Online Marketing - internet marketing - online strategy - websites

Online transactions are everyday now and it is easy to assume that your developers are across all the base requirements for processing transactions online. Sadly this isn’t always the case!

An important part of an online transaction is providing the user with a receipt number and this is something that can often be overlooked. Whether it is an online banking transaction, a new purchase or a bill payment a receipt number is relevant. Here are some basic tips to keep in mind for displaying receipt numbers:

• Remember that a user will often want to write a receipt number down (and this is more environmentally friendly than printing too!)
• Keep the number as short as you can. There are a number of different ways this can be done but one could be to use a mix of letters and numbers or to make sure you have a good number generation process in place.
• Space the number in groups of 3 or 4 numbers on the page as these are easier to read and write down.
• Don’t crowd the number on the page amongst other content. Receipt numbers are often the newest piece of information on a confirmation page and therefore putting this at the top or bottom of the other content will make it more easily visible to readers.
• Putting lots of the same number next to each other in a line makes it difficult to get the number right.
• Make the process user friendly. Test, test and re-test.

Here is one example of a receipt number I came across lately which broke a number of the above rules and thus proved a little challenging to write down!

Receipt number

Over the last few weeks I have had a few direct approaches to review websites or products on my blog. This method of using blogging influences for companies to gain more informal PR has been growing recently (especially in Australia) however how is it really working for the companies and the bloggers involved?

Companies have to accept that asking the blogging community to comment on their product or service does come with a level of risk. Not all comments will be favourable and the company has to live by the statement “All PR is good PR”. In addition to this, it is a time consuming process to identify the appropriate blogs to approach with their request. You don’t want to waste time contacting blogs with small readership, rather focus should be placed on larger, popular blogs where maximum reach can be gained. Of course, for the average marketer, there are few tools available to assist in this differentiation.

Using blogs for PR is not a new concept and it has been used overseas for many years. See this example Stormhoek Wines. As a means of evaluating how this is working for Australian companies now, let’s take a look at the companies I’ve recently been approached by and see how their blog publicity is going.

1. e-channel online recently sent me an email, commenting on my blog and attaching their latest press release (about signing Fairfax Digital to their SEM software platform) for my interest.

Surprisingly when I search for e-channel online through either search engines or a blog search, I’m finding very few relevant results (this is despite having seen the article covered in the online advertising media at the time too). This either means their blog reach was relatively small, that bloggers didn’t pick up on the story, or that the bloggers that did aren’t getting their sites indexed.

2. Another company www.clickfind.com.au asked me to comment on their site (either positively or negatively) in return for a business listing in their directory.

I haven’t commented on their site yet, but when searching the blogs I can see that a number of people have. See an example here and here. In addition to this, clickfind keep their own blog which I think is supportive of the medium and what they are trying to do here.

3. Lastly, in a slightly less personal approach, an email newsletter I received from Anthill yesterday asked bloggers to help to build awareness of their cool company awards. In return, bloggers can get their URL published in the Anthill Magazine as well as listed on their website. This campaign was approached quite cleverly in that it appeals to a bloggers desire to “be noticed”. Check out the page with the conditions and Anthill also provide assets to help bloggers with their articles. Given there is also a timing push on this one, let’s see how the campaign is going 24 hours after the initial email send…

Anthill email request

Well so far there are a few blogs who have taken up the challenge. Here are two examples:

http://lagrangepoint.typepad.com/lagrange/2008/07/australian-anthill-update.html
http://kirstydunphey.blogspot.com/2008/07/anthill-australia-magazines-cool.html

The Anthill approach is certainly my pick of the ones reviewed as it is both meaningful and relevant to bloggers, provides tools to assist with the process and inform bloggers and is well executed.

Whilst companies may not be bowled over by the blogging take up, just remember that one blog alone could be getting 1000 people a day to view it, so the reach is possible. Like everything marketing, it’s all about targeting.

If you want to know more about how to leverage blogs in PR, check out this upcoming AIMIA event in Sydney.

Email marketing as a tactic has been around for many years now and as marketers we have to be careful not to take it for granted. Initially marketers were very careful with the types of emails that were sent to their database, however as email has become more common place I believe it is worthwhile reminding ourselves that we must keep our subscriber’s trust.

Email differs from other online tactics in that subscribers provide their email opt in to a company with the expectation that they will receive information requested that is especially meaningful and relevant to them or their preferences. This trust does not come lightly and can be revoked very quickly if those expectations are not met.

Email is a one to one medium that has the ability to be personalised and made highly relevant. Like all marketing tactics, email is more appropriate at some times, and not so appropriate at others.

I believe it is a marketer’s responsibility to make sure their email content meets the following checklist for every broadcast:

• Is the email specifically relevant to the person receiving it?
• Have I done everything possible to make sure the communication is in line with “one to one” communications principles?
• Does this email fit within the opt in permission that I have received from the subscriber?
• Does this email fulfill a value proposition to the recipient (this could be a unique opportunity or offer, relevant information, service information etc)?
• Is there a relevant call to action or next step for the recipient to follow?

If your email communication does not meet this checklist, then perhaps email is not the most effective way to communication your message.

I received an email recently and it questioned my expectation of what is appropriate corporate email communication. Let me tell you about it…

Some of you may have seen the current Qantas Frequent Flyer ads where Qantas communicate changes to their Frequent Flyer program. Today I received an email from Velocity Rewards which comments on the Qantas program and compares the difference to their own. You can view the email here.

To me, this email is a rebuttal from Velocity on the Qantas campaign and whilst they are entitled to comment on it, I question their use of email as a means of delivering this message. You see I am already a Velocity member which means I am already familiar with Velocity program (already a convert?). I am not completely against Velocity making a point about comparing their rewards program to a competitor, however I do have an issue with a whole dedicated email being sent to me on this topic. When I look at the above checklist, it doesn’t pass as a relevant and meaningful communication to me and I feel it would have been better communicated as a secondary message in one of their regular emails, or through other mediums such as banners online, or TVC/print etc offline.

Email is a tactic that is not typically used for branding and awareness, nor should it be used for non relevant communications. I don’t want to get involved in a company’s sparing match and email isn’t in my view, a suitable way to communicate this message. If however the message was presented in a different, less personal medium, rather than resenting the interruption I might have instead had a chuckle over their point.

It’s good to see an increasing number of events being run for people interested in digital marketing in Brisbane. B&T’s Digital Bootcamp was on recently and there are a few more events I know of coming up:

July 30: Networx Marketers Meetings: Beyond Web 2.0 – The Future Direction of Web & Digital Technology

Starting August 2008: ADMA’s Certificate in Digital Marketing Course

If you know of any more events coming up or if you have an event you want to tell people about, please let me know.

If you are planning an email marketing campaign, you may be interested in estimating your potential results and ROI. This will allow you to identify if the proposed activity is likely to meet your targets and objectives whilst also allowing you to calculate the impact on your website traffic, product sales or broader campaign.

Firstly, email marketing is a fairly broad term so let me be more specific with my terminology. I call emails which are sent to your own database “House Emails” and emails that are sent to a third party or rented database an “eDM campaign” (Email Direct Marketing campaign). Both of these allow some response estimation based on industry standards.

When looking at email marketing, there are freely available reports online which will give you some indication about industry standards. I recommend looking for a report in your geographical area and industry and make sure you note what type of organisation has published the report. For the purpose of this article Im referring to Vision 6’s “Australian Email Marketing Metrics Report“. This has been written by Vision 6 who is a provider of email broadcasting and management tools. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that this report will largely consist of data and reporting on House Email broadcasts….

Read the rest of this entry »

Putting together an online marketing plan involves a lot of components and one to consider is your estimated return on investment. Whether you are agency-side writing a plan for another company, or company-side writing or receiving that plan, ROI will often be the factor that influences whether the plan gets implemented.

So Why is ROI Important?
ROI will provide an indication of what the estimated return will be on your online marketing spend. An ROI calculation will often be based on the expected response rates for activity which then depending on your organisation, can often be extrapolated to predict some type of financial return.
Without some indication of the potential success of your campaign many organisations will hesitate to commit budget to it. In addition to this, calculating ROI will also let you predict your response rates and therefore can influence the amount you need to spend in order to get the required results.

What ROI Figures are Important?
ROI will often mean different things to different organisations and the key measures will depend on what stage your organisation is at (eg. Start up, established) as well as what the objectives of your online marketing are (eg. Traffic driving, sales, sign ups etc). Some typical figures that will be in ROI calculations include:
• Amount of traffic to the website
• Reach or visibility of a campaign
• Competition/survey entries
• New database registrations
• Product sales
• Offline numbers such as visitors to a store, attendance at an event etc.
Some of these numbers are easier to estimate than others and the further down the sales process you are trying to go, the more information you will require about existing customer processes.

How is ROI Calculated?
The measurability of the online medium gives us the opportunity to estimate response rates based on industry standards and past campaign experience. This data needs to be compiled together with your businesses current online statistics in order to make some assumptions – such as, “if we drive 10,000 people to the website, how many of them can we expect to register”. By tracking and documenting your current conversion rates for these types of activities, you will have a knowledge base to assist your ROI calculations.

Calculating ROI Per Tactic
Each online marketing tactic such as search, email campaigns, banner advertising etc will have their own industry standards and benchmarks which you can use in your ROI calculations. Over the next few weeks I’ll go through these tactics one by one to provide some guidance with these numbers as well as sources for relevant industry standards that you might find helpful.

Amazon aren’t the only ones making a big deal of their new electronic book reading device “The Kindle”. When it was released late in 2007, their stocks sold out in just 5 ½ hours and now they have replenished their stock and are plugging the new gadget on a large Amazon homepage spread.

I’ve checked out the Kindle product video and the letter to shareholders that gives some background on the product and I must say the device looks like it would appeal to anyone who is an avid reader. The device itself is lightweight and fairly slick (although not so much as Apple products!) and the appeal of storing up to 200 books/newspapers etc at once and paying less to buy books will be popular.

It’s a smart idea by Amazon. Not only is it a new somewhat innovating product, however the purchase of the electronic books is only available through Amazon giving them a captive market. It also evolves their business which has been largely composed on book sales so that freight becomes a non issue. Of course there are also multiple environmental benefits as well as benefits to the publishers of not having to physically print books.

So how does this compare to the other book reading products which already exist on the market? eBook tools have been available in various formats for years however I looked at a few of the newer additions to the market:

• Sony Reader
• Dymocks iLiad

The main factors with ebook devices are obviously how the book content gets onto the device, the range of books available and the relevant costs.

Amazon are definitely leading the way here with a boasted 115,000 books now available on their reader (from around $9.99) and the device itself is $399 (US$) - cheaper than the competitors.

One of the key features of the Kindle is that the books can be downloaded from anywhere using the same technology as mobile phones (not wifi) and it appears that Amazon pays for the data costs. At this stage, the device is not available to countries outside of the USA though which is why companies like Dymocks are jumping on the bandwagon locally. With all the globalisation and power of technology, it’s amazing that the country walls are up so tightly around electronic devices. First the iPhone and now this is only available to the exclusive USA market. Hopefully that will change moving forward and either way, the Kindle will be an interesting product to watch.

Do you personally know what your customer experience is like? Don’t wait until you have a complaint, make it part of a schedule for you to randomly test your online sales process regularly (all the way through to fulfillment). Here is a good reason why…

I recently ordered a book online. I wanted it as a present for a friend and I needed in about 2 weeks. Given it wasn’t urgent, I visited one of the big name local bookshops online, found the book I wanted and ordered it online. The online process was smooth with no hiccups.

I received a confirmation email the day of my order (which incidentally was 19th March). The email was pretty to the point, it confirmed the order and advised that the product “usually ships in 10 days”. The email wasn’t very professional though with the from name of “Webloginau” and the from email address was nothing to do with the company I ordered from.

The main problem with my order however was that 3 weeks later I hadn’t received anything in the mail and had no more communication from the company I ordered from. I checked out their order tracking online and it simply said the status was “open”. So I called the help number on my original email. I was advised that the book I ordered had not yet come into stock so it hadn’t been delivered. However the lady discovered that one of their stores had the book so she followed up and sent me an email advising that it was being transferred and I should receive it soon. That was 11 days ago.

By now, the whole reason I ordered the book (for a friend’s gift) has long passed and my book still isn’t in sight. It would have been a lot quicker for me to visit my local book shop and pick up the book in person and I have received no benefit at all from ordering from a well known bricks and mortar retailer.
All that results from this experience is an unhappy client who has to follow up multiple times to get their ordered and paid for product.

The thing with a lot of these systems is that the experience can vary greatly depending on the setup of your website, your inventory management system and your client communication. It’s not enough to test it once and assume that every client has that experience as chances are there are multiple scenarios that your customers may encounter. There are two ways to combat this. One is to have a perfect system (which no one has) however having a good inventory management system will go a long way to ensuring that goods that aren’t available, can’t be ordered. The other way is to test it regularly using different combinations so you can cover off the multiple scenarios that your customers may see.