This Company Has a Perfect Ecommerce Website Design for Inbound Marketing

There's more to ecommerce website design than you might think. Everyone gets it sort of right, but not every site out there does it all -- except perhaps ModCloth.

I may not shop there personally, but I’m a huge fan of the ModCloth ecommerce inbound marketing model. When breaking down the anatomy of an amazing ecommerce site, ModCloth seems to have it all, from an elegant and intuitive design, to pre-transactional educational content, to email marketing that rarely relies on coupons.

As marketers, we have to get beyond the echo-chamber of sites we personally shop with to find great examples of inbound marketing for ecommerce in action. I don't normally shop ModCloth, but many others do, and they've been highly successful. Let’s take a look at what makes ModCloth such an inbound marketing powerhouse.

Homepage Design

Okay, so saying they do everything well is a bit of a cop out. However, if we look at the welcome banner visitors see upon visiting the page, we see how easy various components of a great ecommerce site are to find.

In one place, we see the page identity, the personalized welcome, a link for customer service, a search bar, special offers, the shopping bag, and an easy-to-understand menu. Wow. That’s a lot of stuff in one space, and yet nothing is crammed or hard to see.

Blog Design

ModCloth must know that business sites with a blog get 55% more visits than sites without. Of course, as you can see by the menu image above, the blog must be part of the main ecommerce site for those visits to be counted in ModCloth’s metrics.

ModCloth uses their blog to move potential buyers through the marketing and sales funnel, just as it’s designed to do. The blog features products, how-to videos, images from customers, and general lifestyle information. In addition to working hard for the business, the blog is also a great way for people to spend a few minutes of downtime.

Their great strength in blogging is that they're targeting the lifestyle, or psychographic dimensions, of their buyer personas. They're not just churning out keyword rich content to rank in search engines; they're building an audience of relevant consumers that they can nurture toward a purchase.

Filtering Options

In addition to the search bar at the top right corner, ModCloth also offers a very intuitive filtering process for every item. Users can search by size, price, designer, and popularity. The easy-click buttons leave little room for error, so customers can quickly narrow down options to find exactly what they need.

As a bonus -- and this shouldn’t be a bonus so much as a way of life -- the filtering options really do return only relevant search results.

Customer Service

While ModCloth customer service does offer an email option, the company also make employees available through a live chat option or by phone for those buyers wanting immediate service. These options can all be found in one spot, too, by simply clicking on their Customer Care link.

But ModCloth doesn’t stop there. Not only can you find someone to talk to about the questions or problems you might have, but you can also reach out to a stylist to receive personalized suggestions and recommendations.

Secure Checkout

Buyers love ModCloth’s checkout process because it’s clear and linear. You can see from the progress bar at the top of the page that you’ll be taken through each step in the process with no links back to previous pages or unnecessary paths toward other pages.

They also make sure to show their security certificates with large icons so they’re visible. This gives buyers the warm and fuzzies, letting them know personal information will be protected at all costs.

Finally, they also offer alternative payment methods so buyers don’t need to share credit card information if they don’t want to. The ability to purchase through PayPal is just one more way ModCloth makes buyers more comfortable.

Up-Front Info

One of the biggest reasons buyers abandon shopping carts before finishing the purchase is because the cost of shipping is a surprise. Well, ModCloth makes sure buyers get up-front info about shipping. As you can see, buyers willing to wait a bit for their new threads can also take advantage of free shipping. Cha-ching.

Fun Product Descriptions

It’s easy enough (and conducive for search engine optimization) to simply list the basic stats, but ModCloth gives whimsical descriptions that still manage to convey the most necessary information. Sometimes, it’s fun to just read about the products even if you can’t afford to buy them all.

Again, the key factor here is the customization of the website experience to the psychographic dimensions of their buyer personas. They're not cold, clinical recitations of the manufacturer specs, they're written with the tone and information that their best customers want to read.

Social Media Integration

This company does a great job of including and engaging with followers and friends on social media. As you can see, visitors have several chances to connect with various social platforms during the shopping experience.

The first time comes on the main page, where all the different accounts are listed. Next, buyers have a chance to Tweet or Pin the items they’re about to buy or just recently purchased. In addition to bragging rights for the customers, it’s also good press for ModCloth.

Finally, the company does a great job of keeping social outlets current. Facebook includes images contributed by users and not just those posted by the company. Twitter asks random questions throughout the day to boost engagement and make followers feel included.

Instagram features heavily on the site as both a user-generated style guide and a place where customers can share videos with their thoughts on the products and the brand.

Pinterest is used for various reasons, but perhaps most importantly as a secondary product catalog. Whoa. These guys are busy.

Customer Voice

Various social media channels aren’t the only ways customers get to share their experiences. Located on each product page is a list of reviews for that particular item.

ModCloth doesn’t censor, either. For each less-than-stellar review, the customer service team reaches out with offers of assistance. Not only do the buyers get a chance to say exactly what they think, but ModCloth also uses that opportunity to improve customer delight.

Smart Email Marketing

Sure, ModCloth sends out discounts for their most loyal customers, but they don’t simply rely on coupons to keep their email marketing on track. Check out this particular email that simply informs users of new features coming soon. What a great way to keep building a relationship between buyer and seller.

Email follow-ups for abandoned carts are just as effective. Images are used to remind the user what they almost purchased, and a fun subject line prompts a smile instead of a growl. Well done, ModCloth.

Responsive Design

Because so many purchases are made on mobile devices, responsive design is a must. Fortunately, my favorite commerce site also makes shopping on smartphones easy.

First, the menu is very easy to read, and there’s plenty of white space around the links to make clicking easy for thumbs.

The images are quite large, and adding them to your cart just takes one click.

Even the filtering options are easy to use, meaning you can drill right down to the very thing you want to buy right there on your phone instead of having to wait until your laptop is in reach.

So, yeah. ModCloth’s ecommerce site is a veritable treasure trove of must-haves, and I’m not just talking about the cool clothes. If you’re looking for a role model, you could do much worse.

 

 

from Marketing https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/ecommerce-website-design-inbound-marketing

9 Local E-Commerce Marketing Tips To Drive More Foot Traffic To Your Store

E-commerce is growing at a meteoric pace, and there is no doubt about it.

According to a recent study by Statista, retail e-commerce sales worldwide reached $2.4 trillion in 2017 and are expected to reach 4.9 trillion in 2021.

Interestingly, this growth pattern is not solely a retail B2C phenomenon.

In fact, B2B e-commerce worldwide sales in 2017 peaked at $7.7 trillion, which is 235% higher than B2C.

Sounds pretty impressive, right?

And these figures do tell us a lot about major changes in consumer behavior that will continue to evolve in 2018.

The shopper is more technologically advanced than ever before and is empowered to drive disruptive changes in traditional retail business.

So if consumers increasingly prefer e-commerce over brick-and-mortar shopping, why do we still need physical stores? Why do businesses still want that foot traffic?

There are a number of reasons why, but let’s just start with another very simple, yet very loud statistic.

In-store sales accounted for 91% of all retail sales in the US in 2017.

This means that brick-and-mortar is still the most popular way to shop for most Americans.

And it comes as no surprise.

The in-store shopping experience is incomparable to browsing items on a desktop or mobile screen. The ability to see, touch and try products before purchase remains the biggest motivator for consumers to shop offline.

And that’s not the only thing stopping consumers from buying online.

According to 2017 BigCommerce study, 58% of US consumers hate paying for shipping, and 34% think product return process is difficult when shopping online.

All of these are e-commerce pain points that can actually serve as huge growth opportunities for brick-and-mortar retailers.

But ultimately from a business perspective, you want to provide seamless and consistent customer experience across all sales channels and reach that omnichannel zen.

You have probably heard the term omnichannel before.

Google defines it as: “ensuring retailer marketing strategies are geared toward enabling customers to convert on any channel.”

Sounds too sophisticated.

But the main idea behind omnichannel retail marketing is to simply provide shoppers what they want, whenever and wherever they want.

That said, there are many ways you can use local e-commerce insights and marketing tactics to drive foot traffic to your store, and I will show you exactly how you can do this.

But before we dive into the realm of local e-commerce marketing tactics, you might want to check out Neil Patel’s 4 Local SEO Marketing Strategies to Build Your Brick And Mortar Business.

1. Buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS)

Since customers hate to pay for shipping, the first thing you can do to ease their pain is to offer an in-store pickup option, also known as BOPIS.

This is a very popular service offered by almost every major retailer, and it is something you can easily implement for your customers as well.

In fact, according to the Great Omnichannel Expectations 2016-2017 Shopper Survey Report by iVend, 57% of US shoppers say that they use the “buy online, pick up in store” option.

And 65.3% of those consumers say they do so to avoid delivery costs.

Another thing you can offer to drive foot traffic is the ability to reserve the product online and collect it in-store. This options works best for new product releases and can help build excitement.

Think new Apple product launches. Usually, they are sold out even before official sales date.

Although BOPIS is an attractive alternative for most shoppers, it still makes sense to provide some extra incentives, like faster shipping or even an in-store redeemable coupon.

An important thing to consider when implementing buy online pick up in store service is to make sure the whole experience is as smooth and convenient as possible.

How?

1. Use a multichannel integration platform to connect your store inventory to your website and make sure they are always in sync.
2. Train your in-store sales staff to serve BOPIS customers with special care and in case of immediate returns or exchanges be ready to offer more profitable alternatives.
3. Put up proper in-store signage and make it extremely easy for customers to navigate the store and find the pickup location without getting overly frustrated.

2. Provide local inventory availability information

There is a common myth that consumers who search online will only visit online shops.

That is not entirely true.

In fact, three out of four consumers are more likely to visit physical stores if they find local information in search results helpful.

So why not give your consumers what they look for?

First of all, make sure your store locator is up and running. Let your shoppers easily find their local store and make sure to provide all details, like phone numbers, email, and address.

Then go one step further and provide local inventory availability information for each item and each local store.

You might be wondering why customers even need this if they can buy products online and pick up them in the store?

Well, it turns out that a lot of shoppers do not want to pay upfront, especially for specific products, like personal hygiene and care items, that are more difficult to return and get a refund for.

So informing your website visitors about the stock availability at your local store can be a great foot traffic driver for undecided customers.

Ikea is one of the biggest retailers to have successfully implemented this on their website.

It offers website visitors to choose the local store and see the inventory of a particular product in that store.

This information can be especially helpful if your customers tend to buy items in bulk.

3. Buy in store and walk out hands-free

This is a relatively new approach to retail marketing and comes as a result of shopper behavior changes as well. It serves as a good way to respond to consumer “showrooming.”

What is showrooming and why does it matter?

Showrooming has become a common way of shopping for a lot of deal hunters and simply shoppers who like to compare prices or try out products before purchasing.

Customers now can come into your store, get all information they need about the product, see and touch it, but then buy it online from another web store. How sad, isn’t it?

25% of Americans even admitted purchasing while standing in a brick-and-mortar store.

The good news is you do not need to fight this behavior. You can embrace it.

What if your customers could try products in your store and then have them delivered straight to their preferred address?

It’s an entirely new approach to retail, and a few brands have already implemented it.

For instance, Bonobos, have opened “guideshops” across the US, where you can find the perfect fit and style with the help of a professional guide.

When you’re done shopping, your orders are delivered to your home or work free of charge.

You can do this too.

4. Offer in-store redeemable mobile promotions

Did you know mobile users spend more than 4 hours a day on their phones?

Just look at this graph from Statista.

In 2017 mobile accounted for more than half of worldwide website traffic and is projected to grow even more this year.

Consumers rely more on their mobile devices to research even the smallest decisions on the go. But they also are more susceptible to mobile communication than, for instance, email.

Research shows that text message open rate in the US is 82%, which is a mind-boggling number if we compare it to email open rate, hovering at around 24%.

This once again proves that SMS marketing is not only alive but thriving. You should really consider implementing mobile marketing solutions, including phone number collection program.

If you want to speed things up a little bit, you can go for Facebook Lead Ads to collect phone numbers fast by offering something enticing in return.

Here’s how it works.

Open your Facebook Ad manager and choose your marketing objective to be “Lead Generation.”

Next, fill in all your targeting, budget, placement and scheduling details and head straight over to building the ad.

Scroll down a little bit until you see the “Create Form” section of your ad builder.

Create a new form and describe the special something your customers will receive when they sign up.

Then click the “More options” in Questions section of the form creation menu and tick “Phone number.”

It’s a good idea to have essential information fields to improve the conversion rate of your form. So keep it short and attractive.

When you’re done, your form will look something like this:

There you have it.

This will allow you to legally grow and maintain a list of your customer phone numbers to fuel your mobile marketing initiatives.

Once you have your first batch, you can start sending coupons and gift codes to your list via SMS and encourage customers to visit your brick-and-mortar store and redeem them.

Another great way to collect customer phone numbers is to incentivize them upon check out on your website, by offering free shipping or even the in-store redeemable coupon itself.

5. Optimize for near-me searches

Following the explosive growth of mobile, consumers now expect to receive specifically tailored and personalized search results whenever and wherever, using near-me queries.

So what are those near-me searches anyway?

Near-me searches are location specific search queries, usually aimed at getting quick results nearby.

This is what they look like.

Near-me searches have been growing steadily in past five years and are only taking off.

The tricky part is that it’s not enough to be geographically near the searcher to rank high in search results.

You need to really tap into local search optimization to get a piece of the “near-me pie.”

Here are some quick local SEO tips to get you started.

1. Make sure your website is mobile ready, as Google will be rolling out mobile-first indexing anytime soon.
2. Perfect your Google My Business listing as it is critical for local search rankings. Verify your listing and keep it up to date at all times.
3. Optimize your website meta data with “near me” keywords. Do not overdo, but rather keep it relevant and user-friendly.
4. Get geographic anchor backlinks from authority websites.
5. Encourage customers to leave reviews on your Google My Business listing. Luckily, Google does not prohibit direct communication with customers to solicit reviews.

Shortlist your happiest customers who use Gmail and reach out to them with a quick link to review your business on Google.

6. Offer in-store exchanges and returns

Did you know that 30% of all e-commerce purchases are returned versus 8.89% of brick-and-mortar purchases?

Sounds like a lot. But it is not surprising.

Despite all technological advancements, online shoppers still do not have the opportunity to see, touch and try products before purchase.

Hence the high return rates.

There is little you can do to minimize order returns, but if you want to drive foot traffic to your store and also improve customer experience, you can offer in-store returns and exchanges.

A recent study by Invesp Conversion Rate Optimization Company, reveals that 9 out of 10 consumers will buy something again if returns are easy and hassle-free.

And 62% of shoppers are more likely to purchase online if there is an option to return items in-store.

This means that having a great in-store return and exchange experience will not only drive your customers from the web to your store, but it will also give them another reason to shop with you next time.

And this is true not only for North American shoppers but Europeans as well.

The 2017 UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper study shows that almost half of consumers would prefer to return items to a brick-and-mortar store.

And 49% of them would prefer to work with an in-store associate to process returns.

7. Organize in-store events and workshops

Having a physical store has some advantages for an e-commerce retailer, and it would be a wasted opportunity not to make use of those.

One of the best things you can do to drive foot traffic and as a result, in-store sales, is to organize various events, like new product launches, runway shows, shopping festivals, etc.

The reason why this is important and why it works so well is because consumers still view shopping as entertainment.

Having the right atmosphere and mood in your physical store can work wonders.

According to that 2017 Mood Media study, music is a crucial element for a great in-store shopping experience.

In fact, 81% of shoppers globally agreed that shopping experience is more enjoyable if a store is playing music. This figure rockets to 90% among those 18-24.

The same study suggests that consumers love in-store events, especially brick-and-mortar store openings of online-only brands.

So why not organize a shopping night with live music and cocktails? Power these events with heavy promotion on your website and social media and your store will be jam-packed.

8. Localize your digital ads

Digital advertising is a big part of your marketing budget, and you want to make sure you utilize it properly and with maximum ROI.

Luckily, there are many local advertising solutions on most ad networks and particularly on Google.

On average shoppers search and purchase via multiple channels almost 40% of the time and the majority of these shoppers go to a search engine to start their research.

So it really is important to target and convert these consumers at the early consideration stage.

Here’s how you can do it using local advertising on Google.

If you already have active search ads, go ahead and set up location extensions in your Adwords account.

This will allow you to show local search ads with your address, a map to your location, or the distance to your store.

While these ads will help increase foot traffic, there is an even more powerful ad type that is specifically designed to bring online searchers straight to your local store.

I am talking about Local Inventory Ads. These ads show the stock availability of an item at your local store along with the typical product information that shows up in a regular Google shopping ad.

When you click on a Local Inventory Ad, it takes you to a digital storefront with your local store information, including stock availability, address, phone number, email, and hours.

9. Create unique and compelling in-store experiences

The power of in-store experiences is incomparable to online shopping in any way. It is the top reason for consumers around the world to choose brick-and-mortar over e-commerce.

Let’s look at both sides of the coin.

What motivates consumers to buy online instead of going to a local store? What really drives this huge shift to online?

The 2017 KPMG Global Online Consumer Report shows that the main advantages of online shopping are 24/7 availability, easy price comparison, and better deals.

Now let’s see how physical stores beat these powerful facts.

As expected, more than half of consumers globally still prefer to see the product with their own eyes, 55% want to try it on before purchase, and 22% simply enjoy the experience of going to the shops.

So how can you make your in-store experience a blast?

Easy.

Start with eliminating the main consumer pain points.

Did you know that waiting in line is the number one in-store frustration for 60% of shoppers around the world?

Leverage the advantages of having (more) mobile POS devices to cut the lines at cash registers and accept card payments on the spot.

This will serve you particularly well during in-store sales.

Another thing you can do to ease the hectic atmosphere in your store is create an immersive brand experience with uplifting background music, proper lighting, and smell.

Yes, the smell is actually even more powerful than you think.

Scent travels to your brain immediately and is closely linked to memory, that is why it is widely used by major retailers to influence consumer behavior in-store.

It turns out there is even research on which scents are more likely to drive sales.

It suggests that people tend to spend more when they smell warm scents, such as vanilla and cinnamon.

Whichever scent you choose, keep it very light and ambient so that it adds up to the overall in-store experience and not vice versa.

Conclusion

E-commerce is on the rise and will continue to grow remarkably in the near future. It changes the way consumers shop and influences offline sales as well.

However, traditional brick-and-mortar retail is far from dead and is going through an exciting yet transformative change.

This change will require an omnichannel approach to marketing and a sound web-to-store strategy, focusing on the following key aspects.

Bring online and offline together by combining the major advantages of these two channels.

Provide your customers with the convenience to pick up their order at your local store. Let them see your stock availability and then shop offline.

Allow shoppers to enjoy the experience of seeing, touching, trying your products before purchase, checking out and walking out of the store hands-free.

Be there when your customer needs you.

Optimize your web presence for near-me searches. Experiment with local search ads and Google Inventory Ads to gain visibility and drive more in-store traffic.

Consider investing in mobile marketing solutions to accurately and legally collect customer phone numbers and send deals and special offers at the right time.

Create an unmatched in-store experience.

This is the biggest strength of your brick-and-mortar store.

Build excitement around real-life shopping experience by organizing one-of-a-kind fun events that every shopper would love to attend.

Take advantage of the latest tech solutions to provide exceptional customer service and encourage brand loyalty.

What e-commerce marketing tactics have you seen drive foot traffic to your store?

About the Author: Neil Patel is the cofounder of Neil Patel Digital.

from The Kissmetrics Marketing Blog https://blog.kissmetrics.com/drive-more-foot-traffic/

3 Things to Know About Customer Success Marketing

We are all familiar with the customer journey. We know it’s essential to help our customers to be successful. But what about customer success marketing? How much do you know about it, and how does it affect us as marketers?

In this blog, I’ll cover what customer success marketing is and how it fits into your marketing plan.

What is Customer Success Marketing?

Long ago, before marketing automation and MarTech technologies permeated our world, successful businesses would often rely on word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM). With WOMM, marketers are looking to influence and encourage customers to spread the word about their products. Sometimes this is done with incentives, but the true success of WOMM is when your customers are happy to provide WOMM without an incentive.

George Silverman is often touted as a pioneer in word-of-mouth marketing. Silverman, a psychologist, created what he called “teleconferenced peer influence groups” in the early 1970s and found that when one or two physicians reported on their good experience with a drug, it could sway an entire group of skeptics. His tactics were so compelling that even ex-prescribers—those with negative experiences with a drug—changed their minds after hearing a positive review of the drug from their peers.

Customer success marketing, similar to WOMM, is sometimes referred to as customer marketing, retention marketing, or advocate marketing. Customer success marketing is the intersection of product, marketing, and customer success teams. Customer experience shouldn’t stop at the sale. Studies have shown that attracting a new customer costs five times as much as keeping an existing one. But, have we done enough to make sure that our customers are successful using our products? Do we have enough customer success case studies to share with our new prospects? What types of data we can get from our customer success teams to help shape our marketing efforts? These are all critical questions to ask to create a more cohesive team atmosphere and avoid silos.

How Does Customer Success Marketing Fit Into Your Org? 

We have seen a trend that more and more companies are setting up customer success operations teams especially in the B2B arena and SaaS industry. Sometimes these teams are referred to as CS Ops. The companies utilizing these teams realize that the success of their business is inherently intertwined with the success of their customers. Their CS Ops team drives initiatives to provide upper-management real-time visibility into their customers’ “health,” which is represented by a combination of usage data and other contextual metrics (to evaluate how ‘sticky’ customers are).

CS Ops teams also drives company-wide adoption of outcomes-based metrics and processes. This “transformative power,” as Lincoln Murphy explains, has started to proliferate among companies even outside of the SaaS or technology companies. The reason? Simply put, no customer success = no company success. Your CS Ops team can take your company from a reactive state (customer support) to a proactive state (e.g., instance review, proactively provide solutions based on customers’ unique use cases, etc.)

Next Steps 

If your company doesn’t have a CS team yet, consider adding one this year. You might also want to evaluate some of the available customer success solutions out there and start thinking of an organization-level tactical CS strategy.

If you already have a CS team, consider what it would take to facilitate cross-functional collaboration. Have your marketing team collaborate with your product team and CS Ops team, to come up with customer success case studies which can take your content marketing to the next level. It’s not a question of whether your company should be investing in retention, expansion, and advocacy, it’s how much you should be investing. If you do this well, you can turn your customers into your best growth engine.

Do you have a customer success team? Are you considering adding one this year? Tell me about your current team or your dream team in the comments.

 

The post 3 Things to Know About Customer Success Marketing appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from Marketo Marketing Blog https://blog.marketo.com/2018/03/3-things-to-know-about-customer-success-marketing.html

Resume Format Tips You Need to Know in 2018 [Sample Formats Included]

Think of a really good print advertisement you've seen lately. What did you like about it? Chances are that while the content of that ad was important, the design played a big role in drawing you in.

It's important to think of your resume like an advertisement to job recruiters. Writing a standout resume goes beyond the content you put in there -- the format plays an important role, too. To recruiters, it speaks volumes about how you collect your thoughts and organize your ideas. So you'll want to make sure it's easy to read, easy to understand, and easy to digest. That means choosing the right sizing for your headers, picking the right fonts, bolding and italicizing where appropriate, and so on.

Get 10 free marketing resume templates right now.

To learn how to format a resume properly, check out the infographic below from Resume Templates 101. Then, under this infographic, see an example list of things a great resume format includes to truly stand out from the other candidates.

The Best Resume Format

There's no such thing as a perfect resume. But depending on your industry, you can pick the right assortment of attributes above and create something the hiring manager won't soon forget.

Here's an example of a resume for an entry-level graphic designer -- a role that some say faces the highest standards for resume format, given the expected skills of the applicant.

Font Type: Century Gothic

This font is a more wide-set sans-serif typeface. Modern design is all about clean typography, making tail-less fonts ideal. The wide-set appearance helps entry-level applicants make good use of empty space when they don't have much experience to report on.

Font Size: 12pt

Anything bigger than 12pt body text in Century Gothic can risk looking a bit unprofessional. This size works well for those who have limited content, and continues to work well as his or her career grows.

Font Style: Bold Name and Job Title

Between underlines, boldface, and italics, boldface is this applicant's best bet for the font type they're using. Italicized Century Gothic isn't distinguished enough from standard Century Gothic to use both in the same document, and underlines can dilute the clean appearance you get with this font type.

Bolding the first and last name at the top -- and every job title, skill, and field of study beneath it -- establishes a clean but obvious hierarchy from the top of the resume to the bottom.

Header Style: Standard, 15pt

Headers over Education, Experience, Skills, and similar resume sections should be visibly bigger than the body text, but not overpowering. A standard (unstylized) header in 15pt font governs each section of the resume nicely and doesn't clash with the boldfaced skills and job titles beneath it.

Name Style: Standard, 17pt

The first and last name should be at least another 2 points larger than each header. No matter what your industry or experience level, it's important that your name is the biggest text on your resume. Hiring managers look at a lot of these things every day, and you need them to remember your name -- if nothing else.

Why standard and not bold? I happen to think Century Gothic looks best as is, especially as the font size increases.

Resume Layout

As for the resume's layout, consider this order: Name, Contact Info, Education, Skills, Experience, and Awards. New professionals need to front-load their education because it's the most relevant item on their resume, while their "Skills" section showcases the editing software and equipment that is critical to their qualifications for any job opening.

Even if you're not an entry-level designer, the above infographic -- and following example -- is a model for how you can highlight the parts of your background that are most important to your employer. Now, get to writing!

 

from Marketing https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-format-resume

Here's What Facebook Says It's Doing to Protect Election Security

Earlier today, members of Facebook's staff held a small press event with a status update on efforts to prevent its platform from being weaponized to influence major national events like elections.

Last year, Facebook came under fire when it was revealed that it had been weaponized by foreign actors to spread misinformation and divisive content in hopes of influencing the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Facebook published a transcript of today's remarks, where VP of Product Management Guy Rosen indicated the network would be focusing on four core areas of election protections:

1. "Combating foreign interference"
2. "Removing fake accounts"
3. "Increasing ads transparency"
4. "Reducing the spread of false news"

Here's a look at the work Facebook says it's doing in each area.

1. "Removing Fake Accounts"

This might be the most complex and far-reaching area where Facebook will be putting new efforts into place. In order to remove fake accounts, Facebook's Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos explained, the network will have to identify fake identities and audiences alongside false narratives and facts.

Doing so begins by identifying motives, which boils down to three main areas: influencing public debate, money, and what the "classic internet 'troll,'" Stamos said. 

Fake accounts motivated by the first item on the list range from what Stamos called "ideologically motivated groups" to state intelligence agencies, whose target audiences could exist within their own countries or others.

The second motivator, money, is the most common one. Many times, these bad actors stand to financially profit by driving traffic to their sites -- even if it means, speculatively, doing so by linking to false or divisive content.

Countering that, Stamos said, will require decreasing the account's profits by increasing its operational costs -- which is how Facebook has previously curbed activity from spammers. Facebook has made similar efforts in the past to penalize content with "clickbait" link titles that don't necessarily lead to quality or genuine content.

These motivations can vary or even be combined according to the event the actor is trying to influence. That's why Stamos said Facebook will be enlisting the help of external experts who are familiar with the various geographical or cultural factors that could play a role in what different actors are trying to accomplish.

2. "Combating Foreign Interference"

Samidh Chakrabarti, a product manager at Facebook, spoke on how proactive measures to combat bad actors of foreign origin relate to some of the efforts to combat fake accounts -- which, he said, is one of the most common ways such bad actors "hide". 

At this point, Chakrabarti explained, Facebook blocks "millions" of fake accounts on a daily basis as they're being created, which can help stop them before they can create and distribute content. Machine learning is said to play a major role here, which has been trained to identify suspect activity without having scan actual content.

Previously, members of the Facebook community were responsible for reporting what looked like suspicious activity, especially anything that might pertain to an election. Now, Chakrabarti said, Facebook will deploy an "investigative tool" that proactively looks for this kind of activity, like the creation of Pages with foreign origin that are sharing misinformation. Once these Pages are identified, they are sent to Facebook's security team for a manual review to determine if Community Standards or Terms of Service have been violated.

The efforts here appear to be two-fold: machine learning capabilities that stop the creation of these pages before they can distribute content, as well as technology that seeks out existing Pages engaging in such activity. For the latter, Chakrabarti said the manual process is quick, though he didn't provide a specific average time frame. 

These tools were utilized as recently as last December during a special Senate race in the state of Alabama, when efforts to identify foreign interference led to the discovery of politically-focused bad actors based in Macedonia, who seemed to be spreading misinformation leading up to that election. They were later blocked from Facebook.

3. "Increasing Ads Transparency"

Part of the effort to remove fake accounts also plays into actions that will verify the authenticity of the ads that accounts want to post.

That will include a new feature called View Ads, which has been tested in Canada and will be rolled out globally this summer. As the name suggests, it allows users to view any ads the Page is running under its "About" section. 

The summer rollout will come in the months leading up to the 2018 U.S. midterm elections -- and prior to that, said Product Management Director Rob Leathern, a new ad review and verification process will begin, which will require all Page admins to submit government-issued IDs and provide a physical mailing address before they can publish any promoted content. 

That way, Facebook can confirm the physical location and identification of advertisers, in part by physically mailing a letter to the address provided with an access code that can only be used by that specific admin for that particular Page. In addition to this process, advertisers must declare which, if any, candidate, organization, or business they represent.

And once the verification process is complete, Leathern explained, ads pertaining to an election will be clearly labeled as such in both Facebook and Instagram feeds, including the individual, business, or organization that paid for it.

And this summer, he said, Facebook will unveil a public ad history archive that contains any such content with a political label. Each entry will include details like the amount spent on the ad, as well as the number of impressions it received and demographic information about the audience it reached. The archive will keep this information for up to four years after the ad ran.

4. "Reducing the Spread of False News"

Finally, Product Manager Tessa Lyons spoke to Facebook's effort to curb the spread of such misinformation as false news, which will largely be powered by partnerships with fact-checkers.

To determine which content needs to be fact-checked, Lyons said, the platform will use various "signals" that include reports from Facebook users themselves. From there, fact-checkers can rate a story as false -- and if they do, its ranking in the News Feed will be dropped, which leads to an average of 80% fewer views.

Anyone who's shared the story in the past will be warned about this fact-check, as will anyone who tries to share it in the future -- and if it does appear in someone's News Feed, it will be displayed with information from those who fact-checked it. That information will help to teach a machine learning module to identify these stories quicker, without human intervention. 

These efforts will apply to text, photos, and videos -- and will also play into efforts to increase ad transparency and combat fake accounts. Any Page that habitually shares false news, Lyons said, will face reduced distribution, and lose its advertising and monetization privileges, "stopping them from reaching, growing, or profiting from their audience."

Currently, Facebook has fact-checking partners in six countries, including the U.S., where the platform has joined forces with Associated Press reporters to identify misinformation and false news relating to the country's upcoming elections, whether local, state, or federal. These reporters will also be tasked with disproving false claims made by such stories.

Lyons noted that these efforts are "a place to start."

"Like any company that’s had a PR crisis, Facebook is trying to take control of and own the misinformation narrative," said HubSpot Social Campaign Strategy Associate Henry Franco. "It looks like the company is taking some pretty serious steps to address it, too, both in terms of identifying and prohibiting bad actors."

But as Lyons remarked -- it's a start. "What remains to be seen," Franco said, "is whether it's enough to earn back the trust of users."

from Marketing https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/facebook-election-protection

Facebook Will Limit Data Available to Advertisers

Facebook announced yesterday that it will be shuttering Partner Categories: the product that allows third-party data providers to supplement advertisers with targeting information directly through Facebook.

In the announcement, Facebook noted that "this is common industry practice," but will still shutter the product to "help improve people’s privacy on Facebook."

Source: Facebook

For Facebook and marketers alike, the announcement is what ProPublica reporter Julia Angwin called "a big deal." Here's what's going on -- and why it matters.

Where Facebook Advertisers Get Their Data

Prior to these recent changes, advertisers on Facebook had a few primary sources of user data that they could use for targeting purposes, including data that Facebook itself has from what users provide on their profiles, as well as their activity on the network. It's not entirely unlike what's available in your downloadable Facebook data archive file, which I wrote about here.

That data could be used in combination with other sources of information that the advertiser might have on its own, like email contacts or survey responses.

Finally, there are the third-party data providers, which are the ones Facebook has severed ties with. These companies possess and provide advertisers with data that are often based on non-social-media activities, like shopping history and income -- which is part of what Angwin and her team discovered when ProPublica started investigating the breadth of Facebook user data in 2016.

We also found that 600 of the 29,000 categories Facebook offered to advertisers were from data brokers. They were extremely specific and often financial, such as income between $100k and $125k or frequent shopper at dollar stores. /6https://t.co/S4Yo2nEa1T

— Julia Angwin (@JuliaAngwin) March 29, 2018

The data from these providers are often synthesized in tandem with information that Facebook has from user profiles, helping to match (or target) promoted content to the most relevant audiences. It's a powerful combination that could be at least partially responsible for Facebook's growth as a valuable advertising platform -- to the point where 98% of its 2017 global revenue was rooted in advertising.

And again, as Facebook said itself, these practices are not limited to Facebook advertisers, and are frequently promoted as a value-add by some of the larger data providers involved, like Experian and Acxiom. The latter calls it a "data package" that can help advertisers "accurately identify relevant audiences for all of your media campaigns."

It's no secret, then, that providing these services is a source of revenue for the data providers, too. According to the Wall Street Journal, Acxiom stands to lose $25 million in fiscal 2019 revenue and profit. And while it seems possible for advertisers to still independently enlist these third-party services, a barrier to access is now in place that was previously removed by direct data availability through Facebook.

Acxiom's stock price at 2:25 PM EDT March 29, within 24 hours of Facebook's announcement. Source: Google

What This Means for Marketers

But how much do advertisers stand to lose from these changes? Well, that depends who you ask. When I first tweeted this news after it broke last night, one of my followers suggested that he'd be losing a major source of information for his work.

Of course that’s the targeting foundation of all my current campaigns...

— Scott DeRuyter (@SDMad) March 29, 2018

The extent of the setback to marketers and advertisers also depends on the industry -- those who depend on a consumer's shopping habits and history, for example, could potentially lose out by not having access to detailed, third-party data on it.

But keep in mind that Facebook has quite the cache of user data entirely on its own. Remember that downloadable data file I alluded to earlier? Have another look.

The file shows that Facebook possesses a decent -- if not confusing -- amount of information on users' interests and activities. And where that data really comes into play for most advertisers is in its own ad-targeting platform.

That doesn't necessarily reveal individual user data, but it allows advertisers to customize promoted content audiences based on it -- interests, location, and so forth. Here's a page from my own file with some of the "interest" data Facebook uses to help target ads:

That data isn't exactly minuscule, and some advertisers could still be able to effectively reach audiences with it. "The reality is that Facebook’s targeting tools are so powerful," says Henry Franco, HubSpot's Social Campaign Strategy Associate, "some analysts think this change won’t make much of a difference in overall targeting capabilities."

Why Is Facebook Doing This?

Here's the thing about the user data in Facebook's possession (the kind that's used within its own targeting tools): Most people don't really want advertisers to have direct access to that information in a way that attaches it to specific people.

Instead, it seems, the widespread preference is for it to be anonymous and general enough that, for example, an advertiser can target Boston-based women in a certain age bracket who are interested in KitchenAid and BarkBox -- but not be able to do is know who, specifically, the women are within that targeted audience.

That's part of what got Facebook into this situation in the first place. Previous policies allowed third parties like app developers and academics to access user data for things like research purposes -- but prohibited them from transferring that information to others. But when it came to light that one app developer may have violated that policy by supplementing data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica with that information, the social network began making changes to the availability of and policy clarity around user data.

The suspension of direct access within Facebook to data from third-party providers is just the latest in a series of changes. "More than anything else, it looks like Facebook is trying to clean up its act in the wake of the recent data scandal involving Cambridge Analytica," says Franco. "While this change might be a little reactive, it’s a step in the right direction for a company of Facebook’s stature."

Facebook isn't alone in its recent onslaught of privacy and other policy changes. Companies ranging from Apple to Venmo have also been notifying users of modifications, at least partly in response to the heightened scrutiny of Facebook and some of its Big Tech counterparts. (In addition to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, chief executives from Twitter and Google have also been asked to testify before Congress in the wake of these ongoing events.)

Wow, Apple with the timely shade in OS update form. pic.twitter.com/YL34i4DKnn

— M.G. Siegler (@mgsiegler) March 29, 2018

But it may not be entirely in response to this particular situation. On May 25, which is less than two months away, the General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) comes into force and will impact the way organizations obtain, store, manage or process the personal data of EU citizens -- which some believe is also behind these recent policy changes and notifications.

But all things considered, this is likely not the last policy change expected from Facebook. And as the story continues to unfold, I'll be monitoring it. Questions? Feel free to weigh in on Twitter.

from Marketing https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/facebook-will-limit-data-available-to-advertisers

Achieve high growth by keeping customers coming back to your eCommerce website

Tom Robertshaw (@bobbyshaw) is an Ecommerce Evangelist at Space 48, an award-winner ecommerce consultancy for forward-thinking retailers. He recently recorded a webinar with Kissmetrics, listen here.

It can be easy lose ourselves in the chronic battle of customer acquisition. Expanding the top of the funnel to get more visitors coming to the site seems like the obvious way to grow the business.

However, according to the Adobe Digital Index Report, returning customers make up 40% of revenues whilst representing only 8% of visitors. This tells us there’s a huge opportunity to increase customer retention rates further to support revenue growth.

The same report found that returning customers are nine times more likely to place an order than new customers. This encourages to review our investment in customer retention strategies and tools when compared to our budget for initial acquisition.

It’s a worthy investment. In my experience, high growth merchants have healthy customer retention rates. In the best cases, customers are returning multiple times a year which really helps to validate the cost of acquisition.

Repeating this finding is the consulting firm Bain and Company, who reported that increasing customer retention by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%. It’s readily apparent that this level of profit increase not only gives the business a lot more breathing room, but it facilitates more reinvestment in the business, which leads to more returning customers. Conversely, those businesses without returning customers and the margins to show for it don’t have the same kind of money to invest and perpetually fall further behind their competitors.

With that in mind, it’s easy to see how having more repeat customers can be the difference between a business scraping by and one that’s flying. Hopefully I’ve been able to validate the importance of investing in customer retention, but where should you start?

Why would a customer come back?

It’s important to set the scene. Ignore your current website for the moment and spend time thinking about it from the customer’s perspective. Regardless of your ecommerce vertical, a customer is going to return if two things are true:

1. You reliably fulfill their needs (Customer Experience)
2. They think of you in a time of a new need. (Engagement)

This formula may feel a bit oversimplified, but it’s useful to remind us that customer retention strategies aren’t just about marketing. We are building relationships with a customers and they need to be able to trust our ability to solve their problems.

Looking first at the customer experience and their needs, when they arrive on your site, they already have a need or desire. If we’re lucky this may be a need for a very specific product, or, if we’re not, they have a more generic problem which requires research and discovery. In both cases, a merchant’s responsibility is to guide them through their journey, educate them on the offering and give them the confidence to enter into a relationship. Other than that, the best thing to do is to keep out of their way by providing as frictionless an experience as possible!

To achieve this, the focus should be on creating a high quality User Experience (UX). This is a broad area that is fundamental to the design of the site so isn’t something that I will cover in this article. To summarise, a site with a good user experience will provide timely, precise and orderly information as well as clear, prioritised and easy to use navigation and action elements.

In addition to providing a low friction design, we need to give the customer confidence that we are trustworthy. There are many aspects to the experience that can help here. Whether it is spending time working on professional branding, educating the customer on the company background and history, reducing site bugs, displaying site seals or advertising multiple methods of contact clearly.

There are more functional components to a successful transaction such as the pricing and value offering as well as the shipping methods that are available. These all contribute towards meeting the customers’ needs.

Moving on to the second requirement which was a customer thinking of the brand in a time of a new need, there are direct and indirect methods of supporting this. The direct methods are the traditional customer retention strategies of advertising, remarketing, email campaign, catalogues, etc. However, the other methods of encouraging customer engagement should not be forgotten. Providing ways for customers to actively engage with the brand by providing user generated content features like reviews will strengthen the bond.

The timing of directly reaching out to the customer is more difficult to achieve with email but this can at least be tackled by customer segmentation which we will talk about shortly.

How do you identify what you’re doing wrong?

It can be hard to identify customer experience issues once we are expert site users, but it’s far from impossible. It requires us to remain humble and not assuming that we know everything. We should be open-minded, reflective, and empathetic to potential issues that visitors may have. Reviewing with fresh eyes can be easier once you have fresh knowledge.

One type of resource for acquiring new knowledge is to use heat mapping and visitor recordings tools such as Hotjar or Mouseflow. The best way to understand any kind of behaviour is to combine samples with overall statistics. In our case, combining analytics from Google Analytics or heat mapping tools with information provided by visitor recordings can give new insights into how customers interact with the site and what problems they may be having.

Secondly, there are some great free resources to educate yourself on user experience principles. My favourite is the Baymard Institute, who are the undisputed experts in ecommerce UX with a wealth of research and studies that help us to better understand how customers interact with different pages and specific page components.

For example, one common problem with ecommerce navigation and the rise of “mega menus” is the difficulty moving from a top level menu item to a sub-menu item within the mega menu without accidentally activating an adjacent top level menu item. See the example below on the Toys R Us site.

Other useful resources include Smashing Magazine, Practical Ecommerce and Econsultancy.

Increase customer enjoyment

A sure-fire way of getting customers to come back is to make it more fun to buy from you than anywhere else! There’s a huge variety in techniques of how this can be achieved, but the methods that play to the brand’s and products’ strengths are going to be the most successful. Here are some examples of ways that the merchants we’ve worked with have supported customer engagement.

1. User generated content

Charlotte Tilbury is a makeup and beauty brand that enables customers to give back to the community by way of detailed product reviews, including photo uploads. These personal reviews will aid the decision process for all customers while also promoting the authenticity of reviews.

Another way that they centre the experience on the customer is by way of photo uploads through the website or social media and featuring them on the site. Both of these are an effective way of enabling your brand advocates which is beneficial for them, for you and other customers.

2. Product Samples

One of the challenges of the makeup and beauty market can be product discovery and giving customers the confidence to change products. Charlotte Tilbury has tackled this by providing free samples with every order. This is a brilliant way of promoting products, enabling discovery as well as bringing a little bit of extra joy in each delivery!

3. Product Launches

Irregular Choice is a fashion brand that sell truly unique shoes, bags and accessories. Over the last year they’ve collaborated with Disney to release some wonderful designs inspired Star Wars, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and the Muppets to name a few.

It’s no surprise to find out that customers get very excited about such unique designs. Irregular Choice support this by way of product launches on advertised dates and times and then market these within emails, around the site and on social media. This can be a real success when partnered with in-store shopping events as well.

4. Rewarding Loyalty

Rewarding loyalty doesn’t just have to mean implementing a loyalty points program. Through customer segmentation, we can identify the most loyal customers based on their spending or number of orders and then we can tailor our messaging. If you have product launches or sale periods, you may be able to give them an exclusive or provide them with early access. Even just communicating with them on a more personal level because you are using the context of their previous purchases in the way that you talk to them will make it feel more personal.

5. Thoughtful Packaging

It’s wise not to forget that the shopping experience continues all the way until the arrival of the item and the customer unboxes it.

Smythson are a luxury stationery and leather goods brand with history all the way back to 1887. They invest in this luxury experience by making sure that every order is exquisitely wrapped in tissue paper and carefully presented in a quality gift box finished off with ribbon. This helps to position the product and brand as luxury and, from experience, I can say that it makes the customer feel special as they carefully unwrap it.

Timed and Targeted Re-engagement

Once the on-site and delivery experience has been created, the traditional outreach portion of the customer retention strategy can be tackled. The primary areas to consider are:

• Email
• Search Ads
• Remarketing
• Social (ads and engagement)

When approaching designing email campaigns, customer segmentation is a powerful tool to ensure that your messaging is personalised to the customer context increasing its effectiveness. Even abandoned cart emails can be considered one form of customer segmentation.

For those that haven’t really started with customer segmentation, the easiest way to start is to segment based on total spent and number of orders. This will quickly provide a list of VIP customers that can be sent special offers, or early access to news and products like in the case of the product launches mentioned earlier. Once that has been done, the next group down will be “pre-VIP” which are customers that are primed to become brand advocates given some attention.

Another particularly popular form of email campaign over the last year has been a welcome campaign. When customers subscribe to the newsletter, rather than just sending a confirmation email, it’s an opportunity to educate them on the brand and the product highlights. Instead, consider creating a 3-email series that includes information about the brand history and values, provides highlights on the most well-received blog content over the last year and also take the opportunity to continue to educate the customer on the range of your product catalogue and your top selling products.

Other campaigns types to look into include win-back, i.e. when a customer hasn’t purchased for a while, or a customer that has been subscribed for a while and hasn’t placed an order yet.

Customer Segmentation

As I hope it’s starting to become clear, moving away from all communication being broadcast-based is critical for customer engagement. The next level to achieve beyond customer segmentation is by way of personalisation. Recommending different products to each customer, both on the website and in emails, is easily achievable with tools like Nosto. With just a small piece of code, Nosto will track customer behaviour around the site so that it can intelligently suggest products based on their activity and extrapolated needs. This is a particularly smart way of livening up emails, making them more personal than could ever be achieved at this scale manually.

Kissmetrics for eCommerce is a valuable tool as well. Kissmetrics collects person-based behavioral data, defines and tracks key customer segments and then enables you to engage with your customers with more targeted email and facebook campaigns. When you create refined segments of your many different customer types and tailor messaging uniquely toward just that segment you’re creating a memorable experience between your brand and customer which leads to brand loyalty and more repeat purchases.

Outreach

Paid advertising through search, social and remarketing are all incredibly valuable tools in the customer retention strategy chest. Each one will need to be researched, experimented with, evaluated and iterated on to find out what works best.

The point of interest here for returning customers is to have tracking pixels, similar to the Nosto code so that the remarketing networks can target customers based on the categories and products that they’re interested in and, importantly, stop selling to once they’ve ordered.

Strategy Checklist

We’ve covered quite a range of aspects to consider for any customer retention strategy but it’s far from exhaustive list and there are always going to be unique opportunities for each vertical and business.

As a quick summary to use as reference when reviewing your strategy, make sure to consider:

• UX Review & Conversion Rate Optimisation
• User generated content
• Loyalty Programmes
• In-Store Events
• Content Marketing
• Social
• Customer Service
• Delightful shipping
• Customer Segmentation
• Personalised Product Recommendations
• Abandoned Baskets
• Email marketing campaigns
• Advertising
• Remarketing

Remember, that many of these areas will help to improve conversion rates for new customers as well as returning ones!

Finally, as part of any strategy, decide upon some KPIs to track the effectiveness of the strategy. I would expect there to be KPIs for each area implemented as well as overall KPIs. At a high level, these KPIs would include comparing the primary KPIs of number of sessions, orders and therefore conversion rate between new and returning customers. I would also recommend tracking the customer lifetime value and hopefully this will increase which will warrant further investment in acquisition! Then watch the growth cycle continue!

from The Kissmetrics Marketing Blog https://blog.kissmetrics.com/achieve-high-growth-by-keeping-customers-coming-back-to-your-ecommerce-website/