ECOMMERCE BASICS

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E-COMMERCE BASICS

• Increasing Internet Sales
• Special Día de los Muertos Edition
• Brent Buford
• Class info and discussion at
• http//bigcommerce.blogspot.com

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OVERALL GOAL

• To communicate the basics of web advertising
  and marketing and help you build your holiday
  sales.

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STEP 1 PLANNING

• Identifying target audience
• Determining what makes you unique
• Establishing goals and budgets
• Building your plan

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STEP 2 CREATING

• Building marketing materials
• Writing copy
• Choosing providers
• Setting up campaigns

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STEP 3 EXECUTING

• Pushing campaigns
• Handling response
• Monitoring activity

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STEP 4 ANALYZING

• Next week!

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IDENTIFYING YOUR AUDIENCE

• Whos buying now?
• Demographics
• Psychographics
• Expanding your audience

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FINDING YOURSELF

• Web advertising demands that you determine what
  makes your product or service unique

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EXAMPLES
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GOALS AND BUDGETS
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GOALS AND BUDGETS

• Be realistic and precise
• Some budget is better than none at all
• Be prepared to adapt
• If possible, establish desired ROI

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BUILDING YOUR PLAN

• Email blast copy/design
• Online advertising copy/design
• Offline advertising
• Schedule
• Budget

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MARKETING EMAIL BLASTS

• Inexpensive way to reach an audience
• Combines information your audience is interested
  in with product promotion (value!)
• Lists can often be inexpensive and targeted

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MARKETING CREATING EMAIL BLASTS

• Provide a service to your list
• Product selection advice
• Tips for buying or using products effectively
• News or information
• Keep copy short and punchy
• Use graphics
• Subject lines are critical (seriously!)
• Dont have a designer? Use templates!

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MARKETING CHOOSING PROVIDERS

• Look for good creative tools and templates
• Strict control over spam and opt-in
• Easy list management
• Simple to add a signup to your site
• Research providers that specialize in your
  industry or audience - they may have a list that
  you can rent

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MARKETING SETTING UP CAMPAIGNS

• Build your newsletter
• Input or select your list
• Schedule the push
• Avoid weekends, Monday mornings and Fridays
• After lunch is often an ideal time
• Pull the trigger
• Make sure you have a schedule for subsequent
  newsletters

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GUEST SPEAKER

• Pat Jackson will discuss writing for web sites
  and email marketing

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ADVERTISING ONLINE ADVERTISING

• Can be inexpensive and very effective
• Targeted to keyword searches or particular
  content sites
• You control budget and schedule

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ONLINE ADVERTISING TERMS

• Cost per Impression
• Campaign
• Ad group
• Conversion
• Analytics

• Keyword
• Pay-per-click
• Cost-per-click
• Impressions
• Click-thru rate

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ADVERTISING AD SCHEDULES

• Control the time and day of your ads
• Plan your advertising schedule based on your
  goals
• Dont forget to think like your audience - when
  will they be online?

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ONLINE ADVERTISING TIPS

• Remember your uniqueness - its the key
• Unique keywords reduce cost and increase chance
  of impressions
• Think like your customers will think
• Consider site-targeted ads on sites that would
  interest your customers
• Learn the basic definitions
• Monitor your ROI closely
• Start small and dont be afraid - budget controls
  everything

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OFFLINE ADVERTISING

• Consider driving offline advertising responses to
  your site
• Use offer codes or coupons to track response
• Getting someone to your site enables you to
  generate trackable customer lists

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HOW TO HAVE A HAPPY HOLIDAY

• Plan, Create, Execute, Analyze
• Test the waters with modest, specific goals
• Leverage your uniqueness, locale or other
  characteristics to help customers find you
• Learn from your mistakes (you will make them)

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WRAPUP

• Go to the blog
• bigcommerce.blogspot.com
• Email me
• Questions?
• Goals for next week