in-app Messages

Despite the power of social media in connecting with customers these days, your brand’s website is still a vital piece of the puzzle for attracting business online. Your brand’s website serves as a central hub where your company can provide customers with service, information, data, news, product information and so much more.

To maximize the use of your company’s website, it’s important to measure activity and analyze this data. If you’re not sure which metrics to track, here are three of the most important metrics to look at to judge the performance of your business’ website:

1. Engagement

Customer engagement on your website is a measurement of how long a visitor spends on your site and what they do while there. In most cases, the content on your site, whether text, video or images, will be what engages visitors the most. You may consider using a customer messaging tool to determine which messages resonate best with customers and then replicate that on your site. Doing so can improve engagement, and you will be able to see this when analyzing the engagement metric.

2. Conversions

A conversion on your brand’s website means any action that you want the visitor to take. Many businesses measure conversions as sales, but conversion can be anything from filling out a form to clicking on a link. What you decide to count as a conversion is up to you, but measuring conversions is a great way to see where your marketing efforts are paying off and where more work may be needed. Google Tag Manager is a fantastic free tool for tracking conversions, but there are plenty of paid resources available to do this as well.

3. Geolocation

Measuring data regarding where your website visitors come from can be very helpful in determining where you should focus your marketing dollars. You could use a customer messaging tool to send out notifications related to a new product or service offering. From there, you can track metrics on your brand’s site that tell you where you’ve received the most response in terms of engagement. This metric can then direct your future marketing efforts on your site as well as through your messaging tools.

Looking to gain more attention for your company or get the word out about a new product launch? There are many ways to increase awareness and get eyes on your brand. But which marketing campaign should you use?

Here's a quick breakdown of some of the most effective campaigns worth exploring.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is nothing new, but it continues to be a powerful strategy. With software for email marketing, you can send promotional messages, newsletters and more. It's also great for nurturing leads or onboarding new users.

Email marketing is unique because you're already communicating with "qualified" audiences. People have to provide their email to opt into receiving your marketing messages. They're already somewhat familiar with your brand and interested in learning more.

Using software for email marketing can help you turn prospects into paying customers.

Social Media Campaigns

We're in a time when social media is integral to our everyday lives. It's the perfect place to garner attention.

The great thing about social media is that you get the best of both worlds. You have the opportunity to interact with your supporters directly while creating content they love. But that's not all. Sharing and liking posts puts your content in front of people who don't follow your brand. As a result, you can gain a massive audience organically.

Amplify your content with paid advertising, and it's a great way to reach millions!

Sales Campaigns

Offerings sales can garner tons of attention. Who doesn't like a good deal? You can use limited-time promotions to stimulate demand for some of your products or services while capturing interest from people unaware of your brand.

You create a sense of urgency when you offer a flash sale or coupons. Those on the fence about supporting your company may jump at the opportunity. Many brands also make the sales process more efficient, reducing some of the friction points to speed up the purchasing process and convince users to buy. It's an excellent way to drive demand quickly while generating long-term growth.

In the past, the only way to learn about new movies was to see trailers on the TV or take a trip to your local video rental store. But things are much different today. The movie industry is vast, and countless streaming services release exclusive titles. So how do you keep track of it all?

Fortunately, you don't have to be a movie expert to keep tabs on the latest releases. Many sites and mobile apps use a messaging platform for media industry buffs, helping users stay in the loop of the many great titles worth watching. Here are a few resources to check out.

CineTrak

CineTrak is a user-friendly app available for iOS and Android smartphones. It's a slick mobile platform that lets you sift through a massive collection of movies. Check out reviews, star your favorite titles and create watchlists. You can even mark the movies you've seen to ensure you're always watching something new.

One of the best features of CineTrak is the recommendations system. The app uses your interactions to understand your preferences. Then, it recommends similar titles to help you broaden your movie-watching horizons. The app also uses an innovative messaging platform for media industry insights. It can remind you of new releases, send notifications of titles that might interest you and more.

Moviebase

Moviebases is a simple app available for Android devices. It's well-designed and user-friendly, incorporating beautiful graphics and easy navigation. Like other apps, you can search movies, mark the ones you've seen and leave a rating.

A discovery tab lets you see what's soon hitting theaters and streaming services. Use this feature to see what titles are most anticipated by users, and you can easily stay updated on what's coming next.

Action!

The Action! TV & Movies Tracker app for iOS is a movie-lovers dream. The app aims to help users keep track of what they've seen and what titles they want to check out. A robust search function lets you check out movies and TV shows in seconds. With a few taps, you can add it to a watchlist, leave a rating or share info with a friend.

Check out similar titles to the ones you love and get notifications on upcoming releases.

One of the most frustrating aspects of running an e-commerce operation is the dreaded abandoned cart. Almost 70 percent of shoppers will browse apps and websites only to leave without making a purchase. Some are simply window shopping, but others may abandon those items because they lost interest or decided to check on a competitor.

All is not lost! Try these tips to get those customers back and convert abandoned carts.

Take Advantage of Notifications

Whether customers browse online or within an app, notifications are a great way to re-engage. In app notification messages can alert users of the items they have yet to purchase. Meanwhile, web push notifications can remind them of the products they viewed long after they left your shop.

Notifications have a greater impact than most messaging alternatives. They occur in real-time, helping you minimize the gap between abandonment and lost interest. Delivering notifications at the right time can reignite interest and encourage those shoppers to return.

Send Personal Emails

In addition to sending an in app notification, consider traditional email outreach. Avoid generic message blasts. Instead, send personalized notes to remind them of the items they liked.

You can send some extra information about the items they abandoned, provide user reviews to reassure them of the product's quality or even provide a small discount. There are many reasons shoppers don't take steps to finalize a purchase. Easing those worries through personal email outreach may be the solution they need.

Create a Friction-Free Checkout Experience

Here's a tip that can make all the difference. For some shoppers, challenges during the checkout process force them to second-guess the purchase. The longer it takes to check out, the more time to back out.

Make things as easy as possible for your customers. Offer guest checkout options to eliminate the barrier of sign-in screens. You can always invite customers to create accounts later.

Then, provide as many payment options as you can. Focus on major card companies, digital wallet services and commonly used e-commerce platforms like PayPal. Avoid hidden fees and reduce the number of steps to finalize a purchase. Improving the user experience can significantly reduce abandoned cart rates and maximize conversions.

Email newsletters are a fantastic way to reach customers and keep them engaged. While some marketers think email campaigns are old news, that's not the case! Over half the world's population uses email, proving its long-term value as an easy way to build your brand image while establishing trust with your customers.

Whether you want to learn how to write an email newsletter for the first time or you're thinking about adding emails to your marketing strategy, here are some benefits that come with sending out email newsletters.

Powerful Lead Generation

From the early days of the Internet, email has been a tool for generating new leads. A simple form on your website allows interested visitors to opt in to receive newsletters. Pair that with your CRM tool and have a steady stream of incoming leads.

Newsletters can guide those prospects through the sales funnel, and your marketing team can develop targeted content to help them through the buyer's journey.

Build Long-Term Customer Connections

Success in modern business is not about quick sales. It's about long-term customers supporting your brand for years to come.

There's no better way to lay the foundation than through email newsletters. Keep your supporters in the know about your company, reward them for their loyalty and use emails to keep engagement up.

Boost Brand Awareness

Newsletters can be an integral part of your branding strategy. Long-running campaigns can teach subscribers about your company and keep them in the loop about the latest product release or service change.

Modern consumers expect to communicate with brands through email. Those newsletters ensure you're keeping up with the competition while delivering unique content that helps you stand out.

Improve Sales

Want to boost sales? Email newsletters are the perfect way to alert your subscribers of time-sensitive promotions. It's an opportunity to increase sales figures dramatically, and many customers eagerly await new promotional emails.

Want to know how to write an email newsletter? The content you push to your subscribers makes all the difference. Work with your marketing team to deliver compelling messages and promotions that engage your customers. Then, use a messaging platform to send them out in one blast. It's as easy as that.

If you’re like most people, you have a lot of apps on your smartphone, and most of them provide notifications of some type. In the past, notifications were sent to the system UI so that your device alerted you to the presence of notifications.

While this notification method works, it can also clutter up your drag-down menu if you have a lot of notifications at once. It can also take longer to sort through notifications using this method, meaning you may not notice important notifications from the apps you use the most.

Notification App Badges Can Help

One way that developers have solved these problems is through the use of app icon notification badges. Put simply, an app notification badge is just an altered version of an app’s icon on your screen. In most cases, an app notification badge will look the same as the regular app icon, but when you have notifications from that particular app, the icon will display some type of symbol to alert you to the presence of notifications.

Numbering Notifications

One reason this method of notification works more efficiently than previous solutions is that app notification badges can include not only a visual alert but also a number showing you how many notifications you have. This can help you prioritize which apps to check first when you have multiple apps with notifications.

Additionally, adding a number display to an app icon when you have notifications can let you know if you’re going to need some extra time to go through your notifications. If you’re having a messaging conversation through a chat app, and you notice you have 20 notifications after putting your phone down for a while, you can know that you’re going to need to set aside some extra time because you now have 20 messages to go through.

Creating Notification Badges for App Icons

Creating a notification badge is fairly simple, and it usually entails adding a simple alteration to your existing app badge icon. You can make your notification badge look however you would like, but app stores and smart device operating systems may place restrictions on how you can use these types of alterations.

Using an app as a marketing tool is one of the best ways to gain traction in today’s digital economy. Through an app, your brand can take advantage of always-on push messaging, and you can also use your app to turn visitors into subscribers.

The way to do this varies from brand to brand, but by and large, you want to use your app to create an ecosystem through which consumers interact with your business. Your app is the hook that draws consumers into this ecosystem, and through your app and its features, you create a reason for consumers to subscribe to notifications and updates, email newsletters, and other forms of communication. In turn, these conversions present opportunities to gain more business.

Supporting Your App Through Messaging

You can also bolster your efforts by using messaging for media. Using MMS messaging in conjunction with your app, you have greater opportunities to provide interactive content. Messaging for media utilizes the power of pictures and video to convey concepts, and media messaging is also great for supporting the branding ecosystem your company is trying to create.

If you use MMS messaging to support your app, keep file sizes at the front of your mind. You don’t want to try to send large picture and video files since these can take longer to go through. Depending on a user’s wireless carrier, some large files may not go through at all.

Present Engagement Opportunities

Your app also needs to present engagement opportunities. App users should not feel like using your brand’s app is a one-way street. Consider setting up some type of live chat function to allow for instant communication if a user has questions or comments about a product or service your company provides. You can also consider using a programmed AI chatbot to answer questions 24 hours a day.

The goal is to keep users engaged with your app instead of treating it like an afterthought. You also want to give users a reason to share your app or their experiences with it, so you get more downloads. As your app spreads, so do the opportunities for converting users into subscribers.

User segments are groups of users. Each group or segment may be divided by various identifying data, including age, user habits, user fluency with a particular technology, and so on.

In the world of programming, user segments are very important as they allow programmers to create different software functionality for different types of users without altering a piece of software entirely and without having to create different versions of a piece of software. Knowing your user segments can be vital when marketing products and services effectively and efficiently, as segments allow for targeted marketing campaigns.

Segmenting Users

The segmentation process starts by determining the parameters of each segment. As stated, segments are like groups that split users based on certain characteristics. Your organization will have its reasons and criteria for segmentation, so determining how and why you plan to segment users is the first step.

Use an API

The use of an application programming interface (API) can come in handy when segmenting users. An API allows the software to interface with other software with little manipulation from the user. Programming professionals often use APIs to set up certain things that can be changed in the way software behaves according to user specifications.

For example, an API for SMS segmentation can allow a company to specify user groups that will receive different SMS messages for different reasons. Likewise, an API for SMS can segment users according to interest level in a particular SMS marketing campaign, meaning only users most likely to engage will be sent specific SMS messages.

Segments Can Change

When segmenting users, remember to create avenues for change. Users may move from one segment to another over time, so you will need a system in place to handle this transition.

For instance, a user may start as a prospect who signed up for general SMS message notifications. The user may then transition into a lead by expressing interest in learning more about a specific product. Your API will need to have a way to make alterations to the software responsible for sending out the appropriate messages to the appropriate users to ensure that the user is served the right targeted SMS messages.

For many industries, online purchases account for the majority of all sales these days. There are plenty of ways to sell products online, but too few business owners make use of their own websites to sell directly to consumers.

While it’s true that online store platforms like Amazon make it easy to sell products on the web, you may find that selling directly through your company’s website makes more sense. If you’re having a hard time figuring out how to increase sales through your website, consider the following tips before you turn to a third-party solution:

Use Push Notifications

Many business owners find that using browser push notifications for eCommerce can make a big difference in conversions. Browser push notifications for eCommerce allow your brand to send out alerts to customers, prospects, leads, and anyone else who happens to have your brand’s app installed. Since you’re able to send browser notifications right to someone’s computer, they may be more apt to purchase, doing so is usually only a click away.

Use an Abandoned Cart Feature

When a customer adds a product to their virtual shopping cart but then needs to leave the session, you might think that the sale is lost for good; however, by using an abandoned cart recovery feature, you can send notifications to people who have abandoned carts letting them know their items are still waiting for them. This can improve sales, and it also comes in handy when someone left a session by accident.

Use Content to Market Your Products

Content marketing is a big deal in the modern digital age. Customers are looking for brands that demonstrate value through content, and they are more likely to shop with a brand that has been identified as an authority on a topic. By producing frequent content that adds real value to the engagement experience with your brand, you’re more likely to improve sales through your site. Some examples of online content include blog posts, newsletters, website copy, and even podcasts.

It seems like apps are everywhere these days, and the popularity of apps might make you wonder just how much money you can make from developing your own. The truth is that app monetization is a real thing, but before you fire up your workspace and begin coding, there are some considerations to factor into your plans.

What Does Your App Do?

Just like the old Apple commercial used to say, “there’s an app for that”, so if a problem needs solving, you stand to make money from solving it by developing an app; however, some problems are more niche than others. If your app doesn’t have mass appeal, there needs to be at least a sizeable enough customer base to support it if you plan to make a profit.

If you develop a niche app, you’re probably going to need to think about your app monetization strategy. For example, you will probably need to raise the price of the app since your customer base is going to be smaller. So, consider how many sales you could realistically make and compare this number against the price you plan to charge. If the price of the app is set too high or too low and the customer base is too small, you may need to rethink your app idea overall.

How Many Competitors Does Your App Have?

Even if you can perfectly work out the pricing and costs, consider how many competitors your app has. You might have the greatest idea ever and have the perfect price point worked out, but none of this is going to make you money if there are hundreds of competing apps available that all do the same thing as your app.

How Much Support Will You Provide?

You’re also going to need to think about how long you plan to offer support for your app. Support costs can eat into your profits over time. Some app stores have policies that dictate the length of time a developer must provide ongoing support. So, even if you make a lot of money off of an app initially, you can also lose it if it ends up costing more to support the product in the long run.

Also known as split testing, A/B testing is a critical part of marketing and web design. It allows you to optimize every piece of content you put in front of customers, making it easy to fine-tune your message and figure out what works.

While it does take time, A/B testing gives you actionable data for crucial decision-making, ensuring that everything you do has the impact you want.

How A/B Testing Works

The concept of these customer messaging experiments is simple. You split your audience and expose them to two nearly identical versions of your website. The only difference between the two is a small variable. For example, you can use different messaging in your call to action or unique images on your landing page.

After a short while, you can measure the results of those differences and pick the better of the two. Say, for example, that one marketing message led to a conversion rate of 15 percent while the other had a conversion rate of 45 percent. That tells you that the second version had the most significant impact, leading you to use that message over the other for your entire audience.

What Variables to Test?

The beauty of A/B testing is that you can use it on any component on your website. From call-to-action wording to image placement, every detail matters. You can use A/B tests on every minor detail to get things just right. Many developers even do secondary testing to refine choices even further.

The only thing to remember is that you should limit A/B testing to one variable at a time. These customer messaging experiments are about narrowing choices and seeing how individual factors contribute to the user experience. If you were to test multiple variables simultaneously, it'd be hard to say which difference created the change.

Putting A/B Testing to Good Use

Split testing is a game-changer. When you know how to perform it and analyze results, you can use testing to perfect everything you put out to customers.

Get your marketing messages just right and make the impact you want.

Promotions can be a fantastic way to boost business and get shoppers to your digital storefront. Who doesn't love a good deal? You can use these limited-time events to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your app or site, and experience a nice increase in revenue.

When done correctly, promotions can lead to long-term growth. But how often should you have them?

Ensuring Promotions Leave a Lasting Impact

Here's the thing about sales events and promotions: You must be strategic about how you do them. Some retailers make sales a regular thing, offering non-stop promotions. While that might seem appealing initially, it quickly affects how shoppers view your brand.

Constant sales can make your digital store focus exclusively on offering discount items. It can cheapen your reputation, leaving shoppers to wonder if there's anything wrong with your product.

There's a delicate balance between doing promotions often enough to keep customers interested and spacing them out to help your business in the long run.

As your brand grows and evolves, your strategies should follow. More established companies can usually offer fewer promotions because the power of their brand name is enough to keep customers coming back. Meanwhile, newer businesses might benefit from frequent sales early on to bring in as many people as possible.

The right messaging for ecommerce promotions makes all the difference. It's about notifying customers of sales at the right time and making these events feel exclusive.

Creating Sale Scarcity

Generally, it's best to have a promotion once per quarter. Around four or five significant sales events per year result in scarcity that positively impacts your business.

When you use proper in-app or on-site messaging for ecommerce promotions, it creates genuine interest. Limiting these events to one every quarter makes them special. Customers see it as a big deal and may even save up to spend, leaving you with a significant uptick in revenue.

Using Promotions to Your Advantage

Sales aren't only about getting rid of unsold stock. They're valuable tools that can take your business to the next level. Be strategic and find the right balance for your store, and promotions can be a big hit.