These days, consumers have more choices, more incentives and more reasons to comparison shop for the best deals out there. But Marketers can use online behavior and web analytics to reveal patterns and warning signs indicative of the type of customer retention issues that lead to “online cheating.” The question is, are they?

If caught early enough, these issues can be easily connected. To do so, marketers must identify which types of data patterns to pay attention to and use that data to inform their next steps.

1. Homepage Bounce Rates of 55% or More
If more than 55% of visitors are turning around as soon as they get to your site, it’s a major red flag that something is terribly wrong. It’s likely that visitors aren’t finding what they’re looking for. (BTW: you should know that the average industry home page bounce rate is around 50%, and that a well-performing homepage has a bounce rate of between 0% and 25%.)

So what gives when this issue arises? It’s usually due to issues with layout, design, navigation, site elements, functionality, content, or messaging. By A/B and multivariate testing these homepage elements in various combinations, marketers can discern which elements are contributing to a higher conversion rate, and which are contributing to the high bounce rates.

2. High Average Shopping Cart Abandonment Rates
Many online shoppers initiate a purchase, only to leave the items behind in their cart. The Baymard Institute found that the average cart abandonment rate is about 65%. Luckily, there are a number of options you can test to bring this number down. These include estimating shipping costs at an earlier point in the buying process, allowing guest checkouts, highlighting in-stock versus out-of-stock status, providing auto-fill forms based on cookie tags for repeat visitors, and using shipping discounts or specials.

3. Low Search Engagement
The importance of search on visitor engagement and purchases is often overlooked. By encouraging consumers to explore the site and streamlining the shopping process, the chances you’ll turn more visitors into customers, increases. Every single component of the search feature—placement, layout, default search box text and even the color, size and design of the graphic elements—affects engagement with this important tool. Multivariate testing can help marketers discover which combinations work best for their target audience

4. Unsatisfactory Average Order Values
What about those customers that just aren’t buying as much as they could be? Chances are they have a very specific product in mind, and aren’t being persuaded to add more items to their cart.

This is where personalization can really help. By inserting and/or customizing information that’s relevant to a specific user based on implicit behaviors (items purchased, pages viewed) as well as explicit details (location, age, gender) provided by that particular user, you’ll be able to customize their recommended items. Product recommendations and behavioral targeting are two common ways to combat this problem.

5. One-Time Buyers
66% of Amazon.com’s sales are attributed to repeat buyers. Remarkably, only 7% of the entire ecommerce industry can say the same. But it’s going to be tough to match this success without employing automated personalization with behavioral targeting solutions.

Using data such as previous purchases, searches, page views, geography, demographics, type of button click, transactions, etc., is crucial to keeping customers loyal. Behavioral targeting tailors content and offers to individuals based on both their past behaviors and their unique “buyer personas”.

Placing customers at the heart of online content decisions and giving them unique, personalized experiences is an important part of faithful consumer relationships.

The tale of the QR code is a sordid story. The QR (Quick Response) code was originally the trademark name for a two-dimensional barcode system. It was invented in 1994 by Denso Wave, a Toyota subsidiary, as a way to track vehicles as they were assembled, and to scan components at high speeds. While Denso Wave holds the patent on the technology, they granted free license on it, going so far as to publish the specs online, and allowing anyone to use it.

Unfortunately, as we all know, free doesn’t always mean good and I think QR Codes take that assertion to a whole new level. Many brands initially diverted QR Codes from its initial purpose by jumping on the bandwagon as something new and exciting that allowed them to leverage the exploding mobile market to interact with real world products. However they quickly realized many of the technology’s inherent limitations.

It is not that QR Codes are dead or evil or anything hyperbolic like that – they are just horribly misused. There are benefits and useful applications for them, either technical or industrial for the most part. At the marketing level, for example, they already stand for something for a lot of consumers (implicitly telling the user “click here”). Also, they are the perfect tool for very specific actions, namely, initiating a commerce transaction on a specific item or acting as a coupon code and they will be continued to be used in this context for the foreseeable future.

One place, however, that we are seeing increasing aversion to QR Code use is among consumer-oriented brand marketing. What are the reasons behind the demise of such technology? Well here are 9 of them:

1)       QR codes and 2D Tags in general are ugly, generic and mess with a brand’s aesthetic, destroying much of the investment made by brands to develop distinct brand identities.

2)       The codes have limited uses and are only capable of translating into a text string that sends users to a website, phone number or SMS.

3)       Since they can only generate a text string they do not offer the possibility of advanced, connected content (for instance it is very difficult to connect Facebook ID with the end user through a QR Code and therefore track or provide relevant content).

4)       Since a unique 2D code must be displayed on everything they augment, the implementation is difficult to scale and lack the ability to be used retroactively across existing campaigns or inventories without extremely onerous and expensive efforts.

5)       In addition to needing to be placed on everything, ad agencies and Fortune 500 CMOs have found that managing the creative assets needed for implementing anything beyond a very limited QR Code-based campaign is incredibly difficult and inefficient.

6)       Because anyone can make them, the user experience (UX) is incredibly varied and frequently very low engagement.

7)       Consumers (especially women) do not seem inclined to use them resulting in very low click-through rates, unless it is something incredibly compelling to the target, like downloading the latest Lady GaGa song for free.

8)       Because consumers do not click on codes often and UX is generally of low quality, QR Codes have entered a vicious circle where brands expect low response rate and at the same time, most end users expect low quality content. This will continue to drive usage down.

9)       Many alternate technologies like Near Field Communications (NFC) and Visual Recognition (VR) are becoming commercially viable without the above issues faced by QR.

Through the multiple attempts to make QR Codes work in brand marketing, they have demonstrated a real demand for augmenting media assets but, at the same time, that they are not the solution and have faced extreme resistance from numerous segments of the population. Unfortunately, for a long time there were no other options so marketers were forced to try to work with them if they wanted to use mobile to interact with real world objects and images. This has led to abysmal adoption rates despite being on the market for almost two decades. If they were a marketing product instead of a free to use technology QR codes would have been forgotten a long time ago. Instead they have lingered until something better comes along. It takes a while to kill anything that is available for free, but this one has been circling the bowl for a while.

It is said that a technology has been mass market adopted when it becomes synonymous with its use. And while QR Codes have shown their limitations, I believe Visual Recognition has the potential to become that mass-market technology. It is a natural and seamless process, as easy as taking a picture, and now that we are starting to see a proliferation of powerful Visual Recognition solutions I believe Visual Recognition is poised to become a pillar of mobile and Visual Discovery of the objects around us (including Advertising and Product Discovery).

Written with Arnaud Saint-Paul, CEO of smartsy

So, you’re one of the seemingly millions of brands out there using Facebook to lure people over to your website. Chances are you’ve viewed recent reports about Facebook’s surprisingly low activity rates (“Only 1% of people who like a Facebook page ever go back to that page”) as vindication of what you’ve always suspected: marketing on Facebook just doesn’t work.

You’re not alone. The following are the 10 top reasons brands fail to tap into the real potential of Facebook. (Hint: zero of them are Facebook’s fault.)

1.     Failure to make a great first impression

Most fans won’t ever come back to a brand’s page unless they feel they have good reason to. This is not totally different from how they interact with their friends’ pages when you think about it. Unless the new friend has great content to go back to, there’s not much of a reason to go directly to their page very often, if at all.

2.     Poor text and visuals

A successful Facebook page must have concise, engaging text that’s relevant to both the brand and the fans’ interests. Overly long, humdrum copy will fail to capture fans’ attention. Crisp, eye-catching, high-resolution visuals (photos, videos, illustrations) that clearly speak to those things visitors like about the brand in the first place will draw them in for more.

3.     Stagnant page content

If fans stop by more than once only to find the same old Facebook page, they might assume the page is outdated — or worse, abandoned. It’s important for marketers to give fans new ways to connect and advance their relationship with the brand or product being promoted. Keep to a consistent schedule with fresh content and ever-improving offers, and be sure to test what works with your audience.

4.     Inconsistent or lazy branding

If there’s no stylistic connection between a company’s Facebook page and its main website, visitors may not trust that the page is legit. Brands often spend a disproportionate amount of time, money and effort on website branding efforts, in comparison to the relative pittance reserved for complementary Facebook efforts. Keep branding consistent across all channels, so that visitors know exactly where they’re going and whom they’re dealing with.

5.     Confusing calls to action

Once fans arrive at a brand’s Facebook page, they should have a clear idea of what to do and what’s available to them. Offers and calls-to-action should be prominently displayed, and any associated instructions should be easy to follow. Be aware, however, that Facebook has guidelines concerning calls-to-actions, offers and anything else resembling blatant advertising on company pages, so it’s important to make sure you’re current on usage guidelines.

6.     Too many clicks

People are impatient—and want immediate gratification—especially on Facebook. If you have to use forms to give visitors access to the content they want, they’re likely to click away. Make sure the desired destination can be reached in the fewest amount of clicks possible. Also, if you have to use a form to capture data, keep it short and simple.

7.     Mysterious visitors

All fans are not alike – so why treat them all the same? With the right tools, marketers can compile profiles using Facebook data authorized by the user (age, gender, location, name, relationship status, etc.) as well as previous site behaviors, to get a better sense of the type of people they’re reaching on Facebook. Those profiles can then be used to present offers, content and/or experiences that are the most effective in attracting fans, “Likes”, website traffic or any other relevant conversion metrics.

8.     Preconceived notions

As excited as marketers may get about shiny new objects—especially social media objects—they‘re often reluctant to spend the time and money to truly develop new efforts for them. Why not step out of your comfort zone and try to develop specific content based on customer segments? An even crazier idea—consider developing Facebook-specific campaigns rather than repurposing ones created with a different platform in mind.

9.     Ineffective plugin use

If Facebook plugins aren’t integrated into the main company website, a great deal of potential traffic—and revenue—is being lost. Plugin tools turn consumers into brand advocates, making it easy to share site information with Facebook friends. Let visitors like or share website pages back to their Facebook profile with one click. Better yet, provide personalized suggestions to your website visitors, based on what other people are sharing as well as their own click behavior.

10.   Sticking to stand-alone metrics

Getting just one side of the story isn’t enough. Marketing programs need to be set up so that Facebook stats and user profiles are fully integrated with all other online and offline ecommerce channels’ information to create rich, detailed and fully comprehensive user profiles. Profile reports should be updated on a regular basis, so the most recent user information is always available.

With the proper attention to detail and willingness to dedicate the same energy to Facebook efforts as they do to other initiatives, online marketers will no doubt find that their 1% conversion rate is something they can control—and that it’s not Facebook’s fault their customers aren’t more engaged.

Thanks to smarter marketing, better technology and consumers speaking out, 2013 just might be the year we see a real shift in how close customers and companies can really get.

We know the deal—people are spending, and continuing to spend, more and more online. Every year, Cyber Monday will beat out the last. Mobile and tablet revenues will continue to increase. And bricks-and-mortar retailers will scramble to keep pace with a digitally driven world.

The truth is, consumers are demanding optimized and personalized sites to offer them a richer, more relevant online experience. It’s no longer an option for marketers—it’s a must-have. In 2013, expect to see:

1. Testing (Finally) Becomes a Must-Have – Companies big and small have dabbled in this for a decade. But now, everyone has to get serious about it. Companies that don’t test won’t get anywhere near providing the best online experiences for their audience.
2. True, Real-Time Personalization, for Everyone – Now that this complex technology is made easily available to the masses, we’re going to see major industries like finance, travel and media lead the charge—but also expect businesses in other industries, such as gaming and charity, to take advantage of personalization solutions to offer more custom experiences.
3. Consumers Get Over the Privacy Debate – Because consumers are getting on board with personalization, they should expect to see more of the general information they share online used by companies. Everything from age, geography and life stage, incorporating social profiles (e.g., married versus single) will play a part in offering a more relevant, more valuable ecommerce experience.
4. Retailers Start to Love Loyalty Programs – It’s not just for frequent fliers anymore. Now businesses across industries (retail, finance, etc.) are launching loyalty programs—and integrating data into comprehensive customer profiles—to offer the next level of personalization and service.
5. Mobile Gets Personal Too – As consumers adapt to living their lives from their mobile phones and tablets, they’ll expect platform-specific offerings that offer a better shopping experience, geo-specific content, special offers and other elements that complement and enhance life on the go.
6. Responsive Design as the Rule – A site that’s designed for optimal viewing no matter which mobile or tablet device is being used is the new norm. Gone are the days of resizing, scrolling and otherwise struggling to view a site depending on the size of your computer or device screen.
7. The Rise of Cross-Channel Experiences – Consumers don’t think in channels, they think in brands. So a completely seamless ecommerce experience no matter where they are —at their desktops, on their smartphones and tablets, or on social pages and sites—is a must-have.
8. Companies Get a Handle on Big Data – Most businesses have an abundance of useful data, however, very few are using this data to provide targeted individual experiences at the right time to respond to savvy consumers’ needs. In the coming year, expect to see more brands getting a handle on this to offer customers more targeted offers across all channels in real time.
9. Social Media Grows Up – For far too long, marketers have treated social media as an island from the rest of their strategy—and, in turn, have not reaped any benefits of it being a useful sales tool. Going forward, we’ll see more brands using social data to personalize experiences on their websites, as well as applying testing and personalization to their own Facebook pages.
10. B2B Catches Up to B2C  – When it comes to testing and personalization, consumer-facing businesses aren’t the only ones catching on. B2B companies—and their customers—crave a great online experience too.  More and more B2B sites will use testing and personalization to create well-optimized and targeted sites based on user behaviors.

As a consumer and a marketer, I’m looking forward to getting online in 2013.

It’s predicted that shoppers around the world will have purchased about $119 billion worth of goods and services through their mobile phones by 2015. Which means, as a sales channel, it will either supplement or replace other marketing platforms—namely, brick-and-mortar store locations, online stores like Amazon and eBay, and/or standalone ecommerce sites. Either way, mobile will be instrumental in expanding brands’ reach and connecting them to new and existing audiences in a different way. But determining where mobile will fit in is an exercise in correctly gathering and interpreting consumer data.

Because mobile devices are an extension of each consumer’s life—set up and customized to their individual needs and preferences—they potentially offer marketers more personal data about their audiences than ever before. It’s a goldmine of information for the direction of marketers’ mobile strategies and determining where mobile fits in as both a sales channel and marketing medium.

So how can mobile consumer data improve sales and marketing efforts?

1.     Using data for real-time content targeting

Now that marketers have the ability to utilize CRM intelligence to improve consumers’ experience with a brand across all touch points, they can also marry this data with new mobile behavioral data. One particular application of CRM data in the mobile environment is a marketer’s ability to target specific customers with specific content in real time. That’s right, real time.

This approach complements how consumers are using mobile (on the go) and will therefore increase its effectiveness in reaching them in a meaningful and relevant way—improved brand retention, loyalty, and customer lifetime values; increases in revenue per visit, and a truly connected multichannel experience. CRM-based Real-time content targeting is the gateway to connecting with consumers, across any medium, consistently, and at the right time.

2. Provide a Consistent, Optimized Experience… Everywhere

Marketers must accept mobile for what it is: one of many channels to the overall marketplace. And consumers don’t think of mobile as a channel, but rather another means of connecting to a brand, whenever they want—wherever they want. Any personalization you might be achieving on the PC, must be reflected on the mobile site (and on social, email, tablets and so on…).

Aligning all these efforts first requires companies to consider how consumers are using mobile devices to interact with the brand, and how that will differ from the online or in-store interaction. It’s unlikely, for example, that a banking customer will want to complete a loan application on a mobile phone, but probable that she will use the device to check account balances or find the location of the nearest branch. Account balance pages, therefore, should be priority for targeted and optimized content offerings, which are consistent with those offerings among other channels.

Of course, different platforms allow for unique opportunities and shouldn’t be treated as if they are entirely the same—because they’re not.

3. Personalize all access points

With traditional web sites, companies have the luxury of using space to present a great deal of information across different areas on each page. But this luxury is not available in the mobile channel. Given mobile devices’ limited screen sizes, companies must ensure the right content is put in front of the consumer in the right format, the first time–without being able to exploit other test areas on the page.

Marketers can make the mobile experience just as customized and personal as it is on a standard website—and, along the way, draw in and win over customers. Segmentation allows marketers to capture behaviors and attributes about their web and mobile visitors in order to create content tailored to their location, their time of day, type of browser or operating system, or even their brand of mobile device. Another form of personalization, behavioral targeting, gets personal on an individual level: users can be targeted by previous searches, past purchases, the time of their last visits, and even their activities in physical stores, call centers or websites—to predict the next best offer for them in their buying lifecycle.

Any way it’s presented, personalizing the customer experience across all channels is an essential practice for a marketer wanting to be on top of the game.

Most e-commerce sites still struggle to leverage the growing wealth of customer data to which they have access. This failure to integrate customer relationship management (CRM) activities with online visitor behavior is wasting a significant opportunity to transform CRM into Customer Relationship Marketing.

During the last economic downturn, the Web was the only sales channel that grew, while brick-and-mortar businesses contracted significantly. The Web is now such a powerful, commanding route to market that in some pre-Internet sectors, more than 90% of business is now done online. Moreover, this year Cyber Monday sales alone hit $1.98 billion.

One of the best examples of this growth in e-commerce is the airline industry, which was once dominated by call center activity. Today, JetBlue now handles more than 80 percent of its reservation transactions online. Yet, while Internet businesses have made great progress in catching up with more traditional sales outlets in terms of the breadth and sophistication of their product offerings and how they are presented online, they have failed to integrate their CRM activities, which limits their impact as they try to personalize promotional offers.

Following the Leaders

Amazon.com certainly set the gold standard for best practices in personalization—with its unparalleled ability to recognize and deftly exploit consumers’ online browsing and buying habits. But, it also has the advantage that its route to market was 100% Web-based. Certainly, many ecommerce shops attempt to mimic Amazon’s highly successful interactions with returning customers (“You were interested in XYZ, so you may enjoy ABC,” etc.) — but most companies are not going far enough, allowing customers to slip through the cracks. For instance, an insurance business may not realize that the person making a call center inquiry about auto insurance was just browsing life insurance offers on the Web the day before calling.

Going for Cross Channel Optimization

However, the website is just one of several channels—and consumers don’t think in channels, they think in brands. So, as hard as some have worked to blend their operations and business data across their brick-and-mortar, call center and Web operations, many gaps still exist.

Disjointed marketing and sales practices are leading to frustrated and disgruntled customers when they are forced to rehash the same details whenever they switch between channels. This scenario is one that causes many customers to abandon their inquiries and take their business elsewhere.

Consider financial services as an example. A bank, which might use its CRM system and propensity modeling to address gaps in a customer’s portfolio of products, may suggest a new account upgrade, an improved insurance policy, or a more favorable home equity line through the customer’s local branch or a direct mail offer. But what if that same bank knew that a customer had visited its mortgage calculator facility when last visiting its website? This would present an ideal opportunity to make a timely, customized offer. Even more compelling would be to have the offer serve as the primary landing page content presented the next time the customer goes online to transfer money or pay a bill.

The ability to adapt online content for customers and prospects based on their known preferences is a powerful way to build and strengthen relationships, particularly if dovetailed with offline activities.

The Path to CRM Nirvana

he potential impact of personalized marketing over the Web is undisputedly enormous. E-business owners have about seven seconds to capture the attention of an online visitor and engage their interest. If this opportunity is lost, the customer will move to a competitor. And if that competitive experience provides more relevant, personalized content and a pertinent offer, the customer may never come back — despite previous loyalty to the brand.

Imagine if it were possible provide real-time targeting your visitors while they were still browsing your site, therefore able to influence their final purchase— no hoping for the next visit, no lost opportunities. Instead, you seize the moment, right when it matters. Imagine the possibilities and the revenue potential it could bring.

It is imperative that companies integrate customer data across all channels. Understanding what customers have been doing across channels can make every interaction an extension of what they may have begun elsewhere — creating a more personal, relevant and rewarding experience for both the customer and the business.

While the majority of organizations appreciate the value of personalization (Forrester Research notes that organizations have wanted to personalize their Web marketing for the past 15 years), only a small minority have actually followed through.

The building blocks exist to get e-businesses started — organizations can model what customers do as they navigate a site’s Web pages, and they can segment this data so it can be used for tailored promotions both on the Web, during a current or future session, or across other channels. Nirvana is a fully integrated CRM solution that feeds into specific online offers.

By waiting to see what the competition does first, companies risk losing the advantage — and customers. Use the personalization capabilities available today to move swiftly, offer a killer deal, and potentially gain a lifelong customer.

The thick of the 2012 holiday season is here. And if you’re a retailer, hopefully you haven’t just primed your in-store and online offers, but your mobile presence as well. According to comScore, consumers spent approximately $37 billion on holiday shopping in 2011—up about 15 percent from 2010. And nearly 51% of the U.S. population are avid mobile Internet users, according to 2011 U.S. Census department figures. If we put two and two together, it’s safe to say it’s going to be a busy holiday season for eTailers, and their mobile sites will be no exception.

While mobile commerce stats have been rising for quite some time, many retailers have yet to nail its optimal experience. The quick fix of mirroring an online site for mobile applications won’t help here. The trick is figuring out what your customers need most in their on-the-go lives—and acknowledging that your mobile technology and strategy are only as good as the behind-the-scenes commerce ecosystem they support. Your mobile app or site connects the customer with the product, but its success can be greatly affected by several non-mobile factors—especially during the holidays (or other high-traffic buying seasons).

The gravity of factors such as product availability, shipping and delivery times, and seasonality are compounded in the holiday conversion game—online, mobile and in-store. Not only can you expect to see an influx of new visitors, but also previous customers who have switched from site to mobile shopping. And remember, they aren’t shopping for themselves.

This being said, waiting until the day before Christmas to test and optimize mobile promotions or discount offers is too late to start converting visitors into paying customers. However, there are a few checks and balances you can plan for now to ensure that the next few months bring those revenue goals that have been dancing in your head. In particular, make sure you aren’t making any of the following five common commerce mistakes (and if you have, fix them quickly!).

Forgetting to Highlight Holiday Sales and Specials

Nearly every retailer has an abundance of sales and products planned for the holidays to both entice your current customers and bring in new ones. Hopefully you’re planning to deck your site out in a fun, festive style. Are you planning the same for your mobile site?

Many holiday retail consumers use their handheld devices to compare prices and promotional offers. Make sure you are clearly displaying buttons and items within your mobile-friendly site and navigation bar that will lead customers to seasonal hot-ticket items, so you steal their attention before a competitor does.

Concealing Shipping and Stock Status

During the last-minute holiday rush, shoppers who are reassured their precious presents will arrive in time are more likely to buy—regardless of pricing wars. Take a look at your mobile site and consider how this very important holiday shopping information is displayed on both product pages and the purchase funnel.

Specifically in a mobile environment, the impact that font size, location, showing/not showing, color of stock and shipping status has on website conversion rates might surprise you. While no single stock/shipping status strategy is correct for all brands, don’t be afraid to test it thoroughly and make sure your consumers are fully informed to make quick on-the-go purchases.

Forgetting to Integrate Product Reviews

Shopping for others isn’t always easy…and the stress of a holiday gift doesn’t make it any easier. While not all of us are the perfect present pickers, we do prefer gifts that our friends and loved ones (hopefully!) won’t return. So when it comes to holiday shopping, product reviews can have one of the biggest impacts on customer buying decisions.

As we know, with mobile real estate there’s a much smaller surface to play with. But not giving the option of reading product reviews on the mobile site can actually lead to higher bounce rates than desired. Remember that mobile shopping is a fast, on-the-go decision—the more information you can give a consumer, the better. Look at your product pages and determine where a mobile-friendly drop-down menu or selection for reviews can go. Even just having an aggregated “rating” or “star” system placed near the product is a green-light indicator of a great product.

One caveat, though: leave the product reviews for the pre-shopping cart phase. Once customers have clicked “Add to Cart,” don’t distract them with information that isn’t focused on entering credit card details and hitting “Place Order.”

Recommending Products Based on Past Purchases

Behavioral targeting and product recommendations—especially in a very personalized mobile environment—are great ways to increase your average order values and your upsell/cross-sell opportunities, as well as keep your consumers loyal. You’re already expecting an increase in traffic and purchases with the holiday rush, which makes targeting, recommendations and segmentation both easier to achieve and a must-have.

But as holiday shopping ramps up, don’t forget: people are buying gifts, not shopping for themselves. If your targeting engine is set up to promote products based on past purchases made in the off-season, you’re wasting your time. Instead, target based on items they have browsed, clicked or added to their cart or favorites in the past few weeks. If your application or site allows for push messaging or email integration, follow up with messages around those products and/or promotions. And once again, make price comparisons and your sale items easy to find and navigate to on the small screen.

Poorly Designed Error Messaging at the POS

Imagine your prospective buyer with his smartphone in one hand and credit card in the other, precariously typing his card number, expiration date and security code with his thumbs. He hits the submit button and BOOM—no dice. An error has occurred; was it a wrong number? Wrong zip code? Invalid code? The real question is, does your mobile shopper even know what happened? Or is he just giving up, leaving you with yet another abandoned mobile cart to add to your analytics report?

Testing error messaging options is an important component for any site, but it’s especially crucial for small mobile screens. Most user-input errors occur during checkout, registration or form process. Careful attention should be paid to the location, design, display and wording of your error messages. If a mobile visitor can’t see or understand it, repeated frustrations will only lead that customer away from your site before the most important conversion of all—the sale.

While focus groups attempt to simulate and gain insights on what the customer potentially thinks, nothing can substitute truly anonymous, honest and unbiased feedback. Websites, however, can now provide this level of data in real time. Using a combination of online testing, web analytics and CRM data, today’s marketers know what actual people, doing actual searches, on their actual sites are actually thinking—and responding to—when in the browse and buy mode. It’s this level of insight that can spur improvements to product offerings, social media, in-store efforts, other offline experiences and overall marketing efforts.

No, testing and analytics won’t eliminate old-school focus groups altogether, but now that marketers have access to a lot of rich real-time data and insight into their products and marketing efforts already available to them, it’s much easier, scalable and more cost-effective. So how are websites replicating—and advancing—the traditional focus group? We look at four ways that your website can replace focus groups:

1. They’re producing data that can inform overall branding and in-store shopping experiences

We’re all aware that an online store experience has to mimic some of the same elements consumers expect in a physical store: easy-to-find products, items positioned strategically on the “shelf,” helpful customer service and so on. But where we may fall short is the reverse: using online data to improve brick-and-mortar efforts.

For example, testing and personalization insights can reveal that a particular product recommendation is effective at converting more visitors into buyers. From this, a company could reproduce this experience in its stores—whether through its associates or with product displays placed near checkout. Or if a brand notices online visitors are consistently gravitating toward a certain editorial tone or responding positively to distinct button colors, these things could also be integrated into in-store signage, advertising, direct mail and beyond.

2. They integrate in-store purchase data to customize online experiences

Just as your site is continuously collecting customer data, so are your physical stores. And the two worlds must collide in order to mutually benefit from one another. For instance, if a customer buys a TV without a warranty, the purchase may trigger an email or site promotion that highlights coverage for the TV. Ever bought something from the Apple store, like an iPhone? If so, a few days later you inevitably receive an email about your new iPhone.

In the end, it’s about making smart recommendations based on the user’s known activity, no matter where that activity originated. And unlike a focus group, this activity is really happening, in real time.

3. They’re leveraging social media and loyalty data

Social media and loyalty programs are gold mines for customers’ activity in the real world: What do they do? What do they like? What are their preferences while engaging with a brand they return to again and again? Now this data is being used to create unique individual profiles, and tailor their online experiences accordingly.

Take a hotel website: some are using social and loyalty data to enhance the customer experience from booking through checkout. Information such as program status, recent travel activity, “likes,” travel frequency, prior or frequent destinations can be fed directly into an automated targeting model and greatly improve the precision and appeal of any offers displayed to this valuable customer—such as a free room upgrade, tickets to a nearby event or a car rental. By already knowing the customer’s background, the website can take care of the rest.

4. They’re using online reviews and site engagement wisely

Shoppers don’t only share their preferences by purchasing products, they do it through their product reviews and other activity on the site. Over time and across customers, this activity can tip marketers off to items customers are likely to purchase in the future, specific problems they’re trying to solve, and even nuanced life situations—all of which can trigger different direct marketing efforts.

A good recent example of this was Target’s teen pregnancy discovery. While this particular situation led to debate, the customer’s patterns were so consistent that the store was able to flag her for a triggered direct mail campaign personalized for pregnant women. Focus groups just can’t compete with situations like this.

Business and consumer brands have traditionally approached marketing from two totally different vantage points. And it’s obvious why: buying cycles are longer, buyer mentalities are different, and products typically require more investigation before a purchase. But the reality is that B2B buyers are very similar to B2C consumers— whether it’s buying a new car or new enterprise software, consumers want to be educated and informed. They want to feel as though you understand them and their problems. And they certainly don’t want to be bored to death with encyclopedic catalogue-type information.

While there are always going to be distinct differences between b2b and b2c marketing practices, B2B websites must make some B2C-inspired adjustments to keep up with savvy consumers. Sites must be more visual, more concise and more consumable, taking the following into account:

1)     Design your site for the consumer, not the company

Just because you aren’t a retailer doesn’t mean your site has to follow a typical design pattern that most B2B sites are known to follow. You know it well: a dedicated area for a rotating hero graphic; some space touting your news and events, and maybe a few awards; and, of course, customer logos prominently displayed on the site. 

But take a look around at leading e-commerce brands and you’ll find a necessary constant: they design the site with the buyer in mind. When you hit the homepage, you know exactly what products they are offering, which promotions they are running, and you are comfortable navigating or searching the site. Their hero imagery is used strategically, the calls-to-action are prominent, and simple, actionable navigation jump-starts the shopping process. B2B companies often fall prey to the internal design and jargon trap, but it’s easy to get your value proposition across without content overload that creates a confusing experience.

2)     Start testing, seriously

B2B marketers spend copious amounts of money driving traffic to their website, but spend next to nothing on converting said traffic. I can’t help but think we are leaving leads—and money—on the table as B2B marketers.

The rapid increase in adoption of A/B and multivariate testing by B2C companies has fundamentally shifted the way websites are designed (and updated) forever. Today’s leading B2C companies are not only employing testing technologies to improve customer experiences and conversion rates, they also are making this a must-have practice for their site. Just as you wouldn’t dream of neglecting SEO, playing guessing games with your site content is no longer acceptable.

While your website may not be performing B2C-like monetary transactions, a B2B site is still an important touch point in the sales and marketing funnel. Specific elements, such as calls-to-action, landing page layouts, homepage design and forms, are high on B2C marketers’ list of optimization priorities—and yet, they are very much a part of a B2B site. The bottom line is, any small change, addition or update to your site can negatively or positively impact conversions, but if you aren’t testing, you will never know.

3)     Treat your content like a category

If you think about a typical B2B tech company, it likely has a product or service to offer, or even a blend of both. Either way, the company’s aim is to educate the prospect to drive a sale. Like many B2C sites, your products and services pages are a category. Your case studies, white papers, e-books, articles and events are a category. Any area that helps inform a decision and convert a visitor (i.e., form fill out, contact us action) should be optimized accordingly.

Your content pages are crucial to making this educational process frustration free, while giving visitors an array of choices to explore and engage with. For example, quick “pop-outs” when visitors mouse over a white paper that give more detail without having to click onto a landing page can be a great way to provide that information. “Light-boxing” a video player applies the same technique, while keeping the focus on the sole content. Large images to support product copy and listings will focus visitors’ attention.

4)     Employ deeper search and sort capabilities

For B2C companies, search is a must-have that, when optimized accordingly, has been proven to lead to higher conversion rates and sales. There is no exception for B2B.

Search functionality enables visitors to easily locate your product(s) and/or service(s) based on certain parameters— leading them down the path to become educated on exactly what they are looking for, as well as get enough questions answered to want to learn more and make contact. Additionally, any user who is engaging with search on your site probably knows a bit more about you—so offering that user more sophisticated searches can help speed up the process. With sort and filter functionality, you allow users to dive deeper into your products and resources, understand their choices and know that you have what they want!

5)     Allow product reviews

It’s time to take those typical “customer quotes” you splashed across your homepage to a new level. B2C companies have cited that allowing for product ratings and reviews from previous buyers can help sway uncertain customers or reassure them that they are buying into something great. If you’re already asking a customer to write a case study with you, or endorse you in a press release, consider asking for a product review in similar B2C fashion—and displaying it accordingly on your site.

When it comes to display, stars or numbered rankings, offer an immediate signal that others have bought, used and rated a particular product. Now, those customer logos you have on your “Clients” page have suddenly come to life. And they encourage visitors to look to longer, text-driven reviews for more product information and insights. Connect this to a form or “Request a Demo” link, and you’re not only getting product endorsements but improving lead gen too.

The reality is that today’s B2B online customer experiences are falling short to the far-superior B2C buying experience. B2B sites that don’t aim to play catch-up sooner rather than later will risk losing business, and budget. Your website is often one of the first touches a prospect makes, so don’t waste the opportunity to capture—and convert them—for a deeper conversation.

What does personalization really mean? You’ll be forgiven if you have absolutely no idea. As trendy catchwords go, “personalization” has become a go-to term for websites and online marketers, laden with all the possibilities of connecting with individual consumers and a departure from the limitations of a one-size-fits-all approach.

Nearly every online marketing vendor touts some form of personalization as the secret sauce for helping to target customers.

It makes sense. The potential of personalized online marketing, when done well, is enormous—and for that reason, it’s a compelling sell. The problem is, it hasn’t been done successfully thus far. And thanks to vendor hype and overpromise, just mention the word “personalization,” and most have learned to greet it with a healthy dose of skepticism.

But personalization isn’t just marketing hype. It’s a complex concept that really can live up to its billing. However, retailers, in tandem with their marketing vendors, must first identify what personalization really means—and what it means to their business and target customers.

Furthermore, when it comes to their websites, mobile sites, apps and CRM platforms, major e-commerce players need to realize that only through a customized combination of multivariate testing, optimization and personalization best practices can they truly begin to reach consumers with personalization that is effective and full of impact. There are no easy answers or instant solutions for creating personalization that works. It’s about evolution rather than revolution.

Defining Personalization

A truly personalized customer experience—what amounts to a custom website for every consumer—has been the Holy Grail of marketing for over a decade. Yet the very concept is conflicted, fragmented and confusing. Ask 10 marketers to define personalization and you’ll get 10 answers. You’ll also find that despite all the hype, the bar has been set low; most of these same marketers are hoping for nothing more than a few product recommendations or more effective targeting.

Even the experts don’t give us a whole lot of direction on personalization. According to Forrester, Web personalization is “creating experiences on websites or through interactive media that are unique to individuals or segments of consumers.” Just about as vague as every other definition.

In reality, every specific piece of information you can gain about your customer—from search information to online behavior and purchases—can be used to create a personalized experience. That means that your approach to personalization can be as simple (using one or two collected insights) or complex (a detailed formula based on multiple insights) as you want it to be.

With the right combination of technology, research and testing, e-commerce businesses can now deliver a personalized online experience that far exceeds anything that can be delivered in store—short of hiring a dedicated personal shopper. With the right personalization strategy and tools, companies can create an online equivalent of a brick-and-mortar store, where anything a consumer might want is located in a single aisle.

Technology Is So Personal

It goes without saying that your marketing team is comprised of geniuses, but a lack of imagination—and technology—may be limiting their vision when it comes to personalization.

Yes, they’ve thought about segmentation, recommendations and retargeting, but these techniques are only a fraction of what technology now allows. New sophisticated real-time automated SaaS solutions empower marketers to create personalized experiences that far exceed what was previously possible. With SaaS solutions working in tandem with strategy and implementation, companies can begin to move toward complex forms of personalization—and achieve online what is already being done offline with propensity modeling and other business analytics.

Really, knowing about low-cost SaaS solutions—and how to use them to take advantage of opportunity—might just be the most significant indicator of marketing genius.

Getting Started with Personalization

Once the right technology is in place, one of the best ways to employ personalization is with a set of “rules” that define parameters. These rules establish conditions for a specific visitor experience; for every insight gleaned, you create a more and more personalized experience.

Of course, rules don’t exist in a vacuum. When defining them, you must take into account known consumer behaviors, including the various stages that shoppers go through when making any kind of purchase and the fact that they may visit your site several times before actually pulling the “buy now” trigger. While this knowledge might seem to complicate your rules in the immediate term, it can be used to your advantage.

Sure, go ahead and create rules for first-time visitors, but you can and should also devise more complicated formulas that incorporate insights and data from previous visits and apply them to future visits. So, for example, retarget repeat visitors based on the last product they searched for during their last visit. This rule path can then be enhanced with complementary content or offerings, whether for discount on the searched product or an up-sell on similar items. It’s personalization that gives customers what they want and shows them that you value them—a must for creating relationships and loyalty online.

Keep in mind, however, that while targeting with rules is effective and often a great place to start, it does have its limitations.

Marketers will find it nearly impossible to manually define rules for expansive websites that have vast and diverse daily traffic. In this case, technology needs to be partnered with sophisticated behavioral targeting through mathematical models that enable you to predict the most compelling content and offers based on known insights and data points about each visitor. This type of model learns and adjusts dynamically over time to optimize visitor experiences with content that yields the highest conversion rate. This approach is also better for the broader range of content (product types, specific brands or destinations) that each individual receives based on unique predictive attributes.

Using Product Recommendations the Right Way

Want to see great personalization in action? Amazon continues to set the gold standard for best practices in personalization. The site has an unparalleled ability to recognize and deftly exploit consumers’ online browsing and buying habits. (Of course, it also has the advantage of customer interactions living entirely online, while most retailers have offline presences that dilute their ability to gather insights.)

Because of Amazon’s clear success, almost every major e-commerce site has taken steps to mimic Amazon’s highly successful interactions with returning customers. (“You were interested in XYZ, so you may enjoy ABC,” etc.)

But that doesn’t mean they’re getting it right. Everything from competing recommendations (you want shoppers to buy more, not different) or recommendations for products that are out of stock to a lack of testing and product reviews means that many recommendation programs are falling flat or, even worse, are counterproductive.

To offer successful personalization through recommendation, focus on the essential elements.  Product recommendations should be placed on category pages, product pages and the shopping cart or basket page, with each page type getting its own recommendation formula and approach. This approach allows for more targeted recommendations and for segmented testing and optimization of recommendations. Recommendation content, placement on the page and the design of a promotion all play a role in the success of recommendations. Segmenting and measuring the conversion impact of every detail (e.g., images, fonts, colors, the number of recommended products, the placement on pages, and the recommendation model used) can help you identify the approach that yields the highest conversion rates for your visitors.

With a program for monitoring and improving recommendations, you improve the shopping experience for each customer—and potentially increase revenue and cart sizes.

Maximizing the Opportunity  

Companies that have already successfully leveraged new SaaS solutions along with optimization and personalization strategies have achieved, on average, a double-digit increase in conversions. And with these programs becoming more common, consumers are going to be expecting a sophisticated level of personalization.

The good news is that with the SaaS-based model, companies can have personalization programs up and running immediately. Add in multichannel data from call centers and stores or branches, and they can create an organization-wide, cross-channel approach to personalization within a quarter.

There is no doubt that, after years of hype and hyperbole, we’ve finally found the holy grail of online marketing: Personalization.