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Black Friday and Cyber Monday are some of the most anticipated and important commercial dates globally, where audiences are ready and connected for days, and even weeks, in advance to access the expected discounts.

In recent years, online shopping has exceeded the expectations and numbers predicted by experts in economics, marketing, and consumption, especially given the change in behavior brought about by the pandemic. According to the newspaper La República, in the case of Colombia, around 50% of users are online shoppers and 20% of them make an average of one weekly purchase. If we analyze the participation in total retail sales, e-commerce sales in Colombia reached 2.9% during 2021, and although the participation has decreased to 2.4% in 2022, they remain encouraging from a growth perspective, especially as a window of success for small and medium-sized businesses, as well as a growing channel for industry giants.

As this time approaches, marketing professionals must take action and focus all their attention on enriching and strengthening their sales strategy to make the most of this date. It is important to keep in mind that buyers are becoming more educated and practical every day. The high supply allows them to become discount hunters and only generate affinity for brands when there is a bond beyond the functional aspect of the product.

Here are some points to consider as purchasing drivers, according to a Hootsuite study: 60% of buyers in Colombia look for brands that offer free shipping, while 47% expect a simple and reliable shopping experience. On the other hand, 44% are waiting for coupons and discounts on products of interest to finalize their transaction.

With this in mind, we bring you some recommendations for this start of the holiday sales season:

10 secrets for a successful sales season

1. Prepare the strategy in advance

This season is highly relevant for e-commerce, and a robust strategy should be prepared well in advance to achieve the desired success. For this, it is key to define objectives, allocate a budget for the campaign that considers before, during, and after, and carry out constant testing. These are some of the tasks that should not be left to chance. There is no magic or universal formula that applies to all brands, so it is better to know the audiences and be prepared to react quickly.

2. Organic traffic will be useful if you prepare it correctly

Advertising bids rise up to +130% during the Black Friday season, so on-page and off-page SEO strategies are a point to consider to drive organic traffic to the website. It is time to analyze the current position of the brand and that of the competition to have clarity on the actions to take and traffic opportunities. Personalized landing pages remain an essential element in this season.

3. High-value audiences are key during the holiday season

Given the high competition among brands to secure the final sale, captivating the community’s attention and elevating their intention to purchase should be key points in the strategy developed. This is why remarketing ads can give up to three times the chance of getting a click, and retargeting ads for potential customers can achieve 70% more chances of converting.

4. Content is the key

This holiday season is characterized by a considerable increase in the number of daily advertisements to which the user is exposed, between 3,000 and 5,000, and this is where content plays a fundamental role. If the content is not valuable, it will not lead to conversion. This is why it is important to enhance the content that works for each brand and achieve genuine interest, content that achieves a “scroll stopper” from the user.

5. Monitor shopping funnel

Today, the digital world has various tools that allow constant, easy, and fast monitoring of the data of each website. For this season, it is recommended to have an individual landing page for each product to provide personalized tracking of the behavior of each item and the implemented strategy.

6. Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4 is the new generation of Google Analytics that collects event-based data from both websites and applications. For this version, new features were implemented, such as “cart to view rate” and “purchase to view rate” to monitor e-commerce. It is worth migrating to this version as soon as possible and exploring all it has to offer, such as advanced tagging and attribution models.

7. Every channel counts

In such a changing digital world, it is necessary to diversify strategies due to advertising costs and to open up horizons to new emerging platforms. An example of this is Pinterest and TikTok, which show exponential growth in users and usage time, and in terms of interaction, show engagement rates worthy of analyzing to include in strategies.

It should be noted that not all channels or content should be 100% focused on conversion, but rather, the goal should be to achieve or improve brand awareness and positioning.

8. Alternative payment methods and financing

Today, it is as important to have a simple check-out process as it is to have a variety of payment options within the platforms. Users, especially in Latin America, are affected by the global economic tension and seek different financing options when making online purchases. Integrating options from the needs of each country is a plus for closing sales and definitely increases conversion. It is also important to emphasize the role of channels such as WhatsApp, Messenger, or SMS, which allow for continued communication with the user and advice in the purchasing process, even for payments outside of the e-commerce platform. It is recommended to have all payment channels available, such as credit and debit cards, PSE, cash payments at physical points, cash on delivery, PayPal, digital wallets, and even think about alternatives such as Bitcoin or “Buy Now Pay Later” financing.

9. Reduce cart abandonment

The challenge for all brands is to reduce cart abandonment and maximize sales. To do this, it is necessary to recover the user, understand the reason for abandoning the process, and convince them to return to the website. Currently, strategies are being implemented via email, WhatsApp, and SMS, with discount messages, coupons, or extra benefits if the purchase is completed within a certain period of time. This not only motivates the user to resume their cart but can also encourage them to add more items to their purchase.

10. Hyper-segmentation strategies

Databases are the most valuable assets of any company, and now more than ever, understanding the changes in privacy and third-party cookies, as well as the increase in advertising costs. These are the inputs for the correct distribution of relevant messages based on the behavior of each user. The mix of customer data, transaction data, and browsing and interaction data allows for an exercise of hyper-segmentation that will likely lead to greater conversion. Additionally, each time a contact is generated, platforms such as Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) allow for collecting more touchpoints and better clustering audiences to reach increasingly personalized, relevant, and effective messages, from manual strategies to incorporating artificial intelligence to predict behavior.

The digital ecosystem is nourished with information every day, and it is at this moment that being different, disruptive, and innovative takes on a very relevant role in the competition between brands. Captivating the user, improving their shopping experience, and maximizing lifetime value is the true challenge for this season.

Happy Black Friday, and may sales always be on your side.

In a world full of data, information sources, and different channels with actionable inputs for automatic marketing tasks activation, it is crucial to clean and prepare customer data to create efficient and effective business models.

CDPs (Customer Data Platforms) are technologies that help us improve and optimize the work of problems such as customer data integration and storage.

Creating 360 ecosystems for customers brings countless benefits to the marketing and sales areas, as it allows for optimized customer tracking, resulting in robust strategies for a specific purpose.

CDPs are intelligent systems that provide us with a unique view of the customer, as they collect and unify data from different sources. Additionally, they enable companies to become more competitive over time.

According to the CDP Institute, these are the most common cases within marketing for the use of CDPs:

Increasing customer LTV (65%)

Customer retention (61%)

Acquisition/knowledge of new customers (57%)

There are countless Customer Data Platforms on the market. Each with its particular characteristics, but all aiming for the same goal. However, there is one that we will focus on:

SALESmanago >>

SALESmanago is the second most used marketing automation platform throughout Europe (according to sources from Datanyze.com); however, it has expanded worldwide and is currently one of the most used.

t is a tool that offers complete general solutions of automated marketing such as email marketing, website marketing, mobile marketing, social media, contact segmentation, lead management, sales funnels, and many more options.

In addition to the above, SALESmanago offers us precise, real-time tracking of all actions carried out by different customers within the website, making this CDP a supremely complete tool that provides us with fundamental data for the creation and planning of strategies.

SALESmanago is an omnichannel platform that serves us both to create effective and sustainable relationships over time for B2B or B2C companies.

And you, what are you waiting for to discover this powerful tool? More information Click Here

The best email marketing campaigns for Black Friday & Cyber Monday are those that at all times manage to make an impact, attract attention and, above all, incite user action without having to be invasive.

The key for any strategy to work is in the planning prior to the event, that is, having an organized schedule of dates, key moments in which the emails must go out and adequate segmentation of the database, this in order to be more assertive and less invasive.

That is why we have certain tips for you that can help you organize so that this date is a success.

And what are you waiting for to plan your strategy for these days?

Apply our tips and you will surely have very successful campaigns!

Within the usual construction of strategies, the question: Who?, allows a deeper and more assertive understanding, of the different elements that identify those we are interested in reaching, whether it is to impact from the brand, a purpose, a product, a campaign, or an influencer.

Developing the strategy from the segmentation is important for the precision in the construction of the message. The participation of a cluster can give us more precision on this. To build insights, it is necessary to understand the real expressed and unexpressed needs of customers.

The investigative determination of the segmentation from the past and future behaviors contributes to the strategies and their objectives, linking the type of strategies oriented to the type of audience. But from the investigative support, one of the trends associated with behaviors is coolhunting that appropriates future behaviors, defining consumption opportunities, differentiating themselves from current behaviors, and bringing the future to the present.

This concept, associated with both marketing and advertising, is increasingly linked in different scenarios and is the result of prospective studies and even data analysis from artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Coolhunting, then, allows us to obtain prospective information that will generate opportunities for innovation and behavior change, necessary at a time when decisions are fluctuating between what brands offer and what consumers want to see, obtain or create.

The development of segmentation methodologies focused on these behaviors will allow us to be aware of creating value from the product, the brand, its purposes, and the moment that each of the types of consumers is experiencing: audience, clusters, mindsets, and users in each stage of the funnel.

Some will present needs from the exploration of products, for example: in Colombia during the pandemic months, 40% of Colombians experimented with new brands and 45% of these do not have a clear intention of returning to the previous one.

Buitrago,C.(18/11/2020)
“The opportunities offered by changes in the habits of the Colombian consumer”. Semana.

Others will require to be impacted from the functional information of a product or service since it needs to take into consideration different offers, where the added value is important.; where behavioral structures can be correlated, due to their need in decision-making and psychographic segmentation, determining triggers and decision insights.

Bazan,C(05/05/2016)
What is behavioral segmentation?. Marketeros Latam.

Identify at what moment of decision, or relationship with the product or service, will promote the development of the strategy, as well as the touchpoints and decision path of our key target, and the KPIs that will help generate a change in the status of each one. of the correlated moments. If you are in the consideration stage, establishing decision objectives, and conversion based on certain calls to action will be the change in attitude that coolhunting will allow you to understand.

E-commerce is faithful to the reflection of the change in behavior that is sought from the brands in the way the target acquires the offer, from the exploration of products that could be generated from social networks, as inspiration and motivation, to the argumentation in the stage of consideration where showrooming integrates the purchase analysis from offline to online, where the benefits, added value, and associated emotional concepts will be decisive in the change of attitude/behavior for the final acquisition. Cross-selling and up-selling are linked to generating a greater number of purchases from the same buyer (loyalty), in future scenarios or moments of purchase; prospective exercises an analysis of these scenarios.

The measurement will then allow focus on the current behavior of the audience, which should be the result of the segmentation, once the research input has been analyzed.

Throughout history and as new competitors appear, the communication channels are fragmented and the consumer becomes more jealous of their data, which makes the challenge of measuring the return of our marketing actions more and more. complex.

Until some time ago, businesses that were born as digital natives boasted to their clients about the knowledge they had about each peso invested. They argued that they knew in detail how the investment behaved. However, with the disappearance of cookies in some of the biggest players in the digital ecosystem, came a new challenge for the industry.

To the above we must add that we continue in a world where purchases in face-to-face channels continue to dominate more than 80% of consumer spending, a sufficient argument to stop thinking that it is okay to only measure what happens in digital. If we want to have clarity about the real behavior of our product in the lower stage of the funnel, it is necessary to broaden the panorama.

En Asylum, fieles a nuestro principio: “Si no lo podemos At Asylum, faithful to our principle: “If we can’t measure it, we won’t do it”, we have prepared 5 tips to learn more about ROI, the great enigma of the marketing world.

1. Strategy as a fundamental part of measurement

Taking the time to shape the future and plan a strategy allows us to focus on what is truly important for the business. Strategy, more than just a word, is a fundamental part of our speech, but also of our daily work. Although its use has become widespread and it seems to be approached more lightly, it is essential for successful campaigns.

For example, a measurement strategy allows us to understand our competitive advantages based on relevant numbers and thus conquer the future. It prevents us from pursuing valueless news, vanity metrics, and enables us to take businesses to the next level.

2. Choosing what we want to measure is no small feat.

Why doesn’t the lion chase mice, even though it may be easy for its size? Why does it focus on finding a gazelle for its dinner? Is it because catching 10 mice would really satisfy and tire it less? What will its KPIs be? The importance of having a clear focus, and the lion has a very clear objective, its focus. The power of being focused allows us to evolve in a decisive way to achieve the desired end.

Yes, like everything in life, choices have to be made for businesses. It is essential in an information-laden ecosystem to choose objectives and KPIs, which will truly enable us to measure the state of our projects and make us have the much-desired but forgotten focus.

A big objective with well-established KPIs, although it may seem more difficult to achieve, will allow us to work concentrated and on a few fronts, which can be easily monitored. This will result in healthy and sustainable business growth over time.

3. When we talk about ROI, we cannot expect R without I.

Return also requires investment, and this is not only about money. Investing in planning, tools, time to think about the previous two points, as well as having a suitable team to analyze the data, will be crucial in understanding our real return.

Generating data requires much more than investing in amplifying our campaigns and analyzing it more than a dynamic table. Therefore, to measure the ROI, all and each of the “I’s” must be considered, which will contribute to finding that “R”.

4. The importance of the technical component in measurement

There are more and better tools available every day to measure the business ecosystem. From companies’ CRM connected to in-store transactions to the eCommerce databases generated with each transaction, providing valuable information for the business. However, it is necessary to certify that all sources of information have common data structures, are compatible with each other, allow the connection of what the customer does in Off and On, but most importantly, that the configuration to measure that journey is correct.

Nowadays, forgetting to activate a simple pixel or code on digital assets can be vital for data collection, which is valuable information about the customer journey, as it not only allows measurement but also becomes actionable data that can be converted into sales.

5. Real-time in the Real World

This was expressed by Arthur C. Clarke, a renowned science fiction writer, in his book “Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible,” where he formulated his famous 3 laws, this was the third.

Now, it is important to consider that this was in the year 1962.

Today, almost 60 years later, we find ourselves living in a world saturated with new technologies, appearing at a frenetic pace in a race of large and small companies around the world, all striving to captivate our attention and position themselves as the new disruptors in some segment, and thus, unwittingly become part of our daily life.

In this digital world of unlimited communications and interactions, it leads me to consider that “magic” can now be created or experienced by offering extreme convenience through state-of-the-art business models and technologies.

• Invisible, rerefers to the complexity of everything that actually happens in the background, without friction or complications, but something or someone undoubtedly takes care of it. Nothing happens just because.

• Involuntary impulse is something that is executed without thinking. With a small action, only one or a few steps deliver the experience we are looking for.

• Speed is because nowadays there is no time to waste. We have become accustomed, more and more, to wanting and needing things now, and the result generates instant satisfaction.

• How can we then generate and deliver convenience?

Make it easy for the user, or let something or someone else do it for them.

• How can we then generate and deliver extreme convenience?

Make it easy for the user to have something or someone else do it for them.

For example, having someone or something take care of executing the payment/debit/charge of our service every month, without us realizing when or for how much sometimes, or recommending based on what we consume what is the next thing we should consume because it is similar or compatible with what we have already done before.

Yes, that is convenience, everyone demands convenience, from the youngest and regardless of age or any other aspect, based on their circumstances, culture, location, maturity, and access to technology. It is a universal concept and year after year we seek or encounter more conveniences.

So, I start to think, from my position,

How do I generate or increase convenience in my ecosystem and areas of action?

And I invite you to do the same from your position.

Technology, another of the important words in Clarke’s law, has been nothing more than a facilitator and accelerator, to be able to interact and is the enabled medium or channel to surprise and “magically” generate and develop conveniences. We expect a lot, or anything, from technology these days.

Magic, Convenience, Technology, the mix of these 3 words in the end, we could say that what has brought us and faced is what could be called Innovation.

Better said, to put it in simple words, I like to say that innovation is simply a different way of doing things, that simple, or that complex.

Take a close look at what is achieved, for example, with:

• Netflix/Youtube,a different way of consuming audiovisual content
• Spotify/Apple Music, a different way of consuming audio/music content
• Uber/Lyft, a different way of transporting and mobilizing
• AirBnB/Booking, a different way of traveling, finding accommodation, or sightseeing
• Waze, is a different way of interpreting and following directions or maps
• Amazon, is a different way of many things, but of buying anything
• Rappi, is a different way of asking for something to be delivered to your home
• Whatsapp, is a way to communicate with people
• Instagram, is a different way of seeing and sharing, reliving, and immortalizing moments and memories
• Audible, uis a different way of consuming content, of reading
• Google calendar, is a different way to keep your schedule
• Zoom, is a different way to interact with your work colleagues or loved ones
• And even Memes, a different form of entertainment

In the previous list, we found great initiatives, of course, that we have long called innovative. However, notice that there is nothing that hasn’t been done before. We did all of that, but we did it differently than we can do it now.

Therefore, we can comfortably say that thanks to the global situation we are facing today and the events of recent months, we are all innovators. We are all doing many things differently than we did before. Thanks to these events, we have had to take risks and assume them.

Innovation is not something that belongs to someone, a group of people who studied a certain field, a department of any company, or the people we call creative, strategic, or technological. Innovation can arise and awaken at any moment and by anyone.

Often in companies, there is a demand and a search for innovation from all points of view. Being the most innovative, standing out against the competition is a constant challenge.

If there is something you want to improve, something you have wanted to innovate, as a new year begins, look for ways to do it differently, with or without technology. Find out if there is a better way to do it, if someone else has done it, if there are best practices, and regardless of whether it is distant from your environment, if there is anything you can contribute to achieving it.

Ask yourself, how can I adopt and implement good innovation practices that already exist in other contexts in my action environment?