Tom Lindmeier’s Blog @ MarketPlanB

The world is observing with fascination how the Iranian people are revolting in response to the seemingly fraudulent elections. Social media has taken a new role in the Mideast as the rebellion has spread. The Iranian government has desperately attempted to shut down web communications by shutting down Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and any social media that can reveal the true extent of the oppression and censorship that is taking place. It’s also interesting that we are hearing news that developers are reaching out to the Iranian protesters by showing them how to redirect servers and avoid the censorship.

Iranian protesters

Even more interesting is the fact that the Iranian government is using social media for disinformation by setting up fraudulent rally locations and displaying violent protests that are pure fiction. But the fraud is recognized by the aggregate of social media consumers and exposed as quickly as it is revealed.

The lesson of this scenario is an allegory to the attempts of the marketing community to monetize social media.  There are many great examples of effective use of blogs, but success stories involving social apps such as Facebook and Twitter seem to be fewer because these concepts are still relatively new. My research of online marketers in the blogosphere seems to indicate they share more information about what NOT to do than examples of what you CAN do to successfully leverage social media.  Many marketers are understandably reluctant to use these tactics because the negatives of failure seem to outweigh the positives. They don’t want to be exposed as a fraud as we have seen in this instance with the Iranian government.

So what’s the best approach to leveraging social media? The first lesson is what bloggers have learned over the past decade; great content is consumed and everything else is ignored (or exposed as fraudulent). The second is that we need to understand that use of social media is just a tactic and not a strategy in itself. If you can fit social media into overall marketing strategy so that it is truly meaningful and has genuine value to your customers and prospects, it will be readily apparent. If not, you need to adjust the tactic or dismiss it altogether.

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Tags: Blog, Facebook, Marketing, Marketing strategy, Politics of Iran, Social media, Twitter, YouTube

Google touts it’s Search-based Keyword Tool as a great way to find new keywords for your ad campaigns. It does have a severe limitation because it only works with 1-3 word phrases and makes it difficult to discover long-tail phrases. But it’s still an effective way to find keywords you may have missed.

Google states that:

The Keyword Tool is especially helpful in three situations:

• When you first create a new ad group
• When your current keywords are performing poorly and you need to find better options
• When you have one keyword that really works well and want to find more like it

I also have found it to be an effective SEO keyword discovery tool. Many of my clients have a very limited paid search budget and prefer to SEO optimize high-cost keywords. This also means that they have limited paid search data and need to undergo a comprehensive keyword discovery process. The SbKT Tool provides a fast and inexpensive method for keyword discovery that leverages paid search data.

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I track the emails of dozens of retail marketers to get a grasp of new developments and take note great ideas. The result is that my in box is flooded with emails on a daily basis.

But there is a better method to track the competition.  The Retail Email Blog has a “search by retailer” function on the left navigation that allows you view the emails of most major retailers.

You may also want to take a look at their 2008 Design Hall of Fame.

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The use of video on ecommerce sites has moved from a trend to one of the most discussed tactics in 2009. My post on Video Product Demonstrations in March of 2008 resulted in many responses from entrepreneurs who had set up video production houses in anticipation of the trend. Most of these businesses are photographers who understand their client’s need to efficiently produce videos at a cost that is low enough to allow a return on investment. They are competing with resourceful managers who hire talented and enthusiastic interns to produce videos. Many are surprisingly well done.
The barriers to entry are low and this has resulted in rapid growth as users have seen increases in conversion that support expansion in the use of videos. Ecommerce players have also learned syndicate their videos through the use of widgets to create a legitimate social marketing tactic.

In addition to product demos and reviews used by the early adopters, videos are also used for:

• How to assemble videos
• Installation videos
• Testimonials
• Category page branding (for instance: interviews with product managers)

The Get Elastic Blog has created a series of articles titled Adventures in Ecommerce Video that demonstrates how etailers are using video. I suggest making a visit…

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This has nothing to do with ecommerce or online marketing. But I am impressed with well-executed television campaign…

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I recently attended a webinar by Jason Billingsley that discussed Multi-Store Retailing. Follow this link to view the on-demand version at Elastic Path.

It’s a great overview of how online retailers create multiple storefronts and the strategies behind various tactics. Nice job, Jason.

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Download Email Campaign Planning Revealed.pdf

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With average conversion rates running at 2.5%, there’s much work still to be done and plenty of opportunity to improve the shopping experience.  I’ve always maintained that this number is very low because most visitors come to your site ready to buy. To put this in perspective, mortar retailers could not possibly survive if only 2.5% of store visitors made a purchase. To their credit, I have yet to meet a colleague who is satisfied with their conversion rate.

The good news is that the science of ecommerce has matured significantly over past decade and most players have significantly improved the functionality of their sites by adding features and testing to refine performance. Many of my discussions with colleagues have tended to focus on the following list improvements that are designed to remove barriers to conversion:

• Ease and simplicity of checkout
• Address the shopper’s concerns with return policies, guarantees, third-party seals and security assurances
• Ease and clarity of return policies
• Provide shipping and tax totals early in the checkout process
• Offer multiple payment options (pay-by-check, PayPal, etc.)
• Offer estimated delivery times and showing in-stock availability for items
• Customer reviews
• Meet the shopper’s gift buying needs (e.g., gift wrapping, messaging or gift certificates)
• Improve the ease of locating products through navigation and site search refinements
• Improving design elements
• Rich media enhancements

All of these improvements are important steps to increase conversion. The science of removing barriers to conversion gets plenty of attention, but the art of improving the shopping experience is where many ecommerce retailers fall short. What am I referring to? Primarily the production values associated with copy and photography and the efficacy of the brand in conveying confidence. While the enhancements listed above remove barriers, copy and photography close the sale and cannot be underestimated.

Examine your website and ask these questions:

1. Copy– Does your copy answer all the shopper’s implicit questions regarding the product? Does your copy sell? If you’re a multi-channel retailer and are merely importing copy from your catalog, you may need rewrite copy and expand the product specifications.  Catalogs are restricted by space allocation costs that do not apply to web sites. If you need to justify the additional expense, run a copy test on your top selling products to determine an ROI. This is also great opportunity to SEO optimize your copy if you have not already done so.
2. Photography– Rich media applications with zoom, pan, and swatches are guaranteed conversion enhancers for most product lines. But the effective use alternate images can be your most effective tool for answering the shopper’s implicit questions.  Don’t assume that one photo can get the job done. You should insist on nothing but top-notch photography and be willing to invest a few extra dollars to achieve the production values necessary to enhance your brand and sell your product. You should also determine if video demonstrations could help close the sale and be willing to conduct tests to determine an ROI.
3. Branding– What are you doing with your presentation to be different? Do brand considerations affect all of your copy and design presentations? Do you have a cookie-cutter web site that is indiscernible from competitors and non-competitors?

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Despite well-known study data that shows a trend for the use of preview panes and image blocking, many marketers appear to ignoring the need to design emails that users can see.

In 2007, Marketing Sherpa published a study with the following results:
69% of at-work users view emails in preview panes
26.6% of online consumers view emails in preview panes and 59% block images.

One year later, we can only presume that the percentage is significantly higher for online consumers as preview panes are now available in virtually every major email application.

The following examples are of what appears on a 15” monitor with the preview pane set to occupy 50% of the available screen area (a default setting for most applications). I’ll begin by showing poor uses and end by showing designs that do a great job of getting critical information in the top.

This design from SimplyWeddingStuff is the most common mistake. The logo header consumes the entire preview pane. The 5% offer is actually located at the bottom of the email.

The letters I receive from Christopher Kimball and America’s Test Kitchen are engaging and very well done. But the design is lazy because the extra line spaces could easily be eliminated to allow for the first paragraph of this text email to entice me into reading.

The practice of placing the site’s top navigation at the head of the email is in most cases, unnecessary and counter-productive. The graphic that states the offer and links to the landing page is the single most important element. If your testing proves that your home page banner and navigation at the top are a winner. I suggest compressing the graphic vertically to allow room for the offer. The ability to see even 3/4 of the graphic would be a dramatic improvement.

The redesign of the Amazon web site included a shift from rather large area of top navigation to one that is simple and compressed. In this case, the top navigation is not a problem. My only comment is that the headline could be more compelling by stating the savings one can get by clicking the email.

Here is an example of an email design from Tiger Direct that makes perfect use of the preview pane. It shouts the offer with enthusiasm and allows comprehension in an instant.

Are you making great use of the preview pane?

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The tradition at MarketPlanB has been to pack as much information into the fewest words possible. Keeping with this tradition of nutshell summaries, I present the following checklist that can be used to evaluate your email campaign planning. The list is a result of evaluating the metrics of thousands of emails over the past 7 seven years. I invite you to add to this list.

1. Offers must reflect a genuine value to your customers. 90% of your effort should go into the development of a rich variety offers with the goal of getting your recipients to look forward to receiving the next offer. Compelling offers is the name of the game. When your merchants ask you to try to move an item that is a poor seller or excess inventory, you can anticipate poor results and a surge in opt-outs. Great copy and graphics can never make up for a less-than-compelling offer.
2. Your offer must be instantly recognized. Clever and cute muddles the message. Clearly stating the offer in the fewest words possible within the preview pane is a must. Get down to business as quick as possible. Your “Presidents Day” or “4th of July” theme is of very little value and can hurt if it dilutes your offer message. Dramatic colors almost always work better than soft, muted colors.
3. The timeliness of your offers is the key to improving results. That’s why triggered emails work so well. Offers that address post-purchase, abandoned carts, wish lists, time spent on-site and other key performance indicators are well worth the effort. Fine-tuning the launch dates for seasonal product offers will result in improved gains.
4. The depth of products in the offer has a direct correlation to the number of orders and order value. Try to expand your offer to cover as many products as possible to obtain maximum revenue. Build item counts into your email results summaries– it will help you build more accurate forecasting.
5. The urgency of quick expiration dates increases response. Themes that stress 24 hour, 48 hour or lunchtime windows are some of the most lucrative offers available. Follow-up emails that announce the final days of a promotion with a longer time window are well worth the effort. The measurement and evaluation of lag patterns is a key performance indicator.

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