Friday, 24 December 2021

Love sharing videos of smol doggos and angy kittehs? You’re part of the ‘cute economy’


Was one of the last DMs you received on Instagram a video of ducklings wearing flowers for hats, or floating in a sink full of water? An overly zealous cockapoo dancing on the couch with his human? A husky throwing a temper tantrum because he couldn’t come indoors? If sharing cute animal content is your love language, you’re not alone — you are part of a bigger cultural phenomenon called the cute economy. The cute economy is not only a network of cute content that people participate in making, sharing and circulating but also a multibillion-dollar business due to creators’…

This story continues at The Next Web

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Wednesday, 22 December 2021

5 SEO Best Practices to Increase Blog Traffic and Engagement

SEO Best Practices To Increase Blog Traffic And Engagement

Do you feel your website isn't receiving enough blog traffic and engagement?

Well, you're not alone in this because Google is getting smarter every day.

If your blog isn't optimized for SEO, you might not achieve the desired results.

But before we discuss the best SEO practices for your blog, here's what makes working on it important:

  • Daily, bloggers upload around 7.5 million posts across the globe. 
  • Only 60% of internet users actively read the content. 
  • Readers mainly go for long-form content for its in-depth information. So the ideal word count would be near 1500 - 2000 words. 
  • This year, content marketing was estimated to be an industry worth $412.88 billion.

Therefore, you must invest your valuable resources to build successful blog posts

But why SEO?

Because it helps in driving organic traffic to your blog. 

With the help of SEO, your blogs can easily rank for relevant search topics (also called queries) and appear in the search results.

In this way, users can discover your blog and visit it. In simpler terms, SEO is the connecting dot. 

When you do it right, it brings justice to your content and : 

  • Helps you reach more people
  • Provides quality leads 
  • Creates brand awareness and builds brand authority 
  • Improves user engagement rates
  • Delivers a cost-effective practice 

Now let's see what you can do to attract massive traffic to your blogs?

5 ways to increase your blog traffic and engagement

In this article, I will walk you through the details of mastering the art of optimizing blogs for your target audience.  

But how will you reach your potential users if they won't be able to find you? Because Google's search algorithm uses more than 200 factors to rank websites, but Google doesn’t share what those factors are. 

Therefore, I have listed the best practices that can help you draw more traffic to your website. 

Let's get started with keyword research first! 

1. Include relevant keywords

Keywords are very important to optimize your blog's content for search engines. 

But simply using any and every keyword you find fascinating will not help. 

You need to find relevant keywords for every blog post you create and use them in your content.

The using part might sound easy to you. So let me help you with the research part.

Hunting for relevant keywords to rank your blog is not a hard task. Here are the steps to help you ace keyword research:

Step 1. Make a list of relevant keywords based on your blog topic.

For example, you are writing about chatbots. The instinct-based keywords for this topic would include chatbots, uses of chatbots, etc.

Step 2: Look at Google Autocomplete and Related Searches to find more ideas.

Example of Google autocomplete when searching for keyword chatbots
Example of Google Related Searches when searching for keyword chatbots

Step 3: Work with a keyword research tool and sort keywords based on their search volume and difficulty.

Keyword research in RankWatch

With that, you'll have a list of relevant keywords to add to your content.

If you master incorporating keywords in content, you will get more traffic and engagement easily.

But, if you wish to get even better results, you need to keep in mind the search intent when writing.

2. Satisfy the search intent

Search intent is the reason behind an online search. It defines why the user is performing a search; what is the objective.

With the help of search intent, the search engine (for example Google) understands what the user wants to see in the results.

You will come across 4 types of search intent: 

  • Informational: How to start a microwave? 
  • Navigational: Amazon prime login page.
  • Commercial: Best Christmas Movies on Netflix.
  • Transactional: Cheap flights to Michigan.
Search intent journey

But why is it important at all? 

Understanding the search intent allows you to know the content your audience wishes to see on their Search Engine Results Page (SERPs). 

If they are looking for chocolate pudding recipes, they want to see a step-by-step cooking recipe in their search results, not a restaurant ordering page.

So, if you are targeting this keyword, you need to create a step-by-step process content to rank for it.

Chocolate pudding recipes search in Google

Here's what you need to do to satisfy the search intent:

  • Understand the user's intent before optimizing content
  • Look for top-ranking pages for reference, examine their tone, approach and formatting 
  • Align your on-page elements such as blog's URL, headings, etc. with the search intent
  • Create content that users wish to see in the SERPs
  • Provide high-quality, well-researched information and data

Implementing all these tips while writing a blog will easily satisfy the search intent and help search engines rank your content better. 

And when it ranks for relevant search intent, it can attract more traffic and engagement for your blog.

Furthermore, using internal linking and incorporating it into your content strategy can also be helpful to increase blog traffic. 

Internal linking is the practice of linking relevant content to a blog post on the same domain. 

Meaning if you have a blog post that talks about growing your email list and you reference “email marketing best practices” in that post, you can link to a previous post on best practices (see what I did there).

You guide your visitors and search engines to your most important resources with internal links.

AWeber landing page showing internal linking

Some other reasons why you should practice internal linking in your blogs are: 

  • Helping the search bots crawl and index your blogs 
  • Increasing user retention and reducing the bounce rate
  • Improving PageRank and page views 
  • Indicating which keywords you want to rank for

If you are wondering how to go about it, here are some tips to help you get started with internal linking:
     

  • Add an optimum number of links in a single blog (5-10 is good)
  • Use optimized anchor texts (ideally should be relevant and short)
  • Include relevant links only (other blogs must relate to the blog’s topic)
  • Incorporate new internal links into older blog posts 

That looks easier, right?

You can now add hundreds and thousands of links to your content.

But overdoing it will only confuse the crawler about your content and hurt your user experience. 

The standard practice is to limit the number of links for a given blog post to 150

If you keep the number of links less, it will not look spammy and benefit you to the maximum.

With that said, you can further boost your blog by improving its user experience.

4. Improve user experience 

Search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo use data to learn how people interact with websites. 

They notice how much time users spend on your blog posts and what other pages they visit on your site.

And based on these metrics, they rank your blog posts in the search results.

So, improving your blog's user experience becomes essential.

Here are a few tips to ensure that users have a good experience when they visit your blogs:

  • Ensure your blog is mobile-friendly
mobile friendly vs not mobile friendly experience
Chart showing how page loading speed impacts bounce rates
  • Provide easily accessible navigation options
  • Use subheadings (H1, H2, H3) in your blogs
Header structure
  • Add images/graphics that are relevant to your blog’s content

These points will help you optimize your blog's user experience and generate more engagement.

Besides all this, do you know what else you should be rooting for? Original Content!

5. Create quality content, consistently

Creating quality content refers to writing blog posts that give value to readers. 

Every blog post should be unique. It must not contain the same repetitive information or beat around the bush.

Plus, it should be relevant to the topic, including all the recent data in it.

But, it may sound easier than done. 

To reach the final copy, you might have to spend a lot of time proofreading and even re-writing certain portions several times.

Until it makes sense for your reader, you have to improve your blog post's quality.

So, here are some tips to help you:

  1. Understand your target audience
  2. Create an outline 
  3. Tailor strong headlines
  4. Write a concise and relatable introduction
  5. Use bullets and pointers
  6. Explain with examples
  7. Provide tips and solutions
  8. Incorporate your conversational tone
  9. Use easy and simple language
  10. Give information in every sentence 
  11. Include statistics, expert's opinion, metrics, etc. 

After writing, check it for grammar and spelling errors and readability. If any issues exist, fix them.

With that, you'll be able to create quality content and drive more traffic and engagement to your blog.


Start getting results now!

Almost all websites have a blog, which helps them get a lot of eyeballs. 

But not all blogs deliver the desired results or perform in the same manner. That's because of the strategies used.

If you want to increase your blog traffic and engagement, incorporate SEO in your overall content strategy.

Plus, be patient with your efforts. It will take some time, but results will follow.

Which of the ways mentioned above were you using and not using? What helped your blog gain traffic? Let me know in the comments.

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Tuesday, 21 December 2021

25 Free Marketing Tools You Could Learn in Line at Starbucks

25 Free Marketing Tools You Could Learn in Line at Starbucks

Marketing has changed — you don’t need to be a professional designer, copywriting expert, or strategist to be a marketer. In fact, most smaller business owners are playing the role of marketer due to budget constraints.

Whether you’re a marketer, business owner, or just looking to learn some new skills, there are tons of free marketing tools that can make you seem like a pro. Check out the following list to give your business a boost, create more engaging content and emails, and — above all — sell more stuff!

Related video: 30 Free Marketing Tools In 30 Minutes

Free email marketing tools

AWeber

Building an email in AWeber.

You can use AWeber to send emails to all your subscribers, set up automated email campaigns, build landing pages, create ecommerce pages, and even send web push notifications — for free. 

Any business owner, creator, or side hustler looking to get started selling or trying to ramp up their sales should try AWeber. You can use it to create a basic website, set up a free Link Tree-style page, turn social followers into subscribers, and even create a newsletter you can charge for.

For example, here’s a landing page template that looks just like a Link Tree page — but it’s completely free (you could even sell products directly from this page).

AWeber's link list landing page template.

Sign up for free, start collecting email subscribers with a landing page (you can also import your current subscribers), and use AWeber to connect and make sales.

Really Good Emails

Speaking of emails, have you ever sat down to write one and needed inspiration on what to write? Look no further than reallygoodemails.com.

The geniuses at Really Good Emails must be subscribed to every newsletter and sign up list they can find — and they’ve curated and compiled a list for the rest of us.

You can search for holidays, industries, sale types, or even just keywords related to the email you wish to send. You’ll be served on a silver platter hundreds or thousands of emails written on that topic — by expert email marketers who work for big companies making the best emails.

For example, after doing a search for “course” I found this great, simple email promoting a street photography class (you could easily swap out your course content here, but take inspiration from the style and messaging).

An email that says Street Photography with Joe Greer.

Free design tools

Canva

Canva has changed the way we think about design. You can use a free Canva account to create beautiful logos, email headers, social media images, presentations, print projects, and even videos.

Start by choosing where this design will go — Canva knows which dimensions you need — and then find one of their thousands of pre-built designs. Then, make can make adjustments to color, words, pictures, icons, and more, using a library of free resources.

Design alone or collaboratively — but whatever you do, go check out Canva.

Creating a banner in Canva that says Free Social Media Webinar.

Pixabay, Pexels, and Unsplash

Whether you’re email marketing, writing blog posts, creating a new website or page, or posting on social media, you will likely need stock photos. And if you’re anything like me, you’d prefer to keep your marketing budget for tools rather than one-off stock images.

So try Pixabay, Pexels, and Unsplash. They are free stock photo sites with millions of photos to choose from — and most photos don’t require attribution.

Find your perfect image by searching for keywords and scrolling through hundreds or thousands of options.

Looking for stock videos? (It is 2022 after all.) Pixabay and Pexels also both have free video stock footage for your website backgrounds and social media posts.

A search for winter on Pixabay.

Pablo by Buffer

Pablo by Buffer is a really simple way to overlay text onto an image — and have it still look good. No design skills necessary here. The next time you create a social media post or email header, use one of Pablo by Buffer’s images or upload your own, and simply add text.

Here’s what it will look like:

An image overlay created in Pablo by Buffer.

SmartMockups

Have you ever seen a picture of someone looking at a smart phone or tablet and there was a website on the screen? It’s very unlikely that picture was taken with the person actually looking at the website.

You can use SmartMockups to add your own website to a laptop, tablet, or phone. And you can do even more — add graphics to the front of a tshirt, mug, book, packaging, and dozens of other places. Try it out — it’s free.

Image Online.co

Do you want to create rounded corners on an image, crop out a section, resize it, make it square, or edit it in other ways — but you don’t want to pay for or learn Photoshop?

Good news! Image Online.co is a free browser-based editor that you can use without needing to take a course first. Just upload your image and start making the adjustments you need.

Google Fonts

The right font can make your website stand out, feel professional or casual, and even result in more sales. And there are so many more fonts that just Helvetica, Arial, and Times New Roman.

Browse Google Fonts’ thousands of free fonts and type in your own text to see how this particular font will look.

Three examples of Google Fonts.

ColorHexa

Did you know that creating eye-pleasing color combinations is actually a science more than an art. If you’re looking for two compatible colors for your business’s marketing materials, use ColorHexa to find ones that work together.

Plug in your color’s hex code, and get information, shades, alternatives, tones, and even a color blindness simulator.

But, most importantly, you’ll get color schemes that you can use to choose a second compatible color or even a full palate.

Color schemes in ColorHexa.

Free security tool

LastPass

Marketing takes time — so it’s important to save time anywhere you can. And with all the tools you use, there are a couple of options for signing in:

  • Spend up to 5 minutes trying to remember your password (terrible time management)
  • Have a piece of paper on your desk with all your passwords (not secure)
  • Use the same password — or a variation — for every login (not secure)
  • Use a password manager (cha ching!!!)

Logging into tools can be the most frustrating thing in the world. LastPass is a free password management tool that creates secure passwords for you and then has them ready the next time you sign in.

Try it out and see how easy it is to use. Plus, you don’t even have to upload your passwords or log them all, LastPass will just ask you each time you log in whether you want it to remember the password.

Note: LastPass is best used with a browser plugin.

LastPass plugin options.

Free social media tools

TweetDeck

Manage your Twitter accounts and trends unbelievably easy with TweetDeck. Do you want to keep up on a hashtag? Check who’s talking about news in your area? Simply have a running list of your messages? You can do it all in one dashboard with TweetDeck — and it’s completely free.

I wish all social media platforms had this tool.

A TweetDeck dashboard with searches for email marketing and Colorado news.

Google My Business

If you’re a small business owner with an address (not a P.O. Box) you absolutely MUST have a Google My Business account.

Google My Business is the way you can manage the way your business appears in Google search results. With it, you can show your address, respond to reviews, add images, and even post updates and sales — all of which are likely to be published in searches for your name.

Google My Business dashboard explaining you can update your business on Google maps and search.

Free writing tools

Grammarly, Hemingway App, and LanguageTool

These editing tools don’t write for you — but they do make what you’ve written better. Much more than simply spelling and punctuation checkers, Grammarly, Hemingway App, and LanguageTool will:

  • Offer word alternatives
  • Point out run-on sentences
  • Highlight unnecessary words
  • Fine tune your tone and style
  • And much more!

These tools allow you to brain-dump your thoughts as you are writing and edit later using an assistant — and they’re all free.

An example of LanguageTool highlighting spelling and grammar mistakes.

Headline Analyzer

Great subject lines lead to better open rates and sales. And great blog post titles lead to ranking in Google, more website traffic, and — again — more sales.

So work on your headlines! Run them through Coschedule’s headline analyzer to find the most compelling words and phrases.

A headline score of 81 for an example headline.

Free GIF tools

Giphy and Tenor

If you want to find fun GIFs to use in your emails, blog posts, or anywhere else, Giphy or Tenor is the way to go. Their libraries include millions of free GIFs, all searchable and listed based on popularity.

Make your marketing fun and funny with a GIF — it only takes a few minutes.

A GIF of Simon Cowell saying "Brilliant!"

CloudApp

Do you have an app or screen that you want to show in motion? Creating your own GIF can grab someone’s attention in just a few seconds, showing an action but not requiring them to watch a full video.

Plus, with social media platforms offering short, replayed videos, GIFs are a comfortable way for people to consume information these days. Use CloudApp to create a free GIF of your screen, and add it to make your blog post, web page, email, or social media post more engaging.

A GIF of AWeber showing that you can change the size of a buy button.

Free automation tools

…other than AWeber

Zapier and Integromat

If you’re posting on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn after every blog post or podcast — STOP! You can automate this task and free up tons of your time using Zapier or Integromat (side benefit is you feel like a coder without ever having to learn any code).

Automatic social posting is just one of infinite possibilities for automation. And it’s free! Get started saving yourself time — as we all know, time is money.

In Zapier, connecting RSS to Twitter.

Free SEO/website tools

Down For Everyone Or Just Me?

Websites — what a powerful marketing tool. People all over the world can access your information, completely free. 

But everyone’s experience is different. With internet outages and server issues (or other even more techy stuff we don’t understand) sometimes your website can seem down to one person, but not be down for everyone.

So before you start troubleshooting a website issue, pop your URL into downforeveryoneorjustme.com to see… well… if it’s down for everyone or just you.

Is "mybusiness.com" down for everyone or just me?

TinyPNG

One of the biggest culprits of slow-loading websites and emails is the size of the image. Two digital images can look the same size, but actually be significantly different. 

So, to start, head to ImageOnline.co and change your image size — most of the time a width smaller than 1000px is fine for any website or email.

Then upload your image into tinypng.com. This magical tool will reduce the size of the image without any noticeable changes in quality (I’ve literally never noticed a difference at all). Hello fast-loading sites and emails!

The best part? A cute panda waves at you the entire time.

Drop your WebP, PNG, or JPEG files into TinyPNG.

What free marketing tools do you like?

Let us know in the comments below which tools were your favorite, and whether you found a few free tools that aren’t on this list. We are always excited to learn something new, too!

Want to start using AWeber for free? Sign up now — remember, it includes emails, automated campaigns, web push notifications, landing pages, sales pages, and more!

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Monday, 20 December 2021

5 social media myths to unlearn (and dispel across your team)

You know how dogs sweat by salivating? Well, It turns out they actually don’t. They regulate their temperature by salivating. They sweat through their paw pads.

Myths and misconceptions like these exist everywhere, but they’re incredibly common in topics that people feel familiar with. Take social media, for example. The more people use social, the more they think they understand the inner workings of social media marketing.

This has resulted in a lot of social media myths that have gone unchecked. Some are harmless, but some can greatly impact how social media professionals work with their marketing peers. That’s why SMMs need to equip themselves with the right information needed to get their teams up to speed.

To help, we used data from the Sprout Social Index™, Edition XVII: Accelerate to dispel five common social media myths. Let’s get into it!

Myth #1: Memorable content makes brands best in class on social

“Let’s make this go viral!”

You’ve probably heard this or something like it from a well-meaning colleague or two. In a crowded social media landscape, everyone wants their turn in the spotlight. This desire for mass awareness is likely why many marketers believe creating memorable content is the most important aspect of becoming best in class on social. Consumers, on the other hand, think otherwise.

A chart comparing opinions between marketers and consumers on what makes a brand best in class on social. While marketers rank audience engagement as the most important factor, consumers show a preference toward strong customer service.

In reality, consumers believe what really makes a brand best in class is offering strong customer service, followed by audience engagement and transparency. While this may be surprising to your greater organization, it can also be a helpful way to reset some internal expectations. After all, virality is more luck than strategy. Solid customer care practices can be achieved with proper planning and resource allocation.

Next time someone asks you to add “going viral” to your to-do list, here are some more impactful action items you can offer instead:

  • Speed up your social media response time. The majority of consumers expect same-day responses on social. Improving your social media response time can assist in customer retention while giving your brand a competitive edge.
  • Create an escalation management strategy. Outlining a process for responding to timely issues (whether good or bad) alongside example scenarios can your organization understand the concerns people surface on social. Remember: you can never be too prepared.
  • Integrate your social media management platform across your martech stack. To provide the most effective service on social, marketers need visibility into the end-to-end customer experience. Drafting a social media management integration plan can help remove the digital silos that prevent your team from offering superior service.

Myth #2: Follower count is a vanity metric

People have called follower count a vanity metric ever since buying followers in bulk rose to popularity in the early 2010s. On the surface, this argument makes sense. After all, what does a high follower count matter if your engagement rate is low?

As it turns out, it can count for quite a bit. Our Index data shows that nine out of 10 consumers will buy from brands they follow on social, while 86% will choose that brand over a competitor.

A chart depicting the actions consumers take when they follow a brand on social. 80% of consumers say it makes them more likely to buy from that brand.

Writing follower count off as a fluff metric lacks some critical nuance. Mainly, it doesn’t account for the “90-9-1 rule”. According to this rule, only 1% of social media users create content, 9% share, Like and comment on that original content, and 90% of users simply lurk.

Lurkers may not contribute to your overall engagement rate, but that doesn’t make them any less valuable. Around one in three consumers use social media to learn about or discover new products, services or brands. Just because they’re not liking or commenting doesn’t mean they’re not gathering information that can eventually drive buying decisions.

Myth #3: Gen Z consumers are heavily swayed by influencer marketing

The near constant exposure to paid advertising seems to be making Zoomers a tad skeptical. Thirty-seven percent are unlikely to buy from a brand after seeing content from a brand ambassador or influencer, compared to 18% of Millennials.

To make an impact with Gen Z, marketers should prioritize the everyday influencer. Eighty-four percent of Gen Zers are likely to purchase if someone they trust recommends the product or service and 82% read reviews from other customers on social. Incorporating positive customer reviews and user-generated content into your social mix can play to these preferences and create more meaningful connections.

Take Amazon, for example. They frequently incorporate positive, funny product reviews to promote products on social. Embracing the natural silliness that can be found in certain reviews helps them create entertaining content that motivates others to join the fun.

A screenshot of the Reviews feed in Sprout. Reviews in Sprout Social enable you to identify, organize and reply to customer reviews from Facebook, Google My Business, Glassdoor and TripAdvisor to optimize engagement and build brand loyalty.

Incorporating reviews into your social media strategy starts with creating a process to identify them. If you’re using Sprout Social, you can do this by creating a custom tag for positive reviews that are a good fit for social promotion. The Review management tool can consolidate and track Facebook, Google My Business, Yelp and TripAdvisor reviews in a single location, simplifying ongoing management.

Myth #4: Social data is strictly a marketing resource

Social data is invaluable when it comes to informing team decisions, but savvy brands know it can be used for much more. Forty-seven percent of organizations view social data as a multi-team strategy resource, expanding its impact well beyond the assumed marketing silo.

A chart detailing how social data is viewed within organizations. 47% of marketers see it as a resource that influences strategy for multiple teams.

This signals a new era in social media management where analytics are used for proactive decision making. From product development to customer support, social data can answer the most important questions about how to manage and expand a business across every department.

Grammarly, for example, uses social listening insights to surface valuable user stories for their product and user experience teams. With Sprout’s Social Listening tool, they’re able to turn feedback from priority platforms like Twitter and Reddit into actionable recommendations for the business.

If companies want to follow their lead and dispel this social media myth once and for all, they’ll need to rethink how they see social. Start by identifying areas of your business that could benefit from social insights, and build your organization-wide social listening strategy from there.

Myth #5: Social marketers have gone all-in on video

The value of video on social cannot be understated. In fact, 54% of marketers say it’s the most valuable content format for achieving social media goals. Despite this, video is consistently underused in favor of photos and posts containing links, accounting for less than 15% of content published by brands across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

This adoption gap could indicate that video production still feels out of reach for many social marketers. While there have been quite a few advancements in remote video production tools over the past few years, for some it can still feel like too much to take on.

If your team isn’t able to fully embrace the role of video in your social content strategy, it may be time to build a case for expansion. Platforms are rolling out more and more video-focused features, meaning demands for video content creation will only rise. Getting ahead of these requests by preemptively growing your team can help brands maintain an engaging social presence while mitigating the risk of burnout.

Social media myths, busted

It’s easy for people to get caught up in what they think to be true, especially when they’re not keeping tabs on the constant evolution in social media. To get the channel the respect it deserves, marketers will have to advocate for themselves by debunking these common social media misconceptions. Remember: tapping into the power of social doesn’t just benefit your team’s efforts—it can benefit your entire organization.

For more insights on how brands’ applications of social media are changing, download the Sprout Social Index, Edition XVII: Accelerate. Inside, you’ll find more research on how businesses are using social to set themselves apart from their competitors and meet tomorrow’s customer expectations today.

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Thursday, 16 December 2021

9 Tips to Win Back Lost Sales with Abandoned Cart Emails

9 Tips to Win Back Lost Sales with Abandoned Cart Emails

One of the most effective emails you can send to your audience is the abandoned cart email. When sent at the right time, it is a helpful reminder to encourage your customers to complete their purchase. Many people put together a cart but get distracted before checking out.

On average 69.82% of online carts are abandoned.

That is a lot of lost sales. But you can capture a lot of them back with an abandoned cart email — an automated marketing campaign designed to increase conversion rates. When they get a reminder of a shopping cart they left behind, many buyers come back to make the purchase. The best part? You can automate these reminders!

Shopify found that retargeting a customer with an abandoned cart email increases sales by more than 20% and reduces abandoned cart rates by 6.5%.

What is an abandoned cart email?

A visitor adding items to their shopping cart may get side-tracked or lose interest. If they navigate away, you can automatically send a reminder email to prompt the visitor to finish the purchase. This reminder is called an abandoned cart email.

The best reminder emails are creative and timely. The abandoned cart email's sole purpose is to encourage completion of the sale. 

Supportive calls to actions (CTAs) included in this email can also help guide the potential buyer to spend more on upgrades or other products/services. These CTAs might include opportunities to learn more or see related items.

Some abandoned cart emails include special deals or free shipping for increased appeal. 

However, most simply serve as a timely reminder to spark action.

Why do people abandon online shopping carts?

You can create a more effective sales funnel when you know what makes your visitors fall to complete their order. According to Statista, the most common reasons for cart abandonment in the US for 2021 included:

  • Unexpected costs (shipping, fees, taxes)
  • Account setup required
  • Delivery time was too slow
  • Complicated checkout process
  • Inability to see the total cost upfront

In many cases, being clear about costs in the process and reducing the number of hoops your visitor has to jump through will help conversion rates. 

How to calculate your abandoned cart rate

You will want to know if your rates improve when you implement an abandoned cart email strategy. This calculation will serve as your baseline.

To calculate your cart abandonment rate, divide the number of purchases by the number of shopping carts created during a determined amount of time. Subtract this value from 1 and multiply by 100.

Abandoned cart rate calculation

This is the percentage of interest that didn't end in a sale. Regardless of your current rate, send out reminders to reduce it as much as possible. 

What happens after cart abandonment?

Since there are many different reasons a shopper may leave the website without completing the purchase, there are also several things likely to happen after the abandonment. According to Statista, UK shoppers who abandoned their carts were most likely to:

  • Purchase the item from the site at a later date (31%)
  • Purchase the item from an online competitor (26%)
  • Changed their mind or weren't looking to buy (23%)
  • Went to a physical store to make their purchase (8%)

Abandoned cart emails can potentially prompt a purchase from 80% of those shoppers. 

9 Tips for sending the most effective abandoned cart email

Writing a powerful reminder means following best practices for abandoned cart emails. Here are crucial steps you should follow to get the most out of your reminder emails.

1 - Trigger the email within 24 hours 

Statistics have shown that sooner is more effective than later when it comes to reminder emails. 

You want to catch your leads while they are still warm without being obnoxious. 

Conversion rates for neglected carts are highest when the email is sent out 30-60 minutes after inactivity. However, those rates plummeted after 24 hours—when the lead had grown cold.

2 - Use an attention-grabbing subject line 

Getting your email opened is a huge step with a cart abandonment email since many shoppers are used to seeing them. 

The best email subject lines stand out from the rest of the inbox, but still make it clear what the email is about. 

”You forgot something” or “Oops, Did Something Go Wrong?” are examples of subject lines that would perform well for an abandoned cart email.

3 - Copy should be short & direct

You should remind people what they left behind with copy that inspires them to take action. Get to the point very quickly with creative and succinct copy by trimming out all the excess.

Customers need a friendly reminder, they don’t need to be completely resold on the products or services. But highlighting a key benefit or two could help them finalize their purchase.

Speaking of being direct, check out this example from Nike:

Example of to-the-point email copy from Nike

4 - Use images to highlight what they are missing

The brain processes images about 60,000x faster than text. Images will spark instant reminders of what drew them to your items in the first place. 

The best emails think about flow and don't just throw a bunch of images on the page in a way that seems cluttered or disorganized. 

Always include pictures or GIFs of the items they've left behind to help provoke a response.

Here's a great example from hydrow:

Strong image showing rowing machine looking out at ocean

5 - Reinforce the product or service benefits 

Retargeting with a reminder email is the perfect time to highlight the product they are considering. Don't assume your lead has made it through the funnel and understands your brand or knows your products.

Instead, offer your most influential reasons for why they should finish the checkout process on the items in their cart.

6 - Consider a discount or value 

If you plan to offer a great deal, the cart abandonment email is a good time to offer it. Even a small discount, like $5 or 10%, can make it more appealing to finish the purchase. People love to find deals, which could be the perfect way to help them make a purchase decision.

Saatchi Art does just that, plus they add a FOMO headline:

Example from Saatchi Art offering 10% off to finish purchase

7 - Offer social proof with reviews 

What do other customers say about those products? Providing reviews or testimonials can help motivate your leads to take the leap and make a purchase decision. 

Word-of-mouth marketing is the most influential marketing tool, and a genuine customer review has a similar appeal.

8 - Include a call to action (CTA) that fits your goals 

The primary goal of an abandoned cart email is to prompt a return and complete the sale. Your CTA should be positioned to drive that action. Don’t be afraid to use FOMO (fear of missing out).

For example: Get it before it’s gone or Limited availability.

9 - Set up an automated feature 

You shouldn’t have to manually send out your reminder emails. Set automated emails for cart abandonment to go out after a certain lapse of inactivity.

Abandoned cart email examples

There are all kinds of abandoned cart emails you can consider when creating your own. Here are some of our favorite examples from real brands. Check out the variations of value promise, humor, imagery and more.

LEGO

Lego cart abandoned email
Image from ReallyGoodEmails

What I love about this example:

  • LEGO is having some fun with their graphics 
  • Making the purchase process easy with “Make it yours in a smap”
  • Strong positioning of CTA’s
  • The email is enticing, supportive and amusing for someone previously browsing LEGO sets

NOMAD

Nomad abandoned cart email
Image from ReallyGoodEmails

What I love about this example:

  • They add a touch of humor - "What Happened? Did your Wi-Fi Crash?") 
  • They don’t take itself too seriously but still get the reminder across 
  • Relevant CTA -  "Seal the Deal." 
  • They reinforce their 30-day return policy in a clever way

Dote

Dote abandoned cart email
Image from ReallyGoodEmails

What I love about this example:

  • Another joke reminder — "Your shopping bag has abandonment issues”. That’s funny.
  • They keep with the light-hearty theme with “Save these items hours of therapy and give them a loving home." 
  • The email is clean, simplistic, and clutter-free. 

DOLLAR SHAVE CLUB

Dollar Shave Club cart abandonment email
Image from ReallyGoodEmails

What I love about this example:

  • Reinforces brand positioning
  • Offers a bold promise
  • Highlight several bulleted benefits for signing up at the beginning of the email
  • Nice, large product shot
  • The natural flow takes the reader to the bottom of the email, where a slightly wordier promise is made with another button to "Learn more" for those still feeling unsure.

Pepper

Pepper Cart abandoned email
Image from ReallyGoodEmails

What I love about this example:

  • This cart abandonment email offers a small discount to spark a purchase
  • The customer’s most recent cart additions are featured within the email to appeal to the potential buyer

Peel

Peel cart abandoned email
Image from ReallyGoodEmails

What I love about this example:

  • Simplicity
  • Create a sense of urgency with “We’re holding the items in your cart for you, but don’t wait too long!”
  • Clear call to action in a color that stands out from the rest of the email.

Gilt

Gilt cart abandoned email
Image from ReallyGoodEmails

What I love about this example:

  • The expiring cart threat is used to spark immediate action
  • Alternative colors of the items in their cart are show, just in case another option could motivate them to purchase

Google Express

Google Express Abandoned cart email
Image from ReallyGoodEmails

What I love about this example:

  • Another really simple example, Google Express doesn’t get too fancy or cute with their email.
  • They clearly list the items and pricing from the abandoned cart
  • I like how they position the CTA right below the headline, in a prime position

Win back more lost sales with the perfect cart abandonment email

Don't miss out on the opportunity to target a warm lead and recover lost sales. Set up your abandoned cart email in AWeber for an easy solution with powerful results. If you need help getting started, we have a pre-built campaign.

The post 9 Tips to Win Back Lost Sales with Abandoned Cart Emails appeared first on AWeber.



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