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Future Focus 2019: Searching for Trust
In Future Focus 2019, we examine how brands that are built on credibility, relevance, and reliability will see trust as the very foundation for their success in the digital economy. The digital economy has brought new opportunity for development and innovation in every business sector. While the majority is “good innovation”, we continue to see a significant gap at a societal level, driven by a continued disparity in access to technology based on socio-economic factors. In today’s hyper-sensitive media landscape, how should brands and publishers navigate the notion of truth and authenticity? We interviewed more than 300 global marketers and leaders across a broad spectrum of brands, including FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies, and used the real-time responses to outline key insights and priorities necessary for businesses to thrive in our fast moving, high expectation digital economy. Feedback shows that trust is at the forefront globally with 88% of marketers making trust in their brand a priority in 2019. Marketers see gaining consumer trust as vital to business growth with 76% stating that trust is important to keep consumers buying their brand. Digital will play a clear role in this with 60% believing that the rise of AI will increase consumer trust as it allows for more relevant and personal experiences. 83% don’t believe brands will dominate over convenient experiences in the future 62% don’t have a proactive role in approaching online reviews, although they think reviews represent the greatest risk to consumer trust 62% say the quality of their purchase experience and after-sales service will be a priority for 2019 69% think the rise of digital assistants represents an opportunity to become closer and develop stronger relationships with consumers The report also includes exclusive interviews with global leaders from businesses, such as The New York Times Company, IBM, Microsoft, Hilton, The Economist, Rachel Zoe, Inc., IKEA, and AccorHotels. Chapter One: Credibility in the Age of Doubt Outlines the role of purpose in the digital economy and how immediate benefits for brands will be bestowed to those who can use digital to build and reinforce their credibility in the eyes of consumers. By protecting the integrity of their brand online, communicating their values, and leveraging the power of technology, brands will see a steady increase in trust of their brand. Includes exclusive interviews with: Mark Thompson, CEO and President, The New York Times Company, on leading the battle against misinformation and fake news. Armin Molavi, Interim VP Media, Hilton, on trust in the travel industry, social responsibility and the new place for data. Mark Cripps, Chief Marketing Officer, The Economist, outlines opportunities in the new value exchange and the notion of being data-responsible. Chapter Two: Relevance in the Age of Noise Explores the rise of shrinking consumer attention and an increasingly fragmented consumer landscape. Successful brands will be those who focus on relevant experiences, outplay the influx on digital content, and make the most of the Assistance revolution. Includes exclusive interviews with: Vanja Mlaco, Digital Growth Strategist, Transavia, on the importance of putting the consumer ahead of conversion, and using technology as a goal, not a means to an end. Carrie Seifer, Vice President and Chief Revenue Office, IBM Watson and Weather, on the unstoppable rise of AI and how trust and transparency must underpin all action. Laurent Tiersen, Country Marketing Manager, IKEA UK & Ireland, on the constant focus on staying relevant to their customers. Jonathan Foster, Principal Experiences Manager, Microsoft, on how he builds Cortana, using personality goes a long way to building trust, and using art to show humanity to humans. Chapter Three: Reliability in the Age of Convenience Focuses on the rise of convenience as it intersects with the more traditional power of brand, and highlights the subtle balance between building brands and designing highly convenient solutions. Successful companies will dominate by focusing on the convenience of their digital properties, media assets, and presence on third-party reseller platforms. Includes exclusive interviews with: Antoine Dubois, SVP Marketing Global Strategy, AccorHotels, on the convenience, artificial intelligence and the war for talent. Rachel Zoe, CEO, Rachel Zoe Inc., on navigating the rise and influence of digital in the fashion and luxury landscape, and why adaptability is key. DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT Trust. It's not an issue; it's the issue. 04 min read
Anatomy of a Good Product Page
An effective product page is one that turns visitors into customers by clearly conveying the value of the item, addressing potential concerns and facilitating the transaction. Marketers selling online know the importance of paying particular attention to product pages on their e-commerce website, using conversion rate optimisation (CRO) and search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques. However, as maximising visibility and sales within online marketplaces is the fastest growing priority of marketers in 2019,[i] how do CRO and SEO practices apply in these environments? What should marketers do to satisfy ‘skimmers’ (i.e., users in a rush, looking for only certain relevant information) and ‘researchers’ (i.e., users looking deeply into product features)? Using the example of Legrand, a French global specialist in electrical and digital building infrastructures and iProspect client, Nicolas Guéry, SEO Business Unit Manager, France, looks at what makes a good Amazon marketplace product page and how to balance optimising for people and optimising for marketplace algorithms. IMAGE OPTIMISATION The first image is critical as it appears in the search results and therefore influences click-through rate. White background should be favoured over busy background and the product should take 80% of the available space. High resolution images enable effective zoom. Different angles and perspectives should be proposed, with a maximum of 9 images. Although on average shoppers tend to expect more than 5 images and at least 2 videos,[i] it is important not to duplicate images, or use images that aren’t relevant for the particular variant of the product, especially for simple products. Having misleading or incorrect images will lead to less sales and more returns. At least one image should put the product in context to show scale and help consumers envision themselves using the product, increasing purchase rates. Lifestyle, infographic-type and 360° images can be useful for many products. Images should be properly tagged as picture metadata is indexed by the Amazon’s A9 algorithm. TITLE OPTIMISATION The priority keyword should occupy a prominent space, here right after the brand ‘Double prise électrique’ (double socket). Product reference in the title in case it would be searched. Title should not exceed 200 characters: a good title is concise, while having all info necessary for search. The priority keywords must appear in the first 70 characters to display properly on mobile. Technical specifications must be present in the title. Commas, dashes or vertical bars must be used as delimiters. To future proof, title should sound good when read out loud, as that is how it will sound when Alexa recommends it. In the case of Legrand, we observed a significative gain in visibility thanks to title optimisation (from non-indexed to first position on ‘double socket’ keyword in only 4 weeks). BULLET POINT OPTIMISATION A lack of product information is often cited as a key reason why shoppers bounce from product pages. The 5 bullet points should always be fully utilised. Priority and secondary keywords should be repeated in the content of each bullet point. Rich content should be preferred for each bullet point, within the 500 authorised characters. This is the perfect place to add complementary information about the product quality to improve conversion. It is advisable to look at the other top ranking comparable organic products to see the copy they are using in order to learn and also differentiate. These bullet points are often where Alexa will find and read product information from. Make sure they are concise and sound well when spoken. In the case of Legrand, we observed that product pages where each bullet point is optimised have a higher average visibility than others (more than 40% of the pages on Amazon first page). OPTIMISATION OF PRODUCT DESCRIPTION Improving format can help you make content both skimmable and researchable, without sacrificing the other. The focus should be about giving the user easily readable and structured text that caters for everything they may be thinking about as part of that decision making process. 1 Content optimisation From a ranking perspective, simple product description is indexed. We usually add the principal keyword once or twice. Copy should at least be 1,000 characters and be kept below 2,000 characters. 2 A+ content addition to improve conversion A+ content has been added for each main product category. A+ content and Enhanced Brand Content are not indexed by Amazon. However, all page content is indexed by Google and can help specific product pages place higher in search engines outside marketplaces. A+ content typically increases product conversions by 3-10%. In the case of Legrand, we observed improvement up to 30% on conversions. OPTIMISATION OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Questions are vital indicators about what is important to the consumer and therefore a key consideration to ensure content covers all the things that consumers may be needing, not just on Amazon but also for other channels, and platforms. We recommend answering directly to questions which don’t have answers from other consumers yet, prioritising the most strategic products in their portfolio. The more information the users have in this section, the lower will the return rate be. Amazon lowers the seller rank of sellers with a high return rate, which may result in losing the Buy Box to sellers that provide better service. RATINGS AND REVIEWS Reviews are critical to being purchased. No reviews will severely limit purchases, and no negative reviews will make it look like the seller is dishonest and hurt sales. We recommend sellers to benchmark against their category and respond to negative reviews to show consumers they care and as a result to get more sales. This article is excerpted from the report Data-Driven Commerce. Download it now for key insights on winning at commerce in the new digital economy. SOURCES: [i] Salsify, 5 New Rules to Tackle Shoppers’ Rising Expectations on Your Brand, March 2019 [ii] iProspect 2018 Global Client Survey, Oct 2018 05 min read
Engaging beyond screens: Assistants and Voice redefine relevance
As more consumers incorporate voice-enabled and assistant-powered devices in their daily routines, it is clear that voice and virtual agents are here to stay. To stay relevant, marketers must keep up with these new ways for people to interact with technology. Improving availability to spur adoption While smartphones remain the most widespread type of hardware embedding assistants and voice technology, 2018 was a significant year for the rollout of smart speakers across the globe. Nine million units were shipped worldwide in the first quarter alone.[i] Google added Korea, Mexico and Spain to its list of countries where Google Home is available. Amazon launched its Echo in key markets like Australia and France. On Prime Day, the best sellers worldwide were the Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote and Echo Dot. Manufacturers have also intensified their efforts to make their assistants available well beyond their sole platforms. In January, Qualcomm and Microsoft partnered to make it easier for hardware manufacturers to integrate Cortana.[ii] In April, Alibaba brought its assistant Tmall Genie to Chinese Mercedes.[iii] In June, Sony embedded Google Assistant in its TVs.[iv] In August, Amazon launched Alexa Auto SDK to bring its voice assistant to more cars.[v] Each month, new platforms join the already substantial lists of assistant-compatible devices (12,000 devices for Amazon Alexa[vi]and 5,000 for Google Assistant[vii] as of May 2018), bringing omniscience to the most popular personal assistants. Brands enter the assistance world As digital assistants and voice technology availability skyrockets, now is the time for brands to enter the assistance world. Not only is the space highly connected, but it will reward early, innovative players. According to the iProspect 2018 Global Client Survey, developing a strategy for voice and digital assistants is the second fastest-growing priority for marketers in 2019 (vs. 2018), only second to maximising sales in online marketplaces. Voice search and assistants are the two priority emerging channels in 2019.[viii] Although technology giants are very active in the development of voice technology and virtual assistants, do consumers embrace these new opportunities to interact with technology as they become available? To better understand consumers’ actual views and expectations, iProspect surveyed more than 10,000 respondents across Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Americas during the last 12 months. CREATING BRANDED INTELLIGENT AGENTS As people get more and more familiar with assistants across the globe, availability is only half the battle. Assistants will need to resonate with users on a daily basis to really stick over time. This means not only demonstrating their utility, but also their potential to be trusted. To establish safe environments, Google already offers some control to users by allowing them to erase records of interactions with its assistant. However, to build heightened levels of trust and intimacy, Emotional Intelligence will be critical. So what should marketers consider when creating their intelligent agents? From call centres to open frameworks Most brands have already started creating an intelligent agent without even realising it. Call centres are goldmines of recorded conversations that can be leveraged as training materials for an AI system. By converting these conversations into understandable labelled data, AI systems can learn what matters most to current customers, what issues they have, what makes them happy, and what makes them frustrated. These conversations can grow into a full dialogue system. As consumers constantly switch between channels, open frameworks should be preferred to closed ecosystems to make intelligent agents more useful and relevant wherever consumers are looking to converse with the brand. It is equally important to put a plan in place so that customers can easily discover the brand’s conversational technology and know how to use it. Conversations that flow When asked to describe the personality and character traits of a digital assistant, the first two adjectives users chose are ‘Helpful’ (60%) and ‘Smart’ (57%).[ix] Brands should remember actions are the main goal of a digital assistant and use chatbot UX designers to help diagram actual conversations and dialogue. To create a natural flow, developers should feed their assistant a variety of responses (upwards of 20 for each scenario) so that it can piece together unique phrases. Keeping context top of mind is key to success. Although maintaining context in conversation comes naturally for humans, it’s still one of the hardest things for a machine to do, resulting in irrelevant responses and frustrating results. Finally, customers should be able to respond in various ways, from Boolean yes/no, to images, to free form. Intelligent agents should be able to learn from customers’ responses over time and continue to adjust. Emotional intelligence and personality matter Interestingly, the third adjective users choses to describe the personality of a digital assistant is ‘Friendly’ (44%), a very human characteristic. Consumers don’t want to engage with robots, but with brands who know them, who help them, and who care. Through its intelligent agent, a brand speaks, sees, feels, and thinks. It welcomes customers and makes them feel special. What does a brand sound like when it speaks? Smart? Funny? Cool? Myers-Briggs personality types (MBTI) can be used as a baseline for developing a brand’s personality and creating a consistent, human-like persona. If your agent talks, explore using voice inflection within responses to better communicate and avoid sounding robotic. This article is excerpted from Future Focus 2019: Searching for Trust.Download Future Focus 2019 for key insights and success stories on navigating truth and authenticity in 2019. Discover our other resources around Voice and Assistants: Differentiating your brand with EQ, by iProspect US in partnership with Bing Ads Turning up the volume on voice search, by iProspect UK The future is voice activated, by iProspect APAC And many more in our Resources section! 05 min read