How to fix the REAL reasons behind your abandoned shopping carts

14 November 2010

In early November at the Conversion Conference in London, I had the good fortune to hear Charles Nicholls from SeeWhy speak about abandoned online shopping carts. He cited a Forrester Research study from earlier this year that examined the reasons why website visitors abandon online shopping carts. The top 5 reasons could essentially be reduced to two factors - cost and readiness to buy. Find out how you can fix both these issues on your website.

Does it make the boat go faster?

12 October 2010

2 Comments

We are creatures of habit. We get comfort from routine. We struggle with change. Generalisations, yes, but you can’t deny you’ve noticed those traits in yourself at times. We do some things, because we did it yesterday. And the day before. We find it easier to carry on doing it that way, rather than analyse what we’re doing and change direction. Who has time to do that anyway? Then there’s safety. It’s, of course, in our best interests not to take risks or rock the boat, better to toe the line and do it the way you’ve been told to do it, the way we’ve always done it. Unfortunately, all that does is lead to disappointment, to average, to bland, to a loss of contention. Albert Einstein was describing insanity when he said it was "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results", but he could have equally been referring to our unwavering routines.

2nd Chance: easy way to boost your conversion rate

7 September 2010

0 Comments

I’m going to let you in on a secret. In your very near future, you’re going to see a stupid, crazy spike in your conversion rate. Bold statement, but true. If you spend any money on advertising your website, you need to be doing this. Trust me. The great thing is, your competitors are highly unlikely to be doing it, so now's your chance – your advertising performance will improve and you’ll look like a genius. And the craziest thing about it; it’s in a place you’d never think to look.

Your 60 Second Mobile Review

29 August 2010

2 Comments

For many companies getting the website right is enough of a task, so something like Mobile just has to wait. Especially as it’s not yet mainstream, right? Or is it? If you read the press / blogs, it’s very clear that this year is finally the long-promised ‘Year of Mobile’. Smart phone uptake is substantial, Facebook has 150 million active mobile users and more and more companies are making mobile revenue. Great for them, but your market isn’t quite there yet, is it? Or is it? I think it’s an easy assumption to make, especially for less ‘glamorous’ industries. But I’ll ask you this, how do you know?

8 Steps to Fixing your Customer Experience

18 August 2010

1 Comment

The customer service department is unlikely to be the first port of call for a marketer looking to improve their performance. However, if you want to make a significant difference to your website’s performance, its worth walking over and saying hello. Whilst your outbound marketing – TV, display advertising, video, etc. – might be more exciting at first glance, it’s the information collected by Customer Services that is arguably more valuable to your business.

Know your Objective

14 August 2010

1 Comment

Ask yourself this – do you know why you’re crafting that email newsletter today? Or why your display adverts are using that creative? Why that particular wording in the press release? Or why you’re monitoring mentions of your brand in Twitter? If you don’t know, why are you doing it?

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Customer Service via Twitter

28 July 2010

10 Comments

What’s worse – not providing customer service or providing poor customer service? That’s a question I’ve pondered recently as a consumer, whilst experimenting with utilising Twitter as a means of contacting brands when I’ve needed assistance. It’s been an interesting and varied experience, something we as marketers should consider for our own businesses. You don’t need me to tell you times are changing. With the prolific adoption of social media, companies that are not monitoring brand mentions are missing a huge opportunity to serve their customers or to build / repair their reputations. The conversations about your brand are happening in the social space whether you like it or not. Making like an ostrich and sticking your head in the sand is not going to make it go away.

Birthday Greetings from Server 12

23 June 2010

0 Comments

Saturday was my birthday. Thank you, you’re very kind. Unfortunately, your best wishes are a little slow compared to those from the UK Business Forum and NFL UK Forums. Both businesses sent me birthday wishes in the small hours before I’d even woken up to start on my 37th year. How very kind of them, yes?

Innovate for your brand’s survival

1 April 2010

2 Comments

Let’s be honest, you can milk your Cash Cow for quite some time. However, like oil, one day it’s going to run out. Then what? Well, by that point it’s too late. One, or several, of those pesky start-ups who launch good looking websites with shiny, multi-featured products, will have figured out how to monetise their passion and will be waving at you in slow-mo as they pass you by. You’ll be left to wonder what happened and at some point you’ll look at your new market leaders and will lament “we could have done that”.

7 Top Tips for increasing revenue via the web

22 March 2010

1 Comment

Kevin Costner lied to us. ‘Build it and they will come’ It may have worked for disgraced baseball playing ghosts in the Iowa corn fields, but that doesn’t mean it will work for your website. The internet has long promised to be a Mecca for entrepreneurial types to make their fortune, but it’s never been a simple matter of laying out your website (or baseball diamond) and waiting for the customers (or ghosts) to appear. It takes a lot of work and some smart, joined up thinking.

It's DigitalMarketing

Archive | Business Performance RSS feed for this category