ISO 9001:2015 , ISO 27001:2022
The How and Why of Apple Pay With Shopify
As far as e-Commerce enterprise solutions go, Shopify stands tall against other well-known online store software solutions, due to its feature rich platform. Many businesses around the world are using Shopify to power their online shops, and with its relatively new added feature of Apple Pay, it’s quite probable more businesses will make the shift to using Shopify in the near future.
So, what is Apple Pay? Apple Pay, which has been available to iPhone users since October 20, 2014, is Apple’s innovative mobile payment service and enables users the ability to apply payments for goods and services via their iPhone in a few simple taps on their screen. Although Apple Pay faced some challenges in getting some of the major banks, along with some other financial institutions in the UK, etc. to get on board, Apple has revived Apple Pay by introducing their payment gateway on November 8, 2016 to the Web.
Apple Pays‘ arrival with Shopify is a game changer in terms of ROI performance for online shop owners. E-commerce businesses that add Apple pay as a payment gateway on their Shopify site are essentially adding an additional convenience for their customers, and this added convenience enhances customer experience, resulting in lower cart abandonment and increased sales.
Shopify integrated with Apple Pay means customers no longer need to sign up for an account or take the time to re-enter their personal information in order to purchase items from a Shopify storefront, as Apple Pay comes equipped with presets for customers billing address and shipping details. The checkout process with Apple Pay via Shopify is quick and easy, allowing customers to make their way through the checkout process in a few taps of the finger.
As far as security is concerned, Apple Pay utilizes a highly secure token system which allocates a unique ID for every transaction, in addition to a device account number that is assigned to individual cards. With a security element chip guarding card information stored within the Wallet app, both consumers and merchants have peace of mind knowing sensitive information is safeguarded.
Whether you currently operate a Shopify storefront, or are looking to launch one in the future consider accepting Apple Pay as a form of payment, as not only will your customers benefit from the added convenience of having a quick and easy way of purchasing, but your business will see an increase in sales.
Strong Password Generator
A strong password is key for protecting your personal information and assets online. Using a different password for every website that is long and has multiple types of characters (numbers, letters, and symbols) will help protect you from someone hacking into your accounts.
Here is a list of 30+ Rules to keep you safe.
1. Do not use the same password, security question and answer for multiple important accounts.
2. Use a password that has at least 16 characters, use at least one number, one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter and one special symbol.
3. Do not use the names of your families, friends or pets in your passwords.
4. Do not use postcodes, house numbers, phone numbers, birthdates, ID card numbers, social security numbers, and so on in your passwords.
5. Do not use any dictionary word in your passwords.
6. Do not use two or more similar passwords which most of their characters are same, for example, ilovefreshflowersMac, ilovefreshflowersDropBox, since if one of these passwords is stolen, then it means that all of these passwords are stolen.
7. Do not use something that can be cloned( but you can’t change ) as your passwords, such as your fingerprints.
8. Do not let your Web browsers( FireFox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, IE ) store your passwords, since all passwords saved in Web browsers can be revealed easily.
9. Do not log in to important accounts on the computers of others, or when connected to a public Wi-Fi hotspot, Tor, free VPN or web proxy.
10. Do not send sensitive information online via unencrypted( e.g. HTTP or FTP ) connections, because messages in these connections can be sniffed with very little effort. You should use encrypted connections such as HTTPS, SFTP, FTPS, SMTPS, IPSec whenever possible.
11. When travelling, you can encrypt your Internet connections before they leave your laptop, tablet, mobile phone or router. For example, you can set up a private VPN( with MS-CHAP v2 or stronger protocols ) on your own server( home computer, dedicated server or VPS ) and connect to it. Alternatively, you can set up an encrypted SSH tunnel between your router and your home computer( or a remote server of your own ) with PuTTY and connect your programs( e.g. FireFox ) to PuTTY. Then even if somebody captures your data as it is transmitted between your device( e.g. laptop, iPhone, iPad ) and your server with a packet sniffer, they’ll won’t be able to steal your data and passwords from the encrypted streaming data.
12. How secure is my password? Perhaps you believe that your passwords are very strong, difficult to hack. But if a hacker has stolen your username and the MD5 hash value of your password from a company’s server, and the rainbow table of the hacker contains this MD5 hash, then your password will be cracked quickly.
To check the strength of your passwords and know whether they’re inside the popular rainbow tables, you can convert your passwords to MD5 hashes on a MD5 hash generator, then decrypt your passwords by submitting these hashes to an online MD5 decryption service. For instance, your password is “0123456789A”, using the brute-force method, it may take a computer almost one year to crack your password, but if you decrypt it by submitting its MD5 hash( C8E7279CD035B23BB9C0F1F954DFF5B3 ) to a MD5 decryption website, how long will it take to crack it? You can perform the test yourself.
13. It’s recommended to change your passwords every 10 weeks.
14. It’s recommended that you remember a few master passwords, store other passwords in a plain text file and encrypt this file with 7-Zip, GPG or a disk encryption software such as BitLocker, or manage your passwords with a password management software.
15. Encrypt and backup your passwords to different locations, then if you lost access to your computer or account, you can retrieve your passwords back quickly.
16. Turn on 2-step authentication whenever possible.
17. Do not store your critical passwords in the cloud.
18. Access important websites( e.g. Paypal ) from bookmarks directly, otherwise please check its domain name carefully, it’s a good idea to check the popularity of a website with Alexa toolbar to ensure that it’s not a phishing site before entering your password.
19. Protect your computer with firewall and antivirus software, block all incoming connections and all unnecessary outgoing connections with the firewall. Download software from reputable sites only, and verify the MD5 / SHA1 / SHA256 checksum or GPG signature of the installation package whenever possible.
20. Keep the operating systems( e.g. Windows 7, Windows 10, Mac OS X, iOS, Linux ) and Web browsers( e.g. FireFox, Chrome, IE, Microsoft Edge ) of your devices( e.g. Windows PC, Mac PC, iPhone, iPad, Android tablet ) up-to-date by installing the latest security update.
21. If there are important files on your computer, and it can be accessed by others, check if there are hardware keyloggers( e.g. wireless keyboard sniffer ), software keyloggers and hidden cameras when you feel it’s necessary.
22. If there are WIFI routers in your home, then it’s possible to know the passwords you typed( in your neighbor’s house ) by detecting the gestures of your fingers and hands, since the WIFI signal they received will change when you move your fingers and hands. You can use an on-screen keyboard to type your passwords in such cases, it would be more secure if this virtual keyboard( or soft keyboard ) changes layouts every time.
23. Lock your computer and mobile phone when you leave them.
24. Encrypt the entire hard drive with LUKS or similar tools before putting important files on it, and destroy the hard drive of your old devices physically if it’s necessary.
25. Access important websites in private or incognito mode, or use one Web browser to access important websites, use another one to access other sites. Or access unimportant websites and install new software inside a virtual machine created with VMware, VirtualBox or Parallels.
26. Use at least 3 different email addresses, use the first one to receive emails from important sites and Apps, such as PayPal and Amazon, use the second one to receive emails from unimportant sites and Apps, use the third one( from a different email provider, such as Outlook and GMail ) to receive your password-reset email when the first one( e.g. Yahoo Mail ) is hacked.
27. Use at least 2 different phone numbers, do NOT tell others the phone number which you use to receive text messages of the verification codes.
28. Do not click the link in an email or SMS message, do not reset your passwords by clicking them, except that you know these messages are not fake.
29. Do not tell your passwords to anybody in the email.
30. It’s possible that one of the software or App you downloaded or updated has been modified by hackers, you can avoid this problem by not installing this software or App at the first time, except that it’s published to fix security holes. You can use Web based apps instead, which are more secure and portable.
31. Be careful when using online paste tools and screen capture tools, do not let them to upload your passwords to the cloud.
32. If you’re a webmaster, do not store the users passwords, security questions and answers as plain text in the database, you should store the salted ( SHA1, SHA256 or SHA512 )hash values of of these strings instead. It’s recommended to generate a unique random salt string for each user. In addition, it’s a good idea to log the user’s device information( e.g. OS version, screen resolution, etc. ) and save the salted hash values of them, then when he/she try to login with the correct password but his/her device information does NOT match the previous saved one, let this user to verify his/her identity by entering another verification code sent via SMS or email.
33. If you are a software developer, you should publish the update package signed with a private key using GnuPG, and verify the signature of it with the public key published previously.
34. To keep your online business safe, you should register a domain name of your own, and set up an email account with this domain name, then you’ll not lose your email account and all your contacts, since your can host your mail server anywhere, your email account can’t be disabled by the email provider.
35. If an online shopping site only allows to make payment with credit cards, then you should use a virtual credit card instead.
36. Close your web browser when you leave your computer, otherwise the cookies can be intercepted with a small USB device easily, making it possible to bypass two-step verification and log into your account with stolen cookies on other computers.
37. Distrust and remove bad SSL certificates from your Web browser, otherwise you will NOT be able to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the HTTPS connections which use these certificates.
How You End An Email Is Just As Important As How You Begin
Words matter especially when you are writing marketing emails. From subject lines to introductions we are taught to use words that captivate, excite, intrigue and convey. But did you know that how end an emails is just as important as how you begin? Everyone who uses email marketing or simply wants more positive results from business emails, from a web design company to a plumbing business, will benefit from learning this simple yet effective lesson.
Always Be Closing
When you are in business an important lesson to learn is ABC or Always Be Closing. Alex Baldwin’s role in the movie Glengarry Glen Ross used this motivational strategy when trying to motivate and teach his sales staff and is well remembered in sales circles. ABC is a valuable lesson and it carries over to your emails as well. You should always be closing from the very beginning of your email, and just as importantly, at the end. A recent study from an email software provider suggests that the closing of your email is just as important, if not more, than the opening. Most emails you send for business want a response of some sort. Perhaps it is advice, maybe it is help, or possibly your email is trying to produce a lead. No matter what the reason, how you end that email could be the key to getting the response you want.
The Power of Gratitude
Gratitude is an extremely powerful concept. When you are thankful or you show appreciation, people often feel the need to reciprocate. It is not just because we are taught to do so, even though many of us are. There is also a psychological aspect to it where people feel more compelled to reciprocate. It is similar to how when someone smiles at you it is hard not to smile back. Following that line of thought, how should you close your emails? If you guessed with some form of gratitude then you are correct! From that study it was noted that closings using some type of gratitude such as ‘thank you’ were much more effective than neutral responses such as ‘regards’. In fact, in the survey it was noted when comparing multiple closings that ‘Best’ and ‘Best Regards’ rated the lowest. ‘Thanks in Advance’ and ‘Thanks’ rated the highest.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line is that you should always be closing if you want to be successful. That means how you end an email is just as important as how you begin because if they take the time to read that far then you need to close strong if you want to illicit a response. So rather than using something polite like ‘kind regards’, step up your email game try ‘Thanks in advance’ and see what a difference it makes.
How to capture your customer’s attention in a content heavy world
You’ve probably read that content marketing has topped the charts as a marketing trend for another year. It’s influence is impressive; according to the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing leaders who create compelling, valuable content experience 7.8 times more site traffic than non-leaders. But creating great content is just part of the puzzle. Now companies must focus on getting the distribution of content right. Having read a report published by the World Economic Forum, personalisation, content fragmentation and partnerships will be key areas to tackle over the next decade.
Personalisation:
With an abundance of content out there, customers decide within a matter of seconds whether they like your marketing message or not. In our era of instant gratification, that trend isn’t likely to subside. So how do you differentiate from the crowd? Companies should be investing their marketing dollars on behavioural data. That involves integrating data from a number of sources: company websites, customer service interactions over the phone and in-store purchases. Analysing this customer behaviour, you can create triggers to entice your customers back. The top players, Amazon and Ebay for example, use personalised marketing methods very well (think about their ‘recommends’ or ‘still considering’ email marketing messages). It’s a strategy that takes time, investment and patience. This manipulation of consumer data will also raise privacy and security issues that will need to be carefully managed.
Content fragmentation:
Just a few short years ago, multiple screens at work were a novelty. Nowadays they are the new normal. Add a smartphone or tablet into the mix, and that’s multiple devices to target. Has your marketing adapted for the multi-device era? If not, you are missing out a large segment of your target audience.
Partnerships:
Facebook, LinkedIn, video, independent blogs, the number of content platforms to feature on could go on for paragraphs. Many of us thought that an increasing number of communication channels would increase our reach. That’s not what we’re seeing. Instead it’s created a great deal of fragmentation within the media industry. Your audience is hanging out in more than one place online. Therefore partnering on the production and distribution of content has become more important than ever before. Taking that a step further, the more you can leverage reciprocal online linking, the better your search engine ranking.
Final thoughts:
Blast marketing messages are becoming less and less effective as your audience is, respectfully, tuning out. Personalisation, multi-device targeting and partnering requires a rethink away from the traditional marketing calendar. It can seem daunting, but even the most successful players start small. Engaging with a digital agency can help point you in the right direction. Contact us for more information.
10 Things You Can Easily Do To Increase Conversions
Every business should be looking for ways to increase their website’s conversion rate. If you aren’t then you are in danger of missing out on potential leads and sales. As a top web development company, we wanted to share 10 Things you can easily do to increase conversions on your website.
Like they say, a penny saved is a penny earned so let’s look at some things you can do to save some conversions and earn a lot more for your bottom line.
10 Things that Increase Conversions
- Clear Value Proposition: This is an often overlooked selling point; what is special about your product or services? What value can they get from you compared to another business or product?
- Testimonials: Testimonials offer the important aspect of social proof to your website which can help nudge perspective customers into converting ones. People want to see that other people like and approve of your offers.
- Guarantees: One of the best conversion increasing concepts for ecommerce sites is a guaranteed refund policy on new purchases. This offers a reduced risk to new customers and can help push them towards converting.
- List Benefits or Features: You need to clearly state all the features and benefits your products and services offer. More than just a value proposition, this is where you cover everything you can provide, uses for items, how items or services will benefit people and more.
- Strong CTA’s: Strong calls to action need to be incorporated into every page, every piece of content and every contact point with customers. You need to tell them what you want to do next, not leave them wondering where to go next.
- Above the Fold: Above the fold is the upper half of the webpage that people always see no matter what size screen or device they are using. You should have CTAs, opt-in or sign-up boxes and other conversion elements above the fold with secondary elements in other locations.
- Multiple Payment Options: Never miss out on a conversion because someone only has VISA when you only accept MasterCard and PayPal or vice versa. Always have the top preferences available.
- Input Fields Optional: When you use forms for information, sign ups, etc make sure that only the critical fields are required. Many people do not like to give out too much information or are in a hurry so allowing as many fields as possible to be optional increases the chances they will actually stay and complete the form.
- Customer Reviews: Customers reviews are another form of social proof although different from testimonials. Reviews should always be honest and real. There should be good reviews and bad because if they are all good then people suspect trickery. Buying decisions are influenced by both positive and negative reviews, especially if you respond to negative reviews with good customer service and/or product updates to offset the problem.
- Social Proof via Social Media: Social media offers another method for social proof. When you include links to share on Facebook or Twitter along with action counts this supports that other people like what you have to offer. After all, if ten thousand other people like your product it must have something going for it!
The bottom line is that conversions are the primary goal for many business websites. So in that regard you should always be on the lookout for anything you can do that will increase those numbers. These 10 things you can easily do to increase conversions are the most common items we see not being done on sites that should be; that is if you like a higher conversion rate.
How to design an impactful logo of your business?
When you are on the verge of starting a new business, you think of everything right from its incorporation to the filing stuff. But, there is one most important thing about your business that needs your prior attention above all other things, and this is the logo of your business or organization. The logo plays a vital role in your business as a whole. This means that your logo is the first thing that comes to the notice of your prospects when they see your company name on the web or otherwise. So, it is important that you give your best in creating the logo for your company or business because this is the primary thing that will be used on your letterheads or prints or anywhere for that matter. Moreover, the logo is the primary thing that will tell the world about your firm as to what your business is all about and what it sells. Therefore, it is necessary for you to pay utmost attention while creating the logo of your company. Here, we will show you the steps that will guide you in the development of your logo.
BEGIN WITH THE STORY
Every company or the business has its own story apart from what product or service it sells. Moreover, it is vital that you should be able to sell yourself in the market above selling your products or services. Therefore, it is necessary that you start with a story of your business when you sit down to design your logo. For this, you should ask yourself a question “ why are you starting this business?” Normally, every business is started with an aim to make profits and gains, but then, every business has its own story as to why it is started or what is the history of starting that particular business. So, this “why” will take you to the story line of your business.
BRAINSTORMING & SKETCHING
Now, when you have your story in your hands, you can start to bring it up in a sketch. This means that you can sketch out your concept in a visual form. For this, you can go through a dictionary and find few words that will describe your business as well why you have started this business. When you are ready with a concept, you just have to make that concept visible in the form of a sketch or something of that sort. For doing this, you have to keep this in mind that it should be simple so that you don’t get confused in making it visual. Further, you have to move on to the color selection and make sure you choose the colours that define your company precisely and don’t create any other impression. Moreover, see to it that you don’t use more than three colours in your logo. This will create a sober impression in the minds of your users or consumers about your business.
PUT YOUR SKETCHES TO THE TEST
When you are ready with a few samples of your sketches of your logo, you can select the top three among them and put them to test. This means that you can show these designs to few people around you like your family, friends, and a trustworthy adviser who will give you the honest opinions about your logo design. It is important that you take every feedback in your stride and don’t take anything negatively because these people’s opinions will be better to guide you through making your logo better for your business.
DEVELOP A LAYOUT
When you are ready with the final design of your logo that is the final sketch, it is the time to bring it to life on a digital medium. For this, you have to be sure about some technical things that are related with making the logo digital. Make sure about what colours you are using and what text you are putting in your logo. Also, make sure that you have spaced out your text in an appropriate manner and have properly lined up all the shapes included in the logo. Try to be perfect with all the technical things that come when making the logo digital.
BE VERSATILE IN YOUR COLOURS
For your logo design, be prepared that your logo may be used in the dark as well as a light background. So, choose the colours accordingly so that you don’t have to face a complete change of colours later on. Try the color theme by applying the logo on both the backgrounds so that you know where to make the changes. Also, try your logo on the promotional products like T-shirts, or mugs, or anything that will highlight your logo. So, be versatile in choosing the colours of your logo.
CORRECT SELECTION OF FONT
Fonts play a major role in defining your logo. Your fonts are the foremost thing after the colours that come to the notice of your prospects. So, choose your fonts wisely and try to avoid the fonts like Times New Roman, Lucida Handwriting, and Comic Sans as they will work against your company. You can go for fonts like sans serif (with no feet) or serif (with feet) as they are considered as classic and modern font styles for the logo.
FLEXIBILITY
Logos are created to represent the company, and so they should be designed in such a way that they look legible on whatever they are embossed. This means that your logo should be legible on any media like social, prints, and promotional products like T-shirts and others. So, ensure the scalability of your logo when it comes to representing your company or the organisation. So, make sure that the size of your logo looks the same irrespective of the medium you put it on. Represent your business in the best possible way through an impactful logo. There are lots of other things that may be required to be considered in designing a logo for your business but the above ones will guide you through doing so.
TOP 5 TIPS TO INCREASE HOLIDAY CONVERSIONS
Shopping trends have changed drastically over the past few years and more and more numbers of people are looking to shop online than hopping from one store to another. With abundant choices right in front of your eyes, customers can check out different kinds of products at the same place while shopping online. The holiday season is approaching and shopping is going to increase both online and offline. The main target of the e-commerce sites now is to take the shoppers as close as possible to the shopping carts and complete the transaction successfully. In the holiday season, conversions increase as the e-commerce industry remains at its peak.
Top 5 highly effective tips which can help in increasing holiday conversions:
KEEP THE CUSTOMER REGISTRATION PROCESS SIMPLE
Many e-commerce portals have elaborate registration process for the customer. During the holiday season, when everyone is in hurry of buying their favorite things, such long process might make the customer leave the portal. With a simple customer registration process, they can sign in, sign out or even purchase goods quickly. Infact many Ecommerce solutions do not require registering for shopping at all. Rushes at such places are obviously high. Forced registration can be a step that the customer might not take very well.
DISPLAY OF PAYMENT GATEWAYS AND POPULAR GIFTS RECOMMENDATIONS
Though online shopping has become quite popular day, many people are still hesitant in using this medium for purchasing things. As an e-commerce site, you should be able to encourage the customer to make purchases by guiding them through the process and instill confidence. Display the different payment gateways through which the customer can make payments easily. Also to attract attention, demonstrate the popular gifts that can be purchased for the holiday season, which will fit in your budget for sure.
GUIDE CUSTOMERS IN MAKING AN INFORMED PURCHASE
Gain the confidence of the customer by helping him in making an informed purchase of the product. The customer feels relaxed and happy before using his credit or debit card for making the payment. First time buyers are generally hesitant in buying things online, particularly just before the holiday season. The informed purchasing help helps in building that connection with the customer so that the holiday stress does not become an issue in buying. With improved and helpful communication with the customers, they will have positive experience and become repeat buyers.
REVAMP THE LANDING PAGE
As per suggestions from an experienced SEO company, it is recommended to work on the main landing page of the e-commerce site. The most valuable information should be displayed right on the top. The design should be easy to understand and the navigation should be simplified as well. The call to action buttons should be prominently visible. These are small revamps in the main landing page of the e-commerce portal for increasing conversions during the holiday season.
REMOVE LINKS THAT CAN DISTRACT CUSTOMERS
Usually e-commerce sites have different kinds of links from various sources, which are quite distracting for the customer. Try getting rid of such links so that the customer can focus on the product solely and purchase it finally. The left hand navigation on the product pages are removed by many e-commerce sites so that the product image and other details can be provided clearly. The call to action button also becomes prominent.
Infographics Fridays: How to Love Work
We’ve been loving Valentine’s week at here at Innovins, and our VAs have been bitten by the love bug!
Unsurprisingly, our series this week was all about love. The first part was all about fueling your love for work. For the second part, we shared tips on how you can rekindle your passion for work. Today, we’re sealing it with a kiss with a new infographic!
What did you think of our Valentine-inspired infographic? Share the love in the comments below. If you’d like to know more about working with virtual assistants, just sign up for our free five-hour trial to get started!
Innovins is a business solutions firm that specializes in virtual administrative and personal assistance, online marketing, customer support, and copywriting. We are known for reliability through our managed services, responsive client handling backed by extensive training, and rockstar virtual assistants hired for their skills and expertise.
5 Things You Need To Do When You No Longer Love Your Work
We’ve all been there. You have the perfect job, the one you’ve always wanted. You started with high hopes and big dreams. But after a while, you discover that the luster of your dream job has grown dull. So what do you do?
Today, we’ll be looking at how you can keep your passion for work alive. Here are five things you need to do when you feel like you no longer love your work!
Discover something new about your work:
Complacency can often leave you behind on the tracks. Make it a habit to learn new things about your work and the industry you’re in. Read books and take notes. Attend conferences, seminars, and workshops that the office offers. Educate yourself on the latest news and trends. When new and interesting opportunities arise, you’ll be well-equipped to grab them!
Focus on what you like doing :
Using your strength is not only liberating but also empowering. Focus on what you’re good at and what makes you awesome at your position. This can motivate you to tackle tough tasks head on. Instead of thinking of your work as mundane, consider them as a developing ground that hones your skills and puts your expertise to practice.
Declutter your workspace :
People often say, “A messy desk is a messy mind.” When you feel demotivated, it might be because you’re not cleaning up as you go. Take some time to clear out junk from your workspace. Organize your inbox. Delete useless emails. Clean up your desk. By doing this, you’re deciding on what is valuable and what is not. It is a physical and practical way to engage in actively making decisions!
Ask for new responsibilities :
Nothing makes us more enthusiastic than new challenges and figuring out how to overcome them. It’s a great way to get your mind off of the routine you’ve gotten so used to. Sit down and dissect your current position to pinpoint a new responsibility you can add. This can help refresh your focus and possibly score you points with your boss!
Stress less, smile more :
Did you know that smiling and laughing more at work can help you be more engaged at your job? It’s true! The more engaged you are the happier and more enthusiastic you will be tackling your to-do list for the day. Happiness is infectious, too! Soon your fellow workers will want to be around your positive force. Besides, who doesn’t want a laugh every now and then to ease up on the stress, right?
At the end of the day, you need to be conscious of your expectations and goals. Be mindful that the fastest way to kill a passion is by comparing yourself to the accomplishments of others. Every once in a while you’ll feel like you’re falling out of love with your work. When the time comes, take a step back to reevaluate and focus on your craft, your vision, and you’ll rekindle your passion in no time.
Do you need to offload tasks to someone so you can focus on more important work? One of our virtual assistants can take care of that for you! Avail of our free five-hour trial to get started!
What Your Brand Needs To Know About Podcast Advertising
You often hear people refer to our current cultural moment as “the golden age of television”, but we think that we also happening to be living in the golden age of podcasting. Podcasting has changed the way we consume audio by helping to democratize the airwaves. Broadcast networks used to the sole gatekeepers to audio storytelling and news, but now, with a small investment in quality recording equipment, anyone can create a podcast. The breadth of content that has resulted is amazing — there’s something for everyone.
Podcasting is an exciting space right now. But, with the exception of Mailchimp, aka Mailkimp (little insider podcast humor for you there), most brands are not very familiar with podcast advertising. With that in mind we put together a list of some of the things to know if you’re considering launching a campaign:
Listener numbers are growing
Aided, in part, by the phenomenon that was 2014’s smash hit, Serial, podcasts are experiencing something of a renaissance. Listener numbers are on the rise — from 8% of the US population in 2014 to 13% of the population in 2016 (roughly 35 million people).
The audience skews young
Perhaps unsurprisingly, podcast audiences skew on the younger side. One reason might be that a lot of podcast content seems aimed at younger audiences. Many shows are unscripted conversations between hosts and the tone is usually more casual or off-the-cuff than it is in more traditional forms of media. It may also be that younger audiences are more comfortable or familiar with accessing media on their devices than older ones.
The audience tunes in often
The podcast audience tends to tune in relatively frequently. Of listeners who listened in the past 6 months, 55% listened at least once a week. An additional 30% per cent reported listening 1-3 times per month.
Ad engagement is good
Audience engagement with ads appears to be good. High numbers of listeners report engaging with a brand in one way or another after hearing an ad.
Cost are based on impressions
Costs are based on impressions and impressions, in this case, are measured based on how many times a podcast is downloaded. Strictly speaking, there’s no guarantee the download will get played or that the user will stay tuned in long enough to hear all the ads within the episode.
According to eMarketer, average podcast advertising CPMs are currently around $21-22 and are expected to rise over the next few years:
Tracking and targeting are imperfect
Just like television and radio advertising, podcast advertising is a bit murky to track. Many advertisers implement promotional codes and urge listeners to use those codes on their websites as a means of gaining visibility into the effectiveness of their podcast advertising. Without a promotional code though, there is very low visibility into the traffic generated from ads. You’ll know how many impressions your ads garner, but you won’t be able to tell what portion of your website traffic is generated from those ads or how engaged that ad traffic is once it reaches you. Absent promotional codes or custom URLs used in podcast campaigns, you can look at typical brand awareness metrics to measure the success of your ads.
Targeting is also somewhat challenging. While it’s possible, of course, to do placements on podcasts that have demographics which are aligned with your brand, the ability to do more granular targeting does not exist.
Ads are usually host-read
Most of the time, podcast ads are read by the hosts of the show. The host may read word-for-word from a prepared sponsor message, or they may have a few brand talking points that they riff on. This approach can definitely feel more personal to listeners and it’s less disruptive, overall, to the listening experience to stay with the voice of the show host rather than cutting to an advertiser-produced ad. However, this arrangement may also be less comfortable for brands who are accustomed to maintaining strict control over their creative.
You can hear a few examples of host-read ads on the Panoply Media advertisers landing page.
Key Takeaways
Podcast audiences, though still small relative to other forms of media, are growing and podcast audiences are generally engaged. Demographics skew young, which makes the medium attractive for brands whose target customers are 35 and under. Tracking and targeting are not perfect — other than tracking conversions with the use of promotional codes or custom URLs, brand awareness metrics are the best way to evaluate success with podcast advertising.
What else do you think brands should know about podcast advertising? Is podcast advertising for your brand’s online marketing strategy? Share with us in the comments below.
