Technorati Tags: advertising campaigns, busiest shopping days of the year, mobile outreach

This week ebay released a coupon worth 10 percent off any order with a max of $100.00 off.
This works on any region of ebay around the world.

Coupon:

CHOLIDAYNOV2008

As you proceed to checkout simply put this into the COUPON section and it will knock of 10 %

Not bad Ehh?

I can only guess this is their attempt to stimulate an already slowing christmas season of online retail shopping.

It’s good enough for me. I have used it a couple of times now, so it isnt a one time deal.

Happy Shopping!

Don’t forget the Black Friday sales coming up on Nov 27th.

Technorati Tags: black friday sales, christmas season, coupon section, ebay, time deal

Zappos.com Inc feeling the stress from the economic problems in the USA.

The online shoes, clothing, bags and accessories retailer, No. 27 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, is laying off about 80 of it employees to cut costs.

Zappos is thinking of also closeing outlet storesin Nevada and Kentucky all to save more money, CEO Tony Hsieh wrote in a note on the company’s blog last week. “We made the hard choice of laying off about 8% of our employees,” says Hsieh. “The layoffs will affect almost every single department at Zappos.com.”

It is not their choice, the largest of their investors is telling them to trim the fat.
The employees to be laid off will be paid through the end of the year. Workers who have been with the company for three or more years will receive an additional payout, says Zappos.

In addition to firing employees, Zappos is also cutting back its sales forecast for 2008. Zappos now hopes that sales will grow by about 17% to around $1 billion from $850 million in 2007. That is still some serouis growth if you ask me. The turn in the market is effecting everyone. We will have to keep our heads up and push forward to make it through.

Technorati Tags: economic problems, firing employees, internet retailer top 500 guide, tony hsieh, zappos

More than one in three holiday shoppers - or 62.3 million adult consumers - report they begin holiday shopping before Thanksgiving, according to new data from Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI).

Just 35% of holiday shoppers say they begin shopping between Thanksgiving and December 15, and 25% say they start their shopping between December 16 and 23, MRI’s 2008 Omnibus Recontact Study found.
Approximately 2% of holiday shoppers don’t begin their holiday shopping until Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. (exceprt from Marketing Charts)

So what does that mean for us retailers? Ya better get your act in gear! The 2008 holiday session is HERE!

Things to keep in mind when do your advetising:

1- Targeted ads are better than generic

2- Google adwords is not the only place to advertise

3- Social networks my be a key to advertising passive markets

4- Don’t forget Ebay and Overstock

The more target your ads can be the more chance that they will convert into sales. This means that if some one is looking up a product like a (Nokia N96 mobile phone) then you put those exact words in your AD and in the landing page that you send them to. The customer must feel that they are being led down the correct path to exactly what they are looking to purchase.

Google is a great place to advertise but for most beginners it is way to complicated and you can loose a large sum of your advertising budget quite quickly. (Google adwords Learning Center) Look at other ways to advertise. Yahoo has a good program (Yahoo Paid Search) MSN has one also (MSN AdCenter). These are only tip of the iceberg. There are a lot of 2nd tier search sites that offer great advetising options. Miva, Kanoodle, Ask are a few of them that I trust.

Social networks like Facebook, Bebo, Myspace and Friendster are just a few of the top social networks that are all the craze these days. (Just the other day a really good friend from my high school days found me on facebook, haven’t talked with him in over 10 years. ) So if so many people are there looking for old buddies why not advertise? Check out Cubics.com .

Last but not least is the Auction services, Ebay, Overstock and many others are here to serve you and your customers. You may have heard that Ebay just raised their prices on listing auctions and completed listings.
Yes this is true but never fear their is always a silver lining. You have many options to offset the costs by using third party services to list your items. Auctiva.com, Vendio.com, Inkfrog.com these guys allow you to speed up your listings and offer most of Ebays upgrade tools for free.

This season is going to be very very GOOD for online sellers. No one wants to drive when the cost of gas is still pushing $4.00 per gallon (USA) Im sure it is as bad or worse everywhere else. So get out there and SELL SELL SELL.

Technorati Tags: adult consumers, holiday shoppers

So what does that mean to all you paid advertisers? Get off thinking that google is the only place that you can advertise. There are a lot of amazing OTHER places to spend your advertising dollars and get more use out of them. Have you ever heard of Cubics.com ? These guys have created a network with most of the top social networks. You create an account with them and you can advertise on FACEBOOK, MYSPACE, BEBO, FRIENDSTER and more. give it a try, it wont hurt, and… You might just hit the jackpot of a new marketing niche.

If you want to read more about social media and adults

Tips for writing titles and descriptions on product page and homepage

Think of your title and description as an advertising campaign and spend as much time writing an effective title and description as you would writing an important ad.

Include Your Researched Keywords: To have a realistic chance of being listed on search results for certain keywords, make sure those keywords are used in your titles and descriptions. This is because when a search is requested through a search engine, the search engine gives highest priority to the words within the title tag. Since each page of your website can have its own unique title, it is vital for you to customize each page with its own keyword-rich title, focusing on just one keyword phrase per page. Tip: Do not use keywords multiple times in the same title or description tag.

Evoke Emotion: Don´t make the mistake of using just your company name for the title or stuffing keywords in the title with no other emotional pull. Your web page´s title MUST grab attention, create curiosity, and evoke emotion. Pay close attention to TV and radio news programs and how they use short “hooks” to keep viewers and listeners through a commercial break. The same “hooks” can be used for your title and description.

Use Compelling Words: What words are compelling? We have compiled a short list of compelling words to choose from: bold, breakthrough, magical, revealing, accomplish, favorite, security, save, stunning, personal, outrageous, you, announcing, warning, secrets, enormous, love, best, earn, more, wealth, protect, dazzling, exciting, incredible, free, fear, imagine, succeed, gain, money, sale, stunning, how-to, proud, health, prosper, future, easy, extreme, and fate.

Make Titles Short: Shorter titles are more effective than longer ones because web surfers scan the words on a search result page—they don´t read them.

Avoid Search Engine “Tricks”: There are many “tricks” out there to allow you to have more than one title tag, a title longer than the maximum 78 characters, and multiple descriptions. We advise against these methods because search engine criteria and algorithms change frequently. Unless you are keeping up-to-date on the latest changes, what may be legal today could draw a penalty tomorrow.

Make Sure You Can Support Your Claims: Make sure you can back up any claims you make in your title and description. If you can´t, you may be sued. Recently a large online site was sued for stating they were “The World´s Largest Bookstore.” They weren´t. They were sued. They lost.

Use Capitalization Wisely: Do not use ALL CAPS. They are difficult to read and are considered “shouting” on the Internet. Instead, capitalize the first letter of each word (when appropriate).

Make Titles under 78 Characters: Generally, your title should be 78 characters or less (including spaces). We prefer short, crisp titles. Some search engines only display a maximum of 78 characters, so by following this guideline, you are assured your title will not be cut off.
Don’t Use Two Titles for One Web Page

Although using more than one title on a page is allowed on some search engines, others (including Google) will heavily penalize you. For this reason, the Builder does not allow more than one title. Our programmers receive the latest changes to the major search engines from our marketing department, making our web builder one of the most search-engine-friendly builders on the market.
Questions to Ask Yourself

Read your finished title and description and ask yourself:
Are my title and description compelling?
Do they solve a problem?
Do they suggest that my product or service solves that problem quickly?

If you answered “no” to any of the above questions, you may need to rewrite your title and/or description. The bottom line is, when a search is performed on a search engine, two elements are displayed in the results list—the website´s title and description. And based on that title and description, your website may be welcoming potential customers—or turning them away.

Post by brightbuilders.com

Technorati Tags: writing good titles

Printable Version

This table lays out some – yes, just some – of the metrics that you can use to understand your purchase funnel and where in that funnel your prospects lie. Most marketers aren’t in a position to collect or work with all of these metrics. So, it’s important to focus on those that your organization is going to use as benchmarks and points of learning.

Before getting into what each of these metrics means, take a moment to think about the metrics you track, and the answers to these two questions:

1. Are you tracking metrics that give you some insight into each of the major steps in the purchase funnel? Many companies are heavy on awareness and purchase, but light on consideration and favorability, for example.

2. Can you track these metrics with accuracy? It seems simplistic, but many times we are forced to use metrics that are one step removed from the process. For example, using clicks instead of conversions is common when conducting page tests. If you base your business direction and investment on a Web metric, make sure it’s one you can rely on.

Purchase Funnel Success Metrics

o Target reach percent: Using composition data from a service, such as comScore, determine how many impressions out of total served went to target, then divide by target reached by total target population.

o Increase in searches for a brand: Major search engines can provide this data.

o Increase in all site traffic: Site analytics can provide this data.

o Control survey increase: Ad effectiveness study simultaneously gathers and compares unexposed to ad-exposed audience to determine increase.

o Increase in any blog mentions (buzz): Nielsen Buzzmetrics, or another monitoring service, can determine the general level of brand-specific online chatter.

o Viral pass-along: Using pixel tracking on distributed media, or by using internally hosted content, determines how many impressions beyond bought impressions can be attributed to consumers passing marketing to others.

o Leads generated: Number of leads attributable to ads.

o Interaction rates: Rate of interactions with interactive ads to all ads served. May want to determine unique interaction rate by dividing by unique individuals reached instead of all ads served.

o Increase in product review page traffic: a simple tracking tag or bought button on an external product review page can show increases; alternatively, just ask review site for data.

o Increase in opt-in/subscription rates: Number of opt-ins attributable to ads.

o Increase in positive blog mentions (buzz): Buzz monitoring service can determine the general level of brand-specific online chatter, and filter out negative comments.

o Strong website event: For brick and mortar store, events like printing directions to a local store would count. Will differ depending on website.

o Contact requested: Number of contact requests attributable to ad.

o eCoupon printed: Number of ecoupons printed; if possible, number redeemed.

o Purchase/Conversion: Number of purchases or conversions attributable to ad.

o Quality/Amount: Qualitative metrics such as dollar amount purchased help determine where most valuable audience is coming from. Important for sellers with very different products.

o Repeat Purchase/Conversion: Number of repeat conversions.

o Lifetime Quality/Amount: Lifetime value of customers.

o Share of Wallet: $$ spent on your product vs. $$ spent on competitors’ products.

o Recommendation: Similar to viral pass-along, but limited to existing customers.

Article By Marketing Sherpa