Savvy e-commerce business owners have undoubtedly realized that old school advertising doesn’t exactly cut it anymore. As the ever-expanding internet world is becoming more fluid and dynamic, online companies are under increasing pressure to follow suit by tweaking the targeting and optimization of their ad campaigns. The latest buzz word in online advertising is ad retargeting, a new form of advertising, which gathers browsing information from individual consumers and uses that information for targeted ads on a network of their favorite sites. For e-commerce websites of any size or type, this new way of advertising has proven to be a veritable goldmine.

It happens to even the biggest of e-commerce sites. Consumers browse a selection of products or show a keen interest in a certain product category, but they never quite follow through with the call-to-action. In other words, a large chunk of the traffic being driven to e-commerce sites never gets converted into sales, either because the consumer decides to buy elsewhere or because he decides against a purchase altogether. Once a visitor leaves your site he may return in the future, but it is more than likely that at that point you have lost a potential customer forever.

Ad retargeting has the ability to turn this conversion loss around through a very simple process. So-called retargeting platforms place cookies on a consumer’s browser, which remember the exact products or services in which he has shown an interest. If that same person then visits other websites that form part of the same retargeting network (e.g. YouTube, social media websites or blogs), the platform will show him ads for those products he has browsed but never purchased. This is a fantastic way to consistently remind visitors that have not yet turned into customers of your company’s existence and to tease them into returning to your store to make a purchase.

Both smaller advert solutions companies and big network such as Yahoo and Google are now offering this type of retargeting platforms to their commercial clientele and many of them even make bold promises of a more than 100% increase in conversion rate. It is undeniable, though, that e-commerce websites greatly benefit from an increase in revenue thanks to ad retargeting, especially those who operate a pay-per-click system. Plus, by combining ad retargeting with thoroughly researched keyword campaigns, you can optimize your ads further for even better results.

Even though ad retargeting has been proven to increase click and conversion rates and improve brand awareness, a few potentially negative aspects should be taken into account before you commit yourself to an ad retargeting campaign, which can be pretty costly. Despite its potentially invasive nature, ad retargeting should at all times remain fair and transparent to the consumer. For instance, the ad frequency or the amount of ads consumers are exposed to within a certain time frame, should be capped at a reasonable number. Visitors of websites engaging in ad retargeting should also be made fully aware of the retargeting potential of the website and they should have the possibility to opt out of the campaign at any given time.

For e-commerce businesses that have the necessary financial means at their disposal, ad retargeting is a new and highly efficient way to make your company literally unforgettable.

How to find the perfect blog

Just because a blog appears on the first page of Google, does not necessarily mean it will be useful for your business. In order to create a valuable blog list, you need to find a balance between sites that are popular, those that optimally target your preferred customer base and those that you can see yourself working with in the long run. Firstly, perform a basic search by entering industry-related keywords in several search engines and compiling a list of the most popular and relevant results. In addition, there are many research tools available that often go unnoticed by even experience marketers, including Twitter directories like Twellow and WeFollow, ‘blog rolls’ with suggestions by fellow bloggers or even your own paid-for media database. However, if you don’t like the writing style of the blogger or if they do not actively use comments and social networking to their advantage, your money and efforts are better spent elsewhere.

How to get in touch

Popular online blogs usually receive a lot of marketing or promotional requests and, therefore, do not always publish their contact details openly on the website. But even if a contact form or email address have not been provided, there are a lot of online tools you can use to obtain the information you need. One of the most popular research tools are the so-called WhoIs websites, used by many marketing experts to find email addresses quickly and easily. People search engines like Pipl, 123People and ZoomInfo gather personal information from online directories, social network pages and public records and can prove very useful in providing information that is hard to find elsewhere. If all else fails, simply guessing at the email address could return some valuable results. To limit the time and effort this will take, you could download an automated tool like Rapportive, which recognizes email addresses as you type them in on Gmail and provides you with the owner’s personal information.

How to get them on board

Pitching to potential blogging contacts can be an uphill task. A well-written and convincing email, may do the trick if it falls into the right hands, but expect you’ll have to send out at least a few hundred emails before you get a reply. Live interaction by phone may yield better results and a meeting in person would be the icing on the cake. If the person in question is very busy or high-profile, a quick message on a social networking site like Twitter is still more likely to elicit a response than an email pitch. Once you manage to establish contact, your task is to convince your potential business partner why it would be worthwhile to work with you. This involves more than just outlining your company profile. Explain to them how they can benefit from your partnership in terms of exposure, reputation, payment, etc. Try to understand their business motivation and work out a plan to the advantage of both your enterprises. Finally, don’t hesitate to offer them a free gift in return for their services, such as a free logo or web design or an e-book containing detailed industry information on the topic you want them to write about. This little extra effort can make all the difference.

1. InMotion Web Hosting

Award-winning web hosting company InMotion is one of the go-to places for affordable, integrated e-commerce hosting solutions. From as little as $5.95 for a two-year subscription fee, InMotion offers both start-up and advanced online businesses customizable shopping cart software, unlimited MySQL databases and dedicated customer and technical support. With both shared and dedicated servers available, you are free to choose your level of independence, according to your individual needs.

2. Bluehost Hosting

If you are looking for a reliable web hosting option with shared server access, BlueHost Hosting might be a good option for you. For less than $7.00 per month, you will gain access to dedicated 24/7 customer and technical support teams, a reliable server with close to 100% uptime, a money back guarantee that is still valid after the trial period and automated server control panels such as Fantastico and Simple Scripts. With an unlimited amount of disk space and email accounts, the BlueHost packages are suitable for both small and medium-sized businesses.

3. FatCow

Having provided secure and stable hosting services for over 10 years, FatCow is one of the most experienced web hosting services around with affordable prices starting from $6.95 per month. Their range of packages includes comprehensive features – such as unlimited bandwidth, disk space and e-mails – integrated and simple software installation and site design tools and an impressive percentage of uptime. FatCow also offers an effective back-up system and a knowledgeable customer support team for all problems and queries.

4. Just Host

Just Host features in many of this year’s top-10 web hosting lists for a good reason. With free domains, templates and e-commerce tools on offer, this website boasts a wide selection of all-in-one packages for both beginning and advanced online business owners. You can take advantage of unlimited disk space, emails and SQL databases for a price that is lower than most monthly internet rates. User-friendliness and simple customization are guaranteed thanks to the use of cPanel.

Launch or maintain your business without a hitch in 2012 by choosing a reliable web host and checking their homepages for regular promotional deals.

To steer this process in the right direction it is important to know exactly where your traffic is coming from so you can optimize your marketing strategies if needed. Please do not be fooled into thinking that Google Analytics is the be all and end all of traffic analysis. There are many other services out there that offer more in-depth and practically usable information, often for a small fee. Here is a small selection.

Piwik

Like GA, Piwik is a free web analytics tool, which offers activity logs, geo-analytics, visitor behavior stats, keyword analysis and much more. But Piwik also offers distinct advantages to GA. As a downloadable software program, it has to be installed on your own server and therefore gives you full control over your own and your visitors’ privacy. Piwik is a plug-in based tool, which gives you the added flexibility to drag and drop the plug-in across your website and retrieve as much or as little information from every page as you want. Especially interesting for e-commerce purposes are the real-time analytics and the ability to track customers’ behavior during the check-out process.

HitsLink

From as little as $9.95 per month, HitsLink provides you with a detailed real-time analysis allowing you to track the direct influence changes made to your website have on visitor behavior. Also included in the HitsLink package are fraud detection tools and detailed reports on your ROI. With the option to add additional websites to the service for only $1.00 per site per month, this is a great service for business owners with a network of e-commerce sites. And with added features such as visitor navigation paths, you can find out exactly how users browse your website and how your page navigation should be improved or optimized.

Web-Stat

Another low-priced analytics tool primarily aimed at e-commerce is Web-Stat. From a minimum of $5.00 per month, webmasters receive geo-analysis, real-time statistics and detailed visitor reports. On top of that, Web-Stat has an extremely user-friendly installation process and user interface, which requires no html knowledge whatsoever. Unlike many other web tools, Web-Stat offers the possibility to view live interactions on your website and sends alerts by email or SMS in case of site downtime.

Omniture SiteCatalyst

The SiteCatalyst service of Omniture boasts a long and impressive list of current clientele, including big names like Microsoft, CNN and Wal-Mart. Real-time analytics and alerts, web navigation reports and customizable tracking solutions are only a few of the many services SiteCatalyst has to offer. Reports can be downloaded in a wide range of formats and Omniture even throws in a few handy training tools. The main downside of this comprehensive service is that it can prove to be quite costly and is therefore only really an option for established e-commerce businesses with a sizeable budget.

This is only the tip of the analytics iceberg and there is a wealth of web tracking tools out there for every business size, type and budget. If you follow the trends and statistics provided by these tools and optimize your website accordingly, there is every chance your business will be booming in no time.

1. Get Elastic

GetElastic is the world-renowned marketing blog by e-commerce software provider Elastic Path. Generally acclaimed and boasting more than 14,000 subscribers, this blog allows you to catch up with the latest marketing news and comment on or interact with posts via social media. A few of the topics covered are digital commerce, social media, conversion optimization and search marketing and, although mostly relevant for larger e-commerce businesses, the blog also covers important subjects for medium-sized to smaller online companies.

2. Econsultancy’s Digital Marketing Blog

Some of the topics covered on Econsultancy’s marketing blog are e-commerce, social media and SEO. Contributions are posted on a daily basis and include site reviews, news features, how-to articles and marketing tips and tools. Econsultancy is a UK-based online networking platform, which offers independent advice and marketing strategies to over 100,000 e-commerce professionals around the globe. Offering detailed research and training and development tools, this comprehensive website is perfectly placed to provide blog posts with the most relevant and up-to-date information about the world of e-commerce.

3. TopRank Online Marketing Blog

Lee Odden’s company TopRank is regarded as one of the top marketing consultancy firms in the business, offering innovative marketing strategies that can help e-commerce bosses attract and retain customers. In his blog, Odden shares the vital information he has gathered on SEO, digital marketing and search media optimization during a career spanning nearly 15 years. The TopRank blog features in a host of top 10 and 20 lists across the internet and its writers also frequently contribute to other influential online marketing blogs.

4. Outspoken Media Blog

The Outspoken Media Blog, written by Lisa Barone, contains informative and outspoken blog posts on SEO, social media and many more marketing-related topics. Compiled in easy, straightforward language, Outspoken Media is a comprehensive marketing blog that even lay people can understand. As the co-founder of Outspoken Media, Inc., an online marketing consultancy business, Ms. Barone certainly knows her stuff and writes insightful and cutting articles on a variety of SEO and marketing topics.

5. Neuromarketing

The Neuromarketing blog by Roger Dooley takes an entirely different, but innovative approach to online marketing. By combining research into the workings of the brain with marketing and e-commerce, neuroscience marketing focuses its strategies on customer behaviour and responses, thereby targeting both potential and existing customers in a highly effective way. As CEO of his own marketing consultancy firm, Dooley knows exactly how to implement his knowledge and experience of neuroscience in various forms of marketing and how to effectively convey this information to fellow entrepreneurs.

Like so many other aspects of business, effective marketing strategies are often born through experience, but an informative blog can supply you with all the second-hand information you need to turn any e-commerce business into a grand success.

There are two ways of doing this. Advertisers whose main objective is to spread brand awareness are most likely to go with the Cost per Thousand Impressions (CPM) option, where you pay a set amount for every thousand views. The most popular payment option, however, is so-called PPC or Pay Per Click advertising, where you pay Facebook a small fee for each click the advert generates. Especially for those looking to convert their visits to sales, PPC is the most cost-effective payment plan. Advertisers are asked to indicate how much money they are willing to spend on their campaign and Facebook then has the right to either accept or decline this offer.

The success or failure of your campaign mainly depends on how well it has been targeted and you can optimize this by selecting specific parameters during the set-up process, including location, demographics and personal interests.

To maximize your conversion rate and ensure you are not just paying Facebook for empty clicks, you have to make sure that only those people will click on your ad who could potentially be interested in the products or services you have to offer. Facebook will also calculate the estimated reach of your ad campaign, which should be small enough to target interested users only, but big enough to reach a wide range of people.

Many businesses can confirm that this method of advertising really does work. The official Facebook Ads page features scores of global corporations who have increased their traffic and revenue with an ad campaign on Facebook, including Unilever, Hyundai, Nokia and 20th Century Fox.

You don’t have to own a multi-million dollar business, however, to create a Facebook Ads success story and to prove that a good creative advert can obtain fantastic results in only a short space of time. A Louisiana-based company called Community Coffee prompted users to share their childhood experiences of drinking coffee milk, leading to a great amount of user interaction. The campaign was a huge success and allowed the company to gain an average of 1000 new Facebook fans per week.

Remember, you can sign up for incentiBox today for FREE as well to run your Facebook campaigns

We decided to look into Facebook Ad campaigns for our customers and help you understand the kind of ad campaigns you can run, how to best measure performance and maximize results.

Creating a Facebook Ads campaign could not be easier. When singing up, you are taken through a step-by-step guide to creating a customized advert with an eye-catching picture, title and description.

There are two types of advert to choose from:

1) The standard Facebook advert with customized message that leads directly to your site
2) The ‘sponsored stories’ option, which publishes your status updates and news feeds as ads — we think this is the best option for those businesses looking for maximum exposure, rather than conversion to sales.

A great advantage of Facebook Ads campaigns is that they are financially low-risk. Unlike other traditional media buying, you do not have to pay for your ads in advance, but you agree to pay Facebook for the actual traffic it generates (similar to Google AdWords). In our next post, we will share how to best maximize your campaign ROI!

Mobile commerce isn’t just burgeoning or “potentially rewarding” anymore. It’s here. And it’s thriving. In fact, Google stated that by the end of 2011, over half of Americans will have a smartphone, and over half of consumers are more likely to purchase from stores that have mobile sites. Moreover, according to Forbes, the number of  smartphone devices have been growing so much that global mobile payments volumes are expected “to grow at over 100% annually through 2014, to over approximately $55 billion per annum.”

More and more consumers are accessing the Internet using their mobile phones and tablets, and having a mobile-compatible website is the most effective way to catch up to them. Reach your customers even when they’re out and about, and optimize your online store for smartphones and tablets.

Don’t know where to start? Well, the good news is there are numerous sites and services out there that can get your online store up and running on mobile devices, with just a few clicks and keystrokes. Here are our four picks for tools and services that can enable you to go mobile:

1. goMobi – goMobi allows business owners to set up a mobile site in minutes, with the use of their Setup Assistant. Aside from being available in multiple languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Portugese and Chinese), they also offer several additional features including Mobile Analytics, QR Code Flyers, Device Detection, and more. To optimize your site for mobile search engines, goMobi sets up a site map, well-defined titles and descriptions, and they also allow site owners to provide keywords for their business.

2. Mobify– What’s unique about this company is that Mobify securely connects users directly to mobile sites, as opposed to routing them to proxy servers, in order to improve load times and increase security. In terms of SEO, Mobify keeps both desktop and mobile URLs identical. According to their site, with identical URLs, “Google will never serve separate search results for your mobile site. Separate results can divide your page rank over both sites, lowering your overall placement in search results.” Additionally, the company uses HTML5, CSS, and power JavaScript to fully integrate with your desktop website.

3. DudaMobile – DudaMobile is mostly well-known for its one-click website conversion and automatic synching with your regular site. They allow you to create your own mobile site with either ready-to-use templates or their advanced design studio. In addition, you’ll be able to include a “click-to-call” button as well as a mobile map with directions to make it easier for customers to get a hold of you.

4. Onbile – This free platform’s promise is to lets users create a mobile website in five minutes and in just three easy steps: Select and customize a template (they have 13 so far), add contents, and publish by simply entering one line of code in your index page. Users who arrive at your site using a mobile device will automatically be redirected to the mobile version.

Remember, part of being there for your customers means making your store as accessible as possible. Having a mobile site gives them the impression that your store is up to date and keeping up with the times, and more importantly, it tells your customers that you care about giving them an excellent user experience even when they’re on the go.

Excellent Source

Volution’s services include web design, market, SSL certificates, domain names, and a large number of templates. These are just a handful of the outstanding features that more than 30,000 subscribers have found to be exceptional. They help to build a site that is aesthetically pleasing, attracts customers, and provide a pain-free setup measured in minutes, not hours. With more than 120 templates that are free, stylish, and customizable they are a great choice for many lines of product being sold. Their designs are sure to impress new subscribers and enhance the opportunities for existing subscribers.

Features

Volusion offers a wide variety of features with each of their packages including credit card processing to allow the site to easily accept credit card payments. This is a great advantage to boost sales. By making the eCommerce store look exceptional with their excellent designs, they help retain customers by making the products easy-to-access and easy-to-purchase.

With fraud detection and fraud scores, customers can feel secure in knowing that their credit card information is safe and secure, and search engine optimization ensure top ratings on the engines. In addition, coupons and discounts can be created, along with critiques from customers using the site; this includes e-mails and a newsletter.

Pricing

Because Volution offers a wide variety of pricing structures, they have almost a cafeteria style selection of features and services in a wide range of prices. For around $19 a month, up to 100 products can be set up, and there are no set up or transaction fees, and offer numerous templates, mobile applications, tools for social media, live chat, and several other great services that are offered.

At a mid-price range of $59 per month with the Silver package, up to 1000 products can be set up. With all the services of the lower priced products, this adds a data transfer rate of 5GB. At the Platinum or upper-range of $149 monthly, the pricing includes an unlimited number of products, 20GB transfer rate, all the features of the other packages, an on-boarding coach, an assigned account manager, and API access. The prices are reasonable and the services and packages are unbeatable.

Image Credit: Volusion

Today, we want to share with you a very cool stationary design store (perfect for the holidays) – The Nimbus Factory, and their story We are amazed by their ability to launch such a creative brand from four different cities!

The Nimbus Factory is a fresh, young multi-disciplinary design collective dedicated to creating illustrative paper goods and decor. The 2010 and 2011 lines have produced eco-friendly yearly and event calendars, journals, playing cards, tote bags, holiday and everyday cards, recipe cards (as seen in How Magazine’s 2011 Business Annual), and more!

These products have also been featured on Southern Flourish, Apartment Therapy, Going Home to Roost, decor8, and other design blogs and online magazines.

The talent behind The Nimbus Factory consists of two designers (Claire Teschel and Phyllis Wong) and two illustrators (Emily Gross and Julia Kuo). Each brings something different to the company; they have worked with small and large firms, designed and sold paper products out of their own homes and for one of the largest greeting card retailers in the country, and represented booths at local craft shows as well as the NYSS (New York Stationery Show).

Thanks to Gmail and video chat, the four ladies have managed to start and run this collective from their respective four corners of the country – Savannah, San Diego, San Francisco, and Cleveland. Curiously enough, the first time they all met in person was to represent The Nimbus Factory at Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco after their first 2010 product launch. The name “The Nimbus Factory” reflects the team’s quirky, optimistic attitude towards finding the means to create products that previously existed only in their minds and on scraps of notepaper tacked to bulletin boards!

We love small businesses and continue to be inspired by these creative talents and their ideas. Here’s to creativity & eCommerce!!

Yours truly,
Team incentiBox