Author Archives: Paola Magni

Black Friday: 7 Trends You Need To Know About

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Black Friday 2021 is coming up in a few short weeks. To make the most of this holiday sales season, there are seven trends you need to know.

Black Friday history goes back to the 1960s when some started to point out heavy shopping traffic on the day after Thanksgiving. For some retailers, Black Friday deals also represent an opportunity to from the red (i.e., running at a loss) to the black (i.e., earning a profit).

Trend 1: Plan Black Friday Deals Early Or Else

Your Black Friday marketing strategy and planning needs to start weeks or months in advance. There are three significant reasons to start early: logistics, marketing, and competition.

Logistics: A Key Challenge for Black Friday Deals

Logistical challenges are continuing to impact stores around the world. A recent survey found that two-thirds of logistics managers shift to local and regional suppliers rather than international suppliers (source). Multiple companies have faced shortages getting products shipped from Asia. Placing orders early and allowing for additional shipping time is one way to mitigate this threat.

Black Friday Marketing Is Getting More Competitive

Research indicates that customers start to think about Black Friday sales far in advance from a marketing perspective.; Keap, a leading ecommerce software company, encourages businesses to start talking about Black Friday deals several weeks in advance. To take advantage of those early conversations, make an effort to have your content marketing assets and social media updates ready early.

Competitive Pressure

The days of running a Black Friday sale on a single day appear to be over. Several major retailers are approaching the event differently. For example, Amazon has created its shopping event, “Prime Day,” which lasts several days. According to; Jungle Scout, some customers are starting their holiday shopping as early as October.

In 2020, several companies like Sam’s Club, Best Buy, Target, and Kohl’s started their Black Friday promotions before Thanksgiving (source). In addition, a growing number of companies are focusing their efforts on “Cyber Monday” sales. Cyber Monday promotions generated approximately $10 billion in sales in 2020, according to; CNBC.

The lessons are clear. To be competitive in Black Friday promotions, you need to act early. It is also wise to plan out different kinds of promotions before and after Thanksgiving. For example, you could run pre-Black Friday, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday deals. You don’t have to choose one option in the Black Friday vs Cyber Monday debate – you can offer other sales on each day.

Trend 2: Use Live Streaming Events To Attract Attention 

Standing out in the crowded marketplace of Black Friday deals is getting complicated. However, there are still ways you can stand out without cutting prices further. For example, you can use live streaming events to showcase your products.

Take note of the following live stream events that generated attention and sales over the past year:

  • Macy’s. In 2020,; Macy’s had a virtual live stream parade instead of the traditional in-person event. If an event with a ninety-year history can go virtual, anything is possible! Flexibility in marketing Black Friday is necessary.
  • Instagram. Instead of waiting for Black Friday promotions to arrive, Instagram has pioneered something new. On Sept 1, 2021, the company announced ten days of live shopping events. According to; Social Media Today, 27% of shoppers have tried Live Shopping in the past year, and many are planning to increase their Live Shopping this year.

Running these live stream events takes some planning. It’s not enough to hold your products up to the camera. To help you create an interesting virtual event, download our virtual events ebook.

Trend 3: COVID-19 Isn’t Gone Yet!

Businesses have to face facts: the COVID-19 pandemic is still with us in 2021. While public health measures and vaccines are making progress, the effort is far from over. That means that your stores may be closed or subject to limits. That’s not all. Some customers may be reluctant to gather in large crowds, even for amazing Black Friday deals.

As a business, there are a few ways you can address the pandemic and the suffering it has caused in your community.

Companies like Dollar General, Instacart, Kroger, and McDonald’s (source) have all announced efforts to encourage employees to get vaccinated. Offering paid time off to get vaccinated is one crucial way to make infection less likely.

  •  Offer curbside pick-up and delivery options.

As a result of 2020, an increasing number of employees have shifted to buying online. To stay competitive, offer online purchases. For delivery service, companies have multiple options like traditional delivery companies and newer options like DoorDash. Offering these options means you can still succeed even if your physical stores are closed.

Spacing out your sales can help to relieve pressure on your employees. Pushing employees too hard may cause some wonder, “Is Black Friday a holiday?” and call in sick that day!

Trend 4: Black Lives Matter #BlackoutBlackFriday

Your Black Friday marketing strategy should consider social justice movements like Black Lives Matter and #BlackoutBlackFriday. For example, companies are aiming to help address racial equality by purchasing products from Black-owned companies. According to the; 15% Pledge, multiple companies have already commited to buying at least 15% of their products from Black-owned businesses like J Crew, Macy’s, Nordstrom, and Old Navy.

Signing up for the 15% pledge isn’t the only way to get involved, either. Take a look at how other companies are addressing racial issues.

  • Sephora. According to the; Washington Post, the fashion company has announced that it will reduce the number of security guards at its stores and buy more products from Black-owned companies. The company is also training its staff to greet customers equally to reduce racial bias.
  • Learn About; #BlackoutBlackFriday. A growing number of consumers are expressing their displeasure with companies by boycotting them. According to Blackout Friday, activists encourage people to avoid Walmart, Best buy, and national chains and buy from small, locally owned businesses instead.

Trend 5: Use Inventory Shortages As An Advantage

Scarcity is one of the best ways to sell products. In 2021, your business might struggle to keep every product in stock. You can turn those shortages into an advantage. How?

On your website, highlight products that have limited inventory: “X units remaining in stock.” Low inventory can nudge customers to act more quickly to purchase products.

For example, Best Buy runs a “Deal of The Day” promotion with limited quantities of each product. In this case, the company creates scarcity by putting a deadline of 24 hours on each sale item.

Trend 6: Get More Reviews For Your Products

When more people share their reviews and opinions of your products, it’s easier to sell your products. Getting more reviews on your products takes work. Keep in mind that you can keep those reviews on your website for months and years to come! So it is well worth the effort to get more reviews.

To help you get more reviews, use these tips.

  • Review customer feedback. A large number of customer complaints on the Better Business Bureau website is a bad sign. For example, Zaful has more than 200 complaints on the Better Business Bureau website. It is wise to address ongoing customer complaints before requesting additional reviews.
  • Ask For Reviews. Considering putting an insert in the box asking customers to leave a review. Specifically ask customers to leave positive reviews is a good idea as well. When you receive positive reviews, consider sending a thank you card to customers to show them that you care.
  • Influencers. Sending a free product to influencers or paying for a sponsored post isn’t the same as a customer review. However, customers may still perceive it as a credible option. Several services can help you to find influencers relevant to your brand. For instance,; Upfluence has services and software that make finding influencers to promote your brand easier. Remember that influencers with a smaller following are usually cheaper to work with than influencers with a larger audience. According to; Influencer Marketing Hub, nano-influencers (i.e., 1,000 to 10,000 followers) typically charge between $10 to $100 per post.
  • Can we mention here something related with customer review in the chat. Live Review to live shopping?

Trend 7: Earn More Sales With CRO and ML

Machine learning technology is here, and it can help you to make more sales during Black Friday. Of all the trends mentioned here, machine learning is one of the more complex opportunities. If your company has limited technical expertise, consider revisiting machine learning and conversion rate optimization (CRO) in the new year.

Before you optimize your results, you need to collect a significant amount of data. If you only have data on 10 or 100 customers, it won’t detect patterns. You can collect data from multiple sources like website analytics (e.g., Google Analytics), social media, and customer buying activity.

Once your customer data collection efforts are set up, it is essential to stay organized. That’s where a CDP (customer data platform) platform plays an important role. The; Arena CDP makes it easy to understand customer behavior in one place. For example, you can see how a single customer interacted with your brand on social media, visited your chat room, and went on to make a purchase.

Check out these resources for inspiration on what’s possible to achieve with conversion rate optimization and machine learning.

  • Nosto. This ecommerce software platform helps companies earn more sales through personalization. Kate Somerville increased revenue by 14% using Nosto.
  • Syte. This conversion rate optimization platform helps brands in fashion, home décor, and jewelry earn more sales. By using the platform, PrettyLittleThing was able to; double its conversion rate.

Conclusion

With these trends in mind, you can confidently start planning your Black Friday deals. Across the world, we are starting to see increasing signs of a global economic recovery. Employment in the USA, Canada, and other countries is increasing. The long-term effects of the pandemic are not yet apparent. However, there are clear signs that the economy is opening up and consumers are ready to shop.

Set your Cyber Monday deals apart from the competition by offering live chat on your website. To see how Arena Live Chat works in your business, sign up for a; free 14 day trial.

Social Stream for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics

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Social Stream is a feature that can further enhance your Tokyo Olympics news coverage.

Bringing together the biggest names in more than 40 sports, the Olympic Games will undoubtedly be the biggest event of the year.

And for the first time in the history of the Olympics, the event will take place without the physical presence of an audience.

Indeed, millions of people across the planet will turn their attention exclusively to the screens of TVs, computers and cell phones to follow the disputes for medals and record-breaking performances.

The games are scheduled to officially kick-off on July 23rd.

But the fight for the best coverage, from the Opening Ceremony to the Closing Ceremony, has already started.

Check out below how you can improve your audience’s experience with Arena’s solutions.

Live Blog? Live Chat? Yes, for sure!

If your goal during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics includes audience engagement and revenue generation, Arena Live Blog and Live Chat can be your greatest allies.

Live Blog is the most suitable platform for real-time coverage.

Allowing instant text, image, audio and video content posting, the tool is very easy to install and operate.

Furthermore, Live Blog delivers a unique experience for the audience. Which, in turn, responds with more time spent on the website.

To find out how Live Blog Arena can boost your Olympic Games broadcast, check out the article we’ve prepared here.

Live Chat instantly connects your audience – with your brand and among each other – by exchanging text messages.

It offers features that encourage immediate user participation, such as polls and Q&A.

This gets them deeply involved in the broadcast.

And it can be summed up in just two words that are equivalent to gold in the digital universe: audience engagement.

Speaking of gold, both Live Chat and Live Blog make it possible to monetize your content.

Whether through display advertising insertion, or even direct conversion opportunities, a live stream can easily become a source of new revenue.

See how this happens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8RDp6yxcqg

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Now, to elevate the relevance of the Tokyo 2021 Olympics digital broadcast in the vast ocean of content, there is a secret: Social Stream.

What is Social Stream?

Social Stream is an Arena Live Blog feature that allows you to integrate third-party hashtags and social profiles into a live stream event page.

For example: during a football match, it is possible to automatically include posts from the clubs’ official social channels.

This way, real-time coverage gains much more life, being enriched by contents from influencers and institutions.

And it avoids dispersion of the audience you’ve won to other platforms or social networks.

Today, it is possible to include social content from the following networks:

  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Reddit
  • web
  • Other (RSS)

Learn, step-by-step, how to set up your Social Stream. Also, checkout how Fox Sports Australia already leverages Social Stream in its live sports coverage.

Social Stream at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics

Arena has prepared a gift for you. And it will boost your Social Stream for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

It’s nothing more, nothing less than a spreadsheet filled with all the main profiles related to Olympic Games sports.

With them, your stream will be even more complete and powerful.

How to Create The Best Live Sports Streaming Events

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Creating a live sports streaming event is vitally important today for two reasons. It helps you to keep fans engaged in your event rather than drifting away to other activities. It is also vital because it is becoming the de facto industry standard, so you need to offer it to remain competitive.

How to Create The Best Live Sports Streaming Events

1. Understand your sports audience

Deeply understanding your audience is the foundation of creating an effective live sports streaming event. Use the following questions to gather information.

  • What are the most popular pre-event rituals your fans go through?
  • What do fans like to eat and drink during the event?
  • This tip is vital if you run a live sports streaming event for a sport you do not know personally.
  • Which athletes have the largest following and why?
  • By identifying the best-known players in advance, you can focus your effort on learning about them, highlighting their careers and past interviews.
  • What frustrates sports fans during live events?
  • Are there less exciting parts of the game (e.g., disputes over rules) that you could make more interesting?
  • What are your favorite sports memories, and what made them memorable?
  • Reflect on what made the event memorable. It might have been sharing a major team victory with friends or family, getting an autograph, or the excitement of attending your first game.

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Discuss these questions with your coworkers to gain their perspectives. Based on this information, you can start to develop specific engagement ideas in the next step. By the way, don’t be afraid to look at other sports for commentary ideas (e.g., if you usually focus on football, watch a live basketball game and see how other sports journalists comment on it).

2. Brainstorm live sports engagement ideas

With a better understanding of your audience, you can develop some ideas to enhance your live sports streaming. Stay organized by using the following categories.

Known Pre-Game Facts and Stats

Before the event, prepare a few ideas for comment and other ways you can engage fans. In particular, keep an eye out for fan favorites

  • Sports Statistics. You don’t have to know every sports statistic. However, it is helpful to know a few critical facts about key players. For a baseball game, you might track the batting average for the top batters.
  • Notable Absences. Make a note of any players absent from the game due to illness, injury, penalty, or other reasons. The loss of a star player could impact play.

Fan Monitoring

  • Make a list of at least ten active sports fans’ social media accounts. Ideally, you want to find fans who tend to post different content like data fans, followers of certain players, and humorous players.
  • Ask an assistant to help you with monitoring fan commentary during the broadcast.

Expert Commentary

  • Nearly every major sport has analysts and other experts. Make a list of at least five of these experts before the event. You can highlight comments from them as the event unfolds.
  • As with the fan monitoring idea, ask an assistant to help you with this step.

3. Set up and test live sports streaming technology

In this critical step, you will need to choose and select your technology for live streaming. For this discussion, let’s assume that the video broadcast itself is in place. Multiple channels and streaming services might be showing the same game. Adding engagement technology is one way to make your event memorable.

Two specific technologies are beneficial in creating an engaging live sports event.

  • Live Chat. Invite viewers to participate in your coverage by using Live Chat. You can install Live Chat on your website in less than a minute by copying one line of code. Are you worried about Internet trolls disrupting your event? You can ban users discretely without drawing attention away from the game.
  • Live Blog. Arena’s Live Blog makes it easy to encourage live discussion as the event unfolds. You can also post photos and videos. You can also invite your editors and coworkers to join you with Live Blog so that you can cover the eventfully.

Tip: Make sure you choose a technology that has built-in moderation capabilities to keep profanity under control.

4. Reach out to key sports fans in advance

When you first start a live chat, it is vital to have at least a few participants join in the conversation. If your website has high traffic, letting people know about the live chat opportunity might be enough. However, you don’t have to leave the event to chance.

Instead, take a proactive approach and invite a few critical fans to join the discussion. For example, you might want to reach out to smaller influencers (i.e., 1,000 to 10,000 followers on social media) and invite them to your live chat in advance of the event. To make the invitation more attractive, offer to highlight their most insightful comments during the live event.

5. Practice your live sports streaming with a small group

Learning to use new technology effectively takes some practice. That’s why we suggest planning a practice run. In this way, you can make mistakes and master your learning curve in front of a small audience of colleagues rather than tens of thousands of fans.

To make the most of your practice run, aim to simulate the live sporting event. For example, consider playing a recording of a recent game to simulate a live event. Ask some of your colleagues to act in different roles, such as sports fans, sports commentators, and assistants.

6. Run the live sports streaming event

You’ve done your homework, prepared your technology, and practiced your technique. Now you are ready to get down to work. Use the following tips to keep your live sports event running smoothly.

  • Start Early. Launch your video stream and live blog at least five minutes before the game starts. This added time will give you a chance to engage with the audience before the action starts.
  • Offer Your Commentary. As the sporting event unfolds, provide commentary on the players, techniques, and background information.
  • Use Commercial Breaks. Many professional-level sports events have commercial breaks scheduled into the game. Give yourself the chance to take a short break from screens so that you can come back focused.
  • Leverage Your Research. In a previous step, you researched the teams and players. Whenever the sport slows down, offer some of your findings. For example, you might share some notes from a famous player’s pre-game ritual (e.g. Cesc Fabregas, a Chelsea midfielder kisses a ring given to him by his wife four times before playing).
  • Highlight Your Guests. As a sports journalist, it isn’t easy to be an expert in everything! Fortunately, Arena Live Blog makes it easy to invite in your colleagues.
  • Feature social media comments. Take a few minutes to share social media posts from fans in your broadcast.

Now you are ready for the final step in creating the best live sports streaming events.

7. Debrief after the event

Developing mastery in running the best live sports streaming events takes practice. There is one way you can get better faster. Within 24 hours of the live event, schedule some time to debrief about the event. Ask yourself and others who worked with you three simple questions

What went well?

You might have found that content curation from social media was a big success in keeping fans engaged.

What didn’t go well?

Few live events go exactly as planned. Identify what went wrong (e.g., technical problems) and make a plan to address them next time.

What should we keep doing next time? What should we stop doing next time?

This final pair of questions is an excellent place to end your reflection because it keeps you focused on the future. To keep life simple, limit yourself to one or two lessons learned from each event. By repeating this step with each live event, you will keep getting better and better.

Use Arena To Improve Your Live Sports Streaming Event

Make it easy to involve your audience in your coverage by installing Arena. You can install Arena on your website in less than a minute. Not sure if it is right for you? Do it like Fox Sports and sign up today for a 14 free trial. See for yourself how Arena can make your live sports coverage even more engaging.

How to engage Sports Fans in the Digital World

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The boom in online sports media is a two-edged sword for sports broadcasters. On the one side, it is a threat because you have to compete with bloggers, data analysts, and super fans offering their views like Deadspin, Barstool Sports, ESPN, and Bad Jocks. On the flip side, broadcasters have powerful new tools to engage sports fans today.

Enriching sports broadcasting with a Live Blog

A Live Blog is a way to engage fans by providing rapid posts and updates as a game unfolds.

Adding live blogging to your sports coverage matters for a few key reasons. Speed is the first one. If it takes you too long to post expert commentary on scores and players, fans will likely drift away to other channels that give them up to the minute coverage. The ability to engage quickly and easily with fans is the second. Check out how Fox Sports Australia masters Live Blog for sports coverage.

Using a Live Blog matters in sports coverage because it is a fast way to provide coverage. It gives fans a reason to pay attention to you rather than looking at other experts.

Four tips for engaging your fans with a Live Blog

A Live Blog, on its own, will not keep your fans excited to stay interested. It would be best if you had a strategy to keep engaged. Draw from these ideas when you need inspiration to keep your sports audience engaged and following.

1. Provide play by play commentary on the game

Start by closely following the game as it unfolds. Think of your favorite radio and TV sports journalists as role model. Make sure you cover the key developments in the game in your Live Blog.

2. Share short interviews

Commercial breaks, injuries, and other developments sometimes slow down the action in sports. In these cases, share short interviews in your Live Blog. Before the game, interview a few players about their habits and hopes for the game. Share these short Q&A interviews during the game.

3. Explain sports rules

Almost every sport has complex rules designed to guarantee fairness. Sometimes, a dispute over rules can decide the outcome of a game like how many penalty shots a team gets. In your Live Blog, get ready to provide commentary on critical disputes over rules so that even casual fans can understand what’s happening.

4. Pull from the history of sports

Most sports have rich histories that go back decades or longer. Pull out your favorite reference websites and books to share sports history in your Live Blog. For example, if a player sets a new record in the game (e.g., Italy set a new record for final tournament goals in 2021), you can offer a quick blog post on the last person who set the record.

5. Share insights from business of sports

Some sports fans find the business side of sports fascinating. In advance of the game, make notes on important business deals like players signing significant contracts. Forbes reports that the four athletes like soccer stars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott earned over $100 million in 2020. Writing a Live Blog on the sports business is a way to deepen your understanding of sports and engage fans.

There is one caveat to keep in mind. When you run a live sports blog, there is a temptation to report every rumor that comes up. If you see a rumor of a potential trade or sponsorship, do your homework to verify the rumor before reporting it.

Talk with your sports audience directly with Live Chat

A Live Blog is a great way to provide up-to-minute live coverage. There’s just one drawback to it – it is more difficult for the audience to join the conversation. There’s a solution to that problem. Add Live Chat to your website so that sports fans can share their comments with you and other fans.

Sports conversations are happening every day around the world – online and offline. By adding Live Chat to your website, you can bring those conversations to your platform. When fans have the opportunity to be heard by their favorite sports broadcasters, they are more likely to stay engaged and loyal to your coverage.

Four tips for connecting with sports fans through Live Chat

When you are first getting started with a sports online chat room, you might not be share how to keep the conversation going. Use the following tips to lead the conversation.

1. Prepare a list of questions to encourage engagement

A well-crafted question is almost impossible to resist! That’s why we recommend asking questions to the audience. For example, you can ask fans if they agree with the coach’s strategy to change players. Alternatively, you might ask fans to share their predictions for a tournament. Preparing at least three to five questions in advance for your Live Chat session is well worth the effort.

2. Ask an assistant to highlight interesting contributions

With Arena Live Chat, you can invite thousands of people to your online chat room. When you have many sports fans sharing their passionate views, keeping up with the commentary may be difficult. First, don’t worry about responding to every comment. Second, ask an assistant to monitor the Live Chat room and pull out interesting questions and comments. By specifically responding to thoughtful comments to feature in your coverage, you will encourage fans to make positive comments.

3. Thank fans for contributing to the Live Chat

As the Live Chat session comes to an end, take the time to thank fans for contributing. When possible, make your thanks specific. Consider calling out a few specific chat room comments that made your life or made you think. This kind of public recognition may help bring back passionate sports fans on your next Live Chat session.

4. Keep the trolls out

Like it or not, some people are troublemakers in the online world. Fortunately, sports broadcasters don’t have to worry about security and riots. But disrespectful comments and profanity are still problems that need to be managed. Arena Live Chat includes features to control your trolls quickly and painlessly. Arena Live Chat also includes a feature to automatically detect and block profanity – a key feature when fans get upset!

Two Steps To Getting Started With Arena

Your choice at this point is simple. Step one: decide whether you want to start with Live Chat or Live Blog. Step two: sign up for a free Arena trial to see how live chatting and live blogging work for your fans.

How to Use Live Blog for Tokyo 2021 Olympics

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Arena Live Blog can be your biggest ally in broadcasting the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Check out how Fox Sports Australia leverages it and, boy, will you be amazed.

Starting on July 23, the Olympic Games are the biggest sporting event on the planet.

After all, it’s not every day that you see the world’s greatest athletes competing for medals and set new records for speed, skill and endurance.

There’s also incredible competition for sports broadcasters and audiences to attract and hold the attention of sports audiences. Simply broadcasting the event with commentary is not good enough. Today’s sports fans expect a more interactive experience.

Arena Live Blog has what you need to enrich your audience’s experience.

Keep reading to find five steps to make your broadcast of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics more engaging.

What Is a Live Blog?

A Live Blog is the natural evolution of traditional blogs. Also called live updates, journalists have been using live blogs to cover events for years. 

By bringing together words, images, audio and video, you can offer a unique experience to your audience. The result? More interaction, greater audience and a loyal audience that keeps coming back to your content over and over again.

Using Arena Live Blog In Your 2021 Tokyo Olympics Coverage: Step By Step

Getting started with Arena Live Blog is easy. In the following steps, you will see a few ways to use the app to make your coverage more engaging for fans.

Step 1: Create an event in Arena Live Blog

The first step is to create an event using the Arena Dashboard.

Choose your sport from the list and get started. If you don’t see a certain sport listed (e.g. Track & Field), click the “Other Sports” option.

To stay organized, give your event a name (e.g. 2021 Olympics Coverage – Basketball Game 1), enter the date and time, and description. You can also add tags and image to the event to make it even more visually appealing.

Tip: Is your event starting in just a few minutes? Choose the “Live” event status to start your event right away. If you are planning your Olympics coverage in advance, choose the “Upcoming” option in Event Status.

To keep sports fans engaged in your coverage, there are two critical features you should turn on: Enable Comments and Chat Room. 

In some cases – like a high stakes final event – you might want to turn on the profanity filter to keep inappropriate comments out of the chat.

Adding Advertising Revenue To Your Coverage

If you have a paid account, you can add advertising to your Live Blog easily.

Simply add sponsored ads during the post flow.

Step 2: Add Social Media Directly To Your Coverage with Social Stream

Live Blog Arena allows you to add channels and social media profiles to further enhance your Tokyo 2021 Olympics broadcast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC29QyokpME

Today, you can enrich your Live Blog with content from: 

  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Reddit
  • web
  • Other (RSS)

Important Note: Some content may be protected by copyright. Arena is not responsible for any copyright violations. To reduce the chance of copyright problems and complaints, contact social media users in advance of adding them to your coverage and ask for permission to include them in your Live Blog. 

To learn how to configure your Social Stream, click here and access the complete walkthrough.

Step 3: Plan Ahead For Surprises With Publication Planning

When you cover a global event like the Olympic Games, it is important to be ready for surprises. For example, a country might win its first gold medal. In the Rio Olympics in 2016, Joseph Schooling won the first ever gold medal for Singapore. 

It’s not just medals. Athletes can suddenly suffer a surprising injury or break a world record that changes the outcome of a competition.

Anyone covering the 2021 Tokyo Olympics needs to be very well prepared for surprises. That’s why Arena’s Live Blog lets you create content in advance. 

In essence, you can create a “reserve” of content to use when you need. For example, you might ask your assistant to write profiles on the top 10 tennis players at the 2021 Olympics because some of the most famous tennis players like Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem are not competing in Tokyo. By having short profiles on potential winners prepared in advance, you can impress your audience who may not be familiar with less well known players.

By enriching your live blog coverage in this way, you will not be at a loss when a sudden surprise happens. That means your audience will stay glued to your coverage and keep returning to your coverage over and over again.

Step 4: Keep Your Audience Coming Back To Your Coverage

It’s a fact that sports fans have many different options to watch the Olympics. Even if a sports fan likes your coverage, they might get distracted and start watching a different broadcast. Offering high quality coverage is one way to keep fans coming back. But that’s not your only option.

You can also send reminders to your audience to invite them back to your sports coverage each day. Use the Conversion Cards feature in Live Blog Arena to invite fans to stay engaged with your Olympics coverage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8RDp6yxcqg

To activate and configure Conversion Cards, click Engagement in the left menu.

Step 5: Set Up Real Time Tracking

Besides sports knowledge, there is one more way sports broadcasters can get ahead: showing their numbers. When you can show your executives and advertisers that your audience is highly engaged, you can get promoted and assigned to more coverage.

The best part? You don’t have to wait for the event to end to get stats. With the Arena Dashboard you can easily follow your streaming statistics in real time.

By clicking on Analytics in the left menu, you can see your audience engagement through metrics such as Page Views and Online Users. You can also track these metrics throughout your session.

By using analytics, you will never have to guess what fans are most interested in. Instead, you can look at the analytics data to improve your coverage.

For example, you might see that engagement spikes up when you respond to comments from sports fans. In that case, you might set a reminder to yourself to glance at the comments every few minutes.

Tokyo 2021 complete Sports List

The Olympic Games are officially set to begin on July 23rd.

From the Opening Ceremony all the way to the Closing Ceremony, a worldwide audience will keep up with the greatest athletes from the following sports:

  • 3×3 Basketball
  • Archery
  • Artistic Gymnastics
  • Artistic Swimming
  • Athletics
  • Badminton
  • Baseball/ Softball
  • Basketball
  • Beach Volleyball
  • Boxing
  • Canoe Slalom
  • Canoe Sprint
  • Cycling BMX Freestyle
  • Cycling BMX Racing
  • Cycling Mountain Bike
  • Cycling Road
  • Cycling Track
  • Diving
  • Equestrian
  • Fencing
  • Football
  • Golf
  • Handball
  • Hockey
  • Judo
  • Karate
  • Marathon Swimming
  • Modern Pentathlon
  • Rhythmic Gymnastics
  • Rugby
  • Sailing
  • Shooting
  • Skateboarding
  • Sport Climbing
  • Surfing
  • Swimming
  • Table Tennis
  • Taekwondo
  • Tennis
  • Trampoline Gymnastics
  • Volleyball
  • Water Polo
  • Weightlifting
  • Wrestling

Regardless of the results in each one, Tokyo 2021 has already made Olympic history.

Check out the complete Olympic schedule here. 

Conclusion

Despite COVID-19, the 2021 Olympic Games are going to be the biggest sports event of the year. That’s not all. Since the Olympic organizers have prohibited in person audiences, sports fans will have to rely on coverage from TV stations, journalists and analysts to follow the games.

Whether from television, computer, mobile or tablet, sports enthusiasts and fans around the world will eagerly consume news about their favorite sports and athletes.

As we write this, many of the world’s leading sports journalists have already arrived in Tokyo to start their Olympics coverage. To compete with their coverage, use Live Blog Arena to make your Tokyo 2021 Olympics coverage an unforgettable experience.

Customer Engagement Strategy Using Live Chat

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Today customer’s expectations from a brand have risen from mere marketing of freebies and discounts to a brand’s ability to relate with the “human element”. To earn loyalty, customers want the brands to interact with them and prove their worth in this cutting-edge consumer market.

What is Customer Engagement?

Customer engagement in simple words is the relationship between a customer and a business. To ensure customer engagement, companies work towards creating a relationship with their customers to improve brand awareness and brand loyalty.

Customer engagement is crucial to a brand’s interaction with its customers. A highly engaged customer will be more aware of the brand’s vision and mission, and will likely become part of the loyal customer base.

What is a Customer Engagement Strategy?

Customer engagement strategy is defined as the tools businesses use to build strong and engaging relationships with customers. It also involves anticipating customer’s needs, solving their problems and helping them achieve their goals.

An effective customer engagement strategy builds long lasting impressions in the minds of consumers. It also increases awareness of the brand and improves customer engagement. 

The key to a strong customer engagement strategy is to introduce technologies that favor user interaction, user retention on the page, sales, and user participation with the content.

Some of the famous brands like Coca Cola, Starbucks, Rogers Media, Super Bowl, and Apple are renowned around the world for their inspiring and effective customer engagement strategies. Let us take a look at a few of them.

1. Coca Cola

When it comes to marketing, Coca Cola is usually ahead of the game. In 2012, Coca Cola launched a marketing campaign called “ShareACoke” where the company’s logo was replaced by some of the most common names of people in the US. Adding a name to the bottle spoke to the consumers on a personal level and thus became a powerful marketing strategy. 

Within the first year, people shared more than 500,000 photos via the #ShareaCoke hashtag. The campaign became consumer driven where highly active users on social media channels began sharing their pictures with friends and family. 

Thus consumers were acting as creative directors for the brand itself which led to a high engagement on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

2. Starbucks

Starbucks sets a great example of establishing strong customer engagement strategies every year. “My Starbucks Rewards” program was launched in 2009 which allowed Mobile Order & Pay feature where customers would order ahead of time and pick up their orders in the store. This allowed them to cut lines and order through convenience of their phone.

In addition, the rewards program also allowed consumers to check their balance, make use of their star points and earn free coffee refills or food items.

Starbucks doesn’t just limit its marketing projects to social media but also to a wider digital audience. In one of the campaigns called Starbucks’ Love Project, the company collaborated with several artists such as Dave Matthews, John Legend and U2 to create “All You Need Is Love CD.” 

In participating Starbucks locations, customers would get a free CD with a purchase of $15 or more. They were then invited to upload their video to become part of a massive sing-along. Thousands came on board!

3. Superbowl

We are all familiar with Superbowl — the iconic game that generates one of the biggest days for advertising in the US! Companies can learn amazing lessons from the way Superbowl advertisers harness the power of customer engagement in their campaigns. Many organizations even utilize the pre-gaming screen time to start advertising their products and services ahead of the game. 

For example Uber’s pre-gaming marketing featured #UberPuppyBowl; hashtag and promoted the chance for select Uber offices to enjoy a 15 minute cuddle huddle with puppies in select Uber’s offices.

Today with the rise of social media, organizations are leveraging the power of both the mainstream as well as social media platforms to advertise their products. During last year’s Superbowl, Avocados From Mexico’s advertisement featuring Molly Ringwald didn’t receive as much traction as they were expecting.

However, the brand took to Twitter’s live-tweeting responses for the rest of their ads and the halftime show, garnering more attention than their original ad!

Creating a Compelling Customer Engagement Strategy Using Live Chat

User interaction, retention and participation are key elements in creating a compelling customer engagement strategy. This helps improve sales and builds long lasting impressions. 

One of the tools that can help you create a compelling engagement strategy is the live chat feature. Companies are now utilizing live chats during webinars, online conferences, live events and for free ecommerces. 

A live chat feature improves customer experience, builds stronger branding, and helps you gain a competitive edge over your competition. 

Whether you work with small or large businesses, in 2021, you absolutely need a Live Chat tool as part of your marketing strategy. Although live chat feature has been around for a while, companies are now proactively using it on their websites and social media platforms.

Here are some of the strategies you can use to improve your customer engagement through live chat features.

Create Positive Brand Perception

Brands all around the world strive to create a positive perception for their products and services. Live chat can be a useful tool to help you achieve that perception through real-time user engagement. During your brand’s live event broadcasts such as webinars, fashion shows, conferences, concerts, or stand up comedies, you can use the live chat feature for your viewers to engage not just with the content but also with one another in real-time.

Live chat provides you more opportunities to make meaningful connections, which will further promote your brand perception and awareness. There is a power in the ripple effect that a good word of mouth can cause!

Improve KPIs

When working with live chat tools, companies need to understand how to improve their KPIs to ensure positive results. Technologies such as live chat tools can be forefront in creating real-time engagement for your brand. 

When customers interact with an event on your website, they might pose questions about a product launch or may generally be interested in knowing more about your brand. Ensuring the interaction doesn’t stay one-sided, you can take that time to answer the questions for the viewers.  

In addition, you can improve your KPIs in other productive ways too. For example if many customers are asking the same questions over and over again, it is a better idea to include an FAQ page on your website.  

Create an Online Community

Live Chat feature is not only about consumer and business interaction, it is also about consumer to consumer interaction. During live webinars and online events, you can set up a live chat where the viewers can interact with each other. A great example of live chat interaction can be seen on YouTube live videos where viewers communicate with one another by every second.

Other companies like Daily Telegraph, City Gates, CA, Bridgend College, Fox Sports have been using the live chat feature creatively on their social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

Provide a Personalized User Experience

When interacting with a brand, customers look for a personalized experience that can address their demands. A personalized real-time experience increases customer satisfaction and improves the perceived value of your brand.

Rather than treating your customer as a transaction or another name on your email list, approach them as human beings who have goals, interests, and preferences. Through a carefully tailored experience, you can help them achieve those goals.

Increase Your Revenue

According to an eMarketer survey on the attitude towards US online buyers who used live chat showed that 63% users were more likely to visit a site again. And 62% of the respondents who engaged through a live chat feature said that they were more likely to purchase from the site again.

Having a live chat feature on your website can have a significant impact on your sales. Using a chat tool during a purchase can influence your customer’s decision to continue with the purchase.

Conclusion

Companies all around the world use multiple tools to improve their online visibility, user experience and sales. Many argue that a positive customer experience is pivotal to success of a business and we couldn’t agree more.

According to a study by AMA Access on how B2B marketers are leveraging live chat to increase their sales, the research found that throughout the customer journey, companies can use live chat to improve: 

  • Marketing awareness by 29%
  • Conversion to create sales suspects by 39%
  • Post-sales customer support and engagement by 39%

Try our freemium Live Chat tool Arena to stay on the top of your marketing game, implement effective customer engagement strategies and produce happy customers!

Customer Engagement Strategies to Boost Businesses

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You have heard how important customer engagement is for so many times now. But what does having an effective customer engagement strategy really mean? Is it all about giving your prospects and customers a seamless experience with your products and services? Or is it all about keeping up to date with your latest offerings? 

Today, we will talk about taking your business to a whole new level by understanding in depth what customer engagement is and employing effective strategies that will make them advocates of the brand you are building this 2021.

What is Customer Engagement?

Customer engagement is a facet of Marketing where external customers or companies interact with a brand through various channels – offline and online. Simply put, it is when a prospect or a customer “connects” emotionally with your brand. 

One of the goals of every marketer is to keep the customers engaged even after they have successfully closed the sale.

Besides growing your revenue and boosting your brand awareness, customer engagement is all about treating your customers like a gift that keeps on giving because according to a study, 84% of customers say that being treated like a human being and having their needs met by a business is crucial in their buying decision because 70% of buying decisions come from how customers feel at the time of their purchase.

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There are many factors to consider when we think about the statistics but if we provide a platform that will help our prospects feel that they are prioritized, then all the more that we can expect sales closures of your brand.

Customer Engagement Strategies

1. Give the best Customer Experience (CX) to your prospects

Putting your customers’ needs first will always bring good business. Once you get this part covered, it will deliver benefits to your business, like increased customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, and more positive reviews when it comes to word-of-mouth marketing.

Before implementing any automation for your business, try walking into your customers’ shoes and see if it answers their needs and if it leads them to your ultimate goal of making a sale.

2. Implement automation to increase productivity

As part of optimizing the customer experience, it is very important to implement features in your business that will make your customers feel prioritized with less amount of hassle on your part.

Using Arena’s features and technology like Live Chat and Live Blog where you can customize your brand’s responses to customer’s possible queries, publishing content real-time in a blog format are some automation examples that not only will it improve customer engagement but will give your customers a better walkthrough of your brand but will save you a lot of time and manpower requirements.

3. Collate data on points of interaction and customer behavior across your platform

The implementation of this strategy starts by asking the question, “At what point do my customers start inquiring and at what point do my prospects abandon the usage of my platform?”

There are tons of ways to gather these types of data and with the help of analytics, you will be able to pinpoint the instances on where you are going to focus interaction and where you are lagging for you to act. 

4. Offer personalized service

There is nothing better when customers feel that the products or services they use are meant for them.

As we have discussed earlier, customer engagement is enabling an “emotional connection” between the customer and the business with the intent of them not just continually purchasing but for them to become advocates of your product or service.

In observation of this strategy, companies like Arena help businesses ease out their operations by providing customers with Live Chat features that are easily customizable and will fit the needs of your target audience.

5. Take feedback seriously

In this day and age, we are able to deliver products and services to our customers even without seeing their faces. But that does not mean that we can slack off on resolving customer feedback, whether it is positive or otherwise. Because of this phenomenon, you must consider feedback as your friend.

There must be a reason behind customers not pushing through with the purchase. And it is our duty as marketers to identify what went wrong, in which part did we lack support, and how to further meet customer expectations. Just sending out short surveys will do.

Remember, feedback is a gift. Customers are not required to respond to our surveys but once they do, it is their message to us that there may be areas for improvement and they need to see changes. That is one characteristic of customer-centric service.

The Five Stages of Customer Engagement

Marketing practices today have changed a lot of decades before. And with similarity to a business entity, Customer Engagement also has a life cycle.

The intent of identifying the five stages of customer engagement will help businesses simplify which action plan to take and make it more manageable because not all business models are alike and customer engagement data can come from an infinite number of sources.

1. Discover

Before you get sales closures and make a lot of money, your product or service must first be heard by your potential customers. The initiatives of this stage include sending weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly newsletter of your latest offering, publishing current updates from the company, and so on.

This is basically the point where you cast your net to see which fishes will take interest in your offering.

Conceptualizing and formulating content for this stage proves to be both time-consuming and demanding of manpower, it is noteworthy though that companies like Arena offer services like Live Blog, among others, to further improve your level of customer engagement.

This stage also, is where you use analytics to track customer behavior and how they respond to every point of interaction you employ.

2. Shop

This stage will be realized once marketing efforts from the Discovery stage are effective. It indicates that your prospects are interested in your product or service and they find value in what you provide.

It is nice to know that customers visit your shop online and offline, but for us, marketers, identifying the source of that traffic is crucial to proceed to the next stage.

Once sources of traffic are identified, it is a must to push further the strategy to keep prospects coming. Afterward, evaluate both online and offline data together to further illuminate your actions as to how the customers are attracted to your platforms.

3. Buy

In this stage, marketers must be able to answer the question as to which part of the sale happens and as to which part of the sale is abandoned. Are there features to the sales process that are lacking in the platform? Are there common payment gateways that are unavailable when customers try to check out which leads to the fallout of sales?

With Arena’s Live Blog solutions, there are several ways to follow through with customers and improve customer engagement.

Using the Live Blog structure, Arena provides businesses with added tools that serve as points of interaction, retain customer attention on your page, and further allow user participation with real-time content.

Marketers must as well be ready with follow-through solutions to customers that abandon their basket and robust outbound support to address customer concerns that will eventually lead to conversion.

4. Own

In other words, retain. Perhaps this stage is one of the most misunderstood and misinformed stages on the part of the marketer. Even sophisticated marketers do not really understand the depth of importance this stage gives.

At this stage, the marketer has to identify the level of attrition – usually from first-time or first-year buyers. In this way, we will be able to fully understand the triggers that discourage first-time buyers from becoming repeat customers.

Remember, a customer’s successful purchase is also an investment on their part. If there are concerns or issues that these customers encounter in the first-year purchase, surely, they will expect the same issues to arise on their second-year purchase unless these issues are resolved immediately by the business.

5. Advocate

Proficient marketers understand that customer engagement does not end when the prospect successfully checks out their purchase. Rather, it is an ongoing cycle of continuous information to the point where customers become loyal to your brand based on the metrics of loyalty that you will set.

In time, these loyal customers shall serve as your advocates and shall be the ones to help you out in your marketing efforts because who knows the customer experience better than those actually bought?

After all the exhaustive discussion on customer engagement and the effective strategies that need to be implemented in order to level up your business this 2021, it is undoubtedly a vital aspect of your marketing practices.

But knowing that there are platforms like Arena which offers technologies like Live Chat and Live Blog, among others, is assuring how the ease of implementation from this platform presents a huge and positive impact on the growth of your business this 2021.; Try Arena for FREE now!

Customizing Your Live Chat: A Complete Guide

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There are several reasons why most companies are focusing on improving Live Chats in recent times. In addition to improving user experience, Live Chat has become one of the most exciting conversion tools in marketing. It is also considered a transformative customer care tool when it is properly used. 

There is a need to customize your Live Chat Service if you want to get all the benefits it can offer. The goal should be to transform it in a manner that can sustain the relationship between the business and your customers and also optimize it for conversion.

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How Do You Customize Your Live Chat Service? 

Customizing a Live Chat service is more challenging than programming a chatbot. It is more about creating a template that can be followed by your agents than creating instant responses (for chatbots) that don’t really add a human touch to the conversation. 

But how exactly do you create a Live Chat template? You can make use of the most commonly asked questions to create templates that will make communication with customers easier, faster, and more efficient. You will have to create ready-to-use Arena technology scripts (canned responses). 

What Are The Major Benefits Of Live Chat Templates? 

Live Chat templates help in many ways to make the platform more engaging and more productive. Canned responses make it easy for your agents to engage with customers easily and provide the right information. This way, communication is optimized. 

Chat templates also make tool communication faster. A good template will guide your agents to understand customers’ needs faster, communicate better with them, and offer the needed help as soon as possible. It also makes it easy for agents to help customers make purchases or perform any function they intend to perform on your website faster. 

Why It Is Important To Follow a Protocol 

With Live Chat templates, your agents will follow protocol while dealing with customers. Why is this important? Well, it helps to make sure that there is a predictable way to communicate through the Arena technology. This predictability helps to make communication easier, faster, and result-oriented. 

When there is a protocol to follow, Live Chat agents work better. They will be more purpose-oriented, treating each session with a customer with the utmost regard. This, in turn, improves the chances of conversion and makes the experience more pleasant for customers. At the same time, it makes the works of the agents easier and more fulfilling.

Examples of Quick Response Answers and How They Help 

Bellow, we will demonstrate how to customize your platform with examples for different scenarios: 

Greetings and Introduction: 

Customers appreciate a warm welcome to your website and will be more engaged when the agent initiates conversation in a friendly manner; 

“Hello there! My name is Mike. How can I help you today?” 

Asking for More Details 

Sometimes, the agent will need more details from customers to understand their challenges better and provide the perfect solution; 

“Of course, I can help you with that. However, I will need a few more details from you first. What is your…?”

Verifying Your Understanding 

Sometimes, agents will want to be sure of what customers want. It is easier when they ask in a polite and professional way; 

“Let me see if I have this correct: you would like to…” 

Admitting You Do Not Know 

This can be a tricky situation. However, it is important that Live Chat agents politely admit that they ‘don’t know’ when that is the case. This is how best to respond; 

“Sorry, I’m not really sure about it myself. I can talk to someone about it and relay the information to you. Could you please leave me your email or phone number?” 

Transferring to another Live Chat Operator 

Some customers hate being transferred to another operator. When there is a need for that, it is important that the agent handle it in a nice and professional manner like;

“I really need to connect you with my colleague who is more familiar with this situation. I am confident he/she will offer the perfect solution at this point.” 

Putting On Hold 

Sometimes, putting customers on hold is inevitable. It is important, however, that it is done in the most respectable manner. 

“Would you mind holding on for a few moments? I really need to check this with (person or department name)”

Getting Customers to Leave Their Contact Details 

Some customers are reluctant to leave their contact details for any reason. If there is really a need for that, there are nice and professional ways to ask and get the right, positive response:

“I may need to get back to you with something better really soon. Can you please leave your email or phone number right here?” 

Missing a Chat Request 

If your Live Chat agent happens to miss a chat request, it is important that they respond the right way to pacify and engage the customer afresh. This is how it can be done: 

“Hello! I’m really sorry that we missed your chat. How can we help now?” 

Sending Links to External Resources 

Sometimes, your agents may need to direct customers to some resources they really need. This is an example of how to do it politely:

“Please take a look at this webpage:(link), you’ll find it really helpful”.

Handling Complaints 

When a customer makes a complaint through the tool, it is important that your team responds as soon as possible and offers some form of solution. Here is an example of how to do it;

“I’m really, really sorry to hear about that. I understand that it caused you a lot of trouble. Let me see what I can do now to make things right.” 

Wrapping up The Chat 

When the chat is getting to an end, it is important that the operator checks with the customer to see if he/she needs help with anything else: 

“(Customer Name), is there anything else I can assist you with today?” 

Ending the Chat 

When it is time to end the chat, make sure your agents do it in the most professional manner; 

“I am glad I could help today. I wish you a great day!” 

Dealing With Trolls and Confused Customers 

Sometimes, consume customers initiate a session mistaking your company for another. Some other times, online trolls may end up in your platform. Here is a respectful way to reply; 

“I’m sorry you reached the wrong company. We currently have no business or affiliation with the company you have mentioned.” 

Training your Agents to Use the Live Chat Template 

After creating your Live Chat template, it is important that you teach your agents how to use them the right way. They should also learn how to make it personalized and suitable for different customers. You also need to teach them to be disciplined about following protocols. Proper training and monitoring will help you reap all the important benefits of a customized Live Chat service. 

Do you want the best Live Chat service for your company? Try the Arena Live Chat for free now.

How to boost user engagement with Live Chat

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Beloved brands like Apple and Playstation have used Live Chat to inform and engage customers. Read on to learn how this tool can transform the relationship with your audience.

If you are looking to harness real-time interactions between your brand and its customers, you have probably heard of live chats before. Often seen as a tool for customer support, Live Chat is a popular alternative to email and phone support channels, as it allows instant discussions to resolve simple queries.

Most customers already prefer Live Chat to other support channels. Around 46% of consumers prefer live chat over email and social media, for example.

Besides, Live Chat applications allow brands to communicate with website visitors automatically via chatbots, or through live customer service teams, helping to drive conversions and build longer-lasting relationships.

That is vital in the age of omnichannel experiences. Customers expect every touchpoint with companies to provide them with a consistent experience, otherwise, they won’t come back for more.

Live Chat materializes the cliché that brands should “send customers the right messages at the right time.” In your website, users are just a few clicks away from becoming actual customers, so why not use Live Chat to guide them through the browsing experience?

With Live Chat, you can engage customers in the best time to reach your business goals.

In this post, we will explore:

  • Reasons to use Live Chat
  • Live Chat triggers that can boost engagement in your website
  • Live Chat examples from global brands
  • Basic steps to creating engagement with Live Chat

Reasons to incorporate Live Chat into your strategy

Boost your brand awareness

Word of mouth is one of the best ways to attract new customers. If you offer great customer support through Live Chat and delight users with it, you can bet they will tell their peers about it.

A study from Kayako found out that 29% of consumers have told friends or colleagues about a positive live chat experience. Live Chat allows your brand to create a loyal customer base and build awareness.

However, make sure your Live Chat is well implemented and that you have well-trained agents behind it since a bad Live Chat experience can work against your brand. According to the same study,  20% of consumers have spread negative impressions after poor live chat experiences.

It’s the same old story: it takes years to build a company’s image, but just a single customer’s bad experience to take it down.

Understand customers’ behavior and have real-time feedback

Great companies are always trying to find new ways to spot customers’ pain points and improve their customer experience.

With Live Chat, you can have access to real-time customer feedback and spot gaps in the customer experience, which can make customer service, product, and marketing improvement cycles much quicker. Instead of running long surveys, you can get relevant insights just by asking questions to customers.

Besides, many Live Chat platforms offer analytics tools to help you analyze customer service both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Strengthen relationship with your customers

Social media and messaging apps have made customers get used to instant gratification in every aspect of life. In that context, Live Chat gives them reactivity and personalization in a way no other support channel could.

By sending targeted and real-time messages with Live Chat, you can make your customer service more personal and show customers their specific requests matter. No more standard emails that take days to solve simple queries.

Having Live Chat portrays your brand as more approachable, helpful, and customer-centric than the ones that don’t offer it.

Increase conversion rates

Even before a customer buys from you, the support channels available can have a big impact on the likelihood of conversion. According to CrazyEgg, 38% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company if they offer Live Chat Support.  

Plus, Live Chat is a great way to bring visitors back to your website. An Emarketer study shows that 63% of customers were more likely to return to a website that offers Live Chat.

Boosting customer loyalty

Think of the brands you’ve bought from more than once. They probably offer more than great products, right? More often than not, customers are loyal to companies that once provided them with great customer service.

According to Kayako, 51% of consumers are more likely to stay with or buy again from a company if they offer live chat support.

Using Live Chat triggers to drive user engagement

You can use Live Chat reactively or proactively. In the reactive approach, your company will talk to customers via chat only if requested. In the proactive approach, you can send automated messages throughout the customer navigation journey.

The proactive approach represents a significant way to engage visitors. Many brands have used Live Chat triggers on their websites to send the right message at the right time to the right users.

Here are a few examples of Live Chat triggers you can use:

  • Welcome messages: you can use Live Chat to send specific welcome messages to users, present the company, or offer welcome discounts
  • Content subscription: if your company offers proprietary content, such as a newsletter or blog, you can remind the user of these content channels or make suggestions of content they could enjoy
  • Repeat buyer: Since Live Chat can be integrated into CRM and other data management platforms, you can use it to identify repeat customers and offer them discounts
  • Targeted discount: you can also dig into customer data to offer discounts based on demographic criteria (localization, gender, etc)
  • Category: a great way of using proactive Live Chat is by suggesting new products within the category the user is browsing
  • Inactive user: send a message to users that have been inactive on your website after a few minutes
  • Checkout: let’s say your customers frequently get lost in the checkout process. You can set up your greeting in Live Chat and offer help before they give up on their purchase. Or, you can offer an upsell proposition based on users’ choice, for example.

How brands are using live chat to improve engagement and generate more revenue

Live Chat is one of the best tools to respond to customers’ urge for real-time interactions. No wonder some of the most beloved brands in the digital landscape have used Live Chat to enhance their websites.

Having trouble visualizing Live Chat? Let’s see how successful digital platforms and retailers are using it.

Playstation Live Chat

The famous Sony brand PlayStation has different Live Chat rooms where gamers can talk to its support agents. The chat rooms are linked to PlayStation’s webpage where customers can make requests and queries about account access, game purchases, and charge refunds.

Apple Live Chat

Apple, which is known for its great customer experience, also placed a real-time customer support team on Live Chat. Through the chat, customers talk to an Apple expert who specializes in their exact question. Everything happens within Apple’s website, so the customer doesn’t have to worry about sending messages to other support channels and waiting for emails and phone calls.

Groupon Live Chat

Groupon also allows customers to reach out for support through Live Chat. Customers can be routed to specific departments and support agents according to frequent topics:

  • Change My Order
  • Order Never Arrived
  • Refund My Order
  • Update Account Info
  • Voucher Code Won’t Work

If the request is not related to any of those topics, then the customer can talk to a general agent. According to Groupon, more than 1.7 million users have used Live Chat to contact customer support in the last 18 months.

Walmart Live Chat

The world’s major retailer, Walmart, offers a Live Chat window along with an FAQ page. If the customer can’t solve their problem after browsing frequently asked questions, then they can contact Walmart’s Help Center through an automated support assistant.

Other Live Chat formats

Live Video and Voice Chat

As great as Live Chat might be, brands are aware that modern communication goes way beyond texting. Customers have become used to interacting with pictures, videos, and voice messages, so why couldn’t Live Chat incorporate other messaging formats?

Some companies are adding Vídeo and Voice Chat to their Live Chat experience. Such formats make resolutions quicker and make interactions more dynamic since customers’ requests sometimes can be complex or take too long to explain by text.

With voice and video chat, customers can easily solve queries related to physical products and services, for instance.

One of the brands testing video chat is IKEA, who are using it in Sweden as part of the customer support, sales, and shopper consulting services. According to Rickard Mansson, a Customer Experience Business Developer at IKEA Sweden, the company decided to test video to streamline customer support.

4 basic steps to create a proactive engagement strategy with Live Chat

  1. Know your audience

There is no use having a good Live Chat tool if you don’t know the specifics about the audience you would like to engage within your website. It’s important to set up audience criteria to give you more control over the type of language you’ll use in the Live Chat, your priority customers, etc.

  1. Consider timing

When shaping your Live Chat strategy, make sure to consider time-based targeting options if your idea is to have proactive Live Chat.  You should be able to send messages in real-time or delay messages until visitors are more engaged with your page or website – just so they are more likely to interact.

If you are more prone to adopting reactive Live Chat, your concern should be about availability. Does your Live Chat support team work 24/7? If it doesn’t, can you send automated messages outside business hours? These are some things to consider before implementing Live Chat to prevent bad customer experience.

  1. Craft your message

You also have to be very careful when crafting your live chat engagement messages. Make sure your brand is personal and specific, as Live Chat is a one-to-one communication tool. If you have a human team behind the chat, make sure they answer quickly and ask only the necessary questions. Now, if you have automated Live Chat, make sure your messages contain calls-to-action (CTAs) to guide users through the buying journey.

  1. Measure results and optimize your Live Chat

Make sure you monitor your company’s Live Chat periodically to understand how it’s performing, if there are new frequent queries related to specific events and how you can use Live Chat information in favor of different departments – Customer Service, Product, Marketing, etc.

You should measure Live Chat quality and performance and analyze key Customer Service metrics through it. From here, you can adjust the tone of messages, timing, and overall agent training.

Ready to add Live Chat to your website?

Live Chat can optimize many aspects of digital business, and executives are increasingly aware of its importance. A 2018 survey from Bold 360 found out that 71% of respondents believe Live Chat will surpass traditional customer service communication channels by 2021.

Hasn’t your organization incorporated Live Chat yet? It’s time to change that.

Arena has one of the most complete Live Chat solutions on the market. You can try it for free and start engaging your customers in real-time right now.

How Can Live Chat improve the User Experience?

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Do you need to boost the user experience on your website? Live Chat might be the solution you’ve been looking for.

Make your customer service more personal and become a reference in your field. Read on to find out unique ways Live Chat can increase your website’s experience.

What is Live Chat?

For its power of handling the immediacy of customer services and fulfilling quality buying opportunities, Live Chat became one of the best –– and most wanted –– tools for marketing and sales.

Live Chat is an opportunity generator. The chance of building real connections with the customers can transform a cold purchase moment into a memorable experience. As we know, customer service can be a tremendous competitive advantage for your business.

But to reach an exceptional level, you must know what your audience wants, why they want it, and how they want to get it. Having a Live Chat will help you tailor the most effective approaches and deliver them at the right time.

Added by pasting a simple line code on your website, the Arena Live Chat allows two types of communications:

  1. Passive, when the customer reaches out to the company;
  2. and Active, when the company itself strategically steps in to increase the value of a visited page, of a product, a decisive moment, or even during the purchase.

But Live Chat is not only about interventions or communications. It can also be used to collect important data about the customer’s preferences and behaviors.

As simple as it might look, having proper knowledge on how to correctly use Live Chat can give you guidance –– or even maybe precise answers –– to your audience’s needs before they even realize them.

Thus, your marketing and sales teams can provide a one of a kind service. As a result, you’ll make bigger and better sales. Let’s dive into some of the possibilities to increase user experience on your website through Live Chat.

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The real magnitude of Live Chat

Before we start listing how you can increase user experience on your website using Live Chat, you must understand its real potential for the success of your company. One of the top benefits of Live Chat is its versatility.

This tool has a whole spectrum of possibilities, fitting different needs, segments, platforms, events, and more. All you should keep in mind is how can you better use this new, simple, and clear path of communication with your visitor.

Shape everything you’re about to read to the reality of your own business!

Everything customers need in a single place

Customer service always had a crucial role in all kinds of buying processes, whether in a physical or digital store. To provide great service you must understand what your audience truly wants!

Most websites are overstuffed with things irrelevant to users’ experience, forcing them to leave and search for what they need in the competition without looking back.

No need to shuffle between the website and social media

A simple, yet very frequent, example is when a visitor needs more information about something on your website, doesn’t find any, and goes to social media to look for it.

Regardless of whether this visitor is browsing on your company’s social media page, they are already out of your website. One simple pop up notification and you’re forgotten!

Having Live Chat on your website cuts off visitor’s urge to shift pages searching for further details about something or engagement they need.

Also because your prospect may find not only the answer they need, but other stores, pages, and services as well. Do you realize how damaging this is for your business?

Providing better offers

Customers hate being treated as just another person in line. They’d rather close your tab and look for someone else. Through Live Chat, every touchpoint of your company has the possibility to establish personal conversations on a level that customers realize they are a priority for your brand.

There are countless missed opportunities on automatic responses, lack of personalization, or standardized approaches. But when it comes to Live Chat, the customer service team knows precisely who they are talking to and how to better serve that person.

Designing infallible strategy plans

Now your customers don’t need to leave your website to solve their doubts, you can understand the new length and stages of their individual buyer’s journey. Those two types of approaches mentioned earlier, passive and active, create one of a kind opportunities to aim precisely at your customer’s pain point.

During a Live Chat talk, your teams can gather rich information about the audience to produce meaningful and stronger interactions during their browsing time. Besides creating a much more relevant experience on your website, you also increase the chances of conversion.

Adding more value to live events

Digital events have never been as on popular as today. The importance of creating engagement spaces for the audience through live events promotes not only a moment about generating relevant connections, but also opportunities to increase the value of your website, brand your company as an authority, and close more deals.

All you need to do is set the goals to reach what you want.

Boosting interactions

Regardless of your business segment, using Live Chat on a well-planned event can stimulate the audience to spend more time browsing through the pages of your website.

To create a sort of customer journey, think about the best ways to trigger your visitor to follow your trail of contents, allow them to fortify their perception about you and your product or service.

Whether in a single user room or a Live Group Chat, your strategy team can build up the ideal experience.

Opening group discussion rooms

Speaking of Live Group Chat, the event hosted by you can put together multiple visitors in a single room to discuss, share experiences and opinions about the main subject. Creating a sense of community on your website establishes your place as a point of reference for the audience.

Setting users’ experience this high may permanently increase traffic, bringing more visibility to your brand, as well as producing great referrals out there.

The power of always being available

Business hours are something really incoherent to the digital market. When a customer wants to make a purchase, there is no such thing as a 9-5 period. Services must not be a one size fits all. You have to build your own way to be there for your client whenever they want you.

So, to generate a continuous service through day and night, you can create schedules on-demand or sales calls.

For example, during business hours when the website traffic might be more intense, you can have 4 to 5 attendants. Each one of these customer service agents can engage around 6 or 7 simultaneous chat rooms. At night shift, when traffic might not be high, you can work with 2 attendants.

Knocking down buying objections

It is very common during decision making to pop up a situation that interferes in the buying process. A doubt, a request, a need, or even something more simple: if there is no one to assist or help, do you really think the visitor will stay until they fix the problem by themselves?

Making yourself present while the audience browses through your website reduces the chances of missing opportunities, whether because the visitor needed you or because you spotted a possibility of approaching.

Help the audience get everything they need from your page. Keep in mind that if the answer is not on you, then they will look up somewhere else. And using Live Chat, you have the chance not only to solve situations, but to tailor the response to that specific visitor.

For example, having a Frequent Questions section is great. But does that information really touch the point to make your maybe-customer give you their money? Probably not. But in a Live Chat room, you can literally embrace the opportunity to create the perfect momentum.

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Forms are dying and Live Chat is taking over

If you can give full personalization, why would you step back and deliver only half of it? That’s the feeling about using forms these days. Is it inefficient? No. But it’s not enough anymore. The worst part is that forms are always the same everywhere. Same fields, same information, same shape, same everything.

Collecting data through Live Chat gives you endless opportunities to pick up details like pieces of a puzzle. You build a bigger picture of the person you are talking to. What product or service are they interested in, what are their preferences, what problem are they trying to solve, what are their expectations…

Those are just a few examples of the level of information you can get using Live Chat. There is no way you reach that by only asking for the name, email, and phone number in a form box.

The mighty power of real-time data analysis

What if you could read your client’s minds? Predict their moves and understand what they want before they realize it for themselves. What kind of experience would you deliver?

Reading such things might sound bananas, but it is not! Having real-time data analysis takes you to a level of assertiveness that only big players in the business have.

The visitor’s browsing time can be monitored step by step. What pages are they navigating? What items are they most interested in? Are they recurrent visitors to that same spot? How much time are they spending on you? At what buying stage are they bouncing off?

Answers like those can give insight to marketing and sales teams precisely, like a script. When you track those kinds of moves, you can clearly understand what is really going on in that sale opportunity.  

Combining that with Live Chat, you’ll have the power to take your visitor’s hand and lead them through your funnel all the way to the end. That walk will be constructed according to all data you already have, making it possible to shorten the process to a faster and better sell.

Customer Data Platform and Live Chat

There is no way to mention real-time data analysis without talking about the Customer Data Platform (CDP): a single place to gather information from multiple sources and touchpoints, organizes them into similar matches and creates clusters of customers as precise as a photograph.

The only way to truly know your audience is through data. Everything else is just speculation. Customer Data Platform helps you with the right segmentation, personalizing communication, humanizing your brand’s services and, as a result, increasing revenue. This is the right way to serve the best user experience on your website!

You can use the information provided by CDP to guide the conversation on Live Chat, define the best approach and strategy to use, or you can integrate your CDP to automatically collect data from the Live Chat.

Through both ways, you elevate the chances of conversion by getting to know your audience like no one else in the market has done so far.

Live Chat and Chatbot are not the same thing

If at any point of this reading the idea that Live Chat is the same thing as those automatic stiffed messages you get on most of the websites around, you’re wrong!

Those are called chatbots: responses previously set to “help” customers in need. There is a long list of reasons why we could say Live Chat is a million times better than bots, but we’ll give you just one: chatbot doesn’t have a real person behind the service. Live Chat does!

Nothing can replace the greatness of human interaction. No customer service can reach a level of perfection using the same shape formulas for everybody.

The type of communication your brand must aim for should be based on emotions, empathy, respect, and affection. It is not only about sharing cold dry information, but about understanding what’s between the lines.

Get Arena Live Chat for free

Now you have some of the answers you’ve been looking for to increase your website’s user experience. It is time to take action! We want to see you thriving, making better impressions, expanding the possibilities, and, of course, making more money.

That’s why we are giving you free access to our Live Chat service. You can have as many Live Chat rooms as you want on your website in a matter of seconds.

All you have to do is signing up, embedding a single line of code on the page you want, and start chatting!

Don’t waste more time! Click here and get the Arena Live Chat for free.