Attention marketers! Are you remembering the fundamentals of marketing? Whether you are in the business of selling physical products or services, going back to the basics helps us to build successful campaigns.  If you studied business in college, you may remember the term “Marketing Mix” or “The Four P’s” (Product, Price, Place & Promotion).  Applying the marketing mix to each campaign in our online efforts (though may seem comical to some) will help in crossing off “to-do’s” on our marketing checklists.

1) Product Decisions

There are many considerations that should be taken into account when it comes to your offerings.  Quality, styling, functionality, brand name, warranty, customer service, and packaging are just a few.  These decisions may seem obvious; however, you may not realize the considerable time required to formulate a successful campaign.  Product decisions need to be strategic from inception (in the creation of the product/service) to the fulfillment and services provided afterwards.  For instance, the quality and packaging of your product should strengthen your brand.  The warranty that you offer post sale should stand behind your brand as well.  Every product decision that is made should relate back to building a credible brand name that helps to grow and foster a loyal customer base.  How do you accomplish this online?

• Disclose/promote warranties online
• Be consistent with your brand in your product packaging and all online marketing efforts of it. Email designs, banner ads, paid search opportunities, and website design should all speak to how you would like your brand to appear.
• Build credibility. Sell your services through building relationships (customer service, no pun intended, is still critical).

2)  Price Decisions
 
Everyone wants a deal.  Having a pricing strategy that identifies volume, wholesale and seasonal pricing is critical.  Will bundling help cut distribution costs?  What deals can your company afford and during what quarters or seasons should they be offered?  If you are an online retailer, seasonal sales are especially important.  Do you offer monthly/seasonal promotions that you are able to fulfill?  Speaking of fulfillment, are you looking into online deal sites like GottaHalfIt.com or Groupon.com? These companies can do wonders for your business, if you have the right pricing strategy that is!  If not well thought out, these online coupon deals can cost you tons of money (if you are unable to fulfill the orders due to high demand).  If you’d like additional insight on “Groupon-like” opportunities, check out our featured Newsletter Article.

3) Place Decisions

Place, better known as distribution, is the channel through which you will distribute your products/services.  How are you covering your market? How are you managing your inventory?  For e-Commerce, you must find the intricate balance between product inventory and sales.  Do you have enough supply to fulfill certain promotions (seasonal or Groupon-like campaigns)?  Do you drive your business decisions according to marketing initiatives or do you market according to business trends?  For example, do you increase inventory levels because you’d like to try a special offer like Groupon (marketing decision) or do you market/advertise or “push” certain products because your inventory levels are high?  This “push” or “pull” strategy leads us to the final “P” in the Marketing Mix.

4) Promotion Decisions
 
Promotion represents the communication strategy you create to formulate a positive customer response (lead generation, sales, etc..).  Your marketing budget, public relations, promotional strategy (push vs. pull), and sales promotions all fall under this category.  A mix of marketing communications in the online world is important. Remember that we are in a period of information overload.  Differentiating yourself through online marketing initiatives is important. Creating email promotions and advertising banners that are visually appealing and compelling will help increase your response (click-through rates, website traffic, and/or lead generation).  Here are some other online promotion suggestions:

• Offer channel specific promotions for social media, mobile websites, and/or for a specific audience.  For instance, if you are speaking at an event, provide a special offer to that audience on your website.  This is a great way to generate more promising leads.
• Be strategic about how often you send emails to your database.  A monthly newsletter and an additional database promotion can help individuals stay engaged without being inundated by “inbox overload”. Tracking responses to each initiative will help give insight into whether you should replicate a promotional effort in the future.

Measuring your marketing campaigns is helpful in driving future business/marketing decisions.  By incorporating analytics on each of your online marketing efforts, you will be able to see if a campaign fulfilled its purpose.  Calculating your cost per lead will give you a good idea of the success of each marketing initiative.  Lastly, remember that there is never a “one-size-fits-all” solution to marketing.  Because the online space is constantly evolving, marketers should be cognizant of new, old, and upcoming trends and adjust strategies accordingly.

How to Win the Frugal Holiday Shopper’s Online Dollar

The 2010 holiday shopping season is just around the corner and shoppers are cutting expenses and are savvier than ever with coupon code websites, Groupon specials and social media deal sharing. Here are a few ways to win the frugal holiday shopper’s online dollar.

Since online shoppers are hunting for deals, it is important to have strong and compelling promotions that stand out against your competition. According to Google, these are the most effective promotions that are most likely to drive a sale:

• Price discounts or sales
• Free shipping
• Coupons
• Customer loyalty programs
• Flexible payment plans

And don’t forget that a good promotion is nothing without effective marketing. Make sure to include your competitive promotions in your marketing messages.  Update your banner and text ads to include a touch of the holidays. Also, it is important to mention the last day shipping and overnight shipping is available in order for deliveries to be guaranteed on time for Christmas.

Allocate extra advertising dollars to your CPC campaigns in order to accommodate for the surplus of online shoppers. If your daily budget is limited, your ads may stop showing early in the day and you may lose out on valuable traffic to your website.

Create campaigns that target holiday keywords in addition to your brand and product-related keywords.  Some examples are, “Black Friday”, “Cyber Monday”, “holiday deals”, “Hanukkah” or “Christmas”.

When visitors get to your site, make sure your holiday promotions are clear and your site is easy to navigate. You don’t want to lose the visitor if he/she has already come this far.

These are a few of the most simple, yet critical ways to increase your sales during the holiday shopping season. Good luck and happy holidays!

The holidays are quickly approaching.  Soon Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and Christmas will be knocking at our doors. Get prepared for holiday season now, so it doesn’t catch your business off guard. Here are 5 tips to help get your paid search campaigns ready for buyers.

Tip 1. Have a Game Plan
It sounds simple enough, but many businesses skip this step and it shows in their paid efforts. Decide which holidays your business will target with paid search advertising. If you’re only interested in reaching the Hanukkah and Christmas audiences, set a date range for when ads will begin and end. Hanukkah is from December 1st through 9th. It would make sense to run ads in November to reach this audience; whereas Christmas is December 25th and ads for this holiday could begin at the beginning of December. Determine what strategies your business will use to target searchers. Will you try banner ads? Will you offer incentives? If so, what type of incentives? This leads us to tip 2.

Tip 2. Offer Incentives
If you haven’t noticed, most people like to get a good deal during the holiday season. In fact, many of your competitors will probably be offering an incentive. What will your business offer? Will you try coupon codes? If so, when will they expire? Free shipping and discounts on products are good ways to get people to purchase. Also, make sure to plan out what discount your company can afford to offer. If your company decides to offer free shipping, but the shipping costs will eat into your profit too greatly, consider offering free shipping with a minimum a purchase amount. For example, free shipping on orders over $50. It’s good to offer incentives, but make sure the incentive will not hurt your profits. Next, start working on your ads

Tip 3. Make sure ads are Holiday Related
Ads are a crucial part of your holiday campaign strategy. They determine if people will click on them and get to your website. Include “holidays” in your ad copy. For example: “Big Thanksgiving Sale”, “25% Off Christmas Sale”, “Celebrate Hanukkah Sale”. This signals to the searcher that these sales are for a limited time. Why? The searcher knows that a Thanksgiving Sale will not be running until Christmas. It may cause the searcher to think, if they don’t act now, they might miss out on the holiday sale. If your business is doing banner ads, make sure they have the right holiday theme. Don’t run ads with pilgrims and turkeys in the background with ad copy that says, “Enjoy Our Christmas Sale.” By the same token, a generic background may not signal to the customer that this sale is related to an upcoming holiday.

Tip 4. Bid on Holiday Keywords
In keeping in sync with holiday related ads, your business should include holiday search terms. If your business sells jewelry and is targeting the Christmas holiday, consider bidding on keywords like “jewelry for Christmas”, “Christmas jewelry gift” “Christmas jewelry sale,”etc. Keywords that are holiday related can help drive potential buyers to your site.
Once the keywords are in place, think about your landing page.

Tip 5. Landing Pages that Reflect Holiday Incentives
Landing pages are one of the final steps in getting a customer to purchase your product or fill out a lead form. The page that a visitor lands on once they click on your ad is called a landing page. Make sure your landing page lines up with the messaging in your ads. If your company is offering 20% off in the ad copy, the landing page needs to mention 20% off. It can be frustrating to a customer to click on an ad that offers 20% off, but end up going to a page that doesn’t even mention the discount. How can they be sure they’ll receive the discount? Furthermore, is it worth their time to find something they like, hoping that when they get to the shopping cart page the 20% off offer will be there? Think about it. 

The holidays are a great time to reach many new customers. By following the five tips above, a business can rest assured that they are on the right path to having a successful holiday campaign.