I’ll quickly point something out before you start reading, I’m not an SEO specialist, a designer, a marketer or a techie. However, I do have a unique stand point when it comes to SEO – I work with all of those people I mentioned above as I run Carrot Media. Most of these people mentioned consider themselves to be experts or knowledgeable in the area of SEO but do they in fact know what they are doing?

I’m a business man and all I really want to know is, if I’m spending £1000, what is my return on the investment (ROI). Not only do I need to see my initial investment recovered but I need to make money and recover the costs involved in carrying out the work. So if I invest £1000 in a market strategy, I need to see a £5000 return. SEO is just another marketing strategy which should be reviewed on a regular basis in these kind of terms.

Let’s get back to basics. So, what is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation which means in basic English, getting someone to the top of a search engine for a particular keyword phrase. For example, if I type “Carrot Media” into Google are we top of the list? The answer is yes, but feel free to check. Sounds fairly simple doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it’s not and it’s a hugely complex area full of algorithms, rip off merchants and misunderstanding.

So what should you do?

At Carrot Media we don’t offer SEO as a service to our clients! However, every website we deliver is built with search engines in mind and includes things like: SEO friendly URLs, Robots.txt, XML Site Map, integration with Google Maps, etc. Our clients don’t need to really know what these technologies, tools and techniques do apart from it’s giving them the best possible base to work from and give them a chance of achieving good search engine results.

As most of our clients are small businesses we have the view that although we could do the SEO, the Return On Investment isn’t always achievable.
As an example, one of our clients has been working with a company specialising in SEO which has boosted their site traffic by 50%. Great you might think? Wrong! This client has in fact not actually seen a large enough increase in sales to cover the money spent.

Every site we now produce is built with a robust and SEO friendly content management system so we actually train our clients in the basics of SEO. This technique has seen us generate the best results for our clients way beyond selling SEO as a service.

There have been occasions when SEO specialists have been brought in but as we view every client as unique we can advise correctly for each case.

There are some simple checks I think everyone looking to setup a business should do before deciding that’s the name for them. It can sometimes be really frustrating to come up with a name and then perform simple checks to discover it’s not going to work for you. Here are a few pointers which might help you in your own process:

1. Check Companies House to ensure no-one has a company with your name already. Even if you are planning to trade as a partnership it’s worth checking before you get tied up with a larger organisation in a legal battle over “passing off” on their brand. As a branding process is extremely expensive and setting up a business is time consuming the last thing you want is to worry about legal issues. They come later as you become bigger and more successful!
2. Jump on a domain registration site, these sites have a search box which allows you to see which domain names are available. When you have done all your checks remember to try and buy every combination of domain name within reason as you need to protect your brand. This means protecting both singular and plurals of your name. A little common sense goes a long way when purchasing domain names. It might be worth checking similar domain names and the content they have on the site.
3. Search for your company name through a few search engines. Google is a good starting point and note that I say starting point. Google will tell you if anyone is trading under your name as a partnership or sole trader. If they are don’t let it put you off, they might be in a completely different market. It’s very difficult to have a company name that is completely unique. Oh and don’t forget if you’re going to sell internationally to check the meaning in other languages. Something many people forget when checking a company name in Google is that if it considers your name a misspelling you’re probably off to a bad start. This will be extremely bad for search engine optimisation / rankings.
4. Urban Slang should be your next port of call with the likes of wikipidea and urban dictionary. This is where a little creative thinking comes into play to see if your name has any adverse or hidden connotations – this could be Internet, school or urban slang.
5. Make your claim! As soon as you’ve found a name and all the checks are giving you good news.

These checks only take about 5 minutes, so use the tips above to give your brand the best chance to penetrate the market. Although it can be annoying to go back to the drawing board after finding your dream business name it’s better to foresee potential problems early.

There are whole books written on branding and name generation so if you need help I suggest investing in one.

One thing we’ve always been cautious about is how to present the brand and items to the customer upon delivery. Do customers really care how an item is delivered? Does it need to be bagged, boxed and tied?

We recently ran a prize draw where people signed up to win a Swarovski Pearl Jewelery Set. The prize draw went well with hundreds of subscribers. We picked a winner and sent out an email to confirm some personal details before sending the item out.

A few days later, we emailed the winner to make sure they had received the item and that everything was O.K.

Feedback before we asked…

The winner said everything was present and correct with the item and that she couldn’t wait for an occasion to wear it. The winner then offered one piece of advice/feedback.

The item which the winner received was delivered in a gold box, inside of a padded envelope. The box plus the envelope apparently didn’t do the item any justice and the winner was kind enough to say that it should be changed.

Now for us, it isn’t really a problem as we have a minimal amount of the ‘gold boxes’ and were going to change them before the first item was sold on the Eliot Turner website.

Presentation is everything!

We’ve learned an important lesson before the store was up and running. We need to think more clearly about how we present our stock to the consumer, at least we know we’re on the right track with the stock!

Scenario: Walking down a high street window shopping, something catches your eye and you enter the store. The next thing you’re doing is walking out of the store with a purchase.

The above scenario shows that without realising, you can actually become one part of a sales tunnel very quickly. Online things are different, granted people window shop but only seasoned buyers will go to the same online shop time and time again. This would usually happen if they’ve had a really good buying process, excellent customer service and event better delivery times.

For the general Joe/Jane Blogs who might only buy twice online in a month, buying online is generally different. They’re more likely to hear about a product socially.

Word of Mouth has changed dramatically in the last year or so, you’re more likely to find a group of people talking about a product online than you would physically. It takes one conversation with one link added for someone to become a buyer.

The question is, once you have a buyer how do you keep them interested in you and your company to come back and be return buyers?

The answer, you stay social.

Companies large and small really need to hook up to the fact that people are people, just like themselves they also need to understand their customers. Customers LOVE interaction. They LOVE feeling a part of something bigger. Get to know your customers socially, make a friend and you’ll gain a loyal follower. Remember however that it is not good of you to force yourself on people, present what you have in the right way to the right people and you are half way there.

Up to now, we have talked solely about online marketing, however it is important to include some traditional offline marketing in your campaign to drive traffic to your website and improve presence in the market place. Research shows that the majority of people visit a website after reading it in a newspaper or magazine or hearing it from a friend, someone at a meeting or on TV, hence why offline marketing is important for your online business.

 Advertise

There are so many adverts on the internet that people have learnt to tune them out and so placing ads on TV, print and radio can be extremely effective despite the claim that print media is declining. Also, offline advertising usually has something physical attached to it meaning people are more likely to remember it.

If you can afford it, advertising in national media will obviously have the largest reach however if you are running a small business, start with local media whilst building your brand and then move on to the national media once you are more established and making more money. There are plenty of local media stations that need advertising slots filled and won’t charge the earth.

Placing adverts in local or national print media can be highly targeted as there are now so many different publications out there. Choosing particular magazines which you expect your target demographic to read will almost guarantee traffic to your site providing your web address is clear. Often writing only the URL of your business in an advert is effective as it gains curiosity. This doesn’t require much space and the cost will be reduced.

Event programmes are an effective way to directly reach you target market. Search for relevant industry events for your field and advertise in their programmes.

The Yellow Pages and other directories can bring traffic to your site as more often than not people will check out your website before, or instead of, phoning.

Network

Talk about your business at any opportunity you get.  You will meet potential customers wherever you go  so anyone who asks you anything related to your business tell them your web address and always carry your business cards with the URL and email address on it. Attend Industry events and join networking associations and societies.  Choose carefully which events to attend – those where you expect your target demographic will be and announce your website address to all those you speak with.

Also, donating one of your products for a raffle at an industry event will act as extra publicity for your brand. The price of the product will be little in comparison to the exposure it will bring you.

Get articles published

If you can get an article published in a newspaper or magazine, you will get noticed by thousands and it likely won’t cost u much. Whatever your area of expertise, there will be an appropriate publication whose readers are in your target demographic. Make sure you include your web address with your name in the byline – not only will your article raise interest in you and your brand, but will also advertise your URL to every reader. The same applies for press releases, always include your web address.

Also, most local chapters of business associations have printed newsletters that are sent to all members. If you can commit to contributing an article regularly, it is a good way to get your web address circulating around your target demographic. Search all the associations in your area and choose the most relevant to your industry.

Put your URL on everything

Finally, put your URL on everything! Having your web address on things such as your vehicle and your uniform means everywhere you go people will see it. Also, it’s surprising how few companies have their web address on their company signs. Every person who walks or drives past your sign is a potential customer.

Last week I had the opportunity to sit through a seminar titled “Building a brand with Social Media”.

This seminar intended to educate those unfamiliar with social media websites and in particular how they can be used as a marketing tool to build a brand for your business or product. The internet has allowed everyone their own voice and this seminar explained the platforms available such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn and blogging to get this voice heard.

The keys to success are simple; talk, engage and communicate, be human and be honest. Do something different and be remembered for the right reasons. Even if you are remembered for something other than your product at first, people will associate this with your company and improve brand awareness.  Also, don’t think about the competition, you cannot control what they’re doing so concentrate on what you are doing.

A point that was echoed throughout the seminar was how this cannot be done overnight. Developing relationships and building a community around your brand takes time but if done properly will show results. You must treat this community you have built with respect and if you make an error resolve it and make people love you by doing something positive and different.

The Internet is the only tool that allows you to see what many others are thinking about you and your brand instantly without any extensive market research. You can identify people who love what you do and those who hate it and gather feedback about what you can do differently.

During the seminar, the speaker explained how Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and blogs can be used effectively in business;

Using the tool search.twitter.net on Twitter you can find those searching for your, or similar, products or services and utilize this by engaging with those people. The speaker gave personal examples from his own experiences, for example , after tweeting about his hay fever he received  a message and link from Lloyds pharmacy leading him to hay fever tablets. This can be done with any business, all you need to do is search for those tweeting about your product or service and engage with these people. This is also a great tool to find instant information from your customers about your brand and the products/services you sell and if necessary, turn your haters into fans.

Once you have a community of followers you can tell them about new products and tweet out offers.  If you engage with those with influence in your field you will become even more respected especially if they retweet your tweets to their followers.

Facebook offers paid advertising that is highly targeted meaning you can advertise to those who have mentioned they like or need a product or service that you’re offering. Not only this, you can create groups and fan pages for your business and build a community similar to twitter updating those interested in you with products and offers.

Flickr is a photo sharing application where you can upload photos and join different groups. This is another opportunity to add links to your website.

If you can write a blog with good content, you will gain interest and raise the profile of your business. Again, this is something that takes time and you have to gain respect in your field with interesting content that will bring regular readers.

Also, SEO should always be part of your online marketing campaign and you should hire a consultant to do this for you but use the right company.

The seminar looked at online marketing versus print marketing stating that although dependent on the industry, online marketing was much more efficient. This is because word of mouth is the best type of marketing and due to the instantaneous reaction of the internet, it cannot be beaten by offline print marketing. Online you can reach a global audience in little time, social media is massively viral and with the millions of users, it is easier for something to spread, for example, the T-mobile dance in the train station and Samsungs LED sheep.

The seminar was interactive showing live examples of the ways in which social media can be used. The speaker posted a prepped post to his own personal blog and demonstrated how, using bit.ly, you can shorten the URL for your post then use the twitter feed service to send the RSS feed of your blog to twitter. The link to your post will then be seen by your followers and if any of them decide to retweet your link it will also be seen by their followers.

The speaker suggested it was a good idea to employ a social strategist who will market your business online using social media for those who feel they are unable to do it effectively.

Research suggests consumers prefer to start their online shopping experience with search engines and social media sites rather than going directly to the site of an established retailer. Businesses that analyse the trends associated and utilize this knowledge in their marketing campaigns will have a huge advantage over those who don’t.

Google…

Services such as ‘Google trends’ and Google’s ‘Insights for search’ are designed to help advertisers and marketers gain a better understanding for consumer search behaviour, ultimately to identify new growth markets and modify their campaigns accordingly, for example, their Google ad words. By viewing the past months search trends, it is easier to predict what is likely sell in the following months. It is most likely that the most popular searches will correlate with the level of economic activity in the particular industries. This means you can launch promotions and personalize advertisements when you know certain products are selling well.

Google Trends provides daily and weekly reports on the volume of searches related to various industries providing details of geographic location and category. Google’s ‘Insights for search’ is similar to Google trends but with some added features; users can specify what category their search term falls under, generate a heat map displaying where search queries are coming from and compare trends by specific time ranges.

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=handmade%20jewellery&cmpt=q

Twitter…

Twitter is another method of tapping into what the world is thinking as consumers are now revealing more and more information about themselves online. Whilst individual tweets can seem insignificant, taking them as a whole can provide insight into consumer behaviour and public sentiment. Knowing your customers, allows businesses to adapt their marketing and even shape public opinion to benefit themselves.

Businesses are realising that building relationships and brand loyalty is much more efficient than pushing products on customers through advertising. Speaking authoritatively about your field will influence potential consumers; content is now more effective than blatant advertising. Consumers are now relying on social media websites as much as company websites for product information so businesses that utilize this and interact with their customers have the opportunity to promote their products.

Also, twitter search provides an up to date, real time insight into what consumers are saying about any particular product around the world. This has already become a research tool for any business involved in consumer trends.

Facebook…

Facebook employs behavioural advertising whereby adverts placed on individuals profile pages are highly targeted. Users have no problem sharing information such as date of birth, relationship status, political and religious beliefs and hobbies and advertisers use this to their advantage. They can effectively advertise only to their target demographic.

Facebook even offers real time reporting for advertisers on the effectiveness of their ad giving feedback on the amount of impressions and clicks.

Whilst some consumers feel uncomfortable with the thought of being tracked online, others admit they prefer relevant advertising as they are no longer bombarded with many different adverts. Advertisers have now realized that it is much more efficient to have their ads seen by a small amount of people who are likely to make a purchase rather than to thousands of people who will not give it a second glance.

Following usability guidelines for your eCommerce site are obviously important. Design aspects of your website such as quick downloading, easy navigation and interaction with no ambiguity trigger sales, however selling to foreign markets requires extra consideration. An eCommerce site that only focuses on their target audience in one country cannot exploit the internet’s global reach and many eCommerce sites are losing much overseas business due to the usability of their site to international customers. Foreign consumers may have heard about your site and are able to find it easily but any marketing employed by your business will be wasted if they cannot connect with the content on your site, preferring instead to use a local site. Research has suggested that internet users are four times more likely to purchase from a website that communicates in their own language and over 50% of web users speak a native language other than English so connecting to these non English speaking countries will potentially double your audience and hopefully double your sales!

Localisation refers to designing your website in a way that can be adapted for and is appropriate to international customers. Taking into account language and cultural differences will allow you to communicate with more customers worldwide and increase sales. Applications can be localised to different levels depending on the user group or culture you expect to use your site. You may wish to keep the content of your site the same but translate local measures such as currency or time or you may decide to translate the product text and terminology to suit the appropriate country. Some eCommerce sites even go as far to change colours, images and symbols to suit the target culture as customers perceptions of service quality differ from country to country. For example, The colour red means error, stop or warning in western culture however this isn’t the case for Asian countries. In pursuing a global market, businesses should be sensitive to elements such as this. If you understand their local cultures, how they use technology and their expectations you will most likely be successful in selling to them.

Even simple differences between variants of English can make or break a sale. For example, British English and American English obviously differ with British using shopping basket and Americans preferring shopping cart and spelling variations such as colour and color. Customers who recognize that the site is based abroad will become less trusting of it, hence less likely to purchase from it. This isn’t a case of automatic translation but researching your target markets expectations and customs.

When did you last check your eCommerce site for these issues? Can you get more sales from applying simple changes?

For most eCommerce sites, the biggest loss of revenue is at the checkout due to shopping cart abandonment. Around 60% of shopping baskets are abandoned before customers have completed their purchase meaning businesses are losing thousands of potential sales. Reasons for basket abandonment can be; high delivery costs, checkout problems, lengthy registrations, fear about the security of their personal information or that the shopper is merely browsing or comparison shopping.

Here are 10 tips to reduce shopping basket abandonment rates and INCREASE SALES on your eCommerce site…

1.       Keep the checkout process short and simple and don’t ask for any information that isn’t necessary. It may seem like the perfect opportunity to gather information about your customers, however lengthy registrations can put customers off and cause them to abandon their baskets.

2.       Make all additional costs i.e. delivery charges clear from the beginning of the checkout process so there are no shocks about seeing the total of the basket suddenly increase due to shipping costs right before the customer is about to make their payment.

3.       Give full contact information during the checkout process to reassure customers you are a real company and reduce their anxieties about purchasing online.

4.       Inform customers about the policies you have in place either on the checkout page itself or via a link available on it. These may include security, privacy, delivery, return and customer service policies. It is often a good idea to place links to these policies in relevant places, for example, delivery and return policies next to the shipping costs and your security policy next to the checkout button.

5.       Include a progress indicator showing steps of checkout so the customer knows steps they have already completed and those left to complete. Also give the customer the option to go back a step if they need to review or amend what they have done. It is a good idea to limit the checkout process to two or three steps.

6.       Provide links back to items selected in the shopping basket so customers can double check they have selected the items they wanted.

7.       Using pictures of products inside the shopping basket has been known to reduce abandonment rates by 10%. Again this is to ensure the customer knows they have selected the item they planned to purchase.

8.       Make editing the shopping cart easy. It should be simple to change products, change quantities, add and delete items. If customers become confused or frustrated about doing this they will abandon their shopping cart without making a purchase.

9.       Show stock availability for each item on product page so that customers don’t have to reach the checkout before realising the product that they wanted is out of stock or backordered.

10.       Offer the option of saving the shopping basket. Comparison shoppers often add items to their shopping baskets without any intention to make a purchase at that time. Give them an option to save their basket for later purchase. Also, this is another reason to show stock availability on the product page; if there is limited stock left for the item they are looking at, it may encourage them to make a purchase there and then.

Twitter

We’re a pretty social group, we’ve all got Twitter accounts and we usually send out most of our info out via @ecomexperiment, however we have our own @eliot_turner account now and plan become more socially active.

We want to communicate and relate with people about the service we’re providing, telling them about our new stock and quite possibly throw the odd offer around from time to time. We would like people to know we’re there to talk to.

As well as being openly social, we will create dialogue with two types of twitter users; the average user who is our potential customer and those who are influential in our field who can promote our business interests. An authority in our field such as a fashion influence endorsing a link will have much more response than unknown quantity tweeting out links. An influencer’s voice will be respected by our target market. Networking with bloggers, publishers, journalists and other business owners will also create traffic.

When tweeting, we will take in to consideration the quality of tweets and not overwhelm you with links making you switch off.

Also, we will use search.twitter.com to our advantage, identifying users who have searched for anything jewellery related. We will not only be able to gain consumer insight but also establish a relationship with these people and offer them discounts or information about our products.

Email Marketing

As you may already know we have built up a database of around 3000 potential customers via an online prize draw at www.eliotturner.com. Those who have entered were given the option to sign up to our mailing list meaning we have a list of people who we know want to hear about our products. We will send these people emails at our launch promoting our products and any special offers we may have. We will then record those who’ve been responsive to emails and those customers who have bought products and send out questionnaires to these people to learn more about who our target demographic actually is. We can then target specific customers with emails, for example, send only male customers an email with Valentine’s Day offers.

Voucher code websites

We will be placing a voucher offering around 10% off products at Eliot Turner which will bring traffic to the site and hopefully create sales.

Prize draw websites

We will register a prize draw on various prize draw websites which will have an option to subscribe to our email newsletters. This will not only expand our email database but increase awareness of the Eliot Turner brand.

Paid Advertising

Fashion blogs

We plan to place adverts onto fashion blogs such as www.fashionista.com, www.myfashionlife.com and http://fashionblog.dailymail.co.uk. These blogs are influential and receive significant traffic numbers and are likely to be viewed by our target demographic.

Google ad words

Once the site is launched we will place an advert on Google ad words as there is often at least a two month wait for SEO to take effect. Once Eliot Turner appears higher in the search rankings we will amend and reduce spend on our advert.