Yesterday Zachary Rogers of ClickZ.com had an interesting article about retailers Q4 search engine spend increasing (by approximately 17 per cent). That’s great news for e-commerce as a whole, but despite the spend increase, Rogers indcated subsequent click-through rates didn’t grow with the spend. Within the report, Justin Merickel, VP of Marketing and New Product Development for Efficient Frontier, pointed to savvy web buyers and comparison shopping as primary reasons for the click-through drop.

Wait a second.

Retailers are spending more on keywords, yet the predicted ROI is coming back flat? (or flatter than usual). Many of my marketing peers tell me one of the biggest reasons online marketers dive so deep into SEM investments is because of the predictable return it provides. And now the returns aren’t panning out?

Backing up a bit, it should be noted the report also indicated reduced keyword buying competition (generally speaking) than in recent years. Although the increased search spend didn’t translate into higher click costs for marketers. Essentially, online marketers and retailers are getting more bang for their buck, sort of. Based on this information, I’m assuming reduced click rates means a drop in overall paid keyword conversions (as far as these retailers search efforts go). I’m also assuming the reason for lower keyword competition is a result of bigger retailers spending more and the smaller retailers spending less.

Merickel was quoted saying comparison shopping is having a huge impact on flat click-through rates. I buy that as a partial reason, but not the only reason. Perhaps it’s also a case of ineffective marketing? With more keywords being bought and the pressure to meet the needs of comparison shoppers, I see a huge value in differentiated web experiences, targeted messaging and lasting impressions (ie. web personalization and similar tools). Merickel also hinted at shoppers having longer buying/conversion cycles, which makes sense as well.

Keeping this in mind, you’d think retailers serious about their search investments would key into visitor’s surfing habits and tailor messaging/web experiences around repeat visitors and multi-visit sales cycles (especially for higher priced merchandise/sales). There are ways to reduce and streamline the multi-visit sales cycle. If things like comparison shopping are having the effect Merickel is talking about, upping keyword budgets won’t fully solve the problem. You’d think retailers would be interested in maximizing existing investments rather than adding to them?

But no, Effective Frontier believes search spend will continue to increase by 10-15 per cent in 2010. I hope that increase includes solutions like web personalization that help enhance existing online marketing pratices (like search). Anything else would be foolish, right?

We are four weeks into life with relevance7 and the feedback has been nothing short of amazing. I wanted to take a quick break from our weekly features to share some of the amazing responses we’ve received.

To say the reaction has been overwhelming is an understatement. It’s a big win for our R&D team who’ve tirelessly worked to make a revolutionary personalization platform like relevance7. We’ve done countless numbers of demo’s and presentations with customers, prospects, analysts and e-Commerce gurus. While we continue to fill our calendar with these meetings (Want one?), here’s some of the exciting feedback we’ve had (with some added commentary from me):

“This is revolutionary!”
Thanks.

“You mean I can do that without going to my IT team…”
Yes! Relevance 7 is designed to have the easiest integration and day-to-day use possible. The emphasis is on letting the marketers do their jobs.

“I can historically look at the performance of segments of users even if I didn’t pre-define them?”
Relevance 7 captures an incredible amount of data. This is just one of the new features I know users are going to love.

“Is it really that easy to personalize a content zone”
Using the content selector tool, it’s a matter of clicks. Even I can use it!

“No integration, huh…”
Nope. As I said above, it’s the easiest integration you’ve ever seen. Couple that with Sitebrand’s support team and you can’t go wrong.

“Lifetime dialogue with visitors, really?”
Sometimes site conversions have life-cycles that require multiple visits (high priced items, luxury goods, vacation packages, etc…), relevance7 can absolutely hold a lifetime dialogue with visitors.

“I can pull in any data source from my back end!…”
Yes. This is another great feature for relevance7. Again, all designed to help marketing professionals do their jobs, drive sales/conversions and create even better web experiences.

As you can see, we’ve received incredible feedback from our demo’s so far. We have a few surprises for you over the next few weeks here on Sitebrand.com and Sitebrand’s blog. We hope to hear your thoughts. It’s an exciting time for Sitebrand, online marketers and the personalization world. relevance7 is now in beta… and it’s coming fast!

At times, it can be challenging to visualize what to make for lunch. A simple task that can be exceedingly difficult. You have a pretty good idea of what you’re in the mood for, but for some reason there’s an issue between making lunch (proper planning) and eating it (execution).

Screenshot of a campaign storyboard in Sitebrand's upcoming release, relevance7.

Some of the most strategic marketers I’ve had the pleasure of talking to say similar things when thinking about the dive into web personalization. They get relevant messaging, better customer experiences and increased conversions, but they aren’t sure how to make it work in a context that supports what their existing website is and does.

Whether its personalization or other online marketing engines, it’s clear the software is becoming increasingly cumbersome to use and require hours and hours of training to figure out.

Sometimes when envisioning a web campaign, it doesn’t make sense until you see what it would look like on your site from beginning to end. Or sometimes, the trouble is envisioning which sections of a website the campaign runs across. Software isn’t always the easiest thing to navigate and let’s be honest, marketing professionals don’t want to spend all their time HTML coding.

If you find yourself agreeing with this (and honestly, how couldn’t you?) what I’m about to say should really resonate with you. Imagine the ability to personalize campaign after campaign with the most friendly of user experiences with a pretty cool storyboarding feature.

Being able to see exactly how the campaign looks, where the call to action goes next and the 30,000 ft view of a particular campaign is compelling to say the least.

An up-close look at campaign storyboarding in Sitebrand's next generation personalization platform, relevance7.

If features like this can’t get you into personalization, I’m not sure what will. With relevance7, Sitebrand’s upcoming revolutionary personalization platform, it certainly helps bridge planning and execution stages. Or in other words, it bridges making lunch and eating it.

Hungry for personalization yet?

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Stay tuned for a series of blogs that will show the power and flexibility of Sitebrand’s next generation personalization platform, relevance7! This is the first installment of the weekly series.

I recently read a fantastic blog post from Kevin Ertell (of ForeSee Results fame) suggesting single digit conversion rates are a result of online marketer elitism.  Ertell is quick to point out Michael Summers (Senior Director of Usability for GSI Commerce) as the original voice behind such a bold statement at GSI’s Connect Conference a few weeks ago.  While I may not be so quick to call the majority of our clients, friends and readers elitists (OK, I may be sucking up here), the underlying message shouldn’t be ignored.

OK, that last sentence was a very politically correct, but you get my point.

The average online shopper doesn’t think like you and I do.

One of the greater eCommerce challenges is to plan your website and online shopping experience around how your visitors/customers think.  Online marketing professionals are smart, well educated and spend far more time in eCommerce than your average customer probably does.   But can e-Tailers honestly say websites are designed around how the average visitor thinks, navigates, behaves, etc…?

When I look at strong online companies who I respect, I find the majority of sites difficult. And I consider myself very much in tune with the world of eCommerce.  Sure, these sites look great, but flashy-cool websites only get you so far.  To me, the best sites always have the simplest designs.  May not be the most appealing website, but why fix what’s not broken?  I like how ecommerce-blog.org puts it, “most people don’t care how good of a graphic designer you have.  Lucas Film LTD may be interested in your work, but the rest of us aren’t”.

All that said, I realize and appreciate the amount of research, development, studies, testing and more that goes into site launches and redesigns.  I’m not saying companies intentionally create overly complicated web experiences or aren’t trying to think like their visitors/customers (in fact, I’d accuse them of trying to do just that… or at least they should be!).  However, I do believe we – as an industry – aren’t there yet.

Perhaps the online marketing community is evolving faster than the customers that fuel it.  Or the problems we’re trying to solve (shopping cart abandonment, low conversion rates, improved marketing strategies, etc…) are pushing for fixes that are far too elaborate for today’s needs.

I fundamentally believe a majority of eCommerce challenges can be overcome with a straight forward and easy-to-use website with clear and dynamic messaging.  Talk to your visitors, keep them engaged and show them the products/information they want to see.

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!