Paul Boisvert of Yahoo Small Business recently talked about some things that small e-commerce companies are doing wrong and how they can improve their approaches to ultimately get more sales.

Making the Most of Limited Time and Resources

“The big issue with any small business is having enough time,” says Boisvert. “There’s so many different trends that are out there, having to keep up on the education with what’s new…what’s current, what are the new tools they should be using, what are the new trends…it’s a little bit daunting, and so we try to simplify things with our services, and try to educate them and direct their attention to things that are going to generate the highest ROI.”

In fact, this subject came up more than once at PubCon this week. Read here and here for some additional thoughts on this from Chris Brogan and the New York Times’ tech columnist David Pogue respectively.

“In a nutshell, the biggest thing I see that they’re doing wrong is they’re not focusing,” says Boisvert. “They’re not embracing their passion. When people get in and try to sell every product to every single person…you can’t possibly be an expert on everything.”

“You know, Amazon has tens of thousands of employees, but they have people that are experts on their specific topics,” he adds. “So all small businesses need to kind of embrace what that core product is that they really have a lot of knowledge on, and then you’ll be able to speak with authenticity. You’ll be able to speak with authority, and that’s going to persuade people to buy from you, and buy the products that you’re selling as opposed to anywhere where they could get the same product.”

But e-commerce success isn’t just about time and product focus. Things like site usability and shopping cart optimization can make a huge difference when it comes to getting people to actually buy.

Improving Your Shopping Cart Process

“A few pointers I would throw out on shopping cart optimization…” says Boisvert.  ”You obviously want to have your contact information there, you want your 1-800 number there if you have one (if not, if you have a live chat, you want it there)…it’s just a reassurance. Even if people don’t use it, they know that that number is there. You’re a reputable company, and if they have an issue they can contact you. It’s not hidden.”

“So you kind of want to reduce all the fears that people have as they proceed into that checkout process, so they don’t have any of those questions and they can just pull out their wallet and pay you,” he explains.

“Other things like trust marks are also very important,” Boisvert adds. “Just having them on the site and reassuring somebody that you’re a brand that another larger company has vetted to a certain degree, whether that’s Yahoo or Verisign or any of the other trust marks that are out there, but those are really important in kind of reducing the fears that people have.”

Trust is one thing, but you also have to think about the process itself. How easy is it for a customer to check out? If there’s any hassle involved, you risk losing the sale, because your competition is only a click away.

How Many Pages Should The Checkout Process Include?

“You do have to guide the consumer,’ says Boisvert.  ”You want to have a smooth flow. You want to reduce friction in your checkout process, but I think the whole argument around one-page or two-page or three-page is largely overblown. I’ve talked with many merchants. They’ve tested both versions. Our shopping cart supports all the various combinations: order review in place, order review not in place, single-page, multi-page…people have tested it, and they find out that the results for the most part are the same.”

“I think the key differences are the people that are kind of on the edges,” he notes. “If you sell a very low average order value, like a $20 purchase such as beads for jewelry or something like that, a single-page checkout makes sense because it doesn’t require a lot of having to address a lot of fears and uncertainties with a low purchase value.”

“However, on the flipside, if you’re selling expensive watches or appliances, you want a multi-step process so somebody can feel comfortable with you…comfortable with the product they’re going to get at the end of this checkout process,” he concludes.

Wal-Mart’s fans can look at the possible deals Wal-Mart has come up with, and if any one deal gets a certain amount of likes (pre-set by Wal-Mart), the deal will become a reality at Walmart.com while supplies last.

“We’re putting you in charge of lower prices,” the company says in the heading on the app page. “If enough people ‘Like’ this deal, we’ll make it happen.”

Right now, they’re displaying an Element 42″ Plasma TV with Wall Mount with an 18% off discount price of $398. The deal required 5,000 likes to take effect, and the goal has already been met, as Wal-Mart says, “Congratulations! There were enough Likes to make this deal happen. Come back later this week to purchase this deal.”

Wal-Mart already has close to 2 million Facebook fans, so there is a pretty good chance that any deal they post will get enough likes to become real. That is unless they set the goal ridiculously high, but I doubt they will do this, because they want people to buy this stuff.

The tactic is not only going to be good for driving sales of select items, but it should help Wal-Mart continue to boost its Facebook fan number as more people catch wind of this, which should happen fairly quickly, given that the strategy takes advantage of Facebook, which is obviously social by nature. People will see others’ likes through their news feeds.

As Chad Catacchio at The Next Web says, more brands will likely start doing this exact same thing. The good news is that you don’t have to be a big brand to utilize this kind of strategy. A smaller brand might want to keep the like number goal a little bit lower, but there’s no reason why a business of any size can’t try this. It could be a good way to increase sales as well as fans. It’s also a good way to keep fans engaged with your brand, and the more fans you get, the more news feeds you’ll get into.

Just keep in mind the goals for your strategy and know your limits. Make sure these are clear to customers when applicable.

Of course you can promote this on and off of Facebook.

The answer is simple: just do 2 things. These things aren’t difficult and there is no great secret involved. With just a little time and effort your web site can be the great asset it ought to be.

Step 1

# 1: Develop a web site that has whatever it is your prospects want. It shouldn’t be any harder than that. We once redeveloped a running event web site that received 780 visitors a year.

Finding out what people want is easy: just ask. Before redeveloping the site we did a heap of research and found out exactly what the runners wanted from the web site:

• Articles from running experts (and lots of them)
• Downloadable training diaries
• Online entry
• Forums
• Ask an Expert section
• Athlete Profiles
• Interviews with star athletes & age groupers
• Regular newsletters
• Screensavers
• Photo gallery
• Event merchandise
• Race results
• Course information
• Travel & accommodation info
• and lots more content (entertaining, ever-changing and informative)

That was # 1.

Give your visitors lots and lots of relevant and interesting content. And keep adding relevant and interesting content as often as you can.

Step 2

# 2 is letting your target market know about the site. This was achieved with the running site via search engine optimization, pay per click advertising, links from other sites, print media ads and encouraging word of mouth (mainly due to the great content).

In a nutshell, find out what your prospects want and then figure out the best way to get under their nose so you can make your offer/let them know about your site.

My biggest recommendation is always to spend some time and effort on search engine optimization.

If you don’t have the skills, knowledge or time to complete your own search engine optimization, consider engaging the services of a professional. Understand that quality search engine optimization isn’t cheap, but can be the best money you’ve ever spent.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is a nice bit of jargon that just means developing a web page in such a way that it gets high rankings when someone types a phrase into a search engine.

Achieving a high search engine ranking for the most appropriate keyword for your web site is, without question, the number 1 factor for ensuring a steady stream of visitors.

Search engine optimization requires a range of strategies being implemented to be successful. It’s about knowing what search term to optimize for, what to write on the page,  what to call the page, getting lots of links to the site, being listed in directories…..and much more.

Good optimization requires you to develop a high content site with plenty of incoming links – and those 2 aspects are great to do anyway to develop a successful site.

2 simple steps.

• # 1: Develop lots of relevant content.
• # 2: Get your site in front of your target market.

By the way, the running went site went from 780 visitors a year to over 1,000 a day. Told you it was easy)

• Number of unique monthly visitors:  There is a difference between the total visitors and unique visitors.  You could have 10,000 hits on your website this month, but from only 2,000 people that viewed it 5 different times throughout the month.  Google Analytics provides tracking software that you or your webmaster can install on your website that will display the statistics you need.  So, before you get excited about that huge number of “visitors” to your site, make sure you determine how many of those hits are actual unique visitors.
• Number of monthly leads generated: So you’ve got a ton of visitors on your site, but you’re not converting nearly enough of those visitors into actual leads and opportunities.  Where’s the missing link?  The problem can be one thing or an accumulation of things, so the best way to figure out where the visitors or dumping off and moving onto another website is to look at your statistics, specifically which pages are getting the most hits.  Are they making it past your home page and actually reading through your site?  Or are they getting to the second step of your sales process and just stopping there?  You can tweak your sites copy (text), images, flow and organization to see what works best for your visitors.  Once you find that sweet spot, there’s no stopping you.
• Per lead generation cost: How much does it cost you to generate a single lead?  The easiest way to find out is to total up how much you’re spending on your website and online advertising per month, then divide it by how many leads you’re getting from those efforts.  That will tell you how much each individual lead is costing you.  If you’re not getting a 2:1 return on your investment, then you need to rethink your strategy and channels of marketing.
• Number of sales per month: If you’re running an ecommerce online store, this one’s definitely for you.  It’s a pretty simple concept: more sales, more profit.  High sales on your website are a good indicator that you’re doing it right and you should keep improving it.  Just make sure your advertising and marketing aren’t blowing your profit margin.  Rule of thumb is that your “cost of exposure” should be no more than 10% of your sales.  This “cost of exposure” includes your marketing, advertising, office/warehouse rent and website costs.  Make sure those numbers all line up.
• Average dollar amount of sales: Are you making a lot of sales, but the total dollar amount seems to be low?  One way to fix this is upselling.  Write down all the products and services that you offer your customers, then brainstorm other products/services that you could offer as accessories or additions to the original purchase.  In an ecommerce, upselling should be done with suggestions and a simple “Wait, here’s some items that go well with what you are buying” section in your checkout process.  If you’re a brick and mortar store or office, then upselling can be done with promotional efforts in your sales process and marketing flow.
• Per customer acquisition cost: So you figured out how much each lead is costing you, but you want to know how much each actual converted customer is costing you.  This one is simple too.  Just take the total cost of marketing, advertising and website maintenance per month, then divide that by how many customers you convert per month, and that’s how much each one of those customers is costing you.  Make sure it’s a much lower number than the actual revenue they bring in because, again, you don’t want your customer generation cost to blow your profit margin.

Hopefully, you’ll be able to measure the success of your website and online marketing efforts with these key elements information.  Use this to your advantage to tweak, improve and maintain your processes and you’ll definitely put yourself in a position for long term success.

Thanks,

Cody Schuldt
President

Logica Studios
cody@logicastudios.com
www.logicastudios.com
P: (281) 305-2626
@logicastudios
Facebook: Logica Studios

So, what’s the difference between that advertisement mail you throw in the trash and the one that you actually read?

Well, let’s take a look at the most successful direct mail campaign in history.  It’s a quite simple one that has been used in the exact same format and has kept the exact same wording for the last 20 years, and has single-handedly grossed over $1 Billion in sales for a publication that we’ve all heard of.  It’s by The Wall Street Journal and has literally been responsible for 55,000 subscriptions every year for over 20 years now.  Here’s the summarized version of the piece:

“Hello Joe,

We just wanted to take some time today to tell you a story that we think you might find interesting.

There once was two boys, both graduating from the same college at the same time and happened to be the best of friends.  They also happened to be very much alike in their interests and activities.  They both took jobs at the same manufacturing company.  They both embarked on their adult life with great ambitions and dreams for their futures and all the motivation in the world to accomplish those dreams.

Twenty-five years later, the two boys, now men, went to their 25 Year Reunion at their attended college.  They were still very similar.  Both were happily married.  Both had 3 children.  Both still worked at the same manufacturing company.  One was a manger.  The other was the President of the company… he read The Journal.”

This little story sold 100,000 subscriptions per year for 20 years, which is responsible for 55% of the total revenue of The Wall Street Journal over the last 20 years.  It didn’t sell you anything or throw any crazy offers at you.  It simply told you a story about two people that started out life neck-and-neck and ended up worlds apart within the same company and same time period.  The obvious implication is that the one that was the President of the company was so because he read The Wall Street Journal, but they didn’t have to draw the conclusion for you, which is more powerful than any sales pitch or crazy offers.

What is your marketing campaign doing right and what is it doing wrong?  What are your competitors doing and what works for them?  These are questions you should ask yourself when developing your marketing strategies and implementing them into your business.  Be creative, grab your prospects attention, and most importantly, keep their attention.  If you can accomplish that, then there’s no telling how fast your company can grow.

Social networking on the web is defined as “Using the internet’s network groups (such as Facebook and Twitter) to network and communicate between consumers and businesses.”  It’s most commonly used between groups of friends to upload pictures of themselves, post comments on each other’s pages, send messages to people, play games or even just chat with people they haven’t seen in a while.  But, that’s not all it’s good for.  Businesses use it on a daily basis to promote their products or services, events, industry information and keep their “followers” in the loop.

There are a lot of different social networks out there, the most popular by far being Facebook.  Then there’s Twitter, Linked In, MySpace, Flickr, Digg, Stumble Upon, Delicious and a multitude of others.  Now, which one(s) you should use is somewhat dependent on what kind of business you’re in.  If you own a local Bar & Grill, Facebook and Twitter would work, but the business networking site Linked In wouldn’t really benefit you.  On the other hand, if you’re a law firm, then Linked In would definitely be the way to go.  The real question really is: “What are your prospects using?” Below is a list of social networks and links to them for you to explore.

So, how does it benefit your business?  Content distribution.  The best way for a business to use social networking is to provide your “followers” content that they want to read.  Nobody cares about what you had for breakfast or what Starbucks you got your coffee at this afternoon!  You have to be able to provide them with information that they are actually looking for in order for them to care about what you have to say.

Being a knowledgeable and useful resource of information to your prospects positions you as the “go to” person for these topics.  Do some research and find out which social networks fit your business the best and provide the most exposure to your target market.  This will, in turn, grow your business beyond belief!

Enjoy!

Cody Schuldt
Logica Studios
(281) 305-2626
www.logicastudios.com
Facebook
@LogicaStudios

P.S.- I’d love to hear your feedback.  Respond to this email with your thoughts on the topic and let me know which social networks you use for your business.
List of Social Networks

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Linked In
• MySpace
• Hi5
• Delicious
• YouTube
• Digg
• Reddit
• Stumble Upon
• Blogger

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