I have always found winter the best time to hunker down and work hard on my goals. What else is there to do anyway? And for most of us, that means staying home warm in our offices, working hard on lead generations, and optimizing our businesses.

Did you know that 91% of marketers say lead generation is their most important goal? Where does lead generation fall on your scale of importance? 

This month we learn from some of our heavy hitters; first, Invesp teaches us how to calculate customer retention rates. VWO shares best practices for optimization, personalization, and testing. This month The Marketing Sherpa gave us two great articles, we couldn’t pick one. The first is about lead generation, and the second is about highly talked about AI marketing tools.

“There is no such thing as ‘build it, and they will come.”- Ray Krok.

How To Calculate & Improve Your Customer Retention Rate

https://www.invespcro.com/blog/how-to-calculate-improve-your-customer-retention-rate/

Did you know it could cost six times more to gain a new customer than to keep an existing one coming back? Your customer retention rate is a vital piece of information for most businesses. Do you know yours? 

Customer retention rate is the percentage of customers who stay customers compared to those who stop. 

Here is the formula:

(1 – Annual Churn Rate) / (Annual Customer Base) = Customer Retention Rate

This article explains in detail how this formula works and how to calculate yours today. 

In addition, Invesp talks about ways to improve your customer retention rate. Below are a few examples they share with us.

Simplify the checkout process. 

• 70-80% of customers abandoned their carts at checkout. 
• Identify all the steps between clicking buy and finishing.
• Ask yourself if you are using confusing language. Is it straight to the point?

Improve Your Communication

• Have an easy to use website
• Respond ASAP- responding within 24 hours is vital
• Ensure everyone is onboard with the importance of customer satisfaction

https://www.invespcro.com

 

Enjoy this in-depth article from Invesp.

Boost Website Performance: Best Practices in Optimization, Personalization, and Testing.

https://vwo.com/blog/boost-your-websites-performance/

The basis for any successful business sits highly upon three pillars:

1. Optimization
2. Personalization
3. Testing

This month VWO shares best practices in all these vital areas. Keep in mind to adjust and adapt these practices to your business model.

vwo.com

Let’s talk about a few that stood out to us. 

Best Practices: Optimization

• Reduce website loading time- A fast-loading page creates a better user experience.
• Focus on conversion rate optimization- CRO helps in making data-driven decisions.

Best Practices: Personalization

• Gather and use customer feedback- this feedback offers valuable insights into what your customers need/want.
• Ensure you comply with regulations- in today’s world, data privacy and cybersecurity are top priorities. 

Best Practices: Website Testing

• Don’t make changes to a running test- doing so will ensure a less accurate result.
• Document your findings- document everything; this practice makes it easier to go back and review your progress.

Don’t miss a deeper explanation of these practices and many more in this article from VWO.

Lead Generation: Develop Your Lead Generation Offer with the Same Care and Detail You Would a New Product

https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/lead

Our first article from The Marketing Sherpa is all about lead generation. These three case studies are sure to resonate with you and inspire you to test more.

Case study #2 stood out due to its smaller scale. Learn how a solopreneur grew an 800-strong Facebook group for less than $5 a lead. 

Jeannine Betts wanted to sell more of her coaching service, so she created a free PDF for agents to download in exchange for their email addresses. 

The first ad didn’t fair too well. Below are those stats.

• 1,079 impressions
• 749 reached
• 5 leads
• $10.54 per lead

https://www.marketingsherpa.com/

The second did way better.

• 23,250 impressions
• 12,436 reached.
• 206 leads
• $2.52 per lead

https://www.marketingsherpa.com

Upon further analysis of these ads, it was how ad #2 resonated with her target audience and offered a call to action. The second copy was also more engaging and eye-catching. 

Overall, this campaign helped Betts build her Facebook community to almost 800 members and sold many sessions of her coaching services.

Continue to learn more about lead generation from The Marketing Sherpa.

AI Marketing Tools: How Marketers Are Using Artificial Intelligence To Help Their Campaigns Right Now.

https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/AI

Innovations surrounding AI are all around us, moving quickly. Undoubtedly, you’ve been hearing a lot about AI and what it can do for you. This article from The Marketing Sherpa explains how marketers use this vital tool to increase revenues.

We were intrigued by case study #2 about an AI SEO tool. The team at Profil Software creates content to appeal to potential employees and customers. Using the traditional avenues, the team was disappointed with the results.

The team started using Surfer SEO for content optimization. Surfer SEO uses NLP AI (Natural Language Processing Artificial Intelligence). The use of this tool helped suggest changes and ways to implement them. 

Creative Sample #1: Before-and-after screenshots in original case study article for software development company, before using artificial intelligence tool

https://www.marketingsherpa.com

Be sure you don’t take that human connection away when using AI. Some AI-generating tools may sound forced or fake if not tweaked to add your style. 

We found this article highly informative as we enter this crazy new world of everything AI.

In Conclusion

Improving your website’s conversion rate can be easy if you follow a few important rules.

• Test Everything
• Focus on Your Visitors
• Create Relevant Content

Furthermore, we encourage you to test, test, and re-test. Conversion Rate Optimization is the answer to any successful e-commerce business.

Until next month,

If you are interested in a free conversion optimization audit, submit your site, and we will send you a list of customized optimizations just for you!

Claim your Free Audit Here.

Author: Kurt Philip