9 Local E-Commerce Marketing Tips To Drive More Foot Traffic To Your Store

E-commerce is growing at a meteoric pace, and there is no doubt about it.

According to a recent study by Statista, retail e-commerce sales worldwide reached $2.4 trillion in 2017 and are expected to reach 4.9 trillion in 2021.

Interestingly, this growth pattern is not solely a retail B2C phenomenon.

In fact, B2B e-commerce worldwide sales in 2017 peaked at $7.7 trillion, which is 235% higher than B2C.

Sounds pretty impressive, right?

And these figures do tell us a lot about major changes in consumer behavior that will continue to evolve in 2018.

The shopper is more technologically advanced than ever before and is empowered to drive disruptive changes in traditional retail business.

So if consumers increasingly prefer e-commerce over brick-and-mortar shopping, why do we still need physical stores? Why do businesses still want that foot traffic?

There are a number of reasons why, but let’s just start with another very simple, yet very loud statistic.

In-store sales accounted for 91% of all retail sales in the US in 2017.

This means that brick-and-mortar is still the most popular way to shop for most Americans.

And it comes as no surprise.

The in-store shopping experience is incomparable to browsing items on a desktop or mobile screen. The ability to see, touch and try products before purchase remains the biggest motivator for consumers to shop offline.

And that’s not the only thing stopping consumers from buying online.

According to 2017 BigCommerce study, 58% of US consumers hate paying for shipping, and 34% think product return process is difficult when shopping online.

All of these are e-commerce pain points that can actually serve as huge growth opportunities for brick-and-mortar retailers.

But ultimately from a business perspective, you want to provide seamless and consistent customer experience across all sales channels and reach that omnichannel zen.

You have probably heard the term omnichannel before.

Google defines it as: “ensuring retailer marketing strategies are geared toward enabling customers to convert on any channel.”

Sounds too sophisticated.

But the main idea behind omnichannel retail marketing is to simply provide shoppers what they want, whenever and wherever they want.

That said, there are many ways you can use local e-commerce insights and marketing tactics to drive foot traffic to your store, and I will show you exactly how you can do this.

But before we dive into the realm of local e-commerce marketing tactics, you might want to check out Neil Patel’s 4 Local SEO Marketing Strategies to Build Your Brick And Mortar Business.

1. Buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS)

Since customers hate to pay for shipping, the first thing you can do to ease their pain is to offer an in-store pickup option, also known as BOPIS.

This is a very popular service offered by almost every major retailer, and it is something you can easily implement for your customers as well.

In fact, according to the Great Omnichannel Expectations 2016-2017 Shopper Survey Report by iVend, 57% of US shoppers say that they use the “buy online, pick up in store” option.

And 65.3% of those consumers say they do so to avoid delivery costs.

Another thing you can offer to drive foot traffic is the ability to reserve the product online and collect it in-store. This options works best for new product releases and can help build excitement.

Think new Apple product launches. Usually, they are sold out even before official sales date.

Although BOPIS is an attractive alternative for most shoppers, it still makes sense to provide some extra incentives, like faster shipping or even an in-store redeemable coupon.

An important thing to consider when implementing buy online pick up in store service is to make sure the whole experience is as smooth and convenient as possible.

How?

1. Use a multichannel integration platform to connect your store inventory to your website and make sure they are always in sync.
2. Train your in-store sales staff to serve BOPIS customers with special care and in case of immediate returns or exchanges be ready to offer more profitable alternatives.
3. Put up proper in-store signage and make it extremely easy for customers to navigate the store and find the pickup location without getting overly frustrated.

2. Provide local inventory availability information

There is a common myth that consumers who search online will only visit online shops.

That is not entirely true.

In fact, three out of four consumers are more likely to visit physical stores if they find local information in search results helpful.

So why not give your consumers what they look for?

First of all, make sure your store locator is up and running. Let your shoppers easily find their local store and make sure to provide all details, like phone numbers, email, and address.

Then go one step further and provide local inventory availability information for each item and each local store.

You might be wondering why customers even need this if they can buy products online and pick up them in the store?

Well, it turns out that a lot of shoppers do not want to pay upfront, especially for specific products, like personal hygiene and care items, that are more difficult to return and get a refund for.

So informing your website visitors about the stock availability at your local store can be a great foot traffic driver for undecided customers.

Ikea is one of the biggest retailers to have successfully implemented this on their website.

It offers website visitors to choose the local store and see the inventory of a particular product in that store.

This information can be especially helpful if your customers tend to buy items in bulk.

3. Buy in store and walk out hands-free

This is a relatively new approach to retail marketing and comes as a result of shopper behavior changes as well. It serves as a good way to respond to consumer “showrooming.”

What is showrooming and why does it matter?

Showrooming has become a common way of shopping for a lot of deal hunters and simply shoppers who like to compare prices or try out products before purchasing.

Customers now can come into your store, get all information they need about the product, see and touch it, but then buy it online from another web store. How sad, isn’t it?

25% of Americans even admitted purchasing while standing in a brick-and-mortar store.

The good news is you do not need to fight this behavior. You can embrace it.

What if your customers could try products in your store and then have them delivered straight to their preferred address?

It’s an entirely new approach to retail, and a few brands have already implemented it.

For instance, Bonobos, have opened “guideshops” across the US, where you can find the perfect fit and style with the help of a professional guide.

When you’re done shopping, your orders are delivered to your home or work free of charge.

You can do this too.

4. Offer in-store redeemable mobile promotions

Did you know mobile users spend more than 4 hours a day on their phones?

Just look at this graph from Statista.

In 2017 mobile accounted for more than half of worldwide website traffic and is projected to grow even more this year.

Consumers rely more on their mobile devices to research even the smallest decisions on the go. But they also are more susceptible to mobile communication than, for instance, email.

Research shows that text message open rate in the US is 82%, which is a mind-boggling number if we compare it to email open rate, hovering at around 24%.

This once again proves that SMS marketing is not only alive but thriving. You should really consider implementing mobile marketing solutions, including phone number collection program.

If you want to speed things up a little bit, you can go for Facebook Lead Ads to collect phone numbers fast by offering something enticing in return.

Here’s how it works.

Open your Facebook Ad manager and choose your marketing objective to be “Lead Generation.”

Next, fill in all your targeting, budget, placement and scheduling details and head straight over to building the ad.

Scroll down a little bit until you see the “Create Form” section of your ad builder.

Create a new form and describe the special something your customers will receive when they sign up.

Then click the “More options” in Questions section of the form creation menu and tick “Phone number.”

It’s a good idea to have essential information fields to improve the conversion rate of your form. So keep it short and attractive.

When you’re done, your form will look something like this:

There you have it.

This will allow you to legally grow and maintain a list of your customer phone numbers to fuel your mobile marketing initiatives.

Once you have your first batch, you can start sending coupons and gift codes to your list via SMS and encourage customers to visit your brick-and-mortar store and redeem them.

Another great way to collect customer phone numbers is to incentivize them upon check out on your website, by offering free shipping or even the in-store redeemable coupon itself.

5. Optimize for near-me searches

Following the explosive growth of mobile, consumers now expect to receive specifically tailored and personalized search results whenever and wherever, using near-me queries.

So what are those near-me searches anyway?

Near-me searches are location specific search queries, usually aimed at getting quick results nearby.

This is what they look like.

Near-me searches have been growing steadily in past five years and are only taking off.

The tricky part is that it’s not enough to be geographically near the searcher to rank high in search results.

You need to really tap into local search optimization to get a piece of the “near-me pie.”

Here are some quick local SEO tips to get you started.

1. Make sure your website is mobile ready, as Google will be rolling out mobile-first indexing anytime soon.
2. Perfect your Google My Business listing as it is critical for local search rankings. Verify your listing and keep it up to date at all times.
3. Optimize your website meta data with “near me” keywords. Do not overdo, but rather keep it relevant and user-friendly.
4. Get geographic anchor backlinks from authority websites.
5. Encourage customers to leave reviews on your Google My Business listing. Luckily, Google does not prohibit direct communication with customers to solicit reviews.

Shortlist your happiest customers who use Gmail and reach out to them with a quick link to review your business on Google.

6. Offer in-store exchanges and returns

Did you know that 30% of all e-commerce purchases are returned versus 8.89% of brick-and-mortar purchases?

Sounds like a lot. But it is not surprising.

Despite all technological advancements, online shoppers still do not have the opportunity to see, touch and try products before purchase.

Hence the high return rates.

There is little you can do to minimize order returns, but if you want to drive foot traffic to your store and also improve customer experience, you can offer in-store returns and exchanges.

A recent study by Invesp Conversion Rate Optimization Company, reveals that 9 out of 10 consumers will buy something again if returns are easy and hassle-free.

And 62% of shoppers are more likely to purchase online if there is an option to return items in-store.

This means that having a great in-store return and exchange experience will not only drive your customers from the web to your store, but it will also give them another reason to shop with you next time.

And this is true not only for North American shoppers but Europeans as well.

The 2017 UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper study shows that almost half of consumers would prefer to return items to a brick-and-mortar store.

And 49% of them would prefer to work with an in-store associate to process returns.

7. Organize in-store events and workshops

Having a physical store has some advantages for an e-commerce retailer, and it would be a wasted opportunity not to make use of those.

One of the best things you can do to drive foot traffic and as a result, in-store sales, is to organize various events, like new product launches, runway shows, shopping festivals, etc.

The reason why this is important and why it works so well is because consumers still view shopping as entertainment.

Having the right atmosphere and mood in your physical store can work wonders.

According to that 2017 Mood Media study, music is a crucial element for a great in-store shopping experience.

In fact, 81% of shoppers globally agreed that shopping experience is more enjoyable if a store is playing music. This figure rockets to 90% among those 18-24.

The same study suggests that consumers love in-store events, especially brick-and-mortar store openings of online-only brands.

So why not organize a shopping night with live music and cocktails? Power these events with heavy promotion on your website and social media and your store will be jam-packed.

8. Localize your digital ads

Digital advertising is a big part of your marketing budget, and you want to make sure you utilize it properly and with maximum ROI.

Luckily, there are many local advertising solutions on most ad networks and particularly on Google.

On average shoppers search and purchase via multiple channels almost 40% of the time and the majority of these shoppers go to a search engine to start their research.

So it really is important to target and convert these consumers at the early consideration stage.

Here’s how you can do it using local advertising on Google.

If you already have active search ads, go ahead and set up location extensions in your Adwords account.

This will allow you to show local search ads with your address, a map to your location, or the distance to your store.

While these ads will help increase foot traffic, there is an even more powerful ad type that is specifically designed to bring online searchers straight to your local store.

I am talking about Local Inventory Ads. These ads show the stock availability of an item at your local store along with the typical product information that shows up in a regular Google shopping ad.

When you click on a Local Inventory Ad, it takes you to a digital storefront with your local store information, including stock availability, address, phone number, email, and hours.

9. Create unique and compelling in-store experiences

The power of in-store experiences is incomparable to online shopping in any way. It is the top reason for consumers around the world to choose brick-and-mortar over e-commerce.

Let’s look at both sides of the coin.

What motivates consumers to buy online instead of going to a local store? What really drives this huge shift to online?

The 2017 KPMG Global Online Consumer Report shows that the main advantages of online shopping are 24/7 availability, easy price comparison, and better deals.

Now let’s see how physical stores beat these powerful facts.

As expected, more than half of consumers globally still prefer to see the product with their own eyes, 55% want to try it on before purchase, and 22% simply enjoy the experience of going to the shops.

So how can you make your in-store experience a blast?

Easy.

Start with eliminating the main consumer pain points.

Did you know that waiting in line is the number one in-store frustration for 60% of shoppers around the world?

Leverage the advantages of having (more) mobile POS devices to cut the lines at cash registers and accept card payments on the spot.

This will serve you particularly well during in-store sales.

Another thing you can do to ease the hectic atmosphere in your store is create an immersive brand experience with uplifting background music, proper lighting, and smell.

Yes, the smell is actually even more powerful than you think.

Scent travels to your brain immediately and is closely linked to memory, that is why it is widely used by major retailers to influence consumer behavior in-store.

It turns out there is even research on which scents are more likely to drive sales.

It suggests that people tend to spend more when they smell warm scents, such as vanilla and cinnamon.

Whichever scent you choose, keep it very light and ambient so that it adds up to the overall in-store experience and not vice versa.

Conclusion

E-commerce is on the rise and will continue to grow remarkably in the near future. It changes the way consumers shop and influences offline sales as well.

However, traditional brick-and-mortar retail is far from dead and is going through an exciting yet transformative change.

This change will require an omnichannel approach to marketing and a sound web-to-store strategy, focusing on the following key aspects.

Bring online and offline together by combining the major advantages of these two channels.

Provide your customers with the convenience to pick up their order at your local store. Let them see your stock availability and then shop offline.

Allow shoppers to enjoy the experience of seeing, touching, trying your products before purchase, checking out and walking out of the store hands-free.

Be there when your customer needs you.

Optimize your web presence for near-me searches. Experiment with local search ads and Google Inventory Ads to gain visibility and drive more in-store traffic.

Consider investing in mobile marketing solutions to accurately and legally collect customer phone numbers and send deals and special offers at the right time.

Create an unmatched in-store experience.

This is the biggest strength of your brick-and-mortar store.

Build excitement around real-life shopping experience by organizing one-of-a-kind fun events that every shopper would love to attend.

Take advantage of the latest tech solutions to provide exceptional customer service and encourage brand loyalty.

What e-commerce marketing tactics have you seen drive foot traffic to your store?

About the Author: Neil Patel is the cofounder of Neil Patel Digital.

from The Kissmetrics Marketing Blog https://ift.tt/2pQ8T2Y
via IFTTT

Achieve high growth by keeping customers coming back to your eCommerce website

Tom Robertshaw (@bobbyshaw) is an Ecommerce Evangelist at Space 48, an award-winner ecommerce consultancy for forward-thinking retailers. He recently recorded a webinar with Kissmetrics, listen here.

It can be easy lose ourselves in the chronic battle of customer acquisition. Expanding the top of the funnel to get more visitors coming to the site seems like the obvious way to grow the business.

However, according to the Adobe Digital Index Report, returning customers make up 40% of revenues whilst representing only 8% of visitors. This tells us there’s a huge opportunity to increase customer retention rates further to support revenue growth.

The same report found that returning customers are nine times more likely to place an order than new customers. This encourages to review our investment in customer retention strategies and tools when compared to our budget for initial acquisition.

It’s a worthy investment. In my experience, high growth merchants have healthy customer retention rates. In the best cases, customers are returning multiple times a year which really helps to validate the cost of acquisition.

Repeating this finding is the consulting firm Bain and Company, who reported that increasing customer retention by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%. It’s readily apparent that this level of profit increase not only gives the business a lot more breathing room, but it facilitates more reinvestment in the business, which leads to more returning customers. Conversely, those businesses without returning customers and the margins to show for it don’t have the same kind of money to invest and perpetually fall further behind their competitors.

With that in mind, it’s easy to see how having more repeat customers can be the difference between a business scraping by and one that’s flying. Hopefully I’ve been able to validate the importance of investing in customer retention, but where should you start?

Why would a customer come back?

It’s important to set the scene. Ignore your current website for the moment and spend time thinking about it from the customer’s perspective. Regardless of your ecommerce vertical, a customer is going to return if two things are true:

1. You reliably fulfill their needs (Customer Experience)
2. They think of you in a time of a new need. (Engagement)

This formula may feel a bit oversimplified, but it’s useful to remind us that customer retention strategies aren’t just about marketing. We are building relationships with a customers and they need to be able to trust our ability to solve their problems.

Looking first at the customer experience and their needs, when they arrive on your site, they already have a need or desire. If we’re lucky this may be a need for a very specific product, or, if we’re not, they have a more generic problem which requires research and discovery. In both cases, a merchant’s responsibility is to guide them through their journey, educate them on the offering and give them the confidence to enter into a relationship. Other than that, the best thing to do is to keep out of their way by providing as frictionless an experience as possible!

To achieve this, the focus should be on creating a high quality User Experience (UX). This is a broad area that is fundamental to the design of the site so isn’t something that I will cover in this article. To summarise, a site with a good user experience will provide timely, precise and orderly information as well as clear, prioritised and easy to use navigation and action elements.

In addition to providing a low friction design, we need to give the customer confidence that we are trustworthy. There are many aspects to the experience that can help here. Whether it is spending time working on professional branding, educating the customer on the company background and history, reducing site bugs, displaying site seals or advertising multiple methods of contact clearly.

There are more functional components to a successful transaction such as the pricing and value offering as well as the shipping methods that are available. These all contribute towards meeting the customers’ needs.

Moving on to the second requirement which was a customer thinking of the brand in a time of a new need, there are direct and indirect methods of supporting this. The direct methods are the traditional customer retention strategies of advertising, remarketing, email campaign, catalogues, etc. However, the other methods of encouraging customer engagement should not be forgotten. Providing ways for customers to actively engage with the brand by providing user generated content features like reviews will strengthen the bond.

The timing of directly reaching out to the customer is more difficult to achieve with email but this can at least be tackled by customer segmentation which we will talk about shortly.

How do you identify what you’re doing wrong?

It can be hard to identify customer experience issues once we are expert site users, but it’s far from impossible. It requires us to remain humble and not assuming that we know everything. We should be open-minded, reflective, and empathetic to potential issues that visitors may have. Reviewing with fresh eyes can be easier once you have fresh knowledge.

One type of resource for acquiring new knowledge is to use heat mapping and visitor recordings tools such as Hotjar or Mouseflow. The best way to understand any kind of behaviour is to combine samples with overall statistics. In our case, combining analytics from Google Analytics or heat mapping tools with information provided by visitor recordings can give new insights into how customers interact with the site and what problems they may be having.

Secondly, there are some great free resources to educate yourself on user experience principles. My favourite is the Baymard Institute, who are the undisputed experts in ecommerce UX with a wealth of research and studies that help us to better understand how customers interact with different pages and specific page components.

For example, one common problem with ecommerce navigation and the rise of “mega menus” is the difficulty moving from a top level menu item to a sub-menu item within the mega menu without accidentally activating an adjacent top level menu item. See the example below on the Toys R Us site.

Other useful resources include Smashing Magazine, Practical Ecommerce and Econsultancy.

Increase customer enjoyment

A sure-fire way of getting customers to come back is to make it more fun to buy from you than anywhere else! There’s a huge variety in techniques of how this can be achieved, but the methods that play to the brand’s and products’ strengths are going to be the most successful. Here are some examples of ways that the merchants we’ve worked with have supported customer engagement.

1. User generated content

Charlotte Tilbury is a makeup and beauty brand that enables customers to give back to the community by way of detailed product reviews, including photo uploads. These personal reviews will aid the decision process for all customers while also promoting the authenticity of reviews.

Another way that they centre the experience on the customer is by way of photo uploads through the website or social media and featuring them on the site. Both of these are an effective way of enabling your brand advocates which is beneficial for them, for you and other customers.

2. Product Samples

One of the challenges of the makeup and beauty market can be product discovery and giving customers the confidence to change products. Charlotte Tilbury has tackled this by providing free samples with every order. This is a brilliant way of promoting products, enabling discovery as well as bringing a little bit of extra joy in each delivery!

3. Product Launches

Irregular Choice is a fashion brand that sell truly unique shoes, bags and accessories. Over the last year they’ve collaborated with Disney to release some wonderful designs inspired Star Wars, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and the Muppets to name a few.

It’s no surprise to find out that customers get very excited about such unique designs. Irregular Choice support this by way of product launches on advertised dates and times and then market these within emails, around the site and on social media. This can be a real success when partnered with in-store shopping events as well.

4. Rewarding Loyalty

Rewarding loyalty doesn’t just have to mean implementing a loyalty points program. Through customer segmentation, we can identify the most loyal customers based on their spending or number of orders and then we can tailor our messaging. If you have product launches or sale periods, you may be able to give them an exclusive or provide them with early access. Even just communicating with them on a more personal level because you are using the context of their previous purchases in the way that you talk to them will make it feel more personal.

5. Thoughtful Packaging

It’s wise not to forget that the shopping experience continues all the way until the arrival of the item and the customer unboxes it.

Smythson are a luxury stationery and leather goods brand with history all the way back to 1887. They invest in this luxury experience by making sure that every order is exquisitely wrapped in tissue paper and carefully presented in a quality gift box finished off with ribbon. This helps to position the product and brand as luxury and, from experience, I can say that it makes the customer feel special as they carefully unwrap it.

Timed and Targeted Re-engagement

Once the on-site and delivery experience has been created, the traditional outreach portion of the customer retention strategy can be tackled. The primary areas to consider are:

• Email
• Search Ads
• Remarketing
• Social (ads and engagement)

When approaching designing email campaigns, customer segmentation is a powerful tool to ensure that your messaging is personalised to the customer context increasing its effectiveness. Even abandoned cart emails can be considered one form of customer segmentation.

For those that haven’t really started with customer segmentation, the easiest way to start is to segment based on total spent and number of orders. This will quickly provide a list of VIP customers that can be sent special offers, or early access to news and products like in the case of the product launches mentioned earlier. Once that has been done, the next group down will be “pre-VIP” which are customers that are primed to become brand advocates given some attention.

Another particularly popular form of email campaign over the last year has been a welcome campaign. When customers subscribe to the newsletter, rather than just sending a confirmation email, it’s an opportunity to educate them on the brand and the product highlights. Instead, consider creating a 3-email series that includes information about the brand history and values, provides highlights on the most well-received blog content over the last year and also take the opportunity to continue to educate the customer on the range of your product catalogue and your top selling products.

Other campaigns types to look into include win-back, i.e. when a customer hasn’t purchased for a while, or a customer that has been subscribed for a while and hasn’t placed an order yet.

Customer Segmentation

As I hope it’s starting to become clear, moving away from all communication being broadcast-based is critical for customer engagement. The next level to achieve beyond customer segmentation is by way of personalisation. Recommending different products to each customer, both on the website and in emails, is easily achievable with tools like Nosto. With just a small piece of code, Nosto will track customer behaviour around the site so that it can intelligently suggest products based on their activity and extrapolated needs. This is a particularly smart way of livening up emails, making them more personal than could ever be achieved at this scale manually.

Kissmetrics for eCommerce is a valuable tool as well. Kissmetrics collects person-based behavioral data, defines and tracks key customer segments and then enables you to engage with your customers with more targeted email and facebook campaigns. When you create refined segments of your many different customer types and tailor messaging uniquely toward just that segment you’re creating a memorable experience between your brand and customer which leads to brand loyalty and more repeat purchases.

Outreach

Paid advertising through search, social and remarketing are all incredibly valuable tools in the customer retention strategy chest. Each one will need to be researched, experimented with, evaluated and iterated on to find out what works best.

The point of interest here for returning customers is to have tracking pixels, similar to the Nosto code so that the remarketing networks can target customers based on the categories and products that they’re interested in and, importantly, stop selling to once they’ve ordered.

Strategy Checklist

We’ve covered quite a range of aspects to consider for any customer retention strategy but it’s far from exhaustive list and there are always going to be unique opportunities for each vertical and business.

As a quick summary to use as reference when reviewing your strategy, make sure to consider:

• UX Review & Conversion Rate Optimisation
• User generated content
• Loyalty Programmes
• In-Store Events
• Content Marketing
• Social
• Customer Service
• Delightful shipping
• Customer Segmentation
• Personalised Product Recommendations
• Abandoned Baskets
• Email marketing campaigns
• Advertising
• Remarketing

Remember, that many of these areas will help to improve conversion rates for new customers as well as returning ones!

Finally, as part of any strategy, decide upon some KPIs to track the effectiveness of the strategy. I would expect there to be KPIs for each area implemented as well as overall KPIs. At a high level, these KPIs would include comparing the primary KPIs of number of sessions, orders and therefore conversion rate between new and returning customers. I would also recommend tracking the customer lifetime value and hopefully this will increase which will warrant further investment in acquisition! Then watch the growth cycle continue!

from The Kissmetrics Marketing Blog https://ift.tt/2pRg1LJ
via IFTTT

Forget The Hype And Really Understand What AI Can Do For You

Technology is transforming marketing faster than ever before. Add AI to the mix and marketers experience another layer of complexity. But according to the latest research, marketers who successfully adopt and adapt artificial intelligence into their digital marketing strategy will most certainly rise above the rest. eMarketer recently published a report, Artificial Intelligence for Marketers in 2018: Finding Value Beyond the Hype. Their research highlights benefits of brands who have already implemented AI.

But before looking at the data, let's look at what falls under the umbrella of artificial intelligence. Consulting firm McKinsey & Company defines AI under eight categories:

1. Natural Language Processing (NLP)
2. Natural Language Generation (NLG)
3. Speech Recognition
4. Machine Learning
5. Decision Management
6. Virtual Agents (chatbots, etc.)
7. Robotics Process Automation
8. Computer Vision

So what kind of advantages have organizations experienced since implementing AI? eMarketer reports:

The overall benefits are encouraging. To dive even further into real-world applications of AI, eMarketer found that retail marketers are using this technology to craft a better customer experience across the board.

While this data is promising for organizations to see, the question some grapple with is, where do we start? eMarketer shares some solid advice to those looking to incorporate AI into their business efforts.

I think the best advice the research revealed is to forget the "hype" and really understand what AI can do for your brand. Allen Nance, Global CMO of Emarsys, suggests asking questions like:

• What data sets can we use to inform AI systems?
• Who will develop the algorithm?
• Will we have on-staff data scientists?
• Show me how it will change my role and my organization?

While AI is in a growth stage, it is clear to see it will be one of the most important investments marketers can make for the future. And as you can see from the data, many have already started down that path. Is your organization ready?

For practical tips on how to bring AI into your marketing, don't miss Adaptive Intelligence: Practical Tips for Bringing AI into Your Marketing from David Gutelius, CEO of Motiva AI, a machine learning company dedicated to adaptive customer experience and an Oracle partner.

from Oracle Blogs | Oracle Marketing Cloud https://ift.tt/2J4gMcV
via IFTTT

5 Ways to Create a Brand Logo For Your Company in Just Minutes

If you want your business to succeed, you’ll need to pay close attention to your brand strategy.

No matter what size your business is, branding creates trust.

A strong brand creates instant recognition in the marketplace, especially amongst your customers.

The bigger you build your brand, the easier it is to create better opportunities for your business.

Your goal with branding should be to build loyalty and share your customer’s values. Do this right, and both your customers and your competitors will always remember you.

If you’re yet to define and build your brand, this guide can show you where to start.

One of the best ways to leave a positive and lasting (visual) imprint of your brand is to create a unique brand logo.

Getting your brand logo professionally designed can be expensive.

Look at 99Designs research. They found that a professionally-designed logo can cost you anywhere from $100 up to $2500+, with the quality varying depending on the actual cost.

That sounds pricey, right?

You could take it upon yourself to design your logo from scratch. Investing some time in learning how to graphic design.

I could even show you where to find some free fonts you could use.

Or, I could show you how to design a brand logo for your company with minimal effort on your part.

You see, gone are the days when your only option was to get a graphic designer to create your logo. They usually came with a hefty price tag.

Now, you can use online resources to design and create your very own brand logo for free.

And you can literally do it within a few minutes.

Some of these companies will even allow you to download your logo without having to invest any money.

In this article, I’ll walk you through five ways to create a free brand logo for your company in just minutes.

1. Free Logo Design

Free Logo Design is an online software that allows you to create a brand logo of your own and incorporate it into your business.

You can do this in a few simple steps:

• Select an existing logo template.
• Use the editor to move and scale your text or image.
• Download your logo.
• Display your logo everywhere.

First of all, you’ll need to go to the homepage and enter your company name, as shown.

You should notice right off the bat that Free Logo Design gives you four design options as you type.

These images are too generic. You’ll want to be more specific.

So, pick a category from the drop-down menu and click “Start.”

For the “new” Kissmetrics brand logo, I’ll pick “Business & Consulting.”

Once you’ve clicked “Start,” it will bring you to the design page where a pop-up platform will display auto-generated logo templates from existing images.

You’ll see some containing your company’s name.

In the “Business & Consulting” category, the software generated 90 designs, with a maximum of 15 per page.

For the next step, go through all of the designs and find a logo that you think will:

• Visually look good
• Define your brand
• Be a remembered by your customers
• Fit your brand strategy

Once satisfied with your decision, select the desired logo and click “Add.”

From there, it will take you to the logo editor where you may notice that the text and graphics are overlapping or jumbled up.

Each part of the graphic is an individual element, but the text grouped as one.

This is your default logo.

You could leave it as it is but, quite frankly, it won’t look great.

In this case, I’d like to move the text under the graphic and center it.

Select the text and drag it into position.

Once the text is aligned and looks pleasing to the eye, I’ll select all elements and move back to the center of the screen.

To do so, click and drag the cursor over the elements you want to move.

This creates a selection box of all elements that you can move (or rotate if required). A properties box that shows each element individually will also appear.

If you need to edit these elements, you can do so under the “Actions” toolbar.

An element’s colors can be edited, moved, flipped and rotated.

You can also edit the color, alignment/curve and font style of the text if you’re not quite happy with it.

Or you can add an extra logo, icon, shape or more text, from the options on the right.

Add an extra element or edit logo color if required.

Sometimes you can get stuck tweaking your design, potentially for hours.

For the “new” Kissmetrics brand logo, the goal is to create a completed logo design in only a few minutes.

And that’s all that’s needed. As it is, I’m happy with the design.

Now, with the design complete, it’s time to download your new brand logo. You can easily do this by clicking “Save,” at the top-right corner of the screen.

Free Logo Design will then prepare your logo for download. Once ready, it will give you the following options:

Click “Download” and enter your name and email address.

The finished logo will now be sent to you, free of charge.

Although the free PNG file is of a low-resolution, it’s ideal for website use and email signatures.

Even the high-resolution download is reasonably priced. Currently, at $39, this includes a PDF, EPS, and vector SVG file.

This is a steal in comparison to the prices I mentioned earlier for a professional design, and it’s very cost-effective for a bootstrapping business startup.

Whether you’re a bootstrapping startup or not, realizing your brand’s importance can play a major role in your business’s success.

By equipping your company with a new brand logo, you’ll be one step closer to achieving this success.

2. Logomakr

Another free resource with a hands-on approach is Logomakr.

With Logomakr, you can instantly make a brand logo for your company.

Most of these free online logo makers use similar concepts when designing and editing. They use existing templates on a user-friendly design platform.

To create your design with Logomakr:

Go to their homepage, and it will greet you with an instructional video. This will quickly run through the simple process of using their platform to design a logo.

It also presents you with the following design advice to consider:

1. Make your logo clean and simple.
2. Make sure your logo is 100% original.
3. Make sure you’re able to copyright your own logo.
4. Make sure the logo fits the style of your industry.
5. Make sure your final logo images are in vector format.

With your concept in mind, you’ll need to pick a graphic for your logo.

Next, search the 1,000,000+ graphics in Logomakr’s database, by using the search bar at the top left of your screen.

For my design, I’ll search “kiss.”

The database should then give you hundreds of free-use images to choose from (for that particular search word).

Scroll through the results and select the image you’d like to use.

You’ll then return to the editing page, where you’ve multiple options to edit your design.

You can add text, shapes, paint, scale, move or change the color of your graphic.

For this example, I’ll scale up the graphic to be larger. That way, it’ll stand out more.

Next, you’ll need to add your company name. Using the “add text” function, I’ll add “kissmetrics.”

Once you’ve added the text, you’ll notice two drop-down menus at the top of the screen.

One is for the font category and the other is for the font style.

Select the font style or category that you think will have the best visual impact on your design.

You can play around with the text and the scales of the elements (text, image or shapes) so they sit proportionate to each other.

Once you’re satisfied, consider the colors you’ll use in the final design and how that ties in with the overall color scheme of your branding strategy.

At Kissmetrics, I’m partial to the color blue.

You can change the color in three easy steps:

1. Select the elements you wish to change.
2. Click on “Change Color” in the tools section.
3. Pick the color you want in the top-right corner.

Once done, you’re ready to save and download a copy. Do this by clicking on “Save Logo” at the top right corner of your screen.

This will then bring you to your final set of options, depending on the use of the logo.

To opt for the free version, you’ll need to download and give credit to Logomakr.

Same goes for sharing the image on social media, which you can share instantly using the social media share buttons available.

You can also click on the link that says, “Paste This Code” to automatically copy the code. Then, just paste it into your website’s backend.

For this design, I’ll click on “Download And Agree To Give Credit.”

Again, to download a higher-res image than the one provided for free, you’ll need to pay a premium. In this case, it’s $19.

With the high-res image, you’ll be able to use it on banners, company clothing and for printing purposes.

Copy the logo’s reference into a text document and save so that you can return to the design at a later stage.

If you’ve followed the simple steps above you should now have a free brand logo that you can use as many times as you like.

You can do all of that in under 5 minutes, too.

3. Canva

Next on the list of software that offers free downloads is Canva.

If you’re not familiar with Canva, it’s a simple design software which is quite popular with graphic designers, bloggers, and infographic creators.

Its popularity is due to its simplistic drag-and-drop design tools and a huge collection of photos, graphics, and fonts.

With the easy-to-use platform, you can create your brand logo in five easy steps:

Go to Canva’s Online Logo Maker and create an account.

Once you’re done, click on the “Start Designing A Custom Logo.”

The first thing you’ll want to do is change the name of your logo design at the top of the screen.

Next, select “Elements” from the toolbar and decide on a category. For this design, I’ll use an image from “Icons.”

A library of multiple icons will then appear. Scroll through them until you find an image you can use. Then, select it.

Some elements have the word “free” beside them. These are free-use graphics that you can use in your logo design.

Now that you have the main graphic for your logo, select the element and change the color.

Remember: always keep your branding theme in mind. So, once again, I’ll use blue.

Next, you’ll want to add your company name by selecting the “Text” tool from the toolbar. Similar to “Elements,” you have a library of templates to choose from.

Scroll through to find a text that will fit your brand, keeping in mind the “free-use” templates.

Find your favorite and click on it. I’ll use “Blue Wood.”

You’ll notice that the text will center on top of the logo element. Click on it and drag it to where you want it.

Move both text and element so that they align with the center of the design template.

Once satisfied it’s time to edit the text.

Click on and select the small text above “Blue Wood.” Delete this text.

Click on and select the text “Blue Wood” and replace it with your company name, “kissmetrics.”

Next, edit the color and size of the text by selecting the text and using the text toolbar at the top of your screen.

You also have the option to change the font style using the drop-down menu.

Your logo should now be ready to download. Click the “Download” button at the top right of the screen.

You’ll be given different file types to select for download.

The file types available are JPG, PNG, PDF standard and PDF print. For the Kissmetrics logo, I’ll choose PDF standard.

Once downloaded, you’ll be able to view your new brand logo in a PDF reader.

Canva doesn’t yet support, exporting logos in a vector format.

They suggest, for higher-res graphics, you should make your logo as large as possible and download the PDF print version.

Also, with a PNG file, you’ll be able to add your logo to your website.

Another quick, simple and free way to create a brand logo for your company.

4. GraphicSprings

GraphicSprings is a software that allows you to use their platform to design and create a logo for free.

To begin your design, go to their logo design page and enter your company name.

Next, add an image from the database by selecting “Choose Your Graphic” from the side toolbar, left of the screen.

A sub-search bar will pop-up under your last selection, with a list of categories underneath.

If you know the graphic you’d like to add, enter it into the search bar.

GraphicSprings have included an “Internet” category, which is quite fitting, so I’ll use that.

Click the category you want and a database containing stock images/graphics will appear.

(Just like the previous software).

Can you spot a common theme yet?

This simple concept works across each platform, eliminating the need to “reinvent the wheel.”

Search through the results, and once you see an image that you’d like to use, select it.

By selecting the graphic, the software should instantly create your design and take you to the editing page. Once you’re there, it will prompt you to select the elements for editing.

Click on the text to edit it. It will allow you to change the font style, size, and format. You can also add some cool effects like stroke, shadow, or glow.

For simplicity, I’ll leave it as it is.

The options for editing are also basic. You have the ability to change the color and add some effects.

Canva will break the graphic into different elements (similar to Free Logo Design), so you can edit each piece individually.

I’ll stick with the color theme of blue, but I’ll keep the two-tone effect.

Next, select each element and change the colors accordingly.

Once the editing is complete and you’re satisfied with the design, click “Download Your Logo” at the bottom right of the editing page.

It will take you to the payment page where you can buy the high-resolution image from as low as $19.99.

To access the vector files with the ability to edit after you purchase it, you’ll need to pay for the standard package, which costs $39.99.

With this option, you’ll have the ability to make aftermarket changes to your logo whenever you please.

5. Designimo

Designimo also requires a payment once the design is complete, but you can use the design tools for free to create the graphic for your logo.

They previously offered a low-res free download, but they now produce high-res images only.

Designimo is a logo design software similar to Free Logo Design and GraphicSprings.

Similar to the way that you enter the name of your company into the search bar and select a category that suits your industry.

It’ll then auto-generate multiple graphics using a huge database of existing designs.

Again, the level of editing is quite basic, but the results are equally as good.

It also follows the simple process that Free Logo Design uses:

• Select
• Edit
• Download
• Display

For a quick video tutorial to help you use the platform, check out how it works here.

To ensure your design goes as smooth as possible, I’ll walk you through the process below.

First, go to the homepage and enter your company name.

Then, select a category from the drop-down menu, which ranges from “Alphabetic Text” to “Travel & Hotel.”

For this example, I will use the category “Alphabetic Text.”

Designimo will provide you with numerous individual designs under each category.

While the other categories use existing graphics made up of symbols, the “Alphabetic Text” generates logos in the shape of the letter selected (hence the name).

It also files them alphabetically.

For the Kissmetrics logo, I’ll select the letter “K,” and go through the results. Each letter has multiple pages of designs, so navigate through them.

Once you’ve found one you’d like to proceed with, simply select the graphic.

You’ll then land on the editing page, equipped with basic design and editing tools. Using the tools available, you can:

• Increase/decrease element size
• Rotate graphics left/right
• Flip vertical/horizontal
• Change text size and font style to suit
• Apply opacity to an element (i.e., make see-through)
• Easily move elements by clicking and dragging

For this alphabetical logo, I’ll be a little creative and use the symbol shaped as “K” and use it to start the company name, “Kissmetrics.”

By deleting the “k” from the text, I now have a completely different and unique looking logo.

Edit the text size or font style, if required.

The default font is OK, so I’ll leave it as it is.

Next, change the colors to match your theme.

If you’re happy with the design, your new brand logo should now be ready to download. Click on “Download Now” or “Save For Future” (if you’d like to come back and work on it).

To download your image, first, you’ll need to register your details and sign up for an account.

You’ll then be brought to an order confirmation page, to confirm and proceed to checkout.

Pay and download.

The cost for a high-res image, including PNG, JPG and EPS Vector files, is $29.95.

Although not free, the brand logo you can create and download using this software is a high-quality graphic at a relatively low price.

Conclusion

When it comes to starting a new business, the number of tasks on your to-do-list along with the costs of setting everything up can be overwhelming.

From the initial set-up and registration to branding.

Yes, it can be challenging.

But creating a brand logo for your company doesn’t have to be.

Branding should be the core of your company’s marketing strategy.

Your brand should tell a story.

And part of that story is your logo.

You’ve established, that having a clean and simple logo your customers will remember is essential.

Being an expert in graphic design or outsourcing to a freelancer or professional agency was once the norm.

But now, the Internet is full of innovative people with new ideas and free software that can help new businesses reduce their startup costs.

With these platforms incorporating simple and user-friendly tools, it’s possible, as I’ve just demonstrated, to create a free brand logo for your company in minutes.

These platforms are also designed to stop you from becoming paralyzed by design.

Previously, you may have been up all night studying “how-to-design” videos on YouTube.

Now you don’t have to.

These platforms do most of the designing for you and, and they’ll even give you some quick tutorials. All that you have to bring to the table is a good idea and an eye for a visually-pleasing design.

With your brand’s color and theme in mind, pick the software easiest for you.

If you follow the step-by-step processes mentioned above, you should have a quality brand logo that you can use for your business.

At least now you’ll have one less startup task to deal with.

In terms of user-friendliness, design results, or cost, which software would you recommend?

About the Author: Neil Patel is the cofounder of Neil Patel Digital.

from The Kissmetrics Marketing Blog https://ift.tt/2pR0ADj
via IFTTT