The Rise & Power of Nano Influencers

The Rise & Power of Nano Influencers

Recently, the demand for nano influencers has grown tremendously as they are considered to have a direct and strong impact on their followers. In fact, this group of influencers has become popular for brand collaboration because they are affordable and easier to work with. In this blog, you’ll learn about nano influencers and their growing popularity among ecommerce brands.

Who are Nano-influencers?

Nano-influencers are individuals with 1,000 – 10,000 followers of their social media account, most notibly on Twitter and  Instagram. This is quite different from micro-influencers who have 10,000-50,000 followers. Although they have a smaller following, nano-influencers are an affordable marketing option for brands and firms as they often have  a loyal and engaged follower base.

Apart from their low follower count, nano-influencers are also narrow on the kind of content they share. They usually post about niche topics or categories like lifestyle, food and beverages, fashion, and other topics depending on what their audience is most interested in. By gaining a following in those specific areas, their audiences tend to be more loyal and trust the expertise of the influencer.

One of the reasons why nano-influencers are effective is because they often feature a small, but loyal fanbase. Nano-influencers can be persuaded for a micro-fee to become brand ambassadors, for a fraction of the cost of those influencers with a larger following. Even though influencers often deliver great ROIs for brands, nano influencers are often preferred because, quite simply, they are easier to work with.

Brands find it easier to work with nano influencers because they offer a specific target market. This way, it is easier to determine the expected results and craft messages that would appeal to that specific audience. In addition, nano influencers are usually eager to get customers and have less of an ego. Therefore, brands can easily work with them for a smaller budget and lesser effort compared to other, ‘larger’ influencers.

Growth of Nano Influencers 

In a survey conducted by Influencer Intelligence, the majority of online brands stated that they have used Nano influencers in the recent past. In fact, about 76% of the brands report having used nano influencers compared to 72% that used micro and niche influencers. Just like micro influencers, niche influencers have a bigger number of followers, usually just under 100,000. Although they focus on one or two subject areas, their higher number of followers limit their ability to personally engage with everyone. The newly emerging nano influencer segment has caught the attention of both brands and customers. With a third of brands that have used a nano influencer claiming it was the most successful, more partnership deals can be expected in the future.

What makes nano influencers unique is that they are not famous celebrities. Instead, they are ordinary digital citizens with good social media skills and a personality that translates well to the digital world. . Their natural propensity to influence means that they can achieve a more intimate reach. They are more genuine, more approachable, and have a better reputation among their influencers. Due to this authenticity of nano influencers and the trust they establish with their followers, brands have achieved higher conversion rates and increased interactions compared to other groups of influencers.

Why Brands Partner with Nano and Influencers

In the early days, brands sought out partnerships with influencers who had the largest follower count. The goal was to ensure that their promoted content will reach the highest largest possible audience. However, the emergence of spam bots and fake followers prompted brands to question the statistics they were seeing and began to look for avenues that would lead to higher conversion rates.. ‘Likes’ and ‘Shares’ aren’t everything, at some point a marketing endeavor must produce a return on investment. Based on all these points, we have begun to see a gradual shift from higher reach to engagement and authenticity.

Nano influencers have shown to bridge the gap between reach and authenticity. Since they have more intimate interactions with their followers, they tend to have a more loyal following. Brands are now finding it more attractive to work with this group of influencers because of several reasons (beyond simply being easier to work with):

Command a greater deal of trust and commitment: Nano-influencers interact more closely with their followers. Since their followers are fewer in numbers, communicating with them directly is easier. This means that the influencer is more likely to  read and respond to more comments and messages. This level of interaction helps in building confidence in a brand as followers are getting the authenticity needed from the nano-influencer.

Provide wide brand visibility: Even with their small number of followers, nano influencers can increase the visibility of your brand. Since they have more time to interact with followers on their social media accounts, they are more effective in increasing the visibility of your brand. They can be directed to constantly share your new content, keep mentioning your brand in interactions and keep your brand ‘top of mind’ amongst their followers.

Offer access to a more specific target audience: Nano-influencers excel in collecting a niche following by focusing on specific categories and types of content. Their channels usually highlight an area of interest such as cooking, sports, fashion, parenting, among others. This also means that their followers are specific and are interested in a narrow content. When a brand uses a nano-influencer, they are sure that their content is reaching the right kind of audience.

More Accessible and Affordable: Partnering with nano influencers can be considerably more affordable than larger influencers. They usually offer affordable deals and will work on a small budget to deliver the needed results. In some cases, brands have entered working relationships with nano-influencers with an exchange of the products they will be advertising.

Finding the Right Nano Influencers

Finding the right influencer for your brand requires you to do thorough research. Make sure they will be beneficial to your company and that they have the right follower base. Apart from matching their follower base with your target audience, check whether they are working with brands that could conflict with your products’ advertising. The law is also evolving to include regulation of how brands interact with influencers. Therefore, we recommend brands interested in any kind of influencer agreement to work with a marketing firm experienced in handling influencer talent and practices. This will ensure you are working with a team that knows what it’s doing and that your agreement is within legal constraints.

If you are  wondering where to start with the tactics described in this article or others, InteractOne offers a variety of digital marketing services  to grow your eCommerce brand. Contact us today and let’s talk strategy.

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Digital Payments Customers Demand & more in the August OR

Digital Payments Customers Demand & more in the August OR

August 2020 ORANGE REPORT

For this month’s Orange Report, we’re sharing a few of our best and most recent blogs that speak on all things Magento, eCommerce, and Digital Marketing. Like always, we encourage everyone using Magento to make the most of its functionalities by incorporating the very best Magento extensions and news.

SIGN UP FOR THE ORANGE REPORT

Everything you need to know about eCommerce, digital marketing, and Magento.

You’re Losing Sales: Digital Payment Methods Customers Now Demand

These are the digital payment trends your eCommerce business must offer to meet customer expectations.

The Future Is Electric - What You Can Learn From the Changing Automotive Aftermarket Industry

Electric Vehicles accept many of the same aftermarket upgrades & parts that established brands probably already sell. There are lessons in this ‘repositioning’ that apply to all industries… 

How Voice Integration Will Boost Your Digital Marketing Efforts

With voice assistance devices like Google Home and Amazon’s Echo becoming popular, here’s what you need to know to take advantage of this technology.

How Magento Meets the Unique Needs of Nutraceuticals

Choosing a great eCommerce platform is vital — but it also can be daunting. Here’s how Magento can power your nutraceutical sales.
Padawan Series: eCommerce and Pharmaceuticals: Popularity, Benefits and How to Get Started

Padawan Series: eCommerce and Pharmaceuticals: Popularity, Benefits and How to Get Started

As a pharmaceutical manufacturer or distributor growing your brand online is vital. In fact, eCommerce has never been more popular or more important for a business. But why is e-commerce so necessary, how do you make sure that it’s effective and how do you get started? In this article, we’ll explore all of this and more.

Why do you need eCommerce for your pharma brand?

eCommerce is growing in popularity every day for all industries—and for the pharmaceutical industry, this couldn’t be more true. The current size of the online pharmacy market is valued around $50 million, and it’s projected to reach upwards of $170 million in the next few years. Currently, online prescription orders account for about 25% of pharmaceuticals sold in the United States—and that number grows every day.

What’s the benefit of eCommerce for consumers?

The age group that’s most likely to purchase medication online is 35 to 44-year-olds. This demographic is busy with spouses, kids, pets, jobs, friends, family and recreational activities. As a result, they choose to purchase many products, including medication online. In addition, older demographics are increasingly more comfortable with technology and thus more interested in buying medication online too. This popularity is increasing for the following reasons.

Convenience: For many people, there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to get to a local pharmacy. That’s why they rely on the quick push of a button on their phone or computer to order their medication. It’s quick and simple.

Less exposure: Older demographics are more likely to seek out ways to reduce their exposure to sickness, especially now during the COVID-19 outbreak. Ordering their medication online—instead of going to the store—is a much safer option for them.

Auto-ship: Having medications on auto-ship takes having to remember out of the equation. It’s automatic, it’s one less thing to worry about and people are way less likely to miss their important meds.

Privacy: Buying medication online eliminates the embarrassment that can come from purchasing certain meds in person.

What’s the benefit of eCommerce for you?

When selling pharmaceuticals, there are countless benefits of having everything available online for your business. Here are just a few.

Data, analytics and metrics: When customers purchase medication online, you now have access to some of their personal information. Over time, this data can be compiled so that you can learn more about each customer and your overall customer base. For example, analytics can show each customer’s purchasing behaviors, demographics and more. Companies can then use this digital data to improve their marketing, stock their shelves more effectively and better engage with customers.

Less competition: When people visit a pharmacy, there are lots of options on the shelf—and many of them may have the same active ingredient as your product but can  also be less expensive. This can cause your brand to lose market share. However, by selling online, there’s less blatant competition at the time of purchase.

Lower shipping costs: When companies can produce medication in one single location and then send it directly to consumers—instead of paying for multiple regional warehouses to stock the products—the shipping costs become exponentially lower.

Build Relationship with the Customer: For manufacturers and distributors, having an eCommerce presence allows you to eliminate steps in the distribution process, each of which carries a cost.

How can you ensure that your company is ready for e-commerce?

As a pharmaceutical manufacturer, distributor or retailer, it’s important to jump on the eCommerce bandwagon sooner rather than later. If you’re only selling vitamins and supplements, this is a relatively simple process. Just list your products online and allow people to buy them directly from your website.

However, if you sell prescription products, things are more involved. You’ll need to be sure that you’ve built a verification functionality into your site and have a process for authenticating all purchases.

No matter what type of pharmaceuticals you’re selling, it’s crucial that you have all product information readily available on your website. Nutrition facts, labels and any other pertinent information need to be obvious and easy to follow. This will help keep you out of hot water in terms of the many legalities of pharma.

How should you get started in the e-commerce world?

You might be reading this and now know about the importance of eCommercebut what if you have no online webstore? Don’t panic.

The first step to take is to develop a website that’s eCommerce friendly. There are many platforms from which to choose (and we can help you with this). Once you have your e-commerce website up and running, you have to figure out how to get people there! This is done by focusing on solid SEO practices and creating social media pages (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, etc.), as well as ongoing  email campaigns. These tactics will make people more aware of your brand and get them more engaged with what you offer.

Conclusion

With more and more people needing the convenience, safety and privacy that online pharma can provide, it’s no wonder that e-commerce sales increase every day. And when pharma companies know how to effectively sell online, they’ll reap the benefits for years to come.

To learn more about how InteractOne can help implement and grow your pharmaceutical eCommerce initiatives, contact us today.

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SEO Checklist: What to Fix to Drive Sales

SEO Checklist: What to Fix to Drive Sales

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plays a huge role in how a website ranks on search engines and how well existing and potential customers can find your webstore and its products. There are three types of SEO categories that companies need to focus on: technical, on-page and external. Each one of these types has multiple steps and related suggestions for creating an optimized website.  If you follow the steps in this checklist you’ll be on your way to improved SEO, better search rankings and more traffic to your site.

Structure Your Content

Since content is the main communication between a brand and a customer, it is crucial to create valuable content whether it is copy, videos, graphics or call to actions that are concise, memorable and impactful. On average, consumers leave a page within ten seconds unless the website includes a clear value proposition. Your content needs to focus on value by understanding who your customer is, where they are coming from and what their interests are.  Valuable content isn’t the only aspect your brand should focus on. Google analyzes all content on your website whether it is copy, images and videos. If structured correctly, search engines can easily understand your site content. For effective on-page SEO, you need to keep your site content skim-friendly by using headlines, subheadings, graphics and images. Users should be able to find the information they are looking for fast and efficiently.

Use and Strategically Place Keywords

Keywords play a huge rule for your on-page SEO. These keywords help your existing and potential customers find your site and your products organically on search engines. Don’t just go placing random keywords all over your content pages. It’s important to do keyword research on your targeted audience. While doing this research, keep in mind their demographics, geological location and what their interests are. There are many keyword search extensions and tools that can narrow down your search like Spyfu, Google Analytics and SEMRush. (If you’re lacking the resources or know-how to do this sort of research we recommend working with a marketing agency.) Once you know your keywords,  you can begin to strategically place them throughout your webstore.

Titles 

Using your main keyword in your titles on blogs, product pages, landing pages and homepages is a must. It is one of the first places your customer will find your site, page or even product. You will want to place your top keyword in front of your title. While working on the title of your page, you will also want to add title tag modifiers. Title tag modifiers are words or phrases that help your page rank for loads of long-tail keywords.

First 150 Words

Search engines like Google heavily focus on the first 150 words of your web page. The first 150 words need to include your main keyword at least once. You can also include a few of your other minor keywords. However, remember to not overuse your main or minor keywords in the first 150 words or the rest of your piece. If you’re attempting to shoehorn your keyword(s) as much as possible into the body of your content it will be obvious to your readers (and to the search engines) and make the content less readable. Distribute them sparselessly throughout the page and site..

H1, H2 and H3 Tags

Heading tags are the tags you use to size your title and subheadings. This allows your readers or shoppers to know the layout of the web page or article. While using heading tags, you will want to keep them as organized as possible and use relevant keywords. Even though these tags don’t make a huge contribution to your search engine rankings, every element helps.

Include a Meta Description

Meta descriptions describe or summarize the contents on your page for search engine ranking benefits. Here’s an example of what a meta description looks like from Fawn Shoppe, a brand that InteractOne worked with:

You want your meta description to be helpful to your customers by using your keywords to help build the context of your content. Each page on your webstore must have a unique meta description that ranges from 50 to 300 words.

Use Synonyms and LSI Keywords

While doing your keyword research, you will have one main keyword and multiple minor keywords. Instead of oversaturating your main keyword, you are going to want to use synonyms of that keyword or latent semantic indexing (LSI) keywords. LSI keywords are terms related to the main keyword that help search engines like Google to more deeply understand your webstore’s content. There are many extensions that your company can use to find the proper LSI keywords to use like LSIGraph. For ranking purposes, you will want to use your main keyword a couple of times and then add synonyms throughout the content. For better help on finding synonyms or LSI keywords that work best for your eCommerce, work with a knowledgeable marketing firm who knows the ins and outs of SEO marketing.

Optimize All Images to Include Alt Attributes

Any webstore’s images play a role in on-page search engine optimization. Since your website will prominently feature images, it is important to optimize all the site’s images to include alt attributes. Alt attributes help search engines identify the content on a web page. It is also the perfect opportunity to include your keywords. Optimizing your company’s images doesn’t just end with the image itself but also includes the image’s file name. When you are saving an image, name it with words and keywords that describe the image. Alt texts and file names further explain to search engines what it is and what your website is about.

Customize Your URLs

The first element of your webstore is the URL. It is that address that customers access your website from. Even though search engines can index non-customized URLs, customizing your URL is the perfect opportunity to include keywords and context of what the page is about. Including keywords in your URL can improve your organic click-through-rate (CTR). As you already know, organic CTR is the percentage of users that click on the search results. The CTR also influences a brand’s ranking on search engines. Also, keep in mind that recent studies show that URLs that are short rank the best on search engines. These shorter URLs are normally rich in keywords that help search engines evaluate what it is about.

Include External and Internal Links

To help gain a higher ranking on Google and other search engines, your brand needs to build a trusted site. You can build a trust-worthy webstore by linking trusted, well-referenced websites to your company’s site. These outbound well-referenced website links are known as external links. External links can display on blogs, social media, about pages, frequently asked questions pages and more. Search engine optimization experts recommend linking five to eight authoritative sources on your blogs. To drive more traffic to different pages on your webstore, your site must include internal links as well. Internal links are links that take a user to other pages on your website. You can use internal links (also known as cross-links) on blogs, social media and other pages throughout your site. If you are posting on a blog, SEO experts recommend linking two to five different pages on your site. It is also important to use keyword-rich anchor text when you use external and internal links.

Kabayare Fashion provides an excellent example of including multiple internal links on their Returns and Exchanges page:

Conclusion

For a successful on-page SEO strategy, you must implement each of these tactics. Each one of these steps, when working in tandem, will create a stronger, more desirable site in the eyes of search engines. Each one of these elements on their own won’t necessarily increase your webstore’s ranking; however, marrying all the aspects will create a business that will organically increase traffic. You have to figure out the best SEO tactics alone. Contact us today to learn how we can help increase  your traffic through search engine optimization.

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Fashion and the Art of the Cart Abandonment Email

Fashion and the Art of the Cart Abandonment Email

Even the most successful web stores suffer from cart abandonment, which is the term for when customers go through a portion of the purchase process and then leave the website before completing checkout. There can be any one of a hundred reasons why a customer abandons their cart. Sometimes it’s intentional, but sometimes carts are abandoned by accident, because the website timed out or crashed, or the shopper accidentally closed the browser.

According to Bolt, the average cart abandonment rate for clothing is 40%—which is more than the cart abandonment rate for home, tech and fitness combined. HubSpot points out that only 19% of the top 1,000 eCommerce companies engage in any kind of shopping cart abandonment recovery, yet 50% of customers who frequently abandon their carts will complete their purchase when prompted to. So it’s clear that eCommerce websites should be sending cart abandonment emails, otherwise they’re leaving money on the table. Read on for six tips for successful cart abandonment emails for fashion eCommerce websites.

Timing is everything

Contact your customer at the right times. Do this by setting up a series of automated cart recovery emails, or what’s known as a drip campaign. For example, you could set your system to send your first cart reminder email one hour after abandonment, then a second follow-up email a few days later, followed by a third email, perhaps with a promotional discount, a few days after that.

The discount could be a percentage off the product price, free shipping or a bundle deal—it’s up to you. You may want to try waiting to send the first email three to five hours after initial cart abandonment, if one hour after feels too soon. This timing is also something you could A/B test. You’ll never know what kind of timing your customer base responds to best unless you test it. However, it’s important to not become too predictable with your cart abandonment deals, otherwise your customers could learn to wait for coupons to arrive before revisiting their cart and making their purchase. (We’ll be covering A/B testing more, later on in this blog.)

Personalization is key

Make sure your emails are set up so that they specifically reference the product that was abandoned in the customer’s cart. They should include the product image, name and price in the body of the email, and directly reference the product they left behind in the email subject line. They should also address the customer by name—this makes it feel more tailor-made and personal. The more personal your email, the more likely it is to succeed.

You may also choose to have your system set up to trigger an email to one of your sales associates at the same time, so that when your shopper is recovered they can be assisted through the sales process by someone with all of the necessary details. This might only be necessary for larger purchases, B2B companies, or a product that requires customization.

AB test different tones

Witty, straightforward, or somewhere in-between? You need to explore all types of angles in your subject line copy in order to see which tone works best for your brand, but above all your cart abandonment emails should match the tone of your other marketing efforts.

You could try a straightforward subject line like “You left something” or “It looks like you forgot something”, but subject lines that include the product the shopper was looking at—and address the shopper by name—are ideal. For example, “[Name], your new favorite [jeans] are almost gone!”

Humor can also be effective—Adidas used this angle: “Is your Wi-Fi okay? Maybe your browser crashed when looking at [insert product name here].” Australian brand BlackMilk Clothing used this line: “Where’d you go?! That gear in your cart is lonely :(” You could also try the tactic of addressing the customer as if they didn’t intentionally leave the products in the cart, by having copy that says something like, “We can’t send you your [product] yet, because you haven’t completed the purchase…” You won’t know which tone will work best with your particular customers until you start testing some out.

To learn more about A/B testing, check out our recent blogs, “7 Simple A/B Tests to Improve Your eCommerce Site” and “How to A/B Test Your Magento Site to More Conversions”.

Assuage Their Concerns

Common reasons for cart abandonment include slow delivery and concerns about the quality, fit or price of the clothing. If you can follow up and reduce or eliminate these concerns, you’ll be more likely to convert this visitor into a customer. Start by promoting your delivery options, including speed and price. If you are able to offer free shipping, be sure to make this very clear in your follow-up emails.

You could also include copy that highlights the product quality, or shares positive customer reviews of that product. This could be as simple as having a subject line like: “There are ★★★★★ products in your cart!” Or you could include the number of product reviews and the average rating alongside the product name and photo in the body of the email. You could also offer a discount, as suggested earlier. And of course make your return policies clear, to relieve any concern the customer may have about being stuck with an item that’s not right for them.

Do Special Themed Emails During Holidays

Customers who abandon carts during or approaching holidays would likely benefit from holiday-themed emails that offer limited-time deals. For example, you’ll want to include messaging that refers to expected shipping times and also limited supplies of stock in emails that are sent a few weeks before Christmas. Everyone knows there’s only so much time to put in an order, so this could be the nudge many customers need to get clicking and complete theirs.

Keep Testing

Along with the tone of your email body copy and subject lines, you’d be wise to A/B test variations on design, sending times and Call To Actions (CTAs), to see what works best with your audience. Different CTAs to try could include “resume your order”, “complete your purchase”, “check out now”, “restore my cart” or “complete checkout”.

You might also like to try highlighting just the highest-rated or most popular product the customer left in their cart, instead of trying to sell multiple items at once. One eye-catching, recognizable product image might be enough to convert that customer. You can then tailor your copy to talk about that product and what’s made it so popular—and how popular it is, to play on the FOMO aspect (or Fear Of Missing Out, which is a huge driver of sales). You could also include a recent customer review of the product, for an extra push. Test and keep testing until you find what works best for your brand.

Conclusion

Cart abandonment email strategies are a lot like traditional retail sales strategies—they require trial and error. So don’t be afraid to keep testing and tweaking your strategy until something sticks. For help on narrowing down your options and choosing a successful strategy, talk to our team today.

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Padawan Series: eCommerce and Pharmaceuticals: Popularity, Benefits and How to Get Started

Padawan Series: Best Mail Practices For Apparel & Accessories

The use of direct mail marketing decreases every year with brick-and-mortar retailers, as well as  eCommerce stores. Businesses are increasingly opting for the more affordable, faster, and more effective route — email marketing. As an apparel and accessories webstore, email marketing is one of the main ways you promote your brand. As you know, email marketing involves sending out commercial emails to existing and potential customers as a means to communicate important details about your products, webstore, social media and any other relevant information. It’s the most direct way to keep in touch with your prospects and customer base. 

No matter how many fans or followers you have on social media, you don’t ‘own’ those contacts. The average social media post will organically reach less than 1% of your followers. Whereas with email marketing, you ‘own’ those contacts. Assuming their email address is still active, you can be assured that your eblast will reach their inbox, giving you the opportunity to make a connection and a sale. In this guide, you will learn how to make the most of your email communications. Read on for the four best practices when using email marketing for your apparel and accessories eCommerce business.

Personalize Emails for Targeted Audiences

Your apparel webstore needs to have personalized emails to target specific audiences. When we say personalized emails, we don’t mean to send out individual emails, hand written to each customer. Instead, these personalized emails in most cases include welcome emails, standard promotional emails, seasonal emails, newsletters, post-purchase emails, cart abandonment emails and re-engagement emails. Each one of these email types has a specific layout and purpose. For example, cart abandonment emails target customers who placed items into a cart, but never completed the purchase. By sending out a cart abandonment email, you are reminding customers of your site and the products they wanted. Plus if you add an offer, they are more inclined to finish purchasing. 

Personalized emails also work as a means of developing a deeper connection with your customers. Customers prefer personalized emails based on their demographic, geographical location and items they prefer. By skipping out on sending a mass email to every subscriber, your customers most likely will open more of your emails which then leads to more conversions, instead of them throwing it away or unsubscribing. You can customize emails to your customers by checking out your CRM data to learn what your customers are looking at and what they are possibly interested in. 

Keeping up with all the different types of personalized emails can be confusing and time-consuming, especially when working with a large customer database and a CRM like Salesforce. That’s why we recommend working with a marketing firm that understands the different types of emails and when to send them.

Review Your Mail Schedule

Timing is everything and that is particularly true for  email. You have to reach your customers at the right time or you risk losing them forever. Cart abandonment emails work well to drive traffic because it prompts the customers to complete an action they already began. The popular clothing company, ASOS, provides an excellent, straight-to-the-point cart abandonment email:

Another example is scheduling emails around specific holidays like the Christmas season, Cyber Monday, back to school and more. Also, remember that customers unsubscribe from brands that send out too many emails. Most companies send out about two to eight emails a month to their subscribers, depending on the brand and testing. Testing is crucial to this process as well. You don’t want to scare off subscribers with too many eblasts but you also want to stay top-of-mind for them. We’ve spoken at length about the benefits of AB testing your website (here and here) but these same principles apply to your email schedule as well. Test different release schedules on random portions of your contact list to see what frequency solicites the best response.

Monitor Email Performance

What’s the point of having email marketing if you don’t know how well your emails are  performing? An email performance report will show you what sections have the highest and lowest conversion rates. From there, you can then decide what needs to stay and what needs to change.. 

Many email providers can view your open and click rates. If they notice your emails are not being opened and engaged with, your reputation as a mailer can plummet, which could result in being kicked off the platform. To avoid this from happening, here are three approaches that you should keep in mind:

  1. Use special messaging to reactivate customers.
  2. Reduce the number of emails you send to these customers.
  3. If recipients aren’t opening or clicking on your email, remove them from your list. 

Dropping subscribers from your email list maybe concerning, but it will actually  boost your mailer reputation. If you notice that you are unsubscribing many users, make sure to have a marketing plan to find new potential customers. Monitoring email performance is a tedious task that can be confusing and frustrating, especially if you’re also evaluating any A/B tests you’re currently running. There are many Magento extensions that help monitor your emails as well as do A/B testing. Email tools like Mailchimp, Klaviyo, dotDigital and Listrak are a few places where you can monitor and A/B test your email marketing. 

Revise Future Emails

Email marketing involves a ton of testing and trial and error. When you first start sending emails, it may be hard to know what will and won’t work for your customers. Throughout any email marketing campaign, you will learn what customers click on. From there, you grow and adapt to what they want to see. You also need to remember that customers’ interests are constantly changing. So, a Call To Action or content (video, images or written copy) that worked before doesn’t guarantee that your customers will continue to show interest months down the line. 

As mentioned before, A/B testing your email performance is key to understanding what works for your company. While reviewing your results, you need to take note of every feature that isn’t working and replace it with a new element that may better connect with your audience. This applies to every element of your emails including CTAs, graphics, promotions, copy, images, layout, subject lines and preheaders. By constantly revising and building upon improvements, you should have an email design and release schedule that fits your brand and connects with your customer base in a real and measurable way.

The potential of gaining new customers through email marketing is limitless, but there are a number of steps and requirements every company must go through to send out any emails. The best way to stay on top of your email marketing is to use one of these recommended extensions or work with a knowledgeable marketing team. To learn more about how to implement these strategies and increase online sales, contact us today.

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How Voice Integration Will Boost Your Digital Marketing Efforts

How Voice Integration Will Boost Your Digital Marketing Efforts

The field of digital marketing continues to evolve with the introduction multiple forms of new technology. As voice technology becomes more readily available, experts have speculated how it will affect the various digital marketing platforms. The possibilities of this technology in the future are yet to be fully understood as voice search is only now beginning to become a favorite tool among customers. With voice assistance devices like Google Home and Amazon’s Echo becoming popular, brands need to take advantage of this technology to remain relevant.

What is Voice Search?

Voice search simply refers to voice recognition technology, which allows people to conduct online searches by speaking into a device. The device could be a smartphone, smart TV, computers, remote control, or home assistant devices. Since customers no longer have to type what they are looking for in their devices, this approach is considered faster and more convenient.

Successful voice marketing involves understanding how people use voice recognition technology to search for items and knowledge. As this technology continues to evolve, eCommerce brands will need to understand how their customers are using voice to search for products. Voice customer analytics is a good place to start as it shows the phrases and choice of words popular among the customers. Using this data to integrate voice interactions in your digital marketing efforts will earn you a competitive edge over others.

Why Brands Need to Adopt Voice Strategies

Webstores need to adopt voice in their marketing strategy because it is a popular emergent technology, which is expected to only get bigger and influence more of how customers interact with businesses. For instance, the Alexa Magento capabilities allow online store owners to keep track of their sales and store performance. You can simply ask Alexa to provide you with a weekly business summary, a report of the orders placed during the month, summary of best-selling products, and more. You can also create an Alexa customer service using Alexa for your Magento site for better voice interactions with customers.

The benefits of voice technology to customers cannot be overemphasized. Not only does voice technology drive more traffic to your site, but it also improves customer experience and helps your brand stay ahead of the competition. Both Google Assistant and Alexa can differentiate between voices, allowing brands to gain insights about users. Consequently, brands can create more personalized messages and content to improve the customer experience. The more personalized the content is, the more customer interactions become natural and seamless.

A voice search strategy is also important in preventing customers from finding your competitors easily. When you optimize your websites, you will have the chances of prospects finding you on search engines. Your SEO strategy becomes more competitive and you will be able to attract more prospects. As much as this technology is still in its nascent stages, businesses that have started using it report improved results.

How to Optimize for Voice Search

The rise of voice search is expected to revolutionize SEO and significantly affect digital marketing. When optimizing your eCommerce site for voice search, you will need to use conversational language and emphasize featured snippets. Using authoritative and informative content and transforming text search into long-tail questions are also crucial.

When optimizing your website for voice search, frame your content in the way people speak when performing the search. Your product listing, FAQ and landing pages should be optimized for voice search. Typically, people tend to speak in complete sentences when performing a voice as opposed to shorted or summarized queries when typing. While text searches focus on specific keywords, voice searches focus on conversational level language. Instead of optimizing “best hotel in New York,” your voice optimized content should be “what is the best hotel in New York.”

Currently, Google is prioritizing featured snippets that answer questions promptly and accurately. This means the more accurate your featured snippets are, the higher will be your ranking on search results. Creating informative and authoritative content gives you an edge on voice search results. Some of the consideration you should have include:

  • Use of natural-sounding language
  • Provision of concise answers to questions
  • Creating queries into question phrases
  • Targeting long-tail keywords
  • Focusing on action queries
  • Thinking about user intent
  • Keeping your website fast, secure, and mobile-friendly
  • Tightening up your local SEO schema
  • Completely filling out Google My Business Profile

How We Can Help

Implementing voice strategy in your marketing can prove to be a huge challenge, no matter your level of experience in the world of digital marketing. At InteractOne, we ensure that your content marketing reflects the needs of your customers. Before integrating voice interaction, we consider whether your target customers are smart-home enthusiasts, your content experience is valuable with voice, and the likelihood of the marketing efforts succeeding via voice.

When it comes to voice search optimization, there’s a lot to manage from search intent to local SEO. While implementing a voice search strategy is the first part of the equation, making sure it works is crucial. With all the opportunities the new technology is bringing, you will need to work with an expert in digital marketing. If you are stuck on how to make your digital marketing strategy more dynamic and diverse, we are here to help.  Let’s start a new project together!

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How to Integrate Omnichannel Marketing in Your Magento Site

How to Integrate Omnichannel Marketing in Your Magento Site

Omnichannel marketing is a revolutionary way of connecting with  customers. It offers a seamless experience to customers regardless of their choice of the medium or social media network. Omnichannel involves the use of multiple marketing channels to create a unified experience for the customers. Under this marketing approach, a seamless message is created that adjusts to the behavior and needs of the customers through the sales funnel. When integrating this approach to marketing in your Magento site, several factors apply:

Make Your Website Mobile-friendly

Omnichannel marketing combines both online and offline channels. For this reason, your website and eCommerce store should be ready for various devices, including mobile. With 79% of smartphone users making a purchase with their phones, a mobile-friendly site is likely to make more sales. When you optimize your website for mobile, you get to access customers on both desktop and mobile channels.

Identify Channels Your Customers Use the Most

Part of creating an omnichannel marketing channel is knowing which channels will generate more positive results. You should not jump from one channel to another with the hope of increasing customer interaction. Instead, identify and invest only in the channels your customers use the most. For instance, Facebook is an excellent choice for millennials and gen X adults while Instagram is more ideal for Gen Z adults. Linking your website to the appropriate channel will ensure you get the most from your efforts.

Engage the Whole Team

Omnichannel marketing is an all-inclusive approach to marketing. You cannot succeed if part of your team is not invested  in the strategy. Ensure that every team member is on board with your strategy, while putting the needs of your customers at the forefront. Engaging team members from all departments allows you to gather appropriate data and understand the contributions of each department. On one side, the product development team will provide adequate information about your products. On the other side, marketers will be sharing  this information via your site and other means and collecting customer data for better service provision.

Match Content with Marketing Channel

The content that you post on any specific channel should be relevant and appropriate. For instance, photos do well on Instagram while long posts work perfectly with Facebook. You can use influencer marketing videos to market your Magento site on TikTok or YouTube, and provide longer text-based content on email newsletters and blog posts. A common mistake that business owners make is replicating the same content across the channels. On the contrary, you should ensure that you make the most of the different channels by providing relevant content.

Remember that a big portion of the omnichannel strategy relies on the power of personalization and targeting. You need to achieve a deeper level of personalization for each group of customers. When crafting the message, make sure it fits the customer profile data, their shopping behavior, and campaign engagement.

Implement Shoppable Posts

One of the latest features that has proven effective in omnichannel marketing are shoppable posts. Shoppable posts are now common on social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook. Instead of the traditional as that would direct people to your site to complete the purchase, shoppable posts allow customers to make a purchase directly on social media, removing multiple steps and clicks. This provides for a much more streamlined Checkout process that removes many of the steps previously required to facilitate a purchase. Taking advantage of this new content  allows you to increase sales through social media sites.

Segment Your Audience

The success of an omnichannel marketing approach in your Magento site will depend on how well you understand your audience. Each audience segment is looking for something specific. Consequently, different messages will  appeal to different groups. Make sure that you segment your customers before conducting lead generation for your website. This should be based on factors like customer data and triggers. The more data you have about your customers, the better your message will appeal to them. Some of the factors you may consider when segmenting your audience include gender, loyalty, geo-location, and previous engagement. You can then determine the most appropriate channel to use with each customer segment.

Provide Cross-Channel Customer Support

Customers expect the same level of efficiency and customer support across all your platforms. If your live chat support is effective but your Facebook chat is inactive, you are limiting your company’s availability and it could be costing you customers. In fact, a third of customers consider switching companies when they experience bad customer experience. To ensure success in omnichannel marketing, your brand must be  consistent across all your active channels. Both your social media messages, live chat, or email support should provide the same level of experience. Allow your customers to call your company or interact on a personal level to provide that extra personal touch.

Bottom Line

Integrating omnichannel marketing in your Magento site involves passing messages to customers across the various channels. Apart from making your site mobile-friendly, you will also need to take advantage of social media and other platforms. Most importantly, ensure that the content you provide is appropriate and ideal for the channel being used.  Talk to our Omnichannel Marketing Experts today and learn how to integrate omnichannel marketing in your magento site.

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UPDATED: The Best Live Chat Practices for Your eCommerce Site

UPDATED: The Best Live Chat Practices for Your eCommerce Site

For many eCommerce merchants, their website’s live chat function is one of their primary means of communication with customers. This can be attributed to the fact that most people prefer chat over other means of communication, such as calling or email. With 65% of millennials and Gen X using chat as the main mode of communication, brands that offer this means of communication on their website appear more attractive. As technology advances, “chatbots are now becoming a norm.” In fact, it is estimated that chatbots will be capable of replacing the customer support clerk within a decade. This is attributed to their capability of answering common customer queries and directing customers to relevant web pages for more information.

Although chatbots are designed to complement live staff, understanding the qualities of effective customer services is critical. The following live chat tactics will help eCommerce merchants provide customers with a great online experience. The tips are applicable to both websites using live support staff and those using chatbots to improve customer experience.

 Visibility is Key

One of the most important aspects of live chat is its visibility. If customers can’t immediately see this feature while they are shopping, chances are they won’t search it out. In order to be easily detected, the window should be in the bottom right corner of the page with some sort of bright icon that is easy on the eyes yet readily seen. Even better, reach out to the customer first!

Automate the first message to communicate with the customer before they run into an issue – that way they immediately have a helpful resource at their disposal. Visibility also means that live chat should be available on every page in the same spot. However, make sure you have clearly indicated whether the customer is chatting with a bot or a human.

Respond Quickly

Replying promptly is the most important function an eCommerce site’s live chat can serve. Quick response times showcase a business’s ability to be attentive and professional in handling customer issues. An easy way to ensure that your live chat is speedy is to set up an automated response for initial contact. To ensure that this is followed by a swift follow-up from a real representative, build in push notifications that will notify your customer representative staff whenever a new chat has been initiated. This way, shoppers will be engaged immediately and be attended to as quickly as possible.

The natural language processing (NLP) capability helps in automating the chat processes. Even when your customer service agents are busy elsewhere, the bots ensure that the customer gets the same satisfaction they would when chatting with a real person.

Ask Questions

Understanding exactly what information a shopper is searching for via the live chat feature is the key to properly solving and answering their question. Usually, issues like product finder, offer notification, order status check, and simple customer service queries can be handled by a chatbot. But for customers and questions that require a more personalized service, a human representative will be needed. To get a full scope of the issue, instruct your live chat representatives to ask plenty of detailed, pointed questions at the beginning of the interaction to understand exactly what the issue is. Being thorough at the start of a conversation will help save time for both the representative and the customer later on.

It is always important to be transparent with your clients by letting them know whom they are interacting with in the live chat. Provide a way they can reach a human agent if they do not want to chat with a bot. This could be a button the customer can press to start a conversation with a human agent. When the customer transitions from a bot chat to human chat, it provides closure and builds more trust.

Avoid Robotic Responses

An eCommerce merchant should sound professional, but also like a human being. Sounding too robotic will give the impression that there isn’t a person on the end of the line, which will leave the customer feeling isolated. Even a chatbot should be friendly and have human appeal. Greet the customer warmly as they sign on and consider personalizing it with their name. Ask how they’re doing and how you can help them. Maintain a friendly tone throughout the interaction to keep that personal touch.

Any chatbot must have access to adequate customer data. Remember, a chatbot is as smart as the data you feed it. For more advanced conversation abilities, the chatbot must have access to data about your customers and your brand. Be sure to maintain a tone of voice that properly reflects your brand. If you sell high-tech gadgets and tools, you may be slightly more professional than an eCommerce store selling makeup or jewelry. The more personalized a customer finds the conversation to be, the more satisfied they will be.

Know When to Escalate

A customer will usually seek the help of live support when they cannot get the ‘answers’ they are searching for on your site or from the bot. When they do, the live chat representative should do everything in their power and capability to fix the customer’s issue. However, it is important to know when to escalate to a supervisor, IT professional, or alternative department. Have customer service policies in place that encourage employees to communicate this to the customer and assure them that help is on the way – if you take too long or leave them hanging, they are more likely to abandon their cart or seek out a different merchant altogether.

“Is There Anything Else I Can Help You With?”

A good chatbot will perform all the basic customer service tasks of an e-commerce website. They include collecting customer data, handling online transactions, upselling products, and providing access information. Other tasks include providing user feedback, offering quizzes, and giving personalized recommendations. However, getting more information from the customer is equally important and may require the intervention of a human representative.

 Every time a customer seeks service from a live chat representative, they should confirm that they have solved the customer’s problem. Once this is complete, they should ask, “Is there anything else I can help you with?” The customer may have additional issues to discuss and it should be the live chat representative’s goal to provide a comprehensive customer service experience. Even if the customer doesn’t have additional questions, it highlights the eCommerce merchant’s commitment to superior customer service.

Ask for Feedback

Once the customer confirms they have no other concerns, an eCommerce merchant should present them with a poll or request comments on the interaction. This type of direct request is a great way for an eCommerce site to gain valuable feedback and continue improving their live chat service. The process can be automated using a good chatbot with a conversational user interface. The data collected will be useful in improving customer experience and the overall service provided on your e-commerce website.

For more tips on how to create the optimal live chat experience for online customers, contact our team of experienced eCommerce professionals today.

Communication Channels Fashion Brands Must Embrace

Communication Channels Fashion Brands Must Embrace

These days consumers are online like never before, which means that now is the time for brands to hone their internet-based communications. This requires going beyond traditional email marketing to embrace newer channels that consumers are using, such as video chat and social media. Engagement and availability is key; if your fashion, apparel or accessories brand isn’t utilizing new tools for talking to your customers, you’re probably missing out. 

Brands need to meet consumers where they already are. For some, this can seem intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. First, you need to consider the tools at your disposal. Read on for five often-underutilized communication channels your brand should be using to engage customers.

Text Message

Many fashion brands have been slow to adopt text messages as a form of communication with their customers, with concerns about being perceived as too pushy. But now that 96% of American adults own a cell phone (according to Pew Research), text messages are increasingly being seen as an excellent way to engage customers. Texts have an average open rate of 93%, compared to emails, which have an average open rate of 25% (according to Inc). With most of us receiving a glut of marketing emails from brands every day, it can be easy to see why texts might be more easily noticed.

The key is to be tactful: provide clear opt-out information from the beginning, and don’t bombard your customers with multiple texts all at once. Try using texts to inform customers about restocks of specific products they’ve expressed interest in, or already purchased, via your website. Send them promotions such as personalized, limited-time discount codes and offers. Brands that are really concerned about coming off as too pushy could try the same approach that Toronto-based jewellery brand Mejuri uses: they don’t initiate any conversations with customers. Instead, they allow consumers to text them with any questions about products, and they respond in a timely manner, so the focus is on the customer’s convenience.

Web Chat

Whether powered by artificial intelligence or human employees, web chat can be another powerful tool for fashion brands. Allowing customers to engage with sales associates or stylists via chat and ask questions about your products in real-time while they browse can be a simple but effective way to drive both engagement and sales. Research from Forrester found that customers who interacted with web chat were 2.8 times more likely to make a purchase.

While AI-powered chatbots can be useful for simple questions and issues, sometimes these services can suffer from their lack of humanity. Web chats with real staff members offer that human element where nuances in language are perhaps more able to be understood, and the personal element of retail shopping is retained. Fashion brands like Modcloth, Nordstrom and Warby Parker all benefit from their live chat services, which provide personalized service that retains the brand’s voice in a way that’s natural and conversational.

One-On-One Video Calls

Styling and wardrobe consulting has always been a huge part of the fashion world—one that will never simply go away overnight, no matter how many apps or algorithms are created. Consumers value the personal human element of fashion retail customer service, which is why it translates so well to the web. Department stores like Nordstrom and independent fashion stylists such as Allison Bornstein and Julia von Boehm are providing styling services via video calls, and now more brands of all sizes are getting on board—and yours should too.

It’s really just about extending your retail experience into your online offering, minus the physical interaction of clothes (or shoes or jewelry) exchanging hands. Video calling is a great way to introduce customers to a collection either pre- or post-purchase. The same demonstrations that are given in-store can now be done online. This allows for more dynamic product demonstrations than simply viewing static product shots on-screen, and enables questions and answers to be delivered in real-time, satisfying customers just as quickly.

Social Media

Its constantly evolving nature may feel burdensome to learn and incorporate, but social media can be extremely rewarding for fashion brands seeking to engage more with their customers. Apps like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok enable brands to tell stories in entertaining and exciting ways and bring their products to life in animated videos, slideshows, GIFs, memes and more.

Fashion brands such as Guess and PrettyLittleThing are utilizing TikTok by creating interactive “challenges” where customers interact with and customize their clothing, and by sharing engaging behind-the-scenes content. Instagram is also being embraced in unorthodox ways by brands—even legacy fashion houses such as Chanel, who recently hosted a live-streamed music performance on their Instagram Stories.

Brands who succeed on these channels do so by using them to build community and inspire creativity, not simply push their products. It’s these memorable moments that brands create that make them stand out and gain loyal followers.

Digital Seminars

Social media and video conferencing services like Zoom are also increasingly being utilized by savvy online fashion brands eager to engage their audiences in real-time conversation. This can mean brands inviting consumers into conversation with them on Instagram Live, or doing live-streamed video conferences with industry peers and collaborators. They can facilitate conversations on everything from brand-specific matters, to broader issues facing the fashion industry.

New York designer Mara Hoffman has hosted some informative conversations about sustainability and new projects and products with her collaborators and partner organizations on her Instagram Live in recent weeks. French luxury brand Chloé has also been hosting discussions with a curated selection of creative women (or “#ChloeGirls”). These kinds of web-based discussions can help to establish your brand as more approachable, engaged and expert in its field. It can also help to introduce your brand to a wider audience.

Conclusion

Whether or not your fashion brand is already using the communication channels above, there’s a good chance your customers already are. Join them and build your community together. If you’d like some guidance on how to effectively build out your communications offering, please reach out to our team today.

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