Not Enough Basketball? Play It on Facebook Messenger

As if basketball wasn’t already crushing productivity this week, now you can play it on Facebook Messenger.

The Next Web reported that Messenger users who type in the basketball emoji and send it to a friend can start a basketball game, in which basketballs appear at various locations on their screens, and they can swipe up to shoot those balls through the hoop.

The object of the game is to make the most consecutive baskets, according to The Next Web, which added that the backboard starts moving after 10 points, speeding up after 20.

Basketball is not the first game to be quietly added to Messenger, as a chess game was discovered last December.

Readers: Will you challenge any of your friends on Messenger to a one-on-one?

 

Screenshots courtesy of The Next Web.

40 Ways to Use SEMrush to Get the SEO Data You Need

SEMrush is powerful, versatile and all things considered, remarkably accurate. With that being said, SEMrush’s advanced features can be both a gift and a curse. With advanced functionality often comes complexity and it’s fairly easy to get lost in SEMrush’s broad array of features.…

The post 40 Ways to Use SEMrush to Get the SEO Data You Need appeared first on Seer Interactive.

How and Why Top Retailers Should Be Making More Product Recommendations Onsite and In Email

By Julie Wahl, Listrak director of retail solutions

 Producing our annual shopping cart abandonment study, where we look at the shopping cart abandonment practices of retailers in the Internet Retailer Top 500 and Second 500 guides gives us the opportunity to study other aspects of leading retailers’ digital marketing efforts, as well. With personalization being one of the most prevalently discussed topics by retailers, one of those additional areas we took a look at for our most recent study was use of recommendations both on-site and in email.

Here’s what we found and how and why leading retailers could be doing even more.

Recommendations Onsite

For leading retailers, the most popular page to feature product recommendations on is the product detail page, and the 70.4% of top one thousand retailers who do so are fairly evenly split among the Top 500 (37.1%) and Second 50 (33.3%).

After the product detail page, however, the usage of onsite recommendations falls surprisingly low, with fewer than half of the top one thousand retailers featuring them on the homepage (44.7%) and cart page (44.2%), and the fewest (15.8%) featuring them on the category page.

Suggested Strategies for Online Recommendations

Personalized recommendations can help to increase time on site, AOV and conversion rates. That type of impact can make a big difference on your bottom line, so it only makes sense to put recommendations on multiple points along the conversion funnel. That being said, the shopper’s experience has to stay top of mind, and the recommendations you make at each touchpoint need to support that experience in a meaningful way.

Homepage – For a shopper just landing on your homepage for the first time, lead with proven winners like best sellers or trending products. If applicable, highlight products with high customer ratings to support their value even more. For returning shoppers, make sure these recommendations are tailored to their recent buying signals. You can lean on brand and category preferences to aid in product discovery and mix in some recently browsed products as well.

Category page – For some shoppers a category page can be underwhelming - too many options, not enough clear direction. You can use this opportunity to highlight best sellers in the category or new arrivals for new shoppers who are just getting familiar with your product offering. For return shoppers, you can use the same merchandising tactics you would use for new shoppers, only now make sure you keep their style, brand or pricing preferences in line with your category specific recommendations.

Product page – Once a shopper arrives on a PDP you have a few different options. It’s a great opportunity to provide alternative options to the featured product, but when doing so, try not to offer discounted alternatives unless you are trying to specifically move inventory. You can also provide complementary options if your goal is to increase items per order. Including recently browsed items also has an impact on the shopper’s experience, because it keeps previously considered products top of mind and aids in site navigation.

Cart page – The cart page provides an opportunity to increase AOV by highlighting promotions like free shipping thresholds and recommending complementary products. Including options to add recommended products to the cart directly from the cart page can help to minimize distractions and keep shoppers traveling down the conversion funnel.

Recommendations in Email

For product recommendations in email, we specifically looked at the Welcome Series and Shopping Cart Abandonment campaigns of the IR Top 500 and Second 500 retailers. In a future study we will reveal how many of these top retailers actually send Welcome emails after acquiring a new subscriber, but it’s important to note here that fewer than six of 10 send any at all, and that number declines for each subsequent email in the Welcome Series.

Of those Top 500 and Second 500 retailers who do send Welcome Messages, however, surprisingly few use them to present personalized product recommendations to new subscribers, especially in the first and second emails. That being said, the third Welcome Series email, for the few top retailers who send one, is the most popular for recommendations - we might assume because retailers believe they have ample data on the new subscriber by the time it is sent.  

Of the little more than one third of Top 500 and Second 500 retailers who send at least one Shopping Cart Abandonment message, just 16.2% feature product recommendations in it. Of those who send a second email in the series, slightly more incorporate recommendations into the email, and for those who send a third Shopping Cart Abandonment email, it is the least popular for featuring suggested products. 

Recommendations in Email

Triggered emails are a great opportunity to incorporate recommendations because the messaging is a direct response to a consumer action.  When you combine relevancy in timing and content, you set the stage for a significant boost in impact. 

Welcome Series- This is your first opportunity to prove that there is value in being an email subscriber of your brand. What better way to show that you can provide value than by personalizing the content to the individual subscriber? Many retailers are hesitant to include product recommendations in the first or second welcome email, and it’s a huge missed opportunity. This is a great opportunity to showcase the specific items they just browsed as well as recommendations based on that activity to help in product discovery. You can also include trending products or top sellers so that the content is continually updated based on the date the message is sent.

Shopping Cart Abandonment - Recommendations in cart abandonment emails should primarily focus on the insight gathered at the time of abandonment. What was the consumer considering before abandoning the conversion and how do you support that decision rather than detract from it? Testing whether or not recommendations make sense in this campaign is a must. 

Anything that aids either new or returning customers in moving smoothly down the path to purchase benefits both the shopper and the retailer. When used strategically, personalized product recommendations, whether onsite or in email, enhance the shopper’s experience and help retailers meet specific goals.

How to write a hypothesis

The potential for your marketing improvement depends on the strength of your testing hypotheses.

But where are you getting your test ideas from? Have you been scouring competitor sites, or perhaps pulling from previous designs on your site? The web is full of ideas and you’re full of ideas – there is no shortage of inspiration, that’s for sure.

Coming up with something you want to test isn’t hard to do.

Coming up with something you should test can be hard to do.

Hard – yes. Impossible? No. Which is good news, because if you can’t create hypotheses for things that should be tested, your test results won’t mean mean much, and you probably shouldn’t be spending your time testing.

Taking the time to write your hypotheses correctly will help you structure your ideas, get better results, and avoid wasting traffic on poor test designs.

With this post, we’re getting advanced with marketing hypotheses, showing you how to write and structure your hypotheses to gain both business results and marketing insights!

By the time you finish reading, you’ll be able to:

1. Distinguish a solid hypothesis from a time-waster, and


2. Structure your solid hypothesis to get results and insights

To make this whole experience a bit more tangible, let’s track a sample idea from…well…idea to hypothesis.

Let’s say you identified a call-to-action (CTA)* while browsing the web, and you were inspired to test something similar on your own lead generation landing page. You think it might work for your users! Your idea is:

“My page needs a new CTA.”

*A call-to-action is the point where you, as a marketer, ask your prospect to do something on your page. It often includes a button or link to an action like “Buy”, “Sign up”, or “Request a quote”.

The basics: The correct hypothesis format

A well-structured hypothesis provides insights whether it is proved, disproved, or results are inconclusive. You should never phrase a hypothesis as a question. It should be written as a statement that can be rejected or confirmed.

Further, it should be a statement geared toward revealing insights – with this in mind, it helps to imagine each statement followed by a reason:

• Changing _______ into ______ will increase [conversion goal], because:


• Changing _______ into ______ will decrease [conversion goal], because:


• Changing _______ into ______ will not affect [conversion goal], because:

Each of the above sentences ends with ‘because’ to set the expectation that there will be an explanation behind the results of whatever you’re testing. It’s important to remember to plan ahead when you create a test, and think about explaining why the test turned out the way it did when the results come in.

Level up: Moving from a good to great hypothesis

Understanding what makes an idea worth testing is necessary for your optimization team.

If your tests are based on random ideas you googled or were suggested by a consultant, your testing process still has its training wheels on. Great hypotheses aren’t random. They’re based on rationale and aim for learning.

Hypotheses should be based on themes and analysis that show potential conversion barriers. At WiderFunnel, we call this investigation phase the “Explore Phase” where we use frameworks like the LIFT Model to understand the prospect’s unique perspective. (You can read more on the the full optimization process here).

A well-founded hypothesis should also provide you with new, testable clues about your users regardless of whether or not the test wins, loses or yields inconclusive results. These new insights should inform future testing: a solid hypothesis can help you quickly separate worthwhile ideas from the rest when planning follow-up tests.

Ultimately, what matters most is that you have a hypothesis going into each experiment and you design each experiment to address that hypothesis.

– Nick So, Optimization Strategist, WiderFunnel

Here’s a quick tip: If you’re about to run a test that isn’t going to tell you anything new about your users and their motivations, it’s probably not worth investing your time in.

Let’s take this opportunity to refer back to your original idea:

“My page needs a new CTA.”

Ok, but what now? To get actionable insights from ‘a new CTA’, you need to know why it behaved the way it did. You need to ask the right question.

To test the waters, maybe you changed the copy of the CTA button on your lead generation form from “Submit” to “Send demo request”. If this change leads to an increase in conversions, it could mean that your users require more clarity about what their information is being used for.

That’s a potential insight.

Based on this insight, you could follow up with another test that adds copy around the CTA about next steps: what the user should anticipate after they have submitted their information. For example, will they be speaking to a specialist via email? Will something be waiting for them the next time they visit your site? You can test providing more information, and see if your users are interested in knowing it!

That’s the cool thing about a good hypothesis: the results of the test, while important (of course) aren’t the only component driving your future test ideas. The insights gleaned lead to further hypotheses and insights in a virtuous cycle.

It’s based on a science

The term ‘hypothesis’ probably isn’t foreign to you. In fact, it may bring up memories of grade-school science class; it’s a critical part of the scientific method.

The scientific method in testing follows a systematic routine that sets ideation up to predict the results of experiments via:

1. Collecting data and information through observation


2. Creating tentative descriptions of what is being observed


3. Forming hypotheses that predict different outcomes based on these observations


4. Testing your hypotheses


5. Analyzing the data, drawing conclusions and insights from the results

Don’t worry! Hypothesizing may seem ‘sciency’, but it doesn’t have to be complicated in practice.

Hypothesizing simply helps ensure the results from your tests are quantifiable, and is necessary if you want to understand how the results reflect the change made in your test. A strong hypothesis allows testers to use a structured approach in order to discover what works, why it works, how it works, where it works, and who it works on.

“My page needs a new CTA.” Is this idea in its current state clear enough to help you understand what works? Maybe. Why it works? No. Where it works? Maybe. Who it works on? No.

Your idea needs refining.

Let’s pull back and take a broader look at the lead generation landing page we want to test.

Imagine the situation: you’ve been diligent in your data collection and you notice several recurrences of Clarity pain points – meaning that there are many unclear instances throughout the page’s messaging.

Rather than focusing on the CTA right off the bat, it may be more beneficial to deal with the bigger clarity issue.

Now you’re starting to think about solving your prospects conversion barriers rather than just testing random ideas!

If you believe the overall page is unclear, your overarching theme of inquiry might be positioned as:

• “Improving the clarity of the page will reduce confusion and improve [conversion goal].”

By testing a hypothesis that supports this clarity theme, you can gain confidence in the validity of it as an actionable marketing insight over time.

If the test results are negative: It may not be worth investigating this motivational barrier any further on this page. In this case, you could return to the data and look at the other motivational barriers that might be affecting user behavior.

If the test results are positive: You might want to continue to refine the clarity of the page’s message with further testing.

Typically, a test will start with a broad idea — you identify the changes to make, predict how those changes will impact your conversion goal, and write it out as a broad theme as shown above. Then, repeated tests aimed at that theme will confirm or undermine the strength of the underlying insight.

Building hypotheses to create insights

You believe you’ve identified an overall problem on your landing page (there’s a problem with clarity). Now you want to understand how individual elements contribute to the problem, and the effect these individual elements have on your users. It’s game time – now you can start designing a hypothesis that will generate insights.

You believe your users need more clarity. You’re ready to dig deeper to find out if that’s true!

If a specific question needs answering, you should structure your test to make a single change. This isolation might ask: “What element are users most sensitive to when it comes to the lack of clarity?” and “What changes do I believe will support increasing clarity?”

At this point, you’ll want to boil down your overarching theme…

• Improving the clarity of the page will reduce confusion and improve [conversion goal].

…into a quantifiable hypothesis that isolates key sections:

• Changing the wording of this CTA to set expectations for users (from “submit” to “send demo request”) will reduce confusion about the next steps in the funnel and improve order completions.

Does this answer what works? Yes: changing the wording on your CTA.

Does this answer why it works? Yes: reducing confusion about the next steps in the funnel.

Does this answer where it works? Yes: on this page, before the user enters this theoretical funnel.

Does this answer who it works on? No, this question demands another isolation. You might structure your hypothesis more like this:

• Changing the wording of the CTA to set expectations for users (from “submit” to “send demo request”) will reduce confusion for visitors coming from my email campaign about the next steps in the funnel and improve order completions.

Now we’ve got a clear hypothesis. And one worth testing!

Let’s compare:

The original idea: “My page needs a new CTA.”

Following the hypothesis structure: “A new CTA on my page will increase [conversion goal]”

The first test implied a problem with clarity, provides a potential theme: “Improving the clarity of the page will reduce confusion and improve [conversion goal].”

The potential clarity theme leads to a new hypothesis: “Changing the wording of the CTA to set expectations for users (from “submit” to “send demo request”) will reduce confusion about the next steps in the funnel and improve order completions.”

Final refined hypothesis: “Changing the wording of the CTA to set expectations for users (from “submit” to “send demo request”) will reduce confusion for visitors coming from my email campaign about the next steps in the funnel and improve order completions.”

Which test would you rather your team invest in?

Before you start your next test, take the time to do a proper analysis of the page you want to focus on. Do preliminary testing to define bigger issues, and use that information to refine and pinpoint your hypothesis to give you forward-looking insights.

Doing this will help you avoid time-wasting tests, and enable you to start getting some insights for your team to keep testing!

The post How to write a hypothesis appeared first on WiderFunnel.

The Two Paths CMOs Must Pursue When Planning Their Technology Roadmap

There is no denying the importance of having one, living breathing technology roadmap. It is not an understatement to say this is paramount for success. And seeing how the CMO is, according to Julie Lyle — former CMO of hh gregg and Prudential Asia and current Chairman of the Board for the Global Retail Marketing Association the “owner” of relationships with third party suppliers, it is eminently important that the CMO play a major role in creating the technology roadmap.

In a new report, Take Two Technology Roads To Digital Experience Success, Road Map: The Digital Experience Delivery Playbook, Forrester analyst Ted Schadler lays out the two paths CMOs not only must pursue when planning their technology roadmap, but do so at the same time. 

Now keep in mind, these paths come only after you have a strategy to prioritize digital interactions and have assessed the business impact of each investment, according to Schadler. 

The two paths he identifies are:

1. Make urgent investments immediately with cloud or software extensions. On this path, you will turn on functionality you aren’t using and extend your existing platform with new software. The cloud is your best way to layer in new functionality without rebuilding your existing platform. Use the cloud to augment your existing platform with new capabilities. These cloud services can pull information from your existing systems, create the new capability, and then embed it back into your web or mobile experience. 


2. Deliver important agility and long-term benefits with a modern digital experience platform. On this parallel path, you will define, select, and implement a modern platform to deliver long-term agility and capabilities. The cloud is also your friend here: it’s the future of digital experience platforms. 

Schadler adds that at the same time as you’re delivering new capabilities with extensions, you have to fund and implement the foundations of your digital customer experience: customers, content, marketing, commerce, service, and insights.  ​

​To read the entire report, download Take Two Technology Roads To Digital Experience Success, Road Map: The Digital Experience Delivery Playbook.

The Evolution of Customer Engagement (And How It’s Changing Everything)

How do you measure customer engagement? If you’re like most marketers, it’s all about the revenue. And while revenue is important, much of what we think about customer engagement is changing considerably.

For example, according to a recent report by eMarketer, most executives look at metrics like clicks, conversions, shares and traffic as prime indicators – but these metrics can’t really measure engagement per se and nor can they measure a customer’s satisfaction with the service they received.

In fact, just look at how marketers view the shifting customer service landscape:

Nearly half of those surveyed felt that they needed to better align with sales and support to deliver a complete customer experience. But how exactly do you do this? Looking at three of the more considerable metrics on the chart above reveals some insights when it comes to personalization, filtering and what information is collected about customers (and what information they choose to share).

The Signal-to-Noise Ratio

It’s evident from the graphic that customers are now available and open to receiving information than ever before. But for the uninitiated company, this doesn’t mean simply “throw out all the advertising you can at them and hope some of it sticks.” People are tired of being marketed to like brainless zombies, and instead want their business to be valued. They want to share their experiences with friends on social media and rave about the latest deals or what fantastic service they got.

BUT – and this is a big one – customers don’t want to be babysat. They don’t want to be reminded for the umpteenth time to leave a review about the cat litter they just bought. Nor do they want to be doggedly followed from site to site showing ads for that lingerie they were looking at. They want less noise and more tailored offers, personalized to their tastes.

Importance Versus Satisfaction

In customer service, a lot of effort goes into explaining (and looking for ways to create) “memorable moments”. These are moments where the customer shopping experience was so good/timely/affordable that they can’t help but remember it.

Now, it’s important to note that a customer isn’t going to have a memorable experience every single time they shop. But looking at these experience (and their relative levels of importance) is a good way to set and manage customer experiences.

Image Source

Imagine for a moment if expectations were low, but experience was high. A customer might remember that moment, right? And conversely, if expectations were high and experience low – a customer will definitely remember it – and likely tell others.

Being able to accurately pinpoint where (on the map) the customer interacts with the company and how to make these points as even as possible is the “sweet spot” every company – whether you’re selling lingerie, or cat litter – needs to aim for.

Physical Versus Emotional Variables

There are a lot of core physical variables that customers look for no matter what they’re buying. Things like:

• Functionality (does it work as intended)


• Time (is it easy to set up/use)


• Attractiveness / Cleanliness


• Environment (the ambience of the store / website)

These are all physical points that you can control to some extent. Interjecting emotional value into physical points broadens the overall customer experience into so much more. Love it or hate it, you know when you’re entering a Hollister store. The dark lights, the music, and even the smell.

That’s not to say that all customer experiences should be 100% sensory only. But making them feel things in connection to shopping online (the excitement of getting a branded package from Amazon.com, for instance), greatly heightens their satisfaction and in effect, doing business with you.

Tying Customer Experiences to Measurable Goals

Here’s the real question: How do you measure something as intangible as customer experience? Sure, the aforementioned metrics are a good place to start, as is overall customer satisfaction levels –but they don’t paint a complete picture.

It’s vital when considering customer experiences as a whole that you look at the areas where improvements can always be made – such as:

• How easy it is to find information


• How to get help when they need it


• How their personal data is being collected and used


• Appealing, interesting content

Image Source

This marketing matrix, from the Customer Experience (Spain) shows how you can tie those improvements to overall goals to make real progress toward your customer engagement improvement initiatives. This will give you concrete milestones to work from as you keep improving your process. It won’t happen overnight, but gradually, you’ll be able to see impactful improvements to metrics like time-on-site, lower bounce rates, social shares and other measurable points.

And if you’re not getting the kind of results you’d hoped for, don’t be afraid to make changes and shift with the changing customer experience tides. People are rightfully expecting a lot more out of the companies they’re most loyal to, but companies aren’t afraid to take some risks and step up to the place to align themselves with their customers’ needs too.

The bottom line is always going to be to look at what your data is telling you. Draw meaningful conclusions, but don’t doggedly cling to it. We’re all human, and sometimes unpredictable and wavering in what we really want from a brand.

But it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. In an August 2015 survey from Ovum and Opinium Research LLP, nearly 81% of the customers surveyed reported that the issue [which would give them the greatest positive experience with a brand] would be to simply have their questions answered. That’s not asking for a lot, is it? They’ve set the bar incredibly low – presenting the perfect opportunity for smart companies to not just meet their expectations but exceed them.

What Do You Think About the Shifting Customer Service Landscape?

Now it’s your turn. Do you feel like your company could improve on customer engagement? Or have you already made great strides and are looking to do more? Tell us about your experiences in the comments below!

About the Author: Sherice Jacob helps business owners improve website design and increase conversion rates through compelling copywriting, user-friendly design and smart analytics analysis. Learn more at iElectrify.com and download your free web copy tune-up and conversion checklist. Follow @sherice on Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+ for more articles like this!

5 Noteworthy Ways to Increase Engagement for Your YouTube Videos (Infographic)

You may have mastered every trick in the book to drive millions of viewers to your YouTube channel. If so, it's great that you have people watching your video.

However, that shouldn't be your only concern. Don't make the mistake of thinking that virality is your goal. Your goal is to engage your audience and keep them coming back for more.

When creating your videos, always remember that you are addressing people, not robots. You must make an emotional connection with your viewers.

According to a study by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the average time a user spends on a website is only 20 seconds.

The study also reported that the average attention span of a human being, in 2015, was 8.25 seconds, which is even less than that of a goldfish!

This means that people lose interest fast if what they see is boring. Hence, you need to hook your viewers within the first 10 seconds of your video.

So, where does engagement begin and where does it end?

The longer a video drags on the lower its retention rate. Short videos, under 1 minute, enjoy 80% viewer retention. Videos that are 2-3 minutes long receive 60% retention. But, videos that are 5-10 minutes long have only about 50% retention halfway through.

People watch videos for a variety of reasons. Most people (70%) are looking for educational content, such as DIY tips and tricks and tutorials. Some people (67%) visit YouTube for reviews of products they are interested in buying. And, some people (53%) turn to videos for inspiration or entertainment.

A further breakdown of shoppers looking for product reviews shows that:

• 52% of shoppers agree that watching product videos makes them more confident about making a purchase


• 40% of shoppers agree that they would visit a store online or in-person after watching a video


• 46% of shoppers said they would be more likely to seek additional information about a product after watching an online video about it

The bottom line is: Engagement is important for good conversion rates. So, let's examine 5 ways to increase YouTube channel engagement. These methods will help you to not only attract a wider and more diverse viewership, but also retain customers and generate leads.

About the Author: Subrat Kar is the CEO and Co-founder of Vidooly, a YouTube analytics tool for content creators, multi-channel networks, and brands. Before Vidooly, he worked with E-Commerce companies like Jabong and IndiaMart as a product manager. Recognized as one of the most promising young entrepreneurs in India, he is an active participant in entrepreneurial initiatives and forums across India. Connect with him @subratkar.