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Decentralized Versus Centralized Apps: Differences, How to, & Resources

If you want to build an app for your business, you face a dilemma. 

Should you opt for a traditional centralized app, or turn to a decentralized platform? More importantly, what is the difference between the two and why does it mean for your business? 

There’s no straightforward answer to this question; it really depends on your goals and what you need the app to do. 

I’ll walk you through the differences between both app types so you can decide how to move forward with your marketing and development goals.

What Is a Centralized App?

Centralized apps are operated and owned by a single company, and they run off a single server, or cluster of servers. 

How it works is simple: Someone downloads a copy of the app, and the app works by sending and receiving information from this server. 

In other words, the app won’t work unless it’s in contact with this server. If the centralized server crashes, the app stops working across user devices until the problem is fixed.   

Examples of centralized apps include:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter 
  • Instagram
  • WhatsApp
  • Netflix

What Is a Decentralized App?

A decentralized app, or “dApp,” runs on a blockchain network. Rather than downloading an app, the user pays the developer a certain amount of cryptocurrency to download a “smart contract,” or source code. 

The code generates a whole new copy of the app on the user’s device, which creates a new “block” in the chain.    

Here are some examples of decentralized apps:

  • BitTorrent
  • CryptoKitties
  • Rarible
  • Audius
  • MetaMask

Pros and Cons of Centralized Apps

Centralized apps have a few distinct advantages over dApps. As the developer, you retain full control over the app and how it’s used. Centralized apps can generally handle higher traffic volumes. 

What’s more, it’s much easier to update a centralized app since the update is sent automatically to the user’s device.   

All that said, there are some downsides. If there’s a system error, no one can use the app until the problem is resolved, which might inconvenience your customers. Additionally, you might incur higher cybersecurity costs because you need to protect the main server.  

Pros and Cons of Decentralized Apps

Decentralized apps definitely have their advantages, depending on what you need from your app. 

First, as there’s no single server, users won’t lose access to the app if your server goes down. Second, since there’s no centralized storage, user data won’t be compromised if there’s a data breach or hacking attempt. 

From a marketing perspective, this could incentivize people to choose dApps over centralized apps.    

Still, dApps come with a few drawbacks.

Your target audience is smaller, since cryptocurrency and blockchain aren’t “mainstream” technologies yet. What’s more, as dApp transactions are often slower and more expensive than centralized transactions, so you might find it hard to draw people to your dApp in the short term. 

Finally, since there’s no centralized rollout, it’s much harder to fix bugs or update the software across user devices.          

Should You Create a Centralized or Decentralized App?

Only you can answer this question. However, there are two points to consider when weighing your options. 

  • How far do you want to expand your app? Decentralized apps are an emerging market with over 70 million users worldwide, but far more users download centralized apps. 
  • How much control do you want to retain? You can control how people use a centralized app, not a dApp. Depending on your target audience and business goals (e.g., if you’re all about erasing censorship), this might not be a priority.  

Don’t rush the decision. Spend time thinking through your options and what your company and customers need in the short and long term. If you need some extra help with your decision-making, check out my consulting services.  

Resources for Centralized Apps

There’s a ton of great information out there around how to build a centralized app, but it’s hard to know which ones actually work. Here are my five top app building resources to get you started: 

  • Builder.ai: Quickly design and create a centralized app without coding knowledge. Simply decide what type of app you want to build, choose your design, and get going.   
  • Android Developers: This developer page contains resources to help you learn the basics of Android app development, from creating your first centralized app to launching on Google Play. 
  • Appy Pie: If you plan on building an iPad app, Appy Pie can walk you through the process. From restaurant apps to chat bots, Appy Pie has the tools you need to develop your first app. 
  • Code With Chris: Want to build a centralized app, but don’t know where to start? Check out this guide. It breaks the entire process down into simple, manageable steps. 
  • Lifewire: This guide brings together some of the most helpful iPhone and iPad app development tools to help you get started. If you’re looking for Appy Pie alternatives, check out this guide. 

Resources for Decentralized Apps

Ready to dive into building your first decentralized app? Read these resources before you get started.

  • 101 Blockchains: If you’re confused by dApp development, 101 Blockchains has a detailed user guide you’ll want to read. It’s designed for beginners, and it makes decentralized app development less daunting.
  • Ethereum: For dApp developers building on Ethereum, check out this website. You’ll find a whole range of tutorials and guides to walk you through decentralized app building, and a developer community for even more help. 
  • Solidity: If you want to build on Ethereum, you need to learn Solidity, a coding language. The website itself has some helpful resources to learn the code and understand how to apply it effectively in dApp development. 
  • Medium: Need help understanding smart contracts? This Medium page brings together some useful courses for learning about smart contracts and dApp creation. 
  • Dapp University: If you’re struggling to make sense of blockchain, Ethereum, or any other part of dApp development, check out this tutorial from Dapp University. From generating code to Ethereum deployment, this full-length guide has you covered. 

How to Build a Centralized App

If you’ve settled on a centralized app for your business, here’s a rundown of the basic steps to create your own. 

1. Choose Your Launch Platform

First, decide if you’re building an app for Android or iOS. The process is similar for both, but you need to settle on a platform at the outset. Remember, you can always expand later.

2. Get a Wireframe

A wireframe mockup is just a sketch or skeleton outline of your app. You can use tools like Adobe XD to help with wireframe design. Here’s an example of what it looks like if you’re building a wireframe on Adobe XD:

Decentralized Apps Adobe XD for Wireframe

Once you’ve got a mockup, do some user mapping. All you’re doing is mapping what different actions users will take on the app, such as creating an account, making payment, etc. and what screens they’ll pass through to get there.  

3. Test the Framework

Next, get some user feedback on your wireframe and proposed mapping. Is your mockup clunky and disorganized, or is it user-friendly with a clear flow from one screen to the next? Do the colors and text stand out, or is it boring and unengaging? 

Reflect on feedback and make changes where appropriate.   

4. Design a Prototype

Once you’ve got a wireframe and a user map, you can design a fully-fledged prototype. You can either use your existing wireframe building tool for this, or check out other tools like Justinmind. 

If you use Adobe XD for the wireframe, you can import it straight into Justinmind:

Decentralized Apps - Create Prototype for App Justinmind

You can also include A/B testing as part of your prototyping, if this works for you.    

5. Choose Your App Builder

Now it’s time to actually build your app. If you don’t know how to code, either hire a freelance app designer, consult an agency, or download your own mobile app building tool. 

6. Run Final Tests

Before you go live, share your app with your marketing team, colleagues, and even friends and family. Does it work as it should, or have you identified a few bugs? By running final tests, you can make tweaks before the app launches in the real world. 

7. Prepare for Launch

Prepare your listing on your chosen app store. You’ll need things like a privacy policy, terms and conditions, and a name for your app. 

8. Release Your App

Create an account on your chosen app store. Complete your app listing using the details you figured out earlier, add some screen captures to show how your app works, and go live. 

How to Build a Decentralized App

For those new to dApp development, the easiest way to get started is by building on Ethereum, so that’s what we’ll work through.     

  1. Install a Node Package Manager and Git

    First, you need to install what’s called a Node Package Manager. This will allow you to create the open-source codes and files you need to set up a dApp.
    You’ll also need Git, which helps you save and track changes you make to your dApp.

  2. Choose Your Stack

    The stack is essentially the Ethereum framework you’ll use to build your dApp. There are a few to choose from, depending on your experience level and development needs. The easiest stack, or development framework, to start with is Truffle. 

  3. Install Truffle

    Next, we need to install Truffle. Open your Node Package Manager and type “npm install truffle -g” to do this:Decentralized Apps - How to Install Truffle Code

  4.  Open Ganache

    Once you’ve installed and launched Truffle, it’s time to start writing your smart contracts, or the codes containing your various dApp commands. On Ethereum, the easiest tool to use for this is Ganache, which is part of the Truffle suite.

    Whenever you create a new code, you need to pay a certain amount of “gas,” or cryptocurrency, to the “miners” who process blockchain transactions. The more complex your coding, the more you pay, so keep codes simple where possible. Ethereum has tutorials to help with this.Decentralized Apps - How to Write Smart Contracts

  5. Complete Your Front-End Development

    Next, you’ll need your user interface, or UI. You can create this in JavaScript, and again, be sure to check the Ethereum resources if you need more help writing the UI codes, or check out the code templates over at GitHub.

  6. Test Your Smart Contracts

    Don’t launch your dApp until it’s tested. Once you launch your codes, you can’t change them, so use the Truffle suite to run some preliminary tests first. The simplest command to run is “$ truffle test,” but just be sure you’re running the right testing environment first. 

  7. Launch the App

    Chances are, you made an Initial Coin Offering (IPO) to get your dApp off the ground, so there’s already some buzz generated around your project before it’s ready to launch. However, you still need to dedicate resources to marketing if you want to draw new users, so consider putting a strategy in place before you launch. 

Centralized and Decentralized Apps FAQs

How does blockchain relate to centralized and decentralized apps?

Blockchain powers decentralized apps. Blockchain takes the control away from a centralized system and gives more power to users to innovate and enjoy the content. 

What is a centralized network example?

An app that resides on a single server or group of servers. To work, the app must be connected to the server. Twitter is an example of a centralized network.    

What are dApps?

dApps, or decentralized apps, run on distributed networks rather than central servers. They have their own currency, so if users want to access premium features, they need to use cryptocurrency.  

How do I monetize decentralized apps?

You can run a token launch, include a subscription element, offer a premium membership tier, or include in-app advertisements. The strategies are similar to how you monetize centralized apps. 

Decentralized Versus Centralized Apps: Conclusion

Decentralized or centralized apps: which is better? In reality, neither! It all depends on how much control you want over your app in the long term, the size of your intended audience, and, to some extent, how you wish to market your mobile app. 

Now that you understand the pros and cons of each, you should be ready to make a decision and start building your app. 

Have you opted for a centralized or a decentralized app? How is it working for you so far? Is there anything you wish you’d known before getting started? 

Customer Satisfaction: Benefits, Examples & Importance

Customer satisfaction is crucial to the success of your business. No matter how innovative your product or competitive your pricing, if your customers are ultimately unhappy, they’re not going to stick around.

As such, it’s no surprise 45.9 percent of businesses surveyed in 2020 named customer experience as their number one priority over the next five years:

Customer satisfaction is a major priority for businesses

What exactly do we mean by “customer satisfaction?” Why is it so important, and what can you do to improve it? Read on to find out.

What Is Customer Satisfaction?

Customer satisfaction is a measure of how people feel when interacting with your brand. It can be influenced by any number of factors, such as:

  • perceived product quality
  • perceived product value
  • convenience
  • customer expectations
  • communication
  • complaint handling

Every brand, no matter how successful, wants to improve customer satisfaction. To do that, they need to define two things:

  1. who their customers are
  2. what it takes to satisfy them

Part one isn’t as simple as it sounds. Let’s take the example of a hospital. It might have two distinct customer bases: 

  1. the patients it treats
  2. the insurance companies it sells patient data to

Clearly, those two audiences have very different goals, and keeping them happy requires two vastly different approaches. To make matters even more complicated, satisfying one audience may sometimes be detrimental to the other’s happiness.

4 Benefits of Customer Satisfaction 

Customer satisfaction is more than just a “nice to have.” Getting it right has specific, tangible benefits, including: 

1. Increase Brand Loyalty

Never take your customers for granted. 

According to PwC, 59 percent of U.S. consumers who love a product or brand would ditch it after several poor experiences. More concerningly, almost one in five would do so after a single bad experience.

How does customer satisfaction affect brand loyalty

On the flip side, if you do everything in your power to keep customers happy, it stands to reason they’ll be more likely to stick around for the long term.

2. Boost Trust

According to Edelman, 81 percent of consumers say brand trust is a deal-breaker or a deciding factor in their purchase decisions.

Yet trust is pretty thin on the ground, with just 34 percent of consumers saying they trust most of the brands they use or buy from.

How do you make your brand more trustworthy? One way is to improve satisfaction. According to a study from Eastern University Sri Lanka, customer satisfaction logically precedes customer trust; those two things rarely exist in isolation.

3. Attract Positive Word of Mouth

Word-of-mouth marketing is extremely valuable.

To give just one example, 87 percent of consumers read online reviews for local businesses in 2020, up from 81 percent in 2019.

Unfortunately, consumers are significantly more likely to share negative reviews than they are positive ones. According to American Express, U.S. consumers tell an average of 15 people about bad experiences, whereas they only share good experiences with 11 people.

In other words, it’s a numbers game. You know consumers are naturally less inclined to shout about the good stuff you do, but if your customer satisfaction is high, you’re well placed to reap the benefits of word-of-mouth marketing.

4. Grow Your Audience and Sales

We already know satisfied customers are more likely to tell their friends and family about your brand, which in turn gets you in front of a wider audience.

However, did you know those satisfied customers will also spend more?

According to the same American Express survey referenced above, U.S. consumers are prepared to spend 17 percent more if a brand delivers excellent service.

What’s more, 84 percent of companies that improve customer experience report an upturn in revenue.

How to Measure Customer Satisfaction

It’s not enough to simply hope your customer satisfaction will improve. You need concrete plans to drive it forward, backed by robust data. To do this, you need to gather customer feedback through polls, surveys, and feedback sessions. Here are three types of feedback to collect to help you measure customer satisfaction and examples of questions to ask. 

1. Overall Satisfaction

It can be helpful to gauge a customer’s general opinion of your product or service before drilling down into the specifics. Positive answers indicate they are happy with their purchase decision, while negative ones suggest they have some degree of buyer remorse.

Example question: Overall, how satisfied are you with [Product X]?

2. Repurchase Intent

Given the close ties between customer satisfaction and loyalty, it makes sense to use a customer’s repeat purchasing plans to measure their general happiness. Consumers who say they are likely to buy again may also be more likely to leave positive reviews or share their experience with friends and family.

Example question: Will you shop at [Company X] again in the next month?

3. Word of Mouth

NPS customer satisfaction surveys are centered on a single question about whether or not the customer would recommend a given brand or product. This sort of feedback allows companies to understand whether the user’s experience aligns with their expectations.

Example question: Would you recommend [Company X] to your family and friends?

3 Steps to Improve Customer Satisfaction

Data is the key to improving customer satisfaction. 

However, data alone can’t transform your customers from unhappy to loyal. You have to focus on gathering data effectively, then use those insights to take action. Follow these three steps to make it happen:

1. Conduct Customer Surveys

Surveys play a key part in your quest to improve customer satisfaction, so the feedback you generate must be useful.

Unfortunately, there are no guarantees. Even if your survey is perfect, customers don’t always tell the truth about how they feel. What’s more, they might make mistakes when completing your survey. In either case, you’re not getting a true picture of customer satisfaction.

However, there are some proactive steps you can take to generate more impactful feedback.

Concentrate on keeping your survey as short as possible to capture more responses. Research from SurveyMonkey shows completion rates drop off when surveys contain more questions:

How many questions should be in a customer satisfaction survey

Surveys containing ten questions have an average completion rate of 89 percent, dropping to 79 percent for 40-question surveys. It may not sound like much, but it means if you’re surveying 1,000 customers, you’ll get 100 more responses from the 10-question version.

In other words, if a question doesn’t have the potential to yield unique insights, it shouldn’t be in your survey.

Also, it pays to remember the purpose of polls and surveys isn’t to “cook the books.” You’re not trying to earn artificially high scores by confusing or manipulating respondents. 

Instead, you’re trying to get an accurate picture of what customers actually think about your brand. Avoid leading or loaded questions, which attempt to steer people toward a certain answer. For instance:

  • Bad question: Thousands of customers have left five-star reviews for [Product X]. Would you do the same?
  • Good question: How likely are you to recommend [Product X] to a friend?

2. Monitor Social Media Mentions

Customer surveys will only get you so far, because they only gather opinions from the types of people who are happy to fill in surveys—which might exclude a huge chunk of your audience.

For a more accurate view of customer satisfaction, keep a close eye on social media, too. Tools like Linkfluence and Mention help monitor brand mentions and conversations relevant to your company and product. They even use machine learning to assess the sentiment of those mentions.

Customer satisfaction - How to monitor social media mentions

This gives you access to a broader customer pool than potential survey respondents and ensures you’re on hand to help customers when they need it. 

3. Implement Constructive Feedback

Once you’ve gathered a bunch of feedback, it’s time to take action.

One of the biggest challenges is to identify an effective, repeatable way to prioritize those actions. After all, it’s unlikely every customer wants the same thing. Some might be asking for faster shipping; others might want a slicker checkout experience.  

Transparency is key. Most consumers are pretty reasonable, and they understand you have finite resources. Make it clear you’ve heard their feedback and, if the demand exists, you’ll work on a fix.

LEGO has come up with an ingenious way to do this. It created a dedicated site, LEGO Ideas, where brick-building fans can submit product ideas. If an idea gathers 10,000 votes from the community, it’ll be considered for production.

How LEGO implements customer satisfaction feedback

3 Customer Satisfaction Examples 

Looking for inspiration to level up your customer satisfaction? Check out these three examples of brands that are rocking it: 

1. IBM

Tech giant IBM was named the number one company for customer satisfaction in the latest Drucker Institute Company Ranking. Its success stems from its customer-centric approach to software development, which involves making decisions based on the goals and ambitions of end-users, not just how they use a specific tool. 

Speaking to Harvard Business Review, IBM’s VP of Platform Experience Charlie Hill explained: “We want to bring our design thinking muscles to explore and play with how the user’s experience could be better in the future.”

Key Takeaway

Put your customer first. Whether you’re selling a piece of software or a pair of shoes, think about what problems brought them to you in the first place, and what success looks like to them. 

2. Chick-fil-A

Ranked top of the American Customer Satisfaction Index across all industries, Chick-fil-A stands out thanks to its superb in-restaurant customer service. Its staff is regularly named the friendliest of drive-through brands, and they also outshine the competition on order accuracy. 

This is no easy feat when it’s up against huge global names like KFC, McDonald’s, and Starbucks.

Key Takeaway

Invest in your people. Whether they’re dealing with shoppers in-store or helping them online, their professionalism and courtesy have a huge impact on your customer satisfaction rating.

3. Trader Joe’s

Grocery chain Trader Joe’s has an NPS score of 62. For context, the average score in the grocery niche is 24. The brand stands out by truly going the extra mile for its customers. In one famous example, a Reddit user told how the chain broke its “no deliveries” policy to help out an 89-year-old who was snowed in during the holidays. The comments on that viral post are littered with other Redditors recounting their own experiences of receiving superb service from Trader Joe’s.

Key Takeaway

Give your team members a degree of autonomy to delight customers. It should be quick and easy for them to get signoff on the sorts of small, spontaneous acts of kindness that can make the biggest difference to consumers.

Customer Satisfaction FAQs

What does customer satisfaction mean?

This is how you measure your customers’ experience to see if it meets or falls short of their expectations.

Why is customer satisfaction important?

Growing companies are more likely to prioritize customer success than companies that don’t have a growth mindset.

What are the benefits of high customer satisfaction?

Customers trust recommendations from others and look at reviews before deciding to convert with a business. High satisfaction means a customers is more likely to recommend your business and leave a positive review.

How does customer satisfaction help branding?

High customer satisfaction can increase brand loyalty and trust.

How do you improve customer satisfaction?

To satisfy your customers, you need to understand what they want. Collect data through surveys, polls, and feedback sessions, and monitor brand mentions through social media.

What happens if customers are not satisfied?

Unhappy customers are unlikely to keep buying from your brand. What’s more, they’re highly likely to tell people about negative customer experiences through reviews, social posts, and word of mouth, which can damage your reputation.

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Conclusion of Customer Satisfaction Guide

Customer satisfaction is crucial to your business, regardless of your product, industry, or niche. You must make it a priority. That’s true today, and will only increase in importance in the years to come.

Collect, analyze, and use data on customer satisfaction for every stage of your sales funnel, every interaction, and every product launch. Pick and choose your moment, of course, as no one wants to be inundated with surveys all the time, but no area is off-limits for selectively surveying and asking for feedback.

That’s how you improve, grow, and turn your customers into your biggest marketing asset.

What factors do you think are most important to improving customer satisfaction? Let me know in the comments below:

Distribution Channels: What They Are, Types, & Examples

Have you defined the distribution channels that will be used by your company?

If not, it’s time.

In short, distribution channels determine the path goods will take from the manufacturer to the final consumer.

Thus, they have direct impact over sales.

There are many types, formats, and levels of distribution channels.

The first step is to understand each of them.

To help you with this task, this page will go over the main things you need to know about distribution channels:

  • what distribution channels are
  • the three types of distribution channels
  • three distribution methods
  • distribution levels
  • the main intermediaries
  • how to define them

What Are Distribution Channels?

What are distribution channels?

Distribution channels are the path products take from their initial manufacturing stage to selling them to consumers. The main goal of these channels is to make goods available to final consumers in sales outlets as soon as possible.

Distribution channels directly impact a company’s sales, so you want to make them as efficient as possible.

The Three Types of Distribution Channels

There are three ways to make sure a product gets to the final consumer.

1. Direct Channels

With direct channels, the company is fully responsible for delivering products to consumers. Goods do not go through intermediaries before reaching their final destination. This model gives manufacturers total control over the distribution channel.

This is the case with people who do catalog sales, for example.

Since the manufacturer alone is responsible for delivering products, this channel generally makes it impossible to have a high number of customers.

At the same time, it’s possible to offer lower prices, since the company does not have to pay commission to intermediaries.

2. Indirect Channels

With indirect channels products are delivered by intermediaries, not by the sellers.

Who are these intermediaries? They could be wholesalers, retailers, distributors, or brokers, for example.

In this case, manufacturers do not have total control over distribution channels.

The benefit is that this makes it possible to sell larger volumes and sell to a range of customers. However, products have higher prices due to the commissions paid to intermediaries.

3. Hybrid Channels

Hybrid channels are a mix of direct and indirect channels.

In this model, the manufacturer has a partnership with intermediaries, but it still takes control when it comes to contact with customers.

One example is brands that promote products online but don’t deliver them directly to customers.

Instead, they nominate authorized distributors.

Three Methods for Distribution Channels

There are three different delivery methods for distribution.

Basically, they concern who will be allowed to sell your products.

1. Exclusive Distribution

With exclusive distribution, intermediaries take the company’s products to specific sales outlets.

This is usually done by a sales representative.

This means that only exclusive retail outlets will be able to sell the items to consumers.

Depending on the quality of the product, this is a great strategy not only for manufacturers but also for the retail outlets or chain stores selected.

2. Selective Distribution

With selective distribution, the company allows sales to a specific group of intermediaries who are responsible for selling items to final customers.

An important factor in how succesful this strategy will be is the reputation of the intermediaries since they have a direct impact over the company’s performance.

In this case, the intermediary becomes the real consultant for consumers, answering questions and recommending appropriate products for their needs.

3. Intensive Distribution

In intensive distribution, the manufacturer tries to place their product in as many sales outlets as possible.

The manufacturers themselves, sales teams, and commercial representatives are all involved in this method. They are responsible for distributing products to sales outlets.

This distribution method is generally used by manufacturers of low-cost products with a high frequency of consumption.

Distribution Channel Levels

Besides the types and methods of distribution channels, they may also operate on different levels.

Their levels represent the distance between the manufacturer and the final consumer.

Level 0 Distribution Channel

In this level, there is a close and direct relationship between the manufacturer and the client.

For the company, the costs of the relationship with the consumer are higher.

Level 1 Distribution Channel

In level 1, the manufacturer sells the products to the distributor, who might sell it to consumers via retailers or wholesalers.

The distributor keeps some of the rights to the product, but not all.

The distributor is also responsible for the costs of sales and transportation to sales outlets.

Level 2 Distribution Channel

Level 2 is similar to level 1.

The difference is that in this case, the distributor delivers products only to retailers, who sell them to consumers.

Level 3 Distribution Channel

Level 3 channels are a traditional distribution model.

The product’s journey from the manufacturer involves distributor, retailer, and customer.

The costs relative to sales and marketing are divided between the parties.

The advantage of this model is that it’s possible to reach a larger number of consumers.

On the other hand, products have a higher price because of the operational costs of all the parties involved.

The Nine Main Intermediaries in Distribution Channels

After finding out more about operation details, it’s time to see who are the main intermediaries who take products to consumers.

1. Retailers

Retailers are intermediaries used frequently by companies.

Examples include supermarkets, pharmacies, restaurants, and bars. Each of these types of businesses has full sales rights.

Generally, product prices are higher in retailers.

2. Wholesalers

Wholesalers are intermediaries that buy and resell products to retailers. Wholesalers sell to those who are going to put products in their own stores.

These intermediaries generally don’t sell small quantities to final consumers, though there are exceptions, like supermarkets that sell in the wholesale model.

Prices are lower because sales involve large quantities.

3. Distributors

Distributors sell, store, and offer technical support to retailers and wholesalers. Their operations are focused on specific regions.

4. Agents

Agents are legal entities hired to sell a company’s goods to final consumers and are paid a commission for their sales.

In this case, the relationships between intermediaries and companies are for the long term.

5. Brokers

Brokers are also hired to sell and receive a commission.

The difference between agents and brokers is that brokers have short term relationships with the company.

That’s the case with real estate agents and insurance brokers, for example.

6. The Internet

To those who sell tech and software, the internet itself works as the intermediary of the distribution channel.

The consumer only has to download the material to have access to it.

E-commerce companies also use the internet as a distribution intermediary.

7. Sales Teams

A company can also have its own sales team who are responsible for selling goods or services.

There is also the possibility of creating more than one team to sell to various segments and audiences if the company has a wide range of products.

8. Resellers

Resellers are companies or people who buy from manufacturers or retailers to later sell to consumers in retail.

9. Catalog

Catalog sales, as the name indicates, is when a salesperson is connected to a company and sells its products using a magazine. Salespeople in this model also usually earn a commission for their sales.

This type of sales is common in the beauty segment, with brands like Avon and the Brazilian Natura.

Reverse Distribution Channel

Now you know the types and methods available for products to reach customers. But what happens when consumers need to return items to manufacturers?

Consumers need to rely on reverse distribution if they receive defective products or need to return clothes or shoes they bought online that don’t fit.

In this case, the consumer is responsible for returning the items and needs to find information from the manufacturer about how to do this. Usually, consumers find information about returns on the site for the product.

How to Define Distribution Channels for Your Product

How to define distribution channels for your product

Now you know the different types of distribution channels and intermediaries. But all this is of no use if you don’t know how to select the appropriate channel for your company.

Next up are seven essential tips to help you make this decision.

1. Benchmarking

First, you must look at your competitors to find the best practices they adopt.

This kind of mapping is known as benchmarking.

The idea is to figure out how your competitors are distributing their products and adopt a similar model.

2. Project Review

So you have mapped out best practices in the market and identified solutions that could work for your business.

Great.

The next step is to review the project/channel you created.

Check if there are errors and how processes may be optimized and adapt the project to the needs and characteristics of the type of sales you make.

3. Costs and Benefits

When we talk about distribution channels, one important factor is the cost associated with them.

Always look for the best cost-benefit ratio.

To do this, it is not enough to have a vague idea of the costs. You must record all costs and analyze if the benefits of the channel you selected are worth it.

4. Company’s Daily Routine

Another relevant factor is the business’ routine.

What are the projects, processes, and activities in your business?

The distribution channel must be aligned with all these details.

Otherwise, you might have logistics problems that result in product delays that damage your relationship with customers.

5. Market Potential

Before selecting a channel, you should also consider the market potential of intermediaries.

After all, unless you choose to use direct channels, they will also be responsible for sales results.

Analyze intermediaries’ market participation, reputation, and performance to only then try to select the most appropriate option.

6. Logistics

Consider logistical questions like:

  • How will products be transported?
  • Is there security for when the products are in transit and/or where they are stored?
  • Where will goods be stored?
  • What will be the delivery time, on average?

Considering all stages of logistics is crucial to avoid problems taking goods to sales outlets.

7. Location

Finally, consider the location of intermediaries, whether they are resellers, retailers, wholesalers, or distributors.

After all, your product must be sold in the region where your target audience is, especially if you supply a specific niche of the market.

Managing Distribution Channels

How should you manage your company’s distribution channels? This is usually the responsibility of marketing departments.

To do it, it’s essential to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs).

Carry out regular assessments of reports with metrics and indicators related to distribution processes.

Monitor sales indicators, for example, analyzing the performance of each channel the company uses.

Also, carry out satisfaction surveys with consumers, especially when customers are dissatisfied with the selection and availability of goods or when sales volume is below expectations.

Examples of Distribution Channels

Examples of distribution channels

Before concluding this reading, how about we get to know two examples from great companies?

Coca-Cola’s Distribution Channels

The largest soft drink manufacturer in the world uses different sales channels with franchisers, distributors, and retailers.

For example, soft drinks get to different retailers thanks to distributors.

This includes bars, restaurants, and supermarkets, who sell directly to final consumers.

Natura’s Distribution Channels

Cosmetics brand Natura basically uses catalog distribution, though today there are sales outlets as well.

The company has a network of consultants that sell to consumers using magazines showing the products.

Distribution Channels Conclusion

Are you ready to define and manage distribution channels for your company?

Follow the steps I mentioned in this article, from benchmarking to sales outlet analysis.

Consider the cost-benefit ratio of each channel.

And regardless of your choice, always monitor indicators and metrics.

This analysis makes it possible to check the efficiency of the distribution channel so you can optimize it constantly.

Did you like the tips in this article?

Leave a comment with your opinion or any questions you may have.

Product Life Cycle: What It Is, the 5 Stages, & Examples

If you work with sales, knowing about the Product Life Cycle model is almost mandatory.

The model describes the stages a product goes through in its journey from creation to discontinuation.

Why do you need to know this?

Because products in different stages demand different strategies, be that for physical products or for services.

Do you think you can attract customers to a new product using the same actions used for products that have been on the market for years?

Best case scenario, it will be a wasted opportunity. At worst, a total failure.

To get to know the stages of the Product Life Cycle, examples, and how to employ this concept, don’t forget to read this article until the end!

What Is the Product Life Cycle?

The Product Life Cycle is a management tool that makes it possible to analyze how a product behaves from its development to its withdrawal from the market, also considering its launch, growth, and sales maturity.

It is like a product journey, or to refer to a more well-known example in marketing, the customer journey.

The mind behind this concept is Theodore Levitt, a German economist who lived in the United States and worked in the celebrated Harvard Business School.

Levitt proposed a five-stage model that he named the Product Life Cycle.

The stages are development, introduction, growth, maturity, and decline.

Before I explain each of them, it’s interesting to understand why Levitt thought defining this model would be useful.

During his research, he discovered something that seems obvious but hadn’t been mapped until then: the characteristics of a product change a lot during its life cycle.

All the strategies around it need to consider the specific issues and characteristics of each of these stages.

This applies to sales and marketing, but also to product development and decision-making in the management sphere.

For example, when is the right moment to invest so a product explodes in the market?

When is time to step on the brakes and maybe even replace an item that was very successful on another occasion?

These are the questions you can answer with a Product Life Cycle analysis.

The 5 Stages of the Product Life Cycle

The 5 Stages of the Product Life Cycle

It’s time to explore more deeply the Product Life Cycle model.

Now that we know the stages, we will see what are the characteristics of each of them, and also the best practices to achieve your marketing goals.

1. Development Phase of the Product Life Cycle

Product development is always a very sensitive stage.

The project is still able to be iterated. You can have great expectations for it, but before the product starts generating revenue, you still need to improve your proposal, carry out tests, validate the hypotheses, and make necessary changes.

This stage is naturally integrated into the process of startup companies but is not restricted to them.

For example, an automobile manufacturer does not launch a new car without first having a consistent project and studying its insertion and acceptance in the market.

To present a real example, you might have seen the collection of leggings for dogs the Walkee Paws brand released at the end of 2018.

Development phase of the product life cycle example - legging for dogs

We can imagine that this launch was preceded by careful planning, which resulted in the shape of the pieces, the material used, and the patterns selected.

When a product is in development, it doesn’t require sales efforts, but promotion should already have begun.

Imagine the success potential of a marketing campaign from Walkee Paws announcing this novelty to dedicated dog lovers.

It could involve fun posts on social networks, generating curiosity and encouraging engagement.

There may also be press releases, billboards, or even interactive actions on the streets, among other types of marketing.

The fact is that the company must consider all this even during the development stage.

2. Introduction Phase of the Product Life Cycle

The Walkee Paws example is about the introduction.

That’s when the product goes through all development stages and is considered ready to be launched in the market.

Every day we are introduced to new items in this stage of the cycle.

For big brands, TV is a choice for promotion.

Proof: you only need to turn on the TV for a few minutes to see ads for a new flavor of soda, a different motorcycle model, a smartphone that promises new and superior features, etc.

It is no accident that this stage of the Product Life Cycle is the one that demands the most marketing investment from the company.

In fact, it is not uncommon to get negative financial results at this stage, even if sales have already started.

This is also a result of the production costs related to product distribution.

To reduce the damage, it is imperative to define the target audience and persona that represents the ideal customer profile for your products.

This exercise makes it possible to optimize your marketing investments, using the right platforms to convey the best message and reach the exact audience you want.

A good practice is to bet on inbound marketing and, by means of relevant content, ensure the user discovers the company and what it offers

This strategy is also how potential consumers are persuaded to confirm sales.

3. Growth Phase of the Product Life Cycle

If the Product Life Cycle works as it should, the next step is the growth stage.

The main characteristics of this stage are scalable sales and the maintenance of the amounts invested in marketing.

It is not possible to predict precisely when it happens, because that depends a lot on the details of the product and the market it’s in.

But it is worth repeating: if you follow the plan correctly, you are likely to reach your goals even if it takes a while.

So don’t get discouraged before you get to the growth stage.

Your investments must continue, either because of expanding your participation in the market or keeping production/output up with your sales rates.

This applies to sales of anything from marketing services, to salespeople training, to physical products.

Many companies fail at this stage and their products’ sales decline without having ever experienced maturity.

You might remember a beer brand that made fun tv ads with a short and chubby actor with a mustache as the protagonist.

For a long time, it was one of the leading brands, and the advertisements generated comments in the only social network in existence back then: word-of-mouth.

The product is still in the market, and there is no news of changes to its formula, but it was swallowed by the strong competition that is peculiar to the industry.

Lower investment in marketing would certainly be high in a list of possible reasons for this change.

So the lesson is clear: if a product is in the growth stage, it is important to have a strategy to keep it there even as new competitors start fighting for its audience.

4. Maturity Phase of the Product Life Cycle

Maturity is the peak, the highest point of the Product Life Cycle.

It’s when the product reaches its maximum potential and sales stabilize.

Once the summit is reached, it is no longer possible to grow, but the company can act to avoid significant setbacks.

The challenge at this stage is to maintain good results over time.

There isn’t a simple way to make this happen.

All the famous brands that come to mind now are where they are today because they invested in this stage.

For example, Coca-Cola doesn’t leave the media even though it “doesn’t depend on marketing.” The company understands that brands are not forever, being subject to market instabilities and behavioral changes in the audience.

Imagine if a competitor developed a new soft drink and people discover that that flavor is essential for their weekend family lunches.

With no visibility, Coca-Cola would lose space in the market, and in that situation, possibly even its place as the leading brand.

5. Decline Phase of the Product Life Cycle

It’s interesting to even imagine the end of Coca-Cola, a company with over 100 years of existence and so much financial success.

But even Coca-Cola will end one day. Maybe not the company, but its main product.

This might take 100, 200, or even 1000 years. It’s impossible to predict.

But every product reaches the end and concludes its life cycle.

When that happens, the company must recognize the painful truth shown in its performance indicators and prepare a replacement product.

If everything contributes to the idea of discontinuing the product, investing heavily in marketing to try to revert the situation tends to be too dangerous.

It might work, of course. But what if it doesn’t?

The company as a whole, and not just the product, may be endangered.

Why It’s Important to Understand the Product Life Cycle

If you’ve made it this far, you hopefully understand the concept of Product Life Cycle and the characteristics of each of its stages.

You should also understand why it’s important to apply this model to your business.

To eliminate any questions, here are the main advantages and benefits of what adherence to the Product Life Cycle model can do:

  • allow decision making with better support
  • optimize marketing investments
  • qualify sales efforts
  • offer more control over results
  • give better long term strategic planning
  • offer better organization and process management
  • provide more longevity for products
  • give more appropriate preparation to face competition
  • leading the market becomes a feasible goal

Does the Product Life Cycle Only Apply to Products?

This is an interesting question about this tool.

If it were restricted to products, the audience who would be able to make use of it would be much smaller.

On one hand, the idea that the Product Life Cycle works better for physical products is correct considering its characteristics.

On the other hand, it’s possible to be creative and think about adaptations of the model.

Let’s take a large company with subsidiaries in different towns as an example.

Each one of these units may be considered a product when applying this Product Life Cycle model; all you have to do is analyze each one’s performance individually.

Another example is a company with many brands, each with their own products.

To understand this better, take a look at the Procter & Gamble website, where you will see that the company has several active brands in the USA market.

product life cycle on products - Procter & Gamble example

In which stage of the cycle is each of these brands?

Are they planning new brands that are currently in the development stage?

To conclude, let’s look at another example.

Could services replace products in the model proposed by Theodore Levitt?

Depending on the activity the company performs, this is perfectly possible.

Let’s think about a home renovation company, for example.

It may offer a great variety of construction services, such as installing floors and tiles, painting, plastering, providing electric and hydraulic works, masonry, and more.

When using the Product Life Cycle method, you can observe the life cycle of each of these services to assess the type of investment each of them requires and the possibilities for returns in each case.

Practical Examples of the Product Life Cycle

How does the Product Life Cycle work in practice, in real cases?

We are going to take a look at two cool examples: Havaianas and Coca-Cola.

The Product Life Cycle of Havaianas

Examples of the Product Life Cycle -havaianas
  • Development: the traditional flip flops were inspired by Japanese sandals made of wood or straw; in Brazil, rubber was selected as the material because it was believed to have the most acceptance with the audience
  • Introduction: deliberately or not, its introduction in the market was a great success with classes C, D, and E
  • Growth: Havaianas flip flops were in the growth stage for most of their existence, eventually dominating over 90% of the market for flip flops
  • Maturity: maturity only came in the ’90s, with new product design, aimed at a different audience, and great marketing investment, especially with the now-classic TV ads that were fun and always starred famous actors
  • Decline: up to this moment, there are no signs that Havaianas flip-flops may go through this stage in the short term

The Product Life Cycle of Coca Cola

Examples of the Product Life Cycle -Coca Cola
  • Development: very little is known about the development of Coca-Cola and how they created the mysterious formula
  • Introduction: by 1886, the year of its foundation, the brand already seemed to have the right project
  • Growth: less than ten years after its launch, Coca-Cola was already consumed in all the U.S. states
  • Maturity: it’s impossible to say exactly when the brand reached maturity, but it’s safe to say that it has spent most of its history until now in this stage
  • Decline: since 2012, the net operating revenue of Coca-Cola has fluctuated towards decreasing; while a small decrease is within what’s expected for the maturity stage, investments in marketing and new products must continue

Product Life Cycle Vs. BCG Matrix

A product is born, grows, declines, and dies.

Isn’t this model the same as that of the BCG Matrix?

If you thought of that, you were very astute.

The BCG Matrix is another amazing management tool, created by the Boston Consulting Group (the model is named after their initials).

The BCG Matrix is very similar to the Product Life Cycle, though there are some differences.

First, there are four instead of five stages: Question Mark, Star, Cash Cow, and Dog.

Second: these curious names relate to specific characteristics of the stage in which the product is, not necessarily analyzing the entire life cycle.

Are you confused? I’ll explain.

Take a look at the table below:

Product Life Cycle vs BCG Matrix

Question marks are new products that don’t have a market yet but have great potential for growth.

Stars, as the name indicates, are at the top: they generate good revenue.

Cash cows are the future of stars: their performance has peaked, but their decline is expected.

And dogs are a problem: products at the end of the line, that no longer sell well and are unlikely to recover their space.

In general, question marks and stars demand marketing investment, cash cows no longer need investment and dogs will not recover even with investment.

Product Life Cycle Conclusion

By now you should understand the Product Life Cycle and the characteristics of each of its five stages. You also learned tips for creating an appropriate strategy for each of them, even if you’re a digital marketer and you aren’t selling physical goods.

If you need digital marketing help throughout any of the stages of Product Life Cycle model, let our agency know.

Now it’s time to dedicate yourself to reach maturity and extend it for as long as possible.

Speaking of which, in what stage is your main product? Leave a comment and share the article!

Learn About Dun & Bradstreet Reports

Did You Want to Learn About Dun & Bradstreet Reports?

It’s time to learn about Dun & Bradstreet reports.

But let’s start with some definitions and background on business credit.

Business Credit

This is credit in a business’s name. It does not tie to the owner’s creditworthiness. Instead, business credit scores depend on how well a company can pay its bills. Hence consumer and business credit scores can vary dramatically.

Business Credit Benefits

Also, there are no demands for a personal guarantee. You can quickly get business credit regardless of personal credit quality. Also, there is no personal credit reporting of business accounts. Business credit utilization won’t affect your consumer FICO score. Plus the business owner isn’t personally liable for the debt the business incurs.

Being accepted for business credit is not automatic. Building business credit requires some work. Some of the steps are intuitive,and some of them are not.

Business Credit Reporting Agencies

There are three chief credit bureaus for business: Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, and Equifax.

In the business world Equifax and Experian are up there, but it’s Dun & Bradstreet which is the major player.

D&B has more than 10 times the records of the next closest reporting agency. See dnb.com/about-us/company.html.

What are in a Dun& Bradstreet Reports?

Do you have a copy of your Dun and Bradstreet report?

What is Dun and Bradstreet?

They are the oldest and largest credit reporting agency. You need a D-U-N-S number to start building business credit. Go to D&B’s website and look for your business, atdnb.com/duns-number. Can’t find it? Then get a free D-U-N-S number. You will always need a D-U-N-S number to start building business credit. Go here to get a D-U-N-S number and get into their system: dnb.com/duns-number/get-a-duns.html.

The main score is PAYDEX. But a business will not get a PAYDEX score, unless it has at least 3 trade lines reporting, and a D-U-N-S number. A business needs both to get a D&B score or report.

Dun & Bradstreet Reports

D&B offers database-generated reports. These help their clients decide if a business is a good credit risk. Companies use the reports to make informed business credit decisions and avoid bad debt.

Usually, when D&B does not have all of the information that they need, they say so in their reports. But missing data does not necessarily mean a company is a poor credit risk. Rather, the risk is unknown.

D&B’s database contains over 350 million companies around the world. It includes millions of active firms, and over 100 million companies which are out of business. But they keep these for historical purposes. This data goes into their reports.

D&B lists over a billion trade experiences. For as accurate a report as possible, give D&B your company’s current financial statements.

To see a sample Business Information Report, go to products.dandb.com/download/2019_BIR-Snapshot-Report.pdf

Predictive Models and Scoring

D&B takes historical information to try to predict future outcomes. This is to identify the risks inherent in a future decision. They take objective and statistically derived data, rather than subjective and intuitive judgments.

Dun & Bradstreet Reports: Sections

Here are the sections you could currently see in a typical Dun and Bradstreet business credit profile report.

Executive Summary

The report starts with basic company information, such as number of employees, year the business was started, net worth, and sales.

D&B Rating

This rating helps companies quickly assess a business’s size and composite credit appraisal. Dun & Bradstreet bases this rating on information in a company’s interim or fiscal balance sheet plus an overall evaluation of the firm’s creditworthiness. The scale goes from 5A to HH. Rating Classifications show company size based on worth or equity. D&B assigns such a rating only if a company has supplied a current financial statement.

The rating contains a Financial Strength Indicator. It is calculated using the Net Worth or Issued Capital of a company. Preference is to use Net Worth. D&B will show if a business is new or if they never got this information.

This section also adds a Composition Credit Appraisal. This number runs 1 through 4. Also, it reflects D&B’s overall rating of a business’s creditworthiness.

The scores mean:

  • 1 – High
  • 2 – Good
  • 3 – Fair
  • 4 – Limited

A D&B rating might look like 3A4.

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

D&B PAYDEX

This part shows two gauges. One is an up to 24 month PAYDEX. There’s also an up to 3 month PAYDEX. Hence you can see recent history and a firm’s performance over time.

Both gauges have the same scores. A 1 means greater than 120 days slow (in paying bills). A score of 50 means 30 days slow. One great score is 80, which means prompt. Also, 100 means anticipates. A 100 is the best PAYDEX score you can get.

PAYDEX Score

This is Dun & Bradstreet’s dollar-weighted numerical rating of how a company has paid the bills over the past year. D&B bases this score on trade experiences which various vendors report. The Score ranges from 1 to 100. Higher scores mean a better payment performance. PAYDEX scores reflect how well a company pays its bills.

Predictive Analytics

This next section shows likelihood of business failure. It also shows how frequently a business is late in paying its financial obligations. These are comparative analyses, the Financial Stress Class, and the Credit Score Class.

Financial Stress Class

Overall numbers range from 1 to 5. A 1 is businesses least likely to fail. Also, a 5 is firms most likely to fail. The Financial Stress Class measures likelihood of failure.

Financial Stress Class Score

These more granular scores range from 1,001 to 1,875. A score of 1,001 represents the highest chance of business failure. Also an 1,875 shows the lowest chance of business failure.

Credit Score Class

The Credit Score Class measures how often a company is late paying its bills. Overall numbers range from 1 to 5. A 1 is businesses least likely to be late. 5 is firms most likely to be late making payments. More granular scores run from 101 to 670. 670 is the highest risk.

Credit Limit Recommendation

It shows a spectrum of risk. Your risk category can be low, moderate, or high. Risk is assessed using D&B’s scoring methodology. It is one factor used to create the recommended limits.

D&B Viability Rating

This section contains:

  • Viability Score – to show risk
  • Portfolio Comparison – also a demonstration of risk
  • Data Depth Indicator – descriptive vs. predictive
  • Company Profile – this shows if financial data and other information was available

Credit Capacity Summary

This part repeats the D&B Rating above. It includes financial strength, the composite credit appraisal, and payment activity.

Business History and Business Registration

This section contains information on ownership. It also shows where a corporation is filed (i.e. which state). This includes the type of corporation, and the incorporation date.

Government Activity Summary and Operations Data

This section gives basic information on if a company works as a contractor for the government. It also shows the kind of business a company is in. It shows what the facilities are like, including general data on its location.

Industry Data and Family Tree

The section shows the business’s SIC and NAICS codes. It also shows where the branches and subsidiaries are. This list is just the first 25 branches, subsidiaries, divisions, and affiliates, both domestic and international. D&B also offers a Global Family Linkage Link to view the full listing.

Financial Statements

This section is for the financial statements D&B has on a business. It shows assets and liabilities, with specifics such as equipment, and even common stock offerings.

Indicators and Full Filings

This part shows public records, like judgments, liens, lawsuits, and UCC filings.

This part also breaks down where filings are venued, like the court or the county recorder of deeds office. It shows if judgments were satisfied (paid). It also shows which equipment is subject to UCC filings.

Commercial Credit Score

This part shows the Credit Score Class again. It also shows a comparison of the incidence of delinquent payments. It also includes key factors to help anyone reading the report interpret these findings. Also, it explains what the numbers mean.

Credit Score Percentile Norms Comparison

Here, D&B compares a company to others on the basis of region, industry, number of employees and time in business.

Financial Stress Score

This section shows a Financial Stress Class and a Financial Stress Score Percentile. The Financial Stress Class runs from 1-5, with 5 being the worst score.

Financial Stress Score Percentile

The Financial Stress Score Norms calculate an average score and percentile for similar firms. The norms benchmark where a business stands. This is in relation to its closest business peers.

It is a comparison to other businesses. The percentile contains a Financial Stress National Percentile. The Financial Stress National Percentile reflects the relative ranking of a company among all scorable companies in D&B’s file. It also contains a Financial Stress Score. The report shows the chance of failure with a particular score.

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

Financial Stress Score Percentile Comparison

The idea behind this score is to predict how likely it is a business will fail over the next 12 months. The Financial Stress Class shows a firm shares some of the same business and financial characteristics of other companies with this classification. It does not mean the firm will necessarily experience financial stress. The chance of failure shows the percentage of firms in a given percentile that discontinue operations with loss to creditors.

The average chance of failure comes from businesses in D&B’s database. It is provided for comparative purposes. The Financial Stress National Percentile reflects the relative ranking of a company among all scorable companies in D&B’s file. The Financial Stress Score offers a more precise measure of the level of risk than the Financial Stress Class and Percentile. It is meant for customers using a scorecard approach to determining overall business performance.

Advanced PAYDEX + CLR

This section repeats the 24 month and 3 month PAYDEX gauges. It also includes a repeat of the Credit Limit Recommendation. There is also a PAYDEX Yearly Trend. It shows the PAYDEX scores of a business compared to the Primary Industry from each of the last four quarters.

PAYDEX Yearly Trend

The PAYDEX Yearly Trend is a graph. It includes detailed payment history.  with payment habits and a payment summary. This helps show if a business pays its bigger bills first or last.

Correcting Your Dun &Bradstreet Reports

Get your report from D&B at www.dnb.com/about-us/our-data.html. Update the relevant information if there are mistakes or the information is incomplete. At D&B, you can do this at: dnb.com/duns-number/view-update-company-credit-file.html.

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

Disputing Issues with Dun & Bradstreet Reports

None of the different business bureaus will change your scores without proof. They are also starting to accept more and more online disputes. Include proofs of payment with it. These are documents like receipts and also cancelled checks.

Fixing credit report errors also means you specifically spell out any charges you challenge. Make your dispute as crystal clear as possible. If you need to snail mail anything in, then use certified mail. This is so you will have proof that you sent in your dispute.

Be specific about the concerns with your report. D&B wants you to go through their Customer Service. You can also go through D&B Customer Service to add payment experiences. D&B’s Customer Service contact number can be found at dandb.com/glossary/paydex.

Monitoring Dun &Bradstreet Reports

Business credit reports are not always perfectly correct. All of the major CRAs are committed to accuracy. But you won’t know there are errors unless you monitor your business credit reports.

For D&B only, you can monitor your reports via CreditMonitor. It currently costs $39/month. See dnb.com/products/small-business/credit-monitor.html.

Monitoring Experian, Equifax, and Dun & Bradstreet Reports

You can monitor your business credit at D&B, Equifax, and Experian through Credit Suite, for considerable savings over what it would cost you at those different credit bureaus. And all in one place! Credit Suite offers monitoring through the Business Finance Suite (through Nav). See what credit issuers and lenders see. So you can directly improve your scores and get the business credit and funding you need. See suitelogin.com and also  creditsuite.com/monitoring.

Dun & Bradstreet Reports: Takeaways

Dun & Bradstreet reports sport an impressive level of detail. The idea is to make it easier to decide if it’s a good idea to extend credit to another business. Also, your own company’s report can help show you where you can improve payment history. Also, you can see how your firm compares to similar businesses.

D&B is the largest business CRA. A D-U-N-S number is an absolute necessity for business credit building.

Monitoring all of your reports is expensive. But you can save 90% by monitoring your D&B, Experian, and Equifax scores through Credit Suite.

The post Learn About Dun & Bradstreet Reports appeared first on Credit Suite.

How to Block Bots From Coming to Your Website: Tools & Tips

If you have a website, you need to know what bots are and how they can find your site, as well as what they can do (either intentionally or indirectly) to cause frustration to your online marketing efforts. Blocking bots may be a necessity to protect your site’s speed, users, and security.

Let’s talk about what bots are and how you can put up some defenses to start protecting your website.

What Are Bots, and How Can They Be Bad?

Before we dive into the details of what they can do and how you can stop them, we need to take a step back and explore what a bot is.

A bot is a software script that performs a data task over and over again. It’s that repetition and data interaction that makes them a fellow member of the online world we interact with.

Some of the other names you hear bots associated with help explain what bots are and how they work. Think of terms like spiders, crawlers, or web bots.

Are They All Bad?

There are a couple of misconceptions we can set aside right away.

Even though the term is short for robots, bots are not robots in the form of metal, gears, and computers. They are bits of script, as we discussed, that run continuously over the data of websites or other online platforms.

Also, they are not necessarily maliciously driven by a hacker or person with ill intent. Sometimes they’re neutral or even useful, such as bots used by search engines to index websites.

How Do Bots Work?

As we mentioned above, bots are generally bits of software script that repeat a task over and over again. An outside person, either friend or foe, may deploy these to accomplish a specific task.

However, bots are getting “smarter,” so to speak, and some are created with artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning technology. Some examples of these are chatbots for e-commerce that brands can use to learn from human interaction and deliver a better customer

service experience for their audience.

Here’s an example of an e-commerce chatbot on the ModCloth website:

block bots - modcloth chatbot example

What Do Bots Do?

As we’ve said, bots can be useful, such as indexing for a search engine or improving customer experiences.

They can also be malicious and cause trouble for your website or other web presence. Some bots are intended to crawl websites and steal data like passwords, identifiable information, or personal data. They can also deploy malicious attacks on websites, computers, and other places. Some get sophisticated, unfurling a series of steps to cause chaos for another user or organization.

They can also be used to surge interactions online. This may come in the form of flooding a page or forum with comments, driving up purchases or popularity of something to stir up interest, bumping up social media interaction to improve views, or other ways to “game the system.”

These are often the ways you may start to see bot activity on your website.

How Can You Tell If Your Website Has Bot Traffic?

Do you need to block bots on your website? Here are some signs and how to check.

Red Flags You May Need to Block Bots

There are some signs that bots have been to your website, and those may be the first place to start. Here are a few to look for:

  • excess commenting in your blog or other pages
  • comments that don’t seem readable or human-generated
  • comments with excessive linking or obvious spam
  • excessively or suddenly high bounce rates on a particular page
  • a sudden surge of sign-ups for your newsletter or other forms
  • email sign-ups that don’t seem human-generated
  • log-in attempts from unknown sources
  • any other activity that appears fishy

Where Can You Check to Block Bots?

If you have a gut reaction that you need a bot blocker, you can do a deeper dive to determine whether bots are a problem for your website and whether it’s worth investing time to block bots.

Here are a few places to explore:

  • Google Analytics to investigate traffic on your site
  • A service like Copyscape to check if your content was plagiarized somewhere else
  • your web server logs to learn more about where people are coming from

10 Steps to Block Bots From Coming to Your Website

Trying to block bots from coming to your website can feel a little like trying to put up an invisible shield around your site to ward off invaders.

While it’s not quite so fanciful, taking steps to keep bots from invading and causing chaos on your website is about being proactive and putting processes into place ahead of any problems.

It starts with understanding the enemy, removing any current problems, and then preparing for future attacks. Here are some steps you can take:

1. Identify the Weight of the Problem

If you’re reading this far, you probably have some concerns about bots and want to know more about how to block website bots. Before jumping in, though, it’s always good to consider what’s happening on your website.

Are you having a significant problem with bots, or are you just noticing some increased activity?

Further, consider what the impact has been or could be on your online marketing efforts. As we mentioned above, some bots are good, and some are bad. Some are just neutral.

For instance, you might have a bump in activity on your website on a given day or a given page for no apparent reason. You can’t link them to a specific marketing campaign that promoted that page and caused a spike. The surge in activity may have come from a bot.

If the surge was short-lived and you haven’t seen any other issues, it may be worth looking into but may not warrant extreme or rushed reactions.

On the other hand, if you’ve found your e-commerce site was hacked, or if parts of your website have been infected and are no longer functioning properly, you probably want to act quickly to batten up the hatches and clean up your website. If that’s the case, you may want to jump to the later steps here and start taking immediate action.

2. Understand the Source

Once you realize that web bots have been bothering your website, you’ll need to go on a bit of an investigation to find out where they’re coming from.

I listed above some places that can help you explore whether bots are attacking your website. They can also help you figure out the origin of those bots.

For example, in Google Analytics, your web server access logs, or any log-in attempt emails, you may be able to see data related to those visiting your site. You can check for a pattern or a series of the same IP address repeatedly.

3. Make a Plan

Now it’s time to decide what to do.

If you’ve already suffered an attack, you’ll need to take steps to clean up the problem and patch any vulnerabilities in your site to avoid further problems.

If you’ve been seeing bot activity but haven’t been attacked, you should focus your plan on looking for vulnerabilities that could be exploited in the future and tighten them up now.

4. Stay Up to Date

Keep your website and all its integrations up to date with the latest releases. Whichever website CRM provider you use, ensure you’re staying current with that platform’s releases. For instance, if you use WordPress, you need to ensure that your theme and plugins have the latest updates.

Staying up to date has its advantages. First, bots may use older versions to gain access. Further, platforms are motivated to provide secure products to their customers. The latest updates may come with increased security features and bot blocker options.

5. Add CAPTCHA Tools

One way to block bots from interacting with parts of your websites (such as sign-ups, contact pages, and purchase options) is to ensure that only humans can perform those actions.

CAPTCHA forces the user to perform a challenge or other action to prove they’re not a bot. Unless a bot has the correct action written into their script, they won’t finish this task and move on.

Here is an example of a CAPTCHA you’ve probably seen before:

Block Bots From Coming to Your Website - Add CAPTCHA Tools

6. Check Your APIs and Other Connections

Especially if your website is a few years old, you may have installed many API integrations and other connections to other web platforms. If you’ve permitted that integration to connect with and share data with your website, APIs could be an area of vulnerability.

Conduct an audit of every API, plugin, connection, or other integration:

  • Do you use them all? Remove the obsolete ones.
  • Are you using the latest versions? If not, update them.
  • Are you using quality products? If they don’t have security measures in place, consider replacing them.

If you have questions, reach out to the platform owner and make sure they are secure.

7. Block Older Browser Versions

This is not foolproof, but another way to close up some ways bots can access your website is by blocking older versions of browsers from accessing your website. You might achieve this by requiring users to use new versions of browsers to view your website.

TechRepublic encourages using this method as most human users will be forced to update to a newer browser version.

This requires accessing and updating the .htaccess file of your website, so unless you are experienced with coding, we recommend engaging with a web developer for this.

8. Patch It

If you’re struggling to stay up to date with the bots coming to your website or feel like the problem may be bigger than you want to control, you can turn to a professional to start digging deeper into bots that may be heading to your website.

If you notice a specific bot that keeps arriving at your website and causing problems, such as offensive comments or attempts to gain unauthorized access, you can block that IP address from gaining access to your website in the future.

Many web hosts, such as GoDaddy, provide detailed information about how to accomplish this task. However, you should know that this is only a patch. It can stop a rather insidious attack in its tracks, but many hackers or malicious bot launchers have ways of coming in from other IP addresses, so the solution may not hold long-term.

Also, Hubspot reminds us that blocking an IP address means blocking all access from any person or bot from that IP address, so weigh the pros and cons before making a decision.

9. Keep Up With It

For a long-term solution, you may choose to pay for a bot blocker service. Although there are many different options, they all promise you a bit of peace of mind as their integrated solution stays on your website, comparing visitors with their information to watch for and alert you of any problems. A few options include:

  • DataDome
  • Cloudflare
  • Radware Bot Manager
  • ClickGUARD
  • Google ReCAPTCHA

10. Ongoing Monitoring

Bot blocking isn’t a one-and-done situation. You will need to continue to monitor your website for any problems.

You can watch for any of the problems discussed above and take steps to close up any holes. You may want to add this to your calendar to check in monthly or quarterly.

You can also keep an ear out for public data breaches. If you hear of any wide-scale attacks, take a look at your website and look for signs of any bot activity.

Conclusion

As AI in marketing continues to grow, our discussion of blocking bots, as well as adding them to our marketing stack, will likely increase as well. Bots can be helpful in our digital work and can support our digital marketing strategy.

They can also be malicious and attack your website at any time. The best way to block bots is to stay vigilant and keep your web presence up to date and cleaned up.

Don’t let vulnerabilities like outdated plugins or open access ports linger, inviting opportunistic bots. Monitor as you go and consider hiring an outside third party if the problem or the risks start getting bigger than you want to handle.

What’s the first step you’re going to take to block bots?

How to Check Subscriber Count on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, & More

Whether you run a YouTube channel, blog, or social media empire, it pays to know how many subscribers you have on each platform. Not only do subscriber counts show you which channels are working and which aren’t, but you can also leverage them to build stronger and more profitable partnerships with brands.

Checking your subscriber count isn’t always easy, though. For every platform like YouTube that makes your following incredibly transparent, there’s a channel where it can be next to impossible to find your subscriber count.

Notice I said “next to impossible,” not “totally impossible.”

I’m here to explain how you can check your subscriber count on every major channel and social media platform.

Why Is It Important to Know How Many Subscribers You Have on Different Platforms?

It’s vital to know exactly how many subscribers you have on each platform for several reasons.

Let’s say you’re an up-and-coming marketing influencer. Part of your income will come from brands paying you for sponsorships and endorsements. Exactly how much they pay you hinges on how many subscribers and followers you have.

If you can show 50,000 people subscribe to your podcast, 100,000 people read your blog each month, and almost half a million people follow you on Instagram, you’ll be in a very strong position to command a big payday.

Your subscriber count can also help you make decisions on your way to becoming an influencer or growing your business’ following in general. Imagine you created accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest when you started your business and posted to all of them equally.

At some point, you need to focus your efforts on the platform where you see the most success. Your subscriber count is a great way to quickly separate the good social media platforms from the ineffective ones. After all, what’s the point of wasting time on Pinterest, where you have half a dozen followers, over Twitter, where you have several thousand?

It’s not just social media subscribers you should think about, though. Perhaps you have a blog that gets upwards of 100,000 visitors every month, but you only have a couple of hundred people on your email list. This indicates your email marketing strategy isn’t working, and you should take steps to change that.

How to Check Your Subscriber Count on YouTube

YouTube is one of the more transparent subscription-based platforms out there. Log in to your account, click on your profile photo, and head to your channel. You’ll see your subscriber count underneath your channel’s username.

You can also see your subscriber count by navigating to YouTube Studio. In addition to the overall numbers, you can find a list of your 100 most recent subscribers.

Visitors to your channel see a shortened version of your subscriber count rounded down to the nearest 10, 100, or 1000 subscribers. YouTube Studio provides a handy table showing how your subscriber count will be displayed to viewers.

How to Check Your Subscriber Count on YouTube

YouTube also notifies you within YouTube Studio and via email when you hit certain subscriber milestones.

subscriber count - Youtube milestones

How to Check Your Subscriber Count on Your Podcast

Podcast success goes way beyond subscriber count, but the metric many podcasters want most is how many people subscribe to their podcast. This is often the hardest number to find.

Part of the problem is consumers can use dozens of different podcast apps to subscribe to shows rather than a single platform like YouTube. That means your podcast subscriber count will only ever be an estimate.

Most podcasting platforms, from the free to the pricey ones, provide some way to check your subscriber count. The method (and accuracy) varies by platform. The platform, however, should make it clear how to find this number. It’s usually to the side of where you post your podcast to begin with.

Some podcasting apps release subscriber numbers, though. You can end up with a bit more accuracy this way, but it takes more legwork on your part.

A couple of these are Podcast Addict and Castbox, though both account for about two percent of the market. Multiplying either subscriber count by 50 could give you a vague idea of how many subscribers you have in total, but it won’t give you the full picture.

A final suggestion from The Podcast Host is to publish a new episode and hold back from promoting it on social media, email, or anywhere else. In theory, any downloads occurring within about 24 hours of your show being posted are automatic downloads from subscribers; so if you have 50 downloads within a day of posting your episode, you likely have around 50 subscribers.

How to Check Your Subscriber Count on Social Media

Most social media platforms make your number of subscribers readily available, so finding them is simply a matter of knowing where to look.

Here’s how you can find your subscribers on all of the major social media platforms.

Facebook

How you check your follower count on Facebook will depend on whether you have a private user account or a business page.

Private users can allow people to follow them by turning on public posts and allowing people who aren’t their friends to follow them. This is an excellent option for bloggers and public figures who don’t want to have a private and a business Facebook account.

If this is you, head to the “Friends” tab on your profile page and click the “Followers” sub-tab. This will show you a full list of followers. You can see the total figure even faster by reading the “Intro” section on your profile page.

Facebook Business Page owners will need to navigate to their page, click on the “More” tab and then “Community” in the dropdown menu. Here you can find your total follower count, what your followers have posted on your page, and any posts where your business page was tagged.

Instagram

Instagram puts your number of followers front and center. At the top of your profile, you can see how many people you’re following and how many people follow you. Once you get over 10,000 followers, the number will be rounded down to the nearest 100 or 1000 followers.

subscriber count - instagram

If you want to get an exact subscriber count, use Instagram’s Insights tool. Navigate to that section on the app and click on “Audience” to see an exact follower count and a growth comparison with the previous week.

Twitter

If you have fewer than 10,000 followers on Twitter, you can see exactly how many people follow you by looking at your profile page. If your follower count is higher than that, Twitter rounds the nearest one hundred followers.

Subscriber count - Twitter

To find the exact subscriber count on Twitter, head to the Analytics section and hover your mouse over the subscriber number in the top right-hand corner. An exact count will appear.

Snapchat

The only way to see your subscriber count on Snapchat is to have a Public Profile. Not only will you be able to see your subscriber count on the back-end of the platform, but you’ll also have the option to display your follower count publicly.

TikTok

You need a Pro account to check your subscriber count on TikTok. With this kind of account set up, head to the “Settings” menu and click on “Analytics.” This shows a graph with how many video views you received over the last 28 days and how many followers you have.

Note: You need to wait seven days after creating a TikTok Pro account before analytics data becomes available.

LinkedIn

When I talk about subscribers on LinkedIn, I don’t mean the number of connections you have. I’m talking about the number of followers you have.

To see how many followers you have, sign into your account and scroll down to find the “Activity” section. There you can see your exact number of followers.

subscriber count - LinkedIn

Pinterest

Track your Pinterest subscriber count on your Analytics dashboard. In addition to your follower count, you can see engagement metrics, popular pins by your fans, referral traffic, other top influencers, and competitor data.

How to Check Your Blog Subscriber Count

People don’t subscribe to blogs in the same way they subscribe to YouTube channels or podcasts. That makes coming up with a subscriber number a little trickier. Here’s what you can do to estimate your subscribers.

  1. Create an email newsletter and see how many people sign up.

    Having an email newsletter is probably the best way to gauge how many people “subscribe” to your blog. However, you need to ask people to enter their email addresses without giving them anything other than your updates in return, as Ahrefs does, for example.

    If you offer them something like a discount on a product you sell, you can’t prove they actually read your blog every week—they may immediately stop reading after they get their discount.

  2. If you already have an email newsletter, count your subscribers.

    Checking your blog subscriber count can be as simple as opening up your email marketing platform and seeing how many people you have on your email marketing list.

  3. If you don’t have or want to send an email newsletter, use Google Analytics.

    If you don’t think your email list accurately depicts your subscriber numbers, you can use a Google Analytics report to estimate the subscribers you have. Navigate to the “Audience” tab, click on the “Behavior” dropdown menu, and choose “New vs Returning.”
    subscriber count - Google Analytics
    This will give you a chart that separates new users from returning visitors. I’d recommend taking the data over the last 30 days to get an accurate idea of your subscriber count.

Conclusion

Your subscriber count is certainly worth knowing, but it isn’t the end-all, be-all. Measuring the engagement on your website, YouTube, and social channels is also an effective way to show brands and other potential partners how valuable your following is.

It’s also a great way for you to determine which social media accounts are worth your time.

If you’re still feeling a bit stuck, whether with subscribers or engagement, that’s okay—there are a lot of metrics to take into consideration. For some extra help, check out my guide on how to make social media marketing work for you.

On which platform do you have the most subscribers?

Landing Page: What is it, Examples, Tips & Best Practices

A well-designed landing page can greatly increase conversions for your PPC or email marketing campaigns.

Rather than directing visitors from those sources to your general website (where they may have a hard time finding what they’re looking for), you can direct them to a specifically designed landing page that steers them in exactly the right direction.

Creating effective landing pages isn’t the same as crafting a successful website or email newsletter. There are certain guidelines you should adhere to in order to maximize your page’s success.

Here is what you need to know to create an effective landing page.

Set a Goal For Your Landing Page

Landing pages, like any other part of your online marketing strategy, need goals. Without concrete, specific goals, there’s no way to create an effective page. Your goal should be clear before you begin designing your page.

For example, your page might be designed to encourage:

  • sales
  • email list sign-ups
  • white paper downloads
  • software trials
  • webinar sign-ups

You also need specific expectations for your landing page, on which to gauge its success. These expectations can be based on previous experience, anecdotal evidence, or simply wishful thinking.

It’s helpful to have a specific number to compare your actual results with. This could be the total number of conversions, or the number of people who make it past your landing page, or some other number, based on your own goals.

A Clear Call to Action is Vital

Once you know what your goal for the page is, you need to come up with a clear call to action. This is possibly the single most important part of any landing page.

Your call to action should be specifically tied to your goal and should be supported by everything else on your page, from headline and body copy to images and overall layout.

37 signals backpack landing page example

The Backpack landing page has a very clear call to action, though they opt to first direct visitors to more information about their plans and pricing, rather than going straight for the signup.

Keep Copy Clear and Concise

Your copy should be clear and concise. It should be persuasive, too. Landing pages are not the place to show off your creativity, unless that creativity is clear, concise, and persuasive. Leave the creative turns-of-phrase for your blog.

It’s pretty safe to assume that most of the people who visit your page are already interested in what you have to say, because they’ve likely clicked through from a PPC ad or email. But just because they’re interested when they arrive doesn’t mean they’ll stay interested if you don’t get to the point.

Every single sentence and word on your landing page should serve a purpose, and that purpose should be to support your call to action. If it doesn’t do that, cut it. Be ruthless in editing your copy. Tell your visitors what they want to know in as few words as possible, and get them to respond to your call to action as quickly as possible.

videowizard landing page example

The VideoWizard example has a simple design with clear copy that has definite goals.

Keep Your Landing Page Form Simple

If your page includes a form, make sure it’s only asking for the most vital information. If you’re trying to get visitors to sign up for an email newsletter, make sure you’re just asking them for their email address. Anything more than that decreases the chances that they’ll finish and submit the form.

If you’re asking them to make a purchase, keep it simple. Just ask for the vitals: billing and shipping information, plus a confirmation screen before placing their order. Wait to ask them for additional information until after their order has been placed.

vitals landing page example

This form only asks for name and email address, neither of which are likely to deter sign-ups.

clickable landing page example

This form, on the other hand, has too many fields. Do they really need a phone number and company name? And wouldn’t it make more sense to just ask for a name in one field, rather than two?

Remove Navigation Elements

The major difference between your normal website and your landing pages is your landing pages shouldn’t include the usual site navigation. Instead, the only clickable links should be your call to action, and possibly a link to more information for those who are undecided.

Linking your logo to your regular home page can also be a good idea.

verisign landing page example

This example shows just the vital links, without a ton of extraneous navigation.

Forget about links to everything else. All they do is clutter up the page and increase the likelihood that your visitors will abandon your landing page (and ultimately, your site) without converting.

Simplify Your Normal Site Design

Your landing page should still echo the design of your regular website, though, to reinforce your branding. This can be done through the graphics, general look and feel, or your color scheme and font choices.

This is important for branding and lets users know they are on the right page.

Choose Long Page or Series of Pages

There are some questions about whether it’s better to use a single page for your landing page that requires scrolling, or if visitors respond better to a series of short pages (sometimes referred to as a “mini-site”).

Mini sites generally have multiple pages with short content that funnel visitors from one step to the next along the conversion process. This has the advantage of getting users in the habit of moving from one page to the next, which can help get them in the right psychological frame of mind to convert.

The downside to mini sites is that they work best for conversion funnels that need a lot of content.

Landing pages, on the other hand, are perfectly suited to shorter content. They also only have to load once, which can be a big consideration for companies targeting people in rural areas or developing nations, where bandwidth and connection speeds could be an issue.

The downside is a lot of content can get overwhelming and can come across as spammy if not well-designed.

cameraplus landing page example

The CameraPlus page is quite long, with all the information you need about the app. (The image above is split, as the entire page would be several thousand pixels long.)

groupon landing page example

Compare this page, which barely fills a single screen, and uses multiple steps to gather information.

Pay Attention to the Fold

While there’s a lot of debate as to the importance of “the fold” in web design, landing pages are one area where the fold is crucial. Make sure that your call to action is located near the top of the page, where someone can click it without having to scroll.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that your visitors won’t scroll down the page to read more information. Hopefully, at least some percentage of your visitors will be ready to buy as soon as they arrive on your landing page, either because the email or link that brought them there already persuaded them, or because it’s not their first time visiting the page.

Putting a call to action right near the top of the page makes things easier on these visitors. (Plus, it can increase your conversion rates.)

hummingbird landing page example

The most important navigation elements are located just above the fold, with the call to action well above the fold.

magnetize landing page example

The signup button is well above the fold here, too.

Below-The-Fold Calls to Action

That doesn’t mean you should neglect those users who scroll. Make sure calls to action appear at regular intervals on your page, tied into the page’s copy.

This becomes more and more important as your pages get longer. Make sure that your users have to do minimal scrolling once they decide to convert.

freshbooks landing page example

FreshBooks includes links to a free trial or tour throughout their landing page.

Use Minimal Images and Larger Fonts

Your landing pages should use only one or, at most, two images. You want to avoid visual clutter on the page, or anything that detracts from the message and call to action.

Larger font sizes are also a good idea to keep visitor’s eyes focuses on what matters and reduce eye strain. Just don’t go overboard and put everything in a headline-size font.

The ideal line length for copy readability is 39 characters, so size your font (and column width) accordingly.

purdue landing page example

The typography becomes a major part of the visuals of this landing page, minimizing the need for graphics.

Start With a Centered, Single-Column Design

Studies show that centered, single-column landing pages convert best. Yet, there are still plenty of marketers out there who are opting for two-column designs.

Make sure that you test single-column versions against any two-column versions prior to committing to a design.

campaignmonitor landing page example

This is a great example of a centered page that makes great use of the available space.

Match the Look and Feel of Your Campaign

If your page is tied to an email campaign or PPC campaign, make sure the landing page echoes the look and feel of the ad or email.

If the designs of the two are wildly different, your visitors may wonder if they’ve ended up in the right place. The easiest way to do this is to carry over fonts, images, and colors from your campaign to your landing page. This is especially important for paid ads, as it can increase your quality score.

Use the Landing Page Tools to Get it Right

If you don’t want to have to use a web designer for your landing pages, there are options for creating great pages without any technical knowledge.

Unbounce is one of the easiest to use and lets you create landing pages without any IT experience. They have best-practices templates available that you can customize (or design your own page entirely from scratch), and flexible pricing (including a free plan for sites with limited traffic). Unbounce also integrates with Google Analytics for tracking your traffic, and Qualaroo for gathering user input.

Don’t Forget To Test Your Landing Page

Creating effective landing pages isn’t a one-size-fits-all project. What works for one site might not work so well for another. Finding the most effective page design is a matter of trial and error.

It’s important to test the different versions of your landing page (called A/B testing)to find the one that works the best for your particular situation. Without doing so, you might be leaving a lot of potential conversions on the table.

A few features to consider testing include:

  • headline
  • CTA
  • button size and placement
  • number of form fields
  • images
  • right, left, or center column design
  • colors

Just remember to test each variant one at a time — if you change five different elements, you won’t know which impacted conversions.

Landing Page Guide

A well-designed landing page can greatly increase conversions for your PPC or email marketing campaigns.  Here’s how to do it.

  1. Set a Goal For Your Landing Page

    Without concrete, specific goals, there’s no way to create an effective page. Your goal should be clear before you begin designing your page.

  2. A Clear Call to Action is Vital

    Your call to action should be specifically tied to your goal, and should be supported by everything else on your landing page, from headline and body copy to images and overall layout.

  3. Keep Copy Clear and Concise

    Landing pages are not the place to show off your creativity, unless that creativity is clear, concise, and persuasive. Leave the creative turns-of-phrase for your blog.

  4. Keep Your Landing Page Form Simple

    If your landing page includes a form, make sure it’s only asking for the most vital information.

  5. Remove Navigation Elements

    Your landing pages shouldn’t have your usual site navigation. Instead, the only clickable links should be your call to action, and possibly a link to more information for those who are undecided. 

  6. Simplify Your Normal Site Design

    Your landing page should still echo the design of your regular website, though, to reinforce your branding. 

  7. Pay Attention To The Fold

    Make sure that your call to action is located near the top of the page, where someone can click it without having to scroll.

  8. Use Minimal Images and Larger Fonts

    Your landing pages should use only one or, at most, two images. You want to avoid visual clutter on the page, or anything that detracts from the message and call to action.

  9. Start With a Centered, Single-Column Design

    Studies show centered, single-column landing pages convert best, so test that version first.

  10. Match the Look and Feel of Your Campaign

    If your landing page is tied to an email campaign, make sure that the landing page echoes the look and feel of the email. 

  11. Use the Landing Page Tools to Get it Right

    You don’t need a masters in computer science to design a landing page. Instead, use tools like Unbounce to create great looking landing pages.

  12. Don’t Forget To Test Your Landing Page

    Creating effective landing pages isn’t a one-size-fits-all project. What works for one site might not work so well for another. Finding the most effective page design is a matter of trial and error.

Conclusion

Landing pages are website pages designed with one goal in mind — conversions. Following the tips above will help you create a powerful page that drives users towards your business.

Just make sure to keep it simple. This is because landing pages have very specific goals and shouldn’t include any extraneous information that might distract your visitors and prevent them from converting.

Are you considering creating a landing page? What is your landing page goal?

A/B Testing: Definition, How it Works, Examples & Tools

A/B testing is a fantastic method for figuring out the best online promotional and marketing strategies for your business. It can be used to test everything from website copy to sales emails to search ads. While it can be time-consuming, the advantages of A/B testing are enough to offset the additional time it takes. Well-planned …

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A/B Testing: Definition, How it Works, Examples & Tools

A/B testing is a fantastic method for figuring out the best online promotional and marketing strategies for your business. It can be used to test everything from website copy to sales emails to search ads. While it can be time-consuming, the advantages of A/B testing are enough to offset the additional time it takes.

Well-planned tests can make a huge difference in the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. Narrowing down the most effective elements of a promotion and then combining them, can create a far more effective marketing plan.

What is A/B Testing and Why Does it Matter?

A/B testing is a marketing strategy that pits two different versions of a website, ad, email, popup, or landing page against each other to see which is most effective.

For example, you might test two different popups to see which drives more webinar sign-ups or two different Google Ads to see which drives more purchases.

On my own site, I spent time A/B testing my popup to find out what encouraged users to engage with my brand.

neil patel A/B testing example

Over time, we found offering a free website analysis (which provides tons of value) was the most effective way to establish expertise and show visitors the value we offer.

Why is A/B Testing Important?

Accurate A/B tests can make a huge difference to your bottom line. By using controlled tests and gathering empirical data, you can figure out exactly which marketing strategies work best for your company and your product.

When you figure that one variation might work two, three, or even four times better than another, the idea that you would run promotions without testing starts to seem a bit ludicrous.

When done consistentyly, testing can improve your bottom line substantially. If you know what works and what doesn’t (and have evidence to back it up) it’s easier to make decisions and craft more effective marketing strategies.

Here are a few other benefits to running regular tests on your website and marketing materials:

  • Helps You Better Understand Your Target Audience: When you see what types of emails, headlines, and other features your audience responds to, you can better understand who your audience is and what they want.
  • Higher Conversion Rates: A/B testing is the single most effective way to increase conversion rates. Knowing what works and what doesn’t gives you actionable data that can help you streamline the conversion process.
  • Stay On Top of Changing Trends: It’s hard to predict what type of content, images, or other features people will respond to. Testing regularly helps you stay ahead of changing consumer behavior.
  • Reduce Bounce Rates: When site visitors see content they like, they stay on your site longer. Testing to find the type of content and marketing materials your users like will help you create a better site — and one that users want to stay on.

How Do You Plan an A/B Test?

The first thing to do when planning an A/B test is to figure out what you want to test. Are you running an on-site test, or an off-site test? If you’re running an on-site test, you’ll want to think of all the sales-related pieces of your website, and then figure out which elements to test.

For example, you might test:

  • headlines
  • calls to action text
  • calls to action location
  • pop up
  • featured images
  • copy
  • the number of fields in a form

With off-site tests, you’re probably testing either an ad or a sales email. Testing ad copy to see which ad drives more conversions can help you focus your advertising efforts. Once you know your ad is converting as well as possible, it’s easier to justify spending more money on it.

The same goes for emails. If you send out two versions to your list (randomly selecting which half gets which email), and then track which one converts better, you can send only that version the next time.

Once you know what you’ll test, make a list of all the variables you’ll test. For example, if you’ve decided to test your call to action, you might test:

  • the location
  • the exact text used
  • the button color or surrounding space

It’s a process, and it’s common for multiple A/B tests to be carried out prior to making a final decision or final change.

Before you start testing, make sure you have a clear idea of the results you’re looking for. You should already know your baseline result, which is the results you’re currently getting. You want to test option A and B against each other, but you also want to know that whichever one does better in the test is also doing better than your current results.

Alternatively, you can use A as your control (leaving whatever you’re currently using) and then use something new for B.

Tests need to be run simultaneously to account for any variations in timing. You can’t test one variation today and the other one tomorrow, because you can’t factor in any variables that might have changed between today and tomorrow. Instead, you need to split the traffic seeing your variations at the same time.

Here’s an A/B testing checklist to review before running your first test:

  • Decide what you want to test.
  • Create two versions of the same ad, landing page, etc.
  • Decide how long your test will run (I suggest at least two weeks, but it may be longer or slightly shorter depending on your traffic and industry)
  • Chose a testing tool to help you run your test. (More on that later.)
  • Launch!
  • After two or so weeks, take a look at the results. Which version won?
  • Rinse, and repeat. A/B testing is most effective when done continually.

What to Use A/B Testing to Test

You can test virtually anything in your marketing materials or on your website: headlines, calls to action, body copy, images, etc. If you can change it, you can test it.

That doesn’t mean you should spend months testing every little thing. Instead, focus on changes most likely to have a big impact on traffic and conversions.

On your website, this likely includes:

  • the headline
  • your call to action
  • any graphic you use in direct correlation to your sales efforts
  • the sales copy or product descriptions
  • feature image

In an email, you might test the title, images, links, CTAs, or segmenting options. In a paid ad, especially a text ad (like a search ad), you have fewer things to change, and so you might test the main headline, the offer, or targeting.

Testing different offers is also important. Just make sure that each person is always offered the same promotion. For example, if a free gift is offered to group A, and a discount is offered to group B, then you want to make sure that group A always contains the same visitors, as does group B.

You can also test the full path of conversion. For example, you might test newsletter A with landing page A, and newsletter B with landing page B. Later, you may want to test newsletter A with landing page B, and vice versa.

This can give you a better idea of what is working, especially if you’re getting mixed results or if the results are very close. Here are a few other tests you can run.

How Much Time Does A/B Testing Take?

A/B testing is not an overnight project. Depending on the amount of traffic you get, you might want to run tests for anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks. Remember, you only want to run one test at a time for the most accurate results.

Running a test for an insufficient amount of time can skew the results, as you don’t get a large enough group of visitors to be statistically accurate. Running a test for too long can also give skewed results, though, since there are more variables you can’t control over a longer period.

Make sure that you stay abreast of anything that might affect your test results, so that you can account for statistical anomalies in your results. When in doubt, run the test again.

Considering the impact A/B testing can have on your bottom line, it’s worth taking a few weeks to properly conduct tests. Test one variable at a time, and give each test sufficient time to run.

Can I Test More Than One Thing At a Time?

There are two approaches to this question. Say you just want to test your headline, but you have three possible variations. In that case, running a single test and splitting your visitors (or recipients in the case of an email) into three groups instead of two is reasonable, and would likely still be considered an A/B test.

This is more efficient than running three separate tests (A vs. B, B vs. C, and A vs. C). You may want to give your test an extra couple of days to run, so you have enough results to see what actually works.

Testing more than one thing at a time, such as headlines and calls to action, is called a multi-variate test, and is more complicated to run. There are plenty of resources out there for multi-variate testing, but we won’t be covering that when talking about A/B testing.

A/B Testing FAQs

What is A/B Testing and Why Does It Matter?

A/B testing is a marketing strategy that pits two different versions of a website, ad, email, popup, or landing page against each other to see which is most effective. It’s one of the most effective ways to increase conversion rates.

How Do You Plan an A/B Test?

Decide what to test, create two versions, decide on how long to run the test, choose a tool, then see what works!

What to Use A/B Testing to Test

Any part of a paid ad, website, or marketing material including (but not limited to) pop-ups, emails, landing pages, and featured images.

How Much Time Does A/B Testing Take?

Most tests should be run for at least two weeks, but A/B testing should be continual.

Can I Test More Than One Thing At A Time?

Yes, in some cases. In general, it is best to stick to two versions of the same asset.

What A/B Testing Tools Should I Use?

Google’s Optimize is a free, powerful A/B testing tool. Your email platform, landing page tools, or website plugins may also offer this feature. For paid tools, consider Optimizely.

Conclusion

A/B testing is a marketer’s best friend. It allows you to see, for example, what ads drive the most conversions, what offers your audience responds to, or what blog headlines drive the most traffic.

There are a variety of tools you can use to get started, including Google Optimize (which is free!) and Optimizely.

If you’re looking to get started with A/B testing, you can start by learning how to a/b test in Google Analytics.

Are you considering trying A/B testing? What is holding you back?