October 8, 2008 by Alok Ahuja
I would first like to say thank you to all of those I had the pleasure of meeting while attending the Shop.org Annual Summit in Las Vegas. It was a great show with plenty of vendors, learning seminars and certain people claiming to do exactly what Sitebrand does! It’s always entertaining and enlightening to visit certain booths and listen to the unexperienced pitch man claim; “We can do that”. So you mean to tell me that you can help convert my SEO spends and engage my customers throughout their visit all in real time?….”Of course, and we’ll even take your kids to daycare for you”. It never ceases to amaze…just where do they find these people, and more importantly how do they manage to keep a straight face while making their pitch to me? Nevertheless, it was a great show.
I would like to share a simple concept within Sitebrand’s new Segment&Serve tool that has many of our customers “double taking” their analytic reports. This ‘concept’ that I’m going to discuss is being employed by Sitebrand customers with the efforts of helping to increase their conversion on three simple letters known as ‘S.E.O’.
It’s no secret that SEO is used with the aim of achieving a higher organic search listing and thus increasing volume of targeted traffic from search engines. This is all peachy, but after spending time and money on increasing your SEO you finally have the attention of online shoppers and slowly but surely they all begin to visit your site based on exactly what their looking for. I’m sure your boss is quite happy with all the great work you’ve done, now that you’ve increased your site traffic and shoppers are coming in on specific keywords. One question;”Why are your bounce rates so high and your conversion rate based on these specific keywords is so low?” Looks like the boss isn’t too pleased anymore!
I had the pleasure of having this exact conversation with a valued Sitebrand customer, and after understanding what goals they were trying to achieve, we were able to deploy a simple campaign based on ‘Natural Keyword Search’. Sitebrand’s Segment&Serve tool allows online vendors to build campaigns based on the ‘natural keywords’ that are being used by online shoppers to find, enter and shop on their site. Working concurrently with their SEO efforts, this Sitebrand campaign was able to present a relevant message based on the shoppers keyword search. In this case the shopper was entering the site on a specific product word, which the Sitebrand campaign recognized. Sitebrand was then able to display a campaign on that exact product page offering the customer a discount on that specific product as well as a small message about the history of that site. The result was a satisfied customer who was able to find the website of their desired product but also get validation on that sites reputation and score a deal. This is just one of the many segmentation rules that is available to Sitebrand customers, helping once again to present relevant messaging and help convert customers through discount messaging and reassurance.
Relevant messaging is always important, but I think I can speak on behalf of most online shoppers when I ask; “Who can say no to a good deal?”.
Alok Ahuja
‘The Road Less Travelled’
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September 10, 2008 by Alok Ahuja
Web personalization is all about creating a unique experience for online shoppers, being able to speak to a customer on a personal level based on what their looking for and where their coming from. There are several bloggers out there talking about how it’s important to geo target customers and recognize their location, and how it is important to help them when their lost with relevant messaging based on their depth of visit. All are important aspects of communication with your online shopper, but I believe that in most cases we are overlooking one essential customer trait….do they even speak english?? With a saturated market in North American, retailers are turning towards a more global market to help increase revenues making language barriers a prominent issue for online shoppers.
Even though most people compare online and in store prices, most web retailers overlook basic language barriers. Whether I’m shopping in Mexico City, Monaco, New York City, or Honk Kong each city will have their own personal unique welcome in their native tongue as you enter their store. The moment you reply with a North American ‘Hello’ they recognize that they have a foreign shopper on their hands. In most cases online business retailers are not able to appreciate or recognize this hurdle…..well by most I mean the ones who aren’t two steps ahead of the game because of Sitebrand.
Recently I have had the opportunity to employ this concept with one of my accounts to set up personalized welcome messages based on ‘language’. Within the Sitebrand Segment&Serve platform our customers have the ability to setup campaigns based on the language that has been set by that online shoppers web browser. This one particular account has traffic coming from all over the world and based on their analytical data, we were able to determine that foreign customers were a major portion of their overall traffic. Using Sitebrand’s technology they have been able to welcome each visitor based on their specific language from Dutch, Italian, Spanish and even Japanese with a personalized message in that shoppers native tongue. After running these campaigns for several months we have been able to re-visit the analytical data and enjoy the positive increase in conversion rates for language specific browsers.
E-retailers today try so hard to increase their conversion rates through discounts and promotional offers through emails and pop-ups, when sometimes all it really takes is a simple ‘Hello’.
Alok Ahuja
‘The Road Less Travelled’
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August 15, 2008 by Alok Ahuja
Before I get into this ongoing trend of keeping you all up to date on the most effective method of using web personalization I would just like to quickly introduce myself. As a Senior Account Manager here at Sitebrand for over 2 years I’ve had the opportunity to deal with several IR500 accounts. Being able to interact with these accounts has allowed me to expand my skills as a marketer and adviser within’ the field of analytics and overall optimization strategies. Throughout this experience I have had the opportunity to meet some very outgoing customers who like to think outside the box and have helped take Sitebrand to the next level……and to be quite honest , isn’t that what it’s all about?
When seasons change or a certain holiday begins to approach, customers usually come to me looking for a new optimization cycle. This normally gets me quite intrigued until I hear; “So what do you think we should do?” Instead of running for dear life when I hear the flood gates open, I like to stand right in the middle with a big smile on my face because this is when you get a chance to really think outside the box and take your new optimizations cycle to the next level.
One piece of advice I always like to pass along to my customers is to stay current and have some fun with your messaging. It’s important to realize that your shoppers aren’t all 60 year old librarians, they are normal people just like you and I!! Which is why it begins to get real boring when you continue to encounter the same messaging over and over….”Welcome Texas Visitor. Click here to save.” I don’t reside from Texas but I do know that messaging like that definitely won’t spark interest from any shopper loyal or not. Instead of using generic messages try to keep it fresh with something like; “Howdy to all Texans!! The only thing bigger than Texas is our massive selection. Click here to catch a glimpse!!” Your message should connect to your shoppers and getting them to crack a smile can’t hurt. Be creative, but more importantly have fun with it because your enthusiasm will be passed along to your shoppers and lighten their mood making for a more enjoyable shopping experience. There’s a lot to be said for increasing your customers ‘happiness conversion rate’.
One customer, Kiyonna Clothing, took this advice and really impressed me with one of their recent campaigns. We were looking for a new message to present to all California shoppers who came to the site. We began brainstorming trying to figure out what Californian’s are into, and some of the local news that’s been affecting them when we came up with this;
There was a new law in California that people could not talk on their cell phones while driving, unless they had a hands free phone. The issue was that paparazzi was snapping shots all day long of celebrities driving around L.A. and other areas while talking on their cell phones, and the police were using these pictures to hand out tickets to the unsuspecting stars. With this campaign Kiyonna was able to relate to California shoppers and take a small jab at Hollywood celebrities, but more importantly it helped increase their conversion rate for this under performing segment.
Thinking outside the box and speaking to the people will always pay dividends.
‘The Road Less Traveled’
Alok Ahuja
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