Now that everyone is back from last week’s Internet Retailer show in Boston, we can stop tweeting #IRCE and begin to catch up on all the emails and voicemails from last week.  But before diving into our inboxes and trying to remember our voicemail passwords (it happens to the best of us, right?), there’s a few thank you’s we owe to some great Sitebrand clients.  So without further delayand in no particular order, here they are:

ComputerGeeks.com
True story here… I’m handed the 2009 edition of the IR500 Guide and I randomly open it to page 240 – No. 181, ComputerGeeks.com.  How fitting, they are great clients of ours.  I begin to read their write up and I start to blush:  “The discount retailer of computer and consumer electronics tested a personalization system from Sitebrand Inc. in the summer of 2008 that increased sales 9% on average, or $540,000, in a two-month period.” Wow.  The ComputerGeeks.com team really gets selling online and eCommerce.  Great site and great people.  Big thanks to ComputerGeeks.com

CableOrganizer.com
Flipping to page 364, I see CableOrganizer.com’s write up hinting at personalization being the reason for ROI returns as high as “500% to 700%.” The IR500 Guide goes on to mention “The company also says it is 85% to 90% accurate on delivering content and offers at the right time, with many campaigns yielding a nearly 10% conversion rate.” Pretty impressive, right?  That’s Sitebrand’s impact.  Feel free to read the how’s and why’s here.

Danskin.com
Danskin’s Jessica Koster has always been great to us and ranks among our favorite clients to work with.  Koster and the Danskin team gave us a nice mention in their write up on page 348… “[Danskin] boosted online conversion rates by 56% using personalization technology to trigger customer web campaigns for visitors to the site.  Danskin.com used Sitebrand’s[Segment&Serve] to change the contents of a page based on the user’s geographic location.” Awww, thanks guys.

Many measure the success of a company by the results of their clients and in this case, I think the quotes speak for themselves.  We’re proud to have these success stories and want to sincerely thank you all for working with Sitebrand.

Cheers to all of our wonderful clients and new connections made last week.

Number 842. Remember that number. You’ll thank me later.

Visit Sitebrand at IRCE2009, booth 842

Again – 842 is the key here. You’ll need it soon… very soon. You may want to take a second to write it down or get it into your mobile phone. I’ll wait while you do that… … ready to keep reading?

Studies suggest it takes at least 3-5 times of seeing the same message before you start to memorize it. Hopefully the number 842 is beginning to solidify in your mind.

OK, let me take the time to explain the significance of 842. The number 842 is the booth number Sitebrand will occupy during the 2009 Internet Retail Conference & Exhibition next week in Boston, MA.

Was a build up like that necessary to announce an appearance at the IRCE? Absolutely. Sitebrand is the leader in web personalization and to not create a build up like this would only be a disservice to our experience, success and ongoing thought leadership.

But enough about us (but please feel free to ask us more in person next week, in booth 842)… here’s a few topics that directly impact you and Sitebrand solves on a regular basis.

Maximizing search efforts: Alright, you have landing pages for your keywords, but as we all know, those keywords aren’t the only things driving web traffic. What about organic search terms which make up a healthy dose of your steady traffic? How do you speak to visitors who land on your site with natural search? Sitebrand can target those visitors.

Shortening your sales cycles: Bigger ticket items can sometimes incur longer sales cycles before conversions. Chalk it up to researching, comparing, decision making – wouldn’t it be great to properly address those specific needs of your visitors? And if you could, it would probably shorten the average sales cycle. Sitebrand can and has done that.

See any patterns here? Yeah – Sitebrand targets all kinds of visitors. Where other eCommerce solutions may only apply to specific segments or features, web personalization and Sitebrand appeal to everyone.

Booth #842 – Monday June 15th through Wednesday June 17th. See you there!

I was having lunch the other day with a web analytics friend of mine. He shared with me the fact that several of his clients who are in the online luxury space all have one thing in common – visitors who are subscribed to a newsletter have the highest conversion rate.

Hmm, ok. Well I suppose that’s interesting, but it’s not the sort of Avinash inspired metric that I’d want to tweet about.

The following day I asked our services team, “what is the main value that Sitebrand (personalization) brings to our online luxury customers today?”

It comes down to this: luxury companies typically have a multi-visit shopping cycle, and they look to us to help influence and shorten that cycle.

Depending on which stage of the cycle a visitor is at, we can target personalized messaging to persuade them to the next stage of the cycle. This shortens the process and reduces the chance that they fall out of the cycle.

Why do they have a multi-visit shopping cycle?

If I’m buying a ring, or any high-end product in any vertical, typically I want to research the product, I want to be an informed buyer – I’m not spending $50 here, we’re talking hundreds or thousands of $$$. In some cases it’s a once in a lifetime decision – like how many times in your life will you be buying a wedding ring (once hopefully)?

What can you measure?

So if you’re an online luxury e-tailor, and your visitor opts into your newsletter, it’s a measure of their commitment to you, you’re one of the contenders. So a newsletter is simply one more checkbox to fill along the multiple visit sales cycle. There are many other customer indicators that indicate commitment, willingness, and interest. Have a look, correlations between purchasers and other high-value tasks exist – your analytics will tell you these.

How does personalization help influence and shorten this cycle?

So now you know the business objective and you have the measurements in place.

“So what… so what do you do about it” (Sorry, another Avinash quote)

Some would argue that you can shorten the sales cycle by discounting the product or offering up deals earlier on in the process. I suppose, but isn’t this trying to fit a square peg in a round hole? For one thing, you’re leaving money on the table, and secondly, you’re trying to force something onto a customer that he or she is not ready for. This could result in lower margins on sales and potentially returned sales.

So I say – Focus on the customer!

Make them feel comfortable. Build confidence. Build a relationship. An opt-in newsletter is only one method to build that trust. Customer testimonials through text, imagery, voice and video; product reviews from both vendors and customers; customer support, email and live chat are but a few examples that do this.

If you’re ‘number of visits to purchase’ rate is 4.5, then spend the first 4 visits building that confidence and trust. This is the time to build brand, loyalty, trust, it is the time to focus on the customer and not on the sell. In visits 4, 5 and 6, offer them the incentive, persuade them towards the cart.

With Sitebrand, promoting that newsletter in a timely and effective manner is just one small example of how we can influence and shorten that sales cycle. Remember, not all of your visitors are at the same point in the purchasing cycle, so make sure you speak to each differently and gently help persuade each visitor segment to that next stage and subsequent purchase.

Rely on your analytics to determine your rates and correlations.

However, don’t rely on measurement alone. Rely on optimization and personalization to continuously improve the right message in front of the right person at the right time.

It’s always interesting to read an eCommerce success story to understand the lessons learned, strategies involved and of course, the magical combination of technologies used for sales and conversion rate wins.

Sadly, there isn’t one single combination to guarantee results and certainly that’s no revolutionary thought.  Everyone’s trying to figure out what technologies are needed and what’s not.  My needs don’t match your needs, so the bad news is you still have to keep on top of new tools and technology that solve your challenges.  It’s almost a job in itself.  I guess that’s the true challenge for marketers and vendors in any space, especially in the online marketing world.

Think about it.  You probably have a number of the following tools/solutions running in conjunction with your site right now: in-site search, recommendations, live chat/customer support, customer/product reviews, multivariate or A/B testing, affiliate marketing, email marketing, CMS and of course, web personalization.  I know you all have web personalization integrated into your web strategies.

All these technologies plugged into your website no doubt have the ability to raise your conversion rates and enhance the visitor experience.  I’m sure they all do, but when you have 3 or 4 of the above solutions running at once, are they all working in unison or like 3 or 4 separate products?  You probably don’t have the time or bandwidth to properly setup, run, modify and analyze each solution on a weekly basis and I’m guessing the solutions don’t naturally play well together.  Software is great like that, right?

Is it fair to expect a 1-3% conversion lift from each of the solutions listed above; or at least most of them?  Sounds reasonable if used properly and to the maximum capability.  So, if you are running 3 or 4 of these solutions, why isn’t your conversion rate nearing double digits or higher?  Are these different solutions converting the same visitors?  And would your conversion rate suffer without these solutions?

I’m really asking what the impact of these solutions are.  Are they worth the money you pay when they contribute to a conversion rate that’s less than ideal?  You’ve outsourced a good chunk of your website for tools and solutions that do something better than you can, but do the results justify having the solutions?  Especially if they are converting the same visitors.

For example, a visitor goes through an in-site search to a product that’s been delivered via a recommendation engine.  Score one point for both the search and the recommendation tool, but it’s not like your conversion rates show’s it; nor does the ROI.  Would the conversion happen with only one of the solutions?  Or perhaps without either solution?  How do each of these tools show individual value over another?  My boss will probably say I’m arguing a war of attribution, but let’s see what you guys have to say!

I’m looking forward to all different thoughts, insight and opinions on this subject.

First of all, let’s start by explaining what an email pre-header is. An email pre-header is a snippet of text that appears above your header image and html of your email. The pre-header can be used for a couple of things, it can be used for administrative information such as asking people to add your sending address to their address book, you could have your “View this email online” link in there or even a permission reminder with an option to opt out.

Figure 1 - email with no images

Lately a lot of e-marketers have been using the email pre-header space to add a call-to-action and some brand recognition to their emails. This is especially important when you are sending emails that are all images with very little or no text, because a lot of people are viewing your email with images off by default.

Take this email from Forever21.com for example (see figure 1), this is how it looked when it landed in my inbox. Images are turned off by default, I can’t tell who it is from or what the offer is.

When I downloaded the images, I could see a really nice photo with an offer for party dresses starting at $13.50 (see figure 2). Wouldn’t it have been nice if the pre-header said something like “Forever21.com: Party Dresses from $13.50!” or “View online to get party dress from Forever21.com starting from $13.50″? At least I would have been able to tell who the email was from and what the offer was right away without having to download the images.

Figure 2 - after downloading images

On top of not having a pre-header, there is a smaller image below the big one saying “free standard shipping with orders of $75 or more”. If that was written in text, I could see it without having to download images and it might entice me to click through to the site. Who doesn’t love free shipping?

I’m not saying that every email needs a preheader but it is definitely a good idea to use that space to your advantage.

Happy emailing,
Alison