Insights from the conversion floor

In the previous article, How to Process Customers in MoFu, we listed strategies, channels and content categories that fit in the middle of the sales funnel.  

In this article, we will focus on strategies in the Bottom of the Funnel (BoFu), and how to convert your leads into customers with the right content.  

What does BoFu mean?

We've previously reviewed how prospects move from being aware of a problem or need, to paying attention to a solution through a product or service.  

In BoFu, Bottom of the Funnel, the lead has decided on an investment - but hasn't decided on the solution. Most likely, they are comparing offers, reading reviews and getting to know the relevant brands better. They are convinced they need a solution, but not which one.

BoFu is the last step in the sales funnel, which means that the leads that are at this stage are hot. It's not a big challenge to convert prospects in ToFu, Top of the Funnel, or Mofu, Middle of the Funnel.  

But for the lead to make it all the way to BoFu, there needs to be a strong need or interest in the product/service. This is where the sale is made and it's time to deepen the relationship.  

What should I communicate during the BoFu?

At BoFu, it's important to have insights into what really motivates and triggers potential customers to take the step to invest in your offering. Now you need to give them that little extra and meet them along the way.  

To gain insight into how to do this, we recommend you reflect on the following questions:  

• What sets your brand apart from your competitors and how can you communicate this?  
• Who are your (best) customers today? Going back in history will also tell you how to convert them and who you should focus on.  
• What needs does your product meet and how can you best present this?  
• What are your customers' most frequently asked questions? In which place and during which time is it best to answer them?  

Once you've taken the time to reflect and answer the questions, the next step is to implement the answers in your marketing.  

Strategies during BoFu

We recommend you focus on the following strategies during BoFu:  

Free trial periods or product demonstrations

Giving your potential customers the opportunity to feel your product or experience your solution is one of the most effective strategies in BoFu.  

Experiencing a product or service boosts decision making.

This could be a month's free trial of a magazine subscription, music service or digital course. Once the recipient has tried your product or service, they will (hopefully) never want to be without it.

Free reviews

Appraisals are a great way to generate value for your potential customers.

For example, you can offer a free review of their SEO ranking. The evidence will give the customer confidence in their decision making. They really need help, and you as a company have demonstrated your expertise in this area.  

Product and price brochure

Present your company, products and services through a brand-building brochure.

This will give the customer a clearer picture of what you offer, at what price and benefit. Make sure it answers all potential questions. There is no room here to lose the customer because of a gap in the content in your brochure.

Livechat

Live chats are effective tools for gathering information about the potential leads' buying journey. Analyze what visitors are mainly asking about on your website and what makes them refrain or make a purchase.  

Since live chat is the only interactive channel your customers can communicate with on your website, we can promise that significant information can be gleaned from the conversations. Let this information serve as a guide for your future sales strategy.

Let the need dictate

All strategies aim to add value to your potential leads, giving you the chance to deepen your relationship with them. Whether that's in the form of personalized service, free trial periods or informative product leaflets.  

Let the need dictate. We know from experience that if you give something, you usually get something in return. If you've done your homework right, you'll get it back in the form of orders and business. And the sales process - it starts a new journey towards more sales.

Want to increase brand awareness, reach out to potential customers and drive more traffic to your website?

Then SEM could be the marketing method for you. SEM helps you become visible to your target audience with tailored messages and clear CTAs.

In this guide, we'll look at the difference between SEM and SEO, how SEM works in practice and how you can set realistic goals for your campaigns.

What is SEM?

SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is a strategy to increase the number of visitors to your website. Through paid ads, you drive traffic from the search engines to your platform, without having to rank high organically.

When you create ads in Google Ads, for example, you have the opportunity to be visible at the top of the search results, when users type in keywords related to your business and content.

SEM and SEO can be combined for increased visibility, as you have the opportunity to reach out both organically and through paid marketing.

SEO helps you build long-term trust with the search engines, while SEM helps you gain traffic directly. Think of it as a long-term and a short-term strategy.

While SEM makes an immediate impact in search results, SEO can take longer to build but creates long-term value.

That's why many start-ups choose to focus on SEM first, while building up their site with SEO optimisation afterwards.

The one and only, Google Ads

The most common tool when it comes to search engine marketing is Google Ads, which is Google's advertising platform.

Google Ads allows you to buy advertising space on several different channels, including Google search results, but also, for example, on YouTube, Gmail or other websites participating in the Google AdSense advertising programme.

You, as the marketer, can choose whether to pay for clicks or views, depending on the purpose and objective of the ad.

When you buy ad space in Google search results, you will be competing with other operators who are willing to pay for visibility through similar keywords that you use.

Therefore, in some industries or niches, there may be a lot of competition for ad space, while for other industries there may be very few players advertising.

Compared to SEO, where the goal is to rank in the top five search results, you are competing against all the websites on the internet. Here too, of course, the level of competition will vary.

For some industries, the competition is very high, while in smaller, niche areas, it may be easier to reach the front page.

Now that we've been through the difference between SEM and SEO, let's move on to how SEM works in practice.

How much does SEM cost?

The advantage of applying SEM in your marketing strategy, is that you can get visibility in search results right away.

On the other hand, you need to pay for each visitor you generate through the ads. It is not possible to say an exact price as it is dynamic pricing, but you pay for each click.

A click through Google Ads can cost anything from 50 cents to hundreds of dollars, depending on how many competing operators are bidding on the same keyword.

Of course, you decide what budget you want to spend on each individual ad. In other words, you never have to worry about the money ticking away uncontrollably.

Depending on what you are willing to pay per ad, there will in most cases be a bidding process for the visibility of each relevant recipient. This happens automatically, and is ongoing for the duration of your ad's activity.

So it's not something you have to sit and actively control yourself. However, it is important that you monitor how well your ads are performing over time, so that you can make improvements.

Are your ads not performing?

If your ads are not getting any visibility or clicks, it could be due to several factors. We recommend A/B testing headlines to find out which message has the best impact.

A/B testing involves creating two different versions of ads, or using the same ad against different audiences, then analysing which one performed best and continuing on that track.

A/B testing involves creating two different versions of ads, or using the same ad against different audiences, then analysing which one performed best and continuing on that track.

You can also do this with keywords, images and CTAs (call to action). Dare to test. In many cases, small adjustments can have a big impact on results.

The important thing is that you get a good ROI (Return On Investment). Of course, you want your investment in both time and money to generate results.

How can I calculate the ROI of SEM?

ROI refers to the amount of money you generate in profit, from the investments you put into marketing activities, in this case SEM. ROI represents the profit you generated.

We provide an example of how you can calculate your ROI here:

If you pay 10,000 for an ad campaign and generate 30,000 in sales, then you calculate ROI like this: 30,000 (gross profit) - 10,000 (cost) = 20,000.

Then you take the net result/cost=ROI in %. In this case it is: 20.000/10.000=200%

ROI is used to evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing activities in the long term, but also gives you an indication of how well your ads are performing. Use ROI to monitor performance and continuously optimise your ads as needed. The ultimate goal is to make a profit.

To set a target for how high ROI you want to achieve, you can start from the customer journey. Answer the following questions:

• What is the average profit per lead?
• How do you create interest at an early stage of the customer journey, with a potential customer?
• When does the user who clicked on the ad become a potential lead for the sales team?

Determining the ROI of your activities can be a challenge, but it is necessary to get a clearer picture of how your activities are performing.

We recommend tracking the customer journey, and seeing what percentage has moved from one step to another. This will give you insight into how well your ads are performing and whether you are reaching a relevant audience.

How do I get started with SEM?

There are a variety of tools you can use to develop, analyse and optimise your SEM. We list the most common tools available:

Google Ads

The Google Marketing Platform is a comprehensive tool for analysing and optimising advertising and web traffic.

To reach the search engine, you create ads in Google Ads, with the aim of targeting traffic to your website or a specific product/service. Google Marketing Platform offers you several different tools and solutions for SEM.

Whether you run a start-up or own an established business, the tool can help your business grow through targeted advertising. In the platform you will find for example:

• Analytics - Analytics is an advanced analytics program for your website, providing valuable insight into both traffic and behavior.
• Data studio - Data Studio is a tool that helps you organize and analyze data.
• Optimize 360 - Optimize 360 is a tool that allows you to test and evaluate different versions of campaigns on your website.
• Search Ads 360 - Search Ads 360 is a tool that helps you analyse and improve search campaigns.

Bing Ads

Bing Ads is Microsoft's equivalent to Google Ads. Although Google is the most well-established and largest search engine, there are several other options that have many users, such as Bing.

The Bing Ads advertising service works in much the same way as Google Ads. The main difference is the users you reach through the different search engines. Thus, when choosing a tool, the target audience should play a major role.

[ Read more about Bing Ads here ]

Adobe Advertising Cloud

Adobe offers a multi-tool platform, designed to provide visibility and to optimise digital marketing activities. In the platform you will find tools such as:

• Demand-side Platform
• Advertising Cloud Search
• Advertising Cloud TV
• Advertising Cloud Creative

When working with SEM, Cloud Search is the most relevant tool, as it uses artificial intelligence to optimise advertising campaigns based on the data collected. This can give you a better understanding of who and how to target your ads.

[ Read more about Cloud Search here ]

SEM is a method that increases the visibility of businesses in search engines, through paid campaigns and ads.

• The method can be costly, but it can also be extremely effective and profitable for businesses that want to achieve quick results.
• It is important to always monitor, analyse and calculate the ROI of your ads.
• Dare to test, make small adjustments and A/B test to get one step closer to your business goals.

We hope this guide has equipped you to take your business to the next level with SEM!

Got your digital marketing up and running but not getting results?

Want to increase brand awareness, pull in more leads and build customer relationships, but don't know where to start?

In this guide, we'll walk you through how to create a digital marketing plan that will help you and your business get better results.

Why do you need a digital marketing strategy?

Digital marketing includes all communication of services and products that takes place through digital channels. Digital platforms such as search engines, email and social media can be effective channel choices for brands that want to reach out effectively and efficiently to existing and potential customers.

There are several advantages to investing in digital marketing, including:

• Increased website traffic
• More customers
• Deeper relationships
• Increased trust
• Increased brand awareness
• Analysis of results and optimisation

Does this sound interesting? Great.

We'll go through the most relevant marketing activities available in the market today and give you tips on how to implement them into your company's digital marketing strategy.

But before we jump into the fun, you should analyze how your digital activities are performing today.

Content Audit

Content Audit is an analysis of your existing content, which is published on your website today. The review will help you gather relevant data and metrics for each URL you include in your Content Audit, with the aim of gaining visibility and understanding of which content is most relevant for future production.

Which categories are performing best and actually contributing to your business goals?

[ Get your Content Audit Template here ]

In most cases, there are three main goals that underpin the production of your website:

• Main goal: Lead generation or sales
• Sub-goal: Improved Google ranking with SEO
• Sub-goal: Engagement in external channels

In order to get data, you will need access to Google Analytics, Google Search Console and a system to analyse backlink data such as Ranktrail or Semrush. When collecting your data, we recommend using a spreadsheet program such as Google Sheets that is easy to share with your team.

The next step will be to collect all the URLs to be included in your Content Audit.

For example, do you want to analyse your products or your knowledge base?

Determine the scope according to your needs and collect the content in your spreadsheet.

You should also categorize the links by objective, what type of content it is, where in the customer journey the content is relevant, when it was produced, and who the primary audience is.

When compiling your data, you should focus on the following 10 key metrics:

1. Visitors: how many of your visitors are organic?
2. Visitor trends: what is the visitor trend this year compared to last?
3. Bounce rate: how many return to the search engine after clicking through to the page?
4. Pages: how many pages are displayed on average during a visit?
5. Session duration: how long do visitors stay on your site?
6. Conversions: how many leads/completed purchases?
7. Number of keywords: how many and which keywords does your website rank for?
8. Impressions: how many impressions did the URL generate?
9. Clicks: how many clicks has the website generated?
10. CTR: how many people have seen the URLs and chosen to click through to your website?

The results generated by the given metrics will give you valuable information about how well your website is performing and what content is driving traffic.

You will also be able to infer visitor behaviour, and gain an understanding of whether your content is leading them where you want them to go. Take these insights into the design of your future marketing activities.

Paid, owned and earned channels

Digital marketing includes paid, owned and earned channels. In many cases, brands apply all three in their strategy. So what's the difference?

Owned channels refer to the media over which you are the distributor, which you own and control on your own. For example, your website or your Instagram account. You create and control all the content, without paying for it.

In paid channels, on the other hand, you pay for your visibility, which can be through Google Ads, a banner or a partnership. Someone else owns the channel, and you need to pay for your visibility.

Earned channels refer to channels that you don't own, but that mention your brand or product for free. These are channels you can't directly influence, you are mentioned because your products or services are earned. This could be through a blog, digital magazine or Instagram stories.

Digital marketing activities

Blog

Actively working on a brand-building blog is an important part of many companies' digital marketing strategy. Blog posts keep your website alive and relevant, as visitors can expect new content on an ongoing basis.

It's also a great opportunity for you to sell products and services in a needs-based, genuine and creative way.

Don't forget to keep your readers in focus, they're the ones you should be creating value for whether you're reviewing a new product, sharing a new recipe or explaining a feature.

You can reinforce these through CTAs. If you want readers to click through to a product, contact you or register, you can easily lead them on with the click of a button.

Make sure your CTA is relevant and linked to the content, as you want to create a natural transition from one page to another.

We recommend creating a content plan for the coming months ahead as well as a publishing plan, including what to publish, when and by whom.

Without a clear schedule and continuity in your creation, it's easy for production to either get forgotten or get repetitive. You should also have a clear purpose and objective for your content.

Digital ads

Being able to analyse results and measure behaviour is one of the biggest benefits of digital marketing. It helps you understand if your activities are working or going in the wrong direction. There are countless options for digital advertising today.

For example, you can sponsor your posts on Instagram, create platform-specific ads on Facebook and LinkedIn, or increase your visibility in the search engines through Google Ads. All of these tools allow you to target your campaigns and see at the ad level what performs best.

In real time, you can analyse the results while your campaigns are running and optimise them if necessary. Digital advertising helps you reach your target audience accurately, in their everyday lives.

Read more about advertising here.

Gated content

Gated content means you offer free content - in exchange for information. This could be a webinar, guide or whitepaper available on your website. Users are given the opportunity to download the content - in exchange for providing their contact details.

The purpose of gated content is to capture potential leads. If the user is interested in your content and is also willing to give up their details, they are likely to be a potential customer.

Once you have the data, you have every opportunity to send out tailored offers, promotions and newsletters via email.

Gated content also gives you valuable information about your visitors, which can help you shape your content going forward.

SEO

The aim of SEO, or search engine optimisation, is to increase your visibility in search results.

The more relevant keywords and headings you use, the higher and more frequently you will rank in search results - resulting in more users finding their way to your particular website.

But for this to happen, it's all about creating content the right way, which you can read more about here. SEO also includes features like load time, navigation and mobile responsiveness.

To make your website as relevant and attractive as possible to the search engines, it's important to create the best user experience possible. Want to know more about how you can work with SEO? Read our guide for more tips here.

Giveaways/Contests

Everyone appreciates getting something "for free". Whether it's a discount code, coupon or offer. By working with giveaways, you have the opportunity to engage your users.

We recommend performing the activities on the channels you want to grow or drive traffic to, your social media platforms or website.

The most important thing is that you have a clear purpose for your contest - besides delighting the lucky winner, of course. Participants have nothing to lose, except a few minutes of their time. But what's in it for your brand?

As well as engagement and improved relationships, you have the opportunity to increase your number of followers, increase your brand awareness and pull in more potential leads.

Taking Instagram as an example, a contest there can generate more followers, more likes, more shares, more tags - you set the rules.

For example, you could raffle off a gift card on the channel, which you promote in a post. To participate, you set a few rules, which advantageously revolve around activities around the post and your account.

It's very simple, but in many cases effective.

Webinars

Webinars allow you to create digital events that engage recipients during live webinars. Tools such as polls and chats motivate recipients to engage in dialogue, anonymously if they wish.

Recipients have the chance to ask questions and make their voices heard, while you have the opportunity to sell your brand and lead them to the next step.

You also get valuable information even before the event starts, as users need to register with their contact details. Webinars are a strategy that both builds relationships, increases brand awareness and converts leads. Depending on your industry, the method can be used in different ways.

• If you're in the pharmaceutical industry, you can convey information about medications and new research to potential prospects.
• If you work in beauty, you can create a light-hearted event where you demonstrate your products on each other and let the recipients decide which products they want to see and get tips on.

You also have the option to save your webinars as gated content on the website. So if someone misses out, they can register their details to be able to watch it at a later date. Read more about how to set up an account here.

Podcasts

Podcasts have become one of the most widely used formats in a short space of time, with 51% of all internet users listening to podcast radio, so it's no wonder that more and more brands are seeing the potential of the medium.

Podcasts give you the opportunity to reach a new audience, strengthen ties with your current customers and build the foundation for your editorial marketing.

Audio clips can be posted on social media and content can be rewritten as articles or interviews. It's a small investment that can have a big impact.

The advantage of the format is that it's so easy to absorb and use no matter where you are or what time of day it is. Podcasts that are catching on today focus on clear formats and well-produced content.

So before you start, you need a clear plan of what your podcast will be about, who will be on it and how you will break down the topics of conversation, week by week.

E-mail marketing

Email marketing is about communicating with leads who have shown interest in a product or service your brand offers. The aim is to create trust, loyalty and build your brand. Email marketing can include promotions, offers, news and information about your business.

The aim is to create value for the customer and that the content is relevant to the recipient. The advantage of email marketing is that you can personalise the content of your mailings, capturing the customer in the buying journey and thus increasing sales.

Read more about the creating an e-mail strategy here.

So, are you ready to get started?

To succeed in your marketing today, you need to have a clear strategy and be active on the channels your target audience is on.

Digital marketing not only helps you increase brand awareness, create engagement and build relationships, it also increases your sales.

We hope our guide has given you a clearer insight into some of the activities that are relevant today and how you can use them in your strategy.

Vind je het lastig om een compleet overzicht te krijgen van de verschillende soorten chats en erachter te komen welke chat voor jou de beste oplossing is?

We weten dat dit een lastige situatie is, aangezien chat nog een onderbelicht hulpmiddel is. Dit maakt het voor bedrijven moeilijk om de juist beslissing te nemen. Wij willen dat veranderen!

In dit bericht vergelijken we 3 verschillende chats: Chatbots, Interne live chats en Weply’s live chat. Ons doel is dat je na het lezen van dit verslag een duidelijk beeld hebt van welke chat je wilt toepassen. Laten we beginnen!

In het artikel “Verkies je chatbots boven mensen?” krijg je een inzicht in het gedrag van klanten in betrekking tot de chat functies van bedrijven en aan welke soort chat de voorkeur wordt gegeven.

Chatbot

Een chatbot is een efficiënt hulpmiddel met lage doorlopende kosten. Een chatbot functioneert het best wanneer klanten specifieke en/of algemene vragen hebben. Dit zijn ook de vragen die worden beantwoord in de FAQ.

Dit zijn onder andere vragen zoals “Hoelang duurt de bezorging?” of “Hoe retourneer ik producten?”. Als de klant dit soort vragen stelt zal de chatbot meestal binnen 0,1 seconden antwoorden.

Daarnaast is een chatbot 24/7 beschikbaar. Als je op zoek bent naar een chat optie die 24/7 simpele FAQ vragen kan beantwoorden voor een relatief goedkope prijs, dan is chatbot is de beste optie voor jou.

Als je geïnteresseerd bent in het gebruik van een chatbot als oplossing voor het uitbesteden van je klantenservice, zijn er een aantal dingen waar rekening mee moet worden gehouden.

De meeste klantenservice kwesties zijn gecompliceerder dan een chatbot aankan. Kwesties waar klanten hulp nodig hebben met specifieke context willen graag persoonlijke begeleiding.

Een chatbot kan zorgen voor geïrriteerde klanten door het gebrek aan menselijke vaardigheden. Daarnaast kan een chatbot geen vragen beantwoorden die niet bij voorhand zijn beantwoord.

Om correcte antwoorden te krijgen van de chatbot moet er een groot aantal datasets worden aangeleverd.  Dit proces is de reden waarom een chatbot de duurste optie is als het gaat om de initiële investering.

Zelf een chatbot bouwen is niet eenvoudig. Een recent voorbeeld uit Denemarken toonde de complexiteit om hiermee aan de slag de gaan. Na een jaar programmeren en twee jaar na lancering van de chatbot bevindt de chatbot zich nog in de testfase.

Het verbaasde hen, hoe verschillende mensen dezelfde vraag stellen en hoe gevoelig de chatbot kan zijn. Een chatbot is een perfecte match voor jou, als je een chatservice wilt die eenvoudige vragen van klanten binnen 0,1 seconden kan beantwoorden.

Een chatbot is de oplossing met de laagste operationele kosten vergeleken met de twee andere chats. Anderzijds is dit de oplossing waarbij je de hoogste opstartkosten betaalt.

Internal live chat

Een internal live chat is een gebruikelijke oplossing binnen kleinere bedrijven, waar er niet genoeg financiële middelen zijn om vragen van klanten grondig af te handelen.

Het verschil tussen een interne en een externe live chat is, dat bij een interne live chat klantvragen worden behandeld door werknemers die alles weten van het desbetreffende product of service.

Chatten met een expert verhoogt de klanttevredenheid omdat de chat consultant snel de context kan begrijpen en kan inschatten wat de klant nodig heeft.

Omdat er normaal gesproken gebruik gemaakt wordt van een werknemer zijn de opstartkosten laag. Ondanks de voordelen van een interne live chat zijn er diverse factoren waar rekening mee moet worden gehouden.

Afgezien van de lage opstartkosten zijn de doorlopende operatie kosten hoog, aangezien in feite wordt betaald met het salaris van de werknemers dat voor hun normale taken had kunnen worden gebruikt.

Een voorbeeld is een zelfstandige accountant die zelf zijn vragen beantwoordt. De accountant zal zijn werk waarschijnlijk meerdere keren per dag moeten onderbreken, wat al snel kan oplopen in de vorm van verloren werkuren.

Deze onderbrekingen zijn het grootste nadeel van een interne live chat. Hoewel er van uit kan worden gegaan dat potentiële klanten hoge kwaliteit klantenservice aangeboden krijgen, wordt het risico gelopen dat andere bedrijfstakken worden gedowngrade.

Tegelijkertijd bestaat het risico dat vragen in de live chat enkele uren onbeantwoord blijven als de werknemer een andere werk taak heeft.

Het kan voor de werknemer moeilijk zijn om de juiste balans te vinden tussen het afhandelen van chats en zijn gebruikelijke werktaken.

Bovendien zijn er maar heel weinig interne live chats die buiten kantooruren operationeel blijven, waardoor het potentieel van de chat niet altijd goed wordt benut.

Uit onze chat gegevens blijkt dat een chat die van 9 uur ‘s ochtends tot 4 uur s ’middags actief is, slechts 48% van alle klantvragen ontvangt.

Een interne live chat kan een goede start-up chat zijn voor kleinere bedrijven, aangezien de chat geen hoge opstartkosten of grote veranderingen binnen het bedrijf met zich meebrengt.

Het is relatief gemakkelijk om een huidige werknemer chats te laten beantwoorden, en er is zekerheid dat potentiële klanten chatten met iemand die veel weet over het product en/of service.

Wat de interne live chat tegenspreekt, is dat de werknemer niet alleen een chat consulent is en dus dagelijkse werktaken zal moeten onderbreken.

Dit kan leiden tot minder efficiëntie. Daarnaast kan het lastig zijn om het volledige effect van je interne live chat te krijgen als je niet 24/7 in staat bent om chat te beantwoorden.

Weply live chat

Weply’s livechat is een chat waarbij externe medewerkers de vragen van klanten beantwoorden. Net als een interne livechat, is een van de sterke punten van Weply’s chat dat het echte mensen betreft die alle chats afhandelen.

In tegenstelling tot bots hebben mensen empathie, wat de sleutel is voor een goed functionerende klantenservice.

Door de behoeften van een klant te begrijpen en de communicatie aan de passen aan de specifieke situatie, voelt de klant zich net zo gewaardeerd als in een fysieke winkel.

De chat consultants van Weply zullen fungeren als een extra werknemer, ook al is het geen echte interne medewerker.

De livechat van Weply is gericht op het beantwoorden van eenvoudige vragen, het begeleiden van bezoekers op de website en het verzamelen van leads.

Het genereren van leads betekent dat de chat consultants om contact gegevens zullen vragen van degenen die interesse tonen in een aankoop.

De leads, evenals de gehele chat dialoog, worden rechtstreeks naar u doorgestuurd, zodat ze gemakkelijk gebeld kunnen worden om in kopende klant gemaakt te kunnen worden.

Het ontvangen van deze leads zal de tijd die wordt besteed aan het afhandelen van klantvragen en vooral de tijd die wordt besteed aan de eerste interacties, die doorgaans erg tijdrovend zijn, drastisch verminderen.

Mensen zullen, net als chatbots, een verzoek van een klant soms verkeerd interpreteren. Het verschil is echter dat mensen het misverstand kunnen inzien en het gesprek weer kunnen laten draaien.

Weply’s chat consultants zijn ook getraind in het controleren van een gesprek, het stellen van de juiste vragen en metacommunicatie.

Het is ook een groot pluspunt dat Weply op ieder uur van de dag actief is. Onze klanten kunnen er vanuit gaan dat alle vragen van klanten die via hun chat binnenkomen, worden afgehandeld en dat ze geen potentiële klanten mislopen.

Vergeleken met een interne live chat waarbij de werknemers meestal rond 17.00 het kantoor verlaten, zijn de chat consultants van Weply over de hele wereld gevestigd in verschillende tijdzones, waardoor 24/7 service aangeboden kan worden.

Als we kijken naar de gemiddelde responstijd van de chat, antwoorden onze chat consultants iets langzamer dan een chatbot, maar dat komt neer op seconden.

Weply’s chat consultants beantwoorden de chat binnen 4 seconden, wat ruim sneller is dan de reactietijd van een interne livechat. Bij interne live chats kun je in het ergste geval enkele uren of dagen moeten wachten op een antwoord.

Als we de kosten van Weplys live chat vergelijken met de twee andere chats, dan is Weply het gunstigst.

De opstartkosten zijn bijna niet bestaand aangezien er geen grote investering of tijd nodig is om de tool te implementeren. In alle gevallen krijgen nieuwe klanten een gratis proefperiode van 7 dagen aangeboden.

De operatie kosten met betrekking tot Weply’s livechat zijn meestal hoger dan de kosten van een chatbot, maar gemiddeld lager dan de kosten van een interne livechat.

Bij Weply betaal je een maandelijks bedrag en een vaste prijs per opgeleverde lead. De maandelijkse vaste vergoeding dekt de afhandeling van alle chats die geen concrete leads worden, training van chat consultants en chat ondersteuning.

Weply’s live chat is de beste keuze voor u als u gedurende de hele dag persoonlijk wilt communiceren met alle website bezoekers.

Naast het bieden van persoonlijke service, kunt u leads ontvangen van klanten die klaar zijn om een aankoop te doen. Weply’s live chat zal ook invloed hebben op meerdere verkoop en marketing parameters.

Het kiezen van een chat oplossing is geen gemakkelijke taak. Het is van cruciaal belang dat u weet wat uw behoeften zijn en wat het meest winstgevend is voor het bedrijf.

We hopen dat dit bericht de keuze makkelijker heeft gemaakt en dat je een duidelijk overzicht hebt gekregen van het verschil tussen de 3 soorten chats.

‍

Forms are everywhere. You probably got a few on your site right now: A subscription form, contact form, login form, or a signup form.  

Contact forms are a huge part of the web and are a great tool for increasing conversions. However, there is one big problem with a contact form.

More often than not, there’s just too much friction and it’ll scare visitors away.  

You want to make your contact form as frictionless as possible. So, on that note, we’ve assembled 7 pitfalls to avoid when creating a contact form that’ll increase the contact form conversion rate.

Pitfall #1. Asking for Too Much

A common mistake is to ask for too much information in your contact form.  

Research shows that the number of fields matter when looking at conversion rate. A company reduced their contact form from 11 to 4 fields, gaining a 120% conversion increase from 5.4% to 11.9%.  

Another study done by HubSpot analyzing 40,000 contact forms found that reducing a form from four fields to three nearly doubled the conversion rate!

So, think about what are the most important pieces of information you need to know about your potential customers? And don't ask more than necessary. You'll scare them away.

Some websites make certain fields optional, giving visitors the choice whether to fill them in or not. This is not a good idea, though.

Many will not even notice it’s optional, so they’ll abandon your site because they think they need to fill out all of them.  

The key to gathering leads is not to collect as much information about them as possible. It’s about making the contact process as simple as possible. So, make your form short and to the point.

Pitfall #2. Sound Like a Bot

A contact form doesn’t allow any real-time personal engagement. Considering that only 0,5% of people prefer communicating with bots over humans, it's important to make your form sound human.

Give your form a conversational tone to make it clear that there’s a human on the other side. Write the form's copy as if you were having a conversation with the visitor. Use simple, everyday language.  

Let’s take an example:

“The field is required”

or

“Oops, you’re missing this field”

See the difference?

You can also make your form human by placing an image of the people they are submitting their request to. Maybe it’s a specific sales representative or your customer service team?  

The more human you make your contact form, the more likely you are to increase your engagement rate.

Pitfall #3. Response Time Not Clearly Defined

Waiting for something while not knowing how long you will wait can be an extremely frustrating experience. So, make it clear when you get back to the visitor.

Including a response time in a contact form shows that you respect and value the time of your visitors. A few hours? 24 hours?

It demonstrates that you are committed to providing a good customer experience and it helps to build trust with users. Remember to include other ways to contact you, especially if your response time is long.

Tip!

To provide the fastest response time possible you may want to consider which e-mail your contact form inquiries are sent to. People who’ve just submitted your contact form are in a decision-making mindset, so maybe send them straight to a sales representative?

Pitfall #4. Unfit for Mobile Devices

It should be standard procedure today, but sometimes it gets overlooked.

As more and more users access the internet on their smartphones and tablets, it is crucial that a contact form is designed to be responsive and easy to use on smaller screens. This ensures that users can easily fill out the form no matter what device they are using.

We also see the increasing usage of mobile devices vs desktop in our own data. In 2022, 61% of all chat inquiries are sent from a mobile, compared to only 25% in 2017.

If your contact form is not responsive, it will ruin the mobile experience and labels, or fields might get lost. Look at the example below. Not good, right?

Pitfall #5. Poor Design and Layout

If your contact form looks like it’s straight out of the 90s, it’s time to get creative!  

Design plays a crucial role in the functionality and user experience of a contact form.

You want your contact form to be visually appealing and match your overall brand guidelines. You can make your form blend in by adjusting colors and fonts to match your brand.

A well-designed contact form is easy to understand and navigate, with clear labels and instructions for each field. You can even provide examples in each form field.  

Where should your contact form be placed on the page? Left, or right?

A company changed location from left to right side and increased their conversion with 24.6%.  

So, try to split test your design and layout and find what works best for you.

Pitfall #6. No Clear Call-to-Action

A user might fill out the contact form and not send it because they’re not encouraged to do so. Avoid this pitfall by making sure that your call-to-action is clear and prominent.

Visitors who fill out your contact form are ready to buy, so you must do anything you can to make them convert into leads.  

Use action-oriented language to nudge the users to send the form. Research show that a CTA saying, “Click here” and “Go” convert 30% and 25% better than the default “Submit”.  

However, “Download” and “Register” convert 15% and 10% worse.

Tip!

If you have any doubts about the effectiveness of your CTA, then A/B test it against another one. Set up a new version of your landing page with a different CTA and then send traffic to both versions.

Pitfall #7. Not Giving Confirmation

“Did it go through?”. Is not what you want your users to think! A big mistake to make is to not make it clear that the user’s message has been received.

A confirmation message acknowledges to the user that their message is being processed.  

This can provide reassurance and a sense of comfort to the user that their message has not been lost or forgotten. Saying “Thank you” is a simple but effective way to provide a better user experience.

If a user is not sure if the form has been submitted successfully, they may try to submit it again, which can lead to multiple, duplicate submission. A confirmation message can eliminate this confusion and improve the overall user experience.

Also, take this opportunity to direct users to another relevant page on the website after the contact attempt was made successfully. This will increase engagement as you’re inviting them to continue to stay on your website.

Wrapping Up

The more friction you can eliminate from the user experience, the higher you’ll be able to push your conversion rate.

Creating a contact form for your website can seem like a simple task, but it's important to consider all the potential pitfalls to ensure that it is user-friendly and effective.  

By avoiding these 7 mistakes outlined above, you can create a contact form that is easy to use and that effectively connects visitors with your business.

Email marketing is known to be one of the most effective digital media channels - but what should you consider when producing your mailings? Here are 10 tips from Weply for creating emails that convert.

1. Headlines that capture interest

Say it early and clearly. It takes less than three seconds for your subscribers to decide whether or not they want to open your email.

Today's consumers are overwhelmed with information, making them more selective and discerning about which messages they want to spend their time and energy taking in. So make the decision easy for the recipient - right from the subject line.

Write a short, interesting and concise headline that gives a hint of what they will find in the email. Remember to prioritise the order of words, with the most important word coming first.

For example, if you want to promote a promotion, this should be the first word in the headline, "Offer exclusively for you". This is so that recipients will immediately get an idea of what the email contains.

Also consider the type of device the recipients open their email in. The available space offered by the apps or devices determines how much content the recipients will get already in the inbox.

Remember to prioritize the order of the words so that the most important word comes first!‍‍

For example, if you want to promote a campaign, it should be the first word in the headline: “Offer exclusively for you.”
This instinctively gives the reader an idea of what the email contains.

Also, consider what type of device the recipients are using to open their email.
The available space in apps or on devices determines how much content recipients will already see in their inbox.

2. Preview text matters

Using preview text in your email marketing campaigns gives subscribers greater clarity on what your email is about and about what it's aiming for.

The space gives you the opportunity to motivate and inspire readers to engage with more content (by clicking through to the email).

I think we're all convinced that the faster you can create engagement - the better!

Benefits of preview

• Inbox exposure. Highlight your offer and increase open rates.
• Complement your headline. As the headline should be interesting through a few words (maximum 150 characters), you have the opportunity to expand on the content through your preview, which is placed directly after the headline. For example, what is your campaign about, what products are new and what recommendations do you have?
• CTA. To motivate action, you can tell readers what to do at an early stage. Use action verbs like read, buy and open already in the headline or preview.

3. Optimize for mobile

Let's face it, mobile adaptation matters in all aspects of digital communication. Which is because consumers spend all day on their phones.

If you haven't already adapted your layout for mobile emails, this should be at the top of your to-do list. Consumers read the majority of their emails on smartphones, which means your newsletters need to be designed to fit these devices.

Examples, headlines and previews need to be shortened. Any images, videos and CTA buttons should be adapted to smartphone formats. Being mobile-friendly will help you get your message across and improve your open rates, we promise.

4. A/B-testing

One way to find out what type of headline and preview text will work best for your target audience to click through is to conduct A/B tests.

Definition!

An A/B test also known as a split test, is a test of, for example, two variants of the same campaign to find out which one works best.

By splitting your list of email addresses into two or three equal parts - with each part having a variation of, for example, subject line, image selection and different order of content in the email, you can get a better insight into what motivates your particular target audience.

• Should the campaign of the month be mentioned in the subject line or should it be presented later in the email?
• Should there be a clear CTA in the subject line along the lines of "Limited time discount code!" or should it be sneaked into the section where you present products?

Dare to test yourself and analyse the outcome.

5. Frequency

Depending on your industry and recipients, the frequency of your mailings may vary. Once a month is suitable for some, while others do smaller mailings weekly or even daily.

The key is to create a sustainable strategy that can be sustained over time and that does not cause subscribers to unsubscribe.

Are you able to communicate several times a month, but unsure how your target audience will react to frequent mailings? Then you can try your hand at monitoring the response.

Review the open rate in the month you send out multiple emails, and compare it to a month where you only sent out one. Do the statistics differ?

The most important thing is that the mails generate

• added value for the recipients
• are well though out
• tailored
• and relevant.

6. Dare to be personal

Many people ask: how can email marketing be one of the most effective communication strategies today?

The great advantage of email marketing is that recipients subscribe to newsletters because they are genuinely interested in the content.

They want to get to know the brand better, learn about news, personal offers and get inspired.

It's important that you keep the recipient in focus when creating your e-mails, and that you actively try to create a deeper relationship with them.

Let them get to know you, and invite them to become part of your world. Language is incredibly important in relationship-building marketing.

Dare to be casual, personal and to address readers with personal pronouns. This will create a sense of community and recipients will feel that they are part of your brand.

7. Storytelling

Every brand needs its own story, and it needs to be a good one. Storytelling is about telling the story of your brand in an engaging and entertaining way.

This is an important part of your communication, in order to build long-term relationships.

Just as you work on storytelling on your website and social media, you need to get that part into your newsletter as well. Both to create consistent communication, but also to use the format for precisely relationship-building communication.

You can work with storytelling in different ways in your newsletters.

• It could be as simple as having a box dedicated to sharing information about your particular company and what your service/products can do for customers.
• You can also have headlines, where you share information about specific topics or products, which recipients can follow up on week after week.

Do you have a personal sender today, who writes the intro to each newsletter? Let that person create a dialogue with followers that they look forward to following up on week after week.

The most important thing about storytelling is that the focus is on the value you can add for customers, not on how good you are or how well you perform.

8. Compelling call-to-action

In order not to miss out on potential customers, you need to get the recipient to take action when they view your content. You can do this through clear CTAs (Call to Action).

[ See 50 examples of CTAs here ]

An effective CTA could be offering the recipient a discount code when they visit your website, to attend an upcoming lecture for free or to read more about a topic on your blog page.

9. Pros and cons of images

Images and graphics can inspire, engage and evoke emotion in your email marketing. In fact, we're over six times more likely to remember information if we see images when we receive it.

That said, make sure images don't take up too much space and impact your load time. Images that are too large can make your email difficult to read and, in the worst case, can be marked as spam. So, be sure to adjust the size of the file to match the body text.

How to choose the right images:

• Quality over quantity. Use high-quality images and avoid blurry or pixelated ones.
• Invest in a photo shoot. Personal photos give a clearer picture of you and your brand. It gives you the opportunity to create credible, consistent and professional communications. Stock photos are all well and good, but most are already worn out by the competition, right?
• Link. Increase click-through rates by linking in your images too. For example, if you want to motivate readers to click through to a specific product in your newsletter, make it easy for them by linking in your CTA in the text, as well as in the image.
• Avoid large files. Just like with your web page. if you want to avoid long loading times, be careful with the image format.

10. Check links

It may sound obvious, but, it's so easy for an email to go off to thousands of recipients the second you realize that the product that the entire content is circulating around - is missing a link.

This small mistake can result in a huge loss of clicks and therefore sales. This basic element is built in to increase revenue and facilitate the buying journey for readers.

So, make sure it will!

So, why do email marketing?

Email marketing allows you to reach out to a relevant audience in a genuine way. The platform makes it easy for you to send out personalized messages, tailored to recipients, history and preferences.

If you want more information on how email marketing works in practice and how to get started with your account, read our guide here.