Why You Should Invest In Inbound Marketing Before CRM Implementation

Since the beginning of time, humanity has sought to answer unanswerable questions, like which came first, the chicken or the egg? Recently, I’ve come across a question with increasing frequency, that may not be as significant, but is probably even more important if you’re looking to embark upon a journey of accelerated sales growth.

What should you focus on first, building an effective inbound marketing/lead generation process or implementing a CRM to manage your sales and customer acquisition process? While both are important, the question is should you focus on one before the other?

To be clear, both are very important to making growth predictable, sustainable and scalable. If you have the resources and bandwidth you should be pursuing and enhancing both of them simultaneously. However, if you must choose between them, the decision you make will have a significant impact on your growth outlook.

Before answering the question, let’s take a look at the fundamental purpose of each initiative.

The Purpose of CRM

There are several advantages of an effective CRM system with the primary purposes being:

• Building sales efficiency
• Providing management insight into the status and progress of the overall sales effort
• Ensuring compliance with the sales process
• Providing clear reporting
• Creating greater predictability throughout the entire sales process

The Purpose of an Inbound Marketing Program

Here too, there are lots of reasons you’d want to embark on an inbound marketing effort, with the primary purposes being:

• Generating greater awareness and engagement with your desired markets
• Standing out from your competition by creating and reinforcing relevant thought leadership
• Increasing lead velocity and generating more sales qualified opportunities for the organization

To reiterate, all of these results are very important, but I think it’s pretty clear which initiative should be focused on first. That is Inbound Marketing.

3 Reasons Why You Should Focus on Inbound Efforts First

1) CRM Doesn’t Fix Bad Processes, But Inbound Can

An effective CRM system provides tremendous value in increasing the efficiency of a good process. However, it does nothing to address an average or poor process.

For more than 20 years I’ve been working with companies looking to improve their results through CRM utilization. All too frequently significant investments are made in software, time is spent training on the system and absolutely nothing changes. The initial reaction is to blame it on bad CRM, when the reality is that it’s bad process that is the real culprit. Designing a CRM system effectively requires that you have a clear and effective demand generation process that can be mapped to the CRM.

While working on the CRM does little to address bad sales process, the process of implementing an inbound marketing approach does a tremendous amount to improve your sales process (and thus your CRM efforts).

Inbound marketing requires that you start at the top of the funnel and work your way through to the bottom. It makes you view demand and revenue generation from a holistic viewpoint, to understand your market better and to align your sales efforts to how your market behaves today. All of these things drive greater revenue opportunities and create the path to gain the very efficiencies that CRMs promise to create.

2) Effective Inbound Methodology Creates Better CRM Application

I deal with a lot of companies that have been using CRM for years. It is a rare event for me to come across someone who has either designed or implemented their CRM effectively. The data is, to put it bluntly, 90% crap.

A tremendous amount of the value you get from using a CRM comes from the ability to slice and dice the data to segment effectively and increase personalization. However, if you haven’t done the basic work of defining your buyer personas, designing the message to enable you to personalize and to determine how you are going to effectively nurture, you won’t have the clarity to use your CRM effectively.

In my experience, effective CRM reinforces an effective inbound marketing and sales approach, it does not create one. I’ve lost count of the number of times a client has had to substantially change their CRM as a result of the creation of an effective inbound marketing strategy.

3) You Cannot Have Predictable Growth Without Predictable Lead Generation

If I were to summarize the two most valuable benefits of a CRM it would be predictability and efficiency. As I’ve shared, inbound marketing creates the environment for an efficient process, but what about creating predictability?

Simply put, you cannot have predictable sales results or predictable growth if you do not first have predictable lead generation. While creating an effective lead generation strategy certainly involves more than just inbound marketing, inbound is a crucial component.

Inbound marketing enables you to build a true funnel that allows you to build a predictable pipeline for growth. Consider the following:

• The Content Marketing Institute reports that 80% of decision-makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus in an advertisement (and by extension a sales call).
• Inbound leads cost 60% less than outbound leads. (source: State of Inbound Marketing Report)
• Companies that excel at lead nurturing (a core part of the inbound methodology) generate 50% more sales ready leads at 33% lower costs (source: Forrester Research).
• Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads (source: The Annuitas Group)
• SEO driven leads have a have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads have a 1.7% closing rate. (source: Search Engine World)

The natural focus of building engagement that is created by fully adopting an inbound marketing approach builds a more efficient and effective sales process and make CRM adoption a much easier, more profitable effort.

Additionally, a major benefit of inbound marketing is that it creates revenue. No matter how you slice it, CRM is a cost (a valuable one, but a cost nonetheless). Building an effective revenue generation process creates the environment that allows efficiency and predictability to be sustainable.

Investing the time, money and energy into inbound marketing first, puts you in a stronger position to both implement an effective CRM initiative and to accelerate growth.

How to Remove Render-Blocking JavaScript From Your Website

Have you ever finished creating a website and loved everything about it? And then promptly began to hate it after attempting to actually view it online and it is painfully slow to load? Everyone is used to the common culprits, but there is one often overlooked perpetrator: render-blocking JavaScript.

So now you are asking, what is render-blocking JavaScript? If we breakdown the phrase "render-blocking" into its parts we get render (to load) and blocking (to prevent); so we can deduce that this refers to JavaScript that is preventing a page from loading. JavaScript is awesome; it helps to add visually appealing elements to improve on the user experience on your website but it can also be a huge time hog.

Time hogging is not only a nuisance for your visitors; it can also cost you significantly when it comes time for Google to show your site organically. Since 2010, Google algorithms account for loading speed in ranking decisions. And since most other culprits are already discussed extensively today we will be focusing on how to remove render-blocking JavaScript from your website.

1) Identify

The first step in the process is to identify the offending JavaScript. One of the simplest ways to do this is to use PageSpeed Insights; this Google tool quickly displays a list of the precise files that are currently render-blocking a particular page and which are located above-the-fold. Above the fold is everything that will show up first on a visitor’s screen. This means that if a JavaScript feature does not occur as soon as the visitor loads the page then it should not be included in the header of the webpage. (More details about this in Step 2.)

Clicking on the “Show how to fix” link will expand the view and show you the list of script resources that should be evaluated.

The most commonly used JavaScript is JQuery, so you will likely see this one show up most often.

2) Choose Best Method

Once you’ve identified which scripts need to be moved it is time to decide “how” to fix them. There are two main methods to choose from. The first is to make the scripts inlined; in this method the contents of the script are added directly into the HTML of the page and are only loaded once they are needed. This is the best option if the script is small and applies to a single page.

Another option is to defer the script. When you defer JavaScript you are delaying any non-essential scripts from loading until after the first render or until after the more essential portions have loaded. This method is best when the script is not crucial and can wait to load.

3) Decide Where to Move It

We are now ready to apply your newly chosen technique within the site. With either option we will be removing the JavaScript from the head and adding it into individual sections of the HTML. Finding your website's header will depend on which CMS you are using. Often you will be able to find it in the overall page settings, or in cases like WordPress you might have to look in the "Theme Options" page or a header.php file in the editor (see images below.) It is important note that you should NOT make changes in the header.php file unless you are an advanced user, otherwise you risk creating unnecessary errors to your site!

In HubSpot we can find the head HTML in both the template view and in the page editing “options” tab.

From the template view you can find the “Edit Head” option in the Edit dropdown:

We will go from something like the example below to moving the entire script into your body html, relevant php file (WordPress,) a Custom HTML module (HubSpot) or into the footer to delay the rendering.

Body HTML

The body HTML is where you have all of the content for your pages. The best way to find it is to find where you have all of the copy for your content. If you are using WordPress, the script can be added directly to the page by typing it alongside your content via the "Text" view.

Custom HTML Module

To add the script to a page in HubSpot, we need to use a Custom HTML module. The Custom HTML module is accessed via the template view.

Footer

Meanwhile, finding the footer of your site should be very similar to finding the script in the head tag. This could be in the overall website/page settings; if you are using WordPress, look for a "Footer" tab in the "Theme Options" or for the footer.php file in the Editor (same note applies here, do not make changes unless you are an advanced user!)

In HubSpot, it is found in the edit page view “Options” tab

Where you move the script will depend on if the script needs to occur at a certain point of the page or if it can wait until the end of the page rendering. The first should go in the body HTML or Custom HTML module while the latter can go into the Footer section.

4) Move the Script

This next step is pretty simple; add the script to your desired location.

5) Test

This is one of the most important steps in this process.

After making all the changes check the previews to make sure that the site still works. Does the page load correctly? Are all elements showing properly? If there is something broken, or not loading properly, then you should troubleshoot the problem. This can be done with the help of many differentdeveloper tools; try a few out and then choose your favorites. Once you find the errors, double check your code and verify that you are not missing any important components such as semicolons or curly braces.

6) Publish

Once you have confirmed there are no issues with the page after the changes are applied, you are then ready to publish.

Conclusion

Now that you have removed the render-blocking JavaScript you should continue to optimize your website’s speed by analyzing other features that are known to slowdown performance.

To take this premise even further, regularly testing the speed of client websites is something which should be a common occurrence in any web development schedule. With the ever evolving world of online marketing staying ahead of any potential issues is critical to success.

Keeping Up With The Joneses: 8 Ways to Stay on the Cutting Edge of Your Industry

‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ has long been an idiom relating to the need to keep up with the latest and greatest gadgets, trends, innovations and benchmarks (mainly so as not to be shown up by your trendy neighbours). For marketing professionals, ‘the Joneses’ are everyone and everything from your customers, to your industry, to your competitors, to the latest developments in the marketing and media industries. What’s more, the lightning-fast evolution of technology and the always-changing behaviour of modern consumers make keeping up with the Joneses a pretty tall order for the average marketer.

Luckily, there’s more than one way to make sure you’re not falling behind your competitors or losing touch with your customers. Here are eight ways marketers can keep up with the proverbial Joneses:

1) Carry Out Customer Research

Keeping up with the times means making sure you understand what your clients really want from your brand; as well as what their current perceptions are. Good old customer research is an important part of making sure you stay educated on the subject. The research methods that are likely to be most effective will depend on your particular industry, but there are a whole host of options to choose from:

Without even having to leave your desk, simple email surveys are a good place to start. An email survey can be short and simple – simply asking customers to rate their last service transaction, for example – or take the form of a detailed questionnaire aimed at unearthing customer insights into the state of the industry.

Online polls likewise provide an easy way to gather customer data without setting foot outside of your office. Polls can be hosted on your website or on a customer extranet and allow you to gain quick insights into customer opinion and sentiment. Social monitoring – listening in on conversations relating to your brand, products and industry on social media networks – can likewise be a goldmine of useful insight and data.

Alternatively, you could go the route of focus groups, which involve gathering a targeted group of customers or potential customers and asking them a set of questions in a group setting. The interesting thing about focus groups is that you’re able to see not only how each group member answers each question, but also how members engage with and differ from each other.

2) Read... All the Time

If you’re a marketer and you’re not a voracious reader already, you better get ready to become one. The best way to stay abreast of the latest marketing trends and developments is to regularly scour the media for relevant content. Personally, I’m a devout reader of blogs like the Moz Blog, the Content Marketing Institute blog and the Kissmetrics blog. I also enjoy news websites like eMarketer, Business Insider, Mashable and research papers put out by institutions like Gartner and Forrester.

To save time, pinpoint a few really informative, on-trend websites as your go-to sources and open an account with a news aggregator like Feedly. Another good option is to follow relevant social media accounts and use HubSpot’s Social Inbox to aggregate your updates.

3) Pick your Battles, Outsource the Rest

For an in-house marketer, it can be tricky to stay on top of the latest developments in every corner. Sometimes, the smart move is to ease the pressure by outsourcing key elements of your digital marketing strategy to an agency. Outsourcing your digital marketing – or just parts of it – to an agency means you don’t have to worry about missing a beat on the latest developments in marketing technology. It’s the agency’s job to let you know which tech advancements are worth taking notice of and how best to implement them.

The benefits of outsourcing are obvious: you don’t break a sweat while a specialist team does all the hard work for you. The downside? An external party may never understand the industry you’re in or the clients you serve as well as someone within your business.

4) Leverage Sales Team Insights

Your sales team is a source of amazing insight – so make use of them. Remember, they’re at the coalface of your company. They know exactly who they’re competing against, why they’re winning or losing deals and what your customers really think. They’re industry experts. The idea behind the ‘smarketing’ movement is that when sales and marketing teams work together, aiming for the same set of goals, the entire process becomes more streamlined and effective. The sentiment shouldn’t end there, however; marketing and sales teams should collaborate and brainstorm around campaigns, products and industry trends too.

5) Share the Burden

Attempting to single-handedly track all the elements of your marketing equates to taking on a huge amount of work. Make the task more manageable by assigning specific team members to specific functions. For example, the team member assigned to demand generation just needs to keep up with trends and information around demand generation. A team member in charge of product development could manage your products, track developments in competitors’ products and deal with the implementation of new features your customers ask for. Your assigned marketing technologist would keep up to date with new marketing technology and help the team implement it.

6) Merge, Acquire and Conquer

Many large companies find innovation difficult. When you take into consideration the red tape and approval processes that need to be navigated before a single Tweet can be posted, for example, it’s not hard to understand why big companies tend to be slow-moving. The slow corporate machine often results in these brands becoming outdated and losing relevance in the minds of their consumers. In the meantime, start-ups with little capital start grabbing market share with their cool products and on-point evolved messaging. That’s why the Mergers and Acquisitions teams in big corporate companies are always on the look-out for these smaller, ‘cool’ companies because one way to keep up with the Joneses is to acquire them.

It’s worth noting that even highly innovative companies know that it’s a smart move to acquire smaller, way-ahead-of-the-curve companies, as was evidenced by Apple’s acquisition of Beats Music and Beats Electronics for $3 billion in August last year.

7) Adopt an Agile Approach to Marketing

In the past, marketers could develop their annual marketing plan in the final quarter of the year, then spend the rest of the year activating it. These days, industry trends and consumer behaviour change far too quickly for this kind of approach to work. In the world of software development, the agile methodology means that smaller, bite-sized chunks of code are developed and deployed so that solutions are delivered incrementally, tested along the way and even change direction as they are delivered.

This approach can – and should – be applied to modern marketing. On the agile model, your annual marketing plan is more of a guideline than a set-in-stone plan. As you deploy each strategy and action, test how the market responds to it and adapt it as you go. This way, you’re always poised to tweak your marketing strategy according to the ongoing evolution of your industry, competitors and customers.

8) Stay True to Your Mission

Keeping up with the latest marketing trends and developments is important if you hope to stay relevant to your ever-evolving customers. However, that doesn’t mean you need to force your brand or product into whichever mould is hot right now. In his keynote speech at INBOUND 2015, Seth Godin spoke about standing by your positioning and differentiation. Godin says that too many brands shave off their edges to appeal to a larger market, thereby alienating their primary market in the process. Sometimes – despite what everyone else in the industry might be saying and doing – it pays to stick with your original idea.

It might be a time-consuming (and sometimes mind-boggling) task, but keeping up with the latest developments in marketing technology, industry norms and consumer trends is non-negotiable. Today’s well-informed and web-savvy consumers expect nothing less.

Image Credit: idealhr.net

5 Must-Know Google Analytics Strategies To Measure SEO Success

You know what they say, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” In Search Engine Optimization measurement is critical to success. Sure, keyword rankings are a great measure of SEO. More keywords ranking higher means more traffic, right? But, reporting solely on keywords devalues the marketer’s role and doesn’t paint the full picture of why SEO is important to the organization. Going beyond keyword rankings allows marketing teams to showcase what really matters: how organic search brings revenue and profit to the business. Thankfully, one of the best tools for measuring SEO is freely available, and probably already installed on your website – Google Analytics!

Although every business is unique and every website has different metrics that matter, this post is a universal list of 5 ways to use Google Analytics to report the success of your businesses SEO efforts.

1. How to View Only Organic Search Traffic

This one might seem obvious. I’m always surprised at how many companies see a decline in overall website traffic and immediately jump to the conclusion that the traffic loss is due to a decline in organic search traffic. Many times digging a little deeper can actually reveal that organic traffic is up while other traffic sources are down which is resulting in the overall traffic decline.

The first step in looking at Organic Search traffic over time is to open your Channel Grouping report which can be found by clicking Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels. There you will see traffic sources segmented by channel.

Clicking on the “Organic Search” channel will give you a more detailed report which includes only organic search traffic metrics.

This report will be the Swiss Army Knife to your SEO reporting. From this report you can determine things such as the top landing pages for search traffic, keywords driving the most traffic, which search engines are sending the most traffic, top exit pages and much, much more.

2. How to Measure The Quality of SEO Traffic

A lot of times I hear that “quality” is subjective, so you can’t really measure it. I don’t believe this to be true and in fact, I’d say there are a lot of ways to measure the quality of any traffic source, not just search.

The most common report I use to measure an improvement or decline in the quality of search traffic is the Assisted Conversions report (Conversions > Multi-Channel Funnels > Assisted Conversions). With this report active I like to start by setting the date range to ‘Last month’ and comparing it to ‘Previous period’. What you’re left with is a month-to-month comparison of conversions directly from search, or in the event of multiple visits to the site, conversions where search played a role but is not directly attributed with the conversion (ie: the visitor found the company through search, but returned directly and converted).

Use this report to look for a decline or improvement in conversions from search traffic. If businesses notice a decline in conversions from search, yet overall search traffic is steady, it’s easy to determine that the traffic coming from search is not qualified or of a very high quality.

Likewise, if you begin focusing on a more refined set of keywords and see an improvement in conversions from search traffic, you can say your SEO traffic quality is improving.

3. Assigning Dollar Values to Organic Traffic

This is a strategy I use for businesses who are looking for a more traditional way to understand the value SEO is bringing to their business beyond improvements in traffic, visibility and conversions by assigning a dollar value to their organic traffic results. To assign a total dollar value to a sites organic traffic, I compare how much the keywords would cost if purchased in a Google AdWords campaign.

Note: For this strategy to work you will need access to a Google AdWords account, and your Analytics will need to be synced with your Search Console account.

To find a sites keyword search phrases and queries, navigate to Acquisition > Search Engine Optimization > Queries.

With this report pulled up, open your AdWords account in a new tab and click Tools > Keyword Planner. For this strategy we want to choose “Get search volume data and trends”, enter the top keywords from your Google Analytics Queries report, and click “Get search volume.” On the next screen click “Keyword Ideas.” Each keyword you’ve entered will have a Suggested Bid amount which is an estimate of what advertisers are currently paying per click for each keyword listed.

In a spreadsheet I will list all known keywords driving traffic to the website, the amount of click-throughs from each keyword, and the estimated cost-per-click. The final column in the spreadsheet is the sum of the estimated cost per click multiplied by the amount of clicks, resulting in the total organic traffic value per keyword.

This is a great strategy to visualize what kind of dollars and cents a businesses SEO strategy is saving them on traffic they would otherwise have to pay for.

4. Identifying Slow Loading Page Times

The need to optimize page load times is one item that is majorly overlooked by many SEO’s. In addition to how slow loading pages affect the user experience, page speed has become a major factor in search rankings. That’s why I always suggest that if a business is investing time and money in SEO and keyword rankings, don’t blow it by overlooking a slow loading website.

While we aren’t going to talk about how to make a website load faster, I want to look at how to identify slow loading pages and measure their impact on conversion rates.

To measure page load times on a page-by-page basis navigate to Behavior > Site Speed > Page Timings. I like to set the middle column to ‘Avg. Page Load Time’ and the right column to ‘% Exit’. I also will typically add a ‘Secondary Dimension’ of Medium, and filter down to show only organic traffic.

What this report shows us in the top most row is the average page load time site wide, and the average exit percentage (where a visitor decides to leave the site) on a page-by-page basis. It’s also fairly easy to see in this report that as our page load time surpasses our site wide average, our exit percentages begin to skyrocket.

As an SEO, what I will do is bring this report to the site developers and ask them to do everything they can to optimize page load times. Once page load times have been improved, I will run this same report and compare it to the old data to show how much additional search traffic we’ve retained, and most likely converted due to the improvement in page load times.

5. Create Your Own SEO Dashboard

Sometimes all it takes to move a client or boss from a skeptic to a believer in your work is how the data is presented. It’s easy as an internet marketer – or more specifically an SEO – to over explain ourselves, or lean on hard-to-grasp metrics. Sometimes all the client wants to see is bar graphs, pie charts and other less intimidating forms of measurement.

The best way I’ve found to present Google Analytics and SEO data is through the built in Dashboard interface. A Dashboard is essentially a series of Widgets which pull all of the individual reports into a single view which is easy to access, share, and print. The bonus to having an easily presentable PDF of SEO metrics is the fact that having this dashboard will also cut down on your time spent reviewing Analytics letting you focus on actually doing the SEO work.

If you want to skip the details and import my dashboard you can do that, otherwise click on Dashboards > + New Dashboard.

The first widget I always set up is a simple counter to measure total visits to the site from organic search. Click on “+ Add Widget”, and title it “Total Organic Visits”. For this widget I usually stick with the ‘Metric’ display. Under “Show the following metric:” select ‘Sessions’. Since we only want to see traffic from organic search we need to create a filter. Under “Filter this data:” select Only show > Medium > Exactly matching > organic.

Let’s set up one more widget. My second favorite widget measures keyword phrases sorted by the amount of sessions and goal completions resulting from the respective keyword. Let’s add a new widget like before, but this time let’s set our display as “Table”. Under “Display the following columns:”, choose Keyword > Sessions > Goal Completions. We also want to apply the same organic traffic filter as our first widget.

I like tailor these reports to the specific client, but other widgets I usually create include:

• All Organic Visits Over Time (Timeline)
• Top SEO Landing Pages
• Top Organic Keywords & % of New Visits
• Pages per Visit by Organic Keyword
• Most Successful Keywords by Goal Completions

Turning a Challenge Into a Strength

By far, the single most challenging aspect of being an SEO is being able to effectively articulate the value you are bringing to a business. It’s easy for an SEO to show another SEO how his or her numbers are improving, but being able to quantify your work from a traffic and revenue stand point to a client or your boss is essential to earning and retaining business. If a client doesn’t understand what that check they’re writing is doing for their business, it won’t be long before they stop writing that check.

Pay attention to what metrics resonate with your client or boss and find a creative way to represent this data in your monthly SEO reports. For extra brownie points, when clients or bosses have shared access to the Analytics I always make a point to walk them through the custom dashboards showing them exactly what each widget is tracking and why it’s important to measure. Being able to educate your client on your process helps them appreciate the value you’re bringing to their business and view you as an asset to their future traffic goals.

About the Author: Dallas McLaughlin is a Digital Marketing Specialist at The James Agency, a full service advertising agency in Phoenix, Arizona. He blogs frequently at DallasMcLaughlin.com about Search Engine Optimization, Pay-Per-Click, and Social Media Marketing trends. If you have any questions, you can tweet him directly at @BossDJay.

What Makes a Great Leader? 6 Defining Qualities to Strive For [Infographic]

There are a lot of misconceptions about leadership floating around in the business world. Think great leaders love the spotlight? Or that they have all the answers? Or they got to where they are by taking a lot of credit for big wins?

These leadership myths are all too common. In fact, great leaders don't seek attention; they find pride in helping others succeed. They aren't all-knowing; they use their resources to turn ideas into executable plans. And they don't take all the credit; the best leaders are humble, self-aware, and shoulder a little more share of the blame and a little less share of the credit.

What else makes a leader stand out? Check out the infographic below from ELIV8 to learn more about the characteristics of excellent leadership. And remember: Leadership is a skill, not a genetic disposition. Work on improving these qualities and you, too, can become an exemplary leader.

What other qualities make a great leader? Share with us in the comments.

How to Get Customer Feedback from Mobile Users

Customer feedback can help you understand what features to add, what features to get rid of, and where to direct your development efforts. Adding it into your marketing plan is a no-brainer.

But mobile app companies have a unique challenge. When it comes to communicating with customers, they’re at the hands of Apple and Google.

Because these two giants privatize your customers’ information, it’s impossible to get feedback in conventional ways. Unless your users create an account, you can’t email out a survey to a customer or email list, or search for your customers on social media. You have to be creative.

Thankfully, mobile app companies have found savvy ways to get feedback from their users.

In this post, I’ll explain how you can learn what customers really think of your app:

Ask for Reviews

The simplest way to get feedback is to ask for reviews within the app. On both iOS and Android, developers can program a request for a user to rate the app, and leave a review.

The key is to find the perfect time to ask. Many mobile apps ask for ratings and reviews immediately, but this can annoy customers as they’re not yet familiar enough with the app to really give a score. Additionally, mobile app ratings aren’t just important for potential customers– they also affect how easily the app can be found in the App Store or Google Play Store.

Clear, a to-do list app for iOS, has found a clever time to ask for reviews. After users have used the app for a few weeks, and checked items off their to-do list, Clear will ask for a review. At this moment, users are feeling happy about how productive they were, and are willing to share their positive feelings about the app.

Watch out: Once you have reviews, you need to read them and address your users’ issues. If you’re on the quest for positive reviews, it might be difficult to get the feedback you need to improve your app.

Use In-App Net Promoter Score (NPS) Surveys

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a way to measure general customer sentiment, but also allows customers to send individualized feedback. This process divides respondents into three groups: Promoters, Passives, and Detractors, based on how they answer the following question:

By measuring how many people would recommend your product, you’re able to learn your customer’s general sentiment.

NPS includes a follow-up question, as well, which asks users to explain their score. In the follow-up question, you’ll be able to get rich, individualized feedback that you can act upon.

The best part of NPS is that you can easily add it to your mobile app. The process is seamless for users– they don’t have to leave your app to give feedback. Wootric has mobile SDKs for Android and iOS, so you can add an NPS survey directly into your app and collect rich customer feedback immediately.

You can also prompt Promoters to review your app in the App Store, which will help your overall app ratings.

Watch out: NPS works best when you’re regimented about when you’re collecting data. You need to make sure you’re asking customers how they feel at the right times, whether the survey is triggered by events (user completes a task) or amount of time (user has had the app for 10 days).

Savvy Support Communities

You’re focused on mobile, but that doesn’t mean you should do everything from your app. A great way to collect customer feedback is to create off-app communities where users can voice their opinions, ask for help, and engage with your team.

Here are a few ways app companies can create communities:

• Offer support through social media (Twitter works well) and email
• Create a blog that encourages users to share their stories. Make sure to have a comments section.
• Create a web forum on your site to help users connect and share their experiences. UserVoice is a great product for gathering feedback and hearing from users.
• Make sure there are tons of avenues for customers to get in touch directly with your team.

Watch out: Communities are great, but the process for collecting feedback isn’t seamless, as users have to leave the app. This can affect the amount and quality of the feedback.

Use Beta Tests

Mobile app developers often use beta tests to learn how customers feel about their apps, especially before releasing full versions.

“Beta testing does not need to be on a big scale or have to be overly complex to be useful,” wrote Mike Fine, Director at Center Code, a beta test management company, on Quora. “In fact, a mobile developer can execute a small test among his or her users to great success as long as a strict beta process is followed and best practices are used.”

On your website, you can collect potential beta users with a web form requesting their email addresses. Then, you’ll have a good way to communicate with these users as they explore your app.

Watch out: Make sure your beta tests follow best practices and that you use a refined process when asking for feedback. Don’t email back and forth with beta testers– instead, come up with a survey to send them.

Act Upon Mobile Feedback

Once you’ve got feedback from your mobile users, you need to act upon it. Otherwise, your customers will feel like their voices don’t matter, and that you’re not interested in creating a better experience for them.

Track the Right Metrics

Mobile is taking over the world, and in order to be successful, you need to be tracking the right metrics. You should track:

• The percent of purchases made through mobile devices
• The amount of web visits from mobile
• Time on site on mobile vs. your website
• Number of daily installs, and their sources
• Measuring effectiveness of marketing initiatives

This post details more about must-have mobile metrics.

How to Mine Customer Feedback When You Have Tons of It

If you’re using automated feedback mechanisms, such as triggered requests for app reviews or NPS, then you might get inundated with customer feedback.

Focus on things that are easily quantifiable. For example, if you’re using NPS, you’ll easily be able to determine how many customers love your app, simply by seeing how many customers are Promoters.

If you’re not using NPS, you should search the feedback for common strains. Are many people complaining about bugs? Are people unhappy with how slow the app is?

How to Encourage Customers to Give Continuous Feedback

Sending out a survey once a year isn’t a great way to get feedback. It happens once, and you’ll spend the rest of the year wondering what customers are thinking.

In order to encourage customers to give continuous feedback, build feedback channels into the app experience. Come up with a schedule that’s triggered by a user’s actions.

For example, when they’ve been using the app for 10 days, ask for a review. After three months of active use, ask them to update their review.

Get Going

It’s challenging to get helpful feedback from mobile users, but with a little creativity and the right tools, it’s easily possible. Got any other ideas on how to get feedback from mobile app users? Let us know in the comments!

About the Author: Emma Siemasko is a freelance writer and content strategist who helps SaaS and mobile tech companies share their stories. She’s the founder of Stories by Emma, and you can connect with her on Twitter.