EBizInsider

A few dozen recruits. A daily schedule. Hot meals. Yep. All the makings of a
Boot Camp. But this was not a traditional “Give me 50! Now!” style boot camp. Instead, it was a three-day long E-commerce extravaganza.

A few times each year, Solid Cactus
hosts its E-commerce Boot Camp, an event that displays the company’s vested interest in continuing to educate and inform its clients on the latest and greatest in e-commerce.

The Spring E-commerce Boot Camp drew a varied troop of e-commerce folks. Some were total e-commerce newbies, who were looking to launch their first online store. Others were veterans who have had online stores for a decade or more. Still others own brick-and-mortar stores, too. The clients came from across the US and Canada and the industries were also varied– food, vitamins, health and beauty products, clothing, candy, custom gifts, pet supplies, awards and more.

Despite our different locales and perspectives, everyone was at Boot Camp to learn. The clients learn from the Solid Cactus staff. Clients learn from each other. Solid Cactus learns from its clients. Every day is a school day in e-commerce, and Boot Camp is an extension of that.

The Latest and
Greatest in E-commerce

Between 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday to 4:00 p.m. on Friday, there were 17 sessions, from e-commerce basics to what’s hot and new in the industry.

The sessions included:

• Trust-commerce/Creative Value

• Advanced Features that Make the Sale

• Social Media & Viral Marketing

• Personalizing the Web Experience

• How to Plan for a Redesign

• Alternative Marketing Methods to Help You Grow Online

• New Features for Your Store from Solid Cactus

• Strategic Marketing

• Protecting Your Website
• Is it E-mail Marketing or is
it SPAM?

• Blogging for Business

• SEO vs. PPC.

Additionally, there were sessions that unveiled the newest Solid Cactus offering, Cactus on Demand and the ever-popular site deconstruction session.

“This year’s Boot Camp was ideal for both experienced e-commerce store owners, as well as new up and comers,” said Michael Jozaitis, Search Engine Marketing Manager at Solid Cactus. “The mix of sessions ranged from deep focused analytical and technical sessions to introductory and educational ones.”

“It was exciting to talk about social media with everyone there,” said Jean Lloyd, also a SEM manager. “They didn’t have a good hold on why it was important or even how they could leverage Facebook or Twitter for their business. Maybe some of them were still skeptical when we were done, but I could tell they were more receptive and had a clearer idea of how businesses are using these tools effectively. If even one participant gets the courage to sign up for Twitter and start promoting their business, then I’ll feel good.”

Joan Marchand of MMWIEmbroidery.com said she wished she had attended an event like this before she started her e-commerce site. “(Boot Camp) was very informative,” said Joan. “I think if I came to Boot Camp first, I would have learned from square one, what the best things are to have on my website, what makes people buy from my website.”

Andrew DiMino of CarbSmart.com and a Solid Cactus customer since 2003, is currently getting ready to publish his fifth site, BabyontheBrain.com. His four other sites focus on food products for those on lo-carb, sugar-free or gluten-free diets. His new site is completely different. “This is my first non-food venture, so I am looking forward to taking advantage of all these new features that I didn’t use before,” he said.

DiMino paid particular attention to the sessions focusing on new features and redesigns. It took three planes and three layovers to get from Reno to Wilkes-Barre, but he says it was worth it. “First, you get the chance to meet the staff in person and actually sit down and point to the screen. As a planning exercise, it’s fantastic. Second, I get to see what is new and coming up. Third, I get to suggest new ideas. Fourth, I get to learn best practices from other businesses,” he said.

Clarice “Corky” Fairchild from HorseandWildlifeGifts.com/All Things Equine is currently under redesign with Solid Cactus. She is not new to retail, but is somewhat new to e-commerce. “At first I thought coming would be way over my head, but felt if I was able to pick up a few things, it’d be worth it,” she said. “(Boot Camp) helped me understand the back side of things. My head has grown by leaps and bounds.”

Sharon Robson came along with her brother Fred Robson, of Woodstock Enterprises. Sharon is considering following her brother into e-commerce. “It was amazing,” she reported.
“I didn’t know anything coming into this. I’ve come a long way since Wednesday. Learning the difference between SEO and PPC was very interesting to me. It would have taken me months on my own to learn what I learned in three days.”

Face Time with
Your E-commerce Team

“It’s always good meeting people you work with,” said Fred Robson of his main reason for attending his third Solid Cactus Boot Camp. Robson utilizes several Solid Cactus services and met one-on-one with his account manager, his solutions advisor, marketing team, call center rep and the designers and the programmers working on his site.

“The individual attention you get when sitting face to face is great,” said Joan Marchand. “Solutions Advisor Justin Verry could go over things with me while I was right there. He gave me a good idea on where to channel my money, where to focus my efforts.”

While Boot Camp was in session, the magic was still happening at Solid Cactus world headquarters, where attendees were treated to a tour of the new Solid Cactus Technology Center in Shavertown, as well as Solid Cactus Call Center Services, Inc., located in downtown Wilkes-Barre.

E-commerce Camaraderie

Perhaps one of the best aspects of Solid Cactus Boot Camp is meeting other people in e-commerce- where else can you get one-on-one access to some of the most brilliant e-commerce experts in the country? While the daily sessions are an excellent learning experience, the learning continues after the sessions end and the evening activities begin.

Solid Cactus Boot Camp features activities each evening—from Italian dinner and karaoke to a night at the local casino and then a finale dinner where attendees are “graduated” from Boot Camp. During these events, clients and staff can interact over homemade Italian cooking and other catered affairs, sharing war stories, tactics and tales from the trenches.

Fred Robson likes the fact that he can meet other e-commerce business owners who have similar features on their site so they can compare notes. “It is always good to share ideas and make contacts,” he said, explaining that if he knows another Solid Cactus client has a certain feature, he can contact them to see how it is working. “Boot Camp is great to increase your contact network. It’s joining fun with the learning.”

Fairchild agrees with Robson about discussing current e-commerce issues with others.

“I think being able to network with other business owners is great. I can say, ‘I had that issue and this is what I did.’ You can discuss the issues,” she said, using how she asked Solid Cactus Boot Camp three-timer, Pam Marchola from BlairCandy.com about her Live Chat feature as an example.

The Solid Cactus staff also loves meeting clients in person. Lloyd enjoyed talking about SEM with clients over lunch and dinner. What she learned from Boot Camp attendees will help her with her day-to-day duties as an SEM account manager.

“It was awesome to interact directly with clients. I got a better feel for everyone’s level of knowledge on PPC & Internet Marketing in general. It’s going to help me when I send info out to my own clients,” she said.

Vice President of Sales Lou Pagnotti adds that clients learn from each other at Solid Cactus Boot Camps. “It’s more about learning how to maximize your business through interacting with other store owners and learning best practices and seeing innovative solutions from Solid Cactus,” he said.

Ron Miller attended Boot Camp to learn about e-commerce. He’s looking to take his beauty supply business online. “It was great to see people being so passionate about their websites. I am definitely glad I came,” he said.

Miller, who is new to e-commerce, talked quite a bit to DiMino, an e-commerce veteran of sorts. Folks like DiMino certainly can be looked upon as mentors for those new to e-commerce.

“The beauty of (Boot Camp) is that everybody talks to each other and shares best practices. That’s beautiful,” said DiMino of sharing the knowledge with each other.

Marchand says she had a wonderful time at Boot Camp interacting with her peers.

“We did a lot of laughing,” she said. “It was just interesting to talk with other website owners. It was a great experience. The food was great. The entertainment was great. The people were great. Everything was great!”

Solid Cactus Boot Camp is a must-attend event. As Marchand said, she wished there was an event like this before she got her e-commerce feet wet. DiMino has been
in e-commerce nine years, but says he is still learning each day.

Besides, where else can you sing a duet with your programmer?

Name (required)

E-Mail (required)

(Will not be published)

Website

Comments

Security Code

Enter the code above into this box. There's no letters, only numbers. We just want to make sure you're human.