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May 29, 2010
I usually just post links on Fridays but since I was on vacation last week I didn’t get to share any links, thus today’s special Saturday edition of “Link Love”. Enjoy!
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May 28, 2010
Every day I check out the 100s of subscriptions in my RSS feed about marketing, PR, advertising, branding, social media, and a host of other topics of interest to small businesses that sell online. Most of what gets posted isn’t earth shattering but I reserve Fridays for the best reads of the week. So here you have it, the most valuable things I read in the business blogosphere this week:
Note I was away on vacation last week so there will be a special “Link Love” post this weekend with extra reads. Stay tuned.
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May 25, 2010
Smaller Box is one of many blogs that talks about marketing, PR and other topics of interest to small ecommerce businesses. Above all things, my mission is to avoid fluff. What do I consider fluff? Posts that fill up space and don’t give you anything useful. Every week I share my favorite reads from around the web and I reiterate this point: “Most of what’s out there is junk.”
There are some highly celebrated marketing and business blogs out there you’ll never see me link and the reason is that I think what they write is total bullshit! It’s stuff that isn’t actually applicable to anything. In short, I have no time or respect for biz blogs that have insights like “build a relationship with your customers” or “trust your instincts” or “sell something unique.” It’s not that these statements are incorrect, it’s that they’re vague and common sense assertions. What I look for (and try to provide) is specifics and practical advice my readers can use today. I aim for specific actionable advice in lieu of food for thought.
So here’s my criteria for a good biz/marketing publication or article:
1. Something Specific
If a blog post’s entire premise is that you have a lot of options (and literally this the entire crux of a post in a very popular business blog) I don’t consider this to be a good use of my reading time. Thanks for the newsflash, fortune cookie. How about if I write a post that says candy is delicious? Would you find that riveting too?
An article that specifically detailed certain kinds of options and compared and contrasted them might be good. The same way an article about the various kinds of candy and what makes them delicious might be interesting. Specificity is what helps make advice actionable. Thus you won’t find articles by me or recommended by me that are vague and theoretical.
2. Something Original/New
I probably wouldn’t write or suggest an article that says “shopping carts with fewer steps have more conversions.” It’s not news, it’s something pretty much everyone knows. I might mention this tidbit as part of a larger article. I would definitely write or link an article with a specific A/B split test on a shopping cart design that increased conversions because that’s something more unique and it’s very specific. It gives readers a model to act on. You can read that article and extrapolate advice on how to change your own cart. There aren’t a million articles documenting that specific test and analyzing why it worked.
3. Something Practical
My audience is small ecommerce businesses; when I give advice, that’s who it is for. Thus I wouldn’t give you a suggestion that would cost a million dollars to implement. I wouldn’t suggest you do something that would necessitate having hundreds of thousands of mailing list subscribers or Facebook fans. There’s plenty of pie-in-the-sky advice to be had for big businesses with vast resources and bulging bank accounts. While my advice might have some resonance with a megacorp CMO, that’s not my audience. I only give advice you can actually implement with your resources and your budget, and I recommend reads along those lines.
Your goal for today:
Cut something from your feed reader. Take a critical look at the business reads you subscribe to and really think about whether that subscription is providing genuine value. Are they providing unique, actionable, specific and practical advice or are they just taking up space?
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May 24, 2010
Ecommerce sales have their peaks and valleys. Sometimes you’re overwhelmed with business and other times it’s crickets. During those slow periods it can be frustrating and feel like you’re at the whims of the web. While you could sulk or make virgin sacrifices to the Google gods, there are other more practical and effective options. Below are four ways to stimulate sales during a slow patch.
1. Alert the Press
Making up a press-worthy event is a great way to drive media attention, which often results in sales. Donate to a charity, host a contest, tie your brand to an event like Mardi Gras or Independence Day. Come up with a way to put an interesting spin on what you’re up to and pitch it to media outlets.
2. Focus on Your Fans
Turn to your loyal customers for a sales boost. Offer a special coupon, launch a customer loyalty program, or host a private sale. You can promote an event like this through your mailing list and social media.
3. Launch a New Product
Launching a new product is a great way to generate interest in your existing line. It gives you something to share with press contacts and fans. It also creates new pages on your site for search engines to index. This is also a good way to branch out to a new customer demographic. If you’ve always sold items for adults, why not create a kids version of your product. If your customers are mainly women, add something for men to your line.
4. Experiment With New Ads
Advertise in a new place or design new ads for your existing ad venues. New ads can help reach customers who were previously unaware of your brand. This can bring sales, new social media followers and new newsletter subscribers, not to mention lots of new word of mouth. If you’re nervous about investing a large chunk of cash up front, consider programs like Adbrite, Google Adwords or Project Wonderful which allow you to try things out on a day-to-day basis with a small budget. Co-op advertising sites like ishopindie.com and cutique.com also have day-to-day memberships for just $4.00, so you can try before you make a longer term ad commitment at a discounted price.
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May 20, 2010
If you can’t get people to your website you can’t sell your products. But where do all these visitors come from? Different ecommerce sites get a mix of traffic from different sources. Below is a list of the places I get a lot of traffic on my ecommerce website:
Direct Requests – A lot of people visit my website by just entering my URL. This is a good reason to get yourself a memorable URL so customers can easily enter it.
Search Engines – Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. drive thousands of visitors to my website. You can get the most traffic from these sources by optimizing your site.
Social Media – We talk about social media a lot in the marketing world. It’s for good reason, sites like Stumbleupon, Facebook, Twitter, etc. drive traffic. What’s even better is this traffic is pretty well qualified since you’re basically getting visitors as a result of people recommending your site to their friends.
Advertising – A lot of small businesses don’t like to spend on advertising but well-targeted placements can deliver a huge amount of business. I actually started my co-op advertising website ishopindie.com back in 2005 because I wanted access to more advertising than I could afford. I pooled my money with other small businesses and was able to drive traffic to my website for a fairly small expenditure. I still co-op advertise today and it still brings lots of traffic and sales to my site. Since my site has grown I’ve also been able to spend more on Adwords.
Affiliates -Affiliate programs are programs that allow independent marketers to promote your business and receive a commission for sales they generate on your website. My site has hundreds of affiliates driving traffic to my site and I pay a commission to them when their traffic results in sales. (More detailed explanation of affiliate programs here.)
Directories – My site is linked in dozens of directories. Some of them are very niche specific. Niche directories are a great way to drive traffic to your site and improve your SEO. These days there seems to be a directory for just about everything so do some research to find directories for your brand.
Media Placements -My site has received over 65 online media placements in the last 18 months. All of these placements still drive traffic to my website each day.
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May 19, 2010
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. YOU NEED YOUR OWN WEBSITE. Getting one can be challenging for small online retailers because of the technical skills often required to get a website (or expense). Thus a lot of people turn to sites like Ebay, Amazon or Etsy.
Ecwid makes it fairly easy to set up shop on your own website and you don’t have to be a programmer. Features include:
- Easy integration with existing website
- Integration with Facebook and Myspace
- Works with Paypal or other payment processors
- Supports a variety of shipping options
- Support for affiliate programs and coupons
You can use Ecwid for free or pay $17/month for a fully featured version.
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May 18, 2010
I recently got a promotion in my inbox from a very high profile website. The site was asking me to join their weekly newsletter to be eligible to win an ipad. Sounds good right?
I clicked the call-to-action link and it took me to the site’s home page. The sign up for the newsletter was below the fold. Uh oh! Now I have to scroll down to even find the place to get on the newsletter and there’s a ton of other stuff on the home page. I had to really hunt for this sign up.
Problem number 2: Once I found the newsletter sign up form and entered my email address I wasn’t added to the list. I was taken to a form asking for my address, phone number and birthday. What a bait and switch! That’s like asking to borrow a dollar and as soon as your friend pulls out her wallet demanding a 20!
I am sure the site owners were so jazzed about the idea of giving away an Ipad that they didn’t even think about the user experience for entering their giveaway. This is a great example of how a well-conceived promotion can really go awry.
The lesson here is this: before you launch a new promotion or campaign have it tested. Do NOT test it yourself, you’re too close to your own stuff. Ask a friend to test for you and pay attention to any stumbling blocks she identifies. If a friend finds your instructions, rules or page design confusing so will your customers.
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May 17, 2010
We can talk all day about lightboxes and Photoshop when it comes to product photography and it’s important to understand the technical aspects of getting a great photo, but I feel like not enough attention is paid to discussing product photo staging and styling.
It goes without even saying that if you can’t put together proper lighting and photo retouching your product pictures are not going to sell your products, but there’s more to a picture that sells than setting up a lightbox and fixing colors in Photoshop. Really good product pictures tell a story and help customers imagine themselves owning your products.
I think the best way to understand what makes a really good product photo is looking at great product photos. Here are some examples of what I mean.
High Waist nylon lycra roller derby shorts by Miss Fancypants
Which sexy little pair of shorts do you want to own, these or the ones in the picture above? They’re the same pair of shorts. The pair above looks like more fun though. You can imagine how they’d fit. They’re being worn by a sexy edgy model gossiping on the phone. The picture is fun and it makes the product seem like more fun.
Manuka Honey Drizzle by Bella Lucce
How tantalizing is this bath elixir? You don’t even need to read the product description to imagine how sweet and natural this stuff must be. It’s going to make you smell like lemons and honey, how refreshing, right? Bath and body products are tough to sell online since customers can’t touch or smell the item so images like this do a great job of conveying the product experience by likening it to things the customer is familiar with.
Life’s a Picnic Chefs Apron by BellaBeeDesigns
So what if you’re always in sweats and your floor is covered in cheerios and legos. Buy this apron and you’ll be transformed into Martha Stewart. A perfect hostess who serves dinner on real plates instead of the paper kind. Your home will be tidy, well-lit and color coordinated. Well, at least that’s the narrative of this product photo. Customers see this product in action and can picture an idealized version of themselves using it. While this photo of the same product gives the customer a clear idea of what they product looks like, it doesn’t have the same fantasy attached to it as the image above.
Laptop Bag by Snap
This laptop bag photo is great for two reasons. One, you immediately understand how big the bag is in relation to a person because a person is holding the bag. Two, the photo is a lifestyle shot. The person who has this bag is clean, modern, together, organized, urban and chic. Look at their tiny bright monochrome apartment. Look at their stylish black outfit. Can you just see yourself going to work at a Manhattan design firm with your macbook in this laptop case?
Whirl Serving Dish by Kim Westad
Check out the platter above. Can’t you see it sitting at your next fancy cocktail party? Your friends will marvel at the unique design as they pour themselves a glass of wine. The picture helps you imagine this product in use in your home. While this photo of the same product clearly depicts how the item looks, it has no narrative. It’s hard to imagine what you might do with such a weird-looking plate. The photo above, however, makes it seem like a perfect fit for your next party.
Sans Culotte Top by Locher’s
In terms of cultivating a brand aesthetic, it’s tough to top Locher’s. Their beautiful website gives the feeling of entering an airy, romantic boudoir, and they complete the look with stunning photographs. Check out the picture above for their Sans Culotte shirt. You can just imagine being transformed from a plain Jane into a sex kitten the minute you put this product on.
Cinnamon Chocolate Malt Biscotti by Whimsy and Spice
This product photo gets you in the mood for a coffee break. The coffee cup is lined up next to the cookies and as an added bonus the customer gets a peak at the product’s package design since a package of cookies is waiting in the background. This is a terrific way to showcase a product in action and include a peak at the stylish package design the customer will enjoy with their purchase.
Great follow up read to this post about understanding what it is you sell.
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May 14, 2010
Every day I check out the 100s of subscriptions in my RSS feed about marketing, PR, advertising, branding, social media, and a host of other topics of interest to small businesses that sell online. Most of what gets posted isn’t earth shattering but I reserve Fridays for the best reads of the week. So here you have it, the most valuable things I read in the business blogosphere this week:
This content is copyrighted. See my content sharing policy here.
May 13, 2010
For the millionth time on this blog, I’m prefacing this article by saying YOU NEED YOUR OWN WEBSITE. You cannot take advantage of an affiliate program if you only sell on sites like Etsy or Ebay. Now that we’re clear on that…
Affiliate programs are programs that allow people to get a commission from your website from helping you sell stuff. There are people on the web that do nothing but market for other businesses and make their entire living on these sales commissions. The good news for you about affiliate programs is that these marketers only get paid when you make sales.
How does it work?
Typically you place a small piece of code on your “thank you for your order” page. This code is invisible to customers. Its only purpose is keeping track of sales that come from your affiliates so they get paid their commissions. This is why you need your own website, you need to be able to put this tracking code on your “thank you” page.
How much does the affiliate get paid?
That is up to you. Some websites pay their affiliates a flat fee for every order. Most pay a percentage of their gross sales. If you want to attract good affiliates you’ll need to offer an attractive commission. No one is going to want to generate sales for you if you’re only going to pay them a dollar or a few cents for each transaction (unless your conversion rate is extremely high). If you’re not sure what the going rate is, take a look at what commission rate others in your industry offer to their affiliates. 10-20% is common in a lot of industries, but be sure to research your own market before setting your terms.
Also keep in mind that some businesses offer their affiliates tiered payments, which means the affiliate gets an even higher commission if she meets certain sales goals. These commission structures are designed to incentivize your affiliates to sell more merchandise for you.
How do I find affiliates?
It’s pretty common to join an affiliate management website like Clixgalore.com or Shareasale.com. The nice thing about these sites is they have a large pool of affiliates looking for companies to promote. They also handle all the administrative issues of your program. They’ll give you sales tracking code to use. They’ll handle paying your affiliates. For these benefits, you have to pay some fees. The affiliate program administrators’ fees vary. Some charge a percent of gross sales. Some charge a flat fee. Some charge a combination of the two.
You can run your own affiliate program without the help of a site like Shareasale or Clixgalore. You’d probably want to install some affiliate management software and there’s lots of it out there. Programs like “Affiliates for All” are free and open source. Programs like LinkTrust charge a fee. If you go this route, you’ll have to find your own affiliates since you won’t be able to rely on an affiliate management company’s pool of affiliates. On the plus side, you don’t have to pay an affiliate management company.
I recommend using an affiliate management site to most small businesses since it’s a little less work and gets you access to a larger pool of affiliates. Whichever route you choose, you can link your affiliate program from your own website so that people visiting your site know they can join it, market for you, and receive a commission.
How does the affiliate get paid?
If you are dealing with an third party affiliate management company they take care of that for you. You supply them with a deposit or credit card number and they use that to pay your affiliates. If you are running your own program you dictate the payment terms. You might pay by check or Paypal after a certain number of days or after a minimum of affiliate profit has been generated.
How do I help the affiliates sell more stuff?
Typically you want to help your affiliates do their jobs. This means furnishing them with a variety of banner ads, discount codes and promotional information. Usually when you set up your affiliate program, you want to have a variety of marketing tools on offer to your affiliates. Going forward you may want to contact your affiliates on a regular basis with new promotional information and materials. The more you nurture your affiliates, the better they’ll be able to perform.
Affiliate programs sound awesome, why would I bother with any other form of advertising?
Affiliate programs aren’t all a bed of roses. First of all you’re paying a fat chunk of cash to the affiliates every time they sell for you. If that were your only source of sales, your net profits would probably take a nose dive. Second of all, affiliate programs don’t always pan out. Just because you build it doesn’t mean they’ll come, and in this case, just because you have an affiliate program it doesn’t mean you’ll get a lot of sales from it. I have an affiliate program on my website and the vast majority of my sales don’t come from it.
Another downside to affiliate programs is that you don’t have as much control over your brand. You need to pick your affiliates carefully to make sure they’re not misrepresenting your brand. What if an affiliate joins your network and then puts ads for your brand on a white power website? You have to be careful about who you let do your marketing and how they’re going to do it.
I wanna give this a try, how do I find some affiliate management sites?
Here are a few:
Keep in mind some of these programs are not for beginners. Some of these sites require that your site be at a certain revenue level or that you pay a pretty hefty start up fee. The two programs that I’d say are the most beginner friendly are Clixgalore and Shareasale.
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