The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected people and businesses across the world. In Australia alone, unemployment has increased from 5.2% to 7.5%, and rocking the foundation of entire business sectors.

In particular, traditional brick-and-mortar businesses have been left to manage costs with zero revenue.

Yet, despite the catastrophe, many businesses have found innovative ways to pivot, adjust their businesses models and not only survive but even thrive. Ecommerce, social media marketing, and search engine marketing have emerged as strong selling channels during the pandemic, keeping millions of businesses afloat.

Remember, a volatile economy offers just as many opportunities as it takes away. To take advantage of the shifting sands, businesses that are thriving all have one thing in common. Instead of waiting it out, they have been rethinking, adjusting, and above all acting FAST.

In fact, there is still plenty of opportunity for businesses to adjust. Research shows that 88% of global consumers found their favourite brand online during the pandemic, and they’ve decided to stick with them even after it’s all over.

That’s means you still have the opportunity to make sure that your products and services make it to the favourites list and get due attention from your prospects even if they can’t make it to your brick-and-mortar store.

In this article, we’ll see how you can incorporate e-commerce and online strategies into your business not just as a short-term stop-gap, but as a long term revenue stream.

Let’s get started!

Market Where Your Audience Is

Finding the right channels for marketing products has always been one of the biggest hurdles for business owners.

In the physical world, location is key. If your store is located at a busy avenue, you can expect considerable footfall. Similarly, when going digital, businesses have to market on sites where their target audience hangs out.

There are various opportunities for your business to expand and ignite profitability as long as you know where your prospective buyers are and how you should talk to them.

The following are a few ways to do this right:

Google SEO And Targeted PPC

SEO-driven blog posts and content marketing are great ways to attract attention to your site. However, these tactics can take a lot of time. And in these desperate times, speed is key.

What if I tell you there is another faster way of attracting loads of traffic to your site? One that does not involve social media?

It’s Paid Advertising! Many businesses have deployed targeted PPC (pay-per-click) advertising to attract relevant clients to their websites. With paid advertising, your business will be able to influence previously unreachable consumer segments.

One of the reasons that PPC promises such good ROI is because you can target specific keywords with high buyer intent. This can help improve your ad rank and also add to the quality score.

It can take months or years to have a page or blog post ranked so that it appears in the top half of page 1. Yet with just a few clicks (and some carefully researched keyword analysis), you can get in front of your competitors and appear at the top of the search results with paid placements.

Develop Your Digital Channels

This is a great time to go digital.

Online consumer spending has experienced 10 years of growth in just a few months due to the situation.

Your prospects are mostly confined to their homes, and browsing their social media pages, apps, and other websites: take advantage of this by being able to take sales right where the customers are already hanging out!

For example, if a restaurant business can no longer open their doors to dine-in customers, how do they ensure business continuity?

Customized, ready-to-cook meal kits!

Atlas owner and head chef, Charlie Carrington, came up with creative strategies to keep his customer-base intact. As lockdown was imposed in Australia, Carrington started selling meal kits to his customers via Youtube and Instagram, allowing potential diners to cook up their own feast at home. Customers received ingredients from the restaurant, followed by an online YouTube Masterclass from Carrington himself!

These innovations not only enable business owners to retain their current client base but also attract new customers.

This is the time to take your business beyond the trusty old SMS marketing. Contact them on social media channels that you think they use the most. Use emails, messenger bots, social media advertising, and post relevant media consistently so that customers know which businesses are trying to reach out to them.

You can also host live sessions on Instagram or YouTube with other industry leaders to attract more traffic. People love to see how their favourite businesses are adapting in these times. Try to be an inspiration for your consumers by relating to them through these channels.

Increase Customer Engagement

There is no doubt that these are challenging times for everyone. As the pandemic impinges on people’s financial prowess, customer experience has taken on a new meaning.

Many are still panicking about the increasing unemployment and financial stress and seek stability and reliable connections. Brand messaging needs to adjust accordingly, indicating “We Are Here For You” in the literal sense. Offering hope and relating through honest and meaningful story telling is what’s working best.

Here are some of the creative ways to connect with your customer base:

Engage On A Personal Level

Businesses should try to engage with their customers on a personal level and need to be reminded that their favourite brands are there for them. Send thoughtful automated emails to your customers who have signed up for your newsletter or email updates.

The software company, SEMrush, sends automated emails to its customers who haven’t visited their website, with the subject line “Are we still friends? Please say we are!” This has impact because it shows individual customers they are counted and remembered.

Creating a personalized relationship with your customers garners loyalty, regardless of their financial situation. Consumer loyalty is the holy grail for organizational success– a 5% increase in customer retention extrapolates to a 25% increase in revenue.

Re-Define Customer Experience

Consumer experience is one of the most defining differentiators when it comes to outperforming consumers. Increasing engagement and providing a seamless consumer experience is not an added advantage, but a necessity to succeed in these testing times and into the future.

Don’t just be there, be different.

Another way of increasing customer engagement is to introduce contact-less options for businesses that were operating physically. Let’s consider the restaurant industry. The emphasis on social distancing has put restaurants in a tough spot. While disinfecting tables and using hand-sanitizer is a good start to making people feel at ease wit the status quo, there are still further options to elminate contact such as the sharing of physical menus between customers and signing in on arrival.

Beyond Points has provided practical and innovative strategies that work in this industry , helping many including Puntino Trattoria. Puntino managed to stay operational throughout the first and second wave, quickly realising the benefit an online presence, reaching customers in a virtual world. Pre Covid tracking was not an consideration as it is now to keep the community safe, igniting new ideas and the importance to list build. Early adopters of a front-of-store QR code check in this innovative 100 seat Sydney trattoria remains one of the few restaurants in Australia to develop a successful take-away ordering system fully automated through Messenger. It’s contactless, effortless and their customers love it, coming back week after week with one-click repeat orders and exploring the new menu options.

Perhaps best of all, with Messenger being a much more personal channel than email, Puntino is building deeper relationships with its customers, long term loyalty, and opening the door to changing the service game in-house, if and when we ‘return to normal’.

Take Operations Virtual

Business leaders are fervently trying to make sure that the lockdown does not become a hindrance to business growth and continuity.

With the uncertainty induced by the pandemic, many businesses had to sideline their existing sales plans and quickly adopt new strategies. Education centres had to start delivering online training, corporate businesses had to transfer resources to online training, and travel companies resorted to giving their customers virtual tours of their sites.

Following are a few examples of how different industries adopted strategies to adjust to the ‘new’ market-place:

Work On Virtual Adaptability

Through a combination of 3D technology and Instagram marketing, even museums and art galleries have been able to showcase their art to a ‘virtual audience.’

The British Museum partnered with Google Arts and Culture to allow viewers to ‘view’ the artefacts and other memorabilia without leaving the comfort of their couches. Imagine the increase in web traffic and engagement!

Businesses can also adopt such innovative strategies to make sure they make up for the lack of physical footfall and convert them into a vibrant digital audience. This is particularly true for the education industry.

For parents, students, and teachers, the pandemic brought with it many uncertainties. As schools and colleges began to adjust to the new reality, a new way of teaching emerged: virtual online education. Several educational institutes, including Inspiring Minds Early Education Centre in Melbourne, transferred their resources online & developed ways to engage the kids through Zoom.

Quite surprisingly, industries that were disrupted the most from this pandemic have responded with increased innovation and smartness. With the tourism industry offering virtual tours, food industries offering an online food experience, and delivery services on the high – it highlights the importance of adopting quick marketing and business strategies to ensure sales and profits.

In Conclusion

Success stories from the past 6 months have shown that businesses who accept change for what it is and act fast to pivot their business models have been able to survive and even prosper through the most challenging year in living memory. While almost all industries are facing loss, dynamic organizations that realize the need for change are investing in going digital.

This begs the question, what can your business do to thrive? Inaction is simply not an option.

With a pinch of creativity, many solutions lie in effective online strategies, diversifying to digital marketing channels and targeting YOUR specific consumers in the channels they use.

From restaurants to early education centres; from corporate training to eCommerce, the Beyond Points team have helped dozens of businesses survive and thrive through 2020 – setting them up with sustainable online channels for the future. If you need help making adjustments like these in your business, don’t hesitate to strike up a conversation!

Privacy is causing ripples brands online. Early this year, the state of California saw the new consumer privacy act go into effect. It is expected to have more repercussions for global businesses than the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that was passed last spring.

Formally known as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), this law takes a more expansive approach to personal information. It is also a lot stricter because failure to follow it not only results in hefty fines, but it also endangers your reputation and jeopardises consumer trust in your business.

The CCPA is more than just a state law. It is set to become an international standard for consumer-driven businesses for the foreseeable future. That’s why organizations need to understand its implications on the way they do business.

So we bring you this quick guide that details everything you need to know about California’s new privacy and data protection law and how your business can navigate these changes.

Threshold Application Of CCPA

Given how quickly the privacy law was passed, experts suspect several inconsistencies in drafting the policy. This can lead to ambiguity and confusion about its application and potential reach.

However, several new amendments were subsequently made to fix these issues, and many reviews are still pending.

But what you need to know is that the CCPA applies to for-profit organisations that meet the threshold requirements for its application; these include:

• Annual gross revenue of $25 million
• Annually purchase, sell, obtain, or share the personal information of 50,000 (or more) customers, families, or devices for commercial purposes
• Source at least 50% (or more) of your annual revenue from the sale of your consumers’ personal information.
• Parent companies and related subsidiaries that share the same branding also need to comply even if they don’t exceed the thresholds

Who Is Affected And What Is Protected?

The CCPA grants consumers the ability to access all information that a business holds about them. Under the CCPA, the term “consumer” is broadly defined to include any California resident.

However, a recent amendment (better known as AB 25) is under progress. This will redefine “consumer” to omit employee personal information in the context that an individual’s personal information is collected and used only by the employer.

A consumer’s data can then be broadly defined to include information that identifies, describes, relates, or could reasonably link to a specific consumer – either directly or indirectly.

In this context, personal information includes, but is not limited to:

• Personally identifiable information such as a name, alias, postal address, e-mail address, account name, driver’s license number, Social Security number, passport number, IP address, online identifier, or any other personal identifier unique to the consumer
• Educational information
• Biometric information
• Characteristically similar to protected classifications under California or federal law
• Commercial information such as purchasing or consumption data, including records of property, products and/or services owned by the consumer
• Online or other digital network activity information, including (but not limited to) the consumer’s search and browsing history as well as information about the consumer’s interaction with websites, applications, and/or advertisements on the internet
• Visual, audio, electronic, thermal, or similar information
• Geo-location data
• Employment or professional-related information
• Inferences are drawn from any information that is collected to create a consumer profile that reflects their characteristics, preferences, or psychological predispositions.

With this in mind, this list intentionally leaves out any information that is lawfully made publicly available by federal, state, or local government records.

How Can Your Business Avoid Compliance Risks?

Review Your Data Privacy Practices

The first step to compliance is to have a comprehensive understanding of your current data practices.

For starters, the CCPA gives consumers greater control over their information. As a result, your business needs to comply with any requests to access consumer files and data collected from your audience base.

As you prepare to do this, take stock of your data: determine what personal, sensitive, or confidential information your business collects from consumers – and how it’s being used. Make it a point to define the purpose behind the collection and have clear-cut answers to where (and how) you plan to keep it safe.

According to new amendments, consumers are entitled to the following info:

• categories of personal information that a business collects
• external (and internal) sources that a company uses collects personal information
• the purpose – either business or commercial – of obtaining and/or selling the consumer’s personal information
• categories of third-party sources with which a business shares the consumer’s personal information
• the deletion of a consumer’s personal information that a company collects, with regards to special exceptions

The requested info should be delivered in a portable format within 45 days – free of any charge.

Review Your Privacy Policies

The CCPA also mandates that the new disclosure requirements must be included in an organisation’s privacy policy.

For example, a business must disclose the type of personal information it collects at or before the time of collection, as well as the purpose for which it is taken. You must also explicitly state whether the data you collect is being sold or disclosed, including the categories of sources it is sold or disclosed to.

As defined by the statute, a consumer has the right to opt-out of the sale of their personal information. This means that you need to include a clear, visible link titled “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” on your store homepage, which allows consumers to easily opt-out of the sale of their personal information.

Once they’ve revoked permission, wait at least 12 months before asking them again to opt back in.

Review Third-Party Sources

Businesses should have a detailed list of vendors and third-party sources that receive personal information from you. Once you identify them, consider making additions where appropriate to your contract, including terms that define the use and disclosure of personal information.

Clarify whether you’re selling personal information to vendors. Aim to increase transparency in the process as much as you can about the data security practices of your vendors. Even if you don’t operate in the USA, and your vendors do, you will still be liable to compliance.

Identify And Implement Changes In Your System

To effectively implement the afore-mentioned processes, businesses will have to update corresponding systems and ensure compliance.

Make sure the IT team understands the nature of alterations that need to be made. Management should also get started on writing new procedures that can guide the IT team on how and where to make changes in your systems.

Conduct Employee Training On New Systems

The updates must also be understood and implemented across other departments.

So, begin training your workforce on how to correspond with consumers accordingly. Make sure they know the following salient points:

• The physical location of both the company and its staff does not determine CCPA coverage
• The law only applies to consumers who are residents of California
• When, how, and where to process and direct consumers’ requests to access their personal information
• Whether your business plans to apply this act across your entire store or only to Californian consumers

Strengthen Your Data Security

Under the CCPA, consumers can seek damages for breach of personal information resulting from poor policy implementation or unintentional violation of security practices.

Not surprisingly, this gives consumers the power to tarnish your reputation.

This makes it all the more important to review and update your information security and proactively monitor how your defenses can mitigate the risk of breaches – to the greatest possible extent.

In Conclusion

Unsurprisingly, B2C companies are far ahead of the industry average in maintaining and safeguarding their consumers’ privacy.

Business leaders across the globe would be wise to anticipate that data privacy regulatory laws – including the CCPA – a continuously evolve over the coming years. Compliance is not only essential for your business, but it is vital to securing and retaining your consumers’ trust.

Given that change will be an ongoing process in this area, we find it best to build a flexible privacy program that is capable of adapting to constant reform.

As your ecommerce growth partners, we believe that open communication and transparency are pivotal to helping consumers build trust in your business.

Partnering with us means getting the expertise and experience that matters. Right now,…we’ll be seeing more changes, more frequently.  Keep up with us to be sure you don’t lose. For example, in the next 12 to 18 months, there’s a huge change taking place, you heard it first here!
Pixel tracking and cookies will be moving away from browsers. Facebook’s ™ Pixel will be going. Yes, disappearing and in its place we’ll use the Conversion API altogether changing the way we’ve tracked the data from our site visitors.

We like to stay ahead of the game. Our strategies are backed by real-world experiences essential for thriving in a cut-throat, fast-changing business environment – and we can show you the ropes.

If the maintenance and upkeep of consumer data is a struggle for you, contact us today to learn how we can optimise your performance in this area!

With today’s giant marketplaces like Amazon, eBay and AliExpress, it’s easy to find new product ideas to add to your brand. If you’re just getting started out, doing the basic research is all you need.
 
However, if you already have an active brand, there’s a big gap between a promising high-selling product on Amazon and a knock-out success for your own business.

The best way to validate your ideas is to chat with your existing customers. What better way to leverage your customer relationships? Why not get nearly 5000 past customers to tell you exactly what product they want to buy next, as happened for one of Beyond Points’ customers! In this Case Study we explore exactly what techniques we used and how you can sleep better at night knowing your next product will be a winner!

How to Find Potential Products

There is a wealth of knowledge online that can kick start your product research. Most gurus in the eCommerce space will show you how to use existing tools to identify hot selling or in-vogue products, determine their profitability, figure out how to make them better, and then find a supplier.

We’ve listed out some of our favourite tools as well as tips for early stage product research below.

We don’t wish to take anything away from these tools & techniques, because they’re great resources. However profit in eCommerce doesn’t come from selling more products to more people. Profit comes from comes from increasing your customer lifetime value.

Quite simply, you must discover what your existing customers need, and then make the exact products they want to buy from your brand

How to find products your customers are desperate to buy

Using the tools outlined above is absolutely no guarantee that your product selection resonates with your niche. If it doesn’t make sense for your brand it won’t compel your existing customers to dig out their credit card.

With potentially substantial sums of money on the line to acquire inventory, how much better would it be to know your customers will take action before you start production?

Such was the conundrum for one of our customers recently. They came to us with a variety of ideas, but like most brand owners, product managers and store owners, wanted more certainty around their selections.

They wanted to:

• 1)   Identify which product(s) their customers wanted next
• 2)   Make sure their customers would buy that product from their brand, and
• 3)   Build list of engaged customers hungry for the product to launch!

Having deployed Messenger-based surveys several times in the past, Beyond Points knew just how to help. In this article we share our approach, results, and make recommendations on how to get the best results from product research surveys.

Why Messenger for Surveys?

Firstly, let’s take a quick look at why the chat channel is a better resource than more traditional survey methods.

Customer Communication has changed. Today, the majority of people prefer to have short conversations on channels they are already using to chat with family and friends, often several times a day.

While building surveys using tools like Survey Monkey is a lot more sophisticated than it used to be, conducting research inside Messenger is the closest thing there is to having a conversation over the phone. In many ways it’s much better.

For one thing, you can conduct it at scale with no resource cost, yet still get meaningful results in just a few hours. In our case, we ran the survey over 7 days, but there’s no reason you couldn’t do a ‘flash survey’ if you wanted to get even more rapid feedback.

Perhaps more importantly, building a Messenger bot survey allows you to probe deeper on specific topics depending on the customer’s answers.

Lastly, because the conversation can take place at a time and pace comfortable for your customer, you get amazing completion rates.

With that background, lets dive into the case study.

How we constructed the Conversation

Our client actually had a LOT of questions to ask. Quietly, we had concerns given the depth and variety of information sought. The survey would take user commitment to complete and we had doubts whether a sufficient number of customers would get all the way through.

In the end we settled on 10 questions (which is still a lot for Messenger). We knew the key to getting a high completion would be keeping it light, so each question was brief and easy to scan-read.

It’s also important to understand that a Messenger conversation is not quite like a real face-to-face conversation. After sending a chat message, there are any number of things that can distract them from reacting to your responses. For that reason, weaving in some clever logic to politely nudge them along is critical to getting high completion rates.

We designed the survey to be highly modular, with timeouts that triggered reminders if questions went unanswered. These gentle nudges helped to keep the conversation moving forward.

Despite the channel’s meteoric rise, not everyone will want to engage with your brand on Messenger. To support our customer’s more traditional audience, it was decided to send a Survey Monkey request to email subscribers, as well as the chatbot survey to their Messenger subscribers.

The Results

Email to Survey Monkey 82,000 Subscribers 520 Surveys Completed	Broadcast to Messenger 13,217 Subscribers Messaged 3988 Surveys Completed

The results were nothing short of sensational, & shows once again the incredible engagement level for brands who leverage the new era of chat marketing!

With a contactable list only 1/5th the size of the email audience, the Messenger survey delivered over 8X the number of completed surveys!

Putting it a different way, Messenger subscribers were 50X more valuable than email subscribers for getting actionable product research insights!

Perhaps better still, of the 4616 people who chose to enter the survey, a staggering 3988 (86%) completed all 10 questions!

With live statistics presented on our customised Chat Marketing dashboard, the client was able to watch the data unfold in real time {we’ve blanked out some parts to protect the client’s valuable insights }..

Most importantly, the combination of closed questions, multiple choice and freeform text (with some basic semantic analysis), provided outstanding clarity to the client on the best choice of products going forwards.

Closed Questions	Multiple Choice
Semantic Free Text

Our 5 Tips for Running a Successful Messenger Product Survey

• 1)   Structure your questions so that later questions drill in deeper based on earlier answers
• 2)   Design the quiz in a modular way with good tagging so you can trigger reminders and keep the conversation moving forwards
• 3)   Keep each question short and carefully test your text for readability
• 4)   Use a mix of closed questions, multiple choice and free text to ensure you get clear results
• 5)   Incentivise entry to encourage as many people as possible to take part

Did the Survey Meet the Objectives?

Our client has come away with 3 key insights & assets

• 1)   Absolute clarity on the stand-out product that over 60% of their customer base stated they wanted to purchase!
• 2)   A new list of products to explore in 2020
• 3)   An engaged list of customers who are eagerly awaiting the next product release!

Ask Your Customers

With time, brand reputation, not to mention capital on the line, releasing new products is risky.

The value of engaging customers in product research cannot be overstated. Aside from the clarity this Beyond Points client now has, they were able to take rapid action to get production underway for their next product in record time.

Perhaps just as importantly, their customers feel heard and accounted for.

Ask yourself, how much more eagerly will these customers now share the news with their friends, engage in future offers and contribute to reviews and other user generated content to build social proof?

Because Messenger is a familiar, near real-time conversation medium, it represents an unprecedented channel of getting engaging customers and getting their feedback.

If you’re looking to expand your product line, asking your existing customers in Messenger is a great way to sense-check your ideas and pick the best match for your niche.

Plus, you’ll be building a rich launch list poised to go viral the moment you release (or even pre-release) your product. You’ll never need to feel the pain of long-term storage fees from a slow moving product, or have to run soul-destroying fire sales ever again!

Want to discover the details of how we leveraged the Product Spotlight for this client?

For a full breakdown, including conversation design, structure and more details of the amazing results, tap below to get the full Case Study via Facebook Messenger.

What separates the pros from everyone else when it comes to Facebook marketing? The ability to identify your target audience. Here’s how to do it.

Too often advertisers make the mistake of being too general with their audience targeting.

The problem is that this wastes your precious advertising dollars because the ads are shown to people who’ll never buy your product. Targeting can make all the difference to ads that deliver return on ad spend and ads that just burn your marketing budget.

A little history on audience targeting first. The Cambridge Analytica Scandal with Facebook and it’s misuse of personal data has resulted in scrutiny over data best practices. Prior to this, the power of dynamic audience targeting on Facebook was in the hands of advertisers who could be incredibly specific about who they were speaking out to in their ad beyond their own CRM databases. Advertisers could control targeting on a deep level reaching other peoples audiences without difficulty. Historically, the data was gathered from information users supplied like birthdays, interests, jobs and location. Advertisers supply data and the data points captured with users engagement on posts and pages and of course third party commercial (data) suppliers.

Today, third party data has been eliminated for audience targeting on Facebook to protect privacy. In addition, this year Facebook introduced CBO, (Campaign Budget Optimisation). CBO effectively manages the ad budget using AI to show the best ad, match the right product with the right audience and creative and show it to the right audience while avoiding audience overlap. These changes are significant for advertisers. Facebook pretty much has thousands of data points on users all over the internet thanks to it’s pixel tracking technology. Is this only new to Facebook? No. Google has employed optimisation methods for at least 10 years and we’d assume it’s safe to say most people are now familiar with cookies. Google is also on the leading edge of machine learning. So fundamentally these large social platforms are huge data sources with complex data profiles based on users interactions, whereby they now predict future behaviour and probably know more about each of us than probably we know about ourselves, whether we like it or not! 

So what does this all mean? Essentially machine learning and AI are changing audience targeting, determining who and why our ads are shown in a fundamental way. It works in basic terms by measuring the reaction, responses and engagement by people the ad is shown to to determine if the ad is relevant for the suggested audience. This is good and bad. When it works the results are great however on the downside, if the ad is not well received, it impacts delivery often in the first 48 hours thanks to signals received from the tracking pixel. Essentially the ad stops working. No amount of money you throw at it will help, it’s simply time to get more creative or do a better job at understanding how to match content with the right audience. 

Targeting is the key to a better ROI but it’s not singular. The creative and the product matched to the audience are also key. And don’t take our word for it. This example shows just how effective targeting can be:

Jesus Film Project (JFP) wanted to grow a database of new subscribers. With a new landing page, they were able to generate leads at 24 cents per lead. 

What’s more, these leads were a very close match to JFP’s target market. They were young (77% under 35 yrs old), 88% were from the US, and they were engaging with the content, as demonstrated by open rates over 50% and click through rates over 25%. 

All this came about because of intelligent targeting – the more specific you can get with your targeting, the lower your cost per lead becomes. 

Now we do know the Jesus Film was a huge project and it’d be hard to compare to considering they mapped 35 years of sub brand culture and mapped 9 audience personas. And let’s face it, religion gets attention. So don’t expect any marketing agency to be able to promise 24c leads with today’s ad costs rising. Nevertheless, it serves to show the effort they went to to understand the target audience served them well.

Despite the obvious benefits and abundant case study success stories, Social Media Examiner says that 62% of small businesses believe that Facebook ads don’t work for them.

Poor targeting is a big culprit. However to target well, you must know your avatar. Your ideal customer in other words. 

With the right targeting means you generate a better ROI for your campaigns. Without it, you’re just throwing money away on ads that don’t produce results.

Remember, not everyone can be your customer. 

With these tips, you’ll be able to work out who your audience is so that you can create much better, targeted campaigns.

Tip #1 – Start With Your Existing Customers/Fans

Use the information that your existing customers provide to target new customers.

You can see key demographical data, such as:

• Where your customers live
• Age ranges
• Gender
• Common interests

This is all the information that you can use to create a targeted campaign. Facebook offers a tool called Lookalike Audiences that allows you to target ads based on similar audiences to the data that you already have in your CRM.

Leverage it to get your ads in front of people who fit your customer profile but aren’t yet in your system.

Tip #2 – Understand the Differences Between Hot, Cold, and Warm

Not every lead you target falls under the same umbrella.

Some of your ads may target people who’ve engaged heavily with your brand already. Others may target people who haven’t even heard of you yet.

These are two completely different audiences and you need to treat them as such. Sending an ad that pushes for a sale to someone who doesn’t know your brand will result in rejection, for example.

That’s why it’s crucial to know the differences between hot, cold, and warm leads:

Hot

These guys already know your brand and may have bought from you already. These are the people that you’ll target with sales offers because they’re already at the bottom of your funnel.

Cold

This audience hasn’t even heard of you before. That means they’re going to need a little warming up before you can make any offers to them. Ads that target this audience need to focus on engagement and education.

Warm

You’ve already had a few conversations with these leads but they’re not ready to buy yet. At this point, you’re targeting this audience with information about your product’s benefits. You may also share some case studies and testimonials.

You need to target each of these lead types with a different campaign. Hitting them all with the same information at once results in leads falling out of your funnel.

Tip #3 – Leverage Google Analytics’ Conversion Reports

Google Analytics’ Conversion Reports highlight where your traffic comes from and allows you to pick out trends.

Click on Conversions, followed by Multi-Channel Funnels. Then click the Top Conversion Paths and select the Source Path option.

Finally, choose Landing Page URL Path as your Secondary Dimension.

You’ll get a report that shows where your website’s audience comes from and what path they take through your site. You can also alter the date range to get data from the last few months.

What you’re seeing here is a rundown of your target audience’s interests. You’ll see the websites that they visit before they come to yours. Plus, you’ll see the content that they check out once they’re on your website.

Compile this information into lists of related brands, interests, and groups. You can then use it to create saved audiences that you’ll use in your ad campaigns.

You’ve gone beyond targeting the basic interests you may have picked up from your CRM here. You’ve created more intensive targeting based on specific actions that visitors to your site take.

Targeting For Improved ROI

The key takeaway here is that throwing an ad out to everybody isn’t an effective way to market your business on Facebook or anywhere for that matter. Not everyone wants to hear from you or has potential to be your customer.

There are some great aspects you can dive into on platforms like Facebook that allow you to get super granula. You can tap into recent buying behavior, use your own customer buying data, get smart about life events such as birthdays and holidays. Creating custom audiences to exclude is also smart. Why sell to someone who just bought from you unless it makes perfect sense in a cross sell or upsell sense. Leverage the lookalike functionality, that means data of your own customers or page engages to create similar new audiences. You can get specific by location and age. The list goes on.

Truly understanding who your brand is reaching out to is going to be vital to lowering your ad spend as ad inventory gets more scarce. Know your avatar! You need to know where they hang out, what they are most likely to enjoy and where you can find them. More brands are using social media and messaging apps and hundreds of thousands come on board each month. So know the niche your ads belong in and your CTR and conversions will be reflected. 

Appropriate targeting leads to stronger returns on your campaigns, so invest the time on the front end.

And at Beyond Points we don’t just build the strategy, we consider ourselves experts at audience targeting. Over time we build a clearer picture, optimizing results and ensuring brands are delivering the right message at the right time to the right person. Need help? You’re welcome to schedule a strategy session with our team today.

Chat marketing is gaining momentum as the new era of marketing, and there’s a reason why. Online brands using Messenger and website chatbots are able to have many simultaneous conversations, providing faster & better service to their customers. The latest tech is helping brand reduce support costs while at the same time increasing store conversion. After all, the reason for having an online site is to enable a transaction to take place between the brand and their ideal customer.

Website chatbots are not new. In fact, you’ve probably interacted with live chat on a website without even realising its powered by a bot. However, the new era of tech is making it easier than ever for brands to deliver exceptional live chat experiences. Instant filtering to human sales agents together with customer re-engagement across multiple channels is now available inside a single chat ecosystem.

So, what’s the big deal and why should brands be paying close attention?

LIVE CHAT when done well converts and builds relationships. Every website store needs to get this right.

In this article, we’re going to discuss

1. What is Live Chat?
2. How does a live chat work?
3. What are the benefits?
4. Is live chat a real person?
5. How to get results with Live chat

What is Live Chat?

Live chat is customer service software that provides the ability to respond to a customer when they visit your online store. Well executed live chat experiences leverage a chatbot to handle frequent questions and basic enquiries. It then instantly connects a human sales agent when the customer needs additional help. The combination of programmed and live conversations help move the customer towards the next action, increasing site conversion and customer satisfaction.

How does Live Chat Work?

Live chat software offered in a SaaS business model is by no means new. Since 2002, early live chat implementations were often associated with big brands where people expected only top-level service, such as global banks and insurance companies. Nowadays its available in dozens of languages and a common tool on eCommerce sites.

Traditionally, Live Chat has two separate interfaces, one for the customer and another for the sales agent. Customers typically experience it as a chat box widget at the bottom right corner of a website. The brand’s team members see a separate interface on a web portal or mobile app showing the active conversations and current chat thread.

The application traditionally allows pre-programmed, or ‘canned’ responses, allowing one-to-many conversations to take place at the same time. Unfortunately, customer’s experience of chat widgets can prove to be a letdown. Most of us have experienced the frankly woeful response “We’re sorry, nobody is available right now to assist you, BrandXYZ usually responds within 24 hours and we’ll be in touch as soon as we can.”

Worse they tell you to call them when they are open. Sigh!

The magic starts where well-trained staff can jump in as soon as the customer has a query. This is what’s changed with customer expectations and live chat tools.

What are the Benefits?

Today’s consumers expect instantaneous information thanks to the development of mobile. As frequently quoted by global ecommerce expert Ezra Firestone, mobile shoppers are growing at a massive rate, 69% of all online sales are made on mobile.

Brands should anticipate that mobile consumers shop on the move and brands therefore need to be responsive. People shop while they walk, commute, party, get fit, relax and work. Whether we like to admit it or not, as consumers we have short attention spans and seek instant gratification. We are also easily distracted from our online activities by Ads, app alerts and real-world interruptions. Studies show if a person meets any friction while visiting an online store, they are likely to leave and never return. Nobody has time to wait.

It is therefore critical for brand owners to provide a frictionless online experience, as well as tactful way to re-engage customers who have been lured away before being able to complete a transaction.

This is where Live chat kicks in, handling standard enquiries such as, stock queries, sizes, shipping, pricing and passing to a human where necessary. Whether connected to a bot or a human, if the customer can’t get the information they need in real-time, it is deemed a bad experience. Conversely when done well, live chat can significant increase store conversion.

When properly executed, live chat results in:

• Improved customer satisfaction
• Higher conversions on your online store
• Word of mouth sales through referrals
• Opportunity to collect valuable customer data to grow relationships
• Opportunities to offer cross sells and upsells
• A well-educated customer more likely to purchase

Is live chat a real person?

The question really to ask here is does the customer feel your LIVE CHAT response is serving their needs? A litmus test is when the customer naturally transcends to the obvious next point in the conversation without doubting who is on the other end. Whether it be an automated, pre-programmed bot message or a human, the engagement is remembered by the user as a good experience and naturally progresses to the next step.

However, it’s vital a real person is available for that moment when a customer has a query which cannot be answered instantly by the pre-planned conversation chatbot. This is when good training and product knowledge really makes a competitive difference too! When someone is well trained, they can close out the conversation and help instantly. Web stores are open 24/7, which means a brand expert should be available 24/7 to answer customer enquiries.

Having a real person available to chat closes the gap of physical and virtual shopping. Brands who offer an engaging experience are trusted, remembered and shared more by their customers. After all, people want to buy from real people too.

The evidence is clear consumers see chatbot as a way to get answers fast. Digital marketer, Neil Patel shared on stage at Conversations 2019 that Chat is responsible for 28% of his own sales.

So yes, if you’ve got live chat widget on your site a person needs to be available to respond.

How to get results with Live chat

Well executed chat marketing strategy, call it Live Chat, should begin with a chatbot to handle frequently asked questions (FAQs) and predictable enquiries. This enables instant service for the customer while at the same time mitigating ticket load on trivial enquiries.

When selling high-ticket items, the bot should be engaged to ask qualifying questions designed to funnel real potential customers directly to a human sales agent. Sales agents need to be trained to quickly understand the chat thread, seamlessly picking up from where the bot left off. Chatbots are now a key component of your sales force. Just like any sales person, language, tone and brand voice matter. Messenger offers a more personalised approach to continue the conversation. It’s worth noting the list below of key points to do and not to do to get optimal results from Live Chat.

In addition, to deliver great results in Live Chat you need a good platform. There are many widgets and SaaS products but by far our favourite tool for Live chat is ManyChat. ManyChat allows tighter integration as a CS tool, offering brands insights to deliver personalised service or offers. Customers will enjoy a seamless experience. It’s the ecosystem for chat, it’s more than Messenger Marketing. At Conversations 2019 one of the many updates was the iOS app is now available enabling live chat for iPhone users, coming soon to Android too. At Beyond Points, we’ve had great success using ManyChat live chat across our customer’s accounts to build brand trust and grow revenue.

The average response time by online chat is 90 seconds. Beat this and you’re ahead of your competition. Compare average response times on other channels below.

Customer service agents are assigned a chat with a tracking to ensure the query has been handled. In the latest updates, the service agent is now able to re-engage the customer into a bot flow wherever relevant. Bot-to-human interactions like this provide rapid, helpful service & build trust with the customer ahead of a potential purchase.

Do not be overlook the importance of properly implementing a well thought out live chat strategy. Alarmingly, Simplr recently conducted a study that shows 93% of brands have poorly implemented live chat. For the majority of brands, poorly implemented chat services are bleeding the brand in lost sales and may even be doing long term brand damage through poor service.

The Live Chat To Do’s list.

1. Respond in 90 seconds or less.
2. Send omni-channel push notifications to your live agent
3. Allow site visitors to engage with a human
4. Transition ‘service’ staff to sales agents and ensure they are well trained on your product or service
5. Ensure coverage is 24/7, and your peak demand shopping times are well covered to not delay responsiveness
6. Use smart responses to re-engage – people get distracted. Come back to the conversation and offer more value!
7. Be the guide by providing alternative solutions if you can’t help with their particular need
8. Be human! Engage like a real person 🙂

Live Chat What NOT to do.

1. Don’t send an automated reply saying ‘sorry nobody is there right now to help, we’ll be back in 24 hours’
2. Don’t make the customer repeat themselves between the bot and the live agent
3. Don’t be impersonal
4. Don’t make the customer wait while you deal with another customer at the same time
5. Don’t keep the responses long between your chat – hence why this is LIVE chat.
6. Don’t take longer than 5 minutes to transition to a human
7. Don’t force people to email or ‘call the office during working hours’

Live chat is the cream of customer service and can be leveraged by every brand.

According to Forrester, data reveals site visitors leveraging Live Chat are 2.8x more likely to convert than those that don’t. Further, Intercom revealed that one reply makes visitors 50% more likely to convert, 2 replies makes them 150% more likely to convert, and 6 or more messages with a prospect or customer can increase conversion rate by 250%.

Incase that’s not convincing enough as to why every online store should pay attention, the latest global statistics show that 87% of smart phone users are using messaging apps, with 3 billion people predicted to be using messaging apps every day by 2022. Live chat enables your brand to service this growing user base 24/7, facilitating cost-effective Human to human (H2H) marketing.  Serviced well, Live chat will be a major differentiator for successful brands in 2020.

It’s time for your brand to beat the competition and become one of the 7% of online stores successfully implementing live chat to grow sales.  👉 Contact Beyond Points today if you would like help to implement a winning live chat strategy.

Beyond Points officially partners with NSW Government to Support NSW Small Business Month 2019. Delighted to get involved and support business success and growth, Beyond Points will run a series of 3 information sessions throughout October. Ideally suited for business owners and brands seeking effective profitable strategies to grow online and leverage their Digital Future.

Beyond Points values NSW Government commitment to support small business through a range of programs, policies and initiatives. 

Together, we can:

• Connect government, industry, the small business community and the public with the products, services and thought leadership they need to thrive
• Connect small business owners in NSW to each other so they can tap into a support network and knowledge base to help them build stronger businesses
• Highlight NSW as a small business friendly state, where it’s easier to start, grow and run a resilient small business

These discussions will take place in Sydney, NSW home to 765,000 small businesses, where businesses will learn how to build and secure an ecosystem to support growth and make sales.

Overview

The world of marketing is constantly changing, but right now we are in the early days of the biggest shift in digital marketing since email replaced print.  Buyer behaviour has shifted, and now more than ever your digital presence impacts not only your online but also your offline business.

Join us in October on a journey from understanding high-level strategic observations on how marketing has changed and the impact for businesses if they don’t evolve, to exploring the fastest growing and most effective channels for digital marketing leading into 2020. In each session, we explore this transition and how YOU can benefit it from many different angles, so there will be something new and interesting shared in each event!

You will leave with valuable insights on how easy it is to use more automation to your advantage. It’s easier than you will think! Leave with ideas for your entire business that will motivate and excite you to the possibilities that you otherwise are leaving on the floor.

Don’t put your future on hold, time spent in any of these Beyond Points Small Business Month sessions will return you implementable and actionable value that any small business should be doing to remain visible and competitive in today’s economy.

There are 3 event sessions to benefit any small business throughout October. These are listed below.

Sessions are easily reserved right below in Messenger or on Eventbrite.

Lessons learnt building business online from Zero to 7 Figures in 2 years. Fast track your success!

When: Wednesday 9th October 7am to 9am 
Secure Your Seat: $32.99  with a freshly brewed coffee on arrival.
Limited to 50 people only. 

Where Harbord Diggers – 88 Evans Street, Freshwater, NSW, Freshwater 2096

Fast Track Your Digital Marketing success – get insights from the  macro-changes in buyer behaviour to the fastest growing Marketing Channel in decades. 
If you’re considering third-party platforms to help grow your sales such as Amazon or need to demystify what’s working now online to attract and convert customers, you won’t want to miss this jam-packed session that could impact your bottom line.

We want you caffeinated and BUZZING, so entry includes a delicious Barista made coffee of your choice to start the morning off!

Limited to 50 people only.

Register Here on Messenger so you get the reminder and updates on your mobile in a message.

Book in Messenger Book On Eventbrite

How to Find Customers & Drive Growth in Your Business Using AI & Chatbots

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Chatbots are no longer just for big business. Discover how small businesses are using automated conversations to beat the competition and build meaningful customer relationships to make more sales both online and offline. 

When: Thursday 17th October 12.30pm to 2.30pm
Where: Stanton Library, 234 Miller Street, North Sydney, 2060
Secure Your Seat: $29.99

Limited to 50 people only. 

Technology is so fast moving and hard to keep up with. What you need is the nuggets, not the noise. In a short few hours, you will understand how to leverage Online Automation to grow your loyal customers and grow sales.  Whether you’re just getting started out or making a transition from ‘bricks to clicks’, we’ll show you how to leverage Messenger Marketing using chatbots to build your business and exponentially grow your customer list.

A high energy session to rocket your business growth, we want you to arrive caffeinated and BUZZING, so entry includes a delicious Barista made coffee of your choice!

Limited to 50 people only.

Register Here on Messenger for convenient updates on your mobile in a simple message.

Book in Messenger Book On Eventbrite

Discover How to Leverage the Fastest Growing Marketing Channel Since Email

 

Breaking down the barriers between traditional business models and the digital Future. End the week understanding how consumers are buying right now, where to reach them and how do drive more sales online.

When: Friday 25th October 3-6pm Diggers

Secure Your Seat: $29.99  with a freshly brewed coffee on arrival.

Where Harbord Diggers – 88 Evans Street, Freshwater, NSW, Freshwater 2096 

Cut through the noise. Get real insights that will Fast Track Any Business. Learn Why Digital Marketing is just marketing – You’ll be staggered by the insights shared in a powerful few hours that illustrate macro-changes in buyer behaviour and discover the fastest growing Marketing Channel in decades.  Attending this session will empower you with take home strategies to give your business unique competitive edge utilising a ground floor opportunity together with unique insights learned building a 7-figure online business in just 2 years. 

Kick back with us and network with like-minded entrepreneurs and business owners from around the beaches. Your first drink is on us, it’d be un-Australian not to!
Limited to the first 50 people only. 

Register Here on Messenger so you get the reminder and updates on your mobile in a message.

Book in Messenger Don’t have Messenger? Reserve your seat here

Beyond Points is proud to support Australian Business in collaboration with NSW Government. We look forward to meeting you during October.