SigmaWay Blog

A research was done in 2015 where purchase decisions of 20,000 European citizens, across 30 product areas and more than 100 brands in the year 2013 and 201 were examined. They were asked how social media influenced their purchasing decisions.  It was observed that social media recommendations induced an average of 26% of sales. It was found that consumers made 10% more purchases on 2014 in comparison to 2013. Moreover, the choice of product also played a vital role. For example, 40 to 50% of consumers look for social recommendations for categories like travel, investment services, etc., whereas only 15% recommendations were looking for low end utility services. So we can see that Social media does play a vital role in brand awareness and hence end up converting to the sales. Read the full article here: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/getting_a_sharper_picture_of_social_medias_influence

With tons of data available with marketers to measure the impact of their business, one thing that need to be kept in mind is not to get entangled in measuring everything. Measuring something that does not have the capability to influence your corporate strategy isn’t a good idea. Knowing what your business is trying to achieve and then deciding on marketing metrics is foremost.  Steve Robins, principal of Solution Marketing Strategy, in an article in TechTarget provides the following points of advice to detangle your metrics:
• Separating strategic KPI’s from nonstrategic metrics
• What to measure?
• Operationalizing KPI’s
• Metrics predict the future
• Finally, looking at best practices
For more insights into this piece follow the link:  : http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/feature/Dont-get-tangled-in-marketing-metrics?utm_medium=EM&asrc=EM_NLN_45313060&utm_campaign=20150716_Spend%20management:%20Were%20SAP%27s%20procurement%20acquisitions%20really%20worth%20$15%20billion?_jbiscobing&utm_source=NLN&track=NL-1815&ad=901719&src=901719

Every business needs a set of loyal customers. The loyal customer varies from one to the other in the field of business. There are customers who are satisfied but are not loyal and can be termed as dangerous customer. They don't really love or hate you. There are customers who are loyal to your loyal program. There are customers who are loyal to your procedure, but not to your products. There are customers who enjoy convenience of our business for some definite reasons. The customers may not like you sometime but they are loyal to whatever they do. A bunch of customer gets attracted only when there is a low price of the products or the process involved. And lastly there are some wise customers who all are loyal to whatever you do. The process or the product process doesn't even matter to them and hence they will stick to the process whatsoever. Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/six-types-of-loyal-customers-01294343

The key to sustain and attract customer is to present the worth of your product. The grace to attain and greet your customer is the primary step to impress the customer. One should be inquisitive i.e. the customer needs should be identified and customer should be given the maximum priority and importance for the moment. The knowledge about the organization and its working should be precisely known so that one can properly answer to the doubts of the customers. A proper teamwork is needed to collaborate and consolidate the working process so that the organization stays more organized and presentable to the customers whatsoever. There is a need to present the structure and information of the company in a decent and nice way so that customers get the right impression. After the whole process, the selling process should be closed and the customer should be thoroughly valued by the organization.  All you need to do after the whole process is to follow up with the customers to analyze and coordinate with the customers on a continuous basis. Read more at:http://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/7-ways-to-wow-your-customers-01279642

It is often difficult for CIOs to determine the most appropriate strategy. Hardware vendors who are at the core of the cloud debate safeguard their own interests by hindering the transformation of their customers. This delay by the vendors has generated significant strategic problem for CIOs. However, organizations have started to realize that the actual problem is not with the cloud but the various non-programmatic inefficient devices that employ on it. Various companies have emanated that increases scalability, reduce cost and also improve performance. It is necessary for CIOs to look at the comprehensive strategy while handling these strategic issues. Strategies and tactics are coiled together therefore the tactics used must be in line with the strategies knowledgeable to the companies.

Read more at: https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/it-s-time-for-cios-to-separate-strategies-tactics

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract customers and ultimately drive profitable customer action. Every company has different type of content depending on the product it offers in the market. Content Marketing furnishes a platform to communicate with the customers instead of selling to them directly. For, a content marketing to work efficiently, it is important that it must work simultaneously with a good social media strategy. This is also true in the case of web content. However, content marketing faces several challenges like measuring the Right of Information (ROI) is very difficult and it is essential to have a call-to-action so as to attract customer for purchasing the products.

To know more about this study, please follow the link: https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/why-content-marketing-is-important

Back in the 20's, technology used to be simple. Core functions of the system were not affected by the records management. Every organization has started getting connected to the internet in order to make the lives easier of their workers as well customers. Everyone wants to get access to basic information over the internet as it is an opportunity to learn more about everything which relates to good or bad performance. Even from the customer's side, access to internet helps business with floods of data which leads them to focused marketing. Such information is also spread to the hackers. Hackers then use such individual information to get through government entities or set up robbery attacks. As keepers of the information, companies should hence protect the data and make sure trust is not violated. The exposed information is generally customer information. Determined hackers cannot be stopped from entering into the system. Identities are stolen and more valuable information is lost other than just credit card numbers. Data should be protected by the organization as if it was their own personal information. Apps are a disaster these days as they are gateways to information which directly reach the hackers since consumers unknowingly take such things for granted and provide all their details. Security and privacy experts should be hired and organizations should be very careful with customer information. Read more at: http://www.cmswire.com/information-management/protect-information-as-if-it-was-your-own/?pageNum=2

Customers have so many options these days online - to shop, read articles, watch videos and more. A brand or publisher will quickly attract attention of its customers by serving only the most relevant information. There lies the difficulty to figure out what exactly should be the useful information published. Few ways to discover and build better customer profiles are:
Down with static profiles: the building process of better customer profiles never ends. Companies should keep in mind that customers are dynamic and once a macro view of the customer is available, the problem gets sorted.
Why, where and when: context is equally important and information on whether the consumer is on mobile or a tablet or which time of the day it is and other important questions can help companies recognize a clear picture of preferences of the customers.
The customer knows best: consumer choice brought into personalization equation is a positive step for a variety of reasons. This element of choice enhances communication between brand and consumers and provides value to both parties.
Companies which can implement choice, better customer profiles, and context consideration will be able to successfully personalize a user’s experience online.
Read more at: http://www.cmswire.com/customer-experience/personalization-give-your-customers-a-choice/?pageNum=2

It is said that a very small percentage of the retailers are keen on using the customer analysis tool in spite of the retail industry being the most refined tool across sectors for analysis of customer behaviour. Dave Nash(director at consultancy West Monroe Partners), has mentioned that this tool is still not as popular as it should be for the very reason of the dearth of relevant customer data that cannot be assimilated into other operational data and also due to lack of skill and the knowledge to use them appropriately. But Elaneor McDonnell Feit (assistant professor of marketing at Drexel University) believe otherwise. According to her, the percentage of retailers investing in developing their customer data set is high. She is of the view that what is required using these data appropriately to take the right decisions for various functions of the firm and implementing them in the most efficient way. Feit has also mentioned a very innovative and out of the box tool for this purpose: Recommendation engine. The recommendation engine is a mechanized tool to facilitate the buying process of the customers, by guiding them find the thing they need. These recommendation engines are tailored for specific businesses and its customers making it unique as a retailer.
Hence, every firm should have a data driven approach within the retail industry which will help the entire economy to grow progressively and efficiently.
Read more at: http://www.cmswire.com/analytics/retail-could-make-better-use-of-customer-analytics/

There is always some problem of coordination and mismatch between the sales, marketing and service sector. The customer is often dissatisfied with the various approaches of all the sectors which don’t get aligned to some particular information. So to deliver the best experience there is a need of smooth mechanism between the sectors for better communication and to share the same goal with others. The key to achieve the desired goal lies in cooperating and collaborating with each other. The natural workflow must go on in order to run the organization. But there is a need of collaboration for making out decisions, to manage the system and to solve the project with the collaborative tools. The team members should know the metrics and the prime indicators for the organization which will ultimately lead to the desired objective. There is always a need for a hand to hand practice or a parallel system which will lead to proper customer experience and mutual benefit.

Read more at – http://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/aligning-sales-marketing-service-for-a-seamless-customer-experience-01278273

Niche marketing is a good way to reach out to a difficult demographic. To have a successful niche marketing strategy, understanding the audience is crucial. A tailor-made marketing content targeted to a specific demographic is effective. Here are some tips to have a successful niche marketing strategy:

(i) Marketers should provide consumers with a good introduction of themselves and explain why they are the right ones to satisfy the consumer’s needs.

(ii) Marketers should imagine situations from consumer’s perspective while designing the marketing strategy.

(iii) Empathizing with the customer and understanding and appreciating their feelings is important as it helps to build a long-lasting relationship.

(iv) Using market research data to figure out how to go about targeting the niche audience is helpful.

(v) Uniqueness in content is necessary to achieve success in niche marketing.

Read more at:https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/understanding-your-audience-how-to-reach-niche-consumers

The key to develop the infrastructure and development of a company ultimately lies in the incorporating the voice of the structure of the company at different levels. It should not only include the voice of the customer and employee of the organization but the voice of market, business and other important factor of a company as well. To improve the customer experience there is always a need of taking into account the voices of the company. The voice of partners in the venture, the voice of the customer in giving feedback, the voice of the employee about the experience, the voice of the business in dealing financial matters and the voice of the market in the competitive scenario are equally important for a sustainable business. The voice of the reason gives an added advantage when the company is at stake. Thus, to maintain the balance of an organization the voice in the process and working of a company is real important.

Read more at: 

 http://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/the-many-voices-of-customer-experience-01271514

The upgradation and integration of the existing technologies have helped the market in gaining up momentum and keeping up the harmony of the social world. With the advanced equipment and technological know how they can boost up the working of the tertiary sector. The world class leaders aims at satisfying the customers so as to mobilize the proper working of the sectors. The implementation of new techniques is to meet the demands of the information technology, software management companies. The step into the next generation lies with the advancement of the technology, increased productivity and to gratify the demand of the customers.

Read more at: 

http://www.cmswire.com/customer-experience/news-you-can-use-wayin-klout-mailjet-more/#EIM

According to Adweek, "the millennial generation and its millennial mindset understand its powers as consumers, as workers and as future leaders". Seth Chatterley in his article on business2community.com discussed about the various techniques one needs to remember in case of marketing to millennials and they are as follows:

• Giving brands credit.
• Mobile technique.
• Blogs are trusted sources.
• Moving pictures.
• Apple devices.
• Offer them value.
• Ensure honesty in content and community.

Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/7-things-remember-marketing-millennials-01267636

The most important aspect of content fundamentals is really defining and understanding the importance of content marketing. There's a lot of noise about content marketing today. Content marketing is the process of creating valuable, relevant content to acquire, attract and engage the audience. It helps to induce interest in the business with the creation of new ideas. It also builds relationships and fosters conversations.

John W Hayes in his article on business2community.com presented the most frequently asked questions on content marketing and they are:

1. How do you balance thought leadership with giving too much information away for free?
2.  How do you persuade, cajole or bribe colleagues into providing the content you need?
3. What, and how, do you measure the success of content marketing?

 To know more about this study, please follow the link:  http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/top-content-marketing-faqs-01283052

Business Intelligence gives business owners an outline of their performance, which is essential to gain important insights and plan for future growth of the company. Often business owners are caught up in dealing with day today operational problems that they forget to look at bigger picture and plan to remain ahead of the crowd. Paul Robertson, in a blogpost in Phocas advices that business intelligence tools are a must to make informed and accurate decision. He puts forth 5 indications that will help you identify if your business need to upgrade its BI:

• Your idea of business intelligence is a spreadsheet.

• Your business intelligence process is largely manual.

• It takes few days to draw insight from your data.

• You can’t perform in-depth analysis of your data.

• You don’t know how well your business is performing. 

If any of them is affirmative for you then it’s time for better BI. For more insights click on the link http://www.phocassoftware.com/5-Signs-Your-Company-Needs-Better-Business-Intelligence

A project can fail for several reasons, some of which are under our control and some are not. Every project will have certain factors that are not under our control, but with proper attention we can increase our success. The reasons being:- • No clear goals: projects lack clear objectives and also a clear vision of what is best for the project’s success. We can avoid this failure by setting out distinct goals of the project at the very beginning.

• No deadlines: without any milestones, team members do not know whether they are on the right track or not which can cause things to go out of control. We can avoid this failure by setting major milestones, and also keep a check on the progress overtime.

• Budget problems: sometimes, budget problems are out of control since leaders create unrealistic budgets on paper that can never be met in reality leading to failure of the project, avoid this failure by making sure every aspect of the budget is looked into carefully to meet expectations.

• Lack of resources: mostly project problems fall into this category because gathering necessary resources for the project’s success is not an easy task. Avoid this failure by researching, thinking through and studying the resources needed for the project from the beginning.

• Weak management: a project with a perfect plan but poor management can fail easily. Avoid this failure by understanding our own role as the manager and actively controlling the team and project work.

• Scope creep: project scope mostly gets diverted from the original objective to several other unnecessary goals leading to failure. Avoid this failure by always keeping in mind the original motive and sticking to it.

These are few such problems which can be easily avoided to prevent project failure.

Read more at: http://www.smartdatacollective.com/bernardmarr/329018/why-projects-fail-biggest-pitfalls-you-can-easily-avoid?ref=popular_posts

Traditional advertising is what most people think of when talking about advertising or marketing. This includes the "usual" venues for media placement such as newspaper, radio, broadcast television, cable television or outdoor billboard. Online advertising also plays a fundamental role in achieving various advertising goals. Tayven James in his article in innovation enterprise.com highlighted the lucrative role of traditional advertising and listed several reasons for it which are as follows:

1. Your demographic might not be "up to speed".

2. Traditional advertising adds weight.

3. Offline ads can boost your online marketing efforts.

4. Offline targeting can lead to better online results.

To know more about traditional advertising, please follow the link: https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/why-traditional-ads-can-boost-your-digital-presence-in-2015

Mobile Apps have been at the center of customer based marketing. With the sea of options to choose from, retention of customer is not only about the attractive feature but also about the user experience it creates. Bryn Adler, content marketing manager at Localytics, has a piece of advice, which will help grow your app experience and reduce churn. Here are 7 points to keep in mind:

• No misleading Ads

• Lead with value

• User experience is paramount 

• Use data to track usage, retention and engagement

• Targeted marketing is smarter marketing 

• Feedback is the holy text

• Predicting churn 

For more on this click the link http://www.business2community.com/mobile-apps/making-customers-happy-in-the-age-of-options-reduce-churn-retain-app-users-01271973

Annual marketing data benchmark report reveals that around 84% of marketing database are non-functional, 64% of records do not include a phone number and only 35% of emails were identified to be functional. Undoubtedly, this will take the profits on a downward flight. Larisa Bedgood in her post on Datamentors tells us 4 ways we can bring the data to shape and extract higher revenues.

• Begin with Data Assessment

• Establish Business Processes to ensure data quality

• Establish an ROI to fund new marketing database initiatives

• Implement a data management solution 

For more on this click the link http://www.datamentors.com/blog/dont-lose-revenue-bad-data-4-tips-whip-your-marketing-data-shape