Category Archives: Customer Data Platform

What is a Customer Data Platform (CDP)? 2024 Guide

Posted on by

How Can Marketers Use a Customer Data Platform (CDP) to Improve Metrics?

Marketers can use a Customer Data Platform (CDP) to collect and analyze customer data, enhance customer journeys, and streamline marketing efforts. By focusing on key features, understanding customer behavior, and improving specific metrics, marketers can see tangible benefits from using a CDP.

What Are the Key Features of a CDP for Marketers?

A CDP collects and unifies customer data from various touchpoints. It can store first-party data like email interactions and purchase history. This data consolidation enables more accurate audience segmentation and personalized marketing campaigns.

CDPs provide real-time data to enhance customer experience. For example, marketers can send timely recommendations or offers to customers based on their online behavior. The data is available for the long term, allowing continuous refinement of marketing strategies.

Integrations with tools like BigCommerce and Shopify help in synchronizing data across platforms. This ensures that marketing campaigns are consistent across all channels, from newsletters to social media ads.

How Does a CDP Help in Understanding Customer Behavior?

Customer behavior is central to effective marketing. A CDP can track and analyze behavioral data, such as website visits and online reviews. It helps in understanding what motivates customers, their preferences, and their overall opinions about a brand.

For example, a CDP can monitor email open rates and click-through rates. This data provides insights into what type of content resonates with customers. Marketers can tailor their campaigns based on this information to increase engagement.

CDPs also allow for tracking lifestyle and career information. Knowing such details helps in creating targeted marketing messages. A user interested in fitness might receive different offers compared to someone interested in home decor. This level of personalization can significantly improve conversion rates.

What Metrics Can Be Improved with a CDP?

A well-implemented CDP can improve several key marketing metrics. Conversion rates can see a boost due to better-targeted campaigns. By analyzing consumer behavior, marketers can create more effective sales funnels.

Click-through rates on emails and online ads are likely to increase. The ability to send personalized content tailored to individual preferences makes marketing efforts more effective. Open rates for emails may also improve as a result of relevant, targeted messaging.

Customer retention metrics benefit from a CDP as well. By understanding the lifecycle and family information of a customer, marketers can offer timely incentives to keep them engaged. Metrics like Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) are positively impacted, showing the long-term benefits of using a CDP.

More about how CDPs can influence marketing metrics can be found at 11 Main customer data platform (CDP) use cases for marketers.

What Are the Benefits of a Customer Data Platform (CDP) for Ecommerce Managers?

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) offers several benefits for ecommerce managers, including improved customer segmentation and personalized marketing.

How Does a CDP Enhance Customer Segmentation?

A CDP enhances customer segmentation by collecting and integrating data from multiple sources. This consolidated data allows for more precise segmentation of the audience.

Ecommerce managers can use this data to create detailed customer segments based on demographics, behavior, and purchase history. For instance, tracking customer behavior across different channels, from email to browsing history, helps build a comprehensive profile.

One key benefit is centralized data. Having all customer data in one place makes it easier to identify trends and common characteristics among distinct customer groups. This is crucial for targeting marketing efforts more effectively.

Additionally, the ability to segment customers accurately can improve campaign performance. By targeting specific segments with tailored messages, ecommerce managers can increase engagement and conversion rates. Learn more about this from Bloomreach on customer data platforms.

What Role Does a CDP Play in Customer Personalization?

The role of a CDP in customer personalization is significant. It allows for personalized customer experiences by leveraging the extensive data collected.

A CDP integrates data from various touchpoints, enabling ecommerce managers to deliver personalized marketing messages. This can include personalized product recommendations, tailored email campaigns, and targeted advertisements.

One of the key advantages is dynamic content personalization. By understanding individual customer preferences, ecommerce managers can dynamically alter website content, email messages, and promotions that resonate more with their audience.

Further, real-time data processing allows for immediate personalization. This means that as soon as a customer completes an action, like viewing a product, the platform can instantly adjust to display related items or offers.

Lastly, the trust factor with data integrity ensures that sensitive customer information is used responsibly, enhancing the overall customer experience. More insights can be found on HubSpot’s guide to Customer Data Platforms.

What Should Marketers Look for When Choosing a Customer Data Platform (CDP)?

Marketers need to ensure a CDP offers essential features and integration capabilities that align with their business needs. Key areas to focus on include core features, integration options, and compatibility with existing systems.

Which CDP Features Are Essential for Marketers?

Identity Resolution: A top feature is the ability to create a single customer profile from data across multiple channels, devices, and touchpoints. This helps marketers understand customer interactions better.

Data Management: Superior CDPs manage both first-party data and platform data efficiently. They should store customer data long-term and allow easy retrieval.

Segmentation and Personalization: Marketers benefit from CDPs that offer advanced segmentation and personalization tools. This enables targeted campaigns tailored to customer preferences.

Compliance: CDPs must be compliant with data privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA. This ensures that customer data is handled responsibly.

Integration with Analytics Tools: CDPs should integrate with tools like Salesforce for enhanced customer insights and sales strategies.

For more on essential CDP features, see Customer Data Platform Basics.

How to Evaluate the Integration Capabilities of a CDP?

Data Sources: Evaluate if the CDP can gather data from multiple sources such as data warehouses, CRMs, and social media. A good example can be found in how some platforms gather data from multiple sources.

Real-time Data Syncing: Real-time data syncing is vital for timely marketing actions. Ensure the CDP supports real-time data updates.

Compatibility: Ensure the CDP is compatible with existing systems, particularly your data management platform (DMP) and other marketing tools.

Ease of Integration: The CDP should offer simple API access and plugins to connect with your current marketing stack.

Scalability: Consider if the CDP can scale as your business grows. The ability to handle larger data sets and more users is crucial.

Choosing the right CDP involves careful evaluation of these integration capabilities to ensure seamless data flow and effective marketing strategies.

How Does a Customer Data Platform (CDP) Drive Data-Driven Marketing?

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) significantly enhances marketing efforts by leveraging customer data to create more personalized and effective marketing campaigns. It enables real-time marketing and supports various data-driven marketing strategies.

What Are Data-Driven Marketing Strategies Enabled by a CDP?

A CDP allows marketers to utilize first-party data and third-party data to build a comprehensive understanding of individual customers. By integrating identity resolution and creating a unified customer profile, businesses can tailor their marketing campaigns more precisely.

Machine learning algorithms and analytics tools within a CDP help generate valuable insights from transactional data and qualitative data. This helps in segmenting customers based on demographic information, preferences, and behaviors. Marketing automation platforms connected to a CDP can then execute personalized campaigns across multiple channels.

A CDP also supports data activation, enabling businesses to utilize descriptive data and reporting to measure the success of their marketing efforts. Leveraging artificial intelligence within the CDP provides advanced customer insights, ensuring that every interaction is relevant and engaging.

How Does a CDP Facilitate Real-Time Marketing?

Real-time marketing is made possible by the real-time customer interactions that a CDP supports. By aggregating data from various apps, websites, and customer touchpoints, a CDP updates centralized customer profiles in real time.

This enables the creation of a unified view of the customer, allowing for immediate responses to customer actions. For example, when a customer makes a purchase, the CDP can trigger related marketing campaigns in seconds. This immediate response capability enhances customer experiences and boosts engagement rates.

CDPs also integrate with existing marketing platforms and the broader martech stack, ensuring that customer data flows seamlessly between systems. This integration helps in real-time decision-making, providing marketers with up-to-date business intelligence and marketing analysis that drives better results.

For more details, you can read what a Customer Data Platform (CDP) is and how it helps in personalizing the customer experience at scale. Additionally, explore the different Enterprise Data Platform options available.

How Can Ecommerce Managers Leverage a Customer Data Platform (CDP) to Increase Sales?

Ecommerce managers can use a Customer Data Platform (CDP) to gain deeper insights into customer behaviors and optimize marketing strategies. This leads to more personalized experiences and higher sales.

What Sales Tactics Can Be Enhanced with a CDP?

A CDP allows ecommerce managers to create detailed customer profiles by collecting data from various sources, such as purchase history and social media activity. This data can be used to tailor marketing campaigns to individual customer needs. Personalized emails, product recommendations, and targeted offers can significantly improve conversion rates.

CDPs also help with retargeting efforts by tracking site traffic and customer interactions across channels. Managers can use this information to re-engage customers who abandoned their carts, leading to higher conversion rates. Additionally, understanding customer lifetime value helps in segmenting high-value customers for special loyalty programs and exclusive offers.

How Does a CDP Support Omnichannel Marketing?

CDPs help ecommerce managers coordinate a seamless customer journey across different touchpoints. By integrating data from email, social media, and website activity, a CDP ensures that the customer experience is consistent across all channels.

This data orchestration allows for more effective campaign management. For example, a customer who clicks on a social media ad can receive follow-up emails tailored to their interests, driving them back to the website for a purchase.

Omnichannel strategies supported by a CDP also track the success of various marketing efforts. By analyzing metrics like site traffic and conversion rates, managers can refine their strategies to focus on the most effective channels, improving overall campaign performance.

For more detailed strategies on integrating customer data, visit CDP Basics.

Explore CDP strategies to better understand how to implement these tactics effectively.

How to Implement a Customer Data Platform (CDP) Successfully?

Implementing a Customer Data Platform (CDP) involves multiple steps to ensure reliable data management and integration. This process demands careful planning and attention to data quality.

What Are the Steps for Implementing a CDP?

First, assess your readiness by evaluating your organization’s goals, technical requirements, and data infrastructure. Engaging stakeholders from different departments is crucial in this phase to align everyone’s objectives.

Next, select the right CDP by comparing features and capabilities that meet your needs. A customer data platform that provides robust data ingestion, integration, and analytics is ideal.

Then, prepare your data by identifying what customer data you have and where it resides. Consider using tools to facilitate data collection from various sources, such as CRM systems and eCommerce platforms.

After that, implement ETL processes to extract, load, and transform your data. Ensuring your CDP can seamlessly integrate with existing data lakes and transactional systems is vital for consistent data flow.

Finally, test and refine your CDP setup. Conduct pilot tests to ensure data is accurately managed and insights are actionable. Continually monitor performance and make adjustments as needed.

How to Ensure Data Quality and Consistency in a CDP?

Maintaining data quality and consistency starts with effective data management platforms. Implement strong data governance policies to define how data should be collected, stored, and accessed.

Standardize data formats and naming conventions across all sources. This practice prevents inconsistencies and simplifies data integration. Use automated tools to cleanse and validate incoming data, ensuring it is free from errors and duplicates.

Establish a single source of truth by centralizing customer data in the CDP. This approach eliminates silos and ensures that every department works with the same accurate data.

Monitor data flow continuously. Regular audits and automated monitoring tools help detect anomalies early, safeguarding data integrity.

Train your team on best practices for data entry and management. Educating end-users on the importance of data accuracy enhances overall efficiency and reliability.

How Does a Customer Data Platform (CDP) Ensure Data Privacy and Security?

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) ensures data privacy and security by implementing strict protocols and advanced technologies. These methods protect customer information and comply with regulations like the GDPR and CCPA.

What Measures Does a CDP Take for Data Privacy?

A CDP takes several measures to ensure data privacy. One significant step is compliance with data privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. Compliance means that customers have control over how their personal data is used. They can grant or withdraw consent, request data deletion, and know how their data is being utilized.

Data governance is another crucial aspect. CDPs enforce strict data governance policies to manage data accuracy, usability, and security. These policies ensure that personal customer data is handled responsibly and ethically.

CDPs also combat data silos by centralizing data from various sources into one secure platform. This centralization makes it easier to monitor data privacy practices and avoid unauthorized data access.

How Is Data Secured in a CDP?

Data security in a CDP is achieved through various technological solutions. Encryption methods are used to protect data both in transit and at rest. This means that even if data is intercepted, it cannot be read without the decryption key.

Authentication and authorization protocols ensure that only authorized personnel have access to sensitive data. Multi-factor authentication adds an extra layer of security, requiring multiple forms of verification before access is granted.

CDPs also undergo regular security audits and assessments to identify and fix vulnerabilities. By continuously monitoring security protocols, CDPs maintain a secure environment for customer data.

Additionally, data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA require that businesses employ strict security measures. Compliance with these regulations ensures that customer information is stored and handled with the utmost care, reducing the risk of breaches.

Frequently Asked Questions

Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) are vital for businesses looking to improve customer engagement, making sense of large amounts of customer data, and integrating with various marketing technologies.

How do Customer Data Platforms differ from Customer Relationship Management systems?

Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems serve distinct purposes. CDPs collect data from different sources, creating a unified customer profile. In contrast, CRMs manage customer interactions and relationships. While a CRM focuses on sales and customer service activities, a CDP offers a centralized database to enhance customer experiences at scale by providing detailed insights.

Can you list some top Customer Data Platforms available in the market?

Several reputable CDPs are available today. Some of the top choices include Segment for its robust integration capabilities and Tealium for its real-time customer data orchestration. Other notable platforms are Adobe Experience Platform, Treasure Data, and BlueConic, each offering unique features tailored to different business needs.

What are the key functionalities of a Customer Data Platform?

A CDP comes with several essential functionalities. It integrates customer data from multiple sources, provides a unified customer profile, and enables real-time data analysis. Additionally, it supports data privacy and compliance requirements. These features make the data more accessible and useful across different marketing and sales systems.

In what ways can a business benefit from implementing a CDP?

Implementing a CDP brings numerous advantages. It allows businesses to create personalized marketing campaigns, improving customer engagement and satisfaction. The platform aids in identifying customer trends and preferences. Companies can thus refine their strategies. Overall, it drives better decision-making by providing a comprehensive view of customer behaviors.

What are some common use cases for Customer Data Platforms?

Common use cases involve personalized marketing, customer segmentation, and improved customer support. Businesses use CDPs to deliver tailored content and offers to customers. They also leverage the platform for precise customer segmentation based on data-driven insights. Additionally, CDPs enhance customer support by providing unified and updated customer information.

How does a Customer Data Platform integrate with other marketing technologies?

CDPs integrate seamlessly with various marketing technologies by acting as a central data hub. They can connect with tools like HubSpot and Salesforce to synchronize customer data. This integration ensures that marketing, sales, and support teams have access to consistent and comprehensive customer information, enabling more effective campaigns and improved customer experiences.

What Is Customer Lifecycle Management? 2024 Guide

Posted on by

What Is Customer Lifecycle Management?

Customer Lifecycle Management (CLM) is the process of tracking and managing each phase of a customer’s interaction with a business.

It starts from awareness and continues through to purchase and loyalty.

Businesses assign metrics to each stage and analyze these metrics to measure performance.

This helps them understand how well they are meeting customer needs.

Key Stages of CLM

  1. Awareness: Customers first become aware of a product or service.
  2. Consideration: Customers evaluate options and compare solutions.
  3. Purchase: Customers decide to buy a product or service.
  4. Retention: Ensuring customers remain satisfied and continue to use the service.
  5. Loyalty: Building a strong, ongoing relationship with customers.

Benefits of CLM

  • Improved Customer Retention: By understanding each stage, businesses can better meet customer needs, leading to higher customer retention rates.
  • Increased Revenue: Tracking and optimizing each stage can lead to more successful sales and marketing strategies.
  • Data-Driven Decisions: Businesses can make informed decisions based on metrics collected throughout the lifecycle.

Tools for CLM

  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems: CRM tools help manage interactions with current and potential customers. For a detailed guide on CRM systems, visit HubSpot’s CRM Guide.
  • Marketing Automation Software: These tools streamline marketing efforts, making it easier to target customers at different lifecycle stages.

Many companies use customer lifecycle marketing to personalize their approach and enhance customer experiences. This integration helps create a seamless journey from discovery to loyalty.

How Can Customer Lifecycle Management Improve Your Online Store Metrics?

Customer Lifecycle Management (CLM) can significantly impact your online store performance by improving key metrics such as conversion rates and customer retention. Implementing effective strategies can lead to increased revenue and business growth.

What Metrics Should You Focus On?

Conversion Rate: This metric measures the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action, such as making a purchase. By tracking the customer lifecycle from awareness to loyalty, you can optimize each stage of the sales funnel.

Customer Retention: Keeping existing customers can be more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. Focus on retention metrics to maximize lifetime value (CLV) and enhance profitability.

Click-Through Rate (CTR): Measure the effectiveness of your ads and email campaigns. A high CTR can indicate that your marketing strategy resonates with your target audience.

How Do You Implement Effective Strategies?

Developing effective CLM strategies involves a mix of target audience analysis, relevant content creation, and leveraging technology. Use social media platforms and SEO to boost your online presence.

Target Audience Analysis: Understand the needs and behaviors of your ideal customer. This can help tailor your marketing message to meet their specific goals and incentives, leading to more effective ad campaigns and promotions.

Technology: Employing tools like customer lifecycle management software can streamline your efforts. Tools such as EngageBay are useful for CRM, email marketing, and lead generation.

Content Creation: Produce relevant content that engages different stages of the customer lifecycle. This can improve retention and loyalty metrics by continuously providing value.

By focusing on these key metrics and strategies, businesses can effectively enhance their online store performance and ensure sustainable growth.

What Are The Key Stages In Customer Lifecycle Management?

Customer lifecycle management includes several crucial stages that help businesses build strong relationships with their customers. These stages ensure that a customer’s journey is smooth, from initial contact to retention and advocacy.

What Is The Acquisition Stage?

The acquisition stage focuses on attracting new customers. This involves creating awareness about the brand through marketing efforts such as advertisements, social media campaigns, and referral programs. Businesses aim to reach potential customers and persuade them to make their first purchase. Effective acquisition strategies can significantly enhance customer lifetime value.

During this stage, companies analyze data to understand what attracts customers. They use this information to optimize their marketing campaigns. An important metric to track in this phase is the cost per acquisition (CPA), which helps businesses measure the efficiency of their marketing spend.

What Is The Retention Stage?

The retention stage is about keeping existing customers engaged and satisfied. After the initial purchase, businesses aim to build loyalty through exceptional service, loyalty programs, and consistent communication. Satisfied customers are more likely to become repeat buyers, increasing their lifetime value and contributing to long-term success.

Customer satisfaction and loyalty are key metrics in this stage. Tools such as customer satisfaction scores (CSAT) and customer retention rates help businesses assess their performance. Implementing feedback loops allows for continuous improvement and ensures that customers feel valued and heard. By focusing on retention, companies can reduce churn and foster brand loyalty.

How To Analyze Customer Behavior?

Analyzing customer behavior involves using various tools and focusing on key data points to understand how customers interact with a business. It’s essential for improving customer experience and making informed business decisions.

What Tools Should You Use?

To analyze customer behavior, businesses should employ a combination of analytics platforms, CRM systems, and customer feedback tools.

Analytics platforms such as Google Analytics track website interactions, giving insights into how visitors navigate and what content holds their interest. CRM systems gather data from various touchpoints, creating detailed customer profiles and tracking engagement across the customer journey. Customer feedback tools, like surveys and online reviews, provide direct insights into customer experiences and expectations.

Using these tools collaboratively can help businesses create a comprehensive customer journey map, highlighting pain points and opportunities for improvement. They facilitate personalized recommendations and targeted marketing efforts, enhancing the overall customer experience.

Which Data Points Are Most Important?

When analyzing customer behavior, several data points are crucial for gaining valuable insights.

Demographic information helps in segmenting customers and tailoring personalized marketing strategies. Behavioral data, such as pages visited, time spent on the website, and products viewed, provides insights into customer interests and desires. Transaction history reveals purchasing patterns and preferences, guiding inventory management and product recommendations.

Customer feedback is vital for understanding customer satisfaction and identifying areas needing improvement. Engagement metrics, including email open rates and social media interactions, show how well marketing efforts resonate with the audience.

Customer journey maps help visualize all interactions and events, recognizing key touchpoints and stages in the customer lifecycle map. By analyzing these data points, businesses can make well-informed decisions to meet and exceed customer expectations, resulting in a better overall customer experience.

What Are Common Mistakes To Avoid In Customer Lifecycle Management?

Customer lifecycle management involves tracking customer interactions and improving their experience. Avoiding common mistakes can enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.

What Are Examples Of Ineffective Strategies?

One major mistake is neglecting to use proactive customer service. Relying solely on reactive measures can lead to customer churn. Instead, businesses should anticipate issues and offer solutions before customers face problems.

Failing to personalize customer interactions is another error. Using generic messages instead of tailored recommendations can alienate loyal customers. Companies should leverage data to provide relevant content and exclusive offers.

Ignoring self-service tools is also a common pitfall. Many customers prefer to resolve issues on their own using FAQs, tutorials, or live chat support. Not offering these options can frustrate customers and increase support costs.

How Do You Identify And Rectify Mistakes?

Identifying mistakes involves regularly analyzing customer feedback and interaction data. Tools like surveys and support tickets can reveal pain points. Monitoring these metrics helps pinpoint areas needing improvement.

Rectifying these errors requires implementing best practices. For instance, introducing proactive support efforts or enhancing self-service tools can mitigate issues. Offering exclusive offers and personalized discounts can also improve customer relationships.

Engaging in consistent competitor analysis ensures that your strategies remain competitive. Observing how competitors handle customer lifecycle management can provide insights into effective practices and areas of improvement.

Frequently Asked Questions

This section addresses common inquiries about Customer Lifecycle Management (CLM), outlining key differences with CRM, stages involved, practical examples of implementation, and importance for strategy.

How does customer lifecycle management differ from customer relationship management?

Customer Lifecycle Management (CLM) focuses on the entire journey of the customer, from awareness to advocacy. Unlike Customer Relationship Management (CRM), which mainly handles the ongoing relationship and interactions, CLM tracks and optimizes each stage of the customer journey to improve satisfaction and retention. For more details, visit Customer Lifecycle Management.

What are the primary stages involved in the customer lifecycle?

The customer lifecycle usually includes five stages: Awareness, Consideration, Decision, Retention, and Advocacy. Each stage represents a different phase of the customer’s interaction with a business. Managing these stages effectively can help in increasing customer loyalty and encouraging repeat business.

Can you provide examples of how businesses implement customer lifecycle management?

Businesses implement CLM using various strategies like personalized marketing campaigns, automated email sequences, and customer feedback systems. For instance, a company might use customer lifecycle software to automate and track interactions, making it easier to provide tailored experiences at each stage.

Why is understanding the customer lifecycle important for business strategy?

Understanding the customer lifecycle allows businesses to tailor their marketing, sales, and support strategies to better meet customer needs at each stage. This comprehensive approach can lead to higher customer satisfaction and increased loyalty, which is crucial for long-term success.

What strategies are effective for managing customers throughout their lifecycle?

Effective strategies for managing the customer lifecycle include personalized communication, targeted promotions, and data-driven insights. Offering excellent customer service at each touchpoint and regularly evaluating the effectiveness of strategies can significantly enhance customer experience and retention.

How is customer lifecycle management adapted for the banking industry?

In the banking industry, CLM involves personalized financial advice, tailored loan offerings, and proactive support services. Banks may use customer lifecycle management to track customer interactions and provide timely, relevant services to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Analyzing Fan Data with CDP Integration

Posted on by

Analyzing fan data with CDP integration can seem overwhelming at first, but it’s a game-changer for understanding your audience. You might wonder how this approach can transform your engagement strategies and boost loyalty among your fans.

Imagine having a complete view of every interaction your fans have with your brand. This data isn’t just numbers; it’s insights into behaviors, preferences, and trends.

With this information, you can create personalized experiences that resonate deeply with your audience, driving engagement and loyalty through the roof.

What is Fan Data Analysis with CDP Integration?

Fan data analysis with CDP integration involves collecting, unifying, and analyzing data from various touchpoints to gain a comprehensive view of fan interactions and behaviors. This process allows you to see how fans engage across different platforms, whether it’s social media, your website, or in-person events.

By integrating a Customer Data Platform, you can consolidate all this data into unified fan profiles. These profiles provide detailed insights into each fan’s preferences, behaviors, and engagement history. This holistic view enables you to understand what drives your fans and how they interact with your brand.

With these insights, you can create personalized fan experiences that cater to individual preferences. Whether it’s tailored content, targeted marketing campaigns, or personalized offers, you can engage fans in ways that feel relevant and meaningful to them. This level of personalization not only enhances the fan experience but also fosters loyalty and long-term engagement. Explore the differences between CDPs vs. DMPs to understand why a CDP might be more beneficial for your fan engagement strategies.

Benefits of Analyzing Fan Data with CDP Integration

Understanding the benefits of analyzing fan data with CDP integration can help you address the challenges and concerns you might have about implementing this strategy in your organization.

Gain Deeper Insights into Fan Preferences

Analyzing fan data with CDP integration allows you to understand what your fans like, dislike, and what keeps them coming back. You can see patterns in their behavior, such as which types of content they engage with the most or what times they are most active. This helps you tailor your offerings to match their preferences, making your interactions more relevant and engaging. Learn why you should work with a CDP to gain deeper insights into fan preferences and behaviors.

Enhance Fan Engagement and Loyalty

When you know what your fans enjoy, you can create experiences that resonate with them on a personal level. Personalized content, special offers, and targeted communications make fans feel valued and understood. This level of engagement fosters a deeper connection, turning casual followers into loyal supporters who are more likely to stay with you over the long term. Discover how CDPs are reinventing customer relations to enhance fan engagement and loyalty.

Identify High-Value Fans for Targeted Marketing

Not all fans are the same. Some engage more frequently, spend more money, or have a larger influence within their networks. CDP integration helps you identify these high-value fans by analyzing their interactions and behaviors. You can then focus your marketing efforts on these individuals, offering them exclusive deals or early access to new content, which can increase their loyalty and lifetime value.

Optimize Content and Campaigns Based on Fan Data

With detailed insights into fan behavior, you can refine your content and marketing strategies to better meet their needs. You can test different types of content, measure their performance, and adjust your approach based on what works best. This data-driven strategy ensures that your campaigns are more effective, leading to higher engagement rates and better overall results. Learn how to connect marketing campaigns using CDP insights to optimize your content and strategies.

How Does Fan Data Analysis with CDP Integration Work?

Before diving into the technicalities, it’s essential to understand how fan data analysis with CDP integration can alleviate common challenges and maximize the effectiveness of your engagement efforts.

Data Collection from Multiple Touchpoints

You start by gathering data from various sources where fans interact with your brand. These touchpoints can include social media platforms, websites, mobile apps, ticketing systems, and in-person events. Each interaction provides valuable data points about fan behavior, preferences, and engagement levels. Collecting data from all these touchpoints ensures you have a comprehensive dataset to work with. Understand the importance of real data collection to ensure accuracy and completeness in your data-gathering efforts.

Data Unification and Creation of Fan Profiles

Once you have collected data from multiple sources, the next step is to unify this data. This involves consolidating information from different touchpoints into a single, cohesive database. The CDP matches data points to individual fans, creating unified fan profiles. These profiles compile all interactions, purchases, and engagement activities, providing a holistic view of each fan. This unification process eliminates data silos and ensures that all relevant information is accessible in one place. Explore the best practices in customer data management to streamline the unification process.

Advanced Analytics and Segmentation

With unified fan profiles in place, you can now apply advanced analytics to the data. This involves using algorithms and machine learning techniques to analyze fan behaviors and identify patterns. Segmentation is a crucial part of this process. You can group fans based on various criteria such as demographics, engagement levels, purchase history, and preferences. Advanced segmentation allows you to target specific fan groups with tailored content and marketing strategies, enhancing the relevance and effectiveness of your campaigns.

Activation of Insights for Personalized Experiences

The final step is to activate the insights gained from your analysis. This means using the data to create personalized fan experiences. With detailed fan profiles and segmented groups, you can deliver targeted content, offers, and communications that resonate with individual fans. Personalized experiences can include customized email campaigns, special promotions, exclusive content access, and more. By leveraging the insights from your CDP, you can engage fans in meaningful ways that drive loyalty and long-term engagement.

Discover 20 ways to boost results with CDP to enhance your personalized fan experiences.

Key Metrics to Track in Fan Data Analysis

To ensure your fan data analysis efforts are effective, it’s crucial to track specific metrics that highlight the success and areas for improvement in your engagement strategies.

Fan Engagement Metrics

Fan engagement metrics measure how actively your audience interacts with your content and events. These metrics include likes, shares, comments, and time spent on your platforms. Tracking these interactions helps you understand which content resonates most with your fans. For example, if a particular type of post consistently receives high engagement, you can prioritize similar content in the future. Engagement metrics also highlight the effectiveness of your communication strategies, showing you which channels and messages generate the most interest.

Fan Lifetime Value (FLV)

Fan Lifetime Value (FLV) estimates the total revenue a fan generates over their entire relationship with your brand. This metric considers ticket purchases, merchandise sales, subscriptions, and other revenue streams. Calculating FLV helps you identify your most valuable fans and tailor your marketing efforts to retain them. By focusing on increasing FLV, you can enhance overall profitability. FLV also assists in budget allocation, ensuring you invest in strategies that yield the highest returns.

Fan Sentiment Analysis

Fan sentiment analysis evaluates the emotions and opinions expressed by your audience. This involves analyzing social media posts, reviews, and other feedback to gauge overall sentiment. Positive sentiment indicates satisfaction and loyalty, while negative sentiment highlights areas needing improvement. Sentiment analysis provides insights into how fans perceive your brand, helping you address issues promptly and maintain a positive image. It also guides content creation, ensuring your messaging aligns with fan expectations and preferences.

Conversion Rates and Revenue Attribution

Conversion rates measure the percentage of fans who take a desired action, such as purchasing tickets or subscribing to a newsletter. High conversion rates indicate effective marketing and a strong call to action. Revenue attribution tracks the sources of your income, showing which campaigns and channels drive the most sales. Understanding conversion rates and revenue attribution helps you optimize your marketing strategies. You can allocate resources to the most successful campaigns and refine those that underperform, maximizing your return on investment. Learn how to improve your conversion rates with CDP integration.

How to Implement Fan Data Analysis with CDP Integration

Implementing fan data analysis with CDP integration can seem daunting, but breaking it down into manageable steps can simplify the process and help you see its potential benefits.

Define Your Fan Data Strategy

Start by outlining clear objectives for what you want to achieve with fan data analysis. Identify key goals such as increasing fan engagement, boosting ticket sales, or enhancing personalized marketing efforts. Determine which data points are most relevant to these goals. This could include social media interactions, purchase history, and event attendance. Establish a timeline and set measurable targets to track your progress. A well-defined strategy provides a roadmap for your data initiatives and ensures all efforts align with your overall objectives.

Select the Right CDP Solution

Choosing the right Customer Data Platform (CDP) is crucial for effective data analysis. Look for a solution that offers robust data integration capabilities, allowing you to collect data from various sources seamlessly. Ensure the CDP supports real-time data processing and provides advanced analytics tools. Consider the platform’s scalability to accommodate future growth. Evaluate user interface and ease of use, as a user-friendly platform will facilitate smoother adoption by your team. Check for strong customer support and training resources to assist with implementation and ongoing use.

Integrate Data Sources and Touchpoints

Once you have selected a CDP, the next step is to integrate all relevant data sources. Connect your social media platforms, website analytics, CRM systems, ticketing platforms, and any other touchpoints where fan interactions occur. This integration ensures a comprehensive view of fan behavior across all channels. Use APIs and data connectors provided by the CDP to streamline this process. Ensure that data flows smoothly and consistently from each source into the CDP, creating a unified dataset for analysis.

Analyze and Segment Fan Data

With your data integrated, begin analyzing it to uncover insights. Use the CDP’s analytics tools to identify patterns and trends in fan behavior. Segment your audience based on various criteria such as demographics, engagement levels, purchase history, and preferences. This segmentation allows you to tailor your marketing efforts to different fan groups. For example, you might create separate campaigns for high-value fans, casual followers, and new prospects. Advanced segmentation helps you deliver more relevant and effective marketing messages.

Activate Insights for Personalized Experiences

Leverage the insights gained from your data analysis to create personalized fan experiences. Use the unified fan profiles and segments to deliver targeted content and offers. Personalization can include customized email campaigns, special promotions, and exclusive content access. Ensure that your messaging resonates with individual fans by addressing their specific interests and preferences. Personalized experiences enhance fan engagement and loyalty, making fans feel valued and understood.

Measure and Optimize Performance

Track the performance of your personalized campaigns and initiatives using key metrics. Monitor engagement rates, conversion rates, and revenue generated from your efforts. Use the CDP’s reporting tools to generate detailed performance reports. Analyze these reports to identify what’s working and where improvements are needed. Continuously refine your strategies based on these insights. Adjust your campaigns to optimize results, focusing on the tactics that yield the highest engagement and return on investment. Regular performance measurement and optimization ensure that your fan data analysis efforts remain effective and aligned with your goals.

Best Practices for Fan Data Analysis with CDP Integration

Implementing best practices can help you maximize the effectiveness of your fan data analysis efforts and address any concerns regarding data quality and privacy.

Ensure Data Quality and Consistency

Maintaining high data quality and consistency is key to effective fan data analysis. Start by implementing robust data validation processes to ensure accuracy when data enters your system. Regularly audit your data to identify and correct any inconsistencies or errors. Use automated tools to clean and standardize data formats, making it easier to merge information from various sources. Consistent data allows for more reliable analysis and better decision-making.

Respect Fan Privacy and Consent

Fan privacy and consent are non-negotiable. Always collect data transparently, informing fans about what data you gather and how you will use it. Implement clear opt-in mechanisms for data collection and provide easy options for fans to manage their preferences. Ensure compliance with relevant data protection regulations, such as GDPR or CCPA. Regularly review your data privacy policies and update them as needed to reflect changes in laws or best practices. Respecting fan privacy builds trust and encourages more fans to share their data willingly.

Collaborate Across Teams and Departments

Effective fan data analysis requires collaboration across various teams and departments. Marketing, sales, customer service, and IT should work together to share insights and align strategies. Regular cross-departmental meetings can help ensure everyone is on the same page and working towards common goals. Use collaborative tools and platforms to facilitate communication and data sharing. This holistic approach ensures that all aspects of fan engagement are considered and optimized.

Continuously Refine and Optimize Your Approach

Fan preferences and behaviors change over time, so your data analysis approach should be flexible and adaptable. Regularly review your strategies and metrics to identify areas for improvement. Use A/B testing to experiment with different approaches and measure their effectiveness. Stay updated with the latest trends and technologies in data analysis to keep your methods current. Continuously refining your approach helps you stay ahead of the curve and maintain high levels of fan engagement and satisfaction.

Engage your audience like never before with Arena.im’s powerful live chat and real-time engagement tools. Sign up now to boost interaction, build community, and elevate your brand experience. Visit Arena.im Pricing to get started today.

CDP Integration Strategies for Targeted Content Campaigns

Posted on by

You’ve probably heard about the tool Customer Data Platform (CDP) and its growing importance in the marketing world. You might be wondering how integrating a CDP with other systems can enhance your targeted content campaigns. Let’s break it down and see how this integration works.

Understanding CDP integration can help you make informed decisions about your marketing strategy. It’s all about connecting the dots between different data sources and tools.

Here’s a closer look at what CDP integration involves and why it’s worth considering for your campaigns.

What is CDP Integration?

CDP integration connects a Customer Data Platform (CDP) with other systems like marketing automation tools, CRM, or content management systems. This process allows you to unify customer data from various sources, creating a single, comprehensive view of each customer.

By integrating a CDP with your marketing automation tools, you can streamline your marketing efforts. This connection enables you to use the rich customer data stored in the CDP to create more personalized and effective marketing campaigns.

Connecting a CDP with your CRM system ensures that all customer interactions and touchpoints are recorded and accessible. This unified data helps you understand your customers better and tailor your communications to their specific needs and preferences.

Integrating a CDP with content management systems allows for more targeted content delivery. You can use the insights gained from the CDP to recommend personalized content to your customers, enhancing their experience and increasing engagement.

In summary, CDP integration is about creating a seamless flow of data between your CDP and other systems. This integration helps you leverage customer data more effectively, leading to better-targeted content campaigns and improved marketing outcomes.

Benefits of CDP Integration for Targeted Content Campaigns

If you’re feeling the pressure to keep up with customer expectations and deliver more personalized experiences, CDP integration could be your game-changer. Let’s dive into why this matters.

Unified Customer View

CDP integration consolidates data from various sources to provide a comprehensive view of your customers. This unified customer view combines information from different touchpoints, such as website interactions, social media activity, and purchase history. By having all this data in one place, you can gain a deeper understanding of your customers’ behaviors, preferences, and needs. This holistic perspective allows you to make more informed decisions and tailor your marketing efforts to better meet customer expectations.

Personalized Content Delivery

Integration with a CDP enables the creation of highly targeted content based on customer preferences and behavior. By analyzing the unified customer profiles, you can identify specific interests and tailor content to match those interests. This means you can deliver personalized recommendations, offers, and messages that resonate with individual customers. Personalized content delivery enhances the customer experience, making interactions more relevant and engaging. This targeted approach not only captures attention but also fosters loyalty and encourages repeat interactions. Discover how CDPs are reinventing customer relations to enhance personalization and engagement.

Improved Campaign Performance

Targeted content campaigns driven by CDP insights lead to higher engagement and conversion rates. When you use data-driven insights to craft your campaigns, you can ensure that your messages reach the right audience at the right time. This precision reduces the likelihood of wasted efforts on uninterested audiences and increases the chances of converting prospects into customers. With a CDP, you can track the performance of your campaigns in real time, allowing for quick adjustments and optimizations. This continuous feedback loop helps you refine your strategies and achieve better results over time. Learn how to use CDP to improve conversion rates and streamline your marketing efforts.

In summary, integrating a CDP into your marketing ecosystem offers significant benefits for targeted content campaigns. A unified customer view, personalized content delivery, and improved campaign performance are just a few of the advantages that can help you create more effective and impactful marketing efforts.

How Does CDP Integration Work?

Now, you might be concerned about how this all comes together and whether it’s worth the effort. Let’s break down the process so it feels less daunting.

CDP integration starts with collecting and unifying customer data from various sources. This includes data from websites, mobile apps, social media, CRM systems, and more. The CDP aggregates this information into a single, comprehensive customer profile, ensuring all data points are connected and accessible.

Integrated systems then access these unified customer profiles to create targeted content. Marketing automation tools, CRM platforms, and content management systems can pull data from the CDP to tailor messages and content to individual customer preferences and behaviors. This targeted approach ensures that each customer receives relevant and personalized content, enhancing engagement and conversion rates. Find out how to connect marketing campaigns using CDP insights.

The CDP continuously updates customer profiles based on new interactions and data points. As customers interact with your brand, whether through purchases, website visits, or social media engagement, the CDP records these actions and updates the profiles in real-time. This dynamic updating process ensures that the customer data remains accurate and up-to-date, allowing for more effective and timely content targeting.

In summary, CDP integration involves a seamless flow of data collection, unification, and real-time updates, enabling integrated systems to deliver highly targeted and personalized content to your audience.

Types of CDP Integrations for Content Campaigns

Worried about how to actually implement these integrations? Let’s explore the different types and see which might work best for your needs.

Content Management System (CMS) Integration

Integrating a CDP with your Content Management System (CMS) allows you to offer personalized content recommendations on websites and apps. This integration leverages the unified customer profiles stored in the CDP to tailor content based on individual user preferences and behaviors. When a visitor lands on your site, the CMS can pull data from the CDP to display content that aligns with their interests, browsing history, and past interactions. This personalized approach enhances user engagement, keeps visitors on your site longer, and increases the likelihood of conversions.

For instance, if a user frequently visits pages related to a specific product category, the CMS can prioritize displaying related articles, product recommendations, or special offers. This not only improves the user experience but also drives higher engagement and satisfaction. Additionally, the integration ensures that content updates in real time, reflecting the latest customer interactions and preferences.

Email Marketing Platform Integration

Connecting a CDP with your email marketing platform allows for highly targeted email campaigns based on customer segments and behavior. The CDP collects and unifies data from various touchpoints, creating detailed customer profiles. These profiles can then be segmented into specific groups based on criteria such as purchase history, browsing behavior, and engagement levels.

With this integration, you can craft personalized email campaigns that resonate with each segment. For example, you can send tailored product recommendations to customers who have shown interest in similar items, or re-engagement emails to those who haven’t interacted with your brand recently. The email marketing platform accesses the CDP data to ensure that each email is relevant and timely, increasing open rates, click-through rates, and overall campaign effectiveness.

Moreover, the integration allows for automated email triggers based on real-time customer actions. If a customer abandons their shopping cart, the email platform can automatically send a reminder email with personalized product suggestions, encouraging them to complete the purchase. This level of personalization and automation enhances the customer experience and drives higher conversion rates.

Social Media & Advertising Integration

Integrating a CDP with social media advertising platforms facilitates the creation of personalized social media ads using CDP insights. The CDP aggregates data from various sources, creating comprehensive customer profiles that include demographic information, interests, and online behavior. These profiles can be used to create highly targeted ad campaigns on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

With this integration, you can deliver ads that are tailored to specific audience segments, ensuring that your message reaches the right people at the right time. For example, you can target ads to users who have recently visited your website but haven’t made a purchase, offering them a special discount to encourage conversion. Alternatively, you can create lookalike audiences based on your best customers, reaching new potential customers who share similar characteristics. Understand the differences between CDPs vs. DMPs to choose the right platform for your needs.

The integration also allows for dynamic ad content that updates in real time based on customer interactions. If a user engages with a particular product on your website, the social media ad can display related products or complementary items, increasing the chances of a sale. This personalized approach not only improves ad relevance but also maximizes your return on ad spend.

In summary, integrating a CDP with your CMS, email marketing platform, and social media advertising platforms enables you to deliver personalized content and campaigns that resonate with your audience. This targeted approach enhances engagement, improves campaign performance, and drives higher conversion rates.

CDP Integration Strategies for Targeted Content Campaigns

Feeling a bit overwhelmed? Let’s simplify things by focusing on the strategies that will give you the most bang for your buck.

Define Clear Integration Goals

Start by identifying the specific objectives you aim to achieve with CDP integration. Are you looking to improve customer segmentation, enhance personalization, or streamline data management? Clear goals help you focus your efforts and measure success effectively. For instance, if your primary objective is to boost engagement, you might prioritize integrations that enable personalized content delivery. Defining these goals upfront ensures that your integration efforts align with your broader marketing strategy and deliver tangible benefits.

Prioritize High-Impact Integrations

Focus on integrations that will deliver the most value for your targeted content campaigns. Evaluate which systems, when connected to your CDP, will have the greatest impact on your marketing efforts. For example, integrating your CDP with a content management system (CMS) can enable personalized content recommendations, while connecting it with an email marketing platform can facilitate highly targeted email campaigns. Prioritizing high-impact integrations ensures that you maximize the return on your investment and achieve significant improvements in campaign performance.

Ensure Data Quality and Consistency

Maintaining high data quality and consistency across integrated systems is vital for effective CDP integration. Inaccurate or inconsistent data can lead to misguided marketing efforts and poor customer experiences. Implement data validation processes to ensure that the information collected from various sources is accurate and up-to-date. Regularly audit your data to identify and rectify any discrepancies. Consistent data quality allows you to create reliable customer profiles, which are the foundation of successful targeted content campaigns. Leverage audience data and sales strategy to enhance your CDP integration efforts.

Continuously Measure and Optimize

Track the performance of your targeted content campaigns and optimize your integration strategies accordingly. Use analytics tools to monitor key metrics such as engagement rates, conversion rates, and customer feedback. This data provides insights into what’s working and what needs improvement. Regularly review your integration goals and adjust your strategies based on the performance data. Continuous measurement and optimization help you stay agile and responsive, ensuring that your CDP integration efforts yield the best possible results.

Best Practices for CDP Integration in Content Campaigns

Worried about getting it right the first time? These best practices can guide you through a smoother integration process.

Start with a Pilot Project

Begin with a small-scale integration to test the feasibility and impact. Starting small allows you to identify potential issues and fine-tune the integration process before a full-scale rollout. Select a specific segment of your customer base or a particular marketing channel to implement the pilot. Monitor the performance closely, gathering data on how well the CDP integrates with your existing systems and the effectiveness of the targeted content campaigns. This approach minimizes risks and provides valuable insights that can guide the broader implementation.

Involve Key Stakeholders

Engage stakeholders from different departments to ensure alignment and support. Successful CDP integration requires collaboration across various teams, including marketing, IT, sales, and customer service. Each department brings unique insights and expertise that can enhance the integration process. Organize regular meetings to discuss goals, share progress, and address any concerns. Ensuring that all stakeholders are on the same page helps in creating a cohesive strategy and fosters a sense of ownership and commitment to the project.

Provide Adequate Training

Train marketing and content teams on how to leverage CDP insights effectively. Proper training ensures that your teams can fully utilize the capabilities of the CDP to enhance targeted content campaigns. Develop comprehensive training programs that cover the functionalities of the CDP, data analysis techniques, and best practices for creating personalized content. Hands-on workshops and real-life case studies can make the training more engaging and practical. Continuous learning opportunities, such as webinars and refresher courses, keep your teams updated on new features and strategies.

In summary, starting with a pilot project, involving key stakeholders, and providing adequate training are best practices that can significantly enhance the success of CDP integration in your content campaigns. These steps ensure a smooth integration process, foster collaboration, and empower your teams to create highly effective targeted content.

Is CDP Integration Worth It for Targeted Content Campaigns?

Still on the fence? Let’s talk about why CDP integration is a game-changer for your content strategy.

CDP integration offers significant benefits for creating personalized content experiences. By connecting your Customer Data Platform with other systems, you gain a unified view of your customers. This integration allows you to understand customer preferences and behaviors in-depth, enabling you to deliver content that resonates with them. Personalized content experiences lead to higher engagement, as customers feel understood and valued. This level of personalization is difficult to achieve without a CDP, making integration a valuable asset for your content strategy.

Targeted content campaigns driven by CDP insights have proven to deliver higher ROI. When you use data-driven insights to create your campaigns, you can ensure that your messages are relevant and timely. This relevance increases the likelihood of conversions, as customers are more likely to engage with content that speaks directly to their needs and interests. Higher engagement rates translate to better campaign performance and, ultimately, a higher return on investment. The ability to track and measure the success of your campaigns in real time also allows for continuous optimization, further enhancing ROI. Explore 20 ways to boost results with CDP to enhance your marketing efforts.

The long-term value of CDP integration outweighs the initial investment and effort. While integrating a CDP with your existing systems may require an upfront investment, the benefits you gain over time make it worthwhile. The ability to create personalized content experiences and drive higher ROI through targeted campaigns provides a competitive edge. Additionally, the continuous updating of customer profiles ensures that your data remains accurate and actionable, allowing you to adapt to changing customer behaviors and preferences. This adaptability is crucial in maintaining relevance and achieving long-term success in your marketing efforts.

Engage your audience like never before with Arena’s powerful live chat and real-time engagement tools. Sign up now to boost interaction, build community, and elevate your brand experience. Visit Arena’s pricing page to get started today.

Live Chat Metrics And KPIs to Improve Customer Service

Posted on by

Want better customer satisfaction and loyalty? Use these ten metrics to optimize your live chat support experience.

Monitoring and optimizing the following ten live chat metrics is an important step to improve your live chat performance. Use these customer support metrics to identify opportunities to improve the quantity and quality of your customer service.

How Live Chat Increases Opportunities

When customers land on your website, they probably have questions and concerns about doing business with you. When a question or worry pops into potential customers’ minds, you can connect with the potential buyer. While static website content like product descriptions and other pages lay a great foundation, there’s no replacement for having a conversation.

Once those conversations start flowing, measuring live chat performance is crucial. Also known as live chat performance metrics, metrics are essential for management. Regularly reviewing metrics will tell you where additional training or resources are needed to reach your goals.

With Live Chat, your employees can easily interact with your customers at scale while providing a personalized experience. That means you get greater customer loyalty. A high customer satisfaction rate means more return buyers and a positive impact on sales.

Two Ways To Use Generative AI To Improve Live Chat Effectiveness

Traditional methods to improve live chat KPIs or metrics are the foundation of your success. Agents need the right tools and training to carry out their work. Management needs good data to support their teams. After you have that foundation, generative AI tools (think chatGPT but business focused) can help.

1. Answer routine questions based on a knowledge base.

Do you have a knowledge base or a section of your website with frequently asked questions (FAQ)?

If so, generative AI tech can use that resource to provide company-specific responses to customers. This type of focused generative AI is developing, so now is a great time to investigate it for your business.

2. Provide product recommendations

Your live chat KPIs might emphasize customer support metrics. What if you could use live chat to improve revenue directly? That’s an exciting possibility with generative AI.

For example, add a live chat window to a product page and use it to provide specific product recommendations. This capability works well with products with straightforward, easy-to-describe differences (e.g., different types of TV have different sizes, resolution, and other features).

Arena AI Concierge for Publishers, Content & Affiliate Commerce is here. Request early access.

Ten Live Chat Metrics To Watch & How To Improve Each One!

‍

‍

Live chat metrics are only meaningful if they support your business goals. For example, you may aim to improve the effectiveness of your customer service agents by decreasing the average wait time by equipping your team with canned responses to common questions.

When you first start offering live chat, pick a few metrics to measure your performance. After those initial metrics are well integrated into your team, you can continue developing your systems by adding additional metrics to realize your chat strategy.

1. First Response Time (FRT) Live Chat Metric

The first live chat metric focuses on measuring the response speed. In brief, you measure how long your chat agents take to respond to a customer’s first message.

The FRP metric is critically important to impact your customers positively. A fast response tells your customers that you value their time. On the other hand, keeping a customer waiting for a long time is likely to hurt customer loyalty and word of mouth.

The first response time metric is also helpful for management. If FRT responsiveness decreases over time, it may signal that you need more chat agents. It may also indicate that your chat support teams need more support in the form of playbooks, frequently asked questions (FAQs), and other resources.

The average First Time Response is 15 minutes so you can use this timing as a starting point for your organization. In general, the lower this number, the better the customers’ satisfaction with the service. If the response takes more than the average, it will likely cause frustration and negative referrals.

Ways To Improve The FRP Metric

Tracking live chat key metrics becomes truly valuable when you use this data to improve performance. Use these tips to improve your live chat performance over time.

  • Share FRP Metric Widely

Empower your employees by sharing FRP metrics widely and discussing them at each chat team meeting. Sharing live chat performance metrics with your team will help them become more innovative in improving the customer experience.

  • Investigate FRP Metric Changes With An Open Mind

The FRP metric is helpful, but it has limitations. Like other chat customer service metrics, this measure doesn’t show the root cause of problems. Start by investigating technology problems that are interfering with service standards. In addition, chat responsiveness may suffer during periods of high volumes.

2. Total Number Of Chat Sessions Live Chat Metric

This live chat performance indicator is a volume measurement. It shows the number of live chat sessions that have been launched. Compared to other metrics for live chat, it is also relatively easy to track automatically. Tracking this metric is helpful over time; it shows the popularity of live chat for service vs. other customer service options like phone and email.

Ways To Improve The Total Volume of Chat Sessions Metric

Use the following metrics to get business value from this live chat metric.

  • Look For Sharp, Sudden Drops In This Metric

A significant drop in the live metric is a warning sign that something is going wrong with your systems. That’s why we suggest monitoring this metric daily in normal conditions. You may want to track it hourly during times of peak usage.

  • Ask For Feedback From Your Chat Agents. 

The raw volume of chat conversations only tells you part of the picture. It is crucial to touch base with your live chat staff regularly. Ask them about the most common questions they face. Look for patterns in the questions you face so that you can create better answers and solutions for your chat agents to use.

3. Average Resolution Time (ART) Live Chat Metric

This live chat metric is adapted from the world of customer service call centers, unlike the first few live chat metrics. It is focused on the quality of your staff’s customer service.

It is not enough to provide a quick answer: ideally, the goal is to fully resolve a customer’s concern as efficiently as possible.

You generally want your average resolution time metric to be as low as possible. There is a risk of pressuring customer service staff to work too quickly. It is vital to ensure all of a customer’s concerns and questions are fully resolved and avoid cutting off the session simply to boost your chat performance metrics.

The ART metric is typically measured in minutes for most situations. Your ART metric might be days in some highly complex customer service cases.

Tips To Use The ART Metric Effectively

Use the following tips to interpret the ART metric effectively.

  • Examine ART Metric Outliers

You can expect outliers to the ART metric. Consider cases where agents take much longer than average to resolve the question. For example, new customer support employees might take longer to resolve issues. In that case, the higher ART time is understandable and will likely decline.

On the other hand, keep an eye on the chat load that your experienced chat operators have. If your experienced staff have an excessive workload, customers are more likely to have a bad experience.

  • Validate ART With Other Customer Service Channels

Your company probably has multiple customer service channels like phone calls, email, and in-person locations. If live chat ART data looks great, comparing it to your other support options, like the phone center, is helpful. Ideally, you want to see consistent levels of customer service resolution across your critical channels.

4. Chat to Conversion Rate Live Chat Metric

To become a chat leader, it’s essential to convert chat participants into buyers. According to our research, 38% of customers who participate in a live chat session ultimately decide to purchase after receiving excellent support front the customer service team.

This chat experience metric may be the most valuable metric we have covered. It tells you how effectively the chat channel produces revenue or leads. Now, let’s look at ways you can help the customer service team convert more chat participants into leads and customers.

Tips To Raise Your Chat To Conversation Rate Live Chat Metric

  • Use Analytics To Find What’s Working

Not all chat requests are created equal. For example, compare a chat that starts on your home page with a chat on the checkout page. Generally, converting a website visitor to a buyer on certain pages (e.g., a product page) is easier.

When you connect your chat platform to a customer data platform, for example, your chat team leaders may find out that one individual agent has an above-average score when it comes to converting visitors to buyers. In that case, reach out to that person and find out what they are doing. Based on what you learn, develop additional training for your staff.

  • Improve The Customer Experience With Technology

Additional training is not the only way to enhance the chat experience. For example, take a critical look at your chat software. Your current software may not be able to handle the number of inbound chats you are receiving. Or your software may not load in an acceptable time. Switching to a faster chat tool like Arena Live Chat can improve your customer experience almost overnight.

5. First Contact Resolution Rate (FCR) Live Chat Metric

The FCR rate is a critical quality metric. Your customer’s concerns in a single chat session in ideal conditions. It is unrealistic to expect that you will be able to solve 100% of customer complaints or questions on the first attempt. Setting a high bar for this metric is wise to maintain customer happiness.

To calculate the First Contact Response rate, you must track the number of interactions in a case and the proportion of one-touch resolutions. Track this data for at least one month before attempting to improve.

Traditionally, contact centers aim for a 70% FCR rate. Reaching this level of success is easier when your chat team has access to extensive resources like proper answers to commonly asked customer questions. If your first contact resolution rate is lower right now, use the following tips to work with chat team staff to improve.

Tips To Improve Your First Contact Resolution Rate

  • Send A Customer Survey After The Chat Session

Sending a short customer survey with a few simple questions is a great way to gather feedback from your customer base. For example, ask your customers to rate their satisfaction level on a scale of 0 to 10. If the score is below 5, ask a follow-up question about it.

  • Assess Your Chat Queue Data

When customers have to wait a long time, they may be more upset when the chat session starts. As a result, a long chat queue can make it more challenging to solve customer questions quickly. Better training and a high-performance chat system can help here.

6. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) Live Chat Metric

The CSAT is one of the most popular ways to develop a customer satisfaction rating for customer support. A customer satisfaction score (CSAT) measures how much your product or service meets or surpasses your customer’s expectations. A short customer satisfaction survey at the end of the live chat session is all you need to achieve this metric.

How To Improve The CSAT Score

There are a few popular ways to improve. Use these tips to boost your chat quality assurance efforts.

  • Find High Chat Satisfaction Cases

Studying chat transcripts from successful interactions is an excellent way to improve your performance. Look at how your high-performing employees are addressing common customer pain points. Once you identify these best practices, share them with the rest of your team.

  • Identify Patterns In Low CSAT Scores

Persistent low CSAT scores warn that something is wrong in your business. Before creating an action plan, take the time to understand the problem entirely. Look at contact volumes, peak traffic hours, and recent business growth. Your chat staff may be doing their best to help customers but simply lack the resources to serve customers effectively.

7. Net Promoter Score (NPS) Live Chat Metric

‍

‍

NPS might be one of the best pieces of information to evaluate customer satisfaction metrics. This metric measures overall customer loyalty, not just the chat experience.

The NPS process is simple. You gather consistent customer feedback by asking them a single question: On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our company to other people you know?

The NPS methodology breaks down scores into three categories:

  • The Detractors (0 – 6)
  • The Passives (7 and 8)
  • The Promoters (9 and 10)

Ideally, you want to maximize promoters and minimize the other two categories as much as possible. Use the tips covered elsewhere in this guide to improve your customer experience. Remember that customers can respond negatively to an NPS question for several reasons (e.g., upset with product delivery, pricing, etc.) that have nothing to do with the quality of their chat interaction.

8. Average Wait Time Live Chat Metric

Think about the last time you contacted a company with a question. Did you enjoy waiting for an answer? Even loyal customers hate waiting. That’s why monitoring your average wait time is a crucial metric.

The average chat wait time is usually less than a few minutes. Of course, this metric may look different during your busiest hours when you have a high volume of incoming chats.

There are a few options to improve the average time it takes to respond to customers. Start with examining the resources your chat agents have. Equipping your staff with canned answers, detailed product information, shipping details, and related resources can make a big difference.

While prewritten responses are helpful, they have limitations. You don’t want your customers to feel ignored simply because your chat staff feels pressured to achieve better chat performance benchmarks. This chat metric must be interpreted alongside other metrics, such as the NPS and FCR rate.

9. Website Visitors To Chats Metric

Increasing the number of chats per month generated from your website is a worthwhile goal to pursue. Most of the time, more chat sessions lead to more sales and more satisfied customers.

Keeping track of this metric is easy because you can easily track the data required. As a starting point, aim for a 1% conversion rate. If your website has 100,000 visitors per month, you should expect to have 1,000 chat sessions per month.

This metric is more valuable when read in the context of other metrics. For example, it is crucial to maintain high levels of customer satisfaction (e.g., high NPS rates, high first contact resolution rates, etc.) even as you lift.

Ways To Improve This Metric

There are a few techniques you can use to improve this metric.

  • Use A Better Chat Tool

The right chat technology has an important role in lifting this metric. For example, Arena Live Chat is built for speed and usability. Arena can also support a large volume of chat sessions simultaneously.

  • Optimize Your Chat Session Prompt

Chat windows usually start with a message or a question. Experimenting with different questions (e.g., “Do you have any questions?” vs. “Do you have a question about our Black Friday sale?”) can increase the number of website visitors who start a chat session.

10. Missed Chats Live Chat Metric

The missed live chat metric gives insight into whether your chat team can keep up with incoming chat requests.

A single experienced live chat agent can handle approximately 6 to 7 simultaneous conversations if they are relatively simple. Once your chat team hits capacity, missed chats will become a problem.

It’s not just a question of workload influencing this metric. You may also face a mismatch between working hours and staff availability. Your website is open 24/7 for business, but your chat support team is only available between 9 am to 5 pm.

Therefore, the raw volume of missed chats is only part of the story. It is also essential to track when missed chat requests occur. If missed chat sessions occur during regular working hours, use the other techniques mentioned in other parts of this situation.

Ways To Improve The Missed Chats Live Metric

Improving your performance on this live chat metric can be relatively challenging.

  • Manage Expectations For Non-Business Hours Service

When you have a significant chat volume outside your usual work hours, give your customers other options. For example, show your customer service email address and invite customers to message your team.

  • Extend Chat Service Hours At Peak Periods 

Chat handling time and chat volume will likely increase when you run sales. In those cases, average response time and missed chat measures may suffer. To avoid this problem, ask more employees to work as customer support agents to handle the demand. ‍

How To Go Beyond Standard Customer Service Chat

You may already have a chat app in place for day-to-day needs. But, what about events like live shopping, livestreams and other virtual events? These events are an exciting way to launch products and bring your community together. In these situations, a different chat solution is needed.

Arena Live Chat is the perfect solution for digital events because your customers can message each other, ask support questions and build trust with your brand. Learn more about Arena’s capabilities today.

‍

‍

Customer Engagement vs Audience Engagement Strategies

Posted on by

The customer engagement vs. audience engagement debate is growing. The reality is that most businesses need to grow their audience and customer base. The strategic choice is to decide how to cover types of engagement and allocate your resources appropriately. 

What Is Audience Engagement?

From a marketing perspective, audience engagement refers to people who have interacted with your online presence in some depth. Think about an audience at a concert – you’re only part of the audience if you see most (if not all) of the performance. Likewise, your online audience excludes people who bounce or visit your website once and never return.

Audience engagement is the art and science of drawing website visitors to consume multiple pages or content assets. Ideally, audience engagement also has a social aspect. Again, think of attending a performance. You might go to an event with a friend and have the chance to meet other people who share similar interests. 

Translating audience growth to revenue depends on your business. Publishers earn more from audience engagement right away because a more engaged audience views more ads. Other businesses are more likely to get more leads and conversions from a high audience engagement. 

Engaging your customer base overlaps with audience engagement, but there are also some key differences.

What Is Customer Engagement?

‍

‍

Customer engagement is focused on building a deeper relationship with your customers. This might include using a loyalty program to encourage more purchases. In addition, customer engagement also includes gathering first-party data from your customers. For example, you may use data to better understand the content, pages, and online experiences that customers experience before making a purchase.

Since customer engagement focuses on people who have bought before, it is closer to revenue. After all, a customer has already taken the leap of trust to buy once. If they’ve had a good experience, inviting them to buy again is easier.

The challenge with customer engagement is balancing maximizing revenue and enriching the relationship. If your customers only hear from you during a sale, some may tune out. Alternatively, brands that show appreciation for customers through events, sharing content, and seeking feedback are more likely to build a trusting relationship.

Assessing Your Need For Audience Engagement And Customer Engagement

Most companies need audience engagement and customer engagement strategies to achieve their growth objectives. Audience engagement helps to replenish the top of the marketing funnel (and grow advertising revenue for publishers). Customer engagement gives you the tools to develop loyal customers for the long term.

To decide which mix of audience engagement vs. customer engagement to pursue, take a moment to assess your current situation with the following maturity self-assessment.

Audience Engagement Maturity

Reflect on these audience engagement questions to determine your strengths and weaknesses in audience engagement.

‍

1) Do you have audience engagement growth metrics established?

2) Are you gathering more first-party data directly from your audience month over month?

3) Does your website offer community experiences like online events regularly?

4) Are you communicating with other stakeholders regularly to demonstrate the value of audience engagement?

5) Do you have audience engagement solutions like Arena Live Chat and Live Blog available?

‍

If you answered yes to most of the questions, you have a highly engaged audience. In that case, shifting your focus to customer engagement is wise. On the other hand, if you answered no or weren’t sure about the questions, audience engagement should probably be your primary focus.

Customer Engagement Maturity

Assessing your customer engagement maturity starts with exploring the following questions with your team.

‍

1) Do you have a customer loyalty program that rewards engagement and purchases in some way?

2) Do you know your customers better today than you did a year ago regarding data?

3) Do you regularly tell your customers that you appreciate their business?

4) Do you provide special experiences (e.g., early access, discounts, online experiences) just for your customers?

5) Do you have a customer data platform (i.e., CDP) in place to organize all of your first-party data?

‍

The maturity level for customer engagement is similar to the audience engagement outlined above. If you answered yes to three or more of the questions, you have a high level of customer engagement maturity. If you were unsure of your answers or had two or fewer yes answers, your customer engagement maturity has significant room for improvement.

How To Use Online Experiences To Grow Engagement

We have some good news: Whether you see greater audience engagement or customer engagement opportunities. With some tweaks, you can use similar tools and strategies to lift both kinds of engagement. Let’s consider two scenarios: increasing audience engagement and lifting customer engagement using online events.

Boosting Audience Engagement Strategies

You must offer something new and attractive when your audience is not large or engaged enough. The harsh reality is that your audience members have many other online options for connection, learning, and entertainment. The following ideas can help you to lift engagement.

Partner With Influencers In An Online Event

Influencers are celebrities for a specific niche or interest. Since influencers spend their time growing their audience, they have the know-how to help you. Depending on the size of your audience and resources, you can offer different forms of payment to an influencer to run an event with you. Add Arena Live Chat to your event so your audience can easily ask questions and connect with other participants.

Leverage Breaking News

Breaking news events offer a potential shortcut to growing your audience quickly with Arena Live Blog. If you can be the first to offer coverage or offer something uniquely different than others, you can stand out. For example, consider Nate Silver’s election coverage. His approach to offering a data driven approach to election coverage and politics helped him to build an audience.

Lifting Customer Engagement Strategies

Growing customer engagement through online experiences is different in terms of focus. Instead of throwing the doors wide open, customer engagement works best when focused. Here are some examples to get you started.

Customer Appreciation Experiences

Many companies organize an annual customer conference. However, running a full-scale live event may not suit your goals or budget. Instead, an online event focused on customer appreciation can work even better. For example, a B2B company may have many ecommerce customers. Consider inviting a small group of ecommerce company owners to an exclusive “fireside chat” where they can network with each other and meet an engaging guest speaker.

Early Product Feedback Events

Another approach is to invite your customers into the product development process. When you have a prototype product ready, invite VIP customers to see it. Let your customers use the beta product for free. They’ll feel appreciated by giving them early access and acting on their feedback. You’ll receive helpful comments that can also help you launch the product.

Reach Your Engagement Goals With Arena

Whether you want a larger audience or more excited customers, investing in engagement can help. Use Arena Live Chat and Live Blog to offer interactive online experiences directly through your website. Build your community right on your website with Arena!

7 Customer Engagement Trends For 2023

Posted on by

Marketers are worried in 2023.

Economic worries and disruption in online advertising mean previously reliable strategies and playbooks aren’t delivering results. Navigating these trends will be challenging! Charting your path forward is much easier when you know the significant trends impacting online marketing and advertising.

Trend 1: Advertising Spend Faces Efficiency Pressure 

‍

‍

Multiple companies are reporting falling spending on online advertising over the past few months. eMarketer recently cut its forecast for US digital ad spending by $5 billion, down to $278 billion. The pullback on spending is hitting Google, which reported falling advertising spending in several segments at the end of Q4 2022.

Cutting advertising spending is a common strategy whenever there’s economic uncertainty. It happened last in early 2020 when the pandemic rocked the world. 

At the same time, the need to drive growth and get more customers isn’t going anywhere. To retain your advertising budgets and stretch them further, get proactive on efficiency and engagement.

Reassess Your Brand Vs. Direct Response Allocation

Brand-building advertising is powerful for growing a company in the long term. However, it can take a lot of work to show immediate results with that style of advertising. In the short term, consider shifting more resources toward direct marketing to harvest more results.

Tighten Up Funnels And Performance Attribution

Online advertising channels and strategies vary in how easy they are to measure. Now is the time to look at your campaigns and see which ones are bringing in results. Consider pausing campaigns with more steps and moving parts since these efforts are more challenging to track.

Trend 2: Focus On Anonymous User Conversion 

Anonymous website visitors represent a significant opportunity for brands and publishers. They have discovered you. Much of the hard work of acquisition and awareness building is done. The next step is to get to know your audience better.

The way forward is to focus more on offering value to anonymous website visitors. Don’t overlook classic strategies like discounts, buy one get one, and the like. Such strategies have worked for decades for consumer brands.

For publishers and B2B companies, there may be better choices than discounts to convert anonymous users. Instead, look at ways to package premium experiences available only to registered users. Online events remain one of the most cost-effective ways to draw audiences in.

Trend 3: Launch More Online Events

‍

‍

It’s true that enjoying food and drinks with your customers in person offers a powerful way to build relationships. However, traditional events also require significant investment. Spending  $20,000 or $100,000 on traditional events or conference participation might not go forward this year.

The alternative to high-cost traditional events is to run more online events. Since online events don’t require venue booking and other elements, they are often much faster to run. Offering your registered users exclusive access to your online events is one compelling way to convert more browsers into customers.

To make the most of your online events, ensure you give your audience a way to connect and share feedback. Arena Live Chat makes it easy for users to ask questions, share thoughts and meet others. 

Trend 4: Multi-Disciplinary Marketers Will Win

The digital marketing world is complex. There are thousands of apps, many certifications, and skill sets to learn! Budget to hire additional staff, agencies and other support may get more challenging to access. Yet, marketing teams are still responsible for delivering growth within those constraints.

Developing multi-disciplinary marketers is the way to thrive through this uncertainty. This means identifying skills, strategies, and technical skills you lack today and working to develop them. One approach is to pair a traditional evergreen skillset like copywriting with a digital marketing skill like search engine optimization (SEO).

While growing new skills is valuable, keeping this growth focused on your goals is essential. For example, connect your drive to improve SEO skills with a tactical goal to get more conversions on your top 5 pages.

Trend 5: Growing Pressure To Deliver Efficiency In Marketing Departments

This trend is similar to the first trend – pressure on advertising budgets – but it has some nuances. The pressure on marketing teams to deliver better customer engagement results will take a few forms. Marketers may only be able to hire talent or retain some of the technology they had planned for.

It’s not just a question of marketing budgets facing greater scrutiny either. Sales and management teams may demand more support to deliver growth this quarter. The good news is that there are multiple tactics to deliver greater results in a short period.

Win Back Campaigns

Reengaging past customers is one of the best ways to grow on a budget. You probably have their details and permission to communicate with them. Make sure you use thoughtful targeting for the best results (more on this front in the next section).

Reassess Marketing Technology

Take a hard look at your current marketing technology stack, especially the older and more expensive apps. These assets may have delivered value once, but that may no longer be true if your strategies and target market have evolved.

Improve Internal Communication

Marketers usually focus their efforts on customers. As internal pressure increases, you must keep engaging your internal stakeholders. For example, aim to create a simple marketing dashboard that emphasizes the most significant wins of the month.

Don’t assume that other departments, like sales or executives, will automatically see the value of marketing. Taking a few hours a month to communicate marketing wins (e.g., “we increased order value by 10% compared to the previous month!”) is a vital way to maintain trust in marketing.

Trend 6: Targeted Engagement Campaigns Become Essential

‍

‍

You have registered users, email list subscribers, and others engaged with your brand. The old playbook of sending the same promotion to everybody is less likely to work today. Launch more targeted engagement campaigns using the first party you have from your users, like the pages they’ve visited and emails they open.

Here are a few ways to design more tightly focused engagement campaigns:

Focus On The Next Engagement Step

Instead of asking for the sale immediately, ask yourself this question: what’s the most common next step people make after registering on our website? The answer could be attending a software demo. Or you might find that users tend to consume several pieces of long-form content. The objective is to go small – look for the next logical micro step in engagement and focus your efforts there.

Ask For Feedback and Ideas

Coming up with new and engaging ideas to inspire your online audience gets tiring. Fortunately, you don’t have to be the one with all the great ideas. Instead, develop 2-3 high-level content ideas and send them to your audience. Ask your audience which idea sounds most promising! 

For an in-depth exploration of leveraging customer questions and surveys in your marketing, see the book “Ask: The Counterintuitive Online Method to Discover Exactly What Your Customers Want to Buy” by Ryan Levesque.

Invite High Potential Audience Members To An Event

Review your customer data platform to identify highly engaged prospects who have yet to buy. For example, create a segment of users engaged with your brand across two or three channels. In this case, smaller is better! Inviting 50-100 carefully selected people to an online event tightly connected to their interests.

Trend 7: Renewed Focus on Loyalty Marketing 

As economic uncertainty hits marketers and their budgets, there’s a greater demand to emphasize proven strategies. Growth may be challenging, so keeping current customers will become even more critical. The following steps can help you design better loyalty and retention campaigns.

Examine Customer Churn Triggers

Find out the top three reasons why your customers are leaving so that you can create campaigns to address those issues. For example, customers on an annual plan may feel surprised by an unexpected charge. To reduce this cause of churn, identify customers who are 1-2 months away from renewal and offer them additional payment options.

Reinforce Your Loyalty Program

In 2023, Starbucks announced changes to its loyalty program that devalued loyalty program points. In the past, airlines have made similar changes. Such changes make it harder to retain loyal customers. Also, such changes generate negative publicity that makes engagement far more complex.

Find out if your organization plans changes like these and see if you can pause or defer implementation to lift retention.

The Way To Lift Engagement Right Now

Growing an audience from scratch takes time and effort. Growing your website audience toward conversion. Find out how Arena can help lift engagement today.

How to know the ROI for a Customer Data Platform

Posted on by

Adding a customer data platform to your sales and marketing workflow takes some work. So, it’s worth asking the question: is it worth the effort to use a CDP? To find the answer, let’s look at ways to measure the ROI of a customer data platform. 

Calculating Customer Data Platform ROI Step By Step

In principle, deeply understanding customer behavior should drive higher revenue. Achieving that result takes time and the right approach. Let’s start by gathering the correct numbers.

1) Know Your Sales And Marketing Numbers Before Using A CDP

To fully understand the impact of a customer data platform on your business, it is crucial to gather some numbers. Precisely, measure these numbers before using a CDP and then look at them afterward.

  • The number of leads. This measure should be the easiest to track – count the number of leads you typically gain per month. If possible, look at six to twelve months of data and take the average.
  • Lead quality. There are different ways to determine lead quality. For example, you might measure the proportion of marketing-qualified leads that convert to sales-qualified leads.
  • Ad campaign effectiveness (e.g., cost per lead). Running a lead generation advertising campaign is much easier when you deeply understand your audience. If you’re just getting started, you are likely to have a high cost per lead. With better data, you can bring this figure down over time.
  • Sales cycle time. Measure the time between a lead’s first encounter with your business and purchase. While external factors, like the overall economic environment, also impact this figure, it is still intelligent to track. 

With these data points in mind, let’s proceed to the next phase of the ROI measurement process.

2) Install and configure your customer data platform.

In this step, install and configure your customer data platform. For this platform to deliver maximum value, take the time to review your customer data for quality. The ROI from the CDP will be low if you start with poor data.

To assess your customer data quality, consider the following points:

Do you have accurate information about customers and how they became customers?

Take a list of your 100 most recent customers and look at the customer journey. Ideally, your CDP should help you to understand their experience. For example, did the majority of prospects interact with sales only after attending a virtual event? If you don’t have this customer data yet, start planning to gather it. Customer surveys and automated tracking can help to address these points.

Without the ability to accurately trace the customer journey, measuring marketing effectiveness and making data-driven decisions about what to focus on next is difficult.

Are you gathering zero-party and first-party data from customers and prospects?

Third-party platforms like lead providers and social media have a role to play. However, these sources are limited. They don’t tell you what a given person thinks or feels about your specific brand. A fully implemented customer data platform can equip you with these insights. 

Zero-party data is data that customers decide to share with an organization like product preferences in a survey. For example, you might run a survey to customers about what websites and brands they like the most. Responses to this survey would be zero-party data. First-party data, on the other hand, is a bit different. It is data that a customer agrees to provide by using your website, interacting with your emails, and so forth. Regularly gathering these data points is an important way 

Are you using a scoring system?

Scoring becomes more important as you scale up your lead generation and marketing efforts. Large companies develop higher sophisticated models to score leads, but that’s not the only way. You can take a simpler approach if you’re just getting started. For example, you might distinguish between new prospects (i.e., they have been on your email list for less than five days), highly engaged leads (i.e., they have been on your email list for 30 days and have participated in an online event) and customers (i.e., they have purchased in the past 12 months). Classifying prospects into these three categories will help you make better decisions about using your marketing resources.

With this foundation, you’re ready to install your customer data platform.

3) Generate first-party data for your customer data platform

On its own, a customer data platform does not produce a return on investment. To achieve results, there are two more crucial ingredients. First, it’s vital to feed more data into the platform regularly. Second, taking sales and marketing actions is vital based on what you find in the CDP. Let’s start with the first ingredient.

Generating a steady stream of first-party data is one of the best ways to make your CDP more valuable. For most brands, it makes sense to focus on getting more people to your website and ensuring they have an engaging experience. A website visitor that arrives and leaves a few seconds later will not give you much to work with.

There are a few ways to make your website more appealing to customers. You start with a foundation of design, fast technology, and a simple user interface. Next, publish content that directly speaks to your customers’ needs and problems. Finally, enrich your website by transforming it into a virtual events platform using a live blog or a live chat experience. Taken together, technology, content, and community experiences will make your website more appealing. As website visitors keep returning over time, you will have more opportunities to gather data about their preferences.

Once your website generates a significant amount of first-party data, how do you transform that data into valuable insights? That’s what we’ll cover in the next section.

4) Develop new sales and marketing ideas based on CDP data

Your next step is to develop new ideas based on the data you’re seeing in your customer data platform. Success requires both art and science. The art is coming up with sales and marketing ideas regularly. The science is grounding those ideas in the data available on your platform. Let’s illustrate this principle with two examples.

Online publisher

A digital publisher is concerned about subscribers not renewing their subscriptions after the first year. To solve this problem, the publisher reviews their CDP and looks for patterns between people who renew their subscriptions and those who do not. The publisher may notice that 90% of renewing subscribers access paid content once per week and have attended at least two subscriber-only online events.

Based on these patterns, the publisher decides to test the following marketing campaign ideas:

  • Highlight the “best article of the week” to subscribers. The objective is to make it easier for subscribers to use – read just one article.
  • Improve virtual events with special guests. To make subscriber-only virtual events more enticing, the publisher invites celebrity guests to a “Ask Me Anything” session to make subscriber-only virtual events more enticing.

After developing these marketing campaign ideas, the publisher can measure the ROI of the campaign using their customer data platform. 

Ecommerce company

A clothing e-commerce company is finding it difficult to achieve a reasonable return on its online advertising campaigns. By using the CDP, the marketing manager quickly discovers the problem. Many customers buy only when the company offers discount codes and never buy again. Fortunately, the company has noticed that customers who come through referral campaigns (e.g., Instagram influencers creating sponsored posts) seem to lead to ongoing campaigns.

The e-commerce company developed a few new marketing campaign ideas based on these insights.

  • Increase budget allocation to influencer marketing campaigns.
  • Change the creative focus for paid advertising campaigns. Instead of advertising a discount offer, new campaigns take advantage of holiday promotions (e.g., back-to-school season).
  • Increase content marketing campaigns with partners to drive more referral traffic.

5) Gather the right data for a marketing ROI comparison.

If you’ve followed the process, you’ve installed a customer data platform, gathered new data, and implemented some new marketing ideas. Now, you can compare your marketing effectiveness before and after using the CDP.

To avoid confusing data, aim to make the pre-CDP and post-CDP implementation comparison as similar as possible. For example, focus on the same period (i.e., January to July of this year when you had the CDP vs. January to July of the previous year before you had the CDP).

Aim to exclude other factors that might significantly skew the results to the degree possible. For example, if there have been significant changes in the monthly marketing budget (e.g., $10,000 per month last year vs. $15,000 per month this year), be mindful of those changes. 

6) Measure the ROI of your customer data platform

In this step, you’ll directly compare the results achieved before using the CDP and after using the CDP. If you’ve been feeding high-quality data to the CDP and making business decisions based on CDP insights, you’re likely to see a substantial improvement in CDP return on investment. In this case, take a moment to celebrate with your marketing team! You’ve successfully leveraged data insights to grow your business!

What if the return on investment results aren’t that exciting? That’s entirely possible! In this situation, remember that marketing is a work in progress. Learn what you can from the campaigns that didn’t work out and try something new. 

Three Ways To Improve Customer Data Platform ROI

The following strategies will help you to get better results from your CDP. While each strategy is distinct, you’re likely to get better results using multiple strategies.

1) Look For Missing Customer Data

Missing key data points is a crucial reason customer data platforms provide limited results. For example, your focus might be on gathering data from website users. However, if the majority of customer conversations come from sales calls or social media, you might be missing key developments. Ensure your customer data platform gathers information from your website, social media, and key offline channels.

2) Validate Data With The Sales Team

For B2B companies, completing the transaction requires the sales team. Few customers are willing to make a $10,000 or $100,000 purchase without the chance to speak with a salesperson and get answers to their questions. 

There are a few ways to validate your CDP insights with the sales team. Start by looking at reports and reports from your customer relationship management (CRM). For example, look at the most recent 10-20 completed sales. Does the customer journey involve multiple touchpoints with sales representatives? If so, you might be missing those interactions in your CDP.

In addition to reviewing reports, make the time to speak with your sales colleagues. They’re emailing and calling customers every week. They can give you insights into the relevance of marketing materials (e.g., “customers loved the state of the industry report we released this year in January – can we produce more reports like that?”).

3) Take More Chances

The final way to get better results from your customer data platform is to take more chances. Specifically, we often see people gather plenty of data from customers and prospects and look at the patterns. However, some marketers are reluctant to set aside their preferences and take a risk based on what the CDP is telling them. For example, your CDP might show that video customer stories lead to better conversions. Yet, recording customer videos are often quite labor-intensive and require permission from multiple parties. Despite these challenges, it may be time to invest more in creating these assets. 

How To Get More Value From Your Customer Data Platform

You’ve seen that gathering data from a customer data platform is a powerful way to get more conversions and increase engagement. Ensure you have the right technology to gather and import first-party data into your systems to make the most of your platform. Arena Personas is a powerful tool to help you use first-party data to better segment your audiences and improve marketing efficiency.

Get More Customers With A Retarget Customer Data Platform

Posted on by

A customer data platform needs the right fuel to achieve growth—data from sales systems, customer loyalty data, insights from programmatic advertising, and advanced analytics all help. Ultimately, the way to lift conversion rates requires significant first-party data. 

Why First Party Data Should Be The Core Of Your Marketing Strategy

If you ask most marketing teams, they’ll say they are drowning in data from analytics tools. The burden gets even more significant when you factor in customer insights from third-party data. That’s why your customer data platforms need to emphasize direct interactions with customers (i.e., first-party data).

To make the most out of your marketing activities and get better retargeting results, you need the proper foundation in place first. With the right marketing technology, it is far easier to focus your advertising campaigns to achieve better click-through rates and increase conversion rates.

Gathering Your First-Party Data For Retargeting

Fulfilling your business strategy is easier when you can make Facebook ads, email marketing, and overall digital marketing deliver more results. Effectively gathering first-party data into a centralized database makes it easier to provide personalized experiences.

To build accurate customer profiles, look at the data you already have, like purchase history, insights from your legacy systems, and other data points available in your marketing automation platform. These data points are vital to building a company’s first-party data foundation. However, there is much more high-quality customer data you can gather.

4 Marketing Opportunities To Gather And Use First Party Data 

Online events and community experiences give you an unusual way to transform anonymous visitors into potential customers. To achieve this feat, your tech stack needs to be equipped with marketing automation tools like Arena Personas and live chat. Once your email systems and preferred marketing solution are ready, it’s time to engage your target audiences. 

1) Offer Online Experiences To Potential Customers

Using marketing campaigns to gather today from various customer segments is easier when there is a value exchange. Every single customer should get something out of interacting with your company like a community experience, pricing (e.g. discounts), early access to products or useful insights.

For example, you can use Arena live chat to deepen your customer relationships by running engaging online events. As you add more engaging experiences, customer acquisition cost may go up for a period of time. In the long term, providing customers live event experiences can raise customer retention.

Instead of attempting to understand the desires of anonymous segments, tracking user engagement in different types of online activity (e.g. chat and website use) leads to more actionable insights. Let’s break down how gathering first-party data with an online experience can help.

E-Commerce Business Use Case

For example, B2C customers may react with excitement in a chat session during a livestream event. To see how this information could be used, consider e-commerce brands. They may be considering launching 10 products over the next quarter but  can use this insight to improve the results of product launches. By observing the chat and related behavior patterns like website clicks, you can estimate demand for products (e.g. “Hey, we noticed over a hundred people wanted the new blue shirt!”). 

With this insight in mind, there are at least two ways you can get more business. First, you can run a targeted campaign to your current customers and reference your chat experience (e.g. “We saw that many of you are excited about our new linen blue shirts! Order by Friday and you’ll get 10% off!”). Second, you can then make changes on your advertising platform to emphasize the new shirt. 

2) Create Campaigns For Your Current Customers 

Marketing campaigns often focus on bringing in net new customers and prospects. In addition to that objective, it’s important to engage your current customers. In many respects, it’s easier to  execute data-driven personalization is to focus on customers. Unlike anonymous website visitors, customers have signaled what they value with their buying behavior including offline purchases. Let’s illustrate this use case for enterprise-level companies in the software industry. 

B2B Enterprise Use Case

Selling complex business software often feels like a Herculean task. Achieving business success often requires a full team of sales professionals like account executives, sales development representatives and others. Further, the marketing team is constantly working hard to collect customer stories, optimizing online advertising campaigns and more.

In this context, it’s vital to make the most of your customer base. For example, you might have a significant percentage of customers on a mid tier plan while your goal is to emphasize the top tier enterprise plan. In that case, you might offer online experiences showcasing the success of users in the top tier plan and encourage them to share their success stories. For instance, enterprises users might rave about the analytics capabilities and native integrations available in your top tier plan. Running a live event where customers have the opportunity to share their experiences with each other is powerful!

There are some downsides to this type of campaign. It requires significant insight into customer behavior. It’s vital to know your customer satisfaction levels so that you shine a spotlight on your most delighted customers. This type of campaign also requires significant collaboration between sales and marketing. Fortunately, solutions like Arena Personas make such marketing efforts easier to arrange. 

3) Get Better Lookalike Audiences

In Facebook advertising, it has been a common practice to create a lookalike audience by uploading your customer list. Facebook then uses its customer match capabilities to find more people who are similar to your current customers. This approach to Facebook advertising isn’t your only option. What if your target audience isn’t on Facebook or Facebook campaigns aren’t producing satisfactory results? The first party data you gather can help you to market more effectively.

The downside to relying entirely on an advertising platform for lookalike audiences is that you are dependent on their database. If some or many of your customers are not active users on Facebook, retargeting via the Facebook pixel may not work well.

The alternative is to build your own lookalike audiences. With a large enough audience, you may be able to pursue granular segmentation in a custom audience as shown in the following example.

Individual Audience Factors

Every purchase is ultimately made by an individual, whether they are buying as a consumer or at a company. Therefore, it is usually wise to start with these factors.

  • Age: understanding the typical age profile of your ideal audience helps you to decide which channels, creative and offers to use.
  • Gender: it is helpful to know if gender differences are relevant to your market.
  • Geography: contrast the geography of your website visitors to your ideal customer profile.
  • Interests: find out the topics, publications and media your audience likes. If you offer online event experiences like virtual conferences, look at registration records to see 

B2B Audience Factors

If you are focused on appealing to B2B audiences, the following customer attributes are important. 

  • Industry: to minimize confusion, use a standard industry classification like the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).
  • Company Size: use number of employees or revenue as a filter. 
  • Technology Stack: If you offer technology products or services, knowing the customer’s tech stack is helpful. For example, does it matter if the customer uses Salesforce?

Is Your Audience Segment Too Large?

Audience segmentation can become less useful when the audience becomes too large. IF you end up with an audience segment with millions of individual customers, it may need to be narrowed down. Leverage feedback from the sales team and customer service to narrow the list. They may be able to help you identify the customer attributes associated with the most valuable customers (e.g. people who tend to move through the customer journey quickly).

4) Lapsed Customer Engagement

When a customer cancels their account or stops buying for a long period of time, all hope is not lost. In many cases, you have a good chance to reengaging lapsed customers with a retargeting campaign. To build this type of audience segment, it’s important to choose who to include and who to exclude.

Start by defining a lapsed customer. For simplicity, let’s define a lapsed customer as a prior customer whose last purchase was six to twelve months ago. Once you have that list, it’s vital to filter it further using your customer relationship management data. Specifically, you want to exclude customers who complained or experienced significant problems. Reengaging such former customers is much more challenging and may require more guidance from the sales team.

Now that you have your audience segment prepared, prepare a custom advertising campaign. B2C companies often find that a simple “we’ve missed you!” style message with an incentive (e.g. 10% off coupon) is an effective way to bring back customers. For B2B campaigns, communicating new features or capabilities can help. Even better, reengage lapsed customers by inviting them to an online event.

The Final Ingredient To Successful Retargeting: Leverage Market Awareness

Once you choose one of the ideas from above to execute, there is one more critical point to consider: market awareness. The three part market funnel – top of funnel, middle of the funnel and bottom of funnel – gives us a good framework. Let’s pair the market funnel concept with the audience segmentation we covered earlier.

1) Top of Funnel

In the top of the marketing funnel, most prospects have little to no understanding of your product and how it might help them. This is the marketing equivalent of cold calling. The advantage of top funnel marketing is that you have the greatest opportunity because this segment is always the biggest. The disadvantage is that you usually need to be more patient.

With a top of funnel focus, leveraging the “Offer Online Experiences To Potential Customers” strategy makes sense. In this case, your primary marketing campaign would focus on inviting prospects to an online event. After the event, you would follow up with retargeting campaigns to offer an event recording or other assets to give people a reason to opt in to your marketing.

If you use events, use our how to promote your virtual event guide to get more attendees.

2) Middle of Funnel

Also known as the evaluation stage, the middle of the funnel is an intermediate step in the customer journey. In this stage, the potential customer has some awareness of what you offer. It’s now up to you to nurture the prospect further. In contrast to top of funnel, you likely already have some prospect or customer data in place so you can start off with a retargeting campaign.

Consider adapting the “Create Campaigns For Your Current Customers” concept to middle of the funnel campaigns. Highlighting your current customers via an event, case study or interview is a powerful way to prove your credibility. Using your customer data platform, identify prospects who have interacted with your brand in the past 3 months (e.g. attended a webinar, participated in a live chat etc). Once you have identified this audience segment, create a marketing campaign to emphasize your case studies.

3) Bottom of Funnel

Converting leads at the bottom of the marketing funnel depends on your business model. If customers make an online purchase, a campaign offering a deadline and incentive is often a good bet. For B2B or enterprise sales, running marketing campaigns may not be your best best. Instead, it may be more effective to collaborate with the sales team to find out what type of campaigns they want. For example, highly customized and targeted direct mail campaigns may be the best way forward.

Use Arena Personas To Get More of The Right Data

Data driven personalization campaigns and advanced audience segmentation all depend on having high quality data. To help companies get more of the data they need to grow, use Arena Personas. It’s the fastest way to collect and import first-party data into your customer data platform. Then you’ll find it far easier to run retargeting campaigns across the marketing funnel.

How To Use Chat Polls and Q&A To Grow Engagement

Posted on by

Using chat polls and Q&A in an online chat are some of the best ways to boost engagement. Despite this fact, there’s a good chance that you’re not yet fully utilizing these tools. Overlooking these engagement tactics is To understand why let’s look at why engagement is so critical.

Why Chat Polls and Q&A Capabilities Are Critical 

In the past, digital marketers and publishers tend to focus on metrics like pageviews and cost per click. While helpful, those metrics scratch the surface. Focusing too much on these numbers can lead us away from more important goals like building an audience of fans eager to hear you.

Your entire marketing strategy will benefit from developing an engaged audience on your website. The pressure to convert cold traffic will ease. You will have a growing group of people who look forward to your website. Your audience will spread the word as you become more skilled in virtual event ideas. When your audience views your website as a place to engage socially, lead generation and higher advertising revenue.

The benefits of growing an engaged, loyal audience on your website are clear. With that in mind, it’s time to explore specific tactics to lift engagement further.

Audience Engagement Tactic 1: Chat Polls

Let me tell you a story about a webinar to understand why chat polls are helpful. Years ago, I was presenting a series of webinars to a group of professionals interested in project management. As I planned the presentation, I made assumptions about the audience’s interests. Yet, I wasn’t entirely sure about those guesses, so I used two quick audience polls in the first five minutes of the webinar. The result was a far better presentation for two reasons. First, I could better tailor the event to attendees’ level of knowledge. Second, the poll questions sparked a brief discussion in the chat app. 

Afterward, I made it a rule to constantly check for opportunities to use poll questions. It usually takes a few minutes of preparation to create good poll questions to lift engagement significantly.

How To Use Chat Polls To Grow Your Audience

Arena makes it simple to use polls to spark engagement with your audience. Use the following steps to create your chat polls.

Step 1: Log in to your Arena account

Step 2: Set up your Live Chat (optional)

You can skip this step if you have already created a live chat.

Step 3: Click on the Polls tab at the top.

Step 4: Write your poll questions and answers

Polls are typically structured as multiple choice questions. For example, you might ask online event attendees how many online conferences they have attended. In that case, the poll answers might be 0, 1, or more than 2.

As a rule of thumb, keep your poll question simple (i.e., a single sentence). The poll answers should also be simple with a maximum of 5 options, but you can add options if you wish. When polls get complicated, your audience may not want to make an effort to figure them out.

Step 5: Choose your schedule

The schedule option determines how long your poll is visible to participants. In shorter events like a one-hour presentation, we recommend keeping polls visible for 15 minutes. In more extended events like 1 or 2 day virtual or hybrid conferences, you might decide to leave polls open for longer (e.g., let participants see the poll and respond when the event takes a lunch break)

Step 6: Decide whether to show the number of votes.

This optional feature can help lift engagement further. The downside is that attendee responses might be influenced by seeing which answer is the most popular. Usually, that bias is not a problem.

Step 7: Save the poll as a draft or post it

After setting up your poll, you have two options: post or save it as a draft. Both of these options can be useful in different situations.

Post: When you click post, the poll immediately becomes available in the live chat session. If you just had an excellent idea for a poll during an event, use the post option to get that poll in front of your audience immediately.

Save as Draft: If your live chat event is in the future and you are simply getting everything ready, use the save as draft option. Your saved poll will be waiting for you whenever you decide to launch it. You can publish, edit or delete a saved poll at any time, so don’t worry about getting everything perfect.

Three Ideas To Use Chat Polls 

Now you know how to create, save and publish polls in Arena. That leaves just one question: what kind of polls should you create? The answer ultimately depends on the needs of your audience, your goals (e.g., a focus on lead generation vs. a different goal), and your business model. Use the following prompts to brainstorm additional ideas with your team.

1) Gather Audience Demographics

Thanks to your customer data platform, you may already have a good understanding of the demographics of your customer base. However, the specific individuals who show up to any given online event may be different. You may want to ask a few quick poll questions to understand your audience better. 

For example:

  • Customer Vs. Potential Customer: Create a poll to ask attendees if they have ever bought one of your products
  • Geography: Online events are potentially open to a global audience. Consider setting up a quick poll to see where attendees are located. This question is crucial because it can help you understand if your online events are reaching your audience at an appropriate time of day.

2) Check Interest In Future Events

Building an engaged online community takes effort over time. Market research will only take you far in developing winning events and chat experiences. Use a live chat poll to determine which event ideas to prioritize.

For example:

A college or university might ask the following poll question to deepen engagement with potential students.

Question: Which of the following event ideas are most interesting to you:

  • A) Meet successful alums from the college
  • B) Discover your financial aid options to pay for college
  • C) Take a virtual tour of the campus

3) Make Fast “In Flight” Changes

Maintaining engagement with your audience takes ongoing effort. You might sense that your audience is losing interest part of the way through your event. Setting up and running a quick poll can help to get your event back on track.

For example:

A company has set up a virtual conference to support the sales team. Fifteen minutes into the event, you notice that the live chat is starting to go quiet. Putting a poll question might help to reignite your audience’s engagement.

Question: What sales goals are you most excited about this year?

  • A) Getting promoted!
  • B) Getting into President’s Club
  • C) Closing my largest deal ever

Keep these live chat poll ideas in mind as you plan your next live chat event.

Audience Engagement Tactic 2: Question And Answer (Q&A) Experiences

Question and answer (Q&As) sessions are proven to connect with audiences. They have been used for years in traditional events. Executives, authors, lecturers, and others use Q&A time to connect. Find out how to use Arena’s Q&A capability to deepen connections with your audience.

How To Use Q&A To Boost Online Audience Engagement

Use this step-by-step guide to add a Q&A to your Arena Live Chat experience. The whole process just takes a few minutes.

1) Log in to your Arena account

2) In the Arena dashboard, click Live Chat and then choose the Live Chat you want to add a Q&A to

3) Click on the Q&A tab at the top of the screen

4) Click the “Enable Q&A” button

5) Turn on “pre-moderation” for Q&A (optional)

The pre-moderation feature means you get to control which of the submitted questions appear in the live chat. This optional feature is helpful in larger live chat experiences when you are hosting a VIP guest (e.g., the company CEO) or simply want to provide a curated experience for your attendees. 

To use Q&A moderation effectively, we recommend assigning this responsibility to a dedicated person. Let your main speaker or event MC stay focused on engaging the audience.

Four Ideas To Use Q&A In Live Chat

With the above steps, you’ve just learned how to add Q&A capabilities to your live chat. Like any tool, it’s helpful to know when and how to use this capability for the best results. Use the following prompts to devise thoughtful ways to use Q&A with your team.

1) Encourage Effective Audience Participation

When you host a live chat experience, you welcome an audience into your digital space. As the host, it’s up to you to set the ground rules. Setting those expectations includes guiding your audience on how to ask questions in a chat session effectively. For example, your audience might post dozens of questions, and you may only have time to answer a handful of questions. When your audience sees which questions get answered, they’ll engage even more effectively next time.

2) Leverage Moderated Q&A For A Safer Experience

In recent years, phishing, scams, bullying, and other harmful behaviors have become more common in the digital world. Despite those facts, there are practical steps you can take to make YOUR live chat safer for attendees. Specifically, turn on the Q&A moderation feature when it is vital to offer a safer experience, such as a live chat session with families. 

There’s another aspect to offering a safe experience – just think of hosting a virtual event with an important guest. For example, your CEO might join an event celebrating a significant company milestone like funding or launching a new product. In this setting, it’s essential to make your leaders look good! Use your judgment to decide which questions are approved. After the event ends, ask your guest if they want to see all of the questions to review privately.

3) Keep Large Live Chat Experiences Organized

Running a large-scale live chat experience is quite challenging. When you have hundreds or thousands of participants, simply keeping up with all the messages posted in the chat window can feel overwhelming. Using the Q&A capability is critically important in an event with many participants. The Q&A lets you separate questions from the general chat discussions. That means you can host a more focused Q&A session.

4) Review Q&A Content For Sales, Marketing, and Support

The first few benefits of running a Q&A in your live chat focus on immediate benefits. This benefit is focused on the long term. Arena’s event log history feature automatically captures all chat transcripts – including Q&As – so you can easily export the questions to review them later. 

The next day, invite a few sales, marketing, and customer support colleagues to review the questions with you. Some of the questions might be helpful to the sales team (e.g., “Is the product compatible with ABC technology?”). Other questions may help the marketing team craft an even better event in the future (e.g., several people suggested several social media influencers as guests for future online events). Still, other questions may indicate that potential customers are unclear about your shipping or return policies. Remember – just because a product feature or company policy seems obvious to your employees, it might feel confusing to your customers. Take the time to come up with detailed answers to these questions, and your next online event will be even more successful. 

Enhance Your Live Chat With Polls and Q&A Today

Adding live chat to your website makes your website more engaging. Unlocking the next level of audience engagement requires more engagement techniques. Arena Live Chat gives tools like polls, Q&A, and profanity filters to protect your brand. Learn more about Live Chat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81ShIt6QuZ8