Ecommerce Experiment » Uncategorized

How we plan to market Eliot Turner

Alex — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:04:37 +0000

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.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Alex — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 07:32:00 +0000

Affiliate marketing involves allowing a third party to market your product for you leaving you to concentrate on other aspects of your business and only having to pay them for referrals that create a click, registration or, most commonly, a sale. Referrals to your site are usually made through a link on the affiliates site and when this link is clicked by a visitor, it is recorded by your system as being from the affiliate and so any sales that are subsequently made can be documented. As this way of marketing functions around a ‘pay for performance’ model, your return on investment is predictable.

Choosing a system

When choosing an affiliate system you can either build your own, buy one or use a service provider. Building your own obviously takes time and expertise but enables you complete control over the process. Buying a programme offers the same control but with the added cost. Building and buying systems both need ongoing upkeep and so it is often a good idea to use a service provider who do all this for you. Not only do they have all the systems needed in place but they will already have a database of affiliates to promote your products on. A service provider will take a cut of commission and most require a set up cost ranging from £500-£2000, however they will eliminate costs such as ongoing administration that you would have incurred had you bought or built a system yourself. One of the largest service providers is Commission Junkie who offer a ‘global network of publishers, educational resources, and sophisticated reporting tools’.

One of the most important aspects of the affiliate system is the payment model. The most common type of commission is a percentage of the total sale amount the affiliate generates. Also, adding bonuses and incentives, such as offering a larger commission percentage for reaching a certain amount of monthly sales, can attract larger affiliates partners.

Recruiting your affiliates

Once your affiliate program is in place you must promote it to attract affiliates. This can be done like a launch of any new product – create a press release, advertise on your own website, spread the word on social media sites. If you are with a service provider, they will also be promoting your programme.

You also need to decide which affiliates you wish to target. Their audience needs to fit with your own, otherwise the amount of referrals you receive will be limited. When considering Eliot Turner we must choose affiliates that are likely to have visitors with the same interests as we expect our customers to have rather than just building a database of random affiliates, e.g. websites associated with similar or related products. It is not a good idea to target a website that sells competitive products but instead look for potential affiliates that are more interested in communication than eCommerce, for example, fashion blogs would be ideal for Eliot Turner.

Once you have recruited your affiliates it is important to work together with them to generate more leads. You need to update them on new offers or products which can be done with a monthly newsletter. Otherwise, your affiliates won’t have an awful lot to work with and won’t generate the sales you want.

Risks

Affiliate marketing may seem a perfect solution however there are obviously some risks associated. You are no longer in control of your own marketing and are allowing a third party to decide how your company is being represented. Affiliates may use marketing methods you are not comfortable with, for example, being too intrusive. Also, there is always the risk of fraud which can affect the merchant, customer and affiliate. Customers can be diverted to a duplicate site preventing the merchant from receiving potential customers and often when the affiliates commission is on a cost per click basis, both affiliates and competitors have been known to commit click fraud whereby repeatedly clicking on a link that pays out can drain the merchant of money. Keeping careful track your system and making sure it has fraud detection will help you discover any unusual behaviour.

That aside, an affiliate programme can really boost sales if done correctly, and if it doesn’t, you won’t have to pay! This is one online programme that must be part of your marketing plan.

The Affiliate Marketing List

Social Media Advertising

Alex — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:07:05 +0000

Social media is expanding at an alarming rate and it would be foolish for businesses not to embrace this.

Advertising online on social media sites not only allows you to target your product directly to the people who will be interested in it but also measure your success through tracking clicks and sales. We are particularly interested in advertising on fashion blogs, where we expect our target demographic would congregate. This is the main advantage of social media marketing as adverts can be targeted to a very specific audience. Also, online advertising is interactive, it is not a one-way medium as potential customers can click on your add and be directed straight to your website where, if they wish, can find out more information about you.

Advertising space is mostly sold on a CMP (cost per mille) basis which means you pay so much for every thousand impressions. Unlike affiliate marketing, which usually functions on CPC (Cost per click) model, you are paying for an advert regardless of whether it produces any conversions. However, for the amount of visitors social media websites receive, it would be a missed opportunity not to advertise here.

There are many successful fashion blogs with significant traffic numbers reaching hundreds of thousands of people worldwide so to reach this kind of audience can only be beneficial to us.

Buysellads.com is an advertising marketplace making it easier for advertisers to work with website publishers and vice versa. There is no need to deal with several different publishers and your ads can go live the same day. They have a database of over 1000 websites available to advertise on and I have identified a few fashion blogs which would be suitable for Eliot turner. One of them is http://www.myfashionlife.com/ which is updated daily with fashion news, shopping and product reviews. My Fashion Life generates over 250,000 page views per month and has a traffic rank of 64,145. We will consider using an advertising marketplace such as this rather than going directly to individual websites as it may save time.

When it comes to the advert itself, it is important that it connects with the audience and is specific to that particular audience, if the message is generic you will not have the same impact. Also, the advert needs to be catchy and entertaining without talking at them. The headline should ignite the reader’s interest convincing them you have what they need whilst being short and simple. The design should correspond with your branding and it is a good idea to include company logos and product images.

Here are the potential influential fashion blogs we would consider for advertising from all over the world:

Get the best from your Email Marketing

Alex — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:04:36 +0000

Often businesses are reluctant to run email marketing campaigns due to fear of being seen as spammers however it is one of the easiest, cheapest and most effective forms of marketing providing timely results…if done correctly. It is important to get the most out of your email marketing campaign as an email that isn’t well planned, interesting and relevant will have little effect.

Email marketing is especially important for eCommerce sites as a link to their site is available at the click of a button and particularly effective if your email marketing is permission based. This way, those receiving your emails are expecting them and most likely to hear your message; hence a higher conversion rate. Although emails seem impersonal they can often be the best method to gain customer loyalty with their less intrusive nature.
All emails have three important elements; the sender’s details, the subject line and the message body and getting the most out of these are key.

The Introduction…

The name or address of the sender more often than not determines whether a recipient will open the email and so the conversion rate can rely on this. The most important rule is to keep it simple in the least amount of characters. Many businesses have found a personal touch of a real person’s name rather than a company name can be effective. However, as spammers have also adopted this strategy, it can backfire unless the recipient recognises the sender’s name. Also, in terms of the email address, people are more likely to trust one ending in your company name rather than from a mail service.

The message subject, again, should be short and simple with the message you want to send out in as few words as possible. The most important information should be included in the first 20 characters, for example ‘Special offer’ and the whole subject should not exceed 50 characters. If there’s any ambiguity with your message it is less likely to be opened.

On opening…

Once the email has been opened, the message body needs to be concise and to the point encouraging people that they need what you’re offering. The opening body text should grab the reader’s attention as soon as possible. A personal touch with words such as ‘you’ and ‘your’ can be useful. The end body text should include a strong call to action with reminders of aspects such as money back guarantees to remove any worries the potential customer may have.
You are legally required to have an ‘unsubscribe’ option within the email that gives the recipient the opportunity to opt out of your newsletter.

Cowell’s Garden Centre have an effective email marketing campaign and this is due to the fact that their emails are short, simple and to the point.

In the ‘From’ field they have their company name ‘Cowell’s Garden Centre’ stated clearly and their email address ending in their company name. The Subject field simply states the purpose of the email in 28 characters; ‘Special Offers from Cowell’s’ leaving no room for ambiguity which is all that is needed at this point.

The message body contains very few words with the email predominantly made up of images. For a company such as a garden centre, images are key as the strength of the image will determine whether the product is purchased. The text they do have states exactly what the offer is without any unnecessary words. The email refers to the recipient as ‘valued customer’ and states ‘We thought you might like to know about the latest offers at Cowell’s’. This makes the customer feel special and that they are receiving special offers for being a subscriber. The ‘you’ also adds a personal touch. They have two links to online vouchers on their website and their company information; email address, telephone number and URL are displayed clearly at the bottom of the email hence plenty of opportunity to visit their website.

It is useful to run email campaigns directed to specific people, for example a certain gender or those situated in a particular geographical position. At Eliot Turner we are currently building an email database and plan to collect information about our customers enabling us to tailor an email towards a specific demographic if we wish.

You need to decide how often you will be sending out emails as running multi-email campaigns can double your conversion rate however sending too many can annoy customers and have an adverse effect. There are no particular rules about how many emails to send are appropriate and the amount will depend on the type of business you run. You will gain more of an idea through trial and error and the tendencies you discover about your customers.

It is useful to keep a record of the number of responses you receive and the type of customer they are from, essentially finding the customers which are most responsive to your email campaign. If your response rates are low, then it is a good idea to rethink your email marketing campaign.