No first blog is complete without some kind of introduction – but this is no ordinary blog, my fellow readers. As Sitebrand’s Sales Engineer, I have but one mandate: write rich and compelling stories worthy of your time and subsequent follow up dialog. That’s a hint for any welcome comments below… you know you want to.

Allow me to be the first to say I am new to the world of e-Commerce and internet marketing. I appreciate the experience of those around me and often feed off their wisdom and knowledge, but with all due respect, I’m going to think outside the box here, so don’t act like you aren’t impressed.

Perhaps it’s the youth in me talking, but I’d love to know why marketers aren’t marketing to reflect the times we currently live in? The economy, social media/web browsing, multi-level branding, targeted content to stand out from the clutter of other, general ads… I smell foreshadowing here, mmmKay?

The opportunity for marketers to drill down into audiences via personalization and segmentation is becoming easier and increasingly more available, yet remains as popular as the last X-Files movie (approximately). I see the relationship between analytics and Sitebrand very much in the same vein as the Smoking man – source of information and Mulder – the action and reason behind the data. Bad analogy? Maybe, but I digress.

We rely more and more on analytical data to better understand web traffic and underlying trends, our day to day priorities have us running in multiple directions, yet personalization/optimization never nears the top of that list. Is there a risk we as marketers don’t want to take? Is it a fear of the unknown? Are we still waiting for that TPS report?

Here’s how I look at it: you’ve spent money, time and effort driving web traffic, increasing site awareness and engaging shoppers. You’ve succeeded in building baseline interest from tens of thousands of e-shoppers, so why not speak to those shoppers directly, peaking additional interest based off consumer behaviors and actions? You are 90% of the way towards the sale, yet the remaining 10% means showing the customer the right solution, of the thousands of products and SKUs available on your site. There’s only so much a static message can say to shoppers who are seeking relevant and targeted information. They may not even know it, but you do. Having a web site that dynamically speaks to customers, driving the right content at the right time, all in real time is the key here. With today’s economy struggling more than the latest release of ICQ (seriously, who knew they are up to version 6.0?), why not retain your initial investments and efforts? Driving new traffic to your website may increase your sales, but won’t help conversion rates or other e-Commerce challenges.

“But Kev, dude, these aren’t the droids I’m looking for, what should I get from this blog?” Glad you asked; I have a challenge for anyone doubting my message: Apply today for a free no risk, no obligation 60-day trial using Sitebrand’s Segment&Serve and we’ll show you the power of behavioral marketing and segment specific marketing strategies.

A quick recap: if Personalization isn’t on your laser guided radar, maybe it should be – start looking at it as a viable way to reinforce your investments and initiatives, and have the opportunity for free Sitebrand trials with slants of pop culture thrown at you (via my blogs, so in the famous words of Apu, please come again). If that doesn’t put a smile on your face like an office Hawaiian shirt day, nothing will.

You stay classy, internet.

Apply for the free no risk, no obligation 60 day Sitebrand trial today.

When we met with some folks from Silverpop for lunch at the DMA08 show in Vegas last week, we were really excited to hear about their developments with email marketing going social.

It’s what Silverpop is calling “Share-to-Social” - and it’s email’s first integrated and measurable social networking solution of its kind.

When users choose to share a message with friends in their social network, Silverpop’s systems are able to report on how many of their friends opened and clicked on the links in the message. This also means that marketers can get the same kind of 360 degree view of social networks as they do with email today.

It’s very much an updated forward-to-a-friend type of viral marketing because now instead of keeping the messages exclusive to the email channel, people are able to share their messages via popular social channels like Facebook and MySpace. It’s a great way of bringing all the channels closer together. And since this is today’s reality, it’s brilliant.

Since Sitebrand partners with Silverpop, this is exciting news for us and all our customers. For our many customers, especially retailers looking to sell more, this will be a great way to extend their marketing reach into the very populated social channels. But now more than ever, this also means the pressure is on to create really enticing offers that subscribers and customers want to share across their social network! Do this well, and you’ll find unparalleled reach.

Looking for how to maximize your email’s social potential? Sitebrand has a team of email experts who would be thrilled to brainstorm with you!

Just back from the DMA08 Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas! If you’re following us on Twitter, you would know this already (psst - that’s a hint to click the twitter link and start following us if you’re not already). Anyhow the show was full of buzz and I’m not talking slot machine / casino buzz. I’m talking fabulous attendees, vendors and keynotes!

Ty Pennington

The opening keynote was with Ty Pennington, the host of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”. He got on stage after painfully long opening remarks by John Greco, the DMA president & CEO and a bunch of other people on the DMA board, not to mention a few senators etc. Ya, that was a little too much propaganda for me and most of the people waiting for Pennington. Anyhow, moving right along, the overall theme of this opening ceremony was around Relevance, Responsibility and Results – the 3 R’s.

The DMA people referenced the need for marketers to continually be factoring these 3 R’s into every move we make. That’s the short version = I’ll spare you all the looooong details so we can cut to the good stuff. 

So when Pennington finally got on stage, Greco asked him to relate these 3 R’s to what he does with his show. And it was quite easy to see how his involvement with “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” does just this.

The relevance of the makeovers typically starts with a serious understanding of a family’s needs. Not everyone needs the same house and Pennington explained how important this understanding of what makes a family tick really matters for makeover relevance. He says he really digs deep into lifestyle needs to help ensure he creates a home with matching relevance.

As for responsibility, this was a cool one too. More and more, Pennington is embracing environmentally friendly options in home-building. If it can be green, he makes it green. If it can be recycled, it’s recycled, etc. He’s very aware of being environmentally responsible.

And of course results. There isn’t a home makeover that doesn’t score top marks. If you’ve ever watched the show, you know what I’m talking about. The tears say it all!

In talking to Eric Hollebone, one of my colleagues at Sitebrand, he reminded me how well these 3 R’s tie into Sitebrand’s value proposition. Actually, when we apply the 3 R’s to Sitebrand and our Segment&Serve personalization platform, I’m wondering why we weren’t asked to speak right alongside Pennington! Maybe we need to pilot a show called ~ “Extreme Makeover: Website Edition”? We’re already doing it without endorsement by ABC - just look at some of the genius stuff our customers are doing (see case studies galore). I may be on to something here. I better call my agent! I digress…

Let’s consider Sitebrand’s Segment&Serve solution and the 3 R’s:

1. Does Segment&Serve speak to relevance? Yes! The name says it all. Segmentation that leads to better targeted messaging is all about relevance. That’s just one way of looking at it.
2. Does Segment&Serve speak to responsibility? Yes! We could look at this many ways, but think about this one example first. As marketers you’re spending lots of money driving traffic to your site. You’re also measured on conversion. But what are you doing to take responsibility for the piece in the middle – the persuasion piece of the sales funnel. If you’re using web personalization, you’re proactive ways are very responsible since they help maximize your acquisition spends on things like email and search.
3. Does Segment&Serve speak to results? Yes! Hmm, where do we start! I think the best route is via our case studies. Sitebrand is all about measurable results – increased conversion rates, cart spends and loyalty. Decreased cart abandonment and so on.

So what are you doing to ensure your marketing efforts tie into relevance, responsibility and results? That’s something to think about..better yet, action on.

It has been just shy of a year since I started blogging for Sitebrand.  For those of you who have been reading my blog since I started writing over a year ago (my mom and fiancee), and those who have been reading, commenting and emailing, thanks for your support!

Despite having started writing while still part of the sales department, I decided from the outset to have a strong focus on the fundamental principles behind conversion optimization through dialog personalization, and less of a focus on promoting Sitebrand.  The assumption being that if you agree with the concepts behind creating marketing driven dialog with a traffic segment, there is really only one game in town….But I digress.

I am talking about the focus of my blog because it is rare that I get the chance to leave the cube here in Gatineau and go out and talk to practitioners of digital marketing to hear what they currently do and what they want to do when it comes to optimizing visitor outcomes.

Last month Stephane Hamel of Immeria and WASP fame invited our CTO, Falk Gottlob, and myself to attend a Web Analytics Wednesday event in Montreal.  Not a lot of hesitating on my response, and going to Montreal was just icing on the cake.

Falk and I got the chance to have a few cold beers and a few heated debates about the state of analytics and optimization, and met some fantastic people.

So I was both surprised and excited to be invited to come back and be the presenter at the next event, which will take place next week.

Much like my blogging, the emphasis of the presentation will be less on Sitebrand and more on how a marketer can understand a specific traffic segment, and then optimize their experience to increase their goal conversion.

Per my last post, I will be sticking to my current favorite segment, the First Time Visitor, and I am jazzed to see what the questions and responses will be to the talk.

A few important points for those attending: I love questions and Sitebrand is buying the beer.

Looking forward to seeing you in la belle province.

Cheers,

Jim

Click Here to register for this Web Analytics Wednesday event, Oct 15, 2008 @ Le Local

Click Here to learn more about WASP, a must have tool for any practitioner of analytics.

First time visitors are likely your largest underperforming segment of website traffic. And they’re also the most expensive…right? Right.

Because the impact of how you market this huge segment is so significant, Sitebrand invites you to register for our Oct. 30th webinar called: “Your Website and First Time Visitors: Friend or Foe?”. 

And who better to co-present than Bryan Eisenberg, best-selling author, publisher of award-winning blog, ClickZ columnist and co-founder of FutureNow. In just 29-minutes, this webinar will offer advice and tips around:

1. Using data to build an understanding and framework for first-time visitors, aka personas.
2. Building targeted messaging to grow the engagement and sales of first-time visitor segments / personas.
3. Mapping the real estate on your site toward your messaging.
4. Launching your cycle, watching results, and planning for re-optimization.

We’ll conclude with questions and answers!

Got a scheduling conflict? Register anyhow so you are notified when the webinar is archived for on-demand viewing at your convenience…

GET SMART EVEN FASTER! To study up on some of what we’ll be talking about, you should go ahead and download our new whitepaper by Jim Cain, a senior analyst (and fellow blogger) here at Sitebrand. The whitepaper is called  “First Time Visitor: A Marketer-Oriented Approach to Optimizing Online Conversions” and it also features a foreward by Bryan Eisenberg.