editor, Author at Mediastreet

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A Beginner’s Guide to Turning Followers Into Customers with a Bio Link

November 4, 2020 No Comments

If you’re using social media for business in 2020, specifically Instagram or TikTok, you need to have a bio link.

Social media is no longer just about gaining lots of followers and posting the most trendy photos. While both of those things are still good to do, you need to have a plan to get people off of your social media platform and onto your website.

You can’t control social media. We could wake up tomorrow and all of our followers could be gone. (Hopefully, that won’t happen!) So, what’s your plan for bringing your followers to your website, your email list, your online shop, or even your other social platforms? If you don’t have one, here’s the secret: it’s a bio link.

Social platforms like Instagram and TikTok don’t allow you to have active links in your posts. (Although, Instagram might be changing that eventually… but you’ll likely have to pay for clickable caption links.)

Instead, you can have one clickable link in your bio. How many posts do you see that end with “link in bio for more information” or something to that effect? Probably a lot.

That’s the only place you can consistently direct your followers to access content from Instagram – and the same goes for TikTok.

The benefits of having a bio link

There are a few key benefits to taking advantage of the link in your bio.

Drive Traffic

You can use your bio link to drive traffic to the pages you want to promote. Maybe this is your online shop, or maybe it’s your latest freebie. No matter where you direct them, though, your bio link can help you bring your followers off of social media and onto the pages you control. This gives you the chance to capture their contact information so you can better connect and follow up with them in the future.

You can promote any page you want with your bio link. If you’re trying to grow your followers on another platform, you could promote that account. You could also link to your blog, podcast, or YouTube channel if you want to talk about the content you created recently.

Or, link to your product page, online shop, or services page to make sales directly. Finally, add a link to the contact page of your website, or any resources you’ve found recently is helpful for your audience, too.

For example, here @asboldasbritt uses a direct link to promote her newest freebie.

Convert Followers to Customers

Social media is a marketing tool. All good marketing tools should have a strategy and way to convert those who see it into customers.

In this case, you want to use your social posts as a way to warm up your followers and then encourage them to make a purchase.

While there are ways to sell directly within Instagram, you might not meet the necessary criteria. Instead, bringing people off the app and straight to your shop or services page is a much better way to sell.

You can talk about your product or service in an Instagram post and then end with “click the link in my bio to learn more” or “head to the link in my bio to grab yours now.”

You can also talk about whatever you’re selling in your Stories or Live videos and always direct your audience back to the link in your bio to purchase.

Here, @_thetaylorlee has the link in her bio pointing to her private coaching landing page, where interested people fill out an application for coaching.

Track Traffic

Analytics and tracking are critical in marketing and sales processes. After all, you want to make sure you’re putting your time, energy and money into the right platforms.

You want to be able to see what kind of traffic you’re getting from Instagram and other social platforms. Unfortunately, tracking your traffic can get a little tricky.

There’s one way you can make it much easier: use a bio link tool and sync it with your Google Analytics. You’ll be able to see how much traffic came from social media and what they did once they landed on your targeted pages.

Optimizing your bio link

Now, there are a couple of different ways you can use this link. You can link it directly to the page you’re promoting. If you do that, though, you’ll need to remember to come back and change the link whenever you change your promotion or whenever you mention a different link in your most recent post. And, because of the algorithm, someone might not see a post until a few days later. If you’ve already changed your link to match your newest post, they’ll be out of luck.

I briefly mentioned your other option earlier: use a bio link tool.

Implementing a tool like this can help you in a few different ways. First, as I said earlier, you can link it to Google Analytics to track your traffic. Beyond that, you can use a bio link tool to include multiple links in your bio.

No more deciding which blog to include, and you don’t have to worry about what people who see your post in the future will have to do. You can include your most popular links in your tool so you can easily refer to your blog, services page, contact page, YouTube channel, podcast, or anything else you want to promote, and your followers will know right where to go!

The 12 best bio link tools

Now that you’re ready to choose a bio link tool, let’s take a look at the best tools you can choose from.

1. url.bio

Free and unlimited links? With url.bio, it’s not too good to be true.

You can add as many links as you’d like, so there’s no shortage of promotions. Url.bio is also highly customizable, so your landing page can look like it fits your brand’s voice.

You can also track your analytics directly within your dashboard so you know which content is performing best.

2. Lnk.bio

Promote your best links, and even temporarily pause certain links, with Lnk.bio. Get started in under a minute, and choose from over 50 icons to make your link look unique.

You can link to your social platforms easily, and it’s all web-based, so you won’t need to download anything.

Begin with a free plan, or upgrade to $0.99/month for a custom URL, tracking, and external analytics.

Want to only pay once? For $9.99, you can get those upgrades permanently. If you’re looking for more, the most advanced plan is $24.99 and offers the removal of the Lnk.bio logo, the ability to change colors, and add a background image.

3. Bio.fm

If you’re looking for a more robust bio link tool, consider bio.fm. You can add multiple types of content to your page, including links, information about you, your social media feeds and more.

With a drag-and-drop software, you can move your email collection form to the top, or choose to highlight your Facebook Group instead.

Use bio.fm for free and get four content blocks, or upgrade for $10/month for a premium account to add unlimited blocks and types of content to your profile, remove their logo and create a custom URL.

4. Linktree

Another bio link option is Linktree. Drag-and-drop your links to create your ideal layout. Make sure your favorite or most important link is on top and easy to see.

Join for free to get unlimited links and a QR code. Or, upgrade to the PRO account for $6/month and add priority links, link scheduling, video links, thumbnails, social icons, and more.

The PRO account also gives you more detailed analytics, while the free plan shows you your total views and link clicks.

5. Sked Social

Sked Social is more than just a bio link tool. It’s also an Instagram scheduling platform that offers full analytics, Story scheduling, and more.

Its link in bio tool, only available for Instagram, lets you add buttons to your layout so you can easily capture your viewer’s attention. You can even add a shopping link to make sales sooner.

Add your branding and view your analytics so you’re in complete control. Because they offer so much more than just the link, Sked Social’s Fundamentals plan is $25/month, Essentials is $75/month and Professional is $135. You can get started with a 7-day free trial.

6. Link in Bio by Later

Another multi-use platform is Later, which allows you to schedule your posts, plan hashtags, and view analytics. Along with it, though, you can turn on the bio link tool to take advantage of those benefits. You can even link specific Instagram posts to particular articles or web pages, so your audience will know right where to click.

Create a shoppable Instagram feed within your link, and monitor your analytics so you know what’s working. Begin for free at linkin.bio to get one link per post, or upgrade for $12.50/month to the Growth Plan or $25/month for Advanced to add multiple links, remove the Later banner and add a Shopify integration.

Both of the paid options offer additional features in the scheduling portion of the platform.

Best-Bio-Link-Tools-Link-in-bio-by-Later

7. Link in Profile

Set up your Link in Profile in seconds, add to your existing workflow, and watch your ROI grow. It works with your Etsy, Shopify, Amazon, WordPress, or other existing accounts.

Begin with a free trial, and then after 30 days continue with a $9.99/month personal plan. You’ll get a dedicated, branded landing page, easy management, and integrated commerce links.

8. Campsite.bio

Create a simple, beautiful landing page with Campsite.bio. Add it to your social media accounts or even your email signature.

Control how your branding looks so your followers know they’re in the right place. Upgrade to Campsite Pro for use on other social media sites by adding images, removing the branding, and adding your own domain.

Its basic plan is free forever, and Campsite Pro is $7/month.

9. Contact in Bio

Here’s your one-stop-shop for a micro-landing page. With Contact in Bio, you can add multiple links, enjoy the rich features offered, collect leads, and send followers to your social media accounts.

Give your followers access to payment links, music services, and contact forms, as well as messenger options.

Choose from the free starter plan, the $7/month business plan with added benefits like video uploading, shoppable feeds, and more, or choose the $28/month agency plan to manage up to five accounts.

10. Tap Bio

Create your own Tap Bio easily and choose your cards. Add a profile card, easily link to many different sites and show your followers exactly what they want to see.

The basic plan with one card is free or upgrade to the Silver plan for $5/month or $36/year to get three cards or unlimited cards with the Gold plan for $12/month or $96/year. Silver and Gold plans also offer stats.

11. Milkshake

Milkshake lets you create a mini website for your Instagram account quickly and easily. Share more and use your Insta Site to jumpstart your business.

Pick a card, add your content, and customize your look. Then publish your link and monitor your analytics and insights. Your followers can swipe through the cards of your site like Instagram Stories. Milkshake is a free app available on iOS and Android.

12. Shorby

Finally, Shorby is designed to supercharge your YouTube and Instagram. Automatically feed your most recent posts, videos, and blogs into your Shorby page. Add messengers, a title, blocks, and social links to create your custom look. You can even add a countdown to create a feeling of excitement.

Pricing for Shorby begins at $12/month for the Rocket plan, $24/month for Pro, and $82/month for Agency. Pro and Agency both have more pages, 5 dynamic feeds per page, Google Analytics, and a custom domain. Agency also allows more projects and teams.

Convert your followers to customers with bio links

Now you’ve seen the 12 best bio link tools that are currently available. Each one is a little different, but one of them is sure to offer just what you’re looking for in your business.

Adding a clickable link to your bio, and especially using a tool to expand the number of links you can have, is a great way to grow your business and convert your followers to customers.

By Rafaella Aguiar

Rafaella Aguiar is the Marketing Manager at Kicksta. She specializes in content and social media marketing. You can find more daily marketing tips from her at @kicksta.co.

Sourced from Jeff Bullas

In News

10 Best Online Business Courses: Highly Curated By Skill

November 4, 2020 No Comments

By Paulina Karpis

Should I take an online business course or enrol in an MBA program? Great question — I’ve thought about this one a lot.

In 2020, the only result a brand name, full-time MBA program can guarantee is a six-figure debit in your bank account.

Full-time tuition at top schools is north of $200k. And that number doesn’t include the opportunity cost of leaving the workforce for two years, nor does it factor in the interest on any loans you take out.

Pre-COVID, the core benefits of MBA programs were the on-campus career fairs and on-site employer visits. But with the current state of the world, these events aren’t happening anymore. Traditional recruiters of business school grads are nowhere to be found.

While I don’t think an MBA is worth it anymore, investing in building your business skills has never been more important. And with a computer, Internet connection, and the right online business course, you can replicate (and even exceed) the knowledge and network an MBA program promises — at a fraction of the cost.

So, let’s get you started! We put together a list of the best online business courses you should consider taking this year.

Best Online Business Courses

1. Branding – Brand Identity and Strategy

A strong brand identity is key to a company’s success. Just look at timeless brands like Coca-Cola, Apple, and Disney, and newer companies like Allbirds, Warby Parker, and Glossier.

A solid brand tells a company’s story in a way that connects with customers, draws them in, and keeps them coming back for a long time. Learn all the branding tips and tricks you need.

2. Design – Graphic Design Bootcamp: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign

Whether you want to create a logo, event announcements, or beautiful backgrounds for your website, basic graphic design skills are incredibly useful to have.

In this boot camp, learn how to work with three of the best design tools — Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign — plus how to leverage them for both print and digital projects. Take your branding and marketing assets to the next level all on your own.

3. Finance – Fundamentals of Finance and Accounting for Non-Financial Managers

Basic finance skills are important for everyone. It’s crucial to understand how the bottom line works and how you and your team play into it. You don’t need to be an accounting pro, but knowing the fundamentals is key.

In this course, dive into: uncovering profitability drains, justifying purchases, interpreting financial reports, and adequately demonstrating your value and ROI to your boss — something every single employee should be able to do.

4. Marketing – Become a Digital Marketer

Digital marketing skills are in high demand. And though many of us are quite technologically savvy, digital marketing is not nearly as easy as it seems. Rather, it’s quite complex and involves several different strategies and moving parts.

Get up to speed on omni-channel marketing, marketing analytics, social media strategy, customer retention, and more. By the end, you’ll be able to overcome the “digital skills gap” many traditional marketers face today.

5. Negotiation – Introduction to Negotiation: A Strategic Playbook for Becoming a Principled and Persuasive Negotiator

From term sheets, to your salary, to getting the best possible discount on your new car — good negotiating skills will help you get exactly what you want (and deserve), both professionally and personally.

Learn how to craft strategic arguments that yield optimal results. Plus, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to practice and receive invaluable feedback.

6. Productivity — Work Smarter, Not Harder: Time Management for Personal & Professional Productivity

Don’t let all of your business skills go to waste due to a lack of time management and productivity prowess. Get better at setting goals, prioritizing tasks, managing your schedule, and delegating strategically.

Everyone has their own time management barriers, and this course will help you overcome each one by introducing you to several productivity tricks and tools.

7. Project Management — PMP Certification Training Course

This is the perfect way to prepare for the Project Management Professional (PMP) exam, the gold standard in the field. But it’s still incredibly valuable even if a certification isn’t in your future.

Learn the ins and outs of the core competencies project managers need, including successfully managing people across teams, so you can seamlessly take projects from zero to completion.

8. Public Speaking — Essential Public Speaking

Good public speaking skills are essential for everyone. They’ll help you gain the confidence to present a deck to a client, share company transitions with your team, and speak up in any meeting. Decrease your speech anxiety and improve your communication skills once and for all.

And the best part about this course? There’s a huge virtual reality component in which you can practice speaking in a variety of virtual scenarios, like in an auditorium and a board room.

9. Sales and Business Development — Sales Training: Building Your Sales Career

Do you think you know what it takes to be successful in a sales career? You might be surprised at what the real answer is.

No matter where you’re at in your sales career, this course will teach you more about: active and passive buyers, getting buyers’ attention and building relationships, and the critical importance of being able to understand the buyer’s context and perspective.

Start closing more deals today.

Bonus: General Business — 2-Month Business Intensive

Do you want to build a comprehensive business skill set? Is networking and career support really important to you? Good news: The brunchwork Business Intensive teaches eight core business skills while also building your network.

In this two-month course, you’ll complete hands-on projects, including: refining and testing a business concept, creating a McKinsey-caliber presentation, analyzing financial reports, developing a business strategy, crafting a marketing and sales plan, conducting user interviews, building a no code website, and more.

There are also weekly guest speakers such as former Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang, PayPal Founding COO David Sacks, Ellevest Cofounder and CEO Sallie Krawcheck, and Peloton Cofounder Graham Stanton.

100% active learning, the Business Intensive is a great way to transition from a passive consumer of business knowledge to an active business leader with a well-rounded skill set and network.

Feature Image Credit: TIMA MIROSHNICHENKO FROM PEXELS

By Paulina Karpis

Paulina Karpis is the co-founder and CEO of brunchwork, a co-learning company that delivers modern business education. brunchwork teaches thousands of millennial professionals annually via a online business class, membership, and a popular newsletter.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

7 Growth Strategies that Will Increase Your Small Business Income

November 4, 2020 No Comments

By Moss Clement

Are you looking for the best SaaS growth strategies that will help you increase product sales? Wondering what marketing strategies you can apply to improve your SaaS business growth? This blog article will show you seven proven growth strategy processes that will transform your sales.

Getting people to try out new products is not easy. Why? Because they are thriving and relaxed with what they already have. So, you will have to do more to convince consumers to switch to your product or service.

Sometimes it takes several months before users can decide to try it out. But in most cases, consumers prefer to stay in their comfort zone. That is, to stick with the product they are using already. As a result, businesses fail because start-ups find it challenging to convince consumers to use their products.

In view of this, I have put together some practical SaaS growth strategies that will help you grow your SaaS business quickly. However, before I answer the questions above and provide the marketing tips that will guide your business growth, let us consider what SaaS products are and what accounts for a fantastic SaaS product.

What are SaaS Products?

SaaS products are software materials that a central provider accommodates and provides to consumers via cyberspace. These apps are accessible from a web or mobile browser without the need for a download.

To increase product sales, you have to walk potential customers through the funnel from the first touchpoint to conversions’ final journey. In that way, you help buyers understand your product values and essential features that make it stand out.

This approach enables you to reduce customer Churn and boost sales. Thus, as a start-up business owner, if you can walk users through the funnel from the awareness stage to the ultimate goal of conversion, you have the right product.

What Makes a Good SaaS Product?

An effective SaaS product is a commodity that breeds more leads and establishes a sustainable stand-alone enterprise after a year or two of inception. Such products help to solve consumer needs and produce exceptional customer experience (CX).

Also, the right SaaS product enhances the average customer lifetime value (CLV) by providing excellent customer satisfaction. Thus, some characteristics of the right SaaS product include:

Effective workflow system
Applicable to multiple markets and industries
A high customer retention rate
More engagement, and
Consistent return on invests (ROIs)

When consumers use your products or services and find it useful, they become brand advocates by referring others to try it out. Such can take different growth marketing strategies, including social media shares and word-of-mouth marketing.

As a result, you increase your customer base and product sales. Therefore, developing remarkable products is essential since it provides additional business growth opportunities.

7 Useful Growth Marketing Strategies to Improve SaaS Product Sales

While several growth marketing strategies can help scale your SaaS business, I have put together proven marketing tips or SaaS growth strategies that generate results. Implementing these marketing growth hacks will persuade users to do business with your brand, thereby increasing product sales.

1. Reinforce User Onboarding Experience (UOX)

An insightful SaaS growth strategy for business involves improving consumer onboarding experience. This approach highlights the need for an intelligent user interface that optimizes user experience (UX).

Take into account that an intelligent user interface is a component of remarkable application software design. So, to increase product sales for your SaaS business, you should improve user onboarding experience to help you attract more buyers and retain existing customers.

For this, user onboarding is critical to the customer journey since it lets first-timers experience your software product’s values and essence. But if you’re new to this business module, you may be wondering, what is user onboarding? Let us look at that a little, shall we?

What is User Onboarding?

User onboarding marketing strategy is the method of enhancing consumers’ experience with your product or services. It enables users to have success or the best experience using your product.

You can manually improve the user onboarding experience or automate the process using the right automation tools. This growth strategy marketing is useful because it speaks directly to customers and guides them towards achieving their product or service objectives.

As stated earlier, an improved user onboarding mechanism enables you to draw in new users and boost customer retention. For example, a SaaSFest Preso report on client retention shows how upgrading user onboarding experience can dramatically grow your customer base week-over-week.

The graphic indicates how user onboarding (an adaptation of consumers into your business processes) increased customer retention to 75% in just one week. And if you move readily to week 10, marketers who implemented this growth strategy in business held a 25% retention rate against 15% retention held earlier.

Therefore, boost user onboarding experience for your SaaS product by adding new features and other relevant elements. These would enhance the user interface (UI), compel new customers to patronize your business, and improve sales. You can find user onboarding best practices here.

2. Upgrade Your SaaS Product to Increase Sales

Enhancing user onboarding is essential, but you agree that in some instances, the reason for low sales is not with user onboarding, but the product or service. That is why enhancing your product is crucial to making more sales.

Product improvement is one of SaaS marketers’ best SaaS growth strategies since it lets you drive more traffic and boost sales. So, your product might be malfunctioning due to outdated features or other functionality issues.

As a result, consumers will stop using it and move on to your competitors. So the best way to tackle this problem is to regularly evaluate your product to see areas of improvement. No matter how insignificant the issue, work to improve it.

Also, look at your design interface; how attractive is it? Is it outdated? Does it scare users away? Examine your product well enough and make it better for consumers. Use the latest product design trends to encourage people to try it out and make purchases.

However, after examining your merchandise, you may not see any loopholes. At this point, it is vital to speak to existing clients and your target market. Ask them through surveys and polls what you must do to make the product or service better. Engage them on social media, forums,

and emails. You will gather valuable information that helps you improve your product and sales online.

3. Use App Store Optimization to improve SaaS Growth Strategy

Having your SaaS creation on Google Play store is an ideal business growth strategy because it helps you get more eyeballs on your product. The same applies to put it on other app stores.

However, you shouldn’t wait for people to find it, but you should take the initiative and make it easy for consumers to find your goods. How? By implementing app store optimization (ASO). This step means optimizing your product page for more exposure.

When you optimize your page, it increases product visibility and reaches. As a result of this growth marketing strategy, you will drive more traffic and improve product sales. Research reveals that more than 60% of app users discovered new apps by searching app stores.

Besides, analysis by Think with Google confirmed that over 50% of smartphone app users learned about new SaaS products while browsing app stores.

Consequently, app store optimization (ASO) is one of the best growth marketing tactics that will facilitate app sales. It enables you to bring in more app users and convert them to leads and customers.

According to AppFigures, software developers are leveraging ASO strategy to boost app download and sales. It is a fantastic 2020 app marketing trend that drives results―with a 10% increase from 50% at the start of the year to 60%.

Also, application software developers release over 3,700 products on average per day in Google Play Store. That number may be insignificant; however, the noteworthy thing is that experts predict daily app downloads at 250 million by the end of 2020.

More on App Store Optimization Growth Strategy

Considering this trend, what can you do to make your software application more visible to users? How can you make your product appear on app store search results? That is where ASO comes in as a useful marketing tool.

Given this, use these tips to optimize your app store page:

Know your competitors’ approach
Make your page compelling.
Develop persuasive product description
Create appealing icons
Use screenshots to demonstrate valuable selling points.

These app store optimization strategies help improve user experience, drive more traffic, and increase product sales.

4. Provide Helpful Blog Articles

The best way to get a buyer’s attention and make him buy from you is to create helpful blog articles that focus on him. That is essential from the beginning of the buyer’s journey. It means that you should develop your website and content materials with your ideal customer in mind.

In this way, you will consistently provide helpful blog articles that connect with your target audience and eventual customers. Moreover, you will also be creating content for SEO to help your brand appear on Google search.

But how can you make your blog posts helpful to the reader? By figuring out their most pressing problems. What is their worry? What makes them restless? Providing answers to these questions will make your blog article helpful to the reader.

So, when users search for the problems you addressed in your blog post, Google will show them your article. The more you appear on searches, the more organic traffic your drive back to your website and product page. Thus, since many people will find your blog articles helpful, you will increase product adoption and sales.

5. Quote Your Software App In Blog Articles

Blogging is a remarkable way to create brand awareness. As a growth strategy, it lets you develop and publish useful content that regularly connects with your readers. Other benefits of blogging for business include:

Blogging is low-cost
Drives organic web traffic and increase SEO search rankings
Generate leads
Increase direct sales
Build a community of loyal audience and attract eventual clients
Encourage quality inbound links
Build your brand authority
Blogging is top among other content types for in-depth materials

When you consider the following blogging statistics, you will understand why citing your application software in blog posts should be a priority.

Consider the following blogging statistics to impact your SaaS growth strategy

80% of online consumers interact with blog content.
Blogging is the most valuable digital marketing strategy for 59% of marketers.
Blogging accounts for over 430% increase in indexed pages.

Blogs are accountable for a 97% increase in indexed links.
Organizations that blog generate an average monthly lead of 67%, more than those that don’t blog.
90% of all established organizations say they’re using content to market their products

With blogging, you attract new readers and retain existing audiences. Therefore, write blog posts on topics that relate to your SaaS product. Make your content convincing enough and cite your app in the material. When mentioning your product in blog posts, help readers see how it can help address pressing issues.

You can mention your product in blogs in three different ways:

Create product reviews for your commodity
Publish a step-by-step guide on how to use your product effectively.
Mention your app software as a tool in relevant content.

However, use blogging best practices for optimal ROI. Therefore, ensure that your heading is captivating and then apply the dos and don’ts of a compelling introduction. These elements will help the reader stick on the page to learn more about your products or services.

6. Incorporate Influencer Marketing to Boost Sales

One of the best SaaS marketing growth strategies of all time is influencer marketing. Why is that so? Because influencers can drive targeted traffic to your website or product page, improve leads and sales.

Influencer marketing is so effective because it is a modern word-of-mouth marketing. Consumers trust recommendations from credible people. In other words, buyers trust influencers. But why do consumers trust influencers? Good question!

Influencers have a better understanding of customer needs and offer helpful information that addresses those issues. Also, they create time to interact with your audience on different marketing channels. They are always available to provide insights about your product when needed.

In consequence, influencers build long-term relationships with consumers and gain their trust. That is why the search for influencer marketing has skyrocketed since 2015. The search has grown from a monthly search of 3,900 on Google to over 70,000 in 2019. That is a 1,500% increase in just three years.

Did you know? Research points out that every dollar you invest in influencer marketing will earn you a $6.50 ROI─an increase of 650% in revenue. Nonetheless, you might not know how to find the right influence for your project. You can use digital marketing tools for influencers to improve your SaaS marketing campaign.

So, invest in influencer marketing. Use this growth strategy as a marketing tool for scaling your SaaS business.

7. Offer Free Trials as an Effective Growth Strategy

Humans are sensitive to acquiring free stuff. It’s not new to us, and that’s why smart marketers are using this marketing strategy to grow their business. Research has shown that millennials have enormous buying power, making up a large consumer ratio in recent times.

The study estimates that by 2020, millennials will spend about $1.4 trillion. Moreover, since over half (54%) of millennials shop online, offering free items or services is a remarkable way to draw them to your product or services.

So they are online all the time, browsing for ideas on what to buy. Thus, a free trial is a growth marketing strategy that works well in this case. That is because millennials love the self-service approach. Therefore, using this growth strategy will do more than increase product sales.

Wrapping Up How to Use SaaS Growth Strategy to Make More Sales

I believe you have learned valuable pointers that will aid you in growing your small business quickly. However, since the SaaS industry is increasing, the competition for growth is fierce. In view of this, ensure that your application software is of high-quality.

Make sure all the features are functioning perfectly well. If necessary, give it an extraordinary design to redesign your product logo or icon to make it more appealing to users. Also, offer more value to compensate for the cost so that consumers will be more willing to try it out.

In this way, current customers will try the new features and continue loyal to your brand while also attracting new consumers. Please, take into consideration the main pointers as I wrap up this article:

Improve User Onboarding Experience
Enhance Your SaaS Product to Increase Sales
Optimize Product Page to Boost Your SaaS Growth Strategy
Provide Helpful Blog Articles
Cite Your App Software In Blog Posts
Take Advantage of Influencer Marketing to Increase Product Sales
Offer Free Trials

By Moss Clement

Moss Clement is an expert business writer─providing article & blog post writing, ghost-writing, content marketing, proofreading, and editing services for B2B marketers. He is the founder of Moss Media, and content manager at Writers Per Hour. Moss works closely with B2B marketers, helping small & medium-size businesses build their online presence and brand reputation by delivering quality content that converts. Connect with him on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, andInstagram.

Sourced from readwrite

In News

Upcoming Webinar: The Future of Digital Marketing in a Post Cookie World

November 3, 2020 No Comments

Sourced from AAI Association of Advertisers in Ireland.

On behalf of PwC and the AAI, we’d like to invite you to attend a briefing and roundtable discussion about the future of digital marketing in a post cookie world.

This builds on the award winning ISBA/PwC study into programmatic advertising, which generated major press coverage on its release earlier this year.

Our event will quickly recap key study findings and then move on to the question: what happens next?

By the end of 2021, third party cookies will be history, so how can marketers leverage data and technology to retain and enhance the benefits of targeted marketing?

The format will be a short briefing by PwC, and then a Q&A with our expert panel to explore the future of data, technology, and digital marketing.

Date: Thursday November 12th
Time: 10:00 – 11:00am
Venue: Virtual – where else?

Please register to attend the zoom briefing and feel free to direct any questions in advance to [email protected]

In News

Digital Marketing Tactics All Businesses Should Use

November 3, 2020 No Comments

By Zohaib Hassan Patoli

If you’re a business owner, people have probably been talking to you about digital marketing for ages — whether it’s a well-meaning friend or an ad agency on the prowl, you’ve heard endless suggestions on everything from SEO to PPC and every other three-letter acronym. And all that was in a pre-pandemic world. The sudden, jarring shift to an audience more frequently online will leave behind many lasting effects on how businesses reach their target audience.

In a post-pandemic world, 56% of business leaders that utilize digital tools report that at least half of their sales occur online. While many businesses plan on decreasing spend, depending on the channel anywhere from 40-59% of large national brands intend to increase their ad spends across digital channels. That’s just the big guys.

But with all the financial stress facing small business owners, you may be worried about adding yet another cost to your budget. And marketing agencies can often seem like sharks circling businesses.

However, you don’t need a dedicated agency or a large advertising budget to make your mark in the digital realm. Here are some digital marketing tactics that all businesses, regardless of size, can benefit from:

Update Your Google My Business Listing

To some, this suggestion may seem obvious; in fact, if you otherwise don’t do anything else on the digital front, you most likely still maintain your Google My Business listing. But how quick are you to update your listing when you make changes to your business?

Of course, if you’ve changed your hours of operation, address, phone number or website, you need to update your listing right away. Google My Business is also a great place to show off your menu (for restaurants) or products and services. And don’t forget to update your photos. If you don’t maintain your photo section, your listing will be at the mercy of uploads from random visitors.

Bolster Your Social Media Presence

Everyone, even B2B companies, stands to gain from an involved social media presence. Of course, it’s important to utilize the correct platform. For example, a Main Street clothing boutique might find little use for a LinkedIn profile, while a steel bar fabricator might feel out of place on Pinterest. Make sure your message is appropriate to the platform you’re using and the audience you’re reaching.

Much like with your Google My Business listing, you need to keep your social media accounts current with any changes in your operations. You also need to be sure to have quality, high-resolution imagery for logos, banners and other photos.

And if you’re in a visually driven industry such as food, cosmetics or clothing, or have a younger target audience, you may want to experiment with platforms like TikTok or Instagram.

Respond To Reviews — Properly

Reviews are crucial to a small business’s existence, and a stream of poor reviews can be crippling to an upstart business. Conversely, positive reviews are one of the best ways for a business to organically grow their clientele. But there are a few things you should keep in mind when responding to reviews, including timing and messaging.

When you receive a positive review, you should respond right away. An immediate response shows your customers how much you truly appreciate their patronage, and reinforces the quality of their experience.

On the other hand, when you receive a negative review, you need to respond soon — but not too quickly. While you can’t let it linger and give off the impression that you’re ignoring the customer’s experience, you still need to give it enough time to show that you’ve considered their feedback. You also need the time to craft your message properly; too much emotion is off-putting, but a generic response is insulting. About 24 to 48 hours is an appropriate length of time for a negative review response.

And whatever you do, do not incentivize positive reviews. That may seem like an easy way to generate a large swath of positive feedback, but you’ll find that platforms like Yelp, Google and Facebook penalize accounts that are reported for incentivizing reviews.

Digital Marketing Is Here To Stay

While social distancing will eventually relax and foot traffic will pick back up in stores, digital marketing will have a lasting place in the business world. If you want to keep up with your competitors or even remain an active part of your community, you must maintain an active, involved digital presence. If you intend to hire a firm to manage your marketing, that’s fine — but by using these simple tips to improve your online presence, you’ll have a better understanding of what a firm brings to the table and will be more prepared to take the next step.

Feature Image Credit: GETTY

By Zohaib Hassan Patoli

Follow me on LinkedIn. Check out my website.

Zohaib Hassan is the CEO/Founder of SnapWeb Services, an ROI driven, data-obsessed full-services digital marketing agency. Read Zohaib Hassan Patoli’s full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

How to Grow Your Email List

November 3, 2020 No Comments

By Kiely Kuligowski

A quality email list is a vital part of email marketing and can determine the success of your campaign. Here’s how to build one.

Email marketing is an incredibly effective way to market your business, and your email list is arguably the most important component of your strategy. Your email list can have immeasurable impact on your marketing campaigns and a serious effect on your traffic and sales. If you’re looking to grow your email list, we have 25 tips to help your small business reach a wider audience.

What is an email list?

An email list, also referred to as a mailing list or subscribers list, is a collection of email addresses from visitors and customers who have consented to a business sending them communications, such as information, updates or discounts. Your list may grow and shrink as followers unsubscribe or new ones join over time.

Email marketing is a huge asset for a business. Nearly every customer has an email address, so there are billions of potential customers available for you to reach with just a few clicks. Additionally, email marketing is 40 times more effective in acquiring and retaining new customers than social media, and it has a significantly higher click-through rate than social media posts, which means more customers receive and read your content than they would if they came across your content on social media.

25 ways to grow your email list

There are many ways to grow your email list organically. Follow these 25 tips to grow your list the right way.

1. Create valuable content.

Your followers signed up to receive emails from you for a reason. Your job is to make it worth their while by providing interesting, engaging content. You will quickly lose subscribers if your content is boring or not applicable to your followers.

2. Know your audience.

Knowing your audience will help you create content they like. You can use email analytics or information you’ve collected on your own to inform your content. Look at things like demographics, customer behaviour and clicks to better understand your audience.

3. Make it easy for followers to share your emails.

Include buttons that link to your social media and “email a friend” links in each of your emails to make your content easily shareable. You don’t want your subscribers to have to work hard to send your content to another potential customer.

4. Segment your lists.

Once you understand who your audience is, you can segment them into groups – for example, by age, location or buyer behaviour – and send emails based on those groups, making your messages more targeted to each part of your audience for a more positive effect.

5. Send out an opt-in campaign.

If you have an old email list that doesn’t yield much engagement, you can send out an email with an opt-in message and a promise to remove any email addresses that don’t respond. While it might seem counterintuitive to remove contacts from your list, it can actually give you better results by ensuring you only send emails to people who want to receive them.

6. Include a link in employee signatures.

Including a link to a landing page where people can sign up for emails in all your employees’ email signatures is a quick and easy way to help build your email list.

7. Include gated offers on your website.

If you have valuable content to offer, like whitepapers or e-books, you can host it on your website with a pop-up that requires an email address and an opt-in to receive emails from you in order for the user to download it.

8. Require an email address to get a quote or access a resource.

Similarly, you can require a customer to provide their email address if they want to contact you for a quote or access a unique resource your business offers on your website.

9. Host a contest.

You could host a contest and require an email address for entry. Post about the contest on your social media pages to drum up interest and awareness, with a link directing viewers to where they can sign up on your website. [Read related article: How to Create a Giveaway Campaign That Boosts Sales]

10. Have a pop-up on your website.

“The single best method I’ve used to grow email lists rapidly is via website pop-ups,” said Kent Lewis, president and founder of Anvil Media. “Add a pop-up to your site to ask for an email address to send updates. The strategy still works, especially if you cookie the visitor and only hit them once, instead of every time they refresh or visit a new page. Make sure the incentive is clearly articulated and relevant to your brand to maximize conversions.”

11. Put a call-to-action button on your social media.

You can add a CTA to sign up for your email list on your social media pages to make it easy for interested customers to sign up to receive your emails. Here’s how HubSpot Academy integrates a CTA on its Facebook page:

12. Ask website visitors for their feedback.

Visitors enjoy providing feedback on a topic they’re interested in or that pertains to them, so you can provide a form on your website that asks them to leave their feedback on your business or website, and make their email address a required field.

13. Keep lead-capturing forms short.

When you ask customers to provide information, you don’t want to overwhelm them with lengthy forms that ask for a lot of information upfront. Stick to the basics, like their name and email address.

14. Utilize Facebook groups.

“Over the years, I’ve added thousands to my email list by using Facebook groups,” said Rick Orford, founder of The Financially Independent Millennial. “As part of the joining process, I ask for users’ email address in exchange for free information, such as a PDF. Facebook groups can be an invaluable way to increase engagement with your audience, while allowing you the opportunity to keep in touch with everyone by email.”

15. Make subscribing easy on your website.

A customer who wants to subscribe to your emails should not have to hunt around your website to find the subscribe button. Make it plain and easy to find in several different places on your website, such as your homepage, your “about” page and your “contact us” page.

16. Conduct A/B tests of your email content.

When you first start out with email marketing, you don’t know what content will perform best. To find out (or at least better predict), you can send out different versions of the same email – with different subject lines or images, for example – to sample groups to see which performs better with your audience. [Read related article: 16 Effective Methods to Make the Most Out of A/B Testing]

17. Set expectations.

“Set expectations so that a subscriber knows exactly what he/she is signing up for and how often he/she will receive email from you, and immediately send a welcome email upon sign-up that matches the expectations you just set,” said Katie Bonadies, content and social media strategist at Berxi.

18. Have a blog.

Blogs are a great way to boost your online presence. They can increase your ranking on search engines like Google and go a long way to establish brand credibility. You can also collect email addresses via blog subscriptions and deliver quality content right to their inboxes.

19. Allow customer reviews on your website.

Alongside a blog, a place for customers to leave reviews on your website can boost your image as a reputable business while giving you another opportunity to gather email addresses. Make an email address a required field for a user to leave a review.

20. Be consistent.

“Don’t expect to have a massive email list overnight,” said Shmuel Fogel, web designer and online marketer at Talmudico. “It takes time to build email lists, but they can be extremely effective in marketing to your customers. By maintaining in-store signage, website banners and campaigns to grow your email addresses year-round, you will ultimately build up a large list over time that continues to grow.”

21. Collect email addresses at a trade show or conference.

There is always the old-fashioned way to collect emails: in person. Have a sign-up sheet readily available for anyone who stops by your booth or table, and have a welcome email ready to go once you add the email addresses into your system.

22. Add QR codes to your promotional materials.

Another quick and easy way to collect email addresses and maximize your advertising materials is to add a QR code to your printed advertisements. This way, you can collect email addresses even from a poster or brochure.

23. Offer an incentive.

“The best way to grow an email list is to offer some incentive for being on it,” said Rex Freiberger, CEO of Gadget Review. “Sometimes, if customers really want to know about an upcoming product or possible promotions, this is enough. Usually they need enticement in the form of free content, trial services or large discounts.”

24. Include timed pop-up surveys on your site.

You can create surveys that come up only after a customer has spent a certain amount of time on your website. This works because the customer has demonstrated interest in your content and is much more likely to sign up to receive emails from you if you make it quick and easy.

25. Leverage your social media.

“You can set up Twitter and Facebook campaigns to boost your lead generation efforts,” said Anthony Mixides, managing director of The London Vape Company. “By giving links to your various offerings and resources on social media, you allow more users to find you, and this helps you tap into a newer sect of people. This is also a very useful technique for growing your target audience base.”

What to avoid when building an email list

Because solid email lists are so vital to the email marketing process, there is some specific etiquette to keep in mind, as well as missteps to avoid. Here are 10 things not to do when building your email list.

1. Buying email lists

This is the No. 1 mistake marketers and business owners make in building their email lists. Many think the best and quickest way to build a list is to buy one. While it’s true that this is the fastest method, it generally comes back to bite you, since there’s no way to guarantee that the purchased email addresses are real or associated with users who are interested in your content. As such, you could purchase a list with 1,000 addresses but discover that only a few engage with your content.

2. Adding email addresses without permission

This is another huge mistake many marketers make, and it could even get you in legal trouble. You should only send marketing emails to addresses who have given you permission in some form. These are the two main types of permission for email marketing:

Implied, which covers those with whom you have an existing business relationship – like current customers, donors or members of your website
Express, which is when someone gives you clear permission to send them emails, such as by entering their information in a subscription form

3. Asking for too much information

When you’re asking someone to provide personal information for your email campaign, you don’t want to ask for too much and risk coming off as a spammer. You want to make subscribing quick and easy, and make the customer feel at ease providing you with their contact information. Give the customer plenty of time to learn about your business and establish that you are a credible organization.

4. Offering a nonvaluable incentive

Offering an incentive is a common way to get people to sign up for a targeted email list, but it can backfire if the incentive isn’t actually valuable to the customer. For example, you don’t want to offer a coupon that expires the next day, or a discount that can only be applied at one store at a specific time. Make your incentive as valuable to and usable by as many of your customers as you can.

5. Using stolen email addresses

“There are bots that can search the web and aggregate a list of found emails,” said Steffa Mantilla, founder of Money Tamer. “If you add these emails to your list, you’ll likely get reported as spam, and your deliverability will go down drastically.”

6. Skipping the welcome email

When a new subscriber signs up, it’s important to send out a welcome email as soon as possible. This greeting makes the new subscriber feel valued, encouraging them to become a repeat customer. Your welcome email should have a clear subject line, engaging visuals and content, and a link to whatever incentive you promised when they signed up.

7. Using paid advertising too soon

“You don’t want to grow your email list with paid advertising until it’s proven,” according to Kelan and Brittany Kline, founders of The Savvy Couple. “You always want to focus on organic growth to find what actually works, then you can scale things up by running paid ads.”

8. Sending emails without a goal

A clear goal for your overall email marketing campaign as well as each email you send will go a long way in making your emails worth your subscribers’ while. You don’t want to send out emails for the sake of sending emails; this will be clearly felt by subscribers, who may be put off by content that isn’t valuable to them. You should know what you want to accomplish with your emails before you send them. Is it sharing news about your company? Sending a discount code? Informing your customers of a new product? Shape your email marketing content around that goal.

9. Being disingenuous

“I’d stay away from anything disingenuous to the reader,” said Jakub Rudnik, vice president of content at Shortlister. “Ultimately, any bait-and-switch tactics will lead to the sign-ups that you earned unsubscribing more often than not. People are protective of their inboxes, so tell them exactly what types of content they’ll get and how often they’ll get it. You’ll gain their trust far better that way.”

10. Sending too many (or not enough) emails

With email marketing, the best way to retain your customers is to be consistent in your sending habits and let subscribers know what to expect. If you send a burst of five emails every few months, or three emails every day, your subscribers could get annoyed and unsubscribe. Set and stick to a regular posting schedule. Many email marketing services have scheduling features to make this effortless, even allowing you to schedule emails months in advance.

By Kiely Kuligowski

Kiely is a staff writer based in New York City. She worked as a marketing copywriter after graduating with her bachelor’s in English from Miami University (OH) and now writes on small business, social media, and marketing. You can reach her on Twitter or by email.

Sourced from business.com

In News

Adobe puts artificial intelligence tools into its marketing software

November 3, 2020 No Comments

Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Marguerita Choy

(Reuters) – Adobe Inc ADBE.O said on Monday that it has put a new set of artificial intelligence tools into its digital marketing software with the aim of helping companies sharpen their marketing campaigns.

Once known for applications like Photoshop, Adobe has become one of the biggest providers of software for running such campaigns, which businesses use to decide which of thousands of images and pieces of written to content to show to potential customers. Growth in its marketing software division has helped send shares up nearly 50% this year.

The artificial intelligence features released on Monday aid that effort by, for example, scanning and labelling thousand of product images by colour and shape, or using natural-language processing technology to read an article to determine its subject.

That makes it easier for marketing campaigns to make a recommendation, whether that means showing a person browsing an e-commerce site a pair of shoes similar to ones they have previously viewed or a news website suggesting a story on a similar subject to the one just read.

Such artificial intelligence technology has existed for several years, but using it generally required corporate marketing departments to export data from their systems and work with another division of the business to use, slowing the work down, Ali Bohra, director of strategy and product marketing for intelligence services at Adobe, said in an interview. Adobe has placed the technologies directly inside the marketing systems, reducing the need to export data.

“When you’re thinking about the need to be agile and work in real time, this is not a process that works very well,” Bohra said.

Feature Image Credit: An Adobe Systems Inc software box is seen in Los Angeles, California, U.S., March 13, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Marguerita Choy

Sourced from Reuters

In News

The Structure of Persuasive Copy

November 2, 2020 No Comments

By Brian Clark

We’re aware each element of copy is designed to get the first sentence read, and from there keep the reader engaged step by step to the conclusion.

We know to keep things clear, concise, and simple so that our writing communicates with ease.

And we definitely understand the make-or-break importance of an attention-grabbing headline.

So, how do we then structure our content to be persuasive?

Good content structure is never written in stone, but persuasive copy will do certain things and contain certain elements time and time again.

Whether you’re writing a sales page, blog post, or promotional ebook, the flow will determine effectiveness.

Here are some guidelines:

First of all, focus on the reader — make an important promise early on (with your headline and opening paragraphs) that tells the reader what’s in it for her. Never allow readers to question why they’re bothering to pay attention.

Each separate part of your narrative should have a main idea (something compelling) and a main purpose (to rile up the reader, to counter an opposing view, etc.) that supports your bigger point and promise. Don’t digress, and don’t ramble. Stay laser-focused.

Be ultra-specific in your assertions, and always give “reasons why.” General statements that are unsupported by specific facts cause a reader’s BS detector to go on high alert.

Demonstrate large amounts of credibility, using statistics, expert references, and testimonials as appropriate. You must be authoritative — if you’re not an existing expert on a subject, you had better have done your research.

After building your credibility and authority, get back to the most important person around — the reader. What’s still in it for him? Restate the hook and the promise that got readers engaged in the first place.

Make an offer. Whether you’re selling a product or selling an idea, you’ve got to explicitly present it for acceptance by the reader. Be bold and firm when you present your offer, and relieve the reader’s risk of acceptance by standing behind what you say.

Sum up everything, returning full circle to your original promise and demonstrate how you’ve fulfilled it.

These are some of the key elements of persuasive copy. Use them to provide a “roadmap” for your writing, and you’ll achieve better results.

Looking for more foundational copywriting tips?

Continue with our Copywriting 101 ebook.

By Brian Clark

Brian Clark is the founder of Copyblogger, host of 7-Figure Small, and curator of the Gen X lifestyle newsletter Further.

Sourced from Copyblogger

In News

Email Marketers, Focus on the Pre-Send Experience

November 2, 2020 No Comments

By ANDREW KORDEK

Over the last two decades, email marketing and its optimization have been written, talked and argued about—from the tactics of acquiring an email address to subscriber re-engagement and purging.

Personalization is one area of optimization that’s continuously addressed on blogs or at conferences. Each year, marketers gather more data, and have more tools and opportunities to ensure their emails allow the subscriber to feel more connected to the brand. Some brands have been able to leverage the data and the tools to become more relevant to the subscriber, having done so with diligence, testing, resilience and taking risks.

However, many brands have overlooked a key component to relevancy bliss at some point in time: the pre-send experience. This refers to anything that could impact the email program before the email is sent to the subscriber.

It’s not about a beautiful piece of creative, captivating copy and irresistible calls to action with hyper-personalization sent at the right time to subscribers. The optimization of the pre-send experience is sometimes put last on the list of things to do because it’s not sexy, takes time and requires patience.

Inception and administration

There are two equally weighted areas of the pre-send experience that marketers need to focus on: inception and administration.

Inception is tied to what a person goes through to sign up for the email program on a site or on another channel. In many organizations, the website and UX are owned by different groups, which often means that the email department is left out of the optimization discussion even though the objective of list growth is technically shared.

For example, brands like to play hide and seek with the email sign up and place it toward the footer of the site in a small font, because the notion of making it more prominent is often frowned upon by designers. The idea of making a pop-up banner to capture email addresses is too intrusive to the experience. Yet if done right and tested, it can be a stable and sustainable source of email list growth.

HOW SHOULD EMAIL MARKETING STRATEGIES EVOLVE IN A PANDEMIC?

A critical part of inception is the experience you provide on getting data, preferences or choices that people have around your email program. If you have 15 newsletters and capture 11 pieces of geographic and psychographic data points, is that too much for the subscriber to handle the first time they interact with your email program? While the goal is to provide choice, too much choice can overwhelm and turn people off.

As an email marketer for more than 21 years, I encourage clients to go through the sign-up experience at least twice a year with an unbiased group of people to see how easy or painful it was to get on the email list. As marketers, we understand our brand’s process on the site, but often overlook the things that could annoy or frustrate the typical site visitor who wants to sign up for your email program.

A great test to execute this is watching people navigate the front page and looking at the process they go through. After, you should ask the following questions:

Did you find the process to sign up for email easy or challenging?
Do you understand what our email program is about and what to expect?
Do you feel special or do you feel like a number?

The goal is to create an experience your customer can benefit from, rather than what your marketing department wants.

Administration is the ongoing experience your subscriber has during specific points of their email lifecycle with your brand. These things include a preference or subscription centre, cadence or frequency caps, opt-out or opt-down options, and the use or misuse of the data you have on each one of them.

If you have data, use it. But use it sparingly as not to raise the red flag of creepiness.

For example, if you have invested resources and budget into a preference or subscription centre and only leverage or promote it for the inception experience, you could be missing out on critical lifecycle points from the subscriber because things change in their lives.

A preference or subscription centre shouldn’t just capture data points at one point in time and be promoted at the bottom of every email next to the unsubscribe link. It should be publicized at various time stages for each subscriber to update as their life and preference changes.

Finally, if you have data, use it. But use it sparingly as not to raise the red flag of creepiness. Today’s sensitivity of subscribers is at an all-time high and, as brands, you need to be a good steward of privacy.

The optimization of the pre-send experience should be an ongoing project for any organization. It’s time for email marketers to help influence and take ownership of things that have long been assigned to other departments. The email program has long influenced attribution, and marketers today need to un-silo themselves from single-channel expertise.

Feature Image Credit: iStock

By ANDREW KORDEK

Andrew Kordek is vp of customer engagement at iPost, an email marketing and automation platform.

Sourced from ADWEEK

In News

Customer Data Platforms Take On Bigger Role As Cookies Disappear, Privacy Compliance Tightens

November 2, 2020 No Comments

By Laurie Sullivan

With the state of third-party cookies and identifiers in flux, as well as increasing regulations around consumer privacy, Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) that can combine first-, second- and third-party data have become the latest tool in the chest for marketers.

Research from Advertiser Perceptions shows marketers generally view CDPs as an important part of their privacy compliance efforts. A sample of 101 respondents were surveyed between July 27 and August 17 to determine their views on CDPs.

For the study, Advertiser Perceptions focused on marketers from U.S.-based companies with at least $500 million in annual revenue.

CDPs impact on success metrics varies. Some 45% of marketers said CDPs have the most significant impact on online sales, while 43% pointed to return on investments and return on ad spend, 41% cited engagement, 41% cited cross-selling, 39% cited cost per action, and 38% cited brand lift. Conversion rate, Customer acquisition, and reduced shopping cart abandonment also came in with a score of 38%.

Companies are using CDPs for a variety of reasons. Marketers are integrating their CDPs with other marketing technologies to personalize communications and improve customer experience and customer journeys. They also apply CDP insights to their ad campaigns to personalize advertising campaigns in real-time, or target specific customer segments.

Internally, marketers use CDPs to better understand various customer IDs and customer-specific insights across the organization that can be fed to other appropriate teams as needed.

While both house customer data, CPDs differ from CRMs.

CRMs can organize different types of customer data, but CDPs can activate that data across the marketing and advertising ecosystem, Stuart Schneiderman, SVP and business intelligence at Advertiser Perceptions, explains in an email to Search & Performance Marketing Daily.

“CDPs pull in CRM and transactional data,” he wrote. “They go beyond by integrating varied sources such as first- and third-party data, mobile, social, web site analytics and product usage data.”

Whereas CRMs limit the information to known data about customers, CDPs use known and anonymous data to create unified views of customers.

CRMs tend to be focused on managing sales and sales pipelines. CDPs go beyond that to implement, manage and optimize advertising and marketing programs that can be aligned to customer journeys.

When survey participants were asked to name the types of data they currently merge or unify with their CDP, 76% said they currently merge CRM data.

Some 65% cited transactional data, while 57% pointed to website visits, 49% cited customer support data, 47% cited first-party customer profile data, 46% use mobile and device-level data, 46% use product use data, and 45% use third-party data. Other types of data cited include social media, anonymized from cookies, app data, and offline data.

CDPs also have a major privacy compliance role, helping marketers as they address challenges and respond to regulations, according to the findings.

About 66% build GDPR and CCPA compliance marketing lists using the data, while 63% centralize and unify customer data, 55% manage compliance programs, 52% enforce opt-out policies, 52% increase transparency around data use, and 52% enforce data retention and use policies.

Other strategies include conducting data audits to validate the types of information collected, enforce the right to be forgotten, and restrict access and rights management to select areas of the organization.

By Laurie Sullivan

Sourced from MediaPost