Author: Franz Malten Buemann

Last Updated on November 24, 2020 by Rakesh GuptaTo understand how to solve the same business use case using Process Builder and Lightning Flow. Check out this article Getting Started with Process Builder – Part 8 (Auto Sync Accepted Quote … Continue reading →

What do you do when you have a great message, an audience hungry for your content, a unique perspective…and a scalability challenge?
For sports publisher The GIST, the solution was simple yet elegant. The women-led media brand aims to make the world of sports more accessible and inclusive to all and challenge the status quo of a male-dominated sports and media industry.
The startup has seen meteoric growth since its launch in 2017, expanding to cover new markets and quickly nurturing a loyal subscriber base in Canada and the United States. But fast growth comes with growing pains, and the publisher’s small team needed a way to scale up and maintain their momentum. 
Campaign Monitor’s flexible platform and dynamic content capabilities were the perfect solutions to help The GIST sustain its growth and continue its mission.
The results:

Segmented campaigns developed in 25% of the time

Double the industry average open rate

Grew mailing list from 30,000 to 100,000 since joining Campaign Monitor, 233% increase

Scaling and growing with dynamic content
The GIST’s approachable, digestible spin on sports news and commentary has been a huge hit. 
But as email marketers in the media and publishing space know, reaching more and more people comes with its own challenges, especially as you push into new geographic markets. Sports is often an incredibly local experience, meaning each new market needs distinct, relevant content served to it.
The GIST succeeds through the quality, thought, and care it puts in to each of its newsletters. But scaling that amount of time, effort, and resources into a new email for each new market was unsustainable. 
“The permutations and combinations of all the different newsletters would be insane,” said co-founder Roslyn McLarty. “We’re in so many cities now compared to where we were before Campaign Monitor, and even that was getting out of hand.”
Thanks to clever use of Campaign Monitor’s dynamic content capabilities, the team developed a solution that served its growing community and media buyers. Dynamic content elements built into the newsletter can easily be adjusted to show content and stories relevant to the individual subscriber. The platform automates the menial manual work of building a new email for each segment, reducing the resources needed to send a newsletter down to 25% of what it would be otherwise.
“The dynamic content is super helpful because there’s some content that’s important to everyone, some stories that are important on a national level, and there are some city-specific pieces. It’s important not just for our subscribers but our advertisers that we can swap out content to be more relevant to different audiences,” said McClarty.

As automatic as Serena Williams
It’s one thing to acquire a new subscriber, and another to keep them coming back for more. Making a big first impression and nurturing a new relationship into loyalty is paramount to keeping engagement rates up and advertisers happy.
The GIST’s solution is a thoughtful automated email journey delivered to new signups. Campaign Monitor’s automated email journey capabilities make it easy to segment subscribers for the most welcoming and relevant possible experience.
Each journey is highly customized based on a variety of factors, including the location of the subscriber source and their sign up source (organic search, cross-promotion, referral, etc.). It includes a welcome email, an introduction to The GIST’s story and mission, a reminder about the referral program, and a survey email asking for feedback and input.
Testing the way to gold-medal results
Sports is not a new topic for a publisher to focus on. But The GIST had a new perspective and a goal to target an audience that previously has not been heavily engaged by sports media. The newsletter’s founders had to find out what their audience wanted and responded to on their own.
Campaign Monitor’s A/B testing feature was the perfect tool to gather data-backed insights and make incremental improvements in their email KPIs. It’s a large component of what’s helped them increase their average open rate an additional 5% since partnering with Campaign Monitor.

“Our open rates are very dependent upon the subject line and preview text,” McLarty explained. “The ability to A/B test is big. We’re moving into A/B testing for content as well to optimize getting people to share our newsletter, as a way to grow; testing buttons and copy options to optimize our referral funnel. And obviously, with ads, we’re trying to optimize the engagement we get for our brand partners so that we’re able to monetize better.”
Growing with Campaign Monitor
The GIST was using a different platform when first launching its newsletter program. But as they added new markets and expanded subscriber lists, they began to outgrow their email solution.
McLarty said several factors played into the choice to move to Campaign Monitor. 

The time-saving and scalability potential of dynamic content capabilities

The existing community of high-quality brands in Campaign Monitor’s email publishing space.

Superior email deliverability compared to the competition

A user-friendly, intuitive tool

“When we’re putting together the newsletters, it’s very user friendly for us,” she said. “We can just insert a section and determine which segments will get it. It gave us the flexibility to put together the email and set it up to go out to all our markets the way we need it to.”
Wrapping up
We love working with Roslyn and her team. And of course, we love The GIST! If you’re in need of a sports fix with an irreverent, fun, and female voice, subscribe to their newsletter (and tell them we sent you).
Are you a publisher looking to grow and scale your email program without the mess? Let us know!

 
The post Dynamic email content fuels dynamic growth for The GIST appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

Last Updated on November 24, 2020 by Rakesh GuptaTo understand how to solve the same business use case using Process Builder and Lightning Flow. Check out this article Getting Started with Process Builder – Part 8 (Auto Sync Accepted Quote … Continue reading →

Success on social media can often feel like a secret science. Something that only the few can achieve. But creating a successful social media strategy is a skill that can be learned. Mastered, even.
And you don’t need a flashy brand or a big budget.
What you need is a deep understanding of what your audience cares about, and how to get your content in front of them in the right places at the right times.
That’s why analytics are so important. Analytics help you to make better decisions and get better results. And today, I’m excited to announce our latest feature:
Analytics for LinkedIn Pages!
Together with our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter integrations, this makes Buffer’s analytics an all-in-one solution for these four popular social networks for businesses.
Want to see what’s new and why 3,000 customers use our analytics to boost their social media strategy?
Let’s take a look.

Buffer’s social media analytics and reporting solution
If you have been using Buffer for your social media planning and scheduling but not measurement and reporting, I think you’ll be thrilled to try our analytics. The analytics in Buffer lets you track your performance, analyze your posts, and report your results. Ultimately, we want to give you more data and help you get better results.
Let’s talk about the new feature first.
How to analyze and report your LinkedIn performance
We intentionally designed our analytics to be simple so that you can easily get what you need and create reports in a few clicks. For this feature, we managed to work with the LinkedIn team as we built it.
“I’m excited about this new feature by Buffer because we have seen many small businesses leverage their LinkedIn Page to build thought leadership and recruit new teammates. This new feature will help them understand what’s working so that they can get better results on LinkedIn,” said Ting Ba, the Group Product Marketing Manager of LinkedIn Pages.
Here’s a quick 2-min video walkthrough of using Buffer to analyze your LinkedIn posts and showcase your results. If you prefer a more in-depth explanation, feel free to read on.
This new feature will help [small businesses] understand what’s working so that they can get better results on LinkedIn. – Ting Ba, Group Product Marketing Manager, LinkedIn Pages
1. Know what’s working to optimize your LinkedIn strategy
If you know what content resonates with your followers, you can create more of those content to engage your followers and grow your following.
But how do you know what’s connecting with your followers?
Buffer allows you to easily see your top-performing posts sorted by your most important metric: impressions, likes, comments, shares, or engagement rate.
I like to sort my posts by engagement rate because it tells me how often people engaged with a post after seeing it. To me, a high engagement rate is a sign that the content resonated with my followers. But you can also sort your posts by other metrics, depending on the goals of your strategy. There is no one-size-fits-all answer here.
Once you have sorted your posts, you can immediately see which posts have performed the best (according to your chosen metric). Next, analyze the top posts to see if there’s a clear recipe for success. Think about:

What’s special about these posts?
Is there a post type (e.g. video, image, article, text) that my audience seems to prefer?
Is there a topic that my audience seems to like?
When were the posts published? Is there a trend?

To make things even easier for you, Buffer analyzes your posts for you to tell you which day, post type, and posting frequency gave you the highest engagement rate. This lets you experiment with different posting strategies without the hassle of analyzing your posts yourself.
2. Understand your LinkedIn growth and results
After you have analyzed your posts and come up with more content, you would also want to know if the new posts are bringing in better results.

Are we getting more followers?
Is the number of impressions growing month-on-month?
Or simply, did all the metrics increase?

There are several ways to do this in Buffer, depending on what you want to achieve:
First, if you want a quick overview of your LinkedIn Page performance, you can this at a glance under the Overview tab. This is a summary of your Page’s key metrics and how they have changed compared with the previous period.
Second, if you want to see how these metrics have changed over time, you can look at the metrics insights chart under the Overview tab. This is one of our customers’ favorites because they can visually see the growth of the metrics. It is also a great chart to show others in your reports.
Finally, if you want to see how your posts have performed on aggregate, you can look at the post summary table under the Posts tab. It tells you the number of impressions, likes, etc. received by your posts and how those metrics have changed compared with the previous period.
3. Showcase the value of your work
After all your hard work, you would also want to put together monthly reports to share your results with your team, your manager, or your clients. It is also a great way to show that you understand your numbers.
Every table and chart can be easily added to a social media report in a few clicks.
First, click on the plus button in the upper-right corner of the table or chart.
Then, if you want to create a new report, enter the title of the report. If you want to add the chart to an existing report, select the respective report.
And there you have it—your social media report! (And not a spreadsheet in sight.)
To make your report more comprehensive, I recommend adding a description of the report and notes for the charts in your report. This will help people who view your report make sense of the data and understand your work.
Once the report is ready, you can export it as a PDF file and share it.
Here’s a pro tip: Instead of creating new reports every month, you can simply change the date period of your report to get the updated data.
Everything that I have described above is also available for your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter channels. You can create multi-channel reports by adding charts from various social channels into the same report. You no longer have to go to each social network to download the data and compile them in a spreadsheet!

A recap of our latest analytics features and improvements
Besides analytics for LinkedIn Pages, we have also added several other analytics features this year, which I thought you might be interested in:
Campaigns
Social media is not just about posting X times a day. Top brands plan campaigns that span multiple social networks. You can now plan your social media campaigns and get automated campaign reports in Buffer.
Boosted post insights
If you boost your Facebook and Instagram posts, you would want to know how they are performing. How does it compare with your organic results? You can do this comparison right inside Buffer.
Best time to post on Instagram
The age-old question: when is the best time to post? Our team developed an in-house statistical model to predict your reach potential on Instagram according to your previous posts and your follower activity. This is personalized to your brand specifically. To save you time, we also suggest the top three dates and times to maximize your reach on Instagram.
Hashtag analytics for first comments
While we had hashtag analytics for Instagram posts for a long time, we were not able to analyze the hashtags in the comments. Many customers put their hashtags in the first comment to keep the caption tidy. To ensure that they can also benefit from the hashtag analytics, we made it possible to track and analyze hashtags in the comments.
New date period options for faster reporting
Here’s a small improvement that saves lots of time. Previously, the date period options available were “Last 7 days”, “Last 28 days”, “Last 30 days”, and “Last 90 days”. We realized they were not that helpful because what customers really wanted was to look at their data for the week or the month. So we updated the options to “This month”, “Last month”, “This week”, and “Last week”. This has made weekly reviews and monthly reporting much simpler.
Get more data. Make better decisions.
Doing social media without analytics is like running with your eyes closed. You will get somewhere but probably not where you want to go. We want to equip you with the data you need in a simple and accessible way so that you can make better decisions. Better decisions on what content to post to grow your reach and engagement.
If you already have analytics in your Buffer subscription, the new LinkedIn integration is already available to you.
Otherwise, feel free to grab a 14-day trial of Buffer and start making better decisions.

FAQs
Where can I find the analytics in my Buffer account?
If you already have the analytics in your Buffer subscription, click on “Analyze” in the upper-left corner to see your analytics.
I have a Buffer subscription but why do I not have access to the analytics?
It might be because you do not have the analytics in your Buffer subscription. You can try the analytics for free for 14 days before you decide whether you want to keep it.
Can I connect my LinkedIn personal profiles?
It’s currently not possible to connect your LinkedIn personal profiles to Buffer’s analytics. If you need this, would you be up for sharing your feedback with us?

Once you have the chance to try this feature and Buffer’s analytics, we’d love to know what you think!

Say hello to our latest feature: Analytics for LinkedIn Pages! 👋 💼📈📊Together with our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter integrations, this makes Buffer’s analytics an all-in-one solution for the four popular social networks for businesses. https://t.co/x1QDGIa8HZ— Buffer (@buffer) November 24, 2020

All humans — including your customers — are emotional creatures.
That’s why it’s so important to make sure every interaction customers have with your company a memorable one — so memorable that they’ll want to recommend your business to a friend, family member, or colleague.

That connection between your business and customers is exactly what customer experience is all about — providing the support that your customers seek throughout all stages of the buyer’s journey.
You can think of the whole customer journey as a (very important) and complete transaction between your brand and customer, — what happens throughout that transaction and the way your customers feel define the customer experience.
For instance, you visit your local ice cream shop; the waitress welcomes you with your name and immediately asks if you’d like your regular treat, a chocolate sundae with extra chocolate chips, or if you’d prefer to look at a menu.
Wouldn’t this personalized and positive experience make you want to continue returning to that ice cream shop? Sometimes it hardly matters how the food tastes — the unique and delightful customer experience is what keeps you going back.
This doesn’t just apply to brick-and-mortar stores either. For example, when a prospect visits your website, why would they want to stick around to learn about your products or what your brand stands for if they don’t feel valued, understood, and heard? In this case, it won’t matter how beautiful your site isor how well you’ve optimized your site — what matters is CX.
Understanding Customer Experience (CX): How to See the World Through Your Customer’s Eyes
There are a number of ways a customer may interact with your business. For example, when they visit your website, engage with your social posts, click on your ads, purchase your product or service, or provide feedback. Customer experience includes all of these interactions and more.
A recent study by Oracle reveals maximizing customer satisfaction across the buyer journey increases total customer satisfaction by 20%, and drives revenue growth by up to 15%.
You need to see the world through customer-colored glasses. Understand their challenges and needs. They want to be heard and expect quick responses and speedy reactions from your team members.
Focus on client-centricity — put your customers first by searching for opportunities to create products and services that resolve the challenges of your customers. You can also identify your best customers with smart segmentation. There are a lot of benefits of customer segmentation including a better understanding of your customer’s behaviors, interests, and pain points.
Here are some great examples of how brands are enhancing their customer experience.

When Tony started Zappos (now a billion-dollar brand), he rewarded his team for spending long hours over the phone to create a splendid customer experience.

Apple added a human element to their customer interaction by installing experts at the Genius bar.

FedEx ensured a better customer experience by answering every customer support call on the first ring.

Now that you know what CX is, let’s take a moment to review what it is not.
Customer experience is not user experience (UX).
Customer experience and user experience are separate strategies businesses deploy to help them grow.
User experience is a subset of customer experience. It revolves around your products. It’s all about how your customers interact with your products and what experience they have with them. User experience is a blend of design and architecture, usability, functionality, user-hierarchy, and understanding.
Whereas customer experience is a summary of the complete customer journey map. It starts when a visitor hears about you and exists throughout every interaction with Sales,Marketing, Customer Service, as well as with the product you sell.
Next, let’s review the ways in which CX impacts your conversions and why you may not be seeing the impact you’re hoping for on your bottom line just yet — and don’t worry, we’ll work through some ways to resolve those challenges too.
5 Reasons Why Your Customer Experience is Not Converting Prospects (Yet)

You don’t know your customers well.

The first reason for the low conversion rates is you don’t know who you are targeting. When you are not aware of your target audience, how would you guarantee their conversions?
How to fix it?

Determine what your customers want, where their interests lie, what they like, and other common characteristics — everything that helps you reach your audience. (Make buyer personas to help you with this.)
Run customer surveys and polls; they are the best way to collect customer information. The feedback you receive from there is filtered and gives you a quick view of your user requirements.
Analyze your customers’ behavior with marketing analytics with HubSpot CRM.

Source

Segment your buyers based on their buying frequency, recency, and monetary metrics (RFM segmentation).
Filter your best customers by separating them into categories with HubSpot’s Smart Lists, and send personalized emails to them.

2. Your products are not grabbing your user’s attention.
It’s an age-old saying that the first impression is the last impression. It’s very critical that the visitor’s first impression on viewing your products and your website as a whole is a pleasant one.
The buying decision of the vast majority of your website visitors is impacted by this first impression. If your products are visually appealing, the visitor is bound to take more interest and there is a good chance of conversion.
How to fix it?
When it comes to your eCommerce store, it’s important to keep in mind that your customers are buying products without necessarily ever having the ability to test them out and/or feel them first. So, you need to create an environment where they can make easy purchasing decisions that are virtual from start to finish.
There are a variety of ways through which you can enhance the customer experience and boost conversions.

Use high-quality photographs and captivating videos to showcase your product and tell stories about your brand and product or service.
Keep your products organized on your website and implement easy-to-use navigation.
Leading fashion brands like L’oreal and Rayban allow users to try virtual makeover tools and provide a 360-degree view of their products. Such innovative leaps in presenting online products help these brands to stand out from others and attract huge audiences.

Source

Use augmented reality (AR) — this is a popular trend in the beauty and fashion industries because customers can try your products on virtually (e.g. a pair of sunglasses).
Create an omnichannel experience for your online shoppers by augmenting product visualization.
Be clear about your pricing strategy. According to Quicksprout, 56% of shoppers abandon their carts at checkout because of unexpected costs.

3. Your website isn’t ready for shoppers.
Did you know that 38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the content or layout is unattractive?
Also, 75% of consumers admit to making judgements on a company’s credibility based on the company’s website design.
If you are experiencing a solid amount of traffic but few conversions and a high bounce rate, your website design likely has issues.
How to fix it?

If your website is suffering from low traffic, that may be because your audience isn’t getting what they are looking for. Make sure you are keeping everything on your website accessible for your users.
Secondly, when a user visits your website, try to enhance the hero section (the header part) as beautiful, clean, and direct as possible. This section can contain your product, service, and offers too.
Add clear call-to-actions (CTAs) throughout your webpage. Add a “view cart” option as well to heighten the chances of successful checkouts.
Keep your website design conversion-focused. Put your menu bars (in the header and footer) organized. This will allow your users to navigate to find their goals quickly.

Statista says there will be a total of 4.78 billion smartphone users in 2020. So if your website isn’t mobile-optimized, then you may lose conversions.
Capitalize on your social media — use it to help you boost your top-performing content such as blog posts, customer reviews, and testimonials. Respond to feedback and answer customer questions through social media, too.

4. You’re unable to win your customer’s trust.
One reason for lower conversion rates is that you are incapable of winning your customer’s trust.
81% of online shoppers feel concerned when shopping on a website with which they are not familiar. Trust cannot be forced; let’s see how you can win your customers’ trust naturally without a push.
How to fix it?

Choose the right trust seal to improve security on your websites. Trust seals verify your website to be legal and lawful.
Add customer reviews to your website to increase the chances of conversions and enhance your customer experience. According to BrightLocal, the average consumer reads 10 reviews before feeling able to trust a business.
Be socially active, entertain, communicate, engage, educate, and run campaigns around your brand. Be real and stick to your niche and brand values.
Engage your customers and earn their trust by establishing excellent communication practices.
Add high-converting and relevant CTAs to your website above the fold. Use phrases and words like Learn More, Shop Now, Download, Sign-up, and Book Now.

5. You have not planned your customer onboarding.
Remember, there are two kinds of customer onboarding: on-site, and off-site. The fundamental difference between on-site and off-site onboarding is that, when a shopper lands on your website, it means they’re looking for your products or services. In off-site, the customer has already been introduced to your products and services, before he/she needs them.
How to fix it?

Offer a real-time product demo for your audience to help them explore your product and it’s features quickly. According to Wyzowl, 84% of people say that they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video. Video demos impact purchasing decisions significantly and boost engagement as well.
For a frictionless customer experience, it is crucial how you handle users who leave your website or intend to leave it.

Use an immediate exit-intent pop-up.
Set up an email marketing campaign and select time-slots to send interactive abandoned cart emails to lost users.
Keep your cart visible to users.

Use retargeting or remarketing ads to target users who have visited your website before.
Be different — offer a dynamic free trial period for your products and services. Then, a user can extend the trial period and if they choose to. This provides a sense of flexibility and freedom for users.

Wrapping Up
Remember: Customers are humans, not your contact to close in the CRM.
Customer experience brings your customers closer to your brand. Humanize your brand and design, and analyze your customer journey map.
Light up your brand with a customer-centric approach and capture your shopper’s attention using the strategies mentioned above. For more information, check out the latest customer experience statistics & trends 2020 here.
Author Bio: Himanshu Rauthan is an entrepreneur and co-founder at MakeWebBetter, an eCommerce digital marketing agency, HubSpot Premier Integration and Gold Solutions Partner. He is a digital marketing and inbound expert, passionate about building and scaling eCommerce customer experiences.
HubSpot marketing teams reserves the right to use guest blog author’s likeness across our content as we see fit, including but not limited to HubSpot’s social media channels.

Traffic matters. The more traffic your website generates, the greater your chances of capturing visitor interest, encouraging user action and generating sales.
So it’s no surprise that traffic remains a top priority no matter what kind of site you run. As noted by a recent Forbes piece, everything from specific search engine optimization (SEO) strategies to contextually-relevant content can help boost traffic volumes and increase key metrics, while more technical traffic attractions such as reducing page load delays and improving user experience on mobile devices can also enhance your website impact.
The potential downside? These traffic-boosting tactics aren’t quick fixes. They require time and effort to deliver ongoing results — and they’re not guaranteed.
Website traffic exchange sites offer a supposedly speedy solution to deliver increased impressions and help your click-throughs climb the charts, but as noted by Google, they also come with significant risk “because they may lead to invalid clicks or impressions and result in your account being disabled.”
Here’s what you need to know about website traffic exchange sites, how they work — and the red flags that make them a non-starter for sustained traffic over time.
What is a Website Traffic Exchange?
The idea behind a website traffic exchange is simple: Quid pro quo — you do something, and you get something in return.
In this case, what you’re doing is visiting other business owners’ websites, and they’re visiting yours in return. The theory holds that with enough visits your site will start to climb relevant search rankings and eventually drive more organic traffic your way.
At face value, this doesn’t seem like a bad idea: Since website owners all want the same thing — traffic — why not band together and use the power of the Web at large for collective gain?
But problems crop up as traffic trends away from the organic views and user engagements that search engines are now built to detect. Since you’re visiting sites as quickly as possible to generate their traffic and get the same in return, your website impressions are feather-light and fleeting; there’s no engagement with content and no context for the visit.
As search engines become more sophisticated, meanwhile they can detect this lack of legitimacy — and penalize your site for it.
Understanding Website Traffic Exchange Sites
The most common form factor for these traffic exchange options is as traffic exchange websites. Do a quick Google search and dozens will pop up, all offering high-volume, low-risk services.
These websites are simply groups of website owners who all agree to visit the other sites on the list and in return have their own sites visited. Some are free to join and have hundreds or thousands of sites listed; others come with a fee and may support millions of sites worldwide.
While smaller sites typically operate on a one-for-one model — you visit one website and get a visit in return — larger operations may impose a site-viewing ratio, especially if your site is just starting. For example, if your ratio is 0.5 you must visit two sites before getting one visit in return.
To help smaller companies boost their profile more quickly, many of these website traffic exchange sites now offer for-pay options that promise to deliver a certain quantity of digital visitors in a specific time frame. They may also run contests or promotions that group members can enter (for free or for pay) which will boost their traffic multiplier and supposedly get them closer to the top of relevant, front-page searches.
Red Flags: Why You Shouldn’t Use Traffic Exchange Services
So far, these traffic exchange sites don’t sound like a terrible idea: You get traffic for free or for pay and provide traffic for other sites.
But here’s the problem: As noted by Google, their AdSense program specifically prohibits any artificial means of generating impressions or clicks — if your website is found to be using these methods, your AdSense profile may be suspended and your search ranking will drop. Although website traffic exchange sites use a slightly different model to deliver click-throughs and visitor impressions, they may create similar red flags for popular search engines in turn causing your site’s search ranking to crash.
There’s also the larger problem of organic and contextual traffic. Your ultimate goal is to attract visitors with relevant website content that drives specific action — such as signing up for a newsletter, filling out a contact form or making a purchase. Achieving this goal requires two things: Organic searches that return your website as a top result and contextual, value-driven content that creates consumer engagement
Traffic exchange sites provide the first part of this equation, since group members may be given specific keywords to enter which return your site and boost search rankings. But they fall short on the second half, since these aren’t real visitors but other group members clicking through and then bouncing away while waiting for you to return the favor. This creates an issue for intelligent search engine algorithms that notice your traffic increase — and commensurate lack of engagement, in turn red-flagging your site and potentially damaging your search ranking.
Green-light Options for Increasing Your Website Traffic
If website traffic exchange services are a non-starter, what can site owners do to increase traffic, drive more leads and deliver ROI?
Some of the most effective options include:

Creating relevant content
Buying targeted ads
Writing guest posts
Capturing better backlinks
Repurposing old assets

Curated, context-aware content matters to improve traffic metrics. This means creating website layouts and resources that are relevant to your target audience and provide actionable information about your products, unique market position or pricing.
Free press is great, but it’s not always easy to find. As a result, it’s worth doing your research and purchasing targeted ad space on the social platforms preferred by your buyer personas. For example, if you find significant group numbers of Facebook dedicated to discussions of products or services in your industry, it’s worth considering some targeted ad spend to attract specific user interest.
Many website owners are experts in their field, making them ideal authors for guest posts on more popular blogs or sites. Start by reaching out to site admins about writing a guest post with the caveat that they’ll include a link to your site. This lets you capitalize on larger traffic pools without paying for traffic exchange sites.
Speaking of backlinks, it’s worth trying to generate as many great backlinks as possible. Start with a quick search of your brand, product and service names — if you see them mentioned in search results but unlinked, reach out to the author and ask for a backlink. It’s also worth checking the most-searched terms in your market vertical; if you can capture these searches with on-site content, there’s potential to secure backlinks on popular “best of” articles and listicles.
You’ve got content you’re no longer using, but that doesn’t mean it’s useless. While simply reposting it won’t generate new traffic, you can repurpose popular resources into something else. For example, a well-performing blog post could be turned into a video or serve as the jumping-off point for a discussion, while a whitepaper could see new life as an infographic with updated statistics.
The bottom line? More traffic means better search rankings and improved user engagement on your website.
But not all traffic is created equal. While traffic exchange websites promise high volume and velocity, the value of this tactic comes with risk — and can’t compare to value-driven, user-focused traffic building that steadily boosts your search ranking and helps turn first-page curiosity into a functional sales conversion.

In 2020, B2C businesses all over the world pivoted their strategies as consumers dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Not only did the pandemic force people to live and work strictly from home, but it also put a financial burden on many households and businesses.
Now, as the holidays approach, both physical and online business owners are wondering if they’ll still get the same level of booming business they saw last year.
Because we (unfortunately) can’t predict the future, we decided to survey a sample of nearly 300 general consumers about their holiday shopping plans.
Specifically, we asked, “Compared to last year, how will COVID-19 impact your holiday shopping plans?”
As part of the Lucid survey, participants could check all the boxes related to how their holiday shopping would be impacted.
While you’ll see that some of the responses align with research-backed shopping predictions, the overall results of the survey might surprise you:

Data Source
While you might not be shocked that many respondents are planning more online shopping than last year, you might be surprised that nearly one-third of them still plan to go to physical stores.
Additionally, with 41% of respondents planning to spend less money or buy fewer gifts this year, you might wonder if budget-conscious consumers will still spend money on your products.
Remember, this is just one small poll of general consumers. Had we zoned in on a specific audience target or location, the results might have been very different.
However, these responses are still worth keeping in mind as you navigate the holiday season. It also hints at potential trends that could continue in 2021.
Below, I’ll walk you through the three biggest holiday shopping pivots consumers plan to make this year, as well as a few business takeaways for handling each shift.

3 Pivots Holiday Shoppers are Making in 2020
1. Despite online growth, physical stores won’t be vacant.
As you might expect, the number one holiday shopping change, cited by 47% of survey respondents, was, “I plan to do more online shopping.”
This makes sense. In 2020, consumers who weren’t tech-savvy learned how to buy almost everything they needed online. Meanwhile, those who already made purchases regularly online embraced it more heavily. Additionally, with holiday shopping seasons known for closely packed quarters stores, some consumers might opt to stay at home this year to avoid the crowds.
However, it doesn’t seem like foot-traffic will cease completely.
To learn more about how abundant ecommerce would be this season, we asked, “Where do you plan to do your holiday shopping this year?”
As it turns out, lots of people still plan to shop in-person this season:

Data Source
While 33% of consumers plan to shop “mostly” or “completely” online, 34% plan to do an “even mix of both online and in-store shopping.”
On the other hand, 33% percent plan to shop “mostly” or “completely” in-store this year.
Although this survey is just one small piece of data, and these results might vary by location, the responses hint that physical stores might still get business despite increased online shopping.
Takeaways for Business Owners
Ultimately, online shopping is growing — and we see more online purchase revenue with each new holiday season.
Even if our survey results show that people still plan to shop at least partially in stores, you should consider building an online presence and — potentially — an ecommerce strategy.
When it comes to building an online presence, you could start with a business page on Facebook or Instagram, or a Google My Business listing to help internet users learn more about your brand and where you’re located.
If you’re ready and able to sell your products online, many digital tools, like HubSpot and Shopify, can help you create a simple, but effective online store.
For example, if you already promote your brand with a Facebook Business Page or Instagram Business profile, you could highlight and sell a few of your most popular products in a Facebook Shop. This will allow you to test the waters with ecommerce by selling a few select products online. Then, once you feel confident in your shipping and supply chain, you can launch a full ecommerce site with one of these tools.
2. Shoppers might not splurge — even on gifts.
Due to the uncertain financial times caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, shoppers were already tightening their budgets and protecting their assets. Now, with plans for in-person holiday gatherings uncertain for many folks, there are also fewer reasons to purchase gifts and other holiday items.
However, since holidays have been known to encourage people to splurge more than usual, you might think that this time of year could be an exception to current shopping trends.
When polling general consumers, 26% percent said, “I plan to spend less money.” while 15% said, “I plan to buy fewer gifts due to limited holiday gatherings.” In total, 41% of consumers indicated that they plan to spend less or buy fewer products this year.
The data above, although unsurprising, still reaffirms consumer predictions that might be concerning to business owners.
Takeaways for Businesses
By now, brands have already seen consumers tighten budgets and limit non-essential purchases. Not to mention, studies from McKinsey and other organizations predict that consumers will continue to spend more frugally through 2021.
But, even if you’re up to date on the current market research trends, you might not be sure how to grapple with these consumer behavior shifts.
Right now, buyers need extra motivation to buy expensive or non-essential products. While the holidays might give them a reason to splurge a bit more than they have throughout the year, consumers will still want to invest in products with the best value — whether they’re buying for themselves or their families.
Because people are looking for essential products they need or items that offer the best bang for their buck, focus your messaging on answering questions like:

“Why does the consumer need this product?”
“How does this product or service solve one of their problems?”
“Why is the product worth its price?”

Aside from adjusting your messaging, you can also adjust your content to help you answer the questions above. For example, you can post content that highlights sales, deals, and promo codes that people with more stringent budgets might use.
If you can’t offer a sale or deal, you could alternatively use testimonials, reviews, or user-generated content from your current customers in your marketing. When you share a happy customer’s review or testimonial, you allow prospects to hear stories of people who benefited from your products. This can build a sense of authenticity and brand trust that ultimately leads to purchases.
3. Shoppers will take social distancing seriously.
Above, we noted that our respondents still want to shop at least partially in stores this year. But, many of them might also want to avoid bustling crowds that have historically been seen during holiday shopping seasons.
Because of this, the third biggest holiday shopping change — which 33% of respondents cited — was, “I still plan to shop in stores but will be more cautious of social distancing.”
Takeaways for Businesses
While small business owners would love to see crowds line up to enter their stores during the holiday season, it’s clear that things will be very different this year. Not only will customers be mindful about social distancing, but other research shows that they might be more concerned about their health and safety when shopping than ever.
If you want to embrace in-person foot-traffic opportunities this holiday season, it’s important to know that people might be fearful of crowds or getting too close to others. Because of this, you should invest in PPE for your staff, while also considering protective barriers, one-way aisles, and other solutions to keep people far apart.
While this will not only make customers feel safer in your store, it could give you a competitive advantage over shops that take fewer precautions. After all, customers trust brands that care about them and their safety.
Navigating a Unique Holiday Season
While we can offer suggestions and basic data on how holiday shopping will change this year, it’s important to keep in mind that results could be different for every business — whether physical or online.
Although planning a holiday strategy in a pandemic can feel daunting or nearly impossible, keeping a few tips in mind could still help you get sales and intrigue consumers who are ready and able to shop.

Market your product’s value: Now — and in the near future — consumers will need to be persuaded that your product is valuable, better than a cheaper option, and worth investing in. If your messaging, reviews, or online content fail to convey those things, a budget-minded shopper might very well buy something from a competitor — or avoid buying any product in your industry at all.

Build an online presence: Even if you plan to rely on foot-traffic this year, you’ll still want to develop an online presence so people can learn about your store, where you’re located, and any deals you offer. If you’re ready to step into the world of ecommerce, many easy-to-use tools can help you launch a scalable online store.

Care about your customer: This year, customers are paying extra attention to how brands treat them. When a brand makes an effort to ensure a pleasant and safe experience, shoppers will remember and trust them more. Even if your business is mostly online, you can still show customers you care through helpful and responsive customer service, answering customer questions on social media, and offering deals or content that solve for your ideal customer.

To learn more about how COVID-19 has impacted the overall business landscape, check out our six-month retrospective fueled by data from thousands of HubSpot users.