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In today’s digital age, social media has become a powerful tool for eCommerce businesses to connect with their customers and drive sales.
If you have an eCommerce store, it’s inevitable that you have to use social media for eCommerce marketing to promote your brand, drive traffic to your eCommerce store and grow your business. Statistics show that there are 2.22 billion people using social media actively and social networks drive 31.24% traffic overall websites. Also, 46% of consumers rely on social media when they buy something. These facts show us how social media plays an important role in eCommerce. So, social media should be used effectively to drive traffic to your eCommerce store, but how?
Key Takeaways
Social media has significantly impacted eCommerce sales by providing new ways for businesses to reach and engage with customers.
Social media platforms offer advanced targeting options allowing businesses to reach their target audience, making social media advertising highly effective.
User-generated content and social proof can be powerful tools in inspiring potential customers to make a purchase.
Engaging with customers on social media can build trust and loyalty, ultimately leading to increased sales and customer retention.
What is Social Media eCommerce Marketing?
Social media eCommerce marketing refers to using social media platforms to promote and sell products or services online. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest have millions of users, making them ideal channels for marketing and promoting products or services to a wider audience.
Social media eCommerce marketing involves various strategies, including creating and sharing engaging content, running paid social media ads, and leveraging social media influencers to promote products. eCommerce businesses use social media platforms to engage with their target audience, build brand awareness, increase website traffic, and ultimately drive sales.
Some popular social media eCommerce marketing tactics include offering exclusive promotions and discounts, showcasing products with high-quality images and videos, and using user-generated content to build trust and social proof. Additionally, businesses can use social media platforms to collect customer feedback, conduct market research, and build strong relationships with their customers.
What is the Impact of Social Media on eCommerce Sales?
1. Increased Exposure
Social media allows eCommerce businesses to reach a wider audience and increase their exposure to potential customers. By leveraging social media platforms, businesses can promote their products to users who may not have found them through traditional marketing channels.
2. Improved Targeting
Social media platforms offer advanced targeting options allowing eCommerce businesses to reach their target audience. Businesses can use social media advertising to target users based on demographics, interests, and behaviours, ensuring their message reaches the right people.
3. Enhanced Customer Engagement
Social media allows businesses to engage customers more personally. By responding to customer inquiries and concerns, eCommerce businesses can build customer trust and loyalty.
4. Influencer Marketing
Social media influencers have become a powerful force in eCommerce marketing. Influencers can promote products to their large and engaged social media followers, helping to increase brand awareness and drive sales.
5. User-Generated Content (UGC)
Social media platforms have also made it easier for eCommerce businesses to collect and share user-generated content. By showcasing customer photos and videos, businesses can build social proof and inspire other users to engage with the brand.
How Can Brands Use Social Media for Success in eCommerce?
1. Develop a Comprehensive Social Media Strategy
Brands should develop a comprehensive social media strategy that outlines their goals, target audience, and key performance indicators. A social media strategy should also include a content calendar and a plan for engaging with followers.
2. Utilise Influencer Marketing
Moreover, by leveraging social media influencers, businesses can promote their products to their followers. Influencer marketing can be a highly effective way to reach a wider audience and build trust with potential customers.
3. Create Engaging Social Media Campaigns
Brands can create engaging social media campaigns with contests, giveaways, and interactive content. Engaging campaigns can increase brand awareness and drive sales. Host giveaways, contests, and other interactive campaigns to increase engagement and brand awareness.
4. Leverage User-Generated Content
eCommerce companies can showcase user-generated content on their social media profiles to build social proof and inspire others to engage with the brand. User-generated content can include customer photos, videos, and reviews.
5. Utilise Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising targets an ideal audience and drives traffic to the eCommerce website. Social media advertising can be highly targeted, allowing brands to reach their ideal customers with precision.
6. Optimise Product Pages for Social Media Sharing
Brands can optimise their product pages for social media sharing by including social sharing buttons and visually appealing product images. Optimising product pages for social media sharing can increase brand awareness and drive traffic to eCommerce websites.
Wrapping Up
Social media has significantly impacted eCommerce sales by increasing exposure, improving targeting, enhancing customer engagement, influencer marketing, and leveraging user-generated content. To succeed in eCommerce through social media, brands should develop a comprehensive social media strategy, utilise influencer marketing, create engaging social media campaigns, leverage user-generated content, utilise social media advertising, and optimise product pages for social media sharing.
Marketing is all about connecting with people—understanding their needs, behaviours, and expectations. It’s important to understand what makes each one tick rather than treating potential and existing customers as a collective whole.
Key Takeaways
Customer segmentation is a process allowing marketers to learn about their customers on a deeper level. By understanding each group’s needs and challenges, they can tailor their content accordingly and boost conversion.
By segmenting customers and leads, marketers can easily identify what content to send, which channels to use, and when to send the campaigns. Customer segmentation, therefore, enables building personalised experiences at every touchpoint along the user journey.
Segmentation is taking a target audience and breaking it down into smaller groups based on their shared interests, tendencies and previous onsite behaviour patterns to communicate better and engage with the customer base.
The purpose of personalisation, on the other hand, is to optimise experiences and campaigns based on the individual rather than the group they belong to.
Segmentation and personalisation are two marketing strategies that work together to maximise the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. Segmentation allows for targeting specific groups of customers, while personalisation examines each customer more closely within a segment.
What is Customer Segmentation?
Customer segmentation is the process of grouping customers into specific groups based on shared characteristics, behaviours or preferences. Companies segment their customers based on common characteristics so that they can market to each group effectively and efficiently.
Benefits of Customer Segmentation: Why Segment Customers?
Customer segmentation is more than putting people into groups; it’s a process allowing you to learn about your customers on a deeper level. By understanding each group’s needs and challenges, you can tailor your content accordingly. Furthermore, you can create targeted campaigns and ads that resonate with specific customer segments and convert them.
1. Hyper-Personalised Campaigns
By segmenting your customers and leads, you can determine what content to send, what channels to use, and when to send your campaigns. Customer segmentation, therefore, enables you to provide personalised experiences at every touchpoint along the user journey.
2. Building Brand Authority and Customer Loyalty
By understanding the specific needs and preferences of different customer groups, you can design interactions that better meet those needs. This leads to a more personalised customer journey, resulting in higher levels of customer lifetime value (LTV) and satisfaction.
3. Increased Customer Engagement
By identifying and grouping your target audience based on specific characteristics and behaviours, you are also grouping them according to their pain points. You can now send each customer segment campaigns that they are most likely to engage with.
Need proof?
MailChimp says segmented campaigns receive 100.95% more clicks than non-segmented emails worldwide.
But what about customer segmentation’s effect on revenues?
4. Higher Revenue Generation
Segmented email campaigns can increase revenue by 760% compared to a one-size-fits-all campaign. It’s safe to assume this results from on-point upselling and cross-selling campaigns. The brands can target the most profitable customers with the correct customer segmentation.
The most common types of customer segmentation are listed as follows:
1. Behavioural Segmentation Model
As the name suggests, behavioural segmentation groups customers based on behavioural patterns like behavioural tendencies and frequent actions or engagement habits.
Demographic segmentation divides customers according to demographic traits such as age, gender, occupation, income, education, marital status, etc.
3. Psychographic Segmentation Model
Psychographic segmentation groups customers based on psychological traits such as beliefs, attitudes, interests, etc.
4. Geographic Segmentation
Geographic segmentation segments customers based on the locations they live, work, shop etc. Geographic segmentation can be broken down into country, state, city or town.
5. Technographic Segmentation
Technographic segmentation divides customers based on which device and technology they’re using to engage with the brand, like mobile use, desktop use, apps, and software.
6. Needs-Based Segmentation
Needs-based segmentation groups customers based on their problems and needs. The examples are price-focused, quality and brand-focused, service-focused and partnership-focused.
7. Value-Based Segmentation
Don’t let its name mislead you; value-based segmentation is not about people’s personal values—those are examined under psychographic segmentation. Value-based segmentation is about financial value, such as the economic value of specific customer groups for the business.
How to Choose the Right Customer Segmentation Model(s)
To create a customer segmentation strategy that works, you must first know what types of data impact conversions the most. This way, you will bridge the gap between the data you have at hand and the data you need to improve your customer segmentation strategy.
1. Define the Types of Customer Data That Can Support Your Growth
The types of customer data that can support growth will differ for each business, industry and the current campaign’s goals. This means the first thing on the marketing agenda is to identify the objectives of that particular campaign. Then, you move on to determining which customer segmentation model would work best for reaching those goals.
2. Identify the Right Customer Data Collection Tool
With a tool like Google Analytics, you already have access to some customer data, but it may not always be enough. You might determine what percentage of your visitors access your website via a smartphone. Still, this information alone does not help you. For example, you still don’t know who to send that email about a new action-adventure game release.
Managing customer data and building segmented and personalised campaigns is a piece of cake when you have a Customer Engagement Platform like Segmentify on your side!
Let’s say you want to set up cart abandonment follow-up emails, but you want to do so for basket prices above a certain threshold. What would you say if we were to tell you that you don’t have to go through this data at all? All you have to do is prepare your email and this information to campaign triggers to ensure the right segment gets that cart abandonment email.
You can create dozens of triggered scenarios like this and boost your conversion rate without breaking a sweat!
Neat, huh?
How to Build A Customer Segmentation Strategy
By identifying specific customer segments based on shared characteristics or behaviours, businesses can better understand their customers and tailor their marketing and product offerings accordingly. However, to leverage customer segmentation effectively, they must set clear objectives, identify relevant segments, evaluate segment potential, develop effective strategies, and measure success through pre-determined KPIs.
4. Begin developing the customer segmentation strategy
5. Launch and measure the campaign’s performance continuously
Segmentation vs. Personalisation
Segmentation is a way of categorising customers according to identifiable characteristics, which we’ve discussed so far. The purpose of personalisation, on the other hand, is to optimise experiences and campaigns based on the individual rather than the group they belong to.
Understanding the Differences Between Segmentation and Personalisation
Personalisation, in its simplest term, is recommending the right content or product to the right visitor at the right time. And that right time is before the user takes the desired action, which can be defined in many different ways based on the website.
For an eCommerce store, that desired action would be finalising a purchase, while for a news network like BBC, the action in question would be the visitor clicking and reading articles. Just as two people will not be interested in the same type of clothes, they will not be interested in the same news articles.
Personalisation, therefore, enables websites to track and analyse individual behaviours and detect their likes while they are browsing the website in question and presents the most relevant content for every single one of them. Personalised websites not only convince first-time visitors to stick around but also lead them down the conversion funnel by recommending the right content to the right visitor.
Personalisation is the cornerstone of conversion marketing for all types of businesses.
Segmentation, on the other hand, is taking a target audience and breaking it down into smaller groups based on their shared interests, tendencies and previous onsite behaviour patterns to better communicate and interact with each of these segments in the future. It is done by analysing customers’ browsing habits, visiting or purchasing frequencies, and general shopping or browsing tendencies.
Segmentation helps marketers build perfect retargeting campaigns to increase retention rates simply by using the right tone of voice with each customer segment.
How to Use Segmentation and Personalisation Together
You might wonder if segmentation and personalisation are two different marketing strategies working against each other. The answer is no. In fact, they are the two sides of the same coin.
Marketers often perceive personalisation as a detailed practice that overrides segmentation’s broad strokes. However, this is not true. Using segmentation, marketers can determine whether they should market to a given customer in the first place.
Segmentation simply tells the marketer if the customer and the customer segment they belong to are worth working on building a relationship with. That’s why segmentation should come before personalisation.
Segmented content allows marketers to target specific groups of customers, while personalised content examines each customer more closely within a segment. Each of these strategies has its place and time. The combination of these strategies maximises the effectiveness of a marketing campaign.
Segmentation and personalisation don’t work against each other; they work together.
Regardless of size and industry, all businesses must employ customer segmentation for sustainable growth. Segmentation begins with collecting and analysing data and ends with acting on the information gathered to meet the desired outcomes.
Customer segmentation and personalisation are essential to building long-lasting customer relationships and increasing customer lifetime value. With the right strategy and tools, you can easily achieve your main goals and deliver a seamless, individual customer experience.
FAQs About Customer Segmentation
What does customer segmentation mean?
Customer segmentation is the process of grouping customers into specific groups based on shared characteristics, behaviours or preferences.
What are the types of customer segmentation?
The types of customer segmentation are behavioural segmentation, demographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation, geographic segmentation, technographic segmentation, needs-based segmentation and value-based segmentation.
What are customer segmentation examples?
Behavioural segmentation: website activity, life cycle, purchasing behaviour, add-to-basket behaviour
Demographic segmentation: gender, age, occupation, marital status
Geographic segmentation: town, city, zip code, country, preferred language
Technographic segmentation: device type, browser, original source
Needs-based segmentation: product attributes, service needs, delivery method
Value-based segmentation: number of purchases, customer satisfaction scores (CSAT or NPS)
Why do we segment customers?
Customers are segmented based on common characteristics so that the brand in question can market to each group effectively and efficiently.
Which customer segmentation strategy is best and why?
The best customer segmentation strategy depends on the business, industry and marketing campaign at hand. For a healthy and effective customer segmentation strategy, a marketer must first identify the campaign’s goals. After identifying the campaign goals and the type of data that has the most impact on the campaign, they can move on to selecting the best customer segmentation model(s).
What is the difference between personalisation and segmentation?
Personalisation is often perceived as a detailed practice that overrides segmentation’s broad strokes. This, however, is not true.
Segmentation allows marketers to determine whether to market to a particular customer segment. Personalisation helps marketers take things one step further by tailoring experiences and campaigns to the individual rather than their group.
Segmentation and personalisation complement one another, not counteract.
What is the difference between market segmentation and customer segmentation?
While market segmentation divides the entire target market into smaller subsets, customer segmentation divides your existing customer base into categories based on similar needs and behaviours. Customers may fit into more than one segment depending on the variables used for segmentation.
Do you want to list your products and increase the visibility of your business? Google Shopping is a powerful tool to drive sales and conversions. Additionally, it allows businesses to reach potential customers without paying for advertising.
Key Takeaways
Google Shopping is an online marketplace where businesses can list their products and services for sale.
Free listings on Google Shopping allow businesses to reach potential customers at no cost, while paid advertising provides greater visibility and targeting options.
Effectively utilising Google Shopping can increase the visibility of a business’s products and drive sales and conversions.
What is Google Shopping?
Google Shopping is a service provided by Google that allows users to search for and compare products from a variety of online retailers. It is essentially an online marketplace where users can browse and purchase products from various retailers all in one place.
When a user enters a search query into Google Shopping, the service returns a list of relevant products along with their prices, product descriptions, and other important details. The products are listed based on various factors such as relevance, popularity, and price.
How Does Google Shopping Work?
To use Google Shopping, retailers must first create a product feed containing all the relevant product information, such as product name, description, image, price, and availability. This feed is then uploaded to Google Merchant Center, a platform Google provides for managing product listings.
Google uses a combination of algorithms and manual review processes to ensure that product listings are accurate and relevant. When a user clicks on a product listing, they are taken to the retailer’s website, where they can complete the purchase.
Google Shopping also offers various advertising options for retailers, such as product listing ads (PLAs) and local inventory ads (LIAs), which allow retailers to promote their products to potential customers and increase their visibility on the platform.
6 Benefits of Using Google Shopping for Business
Using Google Shopping can help businesses to increase their online visibility, reach more potential customers, and drive more sales, making it a valuable tool for eCommerce businesses of all sizes.
Increased visibility: By listing their products on Google Shopping, businesses can increase their visibility to potential customers searching for similar products.
Targeted advertising: Google Shopping allows businesses to target their ads to specific audiences based on factors such as location, search terms, and user demographics, which can help to increase the effectiveness of their advertising.
Higher click-through rates (CTRs): Product listings on Google Shopping typically include images, prices, and other key information, which can help to increase CTR and drive more traffic to a business’s website.
Improved conversions: Since Google Shopping listings provide users with detailed information about products, businesses may see an increase in conversions and sales.
Cost-effective advertising: Google Shopping allows businesses to set a budget for their advertising campaigns and pay only when a user clicks on their ad, which can be a cost-effective way to reach potential customers.
Access to performance data: Google Shopping provides businesses with detailed performance data, such as CTRs, conversion rates, and sales, which can be used to optimise their advertising campaigns and improve their overall marketing strategy.
How To Set Up a Free Google Shopping Listing in 6 Steps
To set up a free Google Shopping listing and add products to Google Shopping, follow these steps:
1. Create a Google Merchant Center Account
If you don’t already have one, you’ll need to create one. Go to the Google Merchant Center website and sign up for an account.
2. Verify and Claim Your Website
Once you’ve created your Merchant Center account, you’ll need to verify and claim your website. This involves adding a special code to your website or verifying domain ownership.
3. Create a Product Feed
To add your products to Google Shopping, you must create a product feed. This spreadsheet or XML file contains information about your products, such as product titles, descriptions, prices, and images. You can create a product feed manually or use an eCommerce platform that can generate one for you.
4. Upload Your Product Feed to Merchant Center
Once you’ve created your product feed, you can upload it to the Merchant Center. Go to the “Products” section of the Merchant Center and click “Feeds” to upload your feed. You can also set up a schedule to automatically upload your feed at regular intervals.
5. Optimise Your Product Listings
To improve the visibility of your products on Google Shopping, you can optimise your product listings by adding more detailed descriptions, high-quality images, and accurate pricing information.
6. Monitor and Optimise Your Listings
Once your products are live on Google Shopping, you can monitor their performance and make adjustments as needed. Use the data provided by Merchant Center to track your CTRs, conversion rates, and other metrics and adjust your listings accordingly.
Following these steps, you can set up a free Google Shopping listing and start promoting your products to potential customers on one of the world’s largest online marketplaces.
6 Tips for Optimising Your Free Listing
1. Use High-Quality and Professional Images
Your product images should be clear, high-quality, and show the product from multiple angles. Use a plain background to make your product stand out and ensure that the images are the right size and format for Google Shopping.
2. Optimise Product Titles and Descriptions
Additionally, you should write compelling product titles and descriptions. Your product titles and descriptions should be informative and persuasive. Use relevant keywords and highlight the unique features and benefits of your product. Keep your titles concise and your descriptions detailed but easy to read.
3. Give Up-to-Date and Accurate Pricing and Stock Information
It is important to provide accurate pricing and availability information. Make sure that your pricing and availability information is accurate and up-to-date. If you offer free shipping or other promotions, highlight these in your listing.
4. Optimise Product Categories and Product Feature Labels
Moreover, use the appropriate product categories and attributes when creating your product feed. This will help ensure your products are displayed to the right audience and improve their visibility on Google Shopping.
5. Monitor Ad Performance Regularly
If you’re using Google Shopping ads, monitor your bids regularly and adjust them based on the performance of your ads. This can improve your ad placement and drive more traffic to your products.
6. Optimise for Organic Search
The final point is to use negative keywords to filter out irrelevant searches that may not be relevant to your products. This will improve the quality of your traffic and increase the effectiveness of your advertising.
6 Best Practices for Maintaining and Troubleshooting Your Free Listing
By following these best practices, you can maintain and troubleshoot your free listing on Google Shopping and improve your visibility and sales on one of the largest online marketplaces in the world:
1. Keep Product Information Up-to-Date
Regularly update your product information in your Google Merchant Center account, such as product titles, descriptions, images, and pricing. This will ensure your listings are accurate and relevant to potential customers.
2. Monitor Your Performance Metrics
Use the performance metrics provided by Google Merchant Center to monitor your click-through rates, conversion rates, and other key metrics. This will help identify improvement areas and adjust your listings accordingly.
3. Troubleshoot Errors and Issues
If you encounter any errors or problems with your Google Shopping listings, use the troubleshooting tools provided by Google Merchant Center to resolve them. Common issues include:
Missing or incorrect product data,
Violations of Google’s policies
Problems with your product feed
4. Optimise Your Listings for Mobile
Since many users access Google Shopping on mobile devices, make sure that your listings are optimised for mobile devices. This includes using mobile-friendly images and ensuring your product information is easily read on smaller screens.
5. Use Product Reviews to Your Advantage
Encourage customers to leave product reviews on your website orGoogle, as these can help to improve your visibility and credibility on Google Shopping.
6. Keep an Eye on Your Competition
Monitor your competitors’ listings on Google Shopping and adjust your pricing and product information as needed to stay competitive.
How Free Listings on Google Shopping Differ from Paid Advertising
While free listings on Google Shopping can be a great way to get your products in front of potential customers, paid advertising provides greater visibility, control, and advanced targeting options and can help to drive more traffic and sales to your website.
Cost: Free listings on Google Shopping are completely free, while paid advertising requires paying for each click or impression.
Placement: Free listings appear in the standard Google Shopping search results, while paid advertising appears at the top of the search results or in other prominent positions.
Visibility: Paid advertising typically provides greater visibility than free listings, as they appear in more prominent positions and can include additional ad formats such as product showcase ads.
Targeting: Paid advertising allows for more advanced targeting options than free listings, such as targeting specific demographics or using remarketing to target users who have already visited your website.
Control: Paid advertising gives you more control over your ad campaigns, such as setting a budget, adjusting bids, and using more advanced ad formats.
Performance Tracking: Paid advertising provides more detailed performance tracking and analytics than free listings, allowing you to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns and make adjustments as needed.
Utilising Google Shopping to Drive Sales and Conversions
Utilising Google Shopping will drive sales and conversions and increase the visibility of your products to potential customers. A great way is to leverage promotions and discounts. By offering promotions or discounts, you will incentivise customers to purchase your products. Highlight these promotions in your product listings to attract more clicks and drive sales.
Companies should also use audience targeting to reach users who have previously interacted with your website or who fit a specific demographic profile. This can improve the quality of your traffic and increase the effectiveness of your advertising.
Furthermore, using retargeting to target users who have previously visited your website or shown interest in your products is a good way to increase conversations, which can help remind them of your products and encourage them to make a purchase.
Finally, you should test different ad formats, images, and messaging to determine what works best for your products and audience. Use analytics and performance data to optimise your campaigns and improve their effectiveness over time.
Wrapping Up
Google Shopping is an online marketplace that allows businesses to list their products and services for sale. Free listings on Google Shopping provide businesses with the opportunity to reach potential customers at no cost, while paid advertising provides greater visibility and targeting options.
Businesses can optimise their product listings, offer promotions and discounts, use negative keywords, monitor and adjust their bids, use audience targeting and retargeting, and test and optimise their campaigns over time to drive sales and conversions. By following these strategies, businesses can effectively utilise Google Shopping to increase the visibility of their products and drive sales and conversions.
You might be struggling with acquiring new customers. Or, you might be satisfied with the outcomes of your customer acquisition efforts, but still wonder why your customer lifetime value doesn’t make up for your high CAC. In this case, you might need to reconsider your strategies to improve CAC. Here are some effective strategies to help you with that.
Key Takeaways
Monitoring CAC helps businesses determine the effectiveness of current marketing and sales efforts and make better decisions in the future.
Experiment with different marketing channels to see which ones are most effective at attracting new customers.
With data analysis, businesses can gain insights into customer behaviour and optimise their marketing and sales efforts.
What is Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)?
Customer acquisition cost, in a nutshell, is the total amount of money spent to acquire a customer. It includes every kind of spending you make throughout the process.
Before reading further, you may first read our article to learn about the benefits of a lower CAC and how to calculate it for a better marketing and sales strategy: What is Customer Acquisition Cost
Why is It Important to Optimise CAC?
Monitoring CAC is crucial for businesses to assess the effectiveness of their marketing and sales strategies, aiding in making informed decisions going forward.
A high CAC may indicate that a business needs to re-evaluate its marketing or sales strategy. A low CAC, on the other hand, indicates efficient customer acquisition at a reasonable cost and potential revenue growth for the business.
Top 9 Strategies for Optimising CAC
1. Identify and Target the Most Valuable Customers
Focusing your efforts on the prospects with the most potential will save you both time and money in the long run. Benefit from data analysis to identify your audience and determine who will bring you the most value.
Define your target audience: Identify your ideal customer and create a customer persona. This will help you focus your marketing efforts on those most likely to convert and reduce marketing and sales spending over time.
Identifying your target audience is a part of finding the most appropriate channels for your marketing. Knowing your audience and what would attract their attention will eventually help you build brand awareness and drive traffic to your website.
3. Improve Sales Efficiency
The state of sales efficiency is directly related to customer acquisition cost. Streamline your sales process and eliminate unnecessary steps to reduce the time and resources needed to close a deal or receive a purchase order.
Equip your team with the tools they need to increase sales and use data to gain insights into your sales process and measure its effectiveness. Finally, align sales and marketing efforts to focus on the right prospects, avoiding wasted marketing spend.
4. Increase Customer Retention
Retaining existing customers can be more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. By providing good customer service, offering ongoing value, and gathering feedback to improve your service, you can create excellent customer experiences. This will help you build a community of customers who will recommend and advocate for your brand and reduce CAC over time.
5. Use Data to Inform Decision-Making
Track metrics like customer acquisition cost and conversion rates to identify areas for improvement in your acquisition process. Examine customer behaviour and identify the characteristics of your most valuable customer segments, such as demographics and interests, through data analysis and customer surveys to tailor your marketing strategies.
Use A/B testing to test different campaigns to determine which ones generate the best results. By leveraging data, you can improve your current business strategies and make better decisions in the future.
6. Consider Outsourcing
Depending on the size and needs of the business, outsourcing certain tasks or functions may be more cost-effective than handling them in-house. Outsourcing lead generation or customer service can improve efficiency while freeing up your internal resources to focus on other business areas.
Aside from that, outsourcing to specialised service providers can provide you with expertise as well as technologies you might not obtain on your own. However, before outsourcing, it’s important to evaluate potential providers carefully to ensure they align with your business needs and goals without compromising quality.
7. Negotiate Better Terms with Suppliers
You can increase your profit margins and reduce CAC by negotiating better pricing or payment terms with suppliers. You can also reduce the cost of shipping and improve your overall efficiency by negotiating better shipping rates or lead times.
It will help you to research and understand the market rates and terms beforehand for effective negotiation. With the right negotiation skills, you can optimise your customer acquisition process.
8.eCommerce Personalisation
All things aside, personalisation is the key to success for online businesses. By tailoring your marketing strategies and online store to each customer’s unique interests and needs, you can create engaging customer experiences and increase conversion rates.
You can use personalisation in many ways: Tailor your messaging on different channels, make personalised recommendations, and offer deals and promotions based on customers’ behaviour and purchase history. Benefit from the right analytics tools and eCommerce platforms to gather information on them and ensure you provide an excellent shopping experience.
9. Customer Segmentation
When it comes to personalisation, you shouldn’t miss out on segmentation. Segmenting your customers will help you not only with improving their experiences, but also pinpointing your target audience. By focusing your marketing efforts on the most promising customer segments, a business can reduce CAC since these customers will make up for the effort spent to acquire them and generate more revenue over time.
Let’s say you want to get out of the city for the weekend or go for an adventure in a faraway place for a couple of days. What is the first thing you do? Search for accommodations in your desired location, right? After all, you need to know where you’re staying to assess your budget.
Even though search is the reasonable accommodation-finding strategy, 25% of travel booking websites don’t make the on-site search feature the primary content on their homepages. These guys are making a grave mistake. Here’s how to be smarter than them:
Key Takeaways
The on-site search is the preferred starting point for booking travel accommodations.
A difficult-to-spot on-site search function will create a bad first impression for travellers and may cause high bounce rates.
25% of travel booking sites, however, fall into the trap of overcrowding the homepage, causing them to lose sales.
5 Benefits of Making the On-Site Search Feature the Primary Content on a Booking & Travel Homepage
Upon examining some airline and hotel booking sites, we see they easily fall into the trap of overcrowding the homepage with not-so-critical elements. Before you get all riled up, hear us out:
In most cases, travellers looking for accommodations have a specific travel date and destination in mind. Therefore, the search function is their preferred starting point for booking travel accommodations.
According to a study by Baymark, nearly all subjects (99%) shopping at online travel agencies (OTAs), large-brand hotels and whole property rental sites directly looked for the “booking” search feature on the homepage.
A difficult-to-locate “booking” on-site search feature on the homepage will unnecessarily delay most visitors from taking the first step toward identifying a suitable flight or hotel room. A clear-to-spot search feature, on the other hand, will significantly improve customer engagement.
2. Improved Usability
Continuing from the same Baymark study, what’s interesting is that almost all the OTAs, large-brand hotels and whole property rentals included displays the “booking” on-site search on the homepage. The problem was that they were not successful in giving importance to the on-site search; it was lost among everything else on the homepage.
For travel booking websites, a simple homepage design with on-site search as the main feature will improve the website’s usability.
3. Enhanced User Experience (UX)
We’ve already established that the on-site search is the first thing visitors look for on a travel booking site. Making the on-site search feature the primary content on the homepage of booking and travel websites will take the frustration out of the visitors’ shopping journey, improving their experience.
Even if they don’t book their accommodations right away, they will remember your brand when the time comes. Keep in mind that a good reputation for offering an A-class UX will go a long way.
4. Increased Conversion Rates and Revenue
Allowing the on-site search to be the main attraction on the homepage of a travel booking website will be the foundation of a frictionless customer experience, which, in return, will be reflected in higher conversion rates and sales.
Discover how Europe’s number one online pet-friendly travel booking destination PetsPyjamas improved conversion rates by 3x with personalisation.
5. Easier Access to Information
We went over this many times in this article but let us repeat it once more: What travellers want from travel booking websites is for the on-site search feature to be easily spotted. They don’t want distractions; they want information.
What do we mean by information?
Travellers want to know:
Is there a flight from London to Rome on March 15?
Does the flight fall in their preferred price range?
Are any hotel rooms available in Rome city centre for March 15-19 for 2 adults?
Is the hotel pet friendly?
Do they offer free cancellation?
By making the on-site search easy to spot, the travel booking website will ensure that the visitors find all the information they need a lot quicker than they would on a travel website with an overcrowded homepage.
However, making the on-site search feature the primary content on the homepage of travel booking websites means the website itself gets easier access to information about what the customer wants from a holiday. This information is so valuable because it comes directly from the customer. They literally tell the website what they want out of a holiday.
The travel booking website in question can later use this information to send retargeting campaigns to the customer with other offers through cross-channel messaging. Mind you, a traveller searching for and booking a scuba diving tour once doesn’t mean they’ll want to do it the following year. However, hitting them up with other adrenaline-packed options is a good idea.
Information and data are gold, my friends.
3 Best Strategies for the On-Site Search Feature on Travel Booking Sites
1. Implementing Search Filters
Let’s take a page from booking.com’s book and look at what on-site search filters they’re using:
Budget per Night: An critical decision factor for almost all travellers.
Popular Filters: To improve the UX, the most popular filters are placed right under the budget filter. It includes free cancellation, [destination name] by city centre, 4 stars, less than 3 km, breakfast included, superb rating and hotels.
Star Rating and Review Score:Social proof is a solid psychological tool that helps customers make decisions.
Distance from the Centre of [Destination Name]: Some travellers are willing to strain their budgets a bit more if that means they can just walk around the city without needing public transportation.
Cancellation Policy: For travellers who want to account for unforeseen events that might come up, “free cancellation” is a blessing.
Property Type: The options include entire apartments, hotels, youth hostels, B&Bs, guest houses, etc.
Property Accessibility: A vital information for travellers with disabilities.
If you’ve ever used booking.com before, you know that they use more filters than listed here. The main takeaway here is that a travel booking site should identify meeting points between what they are offering and what their target audience wants. The on-site filters should be selected according to that meeting point.
2. Leveraging Search Autocomplete and Misspelling
Did you know that the autocomplete feature can boost sales by 24%? An on-site search and discovery solution with autocomplete will get the customer to the desired destination faster, pun very much intended.
On the other hand, certain people might find it difficult to spell “Ljubljana” correctly. The last thing a travel booking website wants should be sending their customers to a dead end. Therefore, use an on-site search feature that accounts for misspelling to avoid higher bounce rates.
3. Understanding User Intent to Improve Search Relevance
Irrelevant search results are a big no-no for all customers, let alone travel booking site customers. In fact, 68% stated that they would not return to a website with a poor search experience.
The more relevant results you provide your visitors, the more likely they will be satisfied, engaged and eventually converted. An effective on-site design should therefore encourage visitors to search first and then navigate through the results.
Provide personalised search results based on the traveller’s previous searches, booking histories or wishlists. For first-time visitors, use popular destinations and options to personalise their search results based on their search query.
On-site search is a must-have feature for all websites. However, when it comes to travel booking, on-site search should be the star of the show. It is the primary feature their customers will be looking for when they land on the homepage of the said travel booking websites.
You know what they say: First impressions are lasting impressions.
Everyone’s, especially Gen Z’s, new favourite photo-sharing social media app BeReal encourages its users to show who they truly are without filters and the need to stage, overthink, or edit images. In line with this, the app doesn’t allow for paid ads and strongly discourages influencer culture. Still, there’s a question to be asked here: Is there a way for brands to BeReal?
Key Takeaways
Gen Z cares about authenticity above anything else. That’s why they’re turning to BeReal, where they can be themselves.
Gen Z is tired of pretending to be someone they are not as imposed on them by other social media apps. Marketers who want to build a strong presence on BeReal should lean on authenticity and mental health advocacy.
At the moment, BeReal prohibits paid ads and explicitly discourages influencer culture, which poses a unique challenge for marketers. To overcome this challenge, marketers must find creative ways to connect with their target audiences.
3 Strategies for Building a Strong Presence on BeReal
Here are three strategies for winning at Gen Z marketing on BeReal:
1. Be Authentic
The BeReal app encourages people to be their authentic selves by eliminating filters and the need to stage, overthink, or edit images. It’s no wonder this app is Gen Z’s new favourite app. Authenticity is the most important value for Gen Z, beyond future plans and being rich.
This new trend can also be interpreted as a wake-up call for brands and their branding efforts. Consumers are looking for the real deal behind the façade brands have built over the past decades. So make sure your marketing campaigns are genuine and reflect your brand’s values.
2. Share Behind-the-Scenes Content
Posting behind-the-scenes content goes hand in hand with authenticity. This type of content will allow consumers to see your brand as more than just a business and make it easier for them to connect with your marketing.
Posting behind-the-scenes content from regular office days, meetings or branding events will help humanise your branding. Marketers can use BeReal to show customers what goes behind the curtain and how actual humans prepare those polished marketing campaigns.
3. Advocate for Mental Health
The rise of social media apps like Instagram and TikTok led to influencer marketing and the pressure to perform all the time. The “culture of comparison” mindset encouraged by social media platforms like TikTok can be very challenging for a young person, says Anne Marie Albano, PhD, director of the Columbia University Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders.
The BeReal app, on the other hand, encourages people to “show your friends who you really are, for once” Naturally, one of the main reasons why BeReal became so popular among Gen Z is because they are tired of pretending to be someone they are not.
A fashion brand, for example, can post behind-the-scenes pictures of models wearing their clothing without makeup or the correct light. Admittedly, they can do this on Instagram as well. However, you have to admit catalogue pictures and BTS pictures as mentioned next to one another look a bit weird and not so authentic.
A Unique Obstacle for Marketers
With ad restrictions, BeReal presents a unique obstacle for marketers. So how can you leverage branding if the app explicitly discourages influencer culture and prohibits paid advertising?
You get creative, of course.
1. Chipotle Taps into BeReal with Promotion Codes
The fast-casual Mexican chain Chipotle used its first BeReal moment to boost its account: The first 100 people who used the reusable promo code posted would get a free meal. The codes were used in 30 minutes, says Candice Beck, Chipotle’s director of social and influencer.
2. Logitech Makes BeReal Debut with Holiday Campaign
Source: Logitech BeReal account
In the quest for capturing Gen Z’s attention during the holiday season 2022, Logitech bit the bullet and joined Gen Z’s new favourite social media app BeReal with a holiday gift guide reinterpreted for the platform.
The “12 Days of Deals” holiday campaign included surprise deals and exclusive offers on microphones, gaming headsets, keyboards, etc., with several cameos by The Elf on the Shelf.
The Future of BeReal
Only time can tell if BeReal’s “no ads, no filters, no influencers” policy will be sustainable. But right now, it’s an excellent tool for creating a buzz around your brand and poses a new opportunity for marketers to stretch their creativity.
iGaming is a rapidly growing industry that is expected to only accelerate within the following years. The competition is quite challenging, and it is equally hard to stand out among the other big players and make an actual profit. Personalisation, at this point, is crucial in differentiating oneself from others, providing a unique customer experience and attracting attention.
Key Takeaways
Personalisation in iGaming helps optimise customer experiences and increase engagement, revenue and conversion rates.
Automating the process means spending less time and money on operational tasks and more time making business decisions.
Consistent brand experience is a must to build trust between your customer and your business.
What is Personalisation?
Every person is unique, and every customer differs from others in their needs and interests. Offering the same thing and providing the same experience for everyone won’t help anyone.
Customers will not want to spend too much time finding suitable content. The longer it takes, the less likely they are to convert. And that means a lower retention rate and revenue for the business.
Personalisation is tailoring the customer journey and providing a unique experience for each customer.
How Can iGaming Companies Use Personalisation?
iGaming organisations can enhance the player experience with personalisation. This can be achieved through data analysis to understand player behaviour and preferences, offering personalised promotions and bonuses, game recommendations based on individual play history, and tailored communication. This creates a more engaging and satisfying experience for players and can lead to increased retention and lifetime value.
Use Player Data to Personalise the Experience
Using player data is a powerful tool for personalising the iGaming experience. By collecting and leveraging information on player behaviour, preferences, and play history, iGaming companies can create a memorable, engaging, and personalised customer experience.
This information can be used to offer personalised promotions, provide tailored communication, and recommend a list of games unique to customers’ interests and favourite categories. Additionally, players can be given the option to customise their interfaces, further enhancing their individual experience.
Create Personalised Promotions and Bonuses
Personalised promotions and bonuses are an effective way to engage and retain customers in the iGaming industry. By tailoring offers to each player’s preferences and play history, iGaming companies can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.
For example, a player who frequently plays a particular type of game could receive a bonus specifically for that game, or a player who has shown interest in a new release could receive a promotion for it. By doing that, companies can differentiate and optimise their offerings. This approach can increase player engagement and satisfaction, leading to stronger customer loyalty in the long term.
Offer Customer Support Tailored to the Individual
Personalised customer support is a key factor in creating a unique iGaming experience. By addressing each player’s specific needs and concerns, companies can improve the overall experience. This can be achieved through dedicated support channels, like live chat or email, that are tailored to their individual issues.
Support staff should be trained to use data analysis and customer profiles to provide personalised and efficient assistance. This type of support can differentiate the offerings, increase player satisfaction, enhance player satisfaction, and strengthen customer relationships.
Challenges to be Considered When Personalising the iGaming Experience
Data Privacy and Security
Protecting your data privacy and security in the iGaming industry while still providing a personal experience for your customers is crucial when implementing personalisation. Player data is sensitive information that must be collected, stored, and used in a secure and compliant manner to maintain trust.
iGaming companies must implement security measures, such as encryption and secure storage, to ensure that player data is handled in a legal manner and in compliance with regulations such as GDPR. You need to prioritise privacy to establish trust and create a secure environment for personalisation.
Ensuring a Consistent Brand Experience
Consistent brand experience is another must to build trust between your customer and your business. This involves maintaining the same look, feel, and messaging across all interactions with players, whether through the website, customer support, or promotions.
Consistent branding reinforces the iGaming company’s identity and helps establish a strong and recognisable brand, while also ensuring that players have a consistent and positive experience, regardless of the interaction. By focusing on consistency, iGaming companies can improve player recognition, engagement, and loyalty.
Creating a Seamless Customer Journey
Creating a seamless customer journey involves designing a smooth and frictionless experience for players as they navigate through the website and engage with the content. A minimised browsing time and a personalised selection of games allow players to start playing right away, resulting in a more enjoyable experience.
By eliminating obstacles and creating a seamless customer journey, iGaming companies can improve player satisfaction, increase engagement, and boost retention.
Tools and Resources for a Personalised iGaming Experience
The appropriate tools and resources for personalisation in iGaming encompass data analysis tools, marketing automation platforms and customer relationship management (CRM) systems. These tools help collect and analyse player data, create targeted promotions and bonuses, and manage customer interactions. It’s important to carefully consider and select the right tools to ensure that personalisation efforts are effective and deliver meaningful results.
Wrapping Up
On the whole, when you automate the process, you spend less time and money on operational tasks and have more time for optimising customer journeys and making healthier business decisions. For iGaming companies, personalisation is a must-have to keep your customers on board and deal with aggressive competition in the iGaming industry.
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