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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

    3 Google Product Feed Mistakes

    May 2, 2013 •

    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 •

    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 •

    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 •

    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 •

    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 •

    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 •

    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 •

    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 •

    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 •

    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 •

    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...

  • Social Media

    Facebook Changes Ads Manager to Improve Tracking

    April 12, 2013 •

    Facebook recently made several changes to Ads Manager to make it easier for advertisers to track performance against goals and to better measure the return on investment. Ads Manager Changes Advertising goals highlighted. Ads Manager now shows the most relevant actions for your adver...

  • Social Media

    Buffer: Timesaving Social Sharing and Management Application

    April 8, 2013 •

    Sharing content to social networks typically happens in one of two ways: by clicking a social sharing button found on many blogs and websites, or by using a social media management platform such as HootSuite. Buffer, a new social sharing application, combines both of these functions. ...

  • Marketing & Advertising

    Google Shopping Feed: 3 Things You Should Be Doing

    April 5, 2013 •

    Editor's Note: We welcome Mary Weinstein as our newest contributor. She will address selling on comparison-shopping engines, marketplaces, and other channels. Weinstein is an account manager for CPC Strategy, a comparison shopping-engine consulting firm for ecommerce merchants. Her fi...

  • Social Media

    5 Social Marketplaces for Merchants and Shoppers

    April 2, 2013 •

    Social marketplaces promote interaction between merchants and their customers, and enable product discovery in a social environment where shoppers can rely on the influence of friends to help them make informed shopping decisions. One successful social commerce model is bazaar-style ma...

  • Google Ads

    PPC Advertising: 5 Daily Activities to Grow Profits

    April 2, 2013 •

    My company recently surveyed 100 small and mid-sized online retailers that do not outsource the management of their Google AdWords campaigns. We asked a simple question, "How often do you manage your AdWords account?" According to the survey results, which are summarized in the graphi...

  • Influencers & Affiliates

    2 Affiliate Promotion Case Studies

    April 1, 2013 •

    Affiliate-marketing managers frequently offer bonus incentives to drive sales or increase traffic. My firm recently tested two different bonus-incentive strategies, both of which were successful. This article describes them. Plus-Size Fashion Retailer: Style Consultation and Gift Card...

  • Social Media

    4 Tools to Simplify the Blogging Process

    March 27, 2013 •

    Bloggers can spend a lot of time selecting topics and researching and writing the posts. Here are four tools I use to speed up the research process. Used in the ...

  • Social Media

    Pinterest Adds Analytics Component

    March 20, 2013 •

    Pinterest launched business pages a few months ago, which allow companies to create accounts specifically related to their websites. Last week, Pinterest took another step toward increasing the value it provides businesses by adding an analytics component. "Bloggers, businesses, and...

  • Social Media

    6 Alternatives to Google Reader

    March 19, 2013 •

    Google announced last week that it is retiring Google Reader, its longstanding RSS feed reader application, citing a decrease in use. The announcement created a furor across the Internet. Deliberating Google’s ...

  • Email & Text Marketing

    5 Tests to Improve your Email Marketing

    March 18, 2013 •

    For email marketers, there are several key tests that will improve a campaign, and an ongoing program. Here are five basic testing strategies to optimize your email marketing efforts. Subject Line Testing Many marketers believe that a subject line’s purpose is simply to get people to...

  • Social Media

    Facebook Changes News Feed; Implications for Merchants

    March 14, 2013 •

    Facebook announced in a press conference last Thursday that it has drastically revamped the all-important News Feed, turning it into a “personalized newspaper” that emphasizes what friends are sharing.

  • Social Media

    Understanding Google+ Design Changes

    March 11, 2013 •

    Google+ recently made several design changes. The most prominent is to the cover image, which is now much larger. Google+ also changed the "About" page, and a "Local" tab was added to the left-column menu. The About page now consists of separate "cards" — such as Story, Places, Work, an...

  • Social Media

    How to Use Google+ Hangouts; Benefits to Merchants

    March 6, 2013 •

    Hangouts is a popular component in the Google+ platform. Hangouts enables live video chats with up to 10 people using Google+, your website, and mobile apps for Android and iPhone. With Hangouts you can: Host live, face-to-face conference calls with customers, suppliers, affiliates ...

  • Marketing & Advertising

    How to Monitor Yelp, Other Review Sites

    March 5, 2013 •

    In "Monitoring your Online Reputation in 2013," contributor Micah Buchdahl described the need to closely monitor what others say about your company online. Firms like Reputation.com have turned digital perception into a successful business, helping individuals and businesses manage how they are perceived online.

  • Google Ads

    Surviving Google AdWords’ New Enhanced Campaigns

    March 4, 2013 •

    In "Cheaper Clicks from AdWords Coming?," my article from Feb. 2012, I questioned whether the then unprecedented decline in cost-per-click rates would be a blip or a trend. One year later, Google apparently thinks it's a trend, as Google is requiring all advertisers to adopt its new Enh...

  • Social Media

    Hashtag Your Products on Instagram

    February 28, 2013 •

    Instagram is a massive social network built around a beautifully designed — and addictive — mobile photography app. As of September 2012, Instagram reportedly had 11 million active users. It was famously bought by Facebook for $1 billion in April 2012. Instagram is creating new and exc...

  • Influencers & Affiliates

    Online Coupons: Pros and Cons

    February 27, 2013 •

    Using coupon codes to entice online consumers is a long-running debate. The pros are (a) easy to implement, (b) easy to track, and (c) consistent increase in conversion. The cons are (a) uncontrollable distribution, (b) tendency to drive non-loyal discount shoppers, and (c) reduction of...

  • Social Media

    6 Key Twitter Practices for Smaller Businesses

    February 26, 2013 •

    Many small business owners have told me they understand how Facebook is a good fit for business, but have difficulty drawing a similar conclusion when it comes to Twitter. According to a report from GlobalWebIndex, an analysis firm, Twitter increased its user base by more than 288 mil...

  • Social Media

    10 Blog Topics for Online Retailers

    February 22, 2013 •

    One of the best ways for an ecommerce site to rank highly in Google search results is through blogging. Most blog platforms are search engine friendly, and easy to use. But merchants sometimes struggle with what topics to write about. Here are 10 post types to spark writing ideas that...

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