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
Remarketing 101, Part 2: Targeted Emails
November 18, 2010 • PEC Staff
Remarketing is an advertising concept to bring back consumers who have visited ecommerce sites and left without purchasing. In general, the remarketing services fall into two camps. We discussed the first remarketing camp, targeted banner ads, in “Remarketing 101, Part 1: Targeted Banne...
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Marketing & Advertising
Search Optimization, Social Media and the Foreign Language Internet
November 16, 2010 • Christian Arno
With social networking, blogging, microblogging, social bookmarking and video sharing, people from all corners of the digital world are brought together under one virtual roof. Social media has landed; and it’s here to stay. And the beauty of social media is it is largely free. So it’s...
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Social Media
New Firefox Extension: Social Marketing While You Browse
November 16, 2010 • Armando Roggio
Mozilla Labs Messaging Group has released a new Firefox extension that makes it simpler to share content from around the web on Facebook and Twitter. Social media marketing seeks to make new or more loyal customers by engaging with them, not just pushing products. Usually, social marke...
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Social Media
3 Group Coupon Companies for Purely Online Merchants
November 15, 2010 • Paul Chaney
A lot of activity is occurring around the group-coupon-deals space in recent days. Facebook launched "Deals," which, according to Facebook, "local businesses will be able to offer you deals when you check in to their place on Facebook." And there's Groupon Stores, which allow merchants ...
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Social Media
8 Steps to Social Media Success
November 9, 2010 • Paul Chaney
"How do I get started?" is a question I often hear regarding social media marketing. In this article, I provide eight steps to help. Think of it as a checklist of must-do items that will put you in the best position to integrate social media into your overall marketing mix and take adva...
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Email Marketing
Optimizing Your Email Frequency: A 5-Step Plan
November 3, 2010 • Carolyn Nye
Frequency is always an important topic for email marketing. As marketers, we are afraid to overload our customers. We often forget that email is a channel that requires consumers' permission before communicating with them. As consumers, we don’t opt in to viewing Staples television com...
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Google Ads
Pay-Per-Click Advertising: 12 Tips to Boost Holiday Performance
November 2, 2010 • Scott Smigler
A well optimized pay-per-click advertising campaign can lead to gigantic increases in both revenue and profits. Conversely, a campaign that is neglected can lead to missed opportunities or significant financial losses. To help you prepare for this holiday season, here are 12 tips that ...
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Social Media
7 Blog Platforms for 3 Methods of Blogging
November 1, 2010 • Paul Chaney
The last time I compared blog platforms on Practical Ecommerce was in 2005. In "Blog Platforms: Choose One that Fits Your Need," I reviewed four of the most used at that time: Blogger, TypePad, MovableType, and WordPress. While those are still popular, others have since appeared. Over...
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Social Media
Tips for an Effective Twitter Profile
October 27, 2010 • Paul Chaney
Twitter can help ecommerce merchants. It provides a conduit to connect with their customers and communicate with prospects. Merchants should be careful, however, when using Twitter to market their products, and I addressed that in "4 Rules for Marketing on Twitter." And seemingly mino...
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Social Media
4 Rules for Marketing on Twitter
October 26, 2010 • Paul Chaney
In last week's "5 Timesaving Social Networking Tools," I discussed efficient ways to manage your social media engagement efforts. However, social media is not merely a "tool set" to be used any way we see fit. It is also a mindset. For merchants wanting to use Twitter to market their ...
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Marketing & Advertising
Facebook Privacy ‘Breach’ Versus Public Information
October 20, 2010 • PEC Staff
"Facebook in Privacy Breach" is the title of the recent Wall Street Journal article. It describes the transfer of Facebook user IDs from Facebook application providers to data gathering companies. But Facebook user IDs are public and are otherwise embedded in the URLs of Facebook acco...
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Social Media
5 Timesaving Social Networking Tools
October 19, 2010 • Paul Chaney
A concern I often hear from those new to social networking is the amount of time it takes to manage engagement activities, such as tweeting or posting status updates to Facebook and LinkedIn. While there's no cost to use these channels, time is valuable and, therefore, the more efficien...
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Social Media
The 4-Step Twitter Strategy
October 12, 2010 • Paul Chaney
Twitter is the "Swiss Army knife" of social networking because it is a simple tool that can be used in many ways. Businesses are utilizing Twitter for such things as brand reputation monitoring, product promotion, customer service, and sales. The key to maximizing Twitter's value, how...
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Social Media
The PEC Review: The ‘New’ Twitter
October 11, 2010 • Armando Roggio
For nearly a month, microblogging powerhouse Twitter has been rolling out a new user interface aimed at making the service the "best way to discover what's new in your world." Twitter is already one of the most popular social media sites with more than 165 million registered users, acc...
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Email Marketing
5 Keys to Transactional Emails; The Yankee Candle Example
October 7, 2010 • Carolyn Nye
Transactional emails, by definition, are sent automatically after a customer places an order. Every transactional email is an opportunity to connect with your customer at a point where he or she is fully engaged. But how can you optimize transactional emails to encourage customer inte...
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Social Media
‘Deal-of-the-Day’ Coupons Help Merchants Attract Customers; 4 Tips
October 6, 2010 • Paul Chaney
The deal of the day group coupon-buying concept has taken the Internet by storm. Forbes magazine called Groupon, the leading deal-of-the-day site, the "fastest growing company ever." The concept appeals mostly to local brick-and-mortar retailers and large retail brands. But ecommerce ...
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Google Ads
Google Instant and Pay-per-click Advertising
September 30, 2010 • Scott Smigler
Many online retailers take the "ready, fire, aim" approach when structuring their PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns. However, as competition intensifies and search engines evolve, online retailers who fail to organize their campaigns in more thoughtful ways will be penalized. Those who “aim...
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Email Marketing
Conversion Tip: Sync Email Timing to Visitor Habits
September 29, 2010 • Charles Nicholls
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Social Media
Social Commerce Expert Cautions Against Spending Heavily
September 29, 2010 • Paul Chaney
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Marketing & Advertising
5 SEO Reminders That Can Drive Holiday Traffic
September 23, 2010 • PEC Staff
As we head into the holiday season amid mixed economic signals, merchants are looking to maximize visibility while keeping expenses in check. In a recent Practical eCommerce webinar we reviewed some easy-to-implement SEO tips with Andreas Ryuta Stenzel, online marketing manager with TRU...
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Marketing & Advertising
Merchants React to Google Instant
September 23, 2010 • PEC Staff
Google Instant, the new auto-fill search query process, could impact traffic to ecommerce sites. We asked four ecommerce merchants how Instant, which Google launched on Sept. 8, is affecting their traffic and how they plan to react to it. Their responses are below. Traffic Up by 20 Pe...
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Email Marketing
Email Providers Embrace Social Media: 4 Examples
September 22, 2010 • Paul Chaney
Social media has breathed new life into email marketing. And email provides a "push" element to update social network friends, Fans and followers. Email service providers (ESPs) are leading this renewed vitality and interest with the integration of email with social media. In this art...
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Social Media
Selling on Facebook: 4 Common Issues
September 15, 2010 • Paul Chaney
There is a growing integration between social media and ecommerce. And there's a new term for this integration: social commerce. Facebook is the leading social commerce platform. Recently I moderated "500 Million People and Growing: The Facebook Conversation Turns to Commerce," a Prac...
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Social Media
Social Media: 4 Steps to an Effective Marketing Strategy
September 14, 2010 • Paul Chaney
Many small businesses are experimenting with social media to market their products. Based on my observations, however, most are doing it in piecemeal fashion, without a coordinated, overall strategy. In this article, I present a practical, four-part social commerce strategy that minim...
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Marketing & Advertising
Google Instant Search: The Impact for Ecommerce Site Owners
September 9, 2010 • Michael Stearns
This week Google rolled out Instant Search, a revolutionary AJAX-based technology that dynamically updates the search results page as users type in each character of their queries. Instant Search changes the fundamentals of how a user will search on Google. The introduction of Instant S...
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Email Marketing
Email Marketing: 3 ‘Best Practices’ to Ignore
September 8, 2010 • Carolyn Nye
I am the email marketing manager for S&S Worldwide, a large retailer of crafts and school supplies. Over the years, I have encountered many "email best practices." But like Snap Bracelets, Cabbage Patch Kids and Atari, trends change. And email best practices, I've learned, do not ap...
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Social Media
Social Media Improves Online Trust: 4 Tips
September 7, 2010 • Paul Chaney
"Trust" is likely the most defining factor when it comes to selling products online. Consumers will not purchase products from a merchant that they mistrust. Social media can help overcome a consumer's reluctance to purchase products due to lack of trust. It can foster interaction bet...
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Social Media
The PEC Review: Wildfire Interactive for Online Contests
September 6, 2010 • Armando Roggio
Contest marketing is an excellent way to engage customers, build brand, and get leads for newsletters and other promotions. And in the age of social media marketing, an online contest can garner thousands of entries. Unfortunately some popular social media sites, like Facebook, prohib...
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Marketing & Advertising
Social Media to Change Ecommerce?
September 1, 2010 • PEC Staff
"Social commerce" is the merging of ecommerce with social media sites, such as Facebook. It could change the way consumers buy, and retailers sell. In an upcoming webinar entitled "500 Million People and Growing: The Facebook Conversation Turns to Commerce," we will help merchants unde...
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Marketing & Advertising
Ask an Expert: Does the Magento Platform Create SEO Obstacles?
September 1, 2010 • PEC Staff
"Ask an Expert" is an occasional feature where we ask ecommerce experts questions from online merchants. For this installment, Andrew Casey of 877MyJuicer.com asks about search engine optimization and the Magento platform. For the answer, we turn to our own senior contributing editor, ...