7 Essential Tips on How to Recover Shopify Abandoned Carts

Uncovering Shopify Abandoned Carts

Ecommerce is all about leading your customer through the journey from discovering your site to the sweet “cha-ching” sound the Shopify App makes when you make a sale. But did you know that 69.75% of carts are abandoned? according to research from the Banyard Institute, and Tthat number jumps to 85.65 when the buyer is on a mobile device.

Shopify (SHOP.TO) is the leading platform for entrepreneurs to create, manage, and sell products online. It is one of the easiest and fastest ways to jumpstart an idea into a fully functioning eCommerce business.

ecommerce shopping cart
Improve your abandoned cart recovery

What is Abandoned Cart Recovery?

An abandoned cart is when a visitor puts something in their online cart, and then, for whatever reason, does not go through and complete that purchase. 

This article will dig into why customers are abandoning their carts, and give you actionable steps on how to prevent shopping cart abandonment. When you systematically design your checkout page experience with cart conversion in mind, you will improve customer engagement and rely less on cart abandonment email templates to convert new customers.

As an e-Commerce business owner, your Shopify abandoned cart metrics are some of your most important to track. When you lower your cart bounces and reduce the number of abandoned checkouts, your business wins big at the ecom game. 

So before sending out a discount code to save the next sale, try these 7 strategies to proactively reduce abandoned shopping carts.

Keep in mind that every successful abandoned cart recovery gives your online store higher profitability.

7 Easy Tips to Reduce Abandoned Carts on Shopify

Let’s look at the top 7 ways to instantly reduce Shopify cart abandonment and improve your ecommerce store’s profits:

  1. Simplify the checkout process
  2. Offer your customers incentives to create an account
  3. Provide shoppers with a variety of payment options
  4. Enable a guest checkout option
  5. Provide progress indicators during the checkout process
  6. Be transparent about all fees and total costs
  7. Send automated recovery texts

1. Simplify the checkout process

As an e-commerce owner, the buzzword you need to use when designing your cart experience is “simple.” Whatever you do, make your checkout process as streamlined and painless as possible. Eliminate any unnecessary drag in your checkout process.

There is a Japanese phrase, “kaizen” that roughly translates to constant innovation. You want to re-think your checkout process and make sure every part of it is intentional, necessary and simple. Think: zen checkout.

The goal is to create a frictionless journey for your customer. This starts the moment the customer initially desires your product to adding the item to their cart, and finally pulling out their credit card and finishing their order. Any distraction or uncertainty along the way could lead to cart abandonment.

A good rule of thumb is not to ask for information you don’t absolutely need.

According to Sleeknote, the average checkout flow has 23.48 form elements and 14.88 form fields. If you can reduce this number and make the process easier on your customer, you’ll reduce cart abandonment.

Have you ever been through a buggy, long process on a checkout? Have you ever wanted to buy something but given up because of a checkout process that requires too many steps? It’s every customer's worst nightmare. A carefully constructed checkout process is key because your customer’s desire for the product is highest at the moment when they add it to their shopping cart. Design your cart experience so it flows as effortlessly as possible.

7 Essential Tips on How to Recover Shopify Abandoned Carts
eCommerce metrics to reduce cart abandons

2. Offer your customers incentives to create an account

We all deal with hundreds of accounts and passwords. It can get overwhelming. So, how do you turn creating an account into a benefit instead of a headache?

Offer your customers an incentive to create an account. Give them a clear call-to-action to help them take action now.

This could be a coupon, a PDF, or something else depending on your products. You could even send them a random positive message via SMS. Get creative and people jump through hoops for a cool bonus or something that makes them feel special.

People may forget what you said, but they’ll always remember how you made them feel.

Once they have created their account, you have their email and can send them abandoned cart  recovery emails.

3. Provide shoppers with a variety of payment options

A mistake that some Shopify store owners make is not offering enough payment options.

Make it as easy to pay for your product as possible. Some shoppers prefer certain checkout methods, so be sure to offer as much variety as you can. There are also options like Afterpay that allow customers to buy now, but pay for your merch later. Of course, you as the Shopify store owner still gets paid right away, but it's a way to help make that sale happen today rather than risking your customer getting distracted.

So even if it means more accounting for your business, give your customers a choice of payment options to generate more revenue.

4. Enable a guest checkout option

Do you really need all customers to register?

The best Shopify stores offer a guest checkout option.7 Essential Tips on How to Recover Shopify Abandoned Carts

Obviously, you want to collect customer data. The more data you get about your customers is great for scaling up your ecommerce business with paid ads. However, some customers prefer NOT to register when making a purchase. This can be for a variety of reasons, but many customers just don’t like companies knowing information about them.

For those customers, a guest checkout option can still help you secure those sales.

With Shopify, you can enable an optional guest checkout mode that allows you to make your checkout process quicker and easier.

A guest checkout option is more streamlined, and don’t worry, you’ll still have most customers who will choose to create an account. The important thing is not to lose sales over the customers that prefer a guest checkout experience.

Getting phone numbers from customers is ideal, since it allows you to follow up via SMS marketing. And while you can't force a potential customer to give you their phone number, many will willingly do so. So, have it as an option, just don’t make it it mandatory.

Bonus tip: Make sure to set up a retargeting campaign to target customers who use the guest checkout and don't create an account. This is a great way to follow-up and segment customers who don’t leave their emails and phone numbers.

5. Provide progress indicators during the checkout process

There is a well-known psychological principle that Robert Cialdini explained in his book, Influence, called the Principle of Commitment. Once somebody has started something, there is a natural pull to complete what you started. It naturally feels good to complete things.

A great way to help provide content and clarity when checking out is to use progress indicators during your checkout process.

This added functionality helps show a clear path to your user.

7 Essential Tips on How to Recover Shopify Abandoned Carts

The arrows also subtly show the next step, gently nudging the customer to complete the purchase.

Implementing progress arrows may influence your shopping cart conversion rates to tick up. Now you know why, and how to get more cart conversions by adding this to your checkout flow.

6. Be transparent about all fees and total costs

The #1 reason for a high Shopify cart abandonment rate is unexpected fees and charges. Nothing is as likely to derail your new customer as sliding in some unexpected fees. So be sure to make it clear all about your fees. And if you offer free shipping, make certain it is clear what qualifies for free shipping.

7 Essential Tips on How to Recover Shopify Abandoned Carts

In fact, extra fees and unexpected costs account for half of all cart abandons according to Baymard Research.

With the cost of shipping at all-time highs, extra costs will tip the scale in Shopify cart abandonment rates. It’s just a good strategy for retailers to be transparent about the costs of shipping and handling.

Customers would rather know the true cost of the product. If you hide fees, it feels like a bait-and-switch and you won’t only lose the sale, but it also changes their perception of your brand in a negative way.

7. Send automated recovery texts and SMS reminders

Ecommerce is always evolving. The most effective way of encouraging your customer to complete the checkout process is with SMS messages. Text messages have a 98% open rate compared to email marketing. SMS marketing is inexpensive but highly effective.

The key concept is to re-engage potential customers who are at their peak freshness as a buyer, have already initiated a checkout process, but for some reason have abandoned their cart. 

Consider sending out a social proof SMS sequence in addition to typical cart reminders. SMS can work great in conjunction with an abandoned checkout email sequence.

But it’s important to understand HOW to build relationships with customers using SMS messages.

Texts can be automated, but the real gains are seen with 2-way personalized SMS messages. 2-ways SMS messages move beyond using the basic <NAME> personalization. With the right system, you can take the time to create specific, targeted, organic messages that lead to higher conversions and overall reduced cart abandonment. This is the magic sauce of reducing cart abandonment.

If you are not using 2-way SMS messaging, adding SMS to your checkout process is the suggestion that can lead to the highest improvement in shopping cart abandonment instantly.

To see how to use SMS to improve your cart abandonment problems, click here.

Recover Abandoned Carts with Emotive’s Automated Text and SMS Messaging

As an ecommerce brand, one of the best ways to improve the overall profitability of your Shopify store is to focus on what you can do to significantly reduce shopping cart abandonment. Fixing that leak is often just as important as getting more customers to your store and building awareness for your brand.

If your bucket is leaking, stop that leak first.

To recap, shopping cart abandonment is real, and it can cost your ecommerce brand hundreds of lost sales per day. But there are some specifics you can do to improve checkout recovery with Shopify or any other eCommerce checkout.

Some simple steps to reduce shopping cart abandonment that you can implement now are:

  • Simplify the checkout process
  • Create incentives to encourage customers to create an account
  • Offer a wide variety of payment options
  • Make sure to enable guest checkout
  • Use progress arrows to lead your customer to a completed order
  • Be transparent about fees and shipping charges
  • Use SMS to recover and convert more customers

How much is cart abandonment costing your bottom line? It can be hard to calculate because these sales are not getting completed, but there is a handy ROI calculator that gives you some hard numbers on the money you are losing to abandoned carts.

7 App Creation Steps You Shouldn’t Skip

Building your own mobile app can help you meet consumers' demands and avoid the costly process of engaging with mobile app development companies.

Regardless of whether you have experimented with creating a mobile app yourself before or this is your first time, some tips can help you get started before creating your own app.

Create Your Idea

It would be best if you had an idea for your app before you do anything else. If you have an idea, great! If not, remember, rarely is an app borne from a unique and original idea. Typically new app designs are based on a design that already exists and is redesigned to meet different needs.

Create an App Name

Next, you need a name for your app. If it is for a company you run, perfect; if not, you need a good easy to remember name that makes it easier for the user to find your app in the app store.

Create Your Features

Next, you want to look at what type of features you want for your app and what you need it to do. You need your core features that are vital and then your extra features that you can add later or in further updates.

Remember that your app needs to be simple and user-friendly, there is no reinventing the wheel here, and you should stick to standard functions that are proven to work well.

Are You Charging?

Will you be monetizing the app, and if so, how? Will you charge an upfront fee for it? Add in features and extra options for a subscription fee with multiple levels, or will you be using ads to help you create an income from your app?

Create Your App Design

Here you need to look at the type of graphics you want to see within your app. Mockup some sketches and designs to help you envision what you want your app to look like and see how it will look to users. It might be beneficial to look at quick design iteration software to help you with your design to make it an attractive and seamless UX for consumers.

App Platform

Another important consideration is which platform your app will get used on. You need to make sure your app considers the differences between the major platforms and can respond intuitively. Native apps are apps designed solely for use on one platform, such as iOS or Android, and hybrid apps are designed to work on more than one platform, meaning you do not need to make more than one app to do the same thing.

Your Skill Level

Lastly, once you have a better idea of the type of app you want and what you need it to do, you can assess if you can do everything yourself or need the assistance of others or app development software to assist you in creating the framework for your app. If you can afford the services of a professional app development company, you can look to programming communities for help and assistance as you create your app – typically, they are friendly and welcoming and can assist you when you meet challenges during development.

Stop! You’re Writing Your YouTube Descriptions All Wrong

YouTube is a behemoth.

They have a total monopoly of an entire section of the internet – and arguably the largest and most important growing segment of the internet, which is video. Now, before you talk about how much video drives IG and TikTok, YouTube is a different platform because people go there to LEARN new things and RESEARCH before buying a product.

youtube is a video monopoly

Transactional Traffic

If you look at the transactional value of YouTube visitors vs TikTik viewers… it's not in the same league. Advertisers value people closer to the end of the buying cycle. But, honestly, YouTube dominates all levels of the buying cycle.

In order to market your product or service, you need to get a prospect to DO something. You need to get them to feel something (maybe regret, FOMO, desire, curiosity, compassion, greed) and subsequently take an action.

👉That action is usually clicking on a link.

If somebody watches your video on YouTube but never clicks, that's ok because they are consuming your content on YouTube's platform, but for the marketing needle to move, you need to get that viewer to click on something and take them off the platform. This goal is contrary to YouTube's main objective, which is feeding you a constant supply of videos geared towards what will keep you watching endless videos on their platform.

YouTube knows the most valuable metrics for their platform: watchtime, which means keeping viewers on THEIR platform. And they have a sophisticated system designed by some very smart people to keep you surrounded by enticing video thumbnails just a click away. (There was an interesting section in the documentary, The Social Dilemma where one of the creators of the YouTube Suggest Algorithm, Guillaume Chaslot, a former YouTube Engineer, stated he regretted creating it because it was designed to create polarization.)

It's a good watch if you haven't seen it:

One of my favourite quotes from the movie is:

Algorithms are opinions embedded in code.

-Cathy O'Neil Author of Weapons of Math Destruction

But, that's a side note to this topic, which really about getting better and more measurable results from you YouTube marketing actions.

What Action Should Your YouTube Viewers Take?

If your goal is to generate revenue from your YouTube marketing efforts, listen up! If you put up a YouTube video, your main marketing metric should be generating link clicks away from YouTube. You want somebody to click over to your site and download a white paper, or register for a webinar, or click over to an affiliate page (and buy) or go to your online store and buy, or even go to your blog and immerse themselves in your content.

call to action the missing link
Where are you sending your viewers?

So… are you tracking your clicks from YouTube?

If not, you should be.

The 2 Ways To Get Clicks From Your YouTube Videos

There are 2 main ways YouTube viewers can click your links.

First is in the comments section. This is why you should ALWAYS pin a comment and have a link in that first comment that everybody is going to see.

This is a prime spot to display a short marketing message and call-to-action.

The second way is in your YouTube Description. Your YouTube description is gold, and you are likely not using this space effectively.

So what is the value of your YouTube Description? Well, think of it as an advertiser. The way Google (and subsequently YouTube) makes money is by selling ads to advertisers via a bidding system. This is the same as every social media platform. They are monetized by ad revenue.

Here is a blog post that explains how to run YouTube Ads if you are curious.

And with YouTube, you can see which keywords are more profitable than others (meaning advertisers are willing to pay more per click for each click) by using a tool like WhatsMySerp. This is one way of evaluating which keywords you should be writing more content about.

Some keywords are very profitable:

whatsmyserp keyword research

That is what advertisers are paying PER CLICK, not per lead.

So think of each click you get as worth at least a click from an ad you are paying for, and maybe more. Why might you consider link clicks from your description to be worth more? Simple answer.

Bias.

Everyone knows when they click on an ad, they might be sold something, but when you click on a link in a YouTube description, the viewer is not sure. Sure, it could be obvious from the text that it's selling something, or that it's an affiliate link, but it might be just informational. A non-incentivized click could be worth even more.

So, are you tracking or measuring the clicks you are getting from your YouTube Description?

I see many people who are not.

peter drucker

“What gets measured, gets managed.”

– Peter Drucker

If you don't at least measure your links, you have no ability to improve or make changes to improve your marketing results.

You will never know which links are more appealing to your audience. Guessing is not a strategy. So it's important to measure.

Some people use something like Bit.ly to track how many clicks you are getting. This is helpful, but if you are using the free version of Bit.ly, like most people are, you can't update the links if you want to change the URL they are going to. At some point, this will be a problem and you will lose profitable traffic.

Personally, I use Linkalytics.io which is a link tracker/shortener and which allows even free users to update the links. (Side note: I hate dead links. No matter what happens, you will end up with dead links. It's just part of the internet.) So using a link tracker gets a rough number on how many people are clicking on your links.

So what I did with Linkalytics was setup a “Campaign” called “AMTV Default Text” which tracks all of my link clicks from my YouTube Description box – so I can see as an entire group how many clicks these links are generating. (You can see the screenshot from part of this campaign below.)

linkalytics sample

And when I changed all my YouTube description links, I was surprised to see how many links were being clicked. The image was taken after about a week and a half after tracking the links from my YouTube Description box from a small channel with only 4K subscribers.

I also got some insight into which links were being clicked more frequently, some of which surprised me. Now that's a good thing because I'm no longer just guessing which call-to-actions in my YouTube Description box are resonating with my viewers – I have actionable data.

I want to point out again, all of these clicks are free. Sure, it takes time and effort to put up YouTube videos and optimize them, but once you do, you start getting free link clicks each month.

And I will say, compared to other social media platforms, YouTube gets me the most free clicks to my websites.

The 2 Parts Of Your YouTube Description

Now let me break down how I see the YouTube Description. There are 2 distinct parts to it.

The first part is the text about the video. This is going to explain in text to YouTube's algorithm and to viewers what the video is about. This is my SEO-pumped description specific to that particular video. I always write a short article/description about the video which I think of as a short, stream-of-consciousness article that I write on the spot.

I also make sure to include 3 hashtags (which YouTube will hyperlink under the video player.) I often include Chapters to boost my video SEO and also to make it easier for viewers to skip to the parts of the video they want to see. This section may include a link or two that are specific to that video.

But the second part of the YouTube description is the EXACT SAME for all my videos. This is the default text description that I set in Youtube here:

youtube desctiption sample

And it's important that it's exactly the same for each video. I'll explain why in a second.

This second part of my YouTube description is my money section.

I link to affiliate products that I love and that convert well. I link to landing pages and webinar opt-in pages that will help prospects get on my list and into my funnel. I include a call-to-action to encourage viewers to subscribe, leave a comment, and to follow me on different social media platforms.

With each video I put up, I get more and more eyeballs on these important links every month… for free. It doesn't even matter what the video is about. It will get clicks.

Side Note: Another important reason to track your links and use a link shortener is to create curiosity. A naked affiliate link will chase away clicks, while a cloaked link will encourage clicks through curiosity.

Which would you rather click on?

https://hoply.io/secrethack
or
https://artlist.io/artlist-70446/?artlist_aid=andrewmurraytv_926&utm_source=affiliate_p&utm_medium=andrewmurraytv_926&utm_campaign=andrewmurraytv_926

Pretty obvious, right?

The Secret Of The Bulk Update

Now here's why it's so important to keep it the same for each video: Bulk replace.

You can use bulk replace to update sections of your YouTube Description all at once. And if you put up videos regularly, you will find this truly an oasis in the desert.

Pro Tip: I use a tool called TubeBuddy to do that. TubeBuddy is free, but has a paid version with more features. Use the coupon code AndrewMurrayBuddy to get 20% off the paid version.

If I want to add a new link to my default YouTube Description, I replace the old one and add a new one. And I never have to waste time going through each of my 500 videos one-by-one doing mind-numbing, brain-contracting work.

Here is a video showing how I bulk-update to add a new link to my YouTube default description:

See the kind of time that saves? It's magic! Plus, it allows me to be flexible and test out a new capture page and get traffic to it immediately! It feels good, right?

There is one more thing I want you to know about your YouTube Description links, however, and that is that you can drop a retargeting pixel on everyone who clicks on your links. Linkalytics allows you to add your pixel, let's say for Facebook, and embeds it into the link, with your visitor non-the-wiser.

So while you are getting new clicks, and tracking new clicks, you're building up a list of active people you can run retargeting ads to – who already know who you are.

Retargeting is the easiest and lowest-cost way to drip your toe into the waters of paid marketing. Plus, you don't need to actually “target” your ads, since you are advertising to a very responsive targeting group already. (And targeting is the #1 mistake people make when getting started with paid ads.). So, have I got you excited about the potential you have in your YouTube description right now? What are you waiting for?

Create a free account with Linkalytics right now and start getting more results out of your YouTube videos.

Happy tracking!

12 Critical Ways To Get More Traffic – Tip # 1

12 Critical Ways To Get More Traffic – Tip # 1

If you've had a business for awhile now, you know how important it is to have people seeing your offers. Without it, you can't make any sales which is not only discouraging but obviously detrimental to any business – yes, understanding the ways to get more traffic is vital.

The challenge is that most people don't realize that while it's vitally important to get “traffic” to these offers: you always want to start any business online strategically – and it starts with creating the content that people will consume on your own platform.

Now you may be asking yourself, ‘What does this have to do with “ways to get more traffic”?

12 Ways To Get Traffic – Content On Your Own Platform

Here's what:

Look, right now, social media is all the rage.

You will see people telling you the ways to get more traffic is to:

  • Gain YouTube subscribers
  • Grow your Facebook following,
  • Triple your Instagram followers,
  • Grow your Tik Tok account

…just to name a few but and so they sell you products to grow your social media accounts but here's the deal:

You are at the mercy of all of these social media platforms and in an instant, you can be shut down without warning – it's an awful feeling – and it's happened to countless online entrepreneurs including yours truly, which brings me to the point of today's email: creating content on your own platform.

I have worked with thousands of students who have come to me believing they have an online business but have NO personal platform where they own the content. A personal platform online is one of the main ways to get traffic and sadly is gravely overlooked.

Creating a successful traffic strategy and developing efficient ways to get more traffic starts with having your own platform – no matter how simple, or how small.

From your own platform, you can control and grow exponentially, without the fear of losing your content, and your followers.

And that’s why you need an internet homebase, a headquarters if you will. This is where a blog comes in.

A home base is a blog where ​you control the content​. You can create content and be in charge of part of your content distribution.

Additionally, blogging content is ​EVERGREEN.

That means that 3 months from now (or 6- or 12- or even 2 years later), you can still be getting the same or more traffic to your blog posts.

Compare that with something like Facebook, which gives your post a very short shelf-life – and ​once it’s gone from the newsfeed nobody will find it​ unless they are looking for it specifically.

Your content is lucky to last more than a day on Facebook!

So creating content on your blog has a longer-term ROI. 

So if you don't have a blog from where you can create your own BRAND, share your own voice, and grow your own list to send offers to, not to mention use some other stellar traffic secrets that we talk about in this report, then you're missing a foundational piece of your internet strategy.

If you have a blog – great!

But if you don't, visit BlogLabs.ca where we can build you a blog for free, you only have the cost of hosting, which is a must for any blog or website that you build.

At Blog Labs you get set up with a ​FREE WordPress blog​ with the ​Premium Divi Theme installed, and we’ll take care of the entire set up for you. We’ll even set you up with a beautiful custom header. We do blogs…stress free.

(Divi allows you to create visually in WordPress with an easy drag-and-drop interface.) 

The Blog Lab opens every 2 weeks, as it is a hands-on product that we create, but we can help you set up a platform that is your own, and from where a majority of the traffic strategies will run from.

Blogging is a great way to get traffic.

With a little effort you can rank for nearly any keyword phrase you desire and you can get a fresh stream of ​new visitors daily​ – that’s ​residual traffic​ from Google, Bing and a whole lot of other minor Search Engines.

If you have questions on how a blog works with your overall business, let's chat.

I know that online business is a large puzzle and sometimes it's confusing to understand how all the pieces fit together, but that's why I'm here – to help!

MorningFame Review

MorningFame Review

Morningfame is a YouTube guidance tool. It basically tells you in a fun, gamified way, which of your videos are performing best, and which analytics are growing or retracting.

So MorningFame is ideal for anybody that wants to get more insights and focus on how to grow their YouTube channel and their YouTube audience.

morningfame review - morningfame dashboard
MorningFame Dashboard

Who Created MorningFame?

The creator of Morningfame, Nico, is a good guy. I’ve spoken to him on several occasions, and he definitely is committed to growing this SAAS.

nico morningfame creator youtube tool
Hey, it's Nico from MorningFame!

Morningfame is basically a software that sits on top of Youtube. So its entire ecosystem is reliant on YouTube analytics and YouTube API.

The thing about Morningfame though, is that he is a genius when it comes to what he can get from the YouTube API.

youtube api
YouTube API

That’s his genius. (And yes, I mean genius.)

If you care about YouTube Analytics – or about getting clear, actionable steps to growing your Youtube Channel, you need Mornignfame!

OK, so first off, weird name, right? Morningfame?  I don’t know exactly what it about, but I suspect it is based on the old phrase attributed to Andy Warhol: everyone has 15-minutes of fame.

And that Youtube is making more people famous – from Jeff Paul to Mr. Beast.  There are a lot of YouTube famous people.

But the cool thing is that even if you have a serious channel on a serious topic, this Morningfame thing makes it more fun and enjoyable!

And when YouTube becomes fun, the subscribers start to rise, and everything seems to bring your way.

So who is MorningFame Built For?

So the product is really essential for everyone that is SERIOUSLY building a Youtube channel.

It’s one of those things that if you don't know it exists, you really wouldn't think of it… but once you see how it helps you understand what you need to now your channel, you fall in love with it, and it becomes an essential part of your YouTube channel growth.

All you latest videos are sortable by these filters, which really make more sense than YouTube Analytics displaying just the raw data.

morningfame analytics free

YouTube Analytic Tools

So I love finding new tools. And I was not in the market for a new tool as I was already using TubeBuddy – and I assumed that Morningfame was pretty similar.

So, because I *wrongly* assumed it was so similar, I was actually quite slow to carve out the time to take MorningFame for a test run.

The other thing that was a little odd is you are REQUIRED to use a promo code. You have to be referred to use the tool.

This is actually pretty cool because it means that the developer really wants to help support his “affiliates” as much as possible.  There is not a real affiliate program.  You can't earn any money by sharing MorningFame.  However, you can earn free service by referring people to MorningFame.

I should mention that there is no real affiliate program. It’s more of a referral program.

Meaning, if you refer somebody, you both get one month free, but you don’t earn any commissions.

So if you want to give MorningFame a try, please use the link here my son's account.  (My account is already free.)

Click Here To Try MorningFame for Free

I’m helping him be an entrepreneur and grow his channel too. (If you check out his channel, please subscribe!)

So before MorningFame, I mainly used Tubebuddy to help on uploads of videos and for tag research.

BTW, tag research is very important for YouTube, and there are some real killer tips I talk about inside this free training on YouTube Optimization.

Once I got started with Morningfame, I honestly wished I had started earlier.

Morning Fame Killer Feature:

One of the features actually tells you which of the tag you could be ranking for – but did NOT select on your initial upload.

Even though I consider myself a tag researching guru, I still get some very good suggestions – and usually ones I would not think of.  The other thing is that they rank the tags based on search volume, so you can know which ones are the most advantageous to select as your YouTube tags.

The downside is that this feature only works with an email 24 hours after the initial upload. This is a limitation of the YouTube API, so currently there is no way to check older videos except manually.

However, it’s such a killer feature – because it's basically giving you free rankings that you would otherwise have missed.

I consider this worthwhile for the cost of the service.

In addition, the email contains the top 5 thumbnails (and yours) so you can visually compare which one looks the most clickable. I like this because I can see, without distraction, which thumbnails are the most visually appealing for the click – and as you know it's easy to re-do your thumbnail.

Here's how that part of the email looks:

morningfame youtube thumbnail analysis ctr youtube metrics

The reason this is so important is that CTR of your thumbnails, in comparison to other thmbnails is a highly important metric to YouTube. They use that data to select which videos they will show MORE often and which videos they will server LESS often.

So this, in itself, is worth the cost of MorningFame also.

Pros of Morningfame:

Nothing to install. You simply log in to your YouTube account and allow the permissions.

This means it's not like Tubebuddy where you can frequently become logged out and need to re-login in to access the tools.

Give your very actionable advice.

The Awesome 24-hour post upload email from Morningfame!

Cons of Morningfame:

The keyword research module is available 24 hours for every 2 weeks, unless you get the premium version.

Morningfame can be a little overwhelming. There are a lot of features and ways that the data is presented. Although the onboarding process makes it much easier by unlocking only certain areas at a time.

So if you plan to produce more/better YouTUbe videos and want to get maximum distribution organically – and who doesn’t? Then this is for you.

If you don’t really care about the SEO of your YouTube videos, then you don’t need to take a free trial of MorningFame.

The negative aspect of Morningfame is that it can be overwhelming. Although, truth be told, you probably feel that way trying to decipher YT analytics. And MorningFame is actually quite accessible.

Even if you don't grasp everything, you'll get some ideas on how to get your videos wider distribution and what's working best on your channel.

Killer Morningfame feature:

Of all the features you get with MorningFame, one of my absolute favorites is you get an email 24-hours after uploading a new video from MorningFame. And it includes the tags that are in your video – and what you are currently ranking in YouTube Search for those particular tags.

But you also get a list of tags you COULD be ranking for but are not – and your competitors are ranking for. Despite thinking I'm amazing at keyword research, I usually find some tags to swap out to actually improve my overall YouTube search rankings using this MorningFame email.

This alone would be worth the cost of MorningFame – which is easy to get free if you put a link to MorningFame in your default description upload text. Trust me.

CTR is a core metic on YouTube, so this is really helpful for optimization.

Keep in mind that optimization is not a one-and-done thing. If you really want to grow your channel, you want to review your data and re-optimize or tweak tags, thumbnails, and descriptions from time-to-time.

I also like that this 24-hour Morningfame email encores me to go back and tweak the optimization after 24 hours. So it gets me engaged with the content I just put out. And that video I still need to be sharing over social media for the first few days also.

There are a lot of other features and it looks at your channel and tells you what to focus on – ie on growing subscribers, picking video topics, etc.

So it really used machine learning to help you with your channel.

A Quick Note About the YouTube Studio App

By the way, for quick YT Analysis I really like the YT Studio app.

I use it to keep a quick handle on my youtube ad revenue, searches, most popular videos, and such. It’s a simplified version of the YT Studio analytics. If you not using it, I highly recommend it.

Download it here

MorningFame Bonus:

In addition to the MorningFame tool and all the benefits you'll get with that, if you take a free test drive of MorningFame (you don't even need to keep it) I’m going to give a free audit of your YouTube Channel. And I will also give you a free PDF that shows you how to optimize your YouTube videos when uploading them to YouTube. There are several steps you need to take in order to get the maximum distribution from Youtube's algorithm and I'll show you exactly how to upload your videos and get more views.

Just let me know you used my link via my contact page and be sure to include your name, email address, and your YouTube Channel URL so I can do a review/audit on your channel and send you a video. All for free!

Click here to give MorningFame a try.

What Does Online Engagement Look Like In 2020?

Are blogs still relevant in 2020? 

The short answer is yes. According to Impact, 7 in 10 Internet users regularly check blog posts and online engagement. From a marketing perspective, blogs can significantly improve your SEO results as they allow you to create unique content pieces to target the latest keyword trends. 

However, blogs aren’t the only channel to engage with your audience. Nowadays, the attention span online is shorter than the one of a goldfish. In other words, while loyal readers are likely to engage with your blog posts, new ones will need to be convinced in under 8 seconds. Indeed, 8 seconds is the current attention span online for a new audience group. The shrinking attention span requires a change in tactics. When reaching out to a new audience, you need a format that is exciting, entertaining, and touching from the first second.

What Does Online Engagement Look Like In 2020?

Video blogs: Let them watch the film of your life

Video blogs record high engagement rates compared to their written cousins. According to Cisco, video content is expected to make up over 82% of all online consumer traffic by 2022. Therefore, it makes sense to reach out to new “readers” via a video channel. Additionally, over 9 in 10 users who consume video content on their smartphones are likely to share it with others. The statistics are much lower for written articles. A video is engaging from the first image as it creates a complex sensory experience. In a few seconds, you can convey a stronger message than you would in a few paragraphs of text.

Users are likely to watch a video to the end rather than read a blog article. From a marketing perspective, your video content receives high traffic, making you more suitable to join the Youtube advertising network. You can display advertising in the middle of your video, which means you can monetize your content effortlessly.

Interactive storytelling: A journey down memory lane

Interactive storytelling brings the “reader” at the heart of the story. Unlike reading a blog post that tells a story, interactive storytelling turns the reader into a semi-active narrative ally who contributes to the end story. You can create interactive experiences through a variety of mediums, including microsites and ebooks. If you are familiar with classic video games – if not, you may want to consider installing PS2 Roms for Windows on your laptop – with an exciting plot, you can use a similar approach to share your content. An exciting plot such as the PS2 GTA: San Andreas moved the player through challenges to reveal the story. As players choose options, they can find out more about the plot. Interactive content creates an immediate sense of reward as users feel in charge of the progress.

Podcasts: Let me tell you a story

Storytelling is part of human nature. Our ancestors grew up telling and listening to stories. Therefore, podcasts allow marketers to tap into the human psyche and share valuable content. A podcast can replace a personal or professional blog article and maximize engagement. They’re so easy to consume that podcasts are now part of everyday activities, from commute to house chores.

Online engagement varies depending on your preferred format. As popular as blogs are, they are not the best engagement strategy for an audience with a shrinking attention span. On the contrary, making your content appealing from the first second is more effective for video, interactive, and podcast storytelling.