Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) tells you the predicted revenue a customer will generate throughout their entire relationship with your business. It is an incredibly valuable metric that allows you to see how valuable customers are going to be. It even takes the guessing out of SEM, PPC, retargeting campaigns, and spending on customer retention.

The longer a business can keep a customer, the greater their customer lifetime value becomes. So, having a high CLTV means each customer you gain generates more revenue for your business.

The following are 5 effective ways to increase customer lifetime value and your profits.

Annual Billing
A subscription model helps with determining the lifetime value of a customer and what your turnover rate of customers typically looks like. An annual billing cycle is an easy way to produce a higher CLTV by committing customers to a year of usage. It also provides your business with a full year of revenue up front. A great way to encourage customers to commit to an annual subscription is by offering a significant discount (typically between 10-20% off).

Valuable Emails
Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to stay in touch and retain customers. When it is done correctly, it can even lead to an increase in sales and conversions. The key to effective email marketing is not sending repetitive sales emails that promote new products without offering any value. Each email should provide real value for your customers and remind them how your product or service has helped them.

Quality Customer Service
9 out of 10 consumers say they’re willing to pay more to ensure a good customer experience and as much as 70% will continue to do business when a complaint is resolved. Keeping current customers costs considerably less than acquiring new ones, and poor customer service can destroy your average customer lifetime value.

Upselling and Cross-selling
Cross-selling and upselling are similar in that they both offer customers more value than what they would have received if they had only bought the initial product they searched for. But, when implementing an upselling or cross-selling strategy, you always need to keep the consumer in mind. The object is to make their visit more valuable, not just push products on them. You want to focus on making them a recurring customer by enhancing their experience.

Customer Feedback
Monitoring and using feedback will give you the chance to intercept a problem and fix it before you lose a customer. This provides a rare opportunity to open up a dialogue with your customers and a chance to develop rapport. It will also give you insight into what your business is doing well, what areas could be improved, and how your customers really feel about the product or service you deliver.

Increasing CLTV is essential to get a real understanding of how valuable your customers actually are to your business. It also allows you to focus on creating an effective strategy for producing a steady, predictable increase in revenue. Furthermore, it helps your business make decisions that drive long-term success.

If you focus on customers’ needs and delivering consistent value, your business will have no problem keeping customers around. But, if you are looking for assistance when it comes to increasing customer lifetime value, BMT Micro may be a solution for you. We have a highly trained customer service department that is quick to respond to customers’ and vendors’ inquiries. We also have all the tools you need to run a successful subscription program and more! BMT Micro, Inc. has every base covered when it comes to successfully selling your product online. If you would like to learn more about our services or if you have questions, please feel free to contact our vendor services via email at vendors@bmtmicro.com or visit our website at www.bmtmicro.com.

Subscriptions are a great way to offer customers a simple and hassle-free shopping experience. But, deciding the right billing plan for your subscription is key to success. For most businesses, this means using an annual billing plan or charging customers on a monthly basis. Both revenue models have their own pros and cons as well as a dramatic impact on customer acquisition and retention.

The following are some things to consider when determining which option would work best for your business:

Annual Billing Plan

• Provides a full year of revenue up front
• Customer retention is guaranteed for at least one year
• Churn rate is lower than monthly billing
• Allows long-term planning and business stability
• The number of potential chargebacks is lower, but customers have more time to issue one
• A large, upfront payment and commitment can sometimes dissuade customers
• Less interactive

Monthly Billing Plan

• Lower barrier to entry and less risk to customers that may be uncomfortable with an upfront annual commitment
• The upfront cost is lower for the customer which can increase acquisition numbers
• Customers have less time to issue a chargeback but there is a higher risk of chargebacks occurring
• The probability of churn is much higher than annual
• Monthly billing makes it easier for customers to cancel
• Monthly payments are also vulnerable to credit cards expiring or being declined
• More interactive

Annual plans offer a number of advantages from a cash flow standpoint, but monthly plans allow customers to feel more in control of their options. Ultimately, the best subscription billing plan for your business will depend on your specific product and the preferences of your target audience.

Here at BMT Micro, our system allows products to be set up as recurring billing/subscriptions where our system rebills the customer automatically based on the frequency set in the product (monthly, quarterly, annually, etc.). Subscription products can also be setup to allow for discounted subsequent billings, credits towards other products and/or reduced-price purchasing of other products. We are a full-service e-commerce provider and aim to be more accessible & dependable than the average e-commerce platform. Here at BMT Micro, we have all the tools your business will need to run a successful subscription program and more. Get started with BMT Micro today and we’ll take care of rebilling your customers when necessary so you can concentrate on growing your business. To learn more please contact our vendor services at vendors@bmtmicro.com for additional information.

Affiliate marketing can be one of the best methods of entry into the $1.5 trillion global e-commerce market. Affiliates can also ensure the right messages get to the right people at the right time by capitalizing on the following they have. But, if you want to have successful affiliate sales, it’s important to keep an eye on your affiliate marketing metrics. These metrics will give you better insight on performance and overall effectiveness of your affiliate marketing campaigns.

Raw Data vs. Derived Data
Many of the same metrics seen in traditional online marketing campaigns are used in affiliate marketing. These metrics should be measurable so you can easily identify what’s working, what’s not, and adjust your strategy accordingly. At the very basic level, businesses should examine both raw and derived data to assess their affiliate programs. Raw data is unaltered values that have not been processed for use. Examples of raw data include:

• Impressions
• Clicks
• Number of sales
• Sales Revenue
• Commissions Paid

Metrics that are drawn from raw data and provide a sense of performance are known as derived data. Examples of derived data include:

• Click-through Rate (CTR)
• Conversion Rate
• Average Order Value (AOV)
• Earnings Per Click (EPC)
• Chargeback rate or total refunds

By utilizing and keeping an eye on the significant affiliate metrics mentioned above, it can lead to driving higher quality traffic and, most importantly, increasing conversions and sales. To achieve the best possible results, these metrics should be monitored and evaluated regularly. You’ll also gain a deeper insight into what’s driving your affiliate sales and which marketing efforts are working best.

At BMT Micro, we encourage all of our vendors to participate in the BMT Micro Affiliate Program. This free service provides developers with additional channels to promote and distribute their product. Plus there are no additional fees involved! You pay only the affiliates for this service. The developer control panel includes administrative tools that allow you to manage affiliate sign ups, percentage and view sales reports from your affiliates. Furthermore, BMT Micro vendors have access to detailed information on what the affiliate program is all about and how it can benefit their business in our Vendors Area. BMT Micro also handles all your payments to your affiliates.

Interested in signing up for the BMT Micro Affiliate Program today? If you would like to go ahead and explore what our Affiliate Program has to offer, you can do so by signing up here: Affiliate Sign-up. You can also learn more about our Affiliate Program through this link.

An effective site search function on an online business’ website is an increasingly important component of a successful digital strategy. These search terms can provide huge insight into user’s behavior and invaluable data to learn from. Forrester Research also found that 43% of visitors navigate immediately to the site search box, and searchers are 2-3x more likely to convert compared to non-searchers.

According to a study done by WebLinc, shoppers who successfully searched for products resulted in a 216 percent increase in conversion rate and a 21 percent increase in average order value. eConsultancy also reports that an optimized site search functionality improves conversions and sales for the following reasons:

• Better usability & user experience
• Increased site usage & return visits
• Improved customer retention & loyalty
• Improved branding & a better customer journey

Site search and website navigation are key interactions points for consumers and can make or break an online shopping experience. The following are some tips and best practices for internal site search:

Position
Site visitors should be able to find navigation, including site search boxes, quickly when they arrive at a page. Your search box should be placed in a prominent position so visitors see it as soon as they land on your website. Standard e-commerce site design metrics say that users expect to find the site search box near the top of the page, above the main navigation bar. This is where most visitors will expect to find the search box, but different positions should be tested to find which generates the most queries for your site.

Usable Design
Typically, up to 30% of visitors will use the site search box with intent to purchase. However, if visitors cannot find the information they are looking, they will abandon their intent and leave the site unsatisfied. Offering a user-friendly site search experience will help visitors find what they are looking for in a more streamlined way. One method of drawing attention to your search box can be offsetting it in a different color from your site’s color scheme.

Zero Results Page
Zero results pages can be a valuable source of information for online businesses. Tracking these pages via analytics can help to fix problems with site search and identify the key terms that are not converting. User-generated SEO is becoming a crucial piece of the overall SEO strategy. Based on the information from your internal site search, you can use previous users’ search queries to improve your SEO ranking.

If you don’t have an internal site search, you should consider implementing it. Improving conversions is possible just by paying more attention to your internal site search, the overall user experience, and applying best practices. You will be surprised at what you uncover just from reviewing the analytics and making some simple tweaks.

When was the last time you looked at the business goals or resolutions you set at the start of the year? How are you progressing towards them? It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day hustle of running an online business and lose sight of your goals or get off track. But, you shouldn’t wait until the end of the year to assess your performance and identify ways to improve.

Now that we’re halfway through the year, it is an excellent time to conduct a mid-year review to reassess the goals you set for your business. A mid-year goal review will help your business save time and money by evaluating what’s working, what’s not, and how you can operate more efficiently in the long run.

Business Goals
Business goals and objectives clarify the purpose of the business and help identify necessary actions to achieve desired results. Many organizations use the SMART goal model to help ensure their goals are strategic and clearly defined. Goals can involve a variety of different areas such as profitability, growth and customer service.

If you don’t have a business plan with goals outlined, or if your plan hasn’t been updated in awhile, now is the time to start writing one or updating your existing one. It will help you focus on long-term business objectives and the steps needed to accomplish them.

Are Your Goals Still Relevant?
A lot can happen in six months and sometimes the goals you set in the past aren’t aligned with where your business is headed. What’s working well right now, and what isn’t? Six months should be enough time to identify if you have made progress on goals, or need to scratch out some completely and start over.

It’s a good idea to review both your business plan and the goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the year so they stay updated with your strategy. There is a good chance you may need to tweak things slightly, so take the time to make updates now.

Here are some questions to reflect on:

• Which goals have you met? What went well? What did you do that contributed to the success?
• Which goals are on their way to being met? Are these goals still relevant for your business plan?
• Which goals have you yet to address? Are there any new business priorities to convert in goals?
• What goals did you hope to achieve but didn’t quite get to? What did you do or did you not do that contributed?

Create an Action Plan
Once you have established your business goals, you need to define some actions points. Set mini objectives at various intervals to keep you on track to achieve your larger goals. Identify what needs to be done and assign it, either to yourself or someone else.

For example, let’s say you want to increase sales by 40%. How would you make that happen? You could hire an exceptional salesperson, offer a special discounted item on social media, or invest in pay-per-click advertising. Ultimately, each of these actions could lead you toward your goal of increasing sales.

Conducting a mid-year goal review takes effort and time. But, it can help you stay ahead of the curve and make the most of the remainder of the year. So, take some time to see where you are, redefine, and create new business goals if needed.

A mid-year goal review also gives you an opportunity to review your current relationships with partners or anyone your business is working with. For an online business, having the right E-commerce partner can be an enormous help when you are looking to create a solid strategy for your online sales.

Here at BMT Micro, Inc., we offer a full-service e-commerce solution that will meet all of your business requirements. Our proprietary systems have everything you need to sell your game or software online. If you would like to learn more about our services or if you have questions, please feel free to contact our vendor services via email at vendors@bmtmicro.com or visit our website at www.bmtmicro.com.