5 metrics to measure the success of Facebook videos

From view-through rate to video length, contributor Sweta Patel discusses the metrics that will help you understand how your videos are performing on Facebook.

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Affiliate marketing strategies for success during the holidays

The holidays are just around the corner and will be in full force before we know it. Columnist Adam Weiss outlines key strategies to help you prepare and get your affiliate marketing on track this season.

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9 Simple High ROI Shopping Cart Abandonment Prevention Tactics

How are you handling your shopping cart abandonment?

The first step is for you to track and recognize how many shoppers are leaving items in their carts without finalizing the purchases.

If you’re not addressing it, you’re missing out on sales.

Take a moment to ask yourself how you can improve the customer experience.

Is there a problem with your conversion funnel?

This is a basic visualization of how companies create conversions.

First, the consumer becomes aware of your brand, products, or services.

Next, they have a need or want that sparks interest in something more specific.

Once the consumer knows what they want, they consider the purchase.

Adding a product to their shopping cart definitely qualifies as the consideration part of this conversion funnel process.

They are just one step away—or even one click away—from finalizing the sale.

So, what’s the problem?

Let’s take a look at a conversion funnel with some holes in the process:

If customers are getting all the way to the shopping cart, I’m willing to bet you don’t have a problem with your homepage or product service page.

What about your contact page or customer service information availability?

It’s possible the customer doesn’t feel comfortable finalizing the purchase based on the provided information about your business, reputation, warranty, or return policy.

But again, they’ve already made it to the checkout page with items in the cart.

So, I think this is another unlikely scenario.

The issue has to be in the final step of your conversion process.

I’ll show you some techniques that will minimize shopping cart abandonment on your platform and increase your conversion rates.

1. Recognize that customers are price sensitive

Your prices may be deterring the consumer from finalizing their purchase.

Look, I get it.

Obviously, you’re trying to make a buck.

I’m not telling you to start giving everything away.

You should be making a healthy profit on each transaction.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at some numbers:

Unexpected prices are the number one reason why customers are abandoning shopping carts.

So, the initial price of your item might be okay.

But the added charges are turning customers away.

Some examples of these extra charges may include:

• Sales tax
• Shipping
• Processing fees
• Any other hidden charges

Is there a way you can eliminate some of these?

Here’s an idea.

Maybe you can take on the shipping fee.

Instead of putting that burden on the customer, you can adjust the original prices of your products to account for the shipping charges.

Will the customer end up paying more?

Yes.

But it’s not an unexpected charge.

You’ve got to find a middle ground.

Based on the graph above, the price was a factor in three of the top four reasons why people abandon shopping carts.

Try to keep your prices competitive while still generating a nice profit.

You may end up making slightly less money each transaction, but it’s worth it if you can increase the transaction rate.

2. Make sure your website and checkout procedures are secure

In the last five years, 46% of Americans were victims of credit card fraud.

That’s an alarming number.

Americans are the targets of nearly half of all the credit card breaches worldwide.

Consider these numbers for a second.

Have you had a credit card breached?

Do you know someone who’s been a victim of credit card fraud?

This is a legitimate concern for people.

Your customers may have had a bad experience in the past, and that is making them hesitant about online purchases.

The purchase process on your website needs to be secure.

You are responsible for your customers’ credit card information.

Don’t be the reason for their accounts getting hacked.

Take the proper security measures and place the corresponding badges on the checkout page, similar to the graphic above.

Make sure your website is secure.

Is your website running on an HTTPS connection?

Look at the example from Dick’s Sporting Goods:

See the secure sign?

It makes the consumer feel more comfortable at the checkout page.

Personally, it’s a red flag for me if I don’t see this while I’m shopping.

I won’t be entering any of my personal or credit card information on a web page that’s not secure.

Quick side note: notice Dick’s offers free returns on its apparel?

I wanted to point that out as well. It makes the customer feel better about the checkout process.

A secure website and checkout process need to be a priority for your ecommerce store.

3. Allow your customers to check out without creating a profile

Obviously, you want customers to have an account with your company.

It’s a great way to track their behavior and keep them informed of special offers and promotions.

However, you shouldn’t be forcing people to create a user profile just to make a purchase.

Why?

1. It’s an extra step. People are in a rush, and you want the procedure to be quick.
2. They may have a fear of getting unwanted emails, text messages, or junk mail.

If your website doesn’t have a guest checkout option, you’re making a mistake.

Here’s an example from Lululemon of the guest checkout option:

It’s a really clean checkout page.

There are two clear options.

Returning users can easily sign into their accounts, and customers without an account can proceed without creating one.

This ensures you aren’t losing sales.

Here’s the thing, though. In order to complete the checkout process, the customer still needs to enter their information.

You’ll have their name, email address, location, and other information.

Once the sale is final, you can entice them to create an account.

All they need to do is create a password.

You already have everything else in your records, so they don’t need to submit information twice.

Here’s a great example of what this should look like:

Give the customer a reason to create an account.

Refer to the image above.

What’s the customer getting in return?

• Option to track the order
• Exclusive discounts

But they shouldn’t be forced to create a profile just to make a purchase.

Make sure that’s optional.

4. Accept a wide range of payment options for the customer

What kind of payment options are you accepting?

Visa only?

You don’t accept Discover cards?

I understand.

Certain credit card companies have higher processing fees than others.

Accepting transactions from PayPal or similar platforms could be even more costly.

By not accepting certain payment methods, you could be turning customers away.

You might think that everyone has one of the credit cards you accept, but that’s not always the case.

Give the consumer lots of options.

Do you accept Apple Pay?

There are nearly 86 million iPhone users in the United States.

Last year, Apply pay transactions grew at a 50% rate.

These numbers show alternative payment methods are trending upward.

Don’t fall behind the curve.

If you’re accepting only one or two payment forms, it could be the cause for your shopping cart abandonment.

The customer gets to the checkout process only to discover you’re not offering their preferred payment option.

5. The process needs to be mobile friendly

Is your website mobile friendly?

Is the checkout procedure optimized for mobile devices?

It needs to be.

Research shows 84% of smartphone users have experienced a problem completing a mobile transaction.

And 40% of users will go to your competitor after an unsatisfactory experience on your mobile site.

What do these numbers tell you?

People want to shop on their phones.

Here’s some additional information about mobile users:

Nearly 5 billion people have a mobile device across the world.

Of course, not all these people are your potential customers.

But a large chunk of them could be.

Don’t alienate people from shopping on their mobile devices.

It’s estimated that half of ecommerce transactions take place on mobile platforms.

That number is only going to grow.

If getting to a laptop or desktop is the only way for your customers to shop, it could be hurting your sales.

Make sure your checkout procedure is optimized for mobile devices to decrease your shopping cart abandonment rates.

6. Don’t let your competitors steal your customers

How unique is your product or service?

Chances are, you don’t own the space outright.

You have plenty of competition.

It’s not always easy to compete with the big players like Amazon or Walmart.

Earlier we looked at a graph that said 36% of shoppers abandoned a shopping cart because they found a better price elsewhere.

If your prices are higher, that needs to be justified.

Make sure your quality and service are outstanding.

Your customer needs to understand this.

The website needs to load fast.

Don’t make the process too complex.

We know that 25% of shoppers will abandon their shopping carts if the navigation is too complicated.

They will go to your competitors instead.

Be aware of how your competitors are operating.

It’s always helpful to use competitor analysis tools to improve your traffic.

7. Send an email reminder if a cart is abandoned

Okay. So you may not be able to prevent everyone from abandoning their shopping carts.

Even if you decrease the abandonment rate, you won’t get that number down to zero.

Where do you go from here?

Don’t give up just because a customer abandoned their cart.

If you have their information, reach out and send them a reminder.

Here’s a great example from Saatchi Art:

This email accomplishes a few things:

1. reminds the customer of their shopping
2. creates a sense of urgency
3. offers an extra incentive

The reminder alone may be enough to get the customer to finalize their purchase.

But if it’s not, it creates a sense of urgency by saying “high sell-out risk.”

We’ll get into some more detail on this method shortly.

It also provides an extra incentive by offering a 10% discount.

Earlier we discussed that customers are price sensitive.

They may have abandoned the cart for financial reasons.

Giving the consumer a discount will show them you care.

That promotion may be enough of a reason for them to finish the checkout.

8. Use A/B testing to simplify your checkout process

How long does it take the customers to make a purchase on your site?

Every extra click they have to make gives them a chance to second-guess their decision.

You can run an A/B test to see which checkout procedure is more successful.

Let’s look at a couple of examples.

Here’s the checkout progress bar from Crate & Barrel:

It’s a quick checkout process.

• Shipping info
• Payment info
• Place order

Three steps and done.

Here’s an example from another website:

Their process is six steps.

That’s double the number of Crate & Barrel’s process.

If you have a long checkout system, I suggest you shorten the process significantly.

Still not convinced?

Run an A/B test.

Use your current system as the control group and a shorter version as the experimental group.

See if you notice a difference in your shopping cart abandonment statistics between these two groups.

9. Create a sense of urgency

Earlier I mentioned that Saatchi Art created a sense of urgency with their abandonment recovery email.

FOMO—the fear of missing out.

You can do this on your checkout page as well to reduce cart abandonment.

Some customers are just browsing.

New customers most likely won’t buy something on their first visit to your website.

But you can give them an extra incentive to finalize their purchases.

Create a sense of urgency.

• “Limited quantity remaining”
• “Sale price expires at midnight”
• “14 people booked this flight in the last 24 hours”
• “9 other people are looking at this room right now”

I’m sure you’ve seen phrasing like this before while browsing online.

Hotels and airlines do this all the time.

Act now, or miss out.

You can incorporate this psychological strategy into your checkout process to minimize cart abandonment.

Conclusion

Shopping cart abandonment is a problem for your ecommerce website.

You’re not alone.

It’s not too late to make changes to your checkout process to prevent future cart abandonment.

Follow the advice above to keep your abandonment rates low while increasing your conversion rates and revenue.

Customers are price sensitive. Don’t hit them with any unexpected charges.

You need to accept multiple forms of payment while also making sure the payment procedure is completely secure. Customers won’t shop on your website if they think their credit card information is at risk.

Don’t force shoppers to create a customer profile to check out. Instead, offer a user account as an option after they complete the process.

Make sure your site is optimized for mobile devices. If not, your customers will go to your competition.

The checkout process needs to be short. You can run an A/B test to play with different options and formats.

Create a sense of urgency to avoid cart abandonment: if the customer doesn’t act now, they may not be able to get this product in the future.

Even if someone abandons their cart, it’s not too late. Send them an email to remind them about the product.

You can also offer a discount or promotion as an extra incentive to finalize the sale.

How will you implement these methods on your ecommerce checkout page to minimize shopping cart abandonment rates?

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Design Inspiration: 15 Exciting Website Advertising Campaigns

Design Inspiration: 15 Exciting Website Advertising Campaigns written by Guest Post read more at Duct Tape Marketing

The online advertising campaign is one of the most influencing marketing tools today. The secret of its striking effect is hidden in the peculiarities of human perception. Near 90 % of the information, people perceive visually. Thus, the visual effect which is used in design plays a determinative role in advertising. Using them correctly, you have all chances to modify reality according to your business purposes and create an inspired, memorable and well-directed advertisement.

We would not go in the depth of the theory of marketing approaches and rules just demonstrate you a few of the best latest campaigns. For your better understanding of the tools and marketing strategies which have brought them success read a few words about meaningful tricks helping to develop inspiration marketing design.

Design motivation tricks

Your campaign should motivate people to buy your product since it should be aligned with the needs and interests of your target auditory. Thanks to digital tools for investigating and gathering data about internet users you can find needed information in a few clicks. Remember, data matters for being in touch with your clients.

Despite focusing on the product, the advertisement should have the social background. Advertising report of Nielsen’s Global Trust shows that the most resonating in marketing context are humorous, value- and family-oriented, real-file situations.

Colors you use for designing advertisement matters. The scientists have proved the strong interrelation between hues and human feelings. You should know exactly what emotions you want to provoke in your audience. To choose the background, you may address to Robert Plutchik’s wheel of emotions. Consider, the saturated and rich colors are currently in trend. Indeed, coloristic should be balanced and look natural.

The advertising message is the core element of the marketing campaign. It should be short, clear, extremely focused and appealing to audience’s aspirations. It is worth admitting that typography style is the primary tool for making accents. Large, rich and contrasting typography is today the central trend of web design 2017.

15 Exciting Website Advertising Campaigns

1. Damien

2017 Internet Advertising Competition Award, Best Advertising Online Ad,

Promoting the horror series “Damien,” companies registered “Page Six SixSix” with incredible topical banner and live action video. They created the analogy with Devil hinting on the horrible essence of the series and mystical context. The emotion of horror was transmitted through each element of design.

2. White64 motors

2017 Internet Advertising Competition Award, Best Advertising Website

Presentation of the first autonomous flying sleigh appeals to the child’s beliefs of everyone. At the same time, they virtuously link these beliefs to the new opportunities of their product saying:

“ Innovation Just Got a New Face. Santa Got a New Sleigh”

3. Giants and Gentlemen (G&G)

2017 Internet Advertising Competition Award, Outstanding website.

The website was created to inspire potential employees and clients. Just from the campaign’s start, company’s staff has grown by 50% and 7 clients were added.

4. Tootsy Pop Interactive

2017 Internet Advertising Competition Award, Best Advertising Rich Media Online Campaign.

Marketing purpose: engaging viewers using the classic Tootsie Roll character Mr. Owl, increasing engagement through device motion gestures, incorporating a game for kids and appealing to parents with a nostalgic look at a Tootsie Roll campaign.

5. PBS kids

2017 People’s Voice, Website: youth

It is the bright example of targeting: colors are bright and incredibly enjoyable, thematically imagery and elementary functional – all what is good for children visual perception.

6. Spotify

2017 Webby Awards, People’s Voice

This campaign brightly demonstrates the importance of social context. The message: “Thanks 2016. It was the weird” captures people’s attention and then claims about program’s improvements.

7. Google – year in search 2016

2017 Webby Awards, People’s Voice, Website: Best Use of Video or Moving Image

As in the previous example, we can see that urgently social advertisement was rewarded with people’s voice. Indeed, all the social background is actualized by means of sounds, colors, movement’s effects – all is now in marketing and web design trends.

8. Larry King Now

2017 Webby Award Winner, Web Personality (Channels and Networks)

A simple and clear advertisement which demonstrates successful using of trend elements: a large typography, calm but rich hues, minimalism alongside eloquence.

9. Women’s footprints in history

2017 Webby Award Winner

An example of crafted combination between the text message and visual effect: one help remember the other; brilliant interplaying looks holistic – as it should be.

10. Milwaukee Ballet

2017 People’s Voice / Webby Award Winner, Best Home Page

One more web design trend 2017 – video effect as the Home Page. The fact that the company has got both people’s voice and professional reward confirm that this marketing approach works.

11. Through the Dark

2017 People’s Voice / Webby Award Winner, Best Use of Animation or Motion Graphics

Classical combination of white and dark focus attention on animation and core advertisement message – Google Play music is the way to the light.

12. IFLY KLM 50

2017 People’s Voice / Webby Award Winner, Best Visual Design – Aesthetic

The word ‘breathtaking’ is used not accidentally in the text message. One can see that the image, combination of colors, nature’s landscape and phenomena alongside the design idea create a really breathtaking effect.

13. 2015 Digital Annual Report Airbus Group

2017 Webby Award Winner, Websites: Corporate Communication

You can here see contrasting typography and its appealing effect: the word “Ahead” is larger and more saturated to appeal people’s striving to be always “Ahead” of the others. Light blue color – color of lightness and elevation; what can be better associated with the safety of fly?

14. BBC Culture

2017 People’s Voice, Best Cultural Blog/Website

Effective use of the images with the background of the real life’s stories

15. Clear Score

2017 People’s Voice, Websites: Financial Services/Banking

One more bright demonstration of emotional appeal: the words “free” and “freedom” appear twice in the text message. Background greatly enhances the human emotional need for being free.

It is the short list of the Internet Advertising Competitions’ winners, but just a few examples brightly demonstrate the core marketing tricks and reflect the latest tendencies in the web design and advertisement. Even if you have not found here anything consonant with your vision, you should be already charged with the inspiration to act. Do not delay for later, the trends and tricks are changing in an extremely short period.

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About the Author

Petra Mainer, the novice solopreneur (founder of GradeScout), studies Information Management, and now she is eager to start writing about everything worth reading in the digital sphere. Follow her on Twitter.

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System 1 Research launches a VR testing tool for shopping

But, until VR is indistinguishable from reality, the question is whether it can offer a valid environment for real-world marketing tests.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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Forrester’s first Waves on journey analytics show the growing importance of customers’ steps toward purchase

In this new field, the surveyed tools offer different approaches to understanding customers’ incentives and problems.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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Digital Marketing News: LinkedIn Top Content, Twitter Gets Character & Apple Goes Google

The Content Preferences of LinkedIn Members [Infographic] What kinds of content do LinkedIn users prefer? A new infographic shows that LinkedIn users prefer content that's informative, educational and relevant. MarketingProfs Giving you more characters to express yourself Twitter recently announced they're giving us an additional 140 characters with which to convey our deepest, Tweetiest thoughts by upping their character count to 280. They believe this will encourage more active posting on their platform. Twitter Apple switches from Bing to Google for Siri web search results on iOS and Spotlight on Mac Apple has finally made the plunge with Google - when you search with Siri on your iOS device or Mac, you'll be shown search results from Google. In other news, none of that would have made any sense 20 years ago (according to Josh Nite). TechCrunch Adding LinkedIn’s Profile Card on Office 365 Offers a Simple Way to Build a Professional Relationship LinkedIn and Microsoft have made it official recently with the anticipated rollout of the ability to integrate your personal LinkedIn profile card with your Office 365 profile. Full details and how-to's are available, and the release will happen over the next couple of weeks. LinkedIn Know Their Intention, Get Their Attention: New Ways to Connect and Measure on YouTube Google has announced four new tools to help brands and users "capture the attention of your audience on YouTube." These tools include Custom Affinity Audiences, Video Ad Sequencing and more. Inside AdWords Instagram Hits 800 Million Monthly Users, Adding 100 Million in Just 5 Months AdWeek reports: "After announcing this morning that Instagram has 2 million advertisers, the Facebook-owned app also says that it has 800 million monthly users, up from 700 million in April." AdWeek Report: The future of paid-search marketing is machine learning and AI "Machine learning-optimized campaigns saw 71 percent better conversion rates and lower CPCs than those not using it." At least, that's what Search Engine Land makes of the recent report from Acquisio. Search Engine Land Only A Third Of Ad Execs Trust Their Audience Data, Measurements According to a recent survey, only 33% of advertising executives consider their data to be completely trustworthy. Only 29% said they felt their audience analytics/measurement was completely accurate. MediaPost What were your top digital marketing news stories this week? We'll be back next week with more digital marketing news! If you have something to share, pass it along to the newsroom or Tweet me @Tiffani_Allen or @toprank.

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