Building trust online: how can newly developed e-commerce sites obtain great customer testimonials?

Image result for customer testimonials

In my last post, I spoke about how firms can build trust through customer testimonials. The conclusion was clear in that customer testimonials can help deliver social proof to build online trust, especially in newly developed e-commerce sites. That’s all good and well, however, how do we go about obtaining these customer testimonials? This post explores how you can do just that.

Customer satisfaction

Obtaining quality customer testimonials all starts with having a customer focus and fulfilling their needs, after all, who is going to provide a testimonial if they aren’t satisfied with their purchase? Sivadas & Baker-Prewitt (2000) suggest that service quality and satisfaction have a positive effect on consumers’ likelihood of recommending the store to others. In the digital world, you need to go further. If you are operating an e-commerce business, a key part of customer satisfaction will be the customer’s experience from product awareness through to product bonding (Roberts, 2013). Roberts’s outlines how by mapping the customer journey, you can use this information to improve the customer experience. More information can be found at Smart Insights.

Don’t be afraid to ask!

Okay, so you’ve nailed the customer experience and have an abundance of satisfied customers, now what? You need to start asking for feedback! Important note: ask for feedback, not testimonials. This will help add authenticity to your testimonials and provide you with useful information in the process! More on this here.

Wolosky (2003) suggests the importance of asking for testimonials and that clients will never say no and often ask you to draft up what you would like them to write. However, this needs to be considered critically, it is very possible that every customer will not write you a testimonial (even if you ask them to) and writing a testimonial on behalf of a customer can risk losing its authenticity. That said, the key message is true, you need to ask. Davis (2014) suggests that the best way to get reviews is to ask for them and the best time to ask is when you finish the job and are with them. However, in an online context, this might not be appropriate so we need to consider other alternatives.

Online customer surveys

Traditionally, as Andersson (2017) highlights in the Harvard Business Review, customer surveys have been approached with a pessimistic mindset which is focused on problems. However, it is important to ask your customers about the positives. Be careful not to avoid asking about negatives completely though as often highlighting an objection can add credibility. It is worth mentioning that if you are going to use feedback from a customer survey in a testimonial that you should request permission first. Aside from testimonials, customer surveys can get you great data.

Purchase follow up email

A great way for an e-commerce site to request feedback can be via email post-purchase. Moth (2013) at EConsultancy suggests a useful time can be a week to 10 days once the customer has received a product. You could start the email with something like “I hope you are enjoying your new product, we would love to hear your feedback”. Paypal (2017) suggest following up with shoppers and asking for their thoughts on key parts of the sale (the checkout, the product, the price, the delivery). Asking questions on specific parts of the sale will demonstrate you have delivered on the entire customer experience and thus alleviate prospects reservations about these different elements.

Rewards

“You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”. This concept is embedded in psychology and the official term is ‘reciprocal altruism’. According to this theory, willingness to share resources (or to offer help in general) is directly proportional to his willingness to reciprocate (Osiński, 2009).  Although one might hope if you have offered an exceptional experience, your customers would be happy to provide a testimonial regardless, based on this psychological theory it can be useful to provide an incentive. Particularly for extrinsically motivated individuals (Ryan, R.M. and Deci, E.L. 2000).

This is a technique which was used in the pre-digital era as Reinartz (1996) suggested that firms might consider providing customers with a gift certificate or tickets for a local sporting event should they provide a testimonial. Reciprocal altruism can be translated into the digital world. The figure below by Volk, Pitzschel. & Mühlhäuser (2014) illustrates that receiving a reward can translate into more online reviews. Participants were asked for their level of consent towards each of the potential incentives in the figure below.

 

Volk., Pitzschel. & Mühlhäuser (2014) also highlight that incentivising through a reward can create a tendency towards a positive review. However, what the research fails to recognise is the quality of said reviews. This links back to the importance of authenticity highlighted in my previous post, if a customer is only writing positively due to an incentive, this might cause it to lack authenticity. Nevertheless, providing an incentive might be a useful way to obtain testimonials.

 

Takeaway

Customer testimonials can be important for building online trust, but you might not get them if you don’t ask! A great way to obtain authentic testimonials can be to ask for customer feedback and avoiding using the term testimonial. If you are an online business and don’t have face-to-face contact, you can do this through customer surveys or maybe ask direct via email following a purchase. You might consider offering rewards but not at the cost of losing authenticity! Don’t forget though, getting great customer testimonials boils down to providing a great customer experience in the first place!

 

*Note: this is a blog written by a University of Brighton student for a Business Management module.

 

 References

Andersson, K. (2017) The Power of Positive Surveying. Harvard Business Review. [Online] https://hbr.org/2017/01/the-power-of-positive-surveying [Accessed 02 May 2017].

Davis, J. (2014) How to Get Customers to Write Awesome Reviews for You. [Online] https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/how-to-get-customers-to-write-awesome-reviews-for-you/ [Accessed 02 May 2017]

Jin, L. and Huang, Y., 2014. When giving money does not work: The differential effects of monetary versus in-kind rewards in referral reward programs. International Journal of Research in Marketing, Vol. 31, No. 1, pp.107-116.

Moth, D. (2013) 10 ways to encourage customer reviews online. Econsultancy. [Online] https://econsultancy.com/blog/61677-10-ways-to-encourage-customer-reviews-online/ [Accessed 02 May 2017]

Osiński, J. (2009) Kin altruism, reciprocal altruism and social discounting. Personality and Individual Differences, Vol. 47, No. 4, pp.374-378.

Party Music Online (2017) Testimonial [image]. Available at: http://partymusiconline.co.uk/customer-testimonials-and-feedback/ [Accessed 04 May 2017]

Paypal (2017) Establish trust in your online business [Online] https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/brc/establish-trust-in-your-online-business [Accessed 03 May 2017]

Reinartz, R.D., (1996) Testimonial Ads Win Loyalty and Attract Customers. Bank Marketing, Vol. 28, No. 3 pp.25-31.

Roberts, J. (2013) Examples of customer journey mapping. 22nd October 2013. [Online] http://www.smartinsights.com/user-experience/customer-experience-management-cxm/mapping-customer-journey/ [Accessed 02 May 2017]

Ryan, R.M. and Deci, E.L. (2000) Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary educational psychology, Vol. 25, No. 1, pp.54-67.

Sivadas, E. and Baker-Prewitt, J.L. (2000) An examination of the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction, and store loyalty. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp.73-82.

Volk, F., Pitzschel, J. and Mühlhäuser, M. (2014) Making the Most of Customer Product Reviews. CENTRIC 2014: The Seventh International Conference on Advances in Human-oriented and Personalized Mechanisms, Technologies, and Services.

Wolosky, H. (2003) Targeted testimonials. The Practical accountant. Vol. 36, No.3, pp. 24-29.

 

How might newly developed e-commerce websites build consumer trust using customer testimonials?

Customer testimonials are a widely used technique among firms in an attempt to build trust online. So, should you embed customer testimonials into your newly developed e-commerce site? If so, what do you need to consider?

What is trust?

First, it is important to understand what we mean by trust. Trust is an area that has been studied in various disciplines, therefore producing numerous definitions. One common definition is Mayer et al. (1995, p. 712, cited in Xiao et al, 2014) define trust as “the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party”. It is widely recognised that consumer trust is more important in electronic, “cyber” transactions than it is in traditional, “real world” transactions (Kim et al.,2008). This highlights the importance of trust in an e-commerce context. Hence, I am writing this blog!

Why use customer testimonials?

 

Source: (Kim et al, 2008)

Based on the model above by Kim et al (2008), positive reputation contributes to building trust in a consumer. One way a firm might look to enforce positive reputation is through customer testimonials, which demonstrate obligations have been filled to previous consumers. This is based on the psychological phenomenon known as ‘social proof’. Lim et al (2006) found that customer endorsement by similar peers was found to increase consumer’s trusting beliefs about the store. This, in turn, increased the consumer’s willingness to buy. The study was based on relatively new online stores, thereby demonstrating the implications for newly developed e-commerce sites. Another positive of customer testimonials, is they are relatively low cost to embed into your website.

Source: (Lim et al, 2006)

Critics?

Early research by Peszynski & Thanasanki (2002) suggested that customer testimonials were not particularly useful in building consumer trust via e-commerce. It is worth recognising, however, that this research was carried out in New Zealand and a larger sample size might be required to attribute the validity of these findings. Another viewpoint is that although customer testimonials can build trust, there is an argument that independent sources are more influential than company controlled Ewom i.e. customer testimonials on a website (Meuter, McCabe & Curran 2013). These are considerations to think about, but overall customer testimonials appear to show positive effects on trust. That said, it might be useful to use them alongside other trust-building initiatives. Also, ensure your products and services are so great that independent sources equally sing your praises!

So what makes a great customer testimonial?

Okay, so you’ve weighed up the pros and cons of customer testimonials and think they are useful to embed on your e-commerce site. Here is a quick overview of some of the important factors to consider:

Be authentic

Macdonald (2014) suggests that the most important aspect of any testimonial is its authenticity. This is useful to bear in mind as humans are intuitive and will soon know if you are being ‘over promotional’. Think about those questionable websites with examples of ‘customers’ who lost 5 stone in two weeks with a ‘magic’ diet pill. Did you purchase? Probably not, because it lacked authenticity, and therefore you likely didn’t trust them.

Be personal

Using customer faces on pages can also be useful to add authenticity and create a personal feel. Ciotti (2016) suggests that using photos can increase perceived trust. The theory behind this is that photos make facts and statements more believable. Research by Riegelsberger, Sasse & McCarthy (2003) found that photos could make untrustworthy sites more trustworthy. However, they did also find that on sites that already had high trustworthiness, photos reduced trust. This is an area where more research might be useful, for now maybe you could use A/B testing on your target customers to find out what works for you?

Use facts and figures

Utilising facts and figures in your testimonials can help create an impact on your customers. However, it is important to be specific with these numbers and do not round up according to your agenda. Ciotti (2016) suggests that customers favour exactness due to a concept known as ‘precision bias’. More information on this, along with some other useful trust factors with customer testimonials can be found via https://www.helpscout.net/blog/customer-testimonials/

Some examples…

The example below by Decadent cakes shows a number of quote testimonials. These are effective as they appear authentic and provide a profile of the customer below the quote. Could they have gone further and added photos?

The screenshot below is from Codecademy, this is a great example of a video testimonial. The video takes you on the customer journey and really makes the benefit of the service explicit. You can watch it here https://www.codecademy.com/stories

Wix demonstrate a mixture of video testimonials, social media testimonials and quote testimonials. This creates a powerful blend of ‘social proof’.

Takeaway

The psychology behind ‘social proof’ is an important consideration to build trust around your e-commerce website. Testimonials can be an effective, low-cost way to achieve this. Your business could choose a number of ways to embed testimonials such as quotes or videos and even use more than one. However, don’t forget to keep it personal, authentic and remember to use specific figures!

Further reading

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/83752

https://sumo.com/stories/testimonial-examples

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/testimonial-page-examples#sm.0001dn00mi2dld1rw8919oz7mn958

 

Note: this blog is written by a student for a final year business management module.

 

References

Cicero, N. (2014) 2014 Marketing Statistics Every CMO Should Know [Online] https://www.socialfresh.com/marketing-statistics-every-cmo-should-know-in-2014/?utm_medium=Webbiquity.com [Accessed 12 April 2017]

Ciotti, G. (2016) How to Make the Most of Your Customer Testimonials. [Online] https://www.helpscout.net/blog/customer-testimonials/ [Accessed 12 April 2017]

Hayes, M. (2012) 5 Strategies to Get Customers to Trust Your Ecommerce Store. 25th July 2012. Shopify [Online] https://www.shopify.co.uk/blog/6327946-5-strategies-to-get-customers-to-trust-your-ecommerce-store [Accessed 07 April

Kim, D.J., Ferrin, D.L. and Rao, H.R. (2008) A trust-based consumer decision-making model in electronic commerce: The role of trust, perceived risk, and their antecedents. Decision support systems, Vol.44, No., pp.544-564.

Lim, K.H., Sia, C.L., Lee, M.K. and Benbasat, I. (2006) Do I trust you online, and if so, will I buy? An empirical study of two trust-building strategies. Journal of management information systems, Vol. 23, No. 2 pp.233-266

Macdonald, M. (2014) How to Generate Powerful Testimonials for Your Ecommerce Business. 3rd March 2014 [Online] https://www.shopify.com/blog/12621097-how-to-generate-powerful-testimonials-for-your-ecommerce-business [Accessed 07 April 2017]

Meuter, M, McCabe, D & Curran, J. (2013) Electronic word-of-mouth versus interpersonal word-of-mouth: are all forms of word-of-mouth equally influential? Services Marketing Quarterly, Vol 34, No. 3, pp.240-256.

Peszynski, K.J. and Thanasankit, T. (2002) Exploring trust in B2C ecommerce-an exploratory study of Maori culture in New Zealand. ECIS 2002 Proceedings, p.99.

Riegelsberger, J., Sasse, M.A. and McCarthy, J.D., (2003) April. Shiny happy people building trust?: photos on e-commerce websites and consumer trust. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems (pp. 121-128). ACM.

Xiao, L., Zixiu, G., D’Ambra, J., Bin, F. (2016). “Building loyalty in e-commerce: Towards a multidimensional trust-based framework for the case of China”, Program, Vol. 50 Issue: 4, pp. 431-461

How might organisations in the construction industry increase sales via e-commerce?

What is e-commerce?

Financial Times (2016) suggest that e-commerce can be defined as the buying and selling of goods over the internet. This can take the form of business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C) or consumer-to-consumer (C2C) transactions. However, this might be too simplistic and Chaffey (2007) suggests that e-commerce is all electronically mediated transactions by an organisation and any third party it deals with, including non-financial transactions such as a request for information. ‘E-commerce is booming in Britain’, and the British do a greater share of their retail spending online than almost anyone (see chart below). Comparatively, the construction industry is not performing on par with other business sectors in e-commerce (Bhutto, Thorpe & Stephenson 2014). Let’s explore how firms in the construction industry might improve this.

(Economist, 2016).

User-Friendly

Huang & Benyoucef (2013) suggest factors that contribute to the user friendliness of a website include; simplicity of use, the speed of locating an item, the perceived ease of navigating the website, consistent design formats, and the ability of users to control their movement within the system. Having a user friendly site is a key consideration for e-commerce and needs to be high on a firm’s agenda when they are looking to increase e-commerce sales. A good example which follows the above suggestions is http://www.diy.com/. This site might be used as a useful benchmark for smaller construction firms looking to compete with the bigger retailers. It is important to tailor to your customers and Landry (2014), suggests it is important to test with customers before implementing what you feel is user friendly as they are the ones who know!

 

SEO

Pham (2014) suggests that if you want to increase your sales and outpoint your competitors, SEO is a must. Enge, et al (2012) suggest search traffic is among the best quality available on the web, primarily because a search user has expressed a specific goal through the query and when this matches a product or brand the web store carries, conversion rates are often extremely high. Therefore, improving SEO is a useful way to increase e-commerce sales. This could be particularly relevant in the construction industry, as generally customers will be searching for a product in relation to a specific problem – e.g. fixing a fence post. It might be difficult to attract customers in the construction industry with more creative methods used in other industries which could make SEO one of the top priorities for driving traffic. For example, a clothing site might use an Instagram fashion blogger to drive traffic to increase sales. It is unlikely target customers in construction would click through to a site because they notice some ‘beautiful looking cement’ on Instagram. Sorry if I have offended any cement enthusiasts… Back to SEO, Chaffey (2007) outlines a number of considerations for improved SEO including; frequency of occurrence in body copy, number of inbound links (page ranks), Title HTML tag and metatags. SEO is a broad and technical subject and would require a blog on its own! For a useful overview, check out this article by the entrepreneur https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/237819. This article specifically focuses on the construction industry http://www.pauleycreative.co.uk/2011/04/seo-for-construction-companies.

 

Paid search

Although Jerkovic (2009) suggests organic search results have typically acquired more trust, which can result in increased conversion and therefore increased sales, Yoast (2016) suggests there is still an argument to utilise PPC alongside SEO in order to increase sales. One benefit is having twice the data to analyse which could enable you to make more informed decisions on how to increase sales (Bunn, 2015).

 

Video Content

Lazazzera (2015) suggests that product videos can have an incredible ability to increase conversions by helping people understand your product and provide customers with as much information as possible about the products you offer. This might be particularly useful in construction as many products may require a demonstration for some users; for example a DIY customer fixing a fence post.

 

Customer reviews

Stats from Smart Insights (2017) demonstrate how important reviews and ratings are for e-commerce sales. It is important not to be concerned about ‘bad reviews’, as in fact offering reviews can not only allow you to improve your product or service but actually directly increase sales. Customer reviews might be even more important in the construction industry as it is often essential that products are effective or it might result in a disastrous piece of building work or even a dangerous situation. Customer reviews, therefore, might reinforce trust for these products. A good example from www.diy.com below!

Avoid surprise!

Smart insights (2016) highlight the importance of avoiding surprise for customers by adding additional costs at shipping which can ruin conversion rate. This might be tempting for construction firms if they are shipping heavy weight as they may feel the rates are expensive. However, price perception is an important part of buying psychology so avoid adding additional costs to boost sales!

 

Takeaway

There are numerous techniques that can be implemented to increase e-commerce sales, however it is important to consider the industry when prioritising. It would be interesting to hear the thoughts of others on techniques to increase sales via e-commerce? Or possibly examples of companies in the construction industry achieving success via e-commerce?

 

Disclaimer: This is a student blog forming part of a digital marketing business studies module.

 

References

Bhutto, K., Thorpe, T. and Stephenson, P. (2014) E-COMMERCE AND THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY. [Online] Available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265117619_E-COMMERCE_AND_THE_CONSTRUCTION_INDUSTRY [Accessed 14 February 2017]

Bunn (2015) 6 Benefits of Running SEO and PPC Campaigns Together. Blue Frontier. 9th February 2015 [Online] https://www.bluefrontier.co.uk/company/blog/item/6-benefits-of-running-seo-and-ppc-campaigns-together [Accessed 17 February 2017]

Chaffey, D. (2007) E-business and E-commerce Management: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. Pearson Education: Vancouver

(Constructech, 2015) Payment Solutions Provider Offers Extension to Ecommerce. 20th August 2015 [Online] https://constructech.com/payment-solutions-provider-offers-extension-to-ecommerce/ [Accessed 15 February 2017]

Economist (2016) ‘All that is solid melts into air’ The Economist 19th November 2016 [Online] http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21710271-britons-do-more-their-shopping-online-almost-anyone-else-move-cyberspace [Accessed 10 February 2017]

Enge, E., Spencer, S., Fishkin, R. and Stricchiola, J. (2012) The art of SEO.  O’Reilly: Media, Inc.

Financial Times (2016) Definition of Ecommerce [Online] http://lexicon.ft.com/Term?term=e_commerce [Accessed 10 February 2017]

Huang, Z. and Benyoucef, M. (2013). From e-commerce to social commerce: A close look at design features. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 12(4), pp.246-259.

Jerkovic, J. (2009) SEO warrior: essential techniques for increasing web visibility. O’Reilly: Media, Inc

Landry, J (2014) ‘15 Ways to Make Your E-Commerce Site User-Friendly’ 17th November 2014. [Online] https://www.semrush.com/blog/15-ways-to-make-your-e-commerce-site-user-friendly/ [Accessed 22 February 2017]

Love, P.E. & Irani, Z. (2004) An exploratory study of information technology evaluation and benefits management practices of SMEs in the construction industry. Information & Management, Vol. 42, No.1, pp.227-242.

Lazazzera (2015) ‘How to Use Video to Increase Conversions and Sales in Your Ecommerce Business’. Shopfiy 20th May 2015 [Online]

Pham, X. (2014) ‘The Top 6 Most Important Factors in Building e-commerce Websites’ Woorockets. 1st October 2015 [Online] http://www.woorockets.com/top-6-important-factors-building-e-commerce-websites/ [Accessed 15 February 2017]

Smart Insights (2017) ‘Human Psychology Hacks that Boost Ecommerce Purchases’ February 21st 2017 [Online] http://www.smartinsights.com/marketplace-analysis/consumer-buying-behaviour/human-psychology-hacks-boost-ecommerce-purchases/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter [Accessed 23 February 2017]

Smart Insights (2016) ‘Incredible new stats show just how important reviews and ratings are for ecommerce sites’ 21st November 2016 [Online] http://www.smartinsights.com/ecommerce/customer-reviews-social-proof/incredible-new-stats-show-just-crucial-reviews-ecommerce-sites/ [Accessed 22 February 2017]

A critique of Groupon’s email marketing, what personalisation lessons might Groupon learn from Wowcher?

Link

I’m sure most people are aware of Groupon, but as a brief overview they offer an e-commerce marketplace which connects its subscribers with local merchant’s offerings such as local restaurants, hotels, activity days etc. Although I am also a consumer, this blog will is written by a digital marketing student. The email received below is ‘house marketing’ material and it was a weekly selection of the available deals at Groupon. This blog will explore some of the important concepts of email marketing and critique the effectiveness of Groupon’s email based on these concepts.

groupondigblog

 

Subject line

I guess it makes sense to start with thinking about the first engagement I had with the email: the subject line “Restyle, Blow-Dry and Condition”. Oops, not a great start when you are targeting a twenty-something male with short hair! Ellis-Chadwick & Doherty (2012) highlight that the content of subject line is critical for grabbing attention, clearly Groupon got this very wrong in this instance which meant I was unlikely to open the email and view the other deals that may have been more suited. It might have been more useful to use a subject line that was more generic such as “Today’s deals in Brighton” until they built up a better personal profile.

Design

A positive design factor in the Groupon email was the way in which it made the “links look like links”. The links were clearly in bold and you could use the image relevant to the deal you wish to select to navigate the link for more information. The option to unsubscribe is very clear at the top of the email and it offers an easy to follow link. It is extremely important to provide the opportunity to unsubscribe and to make this clear and simple. This is because if it is not customers may mark the email as ‘spam’ which can affect future deliverability. More information can be found on this along with other important design factors here: https://emailmarketing.comm100.com/email-marketing-ebook/design-emails.aspx.

Images/ branding

Ellis-Chadwick & Doherty. (2012) suggest that pictures help engage the readers and sustain attention in marketing emails. Groupon effectively displayed enticing images of the available experiences, these pictures were very clear and a good size. Another effective part of the imaging in the email was that lots of small images were used, as opposed to one big image which can often have issues with reaching the customer. More information can be found on this here https://emailmarketing.comm100.com/email-marketing-ebook/email-images.aspx. Ellis-Chadwick & Doherty. (2012) cite the importance of positioning the brand logo prominently in marketing emails in which best practice is on the top left. Groupon’s logo was clearly located on the top left of the email so I could immediately recognise the brand.

Personalisation

The email was personalised to an extent, the deals that were offered were focused geographically to my location in Brighton. However, there was no personalisation based on my name which is useful to personalise an email and used in similar emails addressed to me by Wowcher, once of Groupons main competitors (screenshot below). Furthermore, Godin (1999) discusses the limited attention of the audience in email marketing. The first deal that Groupon provided in the email was highly irrelevant as mentioned above. Linking this to the limited attention of the audience, it is unlikely I would continue to read the email which demonstrates the importance of providing relevant content and displaying it at the forefront of the email.

wowcherdigblog

Call to action

Bonini (2013) suggests that calls-to actions are extremely critical components of effective lead generation. Groupon’s call to actions are very easy to follow, you simply click on the picture of the deal you are interested in to find out more information. They also include the original price and discount which might be useful to entice customers. However, Groupon do not create a sense of urgency on the customer. Wowcher, on the other hand often send emails to me which provide a countdown until the deal runs out which effectively creates urgency, an example of this is displayed in the screenshot above. More information  on creating urgency and other techniques for an effective call to action can be found here: https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/design-tips-for-creating-calls-to-action-that-pop-off-the-page.

Key lessons learned:

  • Gain attention with an enticing subject line and make sure it links to the email content!
  • Personalisation- make email marketing as personalised as possible- however only personalise on information you know to be accurate, don’t guess!
  • Call to action- use an enticing call to action that will create urgency on the customer!

Here are a couple of other articles which are slightly more posititve and speak about the success of Groupon’s marketing:

Ok, so clearly Groupon’s email marketing has demonstrated high success rates as mentioned in the above articles, however my experience shows there is room for improvement! I hope you have enjoyed  this post, maybe you have had similar experiences from companies in relation to email marketing? If so, or if you have anything to add I would love to hear from you in the comments section!

References

Bonini, J. (2013) Design Tips for Creating Calls-to-Action that Pop Off the Page [online] https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/design-tips-for-creating-calls-to-action-that-pop-off-the-page [accessed 27 October 2016]

Ellis-Chadwick, F., & Doherty, N. F. (2012). Web advertising: The role of e-mail marketing. Journal of Business Research, 65(6), 843-848.

Godin, S. (1999). Permission marketing: Turning strangers into friends and friends into customers. Simon & Schuster

Ikea- digital development

Link

This post will analyse Ikea’s digital development strategy from a business student’s perspective. Ikea worked alongside the socializers agency to improve their digital development with a focus on utilising social media. Ikea is a global brand with a highly successful strategy which has been exemplified by Michael Porter of Harvard Business School. More on this can be found here http://www.isc.hbs.edu/strategy/creating-a-successful-strategy/pages/making-strategic-trade-offs.aspx.   The success of the Ikea is identified as one of the key challenges faced by their digital development team as they suggest that creating disruptive change can be difficult in a business that is already high performing. Another of the key challenges the team faced was that much of the data that Ikea had access to was not shared between business areas, this is common in large enterprises.

However, Ikea and the socializers came up with an innovative solution to overcome these challenges. They wanted to create a ‘listening hub’ so they could find out what their customers were saying on social media. It was decided that the best technology to utilise for this purpose was Brandwatch Vizia. Using this innovative technology, senior management were able to quickly identify what their customer’s were saying utilising a user friendly platform that allowed them to customise the platform to quickly establish information they required. This allowed them to quickly share information amongst departments and regions which fostered the collaboration which may have been missing in the business before. From the listening hub they were able to identify the two main websites their customers used to complain in the US. They also established that US customers were far more likely to make complaints via facebook than British customers who generally complained using online forums to discuss customer service issues. By sharing these insights across departments the digital team were in a position to inform Ikea where they could improve the brand perception, which brand ambassadors they could influence and which relevant topics they could use to boost their online reputation.

This case suggests that a strong social media strategy can foster collaboration between departments which has been cited as crucial for business success. Furthermore, knowing what your customers are saying about your brand is essential to make improvements. With more and more customers using social media to discuss customer service a focus on understanding these avenues is essential for businesses. Using technology such as Brand Vizia could be effective to obtain and display this information quickly and efficiently, particularly for larger corporations who are in a position to invest in such technology. Ultimately this case highlights the importance of ‘big data’ in modern business and fostering it to create useful insights can help improve an organisations collaboration, brand and customer service.  There are many other reasons that highlight the importance of big data which can be found below.

http://www.sas.com/en_us/insights/analytics/big-data-analytics.html

 

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