Marketing Pilgrim Published: “Ecommerce Maturing A Bit As Less New Buyers Come Online” plus 6 more |  |
- Ecommerce Maturing A Bit As Less New Buyers Come Online
- Google Assists Nonprofits With Special Apps Package
- Top 4 Reasons to Abandon SEO
- New Jobs on the Pilgrim Job Board
- Twitter Fail Whale Beached?
- Canada Uses Google Maps to Enhance Tourism Ads
- Will New Tax Laws End Amazon’s Affiliate Program?
| Ecommerce Maturing A Bit As Less New Buyers Come Online Posted: 17 Mar 2011 06:52 AM PDT Ecommerce continues to grow but as with everything else in the Internet age there seems to be an acceleration of the maturity of the channel. This isn't really an issue but it does cause online marketers to focus their efforts less on new customer acquisition and more on helping existing online shoppers do even more of their shopping online. An eMarketer study revealed that percentage growth numbers for ecommerce should decline. That only makes sense. The danger in this is that people will look at a chart showing a supposed decline in numbers when all it is really showing is strong growth in a dwindling number of new ecommerce users.
People get delusional in thinking that double digit growth can occur every year forever. That only goes to show how uneducated or uninformed many people are. It's like the gasps you used to hear when Google would post ONLY a 39% gain in a quarter. Ridiculous but true. Statistics are very powerful and dangerous all at once. It's like handing a gun to someone who never had a lesson. They have a decent idea of how to use it (if they watch TV and movies that is) but when they actually apply it the chances of something bad happening are abnormally high. People who don't REALLY look at statistics can be dangerous in a business situation as well in a similar fashion but without the physical danger (in most cases). This next chart shows exactly why growth will 'normalize' over the next few years. It's simply because most people are using the Internet for some level of ecommerce already so there are simply fewer new members to recruit.
The phenomenon is probably described best by the following statement from eMarketer principal analyst Jeffrey Grau.
So today's lesson simply comes in the form of pay attention to what makes a graph or chart look the way it does. Just because a line points in a negative direction it doesn't mean the news is necessarily bad. It's up to the consumer of that data to use their brain and make sure any decisions that are made based on the data are made based in fact and not on emotion (or worse yet just simply not paying attention).
|
| Google Assists Nonprofits With Special Apps Package Posted: 17 Mar 2011 05:34 AM PDT It looks like Google isn't going to sit idly by while Facebook and Twitter get all the credit for saving the world from tyranny, natural disasters and the common cold. While it sounds less than altruistic, the truth of the matter is that corporate 'good works', whether intended or not, creates great buzz and sells products. I say intended or not because this trend for giving companies credit over the people who enact change with passion and courage is a bit overdone. People make change and technology is a tool to help them, not the other way around. Regardless of your point of view though, Google wants in and is offering nonprofits a special way to use Google Apps. Here's a look at the home page for the service.
The Google blog outlines the program, which includes an application process to weed out those deemed unworthy.
While I didn't see any mention of restrictions (i.e. religious organizations etc) you can bet that there will be some folks who are turned away from the program that will make a fuss. You have to figure that Google is ready for that one because it is bound to happen. Here is a video that gives more information. Once again, if you are a nonprofit you can start the one-stop shop application process here. On the search engine ranking side of this one, Google must think this new program is pretty important since it ranks on the first page for the term “nonprofit”. Hmmmmmm.
|
| Posted: 16 Mar 2011 01:45 PM PDT
1. None of your sales come from your website. I have a friend who is a pediatric cardiologist. A while back he asked me if there was anything I could do for his website. I did some quick Google searches and his practice was ranking number one for most of his target keywords (there aren’t that many pediatric cardiologists in Austin This scenario plays out across a large variety of businesses including specialized products and services where direct sales channels drive the majority of customer interest. For example, if you need a device to measure directional drilling for your oil rig, you’re not likely to fire up Google and start searching. You’re going to ask colleges, vendors or other trusted sources to find a solution to your problem. For businesses offering specialized services and products where the very nature of your product dictates that people are unlikely to use search engines to find you, it’s time to abandon your SEO efforts. Start a small Adwords campaign focusing on exact and phrase match keywords specific to your service or products. Don’t sweat keeping up with algo changes, creating content and building back links. Capture the scant search traffic through PPC and spend the rest of your time focusing on sales channels that actually generate revenue. 2. You have a limited budget. I guess this is a bit of a PPC / SEO purist issue, but if a client has a limited budget and needs results quickly, I typically advise them to abandon SEO and focus on PPC. Sites with a lot of structural and code errors can be expensive to optimize for search engines and results can take weeks or months. If you have a working website and a limited budget, dump your SEO campaign and focus your spending on PPC. With ROI managed PPC you can start getting leads today without having to wait around for your site to start ranking well for organic searches. 3. You have limited time. If you have limited time to dedicate to online marketing efforts, spend your time generating traffic through PPC or affiliate channels. Set your bidding and offer strategies so that you don’t exceed your target cost per acquisition. If you’re forced to choose between strategies, go with a strategy that can generate traffic right away so you can fine tune your offer and turn your online marketing into a cash machine ASAP. When you strike it rich and hire an assistant, then dedicate some time to SEO. 4. Your website has been banned. Starting up that link building bot and buying links from seedypaidlinks.com seemed like a good idea at the time, but now Matt Cutts has found you out and has banned you from Google forever. Sure you can submit a reinclusion request, but let’s face it, that’s a battle you’re not going to win. If you you’ve been banned by the major search engines it’s time to abandon your SEO efforts. As a matter of fact it’s probably time to abandon your whole site. This is tough news to hear, but accepting your fate now and moving on will help you regain your traffic that much faster. So I hope I haven’t angered too many SEOs with my heresy, but when you get down to brass tacks many business owners need to adopt different strategies than we may be used to. If you run your own website, make sure to look at every marketing campaign you launch and make sure you ask yourself is it worth my money, is it worth my time, are there any huge obstacles and will I be able to get good ROI. Note: Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Marketing Pilgrim.
|
| New Jobs on the Pilgrim Job Board Posted: 16 Mar 2011 12:59 PM PDT
Just posted this week: If you are looking in Greensboro, NC, New York City or even Down Under in Perth for work there are jobs to be had. Take a look. Internet Marketing Analyst – Replacements, Inc. in Greensboro, NC Intern for Meetup Sponsorship group – Meetup in New York, CIty Interactive Marketing Manager – 3M in Austin, TX Cloud blogger – Open Hosting, Inc – Anywhere Web and Social Media Specialist – CPSU/CSA – Perth, Australia Sr. Manager of Interactive Communications and Social Media – Avery Dennison in Pasadena, CA Keep looking for more great job listings here at Marketing Pilgrim. Employers seeking employees we dare you to beat the talent of our readers for only $27 per listing per month!
|
| Posted: 16 Mar 2011 12:06 PM PDT Was on Twitter earlier and it went goofy on me. Rather than the infamous fail whale though I got this
Has the fail whale been beached? UPDATE: Maybe this is why Twitter doesn’t think that third party clients are a good thing anymore. I spend SO little time on Twitter.com that I had never seen this message. Our reader, Roger Dooley, pointed out my error about Twitter’s error. And I thought we needed to call Greenpeace…….
|
| Canada Uses Google Maps to Enhance Tourism Ads Posted: 16 Mar 2011 11:37 AM PDT
When you click on the ad, you’re taken through a Google Maps display and down into the street view. From there, still navigating inside the ad box, potential tourists can spin the camera 360 degrees while sampling close-ups of shops and other attractions. After a few seconds, an overlay appears over the street view with a link for more information. In this case it invites you to Explore More of Canada with a Plan Your Trip clickable banner. From there, you go on to a full Canadian tourism website which features videos and slide shows highlighting the features of the city. The idea was conceived by CTC’s ad agency DDB Canada. The firm’s creative director Cosmo Campbell had this to say;
What’s fascinating about the CTC Google Map ad is that you could display the same information with a panoramic set of photos of the street. But by having the consumer interact with the photos in this real-world setting, they become much more invested in the product and hey, that initial drill-down effect is pretty exciting. Now all they need is a way to present the sounds of that bell tower and the scent of that cafe on the right side of the street. Source: DDB Canada press release Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!
|
| Will New Tax Laws End Amazon’s Affiliate Program? Posted: 16 Mar 2011 09:30 AM PDT On Tax Day (ironically, or maybe intentionally), Amazon will severe all ties with affiliates in the great state of Illinois, including (also ironically) film critic Roger Ebert.
Back in January, Ebert took some flack from Twitter followers who didn’t think it was right that he Tweet Amazon links. The critic explained in an interview with ClickZ that the small amount of income he made from the links went to keeping his website free for all to read and I agreed. A few ads and a few clicks is a small price to pay in order to keep reading articles such as his half-star review of Battle: Los Angeles. Now, we find the fight was for naught, thanks to a new law signed by Illinois Governor Pat Quinn. The new law requires Amazon to pay sales tax on items shipped to Illinois as long as they have affiliates operating in that state. You see, according to a 1992 Supreme Court decision, online sellers only have to pay local sales tax if they have a physical presence in the town where the product is going. Generally, this is seen as a brick and mortar store, but the new Illinois law says an affiliate who lives in the state qualifies as a “physical presence” and so taxes must be collected. The original law is called the Main Street Fairness Act and is meant as a way of protecting local retailers from being sunk by lower prices on an internet site. But Illinois’ decision to count affiliate programs isn’t going to help local retailers at all. In fact, it’s going to hurt. Instead of paying out the extra money, Amazon has chosen to cut ties with Illinois affiliates and that’s a big loss for some residents. Scott Kluth, founder and CEO of Chicago-based CouponCabin.com, told the Chicago Tribune that the new law was “deeply disappointing” and said his company is “actively exploring” moving to Indiana. It doesn’t end there. Colorado, North Carolina and Rhode Island all have similar laws and Amazon has already pulled affiliate deals or is involved in an active court battle. California and Vermont aren’t far behind. From a customer standpoint, this new law means business as usual, but for the internet marketer, it could mean the beginning of the end. If enough states switch over to the new rules, will Amazon give in and begin collecting taxes or will they simply end their affiliate program? If they do decide to cut and run, there will be a lot of poor internet marketers come the end of that quarter.
|
. I asked him “do any of your patients ever say they found you on Google or through your website?”. His answer was “no”. His patients find his practice through referrals from other doctors. Let’s face it, most people aren’t going to choose a heart doctor for their child based on a Google search.
| You are subscribed to email updates from Marketing Pilgrim - Internet News & Opinion To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar