Marketing fundamentals: your website as a marketing tool........................................................3

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How to: Boost your SEO..............................................................................................................................6

Newsflash: your friends are your biggest allies.......................................................................................7

Why you need a cross-channel marketing strategy...............................................................................8

Why content is the linchpin of marketing strategies...........................................................................10

Email marketing vs email spam................................................................................................................12

How to get the most from Facebook......................................................................................................14

Five Twitter tools to boost your business................................................................................................15

Is Pinterest right for me? ............................................................................................................................17

The subtleties of selling social....................................................................................................................18

Business-building blogs .............................................................................................................................20

Nine ways to use web analytics ...............................................................................................................21

Market booster

Websites are good marketing tools because they

open up your brand to a new world of potential

customers. Your website is accessible across the

globe and all you have to do is reach out and

welcome them in.

You can promote your business better

Many small businesses make the mistake of using

their website to just represent their company

online. Yes, a website is a good way to give

people more information about your company,

but it should not only be a medium for showing

your contact details.

Use your website to promote and sell your firms’

goods and services. This does not necessarily

mean you need to have the latest online sales

portal, but it does mean using your website as

a two-way communication channel between

potential customers and your sales people.

It encases your brand, logo, product

lines as well as aspects of your aftercare

– here are a few more reasons to think

of your website as a marketing tool.

Credibility

Having a well-designed, up-to-date

website improves your credibility.

It gives you the opportunity to tell

potential customers what you are about

and why you deserve their custom.

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You now have a 24/7/365 operation

With a website, you no longer have to turn

customers away when it’s time to close up shop,

you no longer have to specify trading hours or

shut for public holidays. Online shopping happens

around the clock, day-in and day-out. A website that

enables this will guarantee more sales than if you

were just selling for nine hours a day.

Convenience for your customers

The internet allows people to research their

products online, which is much easier than them

having to drive to a shop and ask a salesperson for

information on a product.

Potential customers have the ability to visit your

website whenever they please, in the comfort of

their own home, at any time of the day or night.

Think of your website as a self-service medium – it’s

the ultimate convenience for potential customers.

How to spot a great domain name

Particularly for companies operating in the

ecommerce space, having a domain name that

is memorable, pertinent and simple is essential.

Without a good domain name, you could be sunk

before you get going.

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Keep it simple and memorable

As well as being SEO friendly, your domain name

should be original, personalised and short. This is

because you want your ecommerce customers to

remember your domain name.

So keep the name simple and easy to spell (and

definitely avoid any “creative misspellings”, as these

will just confuse your users). In addition, the ideal

domain name should be pronounceable, short and

meaningful.

A question of spelling

If your brand name is not easy to spell, don’t worry;

a technique adopted by many websites is to buy

associated domain names, such as typos. These

domain names can redirect to the correct website,

ensuring that you do not lose any valuable tra!c.

Remember that your domain name will also

be your email address. This is an important

consideration, as you will be using the name every

day for your communications. Keep it simple, keep

it memorable and keep it short.

Search engine optimisation

For ecommerce sites, having your

website and its domain name SEO

friendly is extremely important. For

this, keywords are essential.

A good domain name will convey

meaning,

so if it contains keywords, it helps to

give linguistic clues to the content of

the website itself. This will help both in

search engine rankings, but also with

building recognition for your brand.

Use relevant keywords

Spend a little time working out which words or

phrases are used by your potential customers. Ensure

these terms are used on their relevant pages and in

the right places – page titles are the most important.

Create engaging content

Gaining links is seen as a recommendation by search

engines. By creating interesting and exciting content

there is more chance that people will post links on

social media sites, their own blogs and websites.

Use social media

Social media can generate tra!c, links and buzz in

general. It also helps you to find out what people

think of you. Set up a Facebook page for your

business and start using Twitter, if you’re not on their

already, to let the world know you are there.

By Andy Atalla, founder of atom42

How good is your SEO?

To begin with, type your company

name into a search engine. It should be

fairly high up on the first page.

If not, you have a problem. The next

step is to find out when you were last

visited by a search engine spider, you

can find out by clicking ‘cached’, which

is found close to the search listing.

The busiest sites are visited very often,

and have good SEO rankings.

If your site is visited every day then this

is, in most cases, an excellent result.

However, if it is just once a week, this is

still a good result for many companies.

Perform a site audit

You need to ensure your site is easy for

the search engines to understand and

that your code is up to scratch. Many

web designers don’t understand SEO

and make sites which look good but fail

to register on search engines.

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said the presence of reviews meant they were

more likely to buy in general.

“Our research reveals an increasing

sophistication in consumers’ use of multi-

channel and social shopping tools,” said

Richard Anson, founder of Reevoo.

“As well as the tools and technologies

becoming more innovative, people’s browsing

and buying behaviour is also changing.

“Whereas when social commerce was in its

infancy people were happy to take reviews

at face value, now consumers are becoming

more discerning about who they’ll trust and

which information sources they find most

valuable for them.”

However, some sectors were more a"ected by

reviews than others. The travel and automotive

sectors were most a"ected, with roughly a

third of consumers for each category saying

they always check reviews before purchasing.

The survey also found that the number

of people using their mobiles to shop has

increased from 38% to 46% in the past year.

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Data collected by online reviews

company Reevoo shows that 52%

of consumers consider their friends’

recommendations to be “influential”,

and 48% think customer comments

are important.

However, the survey also found

that only 24% rated advertising to

be important, while just 22% were

interested in the recommendations of

sales assistants.

Also, the vast majority of people (88%)

said they always consult reviews when

making online purchases, and 60%

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Addressable Branding

Increasing brand awareness and promoting brands

through di"erent channels, potentially a banner ad

leading to a landing page or a podcast.

Contextual Marketing

The specific strategy helps customers match their

needs with a company’s o"erings, allowing the

customer to evaluate both before and after the

purchase.

Social Marketing

Use the brand community for shortened product

development cycles or customer service issues to

engage consumers and drive business results.

Transactional Marketing

Determine strategy and tools to deliver to relevant

content based on past user behavior.

In order to stay ahead in the cross-channel

environment marketers must keep a few things in

mind when designing their cross-channel strategy:

One-Size Fits All No Longer Fits

A one-size fits all approach to marketing

communication is no longer enough to create

e"ective cross-channel marketing.

The four segments of digital

marketing help us define the key

strategies and tools needed to reach

the customer in every part of the

buying process. It also helps drive

an increase in buying based on

remarketing and post-purchase data.

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Enhance the Consumer Experience

E"ective marketing requires brands to engage customers

based on their preferences in order to deliver distinct and

memorable messages

Evolve With the Customer

As consumers’ messaging habits evolve, so must marketers’

ability to connect across all interactive channels.

Partner campaign management with digital marketing

Consider campaign management as a way to coordinate

online and o#ine interactions.

Interruption Marketing must Adapt

In the world of social, interruption marketing is the number

one reason people unlike or unfollow brands.

Interruption is not catered to the individual or the brand

advocate.

Content Reigns Supreme

When creating content for campaigns keep the channel,

customer data, and individual consumers in mind.

Bad content has the potential of reigning havoc on any

marketing campaign whether mobile or social.

By Kyle Lacy, principle of marketing research for ExactTarget

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Product Descriptions

These need to be as detailed as possible. Additional

information, not included in the standard texts

supplied by the manufacturer or supplier, will enhance

your listings in the eye of the customer and make your

pages more SEO-friendly.

Detailed Delivery Information

Don’t hide this away. The customer should have

access to your delivery options and costs from every

page. Remember, one size does not fit all. For items

that cannot be fitted through the letter box, superfast

or next day delivery might not be the best option.

Email Capture Forms

Again these should be visible from every page. Give

your visitors a reason for subscribing to your email

marketing campaigns. The promise of a regular

newsletter isn’t enough. If you cannot make a sale,

make it as easy as possible to capture your visitors

contact details.

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Your Company Blog

A well written blog is an essential marketing tool for

any business. Not only does it give your website a

pulse, it is SEO gold and will also provide great content

for your email and social media marketing activities.

Photography and Video

Never skimp on photography. Great product images

will help your company stand out from the crowd.

Try and include images taken from all angles and

showcasing any specific product features.

High quality video will enhance your visitors’

experience even further. Great image or video

production does not have to be expensive – it just

takes a little planning and experimentation.

Final Thought

No matter how much you have spent on your website,

without great content you’ll find selling online an uphill

struggle. When producing content always try and stick

to the golden rules of relevancy and engagement and

never be afraid to ask for the sale with a strong call to

action.

By John W. Hayes at iContact

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Bulk email spam

Bulk email spam is categorically any commercial email that

is sent to the user without his/her permission.

However, in this case if you happen to send emails

containing commercial marketing to your friends, family or

colleagues in your list, then that does not get categorized

as spam. Spam are basically the emails that you send to

people who do not authorize you to do so.

Email marketing or Opt-in email

Opt-in email, on the other hand, is an email containing

marketing content that is sent to people who authorise and

permit you to send the same.

For instance, a user can sign up for receiving information

about any discounts and deals from a list. This acceptance

of the user for such information qualifies him or her to

opt for email marketing willingly and the emails will not be

treated as spam.

What makes opt-in email marketing di"erent is the fact that

the user has given permission for the sender to send the

promotional material by following a proper procedure.

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Advantages of opt-in emails vs. spam emails

Opt-in commercial emails are a way of respecting the

customer’s privacy and enhances the image of the

company. Because of this, the people whom the marketing

emails are being sent to would be more interested to go

through the mail and perhaps avail the services.

This in turn leads to successful campaigning and sales

along with a long-term relationship with the client.

Sending bulk spam emails would get the sender’s IP

address blacklisted in the long run.

Uninvited spam commercial emails prove to be unworthy

and ignored as they were uncalled for in the first place.

Sending bulk spam emails would get the sender’s IP

address blacklisted in the long run.

Sign Up Forms

Opt-in email has the reputation of being associated with

good email marketing practices. It’s advisable to convert

spam emails messages into opt-in emails by including

a Signup Form in order to create a clientele that would

appreciate your products and services and would avail the

same.

By Brianne Walter

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Have you asked questions?

Questions have been found to generate more

than double the number of Comments as updates

which don’t ask direct questions. You should use

“where,” “when,” “would,” and “should” to drive

conversation.

Help fans get the feel-good factor

Research suggests that people are more likely to

engage with a post if it allows them to present

themselves in a positive light. For example, if a

brand agrees to donate to a charity close to its

audience’s heart, the company can expect higher

engagement rates.

Think of the bigger picture

All of your marketing methods need to work

together and complement each other to truly

cement the perception of a brand, so companies

need to ensure that all social network activity is tied

into their overall messaging.

This time, it should be personal

Give back to your fans and give brand pages a

personal touch – automated responses don’t cut it

on social media.

By Luca Benini, Buddy Media’s MD, Europe

Post on a Wednesday

Although companies often publish evenly

throughout the working week, we have

found that likes and comments spike on

Wednesday – they’re 8% higher than any

other day.

Stick to after hours

Posts after working hours garner 20%

more ‘likes’ and Comments, so you should

schedule your updates to get the most

from a more captive audience after 6pm.

Remember

it’s quality, not quantity: Posting less than

three times per day produces 40% higher

user engagement, so limit those daily

updates. Retail brands who post less than

three times a day also receive a 32% higher

‘like’ rate and a staggering 73% higher

Comment rate.

Keep posts short and sweetShort posts allow you to compete on a crowded news feed.

Updates with 80 characters or less receive

66% higher engagement because their

message is swift, simple and easy to absorb

at a glance.

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HootSuite

This incredibly popular bit of Twitter management software lets

you sort and organise a number of di"erent profiles all at once.

You can also experiment with your response rates and the clicks

on links that you post. It’s a great way to monitor your Twitter

‘authority’ and the simplest package is no-charge.

Bu!er

People often bemoan Twitter users ‘spraying’ messages across

the website all in one go. It is tempting to do so especially while

you surf the net and find more than one really interested thing

that you want to share

Then you might become busy, other tasks take priority and your

Twitter feed is suddenly inactive and barren until the next time

you log on. Bu"er allows you to schedule the timing of your

tweets so they are spread consistently throughout the day –

even if you’re nowhere near a computer or phone.

Social Oomph

Another free and brilliant tool for Twitter experts is Social

Oomph. It gives you the chance to extend your Twitter profile,

schedule tweets and track keywords all from one place.

Meanwhile the upgraded paid-for service lets you tweet via

email, and automatically send direct messages to new followers,

among a universe of other uber-useful services.

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ManageFlitter

ManageFlitter basically o"ers a useful package of tools to give

your business a boost on Twitter, including helpful stu" like

biography searches, follower-sorting, tools to help you track

down the accounts of prospective sales leads, and to track who

has ‘unfollowed’ you. It also o"ers analytics so you can track

keyword mentions and plenty more besides.

Tweet Adder

Tweet Adder is a really useful application for building a following

on Twitter from a standing start by automating many of the

tasks that take up your time and by helping to find the followers

who will get the most out of hearing what you have to say.

When combined with a stream of regular and engaging

content and interactions with new and enthusiastic followers,

Tweet Adder is a simple way to create a targeted and engaged

audience quickly. The basic package is free, while upgrades are

charged.

There has been a lot of focus on the fact that Pinterest is

perfect for women in their mid-30s, planning a wedding/

new home/baby shower. However, while it’s still “new”, it

also has a trendy vibe, which o"ers a lot of opportunities for

businesses to engage with younger, tech savvy consumers.

A number of fashion brands such as Forever 21 and Fossil

have shown how attracting followers on Pinterest can be of

benefit. However, neither appear to have created content

specifically for the network, so it is impossible to gauge its

real potential yet.

As an engagement opportunity, Pinterest could be right

for any business which has data that can be presented in a

visual format.

Infographics have become a powerful marketing tool in

recent years and Pinterest is a great platform to share them

with a growing audience (currently over 12 million) – as long

as they have been designed to be engaging of course!

Jacob Dutton is a senior client partner at creative agency

383 Project

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If a friend rang you up right now on

your mobile and tried to sell you a

bouncy castle, a) you’d be puzzled and

b) a bit annoyed that your friend was

leveraging your relationship and using

a mainly private channel – your mobile

to try and sell you something you don’t

want.

Chances are, you might start avoiding

their calls for a while.

It’s the same with Facebook – you can’t

be seen to be directly selling something

to your friends – they won’t like it.

You can enthuse and be an advocate

for certain products sure, but a sales

person, no, it’s just not on.

For etailers, this means that social media

is not really a direct sales channel. Some

retailers have reported success with

Facebook commerce, while others like

Gap have beaten a quiet retreat.

Having a Fcommerce operation is OK, but for me, I’ll

never understand why you would buy from Facebook

rather than the more media rich environment of the

online store. Plus I don’t really want my friends to

know where I shop to be honest.

What social media is much better at is creating a huge

audience of enthusiasts for a brand. A few years ago

brands had to pay for that audience via third party

media, but now they can successfully grow their own.

The real value of social media to ecommerce is not

then how many socks you can sell o" a Facebook

page, but how much your new social media audience

is worth to you in terms of lifetime value and

advertising costs saved.

Social media is more akin to email marketing in that

sense, whereby you build an audience and nurture it

rather than sell it into alienation.

the weekend Facebook wall posts, you’re doing

something right!

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As most Facebook users visit every day, there’s plenty

more opportunities to engage with them than there are

by email of course, which is an opportunity to build a

strong bond, rather than a chance to sell every day.

You need a design and content plan, an engagement

strategy and someone well trained to interact with

online customers as they would in store.

For bigger operations, this will mean the help of a

call centre, whose operators are trained to moderate

Facebook pages and Twitter streams.

This will be the price of success in social media for

many, when you don’t have time to handle the weekend

Facebook wall posts, you’re doing something right!

By Ross Furlong, founder of BlogStar.co.uk

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With a mass of competing blogs

clamouring for readers’ ever-

shortening attention spans,

eCommerce professionals thinking

about starting a business blog

should carefully decide the look,

feel and content of their blogs.

Please don’t sell

Make sure your blog a resource for

readers interested in your business

or the wider industry and not a

sales pitch.

Become an industry expert

Use your blog to educate and

inform. Be the voice of reason, of

calm and authority in your chosen

field. If you sell cars, for example,

give people the insider knowledge

of what they should look out for

before buying a new car.

Commit to your Blog

Blogs are a slow burn. They take time to build and

inevitably there will be a period at the beginning where

you will require persistence in your task, even when you

feel you are (and you may well be) writing for just the

merest smattering of readers.

So commit to it, make sure your blog’s content is

of value or is, at the very least, enjoyable to read for

your target audience. Spread the word of its existence

through your website, your own social media pages

and your existing company contacts. And then trust the

process.

More followers mean more business?

Whilst business owners might enjoy having a blog that’s

popular, it’s of little use if it doesn’t grow the business

itself. A general increase in awareness of your business

through a popular blog is a wonderful thing.

The hidden gem though is that potential customers are

able to get to know your organisation and its leaders

personally, as though you were sat with them on a

comfortable sofa enjoying a glass of single malt.

So if the time is right for you, clear your diary, build your

blog, clear your throat and … begin.

By Ken Builder MD WebEden.co.uk

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Make analysis a continuous process

• Establish web analytics as a continuous process

with clear metrics and objectives

• Analytics should never be treated as a one-o"

activity, real value is only driven when the website is

monitored on an ongoing basis

• Setting clear and measurable KPI’s ensures that

the success of your online marketing e"orts can be

clearly demonstrated

Identify problem areas

• Identify the problem areas of your site through

analytics – looking at pages that have high

bounce rates, unusual numbers of drop-o"s and

abandonment rates, in particular on landing pages.

• Understanding the areas of the site which are

proving problematic allows you to make changes and

optimise your site. Too often website owners spend

large sums on marketing the site to drive tra!c but

fail to ensure the site is actually converting

Observe user behaviour

• Observe user behaviour at the

critical points through detailed

mouse tracking: how far visitors

scroll down, which texts they read,

which they ignore, which forms and

specifically the form fields that users

are struggling to complete etc

• By getting a clear picture of your

typical users journey you can

position special o"ers or important

products/information accordingly

• You will also be able to form a

view on which information/sections

are most engaging for your visitors.

The analysis should cover the

individual elements of the page

including images, headlines and text

boxes.

• This information will ensure

websites can be adapted to ensure

the best user experience and raise

conversion levels over the long term

Improve the customer experience

• Optimise not only conversion rates and

revenues, but also the visitor satisfaction and

loyalty

• Improving your visitors experience of the site

by enabling them to gather information easily

will build visitor satisfaction and return rates and

ultimately drive higher spend

• To ensure you can measure the improvements

in visitor satisfaction it is important to carry out

onsite surveys at the start of the project to provide

a benchmark for future analysis

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Invest in online marketing

• Start with onsite optimisation.

Spending money to attract

people to your site is pointless

if the site they arrive at is not

optimised

• Once the website is optimised

and the visitors are satisfied,

investing in online marketing

to drive customers to the site

can begin. Newsletters, a!liate

marketing, display and video

advertising and social media can

all be used to help drive visitors

to the site

Use multiple online channels

• If you do decide to invest in

marketing use all online channels

including display advertising,

social media and a!liate and

email marketing in order to reach

your target group. SEO and SEA

are usually not enough

Analyse the customer journey

• Analyse campaigns in terms of the entire customer

journey and not just the number of hits you receive

to the site. Getting lots of hits to your website doesn’t

necessarily mean that your visitors have achieved the

objective of their visit

• When analysing the entire customer journey you

should pay attention to the way in which the user has

interacted with other campaign touchpoints such as

e-shots and banner advertising in order to find out

how well the di"erent aspects of your campaign have

worked together.

• Looking at the results of the last ad or touchpoint

is not enough. Knowing how campaigns a"ect each

other is essential to achieve return on investment on

marketing spend

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Judge against industry benchmarks

• Use industry benchmarks to judge your

performance, don’t just compare against your

previous performance. Take the time to compare

your performance to your peers. You might see

an uplift of 5% which would seem like a success,

however the wider industry might see growth of 10

per cent

Act upon the data

• Flexibility is key and continual updating of your

site based upon user behavior and site analytics is

not a bad thing

• Analysing the user journey is only one part of the

puzzle. Acting upon the data is the crucial part.

Updating your site to reflect user needs is the smart

thing to do

By Christian Bennefeld at etracker

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