2. Gradualcustomer engagement Challengesfor marketeers To create a conversation and grow into it To sense and to adapt To create a digital intimacy To monetize the relationship Rules for engagement Visitors are in control Best-in-class organizations engage in personalized initiatives Targeted content lifts your conversion rates So what can your website leverage?
4. Gradual engagement online New way of dealing with subscription forms and data gathering Visitors discover and test before subscribing to web apps Seducing the users Simplifying and facilitating subscription features WYSIWYG approach For example:
10. Key prerequisites Objectives Make the site a valuable marketing instrument, CMS based Measure effectiveness on the platform by: Lead generation mechanisms Direct sales conversion mechanisms Efficiency reporting in building and maintenance Into gradual engagement features Forms for registration (events, news, etc.) Forms for Ecommerce (profile data) Back-end solutions for managing forms and data
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14. Gradualengagmentpurposes Bridging the gap between data, analysis and action Let customers lead the way using lightweight interactions Integrate use of channels available (site, mail, mobile, social,...) Source: Unica marketing report 2011
17. Example platform: Sitecore Content management solution with Online Marketing suite Instrumented for customer intelligence Out of the box integration of customer experience and behaviour tracking Advantages of next gen platforms? Syndication of content and logic Built for integration with customers, suppliers Advanced personalization, ex.: personas & content targeting Multichannel integration Can be deployed incrementally
So what is gradual engagement?If we take a step back and look to the challenges online marketers face.We see in general that its all about creating and maintaining conversation and in the meantime of course grow in to it and trying to close the loop. In the end it’s all about conversion.To sense and to adapt - why is this important? I mean with that that your online solution or tool should be able to gather data and allowing you to quickly adapt or link concrete actions according to this analytics reports and the conclusions you draw out of them.The same goes for digital intimacy. Try to personalize the relationship with your customer.And the ultimate goal is to make profit. So monetize the relationship with the customer.Besides that ...What are the rules for engagement – what are facts;We know that the visitor or user is in control we only can try to steer and to influence his click path.At the moment only best in class organisations use personalization.What we know also is that profiled content lifts conversion rates.So bottom line – what can my website leverage?
If we take a look at our customer we can define him by using several attributes.We have for example the DESCRIPTIVE attributes like where does my customer lives, in what life stage is he in … or what is the SOCIAL status ..married of single … or is it a men or a woman... And so on.These attributes define the customer profile. It should be our goal to map the visitor of our website to a couple of these customer profile attributes. This can be done EXPLICIT by introducing registration forms or IMPLICIT by analysing the click path.The accurate we can profile the client the better we can serve him.
This brings me to gradual engagement!So what is it...Its a new way of dealing with subscription forms and gathering profile data. I give you an example right a way...What we know is that visitors like to look around, discover and test before they actually subscribe. It’s about seducing the users but at the same time being honest.In the end gradual engagement wants to simplify and facilitate the subscription process. Customers wants ... in each step on the subscription process .. immediate return on what they are looking or expecting for. This will persuades them to go further.AN EXAMPLE...
TWITTER…By changing the sign up process … twitter boosts conversion rates by 29% !!The old sign up process involved:Creating an user account and filling out personal dataThen find friends on twitterIn the last step the user had the possibility to select and follow several famous people-> In non of the steps the users was asked what his personal interests are!NOW the new sign up process has changed:1. In the first screen nothing changed .. Everybody knows he has to fill out personal data somewhere2. In the second screen the user is asked for his personal interests !!3. Then you can select some friends4. And an extra screen gives the user the possibility to look for other people with the same interests.
To summarize…Twitter lets the user create his account and nearly at the same time allowing them to stipulate their interests.It’s better organised and proposing topics.What is striking is that now the sign up process takes 4 step in opposite to 3 in the old version.It’s clear that people use twitter because of their interests and not because they initially wants to follow some celebrities.The gradual engagement facts are ... Making visitors successful in seconds ... Using some lightweight interactions ... With sufficient relevancy to the product or service (obvious)
A second example is the solution we are building for Van In
The key objective for the Van In website was creating a real marketing instrument that can could give marketing and communication direct support for: Lead generation – for example by including an integrated email campaign tool with a 360 degree view of customer activity E-commerce integration with personalisation based on the profile data of the user Integrated web analytics and custom reporting facilities like which user profile did what ..Specific to gradual engagement we built for Van In a form builder. We built initially the basic user registration form and based on that the marketing team of Van In has the possibility to create alternative versions from it. For example behind a CTA or download they could put a form only asking for specific profile elements like email address and password and maybe additional information like personal interest (like math or biology) but nothing else. This gives marketing the flexibility to incorporate gradual engagement techniques and ask the user for profile data without being overwhelmed.