Top Five Ecommerce Articles for February 2014

January flew by and we can't believe it's already February. Here's our round up of the best Ecommerce articles from the first month or so of the year, giving us a broader picture of what 2014 is shaping up to look like for online retailers.

1. 33 Mind Shattering Email Marketing Statistics You Know Need to Know in 2014 - Mind shattering indeed. Read here.

2. Building SEO-Focused Pages to Serve People and Topics Rather than Keywords and Rankings - Good overview of optimising landing pages for SEO. Read here.

3. Four Types of Content Every Site Needs - How many types of content does your site have? Compare it here.

4. Matt Cutts Declares the Death of Guest Blogging for SEO - The topic on everyone's lips when it comes to SEO. Read here.

5. YouTube Marketing and Analytics: A Primer for Magnificent Success - YouTube advertising is getting much easier, and much easier to do badly. Read tips here.

If you need help with any of the above areas - SEO, Linkbuilding, integrated marketing, content creation, SEO for YouTube or Analytics - take a look at our site to see what we do, or drop us an email. 

The only thing we can't help with this February is finding you a date for Valentine's Day...

Maximising your Email Content

Email Content

Meaningful Messages

Why make the effort?

Even in this age of shifting social media trends, email is still ranked as one of the most important marketing channels, if not the most important. Good email content not only enhances your brand image but also allows online retailers to build a sustained marketing campaign. It is a crucial for good engagement with customers both pre- and post-sale.

In fact, studies suggest that…

·       91% of consumers check their email daily.

·       74-77% of consumers prefer to receive commercial communications via email.

·       Email marketing has an ROI of 4,300%.

Dos and Don’ts of email content

DO

·       Test everything. Especially your subject line. 33-35% of people open emails purely based on the subject line.

·       Include easily identifiable links to your site, remembering to consider your landing page carefully. People don’t want to have to search for a product they’ve just clicked on.

·       Plan. Prepare an email marketing calendar in advance so that you know when promotional/sales events are coming up.

·       Tag your campaigns in order to monitor their success using Google Analytics.

DON’T

·       Forget that around 50% of emails are read on smartphone or tablet screens. Email design that responds automatically to the device it’s opened on is crucial.

·       Write too much. Keep your copy brief and your images engaging.

·       Rely on gimmicks or spammy sounding offers to try and increase customer engagement. Your email will either end up in the junk folder, or you’ll destroy customer trust in your brand.

Tips for growing your email list

·       Incentivise sign-up with special offers for those who are subscribed.

·       Reassure clients that you won’t share their data with other parties.

·       Make sure your opt-in/subscribe box is clear and prominent on your website. 

·       Go for quality of subscribers over quantity – better a few subscribers who buy regularly than a long list of recipients who don’t even open the email.

·       Show people who aren’t subscribed what they’re missing using Twitter, Facebook etc.

Segment your emails

Remember your different sectors of target customers.

Are you trying to…

…engage with people who haven’t bought from you before?

...re-engage with people who haven’t bought for a while?

…encourage people who buy regularly?

The secret to great marketing…

Test everything.

The idea of a generic ‘best email marketing practice’ can only go so far. You know your customers best – and if you don’t, testing is the way to find out everything you need to know about them. The obvious example is A/B testing subject lines to determine best open rates. Other things to consider include:

·       Which are the best days and times to send out emails. This will vary depending on whether you are marketing your products to other business who are usually contained between the hours of 9-5 or individual customers who generally shop out with these times.

·       Different ways of phrasing your calls to action e.g. ‘Buy Now’ vs. ‘Add To Basket’

·       Different layouts. Mix it up, pure and simple.

Want any help or advice on email content? Get in touch on 0207 492 1929, email info@moneyspyder.co.uk or visit our website.

Was your Christmas 2013 better than Christmas 2012?

For many retail businesses most revenue is generated between October and December. If you do one thing in January, make sure you take time to review last quarter's performance compared to the Q4-2012.

Did you have more visitors from all channels? Was revenue up from all traffic sources? And what about other key metrics; average order value, email list size, site speed, international sales? If you've seen a decline in any of these areas you now have plenty of time to put things right, especially as improving some of these things won't happen overnight. Growing an email list that is engaged with your brand, for example, is much more valuable at Christmas time than a list you bought in October to squeeze some last minute sales out of your site.

We've been sitting down with our clients with our one-page Christmas review and helping them set a strategy to exceed last year's numbers in all areas and address any missing links. We have been helping clients perfect their Analytics reporting, online marketing strategy - including email, PPC and SEO - as well as solving technical problems and advancing theirecommerce platform capabilities.

                                                          

This year we built Flowercard a mobile template which increased mobile
conversion rate by 39% - What can you do to maximise sales this year?

If you would like us to put together our one-page Christmas review for your business email us at info@moneyspyder.co.uk or call 0207 492 1929.

Happy New Year!

The MoneySpyder Team

Best Ecommerce articles from December 2013

Here's our round up of the best Ecommerce articles from December 2013 Link Building Strategies: The Complete List - This classic list of linkbuilding strategies has been updated. Read here for inspiration. How to Improve Your Organic SEO and Beat The Paid Search Results - Top tips for increasing your CTR from organic listings. Read here. Digital Marketing & Analytics: Two Ladders For Magnificent Success - A solid set of checklists for changing the way your business markets and measures. Read here. How to Grow Your Blog to 100,000 Visits Per Month Within 1.5 Years - Great tips on growing your online readership whether B2B or ecommerce. Read here. Ecommerce in 2013 - Have Retailers Finally Figured Out Mobile - Mobile has been high on the agenda in 2013. Here's a round up of the state of the industry. Read here. If you need help with any of the above areas - SEO, Linkbuilding, integrated marketing, content creation, or Analytics - take a look at our site to see what we do, or drop us an email.

The 2013 Round Up

As 2014 is now upon us we wanted to update you all on 2013 at MoneySpyder. What better way to do that than with a round up of our case studies, drawn from platform and consulting clients? Here are our top three case studies from the year: Checkout optimisation has always been the quickest way to increase conversion rates - We launched a new site for Bodie and Fou in August and have seen a 50% increase in conversion rate through their improved checkout. Shopping Feeds started dominating Google Search results in 2013. At MoneySpyder we have seen a dramatic improvement in results for Google Shopping since they introduced Product Listing Ads. Google Shopping accounts for between 20%-50% of all traffic for some of our clients and converts at upwards of 6%. Responsive Mobile Templates have been on the agenda all year. In February we launched a mobile template for Flowercard and saw a 39% increase in conversion ratesthrough mobile. See our best practice mobile guide here. Mobile isn't going anywhere - In December about a third of all traffic to our client's sites was via a mobile device, with John Lewis saying that Christmas Day will be the cross-over point where mobile. We've been busy building websites as well. Among others, we've launched www.bodieandfou.com, sentwithalovingkiss.co.uk and www.flamingogifts.co.uk.  If you are interested in increasing your conversion rate by 50%, adding a mobile template or increasing your traffic from Google Shopping, give us a call on 0207 492 1929 or email us at info@moneyspyder.co.uk.