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7 Reasons Customers Buy (or Don’t Buy) From Your Business Website

February 14th, 2013 ::

By Maria Valdez Haubrich

eConsultancy recently highlighted the top 7 reasons people buy from online ecommerce sites instead of brick-and-mortar stores. Based on research from MIT, Facebook, Google and Target, the key drivers of online shopping are:

  1. Value – 75 percent say online prices are more competitive. Can a small business always offer the lowest price? Clearly not, so how can you compete? eConsultancy says despite the emphasis on low price, 81 percent of those surveyed report they have paid more to get better service. If you can’t beat big-box retailers’ online prices, make sure you provide something else that’s special to make up for it.
  2. Open – 63 percent prefer being able to shop at any time of day or night. Be sure your site is up and running as smoothly in the middle of the night as it is during the day, and that you can handle increased traffic at any time. Also be sure that your customer service options—such as live chat or the ability to call and talk to a customer service rep—are 24/7.
  3. Delivery – 59 percent are persuaded by free delivery. That doesn’t mean you have to offer free shipping on everything, of course. You can keep it affordable for your business (while still meaningful to consumers) by setting limits such as “free shipping on all orders over $50.”
  4. Speed – 55 percent like being able to get products the next day. Again, that might be tough to offer, but in a separate eConsultancy survey about holiday 2012 shopping habits, 26 percent of consumers said they had paid extra for next-day delivery.
  5. Ease – 48 percent say online shopping is just easier. Make sure it’s easy by having a website that’s simple to navigate, allows for ease of sorting and searching, provides all the information a customer might want about products (including reviews from other customers) and has a wide range of product shots and even videos.
  6. Range – 46 percent like being able to see what’s in stock and available at a glance. Make sure your site is well stocked and your inventory management/fulfillment system is top notch. Also enable customers to sort for specifics such as size and color quickly.
  7. Choice – 40 percent cite the ability to buy new or otherwise unavailable merchandise. This is where small online retailers can really shine. Design your site, write your copy and develop your marketing materials so they emphasize the unique, custom or hard-to-find aspects of what you sell. Make it clear this isn’t your average big-box retail site—this is something special.

Keep these 7 key factors in mind, and you’ll do better at converting visitors to your site into buyers—and return customers.

Image by Flickr user ganesha.isis (Creative Commons)

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Are You Ready for Holiday Retail 2013?

February 12th, 2013 ::

By Karen Axelton

It may be hard to believe, but with the 2012 holiday shopping season just behind us, smart retailers are already prepping for the 2013 holiday retail rush. Shop.org and BIGInsights recently conducted a survey of retailers in which they asked them what they plan to do differently this coming holiday season. Here are the most common responses:

  • Better inventory management. Retailers plan to do better in terms of planning their inventory, managing it and being better-stocked with the most popular products on hand.
  • Improved online infrastructure. Online shopping was huge for holiday 2012, and that trend will only continue in 2013. No wonder that retailers are focusing on improved server capabilities, faster-loading pages and an overall better online experience for users. Shop.org notes that testing your site on multiple platforms and mobile devices is an important part of having a strong online infrastructure.
  • Better marketing. Areas where retailers plan to spend in 2013 include keyword purchasing, email marketing, organic and paid search marketing efforts. Better strategic planning–of marketing channels, marketing messages and marketing spending–was a key theme among respondents seeking to avoid last-minute scrambling and changes.
  • Cross-channel shopping and improved customer experience. Customers increasingly view shopping as a holistic experience where they move seamlessly from online engagement with your brand to buying online or in-store. Smart retailers are working to improve that experience at all touchpoints, and are harnessing data and analytics to understand how shoppers buy and interact with their companies both online and off. A full one-fourth of companies in the survey were planning a website redesign this year.
  • Mobile commerce. Retailers are still feeling their way in the world of m-commerce, but companies are investing in areas including responsive Web design, optimizing their sites for tablet use and enabling mobile checkout. Shop.org cites another survey which found that 43 percent of retailers named tablets and mobile as among their top three initiatives for this year.
  • Better customer service/fulfillment. More than 3 in 5 retailers say they will be investing in a wider range of shipping options for the coming year. Among the alternatives companies are considering: ship-to-store for in-store pickup, same-day delivery and free returns. Companies also say they want to provide better last-minute shopping options, better guarantees of Christmas delivery, and faster delivery in general.

Image by Flickr user Mike Kline (Creative Commons)

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B2B Marketing Budgets Are on the Rise in 2013—Is Yours?

February 6th, 2013 ::

By Rieva Lesonsky

If your small business markets products or services to other businesses, you may want to consider boosting your marketing budget for 2013 if you haven’t already. A new survey from BtoB Online found that nearly half of B2B companies are increasing their marketing spending for this year.

BtoB’s 2013 Outlook: Marketing Priorities and Plans report polled over 300 B2B marketers and found:

What are marketers spending?

Some 48.7 percent of marketers say they will increase their budgets this year, up from 40.1 percent last year. About 41 percent will keep their budgets the same, down from 48.4 percent last year. Meanwhile, 9.5 percent will cut their budgets, down from 10.8 percent in 2012.

Where are they spending it?

Some 67.2 percent of marketers say they will increase their spending on digital marketing this year. Of those, 70.1 percent will spend more on website development, 61.9 percent on email marketing, 56 percent on social media, 55.8 percent on online video and 52.5 percent on search.

In addition, 72.2 percent of B2B marketers say content marketing is part of their marketing plan. The most popular platforms for content marketing are websites (93 percent), social media (65.4 percent), print (47.5 percent) and mobile (20.9 percent).

What do marketers hope to achieve?

B2B marketers report their number-one marketing goal this year is demand generation/customer acquisition, cited by 69.3 percent. The second most important goal, increasing brand awareness, was way behind, cited by 17.6 percent. In third place: customer retention, cited by 13.1 percent.

Who’s going mobile?

More B2B marketers are integrating mobile marketing, but there’s still a way to go. Some 32.7 percent of respondents say they currently use mobile in their marketing strategy, while 35.5 percent say they plan to spend more on mobile marketing this year.

What are they automating?

Better aligning marketing and sales is a key goal for B2B marketers this year. Some 52.3 percent say they will spend money on sales enablement platforms, while 50.8 percent plan to invest in marketing automation systems.

What old-fashioned marketing method still matters?

It’s not all digital and mobile. For many B2B companies, events are still crucial to their marketing strategy. In fact, some 41.5 percent of survey respondents say they will increase their event budgets for 2013.

Editor’s Note: Network Solutions offers an easy way to build a website for mobile devices in mere minutes: goMobi™, powered by dotMobi.

Image by Flickr user Andy Roberts Images (Creative Commons)

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Posted in Branding, Business Development, Marketing, Sales Process, Search Marketing, Small Business, small business, Social Media, Web Design | No Comments »

Web.com Small Business Toolkit: Arqball Spin (360-Degree Photography)

February 4th, 2013 ::

Arqball Spin

To improve your click-through rates, you need to improve the look and intrigue level of your website. Stunning, eye-pleasing photography is a must, and if the consumer wants to see products from all angles you can either take many shots or show the object in 360-degree photography. Arqball Spin is a 360-degree photography solution that works right from your phone or tablet. You place your object on a spinning table and then use the free Arqball Spin app to capture, edit and share an interactive 360-degree image. Bonus: 360-degree photos reduce returns by helping customers see the product from all angles before making a purchase.

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Luxury Marketing Goes Digital

February 4th, 2013 ::

By Rieva Lesonsky

Surveys have shown that luxury consumers spend more time and money online than the average consumer. No wonder, then, that marketers of luxury products and services are expanding their focus on digital marketing in 2013.

eMarketer recently reported the results of a study by Worldwide Business Research and ShopIgniter that polled more than 130 worldwide luxury marketing executives. Some 85 percent say they plan to increase their digital marketing spending in 2013. Of those, 72 percent are planning to spend more on social media, making social the biggest overall area of focus.

The most popular social media platform for luxury marketers is Facebook, where 95 percent of luxury marketers are actively engaging with their customers. Next most popular is Twitter, used by 85 percent; then come Pinterest (used by 60 percent) and YouTube (used by 59 percent).

In fact, Luxury marketers are more likely to engage with customers on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube than they are on ecommerce sites. However, more than half (52 percent) are connecting with customers on ecommerce sites as well.

Since luxury products tend to be highly visually focused, it’s perhaps not surprising that luxury marketers are using visual-focused social sites to reach out to customers and prospects. As mentioned, Pinterest and YouTube have high penetration, and even relative newcomer Instagram is used by 29 percent of luxury marketers.

Luxury marketers’ top content and product promotion tactics were posting images of products (81 percent), posting video (75 percent) and creating content about new product launches (60 percent).

One surprising area where luxury marketers are falling short is in their mobile presence. While the visual focus of luxury marketers could make it a challenge for them to translate their marketing efforts onto the smaller screen of smartphones, the crisp displays of tablets should be a natural for luxury marketing imagery. Still, just 35 percent of luxury marketers report using mobile apps, while a mere 26 percent say they currently use mobile commerce.

Another area of untapped opportunity for luxury marketers, according to the survey, is loyalty programs. Only 20 percent of companies currently use loyalty campaigns to reward customers.

Editor’s Note: Network Solutions offers an easy way to build a website for mobile devices in mere minutes: goMobi™, powered by dotMobi.

Image by Flickr user Mauro Cateb (Creative Commons)

 

 

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Who’s Got Smartphones and Apps? Gen Y

February 1st, 2013 ::

By Rieva Lesonsky
It may not be a surprise, but Gen Y is leading the way when it comes to adoption of smartphones and smartphone and tablet apps, eMarketer reports. A study by Forrester, cited in eMarketer, found that consumers aged 24 to 32 are the most likely to own smartphones. Ninety-seven percent of Gen Y consumers have a mobile phone, and 72 percent have smartphones, higher than any other age group.

Overall, 93 percent of Americans owned mobile phones; however, only 50% have smartphones. Gen Z (age 18-23) was the second most likely group to own a smartphone, at 64 percent, followed by Gen X at 61 percent. After that, smartphone use declines rather drastically, with just 39 percent of younger boomers (47-56) owning them, 28 percent of older boomers (57-67) owning them, and 16 percent of those over 68 owning them.

Gen Y consumers are also more likely than any other age group to use smartphone and tablet apps, a different study by Flurry found. (This study defined Gen Y as 25 to 34.) Of the Gen Y users surveyed, 33 percent used smartphone apps and 26 percent used tablet apps. The 35-to-54 age group was next most likely to use apps.

You might be surprised that Gen Y are bigger users of smartphones than the younger generations, but eMarketer notes this group is in the “sweet spot” in terms of being old enough that they can afford more expensive smartphones, but young enough to want them and know how to make the most of them. In fact, the biggest reason younger customers cited for not having a smartphone was that they couldn’t afford it, while the top reason cited by older consumers was that they didn’t think it was useful or necessary for their lives.

What do these stats mean to you?

  • If your target market falls in the younger end of the spectrum, you’ll want to make sure your business website is mobile-friendly.
  • You’ll also want to consider developing useful, relevant and/or fun apps for your business that encourage sharing with friends.
  • Keep in mind that Gen Y is most likely to own iPhones, while in other age groups and overall, Samsung phones dominate.
  • Finally, keep in mind that Gen Y’s smartphone-dependency isn’t going away. As these customers move into their prime buying years, they’ll rely on their devices even more—so be ready to grow with them.

Image by Flickr user milesopie (Creative Commons)

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Why Your Emails Must Be Mobile-Optimized

January 30th, 2013 ::

By RIeva Lesonsky

Are your email marketing messages optimized for mobile? They’d better be. According to the latest Return Path global bi-annual mobile email report, 37 percent of U.S. respondents surveyed now open their email on mobile devices, compared with the 30 percent opening them through webmail in a browser. The percentage of emails opened on mobile devices has increased 300 percent since 2010 and shows no sign of slowing down, says the report. Here’s some more of what you need to know:

 

Platform matters: While Android mobile phones still dominate in the U.S., Apple device users are more likely to open and read email on a mobile device than any other group. Although Windows Mobile saw an 85 percent increase in email opens since April 2012, it still accounts for just 0.3 percent of total email opens on smartphones.

Industry variation: Certain industries’ emails are more likely to get opened on a mobile device than others. The retail (40 percent), consumer product (40 percent) and real estate (38 percent) industries lead the way.

Is it safe? The information being sent via email is also a concern. For example, banking-related emails were less likely to be opened on mobile devices due to security worries.

Desktops aren’t obsolete…yet: Users check email more often on a desktop than on a mobile device during the day. I’d surmise that’s probably because they are sitting in front of their computers at work, but as more workplaces incorporate tablets into the work day, the desktop is likely to become less and less dominant.

Mobile sitting still: It’s a myth that mobile purchasing is taking place out of home. Just 22 percent of mobile purchases take place on the go; 18 percent occur at work and more than half (51 percent) take place at home. Your customers are more likely to be opening that email in bed or on the couch than in the car, so keep that in mind when designing your message.

If you doubt optimizing email for mobile matters, keep these facts in mind: Return Path found that email marketing messages drive twice as many conversions as social media or search. In addition, the average order value is higher on mobile devices, whether tablet or smartphone.  However, since even those who open their emails on mobile devices still make most of their purchases on the desktop, you need to make sure your emails are optimized for both platforms.

Image by Flickr user Brad Flickinger (Creative Commons)

 

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Your 3-Step Plan for a Business Website That Drives Sales

January 29th, 2013 ::

By Maria Valdez Haubrich

Is your small business website driving the leads, customer engagement and sales you want? If it’s falling short of your goals, how can you help your business website perform better? Here are three steps to take.

  1. Focus on your target customers. If your website isn’t attracting enough customers, maybe it’s too vague and general. No business, or website, can succeed by trying to be all things to all people. Instead of casting a wide net, narrow your focus. Try developing a couple of “personas” that represent your target customer. Be as specific as you can. If your target customer is a busy mom, is she a working mom or a stay-at-home mom? How old are her children? What products is she looking for? Get as specific as you can; this will help you focus on the keywords that will drive that exact customer to your site. By pinpointing the specific groups you’re hoping to reach, you can develop a website that reaches out to those people.
  2. Focus on your customers’ pain points. A website is first and foremost a marketing tool, but sometimes small business owners forget this. Just like your other marketing materials, your small business website should show prospects that your business understands their pain points and is trying to solve them. Going back to the busy mom customer we mentioned above, if she is a working mom with an infant at home, one pain point might be the need to keep stocked up on diapers in order to avoid midnight runs to the convenience store. Your website and keywords should focus on solutions such as diaper delivery, diapers shipped to your home, auto-reorder of diapers and similar options.
  3. Focus on a call to action. Sometimes your business website is working well at attracting customers, but when they’re on your site, they just click around for a bit and leave. If customers aren’t taking action on your site, it’s probably because you’re not showing them a clear call to action. Every page on your site should drive customers to take a specific step, whether that’s “Buy now,” “Shop,” “Call us,” “Click to get a quote,” or “Chat with our operators.” If your product or service is one that doesn’t require a lot of thought, your call to action could be simple, such as “Buy now.” If it’s a product such as business equipment that requires a lot of hand-holding before a decision is made, there will be more steps involved, but you still need a call to action for each of those steps: “Click for more information,” “Request a quote,” etc. This is not the time to be subtle. Use action-oriented words that are very specific as to what you want customers to do. Emphasize them with color, hyperlinks and graphics.

Last, but not least, be sure that you test all the changes you make to your site by monitoring your analytics to see what users are doing. By making these changes, you’ll find your small business website driving a lot more business.

Image by Flickr user FutUndBeidl (Creative Commons)

 

 

 

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Web.com Small Business Toolkit: Heyo (Social Marketing Tool)

January 24th, 2013 ::

Heyo

Want a better Facebook page? How about a mobile app for your business? Heyo is a social marketing tool that lets businesses do all that and more–all with easy drag-and-drop steps that don’t take a lot of time. If you’ve ever run across a Facebook fan page you admire and wish you could create one, too, Heyo can help with attractive templates or custom design tools. You can choose from over 30 widgets ranging from coupons and “Buy” buttons to contest and email opt-ins. Then Heyo takes your fan page and creates a mobile app based on your social data complete with photos and fan page tabs so your customers can see your page on their smartphones or mobile devices.

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What Marketing Strategies Are You Spending on in 2013?

January 22nd, 2013 ::

By Maria Valdez Haubrich

How does your small business’s marketing budget for 2013 compare to that of your competitors? A new survey by StrongMail has some insights. Overall, businesses are bullish on marketing for 2013, with a total of 89 percent saying they will either increase or maintain their level of marketing spending in the coming year. (Some 45 percent will increase their marketing budgets and 44 percent will keep them the same.)

Email marketing, social media and mobile marketing will be the main focus of investment this year. More than half (55.5 percent) of marketing executives report plans to spend more on email marketing campaigns in 2013; 51.8 percent say they will spend more on social media; 42.8 percent say they will increase spending on mobile marketing; and 39.8 percent will boost spending on search marketing.

Two-thirds of the companies in the survey report they will spend more on mobile marketing programs such as mobile apps (39 percent) and SMS alerts (21 percent). Overall, mobile marketing spending will increase by 11 percent compared to 2012.

When it comes to social media, where are marketers putting most of their efforts? Facebook dominates, with 60 percent of businesses saying Facebook is the most valuable social media channel for them. Twitter and YouTube ranked second and third, respectively. Google and Pinterest were somewhere in the middle, cited by 31 percent of marketers, while Yelp, Instagram and LinkedIn brought up the rear.

Email is a strong area of growth for marketers, who plan to use it for a variety of purposes this year. While at one point some experts were predicting that social media would make email obsolete, marketers are figuring out email’s value in growing their social media presence and customer engagement. That’s reflected in the 46 percent who say they will spend more on emails to drive growth to their social media channels, such as Facebook or Twitter. In addition, 38.8 percent will spend more on promotional emails, and 34.7 percent will spend more on email newsletters.

Where aren’t marketers spending? Direct mail, trade show participation and traditional advertising will take the biggest hits. Some 37.4 percent report they plan to cut spending on direct mail, 33.6 percent will cut back on trade show spending and 23 percent will decrease spending on advertising in 2013.

You can view a PDF of the full survey results here.

Image by Flickr user Jay Freshuk (Creative Commons)

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