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e-RETAILING NEWS & OPINION ARCHIVES

November 2009

For the Archives Index, please click here

 

About Advertising

and Promotion

 

November 30, 2009

From ClickZ.com:

"Leveraging Snippets and AutoPreview to Lift Response"

If you don't know what snippet text appears with your e-mail, now's a great time to look.  Small changes like this can have a large impact on the success of your e-mail marketing efforts...

http://www.clickz.com

 

November 30, 2009

From eMarketer:

"Small Businesses Raise Search Spend"

Average spending by small-business search advertisers was up 91% year over year and 93% quarter over quarter in Q3.  The average number of keywords purchased was also up...

http://www.emarketer.com

 

November 27, 2009

From MarketingProfs.com:

"Over Before It Starts"

Email recipients take 25.9 hours, on average, to open marketing messages.  If you use daily deals as part of your email marketing strategy, this is an important factor to consider.  An offer that ends before your subscribers have the chance to see it won't do them, or you, any good...

http://www.marketingprofs.com

 

November 25, 2009

From ClickZ.com:

"Extracting More Value From Campaign Data"

Classify keywords into groups that give a better picture of how visitors are using search to reach the site and the potential outcomes...

http://www.clickz.com

 

November 25, 2009

From DM News:

"How to Integrate Your Web Site with E-Mail Campaigns"

Web site reengagement programs driven by e-mail consistently see open rates greater than 50%, click-through rates greater than 35%, and actions per e-mail four to 10 times greater than any other e-mail campaigns...

http://www.dmnews.com

 

November 25, 2009

From MediaBuyerPlanner:

"Half of Smallest Businesses Use Email"

46% of businesses with 1-20 employees in North America currently rely on email marketing to help them find new customers, keep existing ones and grow their businesses, and 36% plan to begin email marketing in the next 12 months...

http://www.mediabuyerplanner.com

 

November 25, 2009

From ClickZ.com:

"Four Dimensions of Online Media"

The four dimensions of online media include targeting, compensation, ad units, and metrics...

http://www.clickz.com

 

November 24, 2009

From eMarketer:

"Small Businesses Look to E-Mail and Social Media"

Three-quarters of small businesses will increase their spending on e-mail marketing in 2010, while more than one-half will do no banner advertising...

http://www.emarketer.com

 

November 24, 2009

From MarketingVOX:

"Retailers Enlist E-Cards to Cut Through Crowded Inboxes"

To make their messages stand out in increasingly cluttered online mailboxes this holiday season, a number of retailers are using digital greeting cards to entice customers into their stores...

http://www.marketingvox.com

 

November 23, 2009

From eMarketer:

"Relevance Remains a Challenge for E-Mail Marketers"

A grave sign for marketers to heed is that customers will disconnect and stop doing business with brands who continue to send messages that demonstrate a lack of intimacy, customer insight and individual understanding...

http://www.emarketer.com

 

November 23, 2009

From InternetRetailer.com:

"E-Retailers' Holiday Offers Get More Numerous and Creative"

Home-page promotions and daily deal offers introduced as the holiday season ramps up...

http://www.internetretailer.com

 

November 19, 2009

From eMarketer:

"Coupons Boost E-Mail Open Rate"

Open rates of around 24% to 25% for coupon e-mails dropped to just 16% to 18% for noncoupon campaigns...

http://www.emarketer.com

 

November 19, 2009

From ClickZ.com:

"Eight Tips for Effective E-Mail Preheaders"

When you use the preheader to expand on the subject line, add a secondary offer, or emphasize a deadline, you help the reader decide quickly what to do with the message...

http://www.clickz.com

 

November 17, 2009

From MarketingProfs.com:

"Your Name Here"

If you're going to personalize your subject lines, use a detail your subscribers don't expect to see...

http://www.marketingprofs.com

 

November 16, 2009

From MarketingProfs.com:

"Mobile Marketing Not for Everyone"

The total mobile audience is still relatively small and is confined to a limited market segment; moreover, marketers who reach out to the wrong mobile audience risk turning them off...

http://www.marketingprofs.com

 

November 13, 2009

From MarketingProfs.com:

"Social Media Users Open to Branding, Marketing"

Many marketers have shied away from direct branding or selling on social media sites for fear of alienating consumers.  Marketers should instead understand how consumers interact with individual social media sites and what types of offers and messages engage consumers and motivate them to act...

http://www.marketingprofs.com

 

November 12, 2009

From ClickZ.com:

"Ten Easy Steps for Improving E-mail Communications"

Make sure your headline and your button copy work together.  Given preview panes and image disabling, these might be the only two elements of your message that your readers will see...

http://www.clickz.com

 

November 11, 2009

From DM News:

"E-Mail Marketing Best Practices for Local Business"

Regardless of the type of e-mail you offer, the call to action you offer your customers should always be your number one consideration...

http://www.dmnews.com

 

November 11, 2009

From ad:tech:

"How Can Brands Use Social Networks and Connect with Consumers?"

Brands now belong to consumers more than to marketers - the job of the marketer is to fulfill the consumers' needs.  It's not just about looking at conversations but identifying advocates and activating them...

http://www.adtechblog.com

 

November 10, 2009

From Search Engine Watch:

"Holiday Search Marketing?

You'd Better Be!"

E-mail marketing still has one of the highest conversion rates in online marketing - if your list is clean and targeted.  An e-mail blast shouldn't have tons of links and navigation. Your deal and a button to click is plenty...

http://searchenginewatch.com

 

November 9, 2009

From ClickZ.com:

"E-Mail Marketing by the Numbers"

Nine rules for driving e-mail marketing success...

http://www.clickz.com

 

November 9, 2009

From ad:tech:

"Measuring the Effectiveness of Online Brand Advertising"

On average, the offline sales lift versus online spending is 140%...

http://www.adtechblog.com

 

November 6, 2009

From ClickZ.com:

"How to Get More Sales per SEM Dollar"

Use your targeting levers to grab the most valuable clicks based on all the positive post-click behaviors you can measure...

http://www.clickz.com

 

November 6, 2009

From DM News:

"Current Fiction, Future Reality:

The Truth about Multichannel Marketing"

The real power of multichannel marketing lies in knowing the right combination of channels needed to elicit the right response from the right consumer...

http://www.dmnews.com

 

November 4, 2009

From ClickZ.com:

"Removing Unengaged Is Key to Deliverability, Too"

E-mail open rate is not a slam-dunk metric.  It's not always accurate, because it won't register opens from people who don't download images.  Clicks and conversions are more reliable metrics...

http://www.clickz.com

 

November 4, 2009

From MarketingProfs.com:

"D0n't Do T.his"

If you are sending a message with f.ree or m.oney in the subject line and email body text, your message may get past the spam filters but it is going to look like spam to your subscribers all the same...

http://www.marketingprofs.com

About Customer

Service

 

November 27, 2009

From CNET:

"Five Tips for Safe Web Shopping"

63 percent of online shoppers have abandoned purchases due to security concerns.  Reasons given for failing to complete the transaction were sites asked for too much information, uncertainty about how their personal data would be used by the site, and lack of faith in the site's security...

http://news.cnet.com

 

November 26, 2009

From InternetRetailer.com:

"Free Shipping Remains the Best Hook for Luring Online Shoppers"

Nine of 10 online shoppers say free shipping offers would get them to shop more online...

http://www.internetretailer.com

 

November 23, 2009

From E-Commerce Times:

"Site Search:  Please Shoppers and Boost Your Bottom Line"

Incorporating data such as product availability, shipping options, and user profile information directly into site search results enhances relevance for shoppers by providing more choices and helping them find precisely what they are looking for...

http://www.ecommercetimes.com

 

November 20, 2009

From InternetRetailer.com:

"Consumers in Prime Shopping Age Group Find Value in Online Recommendations"

81.6% of online shoppers between the ages of 25 and 44 deem personalized product recommendations as an important feature...

http://www.internetretailer.com

 

November 18, 2009

From ClickZ.com:

"The Art of Active Listening"

Social media is a conversation, which is by definition two-way.  In other words, it isn't all about you, your company, your products, or your agenda...

http://www.clickz.com

 

November 17, 2009

From E-Commerce Times:

"Don't Give Discount Holiday Shoppers Any Reasons to Walk Away"

Shopping cart and checkout pages should include descriptive page titles and indicate the number of steps in the checkout process...

http://www.ecommercetimes.com

 

November 17, 2009

From E-Commerce Times:

"Creating Exceptional Customer Experiences, Both Coming and Going"

By leveraging cross-channel customer data for inbound communications, organizations open up new opportunities for new sales and improved customer relationships that often can't be accomplished through outbound communications alone...

http://www.ecommercetimes.com

 

November 11, 2009

From E-Commerce Times:

"Drawing Security-Spooked Customers Into the E-Commerce Fold"

One way businesses might attract and win over e-commerce-shy customers is by devoting a portion of their site to safe online shopping tips...

http://www.ecommercetimes.com

 

November 10, 2009

From DM News:

"Strategies for Extending Online Shopping Beyond the

E-Commerce Site"

The key is to provide differentiated experiences to your customers so that the shopping experience is a natural extension of their interaction with the brand...

http://www.dmnews.com

 

November 9, 2009

From E-Commerce Times:

"Tis the Season for Safe Holiday Shopping"

There is little doubt that fraudsters will take advantage of increased shopping activity during the holiday season to prey on online shoppers who may not take precautions to protect themselves...

http://www.ecommercetimes.com

 

November 5, 2009

From InternetRetailer.com:

"Mobile Commerce Has Arrived"

Retailers have to look at their customers and mobile traffic to their e-commerce site.  If you have young customers with thumbs glued to phones 24/7, then mobile is a good bet...

http://www.internetretailer.com

 

November 3, 2009

From ClickZ.com:

"How Are You Treating Your Online Customers?"

Do your customers often need to talk with someone before making their final purchase?  How do you make that easy and prompt them at the right time?

http://www.clickz.com

 

November 2, 2009

From eMarketer:

"Keys to E-Commerce Success"

Visitors in the learning phase have a high level of satisfaction with retail sites and more than 85% are able to complete their task.  Lower down the funnel, however, sites are less likely to meet the needs of visitors...

http://www.emarketer.com

About Webstore

Management

 

November 30, 2009

From Retailer Daily:

"Black Friday Shoppers Go Online"

As opposed to slightly improved brick-and-mortar sales, e-commerce sales grew 11% on Black Friday this year to $595 million...

http://www.retailerdaily.com

 

November 28, 2009

From MarketingProfs.com:

"Five Tips for Building an Online Community"

Don't feel obligated to monetize your site.  You can obtain value from your community in several ways that don't always equate directly to revenue.  Use social media to stay current, competitive, and in touch with your customers...

http://www.marketingprofs.com

 

November 27, 2009

From BIV Interactive:

"Nearly Third of Staff Holiday Shop Online at Work"

Those who do browse for gifts at work said they spend on average 3.1 hours a week doing so...

http://www.bivinteractive.com

 

November 27, 2009

From Internet News:

"Mobile Web Retailers Performance"

The average response time for mobile retail sites clocked in at 4.7 seconds - 50 percent slower than the average response times of the retailers' traditional e-commerce sites.  Mobile Web page load times ranged from 2.8 to 6.9 seconds...

http://www.internetnews.com

 

November 26, 2009

From ClickZ.com:

"Tips for Rapid Crawling and Indexing"

While new site content should eventually be found during search engines' crawling cycles, you can do many things to help engines notice the new content or new URLs more quickly than they would on their own...

http://www.clickz.com

 

November 26, 2009

From Search Engine Watch:

"Roles vs. Personas vs. Cognitive Styles"

In the context of landing pages, try to accommodate all major cognitive styles because they are all represented in the population.  Your pages should be uncluttered for the short-attention-span crowd, but also include links to detailed supporting information for the methodical types...

http://searchenginewatch.com

 

November 26, 2009

From E-Commerce Times:

"2010 Social Commerce Strategies:  Reaching Beyond the Web Site"

There are three broad phases in which a retailer can adopt social media in its ecommerce strategy...

http://www.ecommercetimes.com

 

November 24, 2009

From Search Engine Watch:

"What Small Business Web Site Owners Need to Know About Page Speed"

A new site might become a must if pages on your old site load slowly with bloated code and clunky images...

http://searchenginewatch.com

 

November 24, 2009

From The New York Times:

"Top Internet Trends of 2000-2009:  E-Commerce"

New recommendation technologies make it easier every year for consumers to find what they want, social media has driven a lot of retail activity to small websites and social networks, and mobile commerce has slowly but surely gained a foothold in e-commerce...

http://www.nytimes.com

 

November 20, 2009

From DM News:

"How to Get the Most Out of Post-Click Analytics"

Once they've clicked from the email campaign to a landing page, post-click analytics can show marketers exactly how each audience segment is interacting with a particular landing page.  This will allow for robust segmentation and maximization of content for the end subscriber...

http://www.dmnews.com

 

November 20, 2009

From eMarketer:

"Focusing on the Core Customer Experience"

It's a difficult thing for any company to produce something that is so intuitive that people can just instantly get it and understand how it works, and so they don't.  Most of our Websites aren't anywhere near that level of intuitiveness and that's what we need to work on...

http://www.emarketer.com

 

November 19, 2009

From MediaBuyerPlanner:

"Retail E-Commerce Sales Rise in Q3"

Retail e-commerce sales rose 4.5% in the third quarter of this year, from $32.5 billion in the third quarter of last year to $34 billion...

http://www.mediabuyerplanner.com

 

November 19, 2009

From Experian Hitwise:

"Free Shipping"

The actual peak for free shipping searches each year is the first week of the New Year, as online buyers look for post-holiday sale items...

http://weblogs.hitwise.com

 

November 18, 2009

From Retailer Daily:

"E-Commerce Fraud Drops"

Part of the reason for online retailers' heightened success in reducing fraud may be an increased usage of fraud detection and prevention technology and processes...

http://www.retailerdaily.com

 

November 18, 2009

From Search Engine Watch:

"Don't Overdo the Tweaking"

Take your on-page optimization seriously, but treat it like a project.  Once the project is done, most of your focus should be on creating great content, building a great Web site experience, and promoting it...

http://searchenginewatch.com

 

November 18, 2009

From MarketingProfs.com:

"Don't Forget Those News Guys"

Three ways to optimize a business for local search via newspaper sites...

http://www.marketingprofs.com

 

November 16, 2009

From InternetRetailer.com:

"Holiday Offers Emerge as Free Shipping Deals Grow Among

E-Retailers"

E-retailers are seeking to lure value-conscious shoppers with home page promotions.  72% are prominently featuring some kind of offer on the home page.  37% are featuring offers on specific items or item categories...

http://www.internetretailer.com

 

November 16, 2009

From ClickZ.com:

"Three Ways to Use Content to Engage Your Audience"

When using content to attract and engage prospects, consider your customers' underlying emotional motivation to purchase your products.  What makes your brand stand out for your best customers and how can you extend this aspect of your offering?

http://www.clickz.com

 

November 13, 2009

From DM News:

"Employ a Combination of Online and Offline Strategies to Build Your E-Mail List"

When people come directly to your site and opt in, you build a quality list.  Make it easy for people to opt in on your homepage or any other page of your Web site by offering more than one place to register...

http://www.dmnews.com

 

November 13, 2009

From InternetRetailer.com:

"Consumers Embrace Social Shopping"

22% of all consumers will do their primary shopping online this holiday season, with 17% of all shoppers planning to use social media when they shop for gifts...

http://www.internetretailer.com

 

November 12, 2009

From DM News:

"Brand Marketers Rethink E-Commerce"

Brand manufacturers have to placate their wholesale business while figuring out how to run a successful direct-to-consumer operation in order to make incremental revenue and have a direct relationship with the consumer...

http://www.dmnews.com

 

November 12, 2009

From InternetRetailer.com:

"Diligent Comparison Shopping Is the New Normal"

The average number of clicks between a consumer's first click and a conversion his risen from 5.2 to 5.8 in the last year and the time between the initial click and purchase grew 16-18%...

http://www.internetretailer.com

 

November 11, 2009

From Search Engine Watch:

"How to Get Started on Landing Page Optimization"

Don't try to fix your home page or highest-traffic landing pages first.  Pick a secondary landing page that has a reasonable amount of traffic, perhaps from a single online marketing campaign...

http://searchenginewatch.com

 

November 10, 2009

From E-Commerce Times:

"How E-Tailers Can Take On the Whole World"

International e-commerce is within reach of every retailer large and small, even those without a global brand.  Merchants must ensure they are positioned to manage the multiple issues surrounding international shipping or they risk jeopardizing their identity in foreign markets...

http://www.ecommercetimes.com

 

November 9, 2009

From MarketingVOX:

"Luxury Brands Move Online to Compete with Discounters"

Member-only discount retail sites, which are effectively online versions of sample sales, offer a sense of exclusivity by limiting their e-mail and text message notifications of sales to members only...

http://www.marketingvox.com

 

November 5, 2009

From Forrester:

"Web Remains Retail Industry's Growth Engine This Holiday"

Expect to see online retailers deploy more cross-channel customer service options, advanced merchandizing software that will provide more product information, and enhanced social networking tools that will enable consumers to share purchase decisions with friends...

http://www.forrester.com

 

November 5, 2009

From MarketingProfs.com:

"Proving ROI for Search-Engine Optimization"

A low conversion rate for a landing page may indicate that the site visitor was looking for something and didn't find it.  If a page ranks high for a search phrase but has a 90% bounce rate, you may be missing a great opportunity to modify that content and convert traffic better...

http://www.marketingprofs.com

 

November 4, 2009

From DM News:

"From One Search Query, There Are 10 Ways to Get an Answer"

It's increasingly crucial to be aware of the disparate ways to reach consumers when, where, and how they search...

http://www.dmnews.com

 

November 4, 2009

From InternetRetailer.com:

"Seniors Are Most Likely to Shop Online"

Not only are older generations increasingly tech-savvy, they have the money to spend...

http://www.internetretailer.com

 

November 3, 2009

From CNET:

"Web to Drive Holiday Retail Sales"

Online sales are expected to reach $44.7 billion, an 8 percent jump over last year...

http://news.cnet.com

 

November 3, 2009

From Search Engine Watch:

"Getting Started with a New SEO Project"

Performing keyword research before you start development is critical.  This will help you learn the behavior patterns of your customers, and this knowledge is likely to impact the site architecture and navigation...

http://searchenginewatch.com

 

November 3, 2009

From E-Commerce Times:

"Fortifying Your E-Tail Operation Against Friendly Fraud"

Tracking the patterns of customers on the Web site and knowing how to track suspicious or irregular end-users who may be fraudsters in disguise will help a merchant get the best fraud protection...

http://www.ecommercetimes.com

 

November 2, 2009

From ClickZ.com:

"Seven Ways To Tap Social Shopping"

Track your traffic from the sites that visitors use before coming to your Web site.  Are social media sites accounting for more of this traffic than they have in prior periods?  Does the traffic from social media sites have any special characteristics that set it apart and can play a role in your marketing?

http://www.clickz.com

For the Archives Index, please click here

 

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