Small Business Internet Marketing Blog

According to the e-tailing group’s 11th Annual Mystery Shopping Survey, leading merchants are optimizing merchandising to get sales. Merchants limited-time-only promotions jumped to 42% penetration in 2008 from 18% in 2007. Gift with Purchase showed a measurable decrease perhaps as it is less economical than the other tactics benchmarked. Online Outlets Clearance saw a 14 percent increase in penetration year-over-year, with 86 percent of merchants now deploying this tactic.

Free shipping continues to be a promotional standard offered by more merchants in diverse manners that complement their business models including an increase in conditional free shipping to a store (26% in 2008 vs. 15% in 2007).

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SEOmoz put together what we can all assume is another trustworthy list of the most important SEO ranking factors. Of course this list is for Google and therefore excludes Yahoo, MSN, Live Search, ASK.com and the other longtail search engines.

Take a look . . . Read the rest of this entry »

Perhaps you have heard from recent studies that email continues to be the most popular Web activity for Americans, followed closely by search.  Both channels can be perfect ways to meet customers in their natural online habitats.  But there’s a way to make your search and your email work even better.  How?  Use them in tandem; use what works.

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What if Google were shoving us around? I mean really jerking us around by the . . . neck? (Let’s keep this clean.) Could they be getting away with a fast one pulled over all of us?

What if, amongst the billions and billions of searched keywords and variations, Google was working to paint us all into the same corner by getting us to buy the same keywords for their own improved monetization? Well, I think they are.

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Early this mroning my Google rep emailed me a well thought out and developed presentation that I strongly believe is worth sharing. The PDF is full of PowerPoint-like slides discussing the tremendous long-term value of search marketing in an economic downturn, such as what we are experiencing right now.

Although Google has a strong bias towards argumenting the value of search marketing, the underlying message of this document is absolutely accurate and worthwhile. When times get tough, marketing studies consistently confirm that while ROI suffers, those advertisers who pull out of or scale down their marketing efforts have lost market share by the time the economy rebounds. Any seasoned marketer or advertiser knows that the battle of market share is significantly won and lost during economic downturns, not in flourishing economies.

This is a true business principle for the ages, not nervous talk. Check out these essential points:

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Why do websites constantly throw WE, US and OUR in visitors’ faces?  Why do WE as website owners and marketing professionals always make it about US.  WE just don’t get it, most of the time.  WE think users want to know about US and OUR solutions.  WE too often convince OURselves that visitors are only interested in what WE can do for them.

This idea is absolutely wrong!  Websites and companies need to be less egocentric by bridging the gap between visitor needs and shifting towards a consumer centric message.  But how?

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Yes, the title is correct, but don’t hold your breath just yet. The new roll out is only going out for initial beta testing “to a very small segment of advertisers within the next day or two, so that we can gather feedback before launching to all our advertisers,” says Trevor Claiborne, a member of the Inside AdWords team.

So what is involed? What are the new changes going to do to jack up my minimum bids now? According to Google - nothing! So what’s the catch? Read the rest of this entry »

Consider for a moment that thought process is required in landing page optimization. That’s right, think about thinking.

Before I present a partial list of items to work around, the main exercise encouraged here is to question every single aspect of your existing landing page process - or lack of process. Several unoriginal caveats are powerful to online marketing strategy. Among those are “If you build it, they will come” and “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.” The latter can be challenging to argue or justify, but will be revealed to be the crutch of the less creative.

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