According to comScore, the top 10 e-commerce spending days in 2010 and 2009 all occurred in November and December. With the holiday season in full swing during those months, that's probably not a huge surprise.
What is surprising, though, is that Cyber Monday - generally perceived as THE day for online retailers - isn't actually the biggest spending day of the year. In fact, in 2010, Cyber Monday wasn't even in the top 10 spending days.
So, what does Cyber Monday's "fall from grace" mean for online retailers?
- Cyber Monday saw $947 million in sales. That's a lot of money. The fact that at least 10 other days saw more money means, simply, that there is a lot of cash that consumers are willing to spend online during the holidays. Make sure you're taking advantage with a marketing plan that caters to the entire season, not just Cyber Monday.
- In 2010, six days hit the $1 billion mark. Time email campaigns, PPC campaigns, shipping speicals, and coupon / promo code deals around big spending days. The stats prove that more people are shopping and buying online during these days anyway, so capitalize on that and make sure they're spending some of their money with you. On a side note, projections indicate that in 2011, the number of days that will hit the $1 billion mark will grow to nine.
- The recent explosion in usage of mobile devices has also changed the Cyber Monday game. With the advent of couch commerce (yes, it's happening), people can sprawl out on the couch after Thanksgiving dinner, watch the football game, and shop online via their tablet or smartphone. Note that Thanksgiving Day saw $355 million in sales last year, and expect that number to grow in 2011. Ultimately, the more shopping people get done from the couch after Thanksgiving dinner, the less shopping they'll have left for Cyber Monday. So, if you don't already, make sure you have a mobile-ready website for the holidays (and any other time of year, really).
The numbers speak volumes. The fact that Cyber Monday is no longer the e-commerce holy grail should not be in question. What should be in question, though, is this: Is your e-commerce website keeping up with the changing holiday-season demands of consumers? If not, you're potentially missing out on a lot of sales and revenue.
NOTE: Data in the calendar is provided by the MasterCard SpendingPulse 2010 Actuals
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Do you find that people don’t complete forms or don’t respond to the calls to action on your website? The problem could be your content. The content you have on your website plays a big role in whether or not people take the action you want them to take when they arrive at your website. Here are some quick tips that will help you develop content that converts.
- Insert calls to action in the right places. Often times you’ll see a call to action at the end of the content on a page. While this is great, there are other places you can insert calls to action. Try adding CTAs to title tags, headlines and even in between section headers.
- Emotional appeals. Content that strikes the heart of your website visitors will help them know that you understand their struggles and have a solution for them.
- Bold-face key phrases and words. Bold-face font isn’t just great for SEO purposes. By bolding key phrases or words, you make the most important parts of your content stand out.
- Appropriate CTAs. Think about where your website visitor is in the buying process. If they’re still in the information seeking stage, then a call to action urging them to “buy now” won’t entice them. It could actually have the opposite effect and turn them off.
- Don’t make assumptions. Assuming that your website visitor knows what they want and will find it easily on your website is a big faux pas. Guide visitors through your site and provide them with the information they need to make a purchase.
- Bullet points and headings. Bullet points and headings break up your content and make it easier to digest. In addition, they help you get right to the point of what the page is about.
- Tell a story. Just like tapping into emotion, telling a story makes the content on your website relatable. If website visitors identify with the story you tell, they’re more likely to take the desired action.
These are just a few ways to help you ensure that your website content converts, but there are many more ways you can improve the content on your website. See how Fathom writes high-converting content for our clients.
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You're embracing the holiday shopping season. You’re ready to hit your customers with some really great deals, keep them in the loop about all your specials, and entice them to buy your products. And you’re going to use emails as one of the ways to do it.
How can you ensure your emails have the greatest impact when your customers open them? By providing the information people really want in a digestible, easy-to-access and thoroughly enjoyable way.
I recently read an article on the Get Elastic Ecommerce Blog called Holiday Email: A 12 Point List to Check Twice before You Hit Send This wonderful resource sparked some additional ideas for me and really served as the inspiration for this post.
As you're crafting your holiday emails, keep the following tips in mind:
- Create subject lines that pop. Want to get noticed among a sea of other inbox messages? Have a subject line that really catches your readers' attention. Be sure to use their name and stay away from any generic “happy holidays” lines.
- Calls to action are key. All your competitors are sending out promotional emails too (or at least they should be), so you need to make sure yours give clear direction and offer obvious value. In other words, tell your customers what you want them to do, and why they should do it. And don't forget about prioritization. Having multiple CTAs is fine, but the one that directs your customer to take action on your site should be the most prominent. Nothing says “notice me!” quite like a big ol’ button.
- Make it obvious why customers should choose you. There are tons of deals out there, and customers’ inboxes tend to get flooded around the holidays. Make your business stand out by offering a better deal than your competitors. Free shipping is pretty much a must, but think about other benefits you can provide as well. Member discounts, special clubs, rewards programs and money-back guarantees are all good places to start.
- Showcase just how popular your products are. Use customer reviews, testimonials, social mentions and ratings to show how much existing customers like your products. These kinds of third-party endorsements are huge for online shoppers.
- Images are great, but images with words are better. Showcasing your products is important, but be sure to include brief explanations to accompany the images. Tell people why these products are a great buy, and who on their list will love them.
- Highlight holiday shipping policies and create a sense of urgency. Clearly explain your policy for shipping around the holidays. When it comes to giving gifts, people care about arrival times. Also, having a countdown displayed on every email that corresponds ordering dates with delivery dates is a great tactic to encourage quick buying.
- Get your mobile site up and running. Think about how many people you see using Smartphones every day. Lots of them are checking their email, and they’d like to be able to go right from your message to your mobile site to make a purchase. Make sure it works effectively (and loads quickly!) on every type of device. You don't want to contribute to the kind of customer raged that's caused by slow mobile devices.
- Always plan for last-minute buyers. There are more of them than you might think. And they love gift cards. Send an email right before the holidays targeted directly at these kinds of holiday shoppers.
Holiday emails are a great way to ignite customer interest, increase sales and boost your brand. Take advantage of everything these effective advertisements can do for you this season by following the eight easy tips above.
If you're looking for some inspiration, I recommend downloading Aweber's Email Marketing Christmas Lookbook. It's a great resource full of awesome holiday emails that'll really get your creative juices flowing.
*Image provided by Aweber's Email Marketing Christmas Lookbook
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Smart companies continue to jump on the bandwagon of social media today the way businesses clamoured for webites in the Mid-Ninties. Can you blame them?
Social media sites and services such as Twitter and Facebook are wildly popular, easy to use by everyone from ten-year old kids to grandmothers, and the interactive engagement factor makes them quite a bit of fun while contributing to the "15 minutes of fame" factor that artist Andy Warhol famously predicted in the Sixties.
An article from ClickZ penned by Liana Evans addresses how Internet video can contribute to the success of social media online. Ms. Evans posits that the "craze" to create a viral video that racks-up tens of thousands of views is rather fruitless in the long run unless it has some form of branding basis, since once a video has been watched and shared, that's about it in terms of action. Viral videos rarely make someone buy anything!
On the other hand, there are 4 uses of online videos that can be effective and influential with viewers/buyers and these video types can be tied into social media campaigns as well for additional impact. In a nutshell, those video types are:
- How-To videos - Easy to watch and to learn from, How-to videos show viewers that the product they're thinking about buying can be used by them successfully. And since a picture is worth a thousand words, viewers can learn quickly how to operate or execute certain maneuvers instead of combing through laborious (and often badly written) manuals and written instructions.
- Product videos - Once considered the main stumbling block of online purchasing (the lack of 3-D viewing and tactility, that is), consumers can now watch videos that show a product item from many angles, as well as see it at work. This takes the fear of a rip-off as well as doubts about a product's performance out of the minds of potential customers. The product video answers questions viewers haven't even thought to ask as of yet!
- Audience participation videos - Consider these snappy little darlings to be the 'action testimonials' of the website world. When viewers get to watch other real-world people using products they themselves wish to purchase, it allays theirs fears about performance anxiety from the product, and unconsciously convinces them that "they can do it too." Participation videos are very compelling and convincing, because one cannot argue with the validity of seeing a product being used by someone just like themselves.
- Brand perception videos - No one comes to a company in a vacuum; that is, most folks have some preconceptions about companies, true or false. Online branding videos enable you the producer to control what message and what angle about your company you want consumers to absorb. Benevolent propaganda? Maybe, but if you're out to get people to think about your brand or products in a new way, there's not much better than fun, humorous, enlightening or stimulating videos that shed new light or show a new side to your brand or product.
You can read the entire ClickZ artilce about video uses for social media here. And feel free to reach out to Fathom's video department as well - we'll answer any questions you may have about video uses for your products and services as well as explain to you why online video is the affordable, highyl-effective solution for Internet marketing today. We look forward to hearing from you.
No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome. »At Fathom, we pride ourselves on usability and conversion rate optimization. This emphasis covers a wide range of the online experience, from readable web copy to HTML design.
One solid way to test the conversion rate of a landing page with a specific goal, e.g. form submission, is to run a traditional A/B test, where one version is tested against another by offering different audiences different versions of the same page.
See Fathom's particularly good example of this A/B testing as currently featured on Which Test Won? (a limited-time "Test of the Week"). It indicates the conversion potential of Web copy on landing pages. Take the simple test yourself! It will take you less than two minutes, and you will learn something valuable about writing for the Web.
Vote today!
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What better way to exercise both your civic and marketer duties during this Election Week? You can thank me later.
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Read more about usability, conversion optimization and writing good Web copy on this blog.
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