Just got back from the Shop.org regional in Scottsdale with two new insights.  The first is that Arizona is MUCH nicer than Ontario as far as weather is concerned, and the second is the purpose of this blog post. 

eCommerce marketing should not be treated the same way as traditional marketing. 

There is no implied insult in this statement, rather a suggestion that there are much more tangible revenue numbers associated to eCommerce marketing, and in order to be truly relevant, this sales/conversion component must be directly addressed or risk being ignored. 

At Shop.org, I sat in on great sessions and panels, had in-depth conversations with some really talented professionals in the eCommerce space, and watched really closely to see what statements and ideas were the most engaging of the overall audience.  This was especially easy in the main ballroom sessions, where you could glance at the room and see when people were engaged and taking notes, or bored and playing on their blackberries. 

Invariably, the pens came out when the topics were about selling, whether that topic was repeat sales to existing customers, or new customer acquisition through search, affiliate, or email.   

Conversely, looking around the room when the topic was pure marketing/branding I saw a lot of people playing brick breaker on their phones. The same with my one on one discussions.  Highest interest was always on growing sales and conversions. 

If you are reading this as an eCommerce marketing professional, you are rolling your eyes right now.  “OF COURSE it’s all about growing sales!”  But think about the statement and then answer this question.   

Outside of eCommerce, name an industry where people with pure-marketing jobs have defined sales quotas or to use industry parlance, conversion goals. 

I can’t think of one, and I have been in sales and marketing for almost a decade.  Every other industry has marketing as demand generation (funnel filling) with a separate sales mechanism in place for deal completion.  These marketers still have goals and accountability, but they are not the owners of direct revenue targets. 

Only in ecommerce do marketers have the job of filling the sales funnel, and then moving people through it.  If you can not grow your conversion rate, you will not keep your job. (place Glengarry Glen Ross quote here….”AIDA!”) 

In the attached image (Thanks to Darryl and Eric from the Sitebrand marketing team) you can clearly see the additional functions an eCommerce marketing team owns that would traditionally be the domain of a sales department.  Click on the image to expand.

Having spent a lot of time in enterprise sales, I can definitely tell you that pure marketing is important and valuable but is secondary to hitting my quota.  The same feeling was evident in watching the attendees at Shop.org. 

So here is my big Arizona eureka moment, which I encourage people to think about (especially if you plan on speaking at events that eCommerce professionals are attending).   

eCommerce is an emerging discipline, and as an industry we need to be sharing best practices and new ideas.  Just don’t forget that if it doesn’t help grow sales and hit conversion quotas your ideas will end up at the bottom of an ever-expanding to-do list.

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