Shortly after you submit the form, one of our team will contact you to organise a time for your demo. Thank you!
Search Results for:
Customers increasingly rely on internal search to navigate your website. But what happens when search results are irrelevant, slow to load, or fail to personalise the experience?
Frustration sets in, leading to abandoned searches and lost sales.
Introducing Searchandising 2.0, the next generation of internal search solution from Segmentify!
We’ve completely revamped the search experience, empowering you to deliver lightning-fast results, unmatched customisation, and a seamless journey that keeps users engaged and ready to convert.
Keep reading for all the juicy details ↴
What’s Searchandising?
Searchandising refers to the strategic optimisation of a website’s internal search function. It leverages merchandising techniques to tailor search results and product discovery, ultimately enhancing the customer journey and driving conversions.
Challenges of Traditional Internal Search Solutions
Internal search plays a crucial role in the customer journey, directly impacting product discovery and purchase decisions. However, traditional internal search engines often struggle with:
Irrelevant results: Customers encounter products that don’t match their search intent, leading to frustration and lost sales.
Slow loading times: Laggy search experiences can cause customers to abandon the search altogether.
Lack of personalisation: Traditional search doesn’t consider individual preferences or past behaviour, hindering product discovery for returning customers.
These limitations disrupt the customer journey, leading to missed conversion opportunities and increased customer churn. Personalised search results, on the other hand, can significantly improve customer satisfaction and drive sales by ensuring users find the products they’re looking for quickly and easily.
The Searchandising 2.0 Advantage
Let’s get to know Segmentify’s Searchandising 2.0 a bit closer:
1. Faster Setup
Searchandising 2.0 boasts a streamlined setup process, getting your internal search box operational in just 2 hours. This translates to faster time-to-value, allowing you to experience the benefits of enhanced search functionality and start driving conversions quicker than ever before.
2. 50% Faster Searches
Searchandising 2.0 prioritises a lightning-fast search experience without compromising website performance. Its code is 50% smaller than previous versions and 30% lighter than Segmentify alternatives. This translates to blazing-fast search results that keep your customers happy and engaged.
No more waiting for pages to load – your customers will find the products they need instantly, leading to a smoother purchase journey and increased conversions.
Image source: Segmentify
3. Increased Customisation
With customisable search facets, you can refine search parameters based on your specific product categories and attributes. Take control of result ordering, prioritising high-performing products or showcasing new arrivals first. Design product cards with the information most valuable to your customers, ensuring they can make informed purchase decisions quickly and easily.
With Searchandising 2.0, you can craft a search experience that seamlessly integrates with your brand identity and maximises conversion opportunities.
Image sourse: Segmentify
4. Improved SEO & Organic Traffic
Organic traffic from Google searches is a powerful sales driver, but creating landing pages for every conceivable keyword combination is a losing battle. It’s expensive and impractical.
Searchandising 2.0 solves this dilemma by optimising your internal search results for SEO.
This means your product pages rank higher in relevant Google searches, attracting high-intent customers who are already actively looking for what you offer.
5. Mobile-Ready
Searchandising 2.0 is built with mobile in mind, delivering a fully responsive search experience that adapts perfectly to smartphones and tablets. This eliminates the need for additional development or adjustments, saving you time and resources.
As a result, Searchandising 2.0 increases customer satisfaction and eliminates the risk of mobile users abandoning their search due to compatibility issues.
6. Uninterrupted Search Experience
We understand that exploration is key to successful product discovery. That’s why we’ve eliminated frustrating page refreshes.
Seamlessly transition between product details and search results without disrupting the user flow. This allows customers to explore different options quickly and intuitively, ultimately leading to a more informed purchase decision. Searchandising 2.0 keeps customers engaged and focused on finding the perfect product, maximising the potential for higher conversion rates.
Try Segmentify’s Searchandising 2.0 Today!
Searchandising 2.0 empowers you to transform your internal search engine with a range of game-changing benefits:
Faster setup (2 hours): Get up and running in record time.
Lightning-fast searches (50% faster): Keep customers happy with instant results.
Increased customisation: Tailor the search experience to match your product catalogue perfectly.
Mobile-ready: Effortless search on every device, no adjustments needed.
Uninterrupted search experience: Keep customers engaged with seamless exploration.
Boost organic traffic: Attract high-intent customers with SEO-optimised results.
Don’t settle for a clunky internal search experience that drives customers away. Try Segmentify’s Searchandising 2.0 today and experience the difference! Maximise conversions, boost customer satisfaction and watch your sales soar.
Are you struggling with reaching your target audience?
You’re spending hefty chunks of your budget on targeted ads but not getting sales in return?
Do you wish for a magic mirror to tell you what you’re doing wrong?
We’re sadly here to tell you that no such magic mirror exists. But we might have something that can solve your problems with reaching your target audience and saving your precious marketing budget.
Let’s start with what you’re doing wrong:
Limitations of Traditional Customer Segmentation
You are saying that generic marketing campaigns are drowning you in lost revenue.
You’re pouring resources into marketing campaigns that fall flat, leaving you with frustrated customers and dwindling budgets.
Here’s the problem: Generic approaches to customer segmentation can’t predict future actions or preferences. This means missed opportunities for personalised experiences and engagement, ultimately leading to lost revenue and brand disconnect.
The harsh reality is that traditional customer segmentation falls short in several key areas:
Limited insights: Demographics and past purchases offer a narrow snapshot, failing to capture evolving needs and desires.
Blind to the future: Predicting future actions and preferences remains a guessing game, making it impossible to engage customers proactively.
Wasted resources: You target the wrong people, wasting precious marketing dollars.
Ready to break free from generic campaigns and unlock the power of true customer understanding?
Then, let us explore predictive segmentation—the key to personalised experiences and supercharged engagement.
What is Predictive Segmentation?
It’s best to start with an official definition.
Predictive segmentation empowers you to truly know your customers, predicting their future actions and preferences. Unlike generic approaches, it analyses vast data to unveil their hidden potential, allowing you to tailor experiences and maximise engagement.
Imagine knowing which customers are likely to make a purchase, who might churn, and even what products or services they’ll be interested in before they even know themselves.
That’s the transformative power of predictive customer segmentation: Seeing the future of your customer relationships and tailoring your approach accordingly.
Now that we’re on the same page about how predictive marketing is not about reading teacups or looking at crystal balls let’s dive into its benefits.
Benefits of Predictive Segmentation
Predictive marketing hurls those archaic generic campaigns out the window and replaces them with laser-focused personalisation that gets you your money’s worth. Here’s how predictive marketing aids your personalisation efforts:
Tailored experiences: If you’ve ever had to use someone else’s Netflix account, you know how good Netflix is at personalisation. Similarly, predictive marketing arms you with tools to recommend products users will love, craft content they crave, and deliver experiences that resonate deeply. Remember those frustrated customers from before? Predictive segmentation turns them into loyal fans!
Personalised homepages increase chances of engagement, and therefore, conversion. | Image source: Segmentify
Proactive marketing: Chasing lost customers is so last year. With predictive segmentation, you get to predict churn before it happens and intervene with personalised retention strategies. On the flip side, you can easily identify high-potential customers and nurture them with targeted campaigns, maximising your return on investment.
Saving time and resources: No more shotgun marketing. Focus your efforts on the right customers, the ones most likely to convert and engage. This translates to saved time, reduced costs, and maximised ROI.
Challenges and Limitations of Predictive Segmentation
Predictive customer segmentation isn’t magic; like any powerful tool, it comes with its own considerations. When it comes to predictive marketing, many marketers keep a wary eye on these points:
Data quality: Remember the saying, “garbage in, garbage out.” Inaccurate or incomplete data can lead to flawed predictions, potentially harming customer trust and ROI. High-quality data is crucial for reliable results from predictive marketing.
Privacy concerns: Tailored experiences require data, but customers also value privacy. Striking the right balance between personalised offerings and respecting their data is crucial.
Model interpretability: Complex algorithms can be difficult to interpret, making understanding the reasoning behind predictions challenging. This raises questions about transparency and fairness by marketers.
Potential for bias: Data can reflect societal biases, and if not addressed, models can perpetuate them. Ensuring fair and unbiased algorithms is critical.
With all that being said, these challenges shouldn’t deter you from exploring the power of predictive marketing. Remember, with the right tools and approach, these concerns can be addressed.
In the next section, we’ll explore how Segmentify tackles these challenges and ensures responsible, effective use of predictive segmentation to benefit both your business and your customers.
Why Choose Segmentify’s Predictive Segmentation?
Predictive segmentation holds immense potential, but as we’ve seen, it’s not without its challenges. So, how can you leverage this power responsibly and effectively?
Enter Segmentify, a solution designed to address these concerns and empower you with truly transformative customer segmentation:
Data integrity and fairness: Segmentify goes beyond just predictions. Advanced data cleansing and preparation ensure the prediction models are built on accurate and unbiased data, leading to fair and reliable results.
Privacy first, personalisation always: Segmentify prioritises responsible AI use with an ethical framework and data governance practices. We balance personalisation with privacy, ensuring your customers’ trust is protected.
Continuous improvement: Segmentify continuously monitors and improves its models, ensuring their ongoing effectiveness and ability to adapt to changing market trends.
Now, let’s dive into the concrete benefits of using Segmentify’s Predictive Segmentation:
Identify high-value customers: Features like “Likelihood to Purchase” and “Lookalike Audiences” pinpoint your most promising customers. Tailor campaigns, cross-sell and upsell with confidence, knowing your efforts are reaching the right people.
Prevent churn before it happens: Segmentify’s “Likelihood to Churn” feature identifies at-risk customers, allowing you to intervene with targeted retention strategies proactively.
The replenishment algorithm helps increase lifetime value (LTV) by reminding customers the time to reorder a previously purchase. | Image source: Segmentify
More than just features, Segmentify offers:
Seamless integration: Getting started is easy. Segmentify offers seamless integration and comprehensive support, ensuring a smooth and successful implementation.
Dedicated support: The Segmentify Success Team provides ongoing support to ensure you maximise the value of your segmentation efforts.
Industry-Specific Examples of How to Use Predictive Segmentation
Now that we’ve explored how Segmentify’s capabilities overcome the general limitations of predictive marketing let’s witness its transformative power across different industries:
FinTech: Identify high-value customers, predict loan defaults, and recommend tailored financial products. You can identify customers ready for specific investments and craft personalised campaigns accordingly.
Marketing: Deliver hyper-personalised content, identify potential brand advocates, and predict campaign effectiveness. You can send relevant offers to each customer segment and identify potential brand champions.
Airlines: Personalise in-flight experiences, identify frequent flyers, and predict future travel preferences. You can offer high-value travellers lounge access and priority boarding while predicting their preferred destinations.
Healthcare: Predict patient risk factors, personalise treatment plans, and identify potential readmissions. You can offer preventative care programs to at-risk patients and reduce unnecessary hospital visits.
Groceries: Predict shopping preferences, recommend personalised recipes, and optimise online and offline store layout. You can send targeted coupons for favourite items and suggest recipes based on past purchases or change point-of-purchase products at your physical store based on the predictive data you have.
Cosmetics: Recommend personalised beauty products, identify trends, and predict customer churn. You can offer skincare specific to each customer’s needs and predict potential churn to implement targeted retention strategies.
Publishing: Recommend personalised reading materials, target marketing campaigns, and predict subscription churn. You can recommend books based on individual reading history and build targeted marketing campaigns to prevent churn.
Final Words on Predictive Segmentation
Predictive marketing isn’t just about predicting the future; it’s about shaping it and creating win-win situations for both you and your customers.
While predictive segmentation comes with its challenges, these should not deter you from exploring its powers. With the right tools and approach, these concerns can be addressed.
What we discussed in this article is just a glimpse into the transformative power of predictive segmentation across diverse industries. With Segmentify, you can unlock deeper customer understanding, personalise experiences, and achieve sustainable growth—All tailored to your specific industry needs.
Notice how everyone, and I mean everyone, talks about omnichannel marketing strategies these days?
And yet, all that talk feels…hollow.
Sure, it’s the difference between mere engagement and remarkable customer experiences. But it’s remarkable how many brands still struggle to get it right.
Well, I’m here to tell you there are 2 sides to a stellar omnichannel marketing strategy, which often coincide with one another.
You’ll see.
1. The Practical Side of an Omnichannel Marketing Strategy
Data and Analytics
Collect and integrate data from all channels
Omnichannel marketing commences with a robust data strategy. To understand your customers, you must gather and integrate data from all touchpoints. This involves not just online interactions but also data from in-store purchases, email responses, and even social media engagements.
A comprehensive data integration strategy grants you a 360-degree view of your customer’s preferences, behaviours, and historical interactions, empowering more personalised and effective marketing.
However, beware that as the amount of data you collect through various channels rises, the need for unified data becomes more and more important.
Implement advanced real-time analytics tools
Once data is gathered and integrated, advanced real-time analytics tools come into play. These tools provide actionable insights into customer behaviours and preferences.
By leveraging data analytics, you can segment your audience effectively, gauge campaign performance, and optimise your marketing efforts. Analytics tools reveal customer trends, pain points, and engagement opportunities, all of which are vital for crafting personalised marketing strategies.
Customer Segmentation
Create detailed customer personas
Data collection alone is insufficient. Brands need to create detailed customer personas based on the collected data.
These personas should delve deeper than basic demographics, encompassing insights into customer preferences, behaviours, and pain points. By comprehending various customer segments, you can tailor your marketing strategies to cater to the unique needs of each group.
Image Source: Segmentify
Personalise messages and offers
Once you’ve established customer personas, you can fine-tune your messaging and offers to resonate with specific segments. Personalised marketing messages are more likely to capture customers’ attention and drive engagement. This personalisation extends to product recommendations, discounts, and content, creating a profound connection between your brand and the customer.
Technology Stack
Select the right omnichannel marketing software
Choosing the right omnichannel marketing software is pivotal. These tools facilitate the efficient management and orchestration of marketing campaigns across various channels.
Look for software that offers customer data integration, automation, and analytics features. It should be adaptable to your brand’s unique requirements and scalable to accommodate future growth.
Integrate CRM, CMS, and other systems
To offer a truly seamless customer experience, it’s imperative to integrate customer relationship management (CRM) systems, content management systems (CMS), and other relevant technologies. Integration ensures that customer data is seamlessly shared across various systems, allowing consistent and cohesive customer interactions.
Your omnichannel marketing strategy thrives on consistent brand messaging. Customers should encounter a unified brand identity across all touchpoints, from the website to social media to physical stores. Establishing a style guide and ensuring that all content aligns with it is essential for building a strong and recognisable brand presence.
Optimise content for various channels
Different channels have distinct content requirements. Long-form blog posts might excel on your website, while shorter, visual posts are better suited for social media. Brands must optimise their content to align with the specific characteristics of each channel. This includes considering content format, tone, and timing.
2. Customer Touchpoint Mapping
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, the two sides of building an omnichannel marketing strategy often overlap. Customer touchpoint mapping also fits perfectly into the data and analytics, and customer segmentation steps mentioned previously.
However, I believe it’d be better for comprehension to also look at it separately and in more detail:
Identify All Customer Touchpoints
This will be repeating myself, but the first step to mastering omnichannel marketing strategy is identifying all the touchpoints where customers interact with your brand, both online and offline.
Common touchpoints include the website, mobile apps, social media, email, physical stores, customer service, and more. Mapping these touchpoints provides a comprehensive understanding of the entire customer journey.
Collect Data at Each Touchpoint
Once touchpoints are identified, data collection at each touchpoint becomes crucial. This includes tracking user behaviour, purchase history, contact information, and any other relevant data. Standardising data collection across all touchpoints ensures consistency and accuracy.
Analyse Customer Behaviour
With data from various touchpoints, brands can analyse customer behaviour. This analysis yields insights into how customers move through the sales funnel, which channels they prefer, and what types of content or offers are most effective. Understanding customer behaviour is fundamental for creating more relevant and engaging marketing campaigns.
Create a Comprehensive Customer Touchpoint Map
To fully understand the customer’s journey, you should create a comprehensive touchpoint map. This map visualises the customer’s interactions across all channels and identifies key touchpoints and moments of truth.
By connecting the dots on this map, you’ll gain a holistic view of the customer’s experience and can refine your marketing strategies accordingly.
Final Words on Omnichannel Marketing Strategies
Whether you’re an established brand or a budding enterprise, the power of seamless, personalised customer experiences cannot be underestimated. Yet, it’s astounding how many fall short of its promise. The quest for a seamless, personalised customer experience is a challenging one, but it’s far from impossible.
By following the crucial steps outlined in this chapter, you’re well on your way to mastering omnichannel marketing. It’s a journey, one that can be significantly smoothed by the right business partner.
In this pursuit, consider the pivotal role of Segmentify. With its advanced personalisation and analytics solutions, Segmentify is the key to transforming your omnichannel marketing strategy from ordinary to extraordinary.
Elevate your omnichannel marketing with Segmentify and discover what it truly means to deliver a seamless, personalised experience. Don’t wait; start your journey to excellence today. Try Segmentify and watch your brand soar!
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Never Mind the Bo**ocks, a whitepaper on omnichannel marketing, and has been edited to fit this medium.
Among the various tools that enhance customer interaction, the search box stands out as a critical element.
Unlocking the potential of the search box as a dynamic space with personalised content has the transformative power to revolutionise and reshape the entire customer journey. This approach doesn’t just raise the bar; it sets an entirely new standard for user-centric engagement.
This article explores the concept of “Before Search” and how it can revolutionise the user experience by providing personalised content right from the moment a visitor engages with the search bar.
Anatomy of Search Box Personalisation: Explaining “Before Search”
“Before Search” refers to the moment a visitor activates the search box by clicking on the search bar.
Before Search is the preliminary phase where the search box transforms into an interactive gateway, offering users a glimpse of trending products, popular brands, categories, or frequently searched terms.
However, the uniqueness lies in the ability to customise the search box further, incorporating non-product elements such as blog posts or campaign banners to guide visitors through a multifaceted journey.
For first-time visitors, the search box presents a curated selection based on comprehensive data analysis, including geographical relevance, search analytics, website analytics, and insights from similar users. Including the first user source and medium refines this initial display, offering a sophisticated blend of contextual recommendations.
The initial interaction acts as a foundation for the algorithm, initiating a learning process from the user behaviour. Subsequently, whenever the search box is activated, the algorithm refines its suggestions, delivering a truly personalised experience.
2 Elements You Need for Website Personalisation Before Working on the Search Box
Before diving into the intricacies of perfecting the search box personalisation, laying the groundwork is imperative.
Understanding user behaviour and preferences through analytics provides the necessary insights, while segmentation allows for categorising users into distinct groups, enabling targeted personalisation strategies.
5 Search Box Must-Haves for a Functioning Before Search Experience
The success of the Before Search feature hinges on incorporating certain elements into the search box for personalisation and engagement. Here are five essential components that elevate the Before Search experience:
1. Search Analytics Connected to Website Analytics
A seamless personalised search experience relies on integrating search analytics with the entire website. This ensures that the recommendations provided align with the overall content and preferences of the users.
More often than not, the customer journey starts with the search box but doesn’t necessarily end in a sale. Even when they find the exact item they were looking for, visitors may need additional decision-making time.
Recognising this dynamic, advanced customer engagement platforms like Segmentify leverage the power of search analytics and browsing data for dynamic retargeting campaigns.
By linking search analytics directly to recommendation features and outreach channels, Segmentify empowers businesses to craft a nuanced and personalised experience.
This interconnected approach not only refines the search box experience but extends its influence across the entire user journey. It contributes to a cohesive and engaging customer experience beyond the initial search and resonates throughout the conversion funnel.
2. Popular Brands/Categories
Enriching the search box with information on popular brands and categories creates a well-rounded user experience. Users are not only guided by their preferences but also exposed to trending and sought-after items within the platform.
Image Source: Segmentify
What’s more is that with the right algorithm, you can empower the system to identify the sweet spot where the general popularity across all users intersects with the unique preferences of the individual user. This strategic fusion enables the search box to present a curated showcase of popular categories and brands tailored precisely to the user’s distinctive taste.
This intersection point serves as the nexus of user satisfaction, where the user is not merely exposed to what’s universally sought-after but is guided towards options that align with their preferences.
3. Different Personalised Recommendation Algorithms
Crafting a truly personalised search box experience necessitates using diverse recommendation algorithms, each tailored to cater to the unique preferences of users.
This multifaceted approach encompasses an array of recommendation algorithms, ranging from trending algorithms and popular item suggestions to frequently searched terms and category-based recommendations.
As previously highlighted, the integration of search analytics with website analytics further refines and elevates the search box personalisation in this regard.
Embracing an interconnected approach, you can seamlessly embed your chosen set of personalised recommendation algorithms into the search box. The result is an enriched and tailored user experience that transcends conventional search mechanisms, resonating with users profoundly.
4. Product/Content Badges
Visual cues such as badges help draw attention to specific products or content, increasing the likelihood of user engagement.
Take your product listings to the next level! Get your FREE Product Badges Guide to learn how to use product/content badges effectively.
While the most common product badges like Bestseller, Trending, New, and Free Shipping are undoubtedly an inseparable part of the eCommerce experience, there exists an opportunity to be creatively strategic:
Start by thinking about what you are and who your customers are.
Consider the cosmetics and beauty industry as a prime example. Within this niche, customers have distinct concerns and priorities. Consequently, the application of product badges in the search box should be tailored to address these specific considerations.
Going beyond the standard badges, introducing labels like Vegan, Cruelty-Free, SensitiveSkin, or Eco-Friendly becomes a game-changer.
By aligning the product badges with the core values and interests of the target audience, you elevate the user experience, fostering a sense of resonance and connection.
Image Source: Segmentify
This way, the search box becomes more than a functional tool; it becomes a personalised gateway that not only understands the users’ needs but also anticipates them, facilitating a more streamlined and satisfying journey from exploration to purchase.
5. Pin/Remove Chosen Elements
The Before Search feature is activated the moment a user engages with the search bar, unveiling a dynamic display of content curated through personalised recommendations and behavioural analytics. With each activation, the search box adapts to showcase personalised content based on user behaviour and recommendation algorithms at work.
However, you may need to alter the search box in a way that transcends the personalised recommendations. This need can be met by the pin/remove items feature.
Image Source: Segmentify
This feature becomes the linchpin for managing sponsorships, spotlighting special offers, and ensuring universal visibility for specific products or non-product content. Its versatility extends beyond the promotional realm, allowing you to pin campaign banners strategically.
Imagine ensuring every visitor is informed about your winter sale or has access to a crucial blog article detailing how to clean a coffee machine.
By incorporating the pin/remove chosen elements feature, you’ll gain a nuanced level of control over your search box experience.
Personalise the Search Box Before the Search Begins
Of course, search results personalisation is essential and should be an integral part of any website. But why wait until you get there?
Ensuring search box personalisation the moment it is activated is easy peasy lemon squeezy, really. Here’s all you need for a personalised search box before the search begins: Segmentify’ Search Box.
Native search box design: This makes the search box a natural part of your website/app.
Interconnected search and website analytics: You don’t have to deal with search and other behavioural data being stored in different data silos. All the data you have is centralised and interconnected.
Different personalised recommendation algorithms: Since all the data is centralised, you can place your chosen recommendation algorithms based on other behavioural analytics into the search box.
Detailed retargeting campaigns: You can use search analytics for retargeting campaigns with on-site recommendations, push notifications, or email marketing campaigns.
Considering that one-third of visitors will perform an internal search, upgrading your search box is paramount.
Let Segmentify be your partner in this mission—book a demo with one of our experts for more information.
It’s an email marketer’s worst nightmare—ending up in the spam box.
It destroys your engagement metrics and email sender reputation. And it only gets worse from there.
Because even if you take the necessary steps to correct a past mistake that got you in the spam folder in the first place, that is a red stain on your reputation. And it takes a lot of time and resources to mend the said reputation.
So you need to start caring about reducing your spam complaint rate long before it becomes a problem.
This article will discuss the new email sender requirements by Yahoo and Gmail, why the spam complaint rate is even more critical now, and a 10-step program on how to reduce your spam complaint rate.
New Email Sender Requirements from Yahoo and Google
One of the biggest digital marketing trends that will define 2024 will be, without a doubt, the new email deliverability rules by Yahoo and Gmail.
Starting February 2024, all email senders who send over 5,000 emails daily to Yahoo and Gmail users are required to comply with these new rules:
Authenticate your email domain using DKIM, SPF, and DMARC security protocols.
Enable one-click unsubscribe with a 2-day processing time.
Keep the spam complaint rate under 0.3%—max 3 spam complaints per 1,000 emails.
Gmail has been recommending these as email marketing best practices for a long time, and now, organisations are required to provide a safer inbox for consumers.
You can get more information on how to comply with these new email sender requirements on Gmail’s Help Center.
Let us move on to another pressing matter: How to keep your spam complaint rate as low as 0.3%
10 Steps on How to Reduce Your Spam Complaint Rate
You’ll see that those two of those new requirements being put into action by Yahoo and Google are not really new; you already needed to comply with them to keep your spam complaint rates low.
Keeping the maximum spam complaint rate under 0.3% will be the end result of following these best practices:
Buying email lists can create serious problems for your organisation:
It violates data privacy laws, which you must comply with to keep your spam complaint rates low, as you’ll see later.
Such email lists contain outdated and inaccurate information.
Sending unsolicited emails will severely damage your email sender’s reputation.
Building your email list, on the other hand, will get you an engaged audience and reduce spam complaints.
2. Provide Double Opt-In
A double opt-in process is essentially a two-stop verification to validate and confirm email subscriptions. It is a great way to ensure you’re complying with the Internet privacy laws and regulations.
Providing double opt-in:
Ensures that subscribers genuinely want to receive emails from you,
Reduces the spam complaint rates and unsubscribes, and
Improves your email sender reputation.
3. Authenticate Your Email Domain
Used to be a strong recommendation for digital marketers to reduce spam complaint rates, email domain authentication is now a requirement by Yahoo and Gmail.
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance)
Authenticating your email domains through these security protocols will validate and verify the authenticity of your email campaigns.
Reminder: If you don’t have a Custom Sending Domain (CSD) set up, you must do that before the email authentication step. If your emails go from @yourdomain.com, they will look more professional, and the chances of them being marked as spam will be lower.
4. Comply with the Internet Privacy Laws
Various laws govern email marketing depending on the location of both the marketer and the recipients. However, the essential data privacy laws that every marketer should be familiar with are:
Failure to comply with data privacy regulations may result in substantial penalties.
In the UK, for example, breaching the GDPR may result in “a maximum fine of £17.5 million or 4% of annual global turnover — whichever is greater — for infringement of any of the data protection principles or rights of individuals.”
5. Keep a Clean Email List
A healthy and clean email list leads to better email deliverability rates, ensuring your emails reach their intended recipients.
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) use email engagement metrics, such as open rates and click-through rates, to assess the quality of your emails. Since a clean email list tends to have higher engagement, this practice directly and positively affects your email deliverability.
Regularly remove inactive or invalid email addresses and promptly address any bounces.
Another important way to ensure low spam complaint rates is to enable one-click unsubscribes—something that you are now obliged to do.
6. Enable One-Click Unsubscribe
As of February 2024, you are not only advised but required to allow one-click unsubscriptions with a 2-day processing time, according to the new email sender requirements by Yahoo and Gmail.
Adopting suppression list management as a regular practice will help you greatly in this regard.
Suppression lists guarantee that you do not send emails to individuals who have chosen to opt out, allowing you to communicate solely with an engaged and interested audience. This minimises the likelihood of your messages being marked as spam.
7. Send Relevant Content
Based on what was discussed so far, this one should be obvious.
> Send people the content they wish to see (a.k.a. the reason why they subscribed to your email list in the first place)
> Get higher engagement
> Improve your email sender reputation
> Unsubscriptions and spam complaints are minimised
Adopt email segmentation best practices to take advantage of personalisation’s power and increase your email campaigns’ relevancy.
8. Optimise Email Sending Frequency
There is no universally perfect frequency for sending emails. The optimal email sending frequency varies based on factors such as industry dynamics, brand identity, and target audience.
However, irrespective of these variables, sending emails with too little time in between each can result in subscriber fatigue, higher unsubscribe rates, increased spam complaints, and diminished engagement.
Define your goals clearly—whether it’s driving sales or directing traffic to your blog.
Understand your audience by recognising the stages of the buyer’s journey and tailor your messages accordingly.
Experiment with different frequencies and analyse results to discover the optimal frequency.
9. Monitor Your Email Engagement Metrics
Besides measuring the impact of your campaigns and understanding what your subscribers respond to, closely monitoring email marketing KPIs serves as an early warning system.
By vigilantly tracking these metrics, you can swiftly identify any emerging issues or patterns that could adversely affect your campaigns, such as the changes in spam complaint rates.
This proactive strategy empowers you to make timely modifications, mitigating the risk of harm to your sender reputation and ensuring the overall success of your campaigns.
10. Utilise Spam Checkers
Spam checkers are web-based utilities that enable you to assess your emails, indicating the probability of recipients marking them as spam. While ISPs ultimately determine message filtering, spam checkers frequently reassure marketers as they plan new campaigns.
Stay Compliant with Yahoo and Gmail Sender Requirements and Avoid Ending Up in the Spam Folder
Here’s what you need to do to reduce spam complaint rates:
Build your own email list: Never ever buy email lists, as they violate data privacy laws and will ruin your email sender’s reputation.
Provide double opt-ins: Ensure that your subscribers are interested in receiving your emails.
Email domain authentication: Authenticate your email domain using DKIM, SPF, and DMARC security protocols.
Comply with the data privacy laws and regulations: Failure to comply can result in severe monetary penalties.
Maintain a clean email list: Regularly deal with invalid email addresses and bounces.
Allow one-click unsubscribe: This one is pretty important as it is one of the new email sender requirements.
Send targeted and personalised emails: Apply email segmentation to increase relevancy and engagement.
Optimise email sending frequency: Experiment with different frequencies for different campaign types to find your ideal cadence.
Keep an eye on email marketing KPIs: Look for any changes in engagement metrics that might negatively affect your sender’s reputation.
Use spam checkers: While Yahoo and Gmail have the last word on what’s considered spam, utilise these tools to avoid any major mistakes.
Once you make these best practices a regular part of your routine, keeping spam complaint rates below 0.3% will be as easy as breathing!
In today’s fast-paced world, time is a valuable commodity, and many people are constantly looking for ways to increase their productivity and get more done in less time. With the rapid advancements in technology, artificial intelligence has emerged as a powerful tool that can help individuals and organisations become more productive and efficient.
AI-powered productivity tools are becoming increasingly popular and are being used in various areas such as writing, content creation, project management, calendar management, transcription, social media management, sales, and marketing.
As tech genius Bill Gates said: “AI is the most important tech advance in decades. It would change the way people work, learn, travel, get health care, and communicate with each other.”
CATEGORY
TOOLS
Writing & Editing
Grammarly, Hemingway
Content Creation
ChatGPT, Jasper, Canva, Adobe Sensei
Project Management
Trello, Asana
Calendar Management
Calendly, Google Assistant
Transcription
Otter.ai, Rev
Social Media Management
Hootsuite
Sales & Marketing
Segmentify
Writing & Editing
Grammarly
Grammarly is a writing tool that uses artificial intelligence to check for grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes instantly. Also, it offers advice on how to enhance your style in terms of sentence construction and word choice. Grammarly is a browser plugin that may be added to numerous writing programmes, including Google Documents and Microsoft Word. Students, professionals, and individuals looking to enhance their writing skills frequently use Grammarly.
Hemingway
Hemingway is another online writing tool that focuses on improving the readability and clarity of the text. It uses AI to analyse the text and provides suggestions for simplifying complex sentences, eliminating unnecessary words, and improving sentence structure. Hemingway also provides a readability score that helps users determine whether their text is suitable for their target audience. Hemingway is available as a web app or desktop app.
Content Creation
ChatGPT
ChatGPT is an AI language model developed by OpenAI that uses deep learning algorithms to understand and respond to natural language queries. It can be used for various purposes, including language translation, content creation, and customer service.
Jasper
Jasper is an all-in-one content generation platform, allowing users to write blogs, reports, emails, and stories. In addition to explaining complex topics, it can produce summaries and even illustrations for the text that’s being generated.
Canva
Canva is a graphic design tool that allows users to create professional-looking designs for various purposes, including social media graphics, presentations, and marketing materials. It uses AI to provide design suggestions and automate tasks like resizing images.
Adobe Sensei
Adobe Sensei is an AI-powered platform that helps users automate tasks and improve productivity across Adobe’s suite of creative tools, including Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro. It uses AI to provide features like automated insights, content-aware fill, and image recognition.
Project Management
Trello
Trello is a web-based project management tool that allows users to organise and track their work using a visual interface. It uses a system of boards, lists, and cards to represent tasks and allows users to move cards between lists to reflect the progress of the work.
Trello is designed to be versatile and adaptable to all kinds of projects, such as individual assignments, group projects, and corporate workflows. Users can make boards for various projects, invite team members to contribute, and delegate duties to certain team members. Users may also attach files, specify due dates, and create reminders to guarantee that assignments are finished on time.
Asana
Asana is a cloud-based project management tool that helps teams organise, track, and manage their work. It provides a visual interface that allows teams to create and manage projects, tasks, and subtasks in a collaborative environment.
Calendar Management
Calendly
Calendly is an online scheduling tool allowing users to schedule appointments and meetings without needing back-and-forth emails. It uses AI to check user’s availability, suggest meeting times, and send reminders to attendees. Users can also customise their scheduling pages with their branding and meeting types, such as one-on-one meetings, group meetings, or webinars.
Google Assistant
Google Assistant is a virtual assistant that provides voice and text-based responses to user queries. It uses natural language processing to understand and respond to requests for information, such as weather updates, directions, or calendar events. Google Assistant can also control smart home devices, make phone calls, and send messages. It is available on various devices, including smartphones, smart speakers, and smart displays.
Transcription
Otter.ai
Otter.ai is a web-based transcription tool that uses AI to transcribe audio and video recordings. It can transcribe meetings, interviews, and lectures in real-time and provide accurate and searchable transcripts. Otter.ai also allows users to highlight, annotate, and share their transcripts with others. It can be used for both personal and business purposes, including note-taking, meeting minutes, and content creation.
Rev
Rev is an online transcription and captioning service that uses AI and human editors to provide high-quality transcripts and captions for audio and video recordings. It offers a variety of transcription services, including verbatim, time-stamped, and speaker identification. Rev also provides a captioning service for videos to make them more accessible to a broader audience. It can be used for various purposes, including video production, academic research, and legal proceedings.
Social Media Management
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a social media management platform that allows users to manage and schedule content across various social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube. It provides a centralised dashboard that allows users to monitor social media activity, track mentions, and engage with their audience.
Sales & Marketing
Segmentify
Segmentify is a Customer Engagement Platform that provides real-time personalised product recommendations, cross-channel retargeting, and sustainable growth for online businesses. It uses machine learning algorithms to analyse customer behaviour and provide personalised recommendations and campaigns based on their preferences and behavioural patterns. Segmentify also provides A/B testing and data analytics tools to help businesses optimise their eCommerce performance. With Trendify, eCommerce companies are also able to track their sales and marketing campaigns.
Insights gathered from an SEO campaign are very rarely shared in “real-time” with the email marketing or social selling channels and instead form part of the siloed data for SEO. Similarly, insights or trends created offline in your bricks-and-mortar very rarely re-merchandise a PDP page or a trigger email.
According to market research firm IDC, companies lose 20-30 % in revenue every year due to data inefficiencies.
Do that mental arithmetic right now: What is 30% of your sales worth? Dollarise it and get an exact sum before going further in the article.
Equipped with your exact figure, let us explore what data silos are, their impact on eCommerce operations, and how to interconnect data to increase efficiency in the eCommerce landscape.
Key Takeaways
Data silos occur when information is stored and managed in isolated systems or departments, making it challenging to access and utilise data effectively.
Scattered customer data hinders a comprehensive view of customers, hampering personalised marketing and cross-selling efforts.
Data silos complicate report generation and meaningful analysis, hindering decision-making and data-driven strategies.
They also limit teamwork and communication between departments, potentially causing inefficiencies and disjointed customer experiences.
To break down data silos, centralise data storage, implement data integration tools, embrace APIs, and invest in Master Data Management (MDM) to create a unified data environment, fostering data consistency and accessibility across the organisation.
What Are Data Silos?
Data silos are insulated management systems that cannot work with other systems or are running parallel to one another but never connect.
In the eCommerce context, data silos can arise from various sources, such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems, inventory management systems, marketing platforms, and sales databases.
These silos often occur due to different systems being implemented at various stages of a business’s growth. Still, they most commonly are created because every channel and tool on the site is working separately from each other trying to deliver just one goal.
The Impact of Data Silos on eCommerce
Data silos hinder eCommerce businesses in several ways, impacting operational efficiency and hindering growth opportunities. Here are some key challenges associated with data silos:
Incomplete Customer Profiles
Customer data scattered across multiple systems prevents businesses from gaining a holistic view of their customers. This fragmentation inhibits personalised marketing efforts, targeted cross-selling and upselling opportunities.
Inefficient Inventory Management
Disconnected inventory systems can lead to inaccurate stock levels, resulting in missed sales opportunities or overselling products. Timely inventory updates and accurate demand forecasting are critical for meeting customer expectations and optimising resources.
Siloed Analytics and Reporting
When data is scattered across various systems, generating comprehensive reports and performing meaningful analyses becomes time-consuming and complex. This can hinder decision-making and prevent businesses from identifying trends or implementing data-driven strategies.
Poor Collaboration and Communication
Data silos limit effective communication and collaboration between teams. Departments working in isolation may duplicate efforts, leading to inefficiencies and disjointed customer experiences.
How to Break Down Data Silos
By embracing strategies for interconnectivity and data integration, you can unlock new levels of efficiency and break through the barriers of data silos. Here are some critical steps to consider:
Centralise Data Storage
Establish a centralised data repository or a data warehouse that consolidates information from various sources. This allows for easier data access and enables cross-system analysis.
Implement Data Integration Solutions
Deploy data integration tools that facilitate the seamless flow of information between different systems. These solutions can extract, transform, and load data in a standardised format, ensuring consistency and accuracy across the organisation.
Embrace Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
APIs enable systems to communicate and share data in real-time. By integrating APIs into existing software systems, businesses can facilitate data exchange between departments and external platforms, promoting efficient data flow.
Invest in Master Data Management (MDM)
MDM solutions help establish a single, trusted source of truth by consolidating and standardising data across multiple systems. MDM enhances data quality, improves data governance, and ensures consistent information throughout the organisation.
Cultivate a Data-Driven Culture
Encourage cross-functional collaboration and data sharing within the organisation. Foster a mindset where data is seen as a valuable asset that drives decision-making and informs business strategies.
Leverage Data Analytics and Business Intelligence
Utilise robust analytics and reporting tools to derive meaningful insights from interconnected data. Advanced analytics can uncover patterns, trends, and customer behaviours that drive better decision-making and optimise e-commerce operations.
Breaking Down Data Silos: Should You Do It?
Identifying where the data is siloed and also ways to connect to it is just the first step of breaking down data silos.
Actioning it will take budget, time, and risk, which are the three leading killers of growth within today’s eCommerce industry.
So, what’s the alternative and is this worth it?
Let’s say your business brings in 500k each month in sales, so 30% is 12000 of a lost opportunity, and also, outside of revenue loss, you have growing unsubscribe rates and wasted hours on failed Facebook, Google, and email campaigns.
Now let’s add the cost of all the tools and data sources you have that create data but dump it all into silos:
Amazon
Brick-and-mortar data
Chatbot
Click and collect data
CRM
Email
EPOS
E-receipts
Meta ads (Facebook and Instagram)
PPC
Price listing sites
Push notifications
Recommendations
Search box
Searchandising
SEO
WhatsApp
Each tool I’ve listed is more than likely disconnected from the following tool, which means there are 17 data silos full of rich data that can make you a lot more sales.
In other words, you are sitting on a rich data source but not utilising it correctly.
And what’s the point of collecting all this data if you cannot use it?
Connected Commerce with Segmentify
Segmentify is a growth and customer engagement platform built around an immensely powerful hybrid engine that combines self-learning AI with rule-based systems.
This platform, in just five working days without budget, developers or risk, will connect your complete online customer journey and use an uninterrupted data flow. Give them another ten days, and they will connect your offline brick-and-mortar as well.
Here is an example of what Connected Commerce should look like:
Segmentify refines your data by combining data from different sources:
Smart customer segmentation: Algorithms based on order value, shopping frequency, and more! Learn more about them here.
The Segmentify platform then uses the real-time insights to deliver the right product to your customers across multiple touchpoints.
Let me explain a little deeper where the vast majority of eCommerce businesses are going wrong and how, with the use of Segmentify, you can quickly rectify this problem and deliver.
First Step: Identify Your Customer Personas
To identify your customer personas, you first need to answer some questions:
What makes each customer unique? What are their current and future needs? How do you analyse them? What data is necessary, and where is it currently in the business?
Let’s go over some example personas.
1. Janet the First-Time Visitor
Janet lands on your PDP by clicking on a Facebook or Google ad, through a PPC campaign or her best friend sent her a direct link.
What data has Janet shared with you so far?
MAC or IP address
Time and/or location
Type of device
Channel (social commerce, SEO, PPC, etc.)
Personal preferences (style, brand, colour, etc.)
Gender
Age group
Budget
She then leaves the page and exits the site. So where is this data held, and how do you use it to make more sales?
90% reading this will say the data is held in the Facebook Silo or the SEO Silo, and only the person in charge of that channel will ever have access to it. Ask yourself this: How will this data ever be used to drive sales on the site or used for retention purposes?
2. John the Secret Assassin
John hates being sold to, so when he goes onto eCommerce sites, he goes straight to the search box to get just what he needs and leaves the site.
So, John types in “soks” in the search box and your super-duper on-site search tool, which costs you over 700 bucks a month, can expertly correct his spelling and deliver his “socks”, and he leaves happy that you haven’t sold him two products.
But you can upsell to John.
So, how do you use data to upsell John with the search box?
Is it even possible to get a visitor using the search box to buy a second product? Or are you just going to admit defeat and let him leave with one purchase and an admiration for your super spelling service?
How do I turn the search box, which generates about 15% of my revenue on mobile, into a personal shopper that can upsell John and not disrupt his thought process or journey?
Also, how do I take the limited data John has given me and use it somewhere else to grow sales?
John is now part of the sock insights you need to use in your SEO strategy, email campaigns and Meta ads.
Mary, a loyal customer, returns to the website regularly. And today, she accessed the site via a link on Facebook.
Mary is looking at shoes this week, and since she’s a loyal customer, you know a lot about Mary: Her clothing size, favourite colour, budget, location and even what the weather is like where she is.
Right now, she is browsing party shoes to make her stand out and sparkle in the crowd.
So, she lands on the PDP page from Facebook, and you just deliver her a related products widget and maybe a recently viewed widget.
If she finalises a purchase, a push notification is triggered with a “Thank you for your purchase” message. What if she abandons her cart? Well, that triggers a cart abandonment email reminder.
Look at the Connected Commerce approach from Segmentify to Mary’s journey.
Using Segmentify, you can deliver Mary the following:
9 different algorithms in one widget from top trending to most clicked to similar design and price.
AI-generated and rule-based product bundling —a whole outfit to go with those racy shoes where she can add her own flair with colours and designs.
She may click on the search box looking for some inspiration as she is not sure if those shoes match her FRIYAYY feeling, which triggers the “Before Search” module. Before she types anything, you upsell her perfect alternatives, accessories to match and even a lovely scarf to go with the handbag she bought last month!
Later that week, Mary is scrolling Instagram. You use her data and cross-reference it with everybody else who has bought comparable products on the site. Then you throw in all the insights gained from every marketing channel you’re using (email, Facebook ads, CRM, PPC, SEO, and even EPOS from stores) and with hyper-personalisation, you deliver the next right product before she even knows she needs it. Chef’s kiss!
Her reaction is to send it to her best friend Janet, saying, “It’s only Monday, but I’m so getting this for the weekend!”
Mary’s friend Janet is now a first-time buyer. The cycle continues and grows.
Wrapping Up
Data silos can hinder growth, efficiency, and customer experiences for the eCommerce industry.
Breaking down these silos and interconnecting data systems is crucial for thriving in today’s competitive landscape.
By centralising data storage, implementing integration solutions, embracing APIs, and fostering a data-driven culture, you can unlock the full potential of your data, optimise operations, and deliver exceptional customer experiences.
Embracing interconnected data is not only a pathway to efficiency but also a driver of growth and success.
Don’t let time and budget constraints be the barrier to your growth. Let’s take a deep dive into your business together and deliver a strategy that unlocks your data and delivers growth.
Test the ROI before committing to anything.
Our website uses cookies
Our websites use cookies. By continuing, we assume your permission to deploy cookies as detailed in our Privacy Policy.
Engagement Engage customers across all channels
Recommendation Offer personalised recommendations
Dynamic Bundles Increase your cross-selling
Growth & Optimisation Monitor website data in real-time
Customer Data Management Enjoyable unique customer journeys
Cross-Channel Marketing Optimise the customer experience
Search & Discovery Improve your search capabilities
Growth for All Industries