EBizInsider

Archive for July, 2008

Daring to Take that First Vacation?

So, you’ve worked hard. You’ve put in the time and effort and now your online business is running smoothly, orders are steady and sales are up. But you are tired. You’ve been burning candles at both ends for two years straight without a break. The 80 hour weeks have finally caught up with you and you’ve got a chance to take a 7-night Caribbean cruise. You know you need this break, but what are you going to do with your online store in the meantime?

Planning the Great Escape

It’s happened to all of us at some point in our online careers and we have all survived a week away from home base. But first, you have to get to the point where you believe you can survive leaving your business with “others.” Before you escape, do some business planning so that you’ll be comfortable with someone else minding the store while you’re embedded in the conga line on the Lido deck.

Haste Makes Waste

Shutting down your online store while you’re away isn’t an option, so now your priority has to be to find someone who can keep the orders coming in and going out. You have two basic choices and each comes with positives and negatives. A plan may seem obvious; this is the moment when many small business owners will decide to hire their first employee. Not so fast! You don’t want the tail wagging the dog here. Hiring staff changes your business forever. This is an important change and for many businesses an inevitable one, but it is not a change you make in a rush or because you’re forced to make it. Any new hire is going to need training and you have to learn to trust that person. After all, your business will be in their hands while you’re away. If you’re not ready to become an “employer” just yet, you’re left with Plan B, also known as “friends and family.”

I am not a big fan of hiring friends or family members, but in a crunch they may be your best resource. Just make sure that whomever you select is capable of the basics—taking some phone calls, answering e-mail and getting orders out the door. Other business functions should be able to wait for your return.

Keep It Simple

Here is a checklist of tasks your temporary assistant should be able to handle:

• Pulling orders off your website and entering them into your order management system

• Answering the phone during your normal business hours

• Providing customers with product information

• Entering phone orders and processing credit cards

• Picking, packing and shipping product from your warehouse

• Answering customer e-mail

• Handling returns and exchanges

Now here’s a checklist of things you should do to make your assistant’s job easier:

• Show them how to use your voice mail and telephone system

• Write explicit instructions on how to do things (pull orders, charge cards, ship a package, etc.)

• Write a FAQ—a list of frequently asked questions that customers may ask during a call or e-mail

• Leave a list of usernames and passwords for your website and order management system

• List emergency contact numbers in case they have to reach you

We all need a break every now and then; it refreshes us and inspires us to think up the next big venture that will allow (dare we dream?)—2 weeks vacation next year! And after all, isn’t that the real point of working? To live? E-commerce never stops and neither should your business. By choosing the right person to run things while you’re away, you can relax and enjoy the fruits of your labors knowing your “baby” is in capable hands.

Co-Founder, President & COO of Solid Cactus

All posts by Scott Sanfilippo | E-Mail the author

E-mail Subject Line: Prime Real Estate

How can that be? Simply put, most recipients use the subject line to decide whether to open or delete an e-mail. A good subject line can get your e-mail opened, but a bad subject line can get you flagged as spam. Unfortunately, a bad subject line can kill a campaign.

Subject lines are the most important aspect of your e-mail marketing effort. Forget about the eye-catching layout, beautifully crafted words, or the out-of-this-world promotion you’re offering. If customers don’t open the e-mail, all that glitz, glam and hoopla is for nothing.

Writing a great subject line is no small challenge. Just how do you provoke a recipient, in 50 characters or less, to open your e-mail? Ask yourself, “what’s so great about my offer that would make me open this e-mail?”

For instance, would you open an e-mail that contains the subject lines:

“Free Vacation”
“Getaway Sweepstakes”
“Newsletter”
“This is not spam”

The subject line makes it obvious the e-mail is spam. To get your e-mail read, follow these tried-and-true tips for writing e-mail subject lines:

1. Keep it short and sweet, 50 characters or less, with spaces. That is typically the maximum which most e-mail client’s subject boxes display. Be sure that an important word isn’t going to be cut off if it does run more then 50 characters.

2. Be specific. Vague subject lines are a waste of prime real estate. An example of this would be “eBiz Insider July Newsletter.” This tells the reader absolutely nothing about what they can expect to read inside. Instead, invoke the reader’s interest: “eBiz Insider: Tips for Writing Powerful Subject Lines.”

3. Don’t ask for too much in the subject line. The goal is to get people intrigued. If you give them too much information or seem too aggressive you risk turning them off. Terms such as ‘register’ or ‘buy now’ simply don’t work.

4. Personalized subject lines. Show your customer you know them by personalizing the subject line based on the user’s product or content preferences, interests, past purchases, web visits or links clicked.

5. Create a sense of urgency. Set a deadline: “Order by midnight tonight;” “Last day to ensure Valentine’s Day delivery.”

6. Don’t mislead. Don’t stretch the truth in the subject line or promise more than the e-mail can deliver.

7. Be consistent. Continue the conversation with your customers. Be sure once you’ve started the open dialogue not to suddenly stop or miss large spans of time.

8. Free is not always bad. You can use “free” in a subject line. Just don’t make “free” the first word, use it in conjunction with an exclamation point, or spell it in all caps. People still respond to “free” and it will show in your open rates.

9. Think before you type. Take time to consider the most important aspect of your e-mail before you write the subject line. Write several versions and weigh the pros and cons of each. Then run them by a colleague to ensure they are as witty and compelling as you think they are.

10. Write the subject line last. You don’t write the conclusion before you spell out the entire plot, do you? Once you’ve written the content decide on the most compelling topic and highlight it.

11. Watch out for spam filters. Once you’ve chosen your best two or three subject lines run then through a spam filter to identity spam-like words or phrases.

12. Test, test and test. When you have chosen the two strongest, yet different style subject lines, test them. Split your list in half and use a different subject line for each. Your responses will show which style subject line works best for your clientele.

You will be most successful if you write subject lines that tell the reader exactly how they are going to save money or save time by opening and reading your e-mail. Just remember, when writing the subject line put yourself in the client’s shoes. If that subject line showed up in your inbox today, would you be compelled to open? eBiz

50 characters are all that stands between you and a successful e-mail campaign.

Solid Cactus, Inc. has designed or redesigned more than 3,000 e-commerce sites. Solid Cactus is an Inc. 500 company and was named one of the "Best Places to Work in Pennsylvania" in 2006 and 2007.

All posts by ebiz Insider Staff | E-Mail the author

AdWords Editor: The Best PPC

If you’ve advertised on Google AdWords, you probably have a wish list of features that you’d like to see. Perhaps you’d like bulk bid changes and an easier way to remove duplicate keywords. Well, Google already provides a tool that allows advertisers to do the above and much more. The tool is the AdWords Editor. Editor is fast, it’s functional and best of all—it’s free!

No matter how big or small your account, AdWords Editor can work for you. Whether you manage million dollar campaigns or a $500 monthly budget, the AdWords Editor can help. The Editor is a standalone software application that allows you to work on your accounts offline, automatically saving your work until you are ready to post the changes into your account. This is helpful when you are building accounts, as you shift keywords around and finalize your structure. It’s also useful when optimizing campaigns, as you can review all your work before finalizing any major changes.

The AdWords Editor is the fastest way to move keywords, ad text and even whole ad groups. You can copy and paste any area of the account that you want to move, such as an ad group you’d like to test on the content network. Google’s best practice for advertising on the content network is to keep content in a separate campaign. This is great for tracking purposes, but is also time-consuming. Editor reduces it to simple copy and paste!

Perhaps you aren’t looking to duplicate any of your keywords for testing. Perhaps your problem actually is duplicate keywords. It is common to find keyword duplications across ad groups and campaigns in most accounts, particularly as the account grows. The problem with unintentional duplicates is that the traffic is split between the two keywords. If one keyword is converting at a fantastic rate, the duplicate keyword could be a drag on your bottom line. AdWords Editor contains a duplicate keyword finder, which lists duplicates across campaigns. Once you find the duplicates, you can download cost and conversion data directly into AdWords Editor to help you find and remove the non-performing keyword.

Downloading data on your account is the most common use of AdWords Editor. Once you’ve downloaded cost and conversion data, the Editor has the power to sort by cost, conversions and much more. Do you have a number of keywords falling off the first page of search results? Filter by average position and boost the bids on all these keywords at once. Are you looking for keywords that have never converted? Filter them out and pause them all at once! AdWords Editor makes optimization a snap with its advanced sorting and bid changing features.

Once you’ve used AdWords Editor to get your Google campaigns into top shape, you can actually use it to quickly import your account into Yahoo! and MSN as well. Most online advertisers use outlets beyond Google, so the teams at Yahoo! and MSN have taken advantage of the AdWords Editor’s ability to export accounts in spreadsheet format. With a little adjustment, you can save hours of work and import campaigns directly from Google to Yahoo! and MSN.

While you can edit just about any aspect of your AdWords campaigns in the Editor, there are several things you cannot work on through AdWords Editor. These include:

• Ad scheduling

• Ad rotation

• Position preferencing

• Demographic bidding

• Video, audio and print ads

If you use any of these advanced features, you will have to work through the web interface rather than AdWords Editor.

The few things you can’t do in the AdWords Editor are blown away by the list of all the things you can do. Search marketing professionals regularly utilize it for the speed and ease with which it allows you to make changes across all three major search engines. The more you work in AdWords Editor, the more uses you’ll find for it. With so little to lose and so much to gain by trying this free, flexible tool, isn’t it time you tried AdWords Editor for yourself?

For more information, or to download AdWords Editor, visit:

http://www.google.com/support/adwordseditor/bin/static.py?page=about.html

Solid Cactus, Inc. has designed or redesigned more than 3,000 e-commerce sites. Solid Cactus is an Inc. 500 company and was named one of the "Best Places to Work in Pennsylvania" in 2006 and 2007.

All posts by ebiz Insider Staff | E-Mail the author

Staying Schooled: A Guide to E-commerce Education

In any industry, it is crucial to keep up with the latest trends, buzz and how successful companies are, well, successful. In the
ever-changing landscape of
e-commerce, it’s even more
important to stay current.

There are many ways
to gain more knowledge:

• E-commerce Magazines & Ezines

• Marketing Research Reports & Whitepapers

• Conferences & Summits

• Forums & Communities

• Trade Publications based on your specific area

We recommend tapping the following resources to stay schooled in e-commerce.

Internet Retailer

The Internet Retailer show in Chicago in June is king at educating those in E-commerce about industry trends. Their monthly, glossy print magazine is free and all content is available online as well. IR also offers various newsletters that blast out daily, usually a grouping for top stories based on a certain theme, such as SEO or news from IR500 etailers.

In addition to daily updates and a monthly print magazine, IR also publishes the annual Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide– the 2008 copy was just released last month. This report highlights the Top 500 E-commerce sites and provides a detailed analysis of average order size, search engine rankings and conversion rates. There is a reason these 500 sites are raking in the most dough from online shoppers. Learn from them. The IR Top 500 Guide is $65.

The 2009 IR show will be in Boston, so mark your calendars.

Website Magazine

Website Magazine is a free print and web magazine aimed at helping people run successful online businesses, increasing traffic and in general keeping people updated on the latest industry trends. The magazine is divided into basic areas and offers forums, a daily blog and an archive of past articles.

E-commerce Times

The E-commerce Times network of news sites keeps readers informed on the latest news in E-commerce and technology. Updated daily, it offers news on big players in the industry, as well as e-commerce trends. Its main page offers the headlines on its sister newsletters, too. E-commerce Times also features various white papers that pertain to e-commerce, as well as an archive of past news stories. The online resource also can be delivered via e-mail. Visit ecommercetimes.com to read up.

Search Marketing Standard Magazine

Searchmarketingstandard.com focuses solely on online marketing and in fact, is the leading publication in search marketing. Search Marketing Standard, which also has a print version, has a very clean and well-organized website with resources divided into a dozen important categories.

Marketing Sherpa -

Have you ever heard of Marketing Sherpa? If you haven’t, you are missing out on one of the best e-commerce resources available. Marketing Sherpa provides numerous research and reports for a variety of industries, but pertaining to e-commerce, they really excel. Its annual report, The E-commerce Benchmark Guide is considered by many to be the e-commerce bible. If your developer has never heard of Marketing Sherpa, run away.

In the 2007 report, there is data from over 1900 e-commerce sites, survey results from over 2400 online shoppers, heat map studies which show how the eye looks at a website and in the mix of lots of content, there are hundreds of charts and graphs. This guide shows why people buy online and most importantly, why they don’t buy online. No etailer should be without this annual guide. For that data contained in Marketing Sherpa’s report, the $279 investment pays for itself.

Industry Events

E-commerce folks can really rack up the flyer miles by attending the many events happening each year. Solid Cactus just spent most of June at these shows, including IR and Ebay Live.

Remember to look outside e-commerce for conferences. Many shows are specific to your vertical industry you sell, for example, pets, gifts or electronics. Attending an annual pet product show can show you what others in your vertical are doing.

Forums

Reaching out to your peers in the industry is a great way to keep up with trends. There are dozens of forums out there and our favorite, the forum at ebizInsider.com has been getting quite a bit of buzz lately.

What Are You Reading?

Share your ideas and suggestions at the Ebiz Insider Forums.

Senior Account Mananger at Solid Cactus

All posts by Donna Talarico | E-Mail the author

Fast growth and changes for Fun Dog Fred

We did a business plan, but we’ve already blown it away. Success has come so quickly that we’ve grown much
faster than we thought.

—Dave Jones, FunDogFred.com

Fundogfred.com was inspired by a desire to be in e-commerce, a “total” love of dogs and an interest in design. Dave Jones was fascinated by the possibilities and promise of doing business online. “I had no idea about e-commerce,” laughs Dave. “I just knew I wanted to do something online. So I did lots of research first.” Jean Jones had design experience and a desire to meet new people. “I knew how I wanted fundogfred.com to look,” she says. “The site is fun and so are the people who call. Dog lovers are nice people.” Predictably, the couple has two dogs of their own. “They’re great testers,” says Jean. “The only problem is; they want to keep every toy they like.”

Fundogfred.com is where you come for the latest in dog fashion with designer dog clothes, trendy small dog carriers, designer dog collars, designer dog leashes and hip dog accessories. In addition they offer gourmet dog treats and specialty dog grooming products, fun dog bowls and dog feeders. Fundogfred.com is over 1,000 products, many of which are rapidly filling their basement. “We bought a wide range when we first started,” Jean recalls. “Now we’re narrowing our product lines and going deeper. We never expected this. We’re much busier than I ever thought we’d be at this point.”

Jean enlisted the help of a graphic designer and built fundogfred.com herself. But the couple had already decided on Solid Cactus to bring their vision to life. “I’d read about Solid Cactus,” said Dave. “I knew about their history. I knew that before they ever went into website design, that they’d started theferretstore.com and several pet-related e-commerce sites. For us it meant they not only knew about design and e-commerce, they knew about pets and pet stores. We figured we’d be in good hands.”

Jean sent her design to Solid Cactus. “We knew how we wanted the site to look,” says Jean. “We sent it to them and they nailed it! I liked the fact that it was a team effort from Solid Cactus. We had different people handling different aspects of our site.” It was a basic package but the results have been immediate. “As you can imagine, dog products are very competitive,” says Dave. “It’s difficult getting customers to find you when you’re starting out. Solid Cactus took over our Pay-Per-Click and made us instantly visible. We went from 3,000 page views in February to 60,000 last month. That’s a big jump in a short time.”

With growth come changes and Dave is already thinking ahead. After all, when you ‘blow away’ your business plan, it can mean lots of extra work. “We’re adding Cactus On Demand,” says Dave. “We’re getting busier and we know we want help with our back-end order management.” Jean has changes in mind, as well. “We’re adding Testimonials, as well as Customer Reviews and Blogs,” she says. “A satisfied customer is always the best advertising and I like interacting with our customers. I like dog people. I think blogs are a good way to let people get to know us a little better.”

This is a first venture into e-commerce for Dave and Jean Jones, so far so good. “I love what I’m doing,” says Jean. “I love the interaction with the customers and helping them; I love my vendors. I spent a long time identifying great products and companies before we ever opened our business and I stand behind them. Most of all, of course, I love dogs and dog products and that makes everything easier.” She’s also happy with Solid Cactus. “When we were designing the site I called them all the time,” she laughs. “They were always very helpful and very patient. That’s important when you’re starting out.”

All posts by Kevin Lynn | E-Mail the author