I, like most of you, did my fair share of online shopping this holiday season. For me, professionally, these experiences are gold. I get to see a wide variety of online retail marketing plans in action. It also allows me to experience things from the customer’s perspective & see how my clients measure up. This season was pretty easy. I have one gripe though &, in my opinion, it could have been avoided if basic marketing tactics were utilized.
I have been buying my mom these hand-carved wooden Santas over the years (the past couple I actually haven’t because I forgot their name & couldn’t find them…more on that later) from Great American Collectibles. This is the kind of kitschy stuff you see at the mall in places like Things Remembered. Only Great American pays fine attention to detail & their variety of Santas is the best I’ve found. It’s the one gift I know I will nail each time. Buying is simple (as all online shopping should be) – browse through the collections by year, pick what you want, add it to your cart, & check out. I received my confirmation email & then nothing else for a couple weeks. After I contacted them via email, I received the following…
You most certainly cannot control spam filters. However, you can ask recipients (in the order confirmation email) to add your email address to their trusted sender list or Address Book. It’s also possible to monitor email blacklists & your email server &/or web site domain are not on them. Perhaps you should contact someone (like me) to help you with growing your business on the intertubes. You’re impossible to find in search (unless you search exactly for Great American Collectibles) & don’t seem to get the basics of online customer service.
There is nothing more frustrating than a failure to execute the fundamentals. This becomes even more important in the face of difficult financial times (R.I.P. Circuit City). You have to go out of your way to acquire new customers & retain existing. Now is not the time to blame things you think are out of your control.
Meme. Such a funny word (rhymes with seem). Do you know what it is? Wikipedia defines meme as a unit or element of cultural ideas, symbols or practices that transmit from one mind to another through speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomenon. The term is derived from the Greek word mimema for mimic. Memes are cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate and are subject to selective pressures.
Yesterday I was tagged by Indra Gardiner on a meme making its way through the interwebs that asks you to post seven things about yourself that others might not know. So, without further ado, here are mine.
I am either graciously patient or horrendously impatient. There is no in-between.
Back when Return of the Jedi was HUGE, EVERYONE wore something related to Star Wars for Halloween. Girls were mostly Princess Leia & boys were either Luke Skywalker or Han Solo. I was Admiral FREAKING Ackbar. Worst. Costume. Ever. I guess I’m just glad I wasn’t an Ewok. This image should be centered…stupid WordPress.
If I had to do the whole education & career path thing over again, I would have gotten into astrophysics. When I was a kid, I wanted to be an astronomer & aced physics in high school. Nowadays I spend a lot of time watching things like The Universe. If you want to know what happened, refer to number one; the thought of all that schooling kinda freaked me out back in the day.
Sometimes I wish I just did things rather than over-thinking things.
I want to learn to play the piano…like Elton John, or Alicia Keys, or Mike Oldfield…honestly, I’d take Axl Rose or Chris Martin’s skills at this point.
There are times when I look up to my two brothers (who are six & eight years younger than me).
I was probably the only kid who ever wanted braces. Yeah, I got them in my late twenties & provided a ton of entertainment for friends throughout the two years they were glued to my teeth.
Part of this meme is to tag seven other people; here is my list of people’s memes I’d like to read. I’m tagging however many I choose & you probably can, too. Who said seven was the key number here anyway?
Google’s new keyword research tool -- 2 things immediately come to mind; great competitive research for my clients’ paid search campaigns & good info to help maximize current campaigns
The first part of this post poses a scenario I’m sure is all too familiar with just about anyone who has gotten to the managerial level. When you are put in a position that lacks the necessary help to get your job done well, both from your team & above, you are going to have to get things done yourself. Firing & hiring isn’t always an option because of the time it takes to get a new employee the proper training. Addition by subtraction may be attractive short-term, but we’re going to take a long at the long-term.
I don’t know if this is a common thing to do, but it struck me as kind of obvious that a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, & Threats) analysis can help identify the proficiencies & deficiencies of your team. While a lot of it may be obvious, it will help with goal-setting & give you an understanding of what you need to avoid.
I remember learning about this stuff in college. And the only thing that ran through my mind was, “When the hell am I going to use this…ever?” Hmmm…how about now?
Strengths: what you & the team do well (what’s helpful internally)
What is already working well? What related strengths does that reveal?
What are your team’s core competencies?
What skills & abilities does your team possess that are relevant to your organizational role?
What resources do you have at your disposal?
What specialized knowledge or expertise do you have access to?
Who can you go to for support or help?
What proprietary tools can you use? Is there an opportunity to develop your own (depends on cost to organization)?
Weaknesses: what you & the team do not do well (what’s harmful internally)
I.e. employees who fail to hold themselves accountable & act in a professional manner. Team members not asking questions.
What is not working in this area right now? What related weaknesses does that reveal?
List the main liabilities related to your team.
What are the relevant skills & abilities that you would find helpful in this result area? Which ones are you the least proficient at?
List the specialized knowledge or expertise that you would find helpful in this result area. Any knowledge or expertise that you lack could be considered a weakness.
Are there any resources (budget, time, help) that you currently don’t have access to?
Opportunities: what’s helpful externally
I.e. on-time delivery of campaign assets. Clear direction.
What is the one thing you could do that would significantly improve your situation in this area?
What other important goals should you pursue?
How can you take advantage of your strengths?
What opportunities have you considered in the past but never pursued?
What opportunities would arise if you eliminate some of your weaknesses?
Threats: what’s harmful externally
I.e. late delivery of assets by client lead to crunched deadlines that increase the potential for mistakes.
Make a list of serious risks you are facing in this area if you continue along your current path.
What are the obstacles impeding your progress?
What environmental factors are affecting you negatively?
Think about how current changes to your environment or circumstances could affect you negatively.
From this, the following should become clear by the way of each quadrant.
SO Quadrant – Your low-hanging fruit; use your strengths to pursue new opportunities.
ST Quadrant – Use your strengths to eliminate threats.
WO Quadrant – Understand weaknesses & how they are roadblocks to opportunity. These are things to improve.
WT Quadrant – Identify weaknesses that will lead to threats. Use this to avoid or minimize risk.
Should the need arise, take some time to analyze and evaluate both your team’s & your own current situation and environment. The main purpose is to identify goals that will be most beneficial to your team’s success. It is a way of matching your team’s capabilities, resources and liabilities with the external and internal factors you are facing. By identifying weaknesses that may lead to future threats, you’ll be ahead of the game & will be able to lessen their impact or eliminate them altogether. When in doubt, tie everything to the business & how you plan to reach your clients’ goals; whatever they may be.
Given the increasingly competitive cost-per-click environment in paid search, it’s becoming imperative that online retailers seek new ways to improve their return on investment. Compared to this time last year, average CPCs are up 30%; I have some clients who are seeing 40% & up. Using a combination of automated bid management with qualitative data analysis is industry standard. If you’re not already using proprietary tools & some analysis done by an actual person, you’re behind the game. Get on that…stat.
Your next steps are to…
Use your online analytics to identify which states (or larger geographical area) generate the most sales.
Combine sales & costs data. Search engines can give you impression, cost, & click data by state. Mesh these results & voila, you have yourself some nice, segmented data with which you can make educated business decisions.
Make difficult decisions. If you are a nationwide &/or an international retailer, you may need to cease advertising in retail trade areas. This might not be wise since just about everyone uses search to find out, among other things, where your offline stores are. Not everyone clicks on the natural search engine results.
Now that holiday shopping is in full swing, those year-over-year CPC increases are going to rise even more. With the current state of the economy & many etailers cutting budgets in the face of decreased sales, your job as an online marketer is to help mitigate risk & add to the bottom line. Many retailers are going all out with aggressive promotional strategies; this cuts into margins. Smaller margins & increased customer acquisition costs do not go over well with senior management & investors.
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