Post on 20-Jun-2020
Marketing fundamentals: your website as a marketing tool........................................................3
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How to: Boost your SEO..............................................................................................................................6
Newsflash: your friends are your biggest allies.......................................................................................7
Why you need a cross-channel marketing strategy...............................................................................8
Why content is the linchpin of marketing strategies...........................................................................10
Email marketing vs email spam................................................................................................................12
How to get the most from Facebook......................................................................................................14
Five Twitter tools to boost your business................................................................................................15
Is Pinterest right for me? ............................................................................................................................17
The subtleties of selling social....................................................................................................................18
Business-building blogs .............................................................................................................................20
Nine ways to use web analytics ...............................................................................................................21
Market booster
Websites are good marketing tools because they
open up your brand to a new world of potential
customers. Your website is accessible across the
globe and all you have to do is reach out and
welcome them in.
You can promote your business better
Many small businesses make the mistake of using
their website to just represent their company
online. Yes, a website is a good way to give
people more information about your company,
but it should not only be a medium for showing
your contact details.
Use your website to promote and sell your firms’
goods and services. This does not necessarily
mean you need to have the latest online sales
portal, but it does mean using your website as
a two-way communication channel between
potential customers and your sales people.
It encases your brand, logo, product
lines as well as aspects of your aftercare
– here are a few more reasons to think
of your website as a marketing tool.
Credibility
Having a well-designed, up-to-date
website improves your credibility.
It gives you the opportunity to tell
potential customers what you are about
and why you deserve their custom.
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You now have a 24/7/365 operation
With a website, you no longer have to turn
customers away when it’s time to close up shop,
you no longer have to specify trading hours or
shut for public holidays. Online shopping happens
around the clock, day-in and day-out. A website that
enables this will guarantee more sales than if you
were just selling for nine hours a day.
Convenience for your customers
The internet allows people to research their
products online, which is much easier than them
having to drive to a shop and ask a salesperson for
information on a product.
Potential customers have the ability to visit your
website whenever they please, in the comfort of
their own home, at any time of the day or night.
Think of your website as a self-service medium – it’s
the ultimate convenience for potential customers.
How to spot a great domain name
Particularly for companies operating in the
ecommerce space, having a domain name that
is memorable, pertinent and simple is essential.
Without a good domain name, you could be sunk
before you get going.
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Keep it simple and memorable
As well as being SEO friendly, your domain name
should be original, personalised and short. This is
because you want your ecommerce customers to
remember your domain name.
So keep the name simple and easy to spell (and
definitely avoid any “creative misspellings”, as these
will just confuse your users). In addition, the ideal
domain name should be pronounceable, short and
meaningful.
A question of spelling
If your brand name is not easy to spell, don’t worry;
a technique adopted by many websites is to buy
associated domain names, such as typos. These
domain names can redirect to the correct website,
ensuring that you do not lose any valuable tra!c.
Remember that your domain name will also
be your email address. This is an important
consideration, as you will be using the name every
day for your communications. Keep it simple, keep
it memorable and keep it short.
Search engine optimisation
For ecommerce sites, having your
website and its domain name SEO
friendly is extremely important. For
this, keywords are essential.
A good domain name will convey
meaning,
so if it contains keywords, it helps to
give linguistic clues to the content of
the website itself. This will help both in
search engine rankings, but also with
building recognition for your brand.
Use relevant keywords
Spend a little time working out which words or
phrases are used by your potential customers. Ensure
these terms are used on their relevant pages and in
the right places – page titles are the most important.
Create engaging content
Gaining links is seen as a recommendation by search
engines. By creating interesting and exciting content
there is more chance that people will post links on
social media sites, their own blogs and websites.
Use social media
Social media can generate tra!c, links and buzz in
general. It also helps you to find out what people
think of you. Set up a Facebook page for your
business and start using Twitter, if you’re not on their
already, to let the world know you are there.
By Andy Atalla, founder of atom42
How good is your SEO?
To begin with, type your company
name into a search engine. It should be
fairly high up on the first page.
If not, you have a problem. The next
step is to find out when you were last
visited by a search engine spider, you
can find out by clicking ‘cached’, which
is found close to the search listing.
The busiest sites are visited very often,
and have good SEO rankings.
If your site is visited every day then this
is, in most cases, an excellent result.
However, if it is just once a week, this is
still a good result for many companies.
Perform a site audit
You need to ensure your site is easy for
the search engines to understand and
that your code is up to scratch. Many
web designers don’t understand SEO
and make sites which look good but fail
to register on search engines.
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said the presence of reviews meant they were
more likely to buy in general.
“Our research reveals an increasing
sophistication in consumers’ use of multi-
channel and social shopping tools,” said
Richard Anson, founder of Reevoo.
“As well as the tools and technologies
becoming more innovative, people’s browsing
and buying behaviour is also changing.
“Whereas when social commerce was in its
infancy people were happy to take reviews
at face value, now consumers are becoming
more discerning about who they’ll trust and
which information sources they find most
valuable for them.”
However, some sectors were more a"ected by
reviews than others. The travel and automotive
sectors were most a"ected, with roughly a
third of consumers for each category saying
they always check reviews before purchasing.
The survey also found that the number
of people using their mobiles to shop has
increased from 38% to 46% in the past year.
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Data collected by online reviews
company Reevoo shows that 52%
of consumers consider their friends’
recommendations to be “influential”,
and 48% think customer comments
are important.
However, the survey also found
that only 24% rated advertising to
be important, while just 22% were
interested in the recommendations of
sales assistants.
Also, the vast majority of people (88%)
said they always consult reviews when
making online purchases, and 60%
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Addressable Branding
Increasing brand awareness and promoting brands
through di"erent channels, potentially a banner ad
leading to a landing page or a podcast.
Contextual Marketing
The specific strategy helps customers match their
needs with a company’s o"erings, allowing the
customer to evaluate both before and after the
purchase.
Social Marketing
Use the brand community for shortened product
development cycles or customer service issues to
engage consumers and drive business results.
Transactional Marketing
Determine strategy and tools to deliver to relevant
content based on past user behavior.
In order to stay ahead in the cross-channel
environment marketers must keep a few things in
mind when designing their cross-channel strategy:
One-Size Fits All No Longer Fits
A one-size fits all approach to marketing
communication is no longer enough to create
e"ective cross-channel marketing.
The four segments of digital
marketing help us define the key
strategies and tools needed to reach
the customer in every part of the
buying process. It also helps drive
an increase in buying based on
remarketing and post-purchase data.
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Enhance the Consumer Experience
E"ective marketing requires brands to engage customers
based on their preferences in order to deliver distinct and
memorable messages
Evolve With the Customer
As consumers’ messaging habits evolve, so must marketers’
ability to connect across all interactive channels.
Partner campaign management with digital marketing
Consider campaign management as a way to coordinate
online and o#ine interactions.
Interruption Marketing must Adapt
In the world of social, interruption marketing is the number
one reason people unlike or unfollow brands.
Interruption is not catered to the individual or the brand
advocate.
Content Reigns Supreme
When creating content for campaigns keep the channel,
customer data, and individual consumers in mind.
Bad content has the potential of reigning havoc on any
marketing campaign whether mobile or social.
By Kyle Lacy, principle of marketing research for ExactTarget
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Product Descriptions
These need to be as detailed as possible. Additional
information, not included in the standard texts
supplied by the manufacturer or supplier, will enhance
your listings in the eye of the customer and make your
pages more SEO-friendly.
Detailed Delivery Information
Don’t hide this away. The customer should have
access to your delivery options and costs from every
page. Remember, one size does not fit all. For items
that cannot be fitted through the letter box, superfast
or next day delivery might not be the best option.
Email Capture Forms
Again these should be visible from every page. Give
your visitors a reason for subscribing to your email
marketing campaigns. The promise of a regular
newsletter isn’t enough. If you cannot make a sale,
make it as easy as possible to capture your visitors
contact details.
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Your Company Blog
A well written blog is an essential marketing tool for
any business. Not only does it give your website a
pulse, it is SEO gold and will also provide great content
for your email and social media marketing activities.
Photography and Video
Never skimp on photography. Great product images
will help your company stand out from the crowd.
Try and include images taken from all angles and
showcasing any specific product features.
High quality video will enhance your visitors’
experience even further. Great image or video
production does not have to be expensive – it just
takes a little planning and experimentation.
Final Thought
No matter how much you have spent on your website,
without great content you’ll find selling online an uphill
struggle. When producing content always try and stick
to the golden rules of relevancy and engagement and
never be afraid to ask for the sale with a strong call to
action.
By John W. Hayes at iContact
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Bulk email spam
Bulk email spam is categorically any commercial email that
is sent to the user without his/her permission.
However, in this case if you happen to send emails
containing commercial marketing to your friends, family or
colleagues in your list, then that does not get categorized
as spam. Spam are basically the emails that you send to
people who do not authorize you to do so.
Email marketing or Opt-in email
Opt-in email, on the other hand, is an email containing
marketing content that is sent to people who authorise and
permit you to send the same.
For instance, a user can sign up for receiving information
about any discounts and deals from a list. This acceptance
of the user for such information qualifies him or her to
opt for email marketing willingly and the emails will not be
treated as spam.
What makes opt-in email marketing di"erent is the fact that
the user has given permission for the sender to send the
promotional material by following a proper procedure.
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Advantages of opt-in emails vs. spam emails
Opt-in commercial emails are a way of respecting the
customer’s privacy and enhances the image of the
company. Because of this, the people whom the marketing
emails are being sent to would be more interested to go
through the mail and perhaps avail the services.
This in turn leads to successful campaigning and sales
along with a long-term relationship with the client.
Sending bulk spam emails would get the sender’s IP
address blacklisted in the long run.
Uninvited spam commercial emails prove to be unworthy
and ignored as they were uncalled for in the first place.
Sending bulk spam emails would get the sender’s IP
address blacklisted in the long run.
Sign Up Forms
Opt-in email has the reputation of being associated with
good email marketing practices. It’s advisable to convert
spam emails messages into opt-in emails by including
a Signup Form in order to create a clientele that would
appreciate your products and services and would avail the
same.
By Brianne Walter
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Have you asked questions?
Questions have been found to generate more
than double the number of Comments as updates
which don’t ask direct questions. You should use
“where,” “when,” “would,” and “should” to drive
conversation.
Help fans get the feel-good factor
Research suggests that people are more likely to
engage with a post if it allows them to present
themselves in a positive light. For example, if a
brand agrees to donate to a charity close to its
audience’s heart, the company can expect higher
engagement rates.
Think of the bigger picture
All of your marketing methods need to work
together and complement each other to truly
cement the perception of a brand, so companies
need to ensure that all social network activity is tied
into their overall messaging.
This time, it should be personal
Give back to your fans and give brand pages a
personal touch – automated responses don’t cut it
on social media.
By Luca Benini, Buddy Media’s MD, Europe
Post on a Wednesday
Although companies often publish evenly
throughout the working week, we have
found that likes and comments spike on
Wednesday – they’re 8% higher than any
other day.
Stick to after hours
Posts after working hours garner 20%
more ‘likes’ and Comments, so you should
schedule your updates to get the most
from a more captive audience after 6pm.
Remember
it’s quality, not quantity: Posting less than
three times per day produces 40% higher
user engagement, so limit those daily
updates. Retail brands who post less than
three times a day also receive a 32% higher
‘like’ rate and a staggering 73% higher
Comment rate.
Keep posts short and sweetShort posts allow you to compete on a crowded news feed.
Updates with 80 characters or less receive
66% higher engagement because their
message is swift, simple and easy to absorb
at a glance.
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HootSuite
This incredibly popular bit of Twitter management software lets
you sort and organise a number of di"erent profiles all at once.
You can also experiment with your response rates and the clicks
on links that you post. It’s a great way to monitor your Twitter
‘authority’ and the simplest package is no-charge.
Bu!er
People often bemoan Twitter users ‘spraying’ messages across
the website all in one go. It is tempting to do so especially while
you surf the net and find more than one really interested thing
that you want to share
Then you might become busy, other tasks take priority and your
Twitter feed is suddenly inactive and barren until the next time
you log on. Bu"er allows you to schedule the timing of your
tweets so they are spread consistently throughout the day –
even if you’re nowhere near a computer or phone.
Social Oomph
Another free and brilliant tool for Twitter experts is Social
Oomph. It gives you the chance to extend your Twitter profile,
schedule tweets and track keywords all from one place.
Meanwhile the upgraded paid-for service lets you tweet via
email, and automatically send direct messages to new followers,
among a universe of other uber-useful services.
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ManageFlitter
ManageFlitter basically o"ers a useful package of tools to give
your business a boost on Twitter, including helpful stu" like
biography searches, follower-sorting, tools to help you track
down the accounts of prospective sales leads, and to track who
has ‘unfollowed’ you. It also o"ers analytics so you can track
keyword mentions and plenty more besides.
Tweet Adder
Tweet Adder is a really useful application for building a following
on Twitter from a standing start by automating many of the
tasks that take up your time and by helping to find the followers
who will get the most out of hearing what you have to say.
When combined with a stream of regular and engaging
content and interactions with new and enthusiastic followers,
Tweet Adder is a simple way to create a targeted and engaged
audience quickly. The basic package is free, while upgrades are
charged.
There has been a lot of focus on the fact that Pinterest is
perfect for women in their mid-30s, planning a wedding/
new home/baby shower. However, while it’s still “new”, it
also has a trendy vibe, which o"ers a lot of opportunities for
businesses to engage with younger, tech savvy consumers.
A number of fashion brands such as Forever 21 and Fossil
have shown how attracting followers on Pinterest can be of
benefit. However, neither appear to have created content
specifically for the network, so it is impossible to gauge its
real potential yet.
As an engagement opportunity, Pinterest could be right
for any business which has data that can be presented in a
visual format.
Infographics have become a powerful marketing tool in
recent years and Pinterest is a great platform to share them
with a growing audience (currently over 12 million) – as long
as they have been designed to be engaging of course!
Jacob Dutton is a senior client partner at creative agency
383 Project
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If a friend rang you up right now on
your mobile and tried to sell you a
bouncy castle, a) you’d be puzzled and
b) a bit annoyed that your friend was
leveraging your relationship and using
a mainly private channel – your mobile
to try and sell you something you don’t
want.
Chances are, you might start avoiding
their calls for a while.
It’s the same with Facebook – you can’t
be seen to be directly selling something
to your friends – they won’t like it.
You can enthuse and be an advocate
for certain products sure, but a sales
person, no, it’s just not on.
For etailers, this means that social media
is not really a direct sales channel. Some
retailers have reported success with
Facebook commerce, while others like
Gap have beaten a quiet retreat.
Having a Fcommerce operation is OK, but for me, I’ll
never understand why you would buy from Facebook
rather than the more media rich environment of the
online store. Plus I don’t really want my friends to
know where I shop to be honest.
What social media is much better at is creating a huge
audience of enthusiasts for a brand. A few years ago
brands had to pay for that audience via third party
media, but now they can successfully grow their own.
The real value of social media to ecommerce is not
then how many socks you can sell o" a Facebook
page, but how much your new social media audience
is worth to you in terms of lifetime value and
advertising costs saved.
Social media is more akin to email marketing in that
sense, whereby you build an audience and nurture it
rather than sell it into alienation.
the weekend Facebook wall posts, you’re doing
something right!
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As most Facebook users visit every day, there’s plenty
more opportunities to engage with them than there are
by email of course, which is an opportunity to build a
strong bond, rather than a chance to sell every day.
You need a design and content plan, an engagement
strategy and someone well trained to interact with
online customers as they would in store.
For bigger operations, this will mean the help of a
call centre, whose operators are trained to moderate
Facebook pages and Twitter streams.
This will be the price of success in social media for
many, when you don’t have time to handle the weekend
Facebook wall posts, you’re doing something right!
By Ross Furlong, founder of BlogStar.co.uk
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With a mass of competing blogs
clamouring for readers’ ever-
shortening attention spans,
eCommerce professionals thinking
about starting a business blog
should carefully decide the look,
feel and content of their blogs.
Please don’t sell
Make sure your blog a resource for
readers interested in your business
or the wider industry and not a
sales pitch.
Become an industry expert
Use your blog to educate and
inform. Be the voice of reason, of
calm and authority in your chosen
field. If you sell cars, for example,
give people the insider knowledge
of what they should look out for
before buying a new car.
Commit to your Blog
Blogs are a slow burn. They take time to build and
inevitably there will be a period at the beginning where
you will require persistence in your task, even when you
feel you are (and you may well be) writing for just the
merest smattering of readers.
So commit to it, make sure your blog’s content is
of value or is, at the very least, enjoyable to read for
your target audience. Spread the word of its existence
through your website, your own social media pages
and your existing company contacts. And then trust the
process.
More followers mean more business?
Whilst business owners might enjoy having a blog that’s
popular, it’s of little use if it doesn’t grow the business
itself. A general increase in awareness of your business
through a popular blog is a wonderful thing.
The hidden gem though is that potential customers are
able to get to know your organisation and its leaders
personally, as though you were sat with them on a
comfortable sofa enjoying a glass of single malt.
So if the time is right for you, clear your diary, build your
blog, clear your throat and … begin.
By Ken Builder MD WebEden.co.uk
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Make analysis a continuous process
• Establish web analytics as a continuous process
with clear metrics and objectives
• Analytics should never be treated as a one-o"
activity, real value is only driven when the website is
monitored on an ongoing basis
• Setting clear and measurable KPI’s ensures that
the success of your online marketing e"orts can be
clearly demonstrated
Identify problem areas
• Identify the problem areas of your site through
analytics – looking at pages that have high
bounce rates, unusual numbers of drop-o"s and
abandonment rates, in particular on landing pages.
• Understanding the areas of the site which are
proving problematic allows you to make changes and
optimise your site. Too often website owners spend
large sums on marketing the site to drive tra!c but
fail to ensure the site is actually converting
Observe user behaviour
• Observe user behaviour at the
critical points through detailed
mouse tracking: how far visitors
scroll down, which texts they read,
which they ignore, which forms and
specifically the form fields that users
are struggling to complete etc
• By getting a clear picture of your
typical users journey you can
position special o"ers or important
products/information accordingly
• You will also be able to form a
view on which information/sections
are most engaging for your visitors.
The analysis should cover the
individual elements of the page
including images, headlines and text
boxes.
• This information will ensure
websites can be adapted to ensure
the best user experience and raise
conversion levels over the long term
Improve the customer experience
• Optimise not only conversion rates and
revenues, but also the visitor satisfaction and
loyalty
• Improving your visitors experience of the site
by enabling them to gather information easily
will build visitor satisfaction and return rates and
ultimately drive higher spend
• To ensure you can measure the improvements
in visitor satisfaction it is important to carry out
onsite surveys at the start of the project to provide
a benchmark for future analysis
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Invest in online marketing
• Start with onsite optimisation.
Spending money to attract
people to your site is pointless
if the site they arrive at is not
optimised
• Once the website is optimised
and the visitors are satisfied,
investing in online marketing
to drive customers to the site
can begin. Newsletters, a!liate
marketing, display and video
advertising and social media can
all be used to help drive visitors
to the site
Use multiple online channels
• If you do decide to invest in
marketing use all online channels
including display advertising,
social media and a!liate and
email marketing in order to reach
your target group. SEO and SEA
are usually not enough
Analyse the customer journey
• Analyse campaigns in terms of the entire customer
journey and not just the number of hits you receive
to the site. Getting lots of hits to your website doesn’t
necessarily mean that your visitors have achieved the
objective of their visit
• When analysing the entire customer journey you
should pay attention to the way in which the user has
interacted with other campaign touchpoints such as
e-shots and banner advertising in order to find out
how well the di"erent aspects of your campaign have
worked together.
• Looking at the results of the last ad or touchpoint
is not enough. Knowing how campaigns a"ect each
other is essential to achieve return on investment on
marketing spend
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Judge against industry benchmarks
• Use industry benchmarks to judge your
performance, don’t just compare against your
previous performance. Take the time to compare
your performance to your peers. You might see
an uplift of 5% which would seem like a success,
however the wider industry might see growth of 10
per cent
Act upon the data
• Flexibility is key and continual updating of your
site based upon user behavior and site analytics is
not a bad thing
• Analysing the user journey is only one part of the
puzzle. Acting upon the data is the crucial part.
Updating your site to reflect user needs is the smart
thing to do
By Christian Bennefeld at etracker
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