With the shaky economy weighing on all our minds, this Holiday Season could be make-or-break for a lot of eTailers.  So, like Bryan Eisenberg mentioned in a recent blog, the time to innovate is now, and relying on the status-quo isn’t wise.

So as you ramp your sites and marketing up for the Holidays, do you have a few innovations up your sleeve?

Let’s face it. Despite the economic troubles, people are still going to want to give gifts, and find the…

...continue to read "Redeeming Holiday Gift Card Redemptions"

Customers have changed, and not just because of the economy. Simply because something worked in the past is not sufficient reason to believe it will work now.

Customers will look for reasons not to buy. Retailers will offer incentives. Customers will look for value. Retailers will offer promotions. Customers will look for more information. Retailers will ask their customers to provide content. Customers will hold retailers responsible for their entire experience. Retailers will continue to work in silos. Customers will find…

...continue to read "Gut Check For Retailers"

If you sold Widgets, and a Widget-buying customer walks into your store, can’t find any Widgets on her own, and when she asks what aisle they’re in you remain silent, would you fire yourself? Maybe contribute to the Darwin Awards?

Think of your site’s search box as a last chance to get a visitor to take action on your site.  A majority of visitors will only use internal search as a last resort when they are unable to find what they…

...continue to read "Tweaking Internal Site-Searches into Buying Opportunities"

The financial crisis is here. It’s not a matter of if it will affect you and your company, only a matter of when and how much. Clients and friends are checking in with varying reports, some are watching their growth plateau, others are watching sales trend downward.

Overall, conversion rates are starting to trend downward.

Almost everyone I speak with is looking for areas to cut expenses in and approaching spending from a more frugal mindset. Some are beginning to make drastic…

...continue to read "Online Marketers Can Weather the Financial Crisis"

Imagine the following:  You’re alone at night, walking to your car in an isolated area.  A large man pops out of an alley and heads towards you.  It’s not just your nerves, he’s clearly coming after you, so you get ready to defend yourself.  In the dim light you see what looks like a club in his hand.  He swings.  You throw your hand up and block! 

Bet that conjured up some not-so-nice…

...continue to read "Are Your Headlines Offensive?"

If you missed our Landing Page Optimization webinar on September 29th with Google’s Tom Leung now is your chance to catch the replay. Not only did we cover some layout and design tests you could try to boost your conversion rates but also covered how you could perform them using Google Website Optimizer’s advanced testing features like split path tests, multi-page tests, linger or time spent tests and take any action tests. There was some wonderful Q & A at the…

...continue to read "Landing Page Optimization: Layout and Design Elements – Webinar Recording"

Have you ever wished you were Bond? James Bond?  Here are 007+007 = fourteen ways to spy on your competitors’ web sites, without breaking any FISA laws.

1. Statbrain – Using several sources, Statbrain’s algorithm computes the number of visitors to a website based on offsite factors like backlinks, Alexa Rank etc. Statbrain does not have access to log files or any hit-counter information. Use this as a rough relative benchmark of your traffic to theirs. First run your website and compare…

...continue to read "14 Tools to Legally Spy On Your Competition"

Jenny Craig has just announced their new celebrity spokesperson, and they haven’t disappointed me. But they did throw me for a loop.

Remember a few weeks back, when I wrote about the perceived marketing strategy for the Jenny Craig weight loss centers? At the time, I ruminated over the possibility that the marketing and advertising execs at Jenny Craig were either consciously or unconsciously using personas to drive the success of their celebrity spokespeople campaigns. (To read the original post, traverse…

...continue to read "Jenny Craig Does Me Proud… and Throws Me a Curveball"

SPOILER ALERT!

If you haven’t already watched the short film I blogged about recently, watch that first!  You’ll get more out of this post, I won’t spoil the ending for you, and the video will leave you feeling proud to be a copywriter.

******************************************************* OK, having watched the video you know now that the “ad guy” changes the old man’s sign from:

“Have compassion, I am blind”

to

“Today is a beautiful day, and I can not see it.”

So let’s talk about the ad…

...continue to read "Cause People to Realize the Truth, Rather than Just Telling it to Them"

According to STORES’ Favorite 50 list for 2008, Amazon.com leads the pack, followed by eBay and Walmart.com. Rounding out the top 10 online favorites are Best Buy, JCPenney, Target, Google, Overstock, Kohl’s and Sears. You can download the PDF if you want to see the top 50. The NRF Stores websites offers some interesting analysis of the results including tidbits like:

At a time when filling the gas tank can seem like a spending spree for many consumers before they even set foot…

...continue to read "Who is Your Favorite Retailer?"