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

Email & Text Marketing
Will Gmail’s New Tab Layout Affect Ecommerce Merchants?

June 17, 2013 • Carolyn Nye

Consumers have many options for email services. The top three providers are Gmail, Yahoo!, and Hotmail, which recently changed to Outlook. Occasionally these services make changes that can impact ecommerce email programs. The changes are often dynamic — changing algorithms, rules, and ...
Social Media
How to Use Klout for Business

June 12, 2013 • Paul Chaney

Klout is a popular influence measurement platform that ranks people based on their prominence in social media. Klout defines influence as the ability to drive an action related to someone's comments, likes, tweets and retweets. People use Klout to understand how influential they are a...
Marketing & Advertising
Implementing Google’s New Data Feed Specifications

June 11, 2013 • Mary Weinstein

Google updated its data feed specifications in early May, requiring online merchants who sell through AdWords or Product Listing Ads to include additional product attributes in the data they send Google. This article will address commonly asked questions on Google's new data feed requi...
Social Media
How to Set Up a LinkedIn Company Page

June 10, 2013 • Paul Chaney

A LinkedIn Company Page serves as a hub where members can learn more about your company and its products and services. This is the primary way for a company to have a presence in LinkedIn. Three basic steps are involved in setting up a Company Page: Create a company profile; Add a "...
Marketing & Advertising
The Internship: Google Film Review, for Marketers

June 7, 2013 • Chris Silver Smith

Thanks to a special sneak preview of The Internship last night — hosted by the Dallas/Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association — I was able to view the new film that was set at Google's headquarters in Silicon Valley, a.k.a. the "Googleplex." I was particularly interested to see whether the film revealed anything new or noteworthy about Google from an Internet marketing perspective.
Google Ads
PPC: How to Calculate Maximum Bid per Click

June 6, 2013 • Scott Smigler

"Customer Lifetime Value" is a critical metric that enables you to optimize the long-term profitability of your pay-per-click advertising. CLV answers the simple yet powerful question, "How much is a new customer worth over the long-term?" It’s an important concept that almost every l...
Social Media
Using Twitter Lists to Manage Followers

June 5, 2013 • Paul Chaney

Twitter recently lifted the limits on its lists feature. Users can now create up to 1,000 lists that each contains up to 5,000 accounts. Previously the cap was set at 20 with no more than 500 accounts in each list. Though it's unlikely that smaller ecommerce merchants would ever need ...
Email & Text Marketing
Email Still Effective Marketing Tool?

June 5, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

At a time when social media seems to be the only thing people talk about, email is still an effective ecommerce marketing tool. But merchants will have to alter how they use it if they wish to keep up with changes in how people access email messages. Are People Still Reading Email? Th...
Social Media
10 Reasons to Consider Tumblr for Ecommerce Blogging

June 3, 2013 • Paul Chaney

Tumblr is a fast growing social blogging platform suited to the creation of short form, multimedia content. It became so popular that Yahoo! just acquired the company for $1.1 billion. Tumblr started six years ago as a place for creators to showcase their work and it retains that eth...
Influencers & Affiliates
Launching a New Affiliate Marketing Program, Part 2: Developing Creative

May 30, 2013 • Carolyn Kmet

Editor's Note: This is "Part 2" of a three-part series on launching a new affiliate marketing program. "Part 1" we published previously. There are four steps involved in launching an affiliate program. They are: (a) evaluating potential affiliate networks and tracking platforms, (b) ...
Social Media
Pinterest Introduces ‘Rich Pins’ for Products

May 29, 2013 • Paul Chaney

Pinterest recently introduced a new feature called "Rich Pins" that should be especially helpful to merchants. It allows companies to include key information such as pricing, product availability, and where to buy to pinned items. The information can be updated daily. Rich Pins are also...
Social Media
Facebook Promoted Post Generates Sales, Traffic

May 28, 2013 • Armando Roggio

Although recent studies demonstrate that social media sites like Facebook work best to augment other ecommerce marketing campaigns, anecdotal data from a small Facebook ad test demonstrated that the promotion could boost both direct traffic and sales. “In its most recent [Ecommerce Qua...
Social Media
Don’t Focus on Social Media Traffic

May 24, 2013 • Armando Roggio

New data from a leading marketing optimization firm indicates that social media is not a significant traffic driver for online merchants, but traffic may not be the only indicator of success for social media marketing. Social media represented about 1.55 percent of traffic to ecommerce...
Social Media
Google’s Purchase Path Tool Helps Merchants View All Marketing Channels

May 22, 2013 • Paul Chaney

The path customers take before making a purchase has become more complex due to social media. Very often, they perform extensive online research that includes reading ratings and reviews, seeking advice on social networks from friends, watching product videos, and looking at competing p...
Email & Text Marketing
Good, Bad Email Design for Ecommerce Merchants

May 20, 2013 • Carolyn Nye

Email design has changed over the years. It has evolved from basic text, to beautiful design with great images, to hybrids that balance images and text. With the majority of shoppers previewing or reading emails on their smartphones, many ecommerce merchants wonder what the best practic...
Google Ads
How to Sell on Marketplaces without Harming your Store’s Brand

May 16, 2013 • Dale Traxler

In "Third-Party Marketplaces: What Merchants Should Know" and "Marketplaces: How to Sell More in 2013," we addressed tactics — pro and con — for using marketplaces. Some merchants avoid marketplaces, believing they compete with their stores' brands. Others enjoy the additional revenu...
Social Media
Instagram’s ‘Photos of You’ New Sharing Feature

May 15, 2013 • Paul Chaney

Popular photo-sharing app Instagram recently introduced a new sharing feature called "Photos of You," which allows users to tag other user accounts in pictures they take. For example, if a user snaps a photo of a group of friends, he or she can tag each person in the image, similar to...
Social Media
Using Vine Videos for your Ecommerce Business

May 8, 2013 • Paul Chaney

Vine is a new iOS app that allows users to record six-second, looping videos — called "vines" — on their iPhones, iPod Touches, or iPads. The videos can then be shared with followers on Twitter and Facebook. Users can shoot very short clips, then edit them together to create stop-motion...
Marketing & Advertising
Ecommerce Search Marketing Evolves

May 3, 2013 • Dale Traxler

A few years ago, small ecommerce business owners invested a good part of their marketing budgets on search engine optimization. Their goal was typically to obtain the highest possible search rankings, to capture as much organic traffic as possible. Many businesses used that as their cor...
Marketing & Advertising
3 Google Product Feed Mistakes

May 2, 2013 • Mary Weinstein

Google Shopping has provided a good return on investment for many merchants. To achieve even better performance and higher sales, merchants should focus on their Google product feeds. I addressed that last month, in "Google Shopping Feed: 3 Things You Should Be Doing." Your feed com...
Social Media
Understanding YouTube’s Redesign of Channels

May 2, 2013 • Paul Chaney

YouTube recently announced major design changes to its channel interface. YouTube cited three reasons for the changes: Increase the number of channel subscribers; Ensure branding works across all devices — desktops, tablets, smartphones and television; Show more content to draw viewer...
Influencers & Affiliates
Managing the Google Affiliate Network Closure

May 1, 2013 • Carolyn Kmet

The most significant development in the affiliate industry recently is Google’s announcement that it will be shutting down its affiliate network. According to the notification from Google to all affiliates on April 18, 2013, all affiliate relationships will be severed on July 31, 2013....
Marketing & Advertising
How to Remove Ripoff Report Pages Via SEO

May 1, 2013 • Chris Silver Smith

Companies and individuals are becoming increasingly aware that their reputations are dependent on the first page of results when people search for their names on Google and Bing. Unfortunately, sites like RipoffReport.com and others often leap abruptly into visibility for name searches, embarrassing those affected and even harming business or individual's chances of employment.
Social Media
Facebook Changes Layout of Mobile App

April 29, 2013 • Paul Chaney

Facebook recently changed the Pages layout in its Apple iOS mobile app. The reason for the change, according to Facebook, is that roughly 50 percent of Page visits come from mobile devices. A new Android version is coming soon, Facebook announced. "We've developed a new mobile Pages l...
Social Media
10 Ideas for Facebook’s New Cover Images

April 23, 2013 • Paul Chaney

Facebook recently changed its policy on cover images for business pages. The 20 percent text overlay rule is still in effect, but other restrictions have been dismissed. The new guidelines provide much greater flexibility in what owners can do with their pages, stating, "All covers ar...
Social Media
13 Inspiring Brands on Pinterest

April 22, 2013 • Sig Ueland

Pinterest is a place for inspiration. Successful brands use it not only to show off a product, but also to inspire people with the ideas, moods, and images behind the brand. Here is a list of brands that inspire on Pinterest. Their boards are filled with beautiful images and amazing d...
Social Media
25 Tips for Successful Twitter Engagement

April 22, 2013 • Paul Chaney

Many ecommerce merchants use Twitter to connect with customers, build personal relationships, and influence conversations to meet business objectives. Merchants can learn what customers have to say about their brands and products, provide proactive customer service, and create promoti...
Marketing & Advertising
‘Integrated Marketing’ Latest Buzzword, Critical Ecommerce Activity

April 19, 2013 • Dale Traxler

Seemingly, when I become comfortable with a widely used technology term, someone creates another version. That's frustrating. But having been around technology for roughly 30 years, I’ve grown used to it. I may have even contributed to it as a marketing professional and author. A quick...
Email & Text Marketing
Applying Data to Improve your Email Communications

April 19, 2013 • Carolyn Nye

With so much information available about your customers and prospects, how do you apply that information to your email communications? In this article, I'll address steps to apply the right data to improve your email-marketing program. What Data Do You Have? This question is not alwa...
Social Media
Using Twitter Hashtags for Ecommerce Marketing

April 17, 2013 • Paul Chaney

By some accounts, as many as 75 percent of Twitter users include hashtags in their tweets. While hashtags are popular, from a marketing perspective it helps to understand why and how to use them. This article outlines 10 ways merchants can use hashtags, along with guidelines for their u...

« Previous 1 2 3 … 48 49 50 … 67 68 69 Next »