How Social Media Impacts Your Online Reputation

Social media matters. Even if you try to avoid it in your personal life, your business must be represented on the major social networks.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other networks have billions of users across the globe. Consumers of all ages and demographics use them on a daily basis, and countless businesses are actively engaging with them through text, images, and video.

If you aren’t, you’re falling behind, and your reputation may be suffering.

So just how does social media impact your online reputation, and how can you use it to your advantage?

Be Inspired to Be Better

Word of bad behavior or gaffs on social networks carry real weight with consumers and can bring negative attention to your brand within hours.

For example, United Airlines made the news in 2017 when a paying customer was dragged off one of their planes because it had been overbooked. The violent video went viral, and the situation only worsened when the CEO was found to have little grasp of the incident’s horror.

In a case like this, social media showed the world a glimpse of United Airlines’ corporate attitude and values that was truly ugly, and people voiced their disgust by the thousand. It was inevitable that someone would record the incident on their smartphone and share it with others, but United Airlines did little to ease people’s fury.

Social media should make you more aware than ever that everyone has a voice today. One consumer who experiences appalling service (or flat-out indecency, as with United Airlines) now has the power to tell millions of others across the globe to boycott the business in question.

How can you avoid such extreme repercussions? Concentrate on making sure your company’s protocols, processes, and training allows no room for incendiary behavior. At the least, you reduce the risk of damaging your own reputation. At the most, you will help it get better and better.

Also, social media results tend to appear high on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). Any results carrying negative information on your brand will be eased lower and lower down the page, reducing the risk of consumers seeing bad reviews before visiting your warm, welcoming social accounts.

Of course, as we established above, bad customer experiences can find their way onto social networks and catch fire quickly. Your page may be bombarded with questions and demands for a response if your business acts in a way it shouldn’t – visitors will encounter this and may form an unfair opinion.

Keep Up to Date with Your Reputation

Another perk of social media is that it lets you monitor what people are saying about your business.

You may not be able to track every comment on every network, but you can still see enough to gauge public opinion. It’s vital to respond to people as and when you can, to help manage your reputation.

Nothing makes a business appear unprofessional and uncaring than a string of unanswered Tweets or Facebook posts on their page. Consumers lodging complaints, asking about upcoming products, demanding information on late deliveries, and generally sounding off can be enough to paint quite the unattractive picture of a business within seconds.

You need to stay on top of your social accounts as best you can and engage with followers whenever possible. Even if they are saying something negative, your response can prove essential in winning them over. You need a strategy in place to handle comments and feedback, no matter the language used, no matter how angry the writer obviously is.

Allowing yourself or anyone else from your company to respond without thinking, based on emotion rather than good business management, can be a terrible mistake. Even if you cannot think of a suitable way to address it immediately, it may be best to leave the comment without a response for a day or so – this would be far less harmful than an enraged rant.

We can help you setup the right tools to monitor mentions of your brand, and let you know whenever your brand is mentioned on social sites, forums, news pages, and more.

Be Positive

Following on from responding to negative comments and feedback, you need to interact with people writing positive things too.

Saying thank you, sharing their kind words, or simply replying with a sweet emoticon can all show your business in a good light. It proves that you listen to what people have to say and value their input or custom.

Still, a positive, well-written, contemplative response to a criticism can bring good attention to your brand out of bad, too. It’s vital to be apologetic and address how your business will attempt to fix the problem caused.

You need to remember that other people will see any interaction you have on social media (unless it’s through direct messages), and even simple but positive comments can boost users’ opinion of your business. They may take a look at your account to investigate your products or services, and possibly follow through to your site.

Another key factor to consider is the tone of voice you use, and how engaging it is for your followers. You need to show consistency in your language and style from one post to the next, otherwise people may be confused. Social media can help you cultivate a strong brand personality and boost your appeal to your target demographic, so use whichever tone best suits your market.

Never underestimate the power of social media as a business tool, no matter how big or small your company is. Startups with one employee can build a wider audience through a well-managed social account, while the biggest corporations can be dealt major blows by their poor choices.

Call us today and we will help you create a social media strategy that incorporates the points discussed above, and you can help to make sure your online reputation remains strong for years to come.

The True Power of Online Reviews

Today, every consumer has a voice. You have the power to share your own positive or negative experience of a specific product, service, or brand with the entire world.

88 percent of buyers trust online reviews just as much as recommendations from people they know. This is just one of the major cultural changes the internet has created: in the past, you only had word of mouth or a printed review to go on. Failing that, you simply had to take a punt and hope for the best.

Today, it’s a whole new world. You can find reviews of almost any restaurant, store, bar, club, independent retailer, or global corporation written by real customers. Search engines, directory websites (Yelp), social media, specialist sites (TripAdvisor), and others all host thousands of reviews to help guide buyers’ decisions.

How powerful are online reviews, and why?

Attracting New Customers

A kind word goes a long way. 72 percent of consumers say positive reviews make them trust a company more, while just 18 percent said the same reviews make no difference to their buying decisions.

These statistics suggest you have more chance of attracting new customers by promoting good reviews, so take the time to share them on your website and social media. These will give an invaluable insight into the level of service prospects can expect to enjoy, and build a positive image of your company overall.

You should provide facilities on your website and social media for customers to write reviews direct, rather than having to go to external sites (though this can still be helpful).

Boosting Your Rankings

Giving customers the opportunity to write reviews on your website may improve your organic rankings.

At the most basic level, reviews add fresh content to your site, especially if you have enough customers for new reviews to appear on a regular basis. For local businesses, a strong body of reviews can cause a star rating to appear in search results when users Google you. All you need to do is generate at least five reviews on Google+ Local.

Positive reviews will give your local business an impressive score, which can give you an edge over competitors that are newer or have less stars to their name.

Painting a Broad Picture of Your Brand

Customer reviews can cover different areas of your business respectively, or overall. For example, one buyer may simply review the product they bought from you, which is especially beneficial if it’s unique to your brand.

Alternatively, another customer could leave a review praising your entire service, from the easy checkout process on your site to the fast delivery and strong packaging. These might be areas you fail to actually promote, but potential buyers may well be curious about. Smaller elements all add up to make a big impact.

In such cases, positive reviews will form a comprehensive overview of your business beyond just your products or prices.

Showcasing Your Professionalism and Desire to Please

Of course, you can’t please everyone. There is a chance that a customer may be dissatisfied with your prices, your delivery process, or another part of your business entirely. If they share this in a review and give you a low rating, this can affect your whole online reputation.

However, it’s vital to keep this in perspective. If you have one weaker review for every 10 positive ones, customers are likely to recognize that they have a high chance of a pleasant buying experience.

Poor customer reviews give you an opportunity to demonstrate your commitment to the best service and learning from mistakes. If you can, respond to reviews in a polite, accommodating manner. Apologize for any errors your business may have made and offer to make things right: this might be a refund, a discount on future purchases, or another form of compensation.

Not only could this possibly appease the dissatisfied customer, it also demonstrates your focus on pleasing everyone. This can help to keep your reputation untarnished, particularly if good reviews far outweigh bad ones.

Likewise, if you handle weak feedback in a poor manner, the damage to your reputation will only be increased. It can be tough, but it’s vital to manage your emotional response to unflattering sentiments – otherwise, an aggressive rant will make you appear less than attractive to prospects.

Always treat unsatisfied customers with tact and courtesy. They may be exaggerating a negative experience or change their mind at a later date.

Perhaps the most important point is to stay calm when you see poor reviews of your business. With the right response, you can transform a customer’s experience of your brand, leave them more satisfied, and possibly cause them to edit their original feedback to write something better.

Still, negative reviews can still help to build trust. Customers checking reviews only to find them all filled with nothing but praise may become suspicious, and wonder whether they should believe anything written about your business. Sincerity matters, and a healthy ratio of good to bad reviews is nothing to worry about.

Increasing Engagement

Following on from the point above, your business shouldn’t feel restricted to responding to negative reviews only: interact with customers leaving positive feedback too.

This enables you to convey more of your brand’s personality and show appreciation of your customers. Independent hotels often thank most customers who leave kind words on TripAdvisor, but businesses in all sectors can take the same approach.

On one hand, it makes the reviewer’s effort feel worthwhile and shows that the business has taken notice of their feedback, Also, fellow customers will see the business in a positive light, which contributes to their entire view of the company.

Over time, a high response rate to positive and negative reviews will show you as a brand that really cares.

Online reviews are an integral part of marketing your business and managing your reputation. They should motivate you to make your company the very best it can be and may continue to attract newcomers to your business for years to come.

How Website Speed Can Make or Break Your Online Reputation

The easy access to information via smartphones has empowered Canadian consumers to make decisions faster than ever before, and they want to act upon these decisions straight away.

Any hurdles in accessing information such as slow load time of your website can negatively affect your online reputation.

Rise of Smartphone Use

According to Statista, 62.37% of the population in Canada used a smartphone in 2016. The Statista 2016 data showed:

• 54% Canadians compare prices of a product/service using a smartphone
• 67% Find the nearest store location
• 6% Check for discounts
• 44% Read reviews
• 21% Look at competitive product/service
• 61% Check availability
• 59% Compare features
• 1% Make a purchase

On-the-Spot Decisions

A Google report showed that 82% of smartphone owners used a search engine as the initial step to gratify at least one of their needs.

According to Google, Canadians, in particular, use a search engine at the exact time they want something. This means that they’re more likely to be loyal to their needs than to any brands or products that they’ve used before. 

An example of this demand to satisfy one’s need on-the-spot is the rise the search phrase “open now”. The search giant reported that search interest in the keyword phrase “open now” has increased 3 times since 2015.

Expectation to Get Products & Services Immediately

With the rise in smartphone usage, consumers’ expectation to get the products and services they need as soon as possible has also increased.

Canadian consumers, according to Google, aren't any more willing to wait even for a few days for their orders to arrive. They want to get the products or services as soon as possible. The tech giant reported that searches for the keyword phrase “same day shipping” has grown by 160% since 2015.

The Need to Know Where to Get Products & Services

Google research showed that consumers are using their smartphones as “anywhere” assistants, turning to their phones in search of stores where they can visit to get what they want prior to leaving the house – a phenomenon that renders store browsing close to oblivion.

According to Google, over the past 2 years, mobile searches for keywords “where to shop” and “where to buy” have increased by more than 100%.

Speed Equals Revenue

Whether your website visitor is a plan-ahead type, impromptu type or that last-minute type, each of these visitors all want the same experience: they want to get the information they want right here and right now.

The basic website load time can either make or break your brand reputation.

SOASTA’s report "The State of Online Retail Performance" released in Spring 2017 found the following key insights regarding site load time:

• Even as nearly half of all consumers browse their smartphones, only 1 in 5 complete transactions on mobile.
• Optimal load times for peak conversions ranged from 1.8 to 2.7 seconds across device types.
• Mere 100-millisecond delay in load time hurt conversion rates by up to 7%.
• Bounce rates were highest among smartphone shoppers and lowest among those using tablets.
• Optimal load times for lowest bounce rates ranged from 700ms to 1.2s across all device types.
• A two-second delay in load time hurt bounce rates by up to 103%.
• Pages with the lowest bounce rates had start render times ranging from 0.9 to 1.5 seconds.
• A two-second delay correlated with up to a 51% decrease in session length.

Google, for its part, reported that the average time it takes to fully load a mobile landing page is 22 seconds. Fifty-three percent of mobile site visitors, however, according to Google, abandon a site if it takes more than three seconds to load.

More than half of the overall web traffic, Google reported, comes from mobile. Despite this traffic lead, mobile falls behind desktop in terms of conversion rates.

Google researchers analyzed 900,000 mobile ads' landing pages in 126 countries. The researchers found that bulk of these mobile sites are slow and stuffed with too many features.

"Our research has been eye-opening,” said Daniel An, Global Product Lead, Mobile Web at Google. “For 70% of the pages we analyzed, it took nearly seven seconds for the visual content above the fold to display on the screen, and it took more than 10 seconds to fully load all visual content above and below the fold.”

You can check how your website fared in terms of speed at Test My Site – a free service offered by Google that analyzes your website in terms of speed and usability.

According to Google, these two are the top factors that affect site loading: number of site elements and number of images.

Researchers at Google said the high number of site elements results in greater site's weight and complexity. A typical webpage today, the researchers said, weighs 2,486KB and holds nearly 100 assets hosted on dozens of different servers – issues that contribute to slow loading.

The second factor that contributes to the slow loading of a page, the researchers said, is the high number of images. A typical page can contain logos, favicons and product images that can easily add up to two-thirds of a page's total weight – equivalent to hundreds of kilobytes. This results in cumulatively slow page loads throughout a session, the researchers said.

Reducing the number of elements and reducing the number of images in your site can make your site load faster.

Google researchers also found that webpages that have more images and other elements result in fewer conversions.

To speed up your site, a mere compression of images and text can make a big difference. Thirty percent of webpages, according to Google, could save more than 250KB through this simple process.

"It's no secret that shoppers expect a fast mobile experience,” An said. “If there's too much friction, they'll abandon their cart and move on. Today, it's critical that marketers design fast web experiences across all industry sectors. Consumers want to quickly pay bills on finance sites, get rapid results when they're browsing vacation reviews, and view an article immediately when they click through.”

How Marketing Across Canada’s Culturally Diverse Consumers Helps Brand’s Reputation

Canada is a multicultural country. Connecting with Canada’s culturally diverse consumers can help your brand’s reputation.

Canada’s Multicultural Landscape

According to Statistics Canada, 1 in 5 Canadians are born outside of Canada. Toronto and Vancouver, in particular, are the most culturally diverse cities, with 49% to 51% of their residents born outside of this country but call Canada home. Statistics Canada said the number of visible minorities in this country will only become bigger, with nearly one-third of the population will be a visible minority by 2031.

A study conducted from June 2017 to July 2017 by MediaCom showed that only 25% of people who self-identify as a visible minority feel that brands speak to people with different cultural backgrounds. More than a third of those who self-identify as visible minority feel that in cases where their ethnicity is represented, it’s frequently done in a stereotypical manner.

Finances and Spending Trends

The MediaCom study found that many of the first-generation visible minorities in Canada are professionals. While their household incomes aren’t higher than the average Canadian consumer, first-generation visible minorities have significant savings.

With their significant savings and the desire to live permanently in Canada, the study found that first-generation visible minorities tend to spend more on personal care to electronic gadgets to cars.

The study showed that first-generation visible minorities in Canada make up 34% of those who opened a bank account in the past 12 months in Canada, 43% of those who subscribed to an internet service provider, and 57% of those who bought a mobile phone.

Mobile-First Consumers

In the study "Marketing across Canada’s multicultural landscape? New research from MediaCom Canada reveals what you need to know", MediaCom surveyed these ethnic groups: Chinese, South Asian, Latin/Central/South American, Arab, and Southeast Asian (including Japanese and Korean).

These ethnic groups who now consider Canada as their home are mobile-first consumers. The reason why they’re considered as mobile-first consumers is because these ethnic groups came from countries that moved directly to mobile to access the internet, skipping the broadband internet connection phase.

Visible minorities in Canada reported spending 20% less time watching TV, 12% less time listening to the radio and 42% more time on mobile phones compared to the average Canadian consumer.

First-generation visible minorities reported they are exposed to 13 digital touchpoints (defined as any digital means a consumer interacts with a business) each week; second-generation visible minorities said they are exposed to 12 digital touchpoints each week; and the average Canadian consumers said they’re only exposed to 9 digital touchpoints each week.

Marketing in a Multicultural Society

Here are some takeaways on how to connect with Canada’s culturally diverse consumers and in the process help build your brand’s reputation:

1. Mobile-First Approach

If your company wants to connect with the first-generation and second-generation visible minorities, the right venue is the mobile platform. As mentioned, these visible minorities are mobile-savvy, taking into consideration that they’ve skipped the broadband internet connection phase.

2. Targeted Media Campaigns

As the Canadian marketplace is becoming more and more diverse, it’s important for businesses to balance the need to reach the masses with specific targeting. According to MediaCom, if you want your brand to connect with a particular ethnicity, it’s important to provide content for them in their native language.

Nearly two-thirds of the visible minorities surveyed by MediaCom reported that when brands communicate via advertising using their native language “they feel closer and it makes the brand appear more meaningful”.

3. Diversity in Media Campaigns

“Marketers can serve an ad in a native language, but that is just the first step,” MediaCom said. “They need to create content that accurately represents consumers of different cultural backgrounds. The longer-term goal would be to build culturally meaningful connections with these consumers that celebrates diversity.”

One approach in accurately representing Canada’s diverse cultural backgrounds is by using diverse imagery.

“Businesses and brands have been slow to move with the times as it relates to how they visually market their brand and products,” said Robyn Lange, Curator and photo Editor at Shutterstock. “However, the world is increasingly diverse and multicultural, meaning these businesses need to quickly catch up if they are to continue engaging their customers and growing their business.”

Lange added, “In a time where images and video content dominate our feeds, visual choices are critical considerations as a brand looks to stand out from the crowd and connect with their audience.”

Coca-Cola is an example of a company that promotes diversity and inclusion in its ad campaigns. In the late 1960s, following the Detroit race riots and assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the company came up with an ad that featured African-Americans and whites together – something that the company had never done before.

The ad known simply as “Boys on a Bench” showed an iconic shot of a group of boys – African-Americans and whites – sitting shoulder to shoulder on a segregation bench, with their arms touching across the segregation bar looking relaxed and happy, sharing a lighthearted moment over a Coke.

Companies are beginning to take a stronger stance on diversity and inclusion. For instance, "CoverGirl” launched in late 2016 its diversity and inclusion campaign featuring a Muslim woman wearing a hijab.

A study conducted by Shutterstock and Censuswide showed that UK marketers are increasingly using images that promote diversity and inclusion. Seventy-nine percent of the marketers surveyed by Shutterstock and Censuswide confirmed they are using more images of homosexual couples and 71% are choosing more racially diverse images.

The study showed that marketers are conscious of the need to be more inclusive in the images they choose for ad campaigns, not just for promoting a brand message (30%) but also to better reflect modern-day society (71%).

Nowadays, social media savvy consumers are quick to call out those brands that don’t promote diversity and inclusion in their campaigns. Employees, partners, stakeholders and investors are also becoming less tolerant of homogeneity and are turning to brands that better reflect culturally diverse society.

How Will GDPR Impact Your Organization’s Online Reputation

May 25, 2018 is the enforcement date of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Not many organizations, however, are aware of this implementation date nor are they aware of what the GDPR is all about and its effects to online reputation.

The HubSpot GDPR Survey conducted in the third quarter of 2017 showed that only 36% of business leaders and marketers surveyed heard of GDPR. Put it in a different way, less than half of the business leaders and marketers surveyed by HubSpot are aware that GDPR exists.

As expected, when asked about their preparation for the implementation of GDPR, the answer wasn’t encouraging either, with 42% saying they're only "somewhat prepared" for the GDPR, while 23% saying they aren't sure if their company has started to prepare for the GDPR. 

Being compliant with GDPR is more than following the law. Being compliant with GDPR is a brand awareness issue. It sends a positive message to your customers that your organization values their privacy and security.

Recent exposure of high-profile data breaches that of Equifax and Uber showed the world the ill-effects of weak cyber security measures, mishandling of sensitive data and late reporting of data breaches.

What is GDPR?

GDPR is a European Union (EU) law that sets forth harsh penalties to organizations that fail to protect the personal data of EU residents. The law replaces EU’s former data protection legislation, the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC.

The law is aimed to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe. Unlike its predecessor the Data Protection Directive, the GDPR isn’t open to interpretation by national governments. It’ll surely send shockwaves, not only in Europe but in other countries as well.

If your organization or business isn’t based in the EU, it’s normal that you’d instinctively dismiss this law for its geographical inapplicability. GDPR, however, shouldn’t be dismissed as solely an EU law as this law has an “extra-territorial” applicability. This means that your organization or business, even though based outside the EU, will still be covered by this law if your organization or business processes personal data – offer goods or services online or monitor the online behavior of EU residents.

Key Provisions of GDPR

Here are the top 5 key provisions of the GDPR:

1. Consent Requirement

Under GDPR, EU customers have the right to choose whether they want an organization or business to store their personal data. They also have the right to choose whether they want to be contacted or not. In the case of a minor, parental consent is required.

2. Right to be Forgotten

Under GDPR, EU customers have the right to be forgotten, also known as the right to erasure. This requires organizations to delete the data of customers that no longer serve the original purpose or when customers choose to decide that their data shouldn’t anymore be processed or stored.

3. Transparency

Under GDPR, EU customers have the right to get information from organizations whether or not their personal data are processed, where and for what purpose. Organizations are required to supply customers the information by providing a copy of the personal data, free of charge and in an electronic format.

4. Cyber Security

Under GDPR, organizations are required to implement cyber security measures that ensure safety and privacy of personal data that are being processed or stored. Cyber security measures referred under this law are those that prevent data breaches, not reactionary measures.

5. Data Breach Notification

Under GDPR, organizations are required to report where a data breach is likely to “result in a risk for the rights and freedoms of individuals”. This breach notification must be done within 72 hours after the discovery of the data breach.

For violating the substantial provisions of the law like consent, the maximum fine that can be imposed is 4% of the annual global turnover or €20 Million, whichever is higher. For violating procedural provisions of the law like data breach notification, the penalty of 2% of the annual global turnover or €10 million, whichever is higher, can be imposed.

GDPR Preparation

Based on the HubSpot survey, the following marketing activities are expected to be impacted by the GDPR implementation: how data of customers are collected, security and privacy protocols, email opt ins, length of time personal data of customers are retained in the system, cold calling (sales outreach), how to renegotiate contract of marketing software vendors if they aren't compliant and lead enrichment.

If given the right to choose, EU consumers surveyed by HubSpot said they would:

• Opt out of receiving phone calls from companies (61%)
• Opt out of receiving emails from (60%)
• Ask a company to delete records completely (59%)
• Opt out of having information stored (55%)
• Request to see all the data a company has on me (55%)
• Opt out of receiving tracking cookies (54%)
• Opt out of seeing retargeting ads (49%)

While less than half of the business leaders and marketers surveyed by HubSpot are unaware and unprepared of GDPR, about half of those represented by those surveyed have undergone or undergoing the following activities in preparation for the GDPR implementation:

• Update contracts and data protection policies (44%)
• Negotiate with vendors who process personal data to update contracts and data protection policies (32%)
• Implement/optimize IT security (31%)
• Review and make changes to products – if necessary for compliance (26%)
• Brainstorm new marketing strategies for EU-based prospects (22%)
• Educate customers on GDPR and plans to be compliant (20%)
• Change the selling/marketing approaches (15%)

With the implementation of GDPR next year, business leaders and marketers surveyed by HubSpot said they will focus on the following:

• Put more effort in social media marketing (44%)
• Put more effort in content that attracts customers (41%)
• Put more effort in SEO (37%)
• Use more audience targeting through object models (27%)
• Put more effort in big data and AI to target audience (27%)
• Use less retargeting ads (26%)
• Offer more services for logged-in customers only (25%)
• Put more effort in SEM (17%)

Online Advertising to Grow 70% by 2021, Forrester Says

Market research company Forrester projected that between 2017 and 2021 online advertising in the US will grow by nearly 70%.

According to Forrester, the growth of online advertising will be driven by the rapid expansion of social media advertising and mobile advertising. Here are some of the key findings of Forrester:

• Amazon will take a portion – specifically more than $2.5 billion in 2021 – of the market share of the online advertising business from Google and Facebook.

• Mobile advertising, in particular, in-app video ads will represent the majority of the online advertising investments, with in-app video ads increasing twofold over the next 5 years.

• Social media advertising, group together with mobile advertising, will reach $40 billion by 2021, with bulk of the growth accruing to Facebook.

Amazon’s Ad Business & What It Means for Your Business

Forrester forecasted that Amazon’s ad business will reach over $2.5 billion by 2021. The market research company may have undervalued Amazon’s ad business.

According to eMarketer, the total online advertising spending in the US is expected to grow from $72 billion in 2016 to $113 billion by 2020. In the US alone, eMarketer said Amazon is projected to generate $1.65 billion in ad revenue in 2017 and $2.35 billion in 2018.

The $2.35 billion estimated earnings of Amazon in the US market in 2018 is just a fraction of the $22 billion that Facebook and $40 billion that Google are estimated to earn in the US in 2018.

In the article "For Amazon, Online Advertising Can Drive Revenues" published by Forbes, Trefis Team wrote that if Amazon’s ad business is able to take hold of 20% share of this market by 2020, it could generate ad revenues of more than $20 billion.

“Amazon has a strong edge in this space given its relationship with brands and a huge data base of the shopping preferences of its customers,” Trefis Team wrote. “If Amazon focuses on online advertisements, this segment can become a profitable revenue stream for the company in the long term.”

Search Advertising for Amazon.ca Vendors

In October this year, Amazon launched Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) – the company’s search advertising solution for vendors on Amazon in the Canada marketplace.

Amazon reported that 76% of Amazon website visitors use the search bar to find an item. According to measurement and analytics company comScore, Amazon.ca alone attracts over 15 million unique visitors each month – equivalent to close to half of Canada’s total digital population.

Given that the search on Amazon.ca is predominantly used by shoppers to find products, advertising on Amazon is worth exploring today or in the near future. Similar to Google search, search advertising on Amazon can make your product stand out among the competition – driving consideration at a crucial time when a customer needs to decide.

Amazon currently offers the following 3 advertising solutions to Canadian sellers:

1. Sponsored Products

This advertising solution allows businesses to organically promote on top and within Amazon search results. Ads under the Sponsored Products are targeted using keywords to correspond to the search terms used by customers, giving exposure to your product and helping customers in their decision journey. Below is a sample of an ad under Sponsored Products.

2. Headline Search Ads

This ad solution uses targeted keywords to help drive brand awareness. It features 3 products and a brand logo within a prime spot which is at the top of search results. Below is an example of Amazon’s Headline Search Ad.

Using Amazon’s Headline Search Ads can direct shoppers to Amazon Store. An Amazon Store is a do-it-yourself solution that allows you to create your own business store within the Amazon.com platform, giving your customers an easy way to visualize your products. Amazon Store is free and completely self-service for any Amazon seller who is also a brand owner.

3. Product Display Ads

In Product Display Ads, Amazon sellers are allowed to advertise listings via surrounding media on product detail pages. This reaches shoppers when they’re about to buy – the time when they add an item to their shopping cart.

This ad solution is targeted to individual products, product categories or shopper interests. Below is an example of Amazon’s Product Display Ad.

You can manage your Amazon Marketing Services advertising budget in 3 ways:

1. Pay Per Click

In pay per click, you decide how much to bid on an ad click. You won’t be charged more than that amount per click.

2. Pay Per day

In pay per day, you decide how you’ll spend for a day. You won’t be charged more than your daily budget. Once your daily budget is reached, your ads will simply stop running for the day.

3. Pay Per Campaign

In pay per campaign, you have the option to set budget at a campaign level for Headline Search Ads and Product Display Ads. Once the campaign budget is reached, your ads will stop running.

What About Ads via Amazon Alexa Voice?

To date, Amazon doesn’t allow third-party developers to make money from their Alexa apps, through the use of VoiceLab’s “Sponsored Messages” – brief ads that were designed to be interactive.

VoiceLabs CEO Adam Marchick, in a blog post described interactive voice ad this way: "For example, a consumer would be asked if they were going to watch the NBA finals game airing that day. If the user said yes, it would let them know to tune in for the 6pm start time. If not, the Sponsored Message would let them which channel to tune into at 10pm for all the highlights.”

Amazon shut down VoiceLab’s Sponsored Messages project with its May 21st policy change. Amazon, however, allows the following ads in Alexa Voice:

1. Streaming music, streaming radio, podcast, and flash briefing skills may include audio advertisements as long as (a) the advertisements do not use Alexa’s voice or a similar voice, refer to Alexa, or imitate Alexa interactions and (b) the skill does not include more or materially different advertising than is included when the same or similar content is made available outside of Alexa.

2. Skills that allow customers to order products or services may include audio messaging promoting those products or services.

3. Skills may include audio messaging informing customers of promotional offers or deals in response to specific requests from customers.

4. Skills that are specifically designed to promote a product or service may include audio messaging promoting that product or service.

How Customer Service via Social Media Channels Can Improve Online Reputation

Want to improve your organization’s online reputation? The answer may lie in improving your organization’s customer service via social media channels.

Whether it’s praising a company for a great service, venting frustration about bad service or seeking a response for help for a particular service issue, more and more consumers are turning to social media channels.

A study conducted by Research Now and commissioned by Twitter found that 61% of users surveyed see Twitter as the right environment to discuss customer service queries with brands. Forty percent of companies in the retail industry had recently used the platform for customer service; 33% for travel and 28% for telecoms, according to the study.

In another study focused on telecommunication brands, Twitter in partnership with TNS found that those who had received a response from a brand had almost 3 times higher brand preference than those who hadn’t received a response from a brand. The Twitter study also found that consumers are willing to pay an additional $20 or more to travel with an airline company that responds to their Tweet in less than 6 minutes.

According to Twitter, delivering great customer service via its platform “drives and builds customer loyalty”. The company said that 96% of users who turned to Twitter for customer service and had a friendly experience with a brand would buy from that brand again.

Social Media Servicing vs. Social Media Marketing

A study by J.D. Power showed that consumers see social media channels of businesses as a means to engage in customer service. The study found that 67% of consumers have used a company's social media site to engage in customer service (answering specific consumer questions or resolving problems), compared with 33% for social marketing (brand awareness and affinity).

Speed Matters

A study by the American Express (PDF) found that consumers are increasingly impatient to wait for customer service via phone or in-person (at a retail store, at a restaurant or at a service provider's office).

The American Express study showed that 1 in 5 or 22% of consumers are only willing to wait less than 5 minutes on hold when they contact a customer service center by telephone, while average consumers are willing to a maximum of 13 minutes. In person, consumers are also willing to wait an average of 13 minutes for customer service help. The American Express study also found that over 1 in 5 or 23% of consumers have utilized social media to get a customer service response.

"Social media and social networking are no longer in their infancy. Social media continues to grow rapidly, offering global consumers new and meaningful ways to engage with the people, events and brands that matter to them,” Nielsen and NM Incite said in their Social Media Report. “The recent proliferation of mobile devices and connectivity helped fuel the continued growth of social media.”

The Nielsen and NM Incite report found that 33% of customers prefer to contact brands using social media rather than the telephone.

The Research Now and Twitter study showed that consumers expect brands to respond quickly to their queries. The study found that 24% of users consider speed as the most important attribute for customer service on Twitter, while a quarter agreed that it’s important. Seventy-one of Twitter users expect a brand to respond to their query within an hour of Tweeting, according to the study.

“Twitter is about what’s happening now,” Twitter in the blog post "Customer Service on Twitter and the impact on brands" said. “That means when it comes to customer service, users expect brands to respond quickly.”

The Future of Customer Service: Chatbots

Responding to consumers’ queries on social media channels is time-consuming and needs more manpower. Many of the queries of consumers are also repetitive. To remedy these issues, brands have engaged chatbots. A very simplistic chatbot is the one that answers your call whenever you call a company’s hotline number. Think of the “Press 1 for …. Press 2 for …. Press for…” response.

Chatbots have come a long way. Their capabilities now go beyond simplistic responses. Facebook, for instance, launched in April 2016 the “bots on Messenger” – a platform that allows businesses to deliver automated customer support, from answering commonly asked questions to selling goods and services via Facebook Messenger.

According to Facebook, in just over two months after the launched of the bots on Messenger, over 11,000 chatbots were launched on Messenger and over 23,000 developers have signed up for Wit.ai's Bot Engine – platform offered by Facebook for developers to create customized chatbots.

For example, it’s now easy to request an Uber ride via Uber’s chatbot on the Facebook Messenger platform. There’s no need to open the Uber app. To request an Uber ride, you simply search “Uber” on Messenger, start a conversation, tap the car icon and then you'll be able to see a fare estimate along with your driver's name, vehicle make and model and license plate number.

As of November 2017, Facebook reported that 2 billion messages are sent and received between consumers and businesses each month via Messenger (including both automated and people-initiated) and there are 100,000 monthly active bots on the Messenger platform.

Facebook said 53% of users who message businesses via Messenger say they are more likely to shop with a business they can message. According to telecom company Globe, using a chatbot on Facebook Messenger provides meaningful and efficient customer service. The telecom company said it successfully increased employee productivity by 3.5 times and reduced calls to its hotline by 50%.

Given that Facebook Messenger has a wide reach, developing a chatbot for your company via the Facebook Messenger is worth considering. Your organization’s customized chatbot can create real-time and scalable customer service experience that feels personal for your customers. This modern way of connecting with consumers comes with a price though, including Facebook fees and the cost for the developer who’ll develop your organization’s customized chatbot for Messenger.

Is Your Brand Ready for Voice Search?

As the market for speakers with personal assistants heats up, voice search intensifies as well.

Smart Speaker Market

Even before Google entered the smart speaker market, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in the middle of 2016 that 20% of mobile queries were voice searches.

In late 2016, Google joined the smart speaker market with its smart speaker called “Google Home”. This market was initially dominated by another tech giant Amazon with its smart speaker called “Echo”. Google Home’s personal assistant is called “Google Assistant”; Amazon Echo’s personal assistant is called “Alexa”.

Almost every tech company that has personal assistant like Microsoft (Cortana), Apple (Siri), and Samsung (Bixby) is developing a smart speaker. Just recently, Chinese internet giant Baidu unveiled its smart speaker called "Raven H". According to Gartner, worldwide spending on virtual personal assistant (VPA)-enabled wireless speakers will reach $2.1 billion by 2020, up from $360 million in 2015.

"A significant number of households could therefore have more than one unit, or even one per room," said Werner Goertz, research director at Gartner. "With smaller form factors, price erosion over the years and potential subsidization models, we expect that 75 percent of households with VPAs will have one, 20 percent will have two, and five percent will have three or more devices by 2020."

According to MindMeld, 61% of users had adopted intelligent voice assistants in the 12 months prior to October 2015. MindMeld found that the popularity of voice assistants has grown due to the hands-free feature, enabling many to do other tasks, in addition to conducting hands-free online search and online shopping as well.

The total global sales of smart speakers in 2017 is expected to reach 4 million units, with an estimated 60% of all smart speakers sold this year will run on Amazon’s Alexa platform, while Google’s Assistant will account for 20% of the sales, according to Strategy Analytics.

How Will Smart Speakers Change Consumer Behaviors

The widespread adoption of personal assistant-enabled speakers could result in an increase of online shopping orders initiated from a smart speaker instead of a laptop or mobile device, Gartner projected.

With Google Home, for instance, you can shop everyday essentials – from food supplies to toiletries. Shopping via Google Home can be done from participating Google Express retailers like Walmart, Whole Foods Market and Whole Foods Market. 

To shop via Google Home, you only have to say, for instance, “Ok, Google, order paper towels.” Setting up the shopping feature of Google Home can be done by going to the Google Home app, navigating to “More settings” and then scrolling down to “Payments.” From there, default credit card and delivery address can be set-up.

Google markets its personal assistant-enabled speaker to “understand your context – location, device you’re using, etc.” It currently understands English, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese and Korean.

According to Google, if, for instance, you decide to visit Vancouver, you can ask Google Assistant these questions:

Check the weather: “Ok Google, what’s the weather in Vancouver?”

Check flight schedule: “Ok Google, show me flights to Vancouver on Saturday”

Choose an adventure: “Ok Google, what should I do in Vancouver?”

Places to eat: “Ok Google, what are the best restaurants in Vancouver.”

"Vendors that are able to create an intimate, familiar relationship with the user will be able to contextualize ordering to the extent that preferred products will be proposed, and processing details will already be captured,” Gartner said. “As a result, the user's propensity to purchase products and services using VPA systems should increase, transactional friction could be reduced and the overall user experience would be improved."

How to Prepare Your brand for Voice Search

Given that voice search is a growing trend, here are some tips to prepare your brand for this technological advancement:

1. “Sounds Like” Issue

Comedian John Oliver and his staff created parody websites of the three major credit reporting companies EquifacksDOTcom for Equifax, experianneDOTcom for Experian and tramsonionDOTcom for TransUnion.

“It would clearly be a horrible thing if these actual companies were mistaken for these fake companies. But don’t worry – 95 percent of the time, that won’t happen. And apparently that’s good enough, right?” Oliver said.

While the parody websites of the 3 major credit reporting companies tried to get the message across that millions of people have their reputation tarnished because of major errors on their credit reports as a result of mistaken identity, this parody also showed that variations in pronunciation can affect voice search.

In voice search, take into consideration the variations in pronunciation for your brand name or key search terms. Add these variations of pronunciation to your keyword optimization strategy.

2. Rise in Longer-Tail Searches

In the last 2 years, there has been a rise of longer-tail searches. When people search online by typing words on their computers or mobile phones, shorter keywords are words. But in voice search, people tend to use longer-tail searches. For instance, if one wants to visit Vancouver, one may type in the search words “things to do Vancouver”. In voice search, people tend to use natural language like “What should I do in Vancouver”.

To improve your brand’s visibility via search results, ensure that you offer the closest answer to the voice query.

3. Question-Based Search Phrases

In voice searches, the queries tend to be in the question formats. Questions that start with the word “what” are fairly common. While voice queries expressed in question format may not immediately convert into sales, content that answers these questions could improve brand’s engagement and goodwill.

Anticipate the questions of your consumers by researching the most commonly asked questions about your brand or product and try to optimize answers for the natural language query version.

Artificial intelligence is now a reality within our midst through personal assistants like Assistant (Google), Alexa and Siri. Tech giants like Google, Amazon, Apple and Baidu are continually optimizing their virtual personal assistants to better understand the natural language of humans. Don’t allow your brand to be left behind this modern way of reaching out to your customers – via voice search.

How to Reach Last-Minute Shoppers this Holiday Season

Mobile shopping might have given shoppers the opportunity to shop early for the holiday season, but this technological innovation hasn’t changed consumers’ old habit of procrastination.

It’s never too late to launch your online campaign for last-minute shoppers. According to Google, holiday shoppers redouble their online search to find stores open nearby once it’s already too late to ship.

Here are the top 3 approaches to reach out to last-minute shoppers this holiday season:

1. Target Relevant Keywords

Let’s take a look at the search words used by holiday shoppers as compiled by Google itself.

Use of Broad Search Words

While majority of consumers have something specific in mind when they use Google search, more than 40% of searchers still use broad terms like "living room furniture” or "women's athletic clothing".

Use of “Where to buy” Search Words

In the last 2 years, mobile searches for the keywords “where to buy” have grown more than 85%. Examples of these searchers include “where to buy gift boxes”, “where to buy cards” and “where to buy ugly Christmas sweater”.

On Christmas Eve of 2016, mobile searches for “where to buy Hatchimals”, “where to buy NES classic”, “where to buy Cards Against Humanity” and “where to buy coal” rose. The “where to buy” searches specifically peaked from Dec. 18 to Dec. 23 after the shipping cutoff.

Use of “[Fill in the blank] brands” Search Words

While shoppers have something in mind to buy, they’re open to different brands. During the 2016 holiday season, mobile searches for “[fill in the blank] brands” increased. Examples of these keywords include “makeup brands” (up by 150%), best purse brands” (up by 140%) and “men’s watch brands” (up by 70%).

Use of “Store hours” Search Words

Mobile searches for “store hours” also peaked on Christmas Day 2016, with top searches including “what grocery stores are open on Christmas”, “what stores are open near me on Christmas,” and “what stores are open right now.”

“[fill in the blank] to avoid” and “is [fill in the blank] worth it” Search Words

Consumers don’t only want to know about particular items, they also want to know what specific items or products to avoid. According to Google, mobile searches for “[fill in the blank] to avoid” have increased by 150% over the past two years, while mobile searches for “is [fill in the blank] worth it” have increased by more than 80% in the past two years.

The keywords provided by Google are just general guidelines of what holiday shoppers want. In choosing the best keywords for your online campaign, it’s important to make the keywords relevant to local searchers. Based on a Google study, 4 in 5 consumers conduct their online search with their location and proximity in mind.

2. Target Mobile Phone Users

Google has offered marketers the following relevant numbers about mobile-first shoppers:

• 82% of smartphone users say they use their phones to search for the purchases they’re about to make in a store.

• 65% of smartphone users say when searching for a certain item, they consider the most relevant result regardless of the brand.

• 90% of smartphone users say they’ve no specific brand in mind when searching for an item online.

• 1 in 3 smartphone users say they’ve purchased from a brand other than the one they intended to buy as a result of the information provided at the time they needed it.

• 51% or more than half of smartphone users say they’ve found a new product or brand when conducting a search on their phones.

A Google study showed that 76% of consumers who conducted a local search on their smartphone visited a local store within a day and 28% of those searches resulted in a purchase.

3. Use Omni-Channel Approach

A 2015 to 2017 study by YouTube – video sharing platform owned by Google – showed that “shop with me” videos have grown in popularity, with watchtime rising more than 10 times in the last 2 years on mobile alone. By watching these “shop with me” videos by random YouTubers, consumers tapped the opinion of others in deciding whether to visit your store or not.

The YouTube study also found that “store tour” videos have soared in popularity, with watchtime growing by over 10 times the past 2 years. With “store tour” videos, your customers can virtually explore your store prior to physically visiting the store.

Shoppers nowadays aren’t satisfied with text or still images alone. Consumers now want to know more about the product beyond the typical product specifications. This explains the amount of time spent watching those unboxing videos of mobile phones on YouTube. Consumers want to see videos about your products or your store. Videos may be time-consuming to make, but these compliment well with your other online campaign.

4. Use Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Ad Campaign

The best way to save time and find last-minute holiday shoppers is through PPC campaign, in particular, Google AdWords as Google enjoys the biggest market share in terms of mobile searches.

These Google PPC numbers tell the story:

• Ads that appear in the top results on mobile search generate up to three times the engagement from shoppers.
• Mobile ads result in 160% more additional store visits. Mobile ads, according to Google Incrementality Study, result in doubling the number of store visits compared to desktop/tablet ads. The study found that for every 2 new store visits from desktop/tablet ads, mobile ads at the same level of ad spend result in at least 5 store visits.
• Another study from Google found that those who click on a Google ad prior to visiting a store are over 25% more likely to buy something and likely to spend over 10% more while visiting the store.
• Studies have shown that unaided brand awareness can be increased by 46% by simply showing up in mobile search ad results.

“Ultimately, showing up gets your brand in the game to be chosen, not just seen,” Google said. “By being there, your brand has the chance to address consumer needs in the moment, help move someone along their decision journey ….”

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