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December 18, 2007 |
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Marketing Methods and Alternative Options for 2008 Part III: E-Mail and Blogs
by Chip Arndt
 Miami, FL (December 18, 2007)—The last two newsletters covered marketing methods using traditional Comparison Shopping Engines, Marketplaces, Affiliate Sites, Print Media, Press Releases and Newsletters for small to mid-sized merchants to reach consumers. For this month, we explore e-mail and blogs.
We have found that using and mastering traditional marketing methods is mandatory to help “spread the word” about your company and that complimenting these methods with new marketing initiatives drives sales and brand awareness.
If you missed the prior two newsletters in this series, and prefer to read them first, please refer to eTaildTail.com and click on Newsletters. All newsletters are archived and free to read.
So let’s continue from our last newsletter commentary.
Overview of Marketing Options
Options, options, and more options!
It is an overwhelming task to cover the full landscape of marketing options and by no means do we claim to cover them all, but we try. In addition to the several marketing options covered in the last newsletter, online merchants should consider complimenting traditional methods of marketing such as print media, press releases, newsletters, snail mail, and e-mails with new methods such as blogs, search engine marketing and optimization, video e-mail, gift cards, coupons, sweepstakes and other ideas to drive quality traffic to your storefront and turn this traffic into paying customers.
The goal of effective marketing is simple: drive customers to your online storefront.
This can be achieved in numerous ways and some methods work better than others. Some traditional, seemingly outdated methods, such as direct mail and print media, are STILL very effective. And when traditional methods are complimented with new marketing methods, we have found that more traffic is driven to an online merchant's storefront and that this traffic is "stickier" and easier to turn into customers.
MerchantAdvantage believes that regardless of which marketing method(s) you choose, each marketing method compliments and works in concert with the other. For instance, if you send out a direct mail during the holidays, ensure that you highlight specials mentioned in these direct e-mails on your website, provide coupon codes that only can be redeemed online by the person receiving the snail mail (which helps you track whether the mailing worked), highlight a "special offer" that a customer can only receive online, remind them of monthly online specials, create easy access to membership and gift card programs, and create a blog (if you have the time) to educate customers on the value-add of your products and remind them of special offers on your storefront.
Another example is when you execute an online email campaign, ensure that you provide "hyper-links" in this e-mail to landing pages within your site that speak to the "special offer" you are referring to or the membership program you are trying to build. These are just some examples.
The main point is that consumers are so savvy that using marketing methods to just drive them to your online storefront is NOT enough. Once you make a connection with a potential customer about a special offer or program, ensure that, when they reach your sight, they come to the "special message" directly and can act on it quickly.
Okay…onto what you may already know…or maybe not.
E-Mail
Definition:
I hope the name speaks for itself. The confusing part of e-mail marketing campaigns is that there are many ways to do it. Some work, some work better than others, and some are new. So I recommend trying each of the methods below and see what works best for you within the budgets you have allocated.
E-mail marketing campaigns include:
- General e-mails directly from your Outlook, AOL, Yahoo!, Hotmail accounts and/or in-house service.
- HTML e-mail using “Constant Contact”, or “Vertical Response” or some other service or in-house solution where you use graphics and other fun functions to make your e-mails more pleasing to the eye.
- Video e-mail using such companies as FLIMP.net or other rich, video, media companies to send a more “targeted” message using video or flash to stream a message with accompanying text and pictures, as needed.
Mission to Working with E-Mail:
Let’s keep this simple. Here are three main reasons to work with E-Mails:
- Easy
A. Marketing campaigns often have a lot of moving parts. E-mails, at whatever level, are easy to create, set-up, distribute, analyze, and follow-up on.
- Cost Effective
A. How much does it cost to create, set up, send, and follow up on a general e-mail from your e-mail service? Basically your time and energy to create a compelling e-mail = the most cost-effective way to market -- ever!
B. I like using e-mail services to help you manage, keep track, format, and add pictures (and other fun items) to e-mails. These services also help you send out bulk quantities each week. The cost is minimal, in my opinion, starting at $50.00, or less, per month and going up, depending on how many e-mails you plan to send out and the “richness” of the content.
- Response and Tracking
A. Not every person will open your e-mail or respond to your marketing campaign, but where else can you send out a marketing campaign, track who does respond and does not respond, and follow up with people within an hour = no where!
B. And if an e-mail campaign is not effective you can create a new one, with a new message, look and feel in about 20 minutes! With print ads you are stuck and out a lot of money.
Here are three main issues when working with e-mail:
- Spam
A. We all want new leads, so many times small businesses buy lists and “spam” away. Let me ask you….do you like spam? Don’t do it. Build your data base by touching people on the phone, in person, and in other “genuine” ways and then adding ANY person you touch into your database.
B. If you send out random mail to people you don’t know, then you should know that anti-spamming software recognizes “tacky” subject lines, ALL CAPS, faulty IP addresses, marketing jargon, and it will block your e-mail.
C. To ensure that e-mail is not “blocked” or sent to the junk folder use a service. Services ensure that your mail gets delivered (most of the time = nobody is perfect) and it is certainly worth the $50-$100 per month for a service.
- Annoying Your “Customer” or Intended Recipient
A. a. Simple rule of thumb: If you received the e-mail, would you want to open the mail from the subject line and then receive the information that is inside?
B. Some people believe in low quality content, low quality presentation, and just spamming out “garbage” to see what sticks. If you are one of those people, then you probably should stop reading this newsletter. Quality people run quality companies which produce quality products and intelligent thoughtful ways to build their brand for the long-term. Be one of them!
- Consistency
A. a. They say building a brand requires at least 7 direct touches…get the point….and then building a brand and trust requires many, many, many more touches over a long period of time.
B. If you go down the path to creating and releasing e-mail marketing campaigns, make it a part of your daily routine.
Recommendations to Working with E-Mails:
- Content is king. If you have nothing worthwhile to say in your e-mail marketing campaigns, don’t use them.
- Ensure that “subject” line is worthy and “hints” at some value add and avoid ALL CAPS and the word “free”.
- Make sure you make your e-mail campaigns simple and graphically pleasing.
- Be targeted in each e-mail campaign, no need to cover everything. People’s attention span is short and they can only handle so much information at once.
- Always review what you write and ask yourself: “If I was receiving this announcement is it helping me some way, or is this just another piece of “junk mail?”
Blogs
Definition:
Literally short for “weblog”, blogs are a phenomenon that gives anybody the opportunity to create a simple web presence, or site, to express their opinions about anything. Some statistics say that there are over 1 billion blogs online in the world, so be careful. Don’t think that “your” blog will be special just because you write it.
Blogs are free to view and rely on quality content. In my opinion, a business related blog’s value is realized only when you are deemed either as being the “expert” in your particular field or if you perform some great value add for your readers. This does not mean that you have to write a boring blog, exactly the opposite, have fun, create a personality and understand that your blog is your chance to connect with you customer in a “human” way. If you sell “pet care” products, create a blog that focuses on your pets and what you do to make them healthy and happy. Be personable and when people connect with you they will click over to your storefront website from your blog because they connect with you and trust you.
For instance, I write eTaildTail.com, which links to MerchantAdvantage.com,for small to mid-sized merchants e-commerce and m-commerce merchants to:
- Receive all of their relevant, daily e-commerce news in once place = saves them time and money finding it or paying for news themselves
- Access insights to help them increase sales and grow their e-commerce business
- Link to other experts
- Provide an online forum to ask questions
- Access to special offers from vendors for my readers.
Mission to Working with Blogs:
Here are three main reasons to work with Blogs:
- Share and Educate
A. Be smart, know your business vertical, and write about it in a helpful way. People who use blogs as “purely” a marketing avenue fail.
- Connect
A. Build trust through content and bring other people and experts into your world.
B. Link to other blogs and quote from them on your site = no one knows everything
C. Have fun and use fun pictures and be “human”; people expect it.
- Tips and Trick to Grow Business
A. A business related blog should help people with information, contacts, and strategies that anybody can implement with 48 hours.
Here are three main issues when working with Blogs:
- Time
A. If you equate blogging to work, stop reading now and don’t blog. Great “bloggers” (yes, that is a word) are extensions of their passion and personality. People see through fakes and NEVER have someone replace “you” to blog. You should have guest bloggers sometimes post entries on your site, but when you do let people know who they are. If you take a vacation, either let your audience know or have someone guest blog and let your audience know they are a guest blogger.
- Consistency
A. “You have one chance to make a first impression….” And since you don’t know when someone will come to your blog, you better update it and have some relevant information every day! (okay at least every 3 days)
- Boredom
A. If you get bored, don’t have fun with your blog, stay on top of the news, and offer insights that people cannot find elsewhere, they will never come back….never!
B. Have fun with the graphics and use personal photos, especially if your business is a “home spun” business = build trust by sharing, connecting, and inspiring!
Recommendations to Working with Blogs:
- Sign up for a service!
They are cheap and always up to date. Blogging is the most inexpensive way to have fun and communicate online on your OWN site.
A. Services run from $10 a month = very cost effective. I use typepad.com and blogger.com is also good.
B. Face book and myspace can work, but they are not your brand!
C. Actually set up a face book and myspace account and have links to your blog! = build traffic.
- Have a purpose for your blog and stick to it (see my comments about what I am doing with eTaildTail.com above)
A. Start small, build an audience and then add features later = you can’t do everything at once and it takes a lot of upkeep to keep everything fresh.
- Content is king, again.
A. Make sure you have something to say at least three times a week.
- Borrow content from other people, experts, and websites and give them credit with links back to their site.
A. You are not the only expert
B. This is the proper thing to do
C. People are used to seeing this and want to link to other sites!
D. You will get more traffic, and
E. You will make friends who then want to help you!
MerchantAdvantage Wrap Up:
There are many ways to market online and wirelessly. No method is perfect and online merchants should manage each marketing campaign carefully, understanding how each campaign can, and should, tie into the other. This approach ensures that you are sending a consistent message to the marketplace and that any leads that come to your storefront from these efforts are managed properly, albeit a special offer via a marketing channel is reflected back on your site when that potential customer comes to your site. There are also limitations to what an online merchant can afford, and most online merchants don’t have the money or internal resources to manage too many marketing initiatives effectively. So choose two or three marketing strategies, manage them efficiently, and when you see that you have mastered them, introduce another method and make sure that it ties into your existing marketing efforts.
Stay Tooned for January's PART IV of this Newsletter Series on Marketing Methods and Alternative Option for 2008 will cover Incentive Programs such as Gift Cards, Refer-A-Friend, Coupons and Sweepstakes. |
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Sometimes More is Not Better
by Scott Chen
 A Googlebase feed should be a must. Not only is it free, you actually get pretty good search results, especially for products that are more unique and special.
More is not always better. There is one common mistake I often see; merchants tend to feed the product file way too often. Googlebase gets tons of feeds all day long, therefore, you have to give them a chance to digest the enormous amount of feeds and index your items so they can be searchable.
I’ve found that it works well feeding once a week or once every two weeks. Here is the general rule of thumb: if you have a crucial update, you should send a new feed as soon as possible by going into Channel Management and finding the channel. Then click run now; if not, let the Channel Management’s scheduler pick up your feed and set up your schedule to run at a low traffic time (figure out what day and time of the week you convert the least sales- for many, late Saturday night is the lowest conversion time).
What if you must update your feed everyday or even more than once a day? Well, no worries. Notice the second part of Google’s FAQ answer. If you upload the file through Googlebase’s user interface, the items will get indexed quicker. You can simply change the protocol under Channel Method in the Channel Management application to save the file locally and use the output file to upload through Google’s user interface.
This is a quote out of Googlebase FAQ section:
How long will it take for my item to be searchable?
Items submitted via bulk upload: Once your bulk upload processes and your file status displays Success on your Google Base dashboard, it can take up to 24 hours for your items to appear on Google Base and Froogle (if applicable).
Items submitted directly through the user interface will take 15-60 minutes to be searchable on Google Base and Froogle (if applicable). |
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Merchant of the Month:
BPAV.com
 BPAV.com is an online retailer of consumer electronics, and we've been using price feeds for close to 6 years.
As competition increased and item click fees went up, our advertising budget was increasing monthly. The worst part was that we had no idea where our traffic was coming from and if people were actually buying anything.
We signed up with MerchantAdvantage in February 2007, when our advertising costs were up to $40,000 a month. Through an intense review of Chanalytics data, we were able to figure out what product lines were profitable, what wasn't, and which CSEs were actually making us a profit. We eliminated one feed, streamlined the rest, and saw a huge drop in our price feed costs.
Last month our advertising budget went down to about $23,000, almost half of what it once was, and our revenues and ROI increased.
Get Your Channel Management Fee Waived Plus Receive a Complimentary Companion Airline Ticket!
We're thrilled and inspired by all the Channel Management success stories you share with us. Now we want to turn the spotlight on you! Send us your best Channel Management success story and you could be selected as our Merchant of the Month.
If chosen, your company will be exclusively showcased in an edition of our monthly newsletter, eTail dTail.
Best of all, your monthly MerchantAdvantage fee will be waived in the month you are selected and you will receive a complimentary Companion Airline Ticket. Submit your Channel Management success story today to stories@merchantadvantage.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
(Note: MerchantAdvantage reserves the right to use any or all of your story, whether or not your article is selected as the winning entry.) |
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About MerchantAdvantage
MerchantAdvantage (www.MerchantaAdvantage.com) is an ecommerce software solutions company committed to championing and helping the small to midsized online ecommerce Merchant address complicated mobile and online e-commerce issues and take a systematic, controlled and proactive approach to online product marketing. MerchantAdvantage provides long-term, cost effective software tools that enable an online business to grow by reaching the widest audience possible via online, broadband, and wireless devices. MerchantAdvantage's applications are designed to thoroughly connect the online retailer to their marketplace partners in a seamless motion of communication allowing Merchants to take control of their ecommerce channels, marketing strategies, and IT solutions. These software tools specifically help ecommerce retailers bridge the gap created by non-standardized data feeds to various online market places, shopping comparison sites, and other online shopping destination sites.
MerchantAdvantage is changing the macrocosm of ecommerce by staying ahead of the curve in providing business solutions to the growing online retail marketplace: We're here because America's commerce future is online.
MerchantAdvantage, the premier software for on-line retailers looking for an efficient and cost-effective method to online product marketing introduces Channel Management with Chanalytics(sm) Professional and Lite. Channel Management products help online retailers save time and money while maximizing their return on investment and marketing budgets by allowing them to easily connect to shopping comparison sites an assess their performance. MerchantAdvantage is for online retailers wishing to better manage online marketing efforts and increase sales volume.
MerchantAdvantage – Take Control of Your Marketing Channels! |
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Flimp Media Inc. (FMI) is a web video marketing technology company. We offer clients web video technology, marketing services and analytics capabilities. We'll create a "free flimp" demo for your next marketing campaign and assess if web video marketing can benefit you. Whatever your objective is - increased sales, customer retention, or lead generation, we often see dramatic positive results using FLIMPs as opposed to regular email. Contact Us to learn more about Web Video Marketing and our managed services programs. And if you want a do it yourself campaign, it takes 10 minutes to get started.
Click here to learn more about us.
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Do you have any issues, concerns or interests you would like to share?
Email us at:
tip@etaildtail.com
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• Online Holiday Retail Sales Up More Than 30 Percent Over Last Year
by earthtimes.org
DALLAS, Dec. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Building from a strong base established during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, online retailers continue to see growth in both the number of transactions and sales volume, according to statistics tracked by the Chase Paymentech Pulse Index.
"Shoppers have been using their mouse as much as their cars this holiday season," said Mike Duffy, president and chief executive officer, Chase Paymentech. "Less than two weeks into the holiday shopping season, sales volume for Chase Paymentech Pulse Index merchants this year is more than 30 percent above last year's total volume. We are starting seeing a shift of consumer shopping preference during the peak season."
Early Season Results Are Encouraging
While the Black Friday focus was on brick-and-mortar retail activity, online shopping also experienced a boost. The post-Thanksgiving weekend sales volume for Chase Paymentech Pulse Index merchants rose 38 percent over the same weekend in 2006.
The trend continued as Americans returned to work on Cyber Monday. Sales volume for the 10 retail Web sites tracked by the Chase Paymentech Pulse Index reached $104.8 million on that day.
Earlier this year, Forrester Research principal analyst Sucharita Mulpuru forecasted a 21 percent increase in US online retail sales this holiday season. Initial sales tracked by the Chase Paymentech Pulse Index indicate a strong interest in online deals with a consistent year-over-year increase of between 30 and 35 percent, beginning with Black Friday.
In a guest commentary on the Chase Paymentech Pulse Index Web site ( http://pulse.chasepaymentech.com/ ), Mulpuru notes that "Online sales for the holiday season are off to an extremely strong start. Retailers on average appear to be up in the strong double-digits for the comparable time period last year; these numbers are even stronger than the growth experienced from 2005 to 2006. The aggressiveness of retailer promotions is certainly a factor, but the overall comfort level that consumers have with the overall shopping experience is likely driving this very promising growth."
Cyber Monday Not Most Popular 2007 Online Shopping Day
Similar to trends identified in 2006 by the Chase Paymentech Pulse Index, online retailers are seeing the heaviest sales volume so far on Tuesday and Wednesday each week.
Wednesday, Nov. 28 produced $134 million in sales for Indexed merchants, driven by 2.1 million transactions. This sales volume is an all-time high in the three-year history of the Index.
New Holiday Season Expectations Outlined
The upward trend in Chase Paymentech Pulse Index figures continue to mirror 2006 activity, but at a 30 percent growth rate. The Thursday, Nov. 29, Index sales volume dropped to $113.4 million, an increase of 55 percent over last year, but just below the 2006 highest day total. Similar patterns were identified last year, as 2006 performance dropped back to 2005 levels.
"Based on the early season activity, we expect that consumers will continue to leverage the value and convenience of online retailers," said Duffy. "If previous years' results are to be used as a barometer, we will see an increase of last-minute shopping taking place from December 18 to 20, as Americans place orders that can be delivered in time for the Christmas holiday."
About Chase Paymentech Pulse Index
Each year, the Chase Paymentech Pulse Index tracks more than one million payment transactions daily at 10 of the top 30 U.S. retail Web sites, as identified by Internet Retailer magazine.
About Chase Paymentech Solutions
Chase Paymentech Solutions, LLC is a leading global payments firm and the world's largest merchant acquirer, transacting payments in 140 currencies. In 2006, the privately-held company processed approximately 18.2 billion payment transactions, with more than $660.6 billion in annual bankcard and debit volume. Chase Paymentech's customer base reflects the most respected brands in the world, including 70 percent of leading ecommerce business and more than 600,000 merchants in nearly 1 million locations worldwide. Chase Paymentech is a joint venture between JPMorgan Chase & Co. and First Data Corp. Learn more at http://www.chasepaymentech.com/.
• Five Quick Tips for Online Retail Success this Christmas
by netimperative.com
Larry Freed, President and CEO of ForeSee Results offers a guide for retailers on what to implement ahead of the Christmas rush.
If you're an online retailer looking at the impending Christmas season, you might think it's too late to make any changes to your web site that will affect sales. You might even be thinking you'll just have to see how the season works out online and make changes next year.
For you, here's an early Christmas present: It's absolutely not too late. Retailers still have time before the heavy online shopping begins, and there is still time to make web site enhancements or tweaks that can improve your shopper’s customer satisfaction and impact your bottom line.
Specifically, here are five changes you can put to good effect right now, for Christmas 2007:
1. Price cautiously during the Christmas season. Be sure the impact of product pricing and shipping will have the intended effect on increasing revenues before you rush into making ”free shipping" offers.
2. Focus on search and advanced search functions. It may sound obvious, but many retailers don't understand that the Christmas period brings the highest percentage of first-time visitors to their site through shopping search engines and aggregators. The biggest complaint I hear from online shoppers is that the search function is difficult to navigate or the advanced search is hidden.
3. In a study about online holiday shopping my company did last year, the two things that emerged as having the highest impact on whether customers were likely to buy were product browsing and ordering process. Product browsing can be dealt with by addressing search functions as mentioned above, but when it comes to ordering process, make sure you have adequate and easily available online help. Many retailers "hide" their free-phone numbers or help functions because they may not want or are able to properly staff them. But remember: If someone is looking for help on how to buy his wife or son a present for Christmas and he can't find it, he'll go elsewhere to buy.
4. Even if you don't normally have one, turn on a continuous "red alert" customer feedback channel. It is especially important during the high-volume holiday season to capture customer feedback in real time so you can address problems quickly. Many online customers won't pick up the phone to call customer service if they hit an impasse; they'll click to a competitors site.
5. Review your recent click stream and customer satisfaction metrics with an eye toward last-minute changes. It is not too late to make enhancements to your web site that could have a huge affect on your seasonal sales, and you could be overlooking something quick and easy. One of our clients was able to make a quick web site adjustment after customer satisfaction metrics identified that shoppers couldn’t find what they wanted to buy online because they were confused by the category titles(for example, if home décor items were organised by collection name rather than by the room they’re intended for). After spending months trying to prioritise web site changes, customer satisfaction metrics identified a simple change for this retailer that they were able to implement in just a few days time. Almost immediately, the change led to a significant increase in conversion rates.
These are five tips that we consistently see having the greatest impact on customer purchasing behaviours. All five are things that companies are aware of on some level; the trick, especially this late in the season, is to put aside experimentation and guesswork about web development. Instead, its time to understand and emphasise factors that have a direct impact on the depth of customer satisfaction and loyalty, therefore paying direct dividends. Highly satisfied shoppers will shop frequently and spend more. Focus your efforts, both large and small, on improving their satisfaction and improving your success – both this season and beyond—and you will win your customers’ loyalty.
• ShoppingVale Launches Unique Web 2.0 Comparative Shopping Engine
by newswiretoday.com
San Jose, CA, United States, 12/06/2007 - ShoppingVale today announced the launch of its Web 2.0 Shopping Comparison Engine shoppingvale.com.
Launched as a private beta in October 2007, ShoppingVale provides shoppers unbiased, unfiltered and immediate access to a variety of leading and emerging online retailers.
“The response has been overwhelming, and we’re very excited about offering this service to the general public.” said Syed Ahmed, the founder and CEO of ShoppingVale. The beta version of the service has been well received by leading media outlets and technology review sites; “This is a one-stop shop for shopping online.” said KillerStartups. “A Search Engine for Coupons? Sure…why not?” responded altsearchengines.com blogger Charles Knight, a leading resource on the search industry.
Syed Ahmed, a Silicon Valley veteran with over 8 years experience working with leading online retailers, started ShoppingVale in response to market research, which showed that the average comparison shopping service, such as NexTag, PriceGrabber, Shopping.com among others, were not providing all the information a shopper was looking for. “We discovered that while a typical comparison search engine provided some useful information, there was still significant demand from shoppers for more information, in an unbiased, unfiltered manner that put the shopper in full control.” added Syed Ahmed. “ShoppingVale was designed with the shopper in mind. Our philosophy is to give the shopper the tools to find the information they want, when they want, directly and immediately from the source.”
ShoppingVale.com unlike its competitors provides a unique and simplified user shopping experience by avoiding clutter and providing real time shopping data from websites like BestBuy, Amazon and ebay.
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"Technology should exist to aid us in our endeavors; We are here because you are online.sm"
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Michael Lambert, CEO |
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For information on how MerchantAdvantage may help your business grow, please contact us:
Chip Arndt
Executive Vice President
Business Development and Strategy
305.895.9466 x113
partnerships@merchantadvantage.com
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