Happy New Year! 2018 turned out to be an amazing year of change and growth at ContactPigeon. We expect 2019 to be just as awesome, as we have already set our sights on conquering new frontiers in order to introduce even more features that enable meaningful connections between eCommerce businesses and their customers.
As we welcome 2019, our team at ContactPigeon is excited for this opportunity to take a look back and share with you our many achievements of 2018, including our top milestones. We’ll let you in on the great lessons we have learned along the way. We also take this moment to reflect on the key trends that are shaping how we grow as a company to best optimize our platform for eCommerce retailers.
2018 By The Number
A picture says a thousand words. So here are the meaningful numbers to us in 2018.
Milestones in 2018
Added Push Notifications as a new message channel
We started off the year with a bang in January! ContactPigeon’s platform enables eCommerce retailers to “push” communications to target specific potential customers by harnessing the power of segmentation and web-behaviors to create uber-targeted messages — without the need of a single email address or requiring the visitor to be on-site!
Released GDPR ready features
It just got a lot easier (and less stressful) to build GDPR compliant signup forms and popups, thanks to ContactPigeon. This year we released a number of changes to the Popup editor and Signup Forms, such as opt-in checkbox on Signup Forms and double opt-in Email Confirmation after Sign up procedures.
Successfully hosted 3 GDPR Readiness Workshops
In April, ContactPigeon hosted its first GDPR Workshops for eCommerce – 3 in total! We were so excited and thankful to have the opportunity to be able to meet with managers from growing eCommerce brands face-to-face and exchange our advice on how to best prepare online retail shops for GDPR regulations.
Introduced Landing Page Builder
With the introduction of our Landing Page Builder, ContactPigeon continued to deliver you the cutting-edge tools you need to best build and grow your business. Now, it’s quick and easy to design and configure landing pages that are also mobile friendly!
Rolled out automated abandoned cart reminders via Push Notifications
At the “coop” we pigeons were really excited to introduce Automated Push Notification with Cart Reminder in 2018! This tool paves the way to boost your conversions by giving your visitors a small nudge to complete their sale by sending an automatically triggered notification after they abandon their cart on your site.
Boosted email delivery and opens with Second Chance Boosters, Delivery Optimization
In 2018, we applied predictive analytics and machine learning to improve your email open rates by delivering emails at the most optimal time for each recipient your mailing list. Then, with our Second Chance Booster, your email gets a fresh new subject line and is automatically re-sent to non-openers after a set amount of hours. A second chance to engage customers, a second chance to win!
Improved contact list organization with folder and directories
As a last-minute Christmas gift, in December, we released a new enhancement designed to make your list management and email marketing hassle-free. Now, you have the ability to group contact lists by folders, meaning it’s much easier to categorize email contact lists! And, our directory lets you nest folders as well as lists within a parent folder – quick, convenient and organized!
Our top 5 most read articles from 2018
1. 27 Top eCommerce Checkout Tips
In this post, we gave you our top recommended 27 tips on how to maximize the efficiency of your eCommerce checkout to ensure you have an amazing user-friendly checkout that produces the results you need to stay profitable.
2. Black Friday Report for Ecommerce 2018
Here, ContactPigeon dove deep into the data to share with you some key eCommerce trends from 2018’s biggest shopping event – Black Friday. We provided you with the information you need to plan, promote, and use advanced marketing and brand building for Black Friday success!
3. 11 Romantic Valentine’s Day Email Subject Lines to Steal
We didn’t give you a box of chocolates for Valentines Day, however, we did something even better! Our pigeons gathered some great ideas in this post for 11 romantic Valentine’s Day email subject lines to attract your ideal consumers.
4. 5 Ways of Using eCommerce Push Notifications for Marketing
In this post, we covered how ContactPigeon’s new eCommerce push notifications give you unique ability to reach users with special updates, sales, promotions, and tailored reminders. In the same post, we also showcased 5 awesome examples of how you can best use push notification as a successful part of your overall marketing strategy.
5. 3 Proven Ways to Reduce Category Browse Abandonment
We shared with you some unique insights on how you can reduce Category Browse Abandonment in this post…and, you walked away with 3 proven ways to tackle (and recoup!) this most common and dreaded issue all eCommerce shops face.
Lessons and Observations
Meaningful customer engagement trumps quantity
In a post GDPR world, companies with insincere marketing techniques have encountered problems with GDPR. We observed that the new regulation and consumer responses have an overall positive impact as it forces marketers to consider the value of customer interactions, engaging customers rather than continue to message uninterested ones. Once retailers inforced GDPR practice and removed any inactive or opted out subscribers, we saw overall engagement rates improve across the board.
The value of first-party data
Data is the new king, as observed by the dizzying number of freemium services that have sprung up. Yet, as 3rd-party data are in the process of becoming a commodity, first-party data continues to grow in its value. Such data are often used by businesses to drive ultra personalized experiences. While perhaps a couple of years ago, data-driven personalization may have still been an aspiration, it has become a necessity for success in eCommerce as consumers are conditioned to expect personalized brand interactions in exchange for the data they are providing. The collection and application of consumer data for personalization are by far one of the key competencies we seek to offer for our users.
Omni-Channel experience is a differentiator
After we added the push notification as a new messaging channel to the ContactPigeon platform, we were pleasantly surprised at the level of adoption by both businesses and consumers in replacement of email. The number of users who opt-in to receiving Push Notifications are 3x as many as those who would subscribe to email communication. This phenomenon further confirmed our vision that the future of B2C online experience resides in fully seamless multi-channel engagement. By taking advantage in each channels’ strength and weakness, businesses can optimize their communication reach and open new avenues of consumer engagement.
We look forward to growing with you in 2019
Looking towards 2019, our team is fired up and ready to take on new challenges and achieve new milestones to make next year just as extraordinary as this one! You can expect that ContactPigeon will continue to grow and be eCommerce businesses’ touchpoint for delivering exceptional value and results in 2019. Our team will continue to provide our customers with all of the cutting-edge tools and resources your brand needs for a successful new year and for the years to come.
We wish you a happy and prosperous New Year in 2019!
