Tom Lindmeier’s Blog @ MarketPlanB

Linda Bustos of Get Elastic is the most prolific source of usable information for ecommerce marketers anywhere in the blogosphere. I have linked to her many times and I’m doing it again right now because she’ll answer the most frequently asked question I get from colleagues: Can you rank social media tactics so I have an idea where to begin?

Here’s a list top social media strategies for ecommerce. However I suggest that you go straight to author for a complete explanation and demonstration:

Top 10 Web 2.0 Activities for Ecommerce.

1. Customer reviews
2. Shopping widgets
3. Question & answer
4. Twitter
5. User generated cross-sells
6. Facebook
7. Co-browsing
8. Social widgets
9. Retail blogging
10. Video sharing

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My clients have seen a dramatic drop in gBase clicks and conversion. Discussions in the Google forums indicate that the decline is affecting everyone. The rate of decrease varies widely and there is no consensus on how to combat the changes. Or in other words “it is what it is”.

Frankly, other than cleaning up some minor errors in the feed, I am at loss for how I can improve performance.

If you have seen similar changes in Google Base, I would love to hear your story and discuss.

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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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