A lot can happen from the first contact with a product to the purchase. The customer journey shows how customers make a purchase decision.

The term customer journey comes from marketing and stands for the process that a customer goes through after learning of the existence of a product and the path that he then takes until he decides to buy.

Touch me

Typically, customers don’t strike immediately after discovering a product. This applies even more to high-priced items. Before they buy it, interested parties usually come into contact with the product several times. These so-called touchpoints can be visualized in a customer journey map . The touchpoints can be very different in nature. From classic TV or radio advertising to internet forums, rating portals, manufacturer websites, blogs and banners, everything is possible – but also optional. Depending on the customer, this results in very individual customer journeys, which are often so similar that marketers can summarize them in different personas .

Even if there are many different touchpoints, they can still be differentiated based on a very important criterion: They are either online or offline. Online touchpoints are much more preferred by marketers because they can be implemented – also across channels – through cookies and with the help of tools for cross-domain and cross-device tracking– can be easily tracked. This is significantly more difficult in the offline world. Who, when, saw a poster or heard a radio spot and subsequently made a purchase can only be traced if you ask customers directly about it – and then they also provide information. Using QR codes, apps for customers and WiFi tracking, marketers try to at least partially map offline events on site in the store online and thus make touchpoints visible.

4 phases of the customer journey

There are different approaches to dividing the customer journey. What they have in common is the assumption that the purchase decision is usually not made immediately and that the customer first goes through certain phases before pulling out the wallet. According to the widely used Aida model, these can be divided into the following parts:

1. Attention – the customer becomes aware of a product that interests them.
2. Interest – the customer develops interest in the product.
3. Desire – the customer feels the desire to own the product.
4. Action – the customer purchases the product.

Analysis of customer behavior

However, it is by far not enough to just make the customer journey visible on a map. From the analysis of the customer journey, marketers expect to learn more about customer behavior. If contact points are made visible, they can also be optimized – if the customer journey map should, for example, indicate that many customers drop out after visiting the manufacturer’s website, this results in a clear starting point with instructions for improvement . The conversion rate can then be improved. In addition, experts can recognize whether certain touchpoints are in a causal relationship, the visit to the website correlates with the installation of the app, for example.

At this point, however, the limits of a customer journey map also become apparent: connections are not always clear and unambiguous. In retrospect, it is not always clear which touchpoint was ultimately decisive for the purchase, or the effective relationship between the touchpoints. Often it is the interaction of many touchpoints that has convinced the customer. Merging the data also becomes more and more difficult as the volume increases. In addition, users are becoming more and more sensitive with regard to sovereignty over their data and are putting a stop to the data collection mania of some companies – for example in the form of tools that prevent tracking or by not allowing or deleting cookies.

The response rates to online surveys have fallen across all industries since the introduction of the GDPR , in some cases by half. What can companies do to increase it? Here you will find eight practical tips.

1. Tell everyone: we’re starting a survey!

In many companies, online surveys run “on the side”. Few of the potential attendees and staff know they are taking place. Communicate the survey like a big new project. This will prepare the participants and your colleagues for it – and arouse their curiosity:

• In the newsletter , in social media and on the website, you explain why the survey is taking place and what your aim is (for example to improve products and services or to find out the latest opinions on a topic). Include a link to the survey or a login option. Explain what benefits the participants have: They gain new insights, can influence the development of your products or the service of your company is improved.
• School all employees who have contact with the potential participants (salespeople, account managers or call center agents): they should bring up the survey every time they meet and explain the benefits of participating.
• Put a brief note in your email signature four to six weeks before the survey. You can link to the blog article about the survey with the words “Why your opinion matters – find out”.

2. Send advance notice and arouse curiosity

Send an advance notice two to three days before the survey. In it you draw the participants’ attention to the survey and name the goal. An example:

• “Hello Max, here at ABC GmbH we are introducing a short survey on customer satisfaction. With it you can tell us in a few minutes what is most important to you when working with us. Check your inbox for the invitation in the next two days. We look forward to hearing from you!
  Tina Musterfrau, CEO of ABC GmbH “
• Use a clear subject, such as “Announcement: Tell us what you really feel”, “Coming soon: Survey on topic XY”.
• Be brief and keep a consistent layout for the advance notice, survey, and invitation.

3. Personal addressing of each participant

As with sending newsletters, the same applies to online surveys: a personal approach ensures a higher opening rate and more participation. Write “Dear Ms. Mustermann” or “Hello Tim” instead of “Dear participant” or “Dear customer”.

Important when addressing the question personally: If you evaluate the survey anonymously, write it down. Otherwise the impression could be created that the answers are linked to the name. For international participants, send the survey in the appropriate language and also translate the invitation.

4. CEO as the sender

An email from Steve Jobs in your mailbox? You probably wouldn’t have hesitated for a second to read it. A message from Apple support or from “Steven from Market Research”, on the other hand, is less exciting. You can use this effect in surveys: The invitation to participate should come directly from your CEO. Insert – after prior agreement – his signature and his signature. On the website you can insert a statement from the management about the survey with a portrait photo. This underlines how important the survey is for your company. You arouse interest and motivate people to participate.

5. Don’t ruin your response rate yourself

You may know that: When you stayed at a hotel, you were annoyed by a bad breakfast buffet. You fill out an online survey on the booking portal and share your frustration. And it happens … nothing! Your motivation to answer another survey is sinking.

Many companies forget to tell participants how they used the results after taking an online survey. In doing so, they destroy their response rate themselves. By the time the next survey was carried out, the respondents had the impression that the survey had no effects. They are no longer willing to sacrifice their time.

Avoid this mistake. Did you perhaps start new projects in the company after the survey? Have new employees been hired to improve a service? You can publish this information – just like before the survey – in the newsletter, on the website or on social media. You should also contact individual participants personally: Imagine, after your hotel feedback, an employee called you, apologized and offered a voucher as compensation! Customers are pleasantly surprised when you write to them or call them after a survey. For sales, this can also be a welcome opportunity to contact important customers again.

6. Frequency and timing of the survey

Check who sends out surveys in your company and how many surveys the participants receive on average per month. If you write to your potential participants more than once a month, the surveys become less important. Depending on the industry and target group, that can be too much. The motivation to participate and the response rate decrease.

Weigh how much time your respondents have. Treat their precious time with respect. An example: You send out a satisfaction survey after every purchase and every service case. Check if this is really necessary. Your customers are very satisfied with the products and the delivery, but are they having problems with after-sales service? Reduce the number of surveys on product and delivery and focus your surveys on the critical after-sales area.

7. Target group of the online survey

A low response rate could be because you are promoting the survey to the wrong audience. An example: Maschinenbau GmbH sells high-priced tools to craft businesses. The order is processed completely digitally. A few weeks after ordering, customers are invited to a survey by email. The response rate is only a few percent, although the salespeople received enthusiastic feedback from the craftsmen during the conversation. A target group analysis shows that the survey ends up in accounting – because their e-mail address is known. In future, the survey will be placed on the website next to the instructions for the machine. In this way she reaches the craftsmen who work with the machines every day and who are happy to give feedback on their experiences.

8. Short sentences, clear language

“It would be very welcome if you avoided passive constructions and nesting sentences in your interview communication, and at the same time you would make it a lot easier for your participants if …” Stop! Nobody answers your survey with this writing style .

Write short, simple sentences. For each comma, check whether it can be replaced by a period. Use adjectives and filler words sparingly.

• An example: Instead of “The survey is short, uncomplicated and easy to answer. We promise that we will check the answers individually ”you write:“ The survey consists of five short questions. It takes a maximum of four minutes to answer. We promise: We read every single answer. “

Avoid passive constructions and common places:

• “We are constantly working with the results of the survey to improve our customer service. We therefore ask for your participation. ”Better:“ All service managers meet every month and we decide together what we want to improve on our hotline. So that we can do the right things, we need your feedback! ”This sentence creates a picture in the participant’s mind and motivates them to take part in the survey.

Positive reviews are now almost indispensable for every company to advertise their own performance on the Internet. So what could be more natural than making ratings in a competition a condition of participation? Not a good idea, warns our guest author.

Positive statements from third parties have an objective effect in advertising and are therefore regularly rated higher by potential interested parties than statements made by the company itself. It is easier for the still undecided interested party to decide on a certain product or a certain service from a company, if already others were positively convinced and expressed it in a corresponding evaluation. Reviews on the Internet and testimonials are ultimately nothing more than the familiar word-of-mouth propaganda.

The appeal of competitions as a benefit for companies

Competitions are also an important tool for companies to retain customers or attract new customers. We come across competitions almost every day, be it in the shopping mall or on the Internet. Companies use competitions as part of their marketing strategy and participants speculate on attractive prizes. A competition can be worthwhile for both sides. From a company’s point of view, it makes sense to design a competition in such a way that participation is linked to the awarding of a positive rating by the participants. Instead of laboriously generating positive reviews from customers through many years of good performance, a large number of positive reviews could be generated in one fell swoop. Each participant gives a rating, in order to be able to take part in the competition and thus increase your chance of winning. Ultimately, everyone benefits from it and no one is harmed by it. Or?

Advertising with ratings generated by a competition is not permitted

However, the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main rightly ruled in a very recent decision (dated May 16, 2019, Az .: 6 U 14/19) that advertising with ratings generated by a company through the organization of a competition is inadmissible . The decision is justified by the fact that a customer makes a recommendation, must be free and independent in its judgment on this recommendation. Even if there is no payment in the actual sense of the rating generated in the context of a raffle, the submitted ratings are nonetheless not to be regarded as objective because the evaluators were ultimately rewarded by the opportunity to take part in the raffle. However, when looking at these ratings, the average consumer assumes that only satisfied customers give a positive and at the same time independent rating. In addition, the number of positive ratings allows conclusions to be drawn about how well known a company is in the market. Both expectations are disappointed, however, if the evaluations lack such a connection, precisely because they were only given when

If positive ratings are generated by a competition and these ratings are then advertised, this advertising represents an inadmissible commercial act that can be warned by competitors or the competition headquarters under competition law.

From purchased and self-written reviews

The decision of the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court is not surprising, since the present case is also in the broadest sense of the so-called fake evaluations. According to established case law, advertising with these purchased or self-generated reviews is misleading advertising within the meaning of the Act against Unfair Competition (UWG). In the case of purchased reviews, the misleading is that consumers are given the false impression that the person who gave the review did so solely because they are convinced of the product or the performance of the company reviewed . In fact, the rating was only given because the person received something in return from the company. But the self-generated evaluations also represent an anti-competitive business act, as this creates the impression that the company has received a large number of independent evaluations from third parties for its products or services. At no point does the consumer find out that these reviews do not come from real customers, but were generated themselves.

Outlook for practice

As tempting as it can be for marketing reasons for companies to combine participation in an attractive competition with submitting a positive rating, this approach is risky from a legal point of view. Precisely because the conditions of participation for such a competition have to be made available to the public, the risk that this will be discovered by a competitor or the competition center and proven in the event of a dispute is significantly higher than in other cases of fake reviews. It can only be advised against designing a competition in such a way that participation is linked to the submission of a rating. As a rule, such evaluations are not to be regarded as objective and are therefore likely to give other potential customers a misconception about the awareness and popularity of the advertised company.

Despite this decision by the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court, companies are free to kindly ask customers or participants in a competition for a rating. However, it should always be ensured that this request cannot be misunderstood as an obligation to act. Rather, it should always be possible not to give a rating. This must then not lead to a disadvantage for the participant. If this is heeded, positive ratings can also be achieved in a competition. Perhaps not an above-average number, but at least independent and therefore authentic.

Email marketing is one of the most important disciplines in online marketing. But not every newsletter is well received by customers. With these tips you can bring your newsletter marketing forward.

Marketing via email is an obsolete model in times of social media? Not correct. The distribution of newsletters is and remains an important component in your marketing. With well thought-out e-mail marketing, companies have the opportunity to retain their customers in the long term and to strengthen customer relationships, for example through promotions or extended service offers. Many newsletter tools are free, but preparing a mailing takes time and a plan. You shouldn’t blindly approach your email marketing and thereby waste time and financial resources. With our tips you can make your newsletter marketing successful.

1. Successful newsletter marketing starts with the right strategy

Before you start writing your first emails, you should first answer the most important strategic questions. What do you want to achieve with your campaign: Should a certain product be sold? Should previous customers be reactivated? Do you want to strengthen customer loyalty with small gifts? Or do you want to get feedback in order to improve your own service?

Also ask yourself who exactly your target group is. Not every campaign is equally suitable for every customer group. Think about what defines the target group of an email campaign and how they can best be reached.

2. The right first impression: the subject line

As is so often the case with email marketing, first impressions count. It starts with the subject line. If it does not ignite, your e-mails may not even be opened. Since the length of the subject line is limited to an average of 40 characters, you shouldn’t waste any space. The subject should get to the heart of the matter of your mailing. If an email is about local offers, mentioning the recipient’s place of residence can also increase the opening rate.

But not only the subject is important. Many e-mail programs also show a preview of the first sentence in the inbox in the so-called pre-header. Insert a short sentence here that supplements the subject and gives a first impression of the content of the mail.

3. Email marketing gets personal

No matter what goal you pursue with a mailing campaign: address your customers personally in e-mails. This will prevent your newsletters from sounding like a large, faceless company talking to its little customers. But that’s not all. So that emails are relevant to your customers and ultimately convert, they have to be as personalized as possible. Use all available data for this and also let the recipients enter their preferences themselves. Personalized content can also be developed based on previous shop orders.

To do this, subdivide your recipient lists into meaningful segments based on more in-depth data than just age and gender. Based on this, works with dynamic content.

4. The sound makes the music – also in newsletter marketing

With the flood of advertising messages presented to them on every website, Internet users are often dulled from marketing clichés. It is therefore important to rely on natural communication in customer contact. Say goodbye to worn-out phrases and instead develop your own tonality that is not only reflected in your e-mails, but also runs through all communication channels. Your social media postings, website texts and mailings should read like one piece. In this way you generate authentic communication and at the same time create recognition value for your brand.

5. Keep it short: Concise and useful newsletters

Your newsletter is not a novel, a catalog or an ultimate guide. It is the entrance door to further content, your table of contents to currently exciting topics and campaigns. Stay short and clear, keep linking to your main offer, resist the urge to become more and more detailed or to overwhelm the reader with information. Newsletter marketing that suffocates on its opulent length of text dies a sad death.

6. Thoughtful design and layout

Your mailings should not only visually reflect your corporate identity, but also serve a few other points in terms of design:

You should place the most important content above-the-fold. Information and offers that you want to advertise should be visible directly and without scrolling. The same applies to an initial call-to-action. The CTA should also visually stand out from the rest of the email, for example in the form of a button. It should be clearly labeled so that the mail recipients know what to expect when they click on it. At best, the associated landing page takes up the newsletter design and creates a consistent user experience.

With the right design you will also help readers to be able to skim through the newsletter better. Avoids long text passages, works with meaningful subheadings and loosens up the e-mail with images and graphics. This of course also includes optimizing e-mails for mobile devices.

7. Read correction. Thoroughly.

Nothing shakes a competent impression as quickly as spelling mistakes. This may still be forgivable with online texts, they still have the impression of being fleeting. But newsletters are compared with letters and official cover letters. So: don’t let any mailings go out unchecked. Good proofreading saves your content.

8. Find the right shipping time

When is the right time to send your newsletters, it depends a lot on your target group. While B2B customers can be better reached on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., things might look better for B2C customers in the evenings and on weekends. Mondays are often unfavorable because there is a lot to do and at the same time a mountain of emails from the weekend has accumulated. Fridays are bad because many employees are early on the weekend. Of course, this cannot be generalized. Therefore, you should experiment with different shipping days and times to find out when the opening and click rates are highest.

9. Don’t fly blind e-mail marketing : test and analyze

In theory, all of these tips sound really good. However, you can only uncover real successes and optimization potential if you regularly test, analyze and evaluate. Tests different delivery times, subject formulations and design elements. Analyzes opening and click rates and derives possible improvements from them. If your customers are already very willing to interact, you can also ask for direct feedback and suggestions for improvement.

Is everything looking good in your webshop? Have you found and filled a nice template for the product pages? Then take another look after reading this text.

People make around 20,000 decisions a day, a wide variety of decisions. Picking up a toothbrush is one thing, choosing a side dish at lunch is another. Even if we would like it to be different, only a very small proportion of these decisions are actually made rationally. Five percent to be precise. Psychology now assumes that 95 percent of us are steered by our own autopilot.

This draws on experiences in the past, for example if you always take the same route to work and no longer think about whether to turn left or right. You just do it. This approach is called cognitive relief. The brain tries to save work. For the online retailer, this means, for example, that the user can build trust in the shop and then refrain from checking alternative offers, or even take out a subscription. The guiding principle for the online retailer is to bring as few disruptions as possible into the relationship and not to disappoint the user’s expectations.

Feelings buy independently

The second part of the autopilot is just as exciting from the point of view of e-commerce or online marketing, because it is based on feelings and instincts. Apple buyers often do not put the last bit of rational scrutiny into a purchase decision, because they may simply exclude the “unloved Microsoft or Android”, even if there may be better or cheaper products there. Apple is just better – even if you can rarely justify it rationally!

Not every provider is allowed to become a love brand like Apple. But the active addressing of the subconscious begins much earlier. Melissa Bateson from Newcastle University found in a practical experiment that it only takes a simple trick to convince students to contribute to the coffee cup next to the coffee maker. She glued an oversized pair of eyes to the wall unit and lo and behold: the contributions to the cash register rose by 280 percent because the coffee drinkers felt they were being watched and were thus reminded of their duty.

Big Brother is not really watching you. 

Philipp Spreer from the Munich-based digital consultancy Elaboratum says: “There are a number of minimally invasive methods that are suitable for triggering intuitive behavior patterns; you don’t have to rebuild the entire website.”

Spreer has optimized the website of the watch retailer Kerbholz and almost doubled the conversion . In detail, he changed nine page elements. He has not measured the isolated effect of each individual change and does not find it ideal either. “There was not enough time for that, so we had to validate the package of measures as a whole. With a clean measurement concept, the uplift would probably be even higher. “

The logo : Kerbholz has a very simple logo. The recognition effect was only given to a limited extent. In the new website, the company name is under the logo. The measure should work against the so-called ambiguity aversion, it should bring about more clarity and unambiguity.

The breadcrumbs navigation : The old page didn’t have any, just a back button. This measure is also intended to ensure that the user remains in control and knows where he is.

The focus : a green fir tree appeared in the header of the old page, which was intended to point out the ecological approach behind Kerbholz: a tree is planted for every watch purchased. Assuming that the user already knows this on the product side, this eye-catcher acts as a distraction with the potential to be misunderstood.

Social proof : I mentioned trust above, and that is an extremely important factor, especially for new, small companies. The new Kerbholz page shows rating asterisks directly under the product name. The trigger is called social proof or framing.

Optical priority : The old page – probably a normal shop template – showed preview images with color variations under the clock. The price was not shown on the first screen. It is immediately visible on the new page and designed in such a way that it is perceived as particularly light.

The price was not visible in the first variant of the product pages. 

Availability heuristic : Explanations work best that are linked to something that practically everyone likes and knows from their everyday lives. In the case of notched wood, there are terms such as “natural wood” or “natural grain”. Our autopilot immediately saves such terms as positive.

Have vs. Benefit : If you can explain product functions or properties in daily use, the user immediately has the plastic feeling of closeness to the product. This is how the leather bracelet feels “soft”. The glass is “scratch-resistant” and “safe” against splashing water. It hardly matters whether the many features are actually all required by the user. “Many features” stands for “high quality”.

Doubly mocked : If there is a property that stands out in particular, it can be named twice in the description, if possible with different words. In the first bullet point, Kerbholz describes the clock made of “natural wood” and explains in the last point that you basically use natural materials. The message sits.

The repetition of the work with natural materials anchors this statement better with the customer.

And last but not least, it is important to take away the fear of a bad purchase from the user. Philipp Spreer speaks of inner dialogue and the new website anticipates: “You don’t take any risks”.

And that is clearly explained at the bottom of the product page: guarantee, right of return and free delivery at a glance. Spreer calls this WYSIATI : What you see is all there is. This element acts like a tranquilizer for the rational decision-making system and helps us to continue to make intuitive decisions.