It’s been some time good reader, so happy end of January. We’re one month closer to summer.

I realize times are tough right now – budgets are cut shorter than Barack Obama’s hair, company headcount is shrinking faster than Nortel’s stock and general uncertainty is causing big-time havoc on anyone looking at long term planning. See, I’ve caught up with my news and current events (see my last blog to fully understand…).

In e-Commerce, we talk a lot about first time visitors – the big unknown. There’s a huge focus on this segment and while no one has completely cracked the code, there are dozens of best practices out there with proven and repeatable results. Jim Cain, Sitebrand’s resident super analyst wrote a great whitepaper on this very subject last year.

So, cool. First time visitors are the elusive catch, the big seg (sounded cooler than segment). And so it should be – generally it makes up about 70 per cent of total traffic or more. But today, I wanted to look a little closer at return visitors. That’s approximately the other 30 per cent of your traffic and while significantly smaller than first time visitors, it’s still an important segment and could act as a more profitable one long term. All repeat visitors were once first time visitors, right? I know what you’re thinking: “How profound of you, Kevin”. Thanks for the feedback.

But think about it. You’ve already invested in driving these visitors to your site once. Maybe they bought something. Maybe they saved their cart. Maybe they looked around on your site for twice the regular average. Who knows, but for some reason, they are back. Which brings the question: what are you doing for these visitors and how do your marketing strategies look for returning visitors?

From a search marketing standpoint, you’ve done your job. They are back and on your site – again! Are you messaging targeted content to return visitors? Are you segmenting your return visitors based on if they purchased anything during their last visit? Are you A/Bing content to this segment? Do you want to create a unique customer experience? Are you able to create real-time campaigns based on click-path navigations and behaviors during that specific session?

You could be.

Enter plug: This Wednesday afternoon, I’ll be hosting a webinar geared towards this exact topic with 5 best practices to boot. Here’s the skinny: 29 minute webinar with me (rad Sitebrand Sales Engineer), on return visitors and how you could be improving conversions. And it’s free. Register now.

I can plug my own webinar on our official blog, right? Like, that’s not a faux pas, is it? I hope not. But more so, I hope to see you there – 2pm EST sharp.

Stay Classy, internet.

Hello and happy 2009 to all Sitebrand frequenters. Thanks for kicking off the new year by reading our blogs – we appreciate it and love all the comments that come with blogging. According to Chinese calendars, 2009 is the year of the Ox. So just how are oxen relevant to anything e-Commerce you ask? Keep reading to find out…

So apparently the United States is in a recession and has been for some time. Lately, I’ve been so immersed in various other things and may have missed out on such news. However, as sad as that may sound, I am up to date in things like Twitter (totally the new RSS of 2009, don’t you know), Amazon’s massive holiday sales spike, Chinese new year’s, terrible year end lists and of course, personalization. I swear my introductions are getting longer, but this is all going somewhere, I promise.

A recession, eh? Is that the thing that makes companies shrink budgets – more specifically, shrink marketing budgets? From talking to some peers, it seems a big trend for 2009 will see marketers finding cheap, inexpensive or free (the best kind) ways to promote and grow. I’m no genius, especially since I didn’t even know about this ‘recession thing’, but how does a company grow with limited/reduced budgets? While the aggressive side of me thinks there’s no time better than now to increase marketing budgets, I also understand the other side here – the responsible side of me, that is. And that could be why social media has and will continue to climb to the top of many marketers “definitely need to do/try that in 2009 lists”. I know, more lists at the beginning of a new year, but I digress.

You might be thinking: “social media is the buzz, but it’s not a proven revenue generator”. True and like all things, I’m sure social media will quickly evolve with that in mind over the next few years. Something to bare in mind here - social media is still very new and I don’t feel social media should be providing mass sales at this point. Mashable.com has a great survey about this, too. That’s where I see social media differently at this point – does it have to provide unassisted new sales, right now? I look at the Twitters, Facebooks, (etc…) as a part of the marketing mix, not an independent one. They will help the conversational aspect – a critical piece – with your customers and potential ones, but won’t act as the first and last points of contact to drive the sale.

Looking at this from an outside perspective, you can pay agencies, firms, specialists, etc… to run integrated social media campaigns, but it seems many companies are keeping it in-house. Whether financial reasoning or otherwise, marketers are taking notice of varying methods from big time companies like Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, Dell, all the way down to the mom and pop shops that are still around. And why not? They’ve done a great job reaching out to customers and speaking to them. Those familiar with my views from previous writings probably see this part coming: you’ve developed interest. You’ve cut through the mass and now they want to know more, so they return to your website, only to find generic messaging and content. Maverick and Iceman just called: they said mission failed – failed like the Detroit Lions historic no-win season. Back to my point, use social media to cut through the clutter, use personalization to get relevant. That’s a better 1-2 punch than Brady/Moss (from 2007, of course – sorry Lions fans). While you can have one without the other, the combined efforts are far greater than one on its own. Also, personalization is a better and more proven ROI effort than social media, as of writing this. Like all things internet these days, that could change in a hurry.

For a quick recap, I’ll leave you with an equation that should help demonstrate why personalization should be on your radar, why it makes sense in today’s economy and how it will help even the newest social media-ist get the message heard loud and clear, at the right time. Its not scientific, but I’m fairly sure it checks out…

1.    2009 = the year of the ox
2.    Oxen = methodical and detail oriented, yet have difficulty connecting with others (I swear I looked this up)
3.    Sitebrand = easily connects with specific audiences, sending relevance/targeted marketing campaigns
4.    Social media = easy way to speak directly to customers and is quickly becoming an integral part of all marketing plans (big and small)
5.    Year of personalization = 2009 (according to many, including me)

Therefore: 2009 is the year marketers/e-Commerce professionals must integrate social media efforts with Sitebrand’s personalization in order to deliver that 1-2 combo that your customers deserve.

Stay classy, internet.