Marketing & Advertising
The marketing of an ecommerce business is paramount to its success. Our coverage includes insights on email marketing, content marketing, pay-per-click advertising, social media marketing — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest — affiliate marketing, video advertising, and much more.
Content Marketing | Email Marketing | Google Ads | Influencers & Affiliates | Social Media-
Email Marketing
Writing Excellent Email Subject Lines
October 20, 2011 • Armando Roggio
A well written email subject line can increase open rates and, potentially, increase conversions. An email with a poorly written subject will probably get deleted. Subject line composition is as important to an email-marketing program as earning subscribers and providing great content ...
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Social Media
Understanding Facebook’s New ‘Insights’ Analytics
October 18, 2011 • Paul Chaney
Facebook recently launched a new, enhanced version of Insights, its analytics package for Fan pages. The old version contained lots of information — demographics, the total number of Likes/Unlikes, number of average daily users, and total page and post impressions — but nothing that hel...
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Email Marketing
Email Case Study: Allrecipes.com Makes Daily Frequency Work
October 17, 2011 • Carolyn Nye
For many ecommerce sites, sending marketing emails every day may be scary, fearing that recipients will unsubscribe based on the number of emails they are receiving. However, sending daily emails ...
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Influencers & Affiliates
SEO: Using Affiliates for Search Marketing
October 13, 2011 • Jill Kocher Brown
Working in the organic search industry, I’ve often had large search marketing clients who envied the success of their affiliates, which sometimes outperformed their own in-house search marketing efforts. But Carolyn Tang Kmet opened my eyes to the ways that search affiliates can actuall...
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Google Ads
Paid Search: Can Anyone Challenge Google?
October 12, 2011 • Marcia Kaplan
We can end the suspense right now. It's not likely that any other company is going to be a real contender in paid search anytime soon. The Search Alliance formed by Microsoft's adCenter and Yahoo! makes Bing the default search engine on Yahoo! pages. Although Microsoft has spent a good ...
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Social Media
Social Media: Become a ‘One Percenter’
October 10, 2011 • Paul Chaney
Years ago, usability expert Jakob Nielsen developed the "Community Participation Pyramid," which some observers now call the "90-9-1 Principle." It states: 90 percent of web users are lurkers — read or observe, but don't contribute; 9 percent of users contribute from time to time, bu...
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Social Media
Facebook Platform Changes, Part 2: Pages
October 4, 2011 • Paul Chaney
At its recent f8 developers' conference, Facebook announced extensive changes to its platform, including changes to personal "Profiles" and business-oriented "Pages." I described the changes to Profiles in last week's article. This article, below, addresses changes to Pages. 1. Intera...
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Google Ads
Ramping Up Holiday Pay-per-click Advertising
September 29, 2011 • Scott Smigler
The holidays are coming. For many online merchants, this means dramatically increased revenue and conversion rates. Start ramping up for holiday pay-per-click advertising now to ensure that you maximize your profits — and build momentum for 2012. Below I’ve provided six tips that shou...
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Social Media
Facebook Platform Changes, Part 1: Profiles
September 26, 2011 • Paul Chaney
At f8 2011, Facebook's annual conference held last week for developers and entrepreneurs, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a series of changes to the social network's platform. Most of the changes affect personal profiles, but some have to do with how Fan pages work. I will o...
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Social Media
5 New Facebook Shopping Carts
September 19, 2011 • Paul Chaney
It has been more than a year since I wrote about Facebook shopping carts. That article was titled “Six Facebook Applications to Sell Your Products.” In this article, I’ll review five ...
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Content Marketing
15 ‘Light-Blogging’ Sites
September 16, 2011 • Sig Ueland
More people are light blogging. According to Quantcast, in the last year Tumblr tripled its visits per month to over 300 million, 8.5 times more page views per month than full-blogging counterpart Wordpress.com. Here is a list of light-blogging platforms. There are micro-blogging platf...
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Marketing & Advertising
Nearly 1-in-3 Adults Use Location-Based Services
September 15, 2011 • Armando Roggio
According to a report released last week, 28 percent of American adults use some form of location-based service, either on a mobile device or via a social network. The report from ...
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Email Marketing
Email Case Study: Travelzoo’s Value and Simplicity
September 14, 2011 • Carolyn Nye
Email campaigns can be extraordinarily complex. There are dozens of elements within any campaign that may affect overall results. These elements include subject lines, creative text, calls to action, product offers, timing, frequency, and audience considerations. Email marketers try to ...
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Marketing & Advertising
7 Keys to Managing Online Communities
September 12, 2011 • Paul Chaney
In last week’s article, "3 Inexpensive Tools to Build Your Own Social Network," I reviewed three platforms to build niche online communities. However, making a community a vital part of your marketing efforts takes more effort than selecting the platform. It needs active management. Thi...
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Social Media
3 Inexpensive Tools to Build Your Own Social Network
September 6, 2011 • Paul Chaney
When we think of social networks, large communities like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn typically come to mind. There is, however, another type of social network that often goes overlooked: niche communities. Ecommerce merchants should consider creating their own niche online communit...
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Marketing & Advertising
Adult Internet Users Are Socialites, Study Finds
September 6, 2011 • Armando Roggio
According to a new study, 65 percent of American adult Internet users have interacted on a social media site like Facebook, Google+, or LinkedIn, supporting the often cited importance of social media marketing. The social networking report from the Pew Internet & American Life Proj...
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Marketing & Advertising
Podcasting Engages Shoppers; Steps for Getting Started
September 1, 2011 • Armando Roggio
Podcasting can be an effective way to engage shoppers and encourage brand or site loyalty, resulting in more sales. What's more, podcasting is relatively easy and inexpensive for businesses small and large. Nearly any marketer can start podcasting almost immediately. If one needs more ...
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Social Media
Google’s +1 Expansion Boosts Search and Social
August 31, 2011 • Jill Kocher Brown
The Google +1 button now plays a much more visible role in promoting content in search and social marketing. Much like Facebook's Like button, Google's +1 button allows — as of last week — Google+ users to share a comment, an image, a headline and a snippet of text when +1'ing a page. C...
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Social Media
Understanding EdgeRank, Facebook’s ‘Quality Score’ for Wall Posts
August 30, 2011 • Paul Chaney
Just because you post a status update to your Facebook Wall doesn't mean it gets syndicated to each of your Fans. Last year, Facebook created an algorithm called EdgeRank that determines which posts get shown to whom in the Newsfeed. Thanks to EdgeRank, every post that gets published ...
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Google Ads
10 Pay-Per-Click Details You Cannot Delegate
August 29, 2011 • Scott Smigler
Many ecommerce merchants manage their own pay-per-click advertising campaigns. Others use in-house PPC managers, or outsource to PPC consulting firms. Regardless of how pay-per-click advertising is managed, there are some aspects of it that need direct involvement from merchants — or t...
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Social Media
6 Tools to Manage Your Social Media Marketing
August 29, 2011 • Armando Roggio
Social media marketing is one of the most-discussed marketing tactics in the ecommerce industry. Many companies are devoting a greater percentage of resources and effort into engaging customers and prospects ...
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Social Media
10 Tips for Integrating Email and Social Media
August 25, 2011 • Paul Chaney
Is social media diluting email marketing? For many ecommerce merchants, email marketing remains a staple. In a recent interview with Practical eCommerce, Listrak CEO Ross Kramer said, "We just came back from Etail [trade show] this week, and from the retailers that I was talking to up...
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Email Marketing
3 Tips to Boost Email Conversion Rates
August 24, 2011 • Armando Roggio
According to published reports, some 92 percent of American adults use email. Many of them are subscribers to one or more email newsletters or product alerts. So it is little ...
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Email Marketing
Create RSS-to-Email Campaigns with MailChimp
August 22, 2011 • Armando Roggio
Email is one of the most potent tactics in the ecommerce marketer's toolbox. Recent studies — which I addressed last week — indicate that email is a favorite activity for adult American Internet users. MailChimp, a leading email-marketing service provider, has a terrific feature that a...
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Social Media
Facebook’s Business Playbook: 4 Educational Portals
August 22, 2011 • Paul Chaney
Facebook has assembled four educational portals to help businesses manage their use of the platform. The portals cover topics such as creating Facebook pages, advertising on Facebook, selling products on Facebook, and using Facebook for marketing. I'll review each of the portals in t...
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Email Marketing
How to Calculate the Value of an Email Subscriber
August 19, 2011 • Carolyn Nye
Many merchants rely on email marketing to drive sales. Increasing the number email subscribers can drive sales even more. By establishing and understanding the value of an email subscriber, merchants can decide how much money and effort to spend growing their lists. This article will...
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Email Marketing
Listrak CEO on Email Versus Social Media; Segmentation Strategies
August 18, 2011 • PEC Staff
Email remains among the most popular marketing vehicles for ecommerce merchants. But the email marketing business is changing, with new auto response tools and customer acquisition strategies — and social media alternatives. To address the use of email for ecommerce merchants, we spoke ...
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Email Marketing
Email and Search Still Top User Activities, Study Shows
August 17, 2011 • Armando Roggio
American adults are more likely to email and search than any other online activities, according to the results of a recently released survey. The Pew Internet & American Life Project has been monitoring online behavior for nearly a decade. Most recently, Pew Internet found that ema...
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Social Media
Social Networking for Solo Entrepreneurs; 7 Suggestions
August 16, 2011 • Paul Chaney
Solo entrepreneurs wear many hats when it comes to running a business. One of these “hats” includes managing social media activities. To reach a point where social media engagement produces meaningful ...
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Google Ads
Google Study Finds PPC Traffic ‘Incremental’ to Organic
August 11, 2011 • Armando Roggio
A new Google study reports that pay-per-click ads tend to generate new site visitors and do not simply divert traffic from organic search result links, as some marketers have feared. PPC ...