The online world has given people the opportunity to buy anything and everything globally. There is no need to drive to a mall or a local boutique store. Whatever you need, you can find online. This is the online retail approach.

The Lucky 7 – A research that was done online and respondents have made their verdict. Listed below are the 7 reasons why people prefer to do online shopping these days as compared to traditional shopping. One or all of the reasons may apply to you!

1. Lowered Prices – Shoppers can buy anything they want at lowered rates. Most of the time, online stores offer the items at cheaper values, according to 75% of the research respondents, that’s a reason for their shopping online.
2. Availability – Store is open 24/7 – Online stores do not close by 10pm or open by 9am. It may very well be 2:00 o’clock in the morning and you can still buy anything you want, which is a great motivator for 63% of the research respondents.
3. Free Shipping – Online stores offer free delivery if the shopper reaches a certain amount. On all iCommerce Stores – this rule applies, and we sell almost all of our items with Free Shipping!
4. Lightning Quick Delivery – Next day delivery, according to 55% of the customers, seals the satisfaction deal.
5. Comfortable Shopping – No hassle and always at ease if you shop online according to 48% of the respondents.
6. Variety of Products – If in a traditional store, you have 5 colors to a particular shoe, an online store has 100 colors or designs. The variety of items offered is a great advantage, said by 46%.
7. Freedom of Choice – Out of stock items can still be ordered if you are willing to wait and this advantage of online store shopping is loved by 40% of the respondents.

In-Depth Analysis on the Lucky 7

Lowered Prices:

It is so thrilling for an online shopper to see the words CLEARANCE, SALE ITEMS, BOGO (buy one, get one) and similar offers. The thought of getting a deal with their hard-earned cash pushes them to make that ADD TO CART and PAY click. Who can resist a discount?

Normally, your $10 will buy you one brand new item. If it is on sale, you get to purchase 2 or maybe 3! Impulsive buyers will jump on that opportunity. Practical buyers will think about it for a few minutes and make the buying choice.

As long as you can guarantee to you clients that you offer the lowest prices at the best quality of the product, the value of their money purchased on your store is attained by them. That is your punch line. (81% of online buyers do not mind paying more for extra service, though)

Open 24/7 days a week:

There is no closing time with an online store. You do not have to wait for the 9am opening time too. With an online store, you can shop at any time. No need for you to dress up and go out.

The psychology here by an online shopper is – I can buy it now and it will be shipped to me.

If your online store has an easy ordering system (the less clicks, the better) and has save options for frequents shoppers (if stored details are in effect, less hassle for clients), they like this much better.

Free Shipping:

The thought of getting your shopped item at free shipping is the best. Buyers love free on anything. You can give them free elastic bands or memo pad and they will praise you! Free shipping is a very big client pleaser. This reason alone, according to 56% of the respondents, is a big factor.

Now, on shipping, free is a delight. With volume orders, even small online shops can shoulder the free shipping. You can also contact local courier companies to split shipping costs. Most companies do that.

You can also offer your clients one day delivery or even better, same day shipping. According to 26% (1000 respondents from the UK), added shipping price is amenable to them on special days like Christmas as long as the items arrive really quickly.

Lightning Quick Delivery:

Time is gold and gold is money which means time is money. You have to answer to your clients within hours. You have to deliver the item and ship it as quickly as possible. An email notification to your client saying that they item they have ordered 2 hours ago is already dispatched can have a very big and positive effect. Offer of return and refunds, wish lists, gift options – to name a few – shows that you value your clients 100%.

Comfort Shopping:

Your online shop must provide to your clients the most comfortable shopping experience. It must be a user-friendly site wherein clients can input their order desires in one click. Customer service representatives must be on standby if not, you have to be available in less than 24 hours after their initial communication. If they are frequent buyers, gifts and rewards will make them happier.

Variety of Products:

You cannot stock 100 items in a 6 x 6 foot stall. But if you have an online store, you can offer up to 1000 items and it will not be an excess rental space for you. The best part of it all is that your clients can enjoy many items and can buy anything and everything even by sitting inside their room, even if they are at the office or in a meeting. Shopping is for what they want is easy.

Freedom to Choose:

An order coming from clients on products currently out of stock is possible. You, as online store owner, can still serve your client who is willing to wait. For a client, this is good news.

Online stores emerged and there are no limits. A client from Asia can buy from an online store based in the U.S. Even the rarest of items can now be purchased online. For online shop owners, a decent website is advantageous so you can optimize your product lines and sell your brand. Make money!

Technology is keeping everyone on their toes in terms of business worldwide. It used to be so hard and so expensive to make a sell between two different places around the world. Big-time suppliers monopolize in their industry simply because they are the only dealers in their area.

But through internet tools and websites like Amazon and eBay, the normal Joe and Jane can buy whatever they want, from whatever country it is available to and at that exact time they desire for it. It is convenient and easy. But how is this made possible?

Sure, websites are there to aid the entrepreneurs but without web content, you – the businessman, will not be able to sell your goods to your intended global market. You need to tap your client base and let them know that your business exists! You have to let them know that you are around to provide them of what they need. And to help you with that, iCommerce is more than willing to help.

We are a team of skilled internet marketing specialists and our mission is to make you a successful internet entrepreneur. We use all types of technologically-advanced tools all of which is for your benefit. We employ strategic solutions which are proven effective to make your business a success.

To make sure that we are doing it correctly, we study your business and do the market research for you. We also find the best target market and we will direct you on how you can claim all your potential clients. We do all the logistics and integration, and with that, sales are pouring in for you. And because we want constant income streaming in, ongoing optimization seals the deal.

Please let us take care of you and your business. We will do everything we can up to the fullest extent of our internet marketing skills and capabilities. This is a promise with a declared delivery.

אייקומרס הנה החברה היחידה בישראל שמספקת פתרון מקיף לחברות, יצרנים ויבואנים המעוניינים ביציאה למהלך פריסה ומכירה בינלאומי, תוך מתן מענה לכל האלמנטים הנלווים.
אייקומרס מספקת את הפתרון המקיף באמצעות ארסנל הכלים שבאמתחתה, בזכות ניסיונה הרב ומומחיותה בשוק המקוון והלוגיסטיקה הייחודית לו.

לחברת אייקומרס מאגר לקוחות מרוצים, שבעבר כשלו במכירה בינלאומית באמצעים שונים, אך הודות לידע ולמומחיות של חברת אייקומרס הצליחו לפרוץ, וכיום נהנים מהיקפי סחר גבוהים בשווקים הבינלאומיים שהיו עד כה חסומים בפניהם.

אייקומרס היא חברת שיווק המתמחה בייעוץ אסטרטגי ויישום אסטרטגיות מסחר בינלאומיות עבור יצרנים ויבואנים ישראלים המעוניינים למכור בהיקפים גדולים בזירה הבינלאומית.

אתגרים בפריצה לשוק הבינלאומי

כאשר חברה ישראלית מעוניינת לפרוץ לשוק הגלובלי, היא ניצבת בפני שאלות רבות:

?מהם סיכויי ההצלחה של החברה בשוק הבינלאומי

?היכן נמצאים הרוכשים הפוטנציאליים

?מהם הרגלי הקנייה והצריכה שלהם

?איזה פרסום מדבר אליהם

?מיהם המתחרים

…ועוד

אייקומרס יודעת לספק את התשובות לכל השאלות הללו, לגבש אסטרטגיות שיווק בינלאומיות בהתאם למחקרים מקיפים וכוללים בנוגע למוצרים, השווקים והצרכים הייחודיים לתחומם – וליישם אסטרטגיות אלו.
הניסיון של חברת אייקומרס מלמד, כי יתרון התחלתי במכירה באינטרנט הופך ליתרון מנצח על המתחרים בשווקי המסחר הלא-מקוונים (offline).

במידה וחזון החברה ושאיפותיה כוללים פתיחת חנויות פיזיות בזירות הבינלאומיות השונות, יצירת מאגר לקוחות (כמו גם שימור לקוחות מרוצים מהמרחב המקוון), הרי שהדבר מהווה נקודת פתיחה מצוינת וליצור קהל לקוחות אוהד בחנויות אלו.

אייקומרס מתמחה ביצירת קהל לקוחות באינטרנט, תוך מכירה בזירות מקוונות רב-ערוציות, שימורו והפיכתו ללקוחות בחנויותיך במידה ולחברה יש כוונה להתרחב מחוץ לגבולות ישראל.

איי קומרס תומכת בלוגיסטיקה הנדרשת לשם פעילות אינטרנט בינלאומית

לאיי קומרס תפיסה כוללת לתנאים הנדרשים להצלחה: הידע שלצד התהליך השיווקי נדרשות התאמות לוגיסטיות על-מנת לייצר עסק בריא ומוצלח: היכן למקם את הסחורה; כיצד לשנע אותה ללקוחות הקצה; אמצעי סליקת כספים יעילים ואף מתן שירות לקוחות בסטנדרטים המקומיים.

iCommerce מלווה את החברה בכל תתי-התהליכים הנדרשים עד להגעה למכירה בשווקים בינלאומיים בהיקפים גדולים, תוך ניהול סיכונים אופטימאלי, לרבות:

• בדיקת היתכנות

• גיבוש אסטרטגיות שיווק בינלאומיות

• בדיקת תחרותיות בכל שוק על זירותיו השונות (אתר סחר, זירות מסחר צד ג’ כדוגמת איביי (eBay) ואמאזון (Amazon), שיווק במנועי חיפוש, שיווק חברתי ועוד)

• ליווי במהלך השינויים הלוגיסטיים הנדרשים למימוש המהלך (אמצעי סליקה, ניהול מלאי, מחסנים ומשלוחים בזירות היעד ועוד)

• מימוש אסטרטגיות השיווק תוך מזעור ההשקעה הנדרשת

• מיקסום הרווחים וניהול אופטימיזציה שוטפת של אמצעי השיווק ועבודה מבוססת הישגים (Performance Based)

• מכירת המוצרים ללקוחות הקצה.

צור קשר עכשיו – ההשקעה קטנה, הפוטנציאל אדיר!

We often hear the terms B2B and B2C.  It is about time that we get to know them better and understand how these two things really work and how different or the same they are.  B2B stands for Business to Business while B2C means Business to Consumer.  It is similarly saying that when you perform marketing, it is also like doing marketing to a different class or group but what people do not know really is that marketing to a specific group of people is different when you do marketing to another group.  When you market to consumers, this is different from marketing to businesses.

When you create your marketing activities, you have to take note that people buying products are different from people buying for their company.  When you are into B2B or Business to Business, you have a dependency on relationship building with marketing efforts on hand.  If you are going to use strategies such as those that have their focus on consumers, it will only be more expensive and there wouldn’t be any ROI.  The worst thing that could happen is losing your money and customers.

The Meaning of B2B and B2C Marketing

Internet commerce businesses have evolved to a great degree and due to the changes in internet marketing, B2B and B2C came about.  When you say B2B or B2C, they are actually businesses that are geared towards selling to either the customer which falls under B2C and another scenario goes to business which is categorized under B2B.  These terms are used whether they are done offline or online.  Take note that when it comes to the marketing programs of either B2B or B2C, they are basically the same and this also goes to the way these are executed and whatever outcome will be for the marketing activities.

When you develop a marketing strategy for B2B, you may also do it in a similar fashion with B2C and this means that you need to identify who your customer is before anything else and why your message has to be heard across.  When this is done, you will notice that any marketing activities going on will diverge.  Part of your marketing plan should include the differences that have been noted and you also need to make sure that the correct types of activities are in place for a specific market type.

B2C or Business to Consumer

The objective of B2C is simple.  It is to change shoppers and make them more aggressive when it comes to buying products and be consistent at it.  Companies that are classified as B2C have more activities related to merchandising and these activities include displays, coupons and store fronts availability and this is geared towards encouraging consumers to buy products.  Marketing strategies are more geared towards shorter transactions while ensuring that the attention of the customer has been caught.  Part of the campaigns that happen in B2C transactions include special deals, vouchers and even discounts that could be used whether online or offline.

One good example of a B2C campaign is by making people buy the products through an email campaign.  While the consumer is reading the email, he or she will be redirected to a landing page of a website with the main purpose of selling the product.  Buying the product will also be easy with the shopping cart and the check-out page.  If it is going to take more clicks before the buyer can finally buy the product then the probability of driving him or her away is huge.

B2C Marketing companies have also realized that loyalty is an important aspect in this business.  When you combine merchandising and education such as the ones from Best Buy, Amazon and Staples, will make your customers keep coming back for more.  If you add more to this like great customer service then you get great marketing strategies plus winning services.

B2B or Business to Business

B2B Marketing is a longer process than B2C although the objective is still to convert possible clients to customers.  In this type of business strategy, the primary focus of a company should be in building relationships.  This can be done through marketing activities that will create leads and capitalize on these.  Companies here employ marketing and educating them at the same time.  This is done in an effort to capture different customers because when you make a purchase this includes different steps and would usually involve different people.  A good example is B2B campaign involving email wherein prospective clients are driven to the web so they could learn more about the different products and services.  A business email should include contact information so if the prospective client wants to communicate with the merchant, it would be easy.  The landing page of the site should also include features, benefits and pricing if possible.  This is just the initial step in a merchant’s marketing strategy because more processes could involve such as direct mailing, webcasts, telemarketing as well as newsletters.  Follow-ups may also be done from sales representatives that will talk about business requirements in greater detail.

B2B marketing values content because it is the primary thing that will make it work and with the availability of resources such as newsletters, media hype of the products and services will help with the education of more prospects.

B2C Buyer and B2B Buyer

The business buyer knows what he or she wants.  He or she understands what your products are and what they can do and will continue to help make your product profitable and successful.  Marketing copy is important because it will help communicate with your target audience.  Your reader has high interest and understanding of your products and when you write a marketing copy that is more complex and will require you to do a lot of research, it will ensure that the message would be delivered to the buyer.

The B2C buyer goes for the best price available.  He or she will do some research about the competition before doing the final shopping.  Another thing that needs to be considered is if the buyer trusts the retail outlet whether online or offline.  Despite having various online stores selling a particular brand or product, buyers would usually go to a store that they trust.  In this case, the goal of B2C marketing is to establish that trust so customers will buy and at the same time, loyalty can be nurtured.

The quality of customer service is what most buyers also look for.  With B2B, customer service happens even before making the sale and the buyer will already see this at first contact with the merchant or company.  This is regardless if the company will call the buyer or vice versa.  With B2C on the other hand, customer service in this case creates loyalty with the expectation that even if the product costs higher than usual, they know for a fact that they could return the product and could trust the source of the item.  Therefore, customer service is important and even if this is not even considered part of marketing, having some bad customer service can lead all your marketing efforts to something useless.

We Study Your Business

The first thing we do is to study the potential client’s business – if they have an advantage at any territory and at that territory what’s their sales potential;

If the potential is above let’s say 100,000$ per month – according to the models they hold, the prices they were bought/manufactured at, and market demand for these models. After reviewing all markets, we’ll submit a work-plan that includes sales forecast for up to 24 months ahead. For example:

a sunglasses wholesaler turned to us, we have studied his purchasing abilities for branded sunglasses and his manufacturing abilities for his house brand glasses;

Perform Complete Market Research While Taking Care Of Logistics & Integration

We found the seller to be competitive at some of his branded glasses, which will enable us to draw traffic to his house brand glasses – (higher margins), then we decided that the for the first three months we’ll prepare the infrastructure – integrate to the ERP systems (to avoid selling stuff we don’t have in stock), design (but not yet implement) the website and begin selling at these markets: eBay US, UK and AU, next to Amazon US, UK. as part of our infrastructure process, we have opened users for the seller, helped him open bank accounts (to lower his foreign transactions rates), means of clearing money on every market (PayPal, etc.) and we have crafted a brand for his online stores. While doing that, we made sure his logistics are up for it – the warehouses, the boxes and the agreements with the different shipping carriers. We made sure they were sending a postcard directing client to their website with a coupon, from day one, to keep the traffic going from the marketplaces to their own website, which was still under construction.

Find The Best Markets For You

By the end of the third month we were already selling at a volume of over 100,000$ a month, in the US marketplaces only,  going over to our next step – opening our eBay DE and FR stores, Amazon EU accounts, while constructing the website;

Execute & Generate Sales

At that point, we decided together with the client to spend 10% of the marketplaces income to market the website – that way we had no risk of losing money for our client, something that concerns many people when they go online.

We have also created several cooperation’s for that client with other really big eyewear websites that did not sell sunglasses – we have integrated with their systems so they could offer our products next to theirs, mostly sunglasses.

Perform Ongoing Optimization

From that point on, we have opened his website, increased sales on marketplaces while performing ongoing optimization, and had many types of successful marketing campaigns for his website. We have him sending his bestsellers to warehouses near his targeted regions, enabling him to lower his costs and increase his margins. He is indeed a well performing seller, who went from B2B to B2C and found out it wasn’t as nerve-wrecking as he thought it would be.

This shows one case, where performing a test to determine feasibility , and determining target countries for different models, gave back excellent results. It’s not always like that. Doing a solid market research is important not only to our potential client – it’s very important to us as well. We see ourselves as a partner to that journey, and while being rewarded for results, that initial research is very conservative – and is performed on our expense. That research does not always give us a green light, sadly, sometime we have to advice our potential partner not to go into the deep water because retailing on the internet these days is very competitive and is not meant for everybody.

If you consider yourself a potential partner, contact us today – we’ll discuss your vision, learn who you really are, and provide a detailed market research for free. Let’s conquer the worldwide internet market together – iCommerce, your hardworking partner.

This acrticle is about the relationship that has been laid down for the past few years about social networks and search engines.

More often than not, a social network is a software platform too. Some examples of this type are YouTube for videos and Flickr for images. However, the focus of this discussion will be about Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

Do social networking sites affect the level of SEO? A research that I did shows that the answer is “yes”. Since social networking sites affect the level of SEO, the next appropriate question should be on the “how”. Meaning, how do social networks affect websites at the level of SEO? Knowing the different terminologies will help us understand how things work.

 SEO

Google is one good example wherein if we promote a website promoting organic, this becomes a possibility. What you need is here is time. You also need resources and of course, you need to have a lot of patience. Promotion involves several factors: Some of these factors should be considered early on before establishing a website. This includes domain age, the construction site being “Google-friendly” without requiring any flash technology to be utilized. Header tags, Meta tags, HTML Title tags are equally important as well. The work does not end here. You also have to do Keyword Research via the Google Keyword Tool. Aside from that, it will also help if you use Long’s strategy through travelers, constant tinkering through the pages that have been indexed as well incoming links, tracking of performance and even traffic using Google Analytics.

PPC

Of all the things that you are doing, the most important thing is that there should be PPC (Pay Per Click). Pay for keywords such as the more popular keywords. Building campaigns is also important.

SERP (Search Engine Results Page) or other more friendly words catches the interest of people. The objective here is not only to get the first search results page but to promote the site as well.

Social Media Optimization

Throughout these years, a “younger brother” of SEO has emerged under the name of SMO or Social Media Optimization. This serves as a channel for something fast yet friendly and effective in terms of promoting a particular site. Google’s formidable algorithm is not exposed here but giant search engines have noticed that social networks are also growing in relation to engine optimization. The blurring lines between SEO and SMO are bigger and important. To know more about what SMO is all about and its importance, you can further learn more about this through http://contently.com/ with Shane Snow as the founder:

“Old school SEO pros cover your ears, or be prepared to adapt your craft: Search engines are changing, and social media is a huge part of that change.”[1]

According to Shane, the search engines are also changing and social media takes a big part in that change.

Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Landblog with representatives from Google and Bing in December served as the reference when it comes to the outcome of Facebook and Twitter in search engines. These giants referred to the user’s social identity and by checking who follows and those who have few followers. The data gathered were refined through search results. [2]

Together with social networking was browsing revolution. Even this activity did not escape the eyes of the search giants. This is proven by Google wherein the contents that are shared while you are logged in a social networking site are important to be visible enough when it comes to search results.

The Google Social Search Tool was launched last October 2009. In January 2010, the results searched were started to be placed in search engines. [3] The contents of these search results were distributed to social networks as it merged with the traditional SEO. The positive outcome is that it is not pushed to the bottom of the list unlike before. In addition to this, Google developed an index wherein it is real time and the result shows that social networks generated content right after getting the search results. [4]

Since we are in search of companies or businesses via search engines, it is best that you have link to these businesses including social networks.

The personal data that you get in a Facebook wall page is utilized to find out the identity of the person when he or she posts a link or set of links. On the other hand, user profile places no effect in the shared links. The user identity in Twitter is taken into consideration when he or she “tweets”.

Google’s real time is able to see comments and even links that have been shared to social networks.

The Case Study of Rand Fishkin

Studies have shown that when you share content in Facebook, Google+ and Twitter affects greatly the search results. To site an example, the value of Rand Fishkin from the site SEOmoz.org in July of 2011 underwent multiple examinations to check if social networks do affect search results in Google. The study also includes how quickly this affects the search engines. [5]

The experiment made was 2 days prior to Google Real Time Search stopped working on a temporary basis. [6] In this experiment, one URL was created by Fishkin as requested by Buzzasked.

Several hours after the URL was created, it “twitted” more than 300 times. At the same time, the traffic jumped too. In Facebook, it also received a substantial amount of “likes”. There have been also some shares in LinkedIn. It even ranked on the second page of Google and at the end of that day, it already ranked number one.

Logged-in as against Logged-out

A distinction has also been made if we are connected by logging in at a Google account during a search. According to Fishkin, if you are looking for a specific value while you are connected to your Google account, it shows that the results are different if you are logged out.

Geographic Location

The search results also show that there is a dependency on the location.[7] For instance, those IP addresses reflecting a specific state such as Boston and they will do a search for “baseball”, the search that you did will show “Red Sox” and if the address will detect that you are in the “Bronx”, it shall give you “Yankees” or “Yankees Stadium”. Since the search engines know the importance of social environment, thus the connection to SMO.

Google also knows that SEO is important and this can be seen in Google Analytics. [8] The use of this tool will reflect the breakdown of sites. It does not have any segmentation in between social networks.

Benefits of SMO

1. Interaction

SMO plays a big part in our industry. It serves as a personal marketing assistant and at the same time, it works like an emotional marketing partner. Usually, companies look for the big volumes of a publication, page views, unique visitors and a whole lot more. The numbers do not go by the hundreds but they come in thousands. With SMO, personal interaction is possible. For instance, the number of members, the number of hits or even the number of users that basically follow you. The numbers are not that big but in terms of quality, you could expect to get one.

A study made by Alterian in January this year shows that a survey was done to almost 1,500 advertisers. The list also includes PR agencies and marketing questions online trading. One of the questions asked in the survey was how advertisers would check on customers preferred customer service experience.

The study shows that social networking took the biggest part which is 53%. On the other hand, 75% of respondents expect that their investment in SMOs will increase. 70% of the respondents meanwhile have some difficulty in terms of understanding how SMO works and its effect on conversion ratio.

2. Relevant Traffic

One thing is for sure: Social networks play a big responsibility in bringing in traffic to a site. For instance, if I want to bring in traffic to a blog that I have, I can utilize a trailer or teaser. My profile in my social network site could contain only the first paragraph. If the person wants to read more, he or she could click on the link provided. Facebook passed Google and it is because of Facebook wherein traffic to portals like Yahoo and MSN increased. [9] What is important here is not just any movement but it should be relevant movement. It should come to a point that it will skyrocket the percentage in terms of conversion rate, between visitors and buyers.

3. Trust

Trust is such a huge word. People do have a tendency to distrust more. Anyone could become very suspicious from the formal advertising messages he or she gets to read or receive. SMO is based partly on personal relationships as well as emotional marketing and bringing in of relevant traffic. SEO campaigns are media pushers (the advertiser is chosen when the user sees the ad) while SMO is a media pull (use of exposure from the surfer).

4. Global and International Marketing

When there are SEO campaigns and PPC, these are usually local in nature. For instance, finding out the CPC or cost per click of a specific word through the Google keyword Tool, there is an option if what you want is to address the global market through Global Monthly Searches or the domestic market via the Local Monthly Searches. The market to be chosen should be considered in great detail and at the same time, you also need to check on relevant keywords. This method is similar to Google Trends and Google Market Finder.

Social networking sites create and upload contents without any issue to this. It is even able to create content on a global scale because it supports more than 70 languages worldwide.

In addition to this, social networking is responsible for the creation of natural contents therefore its contribution is basically organic in nature.

Facebook

Based on statistics done, Facebook has more than 800 million active users. [10] This figure, however, is quite questionable because of profiles and profiles Fiktiibim advertising. This social networking site contains 30 billion bits of information such as Statuses, links, pictures, videos and more. URL also plays a big factor here for the content.

Google has the capability to index comments, statuses and links and these are all related to business. It does not refer to its ranking algorithm. Bing search engine, however, looks at a certain value. Results are generated through friends in Facebook that “like”, how “like” is valued and the shadow of share. [11] Broadcasting happens when a friend and search engines share content. Just like Google, Facebook has advertising links which you can post and implement a pay per click scenario.

Facebook also allows you to set or segment your users that can view an ad. You can also get an estimate with regard to the amount of exposure it gets within a certain amount of time. It is also possible to directly link the ad to your fans or to a fan page or through any links outside and determine if you will pay by impressions or by clicks. It is 100% sure that you are going to be impressed on the statistics that Facebook has on these matters.

Twitter

Tweet Your Way to SEO

Twitter averaged at 140 million visitors per day in March 2011. [12] 25% of those that tweeted had URLs. This means that around 35 million of these tweets contained URLs. Google receives all feeds or social signals from Twitter and this has an impact on organic search results in Google. Google’s representative admitted that the company uses it as a signal. This prompted the company to mention such when the question was asked on the effect of massive tweets Twitter gets every day.

Twitter is a great tool for marketing sites and even for increasing traffic to a specific site published. It allows the user to enter a link in the message and link the URL directly to the website. This result to more hits and search engines are alerted on these activities.

The Twitter search engine Bing is helpful because it allows you to look for real-time tweets from a search engine too. [13] You also get to reach important audiences from this tool alone.

Twylah

Twylah is a program that helps leverage tweets. [14] Using this program allows you to create a tool wherein it produces a Twitter brand page by cataloging them through categories but still depending on the nature of the tweets.

Those tweets presents a visual graphic presentation wherein if there is a photo, video that has a related site link to it, it basically leads to the page where you need to land. Twylah serves as a promoter of the advertiser because it contains links bringing people back to his house. A “linkback” is like having a lake in Facebook or Google+.

Going Back to Rand Fishkin

I made mention a few minutes ago about Mr. Fishkin checking in on the power of Twitter. [15] It contained a link to his squeak “The Beginner’s Guide”. It wasn’t long and doing a Google search on this show that he is on number four.

Barack Obama, during his campaign, used Twitter a lot based on the graph and pictures from Google Analytics. [16] A picture indeed shows a thousand words. Whether it is from Google Israel or under a local IP address, it will basically show the same thing.

Google+

The search giant Google has also joined the world of SMO. The results that basically crossed Google also includes in the social networks when you do a regular search and its results. Google’s very own social network also appears in search engines.

When you are logged in to your Google account, the search results from friends also show the same thing. [17]

Conclusion

To get search engine success, you need to have contents + links and for you to appear in the new Google search, you need to do that important search + social network. SMO has a world of its own. It should be at hand on the pulse while keeping up with developments and the tools that it offers such as Twitter Analyzer, Open Graph Protocol and a lot more.

Social Media Yotpo is a start-up company whose objective is to collect and filter opinions via reviews with customers’ various fields. It ranks containing various opinions which are measured as better in quality and less in quality.

Build a community and contribute content. Social Media campaign is a complimentary tool for SEO.

[1] http://mashable.com/2011/09/09/seo-social-media.

[2] http://www.quicksprout.com/2011/08/24/how-social-media-affects-seo.

[3] http://searchengineland.com/google-social-search-launches-gives-results-from-your-trusted-social-circle-28507.

[4] http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_developing_real_time_index.php.

[5] http://www.seomoz.org/blog/do-tweets-still-effect-rankings.

[6]“Google Realtime Search Goes Missing”, http://searchengineland.com/google-realtime-search-goes-missing-84130.

[7] http://www.brickmarketing.com/blog/social-media-affects-seo.htm.

[8] http://www.seomoz.org/blog/segmenting-social-traffic-in-google-analytics.

[9] http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-02-15/business/17876925_1_palo-alto-s-facebook-search-engine-gigya.

[10]https://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics.

[11] http://www.brickmarketing.com/blog/social-media-affects-seo.htm.

[12] http://blog.twitter.com/2011/03/numbers.html.

[13] http://searchengineland.com/live-today-bings-twitter-search-engine-28224.

[14] http://windmillnetworking.com/2011/09/09/twitter-seo-think-twylah.

[15] http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tweets-effect-rankings-unexpected-case-study.

[16] http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/social_media_obama_mccain_comparison.php.

[17] http://www.brickmarketing.com/blog/social-media-affects-seo.htm; http://www.volume9inc.com/2011/06/03/google-plus-one-for-publishers-and-seo.

A panel of experts were asked by eCommerceBytes regarding online selling trends.  Today’s installment gives us the challenges that sellers could encounter when it comes to possible opportunities.  Selected participants were chosen for this activity on the basis of these people being in the frontlines and for the experience that they have working hand in hand with small online retailers.

Selected Participants:

Jamie Hill, CEO, adMarketplace (Pay-Per-Click)

Bill Harding, Founder, Bonanza (Online Marketplace)

Ben Milne, Founder, Dwolla (Online Payment Service)

Danielle Savin, Vice President, FitforCommerce (Retail Consultant)

Rob Caskey, Vice President of Marketing, Liquidation.com (Online Marketplace)

Brian J. Lawe, Founder, MyStoreCredit (Marketing Service)

Steven Aldrich, CEO, Outright (Bookkeeping service for online sellers and entrepreneurs)

Chris Taylor, Founder, PageMage (eBay Marketing Service)

Palmer J. Pekarek, Director of Communications and New Business Development, RubyLane (Online Marketplace specializing in antiques and collectibles)

What Are the Biggest Opportunities Ahead?

Jamie Hill, CEO, adMarketplace

According to Jamie Hill, to avail of the biggest opportunities ahead, you need to scale your business and widen your marketshare.  Your hardwork will show positive results if you have added your efficiency during the time when there was a recession.

Bill Harding, Founder, Bonanza

Bill responded by informing us that the usual answers to the question on big opportunities lies in “mobile” and “local”.  On the other hand, he thinks that it could be more of a means to an end and this will be very meaningful to sellers that could even change their lives.  The biggest opportunity in 2012 for Bill goes to a lot of better choices on where sellers could market their products.  Online stores are definitely growing such as eBay, Amazon, Bonanza and Etsy.  It is easier now to pick a marketplace than it has before.

Ben Milne, Founder, Dwolla

Ben mentions that the best merchants are run or managed by extremely good people.  These have the greatest ideas in terms of serving the customers the best possible way they can.  The shoppers of today are more vocal, connected to the world and people and are well informed.  Consumers are more human than they have been several years ago.  Ben further tells us that Sally, Jane and Jim Bob are purchasing Lethal Weapon 4, a pallet of cardboard, as well as the new Hannah Montana album.  These people expect to be treated like this and not through customers 23963, 89764 and 15674.  They also expect that their orders will be treated with the item identified and not as 3453H, 3782NJ and 5621PL.  When you develop an online storefront, you have a big opportunity in making this big.

Danielle Savin, Vice President, FitforCommerce

Danielle mentions that multichannel retailers are thrown into big opportunities by being able to know how and when customers would like to shop and having the ability to use their marketing group to spend on programs in order to come up with better segmentation.  A very big opportunity comes in the form of integrated marketing.  Mobile and social are in the mix for a central repository with bigger segmentation in relation to demographics, purchase behavior and psychographics.

Brian J. Lawe, Founder, MyStoreCredit

According to Brian J. Lawe, marketing whether online or offline will continuously have changes.  Using newspapers, radio, direct mail, yellow page advertising have long been dead.  SEO and SEM meanwhile are becoming complicated and expensive and this brings the reseller back and out.  New as well as existing customers go for new and more innovative models in relation to marketing.  If someone is creative enough to make new approaches, he or she will survive in this world.  Those that are considered cutting edge have Twitter, Facebook, daily deals and email marketing.  The creativity usually comes out when sellers start using these tools to their advantage.

Steven Aldrich, CEO, Outright

Steven used JFK’s statement, “A rising tide lifts all boats.”  Online shopping has never been better, according to Mr. Aldrich because of the numerous possibilities when you make your purchase online.  He further quips that ecommerce will be in the top 5% when it comes to retail sales for this year, 2012.  The 5% increase is translated as an increase of up to $20 billion as against in 2011.  It was also last year wherein total retail sales increased only of up to 7%.  This opportunity should be taken seriously and you should be visible on mobile searches so people could easily look for you.  Your products should be highly visible by making sure that these are in marketplaces.  Don’t forget to track customers that bought your products and by thanking them at the same time.  It is also important that you have your own website so if the time comes they will make purchases directly, then they can just buy directly from you.

Chris Taylor, Founder, PageMage

According to Chris, he had a workshop wherein the eBay seller group met with him in the SF Bay Area.  Chris and his group met and saw the following possible opportunities: Creating social presence such as Facebook, Twitter and Blog.  Widening of the marketplaces and product areas.  Another opportunity goes to making sure that the marketing efforts are changed for the better.  The opportunity should include  branding and awareness as well.

Palmer J. Pekarek, Director of Communications and New Business Development, Ruby Lane

Palmer says that there are a lot of venues wherein you can do your selling.  A third party win-win relationship will assist sellers in placing whatever merchandise they may have with new markets that are right in front of them.

Mobile app development is another item that people are anticipating more and more.  This will simply help them buy and shop anywhere they want.  The use of tablets have been a phenomenon to a lot of people because buyers are able to do this even if they are far from the establishment.

There were a group of participants chosen by EcommerceBytes.  The mode of selection was based on the fact that these people are working hand in hand with retailers and these are not just retailers but small online resellers.  Their companies are involved in different services such as marketing, payment services, advertising, bookkeeping and product sourcing.  There were also participants that are from online marketplaces as well as a retail consultant.

The areas of expertise of these people show why they were specifically chosen and you can also see the variation in terms of nature of business.

CEO of admarketplace Jamie Hill was invited and nature of business is into pay-per-click ad platform.  Bill Harding of Bonanza was also invited and the nature of business goes to online marketplace.  Ben Milne, the founder of Dwolla, an online payment service was there too.  Others included in the list were Vice President Danielle Savin of FitForCommerce as Retail Consultant, Vice-President of Marketing Rob Caskey from Liquidation.com, an online marketplace, founder Brian J. Lawe of MyStoreCredit, a Marketing Service, CEO Steven Aldrich of Outright, a Bookkeeping service for online sellers and entrepreneurs, founder Chris Taylor of PageMage, an eBay marketing service and Director of Communications and New Business Development Palmer J. Pekarek of Ruby Lane, an Online marketplace specializing in antiques and collectibles.

Part One of this series goes to the challenges that online sellers experience in 2012.  Aside from that, ecommerce is looked into as well if it is more difficult now for small sellers in comparison to how it was 5 years ago.  Here are the views from the participants.

Jamie Hill, CEO, adMarketplace

Jamie Hill says that it is cost-effective when attracting new customers.  Now that the economy is moving up, customers should be moving up their expenses as well.  Furthermore, he adds that one of the challenges that a reseller may face now is being able to get those customers that are entering the market, far from the competition and now standing right in front of you.

Bill Harding, Founder, Bonanza

According to Bill Harding, he said that the challenges that retailers experience have some dependencies on the marketplace that he is targeting.  Furthermore, he states that those on eBay that are able to make decent margins despite having FVFs around 10% of the time is still a challenge this 2012.  Google is experiencing hit-and-miss scenarios with eBay items when doing a Google search of the products and this poses a concern from regular retailers including eBay’s working relationship with bigger brands and stores.  This could lead them to veer away from small auction resellers that helped them with their business before.

The Amazon sellers, on the other hand, get 15% FVFs and having the opportunity to establish their brands.  With Amazon, people basically think that they are just buying from Amazon instead of knowing that they are actually buying from a specific seller.  This may or may not give a positive result with a specific customer through buying of other products.

The small marketplaces as well as sellers that makes good in their website might experience some exposure and this could pose as a challenging event.  There are marketplaces especially those that launched last year have some expectations that collect buyers from their social networking sites.  The thing is, when you are already with the marketplace, it is the seller’s responsibility to make sure that he or she does some legwork and to sell as much as he or she can.  The last thing that you want to happen is spamming all your half a thousand friends whenever you post an item via email or via social networking.

Ben Milne, Founder, Dwolla

Ben Milne says that he is not a seller or at least he is not anymore.  He no longer does this kind of business for quite some time.  He further adds that he is obsessed in making new payment options for people and this will even help sellers save their money or be able to get funds in a shorter time plus the chance to avoid incurring any liability when getting credit cards.

He also adds that it is interesting enough to find out what will continue further in terms of the increasing numbers of sellers earning top money.  Different models like hyper product specialization such as www.bellybling.net  and flash deals become a regular thing as was seen last year.  Consumers started expecting when it comes to matters related to rates and instant gratification.  Because of this, it hurt a lot of retailers that have limited resources and could hardly afford to have Joe Bluejeans’ request to slash the price in half of a pair of Levis from $150 to $75.  It is interesting to take note of the Retailers’ reaction to this.

Danielle Savin, Vice President, FitForCommerce

According to Danielle Savin, mobile ready sites are now important and if the retailer does not have one, he or she will be left behind.  There is a big number in terms of people making purchases via their smartphones and tablets.  Out of all the online traffic, 15% of these came from mobile devices such as those mentioned.  This figure is more than double as compared to last year’s data.  In 2011, we saw a change in mobile commerce wherein sales and marketing campaigns have been generated from tablet users.

Eventually, people started looking for exclusivity in terms of advertising and Google was able to do something about this by developing tablet-specific marketing for the consumers.

Retailers have taken note that privacy is an issue when it comes to social networking sites such as Facebook.  Credit cards being hacked have also risen as well as email and SMS scams.

Rob Caskey, Vice President of Marketing, Liquidation.com

According to Rob Caskey, sellers have an issue when it comes to the continuity of goods being delivered.  The problem comes in when online sellers are unable to provide products to customers thus damaging their businesses which eventually cause customer dissatisfaction.

The function of liquidation.com is to make sure that online sellers have continuous flow of stocks since this company is in charge of coordinating directly with the largest retailers.  Returned products become available at auctions too.  Liquidation.com ultimately provides the products to online merchants.

Brian J. Lawe, Founder, MyStoreCredit

When the competition becomes big, more of these become dependent on product search engines to help them.  According to Occupy Wall Street, 99.99% of sellers as against 0.01% of search engines.  Factors affecting this includes reputation, price, structure and even content that is new.

Steven Aldrich, CEO, Outright

The challenges facing these online sellers have changed.  The first challenge includes information from 1099K forms in 2011 taxes.  How to deal with possible changes when it comes to sales tax compliance.  Last but not the least, finding ways on how you can balance between work and life as the demands of people increase along the way.

1099K forms from thousands of Ecommerce businesses will be receiving this with information about their 2011 gross online sales for that year.  This could create confusion on how they will it include in their taxes.  2011 taxes will be filed this 2012 and those businesses such as eBay, Etsy and Amazon will be required to report to the federal government about this.  The requirement of IRS is that payments should be made using credit cards.  Another way on how to deal with this is by reporting the payment card that processed more than $20,000 and more than 200 transactions until January 31 while February 28 is the date for the IRS.

This could be a small problem for small businesses because they need to find out on how they will be able to reconcile the gross sales amounts they will receive.  A solution is being sought at so that amounts will reconcile and at the same time, the merchant will be confident when it is time to report net sales data of their taxes.

This is also the year for online sellers wherein sales tax rules will become simple.  It is also possible that this year will also become complicated for them.  There is a debate in Capitol Hill about Marketplace Fairness Act and two groups are involved here but on opposite sides such as eBay and Amazon.  The cross-state sales tax rates should be simplified with a minimum revenue threshold of $500,000 when applying for new sales tax rates.  This means that small businesses could become exempted.  Small businesses will have to handle another regulatory burden if this is not going to happen at all.

Consumers also have high expectations from online sellers.  This in return further increases the burden on the owners of the business.  There are retail stores that operate traditionally by publishing their hours of operation.  With this, the business owners could set a schedule with customers.  Consumers further expect that ecommerce stores should be open 24×7 and this should be 365 days a year.  The expectation of the service should still be the same when it comes to small merchants as compared to the big ones.  Finding the right schedule is what online sellers need in order to identify the schedule that will work for them.  Once this happens, they will be able to support more customers and manage their businesses well while being able to spend time with family and friends.

Chris Taylor, Founder, PageMage

There are several key areas.  These key areas are the following:

Business

To increase your profit, you need to manage your expenses such as shipping costs, fees, inventory costs as well as other possible expenses in order to increase your chances of getting a profit.  It is also important that tax laws should be understood.  There is also a need to manage the aspect of selling, average selling price, conversion rate and sales velocity.  If you know these numbers, you will be able to manage your business well.

Marketing

To get to the forefront of your target audience, you need to have awareness that is driven through search, general marketing, SEO and social media.  You also need to understand your competition in order for you to come up with the right products and the right prices.  You also need to brand your products because having big brands will help widen your scope in terms of visibility online.  Different sellers should be in the proper places in order to relay the brand that will connect to your target audience while helping increase the sale.

Knowledge

People have more choices and as the online world evolve as well, people need things more and more.  You need to have a clear understanding of what is happening.  Focus on the changes that you need to be aware of and address these matters right away.

Planning

There is a written guide called “Grow your eBay Business with SWOT –Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.  This is simply a process wherein  sellers will be given all the help that they need in their businesses and check on possible help which will assist them in growing their businesses.

Palmer J. Pekarek, Ruby Lane Director of Communications and New Business Development

Reach new markets such as the European and South American markets.  Reach a younger market for vintage and collectibles.  Learn the curve for online sellers with the latest possible technologies that the market could offer.

Was eCommerce for small sellers more difficult now than it was five years ago?

Jamie Hill, CEO, admarketplace

According to Jamie, this would not be the case for those sellers that offer valuable and unique products but if the seller does a copy and paste format in terms of selling, this would not work at all.  This strategy will only work for a short period of time.

Bill Harding, Founder, Bonanza

According to Bill, there are more viable ways now on how online sellers could do their business as compared to how it was five years ago.  It is all in the mindset of the online seller if they will perceive this as more difficult now or if it is more exciting.  Most small sellers have options such as getting into Marketplaces like Bonanza that will help them become “seller-friendly”.

Google Product search has been effective for online sellers.  They are given the exposure that they need such as page views and sales.  This helps them a lot even if they do not like to be a part of the largest and most expensive marketplaces available.  If for example five years ago and you were not part of eBay or Amazon, you couldn’t possibly be making sales then.  The power of GPS is the power given to the people.

Ben Milne, Founder, Dwolla

Ben Milne has been out of the industry for a while and this was mentioned earlier.  His answer to the question is no.  The answer could become a yes if it involves utilization of newer models for business such as Gilt, Fab and Living Social.  Despite all these, there are still a lot of amazing options out there that will help a lot of people and small sellers.  Online resources such as Shopify, Stripe and Goodsie make online shopping very easy to a lot of people.  It isn’t costly too because people now have options.

Danielle Savin, Vice President, FitForCommerce

Danielle says that It is not only an opportunity but it is also a challenge to small sellers.  The challenge that small sellers face involves the giants such as Walmart, Zappos and Amazon.  This is where consumers can do one stop shopping while the retailers are able to invest with their money with technology while keeping up with the needs of the customers by meeting halfway with their expectations.

However, small sellers could actually create a unique voice for themselves in this market through social and content.  A lot of clients update their sites mixing it with social and content inside their ecommerce sites.  This basically sets them apart from big retailers.

Rob Caskey, Vice President of Marketing, Liquidation.com

According to Rob Caskey, ecommerce is very easy for a lot of small retailers than it was five years ago.  Now, online sellers can have tools that a couple of years ago these were not available.  These tools help them drive traffic, do shopping cart processing and even channel allocation.  It is also evident lately that a lot of these small sellers are now into eBay and other possible venues to market their products directly with consumers.

Brian J. Lawe, Founder, MyStoreCredit

Brian mentions that whether it is large or small, ecommerce is more sophisticated now than it was five years ago.  It is no longer necessary for you to take a few photos and pop a list on eBay while getting a notice that the item was sold within seven days for a reasonable price.  What sellers need now is to make its products competitive by buying items as inexpensive as they could.  Selling the products on different avenues or channels but without the expensive price tag is also another item that sellers experience now.  It is also important that sellers should have a back-end shipping system in order for the products to reach the customer in two or three days time. It’s a steep road ahead while the seller is on his or her learning curve and if you do this business by doing some trial and error, you can expect that your reputation as a seller is at stake and you will lose a lot of potential sales.

International sales is an area that sellers might want to focus on and expand the business.  The international market serves as a strong opportunity for the products to be sold.

Steven Aldrich, CEO, Outright

According to Steven, small sellers now have a better life in business than it was five years ago.  There are plenty of online marketplaces and having a third party seller to compete is a welcome race in this world of business.  People also, on the other hand, are getting more and more comfortable making their purchases with these third party providers.  Amazon is one good example wherein third party providers have experienced 44% increase in revenues during the holiday season.  With the available technology, small sellers are in fact getting to be more efficient.  Amazon has a Fulfillment group that performs the orders for small sellers.  Outright is an example of a provider that will help these small sellers track and even manage their business more efficiently002E

Chris Taylor, Founder, PageMage

Small sellers are better now than five years ago.  There are more tools, more marketplaces for them to sell their products.  What you really need is understanding what is right for your business.  You could also need to focus on the right things to succeed.

Palmer J. Pekarek, Director of Communications and New Business Development, Ruby Lane

According to Palmer, it is easier now than it was five years ago.  There are more opportunities now to sell than it was 5 years ago.  There are lots of venues for selling and just by creating your own site, you will be able to do online commerce.

A travel plan and guide are the things that you need in order to be able to move around.  There are those that create advertising campaigns without a plan to back it up.  Having expensive advertising will not work.  When you are able to come up with an advertising plan, you can still reduce its cost with proper planning.

Even those that have been in this industry for a long time make sure that they create marketing plans that will help their businesses and industries they are into.  Coming up with a detailed marketing plan includes market research, positioning, competencies, strategies, pricing, distribution, and tactics.  Having a detailed plan will help remove advertising and marketing efforts plus costs that are not important.  You can hire a third party provider to help you develop a strategic plan.

Use Research and Marketing Plans as Basis for Decision-making

People in the media earn a living through advertising.  These specialists in advertising will inform you of special deals, limited offers for promos among other things.  If you are fully aware of your marketing plans, then you will be able to distinguish if these promotions offered to you will put a lot of value in your business.  Know what your marketing plans first and find out what special deals and offerings could be availed before putting your product out for advertising.

The research that you did and the marketing plans that you came up with will greatly assist you in understanding your best audience to look for and maintain.  Make sure that your message is clear and it reaches out to them.  Future clients do not care what you need.  They care what they will be getting out of the advertisement or from what they will get from you.

In order to stay in the game, you need to familiarize yourself with technical terms such as frequency, readership, BPA statements, demographics, Cost per Thousand (CPM) among other things.  If you don’t know these things, you will be in the dark.  If you get to hire a media provider, that company will be able to shed light on these matters plus all other things you need to know.  The strategy that you will make as well as the marketing plans that you will come up with will help you find out what media provider suits your needs.

Plot Your Itinerary in Advance

Your plans in advertising should be made in advance.  Being unable to do this means that a lot of money could go to waste.  Not planning ahead of time could lead to wrong vehicle choices, higher rates and rush charges on services.

People that are unable to schedule the advertising in advance would reason out that they did not have enough time or they were in so much rush to have one as soon as possible.

Plot all the things that you need to do in your calendar.  Make sure that you have enough time to plan out everything so that you are not in a hurry.  Find out how many ad insertions you need and have a sound agreement between your company and the media provider.

Put Your Ads to the Test

Find out what will work best by doing a trial and error.  The response that you will get out of this should serve as your baseline if you need to re-phrase or edit your lay-out.  Determine what will work best for you and once you have established this, ensure that you keep on the right track.

Let the Professionals Do the Advertising

When we have problems such as having sickness, we do not medicate ourselves but rather we call a doctor to diagnose and prescribe medicines.  Lawyers, on the other hand, are here to help us with legal matters.  We do not put the decisions on such cases on our hands.  Of course, if you need to advertise, you hire an agency to do it for you.

Advertising agencies are experts in their field.  They know what to do.  You just tell them what you need to convey, what you want to see and what you want the people to see as the message.  These are professional people so whatever you need, they will do their best to satisfy you or your company.  The only problem comes in when you try dictating to them on what to do.  You don’t tell your doctor what medicine to give you or you don’t tell your lawyer what to do if you have some legal matters so leave advertising matters to the agency.

Use Creative Briefs with Agencies

A creative brief is a summary of all items that could affect whatever advertising the company gives.  This could include the competition in the market, the target audience, consumers’ buying habits and even your company’s situation.

Time is gold and time used by the agency is money spent by your company.  By sticking to what is essential, you save money.  The more information that you can provide to the agency, the more effective it would be to the target market.

If you choose not to hire an agency, a creative brief will still be helpful as an exercise to be aware on where you are right now as the company and where it could lead you.  Having a creative brief will also help you save money from unnecessary designs and concepts.

Focus the Advertising Message to the Target Market

Your audience will be more concerned on what you can do for them rather than you expecting from them.  Customers look for something that will help them save money and time.  They also want peace of mind if they avail of your products or services.

Communicate with your audience through the language that you will use in your advertisement.  Don’t use big words if it will only mean that they will not understand anything in the end.  You need to sell to them your product and not scare them away.  Those without experiences in this kind of advertising write big words and in the end, the customers will not mind what message you are conveying or they would throw in the trash what you just have given to them.

Keep Copies of Printed Collateral, Ads and Press Releases

Let your agency know what worked in the past and what didn’t.  This will help the third party provider to come up with a persuasive copy and at the same time, produce effective ads as well.

If your previous ads will help in the success of your planned advertising, then by all means do so.  It should also be coherent with the printed collaterals.

Refrain from unreal or misleading copy

If you are honest about your products or services, you will be able to increase your sales and the company’s income.  If you trick your customers into believing into something that is unreal, you will lose more customers.

Refrain from Utilizing Groups for Ads Approval

When you put people in one room that are supposed to be experts in this field, you could actually ending up killing a brilliant idea or advertising concept.  More often than not, groups being gathered for approval end up endorsing concepts that are bad.

Time and money are also wasted in having such groups around.  There is a tendency for a lot of changes that are unnecessary.  You also have to attend to a lot of meetings that will end up nowhere.  If you edit more, this means you need to inform your media provider about the changes and it only lengthens the process therefore more money is wasted in the end.

If meeting with a group is unavoidable and is part of the process of your company, this should be done ahead of time and before contacting the advertising agency.  Productivity is very important and this should be clear when you finally meet with your chosen advertising company.

The first thing that you need to make sure is that the message is appropriate with the keywords used.  If you still use Christmas messages even if it is no longer Christmas or the potential customer lands on sites or pages appropriate for the previous year, it will just make you look like you are an amateur and customers will no longer trust you or your product.  If for example a potential customer is looking for an iPhone 4S and he or she sees an ad with the name iPhone 4S, the instinct is for the potential customer to click that ad as compared to seeing an ad that says “cell phones for sale”.

Upsell Your Products with Accessories

Some of the products that you were able to sell last year come with accessories that customers could purchase this year.  To give a better picture, if you were able to sell an electronic gadget last year, there could be accessories that compliment the product such as plugs, Bluetooth devices, among other things.

Lead Your Customers Correctly

Don’t waste your customers’ time anymore.  Lead them to the product he or she is looking for or the ones nearest to what they want if you don’t have the actual item.  If they get lost in your website, they will be put off from a buying mind frame especially if they thought they already found what they have been looking for.

From Negative to Positive

Sometimes, when you use negative keywords, these could actually turn into something positive.  Some of these negative keywords are free, review and photo.  People will not be interested when they see these keywords and as a result, there will be less window shoppers.  Ultimately, you spend less too.

Advertise What You Have

Make sure that you advertise what you have.  Avoid giving false promises to customers because this will just cost you some money and you will lose customers in the end.

Use the Long Tail

When you limit your keywords, you also limit possible sales.  Use the long tail to your advantage by putting in all possible keywords for your products.  Include product reference numbers and even ID codes.

Explore Other Adwords

Google Adwords is not the only one available for you to advertise your product though it is the biggest PPC network.  You might want to explore Bing or Yahoo!  They are not as good as the former but the conversion rates and cost per click are something to look for.

Don’t Go for the Top Spot

Aiming for the top site to advertise does not mean that it will be effective.  It can also be too expensive for you.  Try looking for click-through rates that are affordable.  You will also get the best ROI for doing this.

Check Your ROI

Make sure that you monitor the keywords you used to determine that what you get is not just traffic but conversions as well.  Don’t waste your time.  If these high-traffic keywords don’t bring money, then you might as well kill those words.

Protect Your Work

Stop others from bidding on trademarks that are supposed to be protected in the first place.  Register with PPC engines to make sure that you don’t turn out bidding your own name.

Get the Help of an Expert

If you need help to optimize search strategies, give iCommerce Team a call on +972-54-6366991.  Request for a demo on how we can help you maximize your online profits this year.