Coaching For Success
Author
This user hasn't shared any biographical information
Posts by Author
The Best Way To Use Facebook For Ecommerce
May 4th
If your internet business is of the e-commerce variety, you may have been bombarded with reports about how amazingly well Facebook storefronts are faring these days.
Facebook Good For Social Sales
But, the truth of the matter is that, despite the fact that Booz & Company, a consulting company, predicts a 600 percent, or $30 billion, increase in product sales on Facebook by 2015, Facebook is not a medium for the majority of online retailers. This increase represents a mere 4 percent of the projected total of all sales online.
Facebook is more suited to the sale of socially relevant categories such as games, entertainment, travel and music, for which various applications and platforms already exist to make that possible.
Effective Use Of The Facebook Platform
Attempting to use Facebook directly for ecommerce is simply not feasible for most non-social product categories, since, according to the same report from Booz & Company, most Facebook users (73 percent of the 600 million users) are reluctant to shop on the platform due to privacy and security concerns.
So, if you’re not involved in selling any of the aforementioned product categories online, what’s the best way to take advantage of the massive potential customer base Facebook represents? Let’s look at some examples of how companies trading in non-social product categories make the most of their presence on Facebook.
1. Budweiser
This company’s Facebook page is all about audience participation. Go to their page and you’ll find yet another smart way in which the brand is put front and centre in the audience’s mind without any attempt or need to sell. You’ll see the extra-large logos and the chilled beer bottles, and next thing you know you’ll be adding a six-pack of Bud to your shopping list.
2. REI
Pay a visit to REI’s Facebook page and you won’t see any way to buy any of the company’s products. Instead, you’ll find all the information you can use to decide whether or not to make a purchase, along with videos, reviews, expert advice, company blog, etc., all connecting to the REI home page, from which you can make purchases to your heart’s content.
3. Newegg
Chances are you’ll arrive at Newegg’s Facebook page to find a sweepstakes of some kind, giving away such things as a complete home entertainment centre. In fact, join any of Newegg’s half million fans at any time and you’ll find many deals, promos, etc., waiting for you, but nothing to buy; take advantage of the offers on the page and you’ll be taken to the company home page to buy any of Newegg’s products.
4. Skittles
One look at the rainbow logo on the Skittles Facebook page may have you running to your nearest corner shop to grab a few bags of the tasty treats. And chances are you wouldn’t be alone – with 15 million users liking the page and enjoying its dozens of videos, over 1,000 photos, etc., making it clear Skittles know how to both entertain and engage users.
Obviously, if you can make your internet business‘s Facebook page as entertaining and interactive as possible, appealing to the social aspect that is Facebook, you can succeed in using Facebook as a launchpad for your ecommerce ambitions.
Utilise the Facebook expertise of a UK internet marketing consultant to set your page up for ecommerce success.
The Leading Trends In Search Marketing For 2011
May 2nd
The subject of search is of vital importance to internet business owners, so the results of a recent survey by SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization) should be of great interest to anyone trying to achieve success online.
Social And Mobile More Important Than Ever
If part of your marketing strategy includes social and mobile marketing, the findings of the survey should be a real eye-opener for you; if they’re not part of your strategy, you’ll want to pay close attention to what you’re about to read.
Some 900 companies participated in the survey, which estimates that there will be an increase of 16% in search in 2011 over 2010.
Facebook is growing in popularity among pay-per-click (PPC) advertisers, with almost half of survey respondents claiming to use Facebook for PPC (47 percent based in North America and 45 percent elsewhere). Advertising agencies show even higher use of Facebook among their clients, with 74 percent of North American based clients and 69 percent of clients outside North America placing PPC ads on Facebook.
Mobile Is Changing The Game
But, at the end of the day, the mobile internet is what’s really changing the game where search marketing trends are concerned. About 40 percent of companies involved in the survey stated that the growth in mobile internet was seen as “highly significant” to their businesses, an increase of 26 percent over the preceding year. Another 39 percent claimed that mobile internet was “significant” where their businesses were concerned.
The numbers are even more impressive where agencies are concerned, with 47 percent declaring mobile internet’s impact highly significant.
Local And Other Search Trends
Hot on the heels of mobile in the internet search marketing trends arena comes local search, rated as a highly significant trend by some 43 percent of respondents, with 41 percent rating it as significant.
Ad agencies claim that their clients spend 34 percent of their search budgets on local PPC advertising, which consists of advertising at regional, city or sub-market (markets within a company’s principal marketing focus, also referred to as “hidden” markets) levels.
Local search has not had such a significant effect on client-side advertisers, with only 26 percent stating that its effect was highly significant and budgets being correspondingly smaller than the clients of agencies at around 23 percent compared to 34 percent.
According to the survey, behavioral targeting is also seen as taking on increasing importance, with the percentage considering it significant or highly significant rising from last year’s 68 to 2011′s 78 percent.
The use of social media in general for advertising purposes is on the rise, with 84 percent of companies surveyed using Facebook, compared to last year’s 73 percent. Twitter is used by 75 percent to promote their brands or companies, and 52 percent use Linkedin’s platform.
It should be obvious from the above that you should be positioning your internet business to take advantage of these search marketing trends, if you haven’t already.
A UK internet business consultant can provide all the assistance you need to help your company reap the benefits of these exciting new trends, so don’t delay – contact them today!
Use An E-mail Service Provider To Push Your Campaigns Into Overdrive
Apr 25th
E-mail marketing is still not only a relevant option for internet business owners, but it’s actually thriving, with e-mail newsletters still a very effective marketing tool.
In fact, a Pew research recently found that some 56 percent of internet users subscribe to e-mail newsletters of one kind or another, while online business owners are utilising this platform increasingly to transmit their messages.
Content Counts When All Said And Done
The trick is to provide subscribers with content that keeps them interested and wanting more, as well as increasing the number of subscribers, thereby expanding your business and its revenue.
Here’s a list of several e-mail service providers that can give your business the boost it needs:
1. Posterous
More a microblogging site than an e-mail provider, Posterous recently added a feature that allows bloggers to convert their content into e-mail newsletters. They’ve also stated their intention to enhance their e-mail services in future, so this is well worth looking at.
2. MailChimp
One of the most popular e-mail services, MailChimp provides tools that are easy to implement and use, including features for mobile and social marketing. A free trial is available, while packages are available costing up to $240 per month for up to 50,000 subscribers.
3. Constant Contact
Simple editing tools, mobile and social functionalities, as well as almost 500 templates for newsletters to which companies can add their own logos and colours are just some of the features that make this service such a standout. It’s priced from $15 a month (500 subscribers) to $150-plus a month (25,000-plus subscribers).
4. Campaigner
For a startup this is an excellent service that provides many features that allow users to create, send and keep track of their e-mail newsletters, as well as providing the ability to edit images without the need for additional software. The cost is $10 a month (includes 30 day free trial), rising to $55 a month for as many as 10,000 subscribers.
5. Campaign Monitor
An Aussie (Australian) company that’s mainly focused on design but is a full-service e-mail marketing provider. The service has a complete set of features to facilitate a company’s e-mail marketing campaigns, and its offerings are priced from $15 for 500 subscribers to $500 for as many as 50,000 subscribers.
Give your internet business and your e-mail marketing campaign a shot in the arm with any one of these fine services.
Check with a UK internet marketing consultant who can assist you with all aspects of your company’s e-mail marketing strategy and work with you to increase your subscriber base substantially.
Google Rings The Changes Yet Again With +1
Apr 14th
If you want to succeed as an internet business owner, you’ve got to stay abreast with Google and the changes they’re constantly making to their search results.
We recently reported on what became known as Google’s Farmer Update, which basically put greater emphasis on quality, original content influencing search results. Well, Google keeps ringing the changes, the latest one being “+1″, which is all about where search and social meet.
Google’s Growing Love For Social
Google has already acknowledged the growing importance of social media by including Twitter updates in its search results, but now Google’s taking the importance of social in its results up another notch. In future you’ll see a button alongside search results which can be clicked to recommend a result to your social graph as defined in Google Profiles.
This acts as a citation and creates a backlink for SEO. When a user performs a search, results that received votes from within that user’s social graph will be profiled.
This Is Big, Really Big
While the implications of this latest change to Google’s search results aren’t yet fully known, what is certain is that you and your business need to be ready to take advantage of it, because, if it’s big for Google, it’s big for you.
If you don’t already have a Google profile, now’s the time to change that. Then you can check your connections in Google Dashboard’s “Social Circle and Content” – the more people you are connected to and that are connected to you, the more you can influence their results. It goes without saying that expanding your circle of influence should be a major priority.
If you have a subscriber list, check for gmail addresses and import them into your Google social graph.
Video is already a major factor in search results, but that may also be about to increase in importance so be sure your company’s channel is properly branded and set up for social connections through friends and subscribers.
There’s also a +1 button that can be added to web sites that will allow visitors to vote for a page and help improve the page’s search results.
Vote For Your Favourite Ads
The +1 vote button will also be added to Adwords ads, allowing users to recommend ads that appeal, causing them to display as recommendations to personal contacts.
For advertisers, this means making their ads as appealing as possible in order to garner as many recommendations as possible.
Don’t Forget The Other Social Networks
This is Google, after all, so this is something to act on, but it’s too early to tell how much effect votes will have on search engine results or even whether users will take the time to vote.
And while you and your internet business should take advantage of Google’s new initiative, don’t ignore the other social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, since they are very powerful vehicles in their own right. A balanced approach is advisable at all times.
Let a UK internet marketing consultant help you to make the most of Google +1 and the other social networks to boost your search result rankings.
Monitoring Customer Reviews Is Critical To Your Business’s Success
Apr 5th
Do you know how your internet business‘s web site ranks in the search engines? Marchex, which supplies marketing products to small businesses, did an analysis of results of searches for small businesses internally and found that 80% of the results didn’t point to the web sites of those businesses; rather, they pointed to social networking sites and user reviews.
Be Aware Of Your Search Engine Rankings
The businesses involved in Marchex’s analysis were mainly consumer-facing, such as plumbing, restaurants, travel, etc., businesses all likely to be reviewed by consumers. Therefore, it behooves companies like these to monitor where they rank in search results with similar web sites, as opposed to compared with review and social media sites.
It’s now getting to the point where practically every business is being reviewed, so you’d be well advised to keep an eye on what people are saying about you (whether it be true or not) and to be in a position to respond to negative criticism before it becomes a fully fledged viral hate campaign. Of course, the best way to avoid this type of situation is to make sure you provide each customer with the best service possible.
Possible Places To Find Reviews Of Your Business
The first places to look for reviews of your business would be social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. After that, here’s a list of some of the top review sites to check:
1. AngiesList.com
A trusted site providing paid reviews of local businesses that has a membership of over 1 million.
2. BBB.org
While a relative newcomer to the consumer review scene, the Better Business Bureau site should be bookmarked by every business owner.
3. Epinions.com
Solicits and publishes reviews on practically anything available for purchase online, from pet supplies to luxury autos.
4. SiteJabber.com
Provides reviews of web sites as a whole, so it’s very important to make sure good things are being written about your business.
5. Buzzillions.com
Emphasises product reviews, including electronics, housewarea, sports clothing and equipment, etc. If your business is involved in supplying products of any kind online, you should check this site for reviews of your product offerings.
Customer Reviews Can Make A Big Difference
Amazon.com was one of the first sites to allow customers to post reviews of various products, and since then the number and variety of sites offering reviews has grown substantially, so much so that many consumers make their final purchase decision based on reviews they read online.
If you’re not doing so already, you should encourage your internet business‘s visitors and customers to leave reviews, while staying on top of what people are saying about your business around the web.
A UK internet marketing consultant can work with you to formulate a strategy for advocating your business online and monitoring what others are saying about it.
