And there you have it, The Rise of Social Commerce, Altimeter Group’s first event, came and went – and what a couple days it was. If you attended, or were watching the stream from your computer, you saw a LOT of great stuff and unanimously people walked away with fresh ideas to, most importantly, put into action into their own marketing strategy.
Below is my video recap of the second and final day of The Rise of Social Commerce. Special thanks to Lora Cecere, Charlene Li, and the entire Altimeter crew for inviting me out to be an integral part of this event!
My day two takeaways
1) Less is more. Self explanatory but again, often neglected. Don’t make it complicated for your customers to navigate your site and complete transactions. Simple and clear navigation with obvious calls to action is the way to go. Look at your own website and count the number of clicks it takes for people to get in touch with you, to see your work, to get back to the home page. For us at Proof, everything is one (maybe two) clicks away.
2) Embrace (and use) negative feedback. Negative feedback can actually be a very positive thing. It shows that you, as a company, are willing to accept now only the love and praise, but the constructive criticism of your products and services. All of this adds to the credibility that you aren’t “afraid” to put your product out there – because you believe in it. Also, when faced with negative feedback, think about how you can spin it and transform the negative into a positive experience for your customer.
3) Pay attention to the customer’s EMOTIONAL experience when they visit your website. Think about how you can create and tap into the feeling a customer and site visitor should get when clicking through the pages of their site. Create calls to action that catch them during those ‘emotional’ moments that can lead to profitable transactions.
4) Think big. Start small. Grow fast. Just ask Nicole Crimaldi, this is something I’ve talked about with her time and time again – and it’s important to remember for us idea-crazy, career ADD people. Big ideas are great, but don’t start huge – think realistically and start small, but most importantly, don’t hesitate to hit the ground running and grow rapidly.
Cheers everyone! A great, great event and I look forward to the next one!
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In typical Proof Blog fashion, it’s Friday, and that means we’re giving a little something away. Our designer, Rob Williams, has put together a sweet little Halloween Icon Pack for you to use however you’d like. Click here to download and enjoy!
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All of these topics are very important, but I believe that embracing #1 “Less is more” is really the most important. Businesses want their websites to do so much that they end up confusing their customers, instead of concentrating on 1-2 goals and building up from there. (Which I guess ties in with think big, start small and grow fast, LOL)
Hi Daniel – thanks for the comments and for tweeting the post out today!
Yes, all of these tie together but you hit the nail on the head – this is something we work on with our clients – defining the most important messages and calls to action and cutting out the excess. It’s often easier said than done for companies to realize that they don’t need to lay it ALL out on the table – focus on what’s important and let that shine. Cheers!
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