Do you remember when you were little and one of your parent’s friends gave you a piece of candy? What did your parents tell you to say? That’s right, “Thank you.” In this economy a thank you can retain customers and increase bottom line revenue. 

Believe it or not people still like to hear the words thank you, especially clients and customers. Customers will become loyal to a brand or service when they know they’re getting good service and they’re not just a number. Whenever the customer completes a transaction, (lead generation form, etc) it’s always good to have a thank you page. It’s simple, but it lets people know that their business is valued. Even better, offer an incentive on the thank you page

I recently read an article about a woman who brought Harry and David products online. After completing her purchase, she was taken to a screen that gave her a 20% off coupon to use within the next month. Although she hadn’t planned on spending more, she went back to the website a few weeks later and bought more products.

A simple 20% off coupon, as a way of saying thank you:

• Increased Harry and David’s bottom line 
• Caused a shopper to do repeat business.
• Made the customer feel appreciated
• Strengthened the customer’s loyalty for the brand

Saying thank you is a great revenue booster and relationship builder, especially to current clients and customers.

Recently I received a thank you coupon from Ann Taylor on my birthday.  I hadn’t planned on going shopping, but reasoned that if I could find something I like (which I normally do) I would buy it.  Guess what? I found a cute top and a fabulous skirt.  It’s money I hadn’t planned to spend, but it was well worth it.  Just so you know, it’s not only a female thing (to go shopping).  I asked a male co-worker to give me an example. He said he received a thank you coupon from Omaha Steaks. He ended up buying steaks again because he was getting a great deal and felt valued by the company.  In all the prior examples, no one had planned to buy, but a simple coupon made the customer happy and increased the revenue of Ann Taylor, and Omaha Steaks.

Even in a strong economy, it’s not enough to get new customers; you also have to retain the ones you currently have. A simple thank you incentive can keep customers happy and increase revenue.

Just as injuries are a part of sports, click fraud is an unfortunate part of the PPC game. You can take all the precautions to eliminate the issue, but click fraud happens. The question is – how bad is the issue? There has been some press about this lately, and I believe there is some overreaction.

According to Click Forensics, a company that specializes in monitoring and preventing internet crime, click fraud rates are at a two-year high. The industry click fraud rate for the last quarter of 2008 was 17.1% versus 16.6% a year earlier. At first glance, these numbers do seem alarming. What isnt factored into that 17.1% are the invalid clicks that are discounted by most search engines.

Google, Yahoo, and MSN have safeguards in place to indentify and filter out invalid clicks, and have recently stepped up their efforts to control click fraud. For instance with Google, in most cases these fraudulent clicks are filtered out before they are even reported in the AdWords interface to advertisers. Google utilizes 4 layers of click fraud filters, and claims that their click fraud rate is on average less than 2%. Yahoo has stated that on average between 12-15% of clicks are filtered out due to being fraudulent or invalid.

Bottom line: It’s important to be aware that click fraud is a reality, but as advertisers you can feel confident that the search engines are taking the issue seriously and doing a good job identifying and filtering out these invalid clicks.

In my last post, I chronicled my first seven days on Facebook.  Since that post I’ve added my profile photo and reached out to only two people to request their Facebook-friendship.   Both were old colleagues, who were suggested to me, and we also ran in the same social circles.   Even with that level of in-activity, I still acquired 70 friends in a month (And 14 pending.) 

One of the engaging components of Facebook is the ability to connect and stay in touch with most of the people that you’ve met.   This is also one of the worst features.

Remember that guy that wore the flowered thong to the beach party?  Guess what:  He wants to be your Facebook friend.   And your ex-girlfriend from High School: She’s here too and she wants to know how you’ve been.  What about all those nameless faces with whom you’ve crossed paths over the years?  Yep, they’ve “friended” you and can’t wait to re-live old times.

So choosing with whom to be connected can be a challenge and a barrier to making Facebook your friend.  Which invitations do you accept?  Does your landlord make the cut?  And do you want him to know about the “kegger” at your place this weekend? And that old high school girlfriend:  Didn’t you break up for a reason? As I recall, it was a bad breakup and she has a lot of dirt to scatter into your Facebook life.  But, that innocuous request and the “How have you been?” may prove too much for the social animal within you.  As for the rest:  Who are these people and why can’t you remember them?  Does anyone have any Ginkgo biloba?

We are all very inter-connected and Facebook helps prove that point on a global level more so than any other social networking site.   If you’re not yet a true-believer, read what happened this past weekend at London’s Liverpool Street Station.   With a simple post to his friends, a Londoner caused a mass gathering that shut down this critical hub in one of the great cities of the world.  From a marketer’s perspective: therein lies the power of Facebook.  Should you have the creativity to craft a well received campaign; it can quickly spread like wildfire through the parched kindling of Facebook profiles everywhere.

As for the guy in the flowered thong, reach out to me on Facebook and let me know if I should accept or ignore his request.