I’ve always thought the best way to get traffic for your cart is to start a blog and become a subject matter expert. Apparently this strategy is now called catablogging. What a great neologism! 
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Catablogging
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
near e-commerce
If you don’t have a shopping cart but are still using your website for marketing, elementfusion.com has some design principles for your site.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Marketing classical music
This morning, NPR’s Morning Edition did a story about British violinist Tasmin Little, who is releasing her latest CD free on the Internet and doing a series of performances in non-traditional classical music venues, such as factories, airports and shopping malls. It’s all in an effort to draw more people to classical music, she says.
Question: are your marketing efforts same-old same-old, or are you making an effort to reach out to new customers or people who might have never considered your products?
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Post-Holiday Wrapup
You thought it was over?? It’s never over!
The folks at GetElastic.com have provided their favorite holiday marketing links to get your cart in tip-top shape for next Christmas! (Want to look for other major holidays? Check out Earth Calendar for ideas.)
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Creating a powerful web presence
Another great post from The Nametag Guy. I wonder what his opinion on posting frequency is?
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Give a man a fish …
… and you’ll be able to sell him a boat! I thought this campaign from Triumph boats was incredibly clever.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Almost 90% of British Online Buyers Experience Transaction Problems
New work from our friends over at Tealeaf on the UK online experience:
A couple of interesting take-aways:
- Website operability issues lead to a general perception of insecurity
- Operability is more important than loyalty programs
… 40% of those who experience problems when conducting an online transaction reported that, when they have transaction issues, they are likely or very likely to question a company’s ability to keep their private information secure.
92% of British consumers who have booked travel online reported that the ability to complete a transaction without encountering a problem was important or very important to them, whereas only 24% reported that the travel provider’s loyalty or rewards program was important or very important.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Building trust, breaking trust
A recent post on Seth Godin’s blog about trolling calls from the BBB reminded me of the calls I used to get from these losers who would surf the whois database looking for new domain registrations.
Losers: Hi Scott? This is Jason!
Me: Huh?
Losers: Jason! From aPlus dot net! We saw you just bought some domains – do you need any help developing them?
Me: You’re pitching web development to me? Did you not notice that my business was web development? Didn’t the name That Software Guy hit you with a clue-by-four?
Losers: Ummm…. no….
Me: So now you’re spamming me with solicitation calls?? Is this your business model – to violate the TOS of whois and phone spam people?
Losers: Umm…. no …. ummm… it’s not really a solicitation; it’s … ummm…
It went downhill from there, believe it or not.
I was so appalled that I did a Google search on them … apparently lots of other people feel the same way.
What’s the take-away? There are legitimate and not-so-legitimate ways of advertising. The old cloaked sales call (“call me back!” with no reason; “I’ve been trying to reach you” when they haven’t, etc.) falls into the latter category. BBB should be ashamed of itself. There’s some question as to whether their business model is sustainable in the first place; this kind of tactic will only accelerate their decline.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Transactional Email: Marketing Opportunity?
Transactional emails are comfort food. “Thank you for your order from ourstore.com …” with a shipping estimate and order management link is the sort of post-sale follow up most customers expect. They get opened and read. So why are so few marketers leveraging them?
Elaine’s suggestion is great. I think I’ll add this as a switchable option to my cross-selling software.
