Author: Franz Malten Buemann

Did you know that nearly 81% of emails are opened on mobile devices? More and more, your subscribers are using mobile to read and engage with your email content. And while you already know that this means your emails have to be optimized for mobile through features like subject line and preheader length, image sizes,…
The post Mobile Eye-Tracking and What it Tells Us About Our Emails appeared first on Benchmark Email.

As marketers, we crave data.
Each day, our analytics platforms help us define who our audience is, measure how well we’re tracking them, and determine what strategies we should take on next.
And, if an analytics platform is free or affordable to use, that’s an even bigger bonus to teams in SMBs or startups.
That’s why many marketers were caught off-guard when Facebook announced that it will be sunsetting its free Facebook Analytics tool on June 30th.
But, while Facebook’s announcement might seem a bit scary, it might only impact a small number of businesses.
“Even though this tool is going away, we continue to invest in measurement products that provide insights and data analysis capabilities,” the short Facebook announcement said. 
Below, we’ll explain why Facebook’s removing its Analytics feature, why you might not need to panic, and alternatives you can use to get similar data about your audiences.

Why Facebook is Sunsetting Analytics
Facebook Analytics launched in 2018 as a free alternative to platforms like Google Analytics (GA). On top of tracking all your Facebook Business Page data in one place, users could also create and embed Facebook tracking pixels on their websites to see how audiences behaved and what their customer journey looked like.

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Facebook Analytics could also give brands a look at your Facebook page’s details and audience demographics to help brands better inform their strategies.
Because much of the information shown on Facebook Analytics can now be found through other competitive and affordable data platforms — as well as Facebook’s Insights, Business Suite, Ads Manager, and Events Manager — Facebook decided to discontinue Analytics in an effort to consolidate its tools.
While Facebook hasn’t said if online privacy trends were a factor in its decision, the pivot comes at a time when Google and Apple have already begun to limit data tracking through the planned phase-out of third-party cookies and Apple’s recent IOS 14.5 opt-in requirements for mobile app tracking.
Because of the ongoing moves towards data privacy, it seems that Facebook could also prevent future data concerns with the streamlining of nearly extraneous Analytics tools.
How Marketers Can Prepare
Until June 30, brands can still access Facebook Analytics and download reports of all the data they might need.
To export data into a CSV file from Facebook Analytics on your desktop, click the [share icon] in the top-right corner of each chart or table,” Facebook advises. 
Aside from downloading data, brands that used the tool should also consider alternatives that can highlight similar data. Although Facebook Analytics was a helpful tool for some businesses looking for free or cheap platforms, there are affordable alternatives that can help you track your customer’s journey from social media to on-site conversion.
Below is just a quick list of Facebook Analytics alternatives to consider.
Facebook Analytics Alternatives
Free Tools
Facebook Business Suite
Once Facebook Analytics is no more, Facebook will encourage Business Page admins to use its Business Suite, which allows users to connect and track multiple Instagram and Facebook Business Pages at once.

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At the moment, Facebook Business Suite is still rolling out and might not be available for some admins just yet. However, the tools below can help you fill your data gaps as you wait.
Facebook Insights
Facebook Insights is an analytics dashboard where you can track business page user behavior and post performance. You can also see insights like page views, post reach for paid and organic posts, and competitor page data.

If you have a Facebook Business Page, you’ve probably used Facebook Insights to gather data that can fuel your social media tactics. Luckily, Facebook says Insights won’t be impacted by the removal of Facebook Analytics.
To learn more about Facebook Insights if you’ve never used it before, check out this blog post.
Facebook Ads and Events Managers
Facebook Ads Manager and Facebook Events Manager help you launch and track ads and website conversion events attached to your Facebook Business Page.
While Ads Manager lets you view, edit, and track your Facebook campaigns, ads, and ad sets, Events Manager lets you use Facebook’s pixel and Conversions API to track and report on actions visitors take on your website, app, or even in your physical store. To use Events Manager, you’ll need to add the Facebook Pixel code to your website to make it trackable. Instructions for this can be found on Facebook’s business knowledge base.
Paid Tools
HubSpot
HubSpot’s Social Media Management Software not only enables you to link and share posts on your Facebook account, but you can also track conversions and other engagements.
HubSpot’s social media tools can help you understand which of your marketing tactics are working best among your audience, determine how your marketing efforts are impacting your bottom line, see if your campaigns result in more paid or organic social media sessions, and learn about your search engine optimization (SEO)-related ROI.

Additionally, if your website is built on HubSpot’s CMS or has a HubSpot tracking code installed, you can track site conversions, traffic, and traffic sources to learn more about where your audiences are coming from and what they engage with.

Google Analytics
While Google Analytics is often seen as a high-end analytics tool, it certainly has a lot of great features that have helped marketers around the globe to transform their strategy.
While it will likely take a bit of onboarding and training for your team GA allows you to see traffic patterns, traffic sources, visitor demographics, and visitor behavior among a plethora of other helpful insights.

For a crash course on Google Analytics with photos, check out this Ultimate Guide.
Navigating Data Software Shifts
As the world evolves towards more online privacy and streamlined technology, Facebook probably isn’t the only platform that will change or evolve in years to come.
As a modern marketer, it’s important to know when to invest in new analytics platforms, alternatives, or workarounds if the tools you use are no longer relevant.
For tips on developing effective data-driven strategies, download the free resource below.

 

 

Building an omnichannel experience is slowly becoming the market standard in e-commerce. One of the premises of this trend is to create a consistent experience in all channels and throughout all touch points between the customer and the brand. One of the most useful tools in the implementation of this idea is dynamic content connected to the CDP platform engine. Keep reading to learn the secrets of Omnichannel excellence.

 

Fifteen years ago the average consumer typically used two touch-points (any time a prospect or customer comes in contact with your brand along the purchase path) when buying an item, and only 7% regularly used more than four. Today consumers use an average of almost six touch-points with nearly 50% regularly using more than four (Marketing Week). This gradual shift in habits is forcing a change in the perception of digital marketing. Simply communicating and interacting with customers across multiple channels is no longer enough to win and retain customers. 

 

71% of consumers feel frustrated when a shopping experience is impersonal. — Segment

70% of millennials are frustrated with brands sending irrelevant emails. — SmarterHQ

74% of customers feel frustrated when website content is not personalized. — Instapage

 

Dynamic content is a very powerful tool when it comes to personalizing the shopping experience. Various studies confirm this.

 

65% of email marketers say dynamic content is their most effective personalization tactic. — Instapage

80% of frequent shoppers only buy from brands that personalize their experience. — Epsilon

56% of online shoppers are more likely to return to a site that recommends products. — Invesp

 

It has a major impact on the quality of your customer base. According to Aberdeen Group Inc. companies with the strongest omnichannel customer engagement strategies retain 89% of their customers on average, compared to 33% for companies with weak omnichannel strategies.

 

What is a true omnichannel?

 

Omnichannel is a consistent consumer experience across several or all communication channels used by a brand. The term omnichannel was coined to differentiate between a multichannel experience, which is communication with a customer across multiple channels, and an in-depth experience that incorporates a user’s behavior at various touchpoints with a brand.

 

Why does the omnichannel experience require dynamic content?

 

From the very description of omnichannel, it’s clear that it will be a highly personalized experience — different for each viewer. And since there are hundreds, thousands of customers browsing through stores every day, it would be difficult to predict each purchase path separately. Therefore, a great help in building a consistent customer experience can be content that will adapt itself to their actions and preferences. Let’s start with the basics.

 

What is dynamic content?

 

Simply put, it is content that changes in response to specific behaviors even though the medium in which it is delivered (website, email, advertising medium) remains the same. An example of such content can be the language of Web Push notifications, which automatically adjusts to the language of the browser set by the user. It could also be a banner on a page that will display content tailored to the user’s interests (for example, based on the viewed/liked products). In this case, the URL is the same for everyone, while the homepage changes its appearance for individual visitors.

 

Types of dynamic content

 

Dynamic content is a fairly broad term that can describe many types of content. As technology advances, the list grows. Today, the most popular dynamic content types include:

 

Page language that adapts to the browser language
Emails
Email recommendations
Web push notifications
WhattsApp notifications
Text messages
Messenger content
Landing pages
Live chat recommendations
Banners
Recommendation frames
Contact forms
Social proof widgets
Pop-ups.

 

Of course, this is not a complete list, just a subjective selection of popular dynamic content types.

 

Down the sales funnel

 

The most important premise of omnichannel is, on the one hand, to leave the customer alone and let them ripen on their own (move down the sales funnel), and on the other hand, to wisely push them towards a purchase decision with carefully selected content. In a perfect world, this content would be prepared individually for each of the recipients separately. In practice, it is impossible. Mere marketing automation and personalization are not enough to deliver a 1:1 personalized experience to customers.

 

The journey down the purchase path is a journey with a changing landscape. As a consumer matures into a purchase, they need completely different content. It won’t matter in which channel they get it. The degree of customer engagement increases regardless of the channel they are in, but the personalization requirements are constant.

 

That’s why matching content to specific user behaviors and ensuring that they only view content that is relevant is an important part of building an omnichannel experience. Using dynamic recommendations, emails, pop-ups, etc. will help minimize the risk of your audience being flooded with repetitive, irrelevant content.

 

Secrets of omnichannel excellence

 

It’s natural to raise the question of how to ensure an even better, consistent omnichannel shopping experience for customers. Today’s tools offer many features that help you build it.

 

CDP Data

 

Customer Data Platforms are a worthy successor to CRM systems combined with Marketing Automation. They help connect mixed, unstructured data from multiple channels. Data from offline channels is as important as data from online channels. Facebook data stands on par with location data from a smartphone, from sources like TGI from Kantar Millward Brown, Google Analytics, website heat maps and eye-tracking tools. All of this information describes with great detail the behavior of real people in real time.

 

In digital marketing, CDP data can be used in a variety of ways. The most basic is creating a 360-degree profile of every customer and user whose data is in the system and deep behavioral profiling. The 360 profile in SALESmanago includes the complete history of a consumer’s interaction with a brand across all monitored outreach channels, as well as Semantic Webhooks that translate complex customer behaviors into specific preferences. This technology enables eCommerce operators to determine a customer’s true interest and propensity to purchase specific products.

 

Profiles update in real time, allowing for dynamic segmentation and even more accurate personalization of content. CDP data is used in most automation mechanisms available on the platform.

 

You can check all data in real time on the CDP dashboard. You can set up campaigns and manage your contacts directly from the dashboard. However, this data is used in most marketing operations on the platform — even as actionable tips and tricks displayed in the Marketing Insights module.

 

Dynamic Hyper Segmentation

 

Base segmentation is the foundation of personalized omnichannel efforts. However, ordinary segmentation may not be enough. Rigid, outdated segments do not relate to the idea of omnichannel customer follow-up. To fully respond to changing customer tastes and needs, it is much better to use dynamic segments. Creating dynamic segments allows you to:

 

automatic updating of target groups without having to manually generate data reports each time to select the right contacts,
managing multidimensional data without external BI systems, IT support and analysts,
immediate and precise target group sizing for mass or automated campaigns,
detailed analytics showing how the size of selected segments changes over time.

 

To create a Dynamic Segment in the SALESmanago system, go to

 

SEGMENTATION → DYNAMIC SEGMENTS → ADD NEW SEGMENT

 

The Dynamic Segments wizard allows you to combine elements that define any way you want:

 

contacts tags,
contact details,
sources of visits,
transaction data (products, spending, dates),
sources of transactions,
transaction statistics (money spent, number of transactions over time).

 

You can use any number of criteria and combine them by using connectors and/or. After saving them, the system will analyze the collected information and recalculate the number of contacts that meet the indicated criteria. The result will be visible immediately.

 

Hyper- makes a difference

 

Combining CDP data with AI capabilities helps take segmentation – including dynamic segmentation – to a whole new level. Hyper Segmentation goes beyond basic demographics by taking into account consumer interests and behaviors to understand their individual preferences. Easily, it helps identify segments and accounts with high potential and high probability of purchase to target ads and deliver the right messages and offers at the right time.

 

To use Hyper Segmentation in your system go to

 

SEGMENTATION→ CUSTOMER SEGMENTATION CENTER

 

and add a new segment or edit an existing one.

 

Dynamic content

 

Wherever you interact with your customers, you can try to make your content even more relevant to your audience. Whether it be:

 

an entire website,
a dedicated landing page,
a pop-up,
data collection form with a customized discount code,
personalized email,
live chat etc.

 

You can make good use of the prepared product feed (a complex XML document about the products in the store) combined with CDP data. Strategically placed elements will give the recipient a sense that the page is evolving with them. Depending on the level of engagement, a dynamically changing element can direct them to category pages or specific products, for example. And all of this is in line with a person’s current interests.

 

Predictive marketing

 

One of the most important applications of artificial intelligence in marketing is a branch called predictive marketing or predictions. In short, it answers the question of what comes out of the data, but also what can be done with it next. Predictions in marketing can range from the likelihood of a purchase, to preferred communication channels, to the risk of churn, or the termination of a relationship with a brand.

 

This kind of peek into the future makes it much easier to build a multichannel experience. Especially since predictions can often be used in segmentation and automation processes.

 

Exclusions

 

Dynamic content aligns perfectly with the stage of the purchase path a customer is at. But what about other content? To make the experience consistent, you’ll want to wisely apply exclusions when setting up content displays and sending. There are multiple ways to do this. Some content types have built-in options to limit displays. For example, a pop-up can display during a specific visit, or be displayed a limited number of times. While setting up audience groups, you can exclude contacts with specific tags. Exclusions can also be set from the level of the workflow. The most important thing is to think carefully about the automation processes and consider when the content will be really useful for a given recipient, and when it will rather discourage them.

 

True omnichannel is not easy to achieve. Along the entire purchase path, the customer jumps repeatedly between channels and is subject to various influences. Developments in technology, especially those that help draw actionable insights from data and don’t require coding skills, are making this task much simpler. This is happening to the benefit of both businesses and consumers. There’s a reason the vast majority of customers say they’d gladly provide additional information in exchange for a more personalized approach.

 

If you’re interested in hyper-personalization and building a consistent customer experience in the changing e-commerce landscape, be sure to try SALESmanago for free for 30 days!

You know how it goes — the bigger your subscriber list, the better your email marketing campaign will turn out to be. On the flip side, with a less than stellar email list, your email marketing campaign is never going to skyrocket, regardless of how great your content is. There’s a lot riding on building…
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