Category

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 & Text Marketing | Google Ads | Influencers & Affiliates | Social Media

Marketing & Advertising
Getting Started with Marketing Automation (for Ecommerce)

July 11, 2018 • Anna Kayfitz

Marketing automation is the process of using software to manage repetitive marketing tasks. Examples include automated emails based on a user’s action and automated social media posts. Offering relevant cross-sells ...
Social Media
See Competitors’ Ads on Facebook and Twitter

July 4, 2018 • Robert Brady

Anyone can now see what ads are being run by a Facebook page and what tweets are being promoted by a Twitter account. This is hugely helpful competitive intelligence for ...
Content Marketing
5 Content Marketing Ideas for August 2018

July 3, 2018 • Armando Roggio

There is something magical about content. Articles, video, and interactive web pages can engage potential customers and build trust and a sense of reciprocity. Content marketing is the act of creating,
Content Marketing
9 Ways to Break Your SEO Writer’s Block

June 29, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown

Contextual relevance is one of the primary elements that determines search rankings. But relevance requires words, and words require inspiration. As search engine marketers, we have access to many resources to overcome writer’s block. Here are nine of my favorites.
Marketing & Advertising
Google’s Smart Campaigns May Help Small Brick-and-click Retailers

June 28, 2018 • Armando Roggio

Google’s new “Smart campaigns” is the first advertising product under the new Google Ads brand. Smart campaigns use machine-learning algorithms to help small businesses become more successful online advertisers. The tool ...
Email & Text Marketing
What to Include in Ecommerce Emails to Drive Performance

June 18, 2018 • Carolyn Nye

The biggest challenge in email marketing is getting recipients to open the message in the first place. Once they do that, the content will determine whether they click. In this ...
Social Media
Do-it-yourself Instagram Guide for Lifestyle Brands

June 14, 2018 • Viktoria Kanevsky

Instagram is a critical social network for fashion and lifestyle merchants, for two reasons. First is brand representation. Branding is how consumers perceive a company. Instagram is mainly visual — images ...
Google Ads
Report: Internet Trends Favor Amazon, Mobile, Social

June 5, 2018 • Robert Brady

On May 30, Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the venture capital firm, delivered her “Internet Trends 2018” report at the Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.
Content Marketing
5 Content Marketing Ideas for July 2018

June 4, 2018 • Armando Roggio

Need content marketing ideas to fuel your ecommerce business in July 2018? Consider being nice to New Jersey, introducing a little pandemonium, or focusing on customers and products. Content marketing is ...
Social Media
Navigating Changes to Facebook Ads

May 27, 2018 • Michael Stancil

In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook is running its own advertising campaign. The ads proclaim how terrible Facebook was, how it compromised your data, and how it’s ...
Email & Text Marketing
5 Ways to Make a Good Email Great

May 18, 2018 • Carolyn Nye

Consumers are inundated with marketing emails. The challenge for ecommerce merchants is to craft subject lines and body content that are relevant to recipients, who typically scan their inboxes to ...
Marketing & Advertising
Is Text Messaging a Game-changer for Ecommerce?

May 17, 2018 • Armando Roggio

Mobile devices are ubiquitous. I don't go anywhere without mine, and I bet you have a smartphone with you now. But are you doing everything you can to connect with shoppers on mobile? According to a survey from Quiq, a provider of chat software, 66 percent of consumer-respondents ranked mobile messaging as their preferred channel for contacting a company. I recently spoke with Chris Albro, head of enterprise sales for Quiq.
Marketing & Advertising
Offline Sales Tips for Online Merchants

May 10, 2018 • Curtis McHale

Many brick-and-mortar stores have found success in migrating online. But the trend has reversed somewhat. Pure-play ecommerce companies are finding success with physical stores. We addressed the topic last month,
Content Marketing
5 Content Marketing Ideas for June 2018

May 6, 2018 • Armando Roggio

The Stanley Cup playoffs, summertime weddings, Father’s Day, and old fishing stories provide content marketers with interesting topics to cover in June 2018. Content marketing is the act of creating, publishing,
Social Media
The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing

May 5, 2018 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence. Like viruses, such strategies take advantage of rapid multiplication to explode the message to thousands, to millions.
Marketing & Advertising
18 Mother’s Day Marketing Ideas for Lifestyle and Fashion Merchants

May 4, 2018 • Viktoria Kanevsky

Mother’s Day can generate substantial revenue for fashion and lifestyle merchants. In this post, I’ll offer 18 tactics and strategies to spur ecommerce sales during this important shopping holiday. Products and ...
Google Ads
AdWords Smart Bidding: Dos and Don’ts

May 1, 2018 • Robert Brady

"Smart Bidding" is the umbrella term in AdWords for automated bid strategies. Smart bids can vary — from targeting page placement to outranking a competitor. There are seven Smart Bidding options. In this post, I'll address each one.
Social Media
Getting Reacquainted with LinkedIn Ads

April 19, 2018 • Michael Stancil

Advertising on LinkedIn has come a long way. But the platform still isn’t getting the attention it deserves. Until now. With Facebook’s data controversy and the renewed concerns about online privacy, advertisers ...
Marketing & Advertising
Upgrading an AdWords Landing Page Experience

April 17, 2018 • Armando Roggio

The web page that potential customers see when they click on a Google AdWords ad could be affecting how much an ecommerce business pays per click and where it appears in search results. Google AdWords Landing Page Experience is a measurement of how well an ad's landing page serves potential customers. It describes whether Google believes the landing page is likely to meet user expectations.
Email & Text Marketing
15 Essential Elements of Every Marketing Email

April 13, 2018 • Carolyn Nye

A timely email promotion is an easy and cost-efficient way to kick-start sales. But in the haste of a tight turnaround or deadline, it’s easy to make email composing mistakes, to miss crucial elements or even errors and typos. In this post, I'll offer a checklist of 15 items that every marketing email should have. Print it and use it for your email deployments.
Content Marketing
7 Key Details to Enhance an Ecommerce Blog

April 12, 2018 • Marcia Yudkin

Many ecommerce merchants publish a blog. But they don’t always assess its overall effectiveness. Has it boosted sales? Does it generate reader engagement? In this post, I’ll review a strategy for ...
Marketing & Advertising
How to Write Text Ads in AdWords, for Ecommerce

April 12, 2018 • Armando Roggio

AdWords, Google’s advertising platform, is the engine driving online sales for many small and mid-sized ecommerce operations. Sellers that want to get the most from text ads in AdWords should ...
Marketing & Advertising
How to Create Video Ads That Sell

April 9, 2018 • Armando Roggio

Direct response video ads on YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, and similar platforms have the potential to drive shoppers to your ecommerce site and help your company sell more. While the creative substance ...
Content Marketing
5 Content Marketing Ideas for May 2018

April 5, 2018 • Armando Roggio

Whether your business launches a new video series, composes a post about filmmaker Wes Anderson, or features any of the month’s many holidays, there is no shortage of content marketing ...
Marketing & Advertising > Merchant Voice
Newsletter frustrations result in new target audience

March 27, 2018 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

Last month I noticed declining subscriptions across my three email newsletters. To offset the reduction, I decided to revise my signup popup box. I've used popup discount offers on other retailers’ websites. So I decided to do the same on mine: offering a discount to new email subscribers. I asked my developer to revise my existing newsletter popups on both websites — My Wedding Décor and My Event Décor — to include a 15 percent discount for subscribers’ first orders.
Social Media
High-performing Facebook Ad Placements (in 4 Steps)

March 23, 2018 • Michael Stancil

In 2018, Facebook ads can appear on Facebook itself, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and the Audience Network. Facebook is no longer a one-option platform. Advertisers must now keep a close eye on how their ads render on all platforms. Otherwise, you might be wasting money. Consider Instagram and Messenger, for example.
Email & Text Marketing
How Does Your Email Marketing Program Stack Up?

March 20, 2018 • Carolyn Nye

Email is the workhorse of direct marketing. The basics have remained consistent for years. Best practices from 10 years ago are still relevant. But email marketing is evolving. Segmentation, personalization, mobile:
Marketing & Advertising
For Ecommerce, Better to Use Search Ads or Display?

March 19, 2018 • Armando Roggio

For online sellers, digital advertising is not a choice between search ads or display ads, but rather understanding how each of these tools can help generate sales. The term "search advertising" describes placing ads on a search engine results page. Search ads target specific keywords and seek to capture potential customers intent on finding some piece of information or, perhaps, finding a product.
Social Media
For Digital Ads, Minimal Text Converts the Best

March 9, 2018 • Michael Stancil

When it comes to digital advertising, less is more. Ad platforms such as Google AdWords, Twitter, and Facebook have character limits. And that's good. No matter how complicated your product or how compelling your offer, brevity nearly always produces more conversions, in my experience.
Content Marketing
Content Marketing Can Drive Long-tail SEO

March 5, 2018 • Armando Roggio

A robust content marketing campaign may attract shoppers searching on long-tail keyword phrases, which could generate additional sales. The term “long tail” describes statistical distributions where there are many points, if ...

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