The internet has completely transformed the way business is done today. Consumers now find more comfort and searching for products online and making their purchases.
As there is growth in online shopping, there is great relevance to online reviews as well. After all, trust plays a huge factor in the online shopping space.
Even brands understand the importance of online reviews, and hence to help their customers and prove credibility, businesses are now actively using the Google reviews widget on their website.
Google review widgets are like functional blocks on websites that enable displaying Google reviews without any hassle.
There are many tools currently available on the internet that offer a dedicated Google review widgetand allow you to embed the Google review widget on the website smoothly. Moreover, these tools also provide some additional features that bring tremendous value to this strategy of adding Google reviews.
In this blog, you will learn why the Google reviews widget on the website has such relevance and need to businesses.
In short, here are some of the benefits of adding a Google review widget on a website that you can enjoy if you use it for your business.
Benefits Of Utilizing Google Reviews Widget On The Website
Google review widget has ample benefits, but in this blog, we have handpicked some of the major benefits that might provide you with an idea of how the Google review widget impacts your business. If you aren’t yet using the Google reviews widget for your business, you are missing out on these benefits.
#1 Builds trustworthiness for the business
We all know that competition in the marketplace is fierce, and customers are spoilt for choices. And hence, to win customers’ trust, it is necessary to prove credibility. With the Google review widget on the website, consumers can read the reviews related to your business and make up their minds.
Moreover, reviews help to know the customer’s point of view of the business and hence help them make their purchase decision. Often, current users of the product or customers provide images with the review, which also works as proof of the product and eventually helps build some reliability.
#2 Improves brand reputation
As there are numerous brands in the market, there could be some brands that do not deliver the product that they promise or sometimes mislead or misguide their customers. So, showing your reviews on the website helps produce a reputation in the market and build trustworthiness.
In addition, reviews on the website also show that you are a transparent brand. That means you are not shy to showcase reviews on the website and provide complete information about their respective products. It eventually helps create a brand reputation and showcases that your brand acknowledges customers’ feedback and even displays it on the website.
#3 Brings an engagement to the website
As mentioned above, consumers have ample options in the online marketplace; hence it becomes vital that your website stands out from the rest. And visitors’ engagement on the website has a crucial role to play. An engaging website helps make an everlasting impression and keeps the visitors on the website. Google reviews widget allows in this cause as well.
Google review widget provides all reviews related to your business, keeping your visitors engaged. Moreover, they provide real-time updates, which means as soon as someone uploads reviews on the source, the widget displays it without delay.
#4 Holds visitors to the website
Visitors often visit different websites and platforms to read reviews related to a brand. If you embed the Google reviews widget on a website and provide them with all the Google reviews pertaining to your brand on your website itself, it will be helpful for them as they don’t have to explore more places for the reviews.
It will help you to hold your visitors on the website, as they will be spending more time on your website, and there are chances that they might end up buying from your brand. Also, with the help of tools that provide you with a Google reviews widget, you can even moderate the content on the widget. That means you can remove the reviews that mention the name of some other brands and keep your visitors focused on your brand only.
#5 Reduces bounce rate of the website
Consumers usually visit search engines while searching for a product or even a brand. Hence, it is vital to have a better search engine ranking so that consumers get to know about your brand and visit your website.
There are ample ways to get a better search engine ranking, and a reduced bounce rate is one of them. When customers have the privilege to read the reviews on the website and make a purchase, they are less likely to exit the website. And hence with the Google reviews widget, you can increase the website’s engagement and reduce the bounce rate.
Summing It Up
As mentioned before, there are ample advantages of using the Google reviews widget on websites. The advantages mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many other benefits associated with the Google review widget, but to enjoy them, you need to embed the Google review widget on the website.
You can find tools like social media aggregators that eases the embedding process and assist you in providing desired results.
To find these tools now, embed Google reviews widget on the website with the help of these tools and take your businesses to new heights.
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
Like any other campaign, it all starts with determining the objectives or goals of the campaign. A few words on this and then we will have a look at what link building can look like.
Keep in mind that although what you are doing is called link building, you are actually involved in a kind of online marketing, for which planning always starts with objectives or goals. Your objectives should be first of all realistic and relevant.
Realistic meaning that they should be achievable in the kind of time frame you have in mind and with the resources you already possess. Relevant means that link building should, preferably, not be a goal in itself but rather lead on to the bigger road to achieving some form of success or progress for your business, organization or individual you are promoting.
This article talks about some of the ways of starting a Link Building Campaign. Follow me as we will look at that together in this article.
For example, get links from 15 popular blogs, sounds like a nice goal to have,but will this have an effect on the overall growth of your business or organization? Do you have the content ready to convert this new traffic into users or customers, or to maintain a long-term relationship with these new visitors? Suppose you have 200 new visitors during the first week, but your website had no content in that time and most of the visitors had a quick look and left unimpressed. Did your goal achieve anything in the bigger picture? It actually did some harm.
because quite possibly most of those users will not come again even after you improve your content, because they will think, ‘Yeah I remember the site, I was not too pleased’.
So setting objectives is key to starting out right, because if you do not, anything you do after that might be effort, time and resources spent in the wrong direction, a direction which might even do you harm.
Lastly, remember that although linkbuilding is a part of online marketing, it is different in the sense of the time span of its results, which are not going to be instantaneous as opposed to putting up an online advertisement or a television commercial. This does not mean that your campaign has failed. Neither should you promise instantaneous results for any website that you do perform linkbuilding for.
What are your assets?
Like barter in old times, if you are going to get links from other people, you need to have something that they are interested in as well – the reason that a blogger or a website owner would care about what you have to give; something that attracts them enough to put up a link for you.
That reason is what we call an asset and it will differ from one website to another, and it also depends on whether you are a business, an organization or an individual. Assets need to be relevant for the people you want to attract. Below are a few examples of what an asset could be:
• Data • Content • Products • Services • Community
Lastly, remember that money is no longer an asset you can offer in linkbuilding. Although some might say it never was a preferable one to begin with. Google actively penalizes SEOs, websites and/or individuals involved in buying links. Links come in many flavours.
Next, you will need to plan what kind of links you need and in what sort of mixture. Linkbuilding offers the opportunity to implement many kinds of linking, depending on the needs of a campaign. From deep-linking which involves making links to pages deep within a site structure, to a specific product or piece of content, to brand-linking which means creating links that contain your brandinformation/the name of your company.
You can come up with a sketch of your requirements after you do a complete analysis of your website and link profile. Be on the lookout for areas of improvement and innovation. Here are a few examples of the kind of linking to choose from:
• Links to your homepage/mainpage • Deep linking • Brand linking • Links that contain target keywords It is good to build a campaign with a diverse linking strategy for optimum results and a more comprehensive link profile.
Social links
As long as we are discussing types of links, we have to mention so-called social links. These are the links from social networks. Even though they are not as relevant and powerful as links posted on other websites, it is speculated that social links do have some value in determining ranking, as they can indicate the level of quality of a certain page. If a certain page is shared a lot of times on social networks, it means that it provides some kind of value, and this usually indicates high-quality or original content.
This is one of the reasons why social media marketing has become an important part of online marketing, and thus it can be related to search engine optimization.
Besides being present on social media and engaging with your followers, another why to encourage social sharing directly from your website is to use social sharing buttons, which can be installed as a plug-in on your website.
Looking for your people
Now that you are on your way and ready to start your campaign, you will need to think about the type of people you will be contacting to ask for links and attract as linkpartners. It is best to make sure that whomever you reach out to is someone who is interested in whatever your content is, since reaching out to people randomly leads to a low response rate and even lower ratio of success.
One of the ways to ensure better responses is to place ‘hooks’ in your content. No, you will notneed a hammer for this. A hook is something that makes a potential linker interested or committed to giving your content a fair chance, an element that makes the viewer stay put and wants to finish what you have to show, share or say. Here are examples of a few hooks:
Social mediawebsites, like Facebook or LinkedIn, are great places for you to get a feel for how people are spending their time in virtual spaceand how what they are sharing with others. Identify patterns in the content being passed on and try to work those elements into hooks, which you place in your own content.
Once you feel you have come up with a potential list of people who might be interested in linking to your website, you can search for that list creatively on a search engine.
So, for example, if one of the target linkers you have identified is a travel blogger, you search for a list of travel blogs and then use a tool like the Scraper plug-in on Chrome to get all of those URLs copied off the results page in one go and paste them on to a working page on email or a spreadsheet.
Use a tool like URL Opener to open all the sites with one go. Look for any contact info on the sites, which could be email address, Twitter or LinkedIn account, Facebook page, etc.
Tools like Followerwonk will allow you to search Twitter bios and accounts for keywords of your choice. So, if your website is about cigars and pipes, offering products and reviews, you could look for keywords like cigar aficionado with blogger or pipe enthusiast with blogger or just tobaccoblogger or cigar blogger to get a list of people with Twitter accounts who have blogs related to your own content. You then download these results into a spreadsheet.
Next, you will want to find out as much as possible about these potential link partners you have come up with to help you craft a message that is as personalized and relevant as possible. Do not send out emails that seem like automated messages with a template. Think of this as SEO for a person rather than a search engine. You will want each person to like you as much as possible if you are to entertain hopes of having a high success rate with your list.
It is also efficient to sort the link targets in the order of priority when doing your outreach. Of course, they will have varying importance and priority in terms of how much Page or Domain Authority they have. Secondly, they might be sorted based on how many followers they have on social media. Lastly, their relevance to your specific field may also be a factor in prioritizing.
An advisable minimum Page Authority for your targets would be 1 and for Domain Authority a figure of 25. They can be lower or higher depending how long your list is. Use MozBar tool to determine the Page and Domain Authority of a website.
Also be very careful when using generic greetings like ‘Hi Webmaster’ or ‘Dear Blogger’. They might associate your email with automated spam that they are used to receiving. A good message will contain the following if possible:
• The other person’s name • A great subject line • A detailed or specific comment about their work • The use of an authentic email signature • Disclosure of your own current location
It is also best to avoid using one of these famous, free email addresses from Google or Yahoo! as they are also mostly used by spammers unfortunately.
Lastly, remember to follow up with the bloggers and website owners you are targeting as they probably receive a lot of emails, making it difficult to keep track of them all. Do not let negative responses get you down and instead, ask for feedback about your content. A blogger might not like your current content but they might like something in the future.
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
Many of us have heard many things about ITIL or IT Infrastructure Library, only a few of us knew what ITIL is all about. In this article, I want to talk about all that ITIL is all about. I can promise you that I will break it down to the extent that you will dream about them.
#1 Most widely used
The very first thing you need to know about ITIL is that it is the most widely used IT Service management framework in the world. It is not that there are no other methodologies that can be adopted but it just happened that ITIL owned by the government of the UK is the most widely used framework.
#2Value creation
Another major component of ITIL is the emphasis on creating services through the creation of value. You have to make sure that you are delivering value to customers through the provision of services that are of value to customers.
#3 Business strategy
With ITIL, you also have to make sure that you designed a business strategy based on the needs of the customers. You have to sit down and identify the needs of your customers and come up with a blueprint that will allow you to deliver value to your customers.
#2 Standard approach
ITIL also helps in presenting a common approach to managing IT projects. It also the processes to be standardised in such a way that it is very easy for organisations to adopt that common approach. This also guarantees that if anyone follows that same approach, they will achieve the same result.
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
In my previous article, I looked at some of the facts that you need to consider when you need to host your website. In this article, I want to talk about some of the ways that you can implement insights based on Data Analysis. Follow me as we are going to look at this together in this article.
One of the means of determining whether a particular decision should be implemented fully or not is to carry out A/B Testing on that website. This can be done when you need to determine which method that you are about to implement will work best. Also, there is software that can be used to make decisions when it comes to A/B testing. You can always google the best website or application that will work best for you.
A/B testing is carried out on your current website and the optimized website to identify the design that achieves better results. This will allow you to decide on which of the results you should go with.
Also, multivariate testing allows you to make changes to multiple elements on your website such as images, headlines, buttons, and colours among others of the website in other to identify the design of elements that improve your website conversion rate.
This test allows the visitors to view both current and optimized sites to determine the best one to use. You have to choose the best design having a low bounce rate and more conversions to drive more traffic to your website.
There is a need for you to clearly understand the difference between A/B Testing and multivariate testing. In A/B testing, one component is tested at a time while in multivariate testing, two or more components are tested at once. This might include header, buttons, font size and headers among others.
Overcoming difficulties while performing web testing…
#1 No linking
One of the things that you should not do is you should not link testing to your landing pages. You have to make sure that you implement testing on every page of your website. This will help in limiting the number of people that leave your site due to annoying web pages.
#2 Begin your testing on small segments
Also, you will need to evaluate the performance of your testing on smaller segments before moving to bigger segments. When you need to implement it bit by bit. It is when the system works effectively with smaller segments that you can now decide to implement it on other segments. This will assist you in detecting errors easily.
Take Corrective Actions
Once you receive web analysis results, you need to take corrective actions to enhance your website. Some of these corrective actions include:
making design changes to the website
Using suitable keywords in your contents
Creating interesting and meaningful contents
Designing attractive landing pages
Updating your content, video and images
Promoting your video and content using new technologies
Performing SEO
Enabling easy navigation on your blog and website.
Action Point PS: If you would like to have an online course on any of the courses that you found on this blog, I will be glad to do that on an individual and corporate level, I will be very glad to do that because I have trained several individuals and groups and they are doing well in their various fields of endeavour. Some of those that I have trained include staff of Dangote Refinery, FCMB, Zenith Bank, and New Horizons Nigeria among others. Please come on Whatsapp and let’s talk about your training. You can reach me on Whatsapp HERE. Please note that I will be using Microsoft Team to facilitate the training.
I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you can drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNIGERIA is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
In my previous article, I talked about some of the facts that you need to consider when you need to host your website. I have also talked about some of the reasons why you should analyse your data for analysis. In this article, I want to talk about how to segment valuable data for analysis. Follow me as we are going to look at this together in this article.
When it comes to the analysis of data, there are times that you will have to gather as much data as you can. You need to understand that it is not all data that you gathered that are relevant.
You will need to group your data based on their relevance. This at times, will allow you to do a proper analysis of your data in order to make effective decisions. To do this effectively, you need to segment your data based on the characteristics that they have in common.
Please note that the data collected in the previous steps need to be segmented in order to make web analytics work effectively. That is why you have to adopt the use of acquisition-based segmentation in your data analysis.
#1 Action-based segmentation When you carry out action-based segmentation, you are segmenting users and visitors based on the actions they performed on your website. This at times can assist you in understanding some of the characteristics that your users have in common. It can also help in creating strategies to drive visitors to your website such as banner ads, SEO, email, and Pay Per Click among others.
These steps can also help in identifying areas where your company spends extra money to acquire traffics. This allows you to come up with strategies to avoid such extravagant spending and come up with strategies that are more cost-effective.
#2 Behaviour-based segmentation This is based on the activities carried out by the visitors on your websites such as viewing every page on your website, subscribing to your blog, and RSS subscription among others. Please note by identifying and focusing on the behaviour, you can understand what your customer wants and work on how you can meet their needs.
There are some parameters that are used for behaviour-based segmentation, this includes:
Total page views
Total bounce rates
Average time on site.
Number of returning visitors
Actions performed by returning visitors on-site.
In-depth browsing performed by visitors on your site to extract information
Visitor’s frequency
#3 Outcome-based segmentation This is based on all crucial activities for your business such as making a purchase, signing up for email newsletters, and downloading content from your site among others.
This also focuses on a group of visitors who have delivered good outcomes instead of individual outcomes. It also helps in investing in campaigns that generate a profitable outcome for your business.
Here are some of the parameters for outcome-based segmentation:
Customers who placed online orders and the person who submitted the lead.
Customers and the product they bought, ordered size and quantity among others.
7 Data Collection Methods For Data Analytics
In my previous article, I looked at some of the facts that you need to consider when it comes to hosting a website. In this article, I want to look at some of the major data collection methods that can be deployed when you need to collect data from your audience. Most times, the collection of this day will let you understand what the audience feels about your products and services. It will also assist you in taking the right steps so that you can continue to engage customers on your website.
When it comes to data collection for web analytics, there are several methods that can be used to collect data from users. You should note that most of these data can be collected without the consent of the users. The reason is that some of the users might not want to give you some facts that you need to make the right decisions. You have to decide based on the actions that users are performing on your website. Some of these methods that can be used for the collection of data without the user’s consent include a weblog, javascript, tagging, and packet sniffing among other methods.
Apart from the data collection methods that I have mentioned, here are some of the other methods that can be used for data collection:
Survey
Emails
Customer comments
Expert review
Competitor Analysis
Market research reports
Campaign statistics
#1 Survey
One of the means of getting feedback from your customers is through the use of survey forms. You can decide to share survey forms with your audience in order to aggregate their opinions about your products and services. This will allow you to sample what your customers feel about your products and services based on the different segments that they belong to.
#2 Emails
Another means of aggregating the opinion of your customers and visitors is through the use of emails. You can actually request the opinion of your customers and visitors about your website. Please note that except that some of these visitors are complaining about poor services, they might not want to pen down what they feel is wrong with your services. You will have to figure out what the problem is on your own. That is why feel that email is not the best method for knowing what customers feel about your products and services.
#3 Customer comments One of the means of gathering more data about your customers is through customer comments. When you post an article, or customers have cause to complain about products and services you have offered them. If you really take the time to go through their comments, it can give you an idea of what customers have to say about your products and services. This will give you an idea of how you can serve them better.
#4 Expert review There are times that you should invite Subject Matter Experts to review your customer engagement strategy. You might need this category of people at times to give you direction on how you can serve your customers better. Their in-depth analysis at times can give you an idea of how you can actually serve your customers better.
#5 Competitor Analysis
When it comes to online business or any other type of business, you can not close your eyes to what your competitors are doing. There is a need for you to gather as much data as possible about your competitors as well as some of the reigning keywords that your competitors are bidding for. This will allow you to know some of the ideas that you can borrow from your competitors. It may also give you an idea of what your competitors are doing that might interest your audience as well.
#6 Market Research Statistics
There are times that the marketing department or other departments in the organisation will have to carry out research in order for them to have a better understanding of customers’ positions regarding their products and services. Some of these reports will allow organisations to plan product development properly. They will now have a general idea of what customers expect from their products and services. It will also assist them in understanding the reasons why customers are buying their products and services as well.
#7 Campaign statistics
One of the major areas that online businesses should take seriously is the aspect of campaign management. you need to analyse campaigns in order to determine whether there are some campaign strategies that can be reused or jettison. After you might have run any campaign, you need to sit down and look at how such a campaign has performed. This will assist you in deciding if there are aspects of the campaign that can be useful for the future. This will allow you to run an effective campaign that really works.
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
In my previous article, I talked about some of the reasons why you need to choose good hosting for your website. In this article, I want to talk about some of the reasons why website metrics are important. Follow me as we are going to look at that in this article.
Why they are important… #1 Classify KPI Website metrics will always help you in classifying Key Performance Indicators. It will allow you to really focus more attention on what really matters to you. With it, you can decide on those factors that are really more indicators of your success and pay more attention to them.
#2 Overall productivity Also, website metrics can assist you in determining the overall productivity of your website. Through website metrics, at a glance, you can really determine how the website is performing. This will allow you to determine the steps that you need to take so that your website can perform better.
#3 Making improvements Also, websites metrics are important when you need to make improvements to your website. They will allow you to determine some of the factors that are discouraging users on your website. This will also assist you in determining what you need to do in order to improve the user experience on your website as well.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3T0Hw4A-QQ[/embedyt] #4 Design and graphics error Also, when it comes to designing your website, there are some designs and graphics errors that you are likely to make that will hinder the user experience on your website. Paying close attention to website analytics on your website will assist you in knowing what you need to do in order to correct such design and graphics errors.
#5 Improve user interface Also, you need to understand that you will have a high level of bounce rate on your website if users do not understand how to navigate your website. Paying close attention to website metrics will allow you to analyse your bounce rate and other factors. This will help you to determine how to redesign your user interface so as to increase users’ engagement on your website.
#6 Glorify Pay Per Click campaigns Also, when you are running ad campaigns, you need to pay more attention to your website analytics. Paying more attention to your website analytics will help to know the number of clicks that you are getting from such campaigns. This will be a determining factor when you need to decide on whether you should stop the campaign or not. #7 Design better landing pages Most times, when you are running campaigns, you might not be having increased conversion because you have designed a poor landing page. At times, you just need to redesign the landing page in order to have increased conversion. The only thing that can assist you in making the right decision when it comes to designing a landing page is to pay more attention to your website metrics.
#8 Better Decision Also, focusing more attention on your website metrics can assist you in making better decisions about your website development. This will assist you when you need to make decisions regarding campaigns, search optimization and lead generation for your website among other critical decisions that you need to make on your website.
In my previous article, I have talked about some of the reasons why you need to choose good hosting for your website. In this article, I want to talk about some of the reasons why website metrics are important. Follow me as we are going to look at that in this article.
Why they are important…
#1 Classify KPI
Website metrics will always help you in classifying Key Performance Indicators. It will allow you to really focus more attention on what really matters to you. With it, you can decide on those factors that are really more indicators of your success and pay more attention to them.
#2 Overall productivity
Also, website metrics can assist you in determining the overall productivity of your website. Through website metrics, at a glance, you can really determine how the website is performing. This will allow you to determine the steps that you need to take so that your website can perform better.
#3 Making improvements
Also, website metrics are important when you need to make improvements to your website. They will allow you to determine some of the factors that are discouraging users on your website. This will also assist you in determining what you need to do in order to improve the user experience on your website as well.
#4 Design and graphics error
Also, when it comes to designing your website, there are some designs and graphics errors that you are likely to make that will hinder the user experience on your website. Paying close attention to website analytics on your website will assist you in knowing what you need to do in order to correct such design and graphics errors.
#5 Improve user interface
Also, you need to understand that you will have a high level of bounce rate on your website if users do not understand how to navigate your website. Paying close attention to website metrics will allow you to analyse your bounce rate and other factors. This will help you to determine how to redesign your user interface so as to increase users’ engagement on your website.
#6 Glorify Pay Per Click campaigns
Also, when you are running ad campaigns, you need to pay more attention to your website analytics. Paying more attention to your website analytics will help to know the number of clicks that you are getting from such campaigns. This will be a determining factor when you need to decide on whether you should stop the campaign or not.
#7 Design better landing pages
Most times, when you are running campaigns, you might not be having increased conversion because you have designed a poor landing page. At times, you just need to redesign the landing page in order to have increased conversion. The only thing that can assist you in making the right decision when it comes to designing a landing page is to pay more attention to your website metrics.
#8 Better Decision
Also, focusing more attention on your website metrics can assist you in making better decisions about your website development. This will assist you when you need to make decisions regarding campaigns, search optimization and lead generation for your website among other critical decisions that you need to make on your website.
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
In my previous article, I tried to look at some of the factors that you need to consider when you need to host your website. In this article, I will be looking at the ten stages of the web analytics process. Follow me as we are going to look at that together in this article.
#1 Identify your business objective
One of the very first things that you need to do when you are analyzing your website is to understand your business objective. You need to know the reason why you have set up the website in the first place. Knowing this will help you to compare and contrast whether you are achieving your business objectives or not.
#2 Goals for each objective
Apart from having a general objective for your business. You need to have specific objectives that relate to certain aspects of the business. These sectional objectives will work together when one needs to achieve the overall objectives for the business. Most times, without achieving the sectional goals and objectives, it will be very difficult to achieve the overall corporate goals and objectives for the business.
Define Metrics
Also, you need to define metrics for your business. At times, it is possible to have an online business and what is important to you might not seem important to the other party. You have to know what is important to you as far as the online business is concerned. This will help you to determine what you are going to focus on. This will help you to determine whether you are succeeding or not.
#4 Define KPI
After you might have worked on your sectional goals and objectives for your online business, you need to define Key Performance Indicators for your business. Your defined metrics can also be referred to as your Key Performance Indicators. These are yardsticks that you can use to determine whether you are achieving your business objectives or not.
#5 Set Target
Another bold step that you need to take as far as online business is to set your target. That means you have to determine what you really want to achieve. You might decide that you want to work on increasing your unique visitors to 500,000 users monthly. You just need to know that when it comes to setting targets for your business, you have to be as realistic to yourself as possible. Once you consider all variables before setting targets, you can always achieve your goals.
#6 Collect the user’s data
There is a need for you to also collect the users’ data when you need to analyse your web analytics. Doing this analysis will assist you in understanding the pattern of interaction with users on your website. This will help you to determine what users actually want on your website. It will assist you in coming up with the best strategy for increasing the conversion rate on your website.
#7 Segmentation
Also, there is a need for you to segment the data for proper analysis of data. You need to actually group your users based on what they have in common. Doing this analysis and segmentation will allow you to have a better grasp of what your users are actually looking for on your website. It can also give you a clue about the pattern of interaction that users are having with your website.
#8 Analyse the data Also, there is a need for you to analyse the data in order to understand the flow of your traffic. Having a thorough analysis of all your traffic will assist you in understanding the patterns of your traffic as well as determining what your users are actually looking for on your website. This will assist you in increasing the conversion rate on your website.
#9 Generate web analytics reports
The next step that you need to follow is to generate web analytics reports for your website. Most times when you are just looking at the analytics at a glance, you may not be able to discover all the details that you need to discover, but if you have the full report in PDF format and other formats, it will allow decision-makers to study the entire report and come up with action points that the entire organisation can follow in order to increase the conversion rate for the entire organisation.
#10 Implementation
The last stage of the entire process is the implementation of your action plan. After you might have taken time to study the problem and examine the analytics, you need to decide on what you are going to do in order to address the problem. It’s just that when it comes to analytics, it might be difficult to know what the exact problem is but analysis of the results can give you a direction as to what the real pron problem is.
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
Brands ultimately used Shoppable Instagram Feed for the upliftment of their brand. Keep reading as we have mentioned a few important reasons why you, too, as a brand, must embed Shoppable Instagram Feed on your website.
Instagram is a highly loved social media platform, and a large number of the Instagram user base showcase and proves this point right. Barring entertainment and connecting, Instagram users highly use the platform for an online trend called ‘Window shopping.’
A majority of shoppers use Instagram to take inspiration – be it fashion, photography, home decor, gadgets, accessories, etc.; due to the large presence of various brands and businesses, the users use this platform to make purchase-related decisions.
Soon enough, Instagram started a new shopping feature that entirely changed the marketing ways for brands as they got the option to sell their products on Instagram, and it eventually became a hit amongst shoppers.
Key Reasons Why Brands Must Display Shoppable Instagram Feed On The Website
To Gain The Trust Of The Potential Customers
Brands are constantly on the lookout for finding means to gain the faith of their customers. Shifting to a new brand can be quite challenging for customers since they already get comfortable with the previously used products.
In such a case, instilling faith and confidence in the potential customers is mandatory to convince them to purchase the products.
By embedding the Shoppable Instagram feed, you build a proof of your brand, and your visitors will be compelled to purchase from your brand.
Make Your Website More Visually Appealing
A website is like a representation of the brand. Being the first touchpoint where the customer gets in touch with the brand to explore more about it’s products and services, a website is more like the face of a brand.
While it is important to design the website user-friendly and give your customers a seamless experience, it is equally important to focus on making the website vibrant and pleasing to the visitors. Instagram, being a photo-sharing platform, is quite pleasing to the eyes and dominated by visuals. Embedding a shoppable Instagram feed would instantly increase the vibrancy of the website and compel the visitors to explore more.
Redirect Your Website Visitors To Instagram
Displaying Shoppable Instagram Feed is a great way of showcasing the User-Generated Content, and people relate more with UGC since it is authentic, genuine, and trustworthy. When your visitors explore your website and see User-Generated Content, they would be interested in going on Instagram to engage more with your brand.
Moreover, everyone loves being featured, and in a quest to get featured on your website, your visitors may get compelled to visit Instagram and hit that follow button!
More Authenticity With User-Generated Content
A majority of customers go through customer reviews and recommendations before making a final purchase, and there is no better content more relatable and authentic than User-Generated Content; and when you incorporate this content to promote your brand on the website, you bring more authenticity to your brand.
Your website visitors would not pay much heed to your published content when you display UGC.
Helps In Boosting Engagement
Engagement plays a major role while promoting a brand, and displaying a Shoppable Instagram feed effortlessly helps a brand increase the visitors’ engagement levels. When visitors go through Shoppable Instagram feeds, they get a clearer picture of the brand and it’s products since it features real customers.
They can judge the quality and style of the products and whether they would suit them or not. It makes them decide while the buying process is better and more efficient. Along with an increase in dwell time, this helps increase the engagement level of the customers.
More Conversions & Sales
Lastly, displaying Shoppable Instagram feeds on the website is an amazing strategy to effortlessly increase revenues. For example, You can use Shopify Instagram shop app to display shoppable Instagram feeds on the Shopify store. The reasons mentioned above and results would ultimately generate more leads, conversions, and ultimately sales.
Moreover, the major concern for all brands and businesses is to see a growth in profits, and a majority of brands waste their time trying out various strategies and practices that are not result-driven and as powerful as displaying your customer’s valuable content on your website.
Closing Note
At the end of the blog, we are hopeful that you must be clear about how embedding Shoppable Instagram Feeds on the website can be super beneficial for brands and businesses. While concluding, all we want to convey is that as an e-commerce brand, you must leverage Shoppable Instagram as a part of your marketing strategy to reap the benefits, and displaying it further on the website can be a game-changing marketing strategy for your sales and revenue.
Now that you know and have all the reasons to embed Shoppable Instagram feed on your website, leverage it immediately and get set to escalate your profits!
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
In my previous article, I talked about some of the facts that you should consider when you are setting up a website. In this article, I want to look at some of the benefits of web analytics to businesses. Follow me as we are going to look at that together in this article.
What is web analytics…
According to Digital Analytics Association, Web Analytics, also known as web intelligence, web metrics or e-metrics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of internet data for the purpose of understanding and optimizing web usage.
Here are some of the benefits of web analytics to businesses…
#1 Setting business objectives
One of the major benefits of web analytics is that it allows organizations to set business objectives. Most times, when you need to set business objectives for your online business, you need to consider what is presently happening to your business. Having web analytics will give you a clear picture of what is happening to your business. This will help you to decide on where you wished to be.
#2 Achieving business goals
Also, having good web analytics in place will allow you to decide on how you are going to achieve your corporate and online goals. Most times, when you analyse your business, you will be able to identify areas where you are lagging behind. This will allow you to determine the way forward for your business. Without web analytics, you may not know what you have achieved so far.
#3 Improving product quality
Also, having good web analytics in place will allow you to compare how your business has fared with how other competitors in your category have fared. This will allow you to copy some of the winning methods from your competitor and see how those Quick Wins can be implemented for your business.
#4 Providing better services
Also, having good website analytics in place will allow you to provide better services to your customers. You will be able to come up with some strategies on how you want to deal with your customers. Once those strategies are introduced, you will be able to monitor the implementation and determine and observe how customers are reacting to those strategies. This will help you to decide on whether to continue with those strategies or not.
#5 Increasing sales
Also, having good web analytics in place will allow you to increase your sales and your turnover. If you analyse your online sales for a particular period of time, you will be able to determine whether your campaign strategy is working or not. Having a good web analytics strategy in place will allow you to re-use a campaign strategy that works and jettison campaign methods that are not working.
#6 Driving traffic
Also, having a good web analytics tool on your website will allow you to drive traffic to your website. Most times, when you implement a method or you consider your posts and your pages, it is very easy to discover what your users are really interested in. This analysis can allow you to continue to offer your customers what they really want. It will allow you to retain existing visitors and drive new visitors to your website.
#7 Build Trust
In addition, good web analytics will allow you to realize where you really stand as far as your relationship with your customer is concerned. Once you are able to meet up their demands, you will be able to build trust with them. This will definitely increase repeat purchases and increase the conversion rate on your website.
#8 Retaining customer loyalty
By and large, good web analytics will also allow you to retain customer loyalty and increase the lifetime value of your customers. Customer loyalty as a practice will discourage your customers from looking somewhere when there are competing offers. It will boost customers’ confidence in your products and services. Above all, it is definitely going to increase your business turnover.
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
In my previous articles, I looked at some of the factors to consider when you need to develop an e-commerce website.
In this article, I want to look at ten major considerations when you are choosing a payment gateway service. Follow me as we are going to look at that together in this article.
What is a payment gateway? Payment gateways provide an interface between sellers, buyers and financial networks, and move money between them. It allows sellers to pay for products online and such payments are transferred to accounts that are linked to such payment gateways. This allows registered users to get payment from customers across the world.
Payment gateways also make it easy for customers to purchase products of their choice from websites. It also helps in capturing credit card transactions and these are transferred directly to the credit card processor.
It also makes use of Credit Card Industry Data Security Standards in order to protect transactions from various users. Here are the considerations… #1 Safety and security First and foremost, you need to consider the security of the platform before you will consider any payment gateway. You should know that, if by any means the security of users is being compromised, it will affect the integrity of your business and you would not want that to happen.
#2 Fraud detection and risk mitigation Also, your preferred payment gateway of choice should have fraud detection and risk mitigation capabilities. It should be able to detect unusual transactions from card owners and prevent those kinds of fraud before they happen. This will definitely boost customers’ confidence in your platform. #3 Transaction features Also, the payment gateway should be designed in such a way that it makes payment easy for users. It should have the ability to store card information so that returning users can easily make payments without any hassles. It should be able to accept payments from users in at least three steps. #4 Branding There are times that you would like to change colours, add a logo and implement other forms of customizations in order to own your payment gateway. A good payment gateway of choice should easily allow users to customize the widget without many hassles. #5 Easy integration Also, a good payment gateway should give room for easy integration with websites. It should not take much time before you can implement such a payment gateway on your website. This should be done without the users having much technical know-how before such payments can be implemented. #6 Comprehensive merchant interface A good payment gateway service should have a comprehensive merchant interface. They need to include features that will allow the merchant to resolve payment issues, settle affiliates and correct other errors. This will allow them to review their and make adjustments without any technical expertise. It can also come with tools that will allow merchants to analyse their conversion rates as well.
#7 Many payment options
Also, a good payment gateway should give room for payment from different means. Users should be able to use different modes of payment that are convenient for them. this will help in preventing cart abandonment among users. It will also increase conversion rates for the organisation as well.
#8 Hidden costs
Also, when you are chosen any payment gateway to use on your website, you need to understand the hidden charges that come with the usage of such a website. You really need to understand the total cost of ownership of such a plugin or widget or plugin. You have to ask whether the costs actually make sense to you or not, This will allow you to decide whether it is something you would like to use or not.
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
Here are some of the SEO tips for Newbie Bloggers.
#1 Learn and test
Learn and gather as much knowledge from the community as you can – there are SEO tips and tricks being shared daily that will help you in your practice – but don’t be afraid to test your own ideas and theories to see what works.
Even if that just comes down to testing particular content angles – such as satire – that you don’t really see many people talking about but you noticed that one random blog did it and picked up a ton of links.
There are many fundamentals in SEO and lots of “hacks” that might sidetrack you. I think it’s healthy to focus on the former but experiment with the latter as well.
#2 Playing with the content dates
For many years I’ve been focused on the topic of freshness and how people “game” the dates in search results to their favor so something appears to be updated, even if it hasn’t been. Lots of big sites fake this, and it’s interesting to see how they go about it.
There’s no guarantee that a fresher date associated with your article will improve rankings, but I have done multiple personal case studies when I’ve seen them help. I actually think you’ll find this tweet pretty interesting. I found that only one page on my site of a certain style wasn’t ranking, and that’s probably because Google thought it was written 12 years ago (!).
Knowing the “hacks” in this case – like knowing how to make Google see a fresher date – is why I mentioned in answer one you should always look to go beyond the fundamentals. So this wasn’t a new technique for me, but I’m re-learning it all the time.
The world of SEO is so vast and ever-changing! You can complete all the courses you can get your hands on (or afford) and still feel completely daunted. My best advice to any beginner would be to get some basic SEO knowledge then get stuck in.
The best way to learn SEO is on the job, so be practical and hands-on from the off. Go one step at a time and don’t be afraid to make mistakes, as they say… Your last mistake is your best teacher!
Which is lucky for me because I made loads…and learned from them.
2. Do not underestimate internal linking
I have recently rediscovered the power of internal link building. This is the only type of link building where you have complete control. I’m not sure about aha it was more of a duh moment.
Internal link building is where a link you place on your domain takes you to another page on the same domain. These links will help Google to discover new content when you publish it, rank the pages that have links pointing to them and they help you generate more income.
Some SEO techniques go in and out of fashion but internal link building should always be on your list of priorities.
Invest in your website without hesitation, once you’ve found reliable and trustworthy services and providers. From hosting to UX, design and copy, don’t skimp!
The highest-ranking sites of the future are fast, clean, user-friendly, and full of useful, valuable web copy. An investment today in a good site can reap huge dividends in the long run.
#2 Long-tail keywords are the way to go
Mobile voice search (Siri) and smart devices (Google Home, Alexa) in our homes are changing the way our audience searches on Google. This is a huge factor to consider when researching keywords in tools like KWFinder or SEMrush (my favorite tools).
Longer-tail keywords and even an entire question (sometimes 5-8 words!) are our new keyword phrases to work with. If you don’t find data on a long-tail keyword, search it in Google. If you see anything in the results, there is data and there are people searching for it. Don’t just stop at a “low search volume” in an SEO tool.
You might reap more benefits by going after a keyword string without data that will be used by more and more people in the days to come. I can’t recommend this enough. Match your keywords and SEO usage to the way people are searching today and in the future!
Don’t focus on all the small stuff. Instead, stick to the basics that will get you results.
A website that treats the visitor with respect and helps them (also fast and good on mobile)
Top-notch content that is designed to really address the reader’s question/search (aim for better than the competition)
Well researched keywords – not just the most traffic or most obvious keyword for your website/industry
#2 It’s not only about links
It’s not all about links anymore. Instead, Google is focused on helping the reader/user. So, you better be too. That means upping your game on your website in every respect. And not just focusing on fast to produce content, and then links links links. It just does not work so well anymore and will work even less in the future.
My advice to beginners would be the same as it is to the experts; never stop learning. Search (and the technology surrounding it) never stops changing and it’s doing so rapidly. Agencies and professionals that are doing SEO the same way they were 6 months ago are already at a disadvantage.
Plug yourself into resources like Google’s Webmaster Blog, the Twitter feeds of notable Google employees like John Mueller, follow industry-leading publications like Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, Moz, and others.
Never stop checking the pulse of the industry and learning from the people and businesses that are involved in it.
#2 Fewer, in-depth articles
Fairly recently, my team and I discovered that producing mountains of content was not doing us any good. Yes, it’s important to keep producing fresh content on a regular basis but generating dozens of blog posts that do not cover a topic in-depth and lack of strong promotion are ultimately wasting time.
It’s a far better approach to produce fewer, much more in-depth articles and promote them aggressively using outreach, social syndication, link building, and email. This strategy has helped position us as an authority in the SEO industry and generate more traffic to our site.
In terms of SEO, I’d recommend that you start a website – either for your business or a passion project. The point is to test out various strategies and create a proof of concept.
Take the time to learn about on-page SEO best practices, then dig into link-building strategies, and take some time to understand how technical website aspects can also impact your SEO.
As you level up in each area, run experiments on your website to see how your search rankings are impacted.
Make sure to employ the use of SEO auditing tools (like SE Ranking), as well as keyword ranking tools (like Ahrefs), to get a good idea of your success and what causes it. Also, install/configure Google Analytics and Google Search Console for additional insights.
#2 Find low-hanging fruit in Search Console
One of the most interesting and compelling recent SEO aha moments I’ve had was learning about and implementing Brian Dean’s (Backlinko) Google Search Console hack.
A client asked me to help incorporate it on his website and now I’m anxious to try it out for my websites, too! The hack involves combing through Google Search Console data to determine which keywords you’re coming up for in search but not ranking for — then adding those keywords into your content. Simple, right?
Never stop experimenting. The value of experimentation outweighs knowledge that has never been applied. This is not to discredit all the resources a person can use to increase their knowledge in SEO. However, the application is always better than memorization.
The SEO landscape is always changing and common strategies will always be left behind by constant algorithm updates and changes. This is why experimentation is the key to getting the first spot in Google SERPs. It allows you to know what works and what doesn’t while enabling you to improve your craft.
#2 Content is (still) the king
Every SEO specialist knows that the word count is a vital part of content because the longer it is, the more information you can incorporate inside the blog post – increasing the post’s value to users and Google. In turn, Google ranks your post higher in the SERPs and increases the chances of it ranking for the top spot.
I realized it when we ran an experiment that involved increasing our monthly blog post’s word count from 1000 words to a little bit over 1500 for a particular keyword that lost its spot in the first page. After a certain amount of time of tracking the keyword rankings, we’ve noticed that it was slowly improving.
Right now, the keyword has regained its spot on the first page. However, we’re still running the experiment and waiting for better results. This instance just reinforces the notion that “Content is King”.
Conclusion
As you can see, people who work in the SEO industry on a daily basis have various views on what is the most important thing to remember as an SEO beginner.
Although the answers vary, we can see certain recurring topics and themes. Most experts agree that it is crucial to stick to the SEO basics, focus on the quality of the content rather than just quantity and be careful about all the “SEO tips” you will find on the internet – not all of them are reliable.
It is also important to learn SEO by actually doing it. One can only learn something if they get their hands dirty and sometimes learn from their own mistakes. Although it may seem like a cliché, we all know that often it is very tempting to theorize about everything without actually trying it. Do you have any SEO tips you would like to share with the others? What was your last SEO aha moment?
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
Paid search advertising means advertising within search results and only paying when the user clicks on an ad. It’s priced on the pay per click or PPC model and this is a common synonym for paid search. Paid search is an inbound advertising channel that matches searcher intent with relevant ads intended to meet consumer needs.
Besides appearing above the organic results, Paid Search ads have an indicator that they are ad formats and not organic/natural search results. Google automatically adds the word “ad” to the copy so searchers can easily distinguish the formats.
There are three main similarities between paid and organic search results – both search results have a clickable headline, non-clickable body copy and clickable site links. This is why they could be confused at first glance. Therefore, the automatic inclusion of the “ad” notification in the paid search results is useful.
The key differences which distinguish paid search from organic are:
Paid search (PPC) is a method where advertisers pay to serve for different user searches using keywords, landing pages, ads and bids while SEO is the name given to optimizing organic (free) search results based on website content, html coding and link building
Paid search is a faster and more straightforward means to serve clickable links on the SERP (search engine results page) compared to organic search which can take time to serve.
Paid results are shown at the top or very bottom of the SERP and will have a small “Ad” note in the copy
Paid search ads have shorter copy than organic results and there is more control over the copy of the paid ads as organic results can be dynamically created by the search engine’s organic algorithm. The paid results are a lot more dynamic and engaging at the top of the screen compared to the organic results below
Why Meta Tags areimportant: It’s a medium-weight on-page SEO signal although it doesn’t have a direct impact on higher rankings It plays a big role in enticing the user to click through to your listing If you have an uninspiring or keyword-stuffed meta description, you may get half the clicks of a well-written and more click-worthy one. So they really are worth the time and effort.
The meta description can be thought of as your chance to sell the page, so it encourages the searcher to click on your listing. If the page has any unique selling points that none or few of the competitors have, then list them here.
Main copy: The main copy is text on a web page that features after the main heading:
It’s also known as body text
It can include hyperlinks
Why the main copy is important:
It’s a high-weight on-page SEO signal and adds relevancy to the page
The main content is where the user is ultimately satisfied or not with what they are looking for
The main copy is ultimately where the user is going to find what they are looking for or not, so search engines pay close attention to it.
Main copy: The main copy is text on a web page that features after the main heading:
It’s also known as body text
It can include hyperlinks
Why the main copy is important:
It’s a high-weight on-page SEO signal and adds relevancy to the page
The main content is where the user is ultimately satisfied or not with what they are looking for
Matt Cutts says there isn’t an ideal keyword density formula and hints that thinking about it in such a way can be unhealthy and may encourage you to over-optimize and load too many keywords into your content. He does however say that including the keywords you’d like to rank for is a good thing, but it should be done in a natural way that enhances the readability of the page.
How to optimize the main copy:
#1 There are no strict guidelines on length
The content should be long enough so that:
It satisfies what the user is looking for and
Search engines understand what the page is about
#2 Keyword usage
Ignore keyword density and don’t repeat keywords too often
As a loose rule for 500 words, mention:
Primary keywords two or three times
Secondary keywords one or two times
Tertiary keywords zero or one time
Use synonyms and close keyword variations
Write in a natural human-friendly language
As Matt Cutts mentions in the previous Google video, there isn’t a special keyword density formula and when you mention keywords too often, the search engine may see it as being spammy and count against you. That’s why this keyword repetition recommendation for 500 words should be taken quite loosely.
Using synonyms and keyword variations can help, so instead of saying “SEO training” ten times, you could say it two or three times but then also mention things like “learn SEO”, “SEO workshop”, ”class”, and “search engine optimization tutorial” and “how to get to the top of Google”. Even if such keywords were not in your targeted keyword list, they would help by being synonyms or close in meaning to your target keywords, so would add relevancy to a page – but again this should be done in a natural way that isn’t going to annoy your readers.
In SEO, hyperlinks help the page you are linking to. The way you link to pages internally plays an important role in search engine rankings. Linking to pages with descriptive and easy to understand anchor text, that doesn’t look spammy, will pass more relevancy. Also, make sure you are linking to your important pages regularly. E.g. If you wrote a blog post about “5 Things to See and Do in Paris”, it would probably make sense to link back to the Paris destination page.
The words you use in the hyperlink is called anchor text and pass relevancy to the receiving page
So SEO training will pass more relevancy than click here
Hyperlinks also pass reputation:
The more internal links a page has the more important it is deemed to be, so it will stand a better chance of ranking
Although don’t over link where it makes for a bad user experience
Image optimization involves making:
Image filenames and ALT text relevant
The file size web-friendly
Why image optimization is important:
It’s a lightweight on-page SEO signal and adds relevancy to the page
Alt-text is often read out to visually impaired people through screen readers
While image optimization is only a lightweight on-page ranking signal, it is one of the most overlooked aspects but still does add relevancy to the page. Also, by adding relevant ALT text you will be helping people who rely on screen readers that may be visually impaired.
How to optimize images:
Add a description in the Alt text
Try to accurately describe the image and this sometimes means including keywords
Make them concise, typically two to five words
Make filenames meaningful
Make them concise, typically two to five words
Filenames and Alt text can be the same but they don’t have to be
Make images web-friendly
Gif, Jpeg and PNG
Balance of small file size and good quality
We need to be honest when describing images through Alt text and filenames, but where it makes sense we can sprinkle some keywords in to add to the overall relevancy. You DO NOT need to be really strict here e.g. sometimes you can include your P1 and P2 keywords but otherwise, you won’t be able to.
If you have multiple images, they should have differing Alt text/filenames, otherwise, this can look like keyword stuffing.
There isn’t an exact science here and it’s important that the Alt text and filenames are descriptive and accurate first – and contain keywords or related words second. In this case, the Alt text contains one of the main keywords and the filename is a related word that will add to the overall relevancy of the page. You’ll always want to keep the size of images relatively low and often much smaller than the original image size. This helps make the web page load quicker.
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
In this article, I will be talking about how to measure Video Ads Campaigns. In this article, I will be covering the following:
1. Setting Metrics for Success 2. Reporting for Display Campaigns 3. Reporting for Video Campaigns 4. Reporting with Google Analytics 5. Optimizing Campaigns
Add a thumbnail to your video by following the below steps:
1. Sign into YouTube. 2. Go to Creator Studio > Video Manager. 3. Next to the video, click Edit. 4. On the right of the preview screen, choose a thumbnail. 5. Click Save changes. You will need to verify your account to upload custom thumbnails – verification proves to the system there is a legitimate user behind the channel and not spam.
To drive further engagement, you can add YouTube Cards to your videos. With these, you can add a link to click through to:
When creating your YouTube content, it’s important to know the “ABCDs of effective creative” for video:
A: Attract attention from the start B: Brand naturally and meaningfully C: Connect with the viewer through emotion and storytelling D: Direct the user clearly to what you want them to do next
There are a number of tools available in the Creator Studio to manage your video content:
Dashboard: Check for notifications and alerts
Video Manager: Organize and update videos from one place
Community: Review and respond to comments, view private messages, see videos where you have been credited
Channel: Adjust channel settings
Analytics: Review channel performance
Create: Create new videos using the audio library and video editor
You can customize and manage your YouTube channel by clicking ‘My channel’ in the top right corner, ‘Customize Channel’, ‘About’. Click the “Settings” icon by the subscribers’ button for Advanced options. Here you can add:
Channel Name & Description
Channel Art
Channel Icon
Channel Trailer
Sections
Playlists
Featured Channels
It’s really beneficial to correctly set up and continually manage your YouTube channel. This ensures continued discoverability of your channel and its content on the platform and keeps your presence on YouTube consistent with your wider online, and offline, presence.
Within the Creator Studio, you can view a number of reports in the Analytics tab to analyze your video’s performance. YouTube analytics reports can help you maximize revenue and retention.
1. Earnings reports: includes estimated earnings and ad performance reports. These reports show your estimated earnings and total views for your channel. You can also see which ad formats had the most impact on driving revenue.
2. Watch-time reports: includes watch time, views, traffic sources, and audience retention reports. Audience retention reports display the views of every moment of your video as a percentage of views, helping you find the right mix of elements like video style, length, promotion, and more. Traffic sources reports show the various YouTube features and external sites through which the viewer found your content.
3. Engagement reports: includes subscribers, likes and dislikes, comments and sharing as well as cards and annotations reports. They are a great way to understand your audience’s interest. This would be of most importance to content creators who rely on the organic success of their videos and are at the receiving end of YouTube advertising activity in that they are producing the content advertising appears amongst. You can also Get Free YouTube Subscribers by visiting YTBPals.
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
In my previous article, I talked about some of the ways that you can generate leads through Influencers. In this article, I want to look at some of the ways that you can convert leads into sales. Follow me as we are going to look at that together in this article.
How to increase leads and boost your sales….
#1 Calculate
The very first thing you need to do is to find the lead close to the ratio for a period of at least eight months. You also need to calculate the total leads to closed sales during those eight months in percentage. You need to divide the number of leads by the number of closed sales that you have. You also need to turn that number into a percentage out of 100 to estimate just how many leads you need to close sales.
There is a need for you to also invest in CRM such as Salesforce.com to organize all your work. CRM does not allow you to lose a lead, it will track every sale and every moment in the sales process. You need to set automated responses to the queries sent through email by your prospects.
#4 Delegate
There is a need for you to segregate the responsibilities among the sales teams such as replying to online queries, emails, and phone calls among others. You need to put effort and money into the sources that yield you better results. The CRM system can also help in finding sources that give you more sales.
Converting leads to sales…
#1 Determine your personae
First and foremost, in order to make more sales and convert leads for your organization, you need to identify the type of people that are using your products and services. Having this understanding will assist you to package your product in such a way that it will attract the interest of your desired audience.
For developing your buyer personae, you should know the ideal buyer, your customer needs, how to fix problems, and your unique selling proposition among others.
You need to get your current sales and customers to interact with each other to find out buyer personae who can turn into your prospects, leads and customer.
#2 Content mapping
When it comes to content marketing and lead conversion, you need to know where a prospect is on the ladder. The reason is that the content that works for someone at the top of the funnel will not work for someone at the bottom of the funnel.
Top of the funnel
These are visitors who are unaware of your products and services. They may likely be prospects who have started researching your products or services.
Middle of the funnel
These are customers who are interested in your products and services but they do not necessarily want to buy from you.
Bottom of the funnel
These are prospects or customers who are ready to buy your products and believe that you have every solution to their problem. The content mapping chart will help your sales and your marketing team to understand the right type of content to introduce to each type of prospect that you have in your sales funnel.
You have to develop the chart and understand the type of content that you can introduce to each prospect on the sales funnel.
#3 Segment lead nurturing campaigns
As part of your effort to nurture your leads, you need to segment your campaigns and your leads based on the characteristics that the leads have in common. Some of the characteristics that can be used in segmenting leads include geographical location, area of interest in contents, industry and roles and brand advocates as well as customer behaviour among others.
#4 Make use of workflows
You also have to make use of workflows when you are trying to nurture your leads and convert leads to customers. You need to make use of email workflow which will help you to send emails to a specified group of users at a particular time.
Some of the specified email workflow used by you include:
Subject line workflow: content download
Eye-catching offers.
Leads that are ready for Sales workflow.
Get dead lead to engage again
Event workflow allows visitors to register or attend the webinars
Lifecycle workflows, welcoming new customers to a new business
Upsell workflow, based on purchases made by customers in the past.
#5 Enforce Lead Scoring Methodology
Segregating is one of the best means of separating a good lead from a bad lead. This process always gives points based on information that you already have about the lead. This will allow you to determine whether a particular lead is profitable or not.
It helps in increasing sales efficiency and effectiveness, increasing marketing effectiveness, and tightening marketing and sales alignment for the organization.
It also helps the sales team to avoid spending their time on bad leads and to concentrate on leads that are ready for sales.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
There are certain components that contribute to writing and designing effective emails. Here we will explore six main components of effective emails: the audience, subject line, copy, design, call to action and imagery.
1. Audience: Before writing your email copy, it is important to know who your audience is so you can align your email message to the right recipients.
2. Subject line: This is the deciding factor on whether the recipient will open your email. It should be clear, personalized, relevant to the recipient and aligned to the email copy.
3. Email Copy: This is the meat of your email marketing. It should offer a message that is relevant to the recipient and should provide value. The tone of your email comes into play here. You should write in the second person; more of ‘you’ and less of ‘we’. It should be engaging but brief and succinct. Readers should be able to skim and scan through the email and still get the general gist of your message.
4. Design: Design is not just the look and feels of an email but how it works. It helps to decide whether or not to include imagery and where to place a call to action button. The style and layout of your email copy can have an impact on how recipients receive your message and the font style, volume of text and how the text is justified in an email can all contribute to how your message resonates with your recipient. Striking a balance between email copy and design can help to drive conversions to retain customers, build relationships and inspire evangelists.
5. Call to Actions (CTA): When creating an email, ask yourself ‘ What do I want the recipient to do?’. The language in your CTAs should be actionable, as you want the recipient to take some kind of action. The CTA should be clear, concise, obvious and easy to identify. A strong CTA should create a sense of urgency and prompt the reader into action.
6. Imagery: Using images in an email is a colourful and engaging way to appeal to your recipient’s visual nature. Images give recipients an idea of what you are offering, whether it is a product or service. Images should be used effectively and complement the text in your email rather than detract from it. We will now look at each component in more detail.
Before writing, designing and sending an email copy, it is important to know who your audience is and ensure you are sending the right message to the right person. The buyer’s journey is the research a buyer goes through before purchasing. There are multiple stages the buyer goes through before and after purchase:
Awareness and Interest Stage: The buyer becomes aware of their need for a product or service and begins to look for solutions that will fulfil it.
Consideration Stage: The buyer has researched solutions and is considering their options. They have developed a certain view on the products available on the market and are aware of their personal preferences.
Conversion Stage: The buyer has selected the product they want and has made a decision to buy.
Retention Stage: Buyer and brand build a strong relationship. The customer receives valuable information that turns a satisfied customer into a true fan of your brand.
So what does the buyer’s journey have to do with email and your audience? Identifying the stage that your recipients are at in the buyer’s journey will help you to align the type of email you use and the message you send to the recipient.
For a new customer at the awareness or interest stages, you may send a welcome email within the first 24 hours of them subscribing to your list thanking them for signing up, letting them know what they should expect to receive from you and how frequently they should expect to receive them.
You may send regular email newsletters to existing customers to ensure that they stay engaged with your brand. Sending holiday and seasonal emails will build a relationship with your customers that doesn’t circulate around driving them to make a sale. Inviting them to events, such as product launches or a store opening, offers them an experience, further building trust and connection with you and your brand.
For your evangelist, are not just on board with your brand, but are advocates for it and believe in your message. You will want to send them emails with content they can share or resources they can download. When your evangelists get to the retention stage of the buyer’s journey it does not necessarily mean they stop there, you can bring them back to the top of the funnel, making them aware of new products or services through targeted content.
As we have just seen, identifying where your recipients are at in the buyer’s journey can help to align your emails effectively. In the slide above we see an example of a 32-year-old woman, named Claire. What we know about Claire is that she is career-driven, has an interest in fashion and is searching for a new outfit for work.
She has already come across your clothing website online, has selected a few outfits and entered her details to sign up before paying for the products. However, she left your website before completing the purchase. How do you use email to encourage Claire not just to come back to purchase, but to re-engage with your brand? And how does recognizing what stage she is at in the buyer’s journey help to send her the right email?
You could send her a welcome email, thanking her for signing up to your email list when she entered her details before leaving the purchase, offer her an option to confirm whether she would like to opt in to get regular newsletters and offers and then remind her of the items she has left in the online cart.
After this, the next step would be to help Claire move from the Consideration stage to Conversion. You want her to buy the new outfit from your company and not your competitors. Here, emails with product information and sale offers would perform well with the goal of getting Claire to buy.
As the saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression, so it is important to start off on the right foot. The subject line of an email is the first thing a subscriber sees to determine if they want to open your email or not. If the subject line isn’t compelling the user will simply ignore your email.
By adding a sense of urgency to the subject line, you can draw the user in by prompting them to open the email to find out more. Always ensure the body of the email aligns with the subject line. If it’s not related, the user may no longer open your emails or unsubscribe altogether.
Be engaging and relevant to the recipient. Know who is opening your emails and how the subject line may affect this. Shorter subject lines are more impactful for B2C opens, while longer and descriptive subject lines often yield higher open rates for B2B. As always, be sure to test your audience and find out what works best for them.
There are various themes you can apply when creating a subject line for your email. The subject line will set the tone for the email and let the recipient know what to expect.
Here are some of the themes you can apply to your subject line and we will take a deeper look at each in the next few slides:
Self-interest
Curiosity
Offer
Urgency
Humanity
News
Social Proof
Story
Let’s take a look at the first four subject line email tones here and some points on how you can craft your subject to match that tone.
Self Interest: This speaks directly to the user and shows what benefit the customer will gain by opening the email. They also provide a clue to the reader about what’s in the email.
Curiosity: Without giving too much away you draw the user in prompting them to open the email and read further. Be careful when using this tone as if the subject line provides no information at all, the user might ignore the email completely.
Offer: If you are giving something away or having a sale, mention it in the subject line. Everyone loves free stuff and it’s a great way to convince the user to open it!
Urgency: This tells the reader they must act now or they will miss out. It’s a very powerful subject line tone but only use when there truly is a deadline or expiration.
Subject line
Now let’s take a look at the other four email subject line tones, and how you can craft one for your email.
Humanity: By adding a human appeal for attention or telling a story you are letting the reader know there is a person behind your product or service.
News: Providing the latest news about your company or the newest features to your product always performs well and drives open rates. These subject lines often work well with the curiosity tone.
Social Proof: Share success stories and inform users about how many other people are using your product or service. Humans will always look at the behaviour of others when making decisions.
Story: Tell the user a story or the beginning of one can draw the user into the email to read more.
Here we will take at some examples of subject lines that all relate to a certain tone.
Offer: ‘10-week live training and certification’. You let the reader know what you are providing and if this is something they are interested in, they will open the email.
Self-Interest: ‘28 ways to increase organic social traffic. This subject line is direct and clear. If the user wants to see how they can increase their organic social traffic, they will open to find out more.
Urgency: ‘Are you In or Out?’. Simple and direct with a sense of urgency, the user believes they might miss something if they do not open it.
News: ‘ANNOUNCING: Marketing Mastery Class’. This lets the user know this is something new and draws them in to read more about the class.
Here are a few more example subject lines that all relate to a certain tone.
Humanity: ‘Why I (kinda) HATE surveys… ’. The use of ‘I’ here lets the reader know there is a real person behind the email.
Social Proof: ‘[Case Study] $25,865/mo in recurring revenue’. The use of a case study lets the reader know how something was achieved and how they can do it.
Story: ‘I got Botox—& THIS is what it looked like. This draws the reader in with the start of a story. If they want to see what happened, they will open the email.
Curiosity: ‘Pokemon GO: 3 Marketing Mistakes, Millions of Users Lost!’. The use of curiosity makes the reader wonder what three mistakes were made.
Here are some statistics around email subject lines and what you can do to increase your open and click rate:
Emails that have a personalized subject line have a 26% better open rate. Personalize your subject line by including the user’s first name or username.
Segmented emails see an increase of 14% opens and 100% clicks. Segment your audience by grouping similar users together and sending them a relevant message.
80% of users say spelling errors are unacceptable mistakes. Always QA your emails before sending and have teammates proofread the copy. This will help eliminate spelling errors.
Let’s take a look at the email copy, which is the text the recipient reads. This includes the name, subject line, and body copy of an email.
The copy in both the subject line and the body of an email should grab the user’s attention and draw them in, build anticipation about what the email offers and call the reader to action.
No matter how fancy the email looks, if the email does not have well-written content your subscribers will stop reading and eventually ignore your emails.
Whether they are a new customer, existing customer, or brand evangelist the message will differ and should cater to individual users’ needs.
If the user found your subject line compelling they will open the email. It’s here you must follow up on what you promised and make it easy for the user to take action. Here are some guidelines that will help you to create a good experience for your users:
Simple & Strong: The email should capture the readers’ attention and keep them interested.
Scannable: Users only spend a couple of seconds scanning your email to see if it’s relevant. The main message should be clear. Using bullet points can help get the main points across.
Less “We” and more “You”: The message in the email should focus on the readers’ needs and how the email can help solve their problems.
Benefits versus Features: The reader wants to know what’s in it for them. What benefit will they get from reading your email?
Here are a few more guidelines for the copy in your email. It’s important to try to incorporate all the guidelines into your email. This will lead to better-performing campaigns.
Align with the subject line: If the content of the email doesn’t relate to the subject line, the user is less likely to take action.
Know your target market: Recognize what your audience wants and send them relevant content. For example, for a newsletter, if a user has set their preference to receive the emails weekly ensure you don’t send to them daily or monthly.
Singular goal: The email should have one goal such as clicking through to a landing page. If the email contains too many links that all go to different web pages then the marketing strategy won’t be successful.
Sense of urgency: By adding a sense of urgency to the email, the user is encouraged to take action immediately. This can help with the goal of the email campaign.
Legal Requirements
The last piece to creating an email is a legal requirement that all emails have to contain an unsubscribe link and a postal address so that the user can opt out of receiving the emails. It’s best practice to include the unsubscribe link and postal address in the footer of the email.
While not mandatory, including some text around why the user is receiving the email, social media links, and a link to your company’s privacy policy in the footer helps to provide a better experience for the reader.
The email design is not just the look and feel of an email but how it works and flows for the reader. Before jumping into how best to design your email, we need to answer the question, why is email design so important? The following are some of the main reasons why an effective and appealing design is important to implement throughout your email campaigns:
User experience: Having a good email design will add to the users’ experience. If the email looks and flows well, the user is more likely to continue reading your email and click through.
Consistent experience: If you send a regular newsletter, having the same design/layout in each will help the reader recognize your email and become familiar with its content. If the design regularly changes, this will only confuse the reader and reduce click-through rates.
Conveys your message in style: Nobody wants to read a wall of text. By splitting your content up into bite-size chunks with clear headers, the user is more likely to read and more importantly engage with your email.
Direct imagery and graphics: Images are a great way to showcase your product or service. In the example above, iPhone uses an image of their new phone allowing the reader to become familiar with the product.
Placement of CTAs: Clicking the CTA is often the main objective of an email. Having a clear CTA at the top and bottom of the email will make it easier for the reader and help them click through to the landing page.
Drives conversions: If the email is well designed and contains relevant information the user is more likely to take action and convert.
The first steps when creating a compelling email design are to identify who you are and to choose the colour palette.
It is best practice to include your company’s logo at the top of your email and also use your brand’s colour palette for CTAs, headers etc. These will allow a reader to easily recognize your emails and become more familiar with your brand.
In the above example from the Digital Marketing Institute, the head of the email includes the company’s logo so all readers can easily recognize the email, and the email also makes use of the colour blue which is part of the company’s colour palette. The logo and colours are used in all of their emails as well as their website, leading to a consistent experience for the user.
Another key component for designing effective emails is the layout. The layout controls the flow of the email and makes it easier for the reader to look at.
Organize for quick reading: Bold and colour the headers in your email to help the reader scan the email to find relevant information.
Make room: When designing the layout of your email, don’t be afraid to space out your content making it easier to read when there are multiple sections.
Align your content: Use the same width, font size, and colour for similar sections of the email. If one paragraph is 500 pixels wide and is left-aligned, make sure all other paragraphs are too.
Define your sections: If your email has multiple sections (e.g. Blog articles) make sure they are defined. You can use a different background colour or a dividing line to show where each section starts and ends.
Above the fold: Depending on the reader’s device screen size only a small portion of the email will be in view before they have to scroll. Place your most important piece of information and CTA in the top portion of the email.
600 pixels width: Keep your email less than 600px in width to ensure it displays well in all email clients and browsers.
The next key component when designing an email is the font you use. The font in your email should be consistent throughout. Use the same font style, font size, and font colour for all sections that are similar.
Also, avoid using a small font size as many readers will be viewing on mobile devices. Your company may specify what the brand font style is that is used on your company website, this font should be kept consistent in all emails also.
Here we can see two marketing emails, the email from Macy’s on the left-hand side is quite busy, predominantly image-based and offers multiple ways to respond, but no clear and obvious CTA. The subject line advertises Father’s Day gift ideas, but then the first link is for women’s products and there’s also a link for handbags. The font sizes vary within the same sections, making the advertisement look inconsistent and off-putting. Also, Macy’s brand identity is quite unclear without a logo displayed or mention of the shop in the email.
The email on the right is an example of one of Virgin’s welcome emails to a new customer. The message of the email is clear; Virgin has reached out to talk about what they do as a business. There is a good use of white space, making the images, copy and offer clearer. The recipient is prompted to ‘explore more with a clear call to action.
The identity is clearly represented by the colours used and the logo standing out in the header. The font sizes are consistent within different sections of the email, making it easier to scan and skim.
How To Create High-Performing Emails
In this article, I will take a look at:
How to develop a high-performing email strategy
What an email service provider is and the role it plays in running email campaigns
How you can capture more data about your contacts
How you can grow and manage your contact database
Let’s look at the first principle for building an effective email marketing strategy, segmentation. Segmentation is grouping similar users together and sending them relevant content. Segmenting your email lists will help you get better open rates, click rates and conversions. By sending messages to targeted segments within your lists, your recipients will find your campaigns more relevant. For example, a car dealership could segment their email list by users who are interested in similar cars, such as all users who are interested in BMWs and send them information specifically about BMWs. The more information you collect about your email recipients, the more effectively you can segment your audience and tailor your campaigns.
There are various ways you can segment your email lists and it’s important to tailor your messages to the relevant audience. The more information you collect about your email recipients, the more opportunities you have to send emails with content that is relevant and engaging for the recipient.
Here are just a few ways you can segment your email recipients:
Demographics – Gender, Age, Geography, Education
Job role/industry/company type
Purchase history
Web traffic
Interest groups
Clicks/Opens/Content format
Change in engagement/behaviour
The next principle we will discuss is personalization and the impact it has on running an effective email strategy. By personalizing your emails you give the user a unique experience, which will help drive opens, clicks and conversions. Here is an example of an email from Amazon, tailored specifically to the user:
A. Recommendation for the customer: the email clearly states “We have a recommendation for you” letting the user know that this email is tailored to their interests B. Addresses the customer by name: using a customer’s first name makes the email seem more personal C. Display a product based on the customers viewing history: By using data on customers viewing history you can compose an email the user will immediately recognize and increase the chance of a conversion
It is important to be strategic about the timing of your email to ensure it delivers the right message at the right time in order to drive open rates. For the majority of email campaigns, one single send time will not suit all recipients. Here are some tips for improving the timing of your email send:
Test your audience: there is no specific day and time that will suit all organizations. Utilize A/B testing to find the optimal send time for your audience.
Optimal days: from the majority of studies Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are the best days to send email campaigns but as mentioned above, always test this with your audience.
Optimal send times: the best sends times in a day include 10 a.m., 8 p.m.-midnight, 2 p.m, and 6 a.m.
Note: make sure to take into account customers in different time zones. Building an email list is one thing, keeping those subscribers interested through a strong email engagement strategy is another. Here are some actions that can be taken to ensure that your emails draw your readers and recipients in and keep them engaged:
Start your email communications off on the right foot by welcoming all new subscribers.
Tell your subscribers how often you will be emailing them. This will set expectations early for the recipients and they will become familiar with how often you email them.
Set expectations about what your emails are focused on. Let your subscribers know what types of emails they will be receiving and allow them to set preferences for what emails they would prefer to receive.
Simplify your email messaging. By reducing the amount of different CTAs and text in your email, you can focus the subscribers’ attention and concentrate on a single goal.
Create targeted segments around individual experiences. As we saw in segmentation, there are many ways to group users and by doing so you will see better results.
Always test your audience. The best way to see what works for your subscriber is to continuously test and optimize your emails accordingly.
After every email campaign, it’s important to perform data-driven analysis and apply the learnings to optimize future campaigns. By applying the learnings of past campaigns you can increase the opens, clicks and conversions from your emails and thus drive business growth.
We will take a look at email analytics in my next article.
To implement an efficient email strategy you will need the help of a software program. That’s where Email Service Providers come in. An email service provider, or ESP, operates and maintains the software and hardware for delivering bulk email. They provide a platform for managing and segmenting your contact lists, building email templates, and sending and tracking your campaigns on a large scale.
An ESP should make the process of sending emails and managing your contact database easier. Some of the features an ESP provides include:
Contact database: this is where the subscribers’ email address and all related information is stored, making it easy to add, edit, and remove contacts
Segmentation: because the contact database stores all the information about your contacts, the ESP can use this data to segment users
Personalization: such as adding the users the first name of each email or displaying certain content based on their preference
Automation: allowing repetitive tasks, like sending a welcome email to every new subscriber, to be automated and sent automatically
Tracking behaviour: providing insights to who opened and clicked the email
Unsubscribe management: manage users who want to opt-out from receiving your emails
Email and landing page creation: drag and drop builders allow you to quickly create and edit your emails and landing pages
Effective ESPs enable emails to be tailored to their recipients, facilitating a unique experience. This unique experience is supported by three different considerations:
#1 Merge fields Placeholders, such as an email address and greeting, where information is populated from the contact database. For example, using the customer’s first name to personalize an email. As you can see in the email on the slide, it is addressed personally to a student called Vanessa.
#2 Dynamic content It allows the content in an email to dynamically change based on data. For instance, if a user’s currency is Euro the email will display a ‘€’ symbol but if it is dollars it will display a ‘$’ symbol. We can see this dynamic content in the example shown above. The email pulls personal data about Vanessa, the recipient, a final year student at Yale. Adding specific and relevant information about the recipient gives a personalized touch to the email and builds a relationship with subscribers.
#3 Accurate Targeting
This has to do with scheduling an email campaign at a relevant time for each user, based on their country and time zone. Here the accurate targeting can be seen in how Vanessa, a student from Yale was targeted in the Summer before going back to college in Autumn.
Effective ESPs have the ability to send automated emails based on user activity, personalization, segmentation, triggered emails and scheduled emails. Marketing automation helps you to stay connected to your customers every step of the way and reduces repetitive tasks such as abandoned cart notifications, product recommendations and retargeting.
The steps shown in the above example are as follows: 1. The user is sent an email about an upcoming sale. 2. They are then placed in a 3 day wait period.
3. After that time expires, the ESP checks to see if the user has made a purchase. If they didn’t they are automatically sent another email about the sale letting them know it’s about to end. This adds a sense of urgency.
4. The user is now aware the sale is about to end and is encouraged to make a purchase. As you can see the ESP reduces the amount of manual work required to perform such a campaign. To do the same campaign without ESPs automation would require a lot more work as you would have to check all users in the campaign and see if they made a purchase, then only send the second email to those who have not.
Taking a look at the different ESPs available, you may recognize a few of the more household names such as Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook. But what separates these providers from the rest? Which ESPs are best to use for day to day communication and organization, and which ones are more suitable for creating email marketing campaigns?
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
Chatbots are quickly becoming an important marketing tool in the digital space, with companies like Facebook and Twitter rolling out their versions of chatbot technology.
These tools can be used to engage customers on social media, provide customer service, and gather feedback – if used correctly, chatbots could be the ultimate tool in making your brand the industry leader.
Chatbots are computer programs that simulate human conversation, and they can be used to provide customer service, promote products or services, or simply engage with customers.
In recent years, chatbot technology has become increasingly popular in the marketing industry. There are many benefits to using chatbots in marketing, including the ability to save time and resources, increase sales and engagement, and provide a personalized experience for customers.
Additionally, chatbots can be used to collect customer data and feedback, which can be extremely valuable for businesses.
Advantages of Chatbots
1. Chatbots can provide a more personalized experience for customers since they can remember past interactions and preferences.
2. They can also help to increase customer engagement since they are available 24/7 and can answer questions quickly.
3. Chatbots can also help to gather customer feedback and data, which can be used to improve marketing strategies.
4. Additionally, chatbots can help reduce costs by automating tasks that would otherwise require human intervention.
5. For example, if you run an e-commerce site where people can contact you with any questions about their orders or order status, you could use a chatbot to respond instantly so the company doesn’t have to employ a full-time staff member just for these types of inquiries.
6. It’s important to note that chatbots are not intended as a replacement for humans; rather, they should be seen as an enhancement of current marketing efforts.
Disadvantages of Chatbots
1. Chatbots can come across as robotic and impersonal, which can turn off potential customers.
2. If not programmed correctly, chatbots can be frustrating to use, as they may not understand the natural language very well or provide the wrong information.
3. Chatbots may also give your company a false sense of security, as they cannot replace human interaction completely.
4. They can be expensive to create and maintain.
Uses of Chatbots
1. Chatbots can be used to collect customer information such as contact information, preferences, and purchase history.
2. This information can be used to create targeted marketing campaigns that are more likely to convert leads into customers.
3. Chatbots can also be used to provide customer support, answer FAQs, and resolve issues.
4. By automating these tasks, chatbots can free up time for your marketing team to focus on other tasks.
5. Chatbots can also be a helpful tool when you’re short-staffed or don’t have enough qualified employees to deal with high-volume interactions.
6. The benefits of using chatbots include increased productivity, better customer experience, and the ability to generate revenue from automation.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, chatbot technology can be extremely beneficial for marketing purposes. By automating customer service and providing 24/7 support, chatbots can help improve customer satisfaction.
Additionally, chatbots can be used to generate leads and drive sales. When used correctly, chatbots can be a powerful tool for any marketing team.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
In my previous article, I talked about some of the facts that you need to know about some of the elements of a good website design. In this article, I want to look at the six main stages of website design process. Follow me as we are going to look at these stages together in this article.
#1 Determine website objectives First and foremost, before you write your first code for the website, there is a need for you to determine your website objective. You do not have to just create a website, you need to know the reason why you are creating the website. There is a need for you to understand your website audience. When you understand your audience, you will be able to understand their expectation for the website. This will assist you in coming up with a website that meets the need of your stakeholders.
#2 Develop strategy and choose technology After you might have been able to ascertain what your end users are expecting from the website, you need to come up with a blueprint that will enable you to deliver on the objective. There is a need for you to consider the available alternatives as far as developing your website is concerned. This will allow you to consider some of the positive and negative aspects of the website. You will be able to decide whether you have the manpower to support the technology that you have decided to go with.
#3 Develop interface After you might have decided on the technology that you are going to go with as well as how the website will be implemented, you need to now start coding and developing the website. This is covered in two main areas. You need to consider the development of the website and the creation of unique content that you are going to place on the website. This is what you are going to use to engage your audience and increase the conversion rate on the website.
#4 Test website After you might have created the website, there is a need for you to test the website in order to be sure that all elements of the website are working the way they are supposed to work. You need to confirm whether the pages are resolving to the right landing pages. You also need to consider the website links as well. You have to be sure that all the links, as well as categories on the website, are resolving to the right website as well.
#5 Host website
After you might have tested the links and the pages on your website, you need to now decide on the hosting site where your website will be hosted.
In one of my articles, I have highlighted some of the factors that you should consider when you need to choose the right type of hosting company to go with. You can click on the hyperlink to read the article. Some of the factors that you need to consider include bandwidth, price, speed, and storage among other factors that you need to consider.
#6 Maintain website The last stage that you need to consider in your website design process is to plan how you are going to maintain the website.
When it comes to maintaining the website, you need to consider two options. You can decide to handle the maintenance of the website in-house, you can also decide to contract a third party to maintain the website on your behalf. Most times also, the technology you have deployed for the website will determine whether you can maintain it in-house or you hand it over to a third-party company.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
There are many websites and blogs that are created daily across the globe. The truth of the matter is not all websites that survive their first year. I know of many people that created their websites and buy their domains through my Qservers Affiliate links but not a single one of them was able to renew their domains.
This is also one of the factors that affected me in the early years of my blogging career. I seem not to know what to do to run a successful blog.
In this article, my focus is not on blogging. I want to talk about how to create an e-commerce website. The one that will stand the test of time.
I want to say this is going to be a mother article. I will try to write some subsequent posts that will explain some of the points that I Have in this article better.
Please, you need to read all those articles that will follow this article. I am sure it will assist you in running a successful e-commerce website.
#1 Plan your website The very first that you need to consider when you want to run a successful website is to have adequate planning.
You need to consider the product that you intend to sell and how you intend to sell it. You need to consider the design of the website.
Will your website be built inside or do you plan to use a third party? It is also important to consider the capital available to you to set up the site.
All this will guide you to decide on what is and what will not be part of the website.
#2 E-commerce template The next step that you need to consider is to decide on where to buy your e-commerce template.
Whichever way you have decided whether to buy your template in-house or to contract the design of your website to a third party, they will still need to buy a template.
These templates are sometimes modified in order to suit your needs. I can say that the amount you have will determine what type of template you can afford.
You can also decide to start small and upgrade as soon as you start making money from your e-commerce website.
#3 Right domain name It has happened to me before. There are many of us that concluded and we just jumped into choosing a domain name and we later regretted that we have not taken our time to think through it.
You need to really take some thoughtful action when you are choosing your domain name.
The domain name can revolve around the product you sell and it can also revolve around the organization setting up the e-commerce website.
A good example is the Amazon website. It revolves around the organization’s name and we all know Amazon has become a household name when it comes to building an e-commerce website.
They are also leveraging that name to introduce other products and services as well.
#4 Web hosting company I once organized a successful office launch for my company and I was busy looking for where I can accommodate participants that come from outside my state.
A thought later came to my mind to host them in my house. But to my amazement, my house was rejected become of the problem with internet connectivity.
That is also what you need to consider as someone that wants to run an online business. You should choose a hosting company that is reputable and has at least 99 percent uptime.
You can allow your business to be ruined because the hosting company you have chosen cannot keep their server on or they have other issues that can threaten the existence of your website.
#5 Develop a website The next step that you need to take after you might have decided on the hosting company that you want to use is to actually develop your website and begin to plan how the actual commencement of the e-commerce will take place.
You can decide to do the development in-house or give it to a third party to help you out. This largely depends on whether you have the required expertise to guarantee that a good job will be done at the end of the day.
#6 Develop contents After your e-commerce website might have been up and running, you then need to decide on how you are going to develop the contents of your website.
As they say, content is king, you need to ensure that at all times you are feeding the search engine with fresh content.
This will guarantee that your website will keep on appearing on the Search Engine Result Page. This will guarantee that organic traffics are coming to your website.
You need to make sure that good content is created and that the contents are good enough to convert prospects to customers.
From the contents, they should be able to decide on whether they are interested in the products or not. This will help you to maximize the Return on Investment on your website.
#7 Secure the website When you are running an e-commerce website, you need to know that you will be dealing with a lot of sensitive data.
It is very possible that customers will be coming to your websites to buy your products and services.
They will have to enter their card information and other details. You need to make sure that you invest in infrastructures to secure your customer data.
This is necessary to protect them so that it will not damage your customer’s reputation.
You need to make sure that payment systems are integrated into the e-commerce website so that it will be easy for customers to pay for products that they have purchased.
It is also essential that you make more than one payment method available to your customers who might wish to purchase your products and services as well.
#9 Test the website As part of your efforts towards the official launching of your website.
There is a need for you to test your website in order to be sure that everything works the way they supposed to work.
You have to test the speed of the website. You should test the Tabs and different links that you have included in your content. You need to ensure that the contents are loading the right contents.
This will reinforce in the mind of your audience that you truly care about their experience on your e-commerce website.
#10 Promote the website After you might have created your website, you should strive to promote such a website.
You might not really expect large patronage when you just create a website and you leave it to fate.
You need to budget for campaigns and the creation of awareness programs in order to spread the word out that your website is now active.
It is also important that you include share buttons and email marketing so that your existing customers can become your brand advertisers.
There are many websites and blogs that are created daily across the globe.
The truth of the matter is not all websites survive their first year. I know of many people that created their websites and buy their domains through my Qservers Affiliate links but not a single one of them was able to renew their domains. This is also one of the factors that affected me in the early years of my blogging career. I seem not to know what to do to run a successful blog. In this article, my focus is not on blogging. I want to talk about how to create an e-commerce website. The one that will stand the test of time.
I want to say this is going to be a mother article. I will try to write some subsequent posts that will explain some of the points that I Have in this article better. Please, you need to read all those articles that will follow this article. I am sure it will assist you in running a successful e-commerce website.
#1 Plan your website
The very first that you need to consider when you want to run a successful website is to have adequate planning. You need to consider the product that you intend to sell and how you intend to sell it. You need to consider the design of the website. Will your website be built inside or do you plan to use a third party? It is also important to consider the capital available to you to set up the site. All this will guide you to decide on what is and what will not be part of the website.
#2 E-commerce template
The next step that you need to consider is to decide on where to buy your e-commerce template. Whichever way you have decided whether to buy your template in-house or to contract the design of your website to a third party, they will still need to buy a template.
These templates are sometimes modified in order to suit your needs. I can say that the amount you have will determine what type of template you can afford. You can also decide to start small and upgrade as soon as you start making money from your e-commerce website.
#3 Right domain name
It has happened to me before. There are many of us that concluded and we just jumped into choosing a domain name and we later regretted that we have not taken our time to think through. You need to really take some thoughtful action when you are choosing your domain name.
The domain name can revolve around the product you sell and it can also revolve around the organization setting up the e-commerce website.
A good example is the Amazon website. It revolves around the organization’s name and we all know Amazon has become a household name when it comes to building an e-commerce website. They are also leveraging that name to introduce other products and services as well.
#4 Web hosting company
I once organized a successful office launch for my company and I was busy looking for where I can accommodate participants that come from outside my state. A thought later came to my mind to host them in my house. But to my amazement, my house was rejected become of the problem of internet connectivity.
That is also what you need to consider as someone that wants to run an online business. You should choose a hosting company that is reputable and has at least 99 percent uptime.
You can allow your business to be ruined because the hosting company you have chosen cannot keep their server on or they have other issues that can threaten the existence of your website.
#5 Develop a website
The next step that you need to take after you might have decided on the hosting company that you want to use is to actually develop your website and begin to plan how the actual commencement of the e-commerce will take place. You can decide to do the development in-house or you give it to a third party to help you out. This largely depends on whether you have the required expertise to guarantee that a good job will be done at the end of the day.
#6 Develop contents
After your e-commerce website might have been up and running, you then need to decide on how you are going to develop the contents of your website. As they say, content is king, you need to ensure that at all times you are feeding the search engine with fresh content. This will guarantee that your website will keep on appearing on the Search Engine Result Page. This will guarantee that organic traffics are coming to your website.
You need to make sure that good content is created and that the contents are good enough to converts prospects to customers. From the contents, they should be able to decide on whether they are interested in the products or not. This will help you to maximize the Return on Investment on your website.
#7 Secure the website
When you are running an e-commerce website, you need to know that you will be dealing with a lot of sensitive data. It is very possible that customers will be coming to your websites to buy your products and services.
They will have to enter their card information and other details. You need to make sure that you invest in infrastructures to secure your customer data. This is necessary to protect them so that it will not damage your customer’s reputation.
#8 Integrate online payment
Also, you need to understand that your e-commerce website is your online store. You have to ensure that your customers can start and finish their transactions online.
You need to make sure that payment systems are integrated into the e-commerce website so that it will be easy for customers to pay for products that they have purchased.
It is also essential that you make more than one payment method available to your customers who might wish to purchase your products and services as well.
#9 Test the website
As part of your efforts towards the official launching of your website. There is a need for you to test your website in order to be sure that everything works the way they supposed to work.
You have to test the speed of the website. You should test the Tabs and different links that you have included in your content. You need to ensure that the contents are loading the right contents.
This will reinforce in the mind of your audience that you truly care about their experience on your e-commerce website.
#10 Promote the website
After you might have created your website, you should strive to promote such a website. You might not really expect large patronage when you just create a website and you leave it to fate.
You need to budget for campaigns and the creation of awareness programs in order to spread the word out that your website is now active. It is also important that you include share buttons and email marketing so that your existing customers can become your brand advertisers.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
Marketing automation and personalization have become common terms used in the marketing industry over the past few years, but what do they mean? Do you need these tools to be successful in your marketing efforts or will they only make things more complicated?
In this post, we’ll discuss these topics and give you the answers you need to increase your conversions and sales.
What is Automated Marketing?
Automated marketing is the process of using technology to automate marketing tasks. This can include tasks like email marketing, social media campaigns, and targeted ads. By automating these tasks, businesses can save time and resources while still reaching their target audiences.
Why Does Automated Marketing Matter?
In a world where consumers are bombarded with marketing messages daily, it’s more important than ever to cut through the noise and deliver a personalized message that resonates. That’s where automated marketing comes in.
By using data to segment your audience and deliver tailored content, you can create a more personal connection with your leads and customers, which can lead to more conversions.
How Does Automated Marketing Work?
In its simplest form, automated marketing is about using technology to automate tasks that would otherwise be done manually. This can include things like sending out email campaigns, social media posts, and targeted ads. By automating these tasks, businesses can save time and resources while still reaching their target audiences.
Additionally, with the growing use of personalization technologies like AI and machine learning, it’s becoming easier for marketers to create messages tailored specifically for each person. For example, a restaurant might send one customer an ad for lunch specials on Tuesdays but another customer might receive an ad with suggestions for appetizers based on their order history.
Optimizing Your Website for SEO
SEO is important for any website that wants to rank high in search engine results pages (SERPs). By optimizing your website for SEO, you can improve your chances of ranking higher and getting more traffic.
Here are five tips for optimizing your website for SEO: 1. Use keyword-rich titles and descriptions. 2. Use keyword-rich anchor text. 3. Optimize your images. 4. Use social media to promote your content.
What are Digital Assistants?
Digital assistants are computer programs that can perform tasks or provide requested information. They are designed to make life easier by automating simple tasks and providing personalized recommendations.
How Can You Benefit From Personalization?
You can use personalization to make a connection with your audience on a deeper level. When you personalize your marketing, you can target specific pain points that your audience has and offer them a solution that is tailored to their needs. You can also use personalization to stand out from the competition by offering a unique experience that is tailored to your brand.
Additionally, personalization can help you build trust with your audience by showing that you understand their needs and are invested in providing them with a great experience.
Digital Assistants, Chatbots, and Voice Search
With the rise of digital assistants, chatbots, and voice search, marketing is becoming more automated and personalized. This allows businesses to target consumers more effectively with relevant ads and content. Additionally, automated marketing can help businesses save time and money by automating tasks that would otherwise be manual.
How is Content Created in The Automation Process?
In the automation process, content is created by first understanding the customer. Once you understand the customer, you can create content that is tailored to their specific needs. This content can be in the form of ads, emails, or even social media posts.
Tools For Automating And Personalizing Your Marketing
1. List management tools like AWeber or MailChimp can help you automate your email marketing campaigns, making it easier to stay in touch with your leads and customers.
2. Social media management tools like Hootsuite or Buffer can help you automate your social media posts, making it easier to keep your profiles active and engaging.
3. Lead capture tools like LeadPages or Unbounce can help you capture leads from your website or blog, making it easier to grow your list.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
QUESTION 453 Which tool and technique is used in Conduct Procurements?
A. Teaming agreements B. Expert judgment C. Bidder conferences D. Contract types Correct Answer: C Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 454 What provides information regarding the ways people, teams, and organizational units behave? A. Organizational chart B. Organizational theory C. Organizational structure D. Organizational behavior Correct Answer: B Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 455 What is a deliverable-oriented, hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables? A. Organizational breakdown structure (OBS) B. Work performance information C. Work package D. Work breakdown structure (WBS) Correct Answer: D Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 5.4.2.1 Decomposition Decomposition is a technique used for dividing and subdividing the project scope and project deliverables into smaller, more manageable parts. The work package is the work defined at the lowest level of the WBS for which cost and duration can be estimated and managed. The level of decomposition is often guided by the degree of control needed to effectively manage the project. The level of detail for work packages will vary with CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 264 the size and complexity of the project. Decomposition of the total project work into work packages generally involves the following activities: Identifying and analyzing the deliverables and related work; Structuring and organizing the WBS; Decomposing the upper WBS levels into lower-level detailed components; Developing and assigning identification codes to the WBS components; and Verifying that the degree of decomposition of the deliverables is appropriate. QUESTION 456 What causes replanning of the project scope? A. Project document updates B. Project scope statement changes C. Variance analysis D. Change requests Correct Answer: D Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 457 Which of the following is an output of the Distribute Information process? A. Project calendar B. Communications management plan C. Organizational process assets updates D. Project document updates Correct Answer: C Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 458 In the Develop Project Team process, which of the following is identified as a critical factor for a project’s success? A. Team meetings B. Subcontracting teams C. Virtual teams D. Teamwork Correct Answer: D Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: Process: 9.3 Develop Project Team Definition: The process of improving competencies, team member interaction, and overall team environment to enhance project performance. The key benefit of this process is that it results in improved teamwork, CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 265 enhanced people skills and competencies, motivated employees, reduced staff turnover rates, and improved overall project performance. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it results in improved teamwork, enhanced people skills and competencies, motivated employees, reduced staff turnover rates, and improved overall project performance. Inputs 1. Human resource management plan 2. Project staff assignments 3. Resource calendars Tools & Techniques 1. Interpersonal skills 2. Training 3. Team-building activities 4. Ground rules 5. Colocation 6. Recognition and rewards 7. Personnel assessment tools Outputs 1. Team performance assessments 2. Enterprise environmental factors updates QUESTION 459 The project scope statement and resource calendars are inputs to which Project Time Management process? A. Sequence Activities B. Estimate Activity Resources C. Develop Schedule D. Control Schedule Correct Answer: C Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: The project team must complete a scope statement for developing a common understanding of the project scope among stakeholders. This lists project deliverables – summary level sub-products, whose full and satisfactory delivery marks the completion of the project Process: 6.6 Develop Schedule Definition: The process of analyzing activity sequences, durations, resource requirements, and schedule constraints to create the project schedule model. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that by entering schedule activities, durations, resources, resource availabilities, and logical relationships into the scheduling tool, it generates a schedule model with planned dates for completing project activities. Inputs 1. Schedule management plan 2. Activity list 3. Activity attributes 4. Project schedule network diagrams 5. Activity resource requirements 6. Resource calendars 7. Activity duration estimates CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 266 8. Project scope statement 9. Risk register 10. Project staff assignments 11. Resource breakdown structure 12. Enterprise environmental factors 13. Organizational process assets Tools & Techniques 1. Schedule network analysis 2. Critical path method 3. Critical chain method 4. Resource optimization techniques 5. Modeling techniques 6. Leads and lags 7. Schedule compression 8. .Scheduling tool Outputs 1. Schedule baseline 2. .Project schedule 3. Schedule data 4. Project calendars 5. Project management plan updates 6. Project documents updates QUESTION 460 Which process determines the risks that might affect the project? A. Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis B. Identify Risks C. Plan Risk Management D. Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis Correct Answer: B Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 461 Which of the following is an input to the Direct and Manage Project Execution process? A. Approved change requests B. Approved contract documentation C. Work performance information D. Rejected change requests Correct Answer: A Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 462 CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 267 Which of the following factors is lowest at the start of the project? A. Cost of changes B. Stakeholder influences C. Risk D. Uncertainty Correct Answer: A Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 463 In which domain of project management would a Pareto chart provide useful information? A. Project Scope Management B. Project Time Management C. Project Communications Management D. Project Quality Management Correct Answer: D Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 464 Ensuring that both parties meet contractual obligations and that their own legal rights are protected is a function of: A. Conduct Procurements. B. Close Procurements. C. Administer Procurements, D. Plan Procurements. Correct Answer: C Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 465 In which process might a project manager use risk reassessment as a tool and technique? A. Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis B. Monitor and Control Risk C. Monitor and Control Project Work D. Plan Risk Responses Correct Answer: B Section: Volume D CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 268 Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 466 A purchase order for a specified item to be delivered by a specified date for a specified price is the simplest form of what type of contract? A. Cost-reimbursable B. Time and material C. Fixed price or lump-sum D. Cost-plus-fixed-fee Correct Answer: C Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: • Units of measure. Each unit used in measurements (such as staff hours, staff days, weeks for time measures; or meters, liters, tons, kilometers, or cubic yards for quantity measures; or lump sum in currency form) is defined for each of the resources. Fixed-price contracts. This category of contracts involves setting a fixed total price for a defined product, service, or result to be provided. Fixed-price contracts may also incorporate financial incentives for achieving or exceeding selected project objectives, such as schedule delivery dates, cost and technical performance, or anything that can be quantified and subsequently measured. Sellers under fixed-price contracts are legally obligated to complete such contracts, with possible financial damages if they do not. Under the fixed-price arrangement, buyers need to precisely specify the product or services being procured. Changes in scope may be accommodated, but generally with an increase in contract price. QUESTION 467 What risk technique is used to quantify the probability and impact of risks on project objectives? A. Expert judgment B. Risk registry C. Risk response planning D. Interviewing Correct Answer: D Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 11.2.2.2 Information Gathering Techniques Examples of information gathering techniques used in identifying risks can include: Brainstorming. The goal of brainstorming is to obtain a comprehensive list of project risks. The project team usually performs brainstorming, often with a multidisciplinary set of experts who are not part of the team. Ideas about project risk are generated under the leadership of a facilitator, either in a traditional free-form brainstorm session or structured mass interviewing techniques. Categories of risk, such as in a risk breakdown structure, can be used as a framework. Risks are then identified and categorized by type of risk and their definitions are refined. Delphi technique. The Delphi technique is a way to reach a consensus of experts. Project risk experts participate in this technique anonymously. A facilitator uses a questionnaire to solicit ideas about the important project risks. The responses are summarized and are then recirculated to the experts for further comment. CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 269 Consensus may be reached in a few rounds of this process. The Delphi technique helps reduce bias in the data and keeps any one person from having undue influence on the outcome. Interviewing. Interviewing experienced project participants, stakeholders, and subject matter experts helps to identify risks. Root cause analysis. Root-cause analysis is a specific technique used to identify a problem, discover the underlying causes that lead to it, and develop preventive action. QUESTION 468 Which of the following terms indicates a deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the project work? A. WBS directory B. Activity list C. WBS D. Project schedule Correct Answer: C Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 469 Which process occurs within the Monitoring and Controlling Process Group? A. Control Costs B. Plan Quality C. Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis D. Determine Budget Correct Answer: A Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: Monitoring and Controlling Process Group 4.4 Monitor and Control Project Work 4.5 Perform Integrated Change Control 5.5 Validate Scope 5.6 Control Scope 6.7 Control Schedule 7.4 Control Costs 8.3 Control Quality 10.3 Control Communications 11.6 Control Risks 12.3 Control Procurements 13.4 Control Stakeholder Engagement Process: 7.4 Control Costs Definition: The process of monitoring the status of the project to update the project costs and managing changes to the cost baseline. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it determines the cost baseline against which project CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 270 performance can be monitored and controlled. Inputs 1. Project management plan 2. Project funding requirements 3. Work performance data 4. Organizational process assets Tools & Techniques 1. Earned value management 2. Forecasting 3. To-complete performance index (TCPI) 4. Performance reviews 5. Project management software 6. Reserve analysis Outputs 1. Work performance information 2. Cost forecasts 3. Change requests 4. Project management plan updates 5. Project documents updates 6. Organizational process assets updates QUESTION 470 Which of the following processes audits the quality requirements and the results from quality control measures to ensure appropriate quality standards and operational definitions are used? A. Perform Quality Control B. Quality Metrics C. Perform Quality Assurance D. Plan Quality Correct Answer: C Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: Process: 8.2 Perform Quality Assurance Definition: The process of auditing the quality requirements and the results from quality control measurements to ensure that appropriate quality standards and operational definitions are used. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it facilitates the improvement of quality processes. Inputs 1. Quality management plan 2. Process improvement plan 3. Quality metrics 4. Quality control measurements 5. Project documents Tools & Techniques 1. Quality management and control tools 2. Quality audits 3. Process analysis Outputs CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 271 1. Change requests 2. Project management plan updates 3. Project documents updates 4. Organizational process assets updates QUESTION 471 How is the schedule variance calculated using the earned value technique? A. EV less AC B. AC less PV C. EV less PV D. AC less EV Correct Answer: C Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 472 Which Perform Quality Control tool graphically represents how various elements of a system interrelate? A. Control chart B. Flowchart C. Run chart D. Pareto chart Correct Answer: B Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 473 Which type of analysis is used as a general management technique within the Plan Procurements process? A. Risk assessment analysis B. Make or buy analysis C. Contract value analysis D. Cost impact analysis Correct Answer: B Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 474 Which of the following tools and techniques is used in the Verify Scope process? A. Inspection B. Variance analysis CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 272 C. Expert judgment D. Decomposition Correct Answer: A Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 475 Define Activities and Estimate Activity Resources are processes in which project management Knowledge Area? A. Project Time Management B. Project Cost Management C. Project Scope Management D. Project Human Resource Management Correct Answer: A Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 476 Which is a communication method used in the Report Performance process? A. Expert judgment B. Project management methodology C. Stakeholder analysis D. Status review meetings Correct Answer: D Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 477 Prioritizing risks for further analysis or action by assessing and combining their probability of occurrence and impact takes place in which process? A. Monitor and Control Risks B. Plan Risk Management C. Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis D. Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis Correct Answer: C Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 273 QUESTION 478 In which process is a project manager identified and given the authority to apply resources to project activities? A. Acquire Project Team B. Develop Project Management Plan C. Manage Project Execution D. Develop Project Charter Correct Answer: D Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: Process: 4.1. Develop Project Charter Definition: The process of developing a document that formally authorizes the existence of a project and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is a well-defined project start and project boundaries, creation of a formal record of the project, and a direct way for senior management to formally accept and commit to the project. Inputs 1. Project statement of work 2. Business case 3. Agreements 4. Enterprise environmental factors 5. Organizational process assets Tools & Techniques 1. Expert judgment 2. Facilitation techniques Outputs 1. Project charter QUESTION 479 Which of the following documents allows the project manager to assess risks that may require near term action? A. Probability and impact matrix B. Contingency analysis report C. Risk urgency assessment D. Rolling wave plan Correct Answer: C Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 11.3.2.5 Risk Urgency Assessment Risks requiring near-term responses may be considered more urgent to address. Indicators of priority may include probability of detecting the risk, time to affect a risk response, symptoms and warning signs, and CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 274 the risk rating. In some qualitative analyses, the assessment of risk urgency is combined with the risk ranking that is determined from the probability and impact matrix to give a final risk severity rating. QUESTION 480 Which activity involves ensuring that the composition of a projects configuration items is correct? A. Configuration Identification B. Configuration Status Accounting C. Configuration Verification and Audit D. Configuration Quality Assurance Correct Answer: C Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: Configuration identification. Identification and selection of a configuration item to provide the basis for which the product configuration is defined and verified, products and documents are labeled, changes are managed, and accountability is maintained. Configuration status accounting. Information is recorded and reported as to when appropriate data about the configuration item should be provided. This information includes a listing of approved configuration identification, status of proposed changes to the configuration, and the implementation status of approved changes. Configuration verification and audit. Configuration verification and configuration audits ensure the composition of a project’s configuration items is correct and that corresponding changes are registered, assessed, approved, tracked, and correctly implemented. This ensures the functional requirements defined in the configuration documentation have been met. QUESTION 481 Change requests, project management plan updates, project document updates, and organizational process assets updates are all outputs of which project management process? A. Plan Risk Responses B. Manage Stakeholder Expectations C. Define Scope D. Report Performance Correct Answer: B Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 482 Which process involves identifying and documenting the logical relationships between project activities? A. Develop Schedule B. Sequence Activities C. Create WBS D. Applying leads and lags Correct Answer: B Section: Volume D CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 275 Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: Process: 6.3 Sequence Activities Definition: The process of identifying and documenting relationships among the project activities. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it defines the logical sequence of work to obtain the greatest efficiency given all project constraints. Inputs 1. Schedule management plan 2. Activity list 3. Activity attributes 4. Milestone list 5. Project scope statement 6. Enterprise environmental factors 7. Organizational process assets Tools & Techniques 1. Precedence diagramming method (PDM) 2. Dependency determination 3. Leads and lags Outputs 1. Project schedule network diagrams 2. Project documents updates QUESTION 483 Which of the following is an example of the simplest fixed-price contract? A. Purchase requisition B. Purchase order C. Verbal agreement D. Request for quote Correct Answer: B Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 484 Which technique helps to determine the risks that have the most potential impact on a project? A. Cost risk simulation analysis B. Expected monetary value analysis C. Modeling and simulation D. Sensitivity analysis Correct Answer: D Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 11.4.2.2 Quantitative Risk Analysis and Modeling Techniques Commonly used techniques use both event-oriented and project-oriented analysis approaches, including: CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 276 • Sensitivity analysis. Sensitivity analysis helps to determine which risks have the most potential impact on the project. It helps to understand how the variations in project’s objectives correlate with variations in different uncertainties. Conversely, it examines the extent to which the uncertainty of each project element affects the objective being studied when all other uncertain elements are held at their baseline values. QUESTION 485 Labor, materials, equipment, and supplies are examples of: A. Resource attributes. B. Resource types. C. Resource categories. D. Resource breakdown structures (RBS). Correct Answer: C Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 6.4.3.2 Resource Breakdown Structure The resource breakdown structure is a hierarchical representation of resources by category and type. Examples of resource categories include labor, material, equipment, and supplies. Resource types may include the skill level, grade level, or other information as appropriate to the project. The resource breakdown structure is useful for organizing and reporting project schedule data with resource utilization information. QUESTION 486 Analogous cost estimating relies on which of the following techniques? A. Expert judgment B. Project management software C. Vendor bid analysis D. Reserve analysis Correct Answer: A Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 4.1.2.1 Expert Judgment Definition: Expert judgment is often used to assess the inputs used to develop the project charter. Expert judgment is applied to all technical and management details during this process. Such expertise is provided by any group or individual with specialized knowledge or training and is available from many sources, including: Other units within the organization, Consultants, Stakeholders, including customers or sponsors, Professional and technical associations, Industry groups, Subject matter experts (SME), and Project management office (PMO). QUESTION 487 A method to manage stakeholder expectations in the scope statement is to clearly: A. state the guiding principles of the organization. CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 277 B. identify alternatives to generate different approaches. C. state what is out of scope. D. outline the results of the Delphi technique. Correct Answer: C Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 488 Which type of management focuses on ensuring that projects and programs are reviewed to prioritize resource allocation? A. Project B. Functional C. Program D. Portfolio Correct Answer: D Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 1.4.2 Portfolio Management A portfolio refers to projects, programs, subportfolios, and operations managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives. The projects or programs of the portfolio may not necessarily be interdependent or directly related. For example, an infrastructure firm that has the strategic objective of “maximizing the return on its investments” may put together a portfolio that includes a mix of projects in oil and gas, power, water, roads, rail, and airports. From this mix, the firm may choose to manage related projects as one program. All of the power projects may be grouped together as a power program. Similarly, all of the water projects may be grouped together as a water program. Thus, the power program and the water program become integral components of the enterprise portfolio of the infrastructure firm. QUESTION 489 One of the tools and techniques of the Manage Project Team process is: A. organization charts. B. ground rules. C. organizational theory, D. conflict management. Correct Answer: D Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 9.4.2.3 Conflict Management Conflict is inevitable in a project environment. Sources of conflict include scarce resources, scheduling priorities, and personal work styles. Team ground rules, group norms, and solid project management practices, like communication planning and role definition, reduce the amount of conflict. Successful conflict management results in greater productivity and positive working relationships. When CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 278 managed properly, differences of opinion can lead to increased creativity and better decision making. If the differences become a negative factor, project team members are initially responsible for their resolution. If conflict escalates, the project manager should help facilitate a satisfactory resolution. Conflict should be addressed early and usually in private, using a direct, collaborative approach. If disruptive conflict continues, formal procedures may be used, including disciplinary actions. The success of project managers in managing their project teams often depends a great deal on their ability to resolve conflict. Different project managers may utilize different conflict resolution methods. Factors that influence conflict resolution methods include: • Relative importance and intensity of the conflict, • Time pressure for resolving the conflict, • Position taken by persons involved, and • Motivation to resolve conflict on a long-term or a short-term basis. There are five general techniques for resolving conflict. As each one has its place and use, these are not given in any particular order: Withdraw/Avoid. Retreating from an actual or potential conflict situation; postponing the issue to be better prepared or to be resolved by others. Smooth/Accommodate. Emphasizing areas of agreement rather than areas of difference; conceding one’s position to the needs of others to maintain harmony and relationships. Compromise/Reconcile. Searching for solutions that bring some degree of satisfaction to all parties in order to temporarily or partially resolve the conflict. Force/Direct. Pushing one’s viewpoint at the expense of others; offering only win-lose solutions, usually enforced through a power position to resolve an emergency. Collaborate/Problem Solve. Incorporating multiple viewpoints and insights from differing perspectives; requires a cooperative attitude and open dialogue that typically leads to consensus and commitment. Process: 9.4 Manage Project Team Definition: The process of tracking team member performance, providing feedback, resolving issues, and managing changes to optimize project performance. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it influences team behavior, manages conflict, resolves issues, and appraises team member performance. Inputs 1. Human resource management plan 2. Project staff assignments 3. Team performance assessments 4. Issue log 5. Work performance reports 6. Organizational process assets Tools & Techniques 1. Observation and conversation 2. Project performance appraisals 3. Conflict management 4. Interpersonal skills Outputs 1. Change requests 2. Project management plan updates 3. Project documents updates 4. Enterprise environmental factors updates 5. Organizational process assets updates QUESTION 490 The process of monitoring the status of the project to update project progress and manage changes to the schedule baseline is: A. Control Schedule. CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 279 B. Quality Control. C. Perform Integrated Change Control. D. Develop Schedule. Correct Answer: A Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 6.6.3.1 Schedule Baseline A schedule baseline is the approved version of a schedule model that can be changed only through formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison to actual results. It is accepted and approved by the appropriate stakeholders as the schedule baseline with baseline start dates and baseline finish dates. During monitoring and controlling, the approved baseline dates are compared to the actual start and finish dates to determine whether variances have occurred. The schedule baseline is a component of the project management plan. Process: 6.7 Control Schedule Definition: Control Schedule is the process of monitoring the status of project activities to update project progress and manage changes to the schedule baseline to achieve the plan. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it provides the means to recognize deviation from the plan and take corrective and preventive actions and thus minimize risk. Inputs 1. Project management plan 2. Project schedule 3. Work performance data 4. Project calendars 5. Schedule data 6. Organizational process assets Tools & Techniques 1. Performance reviews 2. Project management software 3. Resource optimization techniques 4. Modeling techniques 5. Leads and lags 6. Schedule compression 7. Scheduling tool Outputs 1. Work performance information 2. Schedule forecasts 3. Change requests 4. Project management plan updates 5. Project documents updates 6. Organizational process assets updates QUESTION 491 Changes to formally controlled documentation, plans, etc. to reflect modified or additional ideas or content are known as: A. updates. B. defect repairs. C. preventive actions. CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 280 D. corrective actions. Correct Answer: A Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 4.3.3.3 Change Requests A change request is a formal proposal to modify any document, deliverable, or baseline. An approved change request will replace the associated document, deliverable, or baseline and may result in an update to other parts of the project management plan. When issues are found while project work is being performed, change requests are submitted, which may modify project policies or procedures, project scope, project cost or budget, project schedule, or project quality. Other change requests cover the needed preventive or corrective actions to forestall negative impact later in the project. Requests for a change can be direct or indirect, externally or internally initiated, and can be optional or legally/contractually mandated, and may include: Corrective action—An intentional activity that realigns the performance of the project work with the project management plan; Preventive action—An intentional activity that ensures the future performance of the project work is aligned with the project management plan; Defect repair—An intentional activity to modify a nonconforming product or product component; Updates—Changes to formally controlled project documents, plans, etc., to reflect modified or additional ideas or content. QUESTION 492 Which provides the basic framework for managing a project? A. Project life cycle B. Work breakdown structure (WBS) C. Enterprise environmental factors D. Project initiation Correct Answer: A Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: Project Life Cycle. The series of phases that a project passes through from its initiation to its closure. QUESTION 493 A tool and technique used during the Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis process is: A. risk data quality assessment. B. variance and trend analysis. C. data gathering and representation techniques. D. risk audits. Correct Answer: A Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 281 11.3.2.3 Risk Data Quality Assessment Risk data quality assessment is a technique to evaluate the degree to which the data about risks is useful for risk management. It involves examining the degree to which the risk is understood and the accuracy, quality, reliability, and integrity of the data about the risk. The use of low-quality risk data may lead to a qualitative risk analysis of little use to the project. If data quality is unacceptable, it may be necessary to gather better data. Often, the collection of information about risks is diffcult, and consumes more time and resources than originally planned. Process: 11.3 Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis Definition: The process of prioritizing risks for further analysis or action by assessing and combining their probability of occurrence and impact. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it enables project managers to reduce the level of uncertainty and to focus on high-priority risks. Inputs 1. Risk management plan 2. Scope baseline 3. Risk register 4. Enterprise environmental factors 5. Organizational process assets Tools & Techniques 1. Risk probability and impact assessment 2. Probability and impact matrix 3. Risk data quality assessment 4. Risk categorization 5. Risk urgency assessment 6. Expert judgment Outputs 1. Project documents updates QUESTION 494 In the Estimate Activity Durations process, productivity metrics and published commercial information inputs are part of the: A. enterprise environmental factors B. organizational process assets C. project management plan D. project funding requirements Correct Answer: A Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 6.5.1.9 Enterprise Environmental Factors Described in Section 2.1.5. The enterprise environmental factors that can influence the Estimate Activity Durations process include, but are not limited to: Duration estimating databases and other reference data, Productivity metrics, Published commercial information, and Location of team members. Process: 6.5 Estimate Activity Durations CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 282 Definition: The process of estimating the number of work periods needed to complete individual activities with estimated resources. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it provides the amount of time each activity will take to complete, which is a major input into the Develop Schedule process. Inputs 1. Schedule management plan 2. Activity list 3. Activity attributes 4. Activity resource requirements 5. Resource calendars 6. Project scope statement 7. Risk register 8. Resource breakdown structure 9. Enterprise environmental factors 10. Organizational process assets Tools & Techniques 1. Expert judgment 2. Analogous estimating 3. Parametric estimating 4. Three-point estimating 5. Group decision-making techniques 6. Reserve analysis Outputs 1. Activity duration estimates 2. Project documents updates QUESTION 495 The milestone list is an input to which process from the Planning Process Group? A. Define Activities B. Estimate Activity Durations C. Estimate Activity Resources D. Sequence Activities Correct Answer: D Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 6.2.3.3 Milestone List A milestone is a significant point or event in a project. A milestone list is a list identifying all project milestones and indicates whether the milestone is mandatory, such as those required by contract, or optional, such as those based upon historical information. Milestones are similar to regular schedule activities, with the same structure and attributes, but they have zero duration because milestones represent a moment in time. Process: 6.3 Sequence Activities Definition: The process of identifying and documenting relationships among the project activities. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it defines the logical sequence of work to obtain the greatest efficiency given all project constraints. Inputs 1. Schedule management plan 2. Activity list CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 283 3. Activity attributes 4. Milestone list 5. Project scope statement 6. Enterprise environmental factors 7. Organizational process assets Tools & Techniques 1. Precedence diagramming method (PDM) 2. Dependency determination 3. Leads and lags Outputs 1. Project schedule network diagrams 2. Project documents updates QUESTION 496 Quality metrics are an output of which process? A. Plan Quality Management B. Perform Quality Control C. Perform Quality Assurance D. Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis Correct Answer: A Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 8.1.3.3 Quality Metrics A quality metric specifically describes a project or product attribute and how the control quality process will measure it. A measurement is an actual value. The tolerance defines the allowable variations to the metric. For example, if the quality objective is to stay within the approved budget by ± 10%, the specific quality metric is used to measure the cost of every deliverable and determine the percent variance from the approved budget for that deliverable. Quality metrics are used in the perform quality assurance and control quality processes. Some examples of quality metrics include on-time performance, cost control, defect frequency, failure rate, availability, reliability, and test coverage. Process: 8.1 Plan Quality Management Definition: The process of identifying quality requirements and/or standards for the project and its deliverables, and documenting how the project will demonstrate compliance with relevant quality requirements and/or standards. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it provides guidance and direction on how quality will be managed and validated throughout the project. Inputs 1. Project management plan 2. Stakeholder register 3. Risk register 4. Requirements documentation 5. Enterprise environmental factors 6. Organizational process assets Tools & Techniques 1. Cost-benefit analysis 2. Cost of quality 3. Seven basic quality tools 4. Benchmarking CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 284 5. Design of experiments 6. Statistical sampling 7. Additional quality planning tools 8. Meetings Outputs 1. Quality management plan 2. Process improvement plan 3. Quality metrics 4. Quality checklists 5. Project documents updates QUESTION 497 The purpose of inspection in Perform Quality Control is to keep errors: A. in line with a measured degree of conformity. B. out of the hands of the customer. C. in a specified range of acceptable results. D. out of the process. Correct Answer: B Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 498 An input to the Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis process is the: A. quality management plan. B. project management plan. C. communications management plan. D. schedule management plan. Correct Answer: D Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 6.1.3.1 Schedule Management Plan A component of the project management plan that establishes the criteria and the activities for developing, monitoring, and controlling the schedule. The schedule management plan may be formal or informal, highly detailed or broadly framed, based upon the needs of the project, and includes appropriate control thresholds. For example, the schedule management plan can establish the following: Project schedule model development. The scheduling methodology and the scheduling tool to be used in the development of the project schedule model are specified. Level of accuracy. The acceptable range used in determining realistic activity duration estimates is specified and may include an amount for contingencies. Units of measure. Each unit used in measurements (such as staff hours, staff days, or weeks for time measures, or meters, liters, tons, kilometers, or cubic yards for quantity measures) is defined for each of the resources. Organizational procedures links. The WBS (Section 5.4) provides the framework for the schedule management plan, allowing for consistency with the estimates and resulting schedules. Project schedule model maintenance. The process used to update the status and record progress of the project in the schedule model during the execution of the project is defined. CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 285 Control thresholds. Variance thresholds for monitoring schedule performance may be specified to indicate an agreed-upon amount of variation to be allowed before some action needs to be taken. Thresholds are typically expressed as percentage deviations from the parameters established in the baseline plan. Rules of performance measurement. Earned value management (EVM) rules or other physical measurement rules of performance measurement are set. For example, the schedule management plan may specify: ○○ Rules for establishing percent complete, ○○ Control accounts at which management of progress and schedule will be measured, ○○ Earned value measurement techniques (e.g., baselines, fixed-formula, percent complete, etc.) to be employed (for more specific information, refer to the Practice Standard for Earned Value Management) [9], ○○ Schedule performance measurements such as schedule variance (SV) and schedule performance index (SPI) used to assess the magnitude of variation to the original schedule baseline. Reporting formats. The formats and frequency for the various schedule reports are defined. Process descriptions. Descriptions of each of the schedule management processes are documented. Process: 11.4 Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis Definition: The process of numerically analyzing the effect of identified risks on overall project objectives. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it produces quantitative risk information to support decision making in order to reduce project uncertainty. Inputs 1. Risk management plan 2. Cost management plan 3. Schedule management plan 4. Risk register 5. Enterprise environmental factors 6. Organizational process assets Tools & Techniques 1. Data gathering and representation techniques 2. Quantitative risk analysis and modeling techniques 3. Expert judgment Outputs 1. Project documents updates QUESTION 499 When large or complex projects are separated into distinct phases or subprojects, all of the Process Groups would normally be: A. divided among each of the phases or subprojects. B. repeated for each of the phases or subprojects. C. linked to specific phases or subprojects. D. integrated for specific phases or subprojects. Correct Answer: B Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 500 A project has a current cost performance index (CPI) of 1.25. To date, US$10,000 have been spent on performing the project work. What is the earned value of the work completed to date? A. US$5000 CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 286 B. US$9500 C. US$10,000 D. US$12,500 Correct Answer: D Section: Volume D Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: CPI = EV / AC US$12,500/US$10,000 = 1.25
