» Marketing

Many of us ecommerce merchants already know a thing or two about Pay Per Click (PPC). We pretty much know it’s a popular advertising model used on websites and that sometimes it works perfectly and other times… not so much. How can we really make sure that we’re using it correctly? Wondering what are some useful tips and tricks you can use to take advantage of it at its fullest?
 
First, let’s talk about the best approach for writing and formatting the ad text. As a basic rule, use well-written and clear language that revolves around the specific highlights of the product, this is a must! When possible, it’s important to add metaphors or “word pictures” that complement and enhance the ad. Phrasing your text as a question, telling a story with it or emphasizing an immediate or rapid result, works best.
 
Many companies use different techniques to attract customers depending on what they have to offer, for example…If there’s a free trial available, stressing the “try before you buy” proposition is a very good idea. If your ad is destined to advertise your product or service for a short time, challenging the customer to “discover or experience” it before time’s up could be an effective practice.

Here are a few quick tips:
•    Be creative
•    Create trust
•    Compare your product/service to another
•    Offer guarantees
•    Emphasize special offers
•    Use powerful words such as “how to”, “free”, “incredible”, “learn”, “save”, perfect”, “break-through”
•    … Just let your imagination go!
 
To optimize your use of space, whenever its necessary, abbreviate, use symbols and swap out words with a shorter synonym to make room for other text. Also make sure you highlight your special offers, in percentage, money, amount or “Free Shipping (Free S&H)”.
 
Effective ad texts that are proven appealing to customers include:

•    “Do you make this mistake?”
•    “The real truth about…”
•    “How to…”
•    “Tired of…?”
•    “The best kept secret is…”
•    “Are you aware of…?”
As you can see, it’s not difficult to use these texts to create a good-looking ad or even combine some of them to improve your results.  Think outside the box, it will surely pay off!

On their Q2 call, Amazon executives dropped a little number on analysts that was a pretty big surprised.  They noted they are adding 13 fulfillment centers (FCs)  to the ~38 they have now.  That’s a > 30% increase in fulfillment centers and depending on the size could be an even larger expansion from a sq-ft and thus capacity standpoint.  That’s a big investment and it left people scratching their heads – why, where, how big, and does this mean Amazon is seeing another leg of growth (vs. slowing down)?

Digging a little deeper on Amazon’s European Growth

Earlier this week, James Mitchell @ Goldman Sachs did some sleuthing and discovered that one of the large new FCs will be in Germany in the North Rhine-Westphalia area.  Here are some tidbits from a note he published on the topic Monday->

Amazon announced it will open a 600,000 square foot fulfillment center in Werne, North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany’s wealthiest state, with about a quarter of its GDP) in September. The center will employ up to 800 full time and seasonal workers. Amazon will add another 1 million square feet elsewhere in North Rhine-Westphalia sometime in 2011. Amazon already operates about 2 million square feet of capacity in Germany, in Bad Hersfeld and Leipzig.

(1) We believe the fact that this center is in Europe supports our view that much of Amazon’s capacity expansion in 2010 is in less-mature international markets, rather than the US. See our prior note, Fulfillment centers spearhead Europe and China expansion, July 27, 2010. (2) The size and location of the center may allow Amazon to provide same-day shipping in Ruhr-Rhine cities such as Koln, Essen, Dortmund, and Dusseldorf, just as it already does in Greater London and Greater Tokyo. (3) The new center may also facilitate Amazon’s expansion into the Netherlands and Belgium, where Amazon began offering free shipping in 2009.

Excerpt from ChannelAdvisor Blog…Get the full text here…

ChannelAdvisor Expands Amazon solution to Germany and France

In fact, our UK customers have been asking for us to support Amazon DE/FR for the last two years as they see that as the next logical step.  We’re pleased today to announce that not only have we added support for these regions, we are also bringing our industry-first FBA support to the region.

Sell More through Amazon UK, and now France and Germany!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010 at 9am – 10am EST

Presented by:
James Scott, UK Managing Director, ChannelAdvisor
Scott Galvao, E-Commerce Integration Specialist, ChannelAdvisor

ChannelAdvisor’s Premium Marketplaces solution has expanded its support beyond Amazon US and UK to include Amazon France and Germany. Just in time for the holiday rush, online retailers can sell across Amazon UK, FR and DE from ONE platform, expanding their reach, saving time and automating the tedious tasks necessary to meet Amazon’s strict selling requirements.

Join our Amazon experts to learn:

• How you expand your business to Amazon FR and DE now to maximize holiday earning potential
• Why you should consider Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), which ChannelAdvisor is the only 3rd-party solution to fully support
• How to make the expansion to these marketplaces seamless, and much more

Register for this webinar HERE.

Consumers’ increasing appetite for mobile applications is driving online retailers to speed up their mobile marketing initiatives. According to a Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) study produced in partnership with Shop.org, the National Retail Federation’s digital division, nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of online retailers either already have or are developing a mobile strategy. One in five boasts having a fully implemented mobile strategy in place already. The survey of 109 companies is part of The State of Retailing Onlineresearch series, which provides eBusiness professionals with an annual industry benchmark for marketing and business investment and activities.

“It’s imperative for online retailers to stay on top of what their customers want, and these days it’s all mobile all the time,” said Scott Silverman, executive director, Shop.org. “Mobile commerce has tremendous potential and will no doubt grow to become a significant part of overall sales volume in years to come. Whether to increase customer satisfaction, grow their brand, or drive traffic and sales, online retailers are in this game to stay.”

“Mobile investment is modest now, but we see that it will pick up in the future, especially among the biggest brands that have already invested significant amounts in their mobile operations,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, vice president, principal analyst, Forrester Research, and lead author of the report.

Earlier this year, Forrester forecast US online retail sales to total $173 billion in 2010. According to “The State Of Retailing Online: Marketing, Social Commerce and Mobile Report,” Web retailers with mobile strategies:

• Are investing in features that support the cross-channel experience. Product and price information, store information, and coupons to support the in-store experience are among the most popular features that retailers are offering consumers.
• Have varied levels of investment. On average, respondents anticipated spending $170,000 on their mobile sites this year, large multichannel retailers are spending several times that amount, while smaller online pure plays on average are investing much less.
• Are experiencing modest gains. Retailers reported that their mobile browsers at this juncture are generating a little less than 3 percent of overall site traffic and just 2 percent of revenue.

Marketing And Social Media

Tried and true marketing tactics such as paid search, email, and affiliate marketing command the biggest percentage of an online retailers’ marketing budget. According to the report, retailers are spending nearly 40 percent of their marketing budget on paid search.

Retailers are finding value in social media marketing, but the ROI for driving online sales remains murky. Listening to customers is the most significant objective for social tools according to respondents, with 80 percent of retailers reporting that they are pursuing social strategies to experiment and learn. And while 28 percent noted that social marketing has helped grow their business, direct sales from social tactics are not widely measured.

“The State of Retailing Online: Marketing, Social Commerce and Mobile Report” is available to Shop.org members and can also be purchased directly at www.shop.org/soro. Forrester clients will be able to access the report as part of their subscription service one month from publication.

Some people are under the impression that blogs are good for SEO only if they’re updated frequently. How much does frequency play into PageRank for blogs & other dynamic sites? Isn’t the content more important than the simple # of posts per day/week?

That my friends is the million dollar question. Actually the funny thing about the question is there is NO answer! Yet companies are already spending millions to get into the game. Recently I did my talk about how “Social Media For Business Sucks” and put up the video for the entire talk. The key to this whole industry was laid out from my perspective as a social media ‘evangelist’

Now available for FREE download is the all new 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report from Michael Stelzner. In this report there are details about how marketers are using social media to grow leads and business. This study set out to understand how marketers are using social media to grow and promote their businesses.

• The top 10 social media questions marketers want answered: We analyzed
  nearly 1356 open-ended responses and summarized all the major questions that
  marketing pros want answered.
• The time commitment: We examined the weekly hours marketers invest in their
  social media efforts. This analysis will be helpful for marketers just getting
  started or seeking support staff.
• The benefits of social media marketing: This rather beefy section reveals all
  the major advantages marketers are achieving with their social media efforts. We
  also look at how time invested and experience enhances the benefits.
• Commonly used social media tools: Wondering which social media tools
  marketers are using the most? Those questions are answered, along with an
  examination of which tools experienced folks are using.
• Social media tools people want to learn more about: In this section, we
  examine the up-and-coming tools that marketers are most interested in learning
  about.
• Other analysis: We also examine social media outsourcing and smartphone
  marketing. In addition, we take a look at how B2B (business to business)
  companies vary from B2C (business to consumer) companies and whether the
  size of a business has any bearing on results. We also highlight significant
  changes since our 2009 study.

To download a FREE copy of this insightful study, simply click HERE and download the PDF. Get an 5-minute overview of the report from the author by watching the video below…

Today Twitter has announced a new "daily deal" called @earlybird Exclusive Offers, this will be time-sensitive deals on products and events that will appear on the @earlybird Twitter account. People can follow that account to get access to the deals.

The idea borrows from private and limited-time sale sites, like Gilt, Groupon and Woot (which Amazon.com recently acquired), a recent trend in online shopping. It also takes advantage of what companies like eBay, which attributes volumes in sales to posting deals on the Daily Deals, are already doing.

The deals could be on products, like iPods or diapers, or on events, like concert tickets or travel. In a post on a company blog, Twitter hinted that it could filter deals by category, like apparel or gadgets, in the future. Twitter stressed that it would be selective about which deals were offered and “try and make these deals interesting and of value to you.”

The retailers will determine the price of the items and how many are available. Twitter will earn money from the sales. It is experimenting with different models, like a cut of each sale or a fixed price per deal, said Sean Garrett, a Twitter spokesman. The retailers will collect shoppers’ credit card numbers and otherwise fulfill the transaction.

Many of you use Twitter to stay on top of timely, relevant information, and lots of businesses are already sharing special offers on Twitter. We believe that surfacing deals through the @earlybird account will help you discover the best of those deals, as well as find and follow accounts that consistently provide exceptional value.

Twitter @earlybird Exclusive Offers are special time-bound deals, sneak-peeks, and events that are promoted by the official Twitter @earlybird account. We partner with select advertisers and retweet offers that they have crafted only for the Twitter community. Our advertising partners determine the terms of the offer, including availability, amount, and price. As with other forms of advertising from Twitter, we are focused on bringing value to our users and will keep your interests in mind as we develop this program.

How does @earlybird choose these deals?

Every couple days, our Earlybird at Twitter HQ lays a golden egg. Inside this wondrous egg is a piece of parchment with the day’s magical deal.

Seriously… how do you get these deals?

Ok, ok, we partner with advertisers to choose exciting deals we think our users (that’s you!) will like. If you have suggestions of a product/event you want to see featured on this account, feel free to @reply to @earlybird.

Does Twitter make money from this?

Yes, we earn revenue through our relationships with advertisers. Our focus will be to try and make these deals interesting and of value to you. We take pride in being selective about the type of deals we highlight and hope they will be an exciting way to start your day.

This explains it all, I simply am not able to communicate it better. I said it too that social media relevancy must come with some defects. These are all areas for improvement in our use of these tools. I love the freedoms that social media has made common to us all as a vehicle. But this is too damn funny not to post here on ColderICE.com

It was once said that a picture is worth a 1000 words. Well sometimes it takes us 1000′s of words to make others understand the power of social media. Maybe a picture would help trim the fuzzy logic and communicate the point.

The Six Gs of Social Media Marketing by kivilm

The 4Cs Social Media Framework by Gauravonomics

Social Media Monitoring Chart by hyku

Some people ignore or abandon social media because of its digital nature – they might not view the benefits of online social networking in the same way they see the ROI of being a member at their local Chamber of Commerce.

In my opinion, online social media and face-to-face networking need to be viewed through the same lens. Both involve social interaction, contributing to a community and getting out what you put in – The only difference being the medium.

5 Ways to Cultivate an Active Social Network by Intersection Consulting

Social Media Monitoring Funnel by Ignite Social Media

What’s up? I promise that you guys will get all the goodies, cause that is why I blog man. So here is some valuable stuff that I got from attending this year’s Channel Advisor conference. Presentations were given by eBay, Google and of course the Jedi Mind of Scot Wingo. Here are my personal notes I wanted to share with you guys, hope you like it.

NOTE: You can download all the slides from Catalyst HERE

Scott Wingo’s Presentation: eCommerce Landscape

Trends

Amazon vs. EBay

• New Amazon Product Ads are becoming interesting as a new way to get into Amazon traffic, which is now the fastest growing. It’s a CPC relationship that you can acquire from the Amazon customer without revealing any data to Amazon.
• EBay is worth $60 billion and Amazon $10 billion; Amazon growth is surpassing e-Commerce and retail growth.
• EBay is catching up with Amazon internationally but not so domestically; however, the US is lagging in innovation in contrast to the UK.
• Amazon is expected to be bigger than eBay by 2012, if things continue the way they are; eBay is set to lag as the number two player within two years.

More Trends

• By the end of the year, Smartphones are expected to outsell laptops, and that will begin to be reflected in site visits for ecommerce.
• Android OS is moving on iPhone quickly, they are within 10% of each other.
• Shopsavvy, Red Laser and Edocrab are some of the coolest next generation e-Commerce applications for shoppers.

Facebook

• Facebook is the runaway leader in social networking for unique views; however, Twitter is the one where we should keep an eye on.
• New ecommerce social models: GILT (private sales) Groupon, Ruelala, Gilt and social gaming like Farmville, Zynga, etc.
• Farmville has over 100 million users and is gaining around $600 millions anually.
• Facebook credits are going to have a large volume just in gaming credits on day one.
• In 5 years, social will be a big portion of ecommerce, keeping it as an early adopter is a good thing; so, make sure that your social links are on your pages, every email and any customer communications you do. Also, it’s important to recognize that SEO actually pays off.
• Case study is Shoe Metro using SortPrice.Com for a store in Facebook.
• If you have a Fan Page for your products, be sure your customer service people are watching it constantly in order to handle issues quickly.

Channel Advisor News

• Amazon repricer is a new feature which is in beta mode. Sync quantity, cross channel dash, premium stores version two.
• New features: iPhone/Android shopping application for Channel Advisor customers and CRM solution with Salesforce.com
• 85% of the people with smartphones are never more than 3 feet away from it, 24-hours a day.

Customer Panel (a panel of ecommerce shoppers randomly selected for the public)

• Of all the customers, none of them has used a comparison shopping engine.
• Shipping is very important to the customer, cost shouldn’t be hidden until the end and shipping cost is considered a deal breaker; particularly if there are too many fees involved.
• 4 out of 8 confirmed that they shopped on eBay in the last year; however, 8 out of 8 had purchased from Amazon.
• One panelist said: “eBay is more like Craigslist, but Amazon has a more retail-like experience”
• 7 of the 8 panelists knew that Amazon does not fulfill all the items on its site (third party sellers)
• One of the gentlemen who buys on eBay said that he never opens the junk mail from eBay or the eBay Bucks. He doesn’t “bother with that stuff”
• All of the panelists have Facebook account; however, not one of them pays attention to the ads on Facebook, since they claim “it’s never about shopping”
• None of the buyers would be willing to post a link on Facebook about a product to recommend it to a friend, even if they get a freebie.
• The panelists are not interested at all in “spamming” for brands or retailers in their Facebook streams.

Stephanie Telenius. VP of Commerce for Google.com: Presentation

Overview:

• Talked about why she joined Google after being at eBay for 7 years.
• HTML5 will bring more change and interaction within customers and buyers.
• Mobile adoption – 4.6 billion users; two thirds of the globe now have some form of mobile access.
• Half of the internet interactions are not from mobile and growth of mobile is eight times that of PC adaptation when it was starting.
• There’s a thirty times growth in mobile shopping queries right now; mobile is the number one platform for Google, nowadays.
• In one year www.polyvore.com grew to 6 million users a month as people are personalizing their shopping experience.
• 97% of people use online media to research locally, 1 in 5 Google searches are now local.
• Tips on how to get found on Google: Product pages with a new partnership with Bazaarvoice and Mobile shopping is in PVT beta right now.
• 25% of commercial search queries are ones that Google hasn’t seen before, so stay up on your keyword buys.
• New tools from Google:  Ad Planner is now in Beta for retailers.
• Google just launched remarketing, which is retargeting ad tool.
• The web integrated with mobile is now the new commerce, not just “e-commerce” anymore.
• There is a CPA ads in pilot right now, so they are testing it.
• They are looking to bring the price point down for Google Commerce Search for smaller sellers in the future. Right now it’s $50K.

Dineshi Lathi from eBay: eBay’s Evolution, What’s different? Delivering, listening, innovating.

Overview:

• Last year, they have delivered when it comes to trust value selection and velocity, efficiency, reliable business partners.
• Top rated seller grew 13%, while ecommerce built at 11%.
• Daily Deals are driving large inventory for sellers
• Tracking information is easy to post for sellers, no matter what carrier you are using.
• Member to member communication is in pilot, you will be able to see threaded conversations.
• EBay has lowered insertion fees over 99% for selling in fixed price. For example, it used to be $4.80 to sell an iPad and today it’s just a few pennies.
• Top-rated eBay sellers are 32% of eBay GMV today.
• EBay Bucks is being funded by eBay itself and applies to the entire selection of inventory of eBay
• Feature fees have been removed. It has cost nearly half a billion in eBay revenue to accomplish.
• Fixed-price listings have improved selection for buyers and they are actively recruiting big brand names on eBay, which keeps buyers coming.
• EBay-On-Location is not for the crowd that was present at this conference, but for smaller sellers who are also top buyers on the platform.
• 2010 is already showing some brand names in the search. For example, if you search for Disney, you would see a logo taking you to the Disney Outlet.
• Pilot coming soon to eBay: Split screen of auctions and buy-it-now for search results.
• Coming soon to eBay: Excel spreadsheet uploads of product listings to eBay.
• They are working to eliminate completely the problem of UPI from eBay.
• “We are committed to delivering a great ‘search experience’ for eBay sellers and buyers’.
• “We will compete fiercely in 2010 for your business” – Dinesh Lathi of eBay.
• They are working with ChannelAdvisor for a shopping cart solution; and that’s something that they know buyers want on eBay
• Variation listings should be rolling out more and more as they will continue to do so in a more controlled way.