As a website owner, have you ever experienced that gut-wrenching feeling of seeing your website go down unexpectedly? It's a moment of sheer panic and frustration that can leave you feeling helpless and vulnerable. Unfortunately, website downtime is a reality that many businesses face, and it can have serious consequences for your online presence and reputation. Since website design is the face of the business, internet users expect it to show up instantaneously.

There are many simple steps you can take to be proactive and avoid downtime. Even if the site goes down, it can be restarted quickly with minimal ramifications. 

Why is Prevention Crucial to Address the Issue of Website Downtime?

Website downtime can have a significant impact on businesses, resulting in loss of revenue, damage to reputation, & decreased customer loyalty. Due to website downtime, search engine rankings can plummet as well. Occasional downtimes are not penalties, but excessive downtime can negatively impact Search Engine Optimization (SEO). 

To avoid these negative consequences, prevention is crucial. By taking necessary measures, businesses can prevent stepping into the situation of website downtime, minimising revenue loss by ensuring that their website is always accessible to customers. 

Additionally, website downtime can also damage a business’s reputation by making it appear unprofessional or unreliable, which in turn, would lead to decreased customer satisfaction & trust. Hence, it is important for businesses to take proactive measures such as regular maintenance, updates, and monitoring to prevent website downtime, ensuring the website’s consistent functioning at all times. 

By prioritising preventive measures, businesses can ensure that their website is always working, providing a positive user experience for customers & maintaining their trust & loyalty.

3 Tips to Minimise Website Downtime

Here are a few ways in which you can minimise the downtime of your website:

Start by setting up a downtime page

If you plan to have downtime and access to your site, consider setting up a downtime page. This lets visitors know you'll be back soon and that they're not just looking at a blank page. A page with a simple "Site Maintenance" or "Service Unavailable" message shows that you know what's going on and can help restore trust. 

Work with a trusted hosting provider

Hosting providers play an important role in keeping your website up and running. If your server is not properly maintained, you may have trouble keeping your website active consistently. There are many factors to consider when choosing a hosting provider. An easy way to determine if a hosting provider is trustworthy is to look for reviews online. Unhappy customers have probably shared their experiences, and you can learn from them to avoid similar problems on your website. 

Create regular backups

We can do all we can to prepare, but there may still be downtime for the site. Sometimes it's just luck in the lottery. Unexpected things can happen at any time, so it's important to always have backups ready. Luckily, creating regular backups in WordPress is pretty easy. Most hosting services offer this option, and many WordPress backup plugins automate the process. A backup will make your website functional in no time. 

Final Thoughts

Website downtime is inevitable, causing a variety of problems for your website, including revenue loss, substandard reliability, and below-par SEO. Hence, it is imperative to be prepared with the right tools & services to ensure your website gets back up & running in no time. By implementing the right website design strategies, you can avoid getting stuck in such a situation, resulting in improving your website rank & helping you create a huge impact on your users.

On a fine Sunday morning, you order groceries online. It’s been over an hour since your order was confirmed, but no luck having it delivered. After hours of waiting, disappointment sets in when you realise your order has been delivered to the wrong address. Now imagine what would happen if the same transpires to the users who visit your website. No surprise that you would not want your visitors to go through such an inconvenience. 

Considering the ever-evolving Google algorithms, it is of utmost significance for brands to optimise and enhance their website. During such updates and enhancement processes, they sometimes lose essential URLs in transit. In such cases, taking the necessary steps to ensure that your visitors land in the right place is paramount. This is when 301 redirects play a dominant role.

301 redirect is a method of directing website visitors to the verified URL when the originally requested URL is removed. Redirects point to the most relevant or similar live page in the absence of the original. This guarantees a smooth browsing experience for your visitors and ensures that the backlink values are appropriately routed and not lost on old pages. 

When Should You Use a 301 Redirect?

From replacing irrelevant or not-so-useful pages to rebuilding websites where URLs are cleaned up into new pages, 301 redirects, when applied prudently, prove to be highly effective in enhancing user experience. Mentioned below are some situations where a 301 redirect helps:

Deleting a page from your website

In case the website page gets removed, it is advisable to redirect the same to another related page. This creates a better user experience & gives people an alternative. For instance, if a user clicks on a deleted page, the pop-up shows up, which puts a negative impression on the user. In most cases, we recommend using a 301 redirect to direct users to a similar page on your website. 

Permanently moving to a new URL

Another reason to use 301 redirects is in the case of changing the URL of your website. For instance, in case of a product name change or to categorise web pages better, it is advisable to shift to a completely new URL. Implementing a 301 redirect ensures that users and search engines are redirected to your new URL. It also allows search engines to carry over the SEO features of the old URL to the new one. 

Changing the structure of your website

Choose a 301 redirect if you want to change the structure of your website to organise your content better and help Google see how pages are related. Opting for appropriate redirects is advisable if you change the subfolder structure of your website. Whether it's a blog, an e-commerce, or some other category, permanent redirects are the best way to implement changes. 

Benefits for SEO with 301 redirects

301 redirects play a key role in SEO. There are several ways they can help, such as:

Remove old URLs from search engine indexes

When search engine spiders encounter a 301 redirect while crawling your site, it indicates that the old URL should be removed from the index and replaced with a new one. This means that the new page will eventually have to replace the old page in the search engine's index. In the meantime, the old URL redirects human visitors to the new URL when someone tries to access it. If you don't use a 301 redirect when removing a page from your site, search engines will receive a 404 Not Found error response code, and over time your page may be removed entirely from search engine indexes. 

Keep visitors to your website

When a visitor clicks a link and is taken to a 404 page, it can negatively impact the experience of your site and drive them away in frustration. With the presence of 301 redirects, visitors are more likely to smoothly land on your website & navigate to content, which eventually leads to grabbing the attention of more customers & followers. 

Link Equity

301 redirects are the preferred choice for 3xx redirects for SEO as it has been proven to be able to pass around 90% link equity from redirected pages. 302 redirects are temporary, so search engines may not pass the required link value to the new URL. 

Conclusion

301 redirects play a vitally important role in maintaining the health of a website. They serve a core function to signal both search engines & users when the contents of your website have been changed or moved. This, in turn, ensures that with your evolving web presence, your user journey remains rational & clear. Hence, implementing the right 301 redirects strategy can benefit you to gain a significant increase in organic traffic.

Influencer marketing has enabled brands to reach more targeted audiences online. Their endorsement and product placement has evolved into an opportunity for brands to tap into new communities. This marketing channel has brought forward a new understanding & expectations for brands.

Let us take a look at how influencer marketing has evolved in 2023: 

Era of influencer subscription

Influencer subscriptions are an additional source of income for creators, offering exclusive content, benefits, and services to subscribers for a monthly fee. For example, creators in the US enjoy the benefit of Instagram subscriptions which allows them to earn recurring monthly income with the help of exclusive content & experiences for their followers. The rise in influencer marketing will lead more influencers to adopt subscription-based services to expand their revenue streams as well as their reach. With creators seeking alternative revenue streams, they have also become less dependent on their deals with brands. As a result, they will be more selective in collaborating with brands, which may lead to higher prices. 

Live shopping to dominate influencer campaigns

In 2021 & 2022, live shopping became extremely popular, and this trend is all set to gain new heights in 2023. Using live video & engaging content, influencers will continue to promote products to their audience. Live shopping statistics show that the majority of consumers prefer live streams over other types of social media purchases. Many consumers now prefer shopping recommendations from live video streaming. The uptake of live shopping witnessed a huge rise during & post-COVID-19. People no longer believed in spending time shopping in-store. Instead, they looked for ways to engage with commerce sitting on their couch. In addition to this, brands like Amazon, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram have developed live-stream shopping tools and partnerships.  

Emphasis on diversity & values

With diversity becoming an important factor for consumers, brands should prioritise diversity in their influencer marketing strategy. Consumers nowadays wish to connect with brands that are actively investing in DEI initiatives. As per stats, around 77% of consumers buy more products and services after seeing content posted by creators that resonate with their values. Millennials and Gen Zs are more likely to be willing to pay for products and services that match their values and support companies that prioritise sustainability. Both influencers and consumers analyse brand messages and campaigns to ensure inclusivity, which will lead brands to align their cultures with inclusivity and remove all traces of exclusivity. 

Rise of micro & nano influencers

Gone are the days when brands entirely relied on mega influencers. With the shift in the influencer marketing industry, many brands are now targeting to create partnerships with micro & nano influencers. Stats predict that micro-influencers tend to generate up to 60% more engagement than macro-influencers. This rise in engagement has led brands to hop onto the bandwagon of collaborating with micro & nano influencers. By focusing on nano and micro-influencers, brands can increase influencer marketing budgets while working with influencers who connect deeply with their audiences. Brands associated with nano-influencers are usually considered more authentic as influencers may have real relationships with the majority of their supporters.

Increase in influencer collaboration

Another big trend to be witnessed in 2023 in the influencer marketing industry is the rise of collaboration between influencers. Recently, content houses have been the talk of the town. These spaces for influencers & creators allow them to come together & collaborate. Some examples of creator houses are Sway House, Clout House, FaZe Clan, and more. Brands nowadays are keen on content houses as they gain enthusiastic influencers who work on their content all day long, expanding their brand's reach. Influencer collaboration will bring a win-win situation for everyone – Brands will be able to run better campaigns, influencers will be treated like professionals, & consumers will find their desired product at the best price. 

 

Conclusion

With these evolutions in the influencer marketing industry, marketers would be witnessing a drastic change. Most of these trends would come out to be extremely useful for both influencers & marketers, opening multiple opportunities for both and resulting in higher sales & revenue.

Customer expectations and needs are rapidly changing, which has put brands on a constant grill to meet their needs. According to reports, brands that address customer needs and build strong customer engagement tend to witness a 9.5% year-over-year increase in annual revenue. With this rise, brands have never been more apparent of the importance of digital marketing services and interactive content.

Brands create numerous strategies to create a unique business and acquire potential customers. With the help of digital marketing, brands will be able to attract target customers and grow their business. 

The benefits of building brand awareness with digital marketing

In the last few years, there has been a paradigm shift from traditional to digital marketing. Brands can reach out to customers and viewers with services offered by digital marketing agencies to market their products and services online. Some of the benefits that digital marketing services offer brands are:

1. Higher conversion rate

Businesses that use online as their preferred marketing method can easily measure conversion rates in real-time. That means identifying the percentage of your audience who become prospects, then subscribers, and ultimately purchase your service or product. SEO, social media marketing, and email marketing are high-converting methods because they can generate fast and effective communication channels with consumers. With digital marketing, you can reach only those who need that type of service and improve lead conversions. 

2. Enhance visibility and access 

With the help of the internet, brands can reach a huge audience from local to global scale. The more people that visit your brand, the more awareness your product or service will have. This might have been possible with traditional marketing styles but at a much higher cost & investment. The frequency of impressions made directly by a brand accelerates its visibility. Having a presence on multiple digital platforms helps increase brand awareness. Google records about 4 billion searches per day. Improving your visibility in search engines through relevant keywords increases your brand equity. 

3. Increase brand trust

Having an omnichannel presence allows customers to rate your services based on their level of experience. Positive and favourable reviews left by satisfied customers cause new customers to convert quickly, which in turn builds a strong image of your brand in the minds of new consumers, leading to more conversions. 

4. Good return on investment

Because it's digital, you have access to packages with different costs, so you can choose the one that best fits your budget. With web analytics, a business owner can know if the company's website is providing optimal ROI. You can also track where the response is positive and where you need to focus more. It also shuts down costly and fruitless modes. Digital marketing allows businesses to reach more people at a lower cost, making it easier to get a higher return on investment (ROI).

5. Associating with mobile customers

These days, it is very important that all businesses practice mobile-friendly marketing techniques. Stats predict that mobile apps are expected to generate over $935Bn in revenue in 2023. This is because all customers have access to mobile phones and can search for different products and services on their smartphones. Especially since the first update of Google Mobile, all websites have become mobile responsive designs. Website navigation should be designed to be visible to mobile device users. 

Conclusion

Digital marketing is essential to building a successful business. Whether it's brand growth or increased sales, there are no limits. By understanding what happens in the digital space, you can harness it and future-proof any business. 

As the world is now moving towards the impending death of third-party cookies, the value of first-party data has drastically increased. Consumer data helps brands understand the objectives and preferences of their target audience, helping them identify their customers through personas. As a marketer, it is key to understand your target audience to build relationships, enhance customer experience, and drive sales. 

 According to stats, 92% of marketers believe that using first-party data continuously will help brands build an understanding of what customers think & want to drive growth. For marketers, the quality of the first-party data is what makes it invaluable since it is collected directly from customers. This implies that this data is 100% accurate, as compared to third-party data. With the help of first-party data, businesses can deep-dive into the direct insights of the  users, including demographics, behaviour patterns, interests, purchasing habits, and more. Such granular information can do wonders for brands in terms of creating targeted campaigns & providing personalised user experience. 

Despite the benefits of first-party data, most brands aren’t fully able to make the most out of this powerful tool. From improving marketing performance to providing valuable insights into the full buying journey, there are many ways brands can leverage first-party data to drive sales. We have listed below some of the ways to use first-party data: 

Re-engage customers

Many ecommerce lose as much as $18 billion in sales revenue every year due to cart abandonment. But, with the help of first-party data, ecommerce marketers can bridge this gap and encourage consumers to re-engage with their offerings. First-party data helps marketers to get an in-depth view of consumer behaviour – who is on the fence & who may need a reminder to re-engage. For instance, if a consumer has looked for a product but has not checked out with it, brands can make use of first-party data to retarget them by sending a reminder email to return to their site & complete their purchase. On top of that, they can also offer a discount to attract the same. 

Know the ins & outs of the customer journey

Marketers must be able to outline their customer journey to pull their customers back to the journey of purchase. With the help of first-party data, marketers can easily analyse and integrate data from all their sources to understand consumer behaviour at every step of the journey. This will in turn help out marketers to send out tailored messages at the right time that will encourage them to engage with their brands. Additionally, brands can also leverage first-party data to make changes in the existing customer journey strategy based on how they are engaging. 

Optimise campaign targeting & improve the relevance

It is rightly said that a campaign that speaks to everyone is a campaign that speaks to no one. Brands need to strike a balance between targeting the right campaign to the right audience, without infringing on their privacy. This can be achieved with the help of first-party data. With privacy becoming an increasingly important point of concern, brands must actively focus on harnessing their first-party data to identify real people across devices & marketing channels. Additionally, brands can make use of these insights to personalise their messages to match their customer preferences. As per stats, personalised emails see a 14% greater CTR and personalised web experiences witness a 20% rise in sales, which implies that personalisation is the secret to a brand’s success. 

Increase trust among consumers

Safeguarding consumer privacy is how brands can earn customer trust, attract and retain users. This can be achieved by being transparent and clear about using their information & offering compelling value in return. Marketers can make use of first-party reviews to develop relationships with new customers. Organisations can build trust with consumers by implementing a centralised privacy strategy that is aligned with consumer personalities and journeys through a common accountability framework across the enterprise, based on consumer preferences. increase. This includes a consistent and transparent customer experience that puts privacy first, including an intuitive way to consent to data sharing and enables continuous monitoring of new compliance requirements. 

Conclusion

Overall, first-party data presents a wealth of opportunities for companies looking to better understand their customers. From providing valuable insights into customer behaviour and preferences to enabling more targeted campaigns and personalised experiences, first-party data is invaluable to marketers.

Mobile apps are a great way to build audiences and convert users. There are 3.48 million apps on Google Play and about 2.22 million apps on the Apple App Store. With so much competition in the market, you need to make sure your app is fully optimized for success. Mobile app performance is the number one factor in mobile app success. A poorly performing app doesn't engage users and fails quickly. Therefore, monitoring and maintaining mobile app performance is critical to the success of your app and your business. 

Tips to improve and optimize app performance

Below is a list of methods that work universally to improve app performance and improve user experience. 

Optimize your images:

Larger images may look better to users. In practice, it doesn't make sense to use an image that is larger than the screen will display. Optimized images and graphic elements eliminate lag when using apps and improve loading times of on-screen content. Therefore, you should make better use of image resizing and compression. Compression can reduce the weight of an image without reducing its resolution. Resizing, in contrast, means resizing the image so that it fits properly in your app.

Reduce app size & load time:

Smartphones are not yet powerful GPUs. And here are the amazing facts. Moderately configured phones account for most of the Android market share in the world. Some apps don't support 2G/3G, but users generally avoid downloading huge apps, especially if they're in a hurry. Therefore, the less space consumed on the phone, the better for the user.

Cache data effectively:

To speed up your application, you need to define which files and computations can be cached. Storing resources and operations on the device disk ensures immediate access to app data and eliminates performance issues during network disruptions. Define a suitable cache duration. At the same time, it's important to maintain a balance between caching data and loading data so that users don't see stale data. Also, as long as you have limited space to store information, you shouldn't cache everything. 

Optimize screen size:

Screen size presents a big challenge, so it gets a lot of attention from developers. There are a great many Android devices of various shapes and sizes. Your app should support as many screens as possible because the layout's fixed dimensions only work for certain orientations and screen sizes. Make sure your layout accommodates different screens and aspect ratios so that a wider range of users can access your app from different devices. 

Create an offline mode:

Offline mode creates a buffer so your information is safe even if your network connection is unexpectedly lost. If you are suddenly disconnected without using offline mode, all data you were using will be destroyed. Offline mode allows you to save data now and return to it later when the user reconnects. Offline mode means information security, reliability, and ease of use. 

Final thoughts

The most important aspects to consider for mobile apps are reliability, functionality, and consumer usability. Mobile app performance should be fast, comprehensive, and contain only relevant information directly related to the app's functionality. As the mobile app market has grown significantly over the past few years, optimizing your company's mobile apps ultimately translates into huge revenue and user satisfaction.

As the advertising industry evolves, so do consumer habits and preferences. There has been a drastic change in the consumer trends 2022 as compared to current consumer trends. Customer behaviour is the most important factor in creating a successful marketing campaign. But customers are human, and their behaviour can be volatile and unpredictable. So what looks like a great marketing approach in the boardroom may not actually be that effective. 

We recently attended ad:tech New Delhi, a 2-day event which brings together the brightest and most influential brands, agencies, publishers, and technology providers to discover the future of marketing and do business face-to-face. This event gave us valuable insights into the changing consumer trends. 

Let us uncover 5 most valuable consumer behaviour insights that brands can utilise for growth in 2023:

1. Power of storytelling

“Telling your story consistently is extremely important for brands to capture the attention of the audience” - Shantanu Deshpande, Bombay Shaving Co. 

Consistent brand storytelling helps build a personal connection with consumers. It evokes emotions within your audience & establishes a networking relationship. According to The Drum, consumers are exposed to 5,000+ brand messages every day, but they are aware of about 86, with only 12 making a lasting impression. For instance, Amul has presented constant storytelling with the help of its mascot lady, which has allowed them to connect with the audience, leave a lasting impression, and foster a community of engagement. 

2. CTV ads for the win

“CTV has become a very big part of advertising today. Marketers are rethinking their media strategy in this new age of CTV” - Gavin Buxton, Magnite.

Connected TV gives viewers a new way to access all their favourite content across linear TV, OTT, and all connected devices in one place. This new era offers brands an exciting opportunity to reach fragmented audiences. According to Digiday, interactive CTV advertising showed an 85% completion rate, which means users often watch ads on CTV all the way through. Hence, marketers can expect a better engagement rate with CTV ads. For example, Samsung is offering an ads platform to brands to have placements spanning Smart TV, CTV, mobile, and every connected device.

3. Resonate with customer values

“Consumers nowadays are looking for brands that are delivering real values” - Priya Choudhary, Google India.

Defining and demonstrating your brand values encourages like-valued people to reach out & purchase your products and services. Consumers nowadays are much more aware of their values, and they prefer to connect with brands that resonate with those values. 77% of consumers prefer to buy from brands that they share values with. For instance, H&M’s recycling old garments program attracts people who care for sustainability as their initiative resonates with their values. Similarly, if a beauty product is not cruelty-free, it will not attract consumers who love & care about animals. 

4. Personalisation is key

“Personalisation has led to receptiveness for success. The need of the hour is personalised ads” - Shalini Poddar, Disney Plus Hotstar. 

Personalisation has become a key for brands to boost engagement. Consumers have now changed their definitions of advertising. For the majority, personalised advertising means creating unique content, based on their previous purchases. As per stats, around 71% of consumers prefer ads that are tailored to their personalised interests & shopping habits. Since India is a country of multiple languages, consumers also look for personalisation through culture. For instance, Dabur quoted in the event that their regional language ads have a better CTR because consumers like to have personalisation in what the brand is presenting. 

5. Importance of consumer feedback

“Big brands don’t have a feedback loop. This is where new-age brands are flourishing” - Vinay Singh, Fireside Ventures.

Listening to customers & acknowledging their feedback has become the need of the hour today. It not only helps to improve products and services but also helps brands measure customer satisfaction.  According to Forbes, customer-centric brands are 60% more profitable than companies that are not. New-age brands like Noise are creating a differentiator by relying on consumer feedback. They directly connect with their consumers to understand their needs & work with them accordingly. Hence, brands need to create a constant loop between themselves and their customers to increase brand loyalty.

Conclusion

These are some of the consumer trends today that brands must be aware of & consider while developing their marketing strategies. Knowing trends in consumer behaviour before they are visible gives businesses an unprecedented advantage over their competitors. The adage “know your customer” is as true today as it was then, and with rapidly changing consumer behaviour, businesses should stay up to date and understand trends in customer experience and customer expectations.

  There are billions of smartphone users worldwide, and this number is growing steadily each year, creating a huge and diverse market for new apps. With over 8.9 million mobile app downloads in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store today, app marketing is a strategy to increase awareness, generate organic downloads, and drive long-term engagement with your brand. must be done systematically. 

What is app store optimization and how does it work? 

App store optimization means significantly improving your app's download page, ranking your app higher in important search results and encouraging more people to download your app. While the goal of ASO is almost always app downloads, complementary goals include increasing brand exposure, positive app reviews and ratings, audience retention, and further diversification of marketing channels. For example, your app title is one of the most important assets you can leverage to increase both awareness and conversion rates. Keywords that rank in your app's title have the greatest impact on your rankings. Before getting into subtitles and descriptions, you should make sure your app's title is as good as it can be. Remember that the title of your app is also one of the first things a user will see your app with.

Strategies to increase app store ranking and visibility

The App Store features and available fields vary, but the key optimization elements to focus on are:

Application title

Application description

Ratings and reviews

Let's take a closer look at each factor to understand how it affects mobile app rankings. Title of application: The title of your application should contain your focus keyword (the most important keyword). This is the keyword that most closely matches the user's intent and helps drive more quality mobile traffic to your app's listing. During the conception stage, pinpoint exactly which keywords resonate most with your audience to help pivot. As a general rule, we recommend including your brand name in the title of your application.  App reviews and ratings: Your app's reputation directly impacts your brand's overall credibility with customers and app stores. A solid ASO strategy should include brand management to ensure that users are happy with your app and leave positive reviews. Apps with a high number of positive reviews rank higher on both iOS and Android. Application Description: When it comes to app descriptions, Android and iOS behave very differently. Take the time to review the descriptions of your top competitors on the Android play store. This helps you determine what your unique app description should accomplish. On the other hand, the iOS instructions work more closely with today's internet rules. Keyword stuffing does not bring any benefits. The entire description section is not indexed with keywords. For this reason, you need to change gears to create a completely user-oriented description.

Conclusion

App Store Optimization (ASO) continues to outperform growth trends. In recent years, the necessity and value of apps in the marketing mix have taken hold as a key marketing tactic. The first challenge now is to enable users to organically discover your app in the major app stores. With the strategies listed above, you now have practical steps you can take today to update, refine and position your app for better results.  

Today, personalization takes many forms and concepts, fueled by the myriad of data that customers are willing to share with businesses. The digital revolution has impacted consumers and businesses, changing the way products are sold online and offline. You can now purchase goods and services using your handheld device or computer.  Consumers are now engaging with brands through these various new touchpoints, but their desire to connect with companies and their pursuit of value remains the same. With this, brands have strengthened their marketing strategies and hopped on the bandwagon of the omnichannel marketing approach to reach their target audience and satisfy their consumers. 

5 essential elements of the omnichannel marketing approach

In this blog, we have listed down the 5 essential elements of the omnichannel marketing approach that companies must consider:

Focus on first-party data

As a marketer, it is key to understand your target audience to build relationships, enhance customer experience, and drive sales. Around 73% of consumers use multiple channels in their buying journey, expecting the same experience throughout. Consumer data helps brands understand the objectives and preferences of their target audience, helping them identify their customers through personas. Marketers can also use customer feedback through quizzes, podcasts, and more to gain insights, and improve their offerings and overall customer experience (CX). With this behavioural data, marketers can provide a personalised experience to their consumers. Marketers can also make use of CDP (Customer Data Platforms) to collect first-party data.

Address customer expectations

Once the marketer has mapped the customer journey and gained insights into its consumers’ behaviour, they must address the reviews to identify areas of improvement. According to data, brands addressing customer needs and building strong omnichannel customer engagement witnessed a 9.5% year-over-year increase in annual revenue. Brands need to win customer attention, and for that, marketers can leverage the customer data collected to identify their needs and requirements. For example, if email campaigns are not working out for you as per the customer data, then you can try personalised campaigns using the customer data to increase engagement. 

Ensure consistency across channels

The next element is to keep consistency in the brand messages across various channels while engaging with customers to increase brand exposure. As per stats, brands that maintain consistency throughout their messages witness a 23% increase in revenue, along with better brand identity. Marketers need to start by creating a brand “Tone of Voice” document that will help tie their messages together and ensure the same message is being conveyed to the target audience. Additionally, brands must avoid complete repetition of content. They can mix and match with the content to reuse it, but avoid looking inconsistent throughout the messaging. 

Use the right MarTech

MarTech is an important word in the marketing industry nowadays, which is the portmanteau of “Marketing” and “Technology”. It refers to using tools, platforms, and software to inform, plan, and execute marketing strategies. Stats tell that the MarTech landscape has a growth rate of 5233%. Brands make use of MarTech tools to gain additional insights and provide a better omnichannel experience to their customers, while also tracking more prospects. Brands can choose the tool that best fits their technology stack. MarTech tools also assist brands to automate their processes, which results in better time management. The time that was earlier spent on processes like gathering data can be now used in more creative and strategic tasks. 

Personalise your messages

A strong personalisation strategy helps brands to understand their customers – right from their previous engagements to how they have moved along from one channel to another during their journey with the brand. As per stats, personalised emails see a 14% greater CTR and personalised web experiences witness a 20% rise in sales, which implies that personalisation is the secret to a brand’s success. With the help of the insights gained from consumer data, Brands are in a better position to handle customer queries across all platforms with the insights and take their personalisation efforts to a different level resulting in up-sell.

Conclusion

Omnichannel marketing services enable you to deliver a consistent and personalised experience to your customers. These efforts not only result in a seamless user experience, but also lead to increased customer retention, increased sales, and increased brand awareness.

The Metaverse has become the marketing industry's most popular buzzword for brands creating bespoke virtual environments, selling digital collectables, and making a statement in the upcoming virtual world. . Yet despite all this activity, advertising and marketing departments continue to be plagued by many common misconceptions about the metaverse.  So, let us debunk the myths around the metaverse. 

Myth # 1: Metaverse is developed by Meta

The metaverse is not a single virtual space or entity, but a multitude of digital platforms that the creators of the metaverse envision will one day be assembled into a cohesive and interoperable whole. Meta executives have publicly backed the vision, but the company's recent name change didn't help matters. Those actively involved in building the Metaverse understand that Meta's Horizon VR platform is just one piece of the puzzle, but many rookies believe that Metaverse is an entity of Meta alone. Margot Rodde, innovation lead at Mirada Studios, says that Meta is nowhere close to building the Metaverse. It is a combined product of various other companies, like Roblox, Decentraland, NVIDIA, and more.  

Myth # 2: Metaverse is the talk of the future

The Metaverse era has already begun. From social gaming platforms to fully immersive virtual reality worlds in VR headsets to augmented reality smartphone experiences, early versions are already here. Experts expect the Metaverse to eventually evolve into a series of shared virtual spaces in which humans can just as easily inhabit the real world. Consumers are now striving to go beyond gaming. About 60% of millennials want to buy physical products in the virtual world. Even among baby boomers, a third of consumers are interested in experiences such as consulting with experts on topics such as health and home improvement in virtual or augmented reality environments. Brands have hopped onto this bandwagon to reimagine their businesses. Global brands such as IKEA, Hyundai, Nike, and more are using virtual reality to provide immersive experiences to their consumers.   

Myth # 3: Metaverse means gaming

Gaming is an activity that can be done within the Metaverse, with 3 billion gamers in the world. Today, when people talk about the metaverse, they often cite gaming platforms such as Roblox and Minecraft. Gaming remains one of the primary experiences, but consumers are increasingly turning to virtual worlds for entertainment and shopping. One in five of his Metaverse users has attended his virtual events such as concerts and film festivals. Around 10.7 Mn players watched Marshmello perform live at the Fortnite concert. Metaverse has a potential that reaches much further than just online gaming. From visiting a doctor to purchasing a car, this technology will make a major shift in how we operate our digital lives.   

Myth # 4: Metaverse exists only in VR

Meta focusses on virtual reality for its vision of the Metaverse, and the Horizon app is available exclusively on Quest headsets. But to say the Metaverse is virtual reality (VR) is like saying that the Internet is just a smartphone, a way to connect to the Internet. Similarly, you can imagine experiencing the Metaverse through VR, but you can also imagine experiencing it through your laptop or desktop. Platforms such as Roblox, Touchcast, and Decentraland have demonstrated that the metaverse can also be accessed without virtual reality devices.   

Myth # 5: Metaverse requires a 3D avatar

Another common theme surrounding metaverse construction is the use of 3D avatars. In settings such as social and gaming, avatars can add another layer of fun to the experience. But for business and commerce, avatars can be distracting and unprofessional. For businesses that sell complex goods like expensive machinery and cars, Metaverse is a huge opportunity to establish a new revenue stream. Adding avatars can make it hard for them to build authentic relationships and trust with customers in the virtual world. While most metaverse digital service providers require users to take the avatar form to enter the virtual world, various businesses are exploring different ways to bridge the gap in human interaction. Touchcast, one of the first metaverse platforms to render a live video feed into the virtual world, offers an avatar-free experience to its users, making it ideal for enterprise use.   

Final thought

The Metaverse has the potential to change the way we interact with the world. Just like any other emergent technology, this buzzword also has some myths around it which we have busted. The metaverse promises to be a disruptive technology, but it has myriad benefits when it comes to reducing costs for businesses, promoting accessibility, and creating sustainable distribution channels.