s Top Companies

When the Metaverse started working its way into the mainstream, Gucci was quick to hop on board, opening its own virtual experience in The Sandbox, a digital metaverse. Users will go on a journey through the fashion brand’s history through games and NFTs. According to Morgan Stanley, Metaverse is a $50 bln revenue opportunity for luxury brands.

Moschino is another great example of a virtual brand experience. In 2022, it launched Moschino x The Sims, a line of clothing inspired by virtual designs exclusive to The Sims’ world.

Vans, one of the most well-known skate apparel brands in North America, has entered a joint venture with Roblox, creating a virtual skate park where players customize their own Vans-branded clothing, shoes and skateboards while practicing skate tricks and competing in the Roblox virtual world.

The Future of Virtual Brand Experiences

Technology is only growing and as such, it can be expected that brands will be vying to keep up. That means the virtual brand experience isn’t likely going anywhere anytime soon. In the future, expect to see more brands raise sales and customer engagement online with a variety of experiences such as:

• Virtual try-on tools using digital overlay applications.
• Virtual shopping and experiences and tours that enable people to visit landmarks and popular spots from the comfort of their own homes.
• Gamification experiences, such as rewards for putting together outfits that garner the most customer votes. This experience can already be seen in some online stores, including Shein, the popular Chinese fashion retailer.
• Virtual gatherings for customers and employees, including fashion shows, makeover events, and demonstrations.
• Social gaming where brands embed their products in online games or launch avatar clothing and build immersive experiences such as concerts attended by people’s avatars. Lil Nas X performed to an audience of millions across two days and four shows; the shows gathered 33 million views in total across the performances.

Steps to Take to Bring Your Business Into the Virtual World

If you’re considering virtual brand experiences for your own company, it’s important to remember a few things before you get started.

1. Ensure that your virtual experiences align with your overall brand strategy. You want your company to provide an alternative to shopping in-store, not a completely different experience.
2. Utilize online advertising to draw customers in—those who are already online are more likely to engage with your brand than those you advertise to in person.
3. Interactive content is the most likely experience to keep customers engaged with your brand.

Overall, virtual branded experiences are the way of the future so if it’s feasible for you, the time to dive in is now.

The post Are Virtual Branded Experiences Here to Stay? appeared first on Upward Commerce.

What is Gen Z About?

Gen Z, also known as the iGeneration, came after Millennials. They’re the first generation to have their entire lives immersed in the digital age, having known technology from computers to cell phones, their entire lives.

While Gen Z has the world at its fingertips, it’s also known to live with higher levels of anxiety, stress, and depression than those who came before them. As consumers, Gen Z isn’t known to be particularly loyal to brands and as such, it can be more difficult for businesses to win repeat business from this age group.

There are more than 68 million Gen Z’ers in the U.S. population, representing a huge facet of consumerism. Unlike those that came before them, Gen Z appreciates businesses that support a cause. That said, they also buy in to trends, whether that’s brands touted by their favorite influencers or brands that all their friends are using. Some of the favorite brands of Gen Z as of 2022 included:

• Apple
• Amazon
• Nike
• Google

While these major brands hold a special place in the hearts of Gen Z members, this list doesn’t account for the influencer-advertised brands that have become so popular in recent years, such as Morphe, SKIMS, and Social Tourist.

A Different Kind of Consumer

Generation Z is a more critical consumer group and demonstrate more conscious shopping habits than its predecessors. Consumers in this age group are after high-quality goods and while they’re generally tight with their spending, they’re willing to spend more when they feel a connection to a brand or its products.

Convenience and sustainability are key

Gen Z prefers to shop online instead of heading to the mall and as such, they enjoy websites that are easy to shop and purchase from. One-click checkout, free or low-cost shipping, and pay-in-four options like ShopPay, Klarna and Afterpay go a long way in gaining repeat business from this generation.

Furthermore, Gen Z is a passionate generation that feels strongly about the planet and future generations. Its people appreciate sustainable options, such as shopping locally and purchasing sustainably-sourced products. They have certain expectations and want brands to uphold particular socio-political views or environmental standards. Generation Z shoppers are willing to pay at least 10% more to get the desired products and services.

Social Media Dictates Shopping Habits

Generation Z’s approach to shopping is different, even when compared with Millennials who frequently shop online. They often turn to social media sites, including TikTok and Instagram, when hunting for new products. In fact, data published by LaterBlog indicates that 60% of Gen Z use Instagram to find new products and brands. As such, many retailers have embraced social media marketing or social commerce. Business Insider notes that social commerce accounted for 4.3% of e-commerce retail sales in the United States. In 2021 social commerce reached $37 billion in sales and it’s estimated to rise to $45 billion in 2022.

In simpler terms, social commerce is a way to promote and sell products through social media platforms. Currently Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok have built-in native social commerce features.

Influencer Marketing Trumps Traditional Advertising

Although Millennial’s and Gen X’ers have long relied on traditional advertising means, including print and television ads, to provide them with information about great new brands and products, Gen Z’ers turn to social media influencers instead to find the info they need to make their purchases.

A recent Google study indicated that 70% of teenagers who subscribe to influencer channels and profiles on platforms like YouTube trust influencers to provide them with accurate reviews and to help them to decide where and how to spend their money.

Mobile Apps More Trusted Than Websites

If your company has a mobile app, expect Gen Z shoppers to check out 157% more than those visiting your website alone. According to Gen Z’ers, a mobile app puts your brand in a higher position of trust while offering them an extra level of convenience, making mobile apps a more desirable way to shop.

Newer, Better Ways to Pay

Mobile payment methods that have given previous generations, particularly Generation X and Baby Boomers, some hesitation about security, have been quickly adopted by Gen Z. This generation prefers convenient payment methods like Apple Pay and Google Wallet over carrying clunky cards or cash.

The Bottom Line

Automation is key when it comes to appealing to Generation Z’s shopping habits. Utilize automated online merchandising, powered by AI, machine learning, and predictive analytics, to get the products Gen Z wants most in front of them when they visit your mobile app or website. By optimizing their exposure to your brand and your products, you’re far more likely to convert the average Gen Z shopper into a repeat buyer.

In addition to an optimized online storefront, you’ll need to keep up with e-commerce trends. That includes offering convenient checkout options like pay-in-four solutions and Apple Pay, as well as one-click checkout for repeat buyers.

Lastly, don’t leave your brand’s reputation in the hands of traditional advertisements. Get your name out there by utilizing TikTok, Instagram and Facebook for advertising and if your budget allows, try working with one or several influencers who can get your brand in front of this newest generation of consumers.

The post Gen Z: The Digitally Native Generation & Their Shopping Habits appeared first on Upward Commerce.

The use of traditional advertising in business promotion has been declining while at the same time the businesses are choosing to use social media in their marketing and business promotion, favoring the rise of affiliate marketers. But, how can you create an effective affiliate program for your online businesses? Below are ways that you can tap into this amazing opportunity.

What Does An Affiliate Marketing Program Mean?

The affiliate marketing program is a reward-based system encouraging partners to promote a merchant’s products to receive payments in terms of commissions. In the affiliate industry, a business is also known as the merchant or advertiser, and the affiliate is referred to as the publisher or marketer. It’s important to understand these references as it defines the roles at the onset of establishing the program. Affiliates drive visitors to your website or online platform through special referral links. Any sales made from this promotion earn the marketer some rewards.

Most affiliate programs pay by a flat dollar commission or a percentage of the sale. However, there may be incentives in discounted or free products. Either way, it is a win-win for the parties involved. This marketing strategy is applicable for business-to-business and business-to-consumer campaigns, with about 80% of the brands using various affiliate marketing programs to market and promote their products. In recent data released by IAB UK, travel and retail are the two largest sectors where affiliate operations are widely used.

Will Affiliate Marketing Work For Your Business?

What do you sell; services or physical products? Regardless of the nature of your business, there is a high chance that affiliate marketing can help your business. However, your company has to meet several requirements for an affiliate program to work. You should note that:

• You should be ready and willing to pay the affiliates in commissions or store credits for every sale they help you make.
• You’ll be able to pay higher commissions without spending much on customer acquisitions while enticing quality affiliates to join the program.
• This program works better when you want others to market your product or business on their channels and directly drive traffic into your website.
• This marketing method is best if your organization has higher customer retention rates.

Affiliate marketing programs work better for digital subscription businesses or e-commerce, especially those having higher profits.

Creating the Best Affiliate Marketing Program

Setting the Goals

Then creating an affiliate marketing program, you must begin by setting the goals. This can be arrived through first establishing your audience. What type of clients do you want to reach using the affiliate program? Which affiliates can help you achieve this?

After establishing the audience, the next thing is setting some measurable goals for the affiliate marketing project. They help you measure the success of the program. The main objective is the revenue you want to earn from the affiliates every month, quarterly or yearly. Set the conversion rates goals. How will people who click on your affiliate links make a purchase, and how often do you want them to? Regardless, all the goals should be measurable.

Analyzing Your Rival’s Affiliate Programs

After a general analysis to evaluate your weaknesses and strengths against your business competitors, it is time to consider their affiliate programs. This allows you to know your standing competitively. Remember, you are also in a competition for affiliates. Select not less than two competitors having an affiliate program. Look at the ways the competing programs have structured their affiliate commissions. These are things triggering payouts to affiliate commissions, how the affiliates are paid, and how the commission rates for each brand stack up. Evaluate the following:

• If you can do some digging, find out the other details of your competitor’s affiliate programs
• Consider the terms and conditions for each affiliate program
• How does each brand promote their affiliate program?
• Evaluate your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats; otherwise called the SWOT analysis.

Decide the Right Affiliate Program Commission

At this stage, use the findings of your competitive analysis in structuring your affiliate program, and the commission structure is among the vital design choices. Although you’ve seen how your rivals pay their affiliates, you must only reward or compensate the affiliate when a sale has been made through their affiliate link. Never pay for clicks or impressions.

Begin by deciding the payment mechanism; will the payment be based on every sale made by the affiliate or a set amount for every sale? Will the payments be affected by in-store credit or cash? In most cases, merchants pay a commission in cash which is an attractive option for many affiliates.

You then need to set the commission that you will offer the affiliates. Although you want the affiliate program to become more competitive than your rival’s, one-upping your competitors is not often the best option. Then, address your company’s needs. Consider customer retention rates, average customer retention value, and customer acquisition rates.

Consider the Other Key Aspects of the Program Structure

You also have to consider the following in addition to the commission.

• How can you make your affiliate program do better than your competitor’s?
• How will you allow the affiliates to distribute and promote the affiliate links? Which are the marketing channels allowed?
• Will the company hire or designate a dedicated affiliate manager for programs?
• What are the other terms & conditions to be included in the affiliate program?
• What is the period that the cookies will remain active?

Start Finding Affiliates

After setting your program structure, the next step is finding the affiliates. Should you set up your affiliate network or establish an existing network of affiliates. However, you’ll need a method of tracking the affiliates regardless of the method you use for finding the affiliates. This lets you onboard new affiliates, monitor the affiliate progress, or set up the affiliate links.

Using an existing network, you can quickly build a base of representatives, especially if they’ve a relationship with the top affiliates. This can nurture the relationships with the affiliates for your business as the networks typically handle the management of affiliates. However, existing affiliates have one significant disadvantage; they charge the extra commission on top of what you pay directly, and sometimes this is about 30% of the commission your business charges.

You can also form your affiliate network. You’ll still efficiently track the affiliates and automatically compensate them using an affiliate platform. And the good thing is the software will cost less than the fee you would pay to use an existing network of affiliates. Additionally, the affiliate platform provides control over the data you need and the other aspects of an already running program. This means that you get a lot of advantages with the right affiliate platform overusing an already existing affiliate network.

To create your affiliate network, consider the bloggers, social media influencers, and websites followed and trusted by your potential customers, fit your brand’s niche, and produce quality content. Create a list of the people owning those accounts who you can ask to become your affiliates, or you can also have an affiliate signup form on your website.

Recruit And Train Affiliates

After finding the best affiliates, reach out and ask whether they would like to join your affiliate marketing team. You aim to find high-quality affiliates. Therefore, ensure you screen your affiliates thoroughly using business intelligence tools or manually.

How many affiliated do you need? How inclusive should the affiliate membership be? This decision is vital as it informs the reachability of your affiliates. After recruiting, brief your affiliates on the terms and conditions and ensure they sign an agreement binding them by the rules. Train them on the program and brand basics, provide them with affiliate links, and give them the necessary promotional resources. Craft a plan for progress tracking.

Performance Tracking

After starting your affiliate program, you must regularly track its success. You can do this either through the affiliate network you’ve created or the affiliate platform. Which affiliates are making more sales? Are the affiliates achieving the measurable goals set when planning, like conversion rates, AOV, unique sales, and revenue? If the program doesn’t meet the objectives, it might be time to rethink your marketing strategy and tweak the commission structure.

You now understand the process of creating a successful affiliate program and are ready to begin your program. Follow the guide above, and you’ll meet your marketing objectives with relative ease. Remember, affiliate marketing is on the rise, and you’d better take the opportunity to propel your business to new heights.

The post How to Create an Affiliate Program for Your Online Business appeared first on Upward Commerce.

How Agile Marketing Works

When using an agile marketing approach, teams collaborate on high-value projects in sprints. They aim to complete these projects quickly and cooperatively and once completed, they work together to measure the impact of their efforts and determine areas that can be improved. The team will make changes & iterations to their processes between sprints to improve the results of their marketing efforts.

The History of Agile Marketing and Sprint Zero

While agile marketing isn’t necessarily a new idea, it was in 2012 at an event called Sprint Zero that it truly gained momentum and became a solidified marketing practice. At this event, marketing leaders gathered to discuss the future of modern marketing and developed the Agile Marketing Manifesto — a comprehensive document that outlines the transformation of marketing into an agile profession.

The Benefits of Agile Marketing

Agile marketing provides marketers with opportunities to incorporate new methods and technologies regularly while quickly adapting to changing markets. Additionally, it’s a great way to ensure that marketing campaigns are effective by checking results regularly and optimizing techniques over time. Other benefits of an agile marketing approach include:

• Marketers have the opportunity to obtain input from other departments or team members regularly
• Teams can try a variety of approaches and quickly see their results
• Collaborative approach encourages marketers to gather ideas and think outside the box
• Data is consistently available to support campaign ideas

How to Implement Agile Marketing Methodology in Your Organization

If you’re looking for a way to ensure that your marketing team is consistently outperforming competitors and improving their processes, implementing agile marketing is a great place to start. Agile marketing practices can be customized to meet the unique needs of your business but it’s important to incorporate the following features in some way:

• Project Sprints: Sprints are quick bursts of working time in which your team has to complete current projects — this typically ranges anywhere from two weeks to as long as six weeks. If you’re working on a major project, it’s good to keep in mind that multiple sprints might be required to get the job done.
• Daily Progress Meetings: Each day your team should have a quick meeting to discuss the progress they’ve made the day before and issues they’ve encountered or overcome. If issues are persisting and preventing a team member from adequately completing their work, the team should come together to solve the problem immediately.
• Progress Tracking Board: Whether you use a traditional whiteboard or a digital solution, it’s important to create a visual that enables your entire team to view and track progress.
• Collaborate Team Environment: While individuals might be responsible for individual aspects of a project, the project itself is the responsibility of your team. It’s important to have team members who are prepared to collaborate on all parts of the project so that issues can be dealt with quickly and projects can be completed on schedule.

How to Determine if Agile Marketing is Right For Your Business

Before you dive in and transform your entire marketing process, it’s important to determine if this is the right approach for you. If you’re currently working with a team of marketers who are happy and produce results, sticking with what you’re already doing or adopting a hybrid approach, such as Scrumban, might be a better way to go.

However, if your team is overworked and underproducing, agile marketing could be the solution. Providing your team members with the opportunity to collaborate with peers in a more structured way can take pressure off them and ultimately, can increase productivity among your team. Additionally, if you’re struggling to keep up with competitors, the agile marketing approach might be just what you need to gain a competitive advantage.

The post What is Agile Marketing? appeared first on Upward Commerce.

That being said, plenty of CMOs have managed to hang on to their titles. In 2019, Facebook hired Antonio Lucio, formerly of Hewlett Packard, to fill the role of CMO, and in 2018 Ford Motor promoted from within when the company hired Joey Falotico for the position of CMO. Even though there’s clearly hope for the role of CMO to carry on into the future, many CMOs who have managed to hang onto their titles are struggling to adapt to these changes in the business world.

Facing Modern Challenges

In a digital world, reaching consumers is easier than it’s ever been. Although that might seem like it should make it easier to generate leads, it’s actually the opposite. Social platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter have made it easy to target potential leads and have them engage with advertising; however, turning those clicks and shares into tangible income for the company is becoming harder than ever. While many businesses manage successful social media accounts with followers numbering in the millions, many also face the common struggle of turning those followers into customers.

As such, the modern CMO needs more than just a basic knowledge of social media marketing. They need the ability to penetrate the psyche of their followers and create content that helps their audience to feel a sense of connection and loyalty to the brand without feeling as though they’ve been advertised to. Marketing is no longer about the creative ability to advertise products and educate consumers about the company, it’s about analyzing the customer’s needs and wants and creating a total experience.

Adapting to “Center-Brained” Thinking

Since marketing is no longer only about the creative, it’s important that the modern CMO can combine right-brained creative thinking with left-brained analytical thinking. In order to move their organizations forward into the future, today’s CMOs need to have the unique ability to analyze large sets of data and key performance indicators while tapping into their right brain to creatively provide positive customer experiences and solutions that meet the needs and wants of their consumers.

Product Development Expertise

Today’s CMOs play a larger role in product development than ever before. Historically, the CMOs job was to take a product to market and create hype and awareness. However, the modern CMO is responsible for analyzing consumer needs and taking that information to the product development team to create products and experiences that have the potential to go viral. When a product or service is released for purchase, the CMO needs to ensure that their team has the tools they need to create hype around the product that puts their organization in a positive light. That means that the CMO’s job is to follow its organization’s products and services from conception to release and beyond while monitoring and maintaining a brand image that’s socially aware, environmentally conscious and relationship-focused.

The Flexibility to Take On Additional Responsibilities

Just as with product development, today’s CMOs are often required to carry out other responsibilities that weren’t previously part of their job description. This includes developing superior digital experiences and processes that protect customer data, as well as collaborating with other c-suite executives to ensure the organization has the right team in place to drive growth and sales.

Overall, the role of the modern CMO has experienced plenty of changes in recent years and it can be expected to continue to evolve as technology and consumer needs change and grow.

The post The Modern CMO’s Role appeared first on Upward Commerce.

In the list that follows, we detail the most effective digital marketing trends for 2020 and explain how each one can help your business reach new heights in 2020 and beyond.

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI is a driving force behind an innovative digital marketing strategy, including chatbots and automation. It can effectively analyze consumer behavior and search patterns in order to personalize marketing campaigns. Per The CMO Survey “56.5% of marketers report utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate customer insights using predictive analytics and to personalize content for greater engagement and sales. Over 40% also use AI to segment and target customers.”

It’s predicted that AI marketing will continue to evolve and become even more mainstream in 2020 and beyond, allowing marketers to up their game by providing a full customer experience that’s driven entirely by AI.

2. Micro-Moments

The term micro-moments describes the behaviors that we often display when using our mobile devices this day and age. Micro-moments refers to the tendency consumers have to use their smartphones in fragmented moments throughout the day, either while completing other tasks or as a simple reflex. According to a study performed by Google in conjunction with Ipsos, 91% of consumers use their mobile device for inspiration while in the middle of a task, while 82% of consumers consult their cell phone while shopping for details about products and businesses.

As a business, you can use these micro-moments to your advantage in several ways. By communicating with customers to determine when, where and how they’re making purchasing decisions using their smartphone, marketers and advertisers are able to create strategies to be visible to customers when they’re needed most. By providing relevant, quality content that’s quick and simple to read while answering the most common questions your consumers ask, businesses can make it easy for the consumer to find their product during these micro-moments.

3. Social Messaging Apps

As of 2019, approximately 20 billion messages were sent between businesses and individual users each month on Facebook Messenger, and this number has continued to grow. Consumers looking to communicate with brands are often turning to social media and social messaging apps (ie. Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, etc) to obtain the information they desire, and by maintaining a strong presence in these areas, businesses can build trust with consumers and maintain loyal customer relationships.

In addition to providing a connection with customers via manual chat entry, these apps allow businesses to personalize messages to customers using chatbots to keep followers abreast of upcoming sales, events and other pertinent information. Many companies also make use of these features to send order confirmations, shipping details and reminders about upcoming payments.

4. Voice Search/Smart Speakers

Voice search hit the mainstream when Apple released the iPhone 4S with Siri, its helpful virtual assistant. While the original Siri was little more than a novelty at the time, the technology was quickly adopted by several other big brands. In 2020, voice search is quickly becoming the norm with an estimated 60 million Americans having smart speakers such as Google Home and Alexa in their houses.

The way consumers search online changes with voice search, which means that marketers need to consider the way they’re optimizing their content. In most cases, voice searches are of a conversational tone. For example, instead of a simple search for “sandwich recipes”, most voice search users will ask their search assistant a question such as “how do I make a club sandwich?” For marketing professionals, this means adapting keyword research and optimization to include conversational queries.

5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is one of the most important ways that businesses ensure adequate exposure for their brand. SEO involves tailoring on-page & off-page content to attract organic visitors, in particular, traffic that originates from search engine results. Without adequate SEO, websites are typically not found (or indexed low) in search engine results, which can make unpaid visitors hard to come by.

Optimizing web content can be difficult and complex. The process of optimization usually includes the mention of specific keywords within web content, as well as suitable linking, coding, structure and layout on your website, and the obvious — adding value to your visitor.

6. Personalization

Personalization entails the use of behavioral analytics to create experiences that are specifically tailored to the customer. Companies use personalization to create emails, landing pages, and advertisements that are more likely to grab the attention of consumers by displaying specific products or services they’re more likely to enjoy. This is typically based on CRM data, past browsing or purchase history on a company’s website, mobile app or even in-store. It can also include data collected across various marketing channels. Personalized marketing enhances the shopping experience one-to-one; campaigns do not impact consumers equally so why deliver the same experience to everyone?

To provide customers with the most personalized experience, it’s important to have a strong data collection plan in place and a solid strategy for how to use that data. Using demographic information along with details about browsing and buying history allows you to categorize your customers into segments and micro-segments to provide the most tailored shopping experience possible by predicting the products they’re most likely to purchase and showcasing the right products to the right visitors at the right time.

7. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

SEM is a digital marketing strategy that’s been around for years but has evolved to become more effective than ever. With tools such as Google AdWords, brands can create text, video and display ads that appear as paid advertisements in search engine results and/or publisher/advertiser websites. Businesses can monitor the success of their ads and edit keywords, text and more to improve their efficacy at anytime.

A large part of SEM is effectively optimizing your content using keywords to ensure a high Google relevancy score. With poor SEO, even marketers who purchase advertising space on search engines may have low clicks and conversion rates so maintaining proper SEO is key.

8. Content Marketing

Content marketing consists of creating and/or sharing viral content such as videos, blogs, articles and social media posts. Typically, content shared doesn’t directly advertise the brand, but in most cases, businesses choose to create and/or share content that applies to their particular niche.

Content marketing builds trust and valuable relationships with consumers. Additionally, it helps businesses to remain visible in competitive marketplaces by garnering more clicks and engagement on their posts. Sites such as Facebook base their algorithms on likes, comments and shares; therefore, consumers are more likely to see your business’s posts and advertisements if a friend or someone in their network has recently engaged with one of your posts. Also, the social shares and traffic will ultimately help your SEO as Google’s algorithm pays attention to these signals.

9. Remarketing

Remarketing is a relatively aggressive digital marketing strategy. It consists of displaying ads to visitors who have previously visited your website but have not made a purchase. Remarketing tools work by tracking cookies and monitoring clicks or views and then showing ads to previous website visitors on websites within a particular network. Remarketing audiences tend to have a higher conversion rate due to the fact that they have already expressed an interest in the brand.

10. Visual Search

Visual search is a tool that’s not yet seen everyday, but is making big waves in the future of digital marketing. There are several big brands that have recently integrated visual search technology into their websites and/or mobile apps. For example, Sephora has recently teamed up with Samsung’s virtual assistant Bixby to search faces in photographs to recommend similar cosmetic products.

Ideally, businesses can take advantage of this technology by creating apps that identify their products or show similar products with the snap of a photograph.

11. Responsive Web Design

The majority of consumers today search for products and services using their mobile device. That’s why it’s so important to build a website that’s responsive, meaning the page renders perfectly on any size of screen. While in the past, responsive design has been made to allow websites to be compatible with desktops, laptops, smartphones and tablets, it’s not uncommon to now find responsive themes and custom designs that are compatible with smart watches, as well. In 2020 and beyond, it’s important for businesses to keep up with evolving technology to ensure their website is viewable on any device their customers may use.

12. Local Search Strategy

Local search strategy is another digital marketing trend that relies on mapping and GPS apps. This marketing technique helps businesses to ensure their locations appear to customers who enter relevant keywords while searching for goods and/or services in their area. To best take advantage of local search marketing strategies, companies should register their business information on Google My Business, as well as all mapping applications including Google Maps, Apple Maps and Waze.

13. Email Marketing

Email marketing is nothing new, but this strategy has become easier and more effective with the use of automation, personalization and and social media integration. The integration of AI has made it easy to take advantage of these technologies to create relevant email marketing campaigns that capture the attention of both new customers and regular customers to show them relevant content at the times they’re most likely to see it.

14. Marketing Automation

Automation can help businesses to accomplish many marketing tasks at a fraction of the cost and with a fraction of the effort. By employing automation tools, customers can effectively monitor the times their customers are most active online and automatically send emails and push notifications at those times. Additionally, automation can be used to upload social media posts and web content changes at a pre-determined time, which can be useful to businesses looking to gain exposure and engagement on their posts by posting at times when sites like Instagram and Facebook have the highest engagement rates.

15. Video Marketing

Video content has recently become the most popular method of advertising and in fact, 79% of consumers note that they prefer video advertising over other mediums. Video marketing can be done in a variety of ways including showcasing top-selling products, introducing business owners or customer testimonials, creating content with high search volume such as tutorials, how to’s, and top ten lists.

Businesses can use Google Adwords to set up their YouTube video ads very easily, only paying when people watch your ad. Instagram and Facebook’s Story feature allows businesses to post short videos in news feeds that can target ads by reach, conversions, traffic, brand awareness, and more. According to CNN, this feature is now twice as popular as Snapchat and its popularity is continuing to rise. Of the 500 million accounts using Instagram Stories, one-third of the most viewed stories come from businesses.

16. Chatbots

Chatbots enhance the customer experience by consistently responding to customer messages in a timely fashion. Chatbots can be employed to perform a variety of tasks including advertising upcoming sales, providing account information and shipping/tracking details, and directing web visitors to the right products and services on a website.

17. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is an effective way to garner attention for your brand online. Influencers are those who promote brands on their social media accounts in exchange for a fee and in some cases, in exchange for free product.

There are three tiers of influencers: mega, macro and micro. While mega influencers are those with more than 1 million followers who may seem like the best choice to promote your brand, businesses shouldn’t cast aside micro influencers, who are those with less than 10,000 followers. Micro influencers often have exceptionally high engagement rates⁠—that is, followers who like and comment on their posts. Employing micro influencers to promote your brand typically means more meaningful exposure for your brand, as well as a smaller investment per post.

18. Programmatic Advertising

Programmatic advertising employs the use of AI to purchase advertisements for businesses. It uses behavioral analytics to help brands choose target audiences and keywords that can attract more clicks and higher conversion rates, making the job of marketers far easier.

By taking advantage of programmatic advertising, your business is able to use marketers to focus on the most important human aspect of marketing: emotion. While most AI programs aren’t yet able to perfectly detect human emotions, the technology for it to do so does exist and it’s predicted that it will be commonplace in the marketing world within the next couple of years.

The post 18 Top Digital Marketing Strategies & Trends in 2020 (Updated March 2020) appeared first on Upward Commerce.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) supports these expectations with its prediction of a 4.3 to 4.8 percent increase in overall retail sales throughout November and December of 2018. This equates to between $717.45 billion and $720.89 billion in retail sales for the 2018 holiday season.

Internet Retailer has also projected a 15.5 percent increase in e-commerce sales throughout the holidays this year. This increase in traffic and sales gives digital marketers the chance to drive sales throughout the entire year by diligently serving their customers’ needs. The best way to do this is by analyzing and integrating current market trends and efficiently handling any conflict or challenges and ensuring the satisfaction of each customer that makes a purchase.

The guide that follows offers advice for meeting the needs of your customers this holiday season by meeting each challenge with confidence. With this guide, you’ll also gain an understanding of shopping trends for the 2018 holiday season and learn how to effectively execute marketing strategies that appeal to the masses.

Retail Trends in 2018

2018 has been a revolutionary year in online shopping. With record-breaking sales throughout the country and highly effective marketing techniques, 2018 has been wildly successful for many online retailers. Here are some of the biggest shopping trends we’ve seen in 2018, and some of the best methods that you can use to increase your sales this holiday season.

Wishlists and Gift Guides

According to the NRF, 63 percent of consumers would like access to online wishlists. The process of creating a wishlist is similar to the creation of a wedding or baby registry — while browsing online, shoppers can add an item to their online wishlist with one simple click and provide the link to their wishlist to anyone who desires access.

For online marketers, the integration of a wishlist on their website is an effective way to attract holiday shoppers. The addition of a gift guide with the option to add the items listed to a wishlist can make shopping simple for customers, but it’s also useful for increasing sales. By adding trending items, holiday favorites, or bestsellers to gift guides, the likelihood that site visitors will result in conversions increases vastly.

Product Recommendations

Ingraining simple algorithms into your website that provide shoppers with recommendations of similar and popular products may be one of the most important marketing tactics for e-commerce businesses. Product recommendations provide online shoppers with a simple way to navigate your website without browsing through thousands of product pages to find what they’re looking for.

Marketing Promotions Across Multiple Channels

While e-mail marketing is an effective strategy throughout most of the year, most customer’s seen a massive increase in marketing e-mails starting on Black Friday that doesn’t let up until after the holiday season is through. During the holiday season, in particular, it’s important to consider marketing and offering promotions via other channels. Instagram and Facebook offer simple to use advertising tools that can be targeted to a customizable audience. Combining social media marketing with mobile marketing and a positive in-store experience for those with traditional retail stores can be the key to driving sales over the holidays.

No-Hassle Returns

According to the NRF, 75 percent of shoppers research a company’s return policy before checking out their cart and 22 percent abandon their cart due to a bad return process. Offering your customers a simple and hassle-free return process is a crucial step to take when building customer loyalty.

Free Shipping

64 percent of customers cite free shipping as one of the driving factors that influence their decision to make a purchase online. It’s also worth noting that shipping costs are the number one reason online shoppers abandon their carts. Offering free shipping to your customers can be a major game-changer for online retailers when it comes to increasing sales.

Key Marketing Strategies

Increasing sales throughout the holiday season relies heavily on marketing, and there are several key strategies that should be deployed by digital marketers in order to increase sales to their full potential and to build and maintain positive, long-term customer relationships.

Re-Vamp Your Personalization Strategies

Throughout the holiday season, personalization gets tricky. Shoppers are often new to your site and have only visited to purchase for a loved one, and often your frequent shoppers are buying for someone else and unfortunately, personalized recommendations are meant for the individual shopper.

Personalizing e-mail send times is a helpful way to ensure that your e-mail marketing strategy has a better chance at reaching your customer, and providing personalized recommendations via e-mail is the best way to increase conversions from your e-mail marketing strategies.

When it comes to personalizing product recommendations on your website, it’s best to provide a variety of recommendations that suit the tastes of different shoppers. Highlighting bestsellers, trending products, holiday product trends, and new products instead of tailoring recommendations to the shopper’s buying habits.

Make use of other techniques such as abandoned cart follow-up e-mails, transactional cross-selling (offering product recommendations with transaction and shipping confirmations), and incorporating a holiday gift guide into your product recommendations.

Mobile Optimization

Many holiday shoppers prefer to enjoy their shopping experience on their mobile device. In fact, eMarketer research predicts that mobile shopping will contribute 34 percent to sales growth this holiday season. This is why it’s absolutely crucial to invest in a website that’s fully optimized and responsive. Make use of push notifications that notify your subscribers of flash sales, VIP events, and holiday promotions and use personalized send times to increase the chances that your customer will engage with the notification.

Follow Up on Abandoned Carts

An estimated 70 percent of shopping cart contents remain unsold. Shoppers abandoning their purchases is the top problem online retailers face, and it’s a difficult one to solve. While no retailer can save every shopping cart, following up on abandoned carts has shown to be effective in saving many sales.

Creating urgency is one of the easiest ways to prevent carts from becoming abandoned. By using language for promotions and items such as “2 days left” or “almost sold out”, customers are more inclined to complete their purchase to avoid missing out on the items they want. Following up on abandoned carts with similar language either by e-mail or push notification is a reliable way to bring many customers back to complete their purchase.

Create a Simple, Fast Checkout Process

The checkout process is one of the most important parts of the online shopping experience. Making the process simple for the customer is important. Using social logins, such as a login/sign up with Facebook button is a good way of doing this. If your site uses promo codes, make sure that your customer can easily see where to enter the code and show them clearly what they’re saving. Lastly, make your shipping options clear and free or inexpensive. High shipping fees are the number one reason customers abandon their carts and is a sure way to guarantee they won’t return to shop with you again.

It’s incredibly important to begin the checkout process to first ask for the customer’s e-mail address. This is the best way to ensure that you’re able to follow up if the customer abandons their cart or experiences any problems during checkout.

Vary Your Discount Offerings

Discounts are one of the most effective ways to draw customers into your store, however, if you offer the same promotions on a regular basis, you’re actually sabotaging your sales throughout the rest of the year. During the holiday season, it’s best to offer a variety of promotions and discounts that keep customers guessing, otherwise, they may wait to purchase items on sale if they’re aware of the discount you’ll be offering.

Make the Best of the Holiday Season

Using the strategies above along with marketing strategies that have worked well for you in the past, you can increase your sales exponentially during the holiday season. Being the busiest time of year, the holidays are a great time to build loyal customer relationships and promote your brand to the masses in order to increase your sales during the holidays, as well as throughout the remainder of the year.

The post Holiday Marketing Guide for Brands & Online Retailers appeared first on Upward Commerce.

Facebook Analytics vs. Google Analytics

Facebook Analytics and Google Analytics are both designed to track user behaviors to target advertisements and measure conversion rates, allowing business owners and social media marketers to measure the success of their campaigns and adjust their advertising strategy when necessary. However, there are a couple of key differences between the two that result in differences in the conversions they display.

Device Attribution

One difference between Facebook and Google is how each view devices. While Google views every device as a new user, Facebook’s omni-channel analytics is capable of determining when a tablet, PC/laptop, and mobile device are being used by the same person as long as that user is logged into their Facebook account. That means that Facebook is better able to determine when a user has viewed an ad previously on their mobile device, then visited the advertised website on a tablet or desktop later on, for example. Facebook Analytics allows you to monitor activity across devices and understand the customer journey.

Attribution Windows

Perhaps the most significant reason for the difference in conversions between Google and Facebook is their attribution windows. Google’s standard reporting for conversions are defaulted to a “Last Non-Direct Click” attribution model which is the final touchpoint immediately before a customer places an order.

Facebook Analytics, on the other hand, analyzes conversions at a far more generous rate. Facebook’s attribution window automatically defaults within 28 days of clicking your ad and within 1 day of viewing your ad. That means that after a Facebook ad has been viewed or clicked on day 1 and the user places an order on day 26 by means of a Google ad or email campaign (any marketing channel, really), Facebook counts it as a conversion no matter if the visitor touched multiple marketing channels since clicking/viewing the Facebook ad. The algorithms Facebook uses to track impressions and conversions are different than Google Analytics, but there are ways to pull the data differently that might bridge the gap a bit. Another thing to consider is Facebook considers likes, shares, and comments on ads as clicks and counts them as conversions.

Comparing Conversion Rates with Different Attribution Windows

While Facebook Analytics and Google Analytics will most likely always report a discrepancy between conversions, users can easily change the settings in Facebook Analytics to compare rates with different attribution windows or reduce the attribution window to minimize the gap in conversion rates.

To do this, users can change attribution windows via the following path while viewing their campaigns:

Campaign > Columns > Customize Columns > Attribution Settings (Attribution settings is a little hard to find; it’s down in the bottom right corner)

From here, making a selection of “Clicks” for 1, 7, or 28 days will change the attribution window. By selecting a click attribution window of 1 day, the gap in conversion between Facebook Analytics and Google Analytics should reduce and there should be a difference in both Website Return on Ad Spend and Website Purchase metrics.

Which Analytics Tool is the Best?

While both Facebook Analytics and Google Analytics are useful marketing tools, neither is particularly “better” than the other. Those who restrict their marketing to only Facebook or Instagram advertising are best to restrict themselves to Facebook Analytics at its default settings to accurately monitor the success of their ad campaigns.

Business owners and marketers who use other methods of marketing outside of Facebook and Instagram can benefit from both Facebook Analytics and Google Analytics but may need to test different settings on Facebook Analytics to better understand how well their advertising campaigns are working across all platforms.

The post Why Facebook Conversions Don’t Match Google Analytics appeared first on Upward Commerce.

Defining GDPR In A Simpler Way

The General Data Protection Law is a new legislation sanctioned by the European Parliament in April 2016. After two years, on May 25, 2018, the memorable day arrived when GDPR came into effect and stirred up the data protection rules completely. You must have noticed a rush of notifications before the GDPR date, dropping in your inbox and informing you of privacy policy updates.

GDPR emerged to give back control of personal data to the user and require organizations in Europe and its member-states to comply with a stronger data protection law. GDPR brings a new set of laws and obligations that revolve around data privacy, personal data and consent to develop an environment that best suits the present digital age.

Has GDPR Only Influenced The Organizations Under EU?

The GDPR was passed by European Parliament, but it has its influence on almost every leading corporation existing in other parts of the world. The rule behind it is intelligible; hence, the organizations gathering the personal data of any EU citizen, provided the citizen is residing in EU member states when data is collected, must comply with GDPR.  Companies must be watchful and ensure they are complying with the new legislation.

US-based companies conducting business in EU member states should also be GDPR compliant, as the EU is very serious about enacting the new data protection law. They have made it very clear to organizations about the necessary changes and they hope to bring uniformity in data and privacy law worldwide.

Data Privacy Types Under EU GDPR

• Primary identification data like name, address, ID number and more
• Genetic and medical data
• Ethnic data
• Biometric data
• Sexual orientation
• Political perspectives

Highlighting the GDPR Pivotal Rules

Within the past few years, data breaching has been widespread; therefore, immediate changes were done to create a protected atmosphere to deal with data. Below are some crucial rules of the data protection act:

1. Consumers will have more control over their personal information. As per the EU GDPR, you have the following rights with respect to your data:

• Ability to access your data being stored by the company
• Right to know where and how your data is used
• Data portability to transfer your data to other service
• Getting your data erased and cease its processing as per the ‘right to be forgotten’ process

2. Consumers have the right to know immediately about any breach to their data and act instantly to avert the data from being misused. Organizations must notify the data protection authorities within 72 hours of breach.

3. Conditions of consent are also one of the main focus areas of GDPR. The data protection law toughens the consent procedure by forcing companies not to use ambiguous or unclear statements. Companies have to follow the rule of consent/opt-in for a single purpose. Withdrawal of consent should also be a simple tasks for consumers.

What Comes Under GDPR Penalties?

There are of course weighty GDPR fines that organizations must pay if they are in breach of GDPR laws. The penalties range from 2%-4% of annual global turnover or €20 million (whichever is greater). Companies having global revenues in billions could suffer a big loss, if they are within breach.

Organization’s Responsibilities In Compliance With GDPR

Firms have to provide proper GDPR training to employees and also assign responsibilities to ensure compliance. Roles like data protection officer, data controller and data processor should be carefully assigned within the company.

Breaches like unauthorized exposure or access, loss, modification, accidental or illegal destruction, is expected to get a break after the application of EU GDPR. Both, by the fear of potential big fines or to avoid the unease of losing business within the EU region, companies must be GDPR compliant, and there is no way to make a break for it

The post GDPR Law – Renovating The Data Privacy Standards of Business appeared first on Upward Commerce.

Marketing automation simply refers to the automation of activities that are carried out on a redundant basis in order to save time and money. Similarly, real-time marketing automation covers tools that automatically assist customers during their micro moments resulting in increased conversions.

Some of the major advantages that real time marketing automation offer are:

1- You Are Able to Communicate With the Customer At Every Stage of the Customer Lifecycle

Every customer passes through a lifecycle before a purchase is made. As a marketer, it is important for you to realize the significance of connecting with the customer at each stage of the cycle and provide assistance to them resulting in increased chances of generating a sale.

With real-time marketing automation you can automate your communication starting from the very first customer touchpoint. You can create and deploy real-time messages based on smart triggers that automatically follows up with customers whenever they need assistance. In simpler terms, marketing automation helps to bridge the gap between marketing and sales.

2- The Quality of Leads Generated is Much Better

A lead is generated when you are able to capture the interest of your audience in your products or services.

With real-time marketing automation platforms, you have the power to fine tune your lead scoring system which helps to assign dynamic scoring for lead prioritization.

Automatic lead management allows you to move the hot leads directly into sales while lukewarm leads can be followed up using activities like blog subscriptions or downloads.

3- There is Massive Reduction in Cart Abandonment Rates

Cart abandonment is a major pain point for ecommerce businesses, with the latest remarketing report suggesting that abandonment rates have risen close to 76% (see below graph) in 2017. The numbers are scary but with marketing automation, you have the power to reduce cart abandonment rates to a bare minimum.

With the help of marketing automation tools like GetResponse, you can create cart abandonment workflows and determine specific time frames when the cart is more likely to be abandoned. You can immediately trigger follow-up emails having personalized offers persuading prospects to complete a purchase.

4- Marketing Costs Are Reduced

No matter how many people you add to your marketing team, it would still be inefficient to handle each and every prospect at each cycle of their journey. This is where marketing automation helps. With the help of software that comes with at affordable monthly fee, you are able to automate your entire marketing activities right from sending automated messages to prospects/leads and even converting those leads with proper campaign tracking triggers at each stage of the purchase cycle.

5- You Have Access to Increased Audience Insights

Nowadays, we are living in the age of excess data. Tools like Google Analytics allows you to have access to lots of data related to each and every channel but you still need more to achieve success in your marketing efforts.

Marketing automation not only helps to provide data but it also helps to derive insights out of the available data so you can take the right decision at the right time and never miss a chance of converting your prospects to customers.

One of the biggest advantages of real-time marketing automation is having access to the personal data of prospects based on the user persona and the individual interactions they have with a website. Some of the questions you can answer with the help of automation tools are:

• What behavior is performed when a visitor lands on your website?
• What other channels has the prospect interacted with (like email) that might influence conversion?
• Where does the prospect work?
• What company does he or she work for?
• Can he/she afford to buy your services? Etc.

Apart from the personal data, some other invaluable insights that you can get via marketing automation are:

• The percentage of people who clicked on your email but didn’t convert?
• How many people visited the services page coming from social media?
• Which campaigns bring in the most leads that convert?
• What are the common characteristics of people who end up buying?
• Is content promotion leading to conversions? Etc.

Nowadays, no marketing campaign is successful without proper content analysis, measurement and delivery. Time plays a crucial role in this regard. Every marketer needs a tool that can create and integrate workflows for yielding long-term benefits. This is the reason every business should adopt automation tools into their marketing strategy as it helps to increases the effectiveness and efficiency of marketing campaigns.

The post 5 Key Benefits of Real-Time Marketing Automation appeared first on Upward Commerce.