25 Of The Best Examples Of Homepages via @sejournal, @LWilson1980

For most websites, the homepage represents your brand’s first interaction with your audience on your website.

As the catch-all landing page where people will be sent by default, your homepage needs to cater to a breadth of user needs and intent.

Consider your homepage as your shop window. It showcases your most valuable content, positions your brand so that it stands apart from the competition, and leads the user to take an initial action to enter the site and see more.

Your homepage sets the tone for your brand identity and communicates the brand messaging, company values, and personality of your business.

From your homepage, you have the first opportunity to establish positive brand recognition and clearly define the company’s value proposition to new and repeat users.

A homepage has many practical functions, too, such as:

• Making an impactful first impression.
• Driving user journeys into conversion funnels.
• Helping people discover content assets, products, and services sooner.
• Showcasing new incentives to buy and leading people to click.
• Reinforcing trust, expertise, and authority.
• Catching all topic areas that do not currently have dedicated destinations on the website.
• Resonating with your audience through your brand positioning.

Here are 25 of the best examples of homepages. I’ve looked to include a wide variation of homepage examples, so you can see practically where you can refine your own homepage for increased performance.

1. So Cosy

This homepage example combines setting the perfect tone through distilled messaging, imagery, and color scheme.

Everything is simplified so the user can relax, discover, and enjoy the website.

Often, so many conflicting messages are crammed into a home page that the brand and purpose of the site become lost in the noise.

This example is the perfect reminder that, in many cases, simplicity pays off for the user and for search.

Screenshot from socosy.co.uk, November 2024

2. Toby Carvery

Homepages should reflect changes in your audience’s interest areas, industry trends, and broader seasonality.

This enables tailored messaging and ongoing servicing of intent to the full. This requirement becomes even greater in certain industries such as food, travel, and hospitality.

Your homepage sets the scene, showing what resonates with your key audience types, and should be proactively updated based on changing data sets.

All of this is reflected in this homepage example.

Screenshot from tobycarvery.co.uk, November 2024

3. Safetec

Certain industries, from financial services to safety supply companies, have a stigma and preconception attached to them as needing to be positioned in extremely formal ways. It can become an easy trap to fall into, assuming people expect a certain tone and positioning.

In this homepage example, the tone is relaxed, friendly, and welcoming.

Tonality includes statements like “it’s ok” when accepting cookies, and “we are here” to encourage chatbot interaction.

This subtle messaging, combined with audience-aware images and related content positioning, is a fantastic way to see how your homepage can set the tone and reinforce brand positioning from the outset.

Screenshot from safetecdirect.co.uk, November 2024

4. Post Office

In some cases, the homepage can be the fastest way for people to achieve their search goals.

In this example, the homepage facilitates the four core functions that the users of the website look to complete most frequently without the need to go through additional pages/clicks.

Widgets on the homepage service immediate action completion in a fast, fun, and intuitive way.

While the task of paying a bill, sending a parcel, or tracking postage may not seem a fun task, this website presents a light tone and an easy way to complete your intended actions as quickly as possible, so you can get back to your other activities.

Screenshot from postoffice.co.uk, November 2024

5. TED

The TED homepage embodies the company’s mission of sharing information, ideas, and interests in an easy-to-digest, accessible fashion.

Content is themed into playlists, the latest, creative ideas, and other taxonomies such as “small world.”

The website taxonomy supports fast access to information topics and facilitates an easy and intuitive approach to information architecture at scale.

Screenshot from ted.com, November 2024

6. Pandora

When it comes to associating the brand with the audience, Pandora does a fantastic job.

There is instant clarity, alignment of messaging, and impact of images that enable fast user engagement and establish trust and brand awareness.

Screenshot from uk.pandora.net/en/, November 2024

7. Davy Wine

An important aspect of homepage success comes down to the use of evidence (data) to drive decision-making.

The ordering of information displayed for the home page, content segmentation, and CTAs are arguably more important than any other page on your website.

For ecommerce sites, this necessity is becoming increasingly important.

This homepage example showcases the application in data to drive optimized user journeys from the moment they land on the homepage.

Screenshot from davywine.co.uk, November 2024

8. Under Armour

This entry into the top 25 homepage examples warrants its place, based upon well-planned information architecture and scannable content, which gives users an enjoyable experience.

Function and “fit for purpose” are understated homepage virtues that this site brings to the fore.

There is also the seasonal aspect of tapping into changing needs, wants, and pain points effectively.

The “Spotlight” segment also works well for presenting new/fresh information to returning users to expand the type of purchases being made.

Screenshot from underarmour.co.uk/en-gb/, November 2024

9. BMW

Many car sales and dealership websites have similar approaches to homepages.

The dominant key model image is supported by quick filtering options to drive users to convert.

The stand-out item from this BMW homepage example, however, is the simplicity of messaging combined with minimal conflicting CTAs for the user.

There is no excessive sales content, and the homepage enables natural next steps rather than the excessive pushing of deals and related commercial CTAs often seen in this space.

Screenshot from bmw.co.uk, November 2024

10. UCFB

This website also appeared in the best examples of FAQ pages.

The key feature of this homepage offering is that by pre-scroll, the user has full access to everything they need without taking any further action.

They can see trust signals, get in contact, explore the main sections of the website, and receive a myriad of positive reinforcement specific to their lifestyle choices.

Screenshot from ucfb.ac.uk, November 2024

11. Productive

Software companies need to compete in extremely crowded places where the research time and tolerance of the target market are often very limited.

This places increased emphasis on clarity in messaging, CTAs, and value proposition – all of which are present in this example of a best practice homepage.

Screenshot from productive.io, November 2024

12. Skype

One of the greatest challenges for homepages is to resonate with a varied audience effectively.

Skype handles this dilemma extremely well through a dominant audience message, supplemented by very clear and distinct alternative audience content assets.

Varying this based on trends and related data ensures every core persona receives initial verification to remain actively engaged on the website.

Screenshot from skype.com, November 2024

13. Uber

It takes a strong brand and confidence in user trust to present a homepage that is dominated by action-taking over value proposition.

Uber pre-scroll is 100% action-orientated, enabling the quickest route to booking prior to any conflicting messaging or related distractions.

The assumption is that if you land on the Uber site, the only thing that matters is getting you from “A to B” and servicing that intent to book above all else – and it works.

Screenshot from uber.com, November 2024

14. Dropbox

The simplicity of design and clarity of messaging are consistent throughout many of these examples. For a homepage, that is often a core challenge, as well as an aspirational goal.

In this example, headlines are emotive, and supporting statements are clear.

Mixed media walkthroughs of the service provide a trial of the solution without the need to sign up for one. It’s a great example of shortening the distance to purchase/use.

Screenshot from dropbox.com, November 2024

15. Allen Carr’s Easyway

When it comes to Your Money Your Life (YMYL) industries, homepages have additional challenges.

First, trust needs to be ever-present and supported by statistics without detriment to the brand’s style and tone.

Next, direct reinforcement of success, case studies, and audience associative needs are higher. And providing a positive outlook on tougher topic areas is far from easy.

This homepage example manages to cover all these areas plus more.

Screenshot from allencarr.com, November 2024

16. NineFeetTall

When companies provide transformation and change, like in this example, you have to balance data and justification from the outset.

The homepage acts as the roadmap from now to the near future and requires expert guidance without information overload.

Every segment of this homepage example contributes toward this journey, empowering people to learn fast and take action sooner.

Screenshot from ninefeettall.com, November 2024

17. NHS

Websites that provide emergency help and support must reinforce trust, provide immediate access to contact, and solve problems from the first meaningful homepage interaction.

Visually, the homepage needs to drive action-taking and fuel the right choice to minimize already stressful situations.

Considering the vast array of people using emergency services like the NHS, intuitive and simple design comes into play with clear, concise content.

Screenshot from nhs.uk, November 2024

18. WeChat

Named one of the world’s strongest brands, the app’s homepage shows the opportunities to change the status quo with design and focus on brand-led power and positioning.

The navigation placement and impact on the page versus the streamlined and dominant CTA  is an interesting approach.

Screenshot from wechat.com, November 2024

19. Colgate

For established and traditional brands, the homepage can present a complex range of choices.

One of these is how to remain relevant with existing audiences while looking to grow visibility with new people in fresh ways.

Colgate achieves this with a combination of trust and visual reinforcement.

Screenshot from colgate.com, November 2024

20. Basecamp

The Basecamp homepage jumps straight into solving the main pain point of its audience.

This is then supported by segments that all actively contribute to the purpose of Basecamp as a service and nudge the user towards purchase.

This journey is without added clicks or engagement required – it’s a complete conversation on a single page:

• The headline positions the brand and service.
• The segmented homepage tells the story of why you may invest in the service.
• The dominant CTA jumps out of the page.
• Homepage screenshots provide an instant demo of the solution in action.

Screenshot from basecamp.com, November 2024

21. Time

A media site’s user base has high standards and expectations for creative, fast, and functional websites.

This homepage example from Time supplies easy-to-digest content while keeping text levels to a minimum.

The active use of white space is refreshing, as are the limited CTAs and removal of advertising.

The use of image, media, and text interaction supports audience preference and all device action-taking.

Screenshot from time.com, November 2024

22. Ocado

Large retail sites have to cram in many potential and often competing triggers to drive action and speed up access to the endpoint.

User tolerance levels for online shopping are very tough to meet, plus you are catering to a variety of audience awareness and trust.

Ocado manages to build in quick access CTAs, clear trust signals, and simple steps to purchase without cluttering the page or pulling the user into conflicting directions.

Screenshot from ocado.com, November 2024

23. Trivago

Comparison websites can feel like a bombardment of CTAs and promotional offers.

The Trivago homepage provides a relaxed, easy, and intuitive approach to booking that removes some of the complexity and time for the user.

Screenshot from trivago.co.uk, November 2024

24. eBay

From a data-driven and personalization stance, sites like eBay need to be present in the best examples of homepages.

Data is at the center of the design choices and content provisions and is frequently refined to bring the user closer to their perfect next buy, whether they are aware of it yet or not.

Screenshot from ebay.co.uk, November 2024

25. Imgur

Everything on this homepage shouts out fun, interaction, and enjoyment. Its core functionality is to make things simple to click, watch, and engage.

Yes, there is some quite intrusive advertising, but there is also an element of new audiences meeting nostalgia here with the early age of the internet ad space.

Screenshot from imgur.com, November 2024

What Should A Homepage Include?

First and foremost, the homepage needs to represent your brand values and proposition. Reinforcing the unique culture of your business and supporting brand recognition.

This is achieved through every piece of content, imagery, and prioritization of messaging on the page.

As your shop window, you need to present the most relevant messaging and CTAs that will resonate with your audience and drive them to click further into your website content and their unique conversion journey.

Visual elements should be of high quality, not competing with other on-page items, and making it simple for people and search engines to understand the core purpose of your site and what your brand represents.

Trust should be set from the outset. This includes star ratings and brand narrative through case studies and related social proof.

Your homepage needs to set out the key content assets and products/services that are the cornerstone of your business.

As with all pages on the site, the user experience is of even greater importance to the homepage. Their engagement should be fast, intuitive, and accessible for all content and devices.

And while there are other areas too, don’t forget to have readily available contact details that reinforce the brand identity, personality, and company values.

A Homepage Is A Showcase And A Signal Of Trust

The homepage is often the first interaction users have with your brand, serving as a critical entry point for visitors.

Your homepage is your shop window, showcasing your most valuable content and differentiating your brand from competitors while guiding users toward taking their first actions on your website.

There are many key functions that a homepage plays, including:

• First Impressions: Creating an impactful introduction to the brand.
• User Journeys: Drives visitors into conversion funnels.
• Content Discovery: Helps users find products and services fast.
• Incentives: Highlights promotions to encourage clicks and engagement.
• Trust Building: Builds expertise and authority through social proof and related trust signals.
• Comprehensive Coverage: Addresses topics without dedicated pages as a catch-all for search and users.
• Audience Resonance: Reflects brand positioning and core values.

There are many essential components of a successful homepage, lots of which can be seen in the 25 best examples of homepages shared in this post.

To recap them, you should be thinking practically about:

• Brand Representation: Clearly showcase your brand values and unique culture through the content and imagery you provide.
• Relevant Messaging and CTAs: Prioritize calls to action that resonate with the audience, but limit them to a maximum of three to avoid conflicting attention demands.
• High-Quality Visuals: Make sure that all visuals enhance understanding without competing for attention, and that they are unique and of high quality.
• Trust Signals: Include reviews and ratings, case studies, and social proof from the outset so people can see a clear association with your existing and target audience types.
• Key Content Assets: Highlight essential products and services that are cornerstones of your business offering.
• User Experience: Focus on fast, intuitive, and accessible navigation and content in all its forms and for all devices.
• Contact Information: Give easily accessible contact details to reinforce brand identity.

More resources:

Featured Image: eamesBot/Shutterstock

Demand Intelligence: Empower Your Strategies With Actionable Data via @sejournal, @alexanderkesler

In the context of B2B marketing, demand intelligence is a consolidation of data from various sources filtered through an actionable lens to provide critical insights.

This data can be utilized to anticipate client demand and implement targeted strategies to engage key stakeholders.

Simply put, demand intelligence enables marketing and sales teams to identify who is interested, why they are interested, and their likelihood to convert. Obtaining this data, however, can be challenging.

In this article, I will share best practices for sourcing, analyzing, and applying demand intelligence to maximize your return on investment (ROI).

The Importance Of Collecting Actionable Data And Leveraging It Effectively

The cost of missed opportunities due to outdated or incomplete data can quickly reach millions. Consider the time and resources invested in campaigns that target obsolete leads or contacts with limited information.

With prospect data averaging a lifespan of just nine months – often due to frequent job and title changes – relying on old data is a waste of both time and effort.

Only 16% of the marketers interviewed for our own 2024 market research utilize advanced buyer and account intelligence to inform their sales and marketing strategies.

This reveals a significant opportunity to leverage data to pinpoint the right accounts and personas – those who are truly qualified for your solutions – for more effective outreach.

To drive demand performance, sales and marketing teams need up-to-date, actionable data that accurately reflects the buyer’s behavior and preferences in their purchase journey.

Without this insight, nurture campaigns will fail to hit the mark, leaving prospects to disappear from your sales funnel entirely and, often, cause them to switch to a competitor.

What Is Actionable Data?

Consider actionable data as real-time insights that reveal prospect intent, behavior, and preferences, while also supporting predictive analytics.

This type of data provides valuable takeaways about prospects, helping you identify their pain points and tailor your outreach effectively.

With accurate and timely information, you can craft messaging that resonates with current prospect challenges and drive engagement for your solutions.

Sources of demand intelligence include:

• Technographic data: Identifying prospect technologies to uncover opportunities for increasing your tech wallet share.
• Engagement data: Insights from website interactions, blog activity, social media, and email communications.
• Buyer personas and key account profiles: Detailed profiles of existing target audiences, decision-makers, and key accounts.
• Buyer intent data: Behavioral cues, such as frequent searches or downloads related to specific solutions, indicating a readiness to purchase or, at least, buyer interest in your solutions.
• Analysis of successful conversions: Examining the behaviors and patterns of successful conversions to inform future demand intelligence.
• Average deal size and revenue: The average deal size can act as a benchmark for future sales opportunities.
• Client lifetime value (CLTV): Client success teams can identify the common characteristics of prospects that generate the highest long-term revenue.

The key is to unify these diverse data sources into an intelligent demand system – one that reveals where engagement is happening in the funnel and via which channel, in order to predict where it is likely to occur in the future.

This approach holds immense potential for organizations to fuel precise and timely engagement strategies that drive meaningful results – because they can engage the appropriate buyers with the most relevant messaging at the optimal time.

How To Collect Demand Intelligence Data

Building your proprietary database enables you to track market behaviors and trends, and develop strategies to address them effectively.

The best sources of information for your database include:

• First-party data: Information collected directly from your channels, including your website, social media, events, and customer relationship management (CRM) analytics.
• Data partners: Verified data partners can provide access to valuable first-party intent, behavioral, and technographic data.
• Client-facing teams: Insights from your sales, marketing, and client success teams offer valuable first-hand perspectives on existing clients.
• Community engagement: Utilize social listening and sentiment analysis tools to understand what clients say online and gather insights from reviews.
• Surveys and feedback: Directly ask clients about their needs and pain points to inform your outreach and refine your solutions.

Enhance these insights by analyzing industry benchmarks and competitor reports that align with your target audience. If your budget permits, consider investing in the expertise of external specialists.

Combining these resources will help you develop a comprehensive demand intelligence profile.

How To Build A Framework For Collecting, Analyzing, And Applying Demand Intelligence

Below is a three-step framework to develop your demand intelligence strategy:

1. Build A Database Primed For Demand Intelligence

Your first step in leveraging demand intelligence as a growth driver is to gather insights from across your organization and create a secure, centralized dataset in a tool like your CRM or data warehouse.

The goal is to establish a unified view of your prospect and account data that can be easily accessed by your client-facing teams.

Focus on essential campaign-driving information like pain points and intent data, which can be tested to refine your demand intelligence.

Intent signals can be a valuable addition because they help marketers understand prospect behavior to enable the tailoring of services more precisely to buyer needs.

Before testing your dataset, you will need to perform some housekeeping:

• Leverage automated data cleansing software or AI to identify duplicates and errors.
• Set up filters and criteria to highlight actionable factors, such as budget range and buying group size.
• Enrich your data with synthetic, or stand-in data, where necessary.
• Ensure your data practices comply with regional privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA.

2. Launch, Analyze, And Adjust

Launch a short-term campaign to test your first dataset and validate your existing demand intelligence sources, filters, and criteria. For example, this can be in the form of an awareness campaign via email and social media.

You will need to set up processes to ensure data flows into your analytics, not only to measure the results but to enable continuous assessment and improve the quality of your demand intelligence.

This can be done by:

• Gating content with forms.
• Creating UTM tracking links.
• Using heatmaps to measure website engagement.
• Sending email touches through your CRM.

Once your test campaign is complete, analyze the results to refine your data further. It is also worth adopting processes to gain feedback directly from your audience, such as through surveys or sales team outreach.

Focus on KPIs and metrics that will help the organization achieve its GTM and growth goals, such as:

• Conversion rate.
• Engagement metrics such as downloads, click-through rates, web traffic, bounce rate, and social engagement.
• Buying group engagement on an account level.
• Opportunities generated.
• Sales or demo bookings.
• Satisfaction scores (NPS, CSAT).

3. Continuous Optimization

Once you have your campaign results, translate them into actionable insights to inform ongoing marketing and sales strategies.

Processes that can be adopted for this purpose include:

• Keyword and topic analysis: Identify the themes and discussions that generate the most interest among your prospects.
• Engagement timing and frequency: Track engagement to understand interaction patterns and plan strategies accordingly.
• Buyer’s journey assessment: Analyze the buyer’s journey and evaluate how prospect behavior aligns with it. Consider potential areas for improvement.
• Effective content touchpoints: Identify which touchpoints are most effective in driving discussions among decision-makers in buying groups.

Adjust your strategy with targeted changes to your messaging and UVP, tracking the impact to refine further. It is better to make select, strategic changes that can then be monitored to assess performance.

Three areas of improvement to prioritize are:

• Maintaining an updated database: Regularly assess the quality of your data and its relevance to your organizational goals to ensure it remains current and useful.
• Refining buyer intelligence collection: Continuously improve your data collection methods based on insights gained, feedback received, and any changes in your objectives or technology.
• Fostering organizational alignment: Share and align data across teams to promote collaboration and innovation within the organization.

Done well, demand campaigns have immense potential to amplify an organization’s bottom line. The goal of demand intelligence is to optimize strategies to better engage, nurture, and convert buyers – no matter where they are in their journey.

Businesses focusing on demand generation are better equipped to navigate the complexities of the evolving B2B landscape and drive sustained revenue growth.

Key Takeaways

• Prioritize first-party data: Actionable data from owned channels and partners will help you to better understand and anticipate client demand.
• Gain feedback from client-facing teams: Unique and timely client insights can be sourced from your own teams to guide your demand strategies.
• Build a clean database: Focus on essential campaign-driving insights, such as client pain points, intent, and account information, while avoiding unactionable data points to not bloat your database.
• Test, analyze, repeat: Continuously update your database to reflect evolving audience needs and the value of your demand intelligence.

More resources:

Featured Image: Viktoria Kurpas/Shutterstock

3 Client Experience Must-Dos To Drive Your Organization’s CLTV via @sejournal, @alexanderkesler

Only 3% of businesses put their clients at the center of their operations.

This is an alarming statistic, considering that businesses that see themselves as “client-obsessed” report 49% faster profit growth and 51% better client retention.

Understanding client lifetime value (CLTV), the total potential revenue generated from a single client, is crucial for businesses to build lasting relationships with their clients and, ultimately, achieve stability and growth.

Two factors imperative for increasing CLTV are client success (CS) and client experience (CX) – the cornerstones of any client-centric organizational framework.

However, implementing such a framework requires an organizational shift that places the client at the center of all strategies and activities – and complete organizational buy-in to be successful.

In this article, I will discuss best practices for prioritizing CX in your organization and, ultimately, how to achieve organizational buy-in to increase your CLTV.

1. Nurture A Client-Centric Culture

A client-centric culture can only succeed if it is adopted throughout the entire organization.

Start by defining what being client-centric means for your business – what you want to achieve in the long term, and align this with your vision and values.

Unpack the core principles of this vision and detail how they affect decision-making at every level.

This will guide leadership, who should communicate this new vision and values to all teams, ensuring everyone understands how it influences daily operations.

Another crucial step is to align client-centricity with your brand value and solutions so that all messaging communicates your organization’s commitment to exceeding client expectations.

Make this part of your demand generation strategy to create awareness among your clients and prospects when nurturing them throughout their buyer’s journey.

Recommendations for solidifying client-centricity in your organization:

• Nurture client relationships through demand generation to promote your client-centric culture from their very first interaction with your brand.
• Connect your client-centric strategy to specific outcomes that teams can be measured against with metrics and KPIs.
• Use CLTV as an anchor for your client-centric strategy, but make sure to also track supplemental metrics, such as the Net Promoter Score (NPS) and referral rates.
• Show loyal clients that you are consistently prioritizing their needs and experience through CS initiatives.
• Secure stakeholder buy-in of client-centricity to ensure that it is a key factor in your Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy to achieve long-term growth.

2. Establish A Brand Evangelism Program

Loyal clients are your best advocates, which is why brand evangelism plays an important role in enhancing and promoting client-centricity.

While ostensibly an organic byproduct of good service, it can be fostered through a dedicated brand evangelism program designed to create client trust and value.

However, ensure your CX and CS strategies are in the best shape possible before executing your brand evangelism program.

Map Your Buyers’ Journey

Mapping out the buyer journey allows you to identify where to enhance the brand experience to improve client centricity.

You can start mapping your buyers’ journey by focusing on:

• Customer journey stages: Awareness, consideration, purchase, post-purchase, and advocacy (focus on enhancing the overall experience at each stage and ensuring a seamless transition between stages).
• Pain points: Challenges, needs, and friction points that have to be addressed.
• Touchpoints: Every interaction your client has with your organization (brand, marketing, sales, and CS).
• Experience: Positive and negative experiences clients might have while interacting with your business (surveys are crucial for assessing these experiences).

Acquiring a deep understanding of how clients experience your brand from start to finish reveals key issues to address, as well as unique opportunities to craft an exceptional brand experience that outshines your competitors.

Below are examples of key areas to prioritize to improve CX:

• Identify and address bottlenecks and friction points in the buying process.
• Ensure consistency of service levels at every touchpoint across buying journey stages.
• Collect client feedback on solutions and identify priority features to enhance and increase satisfaction levels.
• Make sure all messaging resonates with your clients, tailored per buyer persona/Ideal Client Profile (ICP).
• Assign quarterly projects for each leader to action with their teams to improve the organization’s overall client experience.

Plan A Client Success Strategy

Every successful CX strategy needs to be championed and held accountable by a team whose sole goal is client support or success.

Ideally, this should be a Client Success (CS) team whose only objective is client enablement.

Your CS team is responsible for creating the roadmap to client success and ensuring that clients receive their desired outcomes from your solutions in the most seamless, positive way possible.

Recommendations for client success:

• Customize the onboarding process of each new client according to their needs and preferences.
• Make sure the post-purchase experience goes “beyond the sale” and is personalized for each buyer persona/ICP.
• Leave no stone unturned. Pay attention to brand messaging in small details, such as microcopy on product apps and images on social media.
• Use analytics and A/B testing to identify friction points in your brand’s digital experience.

Nurture Your Loyal Clients And Promote Brand Evangelism

Once your CX and CS strategies are in place, it is time to turn your satisfied clients into your brand advocates.

The goal is to leverage the enthusiasm of these clients to drive word-of-mouth, increase brand loyalty, and build a community around your brand.

Recommendations for fostering brand evangelism:

• Gift loyal clients and encourage referrals through dedicated client support and enablement.
• Create upsell or cross-sell opportunities to promote interest in other solutions and encourage client retention.
• Conduct client surveys to gather actionable feedback and gauge satisfaction levels (such as via a Net Promoter Score [NPS] survey).
• Establish a client feedback loop on how your experience and products can be improved.
• Audit products and content based on client feedback, and showcase updates to your client base to prove that their voices are being heard.

3. Benchmark Your Client Experience With KPIs

Achieving continued growth with client-centricity requires establishing it as a business objective and continuously improving your efforts.

Align your CX and CS strategies with KPIs that teams are accountable for upholding using CLTV as an anchor.

Benchmarking these client experience efforts with your KPIs ensures continued innovation and success through data-driven decisions.

Recommended CLTV and CX metrics:

• Referral rate: Tracks the rate of new clients acquired through referrals.
• Engagement rates: Measures client engagement on your owned channels and website.
• Website: Page visits, time on page, bounce rate.
• Social media: Follows, shares, and likes – social listening tools can provide sentiment analysis as a metric.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS): Assesses client loyalty and brand advocacy with a score from 1 to 10. Satisfied clients (promoters) usually respond with nine or higher.
• Client Acquisition Cost (CAC): Establishes how much is spent to acquire new clients.
• Churn rate: Determines the percentage of lost clients within a certain time frame.
• First Contact Resolution (FCR): The percentage of client issues resolved during a first interaction with client support or success teams.
• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): This metric measures how satisfied customers are with a company’s products, services, or overall experience. A score of 9 is what you should aim for.
• Response time: Always try to respond to clients in less than two hours. A quick response time leads to client satisfaction and reduces churn.
• Client Health Score (CHS): This measures the health of your client relationships. Seven and above is a good score on a scale from 1 to 10.

While CLTV is arguably the most important metric for business sustainability, the metrics above provide a comprehensive overview of your brand’s client experience.

Key Takeaways

• Secure buy-in from leaders: Accountability and stakeholder approval of the client-centric strategy are essential to ensure its success and alignment at every level of your organization.
• Map the lifetime journey of your clients: Identify friction points and issues across the buyer’s journey that negatively impact your client experience. Determine “client experience priorities” for each leader to action across their teams.
• Track the performance of your client-centric strategy: Use CLTV as an anchor and track supplementary KPIs to monitor the client experience and ensure its continued innovation.
• Build a Client Success team: Launch initiatives via a dedicated team to evangelize clients through surveys, gifting, upsells/cross-sells, and product updates.

More resources:

Featured Image: eamesBot/Shutterstock

Paying With Data Or Money: Navigating The Implications Of The Privacy First World via @sejournal, @navahf

What does a world where you pay with data vs. money look like?

Over the past two decades, many services, including content platforms, social networks, and search engines, allowed consumers to trade their personal information – whether given voluntarily or unknowingly – to access services.

This data fuels ad platforms, manifesting in search results, social media ads, and more.

Yet, as we march ever onward (despite the enduring third-party cookie) toward the privacy-first world, consumers will begin to feel the impact of choosing privacy over personalization.

The Illusion Of Free Services

Brands, intentionally or not, created an assumption certain services and content are free. However, this is simply untrue.

What might seem free is actually paid for with non-monetary currency. In the privacy-first era, individuals who choose to withhold their information or not consent to share data will receive less personalized experiences and limits to content.

Brands that don’t communicate the need for consent to their customers may face backlash at decreased quality. On the other hand, brands that aren’t transparent about data collection risk negative brand sentiment and fines.

We’re going to dive into:

• Core services people expect for free.
• Emerging paid alternatives.
• Adoption rates.

While there isn’t a clear answer for everyone, this should hopefully provide a framework to find the best answer for you and your consumers.

Online Services: The Trade-Offs

We’ll focus on online services, avoiding real-world examples where access to benefits might involve data sharing.

Service 1: Searching The Web

“Googling” something is synonymous with finding information online. Google’s primary revenue source is its ad platform, which relies heavily on user data.

Google collects vast amounts of data from user searches, profiles, YouTube habits, Google Wallet transactions, and email content.

Although Google claims not to share or associate this data with individuals, they undeniably have access to it.

Until recently, users had no choice in sharing their information while searching online. Third-party cookies and IP addresses relayed this information, feeding the ad ecosystem.

With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and other regulations, the viability of taking this information without consent has become taboo.

Google now faces a challenge: its users are accustomed to free services, but without data to fuel ads, alternative payment methods are necessary.

Google offers paid services like larger storage for Gmail and Google Photos and ad-free YouTube subscriptions. However, search result pages still contain ads, needing monetization from searches.

From a consumer perspective, sharing data with Google enhances the user experience.

A profile with decades of data yields highly relevant results with fewer ads. In contrast, searches on incognito or secondary profiles may result in more ads or less relevant results due to limited data.

Screenshot from search for [building a gaming computer under $3000], Google, August 2024

In the above example, the results seem to run counter to the search [building a computer for under $3000].

However, because I’m logged into my profile, Google can see what my purchase patterns and content consumption look like.

I’m not the type of person who is going to build a computer. In the end, I bought a great prebuilt computer for $1,500 that happened to be one of the ads shown to me.

Screenshot from Google, August 2024

Consumers must decide between a better experience by sharing data or a more private, potentially less efficient experience. Testing searches in incognito versus a logged-in profile can highlight the differences.

Service 2: Social Networks

Social networks epitomize the data-for-service trade. Users share personal information with platforms like Meta, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and Snap to connect with friends and family.

However, this data also feeds ad platforms targeting and bidding rules.

Consider what information you’re willing to share. For example, as a dog lover, I see numerous dog-related ads and charitable causes in my feed.

Similarly, searches around weight gain result in ads for supplements and non-alcoholic beverages.

This shows that both on-platform behavior and external signals influence ad targeting. The danger of this is that it’s hard to “fix” the algorithms without directly sharing this input.

Screenshot from Meta, August 2024

If you’re not willing to share which content you want to see more or less of, you risk only getting information from certain content producers. Additionally, ads will be hyper-focused on what seems to be important in your feed.

Social networks primarily monetize through ads, making an ad-free experience impractical for most. Exclusive platforms like Clubhouse or paid services like Discord’s Nitro offer alternatives.

Discord, for instance, allows supporting servers without forcing users to share personal information, contrasting with the personalization of platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn.

Paid Alternatives And Their Adoption

As consumers become more privacy-conscious, alternative paid services are emerging. Let’s examine some of these alternatives and their adoption rates.

Subscription-Based Search Engines

Search engines like DuckDuckGo and Perplexity offer privacy-focused alternatives to Google. DuckDuckGo, for instance, does not track user data and relies on affiliate links and ads based on search terms rather than user profiles.

Perplexity, on the other hand, offers an ad-free subscription model, providing an enhanced search experience without compromising privacy.

While these alternatives are growing in popularity, they still represent a small fraction of the market compared to Google. Privacy-conscious consumers are willing to pay for a better experience, but mainstream adoption remains limited due to the convenience and familiarity of Google.

Premium Social Networks

Exclusive social networks like Clubhouse and Discord Nitro offer ad-free experiences and additional features for a fee. Clubhouse, an audio-based social network, initially gained traction through its invite-only model, creating a sense of exclusivity.

Discord Nitro provides enhanced features such as higher-quality streaming and increased file upload limits.

These premium services cater to niche audiences who value privacy and exclusive content. However, they face challenges in achieving widespread adoption due to the dominance of free platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Balancing Privacy And Accessibility

As consumers navigate the digital landscape, they face a fundamental choice: share personal data for free services or pay for privacy and quality.

This decision impacts not only their online experience but also the broader economy of digital services.

The Consumer Perspective

From a consumer standpoint, the choice between data and money depends on personal values and priorities. Some users prioritize privacy and are willing to pay for ad-free experiences. Others value convenience and are comfortable sharing data for free access to services.

For instance, privacy-focused individuals may opt for subscription-based search engines and premium social networks.

They are willing to invest in a better experience, even if it means paying a monthly or annual fee. On the other hand, users who prioritize cost savings may continue using free services, accepting the trade-off of targeted ads and data collection.

The Business Perspective

Businesses must adapt to changing consumer preferences and regulatory landscapes. They need to balance monetization strategies, offering both free, ad-supported services and premium, data-free alternatives.

This dual approach allows them to cater to diverse consumer needs while maintaining revenue streams.

For example, Google continues to offer free search services supported by ads but also provides premium options like YouTube Premium and Google One.

Similarly, social networks like Facebook and Instagram rely on ads for revenue but explore new monetization models to address privacy concerns.

The Future Of Digital Payments

The future of digital payments will likely involve a combination of data and money, with consumers having more control over their information.

As technology evolves, new payment models and privacy-enhancing technologies will emerge, shaping the digital economy.

Emerging Trends

• Microtransactions: Microtransactions and pay-as-you-go models could enable users to pay for specific services or content without committing to long-term subscriptions. This approach allows for greater flexibility and personalized experiences.
• Data Ownership: Consumers may gain more control over their data through data ownership and monetization platforms. These platforms could enable users to decide how their data is used and earn rewards for sharing it with trusted parties.
• Enhanced Status Quo: While this isn’t ideal, consumers and content creators may decide that they just don’t want to shift away from the current model, and if enough consumers are willing to share their data, “free” content and services will continue to use ads for monetization.

Final Takeaways

As consumers, we must decide whether to share our information for a better experience or pay for privacy through potential quality lapses or out-of-pocket.

As businesses, determining how to charge for services and valuing customer data is crucial.

By embracing new payment models and privacy-enhancing technologies, we can create a more balanced and equitable digital economy.

This shift will empower consumers to make informed choices and allow businesses to innovate and thrive in an ever-evolving landscape.

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Featured Image: Accogliente Design /Shutterstock