FRONT COVER- TOM

Welcome to our March issue of The Store Magazine! This week brings you a traffic building special edition following on from the Christmas issue (December 2012).

That‘s right, from social media to search engine optimisation to interactive advertisements, The Store team will discuss and analyse which department store adopts best practice when it comes to traffic building techniques.

Following on from the previous edition, our team thought the competition between House of Fraser, Harrods and Fenwick was that we‘ve decided to stick with these and see who will come out on top.

Plus, more importantly, we have asked you, our beloved Store readers, to let us know what you think a brand can do to be most effective and even more appealing to the general public whilst building traffic to their website!

So, will it be the infamous, well-loved Harrods brand that wins the battle, the modest (yet secretly ‗dark horse‘ of the competition) House of Fraser that brings you affordable luxury or will it be the niche brand Fenwick who steals the competition? We say let‘s find out!

So once again, kick back, relax, grab a tea (or coffee) and let battle of the department store brands commence!

The Store Magazine Team

Meet the Editors Page 3

What is Traffic Building? Page 6

Refresh Your Memory Page 8

Store context Page 9

What Do You Think? Page 12

Search Marketing Page 18

Back Links Page 20

Online PR Page 21

Social Media Page 22

Online Advertising Page 26

E-mail Marketing Page 30

Department Store E-mail Page 32

Mobile Marketing Page 34

Mobile App Marketing Page 35

Online Partnerships Page 36

Affiliate Marketing Page 37

Viral Marketing Page 38

What We Think Page 40

References Page 42

So what is this strange phrase? Well, traffic building refers to the act of driving visitors to your company‘s (or even your personal) website. Driving these visitors to the desired website can generate awareness and even sales, therefore revenue for the company.

Generating traffic to an organisation‘s website can help achieve specific e-marketing goals the company may have set.

According to Dave Chaffey and PR Smith (2009) there are three key aspects to successful traffic building:

TARGETS

These are essentially the e-marketing goals of the organisation. It refers to the quality, quantity and cost of traffic building techniques (see below).

Quantity refers particularly to how many individuals, either recurring or unique, visit the website. Some organisations will measure success based upon how many visitors they have had, but this is complicated to compare against sales and return of investment (ROI) of the traffic building investment.

Instead organisations should ask themselves two key questions: are the visitors of the desired target market demographic? Secondly, are they actually engaging with the content of the website or clicking off straight away? These will determine truer success. This is quality.

Cost of traffic refers to cost per acquisition or cost per action (CPA) which works out

whether the ROI is worth the initial traffic

building campaigns costs. CPA may apply

to cost per visitor, cost per lead or cost

per enquiry.

The value of sales should also be

compared to the cost of campaign costs.

However, there is the argument that if a

customer doesn‘t purchase, there is

nothing wrong with the traffic building but

the website itself.

TECHNIQUES

See over the page for a full

comprehensive diagram detailing traffic

building techniques.

An organisation needs to find the right mix

of online and offline traffic building

techniques for their campaign; there is no

one size fits all!

TIMING

An organisation‘s traffic building campaign

may have times of high potential, maybe

during a website launch or re-launch.

However, it‘s important to remember that

consumers are looking to purchase all

year round. So continuous traffic building

techniques should be invested in as well

as heightened activity from the

organisation.

A consistent level of service, in-store and

online, is key when it comes to customer

retention.

Category Techniques Search Marketing Search engine optimisation (SEO),

Paid search (pay per click, PPC), paid for results/ inclusion.

Online PR Social media, blogs, online communities, media alert services.

Online Partnerships Affiliate marketing, sponsorship, co-branding, widget marketing.

Interactive Advertisements Targeted pop-ups, (behavioural targeting, sponsorship, third-party, endorsement.

Email Services Newsletters, direct emailing lists (opt-in).

Viral Marketing Word of mouth, viral materials e.g.: videos, buzz marketing, media mentions/ attention.

Offline Marketing Direct mail, exhibitions, packaging, merchandising, advertising, personal selling, PR, events, sales/ price promotion.

Source: Chaffey & Smith (2009)

Just to re-fresh our memories, here‘s

some background information that was

also included in the December issue, just

to put the debate into context.

FENWICK

• Founded in 1882 by John James

Fenwick.

• Operates Bentalls and a Williams &

Griffin stores.

• Still currently Fenwick family owned.

• Valued at UK £452 million.

• 11 stores in the UK.

• Online transactions are available but

still mostly see in-store purchases.

• Their target market is primarily

female ABC1‘s. Although the

different locations of the store attract

different variations of demographics.

HOUSE OF FRASER

• Floated on the stock market in 1994.

• 62 stores in the UK.

• 2010 operating profit of UK£30

million (15.4% increase).

• Their target market is primarily

females aged 45 years and social

class AB.

• However, HoF also appeals to above

average amount of C1 shoppers.

• 4th top online retailer.

• 60 million online sales in 2010/2011.

HARRODS

• Popular London tourist destination.

• Valued at UK£1.6 billion (2010).

• Additional outlets at Heathrow and Gatwick airports.

• Delivers overseas online purchases to over 30 countries.

• 2011 revenue increased 12.7% to UK £651.7 million.

• Aims to be the world‘s number one department store.

• Their target market is primarily ABC1 young adults. Although being a tourist attraction makes it difficult to pin point.

DEPARTMENT STORE CONTEXT

• Valued at UK£11.6 billion in 2011.

• Leading department stores include: M&S, John Lewis, Debenhams, House of Fraser and Harrods.

• The market in 2011 was valued at UK£14.1 billion.

• Mintel (2012) predicts the market to be valued at UK£18.1 billion (best case) and UK£13.9 billion (worst case) by 2016.

• Sale are predicted to be around UK£15.5 billion in 2016.

• Issues and threats include: recession, ageing population, little disposable income for families and rising cost of basic commodities.

From this information we can see that House of Fraser is potentially ahead of the game when it comes to traffic building to their website. Harrods appear to be developing their global online presence but more work is to be done. Fenwick, on the other hand, appears to be behind when it comes to utilising online as a profit making tool.

Source: Mintel (2012)

In addition to the previous pages‘

department store context., The Store

team did some more digging to put these

brands into traffic building context.

A Mintel report (2012) estimates that

10.5% (UK £1.2 billion) of the department

store sector size was through online

transactions in 2010 (7.7% increase). Of

which House of Fraser, Debenhams, John

Lewis and M&S heavily dominate (See

Figure One for online sales by department

store).

These department stores have managed

to gain more market share due to the slow

online development of stores such as

Selfridges.

A key trend in the department store

market is:

• Multi-channel offerings to build upon

click and collect services.

Taking this trend into account, House of

Fraser have shown innovation through

their new dotcom stores. These hold no

stock and are purely designed for online

browsing and ordering and will also

enable product collection and returns.

Should this pilot scheme prove to be

successful, it could be seen rolled out in

many other stores (a great offline traffic

building technique!).

85% of consumers say they actually

purchase on department store websites

rather than in-store (see Figure Two).

Frequency of online purchase tends to be

more occasional compared to in store,

with sharp peaks around seasonal

periods.

Among shoppers, it‘s been found that free

delivery ranks highest in how to make

online purchases more appealing (Figure

Three). Under 35 year olds have also

expressed a longing for more choice

online and prefer to make a decision,

based upon product reviews which can be

integrated with social media sites and

third-party websites (although these aren‘t

entirely traffic building- they will help

achieve customer sales and retention.

Remember- the issue may not lie in the

traffic building but the website itself!).

So given the above facts, House of Fraser

is very much a key player in the market

with plenty of promising potential. Harrods

appears to not be direct competition with

the likes of HoF, John Lewis, Debenhams,

M&S and so on. However, it is still

apparent that although Harrods offers a

lot of online services, it too has a long way

to go before fulfilling it‘s potential. It is

already evident that Fenwick is clearly

behind with the online sales and utilisation

but is the potential actually there for the

brand?

Now the context has been set, turn over

to see what The Store readers think about

traffic building >>>

Sources: Mintel (2012); Chaffey & Smith

(2009)

Figure One: Online sales by leading

department stores

Figure Two: Frequency of in-store and online

purchases at department stores

Figure Three: Ways of making online

shopping more appealing

Figure Four: Leading department stores

shares of sector sales

Source: Mintel (2012)

So there‘s the market context facts by

Mintel (2012) but are these entirely

accurate? We sought information to find

out what you think about traffic building.

Two surveys were run on SurveyMonkey

for two weeks. The first was a general

traffic building survey which had a total of

51 respondents. The second survey is an

online PR focused survey- given that The

Store team all have a PR background,

this was of special interest to us!

The respondents for the survey were:

The following graphs show the questions

asked and the percentage of responses

for each answer for the general traffic

building survey.

Why are these questions being asked?

These questions were asked to see how

the public view common traffic building

techniques and their general reaction to

them. Although question 10 is not a traffic

building technique following on from the

Mintel (2012) context there‘s no mention

of how this law change may affect the

quality of an organisations web content.

The next set of questions and responses

come from the specific online PR traffic

building survey. The respondents were

the same as the first survey.

So there‘s the raw data for both surveys.,

but, what does it mean? Well firstly The

Store team would like to point out that this

survey is only meant to be a general

indicator and measures were not taken to

try and create balanced sample.

Therefore the gender and age questions

are slightly biased towards 18-24 year

olds and females.

Surprisingly 65.31% of you have actually

acted upon a direct email sent from

department store, so does this prove that

not all sales emails are junk? Are

department stores becoming more

inventive in their direct email traffic

building approaches?

In contradiction to that statistic, 65.31% of

you have also acted upon the decision to

opt out of such email schemes and 8.16%

expressed they would like to but aren‘t

sure how. 22.45% are happy to received

the emails.

62.50% of you haven‘t clicked on

sponsored links at the top of search

engine results pages under the belief that

they are only there to try and sell you

something. 37.50% believe they are still

relevant to your search suggesting the

taboo-ness of these are breaking through

to some people. It would be interesting to

compare this to these links bounce rates

and sales.

Similarly 62.50% of you have also

avoided clicking on banner

advertisements. Presumably under the

same avoidance of being sold something.

From this is it clear that sponsored/ paid

for search links and banner

advertisements may not be creative

enough in their approach to online

browsers. This is backed up by 45.83%

saying that banner ads that appear on a

third-party website promoting the product

they just search is not an effective

technique and 25% go as far to say that it

annoys them.

Only 35.42% of respondents say that they

have browsed other brands because they

sponsor/ are sponsored by a brand they

currently like. With over 50% saying they

haven‘t ever, could sponsorship actually

be an effective traffic building technique

online, should it be more focused to the

offline communications in order to be

value for investment?

And those dreaded cookie laws- although

they are not a traffic building technique,

remember the introduction. Sometimes it‘s

not the traffic building technique but the

website itself. Since there was no mention

of cookie laws on Mintel, it‘s such a

current issue that it simply can not be

ignored. 34.04% of you don‘t understand

cookie laws at all and hate the pop up

agreements because you don‘t know what

you‘re actually agreeing to. Whereas

collectively over 30% of you don‘t mind

the change in law and realise agreeing to

the policy doesn‘t make a difference to

when before the law was passed.

Overall, the most common of traffic

building techniques have had a mixed

response. The majority of respondents

have expressed that they find the

techniques annoying and in-effective.

Now let‘s take a look at the online PR

survey results, to see if they are any

different.

Over half of you have gone to a

department store‘s website based upon

their social media activity but 80% say

they do not follow multiple department

stores on social media websites to

compare their products and services. This

suggests that they are followed because

of the their social media content instead.

Similarly the same percentage also said

they choose to receive email updates

from stores.

Only 20% of respondents said that they

have browsed a department store‘s

website based upon their blog activity.

This suggests that blogs are a least

influential form of building traffic to a

website. This could be because, even

though being in the retail/ fashion sector,

department stores don‘t see the need to

need to show off their sector expertise

through a blog and only a minority actually

run a blog.

However, 53.33% of you have browsed a

store‘s website based upon

recommendation from other bloggers and

magazine articles online. Suggesting that

the value of third-party endorsement is

very much key.

Reassuringly 53.33% said news about a

department store would reach you

primarily online- which goes to show not

all traffic building hope is lost! However,

26.67% still would only hear about news

through word of mouth- an overlooked

form of offline traffic building for the fear of

the Chinese whispers effect.

An incentive to get traffic to the desired

website would be a competition or online

freebie event where there is something to

gain for the consumer.

If as part of that competition liking,

sharing, following, tweeting that

company‘s profile was involved, 42.86%

said you would go for it because it‘s free.

However marginally different 35.71% said

they wouldn‘t because they know how

annoying it is when other people do that,

suggesting that the old ‗like and share us

to be entered into our competition‘ trick is

losing it‘s novelty and clouding the social

media scape with brands. Or is it? 64.295

of you still said you have visited a store‘s

website based upon someone else liking,

sharing, following or tweeting them on

Facebook and Twitter. Which enforces the

previous argument for third-party

endorsement.

Exactly 50% of you said that if brands

utilised different types of social media if

would enable you to think more highly of

those brands. However the sceptical

28.57% of you said it would depend upon

the content. So they would have o be

creative and utilised other platforms such

as Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, blogs

and so on well.

So is online PR in general more

successful? We like to think so here at

The Store HQ! According to our survey

(remember not an actual representative)

the online PR techniques for department

store‘s traffic building are far more

successful than techniques such as

interactive advertisements and direct e-

mail.

But everything still remains to be seen!

Flip over the page to see us pull apart and

analyse traffic building techniques specific

to House of Fraser, Harrods and Fenwick.

Who will come out the winner? >>>

If you would like access to the raw data of

the survey contact The Store HQ on

storehq@thestoremag.co.uk.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a

powerful web marketing technique that

helps websites better position themselves

in search engines such as Google or

Yahoo. Whenever you enter a query in a

search engine and hit 'enter' you get a list

of web results that contain that query

term. Users normally tend to visit

websites that are at the top of this list as

they perceive those to be more relevant to

the query.

SEO is a technique which helps search

engines find and rank your site higher

than the millions of other sites in

response to a search query.

The first basic truth you need to know to

learn SEO is that search engines are not

humans. While this might be obvious for

everybody, the differences between how

humans and search engines view web

pages aren't. Unlike humans, search

engines are text-driven. Although

technology advances rapidly, search

engines are far from intelligent creatures

that can feel the beauty of a cool design

or enjoy the sounds and movement in

movies. Instead, search engines crawl the

Web, looking at particular site items

(mainly text) to get an idea what a site is

about.

This brief explanation is not the most

precise because as we will see next,

search engines perform several activities

in order to deliver search results –

crawling, indexing, processing, calculating

relevancy, and retrieving.

First, search engines crawl the Web to

see what is there. This task is performed

by a piece of software, called a crawler or

a spider (or Googlebot, as is the case with

Google). Spiders follow links from one

page to another and index everything they

find on their way. Having in mind the

number of pages on the Web (over 20

billion), it is impossible for a spider to visit

a site daily just to see if a new page has

appeared or if an existing page has been

modified, sometimes crawlers may not

end up visiting your site for a month or

two.

After a page is crawled, the next step is to

index its content. The indexed page is

stored in a giant database, from where it

can later be retrieved. Essentially, the

process of indexing is identifying the

words and expressions that best describe

the page and assigning the page to

particular keywords. For a human it will

not be possible to process such amounts

of information but generally search

engines deal just fine with this task.

Sometimes they might not get the

meaning of a page right but if you help

them by optimizing it, it will be easier for

them to classify your pages correctly and

for you – to get higher rankings.

When a search request comes, the

search engine processes it – i.e. it

compares the search string in the search

request with the indexed pages in the

database. Since it is likely that more than

one page (practically it is millions of

pages) contains the search string, the

search engine starts calculating the

relevancy of each of the pages in its index

with the search string.

There are various algorithms to calculate

relevancy. Each of these algorithms has

different relative weights for common

factors like keyword density, links, or

metatags. That is why different search

engines give different search results

pages for the same search string. What is

more, it is a known fact that all major

search engines, like Yahoo!, Google,

Bing, etc. periodically change their

algorithms and if you want to keep at the

top, you also need to adapt your pages to

the latest changes. This is one reason

(the other is your competitors) to devote

permanent efforts to SEO, if you'd like to

be at the top.

The last step in search engines' activity is

retrieving the results. Basically, it is

nothing more than simply displaying them

in the browser – i.e. the endless pages of

search results that are sorted from the

most relevant to the least relevant sites.

In terms of finding out about our

department store‘s search engine

optimisation it‘s impossible to depict

exactly how they do this as if it was

common knowledge on how to be top of

results pages every organisation would be

doing it. However we can look at where

they rank when searching for department

stores.

When typing in ‗Department stores‘ into

Google the following (see opposite are the

first results.

This clearly shows that House of Fraser

and Harrods have good search engine

optimisation techniques for the key terms.

On the same search a sponsored/ paid for

link for John Lewis. However, as we have

seen from our primary research this does

not prove to be an effective way of traffic

building. However, HoF do have

sponsored links but when search for

‗House of Fraser‘ which is also in

effective.

The Fenwick website does not have a lot

of bank links as it is not like Harrods and

House of Fraser, which is full of lots of

back links.

The diagram above describes how to

interact backlinks so when visitors access

the websites, they find it interactive as

there are lots of links to access.

Fenwick does not have many backlinks.

This could be because there is not

enough information to provide. House of

Fraser and Harrods has more backlinks

as there are lots of pages for visitors to go

on to. This is constructive, stands out and

enhances the website.

“Search engine optimisation, the more

quality back links there are from other

sites to your site, the higher the site will

be ranked in the natural or organic listings

of the search engines‘‘ (Chaffey, 2008).

Each website has a link from their

homepage that when visitors access other

links, they can always click on the

homepage link and it takes them back to

the main menu.

.

Harrods do have a blog (see image below) as do House of Fraser, but Fenwick do not. Both Harrods and House of Fraser utilise their blogs well, although they are not well marketed as you have to go onto the website in order to find it, unless specifically searching for it. Therefore this in itself doesn‘t build traffic to the website but may be helpful in customer retention.

The power of business blogs can often be under-estimated by the public. Blogs are an effective way of showcasing sector expertise or talent, gives the company a voice and view on issues and can helps attract visitors from additional searches other than their own sector searches.

As the primary research also shows, consumers would more likely have a higher opinion of an organisation should they utilise their blogging properly. Therefore Fenwick should consider starting a blog and other social media activity before they are left behind in the sector.

Online PR – ―shaping opinions and driving

visitors to different websites‘‘ (Chaffey,

2008).

―Attracting visitors through search,

Engagement and Dialogue.

Building Campaign Buzz,

Defensive/Crisis‖ (Chaffey, 2008).

As mentioned above all of the department

store websites are search engine

optimised, although some more than

others. Other ways of attracting visitors is

through blogs, RSS feeds and online

press releases. The engagement and

dialogue is about how to best influence

the audience through attracting visitors

through blogs and so on. Building a

campaign buzz is how to use social and

online media to get the core messages of

the organisation across. If these are

communicated effectively then they will

attract more traffic to the site. Crisis PR is

always good to have on hand regardless

of any campaign as things can always go

wrong an it‘s better to be prepared.

FOLLOW ME?

Social media is a low-cost tools that are

used to combine technology and social

interaction with the use of words. These

tools are typically internet or mobile

based. A few that you have probably

heard of include Twitter, Facebook and

YouTube. Social media gives marketers a

voice and a way to communicate with

peers, customers and potential

consumers. It personalizes the "brand"

and helps you to spread your message in

a relaxed and conversational way. There‘s

many advantages in using social media

however there are some disadvantages

as well. The downfall to social media, if

you could call it that , is it must be a part

of your everyday life in order to keep the

momentum and attention you need for it

to be successful.

Pincott (2000) suggests there are two key

issues in site promotion. First there

should be a media strategy which will

mainly be determined by how to reach the

target audience. It will define the online

promotion techniques that should be used

and where to advertise online. Second

there is a creative strategy. All site

promotion will influence perceptions of the

brand (Chaffey, Smith, 2008).

How to use Social media – tips

• Don‘t depend only on social media,

you must integrate it with other

vehicles of marketing. Social media

will create awareness, but that‘s not

enough to sell your product.

• Be yourself, reflect personality.

There are no written "right" or

"wrong" rules when it comes to

social media, only you can determine

what will work for you.

• Be consistent, if you do not plan on

being consistent don't do it at all - it's

a waste of everyone's time.

• Address negative comments straight

away!

• Share all the positive comments!

The image opposite is taken from House

of Fraser Facebook fun page. It shows

negative comment from the customer and

quick & effective response from House of

Fraser. It illustrates that social media is a

great tool when managed in a good way.

Connecting and engaging with clients and

customers is a great way to show the

human side of your company and

establish trust and loyalty.

House of Fraser has a great presence on

social media. Retailer is very closely with

social media agency We Are Social to

create an integrated strategy.

The department store has recently partnered

with the National Union of Students' (NUS)

Extra Card, to launch a vouchering app on

the House of Fraser Facebook page. The

app, created by We Are Social, enables

students who "like" the brand on Facebook to

receive a 10% discount when shopping on its

site.

By pushing marketing campaigns through

social media, House of Fraser is ensuring

that it has a multichannel offering that

provides a competitive advantage over its

rivals. You will find the retailer on

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Goggle +,

YouTube and eBay.

Harrods also acknowledged power of

social media and has its presence on

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. In

addition there‘s a video channel on

Harrods website where you can follow

latest news and fashion trends. Retailer

also announced recently Harrods

Magazine for iPad with free subscription

(available on iTunes).

Family owned retailer Fenwick may be

one of the most low-profile department

store groups in the UK. The

Fenwick.co.uk site covers womenswear,

accessories, beauty, bath and body, home

accessories and gifts. Their interaction

with the customer is very minimal. There

is no social media or fun pages. Visitors

cannot follow Fenwick on any of the social

media platforms.

The success of other department store

groups online such as John Lewis,

Debenhams and Selfridges shows that

ecommerce can be a lucrative channel for

Fenwick, and entering the digital age

could be the making of this family

business.

Twitter for Business

Twitter is probably the most effective

social media tool for marketers. There is

great power in being able to retweet.

―Retweet‖ simply means you re-share

someone else‘s content that they posted

in a tweet. It is great opportunity for

departments store to retweet all the

positive comments left by happy

customers.

Interactive ads can ―help build site traffic and

building brand recognition‘‘ (Chaffey, 2008).

Fenwick have colourful images based

adverts although they rarely have pop

up adverts on external pages. Again this

brand appears to be lacking behind in

another key area that can help build

traffic to the website.

Harrods adverts use a lot of imagery,

colour and also have the advantage of

being able to promote lots of other

brands as well as themselves. Although

they do use pop up advertisements on

other external websites to build traffic to

their own website they do not use

targeted pop ups which can prove

effective although our primary research

failed to show this and instead annoy

consumers. See images on the page to

view types of pop up advertisements

that Harrods use.

House of Fraser again use a lot of

imagery and colour, except they

always have their name and logo

clearly on the advertisements, unlike

Harrods. They also use targeted pop

ups whereby they come up on

external sites just after the consumer

has browsed on House of Fraser.

This can prove more effective as the

consumer feel that‘s the ad is

personal to them rather than the

typical ‗advertising blur‘. However, it

seems ads are still ads and annoy a

large percentage of consumers.

Could department stores get more

creative in using online ads?

All three websites have some form

of online ads to build site traffic and

build brand recognition. It is effective

targeting visitors through the

dynamic graphics that have been

used.

These are other examples of the online

ads have been used to enhance the

department store‘s image and to build

traffic to their websites. Rich media and

large format ads seems to be more

successful in attracting consumer

attention.

Sales promotions and seasonal sales are

seemingly big topics to use banner

interactive advertisements for. It almost

seems to common though now, and all

departments stores risk losing their

appeal if more creativity is not applied in

their approaches.

Opt-in e-mail is the key to successful e-mail marketing. It is a powerful online communication tool. It is mostly used for direct response, but e-newsletters can also achieve branding objectives. Marketers are able to push out a targeted message to a customer to inform and remind and certain to view at least the subject line within their e-mail inbox.

The main issue is Spam, unsolicited e-mail sent by unscrupulous traders. Most spam messages on the Internet today are advertisements from individuals and the occasional small business looking for a way to make a fast buck. Spam messages are usually sent out using sophisticated techniques designed to mask the messages' true senders and points of origin. To achieve the potential benefits of opt-in e-mail, marketers should avoid Spam. Companies must ask consumers to provide their e-mail address and give them the option of ‗opting info‘ communications and choosing their communication preferences (type of content, frequency of e-mail).

Opt-in email: advantages:

• Preserves your email marketing reputation

• Shows customers that you respect their privacy

• Helps you email people who are interest in what you're selling

• Saves you time and money by micro-focusing your list

• Lets you be more targeted in your campaigns

• Helps you build long-term, trust-based relationships with customers

• Can boost your sales and product interest

E-mail is still useful tool comparing with

other search or social networking, and

brands who have abandoned their mailing

lists completely for Facebook and Twitter

might end up regretting it. Only by

combining all of these tools in your

marketing strategy – email, search and

social – you can amplify your brand‘s

awareness, significantly increase your

reach and maximize the effectiveness of

your campaigns (Mediabistro, 2012).

Benefits of e-mail vs. Social Media

Majority of companies use e-mail marketing. There‘s many benefits such as low cost, it is useful for customers to click through to the direct website or to special promotions offered by stores. Our research looked at Fenwick, House of Fraser and Harrods. Analysis showed that only House of Fraser and Harrods actively using e-mail marketing where as Fenwick remains very low-profiled with minimum e-mail sent to their customers.

House of Fraser use colours associated with their store (black, pink, white) and address their customers using ‗hello shopper‘ which is not as direct as it could be. Using personalised e-mail increase its effectiveness; for example using Miss Smith grabs attention. You will find links to all the social media sites as well as to House of Fraser blog. Products are shown with their prices, usually from your preferred sections of the store. At the bottom of every e-mail there‘s info about delivery, current promotions end upcoming special events. Recently House of Fraser added new feature to their e-mails which contain link to download HOF iPhone app.

Harrods also use colours similar to their website. All e-mails are very simplistic what is associated with the website. There are very often links to competitions run by Harrods and special offers. The store doesn‘t focus on addressing customers by their names. Harrods use the Harrods Rewards card well as their inform and remind customers to use it when shopping online. Unlike House of Fraser which does not mention their loyalty card in their e-mails at all. Harrods e-mails contain direct links to Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

House of Fraser as well as Harrods send e-mails on the daily basis.

Fenwick don‘t use e-mail marketing effectively. It gives the customer an option on their website to subscribe to Fenwick‘s newsletter but that‘s where it ends. Research lasted 3 months and during that time only two e-mail were received from Fenwick. They give you an option to share the content through social media sites however non of them are official Fenwick‘s pages.

Designing effective e-mail

• It should grab attention in subject line and body

• Content should be relevant to target and be brief

• Be personalized – use Dear Mr Smith

• It has to provide unsubscribe option

• Should have direct links to website

(Chaffey, Smith, 2008)

Mobile marketing – anytime,

anywhere!

Mobile has started to play a huge role

in marketing over the last couple of

years. Mobile is changing the face of

marketing. With increasing usage of

smartphones we are now connected 24/7.

Mobile applications are beginning to find

widespread approval of companies - and

generate revenues.

Major brands are now running targeted

mobile campaigns, and using them to

experiment with new ways of interacting

with consumers. Mobile marketing is

increasingly the direction many

businesses are taking. With the increasing

number of users with smartphones and

other mobile devices, businesses are

using mobile marketing to reach these

customers. Mobile shopping through apps

is getting very popular thanks to the

convenience and being able to shop

anywhere at any time. Shoppers compare

products and prices via mobile while

visiting retailer; customers are browsing

using apps.

Guide to successful mobile

marketing

• Provide tools people will find useful

and interesting. Try to be as

interactive as it is possible. Your app

needs to be useful.

• Never confuse quantity with quality.

Don't send pointless messages to

people who have given you their

details. Only send staff that is

beneficial to your customers. Think

what are their needs.

• Use the power of location. Use

geography to make your message

more relevant. Delivering the right

message, at the right time and in the

right location is the KEY.

• Offer your mobile contacts a way of

opting out of receiving messages,

such as sending the word "stop".

• Use "pull messaging" rather than just

"push messaging". Department

stores can offer consumers the

opportunity to text "deal" in return for

their latest offers.

• Mobile marketing should be

integrated with your social media.

The number of people using mobiles

to access these sites has risen by

more than 130% over the past 12

months, according to the Internet

Advertising Bureau.

Mobile apps and the department stores:

House of Fraser and Harrods have got their apps unlike Fenwick.

The free House of Fraser app allowing customers to browse and shop over 1,000 designer brands across all categories. Customers can use the app to scan product barcodes whilst in their local store, read product reviews and information, as well check online availability; a great tool for customers looking for specific sizes or colour variations. The stock locator is another key feature which enables users to select items online and check product availability in their local stores. Users can create ‗gift lists‘ and ‗wish lists‘ which are great for storing those must buy products. The app is connected with social media sites as well, customers can share their wish lists with friends and family via Facebook. The app is also linked to House of Fraser‘s Reward Programme – Recognition.

Harrods app enables customers to browse news on luxury items but you won‘t be able to shop via app. Features including: a restaurant guide, including menus from all 29 Harrods restaurants, history section of the app which explains everything about the chain's history, store floor plan, a news section which gives you all the latest gossip and special deals going on at Harrods, while the Twitter feed keeps you up to date with all the goings on at the shop. Customers can also add in-store events to their list of reminders.

Online partnerships refer to techniques

that overlap with online PR. Techniques

include sponsorship, affiliate marketing

and link building.

Link building is a key activity for SEO, as

mentioned previously. Chaffey and Smith

have created a checklist for best practice

link-building:

• Achieve natural link building through

quality content.

• Request in-bound only or one way

links from partners.

• Reciprocal linking- two way links.

• Buying links- on directories for

example.

• Create your own external links.

• Generate buzz through PR.

In the case of Harrods and House of

Fraser as mentioned before they are

search engine optimised and stock

multiple well known brands and use

reciprocal links between the websites.

Fenwick do stock designer name products

but they‘re lesser well known among the

general public; they‘re more niche.

Online partnerships also refers to

sponsorship. Sponsorship online is

different to virtual world sponsorship. It‘s

more complicated to handle and you have

to trust the organisation to handle their

content- if they do something wrong

online or damage their reputation it will

immediately have a negative impact on

the brand also in partnership.

None of the department stores have

online sponsorship deals with an other

organisation. Although as part of their

online corporate social responsibility they

do have online and virtual world

partnerships with multiple charities.

House of Fraser supports Sparks and

Walk the Walk. Harrods doesn‘t appear to

support any charities and neither does

Fenwick. Although this could mean they

do in the real world, just not online.

Although supporting a charity isn‘t the

same as a sponsorship partnership, it can

help greatly with he reputation of brand

and the brand‘s name will also be

attached to anything the charity does,

therefore still having the potential to build

some traffic sometimes to the website.

Affiliate Marketing is one of the most

popular ways to make money online but

‗what is affiliate marketing?‘. Many people

see and hear about it and how normal

people are making money by doing it, yet

they fail to understand what it is and how

it actually works.

Affiliate marketing is that it‘s a technique

where other publishers and websites will

promote your business. Basically the way

it works is that an affiliate is rewarded

every time a visitor, customer or sale for

your business is generated through an

advertisement on their web site. There are

many different ways compensation is

provided, but the concept remains

consistent—you pay them for generating

business for you. If a viewer is at the

affiliate‘s web site, and the affiliate doesn‘t

quite have what they‘re looking for, they

can easily click over to your web site. It‘s

an increasingly popular technique for

those seeking to maximize they‘re staying power on the web..

Affiliate marketing overlaps with other internet marketing methods to some degree, because affiliates often use regular advertising methods. Those methods include organic search engine optimization (SEO), paid search engine marketing (PPC - Pay Per Click), e-mail marketing, content marketing and in some sense display advertising. On the other hand, affiliates sometimes use less orthodox techniques, such as publishing reviews of products or services offered by a partner.

Affiliate marketing is commonly confused with referral marketing, as both forms of marketing use third parties to drive sales to the retailer. However, both are distinct forms of marketing and the main difference between them is that affiliate marketing relies purely on financial motivations to drive sales while referral marketing relies on trust and personal relationships to drive sales.

Affiliate marketing is frequently overlooked by advertisers. While search engines, e-mail, and website syndication capture much of the attention of online retailers, affiliate marketing carries a much lower profile. Still, affiliates continue to play a significant role in e-retailers‗ marketing strategies.

Viral marketing is like a virus. Spreads around as word-of-mouth using all the traditional online and offline media. Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message‘s exposure and influence. Like viruses, such strategies take advantage of rapid multiplication to explode the message to thousands, to millions.

Dr. Ralph F. Wilson (2012) stated that the elements of viral marketing necessary to point out are:

• Gives away products or services;

• Provides for effortless transfer to others;

• Scales easily from small to very large;

• Exploits common motivations and behaviours;

• Utilizes existing communication networks;

• Takes advantage of others‘ resources.

The most powerful words in marketing are ‗FREE‘ and ‗SALE‘. They drive people and all the major retail markets out there. House of Fraser has a big SALE banner on its website every couple of months whereas Harrods and Fenwick don‘t.

Justin Kirby (2003) stated the three main

things everyone needs to remember while

creating a viral campaign:

• Creative material – the ‗viral agent‘.

This includes the creative message

or offer and how it is spread (text,

image, video).

• Seeding. Identifying web sites, blogs

or people to send e-mail to start the

virus spreading.

• Tracking. To monitor the effect and to

assess the return from the cost of

developing the viral agent and

seeding.

So to conclude this month‘s special traffic

building issue, we have defined that traffic

building is the mixture of techniques that

help to attract consumers to a specific

website. This can result in customer

loyalty, retention and sales, therefore

revenue for the organisation.

The context of the department stores shows positive financial figures for House of Fraser and Harrods. Although Fenwick do not necessarily have really negative figures, they are not a major player in the sector. They are also considerably behind on previously analysed website features and are also seemingly behind on digital innovation and traffic building techniques. House of Fraser is reported by Mintel to be the best performing in the online sector, with Harrods close behind, although Harrods are focusing more considerably on their global presence as opposed to their traffic building techniques because they are a bigger name department store.

From the survey carried out by The Store team, it was found that consumer reactions and responses to online PR techniques were much more positive and helped to enhance the reputation of the brands among potential consumers, although social media ‘like and share to be entered’ competitions are wearing thin with consumers currently because they’re too frequent now and cause social media clutter. More traditional techniques such as banner advertisements and e-mail marketing are still very much a taboo technique that isn’t popular with consumers.

Harrods and House of Fraser both have search engine optimised websites, enhanced to be in top results in search engine queries, whereas Fenwick does not. However, this could be because Fenwick is more of a niche brand and people who shop with them would specifically choose to do so rather than ‘stumble’ across their website. House of Fraser also have sponsored links but these are seemingly in-effective as they only show up when searching for the brand therefore defying the point of building traffic from other searches.

In addition to this House of Fraser and Harrods have many back links therefore further enhancing their chances of driving traffic to their sites. Fenwick does not however do this.

As mentioned, online PR has more positive reactions from consumers, therefore it’s important particularly to analyse how well these brands are using this cheap tool. House of Fraser and Harrods both have business blogs which can help to showcase sector expertise and talent and gives the companies a voice online on sector issues. Fenwick does not have a blog and is therefore missing out on the opportunity to further build traffic to the website. The Harrods and House of Fraser blogs however, are more easily found on their websites, which defies the point of driving traffic to the website as it will only be found when already on there. However, this can help with customer retention.

• In addition to this the best practice social media tips are:

• Integrate social media into existing campaigns

• Be yourself to best reflect personality

• Be consistent in activity

• Address negativity

• Share positivity

• House of Fraser has the best social media presence across Facebook and Twitter, but our research suggests that consumers are demanding more! Consumer are seemingly getting bored the standard Twitter and Facebook activity and want more interesting activity on Pinterest for example. Harrods has an online presence but the brand name always speaks for itself so doesn’t have to have as much activity. Fenwick does not have a social media presence and needs to address this first and foremost in order to start a traffic building campaign.

All three website use banner/ interactive advertisements to build traffic to their website, but Harrods and Fenwick advertisements are harder to come by, whereas House of Frasers efforts penetrate the market better.

With regards to e-mail marketing the main issue among consumers is the general assumption that it is all spam and unwanted in their inboxes. The Store team signed up to all three department stores and waited for the e-mails to come in. Harrods and House of Fraser regularly send e-mails regarding price promotion, sales and so on trying to build traffic to the website.

Only House of Fraser has a form of online partnership but these are with charities as opposed to other similar organisations to help build their CSR. Although the department stores may have other sponsorship negotiations in the ‘real’ world, these are not present online but they’re not major issues that need addressing. This technique is simply an ‘extra’.

All in all House of Fraser performs the best with regards to traffic building techniques, although areas such as sponsorship and more targeted advertisements could be improved upon, they seem to have the best traffic building campaign in place to be successful.

With Harrods it’s tricky- they are a global known brand and therefore word-of-mouth is more of their traffic building technique. Their brand is a legacy and therefore don’t necessarily have to roll out expensive traffic building campaigns, although they have harnessed the power of the majority of the techniques.

Fenwick are behind- The Store team would even suggest that they’re too far behind for the 21st Century. They were the underperforming brand for the last magazine issue and are also in this traffic building issue! They need to take more control over their brand and enhance the opportunities that are now readily available to them. The Store magazine would suggest a starting point this brand would be a social media presence and build upon this.

…And the winner is… House of Fraser!

Chaffey, D. & Smith, PR. (2009) eMarketing eXcellence (3rd Ed) Butterworth-Heinemann: Oxford

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PR Moment (2013) Social Media Census [online] http://www.prmoment.com/685/social-media-census-2011.aspx [Accessed 10 March 2013]

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The Agency Buzz (2013) http://theagencybuzz.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/email-marketing-process.html [Accessed 09 March 2013]

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