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1 Minute Advice: Getting Ready for the Holiday (Online) Shopping Season

It will come as no surprise that, more and more, the annual holiday shopping frenzy is happening online. Consumers continue to show a preference for online shopping instead of visiting traditional retail stores. According to the National Retail Federation as reported by MediaPost, 75 percent of omnichannel shoppers (shoppers who use multiple shopping channels) make a purchase online after shopping for an item in a traditional retail store.

That's why your online store has to be user-friendly and offer consumers competitive features. That includes liberal return policies. The NRF found that 75 percent of the holiday shoppers surveyed checked return policies before making a purchase. In fact, the return rate for merchandise is higher for online purchases than for in-store purchases.

Other interesting data points regarding holiday online shopping. Shoppers listed these reasons for deciding against a purchase (percentages of respondents):

• Lack of free return shipping (57%)
• Only store credit offered instead of a full refund (55%)
• An inability to return items in-store (43%)
• Too small of a return window (42%)
• Too difficult to return in-store (39%).

More insights can be found here.

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1 Minute Advice: Beware of "Brand Shaming" on Social Media

Brand marketers now accept the fact that social media is an important part of the marketing media mix. But it is just as important to keep an eye on social media for "brand shaming."

Marketing Charts indicates that, in a study by Sprout Social, 80 percent of social media users age 18 - 64 think social media has "increased accountability for brands by uncovering unfair treatment." These users also say social media encourages transparency. Even more interesting (and perhaps troubling for some brands) is that almost half (46 percent) of the study respondents said they "called out" brands on social media (and that percentage increases to 56 percent for Millennials). Typical complaints on social media involve brand dishonesty, bad customer service, and rudeness. In addition, other consumers are influenced by brand shaming. Brands ignore social media complaints at their own risk: More than one-third (35 percent) of respondents said they would boycott a brand who ignored a complaint.

Check out more about how consumers wield power over brands via social media on Marketing Charts.

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

1 Minute Advice: Inbound Callers are the Best Customers

New research conducted for mobile solutions company Marchex by Forrester Consulting indicates that U.S. customers who initiate an inbound call convert faster, spend more, and churn less than customers who do not. According to the study, 60 percent of U.S. marketers report that prospects who initiate an inbound call convert to customers an average of 30 percent faster than those who do not.

The study, as reported by MediaPost, indicates that inbound calls:

• Contribute to over a quarter of all sales. Marketers say that customers who initiate an inbound call at some point in the customer journey comprise an average of 27 percent of their overall sales
• Marketers from organizations that use ads that prompt their customers to initiate an inbound call report that their other channels, online and offline, are more effective at increasing customer engagement than those who are not employing ads that prompt a call
• The more engaged phone customer is more likely to convert faster, spend more, and churn less, making these customers more valuable to organizations.

When marketers compare customers who initiate inbound calls vs. those who do not, they find the inbound callers:

• Convert faster. 60 percent of marketers say that those who initiate an inbound call convert an average of 30 percent faster
• Spend more. 60 percent of marketers say that those who initiate an inbound call spend an average of 28 percent more
• Have a higher retention rate. 54 percent of marketers say that those who initiate an inbound call have a 28 percent higher retention rate.

The full study is available from Marchex: http://pages.marchex.com/your-best-customers-are-calling.html

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1 Minute Advice: What You Need to Know About Brand Intimacy

Experienced marketers have long known that there is a deep emotional connection between world-class brands and consumers. The fact is, emotion plays a huge role in determining just how much a consumer engages with, forms a bond, or even "loves" a brand.

MBLM, an agency specializing in "brand intimacy," has issued its 2017 Brand Intimacy Report, which builds on the largest study of brands based on emotion. The agency uses intelligence gained from 54,000 brand evaluations and 6,000 consumers, analyzing 386 brands in fifteen industries across three geographic regions.

The study reveals that the top five most intimate brands in the U.S. in 2017 are (in descending order) Apple, Disney, Amazon, Harley Davidson, and Netflix.

Some of the observations made in the report are fascinating. For example:

• "The Top 10 Most Intimate Brands continue to outperform established financial indices for both revenue and profit growth over the last 10 years."
• "Escapist brands (largely within media & entertainment) did extremely well this year. From Netflix and Nintendo to Xbox and HBO, consumers seem to connect strongly with brands that let them entertain themselves on demand."
• "Apple is our top-ranked brand overall. It is also the highest rated across several considerations, helping explain its dominance. For archetypes, Apple scored highest for enhancement (just edging out Google), ritual and identity. Apple also ranks #1 for 'can't live without,' meaning it would be very difficult to live without this brand. It also ranks highest for frequency of use (where Facebook also took 2nd place)."

Read more about brand intimacy here: http://mblm.com/brandintimacy/

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.