January 5, 2009 by Kevin Butler
Hello and happy 2009 to all Sitebrand frequenters. Thanks for kicking off the new year by reading our blogs – we appreciate it and love all the comments that come with blogging. According to Chinese calendars, 2009 is the year of the Ox. So just how are oxen relevant to anything e-Commerce you ask? Keep reading to find out…
So apparently the United States is in a recession and has been for some time. Lately, I’ve been so immersed in various other things and may have missed out on such news. However, as sad as that may sound, I am up to date in things like Twitter (totally the new RSS of 2009, don’t you know), Amazon’s massive holiday sales spike, Chinese new year’s, terrible year end lists and of course, personalization. I swear my introductions are getting longer, but this is all going somewhere, I promise.
A recession, eh? Is that the thing that makes companies shrink budgets – more specifically, shrink marketing budgets? From talking to some peers, it seems a big trend for 2009 will see marketers finding cheap, inexpensive or free (the best kind) ways to promote and grow. I’m no genius, especially since I didn’t even know about this ‘recession thing’, but how does a company grow with limited/reduced budgets? While the aggressive side of me thinks there’s no time better than now to increase marketing budgets, I also understand the other side here – the responsible side of me, that is. And that could be why social media has and will continue to climb to the top of many marketers “definitely need to do/try that in 2009 lists”. I know, more lists at the beginning of a new year, but I digress.
You might be thinking: “social media is the buzz, but it’s not a proven revenue generator”. True and like all things, I’m sure social media will quickly evolve with that in mind over the next few years. Something to bare in mind here - social media is still very new and I don’t feel social media should be providing mass sales at this point. Mashable.com has a great survey about this, too. That’s where I see social media differently at this point – does it have to provide unassisted new sales, right now? I look at the Twitters, Facebooks, (etc…) as a part of the marketing mix, not an independent one. They will help the conversational aspect – a critical piece – with your customers and potential ones, but won’t act as the first and last points of contact to drive the sale.
Looking at this from an outside perspective, you can pay agencies, firms, specialists, etc… to run integrated social media campaigns, but it seems many companies are keeping it in-house. Whether financial reasoning or otherwise, marketers are taking notice of varying methods from big time companies like Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, Dell, all the way down to the mom and pop shops that are still around. And why not? They’ve done a great job reaching out to customers and speaking to them. Those familiar with my views from previous writings probably see this part coming: you’ve developed interest. You’ve cut through the mass and now they want to know more, so they return to your website, only to find generic messaging and content. Maverick and Iceman just called: they said mission failed – failed like the Detroit Lions historic no-win season. Back to my point, use social media to cut through the clutter, use personalization to get relevant. That’s a better 1-2 punch than Brady/Moss (from 2007, of course – sorry Lions fans). While you can have one without the other, the combined efforts are far greater than one on its own. Also, personalization is a better and more proven ROI effort than social media, as of writing this. Like all things internet these days, that could change in a hurry.
For a quick recap, I’ll leave you with an equation that should help demonstrate why personalization should be on your radar, why it makes sense in today’s economy and how it will help even the newest social media-ist get the message heard loud and clear, at the right time. Its not scientific, but I’m fairly sure it checks out…
1. 2009 = the year of the ox
2. Oxen = methodical and detail oriented, yet have difficulty connecting with others (I swear I looked this up)
3. Sitebrand = easily connects with specific audiences, sending relevance/targeted marketing campaigns
4. Social media = easy way to speak directly to customers and is quickly becoming an integral part of all marketing plans (big and small)
5. Year of personalization = 2009 (according to many, including me)
Therefore: 2009 is the year marketers/e-Commerce professionals must integrate social media efforts with Sitebrand’s personalization in order to deliver that 1-2 combo that your customers deserve.
Stay classy, internet.
Related Posts
1 Comment | Posted in Customer Experience, Kevin Butler, Optimization, Personalization, RSS Marketing, Segment&Serve, Sitebrand, Social Media, eCommerce, online marketing
December 12, 2008 by Kevin Butler
A colleague of mine – who we’ll refer to as “naD” for anonymity sake – recently told me my blogs are verbose. I’ve never considered myself to be loquacious before, but I suppose there’s a first for everything. Am I really of the garrulous kind?
Anyways, this all came full circle as some co-workers, naD and I were caught up in a rousing game of lunchtime Scrabble via Facebook. Without divulging any further information about my lunchtime habits, I got thinking, with so much emphasis on social media, what web 2.0 medium is most effective for e-commerce companies? I had an interesting conversation with another co-worker recently regarding social media and despite the emphasis placed here in the last few years, it’s very uncontrollable. I’ll get to that shortly…
Full disclosure: I realize it will differ for each company and that this blog is probably one of 2,000 blogs that will touch on social media today. And while there are numbers of books and blogs from experts like Dave Evans (Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day, and Dave, if you are reading this, I don’t own this book yet and December 25th is right around the corner), this is a take that directly affects Sitebrand users or those further looking into web 2.0 strategies with personalization, targeted content and other marketing strategies. It’s a look at segmentation, how to work with open environments (users are free to say what they want, when they want – regardless of validity or truth) and avoiding the “boil the ocean” mentality.
Hypothetical example here… let’s assume you are an online electronics retailer selling everything from alarm clocks to MP3 players.
You are up to date with all the Facebook’s, Linked In’s, Twitter’s (this itself can be daunting, I know) and a specific intent is established for your internet marketing plan. You know you want to use Facebook and Twitter for different promotions. Those could be two vastly different kinds of visitors, right? Going back to a comment I made earlier, you can’t control what’s being said about you and any preconceived notions that go along with it, so how do you deal with this, without having a face-to-face conversation with every visitor? Since my example has us selling the coolest widgets and gadgets, understanding your visitors based on where they are coming from is just as important as anything else on your site and the need to segment your audience and dynamically message them truly begins.
The traffic coming from your hourly/daily tweets trust your promotions or the source it came from (and let’s suppose your analytics tell you nearly 12% of your traffic is from mobile browsers). Your landing page could offer minimal images and focus on messaging/links that load quickly and since I’m in ultra-merchandising mode, focus on the latest in smart phones and Bluetooth headsets. Since that trust is there (or at least higher than most first time visitors), you can focus on what the visitor should buy, not why. And that’s just for first time visitors. When they come back, you can target these same visitors to help increase brand awareness and drive home non-financial conversions/goals. Ultimately, ensuring they’ve seen your great promotions, seen why you are a great company and changing any preconceived notions they may have had about you before. This is your chance to get into your visitors mind and represent your company the way you want. The power of targeted messaging, eh?
For traffic coming from Facebook, you know this is either from paid ads or a link from a user profile. Either way, they aren’t as connected to you and your company as the Twitter crowd. Seems like a good opportunity to segment, right? One way or another, you’ve paid for this customer to be on your site, so it needs to count and needs to capture the visitors attention/trust. At this point, having a banner run through the entire session for these visitors (clickable or not), telling them the site is secure, potential refund info, shipping info based on geography/location might be worthwhile. Maybe the message changes and talks to the visitor based on their click patterns or the fact they came from Facebook, who knows – the sky is the limit here. Since it’s a more general crowd, you could opt to show an array of your different products and special sales. Or perhaps you want to focus on company branding more than particular promotions and quick conversions. Personalization and visitor segmentation give marketers a window to brand like never before. You can drive home your message in a conversational way. Imagine having your customers line up to have a face-to-face conversation with you. I’m sure you can make them a believer in your company (at least you could for me… I know how convincing our Sitebrand blog readers are) and isn’t that the whole point of a webpage in the first place?
If all this sounds cooler than a $4 sweater on Christmas, then hold onto your hat: I’ll be running a product demonstration webinar this coming Wednesday, December 17th @ 2pm EST (BTW, they are only 29 minutes long!). In the new year, I’ll be running these webinars bi-weekly, so this Wednesday’s presentation will be the neonate demo. I’ll be talking about web 2.0 integration with Sitebrand, showing its ease of use and effectiveness. If your conversion rate is lower than 4% and you want to get more out of your existing traffic, I’d love to meet you. Remember: the tools your company uses to tap into your visitors represent the kind of company you are and the kind of customers you are after.
To everyone who can’t make it, happy holidays and see on you on the other side (2009).
Stay classy, internet.
p.s – naD won the lunchtime game… but only because he found an anagram-scrabble cheat online. He’s since been banned from our lunchtime game.
Related Posts
1 Comment | Posted in Conversion, Customer Experience, Kevin Butler, Optimization, Personalization, Segment&Serve, Sitebrand, Social Media, Web Analytics, eCommerce, first time visitor, online marketing, webinars
December 2, 2008 by Kevin Butler
Good Tuesday morning to all Sitebrand blog readers. To our US friends, happy late Thanksgiving and to our Canadian friends…well… Thanksgiving was more than a month ago. I think that’s around the last time our Ottawa Senators won, too.
With Black Friday/Cyber Monday unofficially marking the beginning of website lockdown from now, through to the New Year, we’ll continue to see the efforts of online marketing at its finest, from months of planning and upgrades in various internet marketing tools.
So with that kind of build up, I was curious to see some of the marketing strategies of e-tailers over the long weekend. Unfortunately, nothing stood out … kind of like those new NHL 3rd jerseys.
Walmart was offering changing specials as the weekend progressed (something a shiny new Segment&Serve from Sitebrand could do) and Starbucks was tweeting or twitting… or twittering or whatever it is we do on Twitter (look me up: kevin_butler).
This got me wondering; what will the internet be like in the future and how will it differ from 2008? From Eric Schmidt (super cool Google dude) to me (super cool Sitebrand guy with a rad blog), everyone has suggested personalization is the future of internet. But how personal are we talking? Will e-Commerce be so optimized that sites will be able to know accurate age ranges, eye colors and favorite Britney Spears songs? Or will all sites be issuing targeted messaging via content spaces? Actually, that’s not very futuristic at all. I happen to know a Canadian e-Commerce SaaS company that could have this integrated within hours, set for your electronic holiday rush.
But the point is, what do we expect online shopping to transform into? I agree with the notion that intelligent recommendations and relevant personalization will become the norm. But will shoppers be so bombarded with recommendations, new products or cross-sell efforts that conversion rates still suffer? I’ve always believed in the KISS principle and that less is more. Perhaps shopping cart optimization will become the new rage. But instead of peering into the future with flying cars and web4.0 causing problems, let’s focus on the now: 2009 and the year of personalization - don’t let me down, internet. If you are interested in personalization and want to know more or don’t see its value, send me a quick note. I’d love to hear more.
Let me know if you saw any cool/unique/totally wicked promotions or efforts that caught your eye this weekend. I’d love to hear some innovative strategies.
Stay classy, internet.
Related Posts
2 Comments | Posted in Conversion, Customer Experience, Kevin Butler, Optimization, Personalization, Segment&Serve, Sitebrand, Web Analytics, eCommerce, online marketing
December 1, 2008 by Carolyn Gardner
So here we are. It’s “Cyber Monday”, a fairly recent term that was coined by the National Retail Federation trade group back in 2005. It’s the Monday after the US Thanksgiving holiday and also thought of as the unofficial kickoff for what’s always hoped to be a busy online retail season. Just check out cybermonday.com and you’ll see the stuff I’m talking about!
Now I realize the term was coined in the US and kudos for that, but to keep it a US only “thing” seems limiting especially since we’re talking online retail. Last time I looked, “online retail” lives on the “World Wide Web” and as the name implies, there’s world-wide reach. Just looking at North America, the one continent where the US sits, US eTailers seem to be forgetting a whole country called Canada and the whole segment of Canadian consumers that go with it.
On the flip side and to be fair, Canadian eTailers are forgetting they need to be competitive with US websites who always seem to be leap years ahead in terms of innovation. After all, everyone surfs the web looking for the perfect buy, and since we’re bouncing in and out of both CDN and US sites, why isn’t there more Cyber Monday hype here in the north? Why not take advantage of an increasingly well known shopping blitz?
So just why does it make sense to think about Canadians (not to mention other geo-areas) as an additional market segment for Cyber Monday penetration? Let’s consider the following:
1. Are Canadians online? Yes, big time.
2. Are Canadians browsing websites for online deals and special offers? Yes, .com’s and .ca’s.
3. Are Canadians feeling angst and urgency around holiday shopping lists right now? Yes. Even though our Thanksgiving was in October, a lot of us are gearing up for the big red guy on Dec. 25.
Given the above, what I’m seeing is a half-baked online marketing strategy that completely ignores the full power of the web and all its glorious technological wonders…with technologies like Segment&Serve – Sitebrand’s web personalization platform – it’s really crazy that Cyber Monday is being so limited to the US.
All this said, I’m seeing US retailers coming up with all kinds of great Cyber Monday deals, rebates and discounts. Just look at these 2 examples:
Cyber Monday Promo
The deals are endless, but considering holiday sales (both in-store and online) are expected to be crappy this year, is further discounting to US consumers really going to save the day? Considering it gouges an already thin margin that’s typical in the eTail space, it’s a tough one. BTW, this is why Sitebrand encourages our online marketing customers to promote the service side of their business too.
And this brings me right back to a Cyber Monday strategy that taps into geo-targeting. It’s a strategy that should apply to both US and CDN eTailers…at a minimum. Baby steps I’m suggesting…
As for popular Canadian sites or anyone selling online, why aren’t they piggy-backing Cyber Monday urgency? Not one of the following major .ca Canadian eTail sites say anything about Cyber Monday: Zellers, Canadian Tire, Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Sears. Considering the rate we pop in and out of sites comparing prices etc, it’s another missed opportunity.
Online stores are global regardless of where they’re based, so why not market accordingly – geo-targeting being a good start, emphasis on service versus discounts being a second smart move – “we ship to Canada” being an effective message.
I guess this leaves us open to debate the big question – why can’t Cyber Monday become a global kick-off to online shopping? Thinking outside the border. It’s quite a thought.
PS - a big thanks to my fellow Sitebranders for all their forwarded websites and emails = they helped a lot!
Related Posts
No Comments | Posted in Carolyn Gardner, Conversion, Customer Experience, Email marketing, Optimization, Personalization, Segment&Serve, Sitebrand, eCommerce, online marketing
November 27, 2008 by Carolyn Gardner
Narrow profit margins are a reality for most online merchants…add to that a recession and it’s easy to understand why there’s increasing interest and demand for discounting alternatives. Marketing teams are also increasingly lean (I can speak from this personally), so it’s no surprise we’re also seeing more interest in marketing sophistication and automation. So what it really comes down to is finding a solution that is both appealing to consumers who are feeling the pain of the recession and profitable to merchants (and their marketing teams) who are also feeling the pain of the recession.
With Segment&Serve™, Sitebrand’s personalization platform and our team of pros who make it their passion to help clients be successful, I’m proud to say we’re able to tackle these above-noted requirements. While many best practice campaigns do involve hard incentives like discounts and free shipping, we’re really pushing for web personalization campaigns that leverage softer incentives that tie into service, social marketing and Web 2.0. And overarching everything is the added benefit of measurable results and return on investment. After all, if you can prove ROI, what’s the point?
So just today, Sitebrand issued a news release re: several client success stories (e-commerce case studies) that reference the use of non-traditional “soft incentives” or “comfort-style campaigns” if you will. Essentially we’re talking about personalized web campaigns that offer helpful product suggestions (like you would get in-store), links to customer testimonials or product reviews (”word of web”), and wish list/gift card reminders (’Tis the season now more than ever). These “soft incentives” truly counter the classic ”hard incentives” mentioned earlier - things like urgent discounts and free shipping. So what’s the result? Well, we’re helping many clients like ElectricShopping.com and Discount Dance see incredible results (that don’t compromise their narrow margins)…
John Miller, IT Director at Discount Dance says, “Depending on the type of visitor, and the campaign we’re triggering, we are seeing between a 5% and 20% lift on revenue.” Commenting on the measured statistics for multiple soft-incentive campaigns over a 30 day period, Miller adds: “On average, we’ve experienced a 5% conversion lift. Plus, our average order value has gone up about 2%.”
Gift Card Promo
For ElectricShopping.com, Rob Levy, Managing Director, attributes a 17% conversion lift to web personalization campaigns primarily comprised of “soft incentives” that promote the service (caring) side of their business. “I would attribute at least a 5-fold return on our Sitebrand investment, at least that,” says Levy on the ROI generated by Sitebrand. Messaging a concern for the environment is also proving successful.
We care about the environment...
With the help of Sitebrand’s comprehensive web personalization solution, innovative online merchants like ElectricShopping.com and Discount Dance are helping to reset the definition of what constitutes a sufficient incentive to motivate visitors - especially soft incentives that don’t involve any financial reward to the buyer or financial loss to the merchant.
What are you doing to be part of this recession marketing shift?
For more inspiration, you should check out these case two case studies and more in Sitebrand’s Resource Center at: http://www.sitebrand.com/resources/case-studies
Related Posts
No Comments | Posted in Carolyn Gardner, Conversion, Customer Experience, Optimization, Personalization, Segment&Serve, Sitebrand, Social Media, eCommerce, online marketing
November 20, 2008 by Eric Hollebone
MasterCard gift card
I was out doing errands on the weekend at my local Shopper’s Drug Mart and was waiting for the family to finish when I noticed a new product from MasterCard: gift cards in 50, 100 and 200 dollar denominations. It grabbed me, finally a universal one-time use protected payment system that could be used by online retailers that conveniently accessible. Not to be left out, both Visa and American Express have their versions as well.
I know there are other products in this space that can fill this need including refillable cards such as rePower and individual retailer gift cards as well as online alternate payment services such as PayPal and eBillme but the accessibly, convenience and financial isolation the major credit card vendors provide may become game changers in terms of getting the stubborn majority of the population over the hump and make that first online purchase.
The problem with the retailer gift cards is their terms of use policies are all over the map. Chapters/Inigo you must transfer the balance from your gift card to your online account first. Future Shop has taken a more consumer friendly approach where up to three cards can be used at one time be it credit or gift. One of the biggest benefits I am jazzed about is the remaining balance can be use elsewhere, be it brick and mortar or online, is finally moving the pendulum back to the consumer after a number of years of harsh gift card policies including the most hated expiry dates.
It also could change the alternate payments industry. Why do I need these services, when I have a brand I trust; no setup and no tie to my financial information or institution? Don’t get me wrong, PayPal and eBillme are strong and interesting companies but if I were them, I would be worried about the long term viability of the alternate payment marketplace.
Related Posts
No Comments | Posted in Customer Experience, Eric Hollebone, Sitebrand, eCommerce
November 18, 2008 by Kevin Butler
As I was thinking of topics to address for this particular blog, I feared I’d used all my material and thoughts in my e-debut two weeks ago. Kind of like Chumbawamba did on their first album. I hope I don’t suffer the sophomore jinx… you will never keep me down, internet.
Moving right along, the e-Commerce-online marketing world is a funny one, right?
What is the average marketer or e-Com director planning over the next 6-12 months for their respective websites? Search engine optimization, personalization, platform upgrades, search engine marketing, post-click marketing, or just general optimization – whatever that means? Is it possible the term optimization is more over-used than personalization? The first rule about optimization: don’t talk about optimization. Whenever someone says to me, “we’re looking into optimization” I have no idea how to react. Optimizing what? Landing pages, Content Spaces (*cough, Sitebrand, cough*), Videos, Search, E-mail (*cough, Sitebrand, again, cough*), etc… Sounds like those general statements I make at awkward parties “I like stuff”. But in all seriousness, I like optimizing, too and that’s the point of what I’m getting at. What are we optimizing?
Lately, we’ve seen another quick shift with the rise of m-Commerce. Although interesting, I’m confused. Don’t get me wrong – I get it’s a new and direct market, recent claims to fame include Barack Obama using text messaging to announce Joe Biden as his running-mate in the now historic 2008 US Elections. To me, m-Commerce, although viable and important seems like a small branch of e-Commerce. You still need targeted content, market segmentation and wait for it… optimized messaging that can speak to visitors, regardless of whether it’s e-Commerce, m-Commerce or any other commerce. Mobile messaging will help drive traffic to your website and I think it’s important to be ready and prepared for those visitors.
Internet marketing is a vast space, but I see value in dynamic webpages. Right now, Sitebrand has begun a series of first time visitor landing pages with specific calls to action for a few clients in different markets and have seen tremendous results. We’re talking conversion rates doubling the site average (let me know what would that mean to you) resulting directly from Sitebrand’s Segment&Serve. The scary part of all this: the results and lifts in conversion come from running one or two campaigns. It takes less time to create these campaigns than it does to get sick of that Chumbawamba song (so not very long at all!). Remember, that’s just one campaign. Imagine the impact of running 10-15 thorough behavioral targeted campaigns, addressing other e-Commerce challenges you may be having or trends you are noticing.
The big thing I keep going back to, something I read recently from Sean Carton’s blog: conversations are king. And that’s exactly what these first time visitor landing page experiments are proving. We are talking to new visitors, explaining options, values and news about the company. Something interesting to chew on, majority of the time, the content on these pages don’t include any specific product to buy. Either “see shipping information for your State/Country”, “see hottest sellers” or “learn more about the company” are the messages helping drive sales.
How are you speaking to your visitors?
Stay classy, internet.
Related Posts
1 Comment | Posted in Conversion, Kevin Butler, Optimization, Personalization, Segment&Serve, Sitebrand, Social Media, eCommerce, online marketing
November 14, 2008 by Dan Auns
eCommerce Black Friday
We are officially 2 week from Thanksgiving. Football, Turkey, and the official launch of the holiday shopping season…… Black Friday is almost upon us!
For online retailers, Cyber Monday is now right around the corner too. Batten down the hatches and tighten up your eCom helmets, it is about to get a little nutty.
For those of you who had optimization on your 2008 roadmap, congrats. Your hard work is about to be rewarded - easy math shows the incremental improvements are measurable all year round, but are magnified with seasonal swells.
For those of you who don’t. Some 3rd party validation from our friends at ClickZ/Zaaz, who have posted a handy calculator to help you make your case for optimization in your 2009 agenda/budget.
If the ‘Incremental Value’ and ROI numbers look compelling here, give me a call and I will help you generate some analytics reports about your business, that will ’show you the money.’
Optimization is your friend folks, don’t settle for seasonal trends to lift the business alone. You can move the needle also.
Related Posts
No Comments | Posted in Dan Auns, Optimization, eCommerce, online marketing
November 13, 2008 by Carolyn Gardner
Sitebrand and VKI Studios have a very relevant eCommerce webinar planned for Tuesday, Dec 9 at 2 pm ET / 11 am PT - “They Search. They Click. They Convert. Fact or Fantasy?” (Our usual end of month webinar is being pushed so our US friends can enjoy Thanksgiving)
Why do we think this topic is relevant? Quite simply, it all comes down to the fact that marketers are spending more and more money driving traffic to their websites (via search and email) versus spends that influence the experience of each visitor once they arrive (product reviews, livechat, functional in-site search tools, web personalization). Quite simply, there’s a lot of finger-crossing as the visitors land…but sadly, spending more does not always equal converting more. It’s time to think smarter.
With respect to search, Jupiter Research backs me up predicting marketers will be increasing their paid search budgets by 15% year over year for the next 4 years. If they’re right, you’re probably going to be part of this growing trend. But what’s happening once searchers click on your natural results, or your AdWords, and arrive at your website or landing page? Do they convert? Do they move through the sales funnel? Join search specialist John Hossack from VKI Studios and Carolyn Gardner, Director of Customer Experience at Sitebrand, as they discuss strategies to help you make 2009 the year you get serious about engaging, persuading and converting search traffic on your website:
- What’s stopping your search traffic from converting?
- Why should marketing beyond the landing page be a new mandatory?
- Which specific analytics reports really matter when it comes to search strategies?
- Why is it no longer acceptable to treat all your search efforts the same?
- What can you do to better optimize your search ROI in 2009?
Register now…
Related Posts
1 Comment | Posted in Carolyn Gardner, Conversion, Customer Experience, Email marketing, Optimization, Personalization, Search Marketing, Sitebrand, eCommerce, online marketing, webinars
November 11, 2008 by Carolyn Gardner
feelbest.com
For online stores like feelbest.com using Sitebrand’s Segment&Serve Web personalization technology, creating more relevant experiences is comparable to having a virtual sales assistant. The concept behind Web personalization is very much based on what consumers have come to expect from the traditional brick and mortar shopping experience. Consider the traditional brick and mortar store where a sales person
easily observes and responds to variousshopping behaviors and body language. If someone is a repeat customer, they get to know their buying habits. If someone is a new customer, they work to build a level
of trust by offering helpful suggestions, sharing information about a hassle-free return policy, showing the layout of the store and so on. If someone is looking at high end fashion apparel, they look to cross-sell high end accessories. If someone is looking at sale items, they show them all the sale areas and so on.
Understanding visitor intent
But move online and suddenly the visual cues are gone. However, thanks to Web analytics, there are other cues the online marketer can follow. From the moment a visitor arrives, there’s intent to do something – to research, to buy, to register etc. And every move is monitored through Web analytics. The bottom line is that every move a visitor makes tells a story – from how they arrive to what they click and how long they stay on any given page. If someone arrives using the keyword “sunscreen”, they’re looking for sunscreen. If a Web site responds appropriately by showing a selection sunscreen and the visitor clicks to learn more or buy, they are that much closer to buying. They are being guided through the sales funnel. But if they bounce out of the site before converting – either pre-checkout or during check-out – something went wrong. And it likely relates to lack of guidance and direction from the Web site.
Responding to classic e-commerce challenges
Feelbest.com is Canada’s largest online health and beauty aid store and it faces many of the classic ecommerce challenges, including low conversion rates. As such, it is always looking for innovative ways to convert a higher percentage of Web traffic into buyers. The company also wants to recognize and respond to visitors’ geolocations; especially in terms of seasonality trends associated with many of its product categories, such as sunscreen. And it wants to create a superior, personal online experience that makes feelbest.com the online retailer customers turn to when they can’t find what they need in a regular store. The company actively encourages customers to tell it what they are looking for, no matter how obscure it may seem. The retailer specializes in finding and offering hard to find health care and beauty aid products. “If there’s demand – even from just five or ten customers – and the product is available somewhere in the world, we’ll go directly to the manufacturer and make it available to our customers,” says Darrin Pickard, feelbest.com’s sales and marketing manager.
The need to convert more traffic into buyers
The retailer’s approach is quaintly reminiscent of the corner-store owner who would get to know his/her customers one person at a time and stock accordingly. Although this personal approach to serving customers is like those of days gone by, the scale of the operation is surely different. Products are shipped to clients around the world with roughly 65% heading to the US. That’s also the nub of the challenge: motivating feelbest.com to explore an alternative strategy for further customizing and personalizing the Web experience of all visitors. The explicit goal was to find a solution that would convert a higher percentage of new and repeat traffic into sales. “Back in the late 1990s, it was easier to stake your claim as a top online retailer. But today, it’s much more competitive and you can never be complacent,” says Pickard.
Changing each visitor’s experience in real-time
Feelbest.com chose Sitebrand with its promise of superior traffic conversion to literally change the experience of every visitor in real-time while on a Website. What the retailer particularly appreciated
about the Sitebrand solution was the extensive support provided to help get up and running with a customized solution quickly. “Sitebrand is like a natural extension to our marketing team,” says Pickard. “It’s not a one-strategy-fits-all approach. What Sitebrand does is analyze your traffic and provide you with customized solutions based on your business goals and what your customers are looking for.” In the case of feelbest.com, the Sitebrand solution resulted in recommendations for the type, placement and frequency of marketing campaigns to target specific customers and boost sales in specific product categories. In Pickard’s words, “I think any online retailer worth their salt knows you can’t mass market on the Web and expect to achieve success. As best you can, you must try to speak to each site visitor as an individual. When you show people you are interested in getting to know them, they’ll show interest back. It is “Customer Service 101” and we’ve seen this with the personalization campaigns we’ve built with Sitebrand.”
Leveraging best industry practices to create smart content
All Sitebrand’s recommendations are based on industry best practices, backed by hundreds of successful implementations in similar industry sectors. This enabled feelbest.com to quickly develop “smart content” for specific customers and product categories. With the Sitebrand solution, specific areas of a Web page are allocated for the strategic placement of ads or campaign messages. Campaigns are developed around various criteria, including geo location, keyword searches, seasonal promotions, product categories, and many others.
Salvaging underperforming segments and sales
Campaigns result in a highly customized and personalized Web experience for all visitors from the moment they land on the Web site. In doing so, online retailers like feelbest.com report immediate and measurable increases in sales lift, superior click through, and higher conversion of existing traffic. “We see an immediate increase in the number of existing visitors converting in the checkout process,” says Pickard. “Seeing success around existing customers in currently established product categories makes us want to leverage Sitebrand to build campaigns around new, underperforming product categories. These new product awareness campaigns will be designed for existing and new customers,” he adds. In this way, feelbest.com will be able to test different offers with respect to new product categories. This ability to raise the profile of lower performing product categories will be designed to help increase average cart spends and total sales.
Close-up of first-time visitor promo
Recognizing a first time visitor has its rewardsTapping into underperforming segments, like first time visitors, has also proved highly successful. The first time visitor needs a different experience than the repeat visitor. They want a feeling of trust. They want to feel reassured they’re on a credible site.
When this first time visitor segment is served personalized messaging that reinforces credibility and trust versus the control group segment that receives no reinforcement, the personalized messaging always sees higher revenue per impression.
In the case of feelbest.com, the revenue per impression lift for personalized first time visitor campaigns is 207% higher than the default control group campaigns with no personalization.
Increased ROI from the feelbest.com e-newsletter
Sitebrand also provided feelbest.com with specific recommendations for print ads and its e-newsletter to create a more holistic and integrated marketing program. The company sends monthly emails to roughly 25,000 opt-in subscribers to promote the e-newsletter. Sales generated from the newsletter had begun to drop. Once the Sitebrand solution was integrated with the email program, feelbest.com saw an increase of 34% in the number of orders received within five days of the newsletter being broadcast. “Whenever we send emails, there’s an instant spike in Website traffic,” says Pickard. “It’s going to get even more interesting when we start adding more automation into the mix.” For an online health and beauty aid store, it will be a highly beneficial to trigger purchase reminder emails, i.e. “Your 90-day supply of vitamins is almost gone. Don’t be disappointed. Buy more now…”
The power of personalization for unique market segments
“The way I see it, not having a personalized approach to online marketing is like calling every one of your customers ‘Bill’. Worse yet, it’s like expecting them all to take advantage of a deal on mint toothpaste. But in reality, your customer’s name might be ‘Susan’ and she wears dentures…” says Pickard. “Website personalization allows you to find these unique market segments so you can serve up relevant offers that will convert visitors to buyers.”
NOTE: This post is also a featured article I contributed to the October 2008 issue of ”Direct Marketing” - a Canadian publication about interactive marketing and sales. Since it’s print-only (odd for an interactive pub, and apparently a website is in the works…but hey!) All that said, I felt compelled to share it online. I hope you enjoyed the read and I welcome your comments!
Related Posts
1 Comment | Posted in Carolyn Gardner, Conversion, Customer Experience, Email marketing, Optimization, Personalization, Segment&Serve, Sitebrand, Web Analytics, eCommerce, first time visitor, online marketing
