EBizInsider

Archive for 2008

E-mail marketing is a powerful tool that allows you to keep in touch with your customers, drive repeat business and reinforce your brand. But it’s more than simply typing up a quick letter. There’s technique, best practice guidelines, regulatory compliance, look, feel and other aspects that go into sending a successful, well-received e-mail.

There are many e-mail options. With managed solutions, an e-mail marketing specialist takes the reins designing, writing and sending your campaigns for you. Other companies require you to do all the work while they simply maintain your lists and send your e-mail. Finally, Do-It-Yourself (DIY) solutions provide pre-designed templates to send semi-personalized messages.

Plan, plan, plan! That’s how you
develop your paid search, affiliate, comparison shopping engine, or website redesign strategy.

Let’s review do’s, don’ts, common mistakes and best practices to help optimize your e-mail campaigns this holiday season.

1 From Address: Tells who you are. HotMess@gmail.com? That’s what you’ll get from this e-mail campaign. Sending from info@pretzelbloggers.com, mail@pretzelbloggers.com, or even sales@pretzelbloggers.com lets the recipient know who the sender is.

2 Send Time: Research shows most people check their e-mail during business, many first thing in the morning, before and after lunch and before they leave the office for the day. The best time to e-mail is often debated. My expertise agrees with industry experts that, for retail purposes, sending between Tuesday and Thursdays, mid-morning to early afternoon are ideal times.

3 Subject: This is your one shot to get them to open. Fail and your campaign is doomed. Remember, 50 characters are all that stands between you and a successful campaign, make those 50 letters colorful, appealing and enticing.

Misrepresentation: It is against the CAN-SPAM Act to misrepresent the content of the advertisement by tricking people to open under false pretenses. As you can see, Pretzelbloggers is not giving away free cash.

Spam Word: Occasionally, “free” in the subject line is a good idea. Too often it will get caught in spam filters.

Capitalization & Punctuation: Spam filters target them as junk mail.

4 Template Design: A custom designed template is always better than a generic one. You can see this template is a “plug and place.” There are predetermined boxes and sizes and you simply fill in the blanks. The template box lines are obvious, the images don’t fit to size and overall the template gives off a very unprofessional appearance.

5 Logo: Include your logo or header. People can identify your brand as soon as they open.

6 Navigation Bar: Remember— when including navigation links – too many is not always a good thing. Including too many can be a distraction to your reader. Deciding what you want them to notice is a sensitive balance.

7 Images: Make them clean, clear and concise. If the image isn’t important to your message, don’t include it. Remember, images are great ways to cheat spam filters – include phrases like ‘free shipping,’ ‘buy now’ and ‘10% off’ in your image.

8 Personalization: Personalization allows you to speak directly to your client. Done badly, it can look cheesy.

9 Text: Including text in every e-mail is important. If the reader opens, doesn’t enable the images and sees nothing, they’ll be quick to close. Include text to convey the message
your images are portraying.

While text is important, so is following CAN-SPAM Act regulations (including capitalization, punctuation, and avoiding key spam words like Free, Sale, Buy Now, and Click Here), ensuring to use spell check and proper grammar. A misspelled work can ruin your reputation.

10 Physical Address: To be CAN-SPAM compliant every e-mail must include the physical address of the company sending the message.

11 Opt Out: Every e-mail must have an opt out link. This link must be a one-click opt-out. Don’t take a chance on this - FTC regulations can fine you up to $11,000 per offense.

E-mail marketing remains a powerful tool in e-commerce, but it’s a sophisticated world out there. E-mail only works if someone reads what you’re writing. Profile your target customers. What would make them open your e-mail instead of dumping it? Review the best practices above and combine it with your insights for e-mail marketing success.

“You can’t judge a book by its cover.” Yes, and isn’t that the problem? Appearance is paramount! When you meet someone for the first time, that first look formulates your opinion of that person for quite some time to come. The initial impression another person makes on you may well vary depending on whether they are neatly dressed or completely disheveled.

Appearance is crucial in our world. In cyberspace, you have only a few seconds to make that initial impression on the person visiting your website. If your site looks disheveled, contains outdated content and is an organizational nightmare, do you think customers are going to stick around to shop from you? Here are some tips to make that first impression count:

• Keep your navigation simple - break down your nav bar into clearly defined “departments” to avoid confusion.

• Don’t clutter your front page or landing pages - don’t overload them with tons of product, loads of text and blinking or flashing distractions.

• Keep content fresh and timely - if it’s January 3rd, you shouldn’t have your holiday products featured, unless you’re blowing them out. Change your featured products at least once a week.

• Keep customer comments updated -
last thing a potential customer wants to see when deciding whether to order from you or not is a comment from a customer dated four years ago. Kill the dates or replace outdated comments with new ones.

• Get a designer! You’re neighbor in 8th grade is NOT a designer. You wouldn’t have him paint your house and you shouldn’t hire him to design your website. Professionalism is important.

Here is an example of how appearances count. I was on a domestic flight recently and sat in a row which is a bulkhead seat. As in any bulkhead seat, you’re going to have people putting their feet on the wall getting it a little dirty. But the appearance of this bulkhead wall was something more than just a “little dirty” as you can see from the photos below.

The first thing that came to my mind was, “wow, if they can’t take five minutes to bring in a rug shampooer to go over that wall, are they doing regular maintenance on their planes?” I fly a lot and recognized the plane as being at least 20 years old, but that isn’t an excuse to not clean it. I’ve been on planes that were older and much cleaner. The point is that impression made me begin to question not only the plane, but the wisdom of flying that airline at all.

Don’t let your customer’s minds wander when they hit your site, make that first impression count!

In October, it’s costumes. In November, it’s turkeys. In June, it’s grills. In December, well, you know.

Seasonal products may only be hot at only certain times of the year, but running a seasonal e-commerce business is a year-round task.

Halloween is approaching, but online costume shops have been busy since January. Tamir Nadborny of CostumeKingdom.com and StarWarsKingdom.com prepares for next year’s Halloween early.

“For us it begins in January. There really is no off-time,” he said.

“It’s year-round prep,” says Cynthia Ryan of ChildrensCostumesExpress.com. “I need to know what movie characters are hot because I don’t want to get stuck with a dud.” She usually starts ordering in January.

“It’s not rocket science, but it’s an art form,” Nadborny says. “You have to know the hot sellers and stock them. The earlier you order, the earlier you can figure out what the trends are and get more allocation. That way, when everyone wants the hot costume, you have it,” Nadborny said. “We order very early in the year because the manufacturers need lead time to project their sales so they can deliver all the goods.”

Ryan says that last year Transformers and Hannah Montana wigs were huge.

“I could have sold a thousand of them if I had them in stock.” she said.

Nadborny banked on consistent Star Wars appeal and opened a niche costume shop.

“Star Wars is consistent year after year. And this year with the release of the animated series they are introducing a lot of new characters. The manufacturers required new licenses to update the older ones around movie releases. It gives a fresh look to a brand that has been out there 30 years. We definitely stock a ton of Star Wars items.”

Ryan says when Sesame Street’s Abbey Cadabby party invitations began to sell out at her local Target she realized it would be a costume trend this year. “There are princess parties year-round,” said Ryan.

Dressing up is not just for Halloween after all. “When there are summer movie releases, there is always a rush for those costumes, like with Iron Man or the Hulk,” said Ryan.

“Thanksgiving, Christmas, Mardi Gras, Easter and then it’s Halloween again,” said Nadborny. “There are Renaissance Fairs and kids love to wear costumes year-round. Volume gets heavy in the middle of September and goes more haywire everyday.”

Robert Marshall owns ChristmasMouse.com and plans early. Way early. He does his e-commerce tweaking right after the New Year.

“Our ordering is 75% complete in January,” he said. “We like to do something with Solid Cactus to improve our site in January and February, and then in March we add new items,” he said

Seasonal Marketing

Nadborny says e-mail marketing has been effective for his costume stores.

“You constantly have to keep in touch with customers through e-mail. We do aggressive off-season promotions and restructure our website. We promote other holidays that provide a chance for business,” he said.

“I don’t spend much on advertising in the off-months,” says Ryan. “If I do something earlier, it’s usually with a focus on one costume,” she said. “I gear toward party themes during the off-times. I look in the stores to see what invitations they are pushing.”

After the Season

Halloween costumes change yearly. So what do stores do after the celebrations and costume parties pass? Have sales,
of course!

“I try not to go crazy with discounts because people still buy them for Christmas gifts. If shoppers can’t find a costume in a store after Halloween,” says Ryan, “they hit the web and they find it.”

“The end of season is one of the most aggressive in our field,” says Nadborny. “Come November, we slash probably about 60-70%. We got an order yesterday for $350 worth of clearances.”

Marshall’s retails shops are year-round Christmas stores stocking about 30,000 items—and trends in Christmas items are pretty consistent. Two popular exceptions: icicle lights and fiber optic trees.

Ryan leaves other seasonal stores with some advice:

“Try not to think of it as a seasonal item- there is always somebody out there looking for what you have!”

A perfect dozen warm, triple chocolate peanut-butter fudge brownies sit in front of you, beckoning. You know you should eat just one, but it’s so tempting to indulge in a little extra, right?

Wrong. No brownie tastes quite as scrumptious as that first one, and your waistline will notice.

It is similar for search marketing.
Search engine “spiders” crawl a site and rank it for keyword phrases. Common, tried-and-true SEO techniques include adding search engine optimized content to your site, creating effective, unique meta tags, and reaching out to quality sites and propelling them to link to your site from theirs. But what happens when you do all of the above, and your site drops in the rankings?! Your site may very well be suffering from Search Engine Over-Optimization.

Post the following phrase on your computer: No more over-optimizing your SEO campaign! Below are ways
to ensure your site meets SEO expectations and doesn’t suffer from search engine indigestion.

Keyword Stuffing

No, keyword stuffing is not Mom’s special dish at Thanksgiving– nor is it an ingredient to SEO success. Ever visit a site and notice a pile of keyword phrases listed on the page? Doesn’t exactly make you want to stay on that page too long, right? It’s the same way for search engine spiders - it causes them to ask, “Hey, is this site owner trying to deceive me?”

The penalty comes when search engine spiders drop you in the rankings or even remove you altogether. Some operators make keywords the same color as the background so visitors won’t see them. Search engines will see them and penalize you.

Meta Tags Madness

Meta tags are no longer the magic solution. They’re not as widely recognized as they once were by search engines; however optimizing them correctly can help your SEO campaign. Before you simply add 50 meta keywords to your homepage, read this:

• Meta-Title: The meta-title is the copy in the blue bar at the top of your Internet browser. This is one of the first parts of your site search engine spiders see, so be sure a competitive keyword phrase is included in it. Be brief - 60-120 characters (including spaces) is sufficient.

• Meta-Keywords: Meta-keywords tell a search engine the products/services on a page. Include only keywords related to the specific page you’re working on and cap it at five! Your homepage can have about 10.

• Meta-Description: Many search engines use a site’s Meta-description as the short summary under a site’s search result listing on a search engine results page. Like the other meta fields, be specific with each section page. Write two to three sentences about page content and include the keyword phrase you’re optimizing for two times throughout the Meta-description.

Oodles of Content

Search engine optimized content is integral to a successful SEO campaign. But there is such a thing as too much content.

Review your homepage and section pages - are they so text-heavy that it takes a ton of scrolling just to find your products?

Your homepage and section page should contain about two paragraphs of content with your keyword phrase included about three times. Create a “Resources” or “Articles” section on your site and include full SEO-friendly content pages. Write informative articles on topics related to your industry that your site visitors will actually want to read. Practice moderation - if you find yourself with hundreds of articles, it’s time to put down the keyboard….

Link Building = Partnership Building

If you’re interested in SEO, you know the importance of links. As search engines get smarter, they’re taking more into account than just the number of links pointing to your site. Rather than beg for more links, develop a list of 20 sites that would make great partners. Review their traffic and how respected they are in their industry. Contact the site owner directly (yes! Use the phone!) and outline a mutually beneficial plan. These days it’s the quality of the sites linking to you, not the quantity!

A Skim SEO Campaign,
No Whip, Thanks

SEO is a long term strategy, and your rankings will not shoot up in the results overnight. Stick to our SEO tips and resist the urge to over-indulge. Now go eat one of those triple-chocolate peanut-butter fudge brownies. You’ve earned it.

Every business should have a business credit card. Why, you ask? Because a true business card will NOT post to your personal credit unless you go into “default status.” Also, from a true accounting perspective, business expenses should always be kept separate from personal expenses. Most true “business cards” offer reporting for tax purposes, which helps filing your income tax much easier come year end.

Keeping your business expenses separate from your personal expenses may not seem like a big deal now, but as your business grows, your personal credit score will play a huge role in your ability to acquire business credit.

Banks are moving more and more towards a system of automation, and the “common sense” decision-making that banks used to have the ability to make in the past no longer seem like common sense decisions. Let’s take this example. If you have a personal credit card with a limit of $15,000 and you normally keep a balance of $2,000 on it, and you have a credit score of 720…. Next month, you need money to make payroll. You use your personal card for a cash advance. Suddenly your balance is $14,000. You can expect this to drop your credit score about 50 points. You are now a 670.

You now go to your bank and ask for a loan. The banker tells you, “In order to qualify, you need a credit score of at least a 700”. You explain, “but I will use this money to pay off the XYZ Visa Card, which I used to fund the business.” Guess what the banker is going to say…

“In order to qualify, you need a credit score of at least a 700 - there is nothing I can do if your score is less than 700. It is our policy.” (So much for that vaunted ‘common sense’ decision-making by your friendly banker!) BUT, if you had used a “business” card from the beginning, this card would have never posted to your personal credit report.

Other important factors are “interest rate” and “rewards programs.” Interest rates are usually determined by your personal credit and your payment history. Always try to pay business cards in full each billing cycle. Business cards tend to come with much higher limits than personal cards do. The downside is that once you “rack up” a high balance and it becomes hard to pay off, the bank usually responds with a higher interest rate.

American Express has one of the best programs in existence. Each month, you accumulate points. Your points can be cashed in for traveler’s checks, gift cards, airfare, vacations and more. These programs can help you save a lot of money – both personally and professionally.

The key here is to choose the card which is right for you and your business and keep it separate from your personal finances. Sadly, good credit can take a lifetime to establish, but a week—or a weak decision—to destroy.