Question: What are the best marketing channels for customer acquisition?
Answer: There are several ways you can acquire new customers:
Answer: There are several ways you can acquire new customers:
Search: both natural/organic SEO and paid search. Add your products onto comparison sites if relevant or create product feeds that link back to your site from related sites. For example linking a product article onto the travel section of an online news publication if you are a travel business. If you have access to online marketing budget, it may be worth investing in paid advertising such a display ads or affiliate marketing. You may wish to develop an email strategy. If your brand has a close affinity to social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter it may be worth experimenting within in these channels to grow the awareness of your brand, service or product set. Another way is to invest time in online PR in the same way as you may do so offline, using PR affiliate networks to push your releases out to relevant touch points across the web. The options you choose will be dependent on your business, your customer type and the resource and knowledge available within the business or through external suppliers.
Question: How can I retain my customers once I have acquired them?
Answer: There are lots of ways to hold onto your customers once they have done business with you once.
Answer: There are lots of ways to hold onto your customers once they have done business with you once. Here are just some examples to consider: You could introduce a loyalty scheme to encourage repeat purchases, or offer a discount off their next purchase after they have bought for the first time. Introduce special offers, event driven promotions or personalised offers based on their previous buying habits. The techniques you use will depend on the type of business you have and the type of customers you attract.
Question: Why is user centred design important?
Answer: This ensures that your resulting website or digital experience meets the customers needs as the whole development and design process will take into consideration what the users needs and wants and puts the customer at the centre of the whole process.
Answer: This ensures that your resulting website or digital experience meets the customers needs as the whole development and design process will take into consideration what the users needs and wants and puts the customer at the centre of the whole process. There may be key business objectives that need to be met, but ultimately it will be meeting the needs of your end users that will result in the success of your website.
Question: What are personas and how can they help my business?
Answer: Personas are fictional representations of groups of similar types of users that visit your site.
Answer: Personas are fictional representations of groups of similar types of users that visit your site. Typically they are born out undertaking some initial research on your online business or potential business factoring in areas like the type of business your are and who the potential customers you are trying to attract. Once you have identified your different personas, typically no more than 7, around 5 are usually sufficient; you can develop scenarios and use cases that these personas may typically undertake on your site. By understanding the way in which each of these personas will engage with your site, will allow you to design your site to an optimal level to meet the majority of needs of each of these user groups. An e.g. persona maybe: Alice, 54, retired, affluent, enjoys trying new things and is comfortable using the Internet to research and buy from.
Question: I have a successful e-commerce website that is exceeding sales targets every month, do I need to do
Answer: No matter how successful your site is at any given time, there is always room for further improvements, adding new functionality and/or tools that can further optimise its performance.
Answer: No matter how successful your site is at any given time, there is always room for further improvements, adding new functionality and/or tools that can further optimise its performance. Even the smallest incremental changes on your website will make a huge difference to your key performance metrics. Always do regular reviews of all or parts of your site to see if it can be further improved, changed or updated. Don’t forget to keep an eye on your competitors and industry changes to always be one step ahead of the game.
Question: Why should I focus on getting my customer service strategy right?
Answer: Most companies tend to spend a lot of time developing ways in which to acquire new customers and persuading them to buy or take on a service from their website.
Answer: Most companies tend to spend a lot of time developing ways in which to acquire new customers and persuading them to buy or take on a service from their website. Once a customer has purchased a product or service the website is seen to have done its job. But to the customer receiving the product or service is still part of the online experience. Therefore it is just as important to ensure the customer experience they have at this stage is to the same standard as it was during the purchasing onsite. Don’t forget an acquired customer is much cheaper to retain than a getting another new customer. Make the delivery process as streamlined as it can be, ensure all deliveries arrive in the timeframe stated on the website. Make your returns process easy and allow the customer to contact you quickly and easily should they have a question about their order. These are just some of the fundamental things that should be in place. Remember ‘under promise, over delivery’.
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