eCommerce Marketing Specialist

In their effort to get better exposure for their company online, many companies will anoint the youngest (and obviously most “techy” staff member…) to set up their social networking/online presence.  The amateurs guide to posting your online presence “Playbook” usually developed by those who either have accounts, or know someone that does says that to be a successful online company in 2011 it is essential for your company to have:

1. Facebook Page
2. Twitter Account, WITH Tweets
3. Youtube Channel
4. Linked In
5. Blog
6. and coming soon, the 6^th pillar- Google+ (for business)

OK- by that measure you’re successful.  Now what? Most companies make the mistake of turning their message and online brand over to someone are young and seem to have played every PS3 / Xbox 360 game in existence- because they think by that virtue they understand how Social Networking works.  Well, some of that’s true (about 10% of it).  Anyone can set up a Facebook page or upload a YouTube Channel (and become a “viral” celebrity overnight…  see “Webcam 101 for Seniors”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcN08Tg3PWw)- but to sustain a long-term internet marketing program takes time to establish a strategy that will live past the initial push.  Anyone, given the right circumstances can attract a crowd; light yourself on fire and people will come to watch you burn- but after the flames diminish and there’s nothing left, the mob will disburse . Before the first login/password combination are compiled for your company to venture down this path careful consideration needs to be given to:

1. Study (and possibly rethink) your brand and message
2. Study your clients then go back to step “1”
3. Establish and rethink your strategy- is it consistent with “1”
4. Select the “right” person to establish your presence, not just a logical “able-body”

These are beginning steps to making sure you start off on the right foot for a long-term social networking strategy and not become a flash in the pan.  For this series of blog posts on Social Networking strategies I’ll dive more into ideas for developing a strategy based on segmenting your clients and prospective clients into categories and focusing on them, as well as how you can use Social Networking sites to develop your message and help with your SEO rating (with Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc…)- EVEN IF NO ONE EVER VISITS those sites. Next Blog in Series: “What are the essential components of  a successful Social Networking Strategy- and using that to drive SEO”

The past 15 years have provided an evolution of technology that has allowed us to share more and more digitally. First we had email, then came blogs, reviews, Myspace, Facebook and finally Twitter…but wait do we have another contender? Yes we do, welcome Pinterest.

Not much has been said of Pinterest in the eCommerce sphere, everyone seems to still be trying to figure out how to leverage Facebook. However, I think Pinterest could be incredibly disruptive for eCommerce.

The genious of Pinterest is that it’s simple – all the stuff I like, well categorized on one page. With Pinterest other digital models for sharing interests/recommendations are clunky and largely ineffective.

• Twitter and Facebook interests get lost in time (down the page)
• Blogs have to many clicks and to much content
• Reviews are for the most part anonymous and spread out all over the place
• Email & text – well that’s just rude

Pinterest is elegantly simple and provides a base for sharing my interests via all other social channels.  I can post something I like, share it via Twitter and Facebook, but it won’t disappear with the old status updates and twitter posts.  Instead other Pinterest users could vote it up and my friends can come back to my page in the future to see what my interests are.

This “permanent” and simplistic model allows for friends to become influences (ie I visit my friend Jack’s page because I know he’s an expert in Ski gear and I want to know what new gear he’s raving about).  It also allows friends to better understand what relevant gifts to buy (ie.  I see my sister Sue has picked up a new hobby, knitting, and now I know what to get her for Christmas).  And last but not least the Pinterest platform allows for a voting up of content, which is a great way for new exciting products to come to the for front of the market place.

Pinterest has the potential to be the worlds largest affiliate marketer and reviews engine, all driven by what people really honestly like, shared in a very simple way….and that would be real, significant, disruptive social commerce.

Who goes there?

In any retail environment, a slice of your traffic will be nothing more than browsers. They have no money, no way to pay or intent to purchase. They’re just looking. The problem is, most online retailers overestimate the size of this slice. Not everyone who leaves your site without purchasing is a deadbeat. Were they scared away by your registration process? Did they get lost? Did they need to see more product details? Dismantle the barriers and watch the number of abandonments shrink.

What Environment Have You Created?

If online commerce were simple, we’d all be on a beach drinking pina coladas through rolled-up cash. Unfortunately, simply building a website isn’t enough. Thoughtful consideration must be given to design and navigation structure. Skeptical? As any sales experts will tell you, every purchase is made within an environment; great products, price and service will not overcome a poorly designed environment. In the late-90s, we recall trolling around on a government surplus auction site. The products were desirable, if you could bear to dig through the multiple levels of sub-menus, reference numbers and category lists. Because of the confusing navigation, auction closing prices on this site were usually lower than market value, evidenced by the items selling a few days later on Ebay at a much higher price. The point: an unpleasant and puzzling site will choke your stream of prospective customers, eliminating all but a brave few. What do people do when they are confused? They hesitate, they lose confidence and they begin to disengage. Intent to purchase fades with each unsure click. If your shopper is frustrated or disoriented, they’ll leave. This has been proved and quantified during the last century of brick and mortar retail but it applies even more acutely online, where entry and exit are nearly effortless.

Price functions on a similar curve. More shoppers will tolerate clumsy navigation if your prices are discounted deeply. The danger online, however, is that your bargain-basement competitor will build a more elegant site than yours. After all, building a good site does not necessarily cost more than building an awful site. However, using price to control demand is an obvious and direct hit to your bottom line.

What Are Your Elements of Design

Effective online retail design utilizes visual coherence and simplicity rather than decorative or striking elements. Many non-retail sites, for example architectural firms, generally aren’t based on use – their aim is to display and impress. Inversely, Amazon.com is an online retail behemoth for a host of reasons, but edgy site design isn’t one of them.

That doesn’t mean your retail site should be the equivalent of a pair of tan slacks. Retailers can and should build a sense of brand identity and consistency using well-chosen and applied design elements.

1. Dimensionality is one technique that adds interest and is often employed in menu bars – layering, mimicking stacks of paper or ribbons give shoppers subtle visual cues that can aid navigation by more clearly identifying different pages, functions or operational areas within the site. A light hand is best; brash or overly emphasized elements fall flat.
2. A subtle shift in a clicked element is a great use of JavaScript animation, whereas rotating menus and fly-outs could either distract or repulse.
3. Well-designed icons impart meaning, engagement and brand identification. Overuse of icons or decoupling them from text can lead to a phenomenon called “mystery meat” in which your visitors have to guess what that button does.
4. Similarly, a few speech balloons might be a good thing, but 10?

What did I click?

Good retail site design walks the line between giving obvious information and giving too much;  If a page only has two or three buttons, simply changing the color of one when it is clicked is not going to do the trick. Design for the sake of decoration leads to clutter. Web design elements are best employed when they allow your shoppers to see where they are, what they can access, how to get there. Further, they ought to find what they want easily, whether or not they have to go to another page.

Reward your shoppers with great, solid design and they will reward you in turn.

InteractOne designs and builds e-commerce websites, with a whole-site approach that emphasizes content, SEO and capturing meaningful data. In business since 1998, InteractOne scales its approach to fit the needs of a range of clients from start-ups to Fortune 500 stalwarts.

For most businesses the benefits of using social media like twitter, facebook or a blog are very real. These platforms and can yield positive results for not only SERPS (Search Engine Results Page) rankings but for customer engagement and satisfaction as well. The key to using social media in a beneficial way for your business is simply that: using it.

For your business to effectively use Twitter and facebook you must be actively engaging with customers who reach out to you using these platforms. Setting it and forgetting it is a big mistake many company’s make. In fact if you plan to do that you are probably better off not venturing into the social media realm at all. Forgotten facebook pages can fill with spam, steal SERPS ranking (thus visitors). While Forgotten blogs and twitter accounts will not necessarily fill with spam they can steal SERPS and prove to be a hurdle between you in your customers.

On the other side of the spectrum properly using social media platforms can greatly improve your image and customer relationships. They can actively drive traffic to your site and significantly increase the number of loyal returning visitors.

How do you use social media platforms like facebook, twitter or a blog? The short answer is once a day for at least for 15 minutes. Really, that’s all it takes! Of course, the longer you spend the better but 15 minutes is a great start. Respond to questions, post/tweet company news, share interesting industry related articles, share related online pictures and video and more. The key is to do it on a regular basis.

So remember, if your thinking of using social media to drive traffic to your site, increase your customer interaction or satisfaction be sure to be an active user. Doing otherwise will do more harm than good.

One of the great assets to using WordPress as a CMS (Content Management System) is the amount of both free and paid for plug-ins. This is especially true in the SEO arena. Most WordPress sites are very SEO friendly right out of the box; however, by adding a few good plug-ins to the mix you can significantly improve your rankings on search engine result pages.

Two free WordPress SEO Plug-ins you should definitely look into are the All in One SEO plug-in and WP Title 2 plug-in. With these two plug-ins you can be sure that your basic best practices of SEO are covered.

The All in One SEO plug-in allows you to control your meta-tags for every post and page. Although meta tags weight in Google’s search algorithm has gone down it is by no way completely diminished and plays an important role in optimizing your site. By allowing you to focus your meta tags and page content around a few keywords the All in One SEO will ensure that your on page SEO is up to best practice standards.

One of shortfalls of WordPress out of the box is the inability to have SEO friendly title tags (usually the h1 tag) while keeping a pleasant look to the navigation. Enter the WP Title 2 Plug-in. This plug in allows you to keep your navigation links short and sweet while having SEO friendly title tags.

As more people become SEO educated the more you are going to have to do to get ranked well on the search engine results pages. Cover the basics and then some with these two outstanding free SEO plug-ins.

A key part of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is tracking the performance of keywords.  For some sites, a high traffic flow is the goal regardless of who the visitors are and what they want. Other websites, particularly e-commerce sites, focus not only on traffic but conversions as well. In either case tracking keyword performance is necessary.

The first part of tracking keywords is actually selecting the keywords your SEO campaign is focusing on. A simple Google search for “SEO keyword tool” will yield many results.  However, two of the best tools I can suggest are Google’s Keyword Traffic Tool and Wordtracker’s GTRends. For each page of your website I would focus on no more than two keywords.

When it’s time to see where you rank for those keywords, purchase a SERPS (Search Engine Results Page) rank checking software or choose from the many free services on the web. The important thing is to run these often and always record the results.

Once you’ve picked your keywords it’s time to set up website tracking software.  Again, a simple Google search will provide many options to choose from. Before you try any of the paid services, I highly recommend you try Google Analytics.  This tracking software is highly configurable, creates great reports and gives most, if not all, paid services a run for their money.

Now for the hard part, combining your SERPs data, website tracking data and your SEO efforts.  This is why most companies pay SEO Agencies the big bucks.  You must discard the keywords that rank well but are not converting or bringing traffic in,  increase SEO efforts on keywords lagging in SERPS but still bringing performing well and track new keywords that you discover through data analysis.  All the while you must continue  to collect, analyze, combine and organize all tracking data.

Tracking keywords is an intricate part of a successful internet marketing plan and a must for effective Search Engine Optimization. While it may prove time and resource consuming, the end result is a website that more than pays for itself!

Adding a blog to your Magento store is an excellent way to connect with your customers, increase your SEO efforts, and make your store an authority site on the products and services it offers. With a blog you can constantly add relevant content(for both your customers and search engines) making your store a destination for information relating to your product or service.

A blog allows you to connect with your customers on a never before seen level. You can publish news releases, detailed product reviews, related content, take customer comments/questions/concerns and respond to them in kind. Coupled with the latest social networking platforms you can cultivate this relationship even further. The relationship you establish with your customers is a great way to see market trends and analyze customers wants in needs. Most importantly it will increase conversions, purchases, and create a loyal customer base.

By successfully connecting to your customers through your blog posts your Magento store will become an authority destination on the product or services you sell. Along with this authority status will come an increase of traffic.  The increase will come not only from returning readers and customers but those looking for information. As your authority status grows people will link to your site from other websites further increasing traffic flow.

Connecting with your customers and becoming an authority site on subjects concerning the products and services you sell will cause your search engine rankings to improve dramatically.  You can further your SEO efforts by providing links to different pages in your Magento store in each individual post. Not only will your customers be lured in by this stream of content but search engines will use it to determine what your site is about. By keeping your posts focused you can manipulate this into better SERPS (Search Engine Results Page) rankings for your site.

A blog for your Magento store is a good idea on many levels. By becoming an exporter of fresh relevant content related to the products you sell, your blog will become an importer of customers and indispensable marketing tool.

Video is now an intricate part of the web. With 24 hours of video being loaded into YouTube every minute, new video friendly platforms like the iPad & Google TV emerging and search results serving up video your internet marketing strategy should include this ever-expanding medium. If its a bottle of wine, hotel room, RV, electronic gadget, or just about anything, video can show your customers what you are selling close up and personal. So how should you go about promoting video on the internet?

Quality Camcorder or Flip Video: No, you don’t have to go spend an arm and a leg, but a clear steady image goes a lot further that a shaky, blurry one.

Upload to Multiple Video Sites: The more sites you share your video with the better. YouTube, Yahoo Video & AOL Video are great to start with. Remember to always provide a link back to your website. The page it links back should have the video along with keywords that describe that video.

Use keywords In Title: The Title of the video is a huge factor with both search engines listing it as a result and users choosing to view it. Make sure you make the title catchy as well as keyword rich. Also provide engaging keyword rich descriptions of the video as well. If you are able to put a link in the description back to your site in the description, by all means do so!

Embed the Video on Your Site: This is a must. When you embed the video on your site make sure it is titled and the content on the page relates to the video.

Using video as part of your internet marketing strategy is a must in this day and age.  By implementing these simple rules you can be sure that your video and thus your website and products will be found by interested consumers.

The use of mobile devices used for internet search and purchases is on a dramatic rise. Ross Sandler of RBC is predicting mobile searches to rise from its current level 9 % of all searches today to 20% of all internet search queries by 2012 (See Techcrunch).  As our cell phones evolve into more sophisticated portable computers you can be sure that this trend will continue to increase and mobile commerce (m-commerce) will become the norm and a huge percentage of retail sales.  Is your eCommerce business ready for the change?

Enter Magento Mobile. With its full release expected later it will be the worlds first mobile commerce system. The biggest advanatge Magento Mobile has over its competitors is that is doesn’t just rebrand re-theme a merchant’s website for mobile browsers. Instead a retailer’s product catalog is transformed into a fully-functional, branded, native application.

This app makes for a great shopping experience for the buyer. Load times are fast. Purchases are secure. Navigation is easy and logical. Page functionality is great. Everything online shoppers have come to expect from Magento while shopping from their home computers or laptops can be found in Magento Mobile.

For the seller the benefits not only include satisfied shoppers but a hassle free product that fully integrates into their existing Magento store. The full list of Magento Mobile benefits include:

• Integration with Online Magento Store – The Magento-mobile admin will fully integrate with your store’s catalog, checkout, inventory, reporting, and other features.
• Magento Managed Submissions – Magento will take the worry out of submitting your online store application. The time and complexity of maintaining application standards will be taken care of for a low monthly fee. This lets you focus on selling to your customers instead of dealing with the latest upgrade and/or complicity issues.
• Build customer Relationships – How better to build customer relationships then through their smartphone? Geo-targeting and the ability to provide users with an immersive native experience are enhanced with Magento Mobile.
• Manage Multiple Devices – With new mobile devices coming out almost yearly if not monthly (droid, ipad, ect..) managing your storefronts from a single portal will be save time and improve efficiencies. Customizing and creating different reports will also be simplified.
• Fully Customizable – Device oriented features and branded themes can be added and modified with just a few clicks. You can easily and quickly update the colors and layout of your app with the new Magento mobile admin, even after customers have downloaded your app.
• Low Cost of Ownership – Bring the the high end experience of a mobile app store to your customers for a low price. By paying for the feature you only want or need saves you money.
  The Age of Mobile eCommerce (m-commerce) is here. Mobile Magento is a great cost effective way to get a piece of this quickly expanding marketplace and grow your bottom line.

Great question. You’d be surprised how many companies spend thousands of dollars getting new website’s build without a clue as to where their customers are online.

20,340,000,000 web pages were indexed as of November 2009…so as far as the web is concerned - “If You Build It, They Will Not Come”.

That’s why at InteractOne we specialize in helping companies first find their customers and see how they are behaving before endeavoring to build new website systems.

This fact finding process is hugely beneficial.  By identifying online customer “who, what, where and why” data we are able to create smart marketing campaigns that leverage the right technology with relevant information to efficiently target and reach markets much more effectively.  The results,  significantly higher ROI and Brand impact from your web marketing efforts.