Are You Ready for Christmas… Digitally?

Move your festivities online and get your audience shopping for the holidays.

Can you hear the bells jingling, the shoppers coming in and Christmas getting near? It’s that time of the year where everything around us sounds, looks and feels cheerful. If your website and social platforms are not reflective of our surroundings, you better get moving!

Website & E-commerce 

If you went over our Cyber Monday blog you might recall that all consumer shopping habits have moved online and are now spread out over larger periods of time. Christmas shopping is no exception, as we can expect shopping to have started before Black Friday and to go on until January. Prepare yourself for the massive influx of shoppers by optimizing your online shopping.

  • Go over the user experience: If visitors cannot navigate through your website smoothly, they are less likely to complete any purchase. Detect and fix the issues that interrupt an efficient shopping experience for optimal outcomes.
  • Make your website responsive and mobile-friendly: With around 40% of e-commerce revenues coming from mobile devices last year, it is important to have a mobile optimized website with easy navigation. If they can’t see it or buy it on their phones, visitors will forget your website exists.
  • Examine your inventory: Shortages and supply chain issues are not uncommon, especially after the pandemic. Make sure you check your stock and supply before the holidays to find replacements and substitutes when necessary.
  • Add some Holiday cheer: Your website should scream Christmas through design, copy and offers all together. Bundles, reduced shipping fees and gift guides are crucial for consumers, and if they can’t find it on your website, they will move their shopping elsewhere.

Social Media

If you’re looking to find Christmas cheer any time of year, this is where you go. If it’s not Christmas countdowns in September, it’s throwbacks in June, there are always social media users spreading the festive spirit in one way or the other.

  • Set the mood: If you haven’t already, start spreading the joy of the season with a new design theme, a countdown, gift guides and festive content all around. Red, green and white are the colors to embrace throughout the holidays.
  • Cross-promote whenever possible: Redirect your followers to your website, invite them for in-store activations and share all your events on social media. This is the exposure you need for online and offline goals to be achieved.
  • Get conversational: Holiday shopping is difficult and your customers need your help to find the perfect gifts. Publishing content regularly is important, but really talking to your audience is the only way to get them hooked.

Allow the cheer to come through on all your platforms and communications before, during and after the holidays for your business to have a jolly season!  For extra cheer and an in depth consultancy, drop us a hello here.

Cyber Monday 2021: $10.7 Billion in Sales | Here is what you need to know to plan for 2022

How the Monday after Thanksgiving hit $10.7 Billion in sales in 2021

While we seem to believe that Cyber Monday has become the biggest online shopping day of the year because of sales and offers, it isn’t the case. Shopping habits have moved online, and shopping traditions like Black Friday paved the way for more convenient holiday shopping after the long weekend in the United States.

The origins of Cyber Monday

After a recurring peak in online purchases on the Mondays following Black Friday, the National Retail Federation issued a press release in 2005 discussing their findings and started it with the term “Cyber Monday”. The group had believed that the increase in sales was because people decided to skip the mobs shopping during the weekend and wait to purchase online from their office where they had faster internet connections. This provided families with more bonding time as they got their hands on the best deals without spoiling all the surprise gifts.

Cyber Monday today

Throughout the years, the day increased in popularity with designated offers and discounts reaching $2 Billion in sales in 2014. Since that year, Cyber Monday has become the biggest online shopping day of the year in the US with sales growing to hit $10.8 Billion in 2020. That exceeded the $9 Billion digital spend on Black Friday of the pandemic year where more consumers were shopping online. This year sales have dropped by 1.4% resulting in $10.7 Billion in sales on Cyber Monday 2021. This decrease is a result of the change in online shopping habits due to the pandemic. Afraid of facing shortages if they wait for the big sales, consumers have spread out their spending throughout October and November.

Both Black Friday and Cyber Monday have gone beyond the United States even reaching the GCC. In fact, studies have shown that the UAE has the 5th highest average spend per person on Black Friday globally.

Boost your holiday sales with Cyber Monday deals 

If you’re wondering whether or not having Cyber Monday deals is still worth it, it really is. Here’s a couple of tips on how you can make the most out of Cyber Monday with online offers. 

  • FLASH SALE! LIMITED TIME! EXCLUSIVE!

Get creative with how you can grab your online customers by the hook. Customers expect to get the best deals for Cyber Monday and Black Friday so make sure all your bundles, discounts and offers are valuable and impressive. 

  • MAKE YOUR BUZZ 

Create your plan ahead of time and start promoting early. Try throwing teasers, hints, and maybe have a countdown to get your customers talking. Collaborate with influencers or loyal customers, giving them exclusive details that they can share with their communities. Word of mouth is crucial to get enough traffic for your limited time offer.

  • GIVE YOUR WEBSITE A GLOW UP

All your leads will be redirected to your website for their online purchases. Make sure it is functional and optimized, to keep them surfing long enough to get to know you. Add banners with detailed info on deals to grab your customers’ attention as soon as they’re in, and make sure your offers stand out.

Now that you have your guide and more than enough time make sure you plan out your next Cyber monday early on.

AddBloom - Blog - E-Commerce Re-Imagined

Reimagining eCommerce Post Covid-19

Reimagining eCommerce Post Covid-19 | A Middle East Webinar Geared for Growth Strategies 

Crises are often a catalyst for innovation, especially for those geared to embrace challenges.

In these times, consumer behavior across the world as well as in the UAE and Saudi Arabia has shifted rapidly to online buying, which gave way for an immediate focus on the digital commerce industry and upheld the importance of implementing technology-driven solutions to ensure sustainability, growth and stability.

Yes, e-commerce is now one of the hottest topics today, one that presents businesses with many questions.

  • Will the e-commerce boom remain?
  • How can businesses prepare for the future?
  • What are the top strategies to ensure growth and provide a relevant and valuable user experience?
  • What are the effective channels to improve performance?
  • Is it necessary to restructure existing e-commerce functionalities with new-age solutions for continuous growth and profitability?

To answer these questions and many more, UniCommerce is organizing the Middle East’s largest Webinar on “eCommerce Reimagined: Strategies and Growth Levers Post COVID-19” on Saturday June 27, 2020 starting 11 AM Gulf Standard Time

The webinar is open to all GCC Business and will bring together 10 industry experts from across the MENA region who will be sharing insights and top-level e-commerce strategies to help businesses gear up for conducting businesses amid and post the pandemic

Register here:  https://lnkd.in/dy4BdG7  

AddBloom - Blog - E-Commerce Re-Imagined

Webinar Agenda

Session 1:

“E-commerce strategies in post Covid-19 era” | 11 AM – 12:15 PM GST

Speakers

 

Session 2:

Driving eCommerce growth | 12:20 PM – 1:30 PM GST

Speakers:

  • Mohamed Bahaa –  Co-Founder, Wimo
  • Samar Layoun – Co-Founder, AddBloom
  • Ravi Kant – Head Strategic Partnerships, Noon
  • Vikas Panchal – Business Head, Tally
  • Rajiv Ramanan, Director- Startups, Freshworks

 

Register here:  https://lnkd.in/dy4BdG7

 

 

Online Learning, Art, Music and Books | Quarantine Time made easier

Quarantine during the pandemic means different things to different people. For some, it is (remote) work as usual, for others, it is remote work + juggling family and e-schooling for children, and for many, it is simply time off, time that could be spent actively learning or exploring.

 

This is why we put together a series of resources to help you get started. However, no matter what you decide, remember to focus on what makes you feel good.

 

Universities worldwide like Harvard, Yale, MIT, UC Berkeley or Standford University are offering free open courses or specific webinars during certain dates. IE University in Spain has also prepared a series of webinars, in English and others in Spanish, for the upcoming days as well. For a full list of universities providing online courses, click here. Companies like Google, Microsoft or Linux are also offering online courses on digital marketing, business or coding. For the full list of institutions, click here.

 

Coursera includes courses from those prestigious universities for free as well, some of which are certified upon completion and that you can take at your own pace. Domestika is a similar platform for courses on illustration, digital editing or crafts. Students can find open courses or purchase others for a reduced price. Other platforms that offer open online courses from different universities are edX, Udacity or Alison. For platforms including resources in Arabic, refer to Doroob, Rwaq, Tadarab, Coursaty and Edraak.

 

For those who wish to financially invest in more online lectures, Udemy has one of the largest selection of courses. Masterclass, is another platform to consider where students can access courses on photography, fashion and even sports, taught by icons such as Anna Wintour, Gordon Ramsay, Serena Williams and others.

 

For the avid readers, The Library of Alexandria, the oldest in history, offers all its acquisitions for free. It contains, among others, a large collection of Arabic digital books and photo albums. However, if you prefer to read about different themes, Bookbon is offering free access to thousands of e-books. For those Harry Potter fans, J.K.Rowling has improved the platform Wizarding World by adding Harry Potter at home, where different videos, puzzles and quizzes will be added to make our time at home better.

 

For the art aficionados, the MoMa, Musée d’Orsay and other 12 museums can now be visited virtually for free. To access the full list, click here. As in the case of these museums, NASA has also opened its entire library for you to explore for free as well and added a series of resources for kids, adults on topics as wide as History, Technology or Earth Science.

 

Signing off for now, we hope you enjoy our listing.

Coronavirus X Social Media | Steps to combat the “infodemic”

Coronavirus (Covid-19) is taking the world by storm.  Entire Countries are on Lockdown, others on the way and prospects of a global economic meltdown are looming. Amidst this social media played a major role. On the one hand, promoting awareness, prevention and social distancing, on the other, fostering fear, panic, bogus remedies, conspiracy theories

For the World Health Organization, the key to battle this virus starts with battling misinformation, or “infodemic”, coming from everyone’s smartphone.

This blog sheds light on measures taken by social media platforms to help set the record straight and try to minimize the impact of fake news and hoaxes trying to profit.

Facebook decided to implement a ban on ads for all companies trying to make a commercial gain out of the virus, whether related to cures or prevention products that are not linked to scientific facts. By implementing this new policy, Facebook is trying to restrain those ads that create a sense of urgency while working on removing content with false claims or conspiracy theories that might harm people who believe them.

The Deputy Executive Director for Partnerships of UNICEF, Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, stated that misinformation during times of a health crisis can spread paranoia, fear and stigmatization. On top of that, it can result in people being left unprotected or more vulnerable to the virus as well. UNICEF, as well as Facebook, is actively taking steps to inform the public when inaccurate information, involving WHO or other government authorities, is published on social media platforms.

TikTok recently partnered with the WHO in an effort to spread veritable information, together with the best public health practices.

Respectively, Twitter also partnered with WHO and published a plan to protect the public from hoaxes on the platform as well. Their goal is to publish credible, authoritative content.

This “infodemic”, or over-abundance of information, makes it harder for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when needed.  There are simple steps users can take themselves to combat mis- and disinformation. Consider the following questions before sharing dubious content:

  • Is this the original account, article or piece of content?
  • Who shared this or created it?
  • When was this created?
  • What account is sharing this? When was the account created? Do they share things from all over the world at all times during the day and night? Could this be a bot?
  • Why was this shared?

For reliable information always fact check with:

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019

https://www.unicef.org/coronavirus/covid-19

E-commerce and Open Source Platforms

E-commerce and Open Source Platforms:  An Overview of 3 Leading Platforms 

Considering starting an e-com business?  Well, you are not alone. 

Yes! The hype is real and is supported by numbers. In a recent study by Google and Bain & Company, the MENA eCommerce market is worth $8.3 billion with an average annual growth rate of 25%, growing slightly ahead of the global average. 

So, If you’re looking to invest in eCommerce, there are tens of open source platforms to consider. However, this blog is dedicated to the three platforms, that according to Builtwith.com make up 53% of  the open source market: Magento, WooCommerce, and Shopify.

Note to remember: Choosing is all about your needs because no platform is fool-proof for every business. Connect with AddBloom  so we can help explore your options on what works best for you.  

Magento

Magento is one of the more popular and trusted eCommerce platforms. Having been around since 2008, the platform is available for individuals and enterprises alike. 

Originally built for developers, so they don’t need to start a project from scratch, Magento requires an advanced level of PHP programming expertise. 


7 Key Highlights: 

  1. Magento is based on a PHP based framework 
  2. Flexible, customizable and SEO friendly
  3. Offers more than 4300 extensions 
  4. Comes with multiple extensions allowing easy integration to relevant third party apps with the ecommerce store.
  5. Available in a free version  (Magento Community Edition) and a paid module one, (Magento Enterprise). 
  6. Scalable in  the sense that it allows for implementation of long-term growth plans and can handle hundreds of thousands of products 
  7. Better suited for growing middle-sized businesses and enterprises.
  8. The cost of magento website varies  from a basic starting price of +15K and  goes up depending on  customizations, bells and whistles


WooCommerce 

WooCommerce is a self hosted eCommerce platform, designed for small to large-sized online merchants using WordPress. Officially released in 2011, the plugin is used by over 3.3 million website and offers an array of interesting features and capabilities that require intermediate PHP programming expertise. 


7 Key Highlights:

  1. The platform is completely free to install, but businesses still have to pay for extensions
  2. Has more than 2000 WooCommerce themes
  3. Can be used for non-physical products (services and subscription based businesses)
  4. Best single platform to run both an ecommerce and an affiliate WordPress under one roof. 
  5. The code is optimized for SEO
  6. Requires a hosting plan and SSL certificate 
  7. Easy, user friendly CMS


Shopify

Shopify originally a store to sell skateboards, has, since 2004, scaled to become one of the leading cloud based e-commerce platforms with more than 820,000 thousand merchants.  Available in three modules and pricing structures with different features designed to service businesses across all stages from starting to scaling.  

 

7 Key Highlights:

  1. Provides a powerful administrative office 
  2. Commands a monthly fee, with a percentage and a fixed fee per transaction
  3. Hosting is part of the actual service 
  4. Handles both the ecommerce and point of sale sides of the commerce process 
  5. Makes good use of social traffic – mostly from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest 
  6. Has 24/7 customer support via email, live chat or phone
  7. Offers thousands of customizable ready designs and  3rd party shopping integrations

So, what platform works best for you? The main thing to note is that the e-commerce platform needs to be chosen wisely to help you scale your business. Factors to consider include your business plan, budget, front and backend features among others.  

Our consultants are ready to walk you through. Connect with AddBloom  for a complimentary consultation. 

Our e-commerce web design teams are ready to walk you through and help select the platform that best suits your business needs.   . Connect with AddBloom  for a complimentary consultation.

AddBloom-Blog-Fake-News-Vs-Real-News

How To Spot Fake News On Instagram

Is it True? ! Is it Fake ?! That is the Question

7 Ways to Help You Distinguish between REAL NEWS Vs. FAKE NEWS 

When social media feeds are flooded with information, and Whatsapp becomes a tricky messenger from personal connections on groups, it becomes very easy to be confused between what news is true and what is fake.

And while fake news is nothing new, yet fabricating images, videos and voice notes is becoming more advanced, blurring the capacity to distinguish authenticity.  

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp and other social networks are now a hotbed for Fake viral claims used with the objective of purposeful pushing publicity and propaganda to fool readers into thinking a piece of news is real, when it is NOT.

This is why we have put together 7 ways to help distinguish between what is REAL NEWS and what is FAKE NEWS: 

  1. Consider the source
    Is it safe to say that you are familiar with this news account? Is it legitimate and genuine? Has it been reliable in the past? If not, you may not want to trust it. If it’s a forwarded voice message, ask for the source from the sender, and try to double check the facts on credible news providers and how valid the content is. 
  1. Consider the photos
    Bogus news stories and posts regularly contain manipulated images, audios or videos that can be edited to mislead you. Sometimes the photo may be authentic, however, taken outside of any relevant connection to the subject at hand. You can search for the photo or image to verify where it came from, or look at trusted news sources to see if the story in hand is being reported elsewhere. 
  1. Check the date
    Some false Instagram posts/stories aren’t totally fake, but rather distortions of real events. These mendacious claims can take a real news story and twist what it says or even claim that something that happened quite a while in the past is related to current developments.
  1. Is this some sort of joke?
    Keep in mind that there is such a concept known as satire/parody. Normally, it’s obviously labeled as such, and sometimes it’s even amusing. But it isn’t the news. However, there’s the more debatable forms of satire, designed to pull one over on the user. These posts are also designed to encourage clicks and generate money for the creator through ad revenue. Yet, they aren’t news.
  1. Check your biases
    Confirmation bias drives individuals to take more trust in information that affirm their beliefs and discount information that doesn’t. The next time you’re automatically shocked at a piece of content concerning a person or an event you oppose, pause for a minute to look at it, and before sharing make sure you circle back and check the source. 
  1. Consult the experts:
    We know you’re busy, and a portion of this debunking requires significant investment and time. Be that as it may, fact-checkers get paid to do this sort of work. Between the several fact-checker sites, it’s likely at least one has already fact-checked the most recent viral case to pop up in your social media news feed or through any communication platform.
  1. Instagram/Facebook fact-check:
    Facebook and Instagram earlier have introduced Fact Checks through working with certified third-party fact-checkers. This is done either through individuals reporting content as “it’s inappropriate”, and “false information” or Fact Checkers identifying content and flagging it as such. The normal procedure that Facebook uses to treat flagged posts is making them appear less on  user’s news feeds. Pages or accounts continuously noted for sharing false content will be notified and will face restrictions.
    And lastly, both Instagram and Facebook introduced “false information” labels to prevent fake news from going viral. The new update informs users when a post contains misinformation. The labels will appear on posts and Instagram’s main feed. Users will still be able to view the original post, but they’ll have to click “See Post” to get there.

Always  remember: News readers themselves remain the first line of defense against fake news.

Written by Stephanie Matar
Social Media Manager

5 Tips to Enhance Your Social and Digital Strategy

Whether you have an in-house team managing your brand’s digital channels or are outsourcing the process, there are key elements that make or break your social media presence. More than 2.5 billion people are on social media, and you might be missing out on a lot of opportunities of growing your fair share of the pie if you do not abide by these essential/rudimental tips.

1- Aim for an Omni-Channel Strategy

Although it may look like one social media platform resonates better with your brand and its target audience, being on multiple platforms is always beneficial for your brand’s online presence and continuity. Just a few years ago, Twitter was the star platform of all social media networks, then came Facebook, and nowadays, Instagram is marketers’ favorite channel to reach users. Social media managers’ next big hit can soon be another platform, it is hence dangerous to focus only on one social network.

When developing an omni-channel strategy for your brand, it is imperative to use the best practices for each platform in order to reach the right audience and resonate with it. Each platform has its forte that marketers must leverage and keep users entertained and livid to keep up with it across all channels.

2- Engage with the Community as Often and as Quickly as Possible

Build a unique connection with your brand’s audience. Timely monitoring of your brand’s social media pages is crucial as it has the ability to tighten its relation with its community and improve brand sentiments within its target audience.

Doing so can also defy the algorithms set by social media platforms to determine what content is displayed and what content is buried. The more engagement a post receives, the higher its chances are at being prominently displayed. Hence, the reason why it is very important to answer comments, and entice your audience to engage with your posts.

3- Delight Your Audience with your Ideal Content Mix

Although your brand should be at the center of all your communication, no one likes a friend who only talks about himself. Do not focus on one content direction, and only communicate about your brand, but try to integrate different forms of communication within your strategy. At AddBloom, we always start with the rule of thirds in the communication of the brands we manage and grow from there to define the perfect content mix for each.

What’s the rule of thirds? As per Hootsuite it is very simple:

  • ⅓ of your social content promotes your business, converts readers, and generates profit.
  • ⅓ of your social content should surface and share ideas and stories from thought leaders in your industry or like-minded businesses.
  • ⅓ of your social content should be based on personal interactions and build your personal brand.

4- Invest in Influencer Marketing

The exponential growth of influencer marketing over the years has made it an essential part of every brand’s social media communication strategy. Effectively, as we have detailed in a previous blog post about influencer marketing, this form of content has many benefits. On one hand, influencer marketing allows brands to pierce consumers’ self developed “ad blindness” and reach their targeted audience, as niche as it may be, in a seamingly organic way that resonates with today’s consumer mindset.

On the other hand, brands who decide to work with influential bloggers can benefit beyond social media. Indeed, brands can benefit from blogs mentions and reviews to enhance their SEO positioning and ranking.

5- Track and Measure

Use the right tool to track how your audience interacts with your brand online. Pixels, remarketing codes, tracking codes are all part of a bigger equation that makes your digital marketing strategy more comprehensive. The data collected through these snippets will allow you to reach the audience you’re after and enhance the results of your digital campaigns at each stage of the funnel.

The best aspect of digital marketing is that it allows you to numerically measure your marketing investment. While on-platform metrics will measure growth, engagement and distribution, it is also interesting to observe on-site metrics. On-site analytics allows you to know more about consumer behavior, which content attracts consumers and which is the most converting social platform among other metrics. Combined, on-platform and on-site analytics will give marketers a great idea on customers’ sales funnel.

Sources:

Number of Social Media Users Worldwide from 2010 to 2010 (in billions)

7 Creative Ways to Boost Your Social Media Strategy

Are You Following the Social Media Rule of Thirds?

Organic Performance

6 Ways to Enhance Your Organic Performance

In our day and time, paid social and digital media marketing are a big part of any digital marketing strategy. The brands we work with have experienced the value of investing in their social media presence to build sustainable communities online and achieve business objectives.

Yet, in a time where paid advertising is almost everything, we still believe in leveraging the forte of organic performance. Here are six tips prepared for you at the AddBloom Kitchen 🙂

1- Optimize your social and digital profiles
There are different points one can take advantage of to optimize their brands’ social profiles and make them easily discoverable by fans and followers.

  • Know which social and digital media platforms your business should be on and build them to global best practice.
  • Choose an optimized easy to write username.
  • Choose a recognizable display and cover photo.
  • Leverage your bio to be rich in keywords.
  • Add your store’s location wherever possible.
  • Make your website and other Call to Action buttons easily accessible.
  • Study and stay up to date with the latest about the social media platforms you are using to leverage the features they offer as per best practice

2- Diversify your content
While one of the main objectives of numerous businesses is to sell, we advise you against doing just that on social media, Instead, balance your communication to include a fair mix of selling, informative and user generated content that keeps the audience engaged and interested in the brand.

3- Follow a posting schedule
As the saying goes, consistency is key. While it might be impressive to post 10 times in a day, brands should be able to keep up with the set frequency. This might be challenging as posting multiple times a day requires a lot of effort and resources and brands have to ensure that their content reaches the right audience.

4- Engage with your community
One of the easiest ways for people to remember your brand is if it engages with them. So, make it a habit to engage with your community by liking, commenting, and reposting other people’s content. This will help people to humanize the brand and give it a feel that might not have been present before. Most importantly, try as much as possible to personalize your brand’s messages so each person touched by your comments and interaction feel special and valued.

5- Leverage insights
As we have mentioned earlier, brands should follow a posting schedule and frequency. In order to know how many times to post and what to post, brands should leverage the insights available through the different platforms used. Knowing when your audience is online, on what day and at what time, will allow you to enhance your organic reach. Not only that, but studying the results achieved by different posts, will allow you to better know which content your audience is more attracted to.

6- Give it time
The most important thing to do is be patient and give your posts time to reach their peak performance organically. The latter takes anywhere between 3 to 24 hours. You should hence decide on the type and boosting budget based on the results achieved.

AddBloom - Facebook Messenger

How to use Facebook Messenger in your digital strategy

For a few years now, social media has been an essential part of brands’ marketing mix. With over 3 hours of social media consumption per day, people are becoming more reliant on the internet and apps in their everyday lives.

Many of the brands rely heavily on Facebook and Instagram to expand their reach and grow their community and convert customers. Today, AddBloom is working with a number of our partners to include  Facebook Messenger to the online marketing mix.

Here’s why

  • Facebook Messenger is the second most used messenger platform on the internet
  • Monthly
    • Over 1.3 billion people use the application
    • 10 billion messages are exchanges between people and businesses

AddBloom’s role is to help you leverage Facebook Messenger to:

  1. Develop the strategy  and deploy the Ad Content that would help reach your audience
  2. Start conversations with click-to-message ads, opening the route to direct customer connection and in some cases, the automation of the process.  
  3. Retarget your customers with sponsored messages, which allows you to optimize the campaign and spark a conversation with a person who has already interacted with you via messenger.

Facebook has recently announced that it intends to merge Messenger, Instagram and Whatsapp in order to make it easier to reach friends and family across networks. This could possibly mean an expansion on its ad network and opening up new ways for brands to reach their audience on a more personal level.

Until then, do you want to know how Facebook Messenger can fit into your Digital Marketing strategy? Contact us now.

 

Source:

Advertising on Facebook Messenger – Expand Your Reach and Find more Customers