E-commerce continues to make great strides, but what is it that makes customers decide to shop with you? In this article, we take a closer look at how we communicate with our customers, how important data is for increasing sales and which checkout solution is really the best.
The foundation of all marketing and sales development lies in knowing your customers. Having good data on which to build analyses and then use this to help customers make the right decision, i.e. to make a purchase. Thoughts on this were the starting point for a webinar held at the end of 2017 with our CEO Jimmy Rosén, David Linell from Divvit, an e-commerce analysis tool, and Tim Nilsson from Billmate, a payment service provider.
Customer lifecycle marketing
Simply put,customer lifecycle marketing is a framework for how to think about your digital marketing. It’s a mindset that works equally well whether you run an e-commerce business or a service business. And although this article is primarily aimed at WooCommerce, it is obviously possible to apply these principles to other types of e-commerce sites.
The basis for all further work is to first make a survey of the current situation. Then you can set goals for where you want to go with digital marketing.
In order to answer these big questions, it helps to first understand who you are, what you sell and to whom. At Angry Creative, we usually recommend our clients to have a workshop series. There we can talk about these questions together and then jointly draw the map.
Attract-Sell-Impress
Once the mapping is done, the next step for many is to look at the classic sales hourglass.
Our experience at Angry Creative is that it gives too simplified a picture of reality. We therefore use an extended model where the entire customer’s buying journey is included. This allows us to target digital marketing much better at the customer group we are interested in in this context.
Different types of customers
The first question to ask yourself when creating a converting landing page is What is the customer’s starting point? In his book Breakthrough Advertising, psychologist Eugene Schwartz categorises customers into different categories depending on their level of awareness when making a purchase.
- Unaware: Don’t even know there’s a problem that needs solving.
- Problem aware: Know there is a problem, but not sure how to solve it.
- Solution aware: Know that there is a problem. They know roughly what the solutions to the problem are and what to expect from them.
- Product aware: Know the problem and that there is a solution. They also have a reasonable idea of what solutions are available. But they don’t know why one solution is better than the other.
- Fully aware: Have done their homework and can answer the question why one solution is better than the other.
What is the customer’s starting point?
If you start thinking this way, you suddenly realise that every landing page, every piece of content, has to be targeted slightly differently to different types of people depending on their prior knowledge. This means that to engage the customer, you need to create a conversation with the customer that takes into account their level of awareness.
A fully aware customer might just want a big buy button, just let the purchase happen. Another customer with less prior knowledge before coming to the site needs the problem you’re solving marketed in a way they can understand through different landing pages. They need answers to questions like; What is this company? Why should I care? Are there others who care? Depending on which customer category the information is aimed at, a customised approach is needed. Otherwise it will not lead to conversion.
What do we want the customer to do?
All marketing should have a clearly defined end goal, and most of the time they are quite simple. You want to increase your sales, your leads and your conversions. Therefore, the next step is to move forward and create a solid foundation to build on. You need to set clear measurable goals on the way to the end goals to be able to see that you are on the right track. It could be that a customer goes from one level of awareness to another. That the customer hasn’t just visited the site, they’ve clicked through from the homepage, or even saved a basket.
How do we get the customer from A to B?
Once the marketing foundation has been laid, we need tools to help the customer get from A to B. We need to create campaigns. We need to make sure that the customer is kept interested. Keep them moving towards a purchase with little nudges and personalised information. Give the customer a reason to sign up, a goal in itself, and you can then use their data to follow up with a targeted campaign. Slowly but surely, the customer moves closer and closer to a completed purchase.
It’s easy to focus on the new customers, but it’s equally important not to forget about the existing ones. By maintaining a customer database, you can see which customers have not shopped for a long time and may be about to be lost. These customers need a reminder that you exist, perhaps by being recommended a product based on previous purchases. If it’s been long enough since the last purchase, it might be worth sending a voucher to entice the customer back, even if it means sacrificing a small amount of profit.
In our experience at Angry Creative, thinking about these issues often leads to ideas about automated flows, thoughts about how and where customers are led. To take advantage of these thoughts in the best way and to be able to create a working concept together, we usually set up a creative workshop with our customers.
Increase sales through data
In order to set realistic goals and get to know your customers, it is important to collect data. This then forms the basis when it is time to make analyses that you can then build your strategies on. In order to create change, you need to know where you are starting from, so it is important to start collecting data in a consistent way as early as possible. This process can be broken down into four simple steps.
- Gather all the data in one place – This can be done through manual collection in a spreadsheet or through automatic collection via a tool like Google Analytics. Most importantly, all data should be in the same format for comparison over time.
- Act at the right time – To make the right decisions, you need access to the right data at the right time. Most often, this means measuring as close to an event as possible. If too much time passes between campaign and measurement point, you miss the chance to adjust the campaign and profits can be lost.
- Know and segment your customers – In addition to the different levels of awareness, once the data is available, it’s valuable to develop an average customer. The more metrics looked at, the clearer the picture will emerge. As well as classic factors such as age and gender, it’s important to look at things like; time spent on the site, time to purchase and how many visits are required before purchase.
- Follow the whole journey to purchase – How many visits does the customer make to the site before purchase? When did they come back again? How long were they on the site?
Once the data starts to be collected, it’s easy to ask the question Where do I start? Since a high conversion rate and good sales are some of our main goals, it can be helpful to start at the back end of the sales process. By starting as close to the checkout and purchase as possible, it’s easier to make a big impact from the start. After that, you can work your way further and further away and start targeting those customers with a lower awareness level.
Higher conversion with the right checkout solution
This brings us to the third way to increase digital sales; what type of checkout solution should I choose to get the best possible conversion?
Today, there are two main types of checkouts, standard checkout and checkout. Simply put, a standard checkout is what comes with a ready-made e-commerce system, a checkout is a solution that comes via a payment service provider.
A standard checkout needs a lot of data and therefore has many fields that need to be filled in. In some cases this is an advantage, for example if you want to add an extra field to offer parcel wrapping, registration for a newsletter or similar. It can also be easier in some cases if you want to offer payment solutions like PayPal.
A checkout is optimised to allow the customer to shop quickly and with as little information to fill in as possible. Simplicity and ease of use make customers more likely to buy, with fewer clicks leading to more purchases. A checkout is delivered as a ready-made plugin from a payment service provider, who is responsible for its maintenance and reliability. It is more dynamic as it can customise the shopping experience by showing only the payment solutions available to that particular customer.
Which one should I choose?
There is no general answer to this question. It simply depends on who your customers are. By collecting and analysing data, you can get a good picture of who they are and what their needs and wants are, test it and see how it seems to work. It is also possible to conduct a customer survey and ask customers directly what they think is important when they shop and how they prefer to pay. Overall, it is still the case that the checkout today is on the rise as a checkout solution because of its flexibility both for customers and for the person who runs the site. If you want to know more about WooCommerce and different payment solutions, you can find it in An introduction to WooCommerce.
How do I get started with customer lifecycle marketing? – 3 quick tips
Map – Start by mapping and building your company’s journey. Where are we now and where do we want to go? Don’t limit yourself technically here but dream freely to find a goal. Use the customer lifecycle marketing model and you will find a range of actions to work on. Then look at your collected data and build on what it tells you.
Start simple – A lot can be done with simple tools. Data can be collected manually in a spreadsheet. For example, if you use WooCommerce, you can use the “follow up emails” plugin which is an easy way to create automations. Eventually, you can then get more advanced systems such as a marketing automation system. With such a system, you get both good statistics and great tools to work with mailings.
Iterate – Data collection and analysis is the most important thing you can do, regardless of which tools you choose to use. Make sure to collect all data in the same format and in the same place. Analyse and try to find what stands out in the data. As long as the data is collected continuously, you can start analysing quite early. You don’t need more than 20-100 orders evenly distributed over time to start recognising patterns. Based on the data, you can then create theses for improvement that you can then test. Then you do the same thing over and over and over again. The most important thing is to get started, and each time you do it, it gets better and adds value to your organisation.
The most important thing when it comes to trying to increase your digital sales is to start working on it today. Most actions require time to take hold and be fine-tuned. If you feel this is difficult, get in touch with a WooCommerce expert who can help guide you. Also, don’t forget that as it’s a work in progress, it’s important to have a stable site to build from. We at Angry Creative provide services both as a WordPress agency and in WordPress management.