Customization Marks the Future in Online Marketing

So What’s All This Hype Over Customization??

It’s a cool concept, sure, and it probably adds some fun to the customer’s experience. But does it really hold potential for boosting sales? Is it really worth the effort?

To be able to spot the new trend that’s going to change an industry’s B2B experience, among all the other trends emerging from Big Data and new technology, is indeed a challenge. However, this one seems to rise above the others, and not just because it’s cool and ‘sexy’ for users. Customization is no longer just a gadget used to spice-up an exhausting ecommerce website, but a true game-changer in the ecommerce industry, and here’s why-

A Truly User-Centric Approach in a Personalized World

Everything is personal now. From medical tracking devices setting the right drug dosage for you, to identifying your taste in music and offering similar styles, to matching your next date according to personality preferences, etc. There IS no ‘business is strictly business’ approach anymore; if you want your brand to succeed, you make everything personal. You post friendly pictures of the CEO with co-workers on Facebook, invite users to comment on your products, and nothing is even worth talking about if it’s not ‘tweeted’ on or ‘liked’ on social networks, even by random online users. In other words, the customer has never been so right before, and their opinion never mattered as much as it does now.

If you’re anywhere near online marketing, you know this. You know that to be ahead of the game, you need to adopt a user-centric approach, it doesn’t even really matter what industry you’re in anymore. And though it sounds like an empty business school marketing slogan, this actually means basing your entire online marketing strategy on the user, really thinking how to make him happy. Because now more than ever, if he’s unhappy, there’s between tens to thousands of other providers he could turn to instead, online.

Starting to see it? Yes, customization came into the game just in time, and it is rapidly gaining momentum. In fact, a survey by Bain, of more than 1,000 online shoppers, shows that “while less than 10% have tried customization options, 25% to 30% are interested in doing so.” These stats can give us a sense of how far this growing phenomena could go.

The Force that Drives Online Engagement Strategy

What better way to make it all about the user than personalizing your products-

Online marketing strategies today mainly focus on one super-objective; user engagement. The philosophy behind this implies that if we could just keep the user with us a little tiny bit longer, if we could just make him interested in doing something more than just browsing, if we could just make him interact- we could increase his engagement, making him of much more potential to become a viable lead.

Customization is literally doing just that, sometimes even better than other engagement tactics-

• It makes the user visit your website more often
• It makes the user stay longer (which might engage him with other interactive activities such as commenting, sharing, etc.)
• It creates a sense of attachment to the product, which to some degree is a substance of the user’s creation.
• It gives the user psychological power, actual creative, productive power.
• And it gradually makes him loyal to our brand

All this and we didn’t even mention the user becoming our most loyal advocator down the line. And that’s before we even started with the whole follow-up process.

To Wrap This Up

Customization is revealed as the #1 tactic for online engagement strategies, creating a wholesome process of luring the user in, engaging him, giving him a sense of power, strengthening his connection with the product and consequentially with the brand, making him a loyal, satisfied customer.

To put it simply, this is Jack of All Trades right here, and if you are quick enough to realize it, you just might find yourself taking your brand one step ahead of the game.

To speak to someone about customization click here.

To stay in touch click here. 

References

Spaulding, E., & Perry, C. (2013, November 05). Having it their way: The big opportunity in personalized products. Retrieved from http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/having-it-their-way-the-big-opportunity-in-personalized-products-forbes.aspx

The post So What’s All This Hype Over Customization?? appeared first on Doogma Designer.

What do I mean by updates for your configurator? There are many relevant types. For example, when your browser version changes this affects processes on your site.  In some cases, upgrades to your website or product line causes changes on the other processes on your site. Each upgrade needs to be taken into account how it affects your product configurator.

Let’s say you made a great savings by hiring the offshore guy.  You have your product configurator finally. And now it doesn’t work. Now what? Software needs updates. There’s no escaping this fact.  You’ll want to make sure that your configurator will be supported whenever you need it. The last thing you want is that the the product configurator that you spent so much time and money on doesn’t work with your new website. To top it off, the offshore guy you paid to develop it is nowhere to be found.  If the product configurator was done inhouse, Does your IT staff have time for updates?

Keep in mind that the team you worked with to develop the software may not always be there.  Oftentimes there are huge turnover issues with offshore IT teams. All of the skillsets and learning that went into development of your software can be lost quickly if one member of the offshore team leaves.  In other words, the stability of a key web tool for your business is dependent on whether or not an offshore team member leaves or not.  Another aspect to be considered is the time involved in building and developing the offshore team for your product configurator. Do you have the time available to develop another offshore team?

Having a reliable source for updates is crucial. Product configurators are designed to engage buyers emotionally and convert them to a sale. If your product is down because it needs updates, you are not engaging customers and converting them to a sale.  In many ways this is similar to a car purchase.  Imagine for a moment you bought a car from an unknown manufacturer.  Afterwards, the manufacturer closed up shop along with the services centers and support.  No spare parts, nothing.  Your investment becomes unserviceable and worthless.  Would you do the same for tools to make your business successful?

Pennywise… Pound foolish

Product configurators are a major online trend.  Buyers will expect to be engaged with a customization experience. Tapping into this trend requires a considerable investment of time, effort and money. While the temptation to go with offshore or proprietary development might be tempting, in conclusion this route is pennywise but pound foolish.  Make sure your product configurator has the right development team, has a great UI and has consistent support.

To speak to someone about customization click here.

The post Reason 3 – Ready, set, update – Support is critical appeared first on Doogma Designer.

One of the great things about a product customizer is that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Oftentimes, I encounter a situation with clients who are considering working with offshore developers.  The big elephant in the room is whether your offshore guy has ever developed a product configurator before. This is crucial because you really don’t want to have your product line shown with a substandard designer.  You’ve spent a tremendous amount of time, effort and money to develop your business. Are you willing to trust the success of your business with somebody you’ve never done business with to develop a tool crucial for your business?

How will your product be presented?  Product presentation is key to your product customizer. You’ll want graphics that engage your customers and connect them emotionally with your products. The last thing you want is for your products to be shown in a boring, flat 2d image that doesn’t excite your customers.  Also, remember customers aren’t designers. Overloading customers with tons of options and graphics will overwhelm them. Keep it simple with a clean simple design that engages the customer and makes it fun for them.

Make it Responsive

Responsive sites are the future of web design and your product customizer is no different. On average, at a minimum 20% of the online traffic for my clients is on a mobile device. More and more I encounter clients with 40% or more site traffic which is on a mobile device. Translation: make sure your product configurator is suitable for customizing and buying on the mobile device. Why hope that the customer will revisit your site when they get in front of their laptop? Engage and empower them while they are on their mobile device.

To speak to someone about customization click here.

To stay in touch click here. 

Cont’d – In the next email we’ll talk about how support is critical

The post 3 Reasons to use a SaaS product configurator – Reason 2 appeared first on Doogma Designer.

Reason 1 – Getting the right development team

Often , I get calls that go something like this: “I called you guys back in the day because the guys I hired offshore  to develop my product customizer can’t deliver. I know we spoke a half a year ago but now I’m in a bind. Can you help me?” You see, offshore development is a gamble. They may not always be there when you need them most.  Are they able to understand you effectively?  Can they understand the nuance and complexity of your project to roll it out right? Another key factor: you need a partner who can understand your business. Selling one of a kind widgets that to a specialized market? Or are you grouped in the same category as the mass produced widgets from acme company. Can your offshore team handle that kind of project scope? Are three guys in a remote region able to handle your multinational company? Or are you just another account? You also want to make sure you have a partner there for the long haul.  “Here today gone tomorrow” won’t cut it for your product line when developing the right product configurator.

I have a great idea. Let’s build a CRM from scratch…

Sometimes,  I’ll speak to clients who want to tap their IT team to build a product configurator.  There’s two main parts to this approach.  Simply put, does your IT team have the time to dedicate this project? Your IT team are crazy busy trying to handle their current load.  Updates, hardware issues, security problems and on and on.  Now try throwing software development into that big mix.  Sounds like fun right? First, there are the planning stages. Also, there is development of a wireframe. Then, you have to develop and debug the software. Of course you have to integrate the software as well.  What we are talking about here is time and a lot of it.  Do your guys and gals have that time?

It’s a pretty good bet  that your core business is probably not developing product configurators. Your IT team is focused  on a specific set of deliverables and they are expert at it. But they aren’t supermen and women. Tasking your IT team to in effect retrain and develop a totally different deliverable takes them off task, reduces overall productivity from core IT functions and ultimately you get a product that your IT really doesn’t do well because this is the first time they are doing it.  I’ll also let you in on a little IT secret.  If your IT team develops a proprietary customizer, they will likely have a special fondness for it and hate to get rid of it in the event you want to replace it later on because it doesn’t work right.

The other aspect to a product customizer that is often overlooked is whether your graphics team (if you have one) can be dedicated to the development of a product customizer.  In between the website and other work, graphic teams are tapped out.  Will your product line be represented in the best possible light? Graphics that are done as a side project may not get the right attention to detail that is needed for a product configurator. The reality is that you’ll want your products rendered in the best possible light.

In other words, would you develop your CRM from scratch when you can implement something off the shelf? Of course not. Why should a product customizer be any different?

And by the way…. Did we have that little chat about social media?

Let’s say your IT team finally got that customizer working after months of hard labor.  Not so fast there.  Now you want to share with all of social media groups. You know, Facebook, Twitter etc.  Yes, they aren’t going away.  Did your IT team plan for social media integration? Your developer will tell you that it is a lot of extra work because he has never done something like that before. He’s confident that in another month he’ll have a working prototype.  Not a good idea.  Better plan on having social media as an integral part of your product configurator.

Next, we’ll talk about ideas for developing a great UI

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