Ecommerce Archives - Knexus Personalized shoppable UGC Fri, 27 Sep 2024 14:37:26 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 https://d3qy1pxzcopg5z.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/16101609/favicon.png Ecommerce Archives - Knexus 32 32 Unlocking the power of social proofing: boost credibility and drive sales https://www.knexusai.com/show/blog/unlocking-the-power-of-social-proofing-boost-your-brands-credibility-and-drive-sales Wed, 11 Sep 2024 08:17:39 +0000 https://www.knexusai.com/?p=29025 In the crowded digital marketplace, where consumers are bombarded with choices and marketing messages, building trust...

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In the crowded digital marketplace, where consumers are bombarded with choices and marketing messages, building trust with your audience is more crucial than ever. Enter social proofing – a powerful psychological phenomenon that can significantly influence purchasing decisions and elevate your brand’s credibility. In this blog post, we’ll explore the concept of social proofing, its impact on consumer behavior, and how you can leverage it to enhance your marketing strategy.

What is Social Proofing?

Social proofing refers to the tendency of people to look to others for guidance when making decisions, especially when they are unsure or feel insecure. This behavior stems from the natural desire to avoid risk and validate choices based on the experiences of others. In essence, if a product or service is popular or well-reviewed by others, potential customers are more likely to trust it and make a purchase themselves.

Why Social Proofing Matters

  1. Reduces Perceived Risk: Consumers often feel hesitant about making a purchase, especially online where they can’t physically inspect the product. Social proofing helps mitigate these fears by showcasing positive experiences from other customers, making the decision-making process easier and less risky.
  2. Enhances Credibility: When potential buyers see that others have had positive experiences with your brand, it boosts your credibility. Genuine reviews and testimonials from real people serve as endorsements that validate your product or service.
  3. Encourages Free-Form Shopping: By integrating customer-to-customer feedback, you empower shoppers to make decisions based on real-world experiences. This transparency not only fosters trust but also encourages more spontaneous and confident purchasing decisions.

Types of Social Proofing to Leverage

To fully harness the power of social proofing, consider integrating the following elements into your marketing strategy:

#1 Customer Reviews and Ratings

Positive reviews and high ratings from satisfied customers provide compelling evidence of your product’s quality and reliability. Feature these prominently on your website and product pages to build trust with potential buyers.

Source: Bobbi Brown

#2 Testimonials and Case Studies

Detailed testimonials and case studies offer in-depth insights into how your product or service has positively impacted real customers. Use these to highlight specific benefits and success stories.

#3 User Generated Content

Encourage customers to share their experiences with your product on social media. User-generated content such as photos, videos, and personal stories not only serves as authentic endorsements but also increases engagement and brand visibility.

Source: Dr Martens

#4 Influencer Endorsements

Partner with influencers who align with your brand values. Their endorsements can introduce your products to new audiences and lend additional credibility.

Implementing Social Proofing in Your Strategy

Here’s how you can effectively integrate social proofing into your marketing efforts:

  1. Showcase Customer Reviews: Ensure that customer reviews are easy to find on your website. Consider implementing a review system that allows customers to rate and provide feedback on their purchases.
  2. Highlight Top Reviews: Feature top reviews and testimonials on your homepage and product pages to draw attention to the most compelling endorsements.
  3. Encourage Feedback: Actively encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews and share their experiences. Follow up with post-purchase emails or offer incentives for feedback.
  4. Utilize Social Media: Share user-generated content and customer testimonials on your social media channels. This not only builds social proof but also engages your audience and encourages more user-generated content.
  5. Monitor and Respond: Regularly monitor customer feedback and reviews. Respond to both positive and negative comments to show that you value customer input and are committed to improving their experience.

The Bottom Line

Social proofing is more than just a marketing buzzword; it’s a proven strategy that leverages human psychology to build trust, reduce risk, and drive sales. By incorporating authentic reviews, testimonials, and user-generated content into your marketing strategy, you can enhance your brand’s credibility and encourage more confident purchasing decisions.

Ready to harness the power of social proofing? Start by implementing these strategies today and watch as your brand’s trustworthiness and sales soar. For more insights into effective marketing strategies, stay tuned to our blog and explore how other innovative tactics can propel your business forward.

Embrace social proofing and transform how your customers perceive and engage with your brand. By showcasing real experiences and leveraging the power of customer feedback, you’ll not only build trust but also create a more compelling and persuasive shopping experience.

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How to convert shoppers with immersive visual content on PDPs https://www.knexusai.com/show/blog/how-to-convert-shoppers-with-immersive-visual-content-on-pdps Fri, 09 Feb 2024 12:54:57 +0000 https://www.knexusai.com/?p=25474 The post How to convert shoppers with immersive visual content on PDPs appeared first on Knexus.

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Most eCommerce sites suffer from 2 big problems: an overwhelming number of products leading to choice paralysis, and boring, static product pages that don’t encourage customers to stick around.

Online shoppers want to be engaged at every step along their buying journeys, and they need to feel confident about their purchases before they buy. This is where high-quality video content helps brands begin increasing conversions, turning window shoppers into paying customers.

In this post, we’re going to cover the following topics:

  • Why does social proofing visual content matter on PDPs?
  • 5 major benefits of using video in eCommerce and PDPs
  • The 3 biggest challenges brands face in implementing video on PDPs
  • How Knexus increases conversions with hyper personalized visual content
Optimize performance of traffic from Instagram ads

Why does social proofing visual content matter on PDPs?

Did you know that customers who interact with YouTube videos on Product Description Pages (PDPs) are 84% more likely to convert than those who interact with Instagram content on PDPs?

Knexus analyzed data from approximately 7 million yearly site visitors on leading brand PDPs to better understand how integrating brand-owned, influencer, and user generated content (UGC) into customer buying journeys affects engagement and conversions.

PDPs are a pivotal stage in the customer journey, being both information-rich and closer to the checkout experience than many other stages. Customers on PDPs are still deciding whether to buy, and Knexus research shows that brands perform better when enriching their PDPs with authentic visual social proofing content, such as YouTube and TikTok unboxing videos, hauls, and how-to guides.

5 major benefits of using video in eCommerce and PDPs

Perhaps it goes without saying these days, but video is king when it comes to modern content marketing and increasing conversions. Here are the 5 biggest benefits of using video content on your eCommerce website and PDPs:

  1. Improves SEO
    Videos give a big boost to websites’ search engine rankings and increase visibility. This is because Google and other search engines favor websites that have a lot of high-quality, engaging, and shareable content. As we all know, the first page of search results is the only one that matters, so it’s extremely important that brands aim to stay as high in these rankings as possible.
  2. Instils trust and authenticity by educating customers
    Video can be a powerful tool for building trust and authenticity with customers, leading to greater conversions overall. By showing customers your products in action, or by providing detailed product demonstrations in engaging how-tos, you can educate customers on how your product will fit into (and improve!) their lifestyle.
  3. Allows brands to target every stage of the buying journey
    Video offers a lot of versatility to brands along the buying journey. For example, brands can use different videos to generate awareness, build interest, and then drive action among potential customers. Buyers who remain engaged with your content from start to finish are far more likely to make it to the checkout page, successfully converted into paying customers.
  4. Provides external encouragement to purchase with organic social proof
    Organic social proof is derived from user generated content (UGC), and nothing is stickier than video on social media. Video is easily shareable, and brands can leverage these shares to drive traffic and provide external encouragement to potential customers. ​​This is particularly helpful when trying to drive sales by eliciting FOMO.
  5. Saves time, resources, and money on video production
    Brands can save time, resources, and money on producing expensive commercials by using pre-existing UGC on their product description pages to increase conversions. Popular UGC has the added benefit of being more trustworthy to potential customers. That’s win-win!

The 3 biggest challenges brands face in implementing video on PDPs

There are 3 common challenges brands must overcome when integrating high-quality visual content on their PDPs:

  1. Not making content multichannel ready
    One problem brands face when trying to implement video on PDPs is not having content that’s ready for integration along multiple channels. This severely limits their videos’ effectiveness and impact. If you’ve successfully wooed a potential customer into visiting your website with content that reflects their love for hiking, your PDPs should keep showing them great hiking content. This helps solidify their personal interest in your product. When content doesn’t move seamlessly with customers along their buying journeys, key decision points are wasted and shoppers are more likely to abandon their plans to purchase.
  2. Manually sourcing content and impeding scalability
    Fact: it’s extremely time-consuming and resource-intensive, if not downright impossible, to manually source high-quality video content at scale. This leads brands to create static, impersonal landing pages that fail to generate customer enthusiasm. Brands need to have a process in place, such as Knexus platform’s intelligent automation, to identify, curate, and manage up-to-date UGC, influencer, and brand-owned content in a way that scales with their business and delivers personalized pages for maximum engagement.
  3. Lack of engagement metrics
    Engagement metrics are absolutely necessary in this fast-paced content-generation age. Brands won’t know if their efforts are resonating with customers or how they’re affecting purchasing decisions without measuring the impact of each video. This includes tracking engagement, conversion rates, and customer feedback on PDPs.

How Knexus increases conversions with hyper personalized visual content

Knexus automates the collection and integration of high-quality UGC, brand-owned content, and influencer content into your brand’s PDPs. Knexus makes all of these collected assets shoppable, matching each post to the appropriate products and updating PDPs with the most effective video content. This streamlined approach maximizes conversions by delivering hyper personalized pages to every single shopper.

Knexus makes social proofing visual content multichannel ready by automatically indexing and assigning relevant tags to each video. This means that every single customer receives a precise, matching set of social proofing visual content at each stage along their buying journey.

This automated process isn’t just extremely scalable, it’s also information-rich. The Knexus platform can deliver high-value insights into the impact of each piece of content, so brands can strategize according to hard data and encourage sales growth.

Knexus offers a highly dynamic and personalized experience to customers, breaking the mold from boring eCommerce sites that offer the same pages to each visitor. To learn more about how Knexus can improve the performance of your PDPs to drive conversions with high-quality UGC, influencer, and brand-owned video integration, contact us and book a demo.

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3 ways to use TikTok videos in buying journeys to improve conversions https://www.knexusai.com/show/blog/3-ways-to-use-tiktok-videos-in-buying-journeys-to-improve-conversions Sat, 08 Jul 2023 12:45:32 +0000 https://www.knexusai.com/?p=23075 Social media platforms have heralded a revolution in shopping, and none more so than TikTok...

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Social media platforms have heralded a revolution in shopping, and none more so than TikTok. The popular app, which lets users create and share their own videos with the world, currently has a reported 1 billion users. It’s known for its unique algorithm that surfaces videos based on users’ interests and past activity, as well as its ability to let users sample each other’s content – both of which contribute to a deep sense of community among TikTok users.
Use tiktok videos to support buying decisions

TikTok is so much more than a platform for dance challenges

While many still think of TikTok as a Gen Z platform for dance challenges, the app has long had a powerful effect on users’ shopping habits. Remember the TikTok Feta Effect? But until recently, that influence was indirect: users would learn about products through the app, but then head elsewhere to make their purchase.

In August 2021, that all changed when TikTok and Shopify announced a new integration that would allow for in-app shopping. Now users can click from within the app to buy the latest products. And boy, are people ever embracing it. The app surpassed $840 million in consumer spend worldwide in Q1 of 2022 alone, a 40% jump from Q4 of 2021.

TikTok is transforming shopping with the infinite loop

TikTok has proven that the eCommerce journey doesn’t end with a purchase – it loops back on itself, with users creating videos about their purchase, offering feedback, and spreading the word to their own family and friends. After a purchase, 1 in 4 users has made a post about their new product, and 1 in 5 has made a tutorial video.

TikTok’s influence is undeniable:

1. 67% of users say TikTok compelled them to shop – even if they weren’t planning to

2. 37% of users discover a product on the app and want to buy it immediately

3. 29% have tried to buy something on the app, only to discover that it’s already sold out

No wonder the hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt has received over 12.4 billion views (to April 2022).

But if TikTok videos are so influential, why aren’t more eCommerce brands using these videos in their buying journeys too? In this post, we explore why influencer and user-generated TikTok videos are so powerful for eCommerce brands. We also cover 3 reasons why eCommerce brands struggle to take advantage of TikTok and 3 tips for leveraging TikTok videos across eCommerce buying journeys.

#TikTokmademebuyit
Photo source: Get The Gloss

The power of influencer and user-generated TikTok videos

Part of the appeal with TikTok videos is their immediacy. Viewers aren’t watching paid ads or product demonstrations, but real people sharing unfiltered opinions. This digital version of word-of-mouth advertising creates a sense of authenticity and trustworthiness: no one is being paid to say they love a product, so they must really, truly love it. The trick for brands is not to limit these videos to TikTok, but to bring them into the buying journey where they can speak to customers who are already on the product page – but this is sometimes easier said than done.

3 reasons why brands struggle to take advantage of TikTok

If TikTok can be such a windfall for brands, how come they aren’t tapping into its full power?

1. Brands struggle to scale TikTok videos across eCommerce journeys because the effort involved to do this manually is costly. time-consuming, and resource intensive.

2. It can be difficult to know just how much content is out there related to your brand. If you don’t have a clear understanding of what content is available from your customers, you’re going to miss the opportunity to leverage these videos beyond TikTok.

3. Brands often don’t dedicate the time or resource to surfacing the most relevant videos for each shopper. If they do embed these videos in their site, they will likely be static (the same video for every single visitor), rather than personalized on an individual basis.

Tips for using TikTok videos in eCommerce buying journeys

Harnessing the power of TikTok will make your products instantly shoppable, driving engagement, generating conversion, and boosting sales. Here’s how:

1. Add videos to your site: Integrate TikTok videos into high-traffic landing pages such as your homepage, category pages, and product description pages to offer the highly valued opinions shoppers trust during the buying journey.

2. Personalize videos: Make your videos hyper relevant to each shopper, matching the right video to the

3. Go beyond your site: Don’t stop with shopping pages. Leverage TikTok videos across all your other owned channels, including email newsletters, paid landing pages and your mobile app, so consumers get a reminder of what trusted customers and influencers think of a product.

How Lenovo uses TikTok videos as an eCommerce sales tool

Leading consumer electronics brand Lenovo uses Knexus to scale TikTok videos across their Student Store to provide inspiration, inspire confidence and foster product discovery. Personalized & shoppable TikTok videos have generated +152% add to cart rate and +191% check out rate for Lenovo across their Student Store. 

Lenovo triple check out rates from Student Store with TikTok videos

Take the first step to maximizing eCommerce performance with integrated TikTok videos

If you’re looking to take advantage of the success of TikTok, you need to be proactive. It’s exciting when TikTok users and influencers start featuring your brand in their videos, but it’s only the first step. You also have to surface relevant videos, connect them to the buying journey, and personalize them for each unique site visitor. That way, the videos won’t just be an added bonus in your marketing plan; they’ll be crucial tools in helping your customers feel validated and in control of their buying decisions, in turn improving eCommerce conversions.

Ready to harness the power of TikTok videos? Learn more about Knexus today.

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Visual commerce: the power of social proof to drive eCommerce sales https://www.knexusai.com/show/blog/visual-commerce-the-power-of-social-proof-to-drive-ecommerce-sales Sat, 24 Jun 2023 10:47:06 +0000 https://www.knexusai.com/?p=23129 The post Visual commerce: the power of social proof to drive eCommerce sales appeared first on Knexus.

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To some, “visual commerce” might sound like just another buzzword. In reality, it’s a powerful conversion and sales tool that’s rapidly transforming the eCommerce landscape. If your eCommerce brand has low add-to-basket rates and even lower conversion rates, use visual commerce to increase sales in a meaningful way.
Visual commerce: an innovative tool to overcome buyer hesitation

What is visual commerce?

Visual commerce is when brands use images, videos, and virtual reality to help consumers learn about, connect with, and purchase their products. Visual commerce works incredibly well because we are visual beings. In fact, more than half of our brains are dedicated to processing visual information. And we can process images 60,000 times faster than text. By including visual content at each stage in the buyer’s journey, brands can guide consumers through their entire shopping experience – from awareness to purchase. 

Why visual commerce is critical to eCommerce success

With eCommerce, you can’t touch a product, try it on, or test it out, so it can be hard for consumers to decide if the product is right for them. And it doesn’t help that eCommerce sites are designed with conversions in mind, making it difficult to enjoy the shopping or browsing experience.

This is where visual commerce really shines. By using images, videos and virtual reality throughout the buyer’s journey, you’re helping to replicate the in-store experience for your eCommerce consumers.

How visual commerce goes beyond engagement to impact sales performance

In an eCommerce business, engagement is great – but it doesn’t always translate to the sales volume you want or need. There’s nothing more frustrating than a customer leaving with a cart full of unpurchased items. But visual commerce can provide the social proof buyers need to hit “Buy now” and checkout with confidence. Here are a few stats that show just how powerful visual commerce is:

  • Visual commerce boosts conversion rates by 5 to 7% on average and CTRs by 15 to 20%.
  • 84% of millennials report that user-generated content on a brand’s website has influenced the way they shop online.
  • 93% of customers believe user-generated content is very helpful when making a purchasing decision.

Gain insights into what type of content helps shoppers make positive buying decisions

More often than not, brands have no way of really tracking if their Instagram posts or TikTok videos actually generate sales. Typically brands measure the success of this content based on engagement metrics, such as likes, comments, or shares and not on sales impact.

However, if brands use visual content throughout the buying journey, they can specifically identify what type of content (whether that be a video, an Instagram post, a blog post, etc.) actually helps move the needle for shoppers and makes them more likely to buy.

The power of user-generated content in visual commerce

Many companies and brands still regard positive user-generated content (UGC) as a peripheral to their marketing strategy. Some brand managers view it primarily as organic product or brand awareness. It isn’t always seen as a call-to-action sales collateral. But some of the world’s most recognizable brands are using UGC to amazing effect. Think Glossier, Pantone, and Airbnb, for starters. Brands like these prove that exponential sales growth is proufoundly affected by inspirational visual content – brand- generated, influencer-generated and user-generated. 

Glossier is knocking it out of the park with its visual commerce strategy

Cosmetics giant Glossier is well known for its enviable visual commerce game. Its visually stunning, image-rich website is only the beginning. The brand’s social media, like its TikTok, YouTube and Instagram content, for example, also set the bar high. Glossier’s TikTok & YouTube feeds features beautiful visuals that highlight their on-trend aesthetic, but it also prioritizes “insider” content (like behind-the-scenes tours of company headquarters and peeks into their product development) and value-adding tips for consumers (like beauty hacks and tutorials). Glossier also takes advantage of user-generated content from YouTube micro-influencers under the “Get Ready With Me feat.” title, who advocate the brand’s products.

Glossier "Get ready with me feat" campaign

Photo source: Publitas

Glossier also taps into brand advocates for word-of-mouth marketing

Glossier’s use of UGC and their attention to consumer feedback are also key parts of their eCommerce strategy, helping to build a genuine connection with it’s digital community of customers – customers who have also become brand advocates.

When you make a purchase, you almost never make that decision in isolation. Statistics show that word-of-mouth marketing influences the purchasing decisions of 54% of consumers. In fact, a full 92% of people make purchases based primarily on the recommendations of family or friends. Glossier has long nurtured (and leveraged) its digital community, ensuring their customers feel valued, empowered, and represented in their visuals – and ensuring they have word-of-mouth marketing on their side.

For example, when Glossier launched its Mega Greens Galaxy Mask, users shared selfies of themselves in the mask with the hashtag #maskforce, which Glossier reposted on its own social accounts.The #maskforce selfies are right on brand for Glossier and gives every user a chance to be the face of the brand.

Glossier #maskforce UGC campaign

Ready for a visual commerce platform?

If you’re thinking about adopting a visual commerce platform, there’s lots to consider to make sure you choose the best fit for your eCommerce goals. Here are a few things to keep in mind: 

Automation: By adopting a platform which eliminates manual efforts (such as tagging and indexing content, tagging products, personalization), you can reduce costs and resources at the same time as scaling your visual content across more pages and journeys.

Conversions and sales performance: Lots of platforms may seem to offer the same things, however only a few platforms have advanced capabilities related to targeting, real-time decision making, and machine learning that deliver exceptional results and a greater ROI.

The future of intelligent, responsive eCommerce

Knexus platform automatically transforms UGC, influencer & brand owned assets into hyper personalized, shoppable content for ecommerce. Move visitors through inspiration to buying! Book a demo.

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3 tips for optimizing site performance by using articles & blogs https://www.knexusai.com/show/blog/3-tips-for-optimizing-the-performance-of-site-visitors-by-using-articles-blogs-more-effectively Wed, 07 Jun 2023 14:12:47 +0000 https://www.knexusai.com/?p=22627 The post 3 tips for optimizing site performance by using articles & blogs appeared first on Knexus.

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Brands today increasingly recognize the importance of storytelling—and because of that, they invest critical time, money, and resources into producing blogs and articles. But that investment isn’t maximized when these articles get tucked away in a content hub, resources page, or blog that buyers never come across as part of the buying journey.

A good narrative is crucial to selling a product, and customers rely on stories to support their buying decisions. A targeted, trustworthy recommendation from another customer, as well as educational articles, how-to blogs, top tips, and company news, can all help validate a customer’s choice to click that purchase button. Integrating blog posts and articles more effectively within the shopping experience will help you grab customers’ attention and hold on to it through to checkout.

Online shopping

How to turbo charge the shopping experience with blogs and articles

You’ve got user-generated blog posts, influencer interviews, and tons of other fun content, but do you know how to use them to boost the shopping experience? Here are 3 ways to optimize the performance of site visitors by using blog posts and articles more effectively:

1. Chart a course from content consumption to purchasing, or vice versa

Some brands do a great job with content marketing, but their blog posts and articles are completely siloed from their products. A travel article with gorgeous photos may attract plenty of clicks, but it won’t do you much good if readers don’t stay long enough to buy the suitcase you’re actually selling. This can lead to high bounce rates as readers exit before they even know they’re supposed to click on your product page.

Make the blog posts and articles automatically shoppable by featuring the product within or alongside the content. This will encourage readers to click on the product when they’re most inspired by a story. Integrating blog content into the main eCommerce site will support customers’ buying journeys while allowing you to reap crucial SEO benefits.

2. Clearly feature user-generated content

50% of consumers trust the opinions and stories of other customers as much as recommendations from people they know personally, according to a recent study. If you’ve got blog posts and articles that include stories from your customers, consider featuring that content prominently on your product pages. This is a great way to show prospective customers how people like them are incorporating the product into their lives.

Think of food brands that post recipes using their products: if the recipe looks lip-smackingly good, you’ll want to buy the product to make the exact same meal. Adding user stories to your typical product descriptions bolsters a customer’s faith in your brand—and helps create a seamless experience between influence and purchase. It worked for somebody else like them, so it will work for them too.

3. Put articles about your values front and center

Consumers are much more likely to trust and stick with brands they feel share their values. In fact, people are 4 times more likely to purchase from a brand they feel has a strong “purpose,” according to the 2020 Zeno Strength of Purpose Study. But here’s the thing: your prospective customers aren’t likely going to your content hub to find articles or blog posts about your sustainability practices or your charitable giving, so consider surfacing these articles on high traffic pages of your site.

Think of Bombas, which announces on its homepage that it donates an article of clothing for every article you buy. Their donation efforts are one of the first things you see as a shopper. Also, Ben & Jerry’s, which creates original ice cream flavors to support progressive causes with this message being part of each ice cream flavor’s main description page.

Companies successfully integrating content and eCommerce for a dynamic buying journey

Take inspiration from these companies that have seamlessly joined content with eCommerce:

1. Zyrtec

The top allergy brand in the US market, has a wealth of information in the form of blogs and articles, on causes and treatments for allergies. Zyrtec makes its articles shoppable by displaying relevant products alongside content, while also allowing personalized articles to surface automatically during the buying journey.

Shoppable articles on zyrtec.com

2. Johnson’s Baby

Alongside science-backed products for babies, Johnson’s Baby offers a great many blog posts and articles designed to help parents with everything from pregnancy to raising a toddler. Each visitor is served the article/blog posts most relevant to them, making it easier for shoppers to find the inspiration they need. Relevant products are always displayed alongside stories, making it easier for shoppers to move from education to conversion, while personalized articles also pop up next to products.

Personalized article recommendations

3. Lenovo

Electronics giant Lenovo puts its story hub front and center so relevant press materials and engaging stories catch the eye of SMBs no matter where they first land. The hub also auto-integrates articles into site journeys for SMB visitors, and articles are personalized based on each visitor’s data, leading to improved onsite engagement and a lower bounce rate.

Your first step towards making blogs & articles a powerful eCommerce sales tool

When looking to engage customers, build trust and improve conversions, having clearly navigable and personalized eCommerce journeys, as well as engaging blogs & articles, is only half the battle. You have to join your customers in a way that feels natural so they can travel effortlessly between the two. That way, they’ll feel informed and excited by your brand, allowing them to trust their buying decisions and leading to much higher conversion rates.

Ready to optimize your blogs and articles to turbo-charge your customers’ shopping experience and improve conversions? Learn more today.

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Why brands should leverage TikTok content to validate purchase decisions in ecommerce journeys https://www.knexusai.com/show/blog/why-brands-must-use-tiktok-content-to-validate-purchase-decisions-in-ecommerce-journeys Wed, 05 Apr 2023 15:55:24 +0000 https://www.knexusai.com/?p=18937 A human has an average attention span of about 8 seconds, one second less than a goldfish and 21...

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A human has an average attention span of about 8 seconds, one second less than a goldfish and 21 seconds less than a dog- but humans have TikTok, and with it, access to millions of viral videos averaging 10 seconds or less. Suddenly 8 seconds seems plenty.

The privately-owned, Chinese company announced last week that it had just reached 1 billion monthly users– that’s about 15% of the world’s population.

What’s more, is that these users are active:

52 minutes was the average daily spend of a TikTok user reaching as high as 105 minutes for teens and pre-teens. (Cision PR News)

Unsurprisingly, more time drives more engagement and with it, a loyal consumer base. This leaves TikTok ready to challenge the more established social media platforms of Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat both in size and scope. 

TikTok is powerful on its own but even more powerful in the eCommerce journey. 

TikTok reached 1 billion monthly users

Consumers learn through video

By nature, TikTok is a video sharing platform. Not blogs. Not images. Not articles – Videos. And it does it well. Really well. 

While consumers can digest an image in a second, videos are sticky. In fact, the nature of videos forces consumers to take that extra second to digest and understand what the content is about. This extra time is a commodity – marketers can start, albeit briefly, to explain their proposition to the customer, and consumers, well consumers, learn. They learn about an offering, a price-point, a products functionality, and this comes direct. Direct from the brand, UGC or their favourite influencer.

And so… how powerful can TikTok be?

Consumers learn through video

TikTok is more than cute dog videos, silly dances and even a #vibecheck.

TikTok is a video-based, micro-learning platform and this is exactly what consumers want. 

You see, us humans love two things- research and videos, especially before spending (ever seen a Gen Ze try plan their Netflix schedule?). But it’s not just Gen Z, it’s all consumers:

85% of us conduct online research before making a purchase.
(transaction. An eCommerce agency)

92% of us say video is our most helpful tool when shopping.
(Hubspot)

And that’s TikTok’s power for marketers- an integrated platform of ‘snackable,’ informative content delivered through eye-catching videos and popular ear-worms. This is the type of content that draws engagement and starts to give consumers that social proof necessary for a path to purchase.

This content can be missing from buying journeys

All this great content your brand produces, combined with the influencer and UGC of your advocates, gets lost in the noise. Whether it’s old content living ‘more than a month ago’ on your page or UGC mixed up with hundreds of other hashtags, content can be siloed and fails to be seen by your customers during the buying journey. What’s more, is creating quality content is resource intensive- it takes marketers up to 6 hours to plan impactful posts (MarketingProfs) . And so, all your great content lives lonely, unseen and untouched, failing to convert your customers and your marketers thinking- where has all my hard work gone?

How Knexus can unlock your content’s potential

What if you, as a brand, could bring this content from TikTok and integrate it, at scale, across owned channels. What if you could match each of your customers to personalized content and then match the subject of this content to your specific products. Your content would suddenly become ‘shoppable’, without the need to manually surface, index & tag videos, streamlining time and resources.

Integrate TikTok into ecommerce journeys
Enter Knexus…

Knexus automatically surfaces, indexes and tags TikTok videos whether they’re from your brand, customers or influencers to ensure they are relevantly categorized, and seen by the right shopper. This process is fully automated, saving the time and resources needed to manually tag and index videos.  

Knexus automatically integrates these videos into the ecommerce journey and dynamically displays the relevant video in front of the right shopper. Shoppers are served this social proof & validation content in real-time at the key moment of their buying journey, creating confident purchases. 

At the same time as a shopper is watching the personalized video, Knexus dynamically displays the product best matching the subject of the video – making this content instantly shoppable.

The results

Knexus platform unlocks the potential of your TikTok content and, in doing so, show a marked improvement in your e-commerce sales, conversion and content performance. You’ll also make smarter content investments as with our analytics you learn which of your content sells. 

Sound too good to be true? – Don’t just take our word for it.

Since integrating video and dynamic product recommendations into buying journeys, brands have seen, on average 72% uplift in eCommerce sales, 67% improvement in content CTR and 44% increase in conversions. Want to find out more? Book a demo.

The post Why brands should leverage TikTok content to validate purchase decisions in ecommerce journeys appeared first on Knexus.

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What is visual commerce? An introduction to the power of visuals in eCommerce https://www.knexusai.com/show/blog/what-is-visual-commerce Fri, 03 Mar 2023 15:28:04 +0000 https://www.knexusai.com/?p=6652 Visual commerce is based on a simple insight: brands that use their content more intelligently drive up...

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Let’s not beat around the bush, visual commerce is about getting content to sell. But let’s clear the air and discuss how ecommerce teams & marketers can use visual commerce to make their content work harder and smarter to ultimately create confident buying decisions & increase ecommerce sales.

When consumers don’t have confidence in a brand or product, they look for validation elsewhere which could force them into the arms of your competitors. As 87% of online buying decisions begin with research before the purchase is made, why aren’t brands delivering this research in the form of influencer, UGC & brand content directly to the shopper during the buying journey? Well, you guest it, visual commerce does just that.

87% of online buying decisions begin with research before the purchase is made. Optinmonster: Social Proof Statistics 2021

Instead of greeting people with the same old static content, visual commerce uses intelligence and personalization to engage each shopper with your most relevant, inspirational, and educational resources they need to make buying decisions.

Visual commerce unlocks the sales potential of all your videos,
articles, images, social posts, influencer collaborations, and user-generated content.

By showing every shopper the content they need when they need it, you create positive experiences that not only influence purchases but also increase trust and loyalty.

Which means heartier sales, happier customers, and a healthier brand.

How to (actually) do visual commerce

Implementing visual commerce doesn’t mean that you have to blow everything up and start from scratch. Rather, it’s the easiest way to make your content work harder across more buying journeys and marketing channels.

It’s a bit like turning on a new content channel that complements and strengthens your existing marketing efforts. So, we’ve boiled it down into a simple framework for you.

The Visual Commerce Framework involves four steps:

  1. Understand
  2. Personalize
  3. Monetize
  4. Optimize
  5. Scale

Let’s break down each one.

Step 1: Understand all content that can be used across buying journeys

Trying to find the right content to use in personalized campaigns is hard. For most brands, it sits in silos across many different marketing channels, social media profiles, content platforms, and other digital asset systems.

But that’s barely scratching the surface. It takes even longer to sift through, organize, and tag content so that it’s fit for personalized marketing purposes. Not to mention that the moment you select and group content together, it’s no longer up-to-date. 

Now, imagine that you have one complete view of every piece of content that can be used to support buying journeys, automatically updated with your latest creations. And that each piece is indexed, tagged and categorized without disrupting your current approach.

That’s the first step in the visual commerce framework.

Using content intelligence, visual commerce unlocks all your content from channel silos, giving you a dynamic view of every piece that can be used across buying journeys.

So, if you were to upload a video to YouTube today, it would also appear in the live view without any extra work. This approach eliminates the need to change how you create and store content, which means no disruptions to your existing processes.

To understand your content further, visual commerce categorizes each piece with relevant tags and additional intelligence – so that the most relevant and influential content likely to sway a buying decision is always selected. 

Content intelligence isn’t only present at the start though. It continues throughout, enriching your assets with additional intelligence to improve its performance over time – but we’ll circle back to this a bit later.

Step 2: Personalize content for every shopper and customer

What happens when you give each shoppers personalized buying experiences, instead of serving the same content to everyone?  For most brands, it means higher conversion rates, better engagement, and improved customer retention.

When a visitor lands on your site and is delivered the influencer, UGC or brand content which best resonates with them in real-time, they are immediately engaged, feel inspired and can move confidently through their buying journey. 

By combining a dynamic understanding of each shopper with a dynamic understanding of every relevant content asset, visual commerce ensures that your latest and most relevant content is always presented to the right shopper, at the right time, and in the right context.

Personalize content for every shopper and customer

Step 3: Monetize your content by making it shoppable

Your content is powerful. Every piece has the potential to be used as a discovery tool for your products, engaging more people in buying journeys. Pairing relevant content with the right products isn’t rocket science, but it is manual, static, and labor intensive. 

Think about it. For every product you sell, you need to find the most effective content assets to pair it with. But how on earth do you go about that? And how do you test and optimize its placement? What works for one person won’t work for everyone. 

Visual commerce monetizes your content by dynamically pairing it with the right products based on relevancy and direct sales impact. This ensures that each visitor is presented with personalized content and product recommendations which will best influence their purchase decisions. 

Making content shoppable shortens the path to purchase, transforming your shoppers into customers with a seamless transition to customized products. And through machine learning, visual commerce quickly uncovers the content and product pairings that win the most sales which allows for better content investments. 

Shoppable Content

Step 4: Optimize your content’s performance across buying journeys

Delivering personalized content to support each and every shopper is one thing, but how do you ensure that the assets selected are the most effective at increasing sales?

With visual commerce, you get a dynamic and intelligent view of your content and customers. Which means that both your existing content and latest creations can be used to support individual buying journeys in real time.

Built on machine learning from the ground up, visual commerce automatically strengthens its intelligence around your content, products, and customers. Which means it optimizes the selection and placement of your latest content after every visit.

Not only does this ensure that you show the most relevant and influential content at the right time within each buying journey, but it creates a continuous loop of testing and optimization of what works best for each visitor and where.

As a result, you can pinpoint the precise content driving the most sales for each product and cut back on what’s not working. Having direct insight into how your content impacts your sales means you can make smarter content investments in the future.

Providing contextually relevant, one-to-one content experiences helps each shopper move independently through their buying journey. And it connects content to sales for good. This is one of the key differences of visual commerce vs traditional content.

The 5 key benefits of visual commerce

You’ve already read about some of the positive results many brands have been able to achieve through visual commerce. But they aren’t the only benefits you can expect.

Here are the five biggest benefits of visual commerce:

1) Optimize the experience for every shopper

With visual commerce, your website no longer feels like a static brochure with a one-size-fits-all approach to your content and audience.

Now, you can personalize the buying experience to each shopper’s needs, delivering contextually relevant content – alongside your products – that not only engages but influences buyer behavior too.

And with a dynamic view of all your latest creations, you can greet each returning shopper with fresh, relevant content to keep them engaged and coming back for more.

2) Achieve higher conversions

By integrating fully personalized content across each and every buying journey, you support and influence the decision-making process of your customers – achieving more sales and conversions in the process.

Visual commerce ensures that you deliver the right content, at the right time, to the right person. Each asset is selected in real time for every individual  visitor based on relevancy and sales impact, not just clicks and likes. 

Since implementing visual commerce, Johnson’s Baby has seen a sales uplift of 237%, while engagement is better than ever. And it’s still driving results for the brand today.

3) Improve content ROI

Visual commerce enriches your content with intelligence so that only the most effective assets for each customer and buying journey are selected. 

It also monetizes your content by pairing it with your most relevant and best-selling products, turning content into a discovery tool for your audience. 

And it enables you to make more informed content investments based on direct sales insight. Which means you can strengthen the content you create, impact even more buying journeys, and cut out any types of content that don’t resonate. 

4) Make personalized experiences scalable 

Turn content into sales for one customer or one million.

As every step within the process is automated – from content discovery through to delivery and optimization – an advanced platform such as Knexus ensures that you can scale your approach to content personalization for every customer.

5) Achieve greater cost savings

As machine learning does all the heavy lifting, you can eliminate repetitive and time-consuming tasks related to delivering personalized experiences for good.

That not only includes selecting and categorizing content with relevant tags, but also the delivery of the most effective content to each shopper.

In fact, visual commerce platforms like Knexus continually test and optimize the selection and placement of each content asset across different buying journeys, making decisions and evolving its intelligence at a capacity no human can compete with.

About Knexus

Classifying your influencer, UGC and brand content to make it structured, indexed and – ultimately useful – is a mammoth manual task for anyone. Not Knexus. Knexus automates this entire process to ensure your content from influencers, UGC and brand content is relevantly categorized and seen by the right shopper.

Knexus uses custom dynamic widgets which dynamically integrates the relevant influencer, UGC & brand content directly into your website, digital advertising campaigns, CRM and mobile apps. These widgets dynamically update to show the most relevant content for every shopper in rea-time. At the same time as a shopper is consuming content, Knexus automatically displays the related product alongside, making your influencer, UGC and brand content shoppable and creating an easy transition to customized products. 

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Boost conversions from PDPs with UGC, influencer & brand content https://www.knexusai.com/show/blog/boost-conversions-from-pdps-with-ugc-influencer-brand-content Wed, 15 Feb 2023 10:28:10 +0000 https://www.knexusai.com/?p=21005 The post Boost conversions from PDPs with UGC, influencer & brand content appeared first on Knexus.

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Suffering low conversion rates from PDPs? Well, let’s face it, product pages are a headache. You pour blood, sweat, tears, and not to mention money, into generating traffic to these pages and the last thing you want to see is these hard-earned visitors bounce and abandon the journey. While a low conversion rate may signal an out-of-stock product or expensive price point, most of the time it’s because the page doesn’t have the necessary information that the shopper needs to persuade them to make a purchase. 

PDPs are focused on driving conversions at the bottom of the funnel. The problem with this is brands are ignoring the top of the funnel and middle of the funnel shoppers – meaning these shoppers are not receiving the key information or validation needed to make confident purchases. What does this mean? They leave and run the risk of running into the arms of your competitors.

Optimizing PDPs by integrating influential and inspirational content from customers, influencers and your brand will help increase conversions and sales and ultimately help your bottom line. So let’s dive in.

Confident Shopper

The cruel truth about PDPs

Visitors who land on a PDP are 72% more likely to bounce than those who land on a different page. This is because these pages ignore shoppers outside the bottom of the funnel unlike higher-level pages such as your homepage. Isn’t it strange to think PDPs are supposed to support and encourage purchases, but ultimately customers are less likely to convert on these pages? Let’s explore why.

 1. PDPs are focused on driving conversions at the bottom of the funnel & ignore everyone else

The problem with this is brands are ignoring the top of the funnel and middle of the funnel shoppers – meaning these shoppers are not receiving the key information or validation needed to make confident purchases. Using content from real customers or influencers shows a real representation of the product either in their house, them wearing it, using it, or whatever it may be. It paints a picture, shows the product in use, shows the happy customer, provides the shopper with inspiration, may even evoke FOMO and ultimately encourages them to take the plunge to click ‘buy now’.

Brands are constantly fighting for the attention of online shoppers more than ever and with this rife competition, it’s vital for your brand’s PDPs to engage, inspire, and influence shoppers whether they’re new to your brand, considering a purchase or close to purchasing.

2. PDPs don’t inspire shoppers to actually shop

Product pages don’t give shoppers inspiration or help them find what they’re looking for, instead they are met with a product-centric page with basic information about one particular product.

PDPs should highlight more than just related products to encourage visitors to browse and shop. Inspire confidence and foster discovery by showing visitors why they need your product, why other customers have purchased the product and exploit raving reviews and feedback from real customers and influencers.

93% of consumers find UGC to be helpful when making a purchase decision.

In the image below you can see that Johnson’s Baby provides social proof to visitors who land on their PDPs. Three tactics they use:

  1. Instagram post relevant to the featured product to inspire confidence
  2. Personalized product recommendations to foster product discover
  3. Additional UGC to guide them through their journey if they’re not ready to make a purchase then and there

“We knew there was content available to help our visitors, but the challenge was how to get the right content in front of the right customer at the right time, without lots of manual resources and effort which was not economical “- Johnson’s Baby

Johnson's Baby using content in PDPs

3. PDPs are impersonal

Most brands understand the importance of personalization but struggle to deliver it at scale, across multiple journeys, pages and channels.

74% of customers feel frustrated when website content is not personalized.

Brands who not only integrate influencer, UGC or brand content into their PDPs but personalize this content to every visitor will encourage more shoppers to click buy now & check out with confidence

Enhance your PDPs with social proof and validation content

Use UGC to showcase real people using your product(s)

It’s no secret that UGC, whether in the form of video, image or even a written review, is increasingly becoming a valuable asset for brands, but it’s how you put this content to work that will set you apart from the competition. UGC exudes trust and authenticity because it’s content created by real people, with real opinions and experiences. Using content from real customers shows a real representation of the product either in their house, them wearing it, using it, or whatever it may be. It paints a picture, shows the product in use, shows the happy customer, provides the shopper with inspiration, may even evoke FOMO and ultimately encourages them to take the plunge to click ‘buy now’.

93% of consumers find UGC to be helpful when making a purchasing decision (Tintup)

So it’s a no-brainer to use the voice of your customers in PDPs.

Use influencer content more effectively in the buying journey

Influencer marketing is indeed a powerful and collaborative tool that several brands use to stay relevant and grow amidst the admitted chaos that exists in the current landscape. The industry is set to grow to 16.4 billion in 2022 up from 13.4 billion in 2021 with more than 75% of brand marketers intending to dedicate a budget to influencer marketing in 2022, according to Influencer Marketing Hub.

With such significant spending and importance placed on generating influencer content, the pain point for many brand’s is, most of this content is locked away on social media channels like Instagram, YouTube or TikTok, which means you are missing the opportunity to make influencer endorsements and recommendations work even harder, getting more bang for your buck. How? By moving this content out of channel-based silos and into key touchpoints such as PDPs

Use content from your brand to deepen the connection with shoppers

Though brand content is often deemed less trustworthy than UGC and influencer content, it can still serve you well. Yes, there’s still hope for your brand content yet and there are a couple of effective ways you can use this content to influence buying decisions.

When customers buy, they compare products more and more often based on ethics & sustainability. There is now a trend toward thinking about how each purchase impacts the global community and the plant (leading in context). Forget the content that is deemed untrustworthy and salesy. Focus on the content which shows your brand’s dedication and passion for issues bigger than the products you sell. Similarly, if your brand is aligned to a cause, don’t be afraid to share that as well, this helps to deepen the connection with your customers and builds trust.

60% of consumers want to know what brands are doing to limit their carbon footprint, emissions, water usage and damage to the earth.

Key takeaways

  1. Don’t ignore shoppers outside of the bottom of the funnel.
  2. Use social proof from customers and influencers.
  3. Big up your brand beyond the products you sell; have blogs on your sustainability practices, ethics, brand ethos? Include them in your PDPs.
  4. Personalize the content on PDPs to each shopper.
  5. Adopt a personalized & scalable approach by, leveraging technology to help you scale UGC, influencer & brand content across PDPs.

Integrate your UGC, influencer & brand content into high traffic pages such as PDPs

Whether you’re looking to increase direct sales from your eCommerce store or sales exits to eRetailers, it’s vital that your brand’s PDPs engage shoppers who are new to your brand or close to making a purchase. Don’t hide your most influential and inspirational content to social media or your blog, use it across key touchpoints including PDPs to encourage your shoppers to purchase with confidence.

Here are three tactics to transform your approach:

  • Automate searching and tagging of all available relevant influencer, UGC, and brand content.
  • Dynamically integrate content into PDPs based on each individual shopper in real-time.
  • Build intelligence around each shopper and content asset to understand what motivates shoppers to convert – identifying what content drives sales.

Good news, Knexus does all of the above and more to help you reduce costs and resources, whilst successfully scaling UGC, influencer content, and brand content across all relevant areas of your site. Learn more.

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Take your personalized eCommerce marketing strategy to the next level https://www.knexusai.com/show/blog/take-your-personalized-ecommerce-marketing-strategy-to-the-next-level Fri, 27 Jan 2023 15:33:14 +0000 https://www.knexusai.com/?p=20791 You have the power to level up your brand’s eCommerce marketing strategy with a personalized...

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Shoppers are making no secret of their need and desire for more personalized buying journeys so brands need to start listening and position personalization as a core marketing tactic. Creating a unique and relevant shopping experience for every single customer, based on their individual preferences, isn’t some far-fetched utopian reality. It is no longer a series of daunting tasks. You have the power to level up your brand’s eCommerce marketing strategy with a laser-focused personalized approach so what are you waiting for?

With the latest technological advances, it’s easier than ever before to analyze customer behavior and understand your customers on a more personalized level. Incorporating this data-driven approach into your marketing strategy allows you to deliver targeted messages, special offers, content, and product recommendations that will truly transform and personalize your marketing campaigns. Keep reading to find out how you can do just that!

Personalized marketing

Keeping up with digitally savvy shoppers

Shoppers have been catapulted into eCommerce since the start of the pandemic and interestingly, Statista reports that more than 2.14 billion people made online purchases in 2021, which was significantly higher than the 1.6 billion that made online purchases just five years earlier. This means that it is more important than ever to listen to your shoppers and customers. 

Keeping up to date with the ever-changing habits of our now digital savvy shoppers and looking for innovative ways to take your marketing strategy to the next level can make you want to pull your hair out. With so many things to consider, from which marketing channels to use, to creating personalized content that resonates with your customers, it can be a minefield and may be tough to figure out where to begin. Adopting a customer-centric approach which leverages the voice of the customer is a good place to start.

Customers are constantly promoting your brand and leaving feedback in many different forms, known as user-generated content (UGC). This ‘feedback’ doesn’t have to be in the form of reviews, or testimonials, this can be images on social media, product review videos on YouTube, podcasts, blogs, you name it. By incorporating your customer’s voice into your marketing strategy or even business practices you are automatically on your way to becoming a successful customer-centric brand.

Top tips to use UGC to meet the needs of your digitally savvy shoppers:

  1. Look beyond likes and shares and use this content to provide social proof and validation in buying journeys.
  2. Don’t limit UGC to social media.
  3. Integrate UGC into your eCommerce site, CRM campaigns, paid advertising or mobile app.
  4. Understand content. Focus on tagging and indexing UGC to ensure it can be delivered to the relevant shoppers.
  5. Build data around your customers to understand what content will best resonate with them and influence their purchase decisions.
  6. Make decisions about your brand and products by taking your customer’s point of view and feedback into account.

Dynamic Yield research reports that 71% of consumers say a personalized experience would influence their decision to open and read brand emails and that almost 90% of consumers are influenced by eCommerce personalization.

Coca-Cola is an example of a brand who stepped into the shoes of the digital savvy customer by connecting with them with their genius ‘Share a Coke’ campaign. Coca-Cola shared that the purpose of the campaign was to create a more special relationship with their customers and inspire shared moments of happiness – they gave the customer what they wanted which turned into social media sensation. 

Share a coke

Yes, Coca-Cola is a prime example of using UGC to provide social proof and validation to shoppers, inspiring confidence and fostering product discovery. However, this is not the only use of UGC. This content can be used as inspiration for your brand and a way to inform decisions within your brand and products. UGC can help you understand issues with products, highlight new use cases, and inform product innovations. Key takeaway…make decisions about what your customers want and need by taking their point of view into considerations.

Ok, to summarize, using UGC to validate purchase decisions is all well and good if you’re delivering the relevant content to the right shopper. However, no two shoppers are the same, which begs the question, why are brands continuing to deliver the same messaging, content and product recommendations to every single shopper? This is where data comes in to play. It is vital to understand your customers and shoppers in order to provide each and every one of them with a hyper relevant experience – only showcasing the content and products which are relevant to them. Let’s talk data shall we…?

Personalized marketing strategy

Customer-centric approach. Where to start?

The foundation of personalization & customer centricity is the oh so glamorous data collection. To become customer-centric you must build an in-depth understanding of your customers to really grasp how your decisions, as a brand, impacts them. Gathering customer data and segmenting it is essential to create targeted and hyper relevant campaigns. Once you get an understanding of your customers and their behavior you have the foundations to implement personalization tactics into your marketing campaigns.

But first, you must understand:

  • How you are going to track data – is it a specific tool or a platform?
  • How often to track data – most effectively is in real-time of course<
  • What to track

By building intelligence around your shoppers and customers, you will have the foundations to start building a robust personalization strategy which will keep your customers coming back for more, driving conversions while delivering greater Return on Investment (ROI), as well as Average Order Value (AOV).

91% of consumers say they are more likely to shop with brands that provide offers and recommendations that are relevant to them. – Accenture

However, we have to caveat this with the fact that building an in depth understanding of your customers at scale can be extremely time consuming and resource intensive and that’s not even taking into account the time and resource involved in the execution of the marketing campaigns, which is why brands are turning to innovative technology driven by AI and machine learning to track customer data and deliver personalized buying experience in real-time and make this process achievable and scalable.

A customer centric culture

How does AI help brands scale their customer-centric approach?

You could strengthen your strategy one step further by looking at the various eCommerce platforms available in the marketplace which use AI and machine learning to streamline, simplify and improve the customer-centric approach.

If you think about it, the majority of our most ‘can’t live without brands’ have mastered personalization, for example:

  1. Amazon’s personalized recommendations
  2. Netflix’s tailored user experience
  3. Google’s individualized search results
  4. Airbnb’s suggested destinations
  5. Facebook’s tailored newsfeed

You can bet your bottom dollar they don’t have a team of marketers working in the background sifting through customer’s data and manually personalizing buying journeys. No, they use predictive analytics and AI to build an in-depth understanding of their customers to help personalize their buying journeys, in real-time. It’s no longer just the industry giants who are capitalizing on personalization, which means brands who are still ‘thinking’ about personalization need to watch their backs and start thinking about scaling their customer-centric approach to not get left behind.

51% of marketers say personalization is their top priority. – SmarterHQ

What about the other 49% of marketers who don’t see personalization as a priority? Well, these brands who shy away from personalization or don’t see it as a priority run the risk of getting lost in the noise.

Without sounding like a broken record, personalization is something brands can’t afford to forego.  It is a sure-fire way to drastically improve brand loyalty, while positively impacting your brand’s bottom line.

98% of marketers say personalization advances customer relationships. – Evergage

How to measure the success of your influencer marketing

Bonus tip!

Personalized calls to action convert 202% better than default or standard calls to action. – HubSpot

Now is as good a time as any to take your brand’s personalized eCommerce marketing strategy to the next level, by enhancing your customers’ experiences, increasing conversions, as well as your ROI. Quite honestly, you really can’t afford not to. Epsilon research finds that 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that provides personalized experience and Smart Insights notes that 63% of consumers will stop buying from brands that use poor personalization tactics.

It is true that eCommerce marketing is constantly evolving as new technologies and platforms are introduced. It can be challenging to keep up with the latest trends and know what will work best for your brand.

8 tips to keep in mind

When designing an effective personalized strategy for your brand, keep these 8 tips in mind:

  1. Data is the foundation: build intelligence around transactional and behavioral data
  2. Map your customer journey
  3. Identify your target audience and create your buyer personas
  4. Make customers part of the solution
  5. Listen to your customers
  6. Use the voice of your customers
  7. Evaluate regularly. Test, test, test the various aspects of your marketing campaigns
  8. Consistently analyze and optimize campaigns

Or…you can adopt a platform that takes care of everything for you! Enter Knexus.

Create smarter buying journeys with Knexus

Knexus leverages the voice of your customers to validate purchase decisions across individual buying journeys. Knexus uses machine learning to build intelligence around each shopper & customer through the use of transactional & behavioral data. With a single view of all content & an in-depth understanding of each shopper and customer, Knexus uses these insights to pick the most relevant influencer, UGC & brand content to deliver to the shopper at the key moment of their buying journey. Learn more: Knexus | Make Content Sell

It’s a win-win with Knexus!

It’s a simple formula with Knexus, turning passive online window shoppers into confident customers with personalized buying journeys through hyper relevant content & product recommendations – inspiring confidence & fostering product discovery.

According to Instapage, approximately 74% of customers feel frustrated when website content is not personalized. Take action to elevate your personalized eCommerce Marketing strategy today. Book a demo.

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Driving shopper engagement through content commerce mix https://www.knexusai.com/show/blog/driving-shopper-engagement-content-commerce-mix Fri, 18 Nov 2022 11:37:25 +0000 https://www.knexusai.com/?p=1976 How can marketers make sure they grab shoppers’ attention? That’s not easy to drive engagement nowadays...

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How can marketers make sure they grab shoppers’ attention? That’s not easy to drive engagement nowadays as choice keeps growing across product categories. And a big part of driving such an engagement is to demonstrate benefits in a way that makes sense to consumers – formulating a solution that actually meets their needs.

That’s why brands shouldn’t underestimate the importance of the content commerce mix. That mix contains the information that shoppers require for feeling more at ease as they assess the alternatives available to them. The focus is not on selling but rather creating a sense of reciprocity and offering valuable insights – helping potential customers to perceive what’s really in for them and ultimately convert faster.

E-commerce platforms that understand how to leverage such a mix can use content to their advantage and design a marketing strategy that differentiates themselves from the mass – enjoying “conversion rates that are nearly six times higher than their competitors” according to the Content Marketing Institute. But that requires a lot of efforts, and those retailers must see the world through the eyes of the audience to whom they’re selling products and adapt their messaging on a case-by-case basis.

Image Source : centurypa.com

Indeed, some benefits which sound crucial to baby boomers are likely to be useless to younger generations. Expectations may also change entirely depending on the product or service category. Hence, consumers are more than twice as likely to buy fashion products than grocery food online. That’s why there is no such thing as ‘one-size-fits-all’ content in an environment driven by context.

Therefore, the role of content in retail commerce is to provide relevant information in the right format (e.g. presentation, technical manual, blog posts, videos, etc.) based on each particular situation – lifestyle, life-stage, devices at disposal, and/or any other dimension that may affect the decision-making process.

Brands Must Deliver Content-Rich Experiences to Users Now

Image Source : redocn.com

Brands Must Deliver Content-Rich Experiences to Users Now

Individualizing experiences by mixing content and commerce is a sine qua non to establish trust with shoppers. It might have been an alternative in the past as the path to product purchase was far more straightforward. There were fewer retailers to choose from, and traditional advertising had much more of an impact on shoppers. However, such direct marketing techniques are now perceived as intrusive and became obsolete to drive engagement – as highlighted by the growing popularity of ad blockers with 64% of users installing those because they consider ads annoying and intrusive.

A Lesson about Content-Driven Commerce to Drive eCommerce Growth

The secret to eCommerce growth and successful content marketing is to combine quality with distribution. That’s basically a two-stage process. Marketers must first commit to creating or curating content that will ensure satisfaction and resonance with their target audience. The next logical step is then to maximize timing and provide just-in-time information to help shoppers follow their customer journey and build loyalty – making them up to six times more likely to buy again.

Knexus platform automatically transforms UGC, influencer & brand owned assets into hyper personalized, shoppable content for ecommerce. Move visitors through inspiration to buying! Request a demo to find out how we can help you to make content sell.

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