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Passwords are frustrating. They’re hard to remember and easy to steal. Add to that the security best practice of requiring strong, unique passwords for every website… and we’re left with a recipe for frustration and vulnerability. 

Yet, as our world becomes more digitized, the need for robust online security has never been greater. This is where secure authentication methods and password managers come to the rescue. 

Let’s unravel the secrets of secure authentication to understand how to protect ourselves in this evolving digital landscape.

What is secure authentication?

Secure authentication is the process of proving you are who you claim to be when accessing an online account or service. This process establishes trust and grants access to sensitive information or resources, including your bank account, email, or company intranet.

It’s the equivalent of entering a combination into a locked safe or showing your ID at the bank when you want to make a withdrawal.

Importance of secure authentication

Authentication is essential to online security and modern life for multiple reasons:

• Prevent data breaches: Secure authentication safeguards against unauthorized access that can lead to data breaches and identity theft. According to IBM research, major data breaches can cost companies over $4.4 million each.
• Uphold trust: Businesses rely on secure authentication to comply with data protection standards and regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
• Protect brand reputation: A strong stance on cybersecurity is necessary in today’s digital society, which directly impacts brand reputation. Recent hotel trends and trends in other industries have found that brand reputation is becoming more critical than ever. Consequently, having secure authentication to protect guests’ data like their ID, Social Security numbers, and credit card details in hotel property management systems (PMS) is essential to maintain a strong brand reputation.
• Avoid lawsuits: Any professional services that handle sensitive client data must have secure authentication in place. States have different data security laws and what to do in case of a breach.

Forms of secure authentication

There are many ways to ensure robust and reliable authentication for online accounts and other systems:

#1 Password-based authentication

People have been using password authentication since 1961 when MIT computer science professor Fernando Corbato created the first computer password. This familiar method relies on a username (usually an email address) and password combination and is the most common form of user authentication used today.

This form of authentication falls under the “something you know” category. Popular passwords have several downsides, including being hard to remember and allowing anyone who knows your password-free access to your data.

Passwords are vulnerable to phishing scams, social engineering attacks, and brute-force attacks, especially if you use weak passwords or reuse the same password across sites. Consequently, a core part of online security relies on using unique, strong, secure passwords for every online account and app you use.

#2 Passwordless authentication with passkeys

Secure passwords are, by definition, hard to remember, which is an inconvenience, making passwordless authentication attractive. There are multiple ways to authenticate users without a password, but passkeys are getting all the attention.

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Passkeys use cryptography to eliminate the need for traditional passwords, making your accounts less susceptible to social engineering attacks, phishing, and other attacks. They also destroy the need to remember passwords since they’re created and stored on each device you use and verified “under the hood” without human intervention.

#3 Biometric scans

These fall under the “something you are” category. Biometric authentication includes facial recognition, fingerprint and iris scans, voice recognition, etc.

(Image generated with Gemini Advanced)

Biometrics help prevent phishing ?and social engineering attacks and are almost invulnerable to brute-force attacks.

While convenient, these methods have limitations when used alone and are usually used in tandem with other forms of identity verification.

#4 Token-based authentication

Tokens add a valuable layer of security because they require something you physically have. There are two main types:

• Hardware tokens: These are dedicated devices that generate temporary authentication codes. They can appear as key fobs, USB sticks, or smart cards.
• Software Tokens (Authenticator Apps): These are apps installed on your smartphone or computer to generate similar temporary codes used in two-factor authentication or multi-factor authentication (more on that below).

#5 Certificate-based authentication

Digital certificates are like digital passports issued by trusted authorities called Certificate Authorities (CAs) using public-key cryptography. They verify the identities of individuals, websites, and devices.

Certificate-based authentication is often used in enterprise networks, secure websites (like banks), and secure email communications.

#6 Multi-factor authentication (MFA)

Multi-factor authentication is the answer to the weaknesses of using the forms mentioned above for authentication separately. It adds extra layers of protection by requiring more than one factor to prove your identity.

The basic idea behind MFA is to provide:

• Something you have (like a personal computer or a mobile device)
• Something you are (a form of biometric authentication).
• Something you know (like your password)

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Two-factor authentication (2FA) is the most common type of MFA, requiring just one additional factor for an increased level of security (therefore, you need only two factors).

Password managers and secure authentication

A password manager is like a digital vault to keep your sensitive login information, like your passwords, safe. However, password managers today do much more than just store these details? — ?they’re critical tools for embracing secure authentication practices.

Password managers help you avoid weak, reused passwords, empowering you to adopt the strongest security methods.

How do password managers work?

At their core, all password managers help you:

• Store credentials securely: Your passwords are protected in an encrypted vault, accessible only with a master password and often additional security factors. Most offer unlimited password storage in heavily encrypted form using military-grade encryption algorithms like AES-256-bit or XChaCha20 encryption.
• Generate strong passwords: Password generators can create long, unique, and complex passwords for your accounts. They remove the guesswork and frustration and improve the user experience when using passwords.
• Autofill login forms: Another core password manager feature is they can directly fill in your login credentials on websites and apps, making the sign-in process faster and smoother.

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Most popular password managers also offer other basic features, such as browser extensions for all major browsers and dark web monitoring.

Premium features of password managers

Many password managers offer premium plans like individual, family, and business plans that unlock additional advanced features. Some of these additional features include:

#1 Multi-factor authentication (MFA)

As explained above, MFA adds that extra layer of protection to your password vault by requiring additional factors alongside your master password.

#2 Passkeys

Premium password managers often provide passkey support, enabling seamless passwordless logins on websites and services that support this technology.

#3 Single Sign-On (SSO)

SSO simplifies the login process across multiple connected systems, which is a big help in business environments. SSO effectively outsources authentication to a trusted identity provider or IdP.

Some password managers offer seamless integration with popular identity providers like Okta, Auth0, OneLogin, or Azure AD. They make logging in with IdPs quick and easy, and the IdP then signs you into all other connected services.

#4 Authentication apps

Some top-tier password managers can double as authenticator apps. This means they can generate temporary codes like one-time passwords (HOTPs and TOTPs) for 2FA and MFA.

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Strong passwords are no longer enough

In our digital world, secure authentication is no longer optional? — ?it’s critical.

The key is finding methods that work for you, protect your data, and give you peace of mind. Secure password managers make using strong authentication seamless. They improve our digital lives by allowing us to explore passwordless options or implement multiple security layers to avoid security breaches.

Featured image by rc.xyz NFT gallery on Unsplash

The post The Importance of Password Managers in Secure Authentication appeared first on noupe.

Writing emails can be a tedious task, especially when you also have to measure their performance metrics and manage overflowing inboxes. Not only is it time-consuming but also requires intense focus, slowing your workflow. 

Enter generative AI — a transformative technology that is revolutionizing the way you can craft messages that resonate deeply with the recipients. It can help you create unique email content and get the most out of your email marketing investment. However, while it can be a helpful tool, unmanaged use can hurt your open and conversion rates.

In this guide, we’ll explore how you can use generative artificial intelligence to supercharge your email writing efforts, without sacrificing the personalized, human touch.

What is generative AI? 

Generative AI, or Generative Artificial Intelligence, is a cutting-edge technology in the field of AI that leverages machine learning to create unique content. This AI system is trained on vast datasets to identify patterns. With this knowledge, it combines information from various sources to generate fresh outputs, such as images, audio, videos, and more.

Suppose you need tons of different memes and GIFs to promote a new product launch across Instagram, Twitter, and Reddit. Just give the AI the product details, messaging, references to current meme trends, and guidelines. It will churn out fresh, random, and shareable meme content in no time. 

Some examples of generative AI copilots for business include Open AI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Bing, and more. 

Why should you use generative AI in email writing? 

Picture this: You’re an email marketer, responsible for creating email campaigns month after month to showcase your company’s products and services. Each email must hit the right notes, resonating with your audience and encouraging them to take action. However, manually writing all of those emails from scratch can be daunting and time-consuming, leaving you drained of creativity. 

This is where generative AI can be a game-changer for email writing. It’s like having a highly skilled copywriter at your fingertips — capable of crafting fresh, engaging email content in seconds.

Suppose you need to create an email series promoting a new line of eco-friendly home goods. Simply feed the generative AI tool, like ChatGPT, with details about the product features, your brand voice, the target customer demographics, and any specific messaging or calls-to-action you want to include. The AI tool would generate multiple variations of email copy seamlessly, making your job a breeze. 

This way, you can free up your time and creative energy to focus on other aspects of your marketing strategy. Plus, say goodbye to writer’s block and hello to effective email campaigns that drive results. Not only that, you can ensure consistency in tone, style, and messaging across all your email communications, strengthening your brand identity.

4 tips to use generative AI to write emails 

Let’s discover how you can leverage generative AI to write standout emails that captivate your audience.

Research your prospects 

The more the AI tool understands your prospects’ businesses, roles, pain points, and preferences, the more accurate and impactful it can make the email content. 

If you’re emailing marketing managers at e-commerce brands, provide the AI with common challenges they face like driving website traffic, increasing conversions, and standing out from competitors. Also, provide a few samples of their marketing lingo, past campaign examples, and preferred content styles. 

Or, for construction company leaders, equip the AI tool with the key ingredients — project management woes, labor shortages, bidding complexities, and the no-nonsense communication style of the construction world.

Feeding AI with generic prompts with no specific context results in outputs that miss the personal touches. But when you take the time to research your prospects’ profiles and personas, you enable AI to create a masterpiece — that truly captures your audiences’ interests.    

Craft detailed prompts

Just like a talented chef can create a perfect dish if given the right ingredients and recipe, generative AI assistants need detailed, thoughtful prompts to produce top-notch email content. It’s not enough to offer vague instructions and expect exceptional results. 

For example, a prompt for a sales email might go like this: 

“Write an email highlighting our inventory management software‘s automation features that minimize human error. Use straightforward language that emphasizes the efficiency and cost-saving benefits. Appeal to operations managers’ frustrations with missed shipments and incorrect orders with a sense of understanding but also confidence that our solution can solve their problems quickly. End with a crisp call-to-action to book a demo.”

With such a descriptive prompt, AI knows the key value proposition to outline, the audience’s pain points to tap into, the ideal voice and vocabulary, and the closing call-to-action. 

And the best part? Crafting such detailed prompts is less time-consuming than writing the entire email from scratch. AI does the heavy lifting based on your prompts. So, not only do you get desired outputs but you also save time and effort in the content creation process. 

Here’s what happened when I asked ChatGPT to create a sales email using the above prompt: 

Edit the output 

Generative AI is powerful at producing initial drafts — it captures all the main elements, structure, and messaging. But, you can’t treat them as final, ready-to-publish pieces as they still lack the human touch required to truly resonate with audiences. 

It’s the job of marketers and writers to add that authenticity to emails.

Analyze the AI output through the lens of your brand’s unique voice, tone, and communication style. Does the phrasing accurately capture your brand tone? Are there opportunities to inject more personality or on-brand language?

It’s also crucial to tweak areas to better align with your prospect’s pain points, objections, technical know-how, and industry lingo. Plus, ensure a cohesive, logical flow and narrative throughout. 

On top of that, add supportive details, such as customer examples and research stats to add further credibility. The AI tool alone can’t always make those types of insightful additions.

Finally, no piece of marketing content is complete without clear calls to action. While you can prompt the AI to include CTAs, make sure those CTAs are phrased compellingly and dropped in at just the right moments to drive action.

The key is to treat AI-generated drafts as a starting point, not the final destination. You have to put in the work to make sure that content is 100% original, on-brand, and tailored to your specific audience. That means running those AI outputs through plagiarism checks, cross-referencing with your existing content, and making sure every line is fresh and unique.

This way, you can level up the AI outputs and create brand-savvy pieces that click with audiences.

Generate compelling subject lines

Crafting a compelling subject line is like choosing the perfect door for your home — it sets the tone and creates anticipation for what’s to come. It either intrigues recipients to open your email or causes them to simply walk on by. 

Having numerous subject line options is crucial as it enables you to see your main message from different creative perspectives. That’s where generative AI can be a powerful tool. 

Don’t just ask the AI to “generate subject lines.” Give it clear guidelines like:

• the topic, 
• value proposition, 
• desired tone (curiosity-inducing, urgency-driven, etc.),
• common marketing pain points (driving traffic, increasing conversions),
• marketing jargon users are familiar with, and
• examples of high-performing emails/subject lines from competitors.

The more context, the more relevant its outputs.

Let’s say you’re promoting a new video conferencing app targeted at remote workforce managers. You could prompt the AI like:

“Generate 15-20 subject line options for an email promoting our video conferencing app to managers of distributed teams. The subject lines should pique curiosity about the app’s screen-sharing, recording, and virtual whiteboarding features for more interactive remote meetings. Use a casual, conversational, and slightly playful tone.”

Within seconds, the AI could output various subject line ideas such as:

The AI will generate some subject line ideas you love and some that miss the mark. You can pick the best parts and have the AI combine or rephrase them into new options that resonate with your audience. 

Or provide feedback prompts like “I love the virtual meeting one, give me 10 more suggestions on that concept.” The AI will regenerate more options aligned with your feedback.

Once you’ve narrowed it down to your top subject lines, run A/B tests to see which version performs best at driving opens and engagement for that audience segment. The more specific audience data and human feedback you can provide, the better the AI will become at generating subject lines tailored to drive action. 

Final thoughts 

Generative AI is a game-changer for email marketing. It’s like having a personal writing assistant that can pump out killer content within seconds. Just feed your AI a few prompts, and you’ve got a solid draft ready to go that resonates with their target audience and drives meaningful engagement.

However, using AI for email writing comes with its challenges. 

Sure, it can generate catchy subject lines and on-brand content, but you need that human touch to truly connect with audiences. Additionally, AI may struggle with context and relevancy, particularly in highly specialized or niche industries. 

And, there’s always a risk of over-reliance on AI, leading to a lack of creativity and originality in email content. That’s a surefire way to turn off your audience and reduce your engagement rates. 

So, don’t sleep on the power of generative AI, but also don’t forget to keep that human touch strong to deliver impactful email campaigns.

Featured image by Debby Hudson on Unsplash

The post 4 Tips for Using Generative AI to Write Emails appeared first on noupe.

Modern consumers are digitally literate, highly-savvy customers who can spot false advertising and seek authentic brands that support social causes. This sentiment is echoed by data collated by the Harvard Business Review, which shows that 70% of consumers say companies should make the world a better place,  and that 25% say they will not buy from unethical businesses. 

Most American consumers also say businesses should support key social, environmental, and political issues. However, 54% say they’ve chosen to stop buying from a business because of their stance on divisive issues. This highlights the complexity of the challenge facing marketers today. 

As a marketer, you can build your appeal amongst modern consumers by supporting popular causes that align with your environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. This will help you build a brand based on authenticity and will ensure that you sidestep accusations of greenwashing or deception. 

Collecting Consumer Data

The way consumers buy from businesses is changing. Today, more Americans use smartphones, laptops, and tablets to shop, and one in three Americans use their smartphone to shop every week. The migration towards online shopping is great news for marketers, as it makes it that much easier to gather relevant consumer data for your brand. When collecting consumer data, focus on gathering insights like: 

• Identifying information like names and email addresses 
• Engagement metrics like average time on page, bounce rate, and pages per session 
• Demographic data to aid segmentation efforts
• Relevant lead scoring metrics like traffic source, pages visited, and sign-ups for webinars or discounts 

Collecting this information will help you understand your customers and will aid your efforts to create a relevant, engaging campaign for prospective customers. For example, if you discover that your consumer base is typically younger folks who arrive from social sites like Instagram, you may want to create an influencer marketing campaign to capture the attention of prospective consumers. 

You can also use consumer data to better understand your customer’s opinions on topics like sustainability and social causes. This is key, as throwing your weight behind an issue like climate change can increase customer loyalty and help you create a stronger connection with your consumers. 

Sustainability

Championing sustainability is increasingly important for brands that want to connect with younger customers. Developing progressive policies to combat global warming can make your business more resilient in the face of climate events like droughts, floods, and storms. 

Showing that you’re serious about sustainability and climate resilience can aid reputation management efforts, too. Consumers are increasingly concerned about the state of the climate and will back businesses that are open about their impact on the world at large. Sharing the progress of your efforts via social media, press releases, and sustainability reports can deepen your connection with climate-conscious consumers and will serve you well in years to come. 

However, before you start rebranding your firm as eco-friendly and buying green boxes for your products, you need to ensure that your company is genuinely sustainable. Failing to take meaningful steps to reduce your carbon footprint will draw the ire of savvy consumers who can spot the signs of greenwashing. Rather than obscuring your actual impact, be honest about your shortcomings and provide transparent data about your current impact. This will help you build trust and aid your efforts to build a more climate-conscious company. 

Community Connection

Connecting with your local community is a great way to raise the profile of your brand and build a positive buzz around your business. Hosting community events like clean-ups and barbecues is a great way to enhance your reputation as a socially responsible company in the area, too. You can master community event marketing by: 

• Define your goals and create a timeline for your event to ensure that you secure venues, partners, and sponsors before publicly advertising the event. 
• Identify your audience and use targeted messaging to connect with the customers you’d like to see at your event. 
• Explore new marketing channels like radio stations and local newspapers to build interest in the local area. 
• Seek sponsors and partnerships to raise your profile and generate funding for your event. 
• Use data collection strategies like email marketing to send attendees post-event surveys. 

Following these steps will build interest in your event and help raise the profile of your business. Partnering with well-regarded charitable organizations can aid your efforts to create a trustworthy, community-oriented brand image in the area, too. This is crucial if you’re new to the area and want to engage modern consumers who care about supporting socially responsible businesses. 

Omnichannel Marketing

Omnichannel marketing is a cost-effective way to connect with your consumers over whatever channel they prefer. Embracing omnichannel marketing is crucial if you work with a wide range of demographics and need to appeal to both those who prefer to shop in person and those who like making purchases online. 

You can start utilizing omnichannel marketing by creating campaigns that foreground your company’s values. Marketing with values in mind is a great way to boost the effectiveness of your omnichannel efforts, as you’ll be able to reuse the same graphics, quotes, and statistics across a wide range of marketing materials. 

Ideally, these omnichannel strategies should integrate seamlessly with one another. For example, if a consumer buys a product from your brick-and-mortar store, you should be able to record that purchase on your CRM just as if they’d bought from your online site. This increases the accuracy of your data and gives you a deeper understanding of modern consumer preferences. This is an approach championed by big brands, too, including: 

• Nike: Nike uses apps like the Run Club to record consumer’s use of their products and enhance the brand experience. This improves the brand visibility and helps them record key consumer data. 
• Sephora: Beauty giant Sephora uses in-app purchases and bookings to record customer behavior and recommend products to consumers. Folks who sign up for the app also receive loyalty rewards and exclusive deals. 
• Best Buy: Best Buy’s mobile app allows customers to scan a product’s barcode and buy it directly from their phone. This enhances the in-person shopping experience and aids their efforts to collect consumer data. 

Crucially, the apps that power your omnichannel marketing should enhance the consumer experience and add meaningful value to their lives. This means you may offer exclusive deals to those who sign up for your app, or utilize personalized marketing strategies to help shoppers find the products they’re looking for. 

Conclusion

Building your appeal amongst modern consumers requires a data-driven, sustainable approach to marketing. You can’t expect to land loyal customers if you don’t provide a top-notch customer experience and should be prepared to invest in the community when you open a new store or want to build a buzz around a new product. This will enhance your efforts to engage modern consumers and will supercharge your next marketing campaign. 

Featured image by Jason Goodman on Unsplash

The post Effective Marketing Strategies for Engaging Modern Consumers appeared first on noupe.

Any business that operates online is competing in a very crowded market. With the eCommerce market forecasted to reach a value of $9.3 trillion by 2027, everyone wants a slice of that lucrative pie. If you have quality products (or services), then the onus is on your marketing team to attract real customers and move them through your sales funnel and customer journey to the point of purchase decisions. 

Modern marketing has many approaches, from an omnichannel strategy to segmentation and personalization for your target audiences. One useful tactic is using UGC (user-generated content) to appeal to potential customers. Knowing how to leverage user-generated content can lead to increased conversions for your business. 

But what is UGC, and how should you approach leveraging it? 

What is user-generated content?

Image sourced from searchlogistics.com

As the name suggests, UGC is content created by your customers and users. It can refer to any type of content, including videos, text, images, or even audio. 

Branded content, paid ads and even AI social media generated posts are all valid ways of creating content. And when done well, they can certainly increase brand visibility and reach. But UGC, although amateur in nature, has enormous appeal to people as they see it as being ‘free’ of fancy marketing messages and as more honest. 

In fact, around 85% of consumers think that user-generated content is more persuasive than traditional marketing content. Creators of UGC post their content in a variety of places, from their social media channels to independent blogs. Online reviews are also considered a form of user-generated content.                               

How to leverage user-generated content to improve awareness and conversions

Image sourced from embedsocial.com

At the end of the day, you want people to buy your products or services. While conversion rates can vary from industry to industry, you should consider that the average global eCommerce site conversion rate is 2.58% and in the US, it’s 2.57%. Those figures can provide benchmarks for your conversion expectations, but you should also research what the average conversion rate is for your particular area of eCommerce. 

There can be many reasons for lower-than-average conversion rates, and you should ensure that none of the usual problems are responsible for yours (if you are low). These problems can range from unoptimized websites (or not optimized for mobile devices) to poor website navigation. Looking at the ‘usual suspects’ behind low conversion rates should be your first port of call. 

If you’re sure all pain points have been addressed, then it’s time to look at how you can incorporate UGC into your marketing efforts and, more importantly, how you can leverage relevant content to improve your conversion rates.

Establish a brand 

You may already have established a strong brand identity that is recognizable across all your marketing content. 

It is something that communicates to potential customers factors such as quality and reliability, and should also communicate your organizational values. Extending that to UGC can involve a deep understanding of what you want to say and what you think people want to hear. 

For example, a company selling home entertainment systems may look at UGC videos of a family gathered together and enjoying a film. Combined with positive online reviews, this is communicating to consumers that your brand is high quality and your products bring families together. A strong brand strategy is as important as a digital contact center strategy. 

Make voices heard 

UGC is all about using the voices of your customers. So, you need to encourage them to ‘speak’ up, whether you want them to share their experiences of using your project time tracking software or how they style dresses bought from your eCommerce store. 

The most common type of voice is leaving reviews or even, with long-term loyal customers or brand ambassadors, recommending your brand to friends and family. Asking people to leave reviews can be done via emails (follow-up or marketing) or through your website or social media posts. 

If you’re unsure how to do this, look at these business website examples for inspiration. Do your research and find a format that aligns with your brand and will allow UGC to truly shine.

You can choose to incentivize this tactic with discounts or other offers. This is an area where visual content can be useful too. While a written product review is great, a video demonstrating the product (or how to use it) can be very persuasive for potential customers. For example, if you are selling cloud call center software, then video demonstrations of how it works could be a deciding factor when it comes to a purchasing decision. 

Use social listening tools 

How do you discover all the UGC that discusses or promotes your brand? A fantastic video that extols the benefits of your product will only have a limited audience unless you bring the creator and brand together. The main answer to this problem is to use a social listening tool. By using certain keywords, phrases, or hashtags, you can see what people are saying about you. 

With modern technology, many of these listening tools are AI-powered and will not only identify UGC but also analyze relevant data and provide valuable insights into the content posted. The thing to always remember is that you need the consent of the creator to leverage user-generated content in your marketing campaigns. 

Use hashtags 

Another way to curate content from users is through hashtags. Some social media platforms, such as Instagram, use hashtags as a primary marketing tool. If you’re looking to include UGC in your marketing strategy, consider the following steps:

• Have themes that people, both creators and consumers, will recognize. 
• Use your social media accounts to promote the use of hashtags, both for the brand as a whole and for individual campaigns.
• Incentivize campaigns with competitions offering free products or discounts.
• Showcase the best hashtag-related UGC on your website or social media platforms (remember to get permission to share). 
• Analyze the metrics and data from any UGC content just as you would with your own marketing content. 

Maintain quality 

Using user-generated content marketing does not mean compromising on quality. Your images and videos represent your brand and products, and the same quality levels need to be standardized for UGC, too. 

When images and videos (from any source) are consistently high-quality content, it helps engender a sense of trust in consumers. If written content, you also want to be sure it’s SEO-optimised. 

Given the technological advances in mobile technology, quality is not difficult to maintain. The editing and other aspects may be less than professional, but even that is something people will understand. In fact, a slight lack of professionalism may appeal even more than something that is ‘too polished’.

6. Build an online community 

You may already have a strong social media presence, but creating a separate online community can be a beneficial tactic if you want to leverage user-generated content. It can lead to higher levels of engagement and be the catalyst that drives your customers to create their own UGC, even if that just consists of online customer reviews or endorsements. 

You want your community to be as effective as possible and also to be a way to elevate loyal customers to ambassador status. To that end, here are some things to think about:

Selecting your platform 

Where will you host your community? There are specialist platforms such as Mighty Networks or Wild Apricot, or you may decide to build your own using a platform such as WordPress combined with the membership plugins they offer. A small to medium-sized business may even consider setting up a dedicated group on a site like Facebook. Some of the content that is posted in your community can be an ideal addition to any marketing brochure you produce. 

Enable UGC 

Your community is designed for the sharing of user-generated content. If a customer posts something that stands out, it can become UGC that you can use (with consent). 

You can also focus on the type of UGC you most want to highlight, and even incentivize sharing. For example, ‘If we use your video, we’ll give you a 10% discount on future purchases.’

Forums 

Think of your community as being like the forums from the early days of the internet. Have discussion areas (or threads) where members can engage with each other and discuss your virtues as a brand or focus on individual products or services. This can also provide members with opportunities to ask questions that can be answered by the staff you have assigned as admins/moderators. 

Consider an FAQ/knowledge base section

You probably already have this on your website, but your community should also have one. Peers can share knowledge or ask questions directly to you. It can also be a great place to share your guidelines on user-generated content. These sections can be a great resource for accurate product information. 

Host live events 

Free to use image sourced from Pixabay

Your community is also a great place to host live events for the members. This can focus (though not exclusively) on UGC. You could hold a webinar where your in-house experts can teach the basics of producing and editing any UGC. It can also allow you to have customers host (or co-host) an event and discuss their experiences. 

Bring people together 

Community is about bringing people together, and your online community can be a great way to nurture collaboration. Just as soccer talks about the crowd being the ‘12th man’, your community can act as an extra employee. Get your members engaged and working with each other to grow a sense of community. You may also find that they can act as unofficial customer support on your platforms. 

Get involved 

Don’t let your community exist in a vacuum. Have a team assigned to not only moderating the community but actively getting involved too. This demonstrates that you care about what people say and think. It can also help to establish clear guidelines as to the community’s purpose and what’s acceptable. 

Reward and promote

You want your community to grow, so promote it across your other platforms, especially when using UGC. You should also look at some form of reward scheme similar to a loyalty program if you have one. Give rewards to regular or outstanding contributors so that others may follow suit. 

The takeaway 

Image source

Knowing how to leverage user-generated content as part of your content marketing strategy can be a crucial step on the path to success and better conversion rates. Whether positive reviews or product demonstration videos, it’s content from peers that is more trusted than normal marketing materials and can be a powerful tool. 

As with other marketing content, you should analyze metrics and other data to see what content resonates best with potential buyers. It’s also worth remembering that UGC comes at no cost to your organization, so ROI can be very high.

Featured Image by Taras Shypka on Unsplash

The post How to Leverage User-Generated Content   appeared first on noupe.

In the dynamic world of eCommerce, managing prices efficiently is crucial for maintaining competitiveness and profitability. Bulk price updates refer to the process of adjusting prices for multiple products simultaneously, rather than individually. This capability is especially valuable for store managers who need to make widespread pricing changes due to market trends, seasonal sales, or inventory adjustments.

Bulk editing, including bulk price updates, is a powerful tool that saves time and reduces the likelihood of errors. Instead of manually updating each product one by one, store managers can apply changes across numerous products in a single operation. This efficiency not only streamlines operations but also ensures that pricing strategies can be implemented quickly and accurately, helping to keep your WooCommerce store agile and responsive to market demands. 

How to Bulk Edit Prices in WooCommerce

Bulk editing prices in WooCommerce is an efficient way to manage and update your product pricing. This feature can save you a lot of time, especially if you have a large inventory. Below, we outline the step-by-step process to perform bulk price edits in WooCommerce:

Method 1: Bulk Price Update with Default WooCommerce Bulk Editor

The first method for performing bulk price updates involves using the default WooCommerce functionalities. Follow these steps to update prices efficiently:

1. Navigate to All Products in WooCommerce

Go to your WooCommerce dashboard and select Products and then All Products to display a list of all your products.

2. Filter Products For Bulk Price Editing

Use the toolbar to filter your WooCommerce products based on specific criteria:

• Select Category: Choose the desired product category to filter WooCommerce products by category.
• Filter by Product Type: Select the type of product you want to filter.
• Filter by Stock Status: Choose the stock status to filter products accordingly.

After selecting your options, click on the Filter button to display the filtered list of products.

3. Initiate Bulk Action for Editing

Choose the products you want to bulk edit by selecting the checkboxes next to each product. Then, click on the Bulk Actions dropdown, select the Edit option, and then click the Apply button.

4. Adjust Prices in the Bulk Edit Form

In the opened bulk edit form, you will find 2 fields for adjusting regular prices and sale prices of selected products.

Regular Price Bulk Edit Options

• Change to: Set a new fixed price for selected products.
• Increase existing price by (fixed amount or %): Increase the current price of selected products by a specific amount or percentage.
• Decrease existing price by (fixed amount or %): Decrease the current price of selected products by a specific amount or percentage.

Sale Price Bulk Edit Options

• Change to: Set a new fixed sale price for selected products.
• Increase existing sale price by (fixed amount or %): Increase the current sale price of selected products by a specific amount or percentage.
• Decrease existing sale price by (fixed amount or %): Decrease the current sale price of selected products by a specific amount or percentage.
• Set to regular price decreased by (fixed amount or %): Set the sale price to be the regular price and decrease a specific amount or percentage based on the regular price.

5. Apply Bulk Price Changes

Once you have made the necessary adjustments, click Update to apply the bulk price changes to the selected products.

For example, we want to change the price of the selected products in the image above to $50. First, select those products and initiate bulk editing. Set the price operator to Change to and enter $50.

The output will be displayed as shown below:

Method 2: Using Third-Party Plugins For Bulk Editing WooCommerce Product Prices

Another effective method for bulk price updates in WooCommerce is by using third-party plugins. These plugins provide advanced features that streamline the process, allowing you to display your products in a table format and make bulk edits efficiently. 

One such plugin is WooCommerce products bulk edit by iThemeland. This plugin enables you to view and edit multiple products simultaneously, supporting various product fields such as prices, titles, descriptions, feature images, stock status, and more.

How to Perform Bulk Price Edits Using WooCommerce Products Bulk Edit Plugin

The WooCommerce products bulk edit plugin is a powerful tool designed to help store managers efficiently manage and update their products, including both simple and variable products. With support for over 50 fields and a robust filter form, this plugin simplifies the process of bulk editing without errors, saving you valuable time. 

To bulk edit prices by using the WooCommerce products bulk edit plugin, follow the steps below:

1. Install the Plugin and Access the Plugin

After purchasing the plugin, proceed with the installation and activation process. You can purchase the plugin from the official website or use the free version with limited features.

After installing and activating the plugin, in your WordPress dashboard, navigate to the iT Bulk Editing -> Woo Products to access plugin’s main page.

2. Filter Desired Products for Bulk Edit Prices

In the plugin toolbar, click on the Filter tool to access the powerful filter form. Here, you can filter products by various criteria for detailed selection. This filter form includes several tabs such as filter by category, tag, taxonomy, attribute, price, and product type. 

Each tab allows you to precisely filter the products you want to bulk edit, ensuring that the bulk edit operations are applied accurately to the selected products. 

After setting the filter form fields, click on the Get Products button to display the filtered products.

3. Bulk Edit Products Prices in WooCommrce Products Bulk Edit Plugin

For bulk edit product prices, you first need to choose the products you want to bulk edit from the displayed list. Then, click on the Bulk Edit tool in the toolbar to open the Bulk Edit form.

In the Bulk Edit form, go to the Pricing tab where you can find several options to bulk edit prices:

Bulk Edit Regular Price

• Clear Value: Remove the current regular price from selected products.
• Formula: This operator enables you to modify the current value using a formula. In these formulas, the current value is denoted by X.

For example, (((X+10)*10)/100) means that the current value is increased by 10 and then 10% of the new value is calculated. 

• Increase/decrease by value: Add/subtract a fixed amount to/from the current regular price of selected products.
• Increase/decrease by %: Increase/decrease the current regular price of selected products by a percentage.
• Increase by value (From sale): Increase the regular price of selected products by a fixed amount based on the sale price.
• Increase by % (From sale): Increase the regular price of selected products by a percentage based on the sale price.

Bulk Edit Product Sale Price

The operators available for this option are quite similar to those for the Regular Price field, except for the last two options, which we will examine below:

• Decrease by value (From Regular): This operator allows you to decrease the current sale price by a specific value based on the regular price. For example, if the regular price is $100 and you set this operator to decrease by $10, the new price will be $90.
• Decrease by % (From Regular): This operator allows you to decrease the current sale price by a certain percentage based on the regular price. For instance, if the regular price is $100 and you set this operator to decrease by 15%, the new price will be $85.

After you have set all the necessary adjustments for bulk editing the products, click on the Do Bulk Edit button to apply your changes.

For example, we intend to increase the regular price of all selected products shown in the image above by 10%.

The output will be displayed as shown below:

Other Features of WooCommerce Products Bulk Edit Plugin

This plugin boasts numerous features that enhance the overall functionality and user experience. Below, we highlight two of its most important features.

Bulk Edit Variable Products Prices and Other Fields

One notable feature of the WooCommerce products bulk edit plugin is its ability to bulk edit variable products, a functionality not available in default WooCommerce. To display variable products in the filter form:

1. Go to the Type tab.
2. Select Variable Products and click on the Get Products button.

3. Click on Show Variations in the toolbar. This action shows all variations of variable products in the table. 

4. Finally, you must select the product variations that you want to edit in bulk and perform the bulk edit steps as described for the simple products.

Inline Editing Product Prices and Other Fields

Another valuable feature of this plugin is the inline editing capability, allowing you to edit directly from the product table without opening each product individually. For inline editing, simply click on the price field and make your changes inline by using the designed price calculator form. 

This feature ensures you can efficiently manage and update product prices without navigating away from the main product list.

When Do We Use Bulk Price Editing?

Bulk editing prices in WooCommerce is particularly useful when you need to make widespread pricing changes across multiple products quickly and efficiently. This feature is ideal for managing sales, adjusting for cost changes, or updating pricing strategies. Below, we will examine some of the most important times for using bulk edit prices.

Seasonal Sales and Promotions

During special sales events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or holiday promotions, adjusting prices for a large number of products is necessary. Bulk edit price allows you to efficiently implement these changes across your entire product range.

Inventory Clearance

When you need to clear out old inventory to make room for new stock, reducing prices on multiple items quickly is essential. Bulk editing helps you adjust prices in bulk, making the process faster and less labor-intensive.

Market Price Adjustments

In response to market fluctuations, such as changes in supplier costs or competitive pricing, you may need to update prices on a variety of products. Bulk edit price enables you to stay competitive without manually changing each product’s price.

Product Updates or Lunch

You may need to adjust prices across related items when introducing new product lines or updating existing ones with new features or improvements. Bulk editing helps manage these updates swiftly without individual product adjustments.

Importance of Using Bulk Edit Prices for Online Stores

• Time-Saving: One of the biggest advantages of using Bulk Edit Price is the significant time savings. Instead of editing the price of each product individually, you can easily and simultaneously change the prices of multiple products. This capability is particularly useful for large stores with numerous products.
• Error Reduction: When dealing with a large number of products, the likelihood of errors during manual price editing increases. By using bulk edit price, these errors are minimized as changes are applied automatically and uniformly.
• Better Management of Sales and Discounts: With this capability, you can easily and quickly apply new discounts or change product prices during specific sales seasons. This allows you to respond to market changes promptly and accurately.
• Greater Flexibility: Bulk Edit Price offers extensive options for various pricing adjustments. You can change prices based on formulas, percentages, or fixed amounts. This flexibility helps you implement your pricing strategies effectively.
• Increased Efficiency: Using this tool, the store management team can focus on more important activities like marketing and improving customer experience, rather than spending time on repetitive and time-consuming tasks. This overall improves the efficiency and productivity of the store.

Conclusion

In this guide, we explored two methods for bulk editing prices in WooCommerce. The first method involved using WooCommerce’s default tools, which offer limited functionality and do not support bulk editing of variation products. While this method is straightforward, it may not meet the needs of store managers with more complex pricing requirements.

The second method utilized a third-party plugin, WooCommerce products bulk edit, which provides a wealth of features and greater flexibility. This plugin allows for comprehensive bulk editing, including the prices of variation products, and offers advanced filtering options and inline editing capabilities. By using this plugin, store managers can efficiently manage their product prices, saving time and reducing the risk of errors.

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