Posted on 13/06/202312/10/2023 in BUSINESS, Digital business, e-commercce

YouTube Analytics Basics: How to Analyze Your Data (2023)

YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world, after Google. So if video is part of your marketing strategy, you’ve probably already invested time, effort, and creativity into videos for your own YouTube channel.

But to make the most of YouTube as a platform to engage your customers, you can also mine YouTube Analytics for a treasure trove of insights to improve the performance of your videos.Click here to start selling online now with Shopify

What is YouTube analytics?

YouTube Analytics is a powerful tool that provides insights into how viewers interact with your YouTube videos and channel. It’s built into every YouTube account, so you can monitor the performance of their videos and adjust their strategies accordingly.

Benefits of using YouTube analytics

Here are a few reasons to use YouTube analytics for your business:

Understand audience behavior: Metrics like watch time, audience retention, and playback locations help you understand what types of content keep your viewers engaged and where they are watching from. That way, you can tailor future content to meet the preferences of your audience.
Identify successful content: Analytics highlight which videos are performing best in terms of video views, likes, comments, and shares. This helps you understand what types of content resonate most with your audience.
Optimize for growth: By monitoring metrics like traffic sources and device reports, you can understand how viewers find your videos and what devices they watch on. You can use this information to optimize your content for discoverability and accessibility, and to improve viewership.
Target the right demographics: YouTube Analytics provides demographic data that is crucial for targeting your content effectively. Knowing the age, gender, and geographical location of your viewers helps you create content that is more relevant and appealing to your core audience.
Monetize your content: If you’re part of the YouTube Partner Program, YouTube Analytics gives you crucial information about your revenue. By understanding which videos are driving the most ad revenue, or which are encouraging channel memberships or merchandise purchases, you can strategize to maximize your earnings.

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Shopify comes with powerful tools that help you promote and sell products on YouTube. Sync your product catalog, tag or pin products in live streams, and manage all your sales from Shopify.

YouTube analytics metrics explained

For your YouTube marketing and social media marketing campaigns to succeed, it’s important to know how to navigate YouTube analytics.

General

As you can see from the Optimist YouTube channel analytics above, the General or Overview tab provides a basic summary of how your YouTube channel and videos are doing. Here you can view the following metrics:

Views: How many views your channel has
Watch time: How much time have people spent time watching videos on your channel
Subscribers: The number of subscribers you have
Revenue earned: Your estimated revenue earned (if you’re part of the YouTube Partner Program)
Comparison: A performance comparison of your recent videos and channels against past data
Top ranked: Which of your videos was top ranked in the past 28 days
Stories: How your most recent stories have performed in the past seven days
Latest content: How your most recent uploads have been performing in the past 24 hours

You can also use the Audience Retention feature to see how well each of your videos retains viewers compared to other videos. This is a great tool for influencers and YouTube creators to improve their video marketing techniques constantly.

Content

The Content tab shows how people find your content, what content they’re watching, and how they interact with your videos.

On this tab you’ll find:

Views: The number of views your content (videos, shorts, livestreams) has had.
Impressions: How often a thumbnail of your content was shown to YouTube users and how often that resulted in card clicks on that thumbnail and viewers watching your content.
Average view duration: The average time a viewer watches your videos.
How viewers find your videos: Was it through the Shorts feed, suggested videos, a YouTube search, an external Google search, etc.
Top videos: The videos that have the most views and are top ranked amongst your content.
Key moments for audience retention: What parts of your videos kept your audience’s interest. You can even compare the retention of your last 10 videos of similar length.
Remixed: Your total remix views and how they rank.
Post impressions: How many times has one of your posts been shown to YouTube users.

Audience

The Audience tab tells you information about your audience. Things like how many subscribers you have, how many viewers are returning and how many are new, and how many unique viewers you have.

You’ll also find metrics on:

The videos growing your audience: This metric keeps track of all the new viewers you received across all devices in the past 90 days and tracks your audience’s activity throughout your channel.
When your viewers are on YouTube: This is based on how your audience has been interacting with your channel, as well as all of YouTube. This data is tracked across all devices for the past 28 days.
Subscriber bell notifications: Keeps track of how many of your subscribers actually get notifications from your channel (instead of having them blocked because of YouTube or device settings).
Watch time from subscribers: This metric separates out the watch time of your non-subscribers and subscribers.
Age and gender: Shows you what demographic your videos appeal to. It tracks the age and gender of all signed-in viewers across all devices.
Other channels your audience watches: This metric tracks what other channels your audience has interacted with in the past 28 days.
Other videos your audience watched: Similarly, this metric tracks what other videos your audience has watched in the past seven days.
Top geographies: Tells you where in the world your videos are getting the most play.
Top subtitle/CC languages: Shows you what part of your audience uses subtitles or CC.

Research

The Research tab gives you insight into your audience’s search on YouTube—kind of like a peek into the psyche of your viewers.

You’ll find data like:

Searches across YouTube: Shows what the top search topics were across all YouTube users within the past 28 days.
Your viewer’s searches: Shows what words and topics your audience (and users who frequent similar channels) were searching for on YouTube within the past 28 days.

How to use YouTube analytics

YouTube analytics allows you to analyze data about your target audience, your posts, and your channel’s performance overall. Using these engagement metrics you can create a content strategy that will encourage channel growth.

Here’s how to access YouTube analytics data from desktop and mobile.

Desktop

On your desktop, sign in to your YouTube account.
Click on your profile icon in the upper right-hand corner, then select YouTube Studio.
This will take you to your YouTube channel’s analytics dashboard. From there, either select Analytics on the left menu or GO TO CHANNEL ANALYTICS, located under the video thumbnails of your top videos.
On your channel’s analytics page, you can toggle between the Overview tab, Content tab, Audience tab, and Research tabs to find the information you want.
You can also find more details on individual video analytics and your channel if you select Advanced Mode in the top right corner of your channel’s analytics page.
If you want to download a report, select the aspects you want to track in Advanced Mode, then select the download icon in the top right corner. You can download your report as a Google Sheet or a .csv file.

Mobile

Download the YouTube Studio app for your Android device or iPhone (if you don’t already have it).
Open the YouTube Studio app and sign in to your account.
This will take you to the app’s dashboard. Here, you’ll be able to see an overview of data like the number of subscribers you have, the number of times your channel has been viewed, and even the number of hours people have spent watching your videos. If you’d like to look at more in-depth data, select View More.

How to analyze YouTube videos

1. Understand watch time

There’s no denying that Views are an important metric for determining the success of a YouTube video.

But while they’re one indicator of performance, Views alone won’t give you enough information to make significant improvements to your YouTube videos, nor does YouTube put a lot of stock in them, given the prevalence of clickbait tactics that often inflate view count.

Instead, views should be analyzed alongside a more important metric that’s key to getting on the good side of YouTube’s algorithm: watch time.

From YouTube’s perspective, watch time, or the estimated total minutes spent viewing your content, is more important than a raw view. The updated Analytics dashboard makes this clear by dedicating an entire section to this new, more telling metric of video performance.

If you find that your watch time is low, consider going back to the drawing board and creating more engaging videos for your audience, or you might need to invest in better video editing software or a good video editing app for your phone to add some extra polish.

However, watch time and views are really only useful indicators when analyzed alongside other data that can help you improve the discoverability and quality of your content, as we’ll explore further down in this post.

2. Keep an eye on your real-time report

YouTube verifies view count to remove spammy and low-quality views from the total. There’s often a two-day lag in the number of views that YouTube publicly displays and in your dashboard.

That’s why the real-time report for your channel is essential for measuring the reach of your videos early on. This report gives you the estimated number of views from the past 48 hours and the past 60 minutes, across your channel or for specific videos.

YouTube’s real-time report isn’t just exciting to watch when you upload a new video or promote it through one of your owned or paid channels.

Keeping an eye on this tab in the Analytics dashboard can also help you discover spikes in views that suggest someone has shared your video with a new audience on Reddit or another social network.

These moments present good opportunities to stoke the fire and garner more traction for your video by engaging with the poster, thread, or publication before things go cold.

3. Identify your traffic sources

When analyzing your video’s reach, it’s important to figure out precisely where your viewers are coming from.

In your YouTube Analytics panel, you’re presented with another graph displaying various traffic sources and the total amount per source on the Traffic Sources page. This reveals how your viewers are finding your videos.

This report allows you to determine which traffic source most benefits you across your entire channel and for each individual video you create.

Don’t just look at the number of views they’re generating—not all sources will give you the same quality of traffic.

For example, if your video is attracting high-quality views via YouTube search, you can begin to implement ways to optimize your video or future content further to show up for the keywords people might use to discover your content.

Use this view to determine which traffic sources are important to your video promotion strategy and which sources need to be worked on.

4. Determine your audience demographics

To better understand your audience, head over to the Audience page of your YouTube analytics. These interactive graphs allow you to visualize who is consuming your videos, using dimensions like age, gender, geography, device, and more.

Ecommerce product videos will almost certainly reach a portion of customers who were unreachable to you via conventional search engines. Reviewing the age and gender of your video audience may offer new information to build your future product videos upon.

Many industries are not particularly bothered by the geographical variations in their video audience. A viewer is a viewer.

However, as an ecommerce business, the location of your potential customers could be of great interest to you if you plan to reach them with targeted ads or content.

To delve further into the geographic statistics, you can select each individual country, displaying a new age and gender graph for that particular country. Using this information, you can create location-specific videos in the future if you notice any geographic trends.

5. Track your subscriber rate

YouTube subscribers in an ecommerce context can be potential or existing customers interested in your products or niche of content.

So it is also important to monitor the fluctuations of your subscriber base. This will allow you to understand the overall reach of your YouTube content as a whole, as opposed to a single video, and how each video contributes to gaining or losing subscribers.

This one’s pretty obvious: The more subscribers you have, the more people there are to potentially see your channel’s video content through the Subscriptions stream on the YouTube homepage. Thus, the more exposure your products and brand will get.

Using calls to action in the form of YouTube cards or a pitch that you record as part of your video can go a long way toward gaining subscribers.

Aside from your subscriber rate, you can also calculate your subscriber ratio for a video by dividing the number of views by the net subscriber gain. If you’ve got a video that performs particularly well in terms of generating subscribers, consider investing more time (or money) in promoting it.

6. Monitor comments

Comments are a key component of audience engagement. Keeping tabs on who is commenting and what they’re saying can help you convert viewers into customers, or at the very least increase engagement for that video or other content.

By clicking on the Comments tab of the YouTube Analytics section, you’ll see the frequency and dates of your comments and a section dedicated to displaying your total amount of comments on each video.

While these numbers are interesting, the Community section is also useful for acting on opportunities to engage with your audience and get qualitative feedback.

Look for chances to:

Delight your viewers with insight or an amusing remark
Highlight any products or services you sell
Direct viewers to other related content or resources you’ve created

It’s important to portray your brand as an approachable and engaging one. Try to respond to comments on your video in a helpful fashion. This will also help increase your total comments, a good indicator to viewers that a video is engaging.

You can even pin one of your comments to the top to direct your audience to relevant parts of your website.

Best YouTube analytics tools

Of course, your built-in YouTube Analytics dashboard isn’t the only source of data you have at your disposal.

Other third-party websites and tools can help you understand YouTube:

Social Blade: If you’ve ever wondered about your competitors, potential partners, or role models on YouTube, you can use Social Blade to gain some insight into how other channels are performing and compare them to your own.
VidIQ: This Chrome extension displays a score card next to the video you’re watching on YouTube, offering in-depth insights at a glance to help you understand what works in YouTube as you go about using the platform.
Google Analytics: This is a powerful analytics tool that provides a wealth of information about your audience. It monitors and analyzes the traffic to your channel and websites with your other YouTube videos embedded in them. Google Analytics gives you more detailed information on how users find you and how engaging users find your content within YouTube and your other websites.

Measure channel performance, grow your YouTube presence

As a creator or a marketer, data is a gift you shouldn’t ignore. Otherwise, you’re shooting in the dark every time, unaware of whether you’re getting closer to or further away from your target. Use your YouTube analytics to improve your video strategy and turn your own channel into a success.

Wrapping Up:

We at ShopShipShake have been working with businesses like yours with fulfilling experiences. We offer one-stop services, including an efficient supply chain, over 10 thousand of China’s suppliers, over 1,000,000 SKU and more. With a successful track record of over 100,000 clients, we are sure to deliver your orders requirements.

Let’s get in touch to build, sustain, and grow your businesses! If you would like to know more details about us, please contact us: blog.shopshipshake.com. If you are interested in cooperating with us. Please register on: https://shop.shopshipshake.com/shop/register/business

The article refers to: https://www.shopify.com/blog/6763696-youtube-analytics-10-ways-to-track-video-performance

Posted on 24/03/202312/10/2023 in Business, Digital business, e-commercce, Tech

SIX Ways to Use ChatGPT for an eCommerce Store Business

1. Product Recommendations:

ChatGPT can help suggest products based on a customer’s browsing and purchase history, as well as their preferences and needs. By analyzing a customer’s behavior on the eCommerce store, ChatGPT can understand their interests, and suggest products that are relevant to them. For example, if a customer frequently buys running shoes, ChatGPT can suggest new models or brands of running shoes that may interest them.

2. Customer Support:

ChatGPT can be trained to handle customer queries and provide support 24/7. With ChatGPT, customers can get help with their orders, track their deliveries, get refund updates, and more. ChatGPT can also provide support on social media channels, ensuring that customers receive timely assistance and reducing the burden on the customer support team.

3. Personalized Shopping Experience:

ChatGPT can ask customers about their preferences, style, and budget to suggest products that match their individual needs. This makes the shopping experience more enjoyable and convenient for customers, as they can quickly find products that they are interested in. ChatGPT can also offer personalized discounts and promotions based on the customer’s purchase history.

4. Automated Upselling:

ChatGPT can suggest complementary products or accessories to customers based on their purchase history, increasing the chances of upselling. For example, if a customer buys a camera, ChatGPT can suggest additional lenses, tripods, and camera bags that would complement the purchase.

5. Order Status Updates:

ChatGPT can provide real-time updates on the status of a customer’s order, including shipping and delivery information. This helps customers track their orders and stay informed about any delays or changes. ChatGPT can also provide estimated delivery times and suggest ways to expedite delivery.

6. Abandoned Cart Recovery:

ChatGPT can remind customers about items left in their cart and suggest ways to complete the purchase. By sending personalized reminders and incentives, ChatGPT can encourage customers to return to the eCommerce store and complete their purchase.

Wrapping Up:

Posted on 07/02/2023 in Business, Business in South Sfrica, Digital business

What Is Color Psychology? How To Use Color in Marketing

Do you find that certain colors make you feel a certain way? Blue may make you calm, or yellow might bring about feelings of happiness. This is color psychology in action. Marketers and designers have researched how color can directly impact emotions, mood, and spending habits, and found that it plays a significant role in shopping experiences.

Ahead, learn more about color psychology, explore the research that highlights color perception’s impact on decision-making, and get tips on how to choose the best colors for your brand.

What is color psychology?

Color psychology is the study and application of using the color wheel to influence decision making, often with commercial intent such as improving the conversion rate on an ecommerce store.Click here to start selling online now with Shopify

The colors you use on your website can have a significant impact on the mood of your customers. Getting the right mix of colors can mean the difference between a repeat customer and a fleeting one-time visitor.

Why color is important

Human feelings are fleeting. Our moods can fluctuate depending on the time of day, what’s going on in our lives, and even how nourished we are. Color is so prevalent in our daily lives that it can influence our moods and our attitudes toward certain products. For example, someone having a bad day might come across a bright red blazer that changes their entire frame of mind.

The power of color association makes it a very important element in your website design—and not just because it determines how customers feel when they browse your site. According to one piece of color research, people make up their minds within 90 seconds of interacting with a product, and 62% to 90% of that assessment is based on color alone.

The psychological effects of color

Color impacts our mood and decision-making because it incites emotion.

For example, when we see the color red, our heart rates increase and we feel a sense of urgency, which is why SALE signs in shops are almost always red. Similarly, when we see a graded test covered in red ink, we might start to panic. If given the option between a bank with pink branding or blue branding, we’ll probably choose the latter, because blue creates a sense of trust and security.

Color theory suggests that different colors can have different effects on us, from increasing our happiness to causing anxiety and fear.

One study found that people commonly associate certain colors with different emotions:

68% associated the color red with love
52% associated the color yellow with joy
51% associated the color black with sadness
50% associated the color pink with love
44% associated the color orange with joy
43% associated the color white with relief
39% associated the color green with contentment
36% associated the color brown with disgust
35% associated the color blue with feelings of relief
25% associated the color purple with pleasure

The psychology of color

Choosing the right color palette can help customers connect better with your products, increase trust, and boost overall sales. Here are some options to get you started:

Psychology of the color brown

In the previously cited study, 36% of participants associated the color brown with disgust, but 64% didn’t think that. Brown often can be used to signify nature and provide a calming feel to designs. Different neutral brown shades can work together to create a sophisticated natural look for sustainable brands, like the Handmade theme in the Shopify Theme Store. This is a paid option, but there are plenty of free theme templates to choose from.

Screenshot of the Handmade theme from Shopify, brown color palette, website header design — The Handmade theme in the Shopify Theme Store

Psychology of the color orange

Orange evokes optimism, joy, and confidence—it’s the epitome of summer. If you want to radiate a sense of warmth, happiness, and summery vibes, orange is the perfect color to weave into your color palette. It seamlessly combines the energetic feel of the color red with the joy and vitality of yellow. The Launch theme in the Shopify Theme Store uses splashes of orange against a white background to bring a sense of cheeriness.

Screenshot of the Launch theme from Shopify, red and orange color palette, website header design — The Launch theme in the Shopify Theme Store

Color psychology of yellow

Yellow represents fun, intellect, creativity, and fresh ideas—there’s a reason the original Post-it notes are yellow. It’s the lightest hue in the color spectrum and is often considered uplifting and joyful. Similarly to orange, yellow evokes happiness, hope, and playfulness. Shopify theme Loft uses lemon yellow to emphasize and draw attention to certain parts of a store.

Screenshot of the Loft theme from Shopify, yellow color palette, website header design template. — The Loft theme in the Shopify Theme Store

Green color psychology

Green is synonymous with nature and growth. It’s often used to create a sense of peace and harmony, but a darker version of the color can also signify wealth and prestige. Green is a great choice for brands that want to portray a healing and wholesome outlook or promote environmentally friendly products. The Impact Shopify theme boasts a beautiful green color scheme that can be customized to suit your brand’s needs.

Screenshot of the Impact theme from Shopify, green color palette, website header design template. — The Impact theme in the Shopify Theme Store

Psychology of the color pink

Pink can have universal appeal since it exudes kindheartedness, romance, and love. It also has a soothing effect, so can be used to offset more aggressive colors, like black, orange, and red. The Blockshop Premium Shopify theme uses a warm and welcoming pastel pink color palette.

Screenshot of the Blockshop theme from Shopify, pastel pink and purple color palette, website header design template. — The Blockshop theme in the Shopify Theme Store

Psychology of the color red

Red taps into the deepest, most primal emotions of shoppers. Since red is usually associated with love, life, and confidence, it can convert potential buyers into lifelong customers if used correctly. Red is often considered energizing and exciting, which can motivate shoppers to act—but it can also be a great way to give shy shoppers confidence. Reformation is a premium Shopify theme that cleverly uses red to highlight important information.

Screenshot of the Reformation theme from Shopify, bright red color palette, website header design template. — The Reformation theme in the Shopify Theme Store

White color psychology

White exudes purity, wholesomeness, and clarity, and is essential to most web pages. It provides a fresh, clean feel as well as a sophisticated contrast to bright colors on the page. Always include empty white space around your content so that customers don’t feel boxed in. The Story theme is a perfect example of using white to create a modern feel.

Screenshot of the Story theme from Shopify, minimalist white color palette, website header design template. — The Story theme in the Shopify Theme Store

Purple color psychology

Purple has long been associated with royalty, power, and affluence, but it can also represent imagination and spirituality. It’s often used to inspire introspection and deeper thoughts, which can lead to positive thinking around purchases. There’s also a sense of calm about the color purple—it can evoke peace and tranquility, and highlight a superior version of a product. Publisher is a free theme that features a pale purple backdrop.

Screenshot of the Publisher theme from Shopify, purple color palette, website header design template with fading background. — The Publisher theme in the Shopify Theme Store

Psychology of the color blue

Blue tones convey feelings of trust, peace, and productivity. They promote loyalty and integrity, which is why blue is often seen in branding for banks and legal firms. Using the color blue on your site can create a feeling of space and stability. However, too much navy can seem conservative—so, if you’re selling a fun range of products, stick to more pale, brighter shades. Motion is a premium Shopify theme that leverages a pale blue in its imagery.

Screenshot of the Motion theme from Shopify, blue color palette, website header design template. — The Motion theme in the Shopify Theme Store

Psychology of the color gray

Gray is usually connected with seriousness and is a firm favorite for people who don’t want to stand out with lurid colors. The right shades of gray can serve as a great backdrop for other more vibrant colors, such as orange, red, and royal blue. The free Craft theme successfully uses gray to create a sophisticated feel to the site.

Screenshot of the Craft theme from Shopify, gray color palette, website header design template with flat lay, neutral product photos. — The Craft theme in the Shopify Theme Store

Black color psychology

Black is associated with strength, power, and dominance. When used in ecommerce, it sends a confident message to potential customers and can represent mystery and luxury—hence why premium vehicles are often black. Excessive use, however, can give off a bland and gloomy feel, so it should be used in moderation alongside tranquil colors. Ride is a free Shopify theme that spotlights the color black against a vibrant color palette.

Screenshot of the Ride theme from Shopify, black color palette, website header design template with bright color accents — The Ride theme in the Shopify Theme Store

The Shopify Theme Store has thousands of free and premium templates to choose from, all of which spotlight different color palettes. Find your perfect color match here.

How to use psychology to influence purchases

Color, when used correctly, can be a powerful guide in purchasing decisions. Here are some key outcomes from a considered approach to using color:

Increase brand recognition: A study by the University of Loyola found that color increases brand recognition by up to 80%. This will help you and your products stand out against competitors.
Be memorable: Color helps consumers process and store images more efficiently, which means they can remember them better.
Improve ad performance: Ads in color are read up to 42% more often than the same ads in black and white—increase the chances of shoppers stopping mid-scroll to read your ad by using color.
Draw attention to key information: Color is a great way to emphasize important information about your products. Use it alongside bullet points and white space to guide shoppers on a journey.
Make a good first impression: People make snap judgments about products within 90 seconds of first seeing them—up to 90% of that assessment is based on color alone and could be the reason shoppers stick with you or jump ship.
Help customers choose a product: 84.7% of respondents in one study claimed that color accounts for more than 50% of the factors important in choosing a product.

How to find the right colors for your brand

There’s no systematic way to choose the right colors for your brand. Part of it will come down to personal preference (if you really don’t like the color purple, why would you want to look at it every day?), but you should consider the impact of color on consumer experiences and public perception of your brand.

1. Create your business persona

What type of products do you sell? If you’re selling a new take on a traditional product like Fishwife, consider how you want customers to feel when they land on your website.

Vibrant product packaging from Fishwife, product category page, yellow color palette, bright website header. — The colorful branding of Fishwife’s products

Here, it’s a good idea to list out some words that reflect your brand personality, such as “serious,” “fun,” “playful,” or “serene.” These will impact the color palette you choose—for example, if your business persona is playful, you want to steer clear of neutral tones like browns and grays.

2. Match the color psychology with your audience

Who is your target audience? Think about how the colors you choose align with the types of consumers you want to attract. For example, if you’re targeting spiritual shoppers, you might choose purples and greens instead of reds and oranges.

3. Analyze the color psychology of your competitors

Look at the colors your competitors are using. If you find that the majority of them incorporate blues and blacks into their branding, there could be a good reason for that. While it might be tempting to use oranges and yellows to stand out, you might quickly find these palettes don’t reflect the needs of the consumers you’re targeting.

4. Differentiate the colors of your brand

While you should take into account the colors your competitors use, you also want to differentiate yourself in some way. This might be through splashes of contrasting colors or by using a different shade of a common color. Remember to consider your audience and brand personality here. For example, Mint bank goes against the traditional blues associated with banking and uses a pale green palette instead.

Screenshot of Mint Bank homepage, green color palette, website header example. — The pale green Mint homepage

5. Keep track of changes and test different color schemes

Make a note of what brand elements you’ve changed, and don’t be afraid to experiment with different color preferences in the color wheel. It’s easy to assume you know what your customers want, but the best way to find out is to ask, test, and track. If you’re worried that bright oranges might put off shoppers but it aligns perfectly with your fun product line, give it a go and see what happens—you might be surprised at the results.

Examples of color psychology in marketing

Coca-Cola: Red for energy

Coca-Cola has one of the most recognizable brands in the world. The heavy use of red indicates energy—something that reflects the qualities of the drink itself.

The red Coca-Cola on a white background. — The red Coca-Cola logo

Apple: Gray for balance and elegance

Apple’s branding is sleek and sophisticated. Whites and grays come together to create a futuristic color palette that reflects the vision of the brand.

Screenshot of Apple’s website, neutral gray and black color palette, minimalist design, website header example. — The Apple website

IKEA: Yellow for optimism

IKEA’s bright yellow color combinations indicate a sense of fun and playfulness—something that it imbues with its simple, easy-to-construct furniture.

Screenshot of IKEA’s website header, orange and yellow color palette, bright website design example. — IKEA’s yellow website

Barbie: Pink for playfulness

Barbie’s famously pink color palette has made it a very memorable brand. The choice of color perfectly reflects the fun and playfulness of the brand and its products.

Screenshot of the Barbie homepage, pink color palette, bright colors, website header design example. — Barbie’s bright pink homepage

Color psychology: a final thought

Color psychology plays a major role in the shopping experience. Choosing the right color combinations can increase sales, create a positive brand perception, and boost customer loyalty—use the tips highlighted here to ensure your color preferences are doing your brand justice.

Wrapping up:

This article partly refers to: https://www.shopify.com/za/blog/color-psychology

Posted on 11/01/202312/10/2023 in Build your business, BUSINESS, Digital business, e-commercce, Social media

3 Digital Marketing Strategies That Will Save You 20 Hours Every Week

As an entrepreneur, you know that time is money. That’s why saving 20 hours per week is essential if you want to grow your business faster and easier. Discover three digital marketing automation strategies that will free up valuable time so you can focus on other aspects of your business.

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Are you struggling to keep up with the demands of digital marketing? You’re not alone. Small businesses and entrepreneurs are often so busy that they don’t have time to focus on their marketing efforts.

Don’t worry, though! There are ways to automate your digital marketing so that it doesn’t take up all your time.

As a digital entrepreneur and marketing coach, over the past ten years growing online businesses, I’ve learned precisely how to save 20 hours a week with automatic digital marketing processes, which I’m here to teach you. By implementing the three following automation strategies, you can free up valuable time to focus on other aspects of your business. Let’s get started!

1. Social media marketing automation

Automating your social media marketing is one of the fastest and easiest ways to save time in digital marketing. There are many tools available that allow you to schedule posts, monitor engagement, and more.

At the beginning of each month, create a calendar by planning 30 days worth of social media content ideas. For example, each day of the week, you should vary your content by type (i.e., educational, entertaining, inspiring, tips and tricks, behind-the-scenes, etc.). This will help keep your social media audiences engaged and interested in your posts while making it easier for you and your team to create the content.

Similar to how manufacturing facilities streamline production processes by batching work, the same technique should be applied to your marketing efforts. Instead of creating marketing content from scratch and posting to social networks daily, batch your workload by producing content in one sitting and then schedule your posts for the rest of the week. This will make it easier for you and save you a lot of time so that you can move on to other areas of your business.

When filming videos or shooting photos for social media, aim to capture a variety of content that can be reused and repurposed for various posts. This will cut down on the content creation time, as you’re utilizing one shoot for multiple pieces of content.

You can also share UGC (user-generated content) featuring your company’s products or services (either by hired content creators or real customers), which shows social proof while giving you easy-to-post original content that doesn’t require extra work or effort on your part.

In addition to these social media marketing tips to save time and energy, you can also reshare posts from several months ago. For example, if you had a popular post on Instagram from at least 3-months ago that got a lot of engagement, repost that with a slightly different caption now. This drastically cuts down on your content creation time, helping to attract a wider audience of potential new followers interested in your business.

2. Automating email marketing

Automating your email marketing is a great way to save time and increase efficiency while staying in touch with your customers and prospects. You can use an email automation platform like Flodesk, Mailchimp or Constant Contact to create automated campaigns that send personalized emails to your subscribers based on their preferences and interests.

For example, creating an email sequence workflow that automatically is scheduled to send to people who opt-in to your email list is the absolute best way to streamline your email marketing process. It’s also important to segment your audience lists so that you optimize your email workflows — this way, you know where each person is in the customer journey experience.

For example, if someone opts into your email list by signing up for a lead magnet (such as a free ebook), then you’ll want to add them to a cold lead list (since they’re just learning about your business). That way, you start to warm them up through emails before selling them on your products or services.

By comparison, if you set up an audience list of past customers, you can remarket to them by offering reward-based promotions (such as exclusive Thank You coupon codes) to encourage them to purchase again.

As you can see, setting up audience lists makes it easier to create different types of automated emails that drive brand awareness, boost sales conversions and incentivize repeat purchases.

3. Implementing content curation tools

Content curation is another excellent way for entrepreneurs and small business owners to save time on digital marketing. Using a content curation tool, such as Buzzsumo or Curata, you can quickly find and share relevant content in your industry without spending hours researching articles and sources. Content curation tools allow you to easily search for the best content related to your target audience, save it for later use, and share it on social media.

In addition to sharing industry-focused content, you can also share inspirational quotes that relate to your target audience’s mindset. For example, suppose you’re selling beauty products geared toward women. In that case, you might consider quickly creating a beauty image (even a stock photo will suffice) with a caption by an empowering female icon (such as Coco Chanel or Marilyn Monroe). Women are inspired by motivational messages from these figures and will often engage with this type of content on social media (by liking, commenting, and sharing it). This is an easy, effective way to create content that gets results quickly.

These are just a few simple ways that automation will help you save time in digital marketing. Implementing these strategies will allow you to focus more energy on other important business areas while growing brand awareness for your company and acquiring new sales leads.

Wrapping up

This article partly refers to: https://www.entrepreneur.com/growing-a-business/3-digital-marketing-strategies-that-will-save-you-20-hours/441524

Posted on 01/08/202213/10/2023 in Build your business, Business in South Sfrica, Digital business

Top consumer trends in SA and what they mean for your business

The customer of today has a number of concerns. Trust, values, and integrity issues are of the utmost significance in a world that is always evolving. But how does this affect the way they interact with your company?

The State of the Connected Customer report by Salesforce reveals what makes 650 South African respondents tick. So, let’s examine the five trends that matter most to South African customers.

A trust-based economy is moving to the forefront

It’s been a bumpy ride over the past few years. From the global pandemic to extreme weather caused by climate change, trust in the government is spiralling. But 94% of respondents in South Africa said trust becomes even more important in uncertain times. That means customers are increasingly looking to businesses to do the right thing and build great experiences based on trust.

With only 37% of respondents agreeing they generally trust, there’s work to be done. While most people reported they ‘completely’ or ‘mostly’ trust companies to act with integrity, the trust section of the survey indicates uncertainty for customers.

In other areas of the survey, a markedly larger proportion of customers provided a definitive yes or no response. When asked about trust, approximately 50% of customers were reluctant to commit to saying they completely trust companies.

So, what are the five top ways you can build trust?

84% want to see greater transparency and better communication.
76% want to be treated as a person, not a number.
76% want greater assurance that you’re using their data responsibly, and 85% think this is more important than ever.
76% expect issues to be resolved quickly and proactively with great communication throughout.
72% want a consistent experience across all touchpoints.

When it comes to building trust as an organisation, customers are more likely to engage with companies who actively demonstrate good values and prioritise health and safety.

Building brand loyalty matters more than ever

The world is now our oyster, thanks to digitisation. While this is great news for consumers, it also means that developing brand loyalty is more crucial than ever – and customer relationships can be influenced by unexpected factors.

While it’s not surprising that 84% of buyers think about how you treat customers:

70% want to know you treat employees well.
61% are looking at how you respond to racial injustice.
50% will be scrutinising your environmental practices.
47% consider action on economic injustice important.
41% rate you on how involved you are in the community.

To determine how you meet these requirements, 95 percent of respondents want you to clearly articulate your beliefs, and 79 percent have abandoned a business in favour of one that better fits with their values. However, South African consumers also switch brands for better deals, higher quality, and superior customer service.

Introducing a loyalty program is an effective model to reward existing customers and attract new ones. Customers like companies who make it simple to redeem, such as by applying rewards immediately, as well as those who provide personalised deals and enable customers to use loyalty points across numerous brands.

As always, knowing your customer is key.

Businesses must balance personalisation with privacy concerns

Today, personalisation goes well beyond communications. Customers expect that you will anticipate their expectations and desires at every touchpoint.

Digital channels continue to dominate customer engagement. They expect consistent, personalised experiences across multiple channels. In fact, 94% say customer experience is just as important as products or services – but only 63% agree that companies provide consistent, omnichannel experiences.

While two-thirds of customers are happy to swap personal information for a more tailored experience, an overwhelming majority feel more data is collected than needed, companies aren’t transparent about how they’re using it – and 67% don’t think they benefit from sharing their data.

To make customers feel more at ease, it’s important to communicate clearly about why you’re capturing personal data and how it will be used – remember, only 24% of consumers feel confident that companies will fully respect their privacy.

Going back to that 76% of customers who want to be treated as a person, not a number: the appetite for personalisation is there, but only 44% feel like companies treat them as an individual.

There’s a fine line between the promise of a better life and distrust in technology

Artificial intelligence has been a game-changer in terms of freeing people’s time, but although 75% of respondents in South Africa are receptive to the idea, 86% believe it has the potential to be a force for both good and bad.

Less than half of customers understand the role of artificial intelligence in business. To make them feel more at ease, respondents want:

Greater control over how it’s used and the opportunity to provide feedback.
Access to the research behind the tech.
Input from human rights and ethics experts.
Inclusion of more diverse data sets.

Happily, customers are more willing to trust technology when it comes to order tracking and contactless payments, and 60% expect augmented or virtual reality to be used more in the future.

Helping customers understand the role technology already plays in streamlining and automating their experience is key to reassuring them about its potential to make life better in the future.

Customers increasingly expect a joined-up experience

Giving customers a consistent experience across departments isn’t just a nice-to-have: 92% of respondents expect it, and it has a direct correlation to loyalty.

However, only 14% of customers feel like companies have a consistent voice across departments, with more than half reporting it doesn’t feel like sales, service, and marketing teams share information to give the customer a seamless experience.

Crucially, 84% of respondents revealed that a lack of consistency across touchpoints makes them lose trust in a company, and 58% lose faith when they receive irrelevant communications that don’t match their experience,

So, how is South Africa measuring up when it comes to demonstrating consistency across touchpoints?

25% of customers completely trust businesses.
58% of customers somewhat trust businesses.
15% of customers mostly distrust businesses.
2% of customers completely distrust businesses.

Your biggest takeaway here? Make sure you’re rewarding your customers with a great, joined-up experience in exchange for their data.

Uniting teams on Customer 360 creates enterprise-visibility not just across departments, but on all channels and every device. This isn’t just key to giving customers a seamless experience, but provides an opportunity to have better conversations and to collect comprehensive data to use for personalisation.

Wrapping up

We at ShopShipShake have been working with businesses like yours with fulfilling experiences. We offer one-stop services, including an efficient supply chain, over 10 thousand of China’s suppliers, and more. With a successful track record of over 20,000 clients, we are sure to deliveryour orders requirements. Let’s get in touch to build, sustain, and grow yourbusinesses.

If you would like to know more details about us, please contact with us: www.shopshipshake.co.za

If you are interested in cooperating with us. Please register on: https://bit.ly/3ks0m1M

Posted on 11/07/202211/07/2022 in Digital business

Digital Entrepreneurship: all you need to know to start an online business in 2022

The more people start using the internet, the more digital entrepreneurship grows. Learn all you need to set up your own online business and become a digital entrepreneur in 2022!

The idea of working from anywhere in the world and making extra income while you sleep is always very enticing, isn’t it? And it always comes up when we talk about digital entrepreneurship. After all, in the Internet world, you don’t have to be physically present when a sale is made.

And we have several examples in the market of people who have managed to turn this wish into reality.

However, before reaching a profitable scenario, you need to spend a lot of time studying the possibilities, analyzing your digital entrepreneur profile, and creating a good plan.

You don’t know where to start? Don’t worry, we’ll help you with that!

We have prepared a complete step-by-step guide to help you create your internet business and manage it well so that it will bring good results.

Check it out!

What is digital entrepreneurship?

Digital entrepreneurship consists of creating a business on the Internet, selling services or products online, without the need to invest in physical spaces.

A few examples of digital businesses are online courses, e-commerce, blogs, YouTube channels, and technological solutions in general.

The main advantage of this business model is that you don’t need to invest a lot of money in order to get started, in comparison to the offline market.

In addition, this format allows entrepreneurs to work from wherever and whenever they want to, having greater flexibility in their daily routine.

Reasons to become a digital entrepreneur

Before you get started on this topic, check out a few interesting headlines below:

“Almost 4.66 billion people were active internet users as of October 2020, encompassing 59 percent of the global population.” – Statista (2021)
“On average, more than 1.3 million new users joined social media every day during 2020, equating to roughly 15½ new users every single second.” – Hootsuite (2021)
“Consumers spent $861.12 billion online with U.S. merchants in 2020, up an incredible 44.0% year over year.” – Digital Commerce 360 (2021)
“With digital buyer penetration expected to surpass 65 percent of internet users worldwide in 2021, the e-commerce industry is set to evolve and expand.” – Statista (2020)

If you perform a Google search for terms, such as digital entrepreneurship, digital marketplace, or online sales, you’ll see that several such articles will be displayed, confirming what we have been saying here on the blog for some time now about the fact that Internet entrepreneurship is worthwhile.

But how do you get into this market? Is it safe? How can you stand out from your competitors?

For starters, we need to dispel one of the myths we mentioned in this article’s introduction: there are no magic formulas to “make money on the Internet while you sleep”.

However, if you’re willing to study hard about the market and offer quality services to your future customers, you can generate a passive income, which is added to your account even when you’re not sitting in front of the computer.

Would you like a few reasons to believe that?

What do you need to become a digital entrepreneur?

Initially, you’ll only need a computer with internet access to get started. But in addition to the equipment, certain characteristics are essential for you to stand out from the competition.

Curiosity

The word “curiosity” seems to have a negative connotation as if every curious person shows excessive interest in other people’s lives. Well, the origin of the word has nothing to do with that!

Curiosity is nothing more than the natural ability to ask questions and the desire to know more about a specific subject.

Have you ever noticed that when children start talking, they ask questions about everything? They just want to understand the world around them, and sometimes we, as adults, go into automatic mode, especially at work, and we forget to ask ourselves why we are performing certain tasks.

So, to become an online entrepreneur, you’ll need to cultivate your curiosity because it is only by researching a lot about the market and the behavior of consumers that you’ll find gaps to operate in and offer a solution that truly adds value to people’s lives.

Willingness to study or specialize

It is common for people to study for a while and think they already know everything about that subject, ignoring that knowledge and tools are constantly changing, especially on the internet.

In other words, if you are very curious but don’t like to study, digital entrepreneurship is not for you.

It doesn’t mean that you should spend hours of your day working on your computer. As with everything else in life, it’s necessary to find the balance between learning more and using this knowledge to implement change.

To get started, read at least one hour of news about your market daily. Over time, you will feel the need to specialize in a theme that impacts your business the most.

How to choose the best niche in the digital market

Since entrepreneurship is a form of working or earning extra income, it is pertinent that it be associated with subjects that interest you, since at first, your activities will be performed during your free time.

Furthermore, affinity with the subject and having knowledge about it will make it easier to follow the trends and, of course, take advantage of them and stand out from the competition.

So, here are a few tips on how to choose the right niche market for you.

List your skills and talents

We believe that everyone can become an expert in a given subject, as long as they are willing to do so.

But if we could give one piece of advice, it would be: choose something that you enjoy doing and, preferably, that you already know. This way, the process of creating your business won’t be only intuitive, but also more enjoyable.

Therefore, the first step in choosing your niche is to make a list of the topics you master the most.

What are your hobbies?
What type of subject do your friends keep asking you to teach?
What would you do if you had to choose only one activity to perform for the rest of your life?

Answering the above questions can provide important clues about the niche you should choose.

Evaluate supply and demand

Once you’ve figured out what you do best, it is time to understand if there’s a demand for it. In a nutshell, if you were to create a business in this segment, would you have enough customers to make a living from it?

You’ll need to use online tools, such as Google, SEMrush, and others in order to understand the real demand for that product or service.

One tip that helps a lot is to search for a certain keyword and check how many ads appear in Google. This can be an indicator that it’s a popular term and therefore, has a broader consumer market.

Keep an eye on the trends

Have you ever noticed that how we dress changes a lot throughout the year? Whether because of the season or cultural influences from other countries, we’re always wearing certain clothes and leaving others in the closet.

As in fashion, there are certain subjects that are passing trends, such as news stories and memes; and others that always pique people’s interest, regardless of when they are covered, such as food and health, for example.

In order to undertake online, it’s important to identify topics that aren’t seasonal, so you can make sure that you’ll have a demand for your product or service throughout the year. A good tool to do this is Google Trends, which shows the evolution of demand for a topic during the period being analyzed.

You can also visit websites and blogs related to your market and check which subjects are recurrent or have more engagement from the visitors.

Tips on how to succeed in digital entrepreneurship

By this point in the post, you’re probably feeling very inspired and you have ideas bubbling up for a digital business segment.

Therefore, we provide you with a few tips to help your project succeed. Check them out below:

Have an entrepreneurial attitude. Even if it’s a side business to generate extra income, your state of mind can do wonders for your creativity and motivation to make your sales take off, as well as to be committed to your customers
Keep your business costs under control. Even if your expenses are minimal, having them all written down and up to date, allows such commitments not to become a problem for you. Don’t sell merely to pay the bills your digital business has generated.
Plan and set goals according to the focus of your project. If the idea is to make a living as an Affiliate from sales alone, evaluate what your ideal performance and results would be for the coming months and years – and, of course, regularly monitor whether you’re on the right track.
Develop your sales and marketing knowledge, as they change constantly. In other words, always study new advertising tools, performance indicators, notions of content optimization, monetization, etc.
Don’t become discouraged and evaluate the lessons learned from failures and the mistakes you make.
Try to network with other entrepreneurs who can exchange knowledge, create partnerships, and inspire you. Networking is key in the business world, including digital businesses.

Wrapping up

We at ShopShipShake have been working with businesses like yours with fulfilling experiences. We offer one-stop services, including an efficient supply chain, over 10 thousand of China’s suppliers, and more.
With a successful track record of over 20,000 clients, we are sure to deliver your orders requirements. Let’s get in touch to build, sustain, and grow your businesses.

If you would like to know more details about us, please contact with us:

www.shopshipshake.co.za

If you are interested in cooperating with us. Please register on:https://bit.ly/3ks0m1M