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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
  • Social Media

    Facebook Simplifies Ad Creation Process

    November 6, 2012 •

    Facebook has simplified its ad campaign creation process. The changes address (a) the redesign of the user interface, (b) a concentrated focus on marketing goals and objectives, and (c) the ability to easily use different ad types. To create an ad using the revised system, follow thes...

  • Social Media

    9 Blogging Lessons for Ecommerce Merchants

    November 1, 2012 •

    Blogging is a combination of science and art. The science part requires that bloggers use the latest search-engine-optimization tactics. The art is to hone writing and editing skills. But it doesn't have to be as difficult as that may sound. As a longtime blogger and journalist, I've ...

  • Marketing & Advertising

    How to Diversify Your Traffic Sources

    November 1, 2012 •

    In “Understanding Google’s Algorithm Changes," contributing editor Jill Kocher explained the frequency and magnitude of Google's ongoing search algorithm changes. Having read that terrific article, it reminds me of the importance of diversifying your store’s traffic sources. As an ecomm...

  • Google Ads

    Google Shopping: 5 Optimization Tips

    October 31, 2012 •

    With the Google Shopping transition completed on October 17, all of Google’s organic, free product listings — those that showed a product thumbnail and price in search results — disappeared. If you want your product listings to appear in Google, you now have to buy Product Listing Ads t...

  • Social Media

    LinkedIn Updates Member Profiles

    October 30, 2012 •

    LinkedIn recently launched a new version of its user profiles. It will be available to all members in the coming weeks. More than just a design change, the new profile increases your opportunity to make connections, tell your professional story, and engage with others in your network. ...

  • Influencers & Affiliates

    Affiliate Marketing: Using Product Data Feeds

    October 29, 2012 •

    A common error that merchants make when launching an affiliate program is not providing enough marketing support for their affiliates. Merchants sometimes assume that all they need to do is provide a few banner ads to their affiliates, who would place them on their sites. But many sav...

  • Social Media

    How to Set Up a YouTube Channel

    October 23, 2012 •

    A "Channel" is YouTube's equivalent of a Facebook page. You must create a YouTube Channel to upload videos, comment on videos, or create "playlists" — collections of different videos by topic. In this article I discuss how to set up a YouTube Channel, to help market your business. ...

  • Email & Text Marketing

    Email Marketing: Analyzing J.C. Penney’s New Approach

    October 22, 2012 •

    J.C. Penney has received a lot of press for the many changes made by its new CEO, Ron Johnson, who came from Apple. As a J.C. Penney email subscriber, I have noticed its email program has become more engaging. The subject lines are more compelling. The emails contain unique and interest...

  • Social Media

    YouTube’s Time Watched Algorithm Update

    October 19, 2012 •

    In the past, YouTube measured a video’s popularity based on the number of clicks it received. Last Friday the video search giant changed its algorithm — here's the blog post at YouTube — to take the time spent watching a video into account. As a result, ecommerce sites wanting to attrac...

  • Social Media

    Pinterest: Tap Shared Interests for Ecommerce Sales

    October 17, 2012 •

    How many times have you purchased a product just because one of your Facebook friends did? Likely, your answer is, "Not very often." As retailers, we make a mistake to think that people rely exclusively on their social graph — the network of friends on social networks. More often, they...

  • Social Media

    Is Pinterest the Best Social Platform for Ecommerce?

    October 16, 2012 •

    Pinterest may owe its popularity to human nature. Early this year, Monetate, the shopping-personalization firm, made headlines when it pronounced that Pinterest was reshaping social commerce and could be a leading source of social media traffic to online retail sites. And even if the M...

  • Social Media

    17 Social Media Cheat Sheets

    October 15, 2012 •

    These days, small businesses use a variety of social media sites in their marketing efforts. Cheat sheets are a helpful way to keep the functionality of each site straight. Here is a list of cheat sheets for the major social media sites. There are infographic tools to identify keyboard...

  • Social Media

    LinkedIn Retools Company Pages

    October 8, 2012 •

    LinkedIn recently launched a redesign of its Company Pages. It initially offered the redesign to a few select companies. But last week, it made the redesign available to all businesses. LinkedIn described it all in a blog post. Merchants should consider updating their company pages to ...

  • Social Media

    The 4-Step Social Media Content Strategy

    October 3, 2012 •

    In a crowded online marketplace where smaller retailers are forced to vie against large ones, creating useful content is one way to garner consumer attention and trust. This is especially true when it comes to attracting prospects in social media. At the recent Dreamforce 2012 confere...

  • Content Marketing

    10 Great Retailer Blogs

    October 2, 2012 •

    A retail blog can be an effective way to engage customers, improve branding, and boost traffic. Blogs give retail sites content that may be linked to or shared across social networks, via email, or through search engines. Customers who find blog posts informative, entertaining, or help...

  • Social Media

    A Social Media Marketing Paradox?

    October 2, 2012 •

    A new study finds that social media influences just one percent of ecommerce transactions, meaning that thousands of merchants could be, potentially, wasting valuable marketing dollars. But consumers and small and mid-sized retailers are claiming social success. Is there a social media ...

  • Influencers & Affiliates

    How to Set Affiliate Marketing Commissions

    October 1, 2012 •

    Before launching an affiliate program, merchants should establish their default commission structures. This is the base commission rate that will apply to all of your standard affiliates. You will still be able to customize terms for individual affiliates, but your base commission rate...

  • Google Ads

    Primping Your Holiday Pay-per-click Promotions

    September 28, 2012 •

    A passive approach to pay-per-click advertising often results in missed opportunities. But achieving optimal returns from your PPC campaigns isn’t complex. For holiday PPC promotions, maximizing profits means doing three things well. Create a calendar. Plan your holiday promotions wit...

  • Email & Text Marketing

    Ask an Expert: Appropriate to Send Remarketing Emails to Guest Shoppers?

    September 27, 2012 •

    "Ask an Expert" is an occasional feature where we ask ecommerce experts questions from online merchants. For this installment, we address a question about sending remarketing emails to consumers who abandon shopping carts. It comes from Kenny Kelly, general manager of Shops.com, an Okla...

  • Social Media

    Twitter Launches Redesign with New Header Image

    September 26, 2012 •

    Twitter recently launched a redesign of the profile page, which includes a new header image that sits atop a user's feed stream. The image resembles Facebook’s Timeline cover image and provides merchants with a unique opportunity to showcase their brands. How to Set Up a Header Image ...

  • Marketing & Advertising

    5 Keys to Social Commerce Success

    September 25, 2012 •

    Many companies use social media sites to facilitate ecommerce sales. Some of them have attempted to sell products directly on Facebook. Others use social media to spur traffic and sales at their own ecommerce sites. The results of these collective efforts have been mixed. Some large...

  • Email & Text Marketing

    5 Holiday Email Marketing Tips

    September 20, 2012 •

    For ecommerce businesses, September is crucial for planning a successful holiday-sales season. For email marketing, starting the planning now will allow more time for last minute changes and time-sensitive promotions. Below, I'll offer five tips to make the most from your holiday email...

  • Social Media

    7 Social Shopping Sites to Sell Products

    September 19, 2012 •

    Social shopping sites can assist consumers to find products. You are likely familiar with popular sites that fit into this category — Etsy, Fab.com and Pinterest, in particular. But here are seven others that may be used by smaller retailers to list products for sale. 1. Blomming En...

  • Social Media

    Top 20 Viral Marketing Videos

    September 18, 2012 •

    If you want to find brand videos having an impact, follow what's being shared. Here is a list of the top 20 shared marketing videos over the last thirty days. Included in this list are non-profit organizations, political campaign videos, and an education documentary. This information...

  • Social Media

    Twitter Advertising for Small Business

    September 12, 2012 •

    Twitter offers two affordably priced advertising options for smaller businesses: "Promoted Accounts" and "Promoted Tweets." Promoted Accounts. Twitter looks at your current followers and then finds people with similar interests. When it discovers a match, Twitter recommends you in th...

  • Social Media

    Google+ For Business Now in Apps

    September 11, 2012 •

    Recently Google released a set of Google+ features that encourage collaboration within an enterprise. These new features will be available to the company's current Google Apps for Business customers on a trail basis at least through the end of 2013. The Google Apps for Business suite i...

  • Social Media

    10 Brand Campaigns on Twitter

    September 5, 2012 •

    Twitter is about what’s happening right now. For companies, Twitter can be an effective platform to reach and to interact with an audience. Here is a list of brand campaigns on Twitter. Some of these campaigns use Twitter to deliver rewards to customers. Other campaigns use Twitter to ...

  • Social Media

    Facebook Launches Targeted Page Posts

    September 4, 2012 •

    Facebook continues to launch new features in an attempt to position itself as a marketing platform. The latest is targeted page posts, which enable retailers to create Facebook Page posts that reach specific audience segments. For example, if a merchant needs to market to women within...

  • Google Ads

    Google’s Product Listing Ads: Cheaper, More Profitable

    August 30, 2012 •

    I’ve previously written about why you should make Google’s Product Listing Ads a priority. If you’ve followed my advice in "Cheaper Clicks from AdWords Coming?" and, more recently, "5 Steps to Prepare for Google Shopping," there’s a good chance you’ve observed a sharp increase in pay-pe...

  • Influencers & Affiliates

    Affiliate Marketing: Recruiting Content Sites

    August 29, 2012 •

    In affiliate marketing, sites that feature unique content are highly valued. A few examples include product review sites such as Steves-digicams.com; blogs such as Icoulduseadeal.com; and online forums, such as ...

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