1. SalesView:

MarketingSherpa released its 2009 eCommerce Benchmark Survey and reminds us that we should be gearing up for what is projected to be an improved holiday season: up 9% over 2008.  Nearly 1,500 eCommerce marketers rated tactics for improving website conversions.

1.  Perpetual shopping carts

These take many different forms:  from a simple note that there’s a product sitting in the cart to dynamic overlays showing images of the product, price, and estimated shipping costs.  The perpetual shopping cart keeps the purchase in the mind of the customer; that psychological anchor helps guide them back to the purchase.

2.  Website search

Consumer research suggests that almost 50% of shoppers prefer internal search over traditional menu options.  This number naturally rises when they have a specific product or brand in mind. 

The first priority is to test your internal search regularly to ensure that it works effectively. Second, examine the different business factors that can be used to optimize internal search results.  Some marketers use a ‘last in-first out’ method to move inventory, while others use their analytics and database systems to sort products by profit margin.  The choices are as broad as your technology and creativity.

3.  Enhanced display

Consumers are enthusiastic about getting multiple, varied photos of a product.   People want to know as much as they can about a product, and even static images can help.  Showing videos how to use products or explaining complex features can bring products to life for the user.

Definition 6 is an Atlanta ad agency and has extensive experience in building and designing eCommerce websites.  We can improve your Search Engine Optimization.  We are experts in Google Search technology and can implement search at your site.  We can also help you with your interactive advertising campaigns and targeted email marketing.  Do you need a mobile advertising strategy?  We can help!

1. Choose a good handle
2. Select an account name wisely
3. Make your bio count
4. Spread the word
5. Remember your URL
6. Select the initial characters of each tweet carefully (the first 42 or so become your title tag)
7. Create keyword-rich tweets when possible
8. Optimize for RT (aka retweetability)
9. Shorten those links (and track them)
10. Cut the fat - take the reader to the information they want, don't make them search for it after clicking your link

In 2009, more data will be generated by individuals than in the entire previous history of mankind.  

Andreas Weigend explains how/why at http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/now-new-next/2009/05/the-social-data-revolution.html.  There have been two “data revolutions” in the way consumer data is solicited and collected.

Initially, successful companies gained power by collecting, aggregating, and analyzing the customer data they collected.  But, most companies didn’t fully utilize all the data collected.

Then, companies like Amazon.com realized that users often trusted recommendations by other users more than promotional materials.  Users started to actively contribute explicit data, such as, information about themselves, their friends, or about the items they purchased.  Amazon leveraged this new knowledge to help customers with their purchasing decisions.


Successful firms encourage and reward users who contribute honest data.  Netflix allows users to contribute ratings for movies that they have seen; the incentive to contribute accurate data is to get better recommendations for new movies.  Customers are starting to interact with each other. Knowing that they are not alone has shifted the balance of power from companies back to consumers.


Why spend time on hold with a customer service representative if we can just Google see if someone else has already solved the same problem?  An online user community was likely to be more helpful than a representative employed by the company.


Bottom line:  The online world is beginning to be ruled by the expectations of the users.  Companies that want to stay relevant have no choice but to accept the ideas of the consumer revolution as swiftly as possible and address the higher expectations for customer relationships.

Definition 6 is an interactive media agency that creates marketing initiatives that engage people.  We capture and analyze relevant metrics from web analytics, email marketing, online media, and social media campaigns to continue to test and refine marketing plans.  We’d like to help you meet the challenge of addressing the new expectations of consumers.

In my continuing research into marketing to the Hispanic consumer, I'm finding great articles from MediaPost that provide good information on why and how to reach this particular audience.  So here is an article by Joseph Kutchera (Why Does Google Send U.S. Hispanics To Foreign Web Sites?) that talks about what Google is doing with search results for the Spanish speaking community and how you can apply similar ideas to your marketing campaigns.

The first thing he points out is that if you search in Google using Spanish words, 50% or more of your responses are going to be for sites outside of the U.S. borders.  So why does this happen and why do marketers miss this target audience?  Kutchera provides the answer.  "Google and other search engines index sites globally while we marketers, agencies and media sellers work within the economic and political borders of the U.S."  When people search using Spanish words and terms, Google is going to return sites that have Spanish content on them.  Does your website have Spanish content?  If you do, you may still be missing out on this audience for a few different reasons.  Kutchera points out the following.  1) Your Spanish site may not be optimized for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) like your English site.  2) Many Spanish speaking Hispanics like to go to sites of their country of origin. 3) Spanish language markets are more likely to spend time on their content, making it more relevant than someone from an English language market who is updating a Spanish language website. 4) U.S. advertisers have been slow to move budgets toward online marketing and therefore not providing the resources necessary to provide the content that is necessary.

So what can you do to reach the Hispanic population:

- Purchase non-U.S. targeted inventory on your search buys along with your U.S. targeted inventory.
- Reach out to Hispanic country-of-origin web sites through ad networks.
- Apply behavioral, contextual, and language targeting to further segment and understand your Hispanic audience.

As a Senior Consultant at Definition 6, an interactive marketing agency with expertise in Web Search Engine Optimization and Search Marketing Consulting, I'm seeing lots of evidence for companies to shift some marketing dollars to specifically target Hispanics in the U.S.  This growing population is getting online at a very fast pace.  There are millions and millions of them out there that could be buying your products or services if they could find you.  Are you willing to let them go to your competitors?  We can help you target them.  We can help you get ahead of the curve.
 

A client sent me two articles to react to about online advertising.  The title that I chose for this posting states my position:  I'm not sure why people think that advertising alone should support a website.

The first article is from The Economist and is entitled The demise of a popular but unsustainable business model for the Internet now seems inevitable.  This is one of the best articles I've read that explains the reality of Internet business models, whether realistic or not.  Read the entire article at www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13326158.

Great explanation of the dotcom crash…
Firms sprang up to offer content and services online, in the hope that they would eventually be able to “monetise” the resulting millions of “eyeballs” by selling advertising. Things did not work out that way, though, and the result was the dotcom crash.

…and of the Web 2.0 bubble…
Google’s ability to place small, targeted text advertisements next to Internet-search results, and on other websites, meant that many of the business models thought to have been killed by the dotcom bust now rose from the grave.

….and economical realities.
The idea that you can give things away online, and hope that advertising revenue will somehow materialize later on, undoubtedly appeals to users, who enjoy free services as a result.  Ultimately, though, every business needs revenues—and advertising is not going to provide enough.

The second article is a provocative one entitled Why Advertising Is Failing On The Internet and states that advertising cannot fully support the Internet.  Read it at www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/22/why-advertising-is-failing-on-the-internet/.

Websites need to sell real products, services, information or 'access' to information like TripAdvisor.com.  Or, offer an 'experience' like LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, or World of Warcraft.

It's true that most people don't trust ads, online or offline.  They don't 'want' them or 'need' them.  The Internet allows users to get information from a variety of sources and from sources they trust.

But, no company expecting to maintain market share in today's economic environment is going to say "Stop telling potential customers about us." 

Organic search, paid search and display banners can increase awareness and conversions even in today's climate.  Display banner advertising works because it reaches users where they are on the Internet.  You don't advertise just with your name on the building.  You advertise in high traffic areas, too.

How does Definition 6 ensure that online advertising succeeds for our clients?   First, we're big into collaborative strategy.  How can you differentiate yourself?  How can we build synergy with your other initiatives?  Who should you target with banners?  What should the messaging be?

Bottom line:  Appropriate targeting and messaging still works online.  We go beyond traditional banners; we use rich media to make the experience engaging and interactive.

Our society has become accustomed to instant access to relevant information within moments of thinking of a question.  Even the slightest curiosity can easily be satiated by launching a web browser and typing a word that seems to represent what you're looking for.  Search engines have been around for ages-- and the way search results appear on a web page hasn't changed a great deal in the last 10 years.   It's still just a page with small paragraphs, underlined links and bolded keywords.  But dramatic improvements in search result relevance have changed the landscape of information pursuit.  What used to be considered "resourcefulness" in the ability to dig up obscure yet valuable information has become the norm, completely accessible to the average computer user.
 
Google has ushered us into this world of information access.  They've trained us to expect to find what we're looking for within the first page of results.  I find it frustrating to even have to read beyond the first few results.  Once you have to click beyond the first page of search results, you are considering whether you might have made a bad choice in what keywords you chose to search for. 
 
So how can you leverage this Google phenomenon in your business?    It's about leveraging the fact that everyone now knows how to use the Google user interface.  What if you were to offer that same familiar user interface to your employees?  They're already trained to form the appropriate "question" to type into the form, you just need to point them to your companies own Google.  Imagine giving users access to SharePoint sites, internal wiki's, company documents or even purchase orders without needing to publish another document explaining how?  How much do you spend on putting together documentation specifically geared to the "lowest common denominator" users?  Thanks to Google's enterprise technologies, you don't have to any more.  You can hook it up, turn it on and turn them loose.

And, people don't just search for web pages containing information.  They even use Google as an internet "quick-launch."   I was perplexed the first time I saw someone Google (yes, it's a verb too) "facebook.com" and click the first link.  Why not type it into the URL field of Firefox?  Because if you Google it, you don't even have to type it correctly.  You can completely botch the spelling and still find exactly what you want.  Furthermore, you don't have to guess on whether it's .NET or .COM or .BIZ and risk accidentally ending up on some unpleasant website that has nothing to do with what you're looking for.

There's another plethora of value and excitement in the Google OneBox features.  Although this isn't quite as well known as Google itself, most people have experienced it before.  You Google "MSFT" and you get the current stock quote for Microsoft Inc.  Or you Google "Weather 30306" and you see the Atlanta weather appear in a small comic-strip form across the top of the search results.  These aren't web pages so how is that information getting up there above the search results?  This is the Google OneBox.  It allows you to connect your enterprise Google Search Appliance to other sources of real-time information - SAP, CRM, ERP, Sales Force, etc.  You can add a connection between your Google Search Appliance and Sales Force to enable you to find contact information that is stored in SalesForce.com, by simply typing in the person’s name or some other associated information.  There are lots of things going on behind the scenes-- XML moving between these systems,   but that doesn't really matter.  The point is that you get your information without having to go into Sales Force.  Read our detailed document on the Onebox to dive into the details.
 
This is starting to sound pretty compelling, right?  For the accounting types, it's not a hard sale as it's going to deliver improved operational efficiency, reduced cost of infrastructure, and reduced complexity of internal data access.  The other half of your organization will be benefiting from the value of information that previously was just not accessible without substantial and cost prohibitive efforts.      Your newest client will find your most recent proposal was right "on the mark"…all because the business development executive was able to find previous RFP responses that your agency has delivered over the last 5 years.     
 
It's hard to imagine areas of your business that wouldn't be affected by implementing such a game changing device.  Definition 6 can work with you to implement Enterprise Search Solutions, helping your company leverage the power of Google Search.    We're certified Google Search Enterprise Partners, trained at Google Headquarters in Mountain view, California.  We have a team of top solutionists that are among the most experienced in enterprise search field.

An Interactive Media Agency has to pay a lot of attention to a lot of things. So we tend to read, digest, synthesize and retransmit a ton of information. As a result, we get pretty good at dissecting information and applying it against our own customers, lessons learned and next assignments. I found that Matt Cutt's makes some good points and I agree with everything he said with the exception of point 1 about natural search. I think SEO will be something of critical importance and in growing importance in the years to come. Aside from that, I think he is spot on with his comments.

Google's Matt Cutts cited the decreasing importance of rank for any given phrase and other implications. To be successful in 2009, marketers must strive for relevance in paid and natural search. Marketers should also keep these points in mind:

• Natural search ranking reports will tell less of the story and become less important
• Relevancy in PPC ads becomes more important than ever: keywords, ad copy and landing pages should match to boost quality scores and attract attention
• Other ways to instantly boost relevance on the SERPs include:
• Geotargeting for multichannel and local advertisers
• Natural search landing pages, targeting specific people with specific keywords

Key recommendation: Improve relevance in PPC advertising, keyword research and other efforts to dominate SERPs.

As interactive marketing continues to grow in importance, the recommendations above will grow in impact and your interactive ad agency will need to focus on making the dollars you spend, more effective and revenue supporting. I particularly love the recommendations about " keywords, ad copy and landing pages should match to boost quality scores and attract attention" - I think this is a great point of reference for everyone to think about - what happens, before, during and after the click.

Blogs are proven tools to convert prospects as the reader becomes engaged with your content.  Even more, blogging is an excellent way to drive additional traffic to your site without engaging in expensive pay-per-click campaigns.

What We Deliver:
• Quick setup of a hosted/SaaS model for a branded blogging solution that leverages “compended blogs” and has significant impact on your overall SEO strategy
• A branded compended blog site for up to 5 corporate bloggers along with the associated interfaces and admin tools
• 2 hours of training on how to use the system

Estimated timeframe for delivery is 1-2 weeks.  Contact us today for more information.


 

Will you need to pay license and support renewal fees in 2009 for the existing internal technologies you use?  Are you looking to lower your IT operational costs or lower capital expenditures in 2009 for hardware?

Definition 6 can help you leverage SaaS as an integrated part of your overall technology infrastructure to help you significantly lower costs by using things like Google Apps, Microsoft BPOS, Salesforce.Com, Twitter, Yammer, Tumblr, Skype, and Gotomeeting.

During a 1-Day workshop our experienced engineers and consultants will lead you through SaaS Infrastructure concepts, educate you on what some of the larger SaaS providers are doing and also educate you on how you can utilize these providers in order to integrate your services in a secure and seamless fashion.  Contact us today for more information.

Site search is yet another website search engine optimization solution that we help our clients with.  It is a relatively low cost way to improve overall site experience for users and can help drive conversion by quickly getting users to the content they want.  Onsite Search also alleviates website abandonment if users aren’t quickly and easily finding what they are looking for.

How can Definition 6 help?
• Add “Google-quality” search to your company’s public websites
• Brand it to look like your current site design
• Can be done using a SaaS or appliance approach

What can we deliver?
• Branded search box and results on your public website
• 2 hours of training on the search service or appliance admin interfaces

Estimated timeframe for delivery is 2-3 weeks.  Contact us today for more information: http://www.definition6.com/contact-us.aspx