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10 rules for successful metaverse making

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It was a balmy evening in the summer of 2006. A friend of mine had taken me to the house and home studio of Draxtor Despres, an award-winning documentarian, who I was interested in interviewing for a piece I was writing. Immediately I was smitten with this bespectacled, headphone-wearing character who spent much time puttering around his home studio cooking up creative projects.

He gave us the grand tour, which included a cozy and scattered live/work area and what looked like a full-blown production studio. Despres had been making some remarkably interesting mixed media content, and I was eager to understand his creative process. Before I had the chance to get into any probing questions, he kindly explained it was well past his bedtime, and he had an early morning. I checked my watch, and it was only 7 p.m., and then, as if on cue, Despres was gone. He had logged off.

Yes, this was a virtual meeting, but I remember it as if it were yesterday. The oldest and arguably most successful virtual world or metaverse Second Life (SL) had been our first meeting place. The platform allowed me to meet and chat with someone who lived across the globe, in a different time zone, while feeling like he lived right down the street.


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Despres and I — or Bernhard Draxas he is known outside of SL — met several times after that first fateful meeting. He was a regular content contributor to the publication I founded almost 15 years ago, SLentrepreneur, dedicated to “making money in the metaverse.” For years, I managed a global team of writers, photographers and editors, all within the virtual world of SL. I knew immediately that the platform offered something extraordinary. However, it would be over a decade later before anyone in my profession would start taking the metaverse seriously.

10 rules for successful metaverse making
My SLENTRE.COM staff in early 2008 at our virtual office in Second Life. My avatar and editor-in-chief, Avarie Parker, is second from the right.

Despres has been heavily involved with virtual spaces for almost twenty years and has become my go-to for all things related to building and engaging virtual communities. Despres and I eventually met several times in person and became fast friends. I interviewed him while he was attending Augmented World Expo in San Jose, and we presented together at AWE Europe in Munich. It was a HUGE highlight of that trip to explore Despres’ home city of Munich together, IRL or “in real life.”

I recently asked him to share his knowledge with my XR students at the University of Oregon. What follows are the top ten insights from our lively discussion. You can view the entire interview on my Twitch channel and several other XR-themed expert interviews.

Ten rules of the road for metaverse marketing

1. Understand the true potential of the platform

The term metaverse has been around for a long time and only recently has been co-opted by companies claiming that they have built or are building a metaverse. A true metaverse does not exist. It is a purely aspirational concept that would allow for an open, connected and interoperable network of virtual environments dedicated to social interaction. The metaverse is meant to be like a 3D Internet, where you can digitally move from virtual environment to virtual environment.

Each environment could have a different set of rules, different “owners,” different citizens — similar to different countries if you like – with underlying infrastructure that allows for seamless travel between these virtual worlds. That infrastructure needs to be decentralized and ideally open-sourced so that nobody is left behind and one company doesn’t monopolize our digital universe. A recent Fast Company article discusses this concept and highlights OpenSim or OpenSimulator, an open-sourced network of virtual worlds created in 2007.  

2. Understand the technology and the terminology

It is essential to understand the technology and terminology of virtual platforms. Virtual worlds and the metaverse are different. I would argue that the metaverse is an open and interoperable network of virtual worlds or environments. A “virtual world” is a digital space where you can spend time together and do nothing – you don’t need to play a game, for example – and no headset is required. Accessible 3D virtual spaces that users can access on a tablet, smartphone or laptop offer the same immersion and interaction as headsets or VR-based virtual worlds.

The media uses the term metaverse as a synonym for all the offerings in a virtual space, and often the term is associated with headset-based experiences. Meta, Apple, Microsoft, and anyone else who claims they have built a metaverse, has instead created a privately held, virtual world. These companies, of course, want you and everyone else to believe that they own the metaverse, thereby monetizing the data of its users and potentially monopolizing revenue from the required software to access the space.

3. Get smart on the benefits of immersion

There has been much research on the benefits of using virtual spaces to connect with and engage users. Virtual spaces improve recall of information, provide a greater sense of embodiment and presence, allow for greater interaction and agency, and help limit distractions. There are many different types of immersion: Strategic, tactile, sensory, narrative, spatial and virtual environments can help marketers and comms professionals leverage them all, making their experiences more interactive and less passive.

4. Refer to your audience as residents or citizens instead of users

Using the term “resident,” or “citizen” for virtual world users indicates they have a stake within that community and moves them into an active role instead of a passive one. This tenant reminds me of the great work done by Jonah Sachs and what he terms “empowerment marketing.” One of the tactics of empowerment marketing — forget the consumer and call on the citizen — reminds us that inspired citizens make better brand evangelists than helpless consumers. You can read more about Sach’s empowerment marketing in this great series of articles featuring his work.

5. Understand the differences between consumption devices

Just like you need to become familiar with a new social media platform before launching a campaign on the platform, you need to understand how your audience is consuming the virtual world. Within the splintered virtual world ecosystem, different virtual communities and platforms are consumed through a variety of different devices like smartphones, tablets, PCs, Mac computers, tethered headset devices like the Rift, tetherless headset devices like the Oculus Quest, mixed media devices like Microsoft’s Hololens and mobile VR devices like Google Cardboard.

This is one of the reasons building an interoperable network of virtual worlds is so daunting. There currently is not a set standard method of consuming these immersive environments. Each virtual world has been built to support very specific hardware, so understanding these requirements is essential before diving in.

6. Speak their language

Become familiar with the thriving virtual environments that exist today. Each virtual world requires a different avatar, language, etiquette, etc. If you are building a marketing plan for a virtual space – you need to understand as much as you can about the residents. Some great questions to ask include: What are the demographics of residents? Why are they on the platform? What role or need does the platform play in the life of the resident? What is the unique language of the platform? What are the community norms, rules and regulations?

7. Location, location, location!

Any good marketer understands you need to GO TO your audience, and tapping into an already thriving and active community is much cheaper than building one from scratch. When choosing a location or platform for your virtual experience, a strategic approach is required. The platform you choose can mean the difference between success and failure and should depend on your overall marketing goals and objectives and your target audience. Factors to consider: Who is spending time on the platform, how are people spending their time on the platform, and what is the cost (money/time) to spend time on the platform?

8. Use the design thinking process

Approaching your virtual world or metaverse strategy from a design thinking perspective is essential to make sure you are solving a real problem for the user. Leverage the tenets of design thinking:

1) Empathize with your target audience.

2) Define the problem statement.

3) Ideate.

4) Prototype.

5) Test.

This allows brands to understand residents’ core concerns better and ensure they are using technology to provide solutions rather than just sizzle. Big brands can succeed in virtual spaces if they respect the residents and design for their needs, not focus solely on the brand objectives.

9. Prioritizing short-term economic gains sacrifices resident experience

Today’s economic climate forces companies of all sizes to continually prove value to investors, with a quick ROI becoming the focal point to succeed. Therefore, it is no wonder that technology companies use short-term tactics to get their user numbers UP at the cost of longer-term considerations for the residents/users. It IS possible to build a lucrative, online platform without selling user data and force-feeding advertising down users’ throats.

For example, SL has slowly but steadily grown over the last decade because it is a freemium or subscription-based model. They rent virtual space to their residents, and the resident can do with it what they want. This business model allows SL not to sell resident data to advertisers. Linden Lab, the creator of SL, also gets about a 9% transaction fee for all virtual goods sold by users on the platform. Philip Rosedale, the founder of SL and an outspoken leader in the virtual world space, positions SL as a place where you can have digital sovereignty. Isn’t that refreshing? Rosedale has rejoined Linden Lab’s board of directors in hopes of providing a viable alternative to Meta’s (Facebook’s) virtual environment, where they are purportedly planning to charge over 40% for transaction fees while at the same time making billions from offering user data to advertisers.

10. Join an active community of virtual world explorers and pioneers

Trying to become familiar with all the virtual environments can be daunting, if not downright impossible. It is much more enjoyable to explore these worlds with natives, who speak the language and can help you learn the customs quickly. Several great communities bring together professionals looking to expand their knowledge in this space. I am involved with the VRAR Association, Augmented World Expo, Despres SL Life Book Club, and I host my own XR Pub Crawl. You can read the highlights from my last XR Pub Crawl with Billie Goldman in this recent post or register to join me LIVE on my birthday, where we’ll explore the latest virtual spaces being used for marketing and communications.

If you’re looking to get additional training on marketing in the metaverse, read my post “Become a Metaverse Marketing Maven,” where I outline some great online resources to help you flex your metaverse muscle. Remember, as I always tell my communications students, with XR and immersive media, we are only limited by our imagination. Together we can build something that will inspire, engage and immerse our digital citizens and communities!  


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


About The Author

10 things to consider when using XR for your event10 things to consider when using XR for your event

Lisa Peyton is an immersive media strategist and media psychologist focusing on the user engagement and marketing applications of new technologies.

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The Complete Guide to Becoming an Authentic Thought Leader

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The Complete Guide to Becoming an Authentic Thought Leader

Introduce your processes: If you’ve streamlined a particular process, share it. It could be the solution someone else is looking for.

Jump on trends and news: If there’s a hot topic or emerging trend, offer your unique perspective.

Share industry insights: Attended a webinar or podcast that offered valuable insights. Summarize the key takeaways and how they can be applied.

Share your successes: Write about strategies that have worked exceptionally well for you. Your audience will appreciate the proven advice. For example, I shared the process I used to help a former client rank for a keyword with over 2.2 million monthly searches.

Question outdated strategies: If you see a strategy that’s losing steam, suggest alternatives based on your experience and data.

5. Establish communication channels (How)

Once you know who your audience is and what they want to hear, the next step is figuring out how to reach them. Here’s how:

Choose the right platforms: You don’t need to have a presence on every social media platform. Pick two platforms where your audience hangs out and create content for that platform. For example, I’m active on LinkedIn and X because my target audience (SEOs, B2B SaaS, and marketers) is active on these platforms.

Repurpose content: Don’t limit yourself to just one type of content. Consider repurposing your content on Quora, Reddit, or even in webinars and podcasts. This increases your reach and reinforces your message.

Follow Your audience: Go where your audience goes. If they’re active on X, that’s where you should be posting. If they frequent industry webinars, consider becoming a guest on these webinars.

Daily vs. In-depth content: Balance is key. Use social media for daily tips and insights, and reserve your blog for more comprehensive guides and articles.

Network with influencers: Your audience is likely following other experts in the field. Engaging with these influencers puts your content in front of a like-minded audience. I try to spend 30 minutes to an hour daily engaging with content on X and LinkedIn. This is the best way to build a relationship so you’re not a complete stranger when you DM privately.

6. Think of thought leadership as part of your content marketing efforts

As with other content efforts, thought leadership doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It thrives when woven into a cohesive content marketing strategy. By aligning individual authority with your brand, you amplify the credibility of both.

Think of it as top-of-the-funnel content to:

  • Build awareness about your brand

  • Highlight the problems you solve

  • Demonstrate expertise by platforming experts within the company who deliver solutions

Consider the user journey. An individual enters at the top through a social media post, podcast, or blog post. Intrigued, they want to learn more about you and either search your name on Google or social media. If they like what they see, they might visit your website, and if the information fits their needs, they move from passive readers to active prospects in your sales pipeline.

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How to Increase Survey Completion Rate With 5 Top Tips

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How to Increase Survey Completion Rate With 5 Top Tips

Collecting high-quality data is crucial to making strategic observations about your customers. Researchers have to consider the best ways to design their surveys and then how to increase survey completion, because it makes the data more reliable.

→ Free Download: 5 Customer Survey Templates [Access Now]

I’m going to explain how survey completion plays into the reliability of data. Then, we’ll get into how to calculate your survey completion rate versus the number of questions you ask. Finally, I’ll offer some tips to help you increase survey completion rates.

My goal is to make your data-driven decisions more accurate and effective. And just for fun, I’ll use cats in the examples because mine won’t stop walking across my keyboard.

Why Measure Survey Completion

Let’s set the scene: We’re inside a laboratory with a group of cat researchers. They’re wearing little white coats and goggles — and they desperately want to know what other cats think of various fish.

They’ve written up a 10-question survey and invited 100 cats from all socioeconomic rungs — rough and hungry alley cats all the way up to the ones that thrice daily enjoy their Fancy Feast from a crystal dish.

Now, survey completion rates are measured with two metrics: response rate and completion rate. Combining those metrics determines what percentage, out of all 100 cats, finished the entire survey. If all 100 give their full report on how delicious fish is, you’d achieve 100% survey completion and know that your information is as accurate as possible.

But the truth is, nobody achieves 100% survey completion, not even golden retrievers.

With this in mind, here’s how it plays out:

  • Let’s say 10 cats never show up for the survey because they were sleeping.
  • Of the 90 cats that started the survey, only 25 got through a few questions. Then, they wandered off to knock over drinks.
  • Thus, 90 cats gave some level of response, and 65 completed the survey (90 – 25 = 65).
  • Unfortunately, those 25 cats who only partially completed the survey had important opinions — they like salmon way more than any other fish.

The cat researchers achieved 72% survey completion (65 divided by 90), but their survey will not reflect the 25% of cats — a full quarter! — that vastly prefer salmon. (The other 65 cats had no statistically significant preference, by the way. They just wanted to eat whatever fish they saw.)

Now, the Kitty Committee reviews the research and decides, well, if they like any old fish they see, then offer the least expensive ones so they get the highest profit margin.

CatCorp, their competitors, ran the same survey; however, they offered all 100 participants their own glass of water to knock over — with a fish inside, even!

Only 10 of their 100 cats started, but did not finish the survey. And the same 10 lazy cats from the other survey didn’t show up to this one, either.

So, there were 90 respondents and 80 completed surveys. CatCorp achieved an 88% completion rate (80 divided by 90), which recorded that most cats don’t care, but some really want salmon. CatCorp made salmon available and enjoyed higher profits than the Kitty Committee.

So you see, the higher your survey completion rates, the more reliable your data is. From there, you can make solid, data-driven decisions that are more accurate and effective. That’s the goal.

We measure the completion rates to be able to say, “Here’s how sure we can feel that this information is accurate.”

And if there’s a Maine Coon tycoon looking to invest, will they be more likely to do business with a cat food company whose decision-making metrics are 72% accurate or 88%? I suppose it could depend on who’s serving salmon.

While math was not my strongest subject in school, I had the great opportunity to take several college-level research and statistics classes, and the software we used did the math for us. That’s why I used 100 cats — to keep the math easy so we could focus on the importance of building reliable data.

Now, we’re going to talk equations and use more realistic numbers. Here’s the formula:

Completion rate equals the # of completed surveys divided by the # of survey respondents.

So, we need to take the number of completed surveys and divide that by the number of people who responded to at least one of your survey questions. Even just one question answered qualifies them as a respondent (versus nonrespondent, i.e., the 10 lazy cats who never show up).

Now, you’re running an email survey for, let’s say, Patton Avenue Pet Company. We’ll guess that the email list has 5,000 unique addresses to contact. You send out your survey to all of them.

Your analytics data reports that 3,000 people responded to one or more of your survey questions. Then, 1,200 of those respondents actually completed the entire survey.

3,000/5000 = 0.6 = 60% — that’s your pool of survey respondents who answered at least one question. That sounds pretty good! But some of them didn’t finish the survey. You need to know the percentage of people who completed the entire survey. So here we go:

Completion rate equals the # of completed surveys divided by the # of survey respondents.

Completion rate = (1,200/3,000) = 0.40 = 40%

Voila, 40% of your respondents did the entire survey.

Response Rate vs. Completion Rate

Okay, so we know why the completion rate matters and how we find the right number. But did you also hear the term response rate? They are completely different figures based on separate equations, and I’ll show them side by side to highlight the differences.

  • Completion Rate = # of Completed Surveys divided by # of Respondents
  • Response Rate = # of Respondents divided by Total # of surveys sent out

Here are examples using the same numbers from above:

Completion Rate = (1200/3,000) = 0.40 = 40%

Response Rate = (3,000/5000) = 0.60 = 60%

So, they are different figures that describe different things:

  • Completion rate: The percentage of your respondents that completed the entire survey. As a result, it indicates how sure we are that the information we have is accurate.
  • Response rate: The percentage of people who responded in any way to our survey questions.

The follow-up question is: How can we make this number as high as possible in order to be closer to a truer and more complete data set from the population we surveyed?

There’s more to learn about response rates and how to bump them up as high as you can, but we’re going to keep trucking with completion rates!

What’s a good survey completion rate?

That is a heavily loaded question. People in our industry have to say, “It depends,” far more than anybody wants to hear it, but it depends. Sorry about that.

There are lots of factors at play, such as what kind of survey you’re doing, what industry you’re doing it in, if it’s an internal or external survey, the population or sample size, the confidence level you’d like to hit, the margin of error you’re willing to accept, etc.

But you can’t really get a high completion rate unless you increase response rates first.

So instead of focusing on what’s a good completion rate, I think it’s more important to understand what makes a good response rate. Aim high enough, and survey completions should follow.

I checked in with the Qualtrics community and found this discussion about survey response rates:

“Just wondering what are the average response rates we see for online B2B CX surveys? […]

Current response rates: 6%–8%… We are looking at boosting the response rates but would first like to understand what is the average.”

The best answer came from a government service provider that works with businesses. The poster notes that their service is free to use, so they get very high response rates.

“I would say around 30–40% response rates to transactional surveys,” they write. “Our annual pulse survey usually sits closer to 12%. I think the type of survey and how long it has been since you rendered services is a huge factor.”

Since this conversation, “Delighted” (the Qualtrics blog) reported some fresher data:

survey completion rate vs number of questions new data, qualtrics data

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The takeaway here is that response rates vary widely depending on the channel you use to reach respondents. On the upper end, the Qualtrics blog reports that customers had 85% response rates for employee email NPS surveys and 33% for email NPS surveys.

A good response rate, the blog writes, “ranges between 5% and 30%. An excellent response rate is 50% or higher.”

This echoes reports from Customer Thermometer, which marks a response rate of 50% or higher as excellent. Response rates between 5%-30% are much more typical, the report notes. High response rates are driven by a strong motivation to complete the survey or a personal relationship between the brand and the customer.

If your business does little person-to-person contact, you’re out of luck. Customer Thermometer says you should expect responses on the lower end of the scale. The same goes for surveys distributed from unknown senders, which typically yield the lowest level of responses.

According to SurveyMonkey, surveys where the sender has no prior relationship have response rates of 20% to 30% on the high end.

Whatever numbers you do get, keep making those efforts to bring response rates up. That way, you have a better chance of increasing your survey completion rate. How, you ask?

Tips to Increase Survey Completion

If you want to boost survey completions among your customers, try the following tips.

1. Keep your survey brief.

We shouldn’t cram lots of questions into one survey, even if it’s tempting. Sure, it’d be nice to have more data points, but random people will probably not hunker down for 100 questions when we catch them during their half-hour lunch break.

Keep it short. Pare it down in any way you can.

Survey completion rate versus number of questions is a correlative relationship — the more questions you ask, the fewer people will answer them all. If you have the budget to pay the respondents, it’s a different story — to a degree.

“If you’re paying for survey responses, you’re more likely to get completions of a decently-sized survey. You’ll just want to avoid survey lengths that might tire, confuse, or frustrate the user. You’ll want to aim for quality over quantity,” says Pamela Bump, Head of Content Growth at HubSpot.

2. Give your customers an incentive.

For instance, if they’re cats, you could give them a glass of water with a fish inside.

Offer incentives that make sense for your target audience. If they feel like they are being rewarded for giving their time, they will have more motivation to complete the survey.

This can even accomplish two things at once — if you offer promo codes, discounts on products, or free shipping, it encourages them to shop with you again.

3. Keep it smooth and easy.

Keep your survey easy to read. Simplifying your questions has at least two benefits: People will understand the question better and give you the information you need, and people won’t get confused or frustrated and just leave the survey.

4. Know your customers and how to meet them where they are.

Here’s an anecdote about understanding your customers and learning how best to meet them where they are.

Early on in her role, Pamela Bump, HubSpot’s Head of Content Growth, conducted a survey of HubSpot Blog readers to learn more about their expertise levels, interests, challenges, and opportunities. Once published, she shared the survey with the blog’s email subscribers and a top reader list she had developed, aiming to receive 150+ responses.

“When the 20-question survey was getting a low response rate, I realized that blog readers were on the blog to read — not to give feedback. I removed questions that wouldn’t serve actionable insights. When I reshared a shorter, 10-question survey, it passed 200 responses in one week,” Bump shares.

Tip 5. Gamify your survey.

Make it fun! Brands have started turning surveys into eye candy with entertaining interfaces so they’re enjoyable to interact with.

Your respondents could unlock micro incentives as they answer more questions. You can word your questions in a fun and exciting way so it feels more like a BuzzFeed quiz. Someone saw the opportunity to make surveys into entertainment, and your imagination — well, and your budget — is the limit!

Your Turn to Boost Survey Completion Rates

Now, it’s time to start surveying. Remember to keep your user at the heart of the experience. Value your respondents’ time, and they’re more likely to give you compelling information. Creating short, fun-to-take surveys can also boost your completion rates.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in December 2010 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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Take back your ROI by owning your data

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Treasure Data 800x450

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Other brands can copy your style, tone and strategy — but they can’t copy your data.

Your data is your competitive advantage in an environment where enterprises are working to grab market share by designing can’t-miss, always-on customer experiences. Your marketing tech stack enables those experiences. 

Join ActionIQ and Snowplow to learn the value of composing your stack – decoupling the data collection and activation layers to drive more intelligent targeting.

Register and attend “Maximizing Marketing ROI With a Composable Stack: Separating Reality from Fallacy,” presented by Snowplow and ActionIQ.


Click here to view more MarTech webinars.


About the author

Cynthia RamsaranCynthia Ramsaran

Cynthia Ramsaran is director of custom content at Third Door Media, publishers of Search Engine Land and MarTech. A multi-channel storyteller with over two decades of editorial/content marketing experience, Cynthia’s expertise spans the marketing, technology, finance, manufacturing and gaming industries. She was a writer/producer for CNBC.com and produced thought leadership for KPMG. Cynthia hails from Queens, NY and earned her Bachelor’s and MBA from St. John’s University.

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