Customers can definitely touch this, MC Hammer

Click-bait headline sure, but ‘Can’t Touch This – MC Hammer’ was too good to not include.

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Believe it or not, a customer’s journey with a brand is complex. It doesn’t only include searching for and purchasing a product. Understanding that there are various times where a company comes into contact with a brand is vital to creating relationships between customer and brand – so let’s talk about it.

What are these times called?

These are called touchpoints. Customer touchpoints as explained by Survey Monkey (2018) are really every single time a potential customer comes into contact with your brand – either before, during or after purchasing something from you.

Still confused? They’ve added some examples of only a few of the touchpoints and when they’re experienced too:

BEFORE

• Social media
• Word of mouth
• Reviews

DURING

• Website
• Point of sale
• Promotions

AFTER

• Follow ups
• Marketing emails
• Service teams

The below infographic also shows this information visually:

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Source: Wots The Big Deal

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Okay, it seems simple but what’s the big deal?

Funnily enough, Wots The Big Idea (2018) discusses that by understanding your customer’s touchpoints, as a business you have the opportunity to effectively listen to your customers and continuously make improvements that will keep them happy.

Additionally, understanding touchpoints means we can improve our interactions with customers and also analyse whether those touchpoints are having a positive or negative effect (Interaction Design, 2018).

Gotcha! So what are the digital marketing implications of this?

As well as the above, there are many! However a few of the most important ones are:

• Discovering what touchpoint/s generates the most ROI
• Finding out where customers are engaging the most and also the least
• Understanding customer motives to connecting through particular avenues
• Can be used in further developing the customer journey and experience to build relationships

Have a think about some of the touchpoints you personally have experienced with brands and let me know below! Also, did you find it effective or not?

 

“Hey Siri, is voice search really going anywhere?”

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When Siri first launched with Apple in 2011, the world was under its spell. Users loved asking Siri to do mundane tasks like setting an alarm or asking what a word meant.

Fast forward seven years, and voice search has grown in it’s skill, technology, use and popularity.

So much so, that according to Forbes (2018), 58% of consumers have used voice search to find local businesses within the past 12 months and 20% of Google searches are made using voice.

But what does the growth of voice search mean for digital marketing?

First and foremost, companies will have to tweak their webpages to include micro-data – a term that CMO (2018) express as displaying location, product information and key details consumers would want to know when using a voice search. This will improve the company’s SEO and in turn, how likely the company is to get voice-time from the user’s search query.

Secondly, consumers want answers – fast. It’s no secret that speaking a question is quicker than typing a question into Google.

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Source: Backlinko

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As well as this, voice search offers convenience. Not only does it allow quick results, it allows the user to have the answer read back to them in a matter of seconds as opposed to sifting through a few links on a Google desktop search.

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Source: Backlinko

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Lastly and most confronting for digital marketing, is that voice search is the third highest ranked method that consumers use to look something up. This demonstrates just how important it is for companies to look into voice search and how it can impact their business and it’s performance with voice searches.

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Source: Backlinko

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Voice search is growing, and companies need to understand it in order to keep their SEO effective. A conversational dialogue for search may make it easier for consumers, but can make it more difficult for companies and their websites if keywords that are used in voice searches aren’t used on these sites. This can be dangerous if companies do not know how voice search works and how results are picked and voiced to the users.

What are your thoughts – will voice search overtake traditional methods of searching? Did you know voice search is based on keywords too like SEO? Let me know below!

 

“Banking apps are horrible” said no one ever.

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It’s no secret that consumers are more attached to their mobile phones and in turn, have adopted practices that take on the mundane, boring tasks – like banking.

Mobile banking usage has significantly increased within the past few years and even within the past year, with March 2017 having 43.4% of consumers using the service and March 2018 having 46.5% (Roy Morgan Research, 2018).  Additionally, Roy Morgan also found that mobile banking also has higher customer satisfaction levels compared to that of a traditional physical branch.

An article from Rate City (2018) attributes the success and popularity of mobile banking to the features that banking applications have, like allowing immediate transfers between users, transferring between accounts, paying bills like your registration or even allowing individuals to budget.

But what does this mean for digital marketing?

It’s reported that among millenials aged 18-37, the average number of financial mobile apps is 3.6 while your average user has approximately 2.5 (Mobile Payments Today,  2018).

Additionally, the below infographic also demonstrates the projected rise in mobile banking users specifically around millennials.

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Source: Centric Digital

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Personally I haven’t seen any mobile applications advertised relating to banking, and rather just know that banks provide these services. The statistics demonstrate that millennials are interested in financial applications and I think this leaves a significant gap for digital marketers to occupy.

By creating campaigns on outlets where millennials frequent like Instagram or Facebook, banking and financial applications could see a surge in download rates and positive reviews.

Who’s to say Instagram advertisements just have to focus on your past shopping history or the most up to date fashion? I say bring on the banking!

Do any of you use banking applications and if so, how did you find out about them? Do you think advertising and marketing the concepts will help inform users who are unsure of it?

Let me know below.

 

 

How important is online customer service?

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Customer service. An element that is so necessary to get correct in every aspect, and with the prominent growth of online platforms, this has changed customer service as we know it.

Nearly all businesses have online platforms, whether social media or a company website. Each can provide an element of customer service that involves interactivity between user and company.

A recent customer service trends report by Forrester (2018) outlines that live-assist channels focusing on digital are growing in popularity. 54% of those surveyed responded to an email that they sent customer service, while 33% used social media to contact a company.

But what does this mean for businesses in terms of customer service? As customer’s patience decreases in terms of waiting for a response and their use of social media and online services increases, businesses need to be able to action a response as soon as possible.

Zendesk (2018) state that 69% of consumers think a fast resolution to problems is vital, with Conversocial (2017) reporting that 88% of consumers are less likely to purchase from a company that leaves customer queries on social media unanswered – highlighting the importance of social media responses.

These statistics emphasise the digital marketing implications of online customer service, which links to the below infographic as well:

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Source: The Buffer Blog

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So basically, in turn for great online customer service, companies get:

• Higher customer loyalty
• More recommendations to friends and family
• Continued appreciation and use of the company
• More consumer engagement
• Frequent likes and comments
• A higher respect among the online community

So tell me – have you ever contacted a business via social media or an online platform? How was your experience?

Let me know below.