How-to increase LVO (Lead Value Optimization) with SMS, Email and Social Media?

If you own an e-commerce website, investing on marketing and planning return on marketing investments play crucial role on determining your profits and business growth. You may have a thousand ways to increase the viewership for your advertisements/ campaigns. But once the viewer clicked on the link and stepped into your website, your goal is to make sure the viewer buys something and becomes a customer.

According to a recent marketing metrics study, looks like most of the businesses focus on CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) during this process. CRO is nothing but creating more buyers from the viewers. Ensuring more people make at least a purchase before they leave the website. The conversion rate is the basic measurement to determine whether your efforts and campaigns worked or failed.

But sadly, there is another concept that is equally and probably a little more important when you are working on the viewership of the website, but is being ignored often. That is LVO (Lead Value Optimization), which is an effort to increase the value or number of the products an average user buys. In simple words, making the best out of every lead and make them spend more.

Since the digital media advancement, an online purchase doesn’t happen through one or two channels. A browser wanders around multiple mediums such as blog posts, social media, review aggregators, search engines, text messages, and probably then back to the website before making a purchase. So, advertising and being visible at place won’t get you to the desired numbers.

Let’s start with the channel that is almost immediately used after browsing your online store. i.e., Social media. A successful social media advertising needs to follow the funnel methods. It’s a multi-stage process that take time but surely creates an impact on the viewer, creates awareness and brings them on to the website. By creating tracking pixels, you can re-target the leads by showing the products from their recent visit to the site. Simultaneous emails and SMS would strengthen the process. We’ll talk about that in detail.

You can create leads using social media!

For example, Facebook lets you run lead ads which is an effort to make the process of filling out forms online a lot less painful. It’s just a one-click process for the browsers and you may capture the opted-in contacts and re-target them via different channels. Plus, these are opted-in contacts so chances for ignoring and spamming are very less. Email lists that are captured through the data sync with social media opt-ins work like magic.

After gathering your acquired contacts and opted-in Email lists, you are good to go for the email blasts. But sending out the same dump of emails to every contact is almost useless. Nurturing the leads is the most important part of value optimization. While you send out confirmation emails for the current purchases, make sure the add-on and up-sellable products are tagged in that email with a link to the respective pages. Cross promotion between complimenting stores or niches would make the customer click on add cart once again…

There is a recent case study on e-commerce marketing which says, only 18% of the emails are opened by the customers and only 27% of social media ads are being clicked. But with combined strategies, if the data sync is applied, 16% more visitors can be acquired.

The other way to make a customer/ visitor come back to the website is SMS. The text messages are the most ignored yet most powerful tool if they were wisely used! Not so surprisingly 91% of the adults will always have the mobile phone at the distance of an arm stretch. And 90% of the messages are opened with in 3 to 5 minutes duration. But in many countries, SMS is highly regulated and spamming will bring a lot of troubles to the brand and company as well. But a well-planned SMS can bring a loyal customer to the store if sent in right timing. A shortened link to the product page with right information attached can get you surprising results. But always and always give unsubscribe option while sending the message. Loyalty is important that a lead.

Apart from all these ways to get the customer click on the website link, there are a few tips you may follow to ensure a better browsing experience thus better lead value optimization (LVO).

• Cross Promoting the related stores.

E.g., Keeping the complimenting niches visible while browsing a product.

• Prompting the informational products.

E.g., E-books, DIY tutorials, white papers, etc.

• Upselling add-ons at the cart.

E.g., Lesser priced items that can be used with the selected items.

• Upselling intangible items during or after the sale.

E.g., Overnight shipping options, warranty extensions, etc.

E-commerce is the most competitive yet profitable business model if executed well. Giving a pleasant and effortless browsing experience and offering right add-on in right timing will increase the cart value and the lead value.

Happy marketing!

Sending SMS is still a considerable Marketing Investment?

True! The data network and application based messengers took over the text messaging tradition but that is only for P2P (Person to Person) messaging. A2P (Application to Person) messaging is still the most preferred channel of conveying information from companies to customers/ leads. Spam has been minimized after the new SMS regulations. But based on the technology advancement, companies still think whether to consider SMS as a profitable marketing investment. Since 1980’s, text messaging is around and over 3 decades it still didn’t lose its charm. So, here we are presenting some facts and benefits about SMS Marketing to take a smart decision.

Why should we consider SMS?

It is Immediate.

Text message doesn’t need Wi-fi, mobile data or Bluetooth to be on to reach the recipient’s device. A recent study states that the text messages are read almost within 3 minutes. Unlike this, other mediums such as print ads or email marketing, this method reaches the prospects almost in no time. Launching an SMS marketing campaign is as simple as sending a normal text message from your phone.

Opening Rates are high.

The recent studies state that 90% of the text messages are read within 3 minutes. It is basic and easy. One format of the message is understandable to everyone Irrespective of the customer category. When you compare, the opening rates of SMS campaigns are 98% better than the other communication methods. 

It is Trackable.

Almost all the software providers of online marketing business are providing very detailed analytics and tracking reports for each campaign that is launched. Sent, delivery, read, response analytics can be tracked very easily. The top players of marketing never launch the campaigns without enabling tracking codes. This way, it is effortless to compare the ROMI (Return On Marketing Investment).

Very cost-effective.

You can plan, compose and execute SMS campaigns for any budget and any size of a business/ requirement. This is one of the reasons Text messaging should never be shelved in a ‘to-do list’ of future marketing tactics. It should be an on-going process from the very first contact you acquire. This keeps the ROMI scale healthy too. 

Only Serious Customers opt-in.

Most of the time the database/ contacts are acquired via customer opt-ins. i.e., the customer has already expressed interested in that product/ service. It isn’t shooting in the dark anymore. All you must do is composing a constructed message and send across with right instructions. This fact drives ROI. 

Understanding the importance of reaching the customers at a personal level is the first step to compose the right message with in the characters limit. Now that you know SMS Marketing is nothing to ignore, let us give you some pointers that might encourage you to plan a campaign soon. 

Text messaging is quite flexible that it doesn’t need any extra set-up on the phone and is same to almost all the operating systems and phone models. Engaging the customers with the universal format is not complicated. 

There are over 1.7 billion mobiles are being used in India and only 65% of them are equipped and activated with 3G or 4G. So, the ultimate way to get into their inbox is text messaging.

In today’s world, the mobile phone is at the reach of an arm stretch most of the day. Recent observations state that an average person checks the phone 150 times a day. Do you need more reasons to say SMS is most viewed?

Leading marketing experts say that 75% of the customers prefer to receive ads through text message. Only 15% and 10% customers prefer to view the ads on internet and mobile aps respectively. 

Text messages often show 45% of response rate where it is just 6% in email marketing. Writing short codes and shortened URLs can show immediate results for the campaign. 

If curving up the sales graph and improving the communication with the customers is your immediate goal, then SMS marketing certainly shouldn’t be over looked. It doesn’t need hefty budget allocation, yet is a very powerful tool to keep your customer engaged with right information. 

Handout For Finding Right Marketing Automation Service

How tough is it to find the right marketing software for a business? While spending approximately 30% of entire marketing budget solely on technology, and having over 3700 odd options to choose from; it can be nerve-wracking to find the right one for right reasons. Since it is always a good idea to look around before diving deep, we are here to give you a few aspects you might want to consider before you go for your software shopping.

The ‘W’ Words. Why & What?

As we already mentioned, Online marketing is going to cost. So, it is always a good thing to take a minute and think why do you want to get into Online Marketing, and what do you want to achieve through this. Once you know the problem that you want to solve, you are one step through the filtering process to find the right platform for your marketing needs. Not all the Businesses need Digital Marketing and online presence. But the ones that require online existence should always have their immediate and long-term goals listed out.

Calculate Potential ROMI

Demonstrating the value of any investment is necessary to balance the capital and returns in any business, especially for small businesses and start-ups. Before employing a new software, make sure you run a trail campaign before signing up for longer terms. Most of the platforms do give a free trail or smaller packages to try on. Don’t hesitate to take advantage of them. Analysing the average opening rates and conversion rates (assuming Email Marketing Campaign) along with some forecast of the business promotions and possible reactions; compare different tools. Investment with no foreseen plan on returns is almost dead capital.

Don’t Hesitate To Discuss

SFAs (Sales Force Automation) can be confusing for beginners. There is no shame in asking questions and understanding the module’s abilities and how it can solve your marketing issues. Reach out to the representative from the software provider or a marketing expert and explain your current drill and your target. This will allow them to pass on the right suggestions.

One Size Does NOT Fit For All

Often the executives from online marketing software solutions sell the point that it is a swiss army knife model of marketing technology. You need an application that is perfect fit for your business needs, not the one that has hundreds of features. The right one is not always fancy/ flashy. If you find a software that has few features but fits the bill, that is all you need. Look for the one that can integrate to the platforms you use.

Never DIY A Marketing Software

Always spend your sources and time on the product, you built the company to develop. Making an in-house solution for online marketing is not a suggestable move for businesses with a different core product/ service. Advantage with marketing software companies is, they build and develop the module based on the new age technology and can afford to have dedicated teams for research, testing and maintenance. It’s a huge investment for the non-marketing businesses to infuse man power/ sources/ capital on this, with no guarantee on ROMI.

Take Advantage Of Free Trails

Most of the automation software companies do give free trails. Utilizing them to check how apt is the software for your business gives you more understanding about online marketing and various features that they have got to offer. From budgets to reports to features; check everything before signing up for a long term. Online marketing practices are very demanding and takes a lot of calculated decisions. So, go through the reviews about the platforms before you take a call.  

Demonstrating the effectiveness of a Perfect Marketing Plan is not as black and white as sales reports. While the sales can be indicated through hard numbers and revenue oriented metrics, marketing activities can only be determined with the number of clicks, leads and some other data metrics that may or may not be translated in to real money. Since the online marketing is occupying deliberately more space in whole marketing, spending enough time on finding right marketing automation software. 

Do You Know Why Your Email Ends Up In Trash/ Spam?

According to Radicati group’s report, over 215 billion emails are being sent out every day globally across 2.6 billion email users. But the percentage that goes to spam box is 49.7%. This number depends upon a lot of parameters but there are a few tips that you can use and avoid being marked as Spam or sent to Trash.

   












Ignoring Unsubscribe Requests :- No one likes a clingy promoter sending emails even after one opted out. It is best to remove the contact right after the customer requested you to do so and it is legally required too in a lot of countries. According to CAN-SPAM act 2003, it is important to remove a customer’s email ID from contacts list within 10 days’ time once they opted out. Chose best email marketing services that provide effective CRM software which will track the unsubscribe requests and removes them from the list automatically. This will not only help you to send emails to relevant customers as well as avoiding your email ending up in Trash or Spam box.

Short-Sighted Contact Segmentation :- As much as most of us overlook, contact segmentation is very important to deliver successful campaigns. Categorization makes it easier to send the information people care about and nothing but that. Always segment your contacts according to age, gender, location, designation, choices, browsing behaviors and other groups that are concerned. This way you can not only send relevant message but also win the customer’s trust that you send only the information that they are interested to know. There are many marketing platform providers that comes with easy segmentation and categorization, as well as updates the data eventually. Practicing segmentation before running every campaign, will ramp up the revenue considerably.
  
Not including Call-to-Action :- Giving out information without guiding them through a call-to-action is almost doing nothing. Don’t expect the customers to search for your website or destination webpage after seeing your email. Al ways give a direct link, contact info and directions to follow for the action. If the instructions aren’t clear/ added, there is a maximum possibility that the customer might just delete the email immediately.

 

Compose it in simple words and may be add some buttons and flyers to make it look more effective. A lot of applications are available in the market that provides gorgeous email design templates to make your email look professional and informative.  

Overlooking Device Optimization :- You can’t just assume that all your customers are going to check their emails on a desktop. The entire world is intricated in the smart phone these days, including your email. So, make sure it is displayed well on it. If the email is full of empty boxes, unaligned huge text and strange symbols; one wouldn’t take long to delete it or mark it spam. Admit it, you and I would do the same. Ask your online marketing experts for device optimization services. The email should be as great as you planned it to be on all the devices that a customer might check it on.

Craving-For-Attention E-Blasts :- This is the most uncertain practice in online marketing, especially email marketing. Customers are letting you into their personal space while opting in for your email. Never take it for granted. Be responsible with the amount of emails you send out. Best practice is to keep within bounds, compose constructive messages and send limited emails within time intervals. If you want to stand out in the crowd and let your message reach the right recipients and turn them as opt-in customers, ensure you avoid all these mistakes. Choose your online marketing platforms carefully and use them wisely to create relevant and long-lasting customer base.  

Happy Marketing!

Ways To Acquire Email Lists, And The BEST Among All

To build any marketing campaign, prospective leads/ contacts are very important. It is an important practice for businesses, especially for start-ups to reach their potential customers, send out the information or invite them to visit the website or page. Just like any other strategy, you can pick either easy-and-risky or hard-and-valid ways to acquire your contacts.  

There are 3 major ways used by the marketing companies to obtain email contacts.
 

 How Is Buying/ Renting Contacts Is Wastage?.

Statistically, they are neither your customers, nor the prospects that conveyed interest in your products/ service. It’s just a bunch of contacts what you are using to shoot in dark. The odds of finding the recipients that would show interest is very less, almost none. Here are some possible consequences of using bought or rented data for marketing.

Relevance & Quality Level: Questionable.

Most of the times, the email list providers just gather data from different sources, merge them and make huge lists of contacts and sell them as batches. Filtering them by active users, incomplete data, geographical location, interests, etc. is almost impossible. For a lot of them, your email is just an invitation from an unknown person. You know for such invitations, response cannot be guaranteed.

Possibility Of Being Marked Spam.

When the receiver never opted-in for the subscription of your emails or doesn’t find the information relevant/ required, the email will definitely be pushed in to trash or marked spam or least cases ignored and left alone. Either of them is of no use for you. Plus, once being marked spam, the certainty of your domain will be questionable. It is even illegal in a few countries to send unsolicited emails to unsubscribed recipients. Finding yourself on the wrong side of such legal regulations can have serious financial consequences as well as a negative impact on your IP reputation and eventually on your business.  

Your Competitors Might Be Using Same List.

If there is a huge contact list available for sale, don’t you think your competitors would want to give it a shot too? Say you have a few prospects in the bought data, there is a fair chance that they are looking at similar emails from other contenders too. You are not the only one in the game though! If it’s too many emails from different companies about a product/ service they are not interested in, they can filter the category and abandon all the emails and mark them spam.

Not Approved By Many Marketing Service Providers.

If too many of the emails sent by you are marked spam, the Email Marketing Service providers might close your account and some will have rights to take legal actions for practicing Spam using their platform. So, while being desperate to run an affordable email marketing, you might end up paying more. It’s best suggested to discuss your strategies of acquiring data with your marketing experts before buying the contacts.  
 
Growing an opt in Email list: How-to?

According to recent surveys of comparing ROIs from different channels, it is summarized that Email Marketing is still the most effective way to reach potential customers that social media (Though that depends up on many parameters such as your business type and prospect customers). It is always best to organically grow your own data by asking the customers to opt in for subscription. Here are a few ways to do so.  

Subscription Box.

 Don’t just fit the subscription box in some corner to save space your info and products display. Collecting data is important too. Place it distinctly in every page at a visible place on your website. Design it well to grab attention at least till you get some decent number of leads.  

Lead Magnet.

Lead magnet is a something that you offer your target audience that is worth their time. It could be journals, informational videos, guides, e-books, worksheets or widget. NOT sales material. The audience will be interested to get subscribed for such goods and that makes your job to collect data, easy. Once your lead magnet is in their inbox, it’ll be easy to track their interest in your product, behaviour on website and many other to plan your further campaigns.

Pop-up Prompts.

If you have no such lead magnets to offer, you can design tools such as prompt dialogue box asking the visitors to put in their email ID and respective details. You can plan and make sure the prompt appears each time someone opens your website. It could be just a subscription box or a login/ signup option.

Attractive & Engaging Content.

Irrespective of business model, content designing helps you gain the attention and trust of customers for a long time. Design your site with user engaging content and quick responsive interface to inspire the visitors to subscribe themselves.
  
Reputable Email Service Provider. 

 Do a little R&D and sign up to the Email Service Provider that is best for you. From segregating contacts to, designing email templates to tracking recipients’ behaviour, ESP plays a huge role in acquiring relevant and sustaining list of contacts. So rather than choosing the easy way to buy/ rent the email list and hitting the rock bottom later, start building your own contact list and obtain viable business. Happy Marketing!

Planning Online Marketing For Your Startup? This Might Help!

Web start-ups often need every online marketing strategy in the book for better reach, but they can’t really afford to do so all the time. They are mostly strapped for cash. There are hundreds of experts who gave suggestions on how to decrease the marketing budgets but still get competent reach to the customers. We filtered a few tips that can help you planning a better advertising module; especially when you are on your own for marketing.

Pick Out Your Immediate Goals. 

Knowing what you want to do is the first step towards getting it. What is the goal of your pursuit? Your website? Your campaign? And your ad? Have one goal at a time. Ultimately everything is to drive numbers but, how are you going to do it depends upon your approach. For example, if you are a service provider, start with ‘getting certain number of phone calls per day’ and then spread your goals out from there.

It’s good to have a big picture, but in marketing it is only possible by combing a lot of perfect small pictures.

Create An Influential Web Design. 

Does design come under marketing? Of course, it does! As far as the customers are concerned, your website represents your entire business. (at least for that moment!) They judge you based on the web design, user interaction, content and experience. It’s the face of your startup to the world.

We know it could be a real challenge to find great designers within your budgets but this is absolutely where you need to realize, you can’t compete with the market competency with poor representations. A creative website can take your business graph from moderate to massive.

If Content Is Fire, Social Media Is Gasoline. 

Don’t afraid to experiment now and then. It just requires a little courage, little presence of mind and a little more creativity. This will only help you understand your customers better. Try different kinds of posts and see which ones are getting more attention and engagement. Observe the timings that works, content that works, filters that work, platforms that work, etc.

You don’t really have to stick to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. There are many other social platforms that can really emphasize your online social presence. AngelList, SpiceWorks, YouNoodle and many more. You just need to get out there and find a platform that suits your business and place your startup in the social sphere. Never underestimate any platform just because it isn’t fancy. Marketing isn’t about fancy it’s about relevance.

Two Words… Creative Content! 

Content need not be expensive all the time. The more you spend time on research, you’ll find a lot of creative, high-quality content ideas to engage your customers. Without producing engaging content, no matter how many tactics you use for SEO, it wouldn’t give you results that you are looking for. Irrespective of your product or service, your content is the only thing that can make people talk about it.

Blogs, Articles, explainer videos, polls, images do anything and everything to grab the audience attention. Once they turn the heads, your short-term goal is achieved. Consistency in content making works like fuel to your company marketing. If you have nothing say, they have no reason to stay! As simple as that

Responding In Time Means You Are Listening. 

Being active on multiple platforms is good but if you don’t respond to the customer’s emails, comments and queries; then maybe you aren’t in there for a long run. Responding quickly is one way to show courtesy. It’s like you consider their opinions and questions. Successful entrepreneurs never ignore their customers.

When you post, they listen. When you reply, they’ll know you are listening too. That’s how you can get stuff done. Consider this next time.

These are five can’t-skip essentials while planning online marketing for startups. No one ever said startups are easy. But if you plan well, it could be fun and promising. If you could get the marketing plan right on cards, then the business will take off well eventually.

Do you think we should add some more to the list? Let us know in the comments below.

Happy Marketing!

Tried, Tested and True Analysis on Email Marketing Campaign Timings

There is nothing worse than sending a right email in wrong timing. After all, timing is everything in marketing, isn’t it? Especially when your email is intended to get subscribers/ sign-ups/ sales, etc. One mail in wrong timing can make you end up in the spam folder. Over the years, many corporate marketing companies have run, observed and analyzed number of campaigns in different timings and compared the results. Now thankfully we have a vague but mostly-practiced list of commandments regarding Email Marketing Campaigns. You’ve acquired a great list of contacts, categorized them and drafted a smart email to invite them to your business. But when to send it? And when not to? We’ve filtered the extensive list of guidelines and got you some brief crux about when and how to schedule Email Campaigns.

 Comprehensive Emails: When NOT to send?

 The general emails such as updates and newsletters doesn’t get much attention usually. But if you plan properly, you may get yourself some decent percentage of Email opening rates and link clicks.

Never In The Night Time.

You and I could be insomniacs. But normal people do sleep during nights. Or they’ll be at work if they work at MNCs. Sending emails during nights isn’t a good idea at all. Try to schedule your emails in the daytime, preferably mid-day.

Don’t Mess With Monday Blues.

If you think launching a campaign right parallel to their work week, that’s just a risk you wouldn’t take if you know why. People will already be bummed about ending their weekend excursion. If you piss them off with marketing emails on the same day, there is high possibility your email will be marked spam. Or probably get deleted without even opening it, along with the flood of weekend marketing mails.

Lazy long Weekends.

When they finally get a couple of days for themselves, they sure won’t check emails and all. Even if they did, your advertising message will get deleted along with other bunch. Your Email is effective only when it is sent aimed to get customer’s attention. According to past analytics, the Email opening rate during weekends are very low.

Never Miss These Days...

You should know which timings work for you, if you want to run a successful campaign. Know your audience and plan the campaign accordingly. Here are some general timings that work well for almost every campaign.

Mid-week Makes Sense.

As per studies, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are ideal days to send on the marketing emails. These are the days where people are not cribbing about eye-blink-gone weekend and not looking forward for one. Try to schedule most of your campaigns during mid-week. It doesn’t mean you can’t send emails on the rest of the days. Some of the emails are to be sent in certain time. As per your knowledge on your audience/ customers, you take that call.

Mid-day Magic.

According to some marketing wizards, noon hours (1 PM – 3 PM) are the most attention-grabbing hours during a day for promotional messages/ emails. As per their previous research and observations, emails that are sent during noon gets more opening rates compared to others. 9 AM – 11 AM is recommended too but again that depends upon your contact categorization and business model.

Heads-Up Before The Big Day.

If you have planned any event/ discount sale/ contest or anything, don’t wait till the last moment to give notifications. Text messages are opened immediately but approximately 23% of sent emails are opened within the first 60 minutes. Rest of them would take around 2 – 4 days to get opened. So, it’s better you send an alert much prior to the event. A gentle reminder not only helps you to gather more audience for your planned event but also creates curiosity among your contacts.

How to? Take a Hint

Simple things can make huge difference sometimes. Just because you sent it I the right hour, doesn’t mean your email will be clicked on. You just need to pay attention towards the detail and requirements. Here we spill a few beans about some of such quick tips.

Compose a Standout Subject Line.

As we talked, the opening rates are high for the mid-week sent out emails. But a lot of marketing teams already know this cue. So, it’ll be raining emails in the customer’s Inbox. What if your email get invisible in that load? Ensure you have an enticing subject line to your email, which excites the reader and makes him/ her click on it to open. And make sure it is relevant to the information in the email.

Don’t Send Too Many Emails At a Time.

You have an exciting offer or important information/ update and you don’t want your customer to miss it. You might want to send multiple emails so that the customer would open at least one of them. You call it excitement, but people call it Spam. They might just report you spam and ever since, your emails would end up landing the Spam Folder. Don’t do that to yourself. Send one email at a time and finite the number emails you send on a weekly basis.

Don’t Be Partial To Desktops. Optimize Your Email For Mobiles.

Not everyone check their emails in a computer. A lot of people do browse in their mobile phones or tabs. So, your email template should be mobile-friendly too. Ensure you do mobile optimization for all your emails. Most of the Email Marketing service providers do equip you with optimization tools to ensure your email is visible in all the devices. Email Marketing opens doors for many opportunities and it is getting to be more plain sailing act. If you are determined to get your brand/ service some productive visibility, and if you are smart enough to de-code what your customer wants to see in his/ her inbox, then you are all set for an amazing marketing game. Choose your provider wisely and plan effective Email campaigns. Visit Omevo and talk to our marketing experts to get yourself a free trail which is totally risk free.