The Ultimate Guide to Social Marketing Success in 2014 by Rachel Serpa

With 2013 now behind us, modern marketers are well versed in the importance and potential impact of social data and engagement. According to the Word of Mouth and American Marketing Associations, 70% of marketers expect to increase their social media marketing budgets in 2014 (MediaPost).

However, 79% of marketers cite measuring social media and demonstrating social marketing ROI as two of their biggest obstacles (MediaPost). The new year is poised to shift social marketers’ focus from simply establishing a social game plan to measuring and optimizing social marketing impact, implementing data-driven strategies, and creating effective cross-channel user experiences.

Marketers must answer the call of innovation and find new, creative ways to acquire and retain customers by leveraging social media, social data, and unique web and mobile experiences. Our new guide gives you a head start on the competition with insights on achieving and measuring real social ROI in 2014, including how to:

• Accurately calculate the value of social marketing
• Turn anonymous visitors into known customers
• Make data-driven marketing decisions
• Grow an interactive community of trust
• Unify cross-channel user identity with login vs. cookie data
• Nurture consumer relationships with rewards

Source: http://blog.gigya.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-social-marketing-success-in-2014/

How to Turn User Generated Content into Revenue with Ratings and Reviews by Rachel Serpa

In the age of the connected consumer, customers are continuously talking and sharing about your brand, product or service – and everybody’s listening.  When consumers have the power to tweet about the nasty cashier while she’s ringing them up, or that fantastic filet mignon directly from the table, letting disgruntled customers or brand advocates slip through the cracks can be the difference between widespread success and fast failure.

Social networks have given consumers proverbial megaphones to broadcast their experiences in real-time, and brand image and perception is increasingly shaped by social opinion. In fact, while 70% of Millennials consider it their responsibility to share feedback with companies after both positive and negative experiences (AdAge), 90% of consumers admit that their purchase decisions are influenced by consumer ratings and reviews (Marketing Land).

By providing customers with an open forum for posting ratings and reviews, businesses can effectively monitor and react to consumer opinions in real-time. Smart brands are learning how to leverage consumer connectivity and feedback to build brand awareness, influence brand perception, and foster authentic relationships with both potential and existing customers. This white paper showcases three ways that brands can start effectively harnessing ratings and reviews to stimulate both new and repeat conversions:

• Boosting brand awareness and referral traffic
• Improving long-tail SEO
• Building consumer trust to increase shopping cart conversions

Source: http://blog.gigya.com/how-to-turn-user-generated-content-into-revenue-with-ratings-and-reviews/

From Connect to Convert: How to Nurture Lifetime Customer Value by Rachel Serpa

The rise of social media has forever changed the nature of relationships between consumers and brands. Consumers are no longer content to listen to an automated customer service operator or gather around to flip through a catalogue with friends. They expect to be able to sound off about their experiences with services and to be answered quickly, and they demand the ability to share product reviews and recommendations with friends in real-time from any device.

This shift toward consumer engagement is forcing brands to stop thinking in terms of traditional marketing and sales opportunities. Instead, successful companies have started focusing their efforts on establishing authentic, long-term relationships with customers to drive genuine connectivity and repeat conversions. Here are three steps to help you grow genuine customer relationships that lead to increased brand loyalty and lifetime customer value.

Let them tell you who they are.

According to IBM, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data each day. Consumers have generated 90% of the world’s data in the past two years by incessantly sharing what they like, need and want, in real-time (IBM). How do marketers even begin to sort through this ocean of data to pinpoint insights that are granular enough to effectively connect with customers on a relevant level?

Leveraging tools like social login allows you to easily identify your best current and potential customers with permission-based access to their unique social profiles. This is a mutually beneficial strategy that offers customers a convenient way to authenticate their identities on your website or mobile app using their existing social accounts, and also provides brands with invaluable customer insights. This type of identity access is key in building the unique, comprehensive user profiles necessary to establish authentic relationships with consumers.

Personalize their experience.

Once you recognize and understand customers’ unique identities, you can begin to develop more intimate relationships with them by personalizing their experiences with your brand across marketing channels. For example, if a ticket provider knows that Jim loves classic rock and lives in San Francisco, it can send him a personalized email featuring discounts toward rock concerts in his area. Obviously, this level of personalization makes Jim feel much more connected to this brand than if he were to receive a generic email promoting tickets to a random show.

Personalization plays a large role in customer satisfaction and is an essential element in moving from connect to convert. In fact, 40% of consumers buy more from retailers who personalize the shopping experience across channels (MyBuys). Leveraging customer insights in conjunction with social features like gamification makes it possible for customers to interact with your brand on a more engaging and personalized level across various marketing channels.

Repeat.

Establishing authentic relationships with consumers doesn’t stop the first time they connect with your brand – it’s a continuous cycle. Your customers’ needs, interests and behaviors are consistently evolving, and successful brands never stop listening and updating experiences to make sure they stay relevant. Think about it this way: if a customer suddenly chooses to become vegetarian, whether you offer him reward points toward a steak dinner or a popular new vegetarian restaurant in his area will make all the difference in maintaining a relevant relationship with him.

Implementing a connected consumer management solution that not only collects but seamlessly updates customer information in real-time allows marketers to focus on harnessing these insights to create relevant and personalized strategies. Dedicating effort and attention to continuously nurturing genuine and mutually beneficial relationships with consumers is the key to establishing brand loyalty and lifetime customer value.

In the age of the connected consumer, it’s time for brands to make establishing authentic customer relationships the priority. No matter the end marketing or sales goal, by focusing on creating relevant experiences for customers, brands will be successful in connecting with and converting users time and time again.

Source: http://blog.gigya.com/from-connect-to-convert-how-to-nurture-lifetime-customer-value/