How To Convert More Customers This Christmas 3 Essentials to Online Sales Conversion cloud iq com +ADD TO BASKET BUY NOW htcloud iq co uk T +44 (0458 426 W cloud iq com Introduction.How To Convert More Customers This Christmas 3 Essentials to Online Sales Conversion cloud iq com +ADD TO BASKET BUY NOW htcloud iq co uk T +44 (0458 426 W cloud iq com Introduction.
How To Convert More Customers This Christmas Essentials to Online Sales Conversion ADD TO BASKET + BUY NOW www.cloud-iq.com Introduction Introduction The leaves are still on the trees outside, but in the retail world, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas Retail experts are predicting big things for UK merchants in the 2016 holiday shopping season During the core 2016 Christmas period, UK eCommerce sales are expected to total £16.9 billion - up from £14.65 billion in 2015*, with one fifth of these UK retail sales being digital.** From Black Friday to Boxing Day, Cyber Monday to Panic Sunday, more shoppers are moving online to browse, create gift lists, compare prices, bargain-hunt and, ultimately, to buy As rosy as this outlook is, there is no escaping basket abandonment as shoppers browse the multitude of online retailers for the best deal An average 75% of UK shoppers abandon their purchase process before payment and as many as 98% of site visits leave a site without buying, from various stages of the purchase journey Does your Christmas 2016 marketing programme include strategies to address these issues and make the most of your holiday browsers and buyers? *http://www.essentialretail.com/ecommerce/article/581742b71d88d-uk-christmas-ecommercesales-expected-to-hit-%C2%A3169bn **https://www.emarketer.com/Article/One-Fifth-of-UK-Christmas-Season-Retail-Sales-Will-Digitalthis-Year/1014616?ecid=NL1002 T : +44 (0)845 498 9426 W : cloud-iq.com Cloud.IQ’s 2016 Holiday Guide will take you through three strategies that are key to your online marketing programme for customers who are at the top, middle or bottom of your purchase funnel: - Remarketing to customers throughout the entire customer journey from first browse through to purchase This includes programmes for browse abandonment, basket reminders and cart recovery, all of which can bring back customers and reduce purchase abandonment - Converting as many new visitors to email subscribers as possible The email address is still your No entry to your customers This guide will show you how to collect more email addresses to enrich your email database and stay in touch with your shoppers, new and old, long after the last verse of “Auld Lang Syne” dies away - Maximising your contact with customers at all touch points of the customer lifecycle, through Christmas 2016 and beyond Email is not a one-size-fits all proposition Sending the right email to the right customer at the right time will drive more site traffic, browsing and sales Keep reading to find out how welcome programmes, back-in-stock notifications, replenishment reminders and more automated programmes can help you convert first-time visitors to long-term, high-value customers T : +44 (0)845 498 9426 W : cloud-iq.com Right about now, you may be wondering, “Isn’t it a little late in the year to try something new? Not at all The right technology makes it easier than you think to implement these three strategies and have them up and running long before the shopping season hits its full stride in this makeit-or-break-it fourth quarter Tip - Remarket to those who abandon during the customer journey Abandonment happens at two key points on the journey from first look to “Buy Now”: • Browse abandonment occurs when customers view specific product pages on your website but either exit without acting or place items in a cart but leave before starting the checkout process They might move on to your competitor’s website or to an unrelated site or simply stop shopping altogether • Cart abandonment happens when customers start checking out but exit before clicking the final “Place Order” button Customers break off the browse or purchase process for many reasons- some are on their mobiles; others are just getting ideas or bargain hunting Sometimes, something goes wrong Some browsers never come back – about 11% (according to Connexity) of shoppers are true lost causes – but others just need a gentle email nudge to come back and look again T : +44 (0)845 498 9426 W : cloud-iq.com Consider these statistics from a recent study by Connexity: • 50% of your true abandoners never put items in the cart • 18% put items in the cart but leave before checking out • 32% leave after they start the checkout process Three remarketing programmes can help you bring back these shoppers, whether to take another look at your products or to redeem the cart and complete the purchase process: browse abandonment, basket recovery and cart abandonment - Browse abandonment programme This top-of-the-funnel program aims to bring back your casual browsers to reconsider the products they’ve looked at before They are your least-engaged shoppers, because they didn’t even put anything in a cart before leaving, but a gentle email nudge might be all they need to find you again How it works: Set up rules for post-abandonment timing and the number of email reminders sent Create a service-oriented message that thanks your customer for checking out your products, links directly back to that product page and includes links to other resources you might have that could help seal the deal, such as a user forum, a frequently-asked-questions page, your customer-service team, etc Test whether a come-back incentive (discount, free shipping, etc.) effectively brings back more shoppers, increases order size, etc T : +44 (0)845 498 9426 W : cloud-iq.com Taking men’s fashion retailer Woodhouse as an example, your subject line should be as specific as possible (“Can we help?” or “Thanks for visiting Woodhouse”) Never use a generic subject line (“A message from Woodhouse”) TOP TIP You must be able to identify these customers and have their permission to email them These recovery emails don’t qualify as transactional emails under most countries’ email regulations because browsing isn’t a transaction Avoid the hard sell; focus instead on providing helpful information T : +44 (0)845 498 9426 W : cloud-iq.com What if you can’t identify them? Then serve them an overlay, allowing them to self-identify and provide permission to you as Woodhouse did here The accompanying browse abandonment email hits all the right notes: It takes a breezy, shopper-friendly tone, includes payment options and a phone number to call for service as well as a link that takes the browser right back to a page he browsed It also includes an incentive tied to a specific basket value, which encourages a larger purchase and reduces the hit to your margin T : +44 (0)845 498 9426 W : cloud-iq.com - Basket-reminder programme Further down the funnel are your customers who spot something they want on your site and put it into a basket but exit the site before starting the checkout process Woodhouse use cloud.IQ’s exitCapture solution - a flexible, dynamic overlay tool that both reminds customers about their basket items and can help build your email list How it works: When exitCapture detects a customer is about to leave the site with items still in her basket, it will display a message reminding her about her items Some retailers offer to send the basket details to their customers in an email message Others include a come-back incentive in exchange for the email address This is an excellent tool to recover shopping trips that begin on a mobile and end on a desktop as it works on both desktop and mobile operating systems TOP TIP Continue to use service-oriented copy that stresses convenience over purchase commitment Test to see whether an incentive or an emailed reminder will drive more return visits and conversions without cutting into profit margins Also, test to see if a series of two or three follow-up emails generates more conversions than a single email reminder Basket-reminders are an excellent way to build your email database, provided you notify your customers that filling in the blank on the overlay means they’re giving you permission to send promotional email T : +44 (0)845 498 9426 W : cloud-iq.com The email request example below uses the reminder approach Note the permission notification under the basket in smaller but still easily visible type This basket reminder drove impressive results for cloud.IQ’s client: • 4.2% of those presented with the overlay asking for their email address provided it • 53% of those who provided their email address clicked through on the follow-up email to their baskets • 47% of those who clicked through to the cart purchased their items • AOV at final sale was 71.5% higher than the original basket value • 3.13% uplift from this campaign against the total sales for this period • The ROI was 11,387% (No, that’s not a decimal mistake) T : +44 (0)845 498 9426 W : cloud-iq.com - Cart recovery programme This bottom-of-the-funnel approach uses a triggered email to remind customers to come back and complete the checkout process Cart recovery programmes have become more popular in recent years among online merchants who know they can drive incremental revenue, especially during peak shopping periods such as Christmas and Valentine’s Day Cloud.IQ tracks millions of customer interactions across thousands of websites We looked at the volume of cart recovery emails sent throughout 2015 to monitor abandonment peaks The chart below shows the Christmas shopping season, with cart recovery emails surging shortly after peak shopping days, especially Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Panic Saturday (Dec 19, the last Saturday before Christmas) Cart recovery emails sent Christmas 2015 Cyber Monday Black Friday Panic Saturday Source: cloud.IQ siteAnalyser T : +44 (0)845 498 9426 W : cloud-iq.com - Capture marketing permission upon arrival to your site A lightbox like the one below displays when your visitor lands on the page You can set rules to identify only nonsubscribers and first-time visitors, to appear after browsing certain pages, a specific number of pages, time on site or time on a specific page, or whatever you choose T : +44 (0)845 498 9426 W : cloud-iq.com - Capture marketing permission upon intent to exit Again, you can customise this overlay which appears when the consumer shows intent to leave your site, to follow specific rules such as dynamically featuring products or pages they browsed and using language that recognises they’re leaving your site, therefore serving them up a very personalised and effective request to sign up The message features the benefits of subscribing over a simple “sign up for our emails” language T : +44 (0)845 498 9426 W : cloud-iq.com - Add an incentive to encourage opting in This tactic also uses cloud.IQ’s customisation features As with incentives for browse or cart abandonment, your rules can specify who qualifies for an incentive and when you should offer it You could opt to use the incentive in an exit overlay for firsttime visitors who browsed a specific number of pages but did not opt in using an on-page field Or, show it when your visitor is about to leave your site from a product page (See the second example below.) You could offer the code on an arrival overlay for visitors whose cookie information indicates they’ve visited before but have no email addresses associated with their data The two overlay examples below demonstrate how to frame incentives within the message copy on both arrival and exit overlays: Arrival overlay (on the home page or any interior page except product pages) T : +44 (0)845 498 9426 W : cloud-iq.com Exit overlay (on a product page) Best practice for collecting email addresses: No matter whether you use overlays or on-page field, popovers or lightboxes, the following tips will help you collect more email addresses, during the busy holiday season and the quieter months that follow it - Put your opt-in invitations where people will see them Be visible Overlays have an advantage over on-page fields because you just can’t ignore them But they’ll work better when you combine them with on-page promos Your subscriber can make the overlay disappear easily; not so with the promos in fixed places on your website Be sure those promotions are prominent, though Put them where people will see them, such as the upper right or left corners of your page or near locations that draw the most attention and clicks A heatmap or click analysis will reveal your hotspots T : +44 (0)845 498 9426 W : cloud-iq.com Be everywhere Put an email promo on every page of your website, even on those that don’t draw much traffic Make sure the custom landing pages you build for search or social campaigns also have email promos (both fixed and overlay) Your visitors might not want to buy your special of the day but be intrigued enough to sign up for email - Focus on “WIIFM?,” “FOMO” and “FUD.” “WIIFM” means “What’s in it for me?” Why should your visitor sign up for yet another email programme when her inbox is crammed already? Explain why she’ll get reciprocal value for giving up her address by focusing on clear benefits: special offers and discounts, first crack at sales, etc “FOMO” is “Fear of Missing Out.” It’s another handy copy tactic If he doesn’t get your email, he’ll miss out on email-only deals and news “FUD” refers to “Fears, Uncertainty and Doubt.” Answer privacy concerns by linking to your privacy policy and assuring your subscribers that you’ll use their addresses only for your own marketing promotions - Don’t ask for too much too soon Yes, it’s lovely to have reams of personal data associated with each email record, but let’s be realistic All you really need to get the party started is the email address Every field you ask for beyond that reduces your form completion rate You can always ask for name, location, age, etc., as part of a follow-up welcome programme or progressive profile campaign T : +44 (0)845 498 9426 W : cloud-iq.com Tip - Maximise all of your customer touch points in this busy period In our previous tips, we’ve shown you several kinds of email and web messages that become much more significant in the compressed holiday shopping season Now, we’ll show you how they fit into a broader email programme not just for the holiday season but also all year round Many email-marketing programmes assume that the customer’s path to purchase is a simple and straight one: Your email shows an offer; your customers click on it and buy it Oh, if only it were so easy! As shoppers ourselves, we know customers travel a bumpy, circuitous route that often doubles back on itself, veers down other paths or even comes to a dead stop at times Every customer’s path is different, yet they all share similar touch points with your brand Each of these touch points inspires a unique marketing message that can keep customers in touch, engaged and on the path to purchase, to purchase again and to become a loyal customer This marketing approach, which matches messages to customer touch points, is quite different from your standard broadcast model These behaviour-driven emails are hugely relevant to recipients because they reflect what the customer has actually done – signing up for your emails, buying for the first time, browsing items on your website, abandoning items in a cart, etc T : +44 (0)845 498 9426 W : cloud-iq.com Basket recovery and cart recovery programmes (see Tip 1) keep you top of mind with customers who find what they want but aren’t ready to buy Other email programmes also take on greater significance in the compressed holiday shopping season, including these: - Welcome Subscriber programme This programme, which comprises a series of triggered and cadenced emails, welcomes your new subscribers, manages their expectations and aims to move them back to your website to make that all-important first purchase The aim of this programme is to convert them to making their first purchase, so this programme can also be called a 1st Purchase Programme During this holiday period you can expect a flood of new subscribers, especially if you have deployed targeted addresscapture browse-abandon and email-subscription overlays (see Tip 2) Below, see how Boden greet new subscribers with a four-part welcome programme Each email has a unique purpose; yet, all aim to hasten the newbie to the website to purchase T : +44 (0)845 498 9426 W : cloud-iq.com TOP TIP Send this email ASAP after opt-in If you wait a week or longer, very likely your shopper has moved on, spurred on by your competitors welcome email no doubt! - Welcome Customer programme Unlike your Welcome Subscriber programme, these emails encourage your first-time buyers to purchase again and again If you’re like most retailers, the majority of your database is made up of one-time-only buyers The Welcome Customer programme ups your chances of bringing them back to purchase again and not just at Christmas Again, this programme can also be named after the objective and be called a 2nd Purchase Programme This programme uses tactics such as cross-selling, upselling, information-focused messaging, loyalty clubs and buyer-only incentives Each focuses on driving return website visits and future purchases and features personalised content T : +44 (0)845 498 9426 W : cloud-iq.com TOP TIP Give your new shoppers the option to set preferences if they want content that reflects their own interests as well as what they buy for others Your snowboard buyer might actually be a father buying a gift for his son and would be more interested in information on golf or tennis T : +44 (0)845 498 9426 W : cloud-iq.com - Back in stock notifications What’s more frustrating than finding the perfect gift, only to discover that it’s not in stock? Offer your customers the option to be notified via email when the product returns to stock A proactive move this like can be enough to satisfy shoppers for the time being – especially if you can provide an estimated restocking date – and discourage them from going to your competitors Some marketers use a strong call to action to move the customer to purchase, as in the Style email (below left) Others, including ModCloth, adopt a softer sell (below right) TOP TIP If items will remain out of stock, create a cross-selling/upselling message recommending alternatives T : +44 (0)845 498 9426 W : cloud-iq.com - Replenishment reminders Encouraging repeat purchases is a critical step in building customer retention and lifetime value Many of the products we buy will run out (foods, beverages, cosmetics, toiletries) or have components that will need to be replaced (everything from filters to ski wax to ink cartridges) Use this product lifecycle to your advantage Send a serviceoriented message to existing buyers at the time you would expect they would be ready to replace their dwindling supplies Because these tactics build on touch points that your customer has created, they’re personalised, highly relevant and valuable, for your customers as well as your brand T : +44 (0)845 498 9426 W : cloud-iq.com In Summary Introduction All of the tips covered in this guide can be fully automated and set up in days, saving you time and driving customer conversion throughout the busy Christmas buying cycle - Remarket to those who abandon during the customer journey • Target your top-of-funnel customers with a browse abandonment programme • Use basket reminders to capture customer emails and encourage conversion • Recover lost customers with an automated cart recovery programme of emails - Convert as many new visitors to email subscribers as possible • Use visitCapture overlays to capture customer marketing permission on site arrival • Capture customer data on intent to exit your site with overlay technology • Add an incentive to encourage opt in - Maximise all customer touch points throughout the customer lifecycle • Implement a welcome subscriber programme to encourage that 1st purchase • Develop a welcome customer programme to encourage repeat purchase • Set up back in stock notifications to help retain customers • Replenishment reminders help to drive retention and create lifetime value T : +44 (0)845 498 9426 W : cloud-iq.com Moving ahead Introduction Although the critical fourth-quarter shopping season is already upon us, there’s still time to make a difference Every example given in this eBook can be implemented in days To discuss which approach would drive the best results for your business, please contact cloud.IQ to see how easily you can set up, test and launch any of these automated, revenue-generating campaigns using our platform siteAnalyser Free to use, get started with a site conversion analysis Dynamic Overlays Grow your database and drive conversion with overlay campaigns designed to optimise the journey to purchase cartRecovery Remarket to and recover up to 20% of lost sales targetMail Engage and convert more customers with real-time personalised emails Optimisation Ongoing analysis of results to optimise and fine tune campaigns through A/B testing T : +44 (0)845 498 9426 W : cloud-iq.com Convert more customers with cloud.IQ cloud.IQ is an ecommerce conversion platform As specialists in cart recovery and remarketing, our automated technology serves real-time behavioural emails and dynamic overlays to target customer conversion weak spots throughout the buying cycle Extremely cost effective and easy to integrate, cloud.IQ reduces site abandonment and recovers sales to improve revenue by up to 12% As PayPal’s official conversion partner, we can increase your remarketing reach by up to 30% to drive even more revenue through our platform On top of which our transparent and fixed fee pricing model offers optimum value so you can protect those precious margins Chosen by a blue chip roster of e-commerce clients, we’re passionate about delivering long term sustainable value Trusted by some of the biggest brands in retail Start your free trial and discover how much more revenue you could be recovering, just visit cloud-iq.com/free-trial-offer START YOUR FREE TRIAL T : +44 (0)845 498 9426 W : cloud-iq.com About the Author Kath Pay is an international speaker and trainer on email marketing and conversion for Econsultancy as well as the Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing (IDM) She’s worked with and trained numerous brands including Paul Smith, Marks and Spencer, Schuh, Co-operative Group, Argos, Next, Asda, Expedia, Net-a-Porter, Secret Escapes, Dixons, Adobe, Facebook, VisitScotland – just to name a few T : +44 (0)845 498 9426 W : cloud-iq.com ... as many new visitors to email subscribers as possible The email address is still your No entry to your customers This guide will show you how to collect more email addresses to enrich your email... reading to find out how welcome programmes, back-in-stock notifications, replenishment reminders and more automated programmes can help you convert first-time visitors to long-term, high-value customers. .. that can keep customers in touch, engaged and on the path to purchase, to purchase again and to become a loyal customer This marketing approach, which matches messages to customer touch points,