Showcasing Your Brand

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• Showcasing Your Brand
• The Online Experience
• Big Picture Marketing in a Multi-Channel
  WorldMarriott Boston NewtonNewton, MA ?
  Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008

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My Perspective B2C eCommerce
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Boost Your Websites Performance

• Increasing your conversion rate
• Using analytics and A/B testing tools
• Strategies for search-engine advertising and
  organic SEO
• Protecting and supporting your brand online

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1. What Is Your Site For?

• Develop clear goals for your Web presence Are
  you trying to
• Sell products?
• Generate catalog requests or business leads?
• Build the brand image for your business?
• Design the site to drive your visitors toward the
  results you want

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Gain the Customers Trust

• Express your unique selling proposition
• Back it up with a strong guarantee
• 69 say credit card security is a major concern
  when shopping online
• Conversions go up when you add security messaging
  like HackerSafe (now McAfee). Case studies show
  9-13 lift

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Messaging that builds confidence in the company
and the transaction
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Testimonials are a form of security messaging,
and a very effective one
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Strong tag line and USP message
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Bigger, Better Buttons

• That little gray button doesnt cut it anymore!
• Desired action should be clearest navigational
  choice on the page
• Big, bright, 3-D, with forward arrows

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Lead Customer to the Goal

• What am I supposed to do?

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Best Practices In Graphic Design for Your Site

• Best sellers submit buttons above the fold
• Prominent calls to action
• Perpetual Navigation w/search e-mail signup
• Clean, appealing, with clear hierarchy
• Homepage images and message should echo current
  catalog or other offline marketing

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Before
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After
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Before
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After
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Redesign the Crucial Stuff

• You dont need to do a total site redesign
• Critique your checkout or inquiry pages as
  order taking machines
• Think above the fold
• Bigger buttons, forward motion
• Better product images
• Test paid-search landing pages as prelude to a
  site redesign

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Before
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After14 conversion rate lift

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2. Measure Against Your Goals!

• Put measurement systems in place
• Google Analytics is the easy choice
• Good News/Bad News Keep It Simple
• Track Actionable Data Only
• Focus on Most-Wanted Least Wanted Responses

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Sitewide KPI Benchmarks

• Site conversion rate (1.9 to 6.5)
• Cart abandonment rate and trend (25-51)
• Visits from natural search as a percentage of
  total search visitors (21-52)
• Number of unique visitors trend
• Average e-commerce order amount
• Revenue from natural search vs. paid search

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Marketing Channel Benchmarks

• E-mail ROI (including fees 1.3x - 12.7x)
• E-mail open rates (18 - 33)
• Revenue per e-mail message trend
• Pay Per Click ROI (1.2x - 20.8x)
• Revenue attributable to organic search

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Beware of Averages!

• There are three kinds of lies lies, damned lies,
  and statistics. Mark Twain
• Different channels have very different metrics
• High-converting, qualified traffic Direct entry,
  searching by name, email program
• Lower-converting but important Paid search, SEO,
  incremental business, new customers

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Use A/B Testing to Drive Sales

• Test and improve your most important elements
  navigation, forms, landing pages
• Google Website Optimizer is a well-designed,
  no-cost tool
• Test paid-search ad copy and landing pages
• Keep the formulation of your tests simple
• Test one concept at a time

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Test Paid Search Copy, Offers and Landing Pages

• A Free Shipping offer boosted conversion 22X
• Ad cost decreased 95
• Even with lost shipping revenue, net margin
  improved 5X
• However In a different product category, free
  shipping offers proved a detraction!

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5. Tune up your SEO and SEM

• For best results, integrate Search Engine
  Optimization (SEO) with Search Engine Marketing
  (SEM), or Paid Search
• SEO typically has a large ROI, but it must be
  done well using white hat techniques
• Hire a reputable, experienced firm first, but
  also learn more about it yourself

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Paid Search Results
Natural Search Result
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Why You Need Paid Search
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• Monetize the Tail

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• Monetize the Tail

Broad, high-volume generic terms
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• Monetize the Tail

Highly specific, multi-word search terms
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6. Protect Support Your Brand Online

• Beware of
• Copycat URLs
• Fake profiles in Social Media
• Being flamed in reviews or video
• Phishing emails in your name
• Launch Ratings Reviews
• Be Active in Your Online Community

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Brand Pitfalls in Cyberspace. . .

• Flea BagAt check in the room was filthy and
  beds unmade. We asked for our money back but they
  would not give it to us. We opened the fridge and
  roaches were running around inside . . .

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Budweiser Profile on MySpace

• You've just endered the wonderful world of
  Budweiser. Being a beer built on taste, qulity
  and most of all tradition, Budweiser encorporates
  all aspects of beer drinking needed to keep its
  drinkers happy, satisfifed, and DRUNK.

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A Comcast Technician Sleeping on My Couch
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A Comcast Technician Sleeping on My Couch

• See the YouTube video, rated 4.6 stars
• First page on Google, Yahoo organic results for
  Comcast
• Viewed 1.2 million times
• (update recently disappeared from top ten)

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Launch Customer Ratings and Reviews

• Conversions go up when you add reviews
• Bad reviews are okaythey add credibility
• Use Star Ratings in your other promotions such
  as e-mails
• Offer incentives for buyers to review your
  products
• Allocate the staff to do this well

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Customers Trust Each Other

• 70 of online shoppers say user reviews and
  ratings are extremely or very important
• Bass Pro Shops Top Rated Products page 59
  higher conversion rate, 16 higher AOV
• Petco 49 higher conversion rate, 63 higher
  AOV
• Using star ratings in emails, Petco saw 5X
  increase in click-through rate.
• Golfsmith top-rated product emails drove 46
  more revenue per campaign

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Be Active in your Online Community

• If you dont establish a presence, scammers,
  pranksters or your competitors will
• What would happen to your business if you cannot
  send catalogs or e-mails?

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Real-World Examples

• Yarn.com blogs, and podcasts the owners local
  public radio show
• Eesa snowboard apparel has about 6,000 friends on
  MySpace and Facebook
• Dartmouth Coop advertises to alums on Facebook
• Bodybuilding.com created its own social network

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Now, the Good News

• Done well, participation in your online community
  is VERY low-cost, high-return
• Website improvements offer lots of low-hanging
  fruit
• Customer Interaction Web Analytics Testing
  Perfect Environment for Direct Marketers!

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• Thanks for Your Attention!
• Tom Funk
• TFunk_at_TimberlineInteractive.com
• 802-388-8377 x203