This document discusses common myths about selling online and provides strategies for effective ecommerce. It begins by debunking myths such as that an online store is easy to run or will make a fortune. It then outlines how to think of an online store like a physical shop with features to encourage browsing and sales. The rest of the document provides overviews and tips for key online marketing channels including search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, display advertising, email marketing, social media, and mobile strategies. It emphasizes the importance of having an overall online marketing strategy and testing different channels.

1. Selling Online Like the Big Boys

2. Ecommerce Myths
× Its Easy
× Its Cheap
× Everyone is doing it
× It’ll make me a fortune
× It’ll save me a fortune in
marketing costs
× It allows me to compete
with high street retailers

3. Ecommerce Myths
× I can cut out the middle man
× I’ll discount more & get better sales
× I can use manufacturers photos
× I can use manufacturers product descriptions
× It’ll run itself
× I got better value by getting a cheaper website
× An ecom site is the same as any other site

5. Change the Way You Think!

6. Think Shop
The Retail Manual
• Shop windows encourage users into the store
– (shop windows are regularly refreshed)
• Walkways help shoppers intuitively find their way
around the store
• Pause Points for example tables placed
strategically on walkways encourage shopper
consideration
• Shop Assistants answer shopper
enquiries, enhance the experience & encourage
sales
• Shop Assistants also often overcome ‘Buyers
Remorse’

7. Think Online Shop
The Ecommerce Manual
• Shop windows = Home page
– (Home page images need regularly updated)
• Walkways = Navigation
• Pause Points = ‘You might also like’, banners
• Shop Assistants = Search box, faceted
search, options, zoomable images, clear
delivery and security information at
checkout, failed checkout autoresponders

8. When Technology Loses Sight of
Customers

9. Its a Bit Like...
Excuse
me, where
are your ‘Dunno
spanners? love.

10. REAL Customer Service Online

11. Now That Hopefully You’re
Beginning to see Ecommerce
Differently...

12. Have a Strategy Before You Start!

13. Website Strategy
• Choosing a web developer/ agency
How Many of you made the decision based on?
– Word of Mouth Recommendation
– You already knew them
– Cheapest
– Design or look
– Location/ Convenience to you

14. Website Strategy
• How many of you considered?
– CMS / Management tools available
– Ability to create new pages
– SEO technical structure & administration
– Merchandising tools
– Support of product feeds
– Blog
– Offer management
– Search facility
– User Experience

15. First Steps / Already Got An Ecom Site?
• Optimise Conversion
– Test, Measure, Change
• User experience
• Usability and accessibility
• SEO
– Review technical structure
– Content
– Location
– Links
WARNING: Both are Ongoing Tasks

16. Website Conversion
• Dependant on sector, ecommerce conversion
rate averages tend to be between 2-5%
• Analytics!!
• Testing tools
• Analytics!!
– http://www.google.com/intl/en/analytics/iq.html

17. So Now the Scary Bit...

18. What Are These?

19. And These?
SEO
Mobile PPC
CRM E-mail
Your
Site
Shopping
Display
Feeds
Social
Affiliate
Media
Re-
Targeting

20. Channels
• They are All Marketing channels
• All have different audiences & qualities
• Where are your audiences?
• Which channels already convert better for you?
• Which channels send you your most valuable
customers?
• How do your channels interact?
• Analytics!!!
TIP: Search ‘Google segmentation’ & ‘Google Multi
Channel Funnels’

21. SEO... ‘Nuff Said

22. SEO Basics
• Content!!!
Q: Does it work?
• Relevancy
• Quality
• Consistency A:Yes!
• Accessibility If you take time to
• Freshness understand it and
• Links follow Google’s
• Persistance Guidelines
• Knowledge
http://support.google.com/webmasters/

23. SEO Benefits
BUT
• Can be managed in house • Knowledge take a long
• Can drive more engaged time to build
visitors • Its a long term approach
• Can reduce PPC costs • Its constantly changing
• Needs a balance • There is a resource cost
(long/short tail keywords) • It can take a while to see
• Needs knowledge benefits
– http://googleblog.blogspot
.co.uk/
– http://www.mattcutts.com
/blog/
– http://searchenginewatch.
com

24. PPC Basics
• Relevance Q: Does it work?
• Quality Score
•
•
Landing Page
Ad Text
A:Yes!
• Knowledge You see immediate results
and there is a LOT of
support if you want to
start off in-house
http://support.google.com/adwords

25. PPC Benefits
• Can support SEO BUT
• Its immediate • You can waste a lot of
• Sends traffic quickly money very quickly if
• Conversion can be you don’t start with
measured knowledge
• Fully under your control • Sending traffic is NOT
the same as sending
• Geographic locations qualified leads
can be targeted
specifically • Always pursue ROI
first, traffic second

26. Cumulative Bonus
PPC Ad Here
PPC AD
Natural Or Here
PPC AD
Listing
=
Natural 20% More
Listing PPC AD
Clicks Here

27. Display Basics
• Banner ad positions Q: Does it work?
• Banner ad formats
• Creatives (Ads) and Ad
text immensely
A:Yes!
important But be realistic about what
you are measuring/
• Its primarily for expectations. Mass
branding, then ROI marketing results in sales-
purposes though sometimes not
• Very strong offering immediately

28. Display Benefits
• Can support PPC BUT
• Its immediate • With the main benefit
• Sends traffic quickly being branding- this is
• Provides strong the online version of
branding opportunities billboards
• Offers mass • CTRs usually around
marketability 11%
• Suggests affiliation with • Brand recognition can’t
hosting sites be measured but is still
valuable

29. Cumulative Bonus
Combine Search & Display Efforts
Net uplift in people visiting advertiser
website (percentage point change)
The combination of search and
display advertising was 7x
more effective than the display
...and three times as
effective as search alone in
driving traffic to the
advertiser’s website
Source: MSA

30. Behavioural Re-Targeting
• Similar to display
• Re-targets visitors to your site who left
without making a purchase
• Persistently shows them a range of ads to
attempt to encourage a sale
• Only suitable when you are driving enough
traffic to your site to begin with

31. E-Mail Basics
• Consider newsletter
signups on your site as a Q: Does it work?
goal
• Keep e-mails short and
not too text heavy A:Yes!
• Use core calls to action Especially for customer re-
engagement, upselling &
• Test success of e-mail targeted sales.
subject lines
• Get more than just name
if possible to allow
segmentation http://www.mailchimp.com
• Push good offers
• Lots of free tools

32. E-Mail Benefits
• Can support Social Media BUT
growth • Better conversion
• Encourages re- achieved when greater
engagement targeting is used
• Direct channel for • Targeting can only be
marketing used if you are collecting
• Correlation between e- customer data (CRM)
mail and sales uplift • E-mail isn’t dead- its just
• Cheap until you start matured – your strategy
talking thousands of MUST do the same
subscribers
• Low barriers to entry

33. Social Media
• Achieving massive success from social media is
the exception rather than the rule
• Its not free- success is time heavy
• You need to have a strategy
• The first step in any strategy should always be to
listen
• Be genuine, be real, be representative of your
company but BE YOU
• Personality is a MUST – as is PROFESSIONALISM

34. Social Media
• Can be a customer acquisition tool
– But this does require hard work, and can be very difficult if
your product/ service is niche
• Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, You Tube – All maturing
• Location based services supported by apps, Pinterest
& gamification – All driving forward
• Social can help SEO, customer retention, customer
acquisition somewhat
• BUT requires proactive not reactive
management, focus, resource & must be interlinked
with all other marketing channels
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com

35. Shopping Feeds/ Aggregators
• Just another channel
• Can provide you with a trusted & proven platform
on which to sell your products
• Does take away some of the marketing
requirements/ costs
• BUT does add on commissions/ selling costs
TIP: Maximise on existing feeds... Re-Use in Google
shopping, for affiliate marketing etc

36. You Snooze, You Lose
The One Opportunity NOT to be missed...
MOBILE
• British Retail Consortium: Total retail search
volumes in the UK increased 24 percent year-on-
year in Q4 2011
• PayPal: the [mobile] market will grow an average
of 42% each year and be worth £2.5bn by 2016
• WorldPay: UK consumers are predicted to be the
biggest mobile shoppers in Europe in 2012
• Think Mobile Enabled Website (Not app)

37. You’re Ideal Strategy?
• Its not the same as everyone elses
• Its unique to your business & your audience
• Consider the channels & which channels suit your
current audience
• Test, Improve, Test, Improve
• Try and conquer the channels of least resistance
first
• Learn first, set up second, test third & start again

38. So... Just to Finish...
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@jillculbertson
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Skype
jill.culbertson
Web
www.excel-
ecommerce.com