Why Chatbots are Essential for Businesses

by | Nov 8, 2016 | Software

Chatbots are those things you see that pop up on sites asking you if you have questions or need additional help.

Sometimes, there is a real person on the other end of that chatbox, but most often, these are bots that are programmed with responses based on frequent questions or algorithms.

These bots aren’t just another bit of code to add to your site. They can actually have a big impact on your success. Here’s why:

Users Actively Engage with Them

Chatbots aren’t typical pop-ups that annoy users and send them searching for ad blockers.

Users actually engage with these bots and rely on them for information. Many have reported that they feel like they are working with their own personal assistants on the site to find the information they need or achieve their goals, such as finding the right car to buy or the right couch to have with children around.

Bots end up improving the user experience on the site, which makes people feel better about your brand and be more likely to return. Bots also help people find exactly what they need, which means that you are helping to solve their problem and potentially earn a customer.

Think about how bots can help users find information on your site and incorporate them effectively. Make sure you set up the design to show users how they can be helpful, and include information encouraging them to engage with the chatbot in a way that shows this usefulness.

They Don’t Require Downloads

Users are very leery of downloading software or information on their own computers, especially from sites that they have just started using.

Bots don’t require that users download anything, which means that people are much more likely to use them. Therefore, you will get more usage, which increases your chances of generating a lead or making a sale.

Since bots don’t require a download, they also put less strain on your coding and hosting capacity.

Bots are Optimized for Mobile

Mobile marketing is the focus of the future for all brands. There are now more mobile searches than there are desktop searches, and mobile users are growing constantly.

If you want to remain relevant, you have to develop a strong marketing plan for mobile users. That includes optimizing your design and your content for these smaller devices.

Bots are optimized for mobile without you having to do anything else to make them that way. Bots were used on mobile devices for many years, so their design has already been perfected for mobile users. You can be sure that they are helping you to capture more of this important demographic for your site.

They Have Minimal Cost

Unlike developing a dedicated app, bots have a very low cost. You won’t have to spend thousands of dollars to incorporate them into your site.

Bot platforms have created the basic infrastructure for creating bots, so you don’t have to hire a team to do all the extensive development required for building a program from scratch.

In addition, bots require minimal maintenance, so you won’t have to make a big investment of time or money to keep your bot up to date or secure.

Not only do you not have to pay a lot of money to get or maintain a chatbot, but you will get a huge return for having one on your site. Users will feel more engaged, you’ll get more leads, and you’ll make more sales as a result of having the bot on your site.

They are More Popular because of WhatsApp

WhatsApp is a popular messaging platform that allows users to send messages without using a texting service. People can instantly send messages without having to pay for an additional service or without using the data on their plan.

Because more people are using WhatsApp, they are comfortable with these kind of messaging services and are more open to using them. That means that when they see the chatbot on your site, they are going to be more willing to engage with it.

They are going to understand that they can communicate easily and without being charged for the privilege. The more they use the bot, the more likely they are to get the information they need and to become a lead or a paying customer.

The more you can include on your site to increase user engagement or to promote sales, the more successful you will be. If you are not already using chatbots on your site, it is important that you look into how to incorporate them and start developing one.

You may find that a simple bot that answers frequently asked questions is enough to get the results you need, or you may find that you need multiple bot models depending on the user and the device. Either way, you will find that the investment is well worth it.

What Our Online User Behavior Study Reveals

by | Nov 7, 2016 | Marketing

Understanding how users behave online is key to creating a marketing strategy that gets results.

If you don’t understand how your audience behaves, how will you know where to post your ads? Or what kind of content to create? Or what kind of SEO strategy to adopt?

You can hire a company to perform extensive audience research for you, or you can commit your own time and resources to doing it yourself. CodeFuel has made it a little easier for you by conducting the research on your behalf.

Here’s what our extensive online user behavior study revealed:

 Content Discovery

No surprise: Google is the top way that people find content.

They go to Google to put in search terms for exactly what they want. They might type in a specific question, or they might put in more general terms to get broader information about a topic.

What may surprise you is that the second most popular way that users get content is through content websites. These are sites like CNN, Wired, Huffington Post and more.

This makes sense when you think about how you find content yourself. You wouldn’t do a Google search for an interesting think piece or article about a subject you don’t even know, but if you see it linked or recommended on another site you trust, you might be interested enough to follow through and learn more.

Use the right content discovery tools to make sure your content is getting in front of the right audience and your brand is getting maximum reach.

Content Consumption

Once users are on your site, what do they do? How do they navigate the content presented?

Our research found that 73 percent of users said they browse websites in the morning to get the latest updates. They are settling down with their cup of coffee and logging on first thing in the morning, and they want to find out what might have happened during the night or in the early morning hours.

Approximately 43 percent of users say they browse content in the afternoon because they want to take a break. You likely have these slumps in your own day – when you are working but your productivity is failing because your concentration is waning. Instead, you go online to see what’s new and maybe to check your social networks.

Knowing this and other content consumption habits can help you plan the type of content you want to publish at different times of the day. You can conduct more research to find out what days of the week your particular audience is most active, as well.

Videos

You may already know that video should be an important part of your online marketing strategy, but you may not realize just how important it is.

CodeFuel’s research found that more and more people are watching video, and it is a very important tool for marketers. Users like to watch videos on all platforms, including personal computers and mobile devices. Therefore, it is important that you create video with all formats in mind.

We also found that users prefer certain types of content to be in video format. For example, 39 percent of people said they prefer to get entertainment content as video, and 31 percent said they prefer tech content as video. In contrast, 70 percent said they like to get their news in the written format.

Video consumption also broke down on gender lines. Women prefer to watch videos on cooking, fashion and style, while men like to watch videos on cars, sports and technology.

Ad Consumption

Many people are now using tools to actively avoid seeing ads.

They have become so used to ads that these promotions are seen as nuisances rather than helpful pitches.

However, our research showed that certain ads and strategies can attract attention.

For example, 43 percent of respondents told us that they would watch all of a video ad so long as it had interesting content. Additionally, 39 percent of people said that they would click through on an ad so long as it had a compelling offer.

Users are not even wary of ad-supported content. Approximately 79 percent of people said they prefer to access free content that is supported by ads. They are more willing to sit through ads than they are to pay for the content they want.

Your users are primed to view and interact with your ads. You just need to use the right strategies to get through.

Understanding how people behave online can help you create the strategies that will get results. With the right strategies, you can reach more of your audience, keep them more engaged, and get more leads and sales from your ads and your content marketing. Use these insights to reevaluate your content or to create a new strategy for your site.

Tips for Getting Started and Being Successful with Facebook Live

by | Sep 22, 2016 | Social Media

Facebook Live has introduced an innovative new option to reach your audience.

You no longer have to confine yourself to updating short video updates after an event has passed or to “live blog” with snippets of text as you report from an event. Now, you can broadcast a stream in real time to your audience just as if you were reporting a news program.

Since this is a relatively new feature, you may still be a little confused about how to start using it or how to get the most out of it to influence your audience.

Tech blogger Hillel Fuld sat down with CodeFuel Vice President of Marketing Angie Geffen to talk about this new technology and its potential. You can check out that session here, or you can read on to get some top tips for getting start and being successful with Facebook Live:

Create a Unique Offering

Everyone and their grandmother can post a video of themselves reacting to watching a show or singing along to a popular song — and does.

You need to create something unique that is worthwhile for your audience to watch.

Take advantage of the access that only you have to create unique videos. For example, if you attend an industry event, broadcast live from that event. If you can snag an exclusive interview with an expert in your field, broadcast it live instead of waiting to post it after the fact.

The fewer people that are offering something, the more interesting and special it seems to be. Make sure you are among those that are offering something rare.

Invest in Good Equipment

You can take video with any smart phone with a camera, but that doesn’t mean you should.

Low-quality video will reflect poorly on your brand. Your audience may think that the products and services you offer have the same poor quality and they won’t buy.

Invest in a good quality camera and other equipment to improve the look and sound of your videos. You may want to purchase items such as a high-quality microphone, green screen, professional backdrops, and good lighting.

You don’t need the best setup that money can buy, but you should purchase the highest quality you can to create a professional-looking video.

Create a Content Strategy

Just like you create a content strategy for your blog, you need to create a content strategy for your Facebook Live videos.

Developing a calendar is the best way to create your strategy, as it will include a clear list of dates and video topics that you can plan around to create a steady stream of videos.

However, if you aren’t able to develop a plan in that much detail, you can at least develop a plan for the frequency of your videos, the type of videos you will produce, or even the roles that your team members will take in creating these videos. Therefore, you may not know what you will record until the week of the video, but if you at least know that you are going to put out a video every week, you can be thinking ahead and planning accordingly.

Don’t be Afraid to Experiment

Recording live video can be very challenging. Don’t feel like you have to have every aspect of your video planned or that you can’t deviate from your plan.

You will make mistakes on camera. The unexpected will happen. Instead of trying to prevent that, it is better to remain flexible and focus on how you can learn and grow from those mishaps.

If your mic drops out during a recording, you can make changes to your tech setup to ensure that mistakes like that don’t happen again. If someone you are interviewing goes rogue during your talk, you can create a better vetting process for on-camera guests.

The way you handle mistakes and mishaps on the air will also show your audience what kind of service and professionalism you have to offer them. If you’re able to roll with the punches and act with grace under fire, you will inspire your audience’s trust and confidence.

Loosen Up and Have Fun

The best videos are those that are fun, and if you are having fun, your audience will appreciate your video more.

Plus, if you are having fun, you’ll be more open to learning and adapting as you adjust to using this new, experimental platform. Make funny jokes and asides as you are recording. Respond to mishaps in funny ways. Show off your personality!

Your audience will feel more engaged with the video if you are having fun, and they will be more likely to comment on your stream and to watch your future live videos.

Facebook Live offers a great way to engage your audience and to create more exposure for your brand. Use these tips to get started with the platform and start connecting with more of your followers.

Why Native Ads

by | Sep 20, 2016 | Advertising

Why native ads? Native ads can be defined as ad units that fit into the look and feel of the publisher website. The word ‘native’ refers to the ad fitting natively into the site.
Examples of native ads: advertisement posts in your Facebook feed; the first few ‘sponsored’ results on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP); the ‘recommended for you’ section at the bottom of the article you are reading. Native ads are integrated seamlessly within the platform. Over the course of this blog post, I will delve into this question and make a clear case for native ad implementation.

The State Of Online ADS

Publishers and advertisers have seen a decline in user engagement with display banner ads. Users are failing to ‘see’ and react to these ad units and click-through rates are falling. The entire media industry is feeling the sting as advertisers are seeing a decline in their campaign metrics and are paying less for these ads; publisher revenues are taking a hit.

As the results of these ads become less and less impressive, publishers and advertisers naturally try other ad units to generate revenue- they use more aggressive ad units such as pop-ups and plasma banners, which come with the unpleasant side effect of interfering with the user experience.

Too many of these types of ads are contributing to the expansion of ad blocking. Why? Because quite simply, users do not want to see them. The media is going crazy with ad blocking stories at the moment as these display ads are damaging the user experience.

Finding The Right Solution

There is a clear need for a different ad solution to enable brands to engage with their users and not send them away with an unpleasant experience. Publishers yearn for user engagement and the ability to monetize from it.
Matching the look and feel of the host site is all well and good, but in reality, it’s only half the battle.

Ads need to be relevant or else they will not be effective. Ads need to be in line with searches conducted by the user, keywords, content of the actual articles/page, the location of the user, their browsing history and more. Many solutions fall short of the mark- they hit one target but not the other. CodeFuel has stepped in to deliver both.

CodeFuel & Native ADS

CodeFuel’s mission is simple- to deliver a native ad solution that compliments the user’s experience and journey. To serve highly targeted ads in a way that do not interfere with the UX, which will in turn will generate revenue for the content publisher. Our engagement solutions are implemented within the publisher page with a simple line of code, and are able to capture the intent of the user and the context of the article they are reading.

Ads delivered within the CodeFuel line of products are natively designed and offer a smooth integration with better results for advertisers and publishers on both mobile web and desktop. The solutions have proven to keep users on site for longer and to increase publisher revenues in the process. Check out codefuel.com to learn more on native ads and what they can do for the content publisher.

Solving Publisher Problems

by | Sep 8, 2016 | Advertising

Whether you’re a content publisher or not, it’s imperative to have a clear understanding of what’s going on in your market. And even more importantly, you need to understand the future trends of the industry. The content publisher faces extraordinary challenges in this day and age- it’s my job, and CodeFuel’s job to address these in intuitive ways- to solve publisher problems.

Publisher Problems

Publishers constantly have to reevaluate their strategy and business model in order to remain at the forefront of user engagement and content monetization. There is indeed a constant battle between these two elements, particularly in the realm of ads.

Generally speaking, when ads are becoming more and more of a commodity, prices tend to erode. Therefore, in order to increase or even maintain revenue made through ads, there is a need to find ways to increase viewability or add additional monetization sockets to existing ad materials.

Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong. This area is a minefield – loaded with potential explosives which can destroy your user experience or monetizing potential.

Can You Monetize Too Much?

You want to monetize your online assets with ads- but how many different solutions can you implement before they weigh down your site? Is one tool cannibalizing the other? Why can’t publishers balance all those separate tools into one orchestrated solution?  We’re witnessing a lot of publishers overcrowding their sites with various intrusive tools which result in driving users away.  They choose monetization over engagement and are paying the price.

Content Publishing Main Goals

The main goal of a content publisher is it to maximize revenue while maintaining a great user experience – giving the end user a strong UX. Another primary goal is to keep up with the latest trends of the ad tech industry.

 “There is a technology battle out there – the publishers are getting left behind.”

Industry Challenges

Mobile ads: We’re witnessing so many changes in the market these last couple of years. We’re in a mobile-first world, this is an excellent thing for the end user, but can be slightly problematic for the publisher who needs to monetize mobile screens. The UX is different, real estate is limited alongside the number and types of ads that are able to be served.

Programmatic ads: Publishers know their brand and audience better than any other party. With programmatic advertising, the direct communication between the publisher and his end user changes, and not necessarily for the better. Without the right targeting, publishers hit users with irrelevant ads which in turn damage the UX.

One Solution Needed

The CodeFuel goal is to help publishers balance between monetization and engagement.

CodeFuel spend a lot of time and allocate substantial resources to understand publishers and THEIR end users.

We study their needs, their challenges and behaviors – And we make it our business to know exactly what keeps them up at night. We improve the UX and increase the user engagement in order to also grow potential revenues.

We develop holistic solutions. Not just sporadic tools and have the unique ability to look at the entire site – as a whole. When you have the holistic view of a site, you have the ability to solve core challenges not just local symptoms.

The market today is indeed crowded with many technical solutions for publishers, CodeFuel remain unique, tackling all publisher pains in one swoop.

Visit codefuel.com for more info.