Too many people still view the web and digital marketing as something else on their to do list they don’t have time for, instead of viewing it as a tool to streamline their operations and deliver a better customer experience.
In this video recording of a presentation made to the Perkiomen Valley Chamber of Commerce “Build Your Business” lunch, learn about these three trends you need to be aware of in digital marketing:
- Mobile
- Pace of Change in Social Media
- Customer Experience
Watch the video, or read the transcript below to see how your organization can take advantage of these trends to grow your business.
Mobile: The Biggest Trend
Mobile technology is changing the way we all do business, and you must figure out how to integrate your online and your real life presence. There are two reasons to do this:
- to help your customers, and
- to run your business more effectively.
I talk with many people who use their phones to accomplish all kinds of tasks but they haven’t given any thought as to how their customers use mobile to interact with their business. This is an area where consumers are out front. They’re adopting and using the technology, and dragging businesses along. It is very different from other technology changes we’ve seen that start with bigger companies first and then filter down to consumer use. Texting, social media, and email are the most common activities we do with our phones, but our usage of the Internet has increasingly shifted to mobile devices. The next billion people to browse the internet will never use a PC!
Mobile – Smartphones:
- More than 2/3 of Americans own a smartphone
- We now spend more time per day online on our mobile devices than we do on desktop PCs
- 19% of Americans say the phone is their primary or preferred method of internet access
Let’s take a look at some mobile usage stats.
- 66% of emails are opened on either a smartphone or tablet
- 50% of e-commerce traffic is mobile
- 60% of social media activity is mobile
- Google now considers mobile usability a significant website ranking factor
So, what can you do?
- First, make sure your website is mobile responsive – If someone reads your Facebook post or email on a phone, and tries to click through your website which doesn’t work on mobile, you’ve lost them. You’ll have a harder time showing up in local search as well.
- View your email and social media on mobile devices
- Put yourself in your customers shoes, and try to conduct business, interact on social media, and engage with your emails from your phone
- Compare the phone screen shots on the left and the right below. Which one is more likely to be read?
- Keep it short and sweet. Studies show that we now only have an eight-second attention span.
Social Media: Fast Changing
The second trend I want to talk about is how quickly things are changing. You have to be Speed Racer practically to keep up with the changing social media landscape. Doesn’t it seem like every month there are a lot of new rules, or a new social media site that you have to be on? It’s a very fast-moving area and it will continue to change rapidly. But you can’t ignore it.
- 52% of adults use more than one social media site
- Half of young adults (18-29) use Instagram
- Half of college-educated adults use LinkedIn
- Average user spends almost 2 hours per day on social media
- 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, 4 billion videos viewed per day
So, what can you do?
- Make your website the center of your content strategy – Believe it or not, one of the best ways that you can keep up with social media is to make your website the center of your content strategy. You own your website, and are in control the content. Don’t build on rented land.
- Get email addresses for your customers and prospects – You want to be able to contact your customers and prospects directly via email. Social media is good for outreach, but once someone is interested in you, remember that your social media posts don’t reach all of your fans. Email is sticky. It stays in the Inbox until it’s deleted.
- Know which social channels are important to your audience – be where they are.
- Use social media and email to promote your web site – Put your content on your website and use social media and email to promote it. As social media sites come and go, you can adjust without losing your core content and message.
- Automate – You can also use tools like Buffer to schedule posts to go out at certain times to one or more social media platforms.
It’s all about Customer Experience
The third trend that I want to talk about today is customer experience. People use social media and email for personal and business reasons, and they don’t want to be sold. People are really good at tuning out the ads and any irrelevant information. They’re also starting to have very high expectations of how they want to do business.
Don’t you hate those phone systems that ask you to enter your customer account number and then when a rep answers the phone, the first thing they do is ask for the account number again? Have you ever had to explain your problem to several different people before getting an answer?
These types of experiences are one reason driving the popularity of disruptive new services like Uber. Have you heard of Uber? People are not choosing Uber over traditional cabs because Uber uses nicer cars, more efficient routes, or has a better safety record. However, Uber makes the whole experience of ordering a ride, waiting for it, and paying for it so much simpler.
- 94% of customers who have a low-effort service experience will buy again
- 54% of consumers share bad experiences with at least 5 people, and that is multiplied significantly on social media
- 90% of consumers who read online reviews said that positive reviews influenced buying decisions
When you talk about customer experience, a simple delightful experience sells and bad experiences cost you business. What’s it like for customers to do business with you? Where is there friction in the process that using technology could effectively fix?
So, what can you do?
- Use email and social media to build relationships
- Provide timely, relevant, and useful information
- Personalize your customer communications – if I’m a dog owner I really don’t want my vet sending me cat care tips
- Respond quickly on the channel you received the request on – If someone tweets at you, send a tweet back. Don’t ask them to call.
- Share other’s useful content on social media – It’s good for local businesses to promote one another.
If you want to learn more, Delos can make the web work for you. We help businesses grow by delivering:
- Websites that work everywhere -desktop, mobile, or tablet,
- Marketing strategies for the digital age – email, social media, video, search, and online presence,
- Tools and processes to deliver a better customer experience from anywhere on any device.
