Friday, 10 October 2014

Progressive Profiling,


 We all know the importance of asking questions, however, if you think about it like dating, you will see why asking too many questions in one go can make the other person switch off to you.

In order to decrease the amount of forms abandoned, and increase the engagement you receive, the best practice is only ask 2 or 3 questions at a time.
Don't worry about asking all the questions at once, get the key information first, i.e. 'Email address' and 'name'. Then the next time they visit, ask 'job position' & 'telephone'. 

It is important to take advantage of the fact that each return of a prospect is an opportunity to understand them better.SO DON'T WASTE IT!

  • Increased conversion rate. Progressive profiling lets you dole out questions over time, rather than hitting someone with, for example, 20 questions on their first visit (which will likely send them running the other way!). Which results in less form abandonment's.
  • Better experience. Dynamic forms mean your leads only see the fields, and questions that pertain to them. Forms stay small, tidy, and unobtrusive.
  • Time Saver. Rather than having to create multiple forms and associated landing pages, progressive profiling allows you to create one "master" form that dynamically responds to each lead based on their previous actions and information.
  • Improved targeting. Progressive profiling allows you to craft and hone nurturing campaigns that are more closely tailored to your leads and produce better results. Relevance is key!
  • Shortened sales cycle. The dynamic nature of progressive profiling helps marketers more quickly, and uncover which leads are qualified and which need more nurturing. In turn, sales can spend more time focused on the hot opportunities. And ensuring ways to convert cold leads to warm.
 If this article interested you, follow me on Twitter @SarahLouiseTalb.

Good luck in your projects!

Tuesday, 7 October 2014

3 Holiday Strategies For Your Business

It's that time of year again, for some it's joy, for others it's chaos.
There is nothing worse to kill the holiday spirit, like the panic of last minute shopping. This is where you swoop in, here are 3 holiday strategies you can offer your customers this year, to ensure their traumatic experience is minimal. Here are a few cart and browse abandonment strategies you can implement in plenty of time for Christmas.

Browsing Leads To Buying

 Browsing doesn't always lead to abandonment, so long as there is a campaign to win back them shopping carts left. With cart abandonment, you can capture these browsers' behaviors, notice patterns, and trigger emails based on category browsed/interests.

Here is an  example as to how this can benefit your company this Christmas.
If a customer is looking at dolls house October/November, there is a good chance it is research prep for Father Christmas.
As long as you have their email address, you can send a list of best selling toys in regards to the appropriate age/gender groups. To find out more ways you can capture and obtain email addresses, click here to see a previous article.  


Personalisation is the key for this holiday, to be relevant and targeted with the messages, images and product categories sent.

 Don't Fold Too Quickly

If your  customers don't respond quickly to your first attempt at cart recovery, don't worry. It could be because the price is too high, or they are waiting to see if there is a better deal elsewhere. The way to get around this, is by setting up a trigger campaign based on abandoned items, sales, or better yet "stock is getting low" campaigns.

Sweet & Simple

When it comes down to it, adding a sense of urgency by offering a limited-time discount/ limited stock/ or free shipping if they complete a purchase soon. This could be the considering factors necessary for them to purchase with you. 

With these winning strategies, you'll help customers avoid the Christmas Chaos, and hopefully gain their trust and loyalty for life. 

If you liked this article, then feel free to follow me on Twitter @SarahLouiseTalb and

Thursday, 18 September 2014

Tuesday, 16 September 2014

3 Ways To Make PPC Work For You.

Like all things, if planned and executed right, PPC can prove to be one of your more successful campaigns.

However, easy mistakes can be made, and if not corrected now can become bad habits.

1) Choose Wisely 

It is important to not only try and bid for your competitors top spots, but also be creative with your own. The only way to to win the top spot, is to bid more.
However I'm aware not everyone has a budget to do this, which is why it is important to come up with some better keywords.

Before you try and save money on obscure key words to try and cut costs, please remember why you are doing this, and focus on your customers. What would they click? what segment are you targeting? you may want to select long-tail keywords, but not select broad terms.

Another common mistake to avoid, are situations where people will click your ads even though you're not what they have put into their search. This commonly happens when you don't use negative words, and use the default broad match keywords, this will increase the number of clicks as buyers find your website after searching something similar, Once they realise you wasn't what they was originally searching for, they will bounce from your site, and you are still left with the bill.

What are negative keywords? will help you filter out those looking for something specific. For instance, if your site sells fake flowers, your negative word would be "real", because you wouldn't have real roses to sell to someone.
Every click drives up your price, so you need the most relevant possible visitors.



2) Relevance is key

Nothing frustrates your audience than a buyer searching for one thing, and being directed to the complete opposite. If someone is searching for a cashmere jumper, make sure the link directs them straight to the item, and not just the homepage of your website.

If you are not linking to the landing page from your PPC campaign, you're most likely annoying and loosing a lot of potential customers.

Remember the reason your customers are on Google, is for the convenience.


3) Check it real good

There is no point setting up a PPC campaign, and then forgetting about it. This will ensure you get the most out of your keywords, you spend less on the ones that don't work. Also, to analyse how much traffic is being driven to your site. 

You don't need to spend every hour of the day on your AdWords account, but you should take enough time to look through where your traffic is coming from, how you can create more, and if you can afford to increase your bid.

A big part of marketing is the planning, execution and analysis of the campaigns.

If you like this article, RT and follow me on Twitter: @SarahLouiseTalb













Friday, 12 September 2014

4 Strategies For Staying Ahead Of The Marketing Trends

Marketing is one of the biggest, fastest changing industries around, and we have the pleasure of working in it!

Between technology and techniques, are always changing, especially how buyers behave and have evolved over the years.

Staying ahead of trends, technologies and your competitors can feel very daunting.
This article, offers 4 strategies to help you get ahead of the rest- if not, lap the field.

1) Introduce themes.

Draw out a strategy each month, with an informative skill set. For instance, Octobers theme can be- Lead scoring, Novembers theme can be- abandoned shopping carts, and an obvious December- Festive campaigns for the holiday seasons.

2) Knowledge is Power

There are some great conferences, round tables and trade shows happening all around the UK. See which conferences are of relevance to your industry, or, even better depending on the budget, budget yourself to speak as a professional speaker.

However, if it isn't in your budget as an agency to attend as a speaker, consider finding local events that wouldn't include travel costs for example.
Perhaps nominate yourself as a speaker at an event you'd like such as @McrDig business and trade shows are on a continuous look out for new and insightful speakers. This gives you and your brand great exposure, as well as the ability to network.

3) Make your presence known

Elaborating from the previous strategy, it helps to have a few topic of ideas to present. Depending on the event, the most popular types of presentations I've seen are the case study types. My key tip for you, is to make sure you plan ahead- if you leave it a few weeks prior it will prove difficult to even book a speakers slot.

Work with your communications team on getting a speakers slot on next years conferences, usually, more luck is had if the conference organizer is contacted four to six month in advance.