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November 6, 2008 |
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| Online Marketing Channels Commentary |
Beyond the Holiday
by Mike Lambert
 Miami, FL (November 6, 2008) – Well, here we are, holidays upon us! ‘Tis the season for all operational personnel to step up to the bat, and make the consumers happy happy happy. Orders need to be shipped, consumers need to be reassured their packages will arrive on time, and accounting is almost certainly on fire right now. However, marketing for the holiday season is quickly coming to a close, and online marketers everywhere need to kick in to planning for 2009. As a rule, marketing needs to be roughly 90 days ahead of the rest of their company. That number can vary greatly depending on the business, but what remains constant is that marketing efforts generally take a few months to reach fruition. So, what’s a marketer to do?
Well, I think there are two broad strokes that need to be addressed with respect to Consumer Shopping Engines. First, what did, and perhaps more importantly did NOT work this past year? Then, in general, do more of what worked and less of what didn’t, with a little budget put aside for some new and different efforts. I think that’s relatively safe, but as I drill down now, only some portion of what I might write will apply to any particular business...so please read defensively.
I like to break things down into steps, so below I have three “MAIN” steps that I think are a good starting point. Before beginning these steps you should have some idea of your available budget for the year...
First Step
Reviewing statistics can be very tedious. However, for broad planning such as next year's marketing efforts (or our first step), I would recommend looking in pie chart format and not by line item. In doing this, you will see the largest Return On Ad Spend per channel across the board, which is basically what you want at this stage.
But a really big mistake that some merchants make is to let last year's overcommitment lead next year's marketing. Quite obviously if you put a significant amount of money in one channel over other channels (as an example, Google Ad Words) it will show as more sales. However, the conversion may not be as high as another channel for which you barely scratched the surface. So let me be a bit more specific. We are looking for CONVERSIONS, not REVENUES. There may be a revenue ceiling on some of these channels, but that’s one of the things you need to look for all year long, and not necessarily an available bit of information for planning.
So, if you see some channels that are performing very well in terms of click to purchase conversions, include them for step two. If you have had some very bad performers, you may wish to call and speak to your representative at that channel to see if they will be making any adjustments that would significantly alter the channel's performance. If not...perhaps this is NOT the right channel for your products. Well, this step should have helped you focus in on the major CSE channels with which you plan to participate. If you have one or two that are question marks...carry them into STEP 2, as they may be resurrected in that step.
Second Step
Now go back and review at a lower level the statistics within each channel selected in STEP 1 for a better understanding of how to better manage the channel. Pay special attention to how a particular channel behaved with respect to:
- Each Month's Sales (think seasonal)
- Product Categories (think demographics)
- Any other performance attribute that seems to stand out to you (think Beautiful Mind with Russel Crowe or the MATRIX)
You must, of course, take into account that not all channels will perform next year exactly as they did last year, but we are simply planning next year with any and all available information. That being said, plan out the marketing for each channel based loosely on this past year's performance. It may mean some peaks and valleys, but that’s fine. We’ll take advantage of those in step three.
Third Step
Are there channels in which you have not participated or that performed particularly well during a particular season but did not make it into STEP 2? Well, a portion of your budget should go to seasonal marketing or new marketing efforts. This is for two reasons:
- A constant budget effort yields a constant marketing effort, but not all marketing channels fit into the “constant” model
- We generally want to improve our company’s brand/position or marketing driven sales year over year, so we must do new things, as well as refine old efforts
So, have you entered into the mobile world yet? Are you working with marketplaces? Well, here’s a short list of some alternative channels you may not have tried yet:
- Coupon sites
- Fixed Price CSEs
- Marketplaces
- Social Networking (MySpace, Facebook etc...)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Increased search yielding better SEO performance
- Mobile Marketing
And this is just a few. If you’d like to know more about these channels or online marketing channels in general, you may wish to download a pre-recorded presentation at MerchantAdvantage.com which speaks about many Alternative Marketing Methods and Options. AND you should probably frequent the following blogs as they are very insightful, and each offer a slightly different view and technical level -
- eTaildTail
- Comparisonengines
- Channeldollars
Obviously the fourth quarter did not kick in yet, so those numbers are missing.....PERFECT! Sales and marketing performance is almost always different during this holiday season, so they should be viewed in a completely different light anyway.
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| Advice, Tips & Tricks |
Holiday Rush Relief
by B. Thomas Romeo
 Miami, FL (November 6, 2008)— This time of the year at MerchantAdvantage we often get a unique glimpse of the strategies that merchants manage, what is for many of
them, their "high" season.
Hearing not only in the tone of voice of
the merchants that we support but also in the nature of questions about channels that they ask, one gets the feeling that there is a sense of urgency which is really a sense of opportunity. Different types of merchants have points in their year highlighted as "busy times." The end of the year, however, is assumed to be a time that
affects most merchants. Knowing this, what are some of the best ways
to approach what could be seen as the best opportunity to reach your retail potential?
My impression of the retail strategy of many merchants during their higher seasons is to put as much product out there in as many places as possible during the high time - hoping that they can get as many
"hits" as possible. While this may be true to a certain degree, it is
my opinion that the season offers us an opportunity to refine our processes and experiment with augmenting our strategies. Now many people will say that this is not the time of year to "experiement"
because everyone is way too busy to think about anything but selling and shipping. This is where the technology comes into play. Remember that technology is supposed to make our lives easier. In this case, the technology you, as a merchant, have access to allows you to automate your processes whether we are talking about imports and feeds, or even simpler concepts such as cut and paste.
If you have trusted feeds going to your "known good" ROI channels, why not try some of the same feeds albeit, slightly altered, to new channels? Cut and paste. Do a little research on what channels are similar to the ones you are using and see if you can send feeds to them on a "test" basis. For example the back office of MerchantAdvantage's Channel Management application has a real nice list of many channels, their target markets and target categories this is called "The Wizard". Utilizing resources like this you can find out how to expand your product feeds in an educated way, taking out some of the guess work. I recommend that during any time of the year always have one or two "test"
channels that you invest a little in to see if you can refine them to get a lot out.
Once you've identified additional channels, the goal is to achieve a point of significant marketing efficiency. What this means is you may already have channels that you feed to where ultimately you sit back and think "yeah that works." That is, you've reached a critical mass of sending enough of the right products and the correct loss leaders to feel that you are achieving a sufficient ROI balance between fed products, clicks and purchases, and revenue generated. Now do the same
with your newly selected channels. Send the same "known good"
product feed somewhere else and then refine it utilizing trend tracking tools such as our Chanalytics tool. Remember the more trend tracking tools, the more information and the more you can refine the feeds. Set goals for what to you is considered a good "critical mass"
or significant marketing efficiency - the "yeah that works" point.
Then rinse and repeat.
On a final note, remember that you are working with "seasonality."
You may uncover that certain feeds work during certain times of the
year based on your own collection of products. That's fine too,
identifying the seasonality of your product set is another way to optimize channel feeds and develop your marketing plan. Remember that there are variables that come into play throughout the year that include not only your own inventory changes, but consumer focus because of various holidays and then remember you have technology to help you manage that. Good luck! |
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| Webinars & White Papers |
Webinar:
10 Crucial Changes to Energize Your Holiday Marketing
Thursday November 13, 2008
2:00 - 2:30pm ET / 11:00 - 11:30am PT
Reserve Your Seat Now >>
Webinar:
How to Gain Customers and Customer Loyalty During the Holidays (On Demand Webcast)
View Webinar >>
Webinar:
The Blueprint for Multichannel Success (On Demand Webcast)
View Webinar >>
Webinar:
7 Steps to Reach More Customers Before and During the Holidays (On Demand Webcast)
View Webinar >>
Webinar:
How to Afford Comparison Shopping Engines
(On Demand Webcast)
View Webinar >>
White Paper:
2 Steps to Increase Return on CSE Ad Spend
Download >> |
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| Industry News |
Online Retailers: Slower Growth Expected This Holiday Season
Retailers count on Web appeal for holiday shopping
U.S. Retail E-Commerce Sales Growth Slows to 6 Percent in Q3 2008 Versus Year Ago - MarketWatch
eBay Provides Top-Rated Sellers with Inventory Data
Online Retail Traffic Down for 8th Consecutive Week |
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| Merchant of the Month |
PtouchDirect.com
 "In an effort to automate our many data feeds and have them generated from a central location, PtouchDirect.com became a MerchantAdvantage customer.
As a small, fast-growing company each employee is required to wear many hats and time is critical, especially when you're working on several projects at once. As our channels increased, the time needed to manage our feeds continued to increase and trying to keep them current with the our in-house database and FTP drop boxes was chaotic as each channel wanted their own format, delivery location, file name, etc.
Just keeping our feeds online was considered a success - if they were current it was simply a bonus...we needed help. We were looking for a simple solution when we signed up with MerchantAdvantage but what we found was essentially a new PtouchDirect.com employee.
After a simple setup and a little tweaking, the time needed to manage our feeds is minimal and I know our feeds are up to date, new products are online, new prices are loaded, and we're getting the most for our CPC dollars in the channels we use. I still wear many hats but MerchantAdvantage now wears one too and the time I have for other projects has increased...and so has business."
Bryan J. Lewis, PtouchDirect.com
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.MerchantAdvantage.com) is an ecommerce software solutions company committed to championing and helping the small to midsized online merchant address complicated online and mobile commerce issues. MerchantAdvantage takes a systematic, controlled and proactive approach to online product marketing by providing long-term, cost effective, Web-based 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 connect the online retailer to their marketplace partners in a seamless motion of communication, allowing online merchants to take control of their e-Commerce and m-Commerce channels, marketing strategies and IT solutions. MerchantAdvantage currently markets over $3 billion worth of product value daily, representing over 900 online storefronts and is changing the macrocosm of ecommerce by staying ahead of the curve in providing business solutions to the growing online retail marketplace. They are here because your commerce future is online and wireless. For more information, please visit MerchantAdvantage.com, e-mail us at sales@MerchantAdvantage.com or call us at 1.800.550.9466.
MerchantAdvantage – Take Control of Your Marketing Channels! |
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