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Product bundling
Product bundling is a marketing strategy that enables companies to group complementary products into a single unit and set a lower price than if they were sold individually. It allows brands to increase sales volume and average order value as well as save money on promotion.
This technique is popular among eCommerce businesses, fast food restaurants, the hotel industry, etc. With this strategy, McDonald’s sells its Happy Meals; beauty stores create packages including shampoos, conditioners, and hair masks; hotels offer rooms with breakfast included. Such product bundles are useful for both customers and brands. Let’s discover the way they benefit.
Why do companies bundle products?
Nowadays, almost every brand offers its clients a package, a combo, or a mix based on their needs and preferences. Customers buy these sets because they help them save money and try new products at low risk since brands usually combine top-selling products with low-selling items. This technique can increase your company’s average order value, sales, and revenue, save money on promoting and distributing individual products, and enhance customer experience. Let’s discover these benefits in more detail.
Advantages of Product Bundling
Average order value increase
Sales volume increase
Inventory waste decrease
Saving money on promotion and distribution
Personalized customer experience
Let’s discover the benefits a business can reap after creating a well-thought-out product bundling strategy.
Average order value increase. Say, you own a beauty store, and your average order value is $15. Your top-selling product is facial cleansing foam. If you aim to increase your order value, consider offering your customer to buy a skincare set consisting of your best-selling foam, a slow-moving toner, and a cream for $35 only. Remember to choose products that complement each other and work effectively in combination.
Sales volume increase. Sales volume is the number of products sold during a particular period, for example, a quarter. This measure shows both your general business health and the performance of your marketing campaigns in particular. Calculating this metric will help you identify the most effective selling techniques and determine high-performing sales reps. Some of your products that don’t sell can lack promotion, so combining them in a bundle with the most-selling products would be a good idea. This method will help you significantlyincrease the sales volume and enable clients to explore your new products.
Inventory waste decrease. Each company has some dead stock in its warehouses. Such items stagnate on shelves, hindering new arrivals. You can make room by bundling these items with the most selling products that will work perfectly together. The only thing you need is to combine them wisely.
Saving money on promotion and distribution. Each product needs promotion, and promotion needs investments. If marketers advertised each product of their company, the revenue would not cover these costs since there are always some goods that do not sell well. Hence, if you have five best-selling products, try bundling them with your slowly-moving inventory and sell them at a reduced price. Besides, you’ll save money on packaging since you need only one box to send a set of products.
Personalized customer experience. You can increase customer retention and loyaltyby providing them with unique and personalized offers. Check out the profiles of your regular customers in your CRMto explore their favorite products. Then, create a relevant product mix based on their needs. For example, your client always buys a skin whitening cleansing foam, so we can assume they have acne marks. You can offer them chemical peels and a moisturizer to cope with this problem effectively. Remember that customers will appreciate your care and attention.
Now that you know why companies bundle products and the benefits they reap, it’s time to get familiar with the types of product bundling to choose one that works best for your business.
8Types of Product Bundling
Pure bundling
Mix and match bundling
Cross-sell bundling
New product bundling
Gift set bundling
BOGO bundling (Buy X Get Y)
Old inventory bundling
Occasional bundling
In this section, we’ll shed some light on eight types of product bundling so that you can discover the opportunities they bring.
Pure bundling. It implies a mix of products that can be bought only within a bundle, and no item is sold separately. This type of bundling is often used by monopolies that aim to limit their clients’ choices. For example, cable TV providers offer packages with channels that cannot be sold individually; bus tour providers offer their clients tours that include a transfer, hotel accommodation, a guided walking tour, and headphones.
Mix and match bundling. This bundling technique enables marketers to choose several products available for packaging so that clients can choose the necessary items and create a custom bundle. This makes them feel as if they have full control of the transaction. For these packages, companies often use perishables, for example, toiletries, six-packs of fresh juice or beer, and an option to choose a T-shirt when buying a pair of jeans at $X.
Cross-sell bundling. It means offering a product that complements the initial choice, and this complimentary product often can’t be used separately. For example, customers are always offered to buy a case or earphones together with a phone.
New product bundling. This type implies offering a recently launched item together with a high-selling product. This way, marketers give their new products a boost and promote them for free. The better product you choose as the main one, the higher the chances that your clients will buy this bundle.
Gift set bundling. As the name suggests, this type of bundling helps customers choose gifts for their friends. The logic behind this is that the more products in a set, the better the gift. This type of bundling is especially popular during holidays when people look for quality and functional products. For example, a hair straightener can be sold together with heat protection hair sprays and barrettes.
BOGO bundling (Buy X Get Y). “Buy one get one” is a killer bundling type widely used by eCommerce businesses. Companies use it to encourage customers to buy a full-priced product to get another one as a gift or with a big discount. The initial product is either expensive or a one-time use item, such as a fridge, a hairdryer, or an electric razor. This way, clients are informed that buying this item or spending the N-sum of money will let them choose a gift or receive a high discount.
Old inventory bundling. Dead stock prevents businesses from investing money into producing new products, which makes a company stagnate. With an old inventory bundling strategy, you can clear your inventory space, sell excess and old items, and increase your revenue. Consider promoting a slow-moving product with one of your bestsellers at a reduced price. This will make your offer look attractive to clients.
Occasional bundling. This type of product bundling works perfectly during holidays, special occasions, seasonal needs, etc. For example, flower stores can create a package dedicated to St. Valentine’s day and sell different sets of flowers with candies, chocolates, and greeting cards. Beauty stores can create special travel kits during the high season. They can contain miniature versions of cleansing facial foams, toners, and cream with SPF 50+. This bundling type allows companies to boost their revenue during holidays and special occasions.
Now that you’re familiar with the most popular bundling types, we’ll share several essential tips for you to remember and to make the most out of this strategy.
5Product Bundling Tips
Create data-driven bundles
Provide different packages
Inform your clients about savings
Create time-limited bundles
Promote your bundles across various channels
Follow the best practices belowto create product bundles that sell.
Create data-driven bundles.Make use of your customers’ personal data and their purchasing history to ensure that this strategy works effectively. This information will help you create personalized and unique bundles relevant to each client. Check this data in your CRM system. You’ll learn what your customers frequently buy, items they left in their shopping cart, and their needs and preferences. This way, you can create unique bundles that they actually need.
Provide different packages. Provide your customers with a choice because having options makes them feel more satisfied. There are more chances that your clients will find something to their liking if there are more options. Limited packages often scare customersawaysince they make them think that the only goal of this set is to sell slowly-moving products.
Inform your clients about savings. Customers feel satisfied if they manage to save some money. Since the core of product bundling is saving money, let clients know exactly how much money they will save if they buy this or that bundle. You can show this information in the checkout, product recommendation, on the product page, or notify them via an email campaign.
Create time-limited bundles. The sense of urgency drives impulse purchases. Create a special category on your site, dedicating it to the juiciest offers, for example, “Five top trending bundles of the week.” Don’t forget to give a high discount for such bargains.
Promote your bundles across various channels. This strategy won’t bring much revenue if your audience knows nothing about your offers. Find out the most effective channels for communication with your customers and inform them about valuable bundles. You can do this for free with the help of the LIKE.TG email service.
With all this information at hand, the only thing you need to start is to get inspired with some examples. We’ve collected several of them below.
Examples of Product Bundling
In this section, you’ll see how famous brands implement product bundling into their marketing strategy.
IHerb, afamous company selling dietary supplements and beauty and health products, uses bundling on each product page. The package depends on a customer’s previous purchases. The brand offers to save $3 if a user buys an item they have purchased before with the one they’re viewing at the moment.
Kylie Cosmetics has a separate category on their site to showcase all their bundles. What is good is that the brand emphasizes that customers can save money. A wide choice of packages available allows customers to find the one they actually need.
3 Wise Men is an online store selling high-quality men’s clothes. The brand offers four different packages to every taste and budget.
After a user chooses the first bundle for $300, they see the collection of trousers, shirts, and knitwear to choose from. In addition, the brand shows how much money customers will save if they buy three pieces of clothes together.
Congrats, now you understand the benefits product bundling can bring to your business, know its types, and have some valuable tips and examples at hand. Make use of LIKE.TGpromotional tools to inform your audience about your best deals.
Pricing strategy
Pricing strategy is a methodology or tool used by business owners to fix prices for their products and services. Businesses consider several factors while choosing the right strategy. They include demand and supply, the economic situation in the country, marketing objectives, competitor pricing, manufacturing, and marketing costs, revenue targets, consumer income level, etc.
This article sheds some light on the importance of choosing the right pricing strategy and its types. You'll also get to know how to create a winning pricing strategy. Stay tuned!
Why is it important to have a pricing strategy?
The choice of a pricing strategy is vital for each business. It allows companies not only to forecast sales but build trustful relationships with their consumers. Product pricing is one of the main factors considered by clients when making a purchase decision, so setting a high price may scare potential customers away, while a low price can make them doubt the product quality.
Startups and new companies can use a pricing strategy to their advantage by setting lower prices than competitors. This helps them attract new customers considering the price the primary decision-making factor. At the same time, lots of consumers question the quality of the product if its price is much lower than on the market. So, product pricing delivers its value to the customers.
In addition, optimizing and changing your pricing strategy depending on the marketing trends, competitors' strategies, and clients' behavior can help you blow up sales. If you sell goods with inelastic demand such as food, life-saving drugs, fuel, cigarettes, etc, you can increase the price because its change doesn't influence the sales volume much.
So, now that you know why it's important to choose the right pricing strategy, let's consider its types for you to make the best decision.
12 Types of Pricing Strategies
We'll consider in detail 12 pricing strategies. Choose one that best suits your business.
Cost-plus pricing. It's the most popular and easy-to-implement pricing strategy since it requires no market research and customer behavior analysis. It is also called "a markup strategy." To implement it, you need to find out the cost of producing your good, including labor costs, material expenses, and budget spent on marketing and shipping. Then add the fixed percentage to this total cost, and this will be the price of your product. For example, if it costs you $30 to produce a pair of jeans, and you decide to make a $30 profit on each deal, their price will be $60 and your markup — is 100%. You don't need to analyze customer demand or the strategies of your competitors to use this strategy. It's often used for physical products being irrelevant for SaaS since their services usually provide a great value which is higher than their expenditures.
Competition-based pricing strategy. As the name suggests, this strategy puts the competitor's price at the center of attention. If you want to attract new potential customers considering the price the most important factor while looking for a product, analyze your competitors' prices, and set lower prices for your goods. If you sell items in high volume, you can negotiate with suppliers to have a discount which allows you to skyrocket sales and your income in a competitive market with similar products. Although if you're starting a business and don't have a big audience, low prices will mean low income for you. Hence, you won't be able to cut down the costs of production and will lose your opportunities.
Price skimming strategy. Companies with brand-new product use this strategy. It allows them to set high prices because there are no alternatives on the market. The only thing is that producers need to demonstrate the high value of their new technology to remove customers' stress from this purchase decision. Then, business owners gradually reduce prices to let more price-sensitive audience segments buy their products.
Dynamic pricing. This strategy allows business owners to adjust the product price to different variables such as demand, supply, and competitors' pricing. etc. This helps them blow up sales. Air conditioning systems usually cost much more in summer as well as Uber services during the rainstorm in rush hours. High demand lets businesses use this pricing strategy.
Value-based pricing. This strategy implies setting prices based on the value the product or service provides. SaaS and subscription-based services choose this strategy since the value they provide is much higher than the costs spent on production. To implement this strategy, brands need to analyze customers' needs and demands to product highly relevant products.
High-low pricing. With this strategy, brands set high prices initially and launch profitable promotional campaigns to blow up sales. High discounts are available during seasonal deals, markdowns, and clearance sales. This tactic enables product owners to increase their revenue, sell low-demand products, and boost their site traffic.
Penetration pricing strategy. Brands entering a competitive or oversaturated market use this strategy to stand out from their rivals. They fix extremely low prices compared with other similar produces. This strategy allows them to build a large customer base in no time. Companies hope that price-sensitive clients will switch brands and stay loyal. Although, this strategy is beneficial only if you sell goods in high volume, otherwise, you will lose money. Besides, you risk being drawn into a price war and enrich your audience with clients always expecting low prices.
Freemium strategy. SaaS and subscription-based services often use this pricing strategy. They provide their basic plan for free to attract new potential clients, let users evaluate the benefits of their product, collect customer feedback and improve their services. Free plans and time-limited trials enable brands to hook customers to its services and convert them into loyal clients.
Premium strategy. Companies targeting customers with high incomes implement this strategy. Brands set high prices to demonstrate that the product is unique, luxury, and high-quality. People pay much for obtaining this special status of having a prestigious product which makes them feel the same. Starbucks uses a premium pricing strategy.
Psychological pricing strategy. As the name suggests, marketers rely on consumer psychology. For this purpose, they need to carry out a thorough customer analysis to identify if they're inclined to make impulse purchases. Usually, people tend to consider prices with odd numbers (9) to be a good deal. That's why you often see a "$99,99" price instead of "$100" and that makes you feel that a brand does its best to help you save as much money as possible. Also, marketers place the cards with the most expensive products next to those they want to sell as soon as possible. These are the favorite tricks of marketers and the favorite promotional campaigns of consumers.
Bundle pricing. Marketers bundle products to blow up their profits with upselling and cross-selling techniques. They allow brands to sell several complementary items together in a bundle to convince clients that they save money this way.
Geographic pricing. With this pricing method, businesses set different prices based on the geographical location of a consumer. Marketers divide their customers by country, city, region, zip code, etc, and run targeted campaigns on social media. This allows them to maximize profits in the most promising locations.
Now that you know so many types of pricing strategies, it’s time to learn how to select the perfect one for your business.
How to choose a pricing strategy?
To select a perfect pricing strategy for your business, you need to know the real value of your good and carry out a thorough analysis of your target market. Let's consider each step in detail.
Identify the real value of your good. Before fixing the product price, you need to take into account all the expenses such as raw materials, production materials, labor costs, operating costs, general overhead, shipping and marketing costs, etc. Other factors including your product pricing may include seasonality, demand fluctuations, your target market specifics, etc. Be careful with setting low prices as you risk having losses. Although, high-volume orders will help you negotiate with your suppliers and agree on lower prices which will provide you with higher income.
Analyze your buyer personas. To stand out from your competitors, analyze customers' pain points and unmet needs. If your competitors provide similar goods, find their weaknesses and act on them. They may include product quality, customer service, return, and refund policy, after-sales service, etc. Provide consumers with a better product and fix higher prices accordingly. To better understand your ideal customers, you should not only create a profile with detailed information, but analyze their income level, buyer behavior, and customer lifetime value. This will provide more actionable insights and let you forecast sales.
Adjust your prices. Mind the previous factors and consider historical data to create a winning pricing strategy. Look through the strategies that worked and failed in the past for your business and analyze your mistakes. Keep track of both your most successful deals and the churn rate. If you want to set the prices higher than your competitors do, be ready to communicate your competitive advantage and demonstrate the value of your product. If you want to set the prices lower, ensure that you can operate cost-efficiently and sell in high volumes. If you want to set the same prices as your rivals do, find your differentiating factor so that your company can stand out.
Congrats, now you know why creating a successful pricing strategy isn’t an easy task. You have some types of strategies at hand and several tips that will simplify the process.
Product approach
A product approach implies focusing on an end-product. The concept first appeared in teaching and writing and was later adopted by marketers and managers. In marketing, a product approach means that a business concentrates on its output rather than on customers’ demand, needs, and values.
In the business environment, the term “product approach” has changed in meaning over time. This article explores the product approach in marketing and the company management. We’ll start with an overview of two primary management frameworks.
Product Approach vs. Process Approach
When setting up a business, companies employ one of two approaches: product or process. Both of them aim to boost a firm’s efficiency and improve results. However, they have different focal points.
The process approach sees a company as a set of interconnected processes. Thus, to achieve the desirable outcomes, you need to streamline inner business processes. This strategy implies a high degree of team-organization and fine-tuned corporate culture.It is crucial to put employees in charge of improving the firm's procedures by brainstorming, group discussion, and collaborative revision.
On the contrary, the product approach pivots around output. To release in-demand products, an organization often employs this provenbusiness model. On average, the product approach requires less teamwork and collaboration than the process perspective.
When it comes to marketing, the term “product approach”changes in meaning and confronts not a process but a marketing-oriented approach. Let’s get into detail and find out the best option.
Product Approach in Marketing
“Build it, and they will come” – this saying precisely describes the product approach in marketing. A better way to understand this concept is by contrasting it to a marketing-oriented outlook. Marketing-oriented businesses start with defining and exploring their target audience and creating the demand for their product or service.
The product approach goes the opposite way and crafts an output to meet the existing demand. Hence, businesses that use a product approach have to compete on pricing. This framework can drive desirable outcomes, but it has a weakness.
Companies that work inside the product approach are often blind to buyers' changes of heart and the upcoming shifts in the market. For instance, Kodak fell into a trap by using theproduct approach.
The company used to be a market leader for decades and produced the best-in-class cameras. However, Kodak failed to notice that customers started to favor digital cameras to analog ones. As a result, the company lost its market share and almost went bankrupt.
The product approach in marketing gets outdated. To keep up with trends, adopt a marketing-oriented approach and employ actual tactics. Sign up with LIKE.TGto reap the benefits of email, web push notification, SMS, and chatbot marketing.
Price sensitivity
Price sensitivity is a measure that shows how different prices for products or services influence consumers’ purchasing behaviors. Simply put, it indicates how product demand changes with an increase or decrease in a product price. It helps companies determine how product alterations will affect theirsales volume and uncover possible revenue by maximizing their price band.
Why is price sensitivity important?
As a business owner, you have to manage such things as choosing an industry for your brand, finding the best suppliers, selecting products, and deciding on your prices. Yet the most challenging thing is to find the balance in the price range so that your customers can afford to purchase from you, and at the same time, you could obtain the expected profit. You should be aware of price sensitivity to set the prices that suit you and your customers effectively.
If you already have great products or services, but they aren’t selling, it might be the problem of high price sensitivity. Customers simply can’t purchase from your brand because it is too expensive for them, albeit the price might seem fair to you.
High price sensitivity indicates that customers can easily reject buying a product since its cost is unreasonable. When you deal with such consumers, be attentive to their needs and try to add some value to your product to meet their wants and reduce price sensitivity. Low price sensitivity shows that clients are willing to pay the mentioned price and can even pay more for it.
The measure helps derive the price of products and services and understand customer behavior. It empowers your company to assess how fluctuations in prices affect the demand for your products. Eventually, by keeping this measure in mind, you have an opportunity to optimize your offerings to retain customers and attract more prospects.
Now that you know the reasons why it’s important to understand price sensitivity, let’s walk you through the factors that influence this measure.
Factors Affecting Price Sensitivity
Product type
Reference price
Switching costs
Product uniqueness
Ease of comparison
Brand’s fairness
This measure is defined by the industry you’re in and the products you offer. There are several ways to change this degree. Yet, first of all, you need to find out what factors affect price sensitivity.
Product type. Some goods, especially products that people need for their everyday life like milk, bread, meat, fruits, or toothpaste, are more sensitive than other products. You can be sure that these will always be in demand despite any economic situation. Nevertheless, during difficult times, people try to purchase these essentials at the best price, resulting in increased sensitivity. On the contrary, some goods are less vital, and their demand is influenced by quality, style, or brand (for example, expensive cars or luxury clothing).
Reference price. As you know, customers usually compare products and evaluate all the alternatives to choose the best product with high quality and a reasonable price. When purchasing goods, buyers always pay attention to the sum of money they are willing to pay for the quality of these products and the benefits they can bring. If the cost of your goods differs greatly from the approximate price your clients have in mind, they won’t consider these products. As a result, their price sensitivity will be high.
Switching costs. In most cases, to change a provider, the client has to pay an onboarding fee again. However, it’s not the main problem. Frequently, people think about the risks associated with this switching. For example, if a customer considers the possibility of changing a trusted brand that has served faithfully for years on a company that has recently appeared on the market. After all, a customer is more likely to stick to an established brand to avoid possible complications the new brand might bring.
Product uniqueness. If you’re lucky enough to get a unique product that your competitors don’t have, you can increase the price for this product, and customers will tolerate it. For example, healthcare provision or medicine that only your company has. Moreover, when the association of these products with your brand is very strong, people won’t compare your goods with the alternatives. For example, it’s difficult to substitute a pair of Adidas sneakers with a generic one. However, replacing a loaf of bread from supermarket A with bread from supermarket B is easy.
Ease of comparison. If your product is easy to compare with other products since it doesn’t have any special benefits, price sensitivity will be high. Remember, it’s critical to differentiate your goods and make customers choose your brand over your competitors’. By doing this, you can establish a strong brand that is difficult to compare, and consumers will select you because of the quality, price, or unique product features.
Brand’s fairness. Studies show that the fairness of your brand affects price sensitivity. Consumers often see the unfairness that usually arises from price discrimination practices. For sure, higher prices are essential for profit maximization, yet they can negatively affect your customers, and, as a result, your sales can drop. Consider presenting quality products that have fair prices instead.
These are just a few factors for you to consider. The next step is to learn how to calculate this measure for your business.
How to Calculate Price Sensitivity
If you want to evaluate the change in demand for your product when its price increases or decreases, you should calculate price sensitivity. With this formula, you can easily estimate the difference in demand due to the changes in your product price.
Below you can find a formula to calculate price sensitivity.
Where:
Change in Quantity is a change in the quantity of a product bought by a customer.
Change in Price is an increase or decrease in this product’s price compared to its previous cost.
Now it’s time to proceed to the tips that will help you reduce price sensitivity.
How to Reduce Price Sensitivity
Create a strong brand
Show the quality and value of your products
Let customers explore the benefits of your goods
If you think that you can quickly reduce your clients’price sensitivity by lowering the price of your goods, prepare to be disappointed.However, there are several things that can help improve the situation, and we’ll show you how.
Create a strong brand. In today’s highly competitive environment, customers can find tons of alternatives to the goods they need. That’s why it’s essential to build a strong brand. Since a significant number of options makes decision-making more complex, consumers often seek to find one brand they trust and becomeloyal customers. This can happen due to various reasons: lower price, better quality, some personal or professional reasons, or benefits. Your main task here is to develop a brand people would admire.
Show the quality and value of your products. Nowadays, many customers still pay attention to your price, trying to find and buy products that have lower prices. The quality of chosen goods often doesn’t justify the cost. It usually happens due to the lack of customers’ awareness about the quality of products. Provide your consumers with this information and explain to them why your goods are better.
Let customers explore the benefits of your products. There is no point in turning the market into a battlefield between you and your competitors to show your products’ or services’ features. Customers don’t care about some special features if they don’t carry any benefit or value. Show your consumers the actual solution or benefit your product or service can bring.
Remember about these three points when creating your brand and presenting products and services to your target audience. This will help you increase brand engagement and improve sales.
To conclude, if you want customers to choose your goods, you should remember to always bring outthe uniqueness of your products, reference price, quality, and benefits they can bring. This will enable you to reduce price sensitivity and let your business function properly.
Proactive selling
Proactive selling is a sales technique that involves a salesperson identifying prospective customers’ problems, questions, and needs before they ask first and trying to sell a solution. It helps companies take care of the sales process.
In this article, we’ll compare proactive and reactive selling and review 7 proactive sales strategies.
Proactive vs Reactive Selling
Businesses can approach prospects in different ways. Some of them prefer a proactive approach, while others choose reactive selling. To understand which one is right for you, let's look at each in detail. Afterward, you’ll be able to make well-informed decisions and establish connections with potential customers.
Proactive selling is an approach that empowers salespeople to control the sales process and inform prospects about a product before they have any questions or problems. The technique focuses on winning as many sales as possible by uncovering the benefits of a product. Sales representatives talk with leads about a product as a solution to potential customers’ problems. Currently, prospects might not even know about these pain points.
Reactive selling is an approach that allows brand reps to react to prospects’ inquiries, answer questions, and solve existing problems. Customer support agents focus on helping people to sort something out rather than initiating a sale. Company representatives respond to potential customers’ questions without having a plan to reach a specific goal or outcome.
The reactive approach relies heavily on the decisions of potential clients. Agents assist leads when they have problems and questions and wait for them to make affirmative decisions. They help all prospects without focusing on specific segments, sometimes leading to inefficient use of time and resources.
If you choose a proactive selling strategy, we advise you to use the following strategies. These effective techniques will help you have full control over the sales process.
7 Proactive Sales Strategies
In this section, we’ll reveal the most effective proactive sales strategies that will help you gain more customers and boost sales. If you want to improve the work of your salespeople, let’s dive in.
Develop a plan before sales conversations. Conduct research to have proper communication with clients. You should know your prospects and understand their needs to have a beneficial conversation. You need to plan your steps and strategize a path to the sale. Consider factors that can influence the sale and help you win customers.
Start conversations with prospects. Initiate conversations with people who might need your product. Speak up on your product’s benefits and how it can help solve problems. However, there’s no need to spam consumers with content that can’t help them overcome specific challenges. Speak persuasively and to the point. If you have a conversation with someone who faces some difficulties and your solution is a perfect fit — convey its main perks.
Add value to establish trust. Do everything possible to gain trust. You can do it by adding value. Prospects will trust you if you succeed in providing relevant and useful content and ensuring leads that you are an expert in this field. If you manage to show your expertise, they will perceive you as a credible source of information and a person who knows how to act. Your positive image among consumers will influence purchasing decisions of potential customers.
Use CRM to choose a relevant approach. Reviewing sales information empowers you to make data-driven decisions. Materials from your CRM allow your team to develop effective sales approaches. CRM guides sellers on how to act and what to say to encourage consumers to choose your company. You can use reports on web pages users have already explored within your website to resonate with their pain points. After checking the pages potential customers have already visited, you can start relevant communication. You can use theLIKE.TG CRMfor free for 5 users in your account. You can store data about consumers and deals in one place and use it during the sales process.
Ask questions to understand problems. You should be able not only to start a conversation with prospective clients but also lead it towards a closed deal. You need to ask open-ended questions to identify customers' pain points. This way, consumers can provide you with full-length answers, opinions, and concerns. The data gives you an insight into consumers’ needs. As a result, you can find out whether a lead is a good fit.
Foresee objections and prevent them. Being proactive means being able to influence decisions and get the necessary outcome. If you feel that customers can share their objections, be ready to anticipate them. Share relevant information, benefits, and case studies to ensure that your product is a perfect solution for their problems. You should be able to adapt to the situation and find the right words for people who face challenges. For instance, if your potential customer isn’t sure whether your software can integrate with specific platforms, you should provide detailed information about the available integrations and how they connect to your service.
Ask for customer feedback. Positive and constructive assessment can do wonders for your sales team. Proactive salespeople ask prospects and customers for comments to find out what was done right and wrong. After asking for customer evaluation, your team can figure out what aspects influence customer decisions and why they purchase or don’t purchase your product. Once you gain these valuable insights from potential customers, you can adjust your strategy and make some improvements. As a result, more people will be willing to buy your product.
Congrats, now you know what proactive selling is and why it’s essential. Hope that our strategies will help you reach your main business goals.
Product backlog
A product backlog is a prioritized list of alterations (new features, improvements of old features, bug and defect fixes, etc.) to a product a development team should work on to achieve specific objectives and bring value to customers. It helps companies increase efficiency, align departments’ expectations, and encourages flexibility.
In this article, we’ll unveil why product backlog is important, compare product backlog and sprint backlog, and figure out what product backlog contains. We’ll also cover how to create it and provide 6 tips to manage your product backlog effectively.
Why is a product backlog important?
Teams of professionals work on different tasks to develop new software or improve an existing one. Having a product backlog allows companies to properly distribute tasks and prioritize those tasks that need to be completed immediately. As a result, they improve efficiency. Development teams are more productive since they instantly identify tasks that require immediate action and their attention. Besides, they can plan their time and determine how much time they need to complete a task and start a new one.
Product backlogs make the development process more flexible. Once the status of a specific task changes, the item’s priority changes as well. This way, every task is visible and gets enough attention.
Lists of prioritized tasks encourage discussions among departments. Team members gather to review complex issues before their development process starts. It’s important to properly allocate resources and decide who will better cope with specific tasks based on their skills and experience. With a backlog, the company’s departments have a clear understanding and the overall status of the project. As a result, businesses reach their goals faster.
Now that you know why a product backlog is important, it’s time to make the difference between a product backlog and a sprint backlog clear since people often misinterpret these two concepts.
Product Backlog vs Sprint Backlog
People often confuse the concept of a product and sprint backlog. We’ll make the difference clear so that you can know the main features.
A product backlog is a list of prioritized tasks for the development team to work out. They include new features, design changes, bug fixes, UX issues, feature improvements, defect fixes, etc. With product backlog, the development team determines which of the alterations to the product they will carry out immediately. Departments compare the features to make sure that they are prioritized based on their strategic importance.
A sprint backlog is a list of tasks a team should complete during a short time specified for this project (sprint). These tasks are usually separated from a product backlog. It helps figure out the tasks the team will and will not complete during a specific sprint.
Now that you know the difference, let’s explore the components of a product backlog.
What does a product backlog contain?
Product backlog encompasses tasks that contribute to the development of a product. They include new features, user stories, defects, UX design issues, infrastructure changes, bug fixes, changes to existing features, improvements, and other product initiatives. These prioritized tasks have the highest priority since they are crucial for completing the development stage and, hence, a successful product.
Now that you know what a product backlog contains, it’s time to uncover how to create it.
How to create a product backlog?
To develop a successful product backlog, you need to stick to the plan. Whatever product you create, follow these steps to offer a solution end users would love.
Collect great ideas. Once you have requests from customers to improve your product, you need to consider them. Use brainstorming to find some other ways to meet customers’ needs and expectations.
Clarify the problem. To find the right solution, you should know customers’ needs. Review their feedback and recommendations before making any changes to a product. Once you have this essential information, make sure to include it in the product backlog so that your team members move in the same direction. Having a clear picture will allow you to meet customers’ requirements.
Categorize tasks based on their priority. When the problem is clear, you can finally prioritize tasks and build a list based on the urgency of their completion. List tasks with the highest priority at the top and less important at the bottom. If some tasks have little impact on improving a product and the achievement of business goals, there’s no need to mention them in the product backlog.
Revise your product backlog. As your development or product team completes tasks based on their priority, you need to update your list and reflect these changes. This way, the company’s departments will be able to focus on the right tasks and clearly understand the current situation and progress with the tasks.
Now that you know how to create a product backlog, we’ll proceed to the next section to unveil our six tips to help you manage your product backlog properly.
6 Tips for Effective Product Backlog Management
In this section, you’ll find some great recommendations to improve your product backlog. It’ll have positive a impact on your product.
Choose a product strategy. To have a clear vision of your product, determine the product strategy. It encompasses target audience, positioning, competitive analysis, and market opportunities. The vision of the product will define the product backlog and its priorities. Besides, a product strategy should cover the product’s benefits and differentiation among competitors.
Encourage collaboration of teams. To manage your product backlog effectively, align the work of your teams. Conduct regular meetings for teams involved in the process so that they can cooperate. This way, you can encourage brainstorming, discussion, and collaboration.
Make it manageable. Often product backlogs can contain dozens and even hundreds of tasks, so the best way to make it clear is to keep it organized. You need to revise your product backlog and its deadlines periodically, identify and remove unimportant tasks that don’t influence your product quality, prioritize tasks, and add only urgent tasks you will complete soon.
Schedule grooming meetings. These meetings help you keep your product backlog updated and healthy. As a result, you create a product that brings value to end users. Product backlog requires your attention regularly. By conducting meetings, you have the chance to optimize your backlog and remove unnecessary tasks. You’ll re-prioritize tasks, delete user stories, add features, review criteria, etc.
Work on a timeline. Create a timeline to visualize the strategy and all the steps your teams should take. Use helpful tools to make your timeline accurate. Since the timeline changes regularly, you need to revise and adjust it. The frequency of alterations depends on your release cycles.
Use ready solutions to visualize your backlog. Today business owners prefer software over paper-based backlog because of the ease of storing and editing the information. Choose one of the professional solutions to visualize the priority of tasks and manage your product backlog. Hygger, monday.com, and Microsoft Planner are among the most preferred tools for creating product backlog.
Since product backlog means a lot for the team productivity and product value, make sure to keep it in order. Use our tips and guide to create a backlog if you don’t have one yet.
Popup
A pop-up is a small window that appears while browsing a website. Marketers mainly use pop-ups for advertising and generating leads.With LIKE.TG,you can create smart pop-ups that are displayed according to certain scenarios.They will help youincrease the engagement of your site visitors and lead conversion.
In this video, Anna, a LIKE.TG marketer, explains how to use smart pop-ups for your website to draw conversions.
Pop-ups are controversial — the inventor of this technology has even publicly apologized for his creation.
If you use a window that pops up out of nowhere, it will surely interrupt the user experience, and potentially irritate your audience. Nevertheless, if a pop-up is to the point, it may be a functional addition to your website, able to assist users and move them down the sales funnel.
So, let’s discuss how crucial pop-ups may be for your business strategy.
Why are Pop-Ups Important?
Generate subscribers
Promote specific content
Reduce the bounce rate
Pop-ups are a multifunctional tool that can help you convert traffic on your website into marketing leads. Here’s a shortlist of a pop-up’s main functions:
Generate subscribers. Say your website has lots of visitors, and you have no idea how to involve them in communication with your brand. A pop-up subscription form where users can leave their email address does the trick. It allows you to grow your mailing list, build relationships with the audience via email, and speed up the buyer’s journey.
Promote specific content. Though the primary purpose of pop-ups is to generate leads, you can promote your e-book, guide, or case study relevant to the page the visitor is on. It will show your expertise in the field and help your audience solve their problems. For instance, you can share your harvest predictions for the next year on an agricultural blog.
Reduce the bounce rate. This metric shows you how fast a user leaves your site. To reduce the bounce rate, many marketers use a pop-up, asking to share an email address, a phone number, or other information to enable further communication. Such a pop-up usually appears when a user is about to close the tab or leave the website.
Let’s now have a look at some examples and visualize some functions of a pop-up.
Pop-up Examples
SmartBug. This pop-up looks natural because it has the same colors as the page it covers. It aims to move users to the next stage of the buyer’s journey — the nurturing stage. However, this pop-up is far from perfect since it doesn’t ask directly for an email address, but requires more clicks instead. Anything that makes signing up harder for the user will increase the chances of a bounce.
Wishpond. This pop-up is definitely designed to move the audience down the sales funnel. That’s why it offers to “Get Started” with the service just after the brief introduction to the content. This pop-up is here because the company wants to point out how they are going to help users from the start. This increases their chances of conversions.
Medium. This pop-up appears immediately after the page is loaded. The tone of the message is polite, and it looks like they are offering more value for signing up, although their rush is questionable.
Now that you have seen some examples, it’s time to move on and have some practice now!
How to Create a Pop-upwith LIKE.TG?
Register with LIKE.TG
Create a project
Create a pop-up
Follow this simple guide to create a smart pop-up that will improve conversions, increase engagement, and reduce unsubscribes.
Step 1. Register with LIKE.TG
LIKE.TG is a marketing platform that provides a variety of tools and channels for building successful customer relationships. You can create a smart pop-up in less than half an hour to keep a visitor on the site and collect contacts of potential customers. To do this, register.
Step 2: Create a project
Before adding a pop-up, you need to create a project for which you want to set up a pop-up. A project is a workspace with specific settings. You can connect a site created in LIKE.TG or add a project script to your site for your project. You can create a separate project for each domain, which will allow you to track statistics for each site separately, or add several domains to the project to work with multilingual sites, for example.
So, to create a project, go to the "Pop-ups" and click "Create a project".
To install a pop-up on a site created in LIKE.TG, select the site created in the site builder, mini-landings, or when creating courses.
Click "Connect site" and the project code will be automatically added to the site settings.
To add a pop-up to a third-party site, enter a link to it.
Click "Get Code".
Step 3: Create a pop-up
You can create a pop-up that will be displayed according to a specific scenario. The trigger can be user behavior, a specific action, or information tracked duringvisitingthe site. To create a personalized offer, you can activate a pop-up using one of the 20+ conditions or combine them with each other.
Click "Add pop-up" to create a widget.
All created pop-ups will be displayed in the "Display scenarios" tab. Select the desired pop-up to enable, disable or edit it.
Go to the created project in the "Display scenarios" tab and click "Create pop-up".
You can choose a pop-up template from the list of popular, festive,orbased on your widget type or purpose.
Next, customize the appearance of the pop-up.
After selecting a template, go to the "Content" tab to edit its appearance and change the target action. Upload an image and select its position. Add a link to the video if needed.
Next, select the background color and position of the pop-up on the page.
On the right, you see how the pop-up will look like on your site.
Write a message. You can add links and use emojis.
Set up the target action expected from the user, for example, newsletter subscription, or phone number request.
After setting the conditions, click "Save and publish".
For more information on how to create a smart pop-up, read this guide.
Now you know how to keep visitors on your site and collect potential buyer contacts with LIKE.TG. You can also collect all leads in CRM from LIKE.TG. Read our recommendations for creating a pop-up that converts.
Pop-up Best Practices
Only use pop-ups when necessary
Enrich user experience, don’t interrupt it
Make your pop-up visually lightweight
Time pop-ups right
Put the right incentive
We've collected a list of general pieces of advice, so here they are:
Only use pop-ups when necessary. Pop-ups do work. Though it’s not easy to make them work, it’s not easy to overcome the conventional concept that pop-ups are annoying. Use this method only for a good purpose. Say you have a page with tons of traffic, but people mostly bounce without reading your content to the end. In this case, a pop-up form is a solution that may bring your communication to the next level.
Enrich user experience, don’t interrupt it. Easier said than done, but still, there are plenty of ways to make pop-ups do the job without harming the user experience. Even if they read the page to the end, users are likely to leave once they find what they’ve been looking for. So, why not show a pop-up that enables communication via email? After all, it is a win-win for you and future customers.
Make your pop-up visually lightweight. It is essential to make the pop-up less abrupt. Remember the SmartBug example, when a pop-up looked almost equal to the content? To echo that style, choose the same background color as on the covered page, use small bits of text, and make the CTA button the same color as the links in the article.
Optimize your pop-ups for mobile devices. Proper mobile pop-ups are super important for converting mobile traffic. Responsive pop-ups designed for a desktop version of your website may not provide optimal mobile UX. In that case, it's necessary to create a mobile-first version that is optimized for mobile UX and progressively adapts itself to the desktop version of the website.
Time pop-ups right. There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy, except “test, test, and test.” If you decide a pop-up is worth adding, try different time frames for a pop-up to appear. Rely on real data, not on pure assumptions.
Put the right incentive. Use pop-ups that add value to the original content. For instance, when a user reads an article about materials for home improvement, it is really helpful to offer a video guide on how to start home improvement.
Congratulations, we hope you’ve learned something new today that will help you become a better marketer.
Predictive validity
Predictive validity is the correlation between a test that enables people to predict future academic or work success and its results. It helps define the quality and functions the test should perform. Companies widely use it to forecast the performance of their job applicants.
In this article, we’ll review the importance of predictive validity, make the difference between predictive and construct validity clear, and grab some inspiration from several examples.
Why is predictive validity important?
Companies search for the best specialists to obtain the best results and survive in a highly competitive environment. The hiring process requires costs that constantly increase with time if a firm can’t find suitable employees within a given timeframe. That’s why predictive validity is essential for businesses.
The main challenge of any selection method is to choose the best candidates and increase the utility and predictability of this process. Since the competition is too high, firms should be ready to select candidates who are prepared to demonstrate excellent performance and complete all the assigned tasks. This way, a business can obtain acompetitive advantage. If a company makes a bad decision, it can lead to a reduction of its development strategies' effectiveness and invalidity.
Predictive validity enables companies to measure the utility and reliability of their selection process. With its help, a firm can test a particular selection procedure and the performance of those who were selected.
Now that you know about the importance of predictive validity, let’s make the difference between predictive validity and construct validity clear.
Predictive Validity vs. Construct Validity
It’s time to compare predictive validity and construct validity and find the differences between these two approaches.
Predictive validity is an approach especially useful in selecting the most suitable candidates for companies. It helps assess the utility and reliability of a candidate selection procedure and serves as a validity criterion type to choose the best workers. It’s a crucial aspect as it enables companies to identify and forecast an individual’s future performance in a specific environment, in this case, in a company.
Construct validity evaluates how well a particular measurement matches the construct you are eager to measure. Before identifying the concept, your team needs to prepare several questions with the help of which they will be able to understand whether it’s appropriate to select specific approaches.
To obtain carefully developed measures, a company needs to have relevant knowledge. For example, a company’s team can make a questionnaire to identify and analyze a problem, so they should prepare several questions that will help determine whether this questionnaire enables their firm to receive relevant information.
Now when the difference and characteristics of each method are clear, let’s proceed to the examples.
Examples of Predictive Validity
Companies widely use this method to make employment tests to define whether a person is suitable for a certain position or not. For this purpose, a firm administers a specific test for incumbent employees and obtains their performance before conducting it. For instance, a company can use a supervisor’s rating of every worker’s job performance. Moreover, there can be restrictions on test and performance scores.
Let’s say that the test will show a big difference in performance results between incumbent employees and applicants. The employees of this particular company are a more homogeneous and higher performing group because of the knowledge and skills they already have after working in this firm.
To conclude, with the help of a test, people can predict the performance of an applicant and the benefits this person can bring to a business or educational institution. That’s why it’s widely used to measure academic or work success.
Price competition
Price competition is a strategy that implies reducing prices to compete with rivals. The technique is popular among the sellers of the same products since they have similar features, yet the price points can differ.
In this article, we’ll review the advantages, disadvantages, and types of price competition. We’ll also compare price and non-price competition.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Price Competition
Price competition carries advantages and disadvantages for those who want to incorporate it. In this section, we’ll review them all, so you know what to expect once you use these methods. Let’s start with the benefits.
A price drop is highly beneficial for consumers. They can search for the necessary product, and if the price is too high, they can buy from competitors. For example, consumers who want to buy tomatoes can consider different sellers. The product is the same everywhere, so they pay attention to the price. If one store offers a pound of tomatoes for $4 while the other for $3, customers will choose based on the cost.
Companies also benefit when they implement the technique. Lower prices often attract more consumers. As a result, brands succeed to sell more goods and get more revenue. Although the profit margin reduces, selling a lot rather than having zero sales is better. The strategy is especially useful for new businesses that have just entered the market. Competitive prices allow them to shape their customer base and survive in an increasingly competitive market.
The approach also has drawbacks. Products with a low cost obviously have low quality. That’s why customers might face problems with them. Entrepreneurs also experience the cons for their businesses. Since they reduce the price of the products, the profit margins decrease. As a result, they receive lower revenues.
Now that you know the pros and cons, let’s jump into the next section to unveil the difference between price and non-price competition. It will help you identify the most suitable strategy for your product and business.
Price vs Non-Price Competition
Sometimes people confuse the terms yet the difference is obvious. We’ll review the peculiarities of each strategy so that you can consider it for your business.
Price competition is a strategy that implies companies offering products with the same features and reducing prices to win consumers. Since their products don’t have any differentiators like high quality, unique selling proposition, good location, or exceptional after-sales service, they compete by providing lower prices.
Non-price competition is a strategy that involves brands relying on non-price differentiators like high quality, amazing features, excellent customer service, and other perks. Businesses don’t reduce prices on their products to stay competitive. Moreover, their prices are often higher than competitors’ because they have higher expenses to produce an amazing product in terms of quality, features, and service.
Simply put, in price competition, products are complete substitutes, so companies stay competitive only if the price is lower, while in non-price competition, brands stand out because of quality, unique selling proposition, competitive advantage, great customer service, etc.
Now that the difference is clear, it’s time to review the types. After reading this section, you’ll be able to choose the methods that fit your company.
Types of Price Competition
We can differentiate 4 types of price competition. Let’s unveil each of them so that you can make a choice.
Penetration pricing. It’s offering a product or service at a low price so that consumers instantly notice it. The strategy is a great fit for brands that just entered the market. They can provide consumers with lower prices to attract competitors’ consumers and build a customer base. For instance, if you just opened a florist store, pay attention to your competitors’ prices and make your prices lower.
Freebies. Free products often capture customers’ attention. Consider using this technique. To stand out among competitors and attract more consumers, offer a free product, discount, or free delivery. It’ll allow you to win more sales. Customers will also be satisfied with their purchases.
Premium pricing. Premium products differ from others by being superior to competitors’ offerings. People concerned with quality, branding, and luxury will purposely choose high-priced products. Brands with expensive items differentiate themselves from others by being premium. Rolex is the ultimate luxury watch brand. The company offers a great variety of expensive products, and only rich people can afford to buy them. Having a Rolex watch indicates the status of the owner.
Loss leader. A company sells its product for a price lower than the production cost to attract consumers and sell complementary products. The approach will come in handy for business owners entering the market or those who want to increase their market share. Examples of popular sales include Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas sales, etc. Brands create ads to inform consumers about upcoming sales and discounts that sometimes reach 70%. They provide people with attractive prices to sell old inventory.
Congrats, now you know what price competition is and why it’s essential. Hope that you’ll succeed in implementing different types of this strategy.
Predictive marketing
Predictive marketing is a marketing approach that involves a company using audience behavior, historical consumer research, purchasing history, website analytics, and other crucial data to anticipate the results of specific marketing campaigns. It enables marketers to make well-thought-out, smart, and effective marketing decisions.
In this article, we’ll uncover the benefits of predictive marketing and discover how it works. We’ll also review some examples.
Benefits of Predictive Marketing
The majority of businesses analyze huge amounts of information about their clients. They explore audience behavior, purchasing history, website analytics, and social media impressions to know their customers and understand them better. It helps make the right marketing decisions, meet customers’ requirements, and offer relevant products.
By discovering customer data, brands can find connections between behavior and needs which results in more effective marketing strategies. After finding out these points, marketers can segment consumers into groups based on their shopping habits, preferences, pain points, geography, age, occupation, etc. Secondly, companies can anticipate trends earlier than their rivals. After analyzing customer data, marketers can accurately predict industry trends.
Predictive marketing ensures effective quality lead generation. Exploring behavior, historical lead research, purchasing history, and site analytics of prospects enables businesses to identify prospects ready to become customers. Brands instantly recognize the most promising prospective consumers, who are the most likely to convert into customers.
The predictive approach allows businesses to anticipate the outcomes of their upcoming marketing campaigns. A clear understanding of the audience helps launch campaigns that receive a positive response from consumers. Brands make wise business decisions regarding their further marketing steps.
Analyzing customer data empowers businesses to understand customers’ needs and personalize their customer experience. Marketers send messages, offers, and products tailored to the wants and problems of their consumers. As a result, customer engagement improves.Now that you know the advantages, it’s time to unveil how predictive marketing works.
How does predictive marketing work?
In this section, we’ll review how predictive marketing works in detail so that you know where to start. You’ll be able to start incorporating it into your marketing strategy.
First of all, companies collect customer data. They can do it in three ways: by asking consumers for the information they need, tracking customer activity, and appending other sources of customer data. Combining all three will give you the most accurate answers to your questions. Brands’ websites use cookies to gather information about customer activity: sites visited, pages opened, search and browser history, on-site behavior, scrolling speed, clicks, and mouse hovering. This information provides companies with insights into their future marketing approaches, campaigns, and messages.
Companies collect information about consumers’ past purchases. This data enables businesses to provide personalized recommendations based on their past shopping experience. Moreover, websites track every user's click to identify items they look for and suppliers they purchase from. Personalized offers and messages allow companies to increase engagement and boost sales. Customer satisfaction with a brand improves as well.
Now that you know how predictive marketing works, let’s proceed to the next section to uncover the examples. They will inspire you to implement this marketing technique into your business and improve sales.
Examples of Predictive Analytics in Marketing
To implement predictive marketing, you should see how it works in real life. We’ll review several examples so that you can grab some inspiration for your business.
Lead scoring
With predictive marketing, you continue nurturing your lead after receiving contact information. You collect and create a list of prospects and customers to reach them with your offer. However, communicating your message to everyone on your list can be a waste of time and resources. This is because there might be people who aren’t interested in purchasing with you. Predictive lead scoring enables you to sort out your prospects and identify only qualified ones. These prospective customers are serious about buying your product but need time to explore its features and benefits.
You can use predictive lead scoring tools like HubSpot, Freshsales, and ActiveCampaign to analyze information about potential customers and figure out the level of their willingness to buy. As a result, you’ll be able to prioritize prospects and focus on those who can bring you revenue. You avoid spending time and resources on unqualified leads.
Product suggestion
Product suggestion is the most popular form of predictive marketing. People search for specific products and then see suggestions for these items from various brands. You can see these ads everywhere: in your social media feed, in your email inbox, in banners on a website, etc.
Special algorithms help eCommerce companies collect information about website visitors’ interests from their purchasing or search history. This data enables companies to identify the items they are most likely to buy next and use them in ads or promotions.
For example, Boost Your English uses targeted sponsored ads on social media feeds. The company reaches people interested in improving English language knowledge and skills. The person who sees the feed has visited websites related to learning English. If this user is still searching for language learning, the company’s audiobooks will be helpful.
Social media suggestions
Many brands use special social media tools to make the right advertising posts at the right time. They help figure out the best time for a post on the best marketing channel. Moreover, they enable marketers to identify the most eye-grabbing color palette to make prospects pay attention. Social media platforms like Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter offer predictive tools which you can use to your advantage. These platforms use predictive ad targeting and algorithms to determine customers’ interests and needs.
Congrats, now you know what predictive marketing is and how it works. Our examples will help you incorporate this technique into your business.
Price elasticity of demand
Price elasticity of demand is an economic measurement that shows how product demand correlates with the changes in some factors, in this case, price. Demand is considered elastic if the demand for a product changes significantly in response to the change in price. Goods with elastic demand include soft drinks, clothing, luxury items, cars, etc.
In this article, you'll get to know why economists and marketers monitor the price elasticity of demand, uncover the factors affecting it, and learn how to calculate the measurement, so stay tuned.
Why is the price elasticity of demand important?
Price elasticity of demand is of high priority for economists and marketers since this concept lets them forecast the success of their business. They are set on developing a product with inelastic demand so that consumers buy it regardless of whether the price changes.
Monopolistis and owners of products with almost no substitutes on the market consider the elasticity of demand when setting a price for their products. In the case of inelastic demand, they can fix high prices, while elastic demand makes them set lower prices to stand out from the competition.
If you want to start an international trade business, you need to analyze the elasticity of demand for the necessary products in the country you intend to export to. If the demand for products with inelastic demand in your country turns out to be elastic in the importing country, you'll have to set lower prices, which may bring you losses. Besides, the taxation system may require you to pay higher taxes for goods with inelastic demand.
Farmers, paradoxically, suffer from heavy crops. Rich harvest causes high competition among farmers which results in inelastic demand for some products. So, a big supply doesn't let farmers increase their income.
Now that you know how the elasticity of demand works and why it is so important, let's consider the factors influencing it.
Factors Affecting Price Elasticity of Demand
We'll uncover the 5 most important factors impacting the elasticity of demand.
Nature of the product. Conventionally we can classify all items into those which are necessary for our living, comfort goods, and luxury goods. Necessities include gas, electricity, higher education, and life-saving drugs, for example, insulin. These products and services are difficult to refuse and can't be replaced by any substitutes, so their elasticity of demand is very low, or they are inelastic. People can live for some time without comfort goods, such as refrigerators, which makes their elasticity higher. Finally, the elasticity of luxury goods, such as cars and jewelry, is high.
Availability of substitutes. The more substitutes a premium product has, the more price sensitive it becomes, as consumers look for a cheaper product. As a result, the demand for a premium product will decrease and the owner will have to lower prices.
Income level. It's vital to study not only the market and economic situation in the county but the income level of your consumers as well. People with higher incomes aren't as sensitive to price changes as people with low incomes. So, the elasticity of demand for those who earn more will be very low, whereas low-income groups will experience high elasticity of demand.
Part of the income spent on a product. The price elasticity of demand is generally low if consumers spend a small portion of their income on this product. For example, such goods as salt, soap, and matchboxes don't make a significant share of total consumers' expenditures, so the change in price for these products won't increase the elasticity of demand. On the other hand, more expensive goods, such as laptops, will have a higher elasticity of demand, since the cost of these goods is more tangible in the income of customers.
Time period. People don't like to change their buying habits and switch brands, that's why in short term the demand tends to be inelastic, however, in long term, clients will look for substitutes if the price continues to increase. This does not work with seasonal price fluctuations that consumers have long been accustomed to.
Now it’s time to find out how to calculate the price elasticity of demand for your business.
How to calculate the price elasticity of demand
The price elasticity allows us to find out how the price change affects the demand for a certain product. This measurement is shown as a percentage change in the volume of demand for some goods.
To calculate this measurement, follow the formula below.
The demand for the product is considered to be elastic if the price elasticity is higher than one. For, example if the price of your product increases by 2%, and sales decrease by 2.5%, the price elasticity of demand is 2.5%/2% = 1.25%.
If the product price elasticity of demand lowers, the less responsive the volume of demand is to the price change. If the demand is not sensitive to the price change, the demand is perfectly inelastic. As a result, a company can fix higher prices and get more income since people do not respond to the price change.
Congrats, now you know why price elasticity of demand is important and how to measure it, so you can forecast sales and make informed decisions.
POP marketing
POP (Point of Purchase) marketing is a strategy that entails clever placement of consumer products and aims at their promotion. It helps generate sales with the help of physical retail locations.
In this article, we’ll review the importance of POP marketing.
Why is POP marketing important?
Since the modern competitive environment requires companies to provide their target audience with a unique and personalized experience, many companies turn to floor graphics, shelf-talkers, and end caps in retail stores. They help present products to their audience and show their key benefits. Hence, the main advantage of point-of-purchase displays is consumers’ instant attention.
Different startupsuse POP marketing to gain a position in the market because this strategy helps interest store visitors and inform them about certain products. Various displays enable brands to stand out, deliver essential information, and locate products in the right way to build brand awareness.
Besides attention-grabbing features, displays help build a strong brand image. By using this technique, startups can obtain a customer base, increase brand awareness, and educate leadsabout their products. At the same time, well-established companies can reach new prospects, retain customers, and obtain customer loyalty. Well-placed displays entice consumers to make purchases and leave a long-term impression on them. Lastly, such displays encourage impulse buying, which increases sales volume.
To sum it up, POP displays bring several benefits to a business: they help catch a customer’s eye, strategically locate your products, and target impulse buyers. All these help create brand awareness, increase brand engagement, and boost sales, which results in higher profits.
Podcast marketing
Podcast marketing is a strategy that implies promoting and selling your product or service through audio content. It helps reach new audiences, tell the brand’s story, build authority, and encourage word-of-mouth marketing.
In this article, we’ll unveil the 13 reasons to use a podcast, review 5 effective strategies, and 3 marketing services. We’ll also find out ways to promote a podcast.
13 Reasons to Use a Podcast as a Marketing Tool
Over time, people change channels and ways of learning new information. They prefer the most convenient ways. As a result, companies should be ready to adapt. Today, podcasting is increasingly popular. According to statistics, 57% of Americans have listened to a podcast. In the last 3 years, the number of listeners increased by 29.5%. Companies’ teams create podcasts for educational purposes, become guests on reputable podcasts, or create ads and run them on podcasts.
Many people now choose podcasts instead of other marketing channels. They can receive valuable, informative, educational materials from experts and industry leaders. Here are some reasons to consider using a podcast for your brand:
a niche targeted audience;
high ROI;
huge product sales;
a wide base of listeners;
new geographics;
many referrals;
better page rankings;
lower competition;
brand awareness;
value for the audience;
community of interested people;
position of an expert;
organic traffic to social media and a site.
The reasons are clear, so let’s review 5 effective podcast marketing strategies.
5 Effective Podcast Marketing Strategies
Creating a podcast is only the first step. To attain success, you need to promote it using the appropriate strategies. We’ve prepared the most effective to engage the audience.
Develop a podcast landing page. Create a separate podcast landing page for the convenience of listeners. It should ensure that users focus on listening to the episodes of your podcast. Besides, the page should contain a clear headline that communicates the usefulness of your product. Describe your podcast and the benefits people will receive after listening to it. Provide a summary and highlight the podcast's key points to improve your pages' rankings, accessibility, and internal linking. Use automated podcast notes generator tools to create a summary without breaking a sweat. Also, make sure that the page includes working links to all published episodes. The process of creating a landing page with LIKE.TG is very simple and will take you around 15 to 20 minutes. You’ll easily design an amazing landing page for your podcast with the help of our drag and drop builder.
Record multiple episodes. If you are just starting your podcast, it’s essential to provide listeners with more than one episode. A relevant and engaging podcast will always encourage people to listen to several episodes one by one. To avoid frustration among your listeners and negative comments, get ready with 3 to 5 episodes of your podcast.
Work on an influencer marketing strategy. You can always ask opinion leaders for help. They are professionals in their field who managed to obtain the trust and love of people. Influencers have a high level of expertise in a certain field and can recommend credible companies. You need to find experts related to your podcast topics. Check whether they agree to promote your podcast release.
Make use of podcatchers. Podcatchers are apps that play different podcasts, which results in better awareness of your company and podcast. You can find many apps that introduce new podcasts to the audience. Your podcast can be the next. iOS, Castro, Podcast Addict, and the Podcast Republic are on the list of the most popular ones. So if you need some extra exposure and promotion, leverage these apps.
Think of paid ads. To drive traffic to your podcast website, you need paid ads. You can place them on social media or in paid search results. People searching for similar information will encounter the ad and discover your podcast. Paid ads bring real results in terms of traffic and the base of listeners.
The strategies are clear, let’s discover some ways to promote your podcast.
How to promote a podcast?
To get a wide audience, you need to inform people about your podcast. Start with the most simple yet effective ways of promotion. If you have no idea where to start, we’ll show. Check our list of proven methods that will help you.
Consider email marketing. Create a list of customers who might be interested in the information in your podcasts. Then, send email campaigns. Ensure to include the date of the first episode in your email newsletter. Those who find it useful will save the date. With LIKE.TG, you can create outstanding email campaigns informing about your podcast and schedule their send-out. This way, your email newsletter will bedelivered on time and to the right people.
Leverage social media. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are perfect for reaching new audiences. There are many options to draw listeners’ attention. You can publish a post on your social media account informing users about your podcast, create a video or story with its release date. If you have enough resources for promotion, you can consider paid ads. These effective tools will help you reach your target groups fast and bring more people to your podcast channel.
Conduct a giveaway. Giveaways help enhance your audience fast. By giving something useful for free, you earn an opportunity to get free promoters. You should interest new listeners with something really helpful and related to your company and podcast. For example, you can give users early access to some podcasts or a private consultation with an expert. Ask people to share news about your podcast with their subscribers on social media instead.
Now that you know the key ways to promote your newly created podcast, it’s time to discover the 3 podcast marketing services.
3 Podcast Marketing Services
A podcast is a powerful tool in the hands of experts. If you don’t have any experience, you can ask professionals for help. You can create everything you need with outstanding podcast marketing services. We’ll profile the 3 most popular companies-experts in podcasts.
Lower Street
Lower Street is a podcast production company that manages more than your audio. The team of professionals helps you build your podcast and add sound design and music. The company also takes care of the promo pieces, valuable show notes, and guide content. This podcast production company has a variety of services for you: podcast editing, private podcasting, podcast launch service, and more. You can request a free consultation if you need some accurate information about making podcasts with Lower Street. Podcast launch service costs $9,000. This price covers artwork design, show concept, trailer episode, host training, music, sonic identity, etc.
PodBean
PodBean is an excellent choice for people who seek to run, promote and monetarize their podcasts. The platform provides you with the necessary tools and intuitive navigation to publish your podcast and manage it. Also, you’ll have a schedule to post your podcasts on time. PodBean offers unlimited downloads, episodes, and recording time. The service provides users with a free plan with 5 hours storage space, 100GB monthly bandwidth, free themes, and a podcast site. The prices for the paid plans start at $14 per month and offer more options, such as unlimited storage space and bandwidth, pro themes, and advanced custom designs.
Pacific Content
Pacific Content helps customers connect with broad audiences through podcasts. This company has already created compelling audio stories for different brands. Pacific Content’s team consists of podcast production, marketing, distribution, and sound design professionals. They are passionate about creating branded podcasts and a strategy for their promotion. With your assistance, the company can record any type of podcast you need, either educational or entertaining. This brand offers the following services: podcast development, production, and distribution, audience development, and podcast brand strategy. You can contact Pacific Content to inquire about the approximate price.
So, podcast marketing is worth considering if you strive to provide listeners with valuable and educational information. With a podcast, you’ll be able to build a strong base of listeners and introduce your product.
Popup builder
A popup builder is a plugin that enables a company to add popups to its website. It empowers businesses to design promotional and informative popups and place them on sites to improve conversions and increase sales.
In this video, George, a product manager at LIKE.TG, explains how to create free smart pop-ups without coding skills.
In this article, we’ll unveil why you need a popup builder and review the three best platforms for you to consider.
Why do you need a popup builder?
Today, online advertising evolves and brings advantages to business owners. Popups help you get new subscribers, encourage customers to complete the checkout process, provide visitors with coupons, and update them on your limited-time offers. This way, you can boost sales and increase revenue. However, building popups isn’t an easy task. You need to have coding skills and knowledge to add popup windows to your eCommerce website.
If you don’t have the necessary skills, looking for a no-coding popup builder is a great decision. Since builders don’t require coding skills, you can create popups with a drag-and-drop editor. Consider designing your popup from scratch by dragging and dropping the necessary elements into the editor’s field. If you don’t want to waste time building a new popup, choose one of the ready-to-go templates. Select the most suitable for your industry and edit it based on your needs and your brand’s style. You can tailor your popup to look attractive to your leads and encourage them to act.
Creating popups with a builder empowers you to automate communication with site visitors. Popups enable you to catch users’ attention, improve conversion rates, customize your message, and show your brand from the best perspective. Popup builders help you to craft different scenarios for various interactions with prospects. Display conditions allow you to adjust your messages based on visitors’ activity on your website.
Now that you know why to use a popup builder, it’s time to proceed to the next section to review the 3 best ones. With their help, you’ll build popups within minutes.
3 Best Popup Builders
In this section, we’ll review the three best services for designing popups without any coding skills. These platforms are best in terms of usability, pricing, and features. Let’s dive in to choose the best one for your business goals.
LIKE.TG
LIKE.TG is a multi-channel marketing platform that empowers startups and large enterprises to build communication with customers and automate sales. Its smart popup builder allows you to collect site visitors’ data and turn them into customers. LIKE.TG’s library has 30 free templates that suit various events and activities. You can choose an appropriate template and set it up in around 10 minutes.
LIKE.TG’s popup builder enables you to automate communication with prospects by developing different scenarios. The builder also takes into account prospects’ behavior. Display conditions allow you to craft your communication with potential clients based on their actions on your website. Personalize your message based on the actions users perform on your website. For instance, you can identify users’ browsers or the time they visit your website. Afterward, you can make well-informed decisions on the content of your personalized messages. LIKE.TG offers you 22 scenarios that you can combine. This way, you’ll be able to gather all your efforts and focus on collecting prospects.
With the help of the editor, you can create an attractive and catchy message. Add a message based on the purpose of your pop-up. It can help you collect customer information, update on new arrivals, and inform about sales.
If you want to design popups with LIKE.TG, you need to register first.
Once you log in, you need to click “Pop-ups” and proceed to “Create project.” The service will provide you with two options: design pop-ups for your site created with LIKE.TG and an external site.
Choose a popup template that best suits your business purpose. You can change the appearance of your popup based on your needs and requirements.
Personalize your popup by adding a targeted message.
After you write the main message of your popup, select the target action.
Afterward, set up a scenario for your popup. To do it, proceed to the “Targeting” tab and choose the display conditions you need. Visitors will see the widget when they perform an action you set up. Select one of the conditions listed to determine when users will see your popup message. The screenshot below shows the popup will appear once a prospect scrolls more than 50% of your website.
If you need to combine several operations, click “Add condition.” This way, you can target qualified leads with popups. For instance, you can reach people interested in your product and likely to purchase it.
Finally, choose a name for your popup. Click “Edit” right near your automatically generated popup name.
As you can see, the process is simple and fast, so you can do it without the developer’s help. The interface is user-friendly, and you’ll get used to it within seconds.
LIKE.TG has two plans: “Free” and “Standard.” The free plan covers 10,000 unique visitors per month, 3 projects, 10 active pop-ups per project, and 1 domain per project. The paid plan has more features and includes the following features: unlimited projects and popups, 10 domains per project, webhooks, Google Analytics, and lead location data. You need to pay $8 monthly for 10,000 unique visitors.
Popupsmart
Popupsmart’s no-code popup builder empowers you to collect data for your email list, interact with users, and boost sales. The platform allows you to choose different scenarios and events your company wants to showcase to users. If you have problems with converting users into customers, the service will help you do it faster with popups. With Poupsmart, you can develop recommendations, special offers, and cart abandonment pop-ups within five minutes and increase conversions. You can add any message to your popup to win more deals, redirect users to converting web pages, and provide potential customers with coupons.
This marketing solution takes care of your conversions and helps reduce customer acquisition costs. The platform’s popups have exit-intent triggers that react to the users’ cursors and prevent them from leaving your website. Scroll triggers enable you to share the popup only when visitors explore the necessary percentage of a web page. Moreover, Popupsmart provides you with real-time analytics, in-activity sensors, geo-located targeting, and many more.
To create a popup, you need to select your business goal and choose a template. Once you finish with the template, proceed to the next step by clicking “Next to Customize.” At this step, you’ll be able to edit your template based on your needs.
Tailor the message of your popup based on the requirements. Consider modifying the general appearance of your popup widget. Change headline, font, image, etc.
After customizing the popup, you need to select the time to display the teaser and on-screen position. Click “Next to Target” to proceed.
You can use artificial intelligence or manual segmentation to set up when your popup will be visible to visitors. Consider scheduling the time, targeting the right audience segments, choosing the location, determining visitor behavior, etc.
For instance, you can set the minimum time a user should spend to see your popup. Click “Next to Publish” to set up your ready popup.
Verify your company website, add Google Analytics, set up respondent email notifications, and popup button creator, if needed.
The service has a free plan and three paid plans. A free plan allows you to develop one popup. Pro and Expert plans enable you to create unlimited popups for your business and use all features to design them.
Wisepops
Wisepops allows you to turn your site visitors into clients. The platform’s contextual pop-ups help you interact with users at the right moment and provide them with personalized messages. Since notifications are non-intrusive, they won’t make visitors leave your site. On the contrary, they will be able to learn more about your brand and explore topics that interest them.
With Wisepops’ no code builder, you don’t need any skills or knowledge in coding. You can design a professional popup by applying a ready-to-use template, dragging and dropping the necessary elements, and crafting the message based on your client’s behavior. Targeting features enable you to split your prospects into segments and reach them at the perfect time. Once you finish creating your popup and placing it on your website, you can use one-click A/B testing. This feature helps you see the effectiveness of your campaign and make improvements on the go.
Before creating a popup in Wisepops, you need to select your key goal first.
Once you decide on a goal, you should choose the way to attain this goal.
Afterward, you can start the process of development by choosing the template. During the design stage, you can drag and drop the necessary blocks, change the time of the display, select the most suitable style, set triggers, and schedule your campaign.
The platform allows you to try the service for free and purchase a paid plan. A paid plan costs $99 and covers 60+ ready-to-go templates, unlimited campaigns and users, advanced Shopify integration, gamification and exit intent popups, personalization, and more.
Congrats, now you know what a popup builder is and why it’s essential. Consider using one of the listed platforms to attract more customers while spending minimum resources on lead generation.
Potential market
A potential market is a market you haven’t reached that covers people interested in the product, but not yet buyers. If a brand expands its products, it can attract and attain new demographics that aren’t customers now.
In this article, we’ll unveil why a potential market is essential and uncover how you identify it.
Why is a potential market important?
A potential market is crucial when a company expands its product line or customer base. A brand can continue reaching its current customers and target new demographic groups to increase sales and profits.
The accurately identified potential market enables you to
outline the future of your business growth and new demographic groups;
choose strategies for your company to expand and reach more people;
demonstrate the potential of your brand to partners and encourage them to invest;
increase customer base;
boost sales;
increase profits;
develop a plan that will cover the changes in the economy and market to adapt fast.
When identifying a potential market, an entrepreneur can estimate the investments a business needs. A brand can figure out the size of a potential market and decide whether it’s worth allocating a budget to it. For instance, if a segment of interested consumers is small, it’s better not to put much effort into it because it won't bring the desired result. However, if the market is large, business owners consider investing and developing a strategy.
You can develop a new product, improve an existing one, or modify it to meet the needs of a bigger target audience. Consider calculating potential profits to make sure that they will cover your expenses and have a high ROI.
Now that you know why a potential market is essential, let’s explore the ways to identify your potential market.
How do you identify a potential market?
Entering a new market is an essential step for every constantly expanding business. If you have a business and you plan to grow it in the future, you need to outline your potential market. This way, you’ll be ready with a product, strategy, promotion, and marketing to meet the needs and desires of a demographic group different from yours. In this section, we’ll provide a step-by-step guide on what to do when you want to identify your potential market.
Pay attention to every demographic group you offer your products to. To find your potential market, you need to explore every audience segment you sell products to and those who aren’t your customers. Identify each group and find out what they have in common. Your task is to discover their needs, requirements, desires, preferences, and life situations in which your product can become a solution.
Answer specific questions related to the potential market. There are several crucial questions you should ask yourself before you can identify your potential market. Together with your team, think of the products your existing customers might need in the future, what items they need now, and what demographic groups can also be interested in your product. Moreover, you need to identify the characteristics your potential and current customers share. Afterward, consider the things the new customers have in common.
Find ways to target new markets. Once you answer the questions, you’ll find a way to reach your new target market. You’ll be ready with your unique selling proposition, marketing strategy, and promotion techniques to help you win new consumers. For example, if you sell baby products, you can sell them not only to parents but also to grandparents and children's facilities. Besides, consider producing children's products for different age groups.
Develop a marketing strategy. After identifying your potential market, prepare new strategies to establish connections with potential clients. Having several target markets means coming up with marketing approaches that will help you build trusting relationships and drive interest. Your offer and message should be personalized and crafted to the needs of your audience segment. This way, you’ll be able to attain your business goals. LIKE.TG enables you to craft and send your message through the most popular communication channels. With its help, you can design personalized email campaigns, web push notifications, and chatbots. Moreover, you can create a landing page to reach a wide audience of potential clients.
Create buyer personas. Develop a customer profile for your potential market. You should show your care to potential and current clients. An accurate buyer persona will cover the main points such as demographic information, preferred communication channels, ways they shop (in-store or online), pain points, struggles, concerns, the things that matter for them, and appropriate language for communication. Later, you’ll use this information to create relevant messages, outline a budget, and select the most suitable marketing channels.
Congrats, now you know what a potential market is and why it’s essential. Hope that our guide will come in handy when you decide to identify your potential market.
Podcast advertising
Podcast advertising is a live-read 15 to 60 seconds audio ad a customer can hear in pauses of podcasts. It helps earn people’s trust, reach wide audiences, increase ROI, and promote products.
In this article, we’ll unveil the benefits and examples of podcast advertising. We’ll also figure out how it works and how to measure the performance.
Benefits of Podcast Advertising
People listen to podcasts on road trips, during exercises, or when they get ready for work. It’s a convenient, informative, useful, and exciting way to spend free time. The most popular shows in the US demonstrate excellent results since they have high numbers of views, reviews, and comments. Millions of people listen to podcasts, so why not use this channel for promotional purposes. According to statistics, 67% of podcast listeners perceive ads positively. Many people also say that they trust ads on podcasts more than other types of advertising. If listeners trust the podcast and ads on it, it means that they can explore brands and consider purchasing some useful products.
Podcast advertising is a new yet effective method to briefly tell listeners about your product’s value, discounts, promos, personal experiences, etc. If you do everything right, you’ll gain trust, enhance your target audience, reach new target groups, and promote products. Besides, this type of advertising provides you with warm leads. They are more likely to buy from your brand. You get better conversion rates and improve ROI. With the help of ads, people have the chance to listen to their favorite channels for free. You’ve probably listened to music and podcasts for free on Spotify. So, people positively perceive various ads.
You can make use of different podcasting platforms to advertise your product. iHeartRadio, Spotify, and PRX have millions of listeners and many advertising capabilities for your company. They will help you gain trust, enhance your customer base, and increase revenues.
Now that you know the pros, it’s time to jump into the process itself. In the next section, we’ll review how podcast advertising works.
How does podcast advertising work?
With programmatic audio, businesses can establish a special connection with the audience. An ad on a podcast is usually short audio the placement of which is similar to a video. Listeners can encounter ads on podcasts at the beginning, middle, and end of an episode. People perceive ads on podcasts better than those on other channels. This means that your company can achieve the necessary goals. According to statistics, 54% of people are more likely to buy from a company they heard about on a podcast.
Podcasting hosts insert ads that are 15-60 seconds in length in the podcasts episodes. The price of the ad spot depends on the reach, audio length, impressions, and downloads.
You are aware of the process now, so it’s time to figure out how to advertise on podcasts.
How to advertise on podcasts?
There are several rules you should follow to place ads on podcasts. We’ve prepared you a list of to-dos to ensure that the process goes smoothly. So let’s explore them.
Consider demographics. Unlike TV shows, podcasts don’t drive the attention of different audiences. However, you’ll get an excellent opportunity to target educated people seeking new information on podcasts. With podcast ads, you have a great chance to focus on the most active audience — millennials. They are in the perfect age, income, and education group. These people can show interest in your product and afford to buy it.
Be aware of the pricing. To avoid misunderstandings and overpricing when paying for a podcast ad slot, you should understand the basic pricing. Although you might think that some platforms can charge you much more than you expect, it’s not like that. The majority of podcast hosts use the same pricing principles. These networks apply the same formula to estimate the approximate cost of an ad slot. Some websites even offer a calculator for you to estimate the price of an ad slot.
Choose a podcast that meets your expectations. If you want your ad to be successful and attract people who might be your potential customers, you should be wise in your choice. Select a podcast that aligns with your product. There are many podcasts and opportunities to connect with niche audiences. Your task is to place your ad in the right episode to be more natural and related to the topic.
Choose several podcasts to advertise your ad. There’s no need to invest your money in one expensive podcast. It’s better to select the most suitable and popular podcasts to place ads on. Remember, although major podcasts have millions of listeners, they won’t recollect your brand if they hear your ad once. You’ll need to play your ad several times, and finally, you’ll have a huge total cost. If the ad doesn’t work, you’ll lose big money and the possibility to reach people and boost ROI. Several ads on smaller podcasts will bring you prospects and conversions.
Identify the most suitable type of ad for your product. Podcast ads can be different. You can purchase a native ad and play it in the beginning, middle, or end of the episode or ask producers to create sponsored content. The podcast host can even read the ad at the most appropriate moment during the episode. It depends on your budget, preferences, and end goals.
Now you know how to advertise on podcasts, so it’s time to unveil how to assess the performance.
How to measure the performance of podcast advertising?
An impression is a major metric you can measure the performance of your ad. In the case of podcasts, it depends on the number of downloads — the more downloads of the episode with your ad, the better the performance. For instance, if the podcast’s episode was downloaded 230,000, it signifies that your ad got 230,000 impressions. Then, you can assess whether the results meet your initial expectations or not.
You can also measure the performance with promo codes. You can share different promo codes in different episodes and see whether people come to purchase and use the code to get a discount or a gift. This way, you’ll capture which podcasts and episodes are the most effective. In addition to promo codes, you can use “How did you know about our brand?” questions. If customers come from podcasts, they’ll let you know.
It’s time to figure out the price of a podcast ad slot.
How much does podcast advertising cost?
The price of the podcast ad spot depends on the platform you’ll use, the ad length, and the ad type. Podcast advertising has its pricing structure you should be aware of to calculate the approximate cost of your ad per day, month, year, etc. Different platforms can apply either cost per mille or cost per acquisition rate to sell ad spots on their websites. The first one relies on the cost you’ll pay for 1,000 impressions or downloads. The second one is the price you’ll pay to obtain one new client.
According to Advertise Cast, a 30-second ad cost per mille will cost you $18 while a 60-second ad cost per mille — $25. The market of podcast hosting services is vast, and you’ll find a place for your ad in accordance with your budget and needs. In general, a basic platform will charge you $100-$500 for an ad spot. However, popular podcasting hosts with a huge listeners base may cost you more than $2,000. Your task is to conduct research and identify podcasts that meet your business goals and fee expectations.
Now you know the approximate price of an ad spot, so let’s grab some inspiration from examples.
Examples of Podcast Advertising
You can hear dozens of ads while listening to a podcast driving to work or back home. They are unique and designed to reach and resonate with their audience. It’s time for you to find out how to do it with podcast ads.
The Adam Dr. Drew Show and EightSleep
For the podcast, the most important thing is to smoothly lead to the ad. The Adam Dr. Drew Show did it well with the EightSleep promotion. First, the host started with the importance of mental health and then concluded that it’s affected by different factors. Dr. Drew mentions good sleep and all the necessary components. Here comes EightSleep, a company that sells smart mattresses. This is a perfect solution for people who care about their sleep and mental health.
Gimlet Media and Toyota RAV4
The famous manufacturer of cars prefers to use native ads on Gimlet podcasts. The ad is only 30-seconds in length yet informative. The narrator describes all the advantages of buying such a car. The car’s unique features make the driver safe and comfortable. The ad doesn’t include any specifications and podcast’s name so it can be used for several podcasts and platforms.
Podcast advertising is a new and effective way to gain the audience’s trust and increase conversions. As more and more people join podcasts, you’ll be among those who successfully implemented the strategy and see visible results.
Persuasive advertising
Persuasive advertising is a type of advertising that appeals to customers’ needs and wants and aims at selling a product or service. It implies using different methods to communicate the benefits of a product and convince people to buy it.
In this article, we’ll explore the advantages and disadvantages of persuasive advertising and make the difference between persuasive and informative advertising clear. Next, we’ll uncover some techniques an example of this strategy.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Persuasive Advertising
Persuasive advertising, like any other type of advertising, has bothbenefits and drawbacks. Let’s now consider all of them to understand how it works and realize thepros a company can obtain. First and foremost, this strategy sticks to a customer-centric approach, meaning that a company focuses on making customers satisfied and tries to meet their individual needs.
Secondly, the strategy is always based on arguments supporting a product’s value and persuading customers that it can solve their problems. It helps convince consumers to purchase a certain product based on its quality, value, features, or benefits. As a result, businesses succeed in establishing credibility and trustin their products.
Persuasive advertising influences buyers through emotions, needs, and desires. Customers choose specific brands because of the way they feel about their products. The right approach and the reasons for people to purchase a particular product create a connection between a customer and a brand and establish a strong relationship between them, which results in brand loyalty.
However, this type of advertising also has several disadvantages:
the impersonal character of advertising;
dissatisfied consumers;
sometimes a deceptive picture of products;
customer churn.
Now when you are acquainted with the pros and cons of persuasive advertising, let’s talk about persuasive and informative ads since sometimes it’s difficult todifferentiatebetween the two.
Persuasive Advertising vs. Informative Advertising
Although both types help companies communicate the strength of their products and services, they are used in different situations and represent different strategies. Let’s review both in more detail to see the difference.
Persuasive advertising is a type of advertising that implies convincing customers and making them believe that a product or service is worth buying. With these types of ads, marketers appeal to emotions. Since facts and figures aren’t always enough to persuadea specifictarget audience, many brands try to establish emotional connections, which helps encourage consumers to purchase.
Informative advertising is a type of advertising that encompasses companies using facts and figures to communicate the benefits of products to their target audience. Brands share truthful information about their products or services to highlight their value, benefits, and features with a minimal appeal to customers’ emotions. After obtaining accurate information about a certain good, a customer decides whether to buy it or not. Check out our article to explore informative advertising in more detail.
Simply put, the main difference is that persuasive advertising relies on emotions, whereas informative advertisingis based on truthful facts and statistics.
Nowthat the differencebetween the two strategies is clear, let’s jump to persuasive advertising techniques.
4Persuasive Advertising Techniques
You can use different techniques to implement the strategyfor your business. Here aresome of the most effective persuasive advertising tactics:
Emotional appeal. When using this technique, brands try to evoke a particular type of emotions in customers. It can be happiness, satisfaction, surprise, joy, interest, or sadness. This way, companies can make consumers not use rational thinking but rather rely on their emotions at the very moment. As a result, clientsmake impulse purchases and bring companies more revenue.
The carrot and the stick. Brands try to provide customers withcontrasting sensations. An ad that uses the carrot principle includes the product’s values and benefitsto cheer up consumers. It makes them feel hopeful that a certain product can bring a solution to their problem. However, some ads focus on the stick principle. In this case, brands highlight negative aspects and dangers that can emerge ifcustomers don’t buy a certain product.
Scarcity principle. The principle focuses on people’s wants to have something unique and original. The technique is used to approach customers who pay attention to rare products or experiences. It works because people can feel more powerful when owning something extraordinary others don’t possess. Brands that implement the strategy in their ads include phrases like “limited availability” or “exclusive offer” to increase customer demand and evoke the fear of missing out.
Celebrity association. By attracting opinion leaders to their products’ advertising, companies create associations with them and increase customer engagement. Celebrities can add value to your product and make it more desirable among consumers.
Now let’s take a closer look at the example of persuasive advertising.
Example of Persuasive Advertising
The famous ketchup producer decided to establish an emotional connection with customers by including the English singer Ed Sheeran in its ad.The commercial is simple, funny, and light, and it helps connect with the target audience and evoke positive emotions that customers will associate with the brand. The singer, who became the ad’s main character, can also attract his fans to the well-established brand.
To conclude, persuasive ads allow companies to effectively promote their products and encourage people to buy.Try implementing some of the persuasive advertising tactics to establish a solid and long-lasting relationship with your audience!
Personal branding
Personal branding is a marketing approachthat centers around a certain personand their unique experience, popularity, knowledge, and expertise. It helps a company stand outfrom the competition, have a bigger influence, and establish authority and influence.
In the video below, Anya shares the core steps to creating an outstanding personal brand. Check it out!
In this article, we’ll unveil the importance, benefits, types, and examples of personal branding. We’ll alsoexplore severalpractical tips and find out how to build a personal brand.
Why is personal branding important?
Having a personal brand means having something unique that others don’t have: expertise, experience, or extraordinary achievements. They make a company influential, recognizable, and competitive, as personal branding presents anopportunity to show your advantages and strengths.
Creating a personal brand is especially popular among influencers who already have their customers’love and trust. They can easily use their names and expertise to establish brands peoplewill appreciate. Selena Gomes, Charlotte Tilbury, and Kylie Jenner used their popularity and influence to create world-known makeup brands.
Why is personal branding sopopular? The answer is simple: personal brandscan be easily recognized, memorized, and recalled. Subscribers can automatically become prospectssince they knowan influencer well and appreciate this person’s expertise and knowledge. As a result, theinfluencer has a wide reach and the trust ofpeople all over the world.
Now that you know the reasons to consider creating a personal brand, let’s proceed to the benefits.
Benefits of Personal Branding
Since this type of branding has the power to instantly show the competitive advantage ofa company and the solution it can provide to customers, it drives attention. A wide reach allows entrepreneurs to reap many benefits. Your brand will not only stand outin the crowd of competitorsbut also:
establish a strong online presence and become visible;
gain customers’ trust;
connect with your target audience;
communicate the value of your product;
show expertise in your industry;
expandyour reach;
build a community;
boost sales;
increase exposure;
increase your wealth.
If these advantages make you more curious about personal branding, it’s a good idea to keep exploring and find the best way to build one. In the next section, we’ll uncoverseveral types ofpersonal brandingyou might be interested in.
Types of Personal Branding
Personal branding isn’t just one of themany marketing strategies that help reach success. It’s the way your target audience perceives your brand and you as an individual. When creating a brand, you should take the task seriously and choosea personal brandingtype that feelsclose to you. It will influence the way people perceive your company. To do it, you need to know the main personal branding types.
Connector. Connectors care about bringing people together and creating communities. These opinion leaders like to communicate with their audience and strive to gather people around them. They are friendly, caring, creative, and open-minded.
Selective. This group covers brandsthat target only specific audience segments. Selectivescreate engaging, quality, and informative contentthat they share only with certaingroups of people.
Careerist. Careerists’ achievements are their top priority. They doeverything to reach them and share information that will help level up and show their expertise. They are thought leaderswho have the knowledge and skills people trust. The well-known Elon Musk and Simon Senek areexcellent examples of careerist personal brands.
Altruist. Altruists are committed to helping others. They run foundations or charities and support people in need. They spend their time and effort to make other people’slives better by helping cure diseases, protecting and supportingvictims of harassment, abuse, and inequality, helping homeless people, etc. For example, Oprah Winfrey helps women and children with education, and Marlo Thomas makes donations for children’s cancer research.
Hipster. True hipsters focus on individuality. Although they combine the characteristics of careerists and altruists, unlike these two branding types, hipsters don’t act. They prefer to share only tried-and-truetips and insights with their audience.These brands are modern, trendy, and unique.
Boomerang. Boomerangs share controversial information that leads to discussions. Their content is often unexpected, controversial, and provocative. You can encounter manyexamples of boomerang personal brandson Instagram, includingmeme accounts like @sarcasm_only or @epicfunnypage. News reporters are also considered boomerang brands.
Once you decide on your personal brandtype, proceed to buildit step by step.
How do youbuild a personal brand?
Anyone can build a great personal brand— all you need is access to social media platforms. Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter empower you to create a brand you have been striving for all these years. Establish a positive image, pleasant personality, and firm values that resonate with your target audience. Let’s proceed to our guide todiscuss this process in detail.
Select a niche. Success and wealth come to people who are passionate about their work. They are well-versed in the industry, provide customerswith high-qualityproducts, and have expertise, skills, and knowledge. These people are always ready for something new and innovative. To create an outstanding personal brand, thinkabout what you like to doand are good at. For example, you can start a blog about plants if you know great tips onhow to take care of them and grow them.
Think of your unique proposition. Once you select yourniche, determinewhat can help you stand out. Remember that people pay attention to unique, exceptional, and authentic brands. Identify your strengths to define your unique value propositionand communicateit to your audience.
Identify your target audience. To effectively address consumers’needs, you should conducta short survey and explore more about them. Explore the age, occupation, interests, and preferences of your target audience to deliver relevant and personalized information.
Create an engaging website and social media profiles.Websitesare one of the main communication channels. To build one, you can make use of freesite builders. Your website shouldhighlight your accomplishments and include your social media profile links, logo, value proposition, and visible CTAbuttons. Consider LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for personal brandingto increase the likelihood of your brand’s success and make your brand visible to a larger audience.
Work on your content strategy. Quality content shows your expertise and proves that you are a professional, one of a kind. Eventually, you will gain trust and credibility. Your experience and knowledge will encourage people to share your brand with their friends and family. In this case, you won’t need to pay for advertising because your subscribers will be your free word-of-mouth promoters. Ensure to use the most viral types of content, for example, podcasts, webinars, and online courses to efficiently convey your productvalueto readers.
It’s time to jump into the tips that will help make your brand successful.
3 Tips for Building a Personal Brand
You can find many personal branding tips thatcan help youachievestellar results in business. We’ve picked up the most important onesto remember.
Create a brand personality. If you have chosen a suitable niche, it’s time to create a brand personality. It shouldreflect your unique perspective and characteristics that differentiate your brand from hundreds of others. You should know what to say and whenand be consistent with your tone of voice.
Ask opinion leaders to endorse you. Once you establish a clear personality for your brand, you can ask others to promote your company. The best idea is to ask influencers for help. They have the trust and attention of millions of people whoare eager to explore new brands. The best platforms for endorsement are Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
Establish a strong online presence. Your team, marketing tools, and platforms form a good basis for your branddevelopment. Be active on social media and share different types of content, includingcaptivating photos and videos and compelling posts, to engage your audience. Answer questions to demonstrate your openness to customers.
Hope these tips will help you with your personal branding. Let’s explore our amazing examples to grab some inspiration.
3 Outstanding Personal Branding Examples
There are so many wonderful examples of personal branding that we simply can’t skip. Successful, professional, exceptional, and unique individuals create great personal brands and win people’s trust. If you don’t have any ideas for yourpersonal brand yet, explore some of the most outstanding examples.
Elon Musk
Everybody heard the name Elon Musk, creator of Tesla and SpaceX, at least once. He is often associated with his companies’ names. Elon Musk is a great example of careerist personal branding that represents technology. People will forever remember his electric cars and rockets.
Kylie Jenner
Kylie Cosmetics turned Kylie Jenner into the youngest “self-made” billionaire in the world. The young woman succeeded in creating a cosmetics empire named after her. Kylie, a member of the wealthy Kardashian family, didn’t need opinion leaders to promote her new brand. She could influencepeople by herself and used her face to demonstrate her product line. The strong social media presence brought excellent results to this young celebrity. Kylie Cosmetics now has 25.5M followers on Instagram and loyal customers worldwide.
Shaun White
Shaun White is famous for his accomplishments in snowboarding and skateboarding. The athlete now has his own clothing brand. The store has everything a sportsman needs.
Simply put, personal branding is closely connected with your identity, personality, and expertise. These examples demonstrate very different yet inspiring personal brands and will help you pave the way for your brand.
Pipeline marketing
Pipeline marketing is a strategy that incorporates marketing and sales data to convert leads to customers. It’s focused on the narrow end of the funnel.
Why is pipeline marketing important?
Pipeline marketing strategy has enormous potential to grow your business and drive sales. It combines marketing and sales data to connect it to your future conversions and revenue. Instead of merely generating new leads, marketers do their best to keep existing customers engaged.
Based on the latest HubSpot lead-conversion statistics:
61% of marketers state that traffic and lead generation is their top challenge;
lead generation, nurturing, and sales are the top main objectives for marketers;
for 39% of marketers proving the ROI of all marketing activities is one of the most challenging task;
Almost 80% of marketers don’t think lead generation strategy itself is effective, and25% of marketers don’t know for sure whether their lead generation activities have contributed to closed sales.
Pipeline marketing is more effective than a simple lead generation. It focuses not on gathering as many new email addresses as possible for future marketing campaigns but puts efforts to make the most out of your existing customers. It implies nurturing them to craft personalized and targeted offers. This approach is not just more effective, it’s also more cost-efficient for the overall project since you don’t have to reinvent the wheel looking for new lead generation methods but work harder with existing clients.
Lead Generationvs. Pipeline Marketing
Lead generation and pipeline marketing are two completely different approaches that have the same end goal, though. Whereas lead generation focuses on attracting as many new leads as possible, pipeline marketing concentrates on getting as much revenue from the existing leads as possible.
The main goal of lead generation is to get more email addresses and other contact information for further marketing activities. Pipeline marketing works on converting leads by nurturing, educating, and providing valuable offers.
How Pipeline Marketing Works
Pipeline marketing strategy is focused on selling a product or service to a particular company or person and, respectively, is more individualized. This strategy concentrates on the narrow bottom part of the sales funnel. The main goal of pipeline marketing is all about the conversion of an interested lead into a customer.
Pipeline marketing always begins with goal setting. Only after that, a company may think about possible ways to hit those targets. Cost per opportunity lies in the heart of the process. A business should continuously evaluate the critical metrics and develop new approaches based on the results. Here is how it looks systematic.
Setting Goals
What should be the result of your marketing efforts? When setting the goals for your campaign, make sure they are: S – specificM – measurableA– achievable R – realistic T – timely
You can analyze the record of sales. It might give you a clue about where to move in the future. This is a great idea to add specific numbers and figures to your goals, like a certain percentage of ROI you expect to gain.
What is the most effective way to hit your objectives?
The main task is to review all of your prospects and work only with leads who are interested in your products to increase the chance of a conversion. Follow up regularly and send automated emails and reminders to keep your audience in the know. Monitor pipeline metrics regularly, review them to improve the overall pipeline strategy and sales techniques as well.
To achieve your goals with a pipeline marketing strategy, we recommend you use a CRM system. It helps maintain relationships with customers and manage sales. LIKE.TG offers a free CRM systemto automate sales and communicate with contacts effectively. It allows you to accept orders, control the sales process, discover the stages at which your leads are stuck and you lose revenue, keep all the information about them and deals, and send marketing campaigns to your clients in one place. This will provide you with a clear picture of your sales team's performance. Find out more about our CRM in the Knowledge Base.
You can rely on the efforts of your team, or you can give your product a boost and reinforce pipeline marketing activities with professional services such as LIKE.TG.
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Control and Evaluate
You should keep in mind several important metrics that matter in pipeline marketing. They include
revenue by channel;
lead volume;
deals closed;
marketing return on investment;
revenue by lead source;
opportunities by channel.
Final thoughts
As you can see, pipeline marketing is an effective marketing strategy that allows you to generate real customers instead of merely growing your lead base. Now, as you understand its potential and importance, you can feel free to elaborate on your pipeline marketing strategy and benefit from professional services to achieve tangible results.
Phishing
Phishing is network fraud. Phishers are technically advanced crooks and thieves. With the help of spam, malicious websites, emails, they lure users of confidential information, such as bank account numbers or credit cards.
How to Recognize Phishing
Phishers, disguised as well-known companies, use e-mails to request personal information, while the user is directed to a fake website;
Most often, phishers use emotional expressions, trying to frighten or excite the user and get him to respond immediately to an email;
Phishing sites look like their prototypes, as copyrighted images from authentic sites, widely used in their design;
Requests for confidential information via e-mail are often illegal;
Often fraudulent emails are not personalizedand contain the same information in the title and text.
How to Protect Yourself from Phishing
The first thing to remember is always the following: your PASSWORD is ONLY YOURS; no organization will require your password from you. You only need it to access a particular service, and only you need to know it;
Be careful when receiving e-mails from unknown senders and e-mails asking to click on the link;
Always check via the address bar on that site whether you enter your password. (The domain is also forged, that is why, it is very similar to its original, the difference can be only one letter, for example, microsoft.com can turn into maicrosoft.com);
Use the latest versions of browsers and licensed antivirus software.
If you suspect that you have been subjected to a phishing attack, be sure to immediately change your account password and contact the organization's security department, data from which was obtained by scammers.
Plain text email
Plain text emails are used for email campaigns that contain text without any images or HTML coding. These campaigns are the most basic types and do not require any knowledge of coding or HTML.
To many people, it may seem obvious that plain text emails are a thing of the past because they lack design and look old-fashioned. Marketers, however, consider it a debatable subject.
This video, produced by Simplify Leads, compares plain-text emails with HTML emails, describing the advantages and disadvantages of both formats.
Pros of Using Plain Text Emails
Spamfiltersfrom specific email clients, like Outlook and Gmail, require the plain text versions of HTML emails.
Some email clients do not support HTML versions, which means that your HTML letters risk getting into spam folders.
Some people prefer plain text emails to HTML.
Plain text emails are getting better open ratesthan HTML versions.
Cons of Using Plain Text Emails
The simple text does not look as attractive as images.
The simple text does not have the option to create a design hierarchy. With the help of the design hierarchy, the reader catches the essential information of the email at first glance. For this reason, readers often get lost in the multiple lines of plain text.
By analyzing the peculiarities of the industry and the purpose of the email, you can decide whether plain text emails are relevant for you.
Personalized email marketing
Personalized email marketing is sending emails based on user’s personal information. Companies collect this data with the help of subscription forms, surveys, or analytical tools like Google Analytics.
Watch this video to import a personalized email list to LIKE.TG.
Today, people are a bit frustrated with receiving emails without personalization, which means they are irrelevant. To satisfy that customer's demand for a personalized experience, brands strive to get data from users to build personalized email marketing.
Benefits of personalized email marketing
Improves communication with subscribers
Increases sales
Saves money
Motivates to create better content
Improves communication with subscribers. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach in email marketing, but personalization allows finding individual keys to different people. When personalizing email marketing efforts, you build a loyal audience and a trusting brand image.
Increases sales. According to Forbes, 40% of US consumers admitted that due to personalized nature of the offer, they’d bought more expensive goods than they planned. Personalized email marketing makes it easier for people to decide because it provides more benefits along with content relevant to subscriber’s interests.
Saves money. Since personalized email marketing helps to give people a positive experience, this approach results in building loyal customers. Keeping existing customers engaged is cheaper than aсquiring new ones, so this method is cost-effective.
Motivates to create better content. To do personalized email marketing, you need to make your content fit various segments of your audience. It is an excellent incentive for business owners to get a closer look at their customer’s needs and combine providing value and selling.
How to do personalized email marketing?
Collect relevant data
Use segmentation
Pay attention to behavior-based data
Use personal data responsibly
Let’s check the things you should remember when implementing personalized email marketing ideas to the overall business strategy.
Collect relevant data. It’s okay to gather more information than just a user’s name and email address at the beginning of communication. Ask for a phone number, gender, or location, but make sure the subscription process is still smooth and fast. As your relationships progress, ask for more data like phone number, birth date, interests, etc. to send special SMS offers, birthday emails, and more relevant content.
Use segmentation. Divide your audience into different groups based on common characteristics they share: age, gender, location, etc. Segmentation comes in handy for ecommerce as it helps to provide women and men, teens and adults with relevant offers.
Pay attention to behavior-based data. That is information based on previous purchases, customers’ lifecycle stage, their engagement with your emails, etc. This data will help you send highly personalized emails at the most convenient time for the customer. Triggered emails that make up personalized email marketing include abandoned cart, reactivation, welcome email, etc.
Use personal data responsibly. Explain why you need user’s personal information and how you are going to use it. It will help you avoid odd situations that may harm your reputation and credibility.
Personalized email marketing examples
CodeAcademy. It is an example of a personalized update on the course the user was studying — “Introduction to HTML.” This email incentivizes to get back to the course.
Quora. It is a personalized digest, which Quora regularly sends based on user’s preferences and interests.
Grammarly. It is a weekly report of the work that has been done using this tool. Such emails are personalized based on the user progress and level of engagement. Reading these emails is very inspiring and motivating.
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Personal selling
Personal selling is a sales technique that implies a salesperson communicating face-to-face with a customer to make a deal. Brands use this sales approach to convey the end benefits of products and encourage consumers to shop.
In this article, we’ll unveil the importance, advantages, disadvantages, and types of personal selling. We’ll also uncover 7 best personal selling techniques.
Why is personal selling important?
Many companies implement personal selling because of the advantages businesses and customers can reap. This sales technique can be used at any stage of communication with a prospective customer. It helps introduce the product to consumers for the first time or unveil its value to people who have already seen it in ads. Personal selling implies a presentation of a product. Besides, customers can ask salespeople to demonstrate goods and all functions. This works perfectly with complex products which clients need to discover first.
Face-to-face selling enables sales managers to adjust to the needs and requirements of consumers. They can see reactions and listen to consumers’ wants. Once salespeople understand their customers’ motivations and needs, they can adapt their sales message, provide a choice of suitable products, and adjust to consumers’ pricing requirements. Clients can ask questions to find out the details, and sales managers can provide the necessary answers. Moreover, if clients have objections, a salesperson can always address them and encourage consumers to purchase.
Personal selling enables brands to convert qualified leads into customers. It brings sales and increases revenue. Consumers stay satisfied with the service and product because they receive all the necessary information.
Now that you know about the importance, let’s proceed to the pros and cons.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Personal Selling
In an increasingly competitive market, brands strive to implement new marketing and sales techniques to reach leads and convert them into customers. Personal sales approach often plays a crucial part in closing a deal. Professional sales reps who understand the needs and desires of their customers can boost sales and customer satisfaction. These are just a few pros of personal selling. Let’s continue to find out even more advantages.
The advantages of personal selling include the following:
improved brand image;
higher customer satisfaction;
a better understanding of the product’s features and value;
increased sales;
higher revenue;
customer trust;
personalized communication between a customer and a brand;
individual approach;
face-to-face interaction.
However, every marketing technique carries disadvantages as well. They are the following:
increased spending on resources and time;
the inability of sales reps to reach several leads at once;
the costly and time-consuming process of training sales reps;a limited reach.
Now that you know the pros and cons of this method, it’s time to unveil the types. The next section will give you a hint on which form of personal selling your business needs.
Types of Personal Selling
We can differentiate three main types of personal selling based on salespeople's activity. We’ll review each of them in detail to determine which suits your business purpose the most. So let’s dive in.
Order takers. This type implies a potential client approaching a salesperson to find out the details about a specific product: its features, value, pricing, benefits, etc. Sales reps address prospects’ questions and try to understand their motivations, needs, and desires. Prospects can find salespeople who present this type of personal selling in brick-and-mortar stores. Leads can approach retail sales assistants or telemarketers to receive answers to their questions. Usually, these specialists focus on identifying prospective customers’ needs and finding a perfect solution among the brand’s inventory.
Order getters. This type involves proactive sales representatives. It means they show initiative to tell prospects about the product and unveil its benefits and features. These salespeople reach new people, interact with them, and ask them about their needs and pain points to offer a perfect solution. These perfect communicators bring new customers and sales to a business.
Order creators. This type of personal selling aims to make people promote a product and brand to their family and friends. Sales reps strive to establish trust and encourage word-of-mouth promotion. For instance, a beauty products company reaches out to a cosmetologist to encourage this person to promote the company’s products to clients.
Now that you know the types, let’s discover 8 excellent personal selling techniques that will help you attain more clients and increase profits.
7 Personal Selling Techniques
This section is designed to uncover the strategies you can use to successfully implement personal selling into your business. Let’s review each of them to know how to act.
Make sure that your sales reps are friendly and empathetic. The first thing that makes the difference when selling is the personal traits of your salespeople. To win deals, your sales reps should be natural, friendly, and empathetic. If you want to reach this effect, consider conducting special training to show your employees what they should and shouldn’t do when communicating with customers face-to-face. Teach your sales team different techniques that help sell faster, like talking about the problems of customers your product has already managed to solve.
Keep in mind buyer personas. Your buyer persona covers all the traits, interests, motivations, needs, and problems of your potential customers. It’s crucial for the sales team to have it at hand. This way, they can figure out how to start interaction and what points to emphasize to make a sale. Your team should work with buyer personas to exclude prospects that don’t fit your criteria. It will enable you to avoid spending time and money on unqualified leads.
Listen to customers. The main task of every sales representative is to listen and hear your consumers. They will communicate their needs, requirements, desires, and problems so that you can help them. Your sales team can ask certain questions to understand customers better and identify their concerns. This way, your sales reps can relate your product to potential customers' motivations.
Uncover end value to prospects. After discovering leads’ needs and understanding their pain points, salespeople should focus on the end benefits your product can provide. At this stage, potential customers focus on the value rather than the features it has. They only need a working solution for their problem. Tell your sales team to save time on unveiling the product's features. You can’t be one hundred percent sure that they will have a relation to consumers’ problems.
Make your communication personal. Salespeople should be assigned to address every qualified lead personally when communicating face-to-face. Whenever a prospect has any questions, sales reps strive to address them as personally as possible. It will help establish trust and move them down the sales funnel.
Wisely offer to make a purchase. The main task of each sales team is to close more deals. However, you should do it smartly. Once your sales representatives finish with the presentation of the product and address all prospects’ questions and objections, they can move to the stage of closing the sale. Offer the sales team to explore different closing phrases that work with customers.
Remember about after-sales service. After-sales service is crucial for building a base of loyal customers. You should follow up with your consumers even after you close the deal. Your sales reps can interact with them using phone, email campaigns, face-to-face communication, etc. It helps build trusting relationships and encourages consumers to return for another product. Constant communication also enables your sales team to implement cross-selling and up-selling.
Congrats, now you know what personal selling is and why it’s essential. After exploring the types and strategies, you can be sure whether personal selling is a good choice for your company.
Personalized text message
A personalized text message is an SMS created using subscribers’ data: time, age, country, gender, etc. for the sake of providing them with more valuable offers and news at the right time. LIKE.TG makes it easy to send personalized messages with its texting functionality.
Why are personalized text messages important?
Shows significant results
Builds trusting relationships
Helps to provide more value
Creates convenient communication for customers
Shows significant results. SMS personalization is one of the most engaging tools in marketing with open rates of 98%, according to Gartner.
Builds trusting relationships. People have a feeling of human, non-computer communication when they receive personalized text messages. A personalized approach is a good foundation for trusting relationships.
Helps to provide more value. Personalized text messages offer subscribers with the most relevant information. Relevance is one of the keys to a successful SMS campaign.
Creates convenient communication for customers. Communication via text message is instant, so the recipients don’t spend much time on it. Personalized text messages make it easier to attract attention and offer a good deal rapidly.
Youcan enjoy all these benefits with a marketing service that offers a bunch of useful features.
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How to Create Personalized Messages
Import your phone numbers
Import phone numbers together with relevant information about subscribers (like country, gender, birth date, etc.) Without it, personalization can’t happen. Alternatively, set up a subscription form on your website that contains the necessary fields.
Sending an SMS campaign
After that, you can create an SMS campaign. Be sure to include the name of the sender. There you can add variables directly into the text. The example below shows how a text message looks when personalizedwith aname.
This is only the first step to personalize a text message, read on to discover which tools LIKE.TG offers for personalization.
Text Message Personalization Tools
Subscription forms
Segmentation
Variable usage
Subscription forms
LIKE.TG enables you to create custom subscription forms for free, which gives an advantage in further text message personalization. Ask yourself what sort of data your business might require from subscribers. Then create an effective segmentation on that basis.
Segmentation
Underneath the text field, there is a checkmark for segmentation. This tool enables you to send different messages to various segments of your audience at once.
Variable usage
For more specific segmentation, you can use a few variables for segmentation, for instance, gender and country, at once.
Personalized Text Message Best Practices
Think beforehand
Make valuable offers for each segment
Write a clever copy.
Consider when to send
Segment according to the location
Think beforehand. A subscription form on your website or blog is crucial for further SMS personalization success. Ask for your subscribers’ names, location, age, etc. and you will obtain needed data for personalization.
Make valuable offers for each segment. Come up with unique offers for each segment, as the main idea of personalization is to provide as many customers with the most relevant offers as possible.
Write a clever copy. You have only a few seconds to capture recipients’ attention. Make smart use of this time: put the offer upfront, make it time-sensitive, and ensure it is clear what to do.
Consider when to send. Avoid sending SMS during rush-hours and at night. And, if your audience is spread around the globe, keep in mind different time zones.
Segment according to the location. Proposals may vary between countries due to shipping time or availability of the items. Segmentation by location will help you evade unpleasant experiences.
Personalized Text Message Examples
Personalization by location:
Personalization by name and gender:
Personalized email
A personalized email is an email sent by companies using subscribers’ data to provide them with more relevant offers and ensure a positive communication experience.
Watch this video to import a personalized email list to LIKE.TG.
Personalization means a lot for email marketing since it enables you to send more relevant emails based on personal information that users voluntarily share when subscribing to an email newsletter. There is a wide range of options for personalized email usage: from mass emails with personalized subject lines to behavior-based trigger emails like abandoned cart email, reactivation email, and birthday emails.
Why should I use personalization?
Boosts ROI
Results in better engagement
Improves sender reputation
Motivates users to share personal data
Increases open rates
It helps to create relevant content
Meets subscriber’s expectations
Boosts ROI. If you master personalization in your email campaigns, you can expect your revenue to increase by 5-15%.
Results in better engagement. According to Accenture, 91% of people are more likely to buy from companies that send personalized emails. If you invite people to your webinar and add a photo of their city to an invitation email, the chances are that positive emotions will do the job.
Improves sender reputation. A high level of engagement that personalization adds to email marketing results in fewer spam complaints and lower unsubscribe rates. It has a positive impact on your email deliverability and ensures a better sender reputation.
Motivates users to share personal data. 83% of consumers are willing to share their data with brands if that enables personalization, according to Accenture study. In exchange, brands should be transparent and fair about the way they use this information. Let’s say a middle-aged male user subscribes to receive newsletters from a travel equipment online store. During the subscription, the store should inform you that they will use the information about his gender and age to send exciting email campaigns.
Increases open rates. Aside from the sender’s name and preheader text, the open rate is mainly determined by the subject line. Personalized subject lines lead to50%more opens, and this technique is easy to implement. People need to enter their name in the subscription form, so that you can add a {{name}} variable to the subject line while creating an email campaign. “Richard, don’t lie to me, tell me where have you been?” — could be the subject line of some reactivation email.
It helps to create relevant content. Companies that know a lot about their subscribers demonstrate their products and services more creatively and engagingly, tailoring them to the right audience. For instance, it’s a good idea for the sports shop to offer discounts on baseball equipment if a person displayed an interest in Major League Baseball.
Meets subscriber’s expectations. When people subscribe and provide you with personal data, they expect a personalized approach from you, and ignoring that fact gives your audience a frustrative experience and raises a question about trust.
All of that's made possible with LIKE.TG. You can quickly bring your craziest ideas to life with personalization instruments.
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We offer email personalization, segmentation, and behavior-based campaign tools to make your email marketing work.
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How to Personalize Emails
Segment your mailing list
Personalize subject lines
Use smart personalization
Send triggered emails based on behavior
Allow subscribers to set preferences
Inform users about your privacy policy
The philosopher’s stone of email marketing is creating the thoroughly personalized emails, totally individual for each subscriber. Although it remains a dream, personalized emails already allow companies to implement a consumer-centered style of communication, so check out some useful tips and best practices for creating your personalized emails:
Segment your mailing list. Segmentation is a method of dividing subscribers into different groups that have something in common, like gender, age, location, preferences, etc. Find out which segmentation strategy fits your business. If you sell surfboards in the USA, it’s a good idea to segment your customers based on geography. There are more surfers on the West Coast than on the East Coast, so approach these audiences bearing different climate conditions in mind. Here’s a guide where you’ll discover the variety of segmentation principles. LIKE.TG enables you to add segments into your mailing lists with ease.
Personalize subject lines. Add subscriber’s name in a subject line because calling a person by name is a first step to building trust. Make them think, “yeah, that’s my friend speaks to me!” Here’s an instruction on how to personalize a subject line.
Use smart personalization. Savvy marketers know that subject line personalization is just the tip of the iceberg. Utilize data about gender, age, location, and create variables in the mailing list. Smart personalization allows you to send emails based on one email templatebut containing different text pieces or images depending on these variables.
Send triggered emails based on behavior. Automated emails like abandoned shopping cart email, reactivation email, and birthday email are triggered according to users’ actions.These emails tell people that you always care about them, giving that friendly feeling, which we all miss in the digital world. Documentation on how to create automated emails with LIKE.TG is here.
Allow subscribers to set preferences. Add the preferences block in your email's footer to gain credibility. If you represent news resources, let people decide upon the desired content to receive: politics, ecology, technologies, nature, etc. It helps to build trusting relationships with the audience and get data for more advanced personalization in the future.
Inform users about your privacy policy. In the confirmation email — the second stage of the double-opt-in process — explain the way you will use subscribe’s data.
Personalized Email Examples
An email with a personalized subject line. It is an example of the easiest way to personalize emails, and it works, visually standing out from the crowd of other emails.
Abandoned shopping cart email. Adidas reminds subscribers about the product they left without buying and adds a bit of time sensitivity, telling that this pair will be there for only ten days.
Email based on segmentation. This email about animals got to the inbox because of the preferences discussed during the subscription.
Birthday email. Emails like this one from Converse sent using subscriber’s birth date as a trigger. The main idea of this particular email is to make a sale and give positive emotions.
Reactivation email. It is an excellent example of reactivation email by Virgin Experience Days. It is emotional and provides a $10 discount for the next order.
