A discussion of roles played within organizations because of the prominence of technology in online marketing.
Originally presented to the Technology Executive Network.
What’s happening in online retail?
What’s happening in online retail?
There continue to be important new developments in online retail sales even after the nearly twenty years since commerce went online.
Brick and mortar retailers continue to struggle. Former powerhouses like Best Buy and Barnes and Noble appear to be in trouble largely due to their inability to compete effectively with Amazon and other online retailers.
An increase in the advantages offered by Amazon is close by as they roll out same day delivery in select markets. Walmart is also test marketing same day. Why go to a store at all?
Starting an online store has never been easier. sem[c] has worked successfully with a number of businesses creating online stores with Shopify. Can small retailers compete successfully with the giants? The answer is a qualified “yes”. As in any competition the underdog needs to promote an effective point of distinction.
Google AdWords has given retailers even more powerful online ad capabilities with their recent changes to their Product Listing Ads. This gives even more precision control to the marketing reach of even the smallest online store.
What is a good strategy for such a store? How do you position it for success?
A small online store will offer a curated collection of items for sale. The nature of that curation will be one point of distinction. Some other areas that can be promoted as distinctions include price, unique selections and service.
Price is a very important distinction. Being the highest in a list of retailers offering similar or the same product will be unlikely to lead to very many sales. Being the lowest in the same list might lead to sales but definitely cuts your margin. Large firms like Amazon and Walmart change their prices continuously during peak retail seasons like Black Friday and Monday.
Your store will not have the same type of pricing problem if you offer unique items. This is possible in a number of different ways like bundling or white labeling. Being able to offer one-of-a-kind anything requires a great deal of creativity and can involve a great deal of risk. It may require a Kickstarter finance campaign.
SEO and other online channels: different parts of the buying process
SEO Marketing and sales expectations
Google has created a map of the buying process that positions each type of online channel in relation to a purchase:
You can click on the graphic to adjust the display to show how this relationship varies from industry to industry.
This quantifies the delay in time between marketing and sales. The effects of SEO take months to realize but its value is seen by its proximity to an actual sale in the chart. The only channel that is closer is a direct click which means the prospect can go to the URL of the item of interest directly.
We have seen a lot of consternation about the direct effect one can expect from social media marketing. The chart proposes that it and display advertising are at the far end of assisting interaction whereas successful SEO and its benefit to organic results are closest to the last interaction or sale.
Thanksgiving week 2012 new and notable
Google Maps – Now Android users can find their way around shopping venues around the country. Sorry iPhone 5 users…
Huffington Post – Want a 32″ TV for $97? @ Sears?
The Usual Suspects:
or…
How important is SEO in lead generation?
The Samurai Business Group is one of the finest sales management training companies around. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to take their Black Belt Sales Training course and it gave me a string of epiphanies about the buying process and how marketing and sales fit into that process.
I have the pleasure of talking with both of the founders, Bob Lambert and Dan Kreutzer, on a regular basis. We frequently touch on various problems of interest to most people in business. I consider both of them to be trusted advisors.
Samurai has this to say about prospecting for leads:
| 5 Active Activities on Prospecting include: 1. Quality Introductions (QIs) 2. Referrals 3. Alliances 4. Networking 5. Targeted Direct Mail/Phone |
This is ordered to represent the most likely activity to result in a sale (QIs) to least likely. It is a good thing that numbers 4 and 5 can be helped by SEO because large numbers of interactions are necessary to achieve a lead, let alone a sale. Networking in particular must be seen to include not only search engine results but the entire ecosystem of online interactions. A business can begin to analyse metrics that include how many visits to the company website result in a lead or a sale.
What the list doesn’t suggest is how important validation has become in both the development of leads and getting a sale. Almost every buyer consults a range of online resources before making a buying decisions in nearly every type of transaction according to the research funded by Google in the pamphlet “Zero Moment of Truth”.
If we look at the process for achieving success with quality introductions, referrals and alliances we see that the validation process that is now so common in the buying process would be incorporated here as well. Wouldn’t you Google a potential alliance partner or referral?
SEO increases the number of qualified visits to your website. The specific number of visits necessary to reach your goals will vary but, in the case of website visits, more is always better. These visits are better yet when properly qualified to how people look for what you offer which is the point of SEO by sem[c].
This report shows the relative effectiveness of SEO against social media and pay per click:
Are marketing and sales the same thing?
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How do you figure the ROI of online marketing?
If you answered “sales” you are likely to be seeing sales and marketing as being exactly the same thing. While they are definitely related they are very different. Online marketing ROI is measured in visits to your website. Sales from these visits is dependent on how well your website satisfies the needs of your visitors. This is a separate matter from marketing.
If, for example, your website does not make a clear call to action or a means to contact you all the search marketing in the world will result in little other than the visits to your website themselves.
The approach we take at sem[c] does give you a lot of information that will help you fine tune your website so that it will match up more closely with exactly how people are searching for what you offer them.
It also delivers more qualified visitors to your website. This does give you more opportunities to make sales. That’s the ROI of SEO and online marketing.
Refining the sales process with search marketing.
Marketing supplies leads. Sales converts those leads. This is the difference between marketing and sales. Internet marketing, specifically search marketing, can provide very well qualified leads but it takes quite a bit of care and planning to use the information gleaned to improve a business’ approach to sales.
What does it mean if search marketing brings in a significant increase in leads but sales sees little or no increase in client interactions, be they inquiries or sales?
Keyword problems? If the keyword that is most used by searchers reaching your website isn’t increasing actual interactions there are a number of possibilities that need to be sorted out. The keyword may mean something different than what it means to your business. Some people use the phrase “wedding band” for music and other use it for rings.
Branding problems? Does your brand name suggest something other than what your business actually does? The word “imports” could mean anything from automobiles to zebra print blankets. If your brand name suggests some other product in any way you need to make perfectly clear what your point of distinction is.
Copy problems? Your website needs to clearly state your benefit to a potential customer. They need to be told quickly and clearly what is in it for them. It’s probably not significant to them whether or not you graduated magna cum laude from Harvard if you don’t make it clear that you will get their carpets really clean.
The process of sorting these issues out is something we do with every client but it takes a team effort because, we are marketers and don’t really have direct control over the sales process. We will get you leads and refine exactly how qualified those leads are.
For more information contact us!