Training Marketer

Consumers want and expect e-tailers to provide personalized shopping experiences and make product recommendations based on shopping behavior, according to a recent MyBuys/e-tailing survey.

The study also found that online merchants are not living up to consumer expectations and have not made the investment to create personalized product recommendations.

Some interesting findings include:

• Three out of four consumers are willing to provide some meaningful amount of personal information in exchange for a more personalized, relevant shopping experience.
• 77% of consumers say they have made additional purchases after encountering personalized product recommendations online.
• 36% of consumers are more loyal to online merchants who offer personalized shopping experiences.
• 41% of online merchants say personalization is an upcoming initiative.

The power of personalization sets the few sites that offer it apart from the thousands of others who are behind the times. Consumers have high expectations and it is the responsibility of the seller to try and reach the high bar consumers set.

Natural search is the best tactic for generating online leads and outperforms almost all other types of online marketing, according to a recent study out of the U.K. reported by eConsultancy. Meta-tag descriptions are a small piece of the SEO puzzle that can be easily overlooked, but can help search rankings even for non-text files.

“Meta-tag keywords and descriptions become more important when the search engines are not able to determine (or have a difficult time determining) the “aboutness” of a file, such as a video file. In this situation, a keyword-focused meta-tag description can make or break search engine visibility.”

While meta-tag descriptions have been devalued in the past, some major search engines still use metadata when displaying a page’s listing.

Meta tag descriptions should have three goals:

1. To encourage searchers to click through to your page
2. Reinforce the existing content on the page
3. Help achieve top search engine positioning in results that use meta tags to determine relevance

Meta-tag content alone will not make or break your search engine results, but is still an important factor to remember. Organic, natural search traffic requires a broad knowledge of SEO best practices including (but not limited to) how your site is set up, internal linking structure, page construction and quality content.

With the rise of Second Life and Web 2.0, business is finding new and innovative ways to use the Internet. Virtual trade shows offer an opportunity for businesses to meet and share ideas on a completely new platform.

The benefits of virtual trade shows are obvious - no airline tickets to buy to attend the show, no annoying booths to set up, and no wasted hours spend waiting for people to approach your booth.

The goals of virtual trade shows and in-person shows are the same - to come away with quality sales leads, connect with potential business partners and bump into some key media organizations while you’re there.

Online trade shows have an added goal to minimize cost while delivering the same benefits as their offline counterparts. With tight budgets, the push to show a positive ROI is harder than ever.

Deciding which offline trade show to attend and then convincing business leaders in your organization to pay for it is a difficult process. Those at The Lonely Marketer ask the question: “Are Trade Shows a Waste of Time and Resources?”

In the post, the authors devised a metric to help capture the costs and benefits of attending a show. Comparing the metric of an online trade show to that of an offline show could paint a compelling picture that virtual events are the more cost-efficient option.

While face-to-face conversations are tough, connections at online trade shows can still be made. Online chats and emails can help you get the materials you want and connect with potential sales leads.

Virtual events and trade shows can attract an average of more than 1,500 people who spend longer than two hours in the show, according to a report by FactPoint Group. With those numbers, online conferences and trade shows seem to be a growing trend.

If you’re comfortable with working and communicating online, virtual trade shows may be a less costly and more efficient way to achieve the same goals you would face-to-face.

I came across a great post today from Paul Dunay at Buzz Marketing for Technology about how business to business marketers can use social media to spark lead consideration.

“A prospect reading a blog entry doesn’t mean they want to buy anything, but it does mean they have engaged with your brand.”

Engagement is the first step, and many times the hardest, when developing leads. Tools like blogs and podcasts can initially engage customers with ongoing and relevant conversation.

Social media helps business to business marketers, who are faced with selling complex products and services, by asking the customer to simply consider their brand. Once a visitor considers your business as a possible source to buy from, you can then start the lead nurturing process.

Dunay also has some good advice on how to measure social media success -

“Don’t measure your teams on page views generated from a campaign. Measure them on how engaged they can get your leads with your content and turn them into sales.”

Thanks to those at The AppGap for sharing this cool new application. It’s a world mosaic created from 1001 web 2.0 company logos. The picture below does it no justice. Click through to Map of the World 2.0 to see how cool this application really is.

You may want to take a second look at your open rates before making any changes to your email strategies. Email open rates are of limited usefulness, according to those at MarketingSherpa.

Their most recent chart shows that since 2004, email open rates have declined significantly. But, the Sherpas believe that open rates are a highly flawed metric and should be examined carefully before making any rash decisions.

How email opens are measured:
“A line of code resides within an email that asks the server to deliver a single pixel image. When that image gets served, it’s called an open. The problem? If the email client (Outlook, Yahoo! Mail , etc.) doesn’t allow the image to arrive, the open doesn’t get counted.”

With so many email clients (business and consumer) automatically blocking images, you can see why the metric can be tricky.

“Think about your own email reading patterns. How often do you read an article or scan an offer without enabling images? Probably quite often, if you’re like most recipients.”

Proceed with caution …

So, you have poured copious amounts of blood, sweat, and tears into promoting your business online. Ok, maybe not any blood, but certainly countless hours of hard work, effort, and your fair share of perspiration have gone into getting the word about your products or services out across the internet and other venues. Don’t you want to see how these efforts are working? Fortunately, there is a comprehensive solution available from one of the giants of the internet industry to help you see how your marketing efforts are paying off. Oh, and did we mention it is absolutely free?

Google Analytics provides you with a way to see how your website is performing. What are your most popular pages? How many visitors does your site get a day? Which sites are generating the most traffic for your website? These questions (and more) are all answered by Google Analytics. You can even check to see how many people visited your site from Timbuktu!

With all of this in depth statistical information available at the click of a mouse button, you might worry about becoming overwhelmed. However, Google has designed a sleek, user-friendly interface that lets you find the information that you need to maximize your marketing efforts with relative ease. For a step-by-step guide on how to get going with Google Analytics, check out this blog:

How to Use Google Analytics (For Beginners)

FYI, for all you training providers out there, Google Analytics is a great way to see how much traffic TrainingTime.com is bringing to your site. Oh, and one more time, just in case you missed it… ITS FREE! Enjoy.

Purchase anxiety – that feeling you get when you’re thinking about buying something, but not completely sure you want to spend the money on it. The feeling is usually attributed to a large purchase or buying something on the internet.

Online shoppers tend to feel more purchase anxiety than offline customers, according to Derek Gehl at Entrepreneur.com. Spending a lot of money on something you can’t hold in your hand, by a person they’ve never seen before may cause serious purchase anxiety for online customers.

The goal of your website is to help customers overcome anxiety and feel comfortable enough to make a purchase. Gehl outlines a few elements you can add to your site to reassure visitors that you are a reputable seller with a quality product.

Here are a few of his tips to make customers comfortable enough to click the checkout button:

Show proof that you value and will protect customer privacy. Include a privacy policy, clearly displayed on your site to reassure customers that you will not share their personal information. Process purchases through a secure server and include “security seals” on your site to let customers know you have done everything to keep your site safe from hackers. Popular security seals are VeriSign, TRUSTe and Hacker Safe.

Use testimonials. We know you think you’re the best company out there, but we want to know what everyone else has to say. Post a few testimonials from valued customers who can vouch for the quality of your product or service. Try to include as much information on the testimonial provider as possible.

Include contact information. Show that you are open to customer calls by providing as much contact information as you can on your site. Create a contact information page and link to it on every page on your site.

Don’t forget to follow up. Even after the purchase, customer anxiety may develop into “post-purchase anxiety.” Be sure to thank the customer for their purchase and keep them updated on their shipment status. It is your responsibility to keep the customer informed until it has made it into their hands.

For the full list of tips, please see Gehl’s article on Entrepreneur.com.

Forget the chickens and listen to a little marketing advice from a real expert …

When customers and you sales team are telling you to lower your prices, remember what Seth Godin says - there’s “no such thing as price pressure.”

“You need to increase your value. If people don’t want to pay, it’s because you’re not delivering enough value for the money you’re charging.”

More important than price, companies should feel pressure to increase value for the customer. Lowering your prices may also mean lowering perceived value and could turn customers away.

A little marketing wisdom from Savage Chickens.