Choosing a web host for any website is a crucial decision to corroborate the success of a business house. If you are on the right track, it can greatly upgrade and augment the website performance. Either way, a wrong selection can lead to various troubles and unnecessary expenses.
But what factors should be considered prior to choosing a web hosting company? Let’s have a quick look-
1. Know the needs of your site
Prior to choosing a web host provider, understand the needs of your website. For example, try to explore the type of website you would be catering to, whether WordPress needs to be used or not and lastly how much traffic must be generated.
The more comprehensive one can be, the easier it will be to decide on the hosting provider. For WordPress, appraise a managed WordPress hosting provider. If your site is centered around an online store, hosting providers specialized in eCommerce will do.
What if you’re an absolute starter? Always opt for a shared hosting plan with a reliable organization. Thanks to its affordability and convenience. Either way, it eliminates the concerns of backend issues such as perpetuation and safety throughout.
2. Check out on the server credibility or uptime tally
It’s very important to stay online for any website. Hence, always look out for the stability of the web host provider. Nowadays, various server monitoring tools come available in tracking a web host. Meanwhile, a look at the uptime counts can say it all. The current industry standards direct to 99.95% uptime. Any figure below 99% isn’t desirable. However, premium accounts strive to offer better server security with some going up to more than 99.99%.
3. Ability to improve the server
As a beginner, one should choose a provider that permits to reform the server over time. Because, even with a sound shared hosting plan, there is a limit to the resources. When a website grows popular attracting huge traffic (above 30,000 organic visitors), a shared hosting plan will fail to harbour them in the given bandwidth.
Hence the play of upgradation. A hosting provider enabling you to upgrade your plan will be much better than finding a new host to migrate the entire website.
Here’s a handy tip for beginners: A VPS or dedicated server plan provides greater server resorts once the website outlives the shared hosting plan. Therefore, search for web hosts that advance elasticity in augmentation as per the demands of the website.
4. Research the signup and renewal price
One needs to know 2 basic prices with web hosts – the signup price and the renewal price. In most cases, initial investment in a plan might not be the same at the time of renewal. Sometimes, the renewal cost can even be higher depending on the range of offers or discounts. Regrettably, it’s obvious for hosting companies to increase the renewal pricing on the go. Unless one hopes to change the web host every 2 to 3 years, the practice can’t be avoided.
Hence, it’s wise to go for web hosts that are reasonable with their price hikes(not beyond 100%).
What if you aren’t experienced in the domain? Just check out the ToS of the web host on the framework for resumption charges. It usually exists on the homepage. Else go for a quick keyword search.
5. Find out if the web host provider has a refund policy or free trial
Using a web host can be a pricey venture. Especially if one is starting with a definite budget.
For such a reason, a hosting company offers some kind of refund policy and/or free trial period. The scheme can significantly help to cut back on costs.
However, some providers charge a cancellation fee at the time of repealing the account during the trial session. Abstain from them. Instead, companies offering money-back promises with respective refunds after the trial period should be opted for.
6. Check out the essential features
Never miss on the ground check of indispensable attributes which range over one-click installer, .htaccess File Access, FTP/SFTP Access, file manager, and DNS management.
In case of a beginner, stay away from Disk Space and Data Transfer Capacity.
However, most shared hosting plans proffer sufficient server resources (RAM and processing power) for minor websites. If you are concerned about storage and bandwidth, third-party platforms such as Imgur, YouTube, Google Doc, can easily tackle images, videos, and documents.
7. Do they have backups for site or not
Backups are requisite for a website. Even with a couple of safety measures around the globe, a website can counter crash, failure, virus, or hack. There comes the play of good backup strategy. One can always retrogress to a working website in case of an accident.
A good web host provider can put back the full site in slightest downtime. That way you can circumvent any serious loss.
Some of the crucial questions regarding backups include:
If they run regular complete backups
If one can manually backup the site via control panel
If you can use programs to devise auto backups of the site
Whether you can reinstate the backup files yourself or you need the help of support staff
8. The quality of customer support (online chat or over the phone)
Sometimes you might face server issues that can’t be solved on their own. Then a good customer support team will be your saviour. But how to figure out its actual quality? It’s either via live chat or telephone. No matter what, the issue will be immediately resolved. One can carry out a simple ground check of the hosting provider’s support team over Facebook or forums.
9. Swift server responsiveness and speed
As Google has come to consider mobile page loading speed with regard to rankings, a fast-loading page stays forever important for any website and business.
Hence go for hosting providers that offer a steady and fast server speed. It won’t just refine overall user experience but also topple SEO rankings on the whole.
You can check on a web host’s speed and server responsiveness by examining the Time To First Byte (TTFB). Tools like Bitcatcha and WebpageTest can be resorted to in the process.
Overview
To summarize, perform every mindful step with due care. It can help save a lot of time and trouble in the near future.
Social media marketing utilizes social platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and others) to add to your internet marketing objectives. Given the abundance of platforms accessible and the quickly changing social media scene, with every platform developing in new and unique manners, how would you figure out which are appropriate for your organization or brand?
You can depend on social media marketing specialists at social media marketing agencies to give this answer. The specialists at social media marketing agencies distinguish and focus on your exact crowd, at that point make, create and deal with your social media platforms and missions around that crowd to assist you with accomplishing your social media advertising objectives.
Numerous organizations don’t understand the meaning of online media platforms in facilitating a brand’s digital marketing strategy. Online media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, are demonstrating importance in their capacity to micro-target crowds that would some way or another be hard to disengage and reach. It’s not, at this point, enough to have a presence via online media. It’s significant that you realize how to use it adequately and arrive at your intended interest group through the various platforms. Social media advertising agencies can assist you with doing that. Here are a few reasons why you should recruit a social media marketing agency.
Social Media Marketing Agencies Are Experts in Social Media
Probably the greatest error in social media marketing is neglecting to initially recognize the right objective crowd. In digital marketing, greater reach doesn’t approach greater returns. In the event that you neglect to convey the right message, to the correct crowd, through successful channels, you are wasting time, cash, and important assets. Digital advertising agencies address groups of profoundly experienced experts, with skills in marketing using social media platforms.
There is no demonstrated numerical equation to compelling digital marketing. It depends on both science-numerical computations and deductions, some dependent on exceptionally taught theories and inventiveness in craftsmanship. The best social media advertising agencies are those with numerous long periods of involved insight.
At the point when you add a group of profoundly experienced experts behind your brand via social media, you are increasing the value of your digital marketing strategy, or profit ROI. Social media marketing agencies can change your social into important social media platforms, and virtual lead generation machines.
Social Media Marketing Companies Think Outside the Box
Social media marketing assumes a critical part in influencing buyer choices and perspectives about a brand, organization or item. Recruiting a social media advertising agency implies you are adding a group of experienced social media specialists with extraordinary proven strategies that get you before your crowd as well as ensure you stick out.
Inventiveness joined with unique proven strategies is at the center of each effective digital marketing effort. Powerful social media marketing is standing out in a noisy, swarmed room. Simply think, in the event that you are saying exactly the same thing as your competitors, your message will go unnoticed.
That is the place where inventive vital social media marketing can radically improve the force and reach of your branding message. Social media marketing agencies start with an inside and out investigation of your intended interest group- the kinds of media and/or content they routinely interface with. They at that point expand upon exceptionally imaginative posts that have demonstrated on reverberate with your intended interest group to the additional expansion of engagement.
In outline, digital marketing agencies realize how to contact your crowd with the substance your crowd needs more of, they are specialists at utilizing what your crowd needs to separate you from your rivals.
Social Media Marketing Companies Stay on Top of Best Practices and Make Efficient Use of Your Marketing Dollars
With paid advertising via social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, you may be squandering your social media spend on some unacceptable marketing efforts. Digital media agencies make vital and exceptionally proficient utilization of your online media advertising dollars. Expert digital Master advertisers depend intensely on information and quantifiable outcomes that are demonstrated to yield the best outcome on your speculation. They show you precisely where your marketing dollars are being spent and what that spend yields regarding explicit quantifiable measures-be its development in the quantity of crowd on your social pages, expanded commitment, click-through rates, or client retention.
They do this by focusing on the correct crowd and separating your brand from your rivals. They make careful arrangements to guarantee that your crowd keeps on engaging with your brand. They ensure you don’t become irrelevant.
Inexperience Could Spell Disaster for Your Brand
It is never astute to jump into unchartered waters without sufficient planning. Depending on irregular counsel found on Google to post branded content a couple of times each week without help from anyone else may appear to be innocuous, however, it is too simple to even think about making mistakes and end up suffocating in a social media entanglement. All the more critically, without proficient online media aptitude, in addition to the fact that marketers fail to add esteem through their diligent effort and acknowledge zero profit from their investment, however, open their brand to long haul harm. Frequently, the outcome is a PR crisis that requires some investment, devoted exertion, and a large number of dollars to fix.
We’ve all seen it – brands that make massively failed attempts at humor or that hop on patterns they don’t completely comprehend, upsetting a huge number of individuals simultaneously. What at that point? Do you have an online media emergency plan set up to quickly recuperate from significant social media fizzles? Do you have an endorsement situation that includes unbending governing rules with devoted individuals, that make it their business to guarantee nothing escapes everyone’s notice?
At the point when you recruit an expert digital marketing agency to deal with your social stages, you get the significant serenity and the affirmation that if there at any point is a questionable post, tweet, or campaign – damage control will be on its way. At the point when calamity strikes, you can have confidence that you will be prepared to react quickly and adequately. A social media marketing agency guarantees your image is protected from harm. Digital advertising experts are exceptionally competent at dealing with a wide range of unexpected social media nightmares, and all the time have extra PR assets accessible in their group should you need them.
It Makes More Sense to Hire a Social Media Agency than a Person In-House
Employing a social media marketing agency is more proficient on the grounds that they can be contracted to do precisely what you need – not more and not less. With a digital marketing agency, you get a group of specialists that cooperate to bring you results. They approach assets, to a large number of utilizations, that an independent social manager lacks. Digital advertising agencies have the instruments to follow your social media campaign in minute detail, to notice it’s encouraging, to guarantee it is on target, yet more imperative to guarantee that you respond instantly to negative criticism and poor reviews.
With a profoundly gifted and expert digital marketing agency, you access online reputation management and command over how your image is seen by your crowd. Online media advertising is exceptionally powerful, it is profoundly proactive in assisting with creating and promoting your brand. It is likewise exceptionally responsive. It deliberately addresses negative media and keeps your image protected from irreparable social media damage.
Sales Sheets are an incredible method to ace the first impression. Short, sweet, and intended to promote the best of your business in a brief one-page pack, an incredible sales sheet goes far in nailing those immensely significant early interactions with a prospective client.
Think about a circumstance: You’re at a meeting, and you’re discussing with a potential customer who is willing to purchase your product.
It’s as if they’ve bounced directly out of your dreams, got all dressed up, and came to sign a deal with you.
Perhaps they have come from another country to have a meeting with you and show their interest in your product. Possibly they’re from the state over.
Or, maybe their office is situated somewhere near yours.
Regardless of where they’re from or what they’re there for; one thing is clear from the meeting that you, your company, and the product you deal in impresses and interests them.
They have an issue, and you have the solution for it.
Normally, they need to know where they can become more familiar with your product or service and learn about how they can serve their business.
Here Comes the Sales Sheet
If we try to understand the entire thing in a simple manner, we can compare sales with dating. Now, you must be thinking that’s insane. Not really. When you go on a date, it is the first meeting that usually decides whether things will move forward or end there and then. The same thing applies to sales too. The first meeting with your prospects will decide the future. Also, just as in dating, giving away way too much on the first date can be overwhelming, in sales too offering too much information to your potential client can actually make you look very needy and unprofessional.
The sales sheet is something that you use to build the first impression and try to pique the interest of your client in your product or service.
But it is not all about your clients. It is about you too. Sales sheet presents you with a possibility where you can know just how interested the client is and is it really worth it to work on the relationship.
Prior to surging in with making appointments to offer a demo, you should first analyze whether this relationship will do your business any good or not. What are the advantages and disadvantages of moving forward with this relationship? On the off chance that it looks encouraging, you need to make the correct strides; the ones destined to get you there.
An exceptional sales sheet places the ball in your imminent client’s court. It contains all the data they need to choose whether they need to get familiar with you and your business, and how they can do as such.
At the point when done right, a sales sheet is a convincing piece of correspondence that does the selling for you.
For what reason do I Need a Sales Sheet?
The main reason why you need a sales sheet is to help support your internal staff. With numerous products and different highlights, the sales, customer support, and marketing departments have a colossal measure of data to monitor. Having sales sheets accessible to help them implies fewer calls for research and development, fewer lost deals, and fewer unhappy clients.
Internal sales sheets enable your workers at each level to step up, answer questions, and give remarkable sales and support services. By giving them a simple method to get to product information, your team will actually want to deal with more issues at a lower level without expecting to present them to a manager.
Another reason why you need a sales sheet is to give information to your prospective clients. A B2B client searches for another item to fill a particular need, and a sales sheet advises them initially if your item will address their issue. Giving this data on the internet or by request (or both) assists you with interfacing with prospects who are searching for items in your particular niche.
Components of a Modern Sales Sheet
The sales sheet is known by different other names such as a product sheet, a sell sheet, or a sales slick. And if one tries to define it in simple terms, it is nothing but a one-page advertisement of your product, service, or brand. But when it comes to a sales sheet, you have to be very careful about its basic design because that is what represents how your business handles an issue.
Every sales sheet is quite tricky. And it is not an easy thing to get it right in the first go. You get a limited space to grab your customers’ attention, and inform them about the benefits of your product or service, and convince them to choose you.
Each sales sheet will differ based on the crowd and the idea you wish to represent. Yet, there are a small bunch of main components that are consistent in each incredible sales sheet:
The Sales Sheet Should Have the Perfect Design
The perfect design is similar to a piece of jewelry; if it’s not pretty, no one is even going to look at it. On the off chance that you have good resources for designs available to you, utilize them. Make sure your organization’s logo is upfront, marking is on point, and the main data are highlighted clearly.
A flawless design implies fighting the temptation to stuff as much data as could reasonably be put on a page. The sales sheet is tied in with highlighting the main aspects of your organization.
Present the best, throw away the rest.
The Sales Sheet Should Be Able to Entice
You have an extremely restricted word count to make yourself clear. Pick your words as wisely as you can. Remember that the reason behind creating a sales sheet is to be able to sell your product and service, so it has to be concise and convincing.
The design alone will not sell your item/administration/business, your sheet needs to persuade your prospect clients because it is to their greatest advantage to purchase from you.
Basic things like utilizing active voice, avoiding superfluous words, and thoroughly checking your punctuation has the capability to differentiate between a copy that has the capacity to sell and a copy that is just meh.
The Sales Sheet Should Must Have A CTA (Call to Action)
Your plan has grabbed their eye, your copy has persuaded them you’re the one for them, yet what precisely do you need your client to do to act straight away?
You need to add a call-to-action (CTA) to allure your customers to act. Your prospect clients are clever, effective individuals yet they are not telepaths. You need to incorporate a particular CTA that advises them precisely what you need them to do.
Remember that adding a CTA is THE main component of a sales sheet. Countless sales sheets crash and burn essentially in light of the fact that they didn’t guide the viewer about what should be their next step. Try not to squander all the great work you’ve done getting them this far just because of a missing CTA.
When to utilize a sales sheet?
A sales sheet likely could be the main component of a branded content that somebody experiences from your business.
The Sales Sheet is a collateral that rules at the top point of a sales funnel. It’s your go-to bit of substance to use a leave-behind after a presentation, either face to face or after an early call or email.
It contains all your prospects require to know, along with the steps that they need to perform next. A few years ago, the sales sheet, similar to any other sales collateral, was conveyed to a prospective client by a rep who used to be held up by the telephone waiting eagerly for a return call. Or then again, sales sheets sat gathering dust in halls and front counters or distributed at meetings indiscriminately to anybody willing to take one. Those days are a distant memory. These days, sales sheets—and a scope of different sales documents—are absolutely real resources. They can be messaged, seen on the web, remarked on, and shared. They can be made better with recordings, flexible tables, and several other features that are customized.
Need help with your sales sheet? Nico Digital is here to help you out with the process. By hiring the company you can hire the professional designers working under the same roof for years.
Being a developer, are you in quest of better pliability to run your selected applications and software configurations? Or are you owning an e-commerce house? Then, your concern is definitely triggered around increased performance to deal with the recent traffic to the website. What if blogging is your profession? You can’t go beyond certain budget and yet want to magnify the web hosting game without spending in a Dedicated Server?
A Virtual Private Server (VPS) can be the ideal savior.
What is a Virtual Private Server (VPS)?
An outstanding solution for web developers, webmasters, resellers, and those running resource-exhaustive websites, VPS Hosting wields and executes just like an independent physical machine. The only difference is it’s segregated into multiple “virtual” servers which offer security and elasticity for websites, autonomy from neighbors’, and complete control over the hosting environment. Truly a boon in reality!
What makes the choice more amazing? Let’s take a quick run through –
1. VPS is fully scalable
If you have recently kicked off a business venture with the plan to expand in the very next year, a VPS can adapt to the genuine ebb and flow of the market. Yes, you read it right! How? We are coming to that. No matter how little is your initial investment, just sanction the cost of any upgrade with the hosting provider (increase the RAM or CPU capability during the growing phase). Either way, you can also relegate the cost if your business takes an unprecedented turn.
This time onwards, one need not mess around with hardware installations or opt for long data transfers. Just augment with a VPS.
2. Lends an authoritative edge depending on requirement
Do you want to handle things on your own or avail the help of your hosting provider? Both ways, a VPS can give you root access, installation capability and software updates. That’s not the end. It also enables you to run batch files, make backups, as well as customize your control panel.
Without sharing a server with the neighbors, one can gain more control. Because a crook application might obstruct your way to a private server. So you can run any application above any bar. Added to that, when you might not feel like reaching out to your hosting provider, a reliable expert will be there on call. Moving forward, it can turn out to be a lifesaving moment altogether. Imagine, one can simply fix his business goals, weighing high above the technicalities. Too incredible to be put together!
3. It comes with well-grounded uptime
As we know, downtime is quite pricey for a business. With a VPS, one can have stipulated memory and bandwidth allotment all within the virtual environment. Although it sounds unbelievable at a glance, it’s real. However, when your website will continue to garner popularity, visitors won’t get disappointed over slow loading times. Why? Because a VPS possesses the ability to tackle all incoming traffic without affecting the usual operations. In a nutshell, too impeccable a performance!
Again, if you’re wishing to give life to the SEO performance on your website, a VPS is the right pick up on the go. The reason is it steers smartly through the chaos of the existing neighbors. Thus it strives to offer more enhancement opportunities in amplifying the loading time of the website. You must be taken aback now. While Google counts on the page loading times, the fast performance coupled with huge resources of VPS Hosting can help keep the business or blog at the top of mind. You are yet on one side of the coin.
It says, VPS also features its own OS with a nod for separate rebooting. The “portability of application” is its sound benefit as a hosting provider that can switch to a new virtual server with zero downtime. The choice is all yours! Now you might be feeling, that’s too swift for a start!
4. Security is the prior concern
Are you bothered about security matters? Don’t worry. A VPS can address the trouble in one shot.
When your website is hosted in its own “virtual” space, one need not worry about their neighbors’ activities. Because, a VPS enables one to implement advanced security measures in the server environment. Now, you will ask me about its implication. It says, your neighbors can’t just access any of your resources or files which are vaulted behind a safe division.
Sometimes, VPS Hosting also comes packed with a dedicated IP address, minimizing the likeliness of confusion for another. Last but not the least, it offers benefits for email marketing besides providing security for e-commerce payments. Hence a real time solution for web experts. Small business owners or companies backed by highly-efficient employees can benefit in leaps and bounds from the given options.
5. It is exceptionally affordable a choice
If you are contemplating on the cost factor, VPS is a reasonable alternative on the go. It wont charge you too much or too less. You can call it a moderate viable.
Considering how conveniently and constructively a VPS favors scale, one can be assured about the most thrifty hosting choice from the market. To put in other words, you can get what you pay for as it eliminates the forthright costs of a physical server. How’s that for being economical?
6. Agile enough to suit different scenarios
How does it cater to different website needs? Here it goes-
If you run a high-traffic website, a VPS can cope up with the surges in traffic. For instance, an e-commerce web shop promoting their seasonal sales. What if one uses a sandbox? A sandbox is nothing but a virtual environment that many organizations play to raise, test, and utilize software just before kicking off production. Are you in need to pin down the bugs and fix them or want to test patches? Let me tell you a VPS can be your best bet.
Because, it allows one to examine and/or replicate the necessities. Once done, you can easily retrieve the default. Now on, simply cut down on the communication with Customer Support for reset. It can take you a long time. Instead go for a VPS.
If you want to develop your own software like that of programming students or web developers, a VPS permits you to introspect and check out different circumstances or staging environments, so that one knows what works best.
Meanwhile, if you want to have discrete backup storage, VPS will be a sound answer. Thanks to its considerable amount of disk space and file limitations to aid in stockpiling of off site reserves.
If one streams online, VPS can be a concrete option. It imparts hitch free daily vlogging, producing online courses, organizing digital conferences, and broadcasting content on a regular basis.
What if you are a reseller host or domain reseller? Here, too, VPS can be a bliss. Ask me how? Well, it renders more power compared to traditional shared hosting, thus letting one administer personalized control panels and features to drive more customers and transactions.
Dealing with email or database servers, a VPS gives users absolute command over outgoing emails besides setting up state of the art filters.
Worried about getting all this right? Well, Nico Digital is here to help you. We have a team of experienced developers who have been creating websites for many years. We offer website development and website design services. We know how to design your website so that you don’t can focus on the growth of your business. Besides, we also make sure to update your website regularly so that nothing could corrupt your website and make it slow.
Are you an SEO professional looking out for the latest trends in the domain? While you might have sufficient resources to hit your targets, that’s not everything to optimize your outcomes. Then what lies on the other end? I am coming to that. Till then, have some patience.
To begin with, you can recall the conventional auxiliaries such as links, content creation, sitemaps, and robots.txt files. Other than that, new stuff has taken a toss over the internet. They range over voice search, featured snippets, and mobile-first index. Now, you will say I have covered every parameter on the go. If that’s your thought, I must say you have missed out on something very important. What is it?
Amidst the chaos, one factor is often overlooked- web hosting. Going forward, it can impact a site’s engagement as well as page speed, thus degrading the positive organic performance.
It’s that significant to be considered on the whole.
Why is web hosting so crucial for SEO optimization?
The selection of a web host regulates the overall steadiness of site experience towards the visitors. If you want to shield against the server errors, page timeouts and prevent users from pulling around to Google, a solid web host is all you need to depend upon. At the end of the day, everyone wants a web host to back up the integral attempts, which won’t unnecessarily disrupt along the way.
As a speedier page load time amounts to good user experience, it constitutes a pivotal factor in shaping the search engine ranking of a website. Hence, the hype around geo-location of IP and server.
1. Hosting server speed comes with high uptime assurance
Do you know that your host’s uptime promise is the most significant factor to determine SEO-friendliness?
To begin with, uptime defines the percentage of the time a site stays online and reachable. The higher the uptime, the better the organic results. On a true note, more reliable hosts serve to offer higher uptime convenience. If you are running after best impressions, select a host with a minimum of 99.9 percent uptime guarantee or even higher than that, if its within your limits. The outcomes construe to approximately 1.44 minutes of downtime per day and 8.8 hours in one year. You can already guess the boost in the system.
On the other hand, be cautious of any host that pledges 100 percent uptime. No matter what, there will always be some downtime. The motif is to keep it as little as possible. Once upgraded, it can’t but affect the SEO performance. Never think of doing away with the framework.
2. Server location calls the for prior attention
While uptime defines the accessibility of site content to users, your server location strives to account for the speediness. How? Let’s take a quick look-
Suppose, you have availed a shared, VPS, or dedicated server hosting plan. Then your site lives on a physical server in a data center somewhere as against cloud hosting. Now, what if you want the data center to be located in close proximity to the majority of your site visitors. There comes the play of server location.
The farther the server, the longer it takes to load a site. That defines one side of the coin. What’s the flip flop over here?
It says server location can appear suspicious to search engines, thereby affecting SEO results. For instance, if you operate in one country with a host located halfway around the globe, there might be something iniquitous going on. Hence, a server itself must be fast enough to steer through the unexpected lags. Are we yet missing out on something? Well, yes.
It triggers that the host should further optimize performance through a Content Delivery Network (CDN).
Worried about getting all this right? Well, Nico Digital is here to help you. We have a team of experienced developers who have been creating websites for many years. We offer website development and website design services. We know how to design your website so that you don’t can focus on the growth of your business. Besides, we also make sure to update your website regularly so that nothing could corrupt your website and make it slow.
If you are a business owner, your primary aim is to increase the number of customers that you have. While this is our natural instinct, it is not enough to run after new clients all the time. You will realize over time that customer retention is equally (and sometimes more) important.
Content marketing is one of the most common ways of marketing. You acquire new customers through content marketing. However, the reach of content marketing doesn’t end in obtaining new clients. You have to get into a relationship with your clients for an unspecified timespan. Why? Because the more you will retain the present customers, the more you will be able to increase your sales. Loyal customers are more likely to spend on a new product or service that you launch in comparison with the new customers. So, even though your main target is to generate new leads, it can also be used to retain your present customer base.
Whatever operation you provide, you should aim for creating a buyer-centric environment. And for that you will need to take an all-inclusive content marketing approach.
What are the types of content we are talking about?
When we say ‘content marketing’, most people think it refers to either blogs or content posted on social media platforms. No, you are not wrong in that sense. However, when it comes to retaining the present customers, the extent of content becomes much more than just blogs and social media posts.
Starting from your email campaigns to your blogs to the newsletters to your website content and a lot matters when it comes to content marketing. Believe it or not, your customers are loyal towards your brand as long as they are satisfied with the product and they feel connected to your content. So, if content marketing is this important for retaining customers, it is best that you start with the process now.
Customer reviews and testimonials:
Most of your customers will feel connected immediately if they see customer feedbacks. Don’t you go through reviews before buying a product? The theory is same here. Your customers will also check out your website or third party websites to see what others have to say about your product or service. So, how does it help in retention of the present customers, right? Well, if your customers understand that they can share what they are feeling truly, they are more likely to stick to your company.
It is also necessary that you go through the customer reviews regularly. If not daily, make it a weekly plan to check out what your present customers are saying about your business (whether on your website or anywhere else). It is extremely important that you reply to the reviews posted by the customers. People who are providing positive feedback should be appreciated for their time.
Negative feedbacks should be treated with extra care. Do not remove negative reviews unless the customers use improper language. Rather, reply as courteously as possible and provide them with a solution. Since the feedbacks posted are public, try and make sure to follow up whether the problem has been solved or not. This thread of content will show that you not only keep an eye on the customer reviews but you also pay attention to the problems faced by the customers.
Get yourself visible on communities:
There are many online communities where people share their feedbacks. While some of these communities are officially sanctioned, some are created by fellow customers. No matter what the origin of these communities are, you have to make sure that you also take part in at least a few of these communities. You may not even know that people on these platforms are talking about your product or service.
So, what can you do? You can ask your marketing team to create content that is driven by some purpose. Be sure to maintain regularity when creating content that advocates your brand. The most important part is to create content that the customers feel related to and content that is experiential.
Connect your marketing team and customer support team:
Suppose you have a marketing team that works for creating your website content, social media content and other pieces of content that are used for marketing. This is what drives your sales and attracts more customers. Now, when it comes to retention of the present customers, the most important part is customer support. You may have a dedicated team to take care of the requirement of your customers.
Is your customer support team equipped enough to provide them with what they want? While your marketing team is talking about the features and benefits, your customer support team may lack the knowledge on the same. So, make sure that both your customer support team and your marketing team are on the same page.
A huge part of the conversation between the customers and the support team takes place through emails. Now, I am not here to explain the importance of emails to you. But I can surely confirm that email content is one of the major reasons why your customers stay with you for longer. So, it is your responsibility to train your customer support team to create email content that is not only inclusive but that is also constructive. Apart from offering resolution to their problems, customers should also be appreciated regularly for staying loyal. The more you believe on them, the more they will remain trustworthy.
Use your website as a tool:
It is obviously important that your customer support team is using content in a better way. There is more to using content for your business. Your website is one of the most powerful tools that you can use to retain the customers that you got.
So, what are the points that you should remember? First, your website should be easily navigable. If there are different segments of your business, make sure that all the segments are separated from each other. Make sure that the segments are named properly as well.
Include a FAQ or ‘frequently asked question section’ so that people can take a look at the questions and know whether the answer to their problems is already there. Inclusion of chatbots in your website is a great initiative. You can have some preset reply content that the chatbots will use until any customer support executive from your end is able to reply to the queries.
When you are creating content for FAQ or chatbots, the quality of the content should be your primal focus. Research on the type of questions people might look for and answer those on your website. Keep updating the content from time to time to keep the website fresh.
Apart from everything else, create a blog section in your website and keep updating that regularly. The content that you put in your blogs should also be high in quality to maintain uniformity of your website.
Do not confine in written content:
Content marketing is not confined in written content only. Video content is also something that you can try out. Video is a great way to engage your target audience. There are many platforms that allow you to post video content now. You can choose any of those platforms and upload content related to your business.
Now, suppose you offer digital marketing service. You might think that there is no one that you can target on YouTube or Instagram. But trust me, it is not true. Your target audience can be anywhere and everywhere. You just need to target the right people. And the best way to do that is to start producing content that is suited for these websites. However, my advice to you will be to research properly before getting started with using these mediums. This will ensure that you produce content that your target audience wants to see.
The same theory applies for newsletter as well. Newsletters are great when you want to engage your present customers and retain them. Why? Because your present customers get to know about what new service or product you are about to launch. Or they may also know whether you have made profit (sometimes sharing profit updates help in customer retention) in the last quarter. This ensures that there is a connection between you and your customers. They feel valued and part of your business. Hence, they want to continue the business relationship with your company.
Conclusion:
Since you own a business, you will realize that growing your business is not an easy task to do. It is getting even harder with the growing competition in every field. Hence, it is extremely important that you give your full effort to improving sales. And retention of the present customers is one of the most effective ways of increasing sales. Content marketing can help you in making sure that you retain your customers apart from encouraging new clients to avail your service or buy your product.
You may not be accustomed with the fact that you can use content marketing for customer retention. Hence, we are here to help you out. Nico Digital is a digital marketing company that offers content marketing service. We ensure that you not only get new clients but also keep the ones that you already have. Besides, we also have experienced content creators and marketers who know how to drive sales for your business.
What is the recent item you purchased? A pair of headphones? A Bluetooth speaker? A lipstick? Or maybe a pair of jeans. I am sure that you checked out at least a couple of reviews if not more.
This is an era of influencers. With the advent of YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest and other social media websites, people started sharing their feedback on these platforms. Gradually, these people started to influence the purchase habit of their followers. Since they influence what we buy, these people are termed as influencers. There are different types of influencers. From macro to micro to nano influencers inspire us to make our purchase decisions.
What is micro influencer?
A few years back, people who had 3,000 followers were termed as micro influencers. However, the number of nano influencers has increased in the last few years. So, now the number of followers that you require to be a micro influencer is at least 10,000. While some people say that micro influencers should have 10K to 50K followers, some say that the number can be from 10K to 100K.
Whatever the number is, if you follow someone with a minimum of 10,000 followers’ base, you are following a micro influencer.
Where would you find micro influencers?
Now, this is a question that many of you may be thinking right now. We all know that social media platforms are used by influencers, be it macro or micro, to influence people. However, influencers who are famous on Instagram may not be as famous on YouTube. Similarly, Facebook influencers may not be as known on Pinterest.
So, first, you have to understand which medium is suitable for your business. If you think that your primary target audience is on Facebook, you can take help from Facebook micro influencers. Likewise, you can contact with Instagram influencer if IG is the platform for your business.
Once you know which platform to choose, you can now start your research. Like any other step that you take regarding your business, choosing the right micro influencer is also important for you. While the number of micro influencers is increasing, not each or any of them is suitable for your business. I suggest you to conduct a thorough research before you invest on any micro influencer.
You have to realize that each influencer has his/her own follower base. The target audience of the influencer should match the audience that you target. Besides, the influencers that you want to collaborate with should be associated with products or services similar to yours. You can’t really ask a beauty influencer to promote your ERP module, can you?
However, there are a few companies that have taken a different approach in influencer marketing. SprezzaBox Inc., Daniel Wellington, Adidas, etc. are brands that are targeting audiences in different spectrum as well. So, these brands are thinking outside of the box and involving influencers who are not directly related to these brands.
Image courtesy: https://bit.ly/2EnKQ2h
As you can see from the image above, SprezzaBox has collaborated with Candianbros. This Instagram page is owned by two dogs (Jasper and Louie) and their owner HuMan (Rodson). Whether your company is a well-known brand or not, you can still try this hack once in a while.
Why do you need micro influencers?
Influencer marketing has become popular because of the fact that it is much easier to influence the target audience in comparison to traditional advertising or promotions. As people trust the influencers they follow, they tend to purchase the items that these influencers recommend.
However, you may think of big names such as Kim Kardashian or Neil Patel or Usain Bolt depending on the product or service you want to promote. While these influencers do have a huge number of followers, they may not help you as much as you think.
Image courtesy: https://bit.ly/38JtFpG
On the contrary, micro influencers, with their less number of followers, can engage with more people and influence them. I assume that you are planning to collaborate with micro influencer(s). So, here are a few reasons that will explain why you need micro influencer instead of macro influencer.
Affordable options:
Whether you are a small brand or a big, you will have a budget fixed for promoting your brand. While big brands have enough budget to collaborate with macro influencers, small and medium companies may not have that budget. If you own a small or medium business, you may not be able to team up with celebrity influencers who have huge fan following.
Image courtesy: https://bit.ly/2POxGR7
In that case, you need an affordable option. You can collaborate with micro influencers for as small an amount as 100USD depending on the number of followers they have. If you identify the right influencers, you may end up spending nothing. You can simply work in partnership with the influencer with a contract of promoting each other on your respective social media platforms. This will help both the parties to increase the number of followers on their respective social media accounts.
Accessible:
While macro influencers may have a huge fan base, they do not really communicate with their followers regularly. However, micro influencers are more accessible to their followers. Micro influencers generally communicate by replying to comments, direct messages, and other ways. Their followers are also more likely to post a comment on their posts.
These influencers are not only accessible to their followers but also to the brands. You don’t have to go through PR to reach these influencers. The micro influencers generally handle their emails by themselves and you can directly reach them via their official email ID.
Relevant:
Many of the time, brands just team up with any celebrity to endorse their brands. The celebrity might not even be related to the company’s products or services. This approach used to work before. But now, consumers are more aware about what they are buying and who is being associated with the brand.
If you want to market a new fried product, you can’t really collaborate with a fitness influencer. You have to connect with someone who is associated with food, each and every form of it. So, a food blogger should be your ideal choice.
Similarly, when you are launching new beauty products, micro influencers in beauty industry are more relevant than any other influencer. Posting videos or photos or writing blogs is not all that matters. When the blogs are written by the right blogger or the videos are uploaded by the right influencer, people are more likely to get influenced.
Trustworthy:
There are two types of people that we follow on social media. We either follow celebrities or we follow influencers in particular niches. No matter which celebrity you follow, you will hardly get influenced by the products they recommend.
Image courtesy: https://bit.ly/2RV7K9d
In contrast, people are more likely to trust influencers who communicate with them on social media platforms. As most of the micro influencers use the products in front of the camera and provide a true feedback, they are more trustworthy.
The micro influencers are more trustworthy to you also than the celebrity macro influencers. Why? The simple answer is that the micro influencers have a follower base that they connect with on a regular basis. So, these influencers can create more engagement among their followers. More engagement means more people knowing your brand and trusting your brand because the influencers recommend it.
Influence:
What are influencers for? To influence, what else? However, recent survey shows that as the number of followers of an influencer increases, their impact on the followers reduces. Impact cannot be measured with the number of likes. But it should be measured with the increment in your sales figure.
Image courtesy: https://bit.ly/2rGpKcQ
A micro influencer may not have hundreds of thousands of followers. But the limited number of followers that they have is more likely to be impacted by what products or services they recommend.
Conclusion:
When you are trying to create an impact on the consumers, better do it rightly. If you are not sure about how to find out the micro influencer for your brand, you can start by researching on your target audience. Check out who they follow on their social media.
If you are just getting started with the process, it can be intimidating, maybe even appear to be impossible. However, let me assure you that it is not. You have to invest a little time of yours before you invest on any micro influencer and success is yours.
You may not be accustomed with the fact that you can use influencer marketing. Hence, we are here to help you out. Nico Digital is a full service digital marketing agency that takes care of all your digital marketing needs so that you can focus on growing your business.
India’s economy is largely depended on outsourcing. According to Statista, 8% of India’s total GDP in 2017 was represented by IT and associated businesses. In 2019, India’s outsourcing industry generated almost 180 billion USD as annual revenue. In the last two decades, India has seen a huge growth in outsourcing. As a result, most companies that want to outsource choose India over any other country.
Now, the question is why are companies choosing India over other countries for outsourcing? There is not one single reason that can define the reason behind the success of outsourcing in India. India has been gradually ascending in terms of a hub for perfect outsourcing. If you take a look at the last two decades, you will notice that the number of start-ups has increased in leaps and bounds.
Image courtesy: https://bit.ly/2RDEcfZ
Besides, more and more oversees companies have collaborated with Indian retailers or have established partnership business. Many companies have outsourced their web development and web design to India. Some companies even outsourced their graphic design work to India.
Let’s check out why companies are outsourcing to India.
A pool of experts to choose from:
India is the second most populous country in the globe. The youth demographic in India is more promising in comparison to other countries. Hence, it is a pool of young population that foreign companies are interested in. Most of the young people have technical knowledge that is helpful for companies that want to outsource to India.
Because of the huge population, India is known for easy availability of trained professionals. If you own a company that requires offshore website developers, you can get hundreds of options in India. As there are quite a number of developers and designers available, it is even easier to manage large solution that is intricate as well.
The professionals in India are known to adapt the technological changes and advancements. As the foreign websites are available in India, people train themselves with the help of many such websites. In many Asian countries, using internet is banned. And even if internet is not banned, accessing many websites is forbidden. It can be difficult for companies to implement technological changes without a trained workforce and India offers exactly that.
High in quality and reliability:
If you have been worrying about getting high-quality work, India is the right country for you to outsource your work. India is a country where companies maintain all the international standards to provide you with the best service possible. Are you wondering what international practices the country follows? Here are a few that you may find helpful.
The companies that offer outsourcing follow the guideline set by International Standard Organization or ISO 9000. Hence, the companies offer you superior quality service when it comes to developing, designing, producing and even implementing new process.
The companies are under Six Sigma Certification that is a mark of having skilled workforce. It helps you to understand that you are working with professionals who know how to categorize risks and get rid of those as early as possible. It is extremely important for a business to detect errors and solve those to make sure that the process is running smoothly.
The companies follow Capability Maturing Model or CMM. The model helps each company to assess its own proficiency to undertake any project and deliver it.
The companies also follow Total Quality Management or TQM standard so that they can focus on providing you with quality support.
The companies also work to provide service within the deadline under Customer Operations Performance Center standard.
More than 75% of Capability Maturing Model Integration or CMMI level 5 certified companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Limited, Larsen and Toubro, HCL Technologies Limited etc. are situated in India.
As you can see from the above list, the IT companies in India follow the standards. The certifications are the proof of quality that the companies maintain.
Cost-effective option:
Believe it or not, you can reduce almost 30 – 35% of your cost if you outsource to India in comparison to any other countries. Most of the Indian companies that offer outsourcing services follow a certain process. You can either go for a monthly fixed rate or choose an hourly rated service depending on your requirements. If you want to make profit, you should hire Indian website developers and designers. This will allow you to get the highest quality of service within fraction of the cost. Hence, your profit margin will be much more than what you expect.
If you haven’t calculated your profit yet, I suggest you to calculate the amount you make by outsourcing your development and designing work to India. Apart from the increment in your profit margin, you also get professionally optimized service.
Easy to communicate:
Any company can perform better if the communication among the employees and the management is smooth. English is the language that is used by companies in the USA or the UK or even Australia. No matter which country you choose to outsource, the employees should be able to communicate in English.
India is a country where almost 10% of its population (approximately 125 million people) speaks English. It is the second largest country to speak English right after the USA. It is assumed that the number will quadruple in the next decade.
This is one of the perfect reasons to outsource to India. When it comes to communication, you won’t have any issues if you outsource in India.
Positive effect of time difference:
Trust me when I say that time difference can be a boon for you if you are outsourcing to India. The time difference between India and the west coast of USA is around 12 hours. India is ahead of USA.
If you are in the UK, India is still around 5.5 hours ahead of you. This time difference can have a positive effect on your business. By outsourcing to India, your work may get completed much before the time you expect. Besides, many outsourcing companies have multiple shifts. It allows the companies to complete the task before time.
If you have been worried about being available 24×7, the time difference with India will help you out. It is the best reason for you to start outsourcing. The Indian government has also been open towards this new growing industry. The government has created IT parks, special economic zones, better infrastructure, improved policies, better telecom system and a lot for the growth of the outsourcing industry. Besides, the IT industry in India also gets some tax benefits that can be ideal for a company that is outsourcing to India.
24×7 hour service:
As I mentioned already, the time difference is of great help when it comes to outsourcing. When you are outsourcing, it means you need support to provide services to your customers. We live in a competitive world. Every company is trying to outrun the other in terms of products or services that these provide.
However, there is a simple way that you can use to provide the best service. You can inform your customers that your company offers round the clock service. You can actually provide service 24×7 with the help of the remote team working from India.
The Indian professionals are trained to match the international standard. Hence, they are competent enough to handle the demanding circumstances. Thanks to the updated communication processes, you cannot only communicate through emails but you can also use chat support. In case of emergency, you can also make use of audio-video conference. All these methods make it easy to maintain an integrated support system for your clients.
What types of businesses need outsourcing?
While we are talking about outsourcing, let’s focus on what types of businesses require outsourcing. The most famous companies that outsource to India belong to industrial technology or IT. Now, there are different types of IT services that may or may not require outsourcing.
If your company offers cloud services, your business is in high demand. Many companies are now opting to keep their data safe and secure with the help of cloud services. Cloud allows you to store a large amount of data in a much reduced cost. Outsourcing your business to India will allow you to target the Indian market as well as the international market.
More and more companies are now looking for web-based applications. Web-based apps not only help to provide better service but these apps also help in connecting with the end users. From banking sector to e-commerce to healthcare to tours and travels to cafes – the list is endless when it comes to the application of web-apps. Outsourcing can be especially helpful for you as you will be able to provide round the clock service to the end users.
Automation is a budding industry. More than 80% of people believe that artificial intelligence will be used by many industries. It is also assumed that robotic process automation will also see a surge in the near future.
Internet of Things or IoT apps have long way to go. Companies from different industrial background are looking for ways to implement IoT in their processes. It is expected that the IoT industry will see a boom in the coming years. So, you need to be prepared and outsourcing is the best way to do it.
Conclusion:
Outsourcing in India is not a new trend. Companies like Cognizant, IBM, Dell, Wipro etc. have been offering world class service by outsourcing their services in India. More and more companies in different parts of world are also realizing that India is the best country to outsource their businesses. From communication to technology to support, India is the hub for outsourcers.
Since many companies are already outsourcing in India, you can choose the company you want to outsource to, based on your requirements. The only thing that you should remember is to hire a group of professionals instead of hiring an individual. Nico Digital is a company that offers website development, website design, maintenance of your website and even SEO services. Professionals who are experts in different fields work under the same roof to provide you with the best service.
Every business needs to have a website in today’s world. However, what most companies don’t keep in mind while creating a website is the speed of it. Most of us pay attention towards the pages, blogs, images, content, etc. that will go in the website. But we forget that the loading time of the website is equally important.
Image courtesy: https://bit.ly/2sdGTdt
The loading time of your website can have serious impact on SEO and your marketing efforts. Are you still in doubt about how your website speed can make or break your business? Well, I would suggest you to read on.
First impression is the last impression:
Seriously, this is the exact motto that you should memorize. When someone visits your website, your website becomes the face of your business. If your website is loading fast, people consider your website (and company) to be professional. Even though there is no data to back this logic up, it is people’s psychology. People tend to believe if a website is loading faster, the company is trustworthy.
On the other hand, a slow website is often thought to be unprofessional and even insecure. People think that if a website is taking too long to load, it must have items that can corrupt their devices. Believe me, 80% of your visitors will not return to your website if it is slow to load.
Speed is what is expected:
Imagine having a conversation with a friend about the last Marvel movie you saw. While you may be a big fan of MCU, you may suddenly not remember the name of Gamora’s sister. What will be the first thing to do? You will search the answer. And you will definitely want to see the answer as fast as possible.
Now imagine the same situation where someone is trying to find information from your website. The person will want to get the search results as fast as possible. Speed is what we all expect from the websites. Many websites take only fifteen seconds to load, which is much faster than what these used to take last year.
However, you will be surprised to know that most people are not ready to wait for even fifteen seconds. Most people will abandon our website if it takes longer than three seconds (yes, 3 seconds!!) to load.
Image courtesy: https://bit.ly/2sc0hrC
It is also seen that people who access any website from their mobile devices expect the sites to load even faster that what it takes to load in desktop. People may consider a website such as Facebook or Instagram or Google to load a slowly because these are established names. However, you don’t have the luxury as a small or medium business owner. People will not only expect your website to load fast, they will also expect it to function well while loading.
Improves your SEO ranking:
Search engines, especially Google, keeps updating their algorithms. Any marketer would agree with the fact that it becomes a pain in your neck to keep up with the changes. Can you believe that Google changes its algorithm more than the number of days in the year? It means, sometimes that company changes the algorithms more than once in a day.
It is impossible to keep up with the frequent changes. However, there are a few techniques that you can try out to improve your SEO ranking. One of these methods is to improve the speed of your website. According to one of Google’s team members, Google likes websites that load faster. Hence, since 2010, website speed matters when it comes to search engine optimization.
As per a Google team member, an ecommerce website should take only two seconds to load. But it will be considered excellent if an ecommerce website loads within half a second. More than 40% of users expect a website to load within two seconds.
Reduced conversion rate
I know it’s difficult to believe that the speed of your website can even reduce the rate of conversion. Well, I will explain how it is possible. As we mentioned earlier, your website has three seconds to get loaded. Now, assume that your website takes around five seconds. No doubt that the five seconds loading time is excellent and is better than many other websites. However, it is not enough.
According to some studies, 53% of people don’t wait if a website takes more than the desired time to load. So, if you have 100 visitors every day, you are losing 53 visitors. In a month, you will be losing 1590 visitors. If only 10% of this 1590 people becomes your customer, you are losing 159 customers. Let’s assume that your product or service is worth $50. So, the result will be $7950 every month!
Do I need to calculate the amount that you lose in a year? Isn’t the number surprising? And the entire amount that you lose is just because your website takes two seconds more than what is desired to load.
Bad user experience
What is the reason behind creating your website? The first reason is to give your customers what they want. But that is not enough. Your website should also be loading fast so that users get the right information and that too faster. As I mentioned before, users won’t stick to a website that takes long to load. If the visitors are frustrated, they will not only leave your website but they may also never come back. It takes us to our next point.
The long-term result of slow website:
If you don’t pay attention to your website speed, it will remain slow for longer period. And if that is the case with your website, I am sorry to inform you my friend, you have a serious problem. A slow website that remains slow for years or even months, will gradually go down in the search engine rank page.
Marketing is largely depended on the word-of-mouth. People often refer to a particular website that they feel to be good. Good website doesn’t mean that the website has all the necessary information but it also means that the information is quickly accessible.
If your website functions properly, people may sign up for your newsletters. Some of these people may end up purchasing your product or service as well. If your business website takes too long to load, users won’t subscribe to the newsletters. They won’t even visit your website even if they know that you have the necessary information. In simple words, the credibility of your website may seriously get damaged.
How can you optimize your website?
So, now you have a clear idea about how your website speed can make or break your business, you might be wondering how to optimize your website. The first thing that you must keep in mind is that images and videos take time to load, especially when the internet is slow.
Your graphics should ideally be in PNG form and the images should be in JPEG form. There are many other small details that you need to be careful about. Since it is not possible for you to pay attention to every minute detail, Nico Digital is here to help you out. We offer website development and website design services. We know how to design your website so that you don’t have to deal with a slow website, now or ever. Besides, we also make sure to update your website regularly so that nothing could corrupt your website and make it slow.
We have been so habituated in online shopping now that we often don’t feel like going to a store to buy a product. Similarly, many retailers are now taking their business online. With every passing day, the number of online consumers and online sellers are increasing.
It is estimated that over 2 billion people will be associated with online shopping and selling activities. As the number of online shoppers is increasing, the ecommerce websites are now trying to take innovative approach.
From visual search to audio search to dynamic emailing, companies are doing everything possible to gain the trust of their online shoppers. Artificial Intelligence or AI has helped the companies to be creative. AI is also evolving every day and ecommerce websites can make use of it. AI has changed how ecommerce websites used to work, and will continue to affect ecommerce sites even in the future. If you want to know how, read on.
Targeted campaign for customers:
What is the difference between online shopping and offline shopping? Primary difference is the experience, right? When we shop in store, there are shop assistants to help us. They can guide us in buying the right product as per our choice. If you own a shop, you will know that more than often customers have queries about certain products. Sales assistants supply them with necessary information. Besides, they also try to understand the preferences of customers and suggest products as per their choice. Most of the time, a little nudge from the shop assistants make customers buy products.
However, you don’t have this luxury when it comes to online shopping. People know exactly what they are looking for and they search those items only. More than the experiences of shopping, people want their necessity to fulfill. Even if they have queries regarding any of the products, there is no sales assistant to help them out. You can’t even encourage them to buy a product since there is no way you can commute with them while they are shopping.
This is exactly where AI comes to help you out. AI helps you collect data about your customers. You can create a list of products suggestion for the customers depending on their search history and purchase history. You can even create targeted campaign depending on the collected data for each individual customer. Even without speaking to anyone, customers tend to purchase products that are suggested to them.
Optimization of search results:
While you may have a huge array of products to choose from on your ecommerce website, you may have listed the products as per keywords. Now, you can’t expect that each of your customers will know the significance of keywords. Or they will be pro enough to use keywords to search their desired items.
So, what is the solution? AI can provide you with the solution. Using keywords is not enough anymore for your shopping site. It doesn’t matter what type of products or how many products you have on your website. If people can’t find what they are looking for, there’s no use of your website.
Apart from using the keywords, implementation of AI will ensure that your customers get exactly what they are looking for. AI collects data from the search history, the location of the customers, their purchase history and shows them products they are looking for. Besides, Artificial intelligence also shows keywords for easy searching.
Reduced cart abandonment:
Many a time you will notice that a customer leaves your website right before making a purchase. They leave the products in the cart. Your potential customer may have faced a technical glitch or may have gone through some unflattering experience before finishing their purchase. There are primary two reasons behind the abandonment of cart. Many people may start shopping on your website without even having an account. So, when they go to check out, the website may ask them to create an account. As it is a lengthy process, people abandon your website.
On the other hand, people who have account on your website may include items in cart. Then they may come across the same item on some other ecommerce website for lower price. They will obviously leave your website.
So, what is the solution to this problem? First, you have to understand why your potential customers are not completing their orders. If your website is AI enabled, you may ask people to log in with their social media such as Facebook account or their Google account. This will save them the time to create an account and will make the process much smoother. This will in turn reduce cart abandonment to a great extent.
In case your customers are leaving the cart without completing the transaction because of price issue, you can send them follow up email. It is seen that follow up emails often prove to be fruitful. You can take help from AI even in mentioning the reduction in price.
Moreover, AI can help you in understanding which of the leads are more likely to convert and help you be more specific with your follow up emails.
Answering questions:
I mentioned already that customers often have queries that are answered by shop assistants when it comes to brick-and-mortar shop. What will they do if they have queries while making purchase from your website? Customers may feel irritated if their queries are not answered quickly and it may result in cart abandonment as well.
Chatbots have become a part of many ecommerce websites. Chatbots can be programmed to reply to common queries. So, suppose customers are asking about the expiry date of a product, it can be answered by AI. Similarly, if your customers want to know more about the delivery details, chatbots can help them out.
For the rest of the queries that need human intervention, you need to have a dedicated team which can get back to the customer queries within 24-hours. You can program the chatbots to recognize the type of queries and forward those to the right experts.
Introduction to voice and visual search:
Do you know that we are entering a year when 50% of people will conduct web search through voice? As voice assistant devices such as Google Home, Alexa, Siri and all the voice assistants, more and more people are taking advantage of voice search. Hence, if you want to make sure that people shop from our website, you have to optimize your website. You have to ensure that your customers can find out the products they are looking for through voice search.
We are moving towards a time when we want convenience above all. And voice search provides us with the convenience. People can now listen to song or turn on the TV without reaching for their phone or the TV remote. The same convenience they want when they are shopping. If your website is optimized, your customers can place an order without accessing their phones or opening their computers.
Image courtesy: https://bit.ly/2rqNGAu
Visual search is also something that you should take seriously. Shopping is often influenced by what others are using. So, when customers don’t know the name of certain product, they may use the image of that product to search it. An AI optimized website will understand the images shared by customers and will find out the exact or the similar items.
Detecting and removing fake reviews
We all check out reviews before making a purchase decision. 90% of people go through the reviews section when they are researching about a product. More than 80% of people get affected by negative reviews. So, that is a huge number of people. Now, while many people take time to write authentic review, haters or competitors often misuse this platform. Fake reviews can have serious consequences on your business.
So, how can you make sure that you remove the fake reviews? You can take help of artificial intelligence. AI will help you to identify whether the reviews are written by authentic customers. Negative reviews that are written by verified users shall be taken seriously to improve what they found to be problematic. Also, reviews that are up to the date are more reliable as well.
Optimized pricing:
Pricing is one of the most important factors of online shopping. Customers often browse through multiple websites to check out the prices of the same product on different websites. Now, if your pricing is not optimized, you might be lagging behind. Even if it’s theoretically possible, practically it is impossible to keep updating the price of each and every product on your website. Besides, how many times a day will you be able to optimize the price of the products?
And this is exactly where AI comes to help you. You will be amazed to know that Amazon.com changes the price of an average product every 10 minutes. It means that the company optimizes price 2.5 million times every day.
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Okay, let’s admit that not all of us are as big a company as Amazon.com, Inc. However, if not 2.5 million times, we can optimize the pricing at least a couple of times with the help of AI. Artificial intelligence can analyze volumes of data. Thousands of customer details, their choices, their shopping patterns, product details, pricing details of each of the products, demand of the products, within minutes and optimize pricing depending on the collected data.
Prevention of fake goods sale:
You may be left surprised if you know that approximately 7% of world’s trade is based on fake goods. No matter how good your intentions are, unknowingly, you may end up being part of the fake goods seller. Unfortunately, if you end up selling counterfeit products even unknowingly, your reputation is at risk. Many luxury brands experience huge losses because of the counterfeit products sold in the open market. Reaching the right target audience through ecommerce websites has become even easier for the fake good sellers. It is assumed that the fake product selling market is worth $30.3 billion!
Image courtesy: https://bit.ly/350PjDx
It is difficult for consumers to understand the difference between real product and counterfeit product. Even you, as an owner of an ecommerce website, may not be able to understand the difference. However, you can tell the difference with the help of AI. Artificial intelligence can monitor the keywords used; identify the differences depending on the images; spot even the minute differences etc. So, with the help of AI, you can basically stop 98% of the sellers from selling fake goods on your website.
Sales prediction:
You already know by now that AI gathers and studies the data on your website. But that is not all. Apart from all other benefits that you get from implementing artificial intelligence on your ecommerce website, you can also get sales prediction. AI notices the behavior of your competitors, demand and supply of products on your site, customer reviews, buying patterns of your customers, etc. to calculate and predict sales.
AI can also find out the reason behind cart abandonment and help you target the problem to solve it. You can manage your inventory with the help of AI so that you can stock on products that are predicted to sell well. This also allows you to stop investing on products that are not predicted to do well.
Is artificial intelligence necessary for your business?
Even after this long discussion, you may have one valid question in mind. If you have been doing well without implementing AI for so many years, why would you need it now? Let me tell you that ecommerce websites that are driven by AI are doing much better than the ones that have still not implemented AI.
AI helps you to keep track of your own products, sales, your competitors, customers, reviews and many other small details. Suppose you still have not used AI but your competitors have. Aren’t they already in advantage?
Are you still doubting whether to use artificial intelligence or not? Well, if you want your business to grow and outrun your competitors, you will need to be brutally honest with yourself. And AI can give you the brutally honest results that can help your business grow.
If you need help with creating an ecommerce website that has AI implemented, Nico Digital is here to help you. We develop every type of website and optimize the website so that you get the best result. Contact us for more details.
