Month: November 2014

Building long-term relationships with customers using digital media

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

“ There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the Chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else” – Sam Walton

When someone wants you to hear a story of their recent customer experience, it usually turns out to be a story with sad ending. But it doesn’t mean that good service is less likely to be seen. After all, providing customer satisfaction is the key part in enhancing the overall outlook of a company. Am I making sense? Yes. And that is what compelled me to appreciate and value the importance of satisfying customers and building a long-term relationship with them. Before I provide some insights on this 21 st century hot topic, I want you to really appreciate the value of gratifying customers through the following example.

Enriching people’s lives

“ We’re very simple people at Apple. We focus on making the world’s best products and enriching people’s lives” – Tim Cook

Yes, the example is about Apple! The following story went viral after Apple launched iPad 2. A man bought iPad 2 online but was forced to return the product immediately. He attached a note in front of the device saying, “Wife said no”. The incident ultimately reached some Apple VPs. Guess what? Apple refunded it and returned the product to the customer attaching a Post-It that simply read, “Apple said yes.”!

Amazing!! Isn’t it? It would have been a nice surprise for the customer. And that too for free! So, this is what I am trying to communicate.

The emotional value of a product out shadows the monetary value of a company when it is achieved by creating a long-term relationship with the customer. In order to build that relationship, you need to adopt new ways of marketing. The power of digital media to enhance your relationship with customers is not to be neglected in this highly competitive world. So there you are…Thinking of the possibilities of strengthening your customer base through the power of digital media!

Needs, Perceptions

You have marketed your product quiet well and people bought it. They are satisfied with your product and are happy. You thank them and reward them in some cases. So, is your job done? No. Understanding the needs and perceptions of your customers is as important as delivering quality products. For that, you need to collect data regarding customer requirements. But how? Let me share some ideas.

  • E-mail surveys

You can choose appropriate questions and create an e-mail survey using websites or software which offers e-mail survey programs. Gathering data from customers about your product or service is an effective way of analyzing your customers’ preferences. Being a part of social media marketing, e-mail surveys help you to conduct market research in a cost-effective manner.

  • Building relevant data

You can learn more about your customers at key buyer stages by building relevant data regarding the buyer behavior. This not only helps you to understand the behavior of customers at the purchasing stage but also helps in analyzing the post-purchase behavior of customers. You can collect data from customers using tools which support you in customer-sourcing.

  • Feedback gathering

Knowing how happy or sad your customer is after buying your product helps you make necessary changes based on their needs. So, it’s very important to gather customer feedback to achieve customer satisfaction. Tools that help in gathering feedback from customers are becoming popular nowadays and it helps you to improve your business in an effective manner.

Engaging customers

You need to be connected with your customers and should keep them connected with each other as long as emphasizing the value of your brand is essential for the survival of your business. So what can you do? You can let your customers connect and share ideas about your product or service. Platforms can also be created for like-minded customers to share insights and views regarding the product or service of your company. Maintaining a social media presence would help advance the brand building efforts of your business drastically in the long run. After all, social media marketing is one of the powerful tools of digital marketing in this century.

Channels + Content + Marketing

Be it social networks, search engines or e-mail marketing , your efforts to reach your customers need to be clear and powerful. Integrating proper channels, valuable content and unique marketing strategies will help enhance your customer relationship management activities in exceptional ways. Integrated digital marketing has gained wide acclaim where diverse channels are used to strengthen the brand communication efforts. So in order to attract and retain your customers, you need to produce relevant and quality content.

Unfortunately, creating high quality content alone won’t make you successful. The selection of right marketing channels should be done after carefully considering your business’ long term perspectives. Just because your competitor achieved success through a particular strategy doesn’t mean that your business is expected to follow that. Every business is unique and so are their digital marketing strategies.

After all, what you really need is a mass of customers who rely on your product and value your business. You need to be careful while implementing your promotional plans. It is not necessary for all your plans to hit the market. Choose the right digital marketing channel, produce relevant content and strategize your marketing activity if you really want to build a long-term relationship with your customers!

Role of Digital Marketing in e-commerce

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

Driving or walking all the way to the shop, spending hours to purchase a thing or two and then waiting in the long queue to pay for it..

This was what shopping meant to everyone until e-commerce happened and then, the shopping routine changed to –

Going through different websites, purchasing products with a click and then paying online and waiting for the product to be delivered..

E-commerce makes it convenient for customers to shop at home and hence, it is trending. Due to its popularity, almost all businesses have gone online. But to list the businesses that made it big in the field of e-commerce, there may be very few of them; the reason? Most of them forgot a major element to their success- DIGITAL MARKETING!

Are you wondering what difference digital marketing can make to your e-commerce site? Let’s check out these aspects of digital marketing for e-commerce:

“ It takes months to find a customer and only seconds to lose one”

You create an e-commerce website and then you wait for customers to flock in and shop things from your site just like a physical shop! This dream of yours could have come true only if your website is the only E-commerce website existing online. But, unfortunately, it is not.

Marketing through online ads and various other methods may attract some web traffic. But, even that very small number of users may not stay in your website for long if they don’t find it easy to use. Greater the user experience, more will be the number of visitors to your website and for that, you need to have enough functionalities. Confused, are you? Well, don’t be. Improving the functionalities of your website is also definitely a part of digital marketing.

“ If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy in the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends”

That is the power of social media. Social media platforms are where you can find your customers belonging to the younger generation. Through proper marketing techniques, you can easily spread the word about your e-commerce venture in social media and win customers, causing your business to flourish. Therefore, social media marketing is always a great choice for brand building and word of mouth publicity.

“ Building a website without SEO is like building a road without direction”

Yes, it is true because you are not famous! Not everybody online knows you or your business. For people, to reach a website, it all starts from the search engine and it is common for them to click only those websites in the first page of the search results and just because you own a website doesn’t mean that you are there in the first page. That’s where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and PPC (pay per click) come to our aid.

“ Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out”-R Collier

Success can’t come to you in a day and being a newcomer in the e-commerce field, you may be very well aware of it. It is not at all a loss if you really spend a very small amount of your money in the process. Yes! We are talking about affiliate marketing here, where an affiliate places your ad on their website and when a customer clicks the ad and converts the sale, it is tracked. The affiliate then gets a commission while you get a sale!

“ A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all”-Michael LeBouef

When it comes to business online or offline, customer is the king. If you happen to satisfy your customer’s need, you win. Digital marketing gives you the opportunity to connect directly to your potential customers. This in turn helps you in knowing what the customers think about your business and what they expect from you. Thus you can improve your online business and reach greater heights.

Creating an online presence for your e-commerce business isn’t that easy as you think, especially when you don’t know the ABCs of digital marketing. You can’t act “I-know-it-all” when it comes to business and you will have to depend on a team of experienced people well versed with digital marketing such as JointViews.

We keep track of the latest trends in digital marketing and hence our approach is always result oriented to make your presence felt online. Our team of content writers, SEOs, animators, graphic designers and word press developers make it possible through our efforts. If you are still doubtful of what we are capable of or if you think you need our service, feel free to Contact Us.

Role of Visual Content in Digital World

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

People are connected as never before in the digital era. Internet has revolutionized marketing with digital methods. The rise of social media has further strengthened the prospects of digital marketing.

Gone are the days of limited dreams, digital marketing gives you wings to fly high, sky is not the limit. Digital marketing is a process of building and maintaining customer relationship. A major factor in this form of market is visual content.

What do you mean by visual content?

When you visit a website, it is the first impression created by the visuals that makes to stay or leave the website. Visuals would include a website’s design, videos, images, Infographics, illustrations, etc.

Why is it important?

Visual content helps to grab targeted audience without fail. Visual content has gone forth as one of the hottest digital marketing trends these days. Visual content attracts people and makes the complex messages clearer, consuming less time and effort. They leave a lasting impression on the customer compared to long pages of text.

Due to the busy life schedule, people find it difficult and monotonous to read massive content. On the other hand, visual content requires minimum time and would be exciting if done right. It can increase brand awareness and your SERP results gets benefited as well.

Types of Visual Content

Photos

A picture is worth thousand words. But visual marketing content is not simply about communicating a message, but it should be retained within the reader as well. Mere text based content cannot stay attractive. With a good and compelling visual, website viewers tend to stay longer and understand the accurate message the content is trying to deliver. It’s not about the image but the story the image carries that matters.

Videos

Video sites are full of viewers, ready to devour new ideas. Entertain the audience with a video; the chances of getting noticed are really very high. Human mind requires emotional input to make decisions. Emotional bonds, without doubt influences a person’s choice as well as actions. Videos can create this emotional bond by building trust and credibility effectively. And moreover, they are loved by search engines.

Presentations

Presentations make things clear and to the point. Various aspects of a topic are presented simply and effectively after deep research about the topic. This helps audience to easily to understand complex ideas. Presentations can help sell both the idea and the product.

Infographics

Information graphics or infographics is a graphic presentation of information which is intended to present complex information quickly and effectively in a very precise manner. A well designed infographics can turn boring and complicated topics into interesting and captive discussions. Like a capsule that functions multiple use, infographics serves multiple purpose very efficiently. High quality infographics are 30 times more likely to be read than text articles.

GIF

GIF, Graphic interchange format is a recent development that has created far reaching effects on digital marketing. They possess comparatively small file sizes; this implies that they can be used easily online as they can load quicker and still maintain quality. GIF helps to display a professional touch. GIF can express emotions and movement which a still image may not be able to. GIF is more than an image but less than a video. It’s really short but is still effective.

Beneficial Facts about Visual Content

  • Visuals are processed 60,000X faster in the brain than text , and 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual
  • 40% people respond better to visual information than text .
  • Compared to plain text posts, posts with videos attract inbound links 3 times more.
  • 93%of all human communication is practically non-verbal.
  • 70% of all sensory receptors humans have are all concentrated inside a person’s eye out of which 50% of this visual information is processed by brain.
  • 94% views a topic if something compelling visual elements and graphics are available
  • According to studies, certain colors and color combinations can arouse certain emotions in humans; it can also influence how a particular viewer will take action, such as influencing their decision of purchase.
  • Use of visual content in Facebook campaigns generated 65% more engagement just after only a month’s practice.
  • 95% people are of the opinion that visual content is really very important for capturing attention.
  • 89% is already using or planning to use visual content in social media
  • 2 million blog posts are written every day, think how many of these contains visual content.

Even press releases published with photos generate more audience than normal articles.

Future of Visual Content

Since the introduction of Visual Content, it has entertained as well as educated people, making complex things simple and effective. All social networking sites have made use of visual content and have promoted its use because of the impact created in people.

Know your audience and deliver more than what they expect and future is secure. More companies are switching their focus from boring content to visually engaging content presentation. The lovers of visual content will only increase by time. The future of digital marketing itself is tangled with visual content which serves both purposes – development of the company as well as the entertainment based education of the audience. Future of visual content is immense and promising.