Higher visibility and conversion rates when both paid & organic listings are present
This strategy is pretty straightforward. Often we hear companies want to reduce paid search spend if they obtain a top organic keyword ranking; however, there is the risk of losing prime real estate in competitive search spaces. If your ROI is remaining positive for both, then why would you want to pause your paid campaign? Let both listings support each other for optimal results.

Share top-converting keyword data
Keyword research tools provide part of the data needed to pick quality paid and organic keyword sets. The most actionable keywords and opportunities are the ones that are converting at a higher rate and turning into sales. Make sure to share this information between teams to build new content that can be found organically, and to create new ads for people in the final buying stages.

Use best-performing paid CTAs in organic Title Tag, Meta Descriptions and content
This is such a simple concept, but it can provide a nice boost to click-thrus from your organic listings. Optimizing a page for rankings, traffic and conversions is an art form and can take time, but real-time results from paid search can be applied to organic pages for a quick boost at a low risk. Your best- performing ad calls-to-action can take out some guesswork on writing an enticing Title Tag and Meta Description. Once you find a version that is improving conversion, make sure to tweak your on-page content and conversion funnel paths.

Segment keywords for different initiatives
Paid search provides timely information about specific campaigns tied to highly relevant landing pages. For example, a person that downloaded a whitepaper may be in a different buying stage than someone that is scheduling a demo. Placing these keywords into segments can help create specific organic landing pages that will improve conversion rates. Many times we place all call-to-action funnels on one page and hope for the best. Serving up the best page for these different types of visitors at first entry can drastically increase the chance they convert rather than bounce.

Integrate shopping feeds
On the organic side of search we help our clients manage e-commerce shopping feeds in the major search engines. By connecting this feed to your paid ads, you can make them stand out and get people directly to product checkout pages. Any way you can reduce the number of clicks it takes people to find what they want is important to the conversion funnel. It’s important to stay current with the beta tests Google and Bing continue to roll out for shopping results.

Use internal site-search data to create highly targeted, branded paid ads
A paid search landing page may not always be the best option to get someone to a very specific page on your site when they are looking for information crucial to the buying process. Consider using internal site search data to mine for keywords people are using once they arrive to your site. Finding the right information on large websites can be a challenge… so before people even get to your site search, attempt to serve them up a highly targeted paid search ad to save them time. A good example of this can be for someone searching for technical specs or reviews for a costly product. Once they have all their questions answered and feel comfortable in the product, they are ready to buy!

Google Places and local business extensions
People that are looking for your company in your geographic vicinity can be top conversion prospects if you get them all the information they need. Having an optimized Google Places page ensures the searcher knows your exact location, store hours, forms of payment, and can read helpful customer reviews. Syncing this page with your local paid extensions improves visibility and increases the chances that person will visit your location in person.

Combat negative PR
People are going to talk about your company online whether you like it or not. Disgruntled customers or even cut-throat competitors will threaten your online reputation. Organic search listings and items like Google Suggest can be hard to influence for your brand if others are writing negative reviews and articles. A timely defense mechanism to offset damage is to set up paid campaigns for your brand along with modifiers that are affecting you. Words like “reviews,” “complaints,” “scam,” and “rip off” should be targeted as soon as you see them pop up. You may be surprised at the traffic you can generate to your own properties by placing some creative ads to help answer customer questions for negative PR.

Social media visibility (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube)
On the organic side of search we spend a lot of time helping our clients optimize for the major social channels for both branded and non-branded keywords. Each of the major social channels allows for paid ads that can help increase the visibility of the social profiles. Use paid options to send more targeted traffic to your Facebook page and Twitter profile. Make sure your pages/profiles offer something of value like a white paper or contest to keep your audience engaged and coming back for updates. LinkedIn ads also can be a great way to promote a timely white paper to a specific audience. YouTube also offers nice text- and link-overlay calls-to-action on your videos when you connect your Google Adwords account with a minimal daily budget. Don’t be afraid to spend money to make money! Properly tracking all these efforts will quickly show you what works and what does not.

Test the long-term viability of organic keywords
Paid search allows you to show up quickly for keywords in top positions while you are working towards a top organic ranking. If you are seeing these keywords convert from the paid side, then they are likely good candidates for organic optimization. Take action on these keywords by weaving them into your content and creating keyword-focused landing pages that solve searchers’ problems.

Test lead-capture forms on paid landing pages and apply them to your top organic pages
Learn the qualities of a top-converting paid landing page and incorporate the best elements into your organic landing pages. Tools like Click Tale and Crazy Egg will show you how people interact with your pages. Are people clicking on a graphic without a link and expecting something? Simple tools can uncover usability issues across your entire site to fix in order to improve conversions.

What works for your campaigns?
I’d like to encourage readers to leave comments about the holistic online marketing tactics that have produced results and revenue for their campaigns. Stay tuned for upcoming blog posts in this holistic online marketing series!

This week, Matt Messenger, our resident E-commerce expert, discusses 5 simple tricks to optimize your e-commerce site content.  These tips can help your business build itself as a credible vendor on the Internet and increase online sales.

Take a look! And Check back next week when Brittany, a PPC and Social Media specialist, will talk about building a Twitter following using Promoted Accounts.

E-commerce continues to grow at a breathtaking pace, and successfully managing an e-commerce website requires forward thinking, creativity, and pro-activity. Many companies struggle to do it right by themselves.

With that knowledge, we set out to find experienced and passionate e-commerce experts with the goal of creating a superior resource for online retailers. And then we did it.

As of today, Fathom is proud to announce the formal creation of its very own e-commerce marketing team. This team, comprised of experts in multiple areas, can provide comprehensive guidance, strategy, and implementation that will help your website generate more revenue.

The E-commerce Marketing team includes:

To learn how your e-commerce site can start generating more revenue, contact us today.

The obvious answer: They’re online, and they’re looking to buy now (and potentially save money, or at least feel like they’ve saved money).

Why should you, the B2C web business owner/marketing manager, be excited?

Because of some new stats from Eversave—a daily-deal site—on women’s online shopping habits:

• 93% use coupons or promo codes (click adjacent link for SEO promo-code secrets)
• 83% use “daily deal” sites (e.g. Eversave, CouponSurfer, BuyWithMe)
• 66% have felt guilty about a purchase due to price
• 30% have hidden a purchase in the trunk of their car “until they can  sneak it into the house undetected”

(I can think of other good hiding places, but if I posted them here I’d be compromised.)

These survey results were published in a recent edition of the Wall Street Journal’s “Your Money Matters” podcast (June 14, 2:54-3:24). The implications are clear: you want to assuage coupon-hungry women’s guilt about their free-spending ways by offering online coupons and other incentives for their business. You also want to make sure you’re represented properly in heavily trafficked deal places.

For more advice on e-commerce marketing, check out our recently posted e-commerce email essentials and tips for running ad campaigns on social media and mobile platforms. If you are interested in professional services, check out our new e-commerce marketing section.

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Photo courtesy of dmdonahoo via Flickr.

Here are some quick tips to start your social media and mobile advertising campaigns:

Facebook:
It’s important to note that with Facebook you can advertise your website (through standard Facebook ads) or create a network around your Facebook page (through ads that encourage users to “Like” your page). Either way, Facebook allows for extensive targeting including geography, age, sex, relationship status, interests, and education as well as estimated reach based on the targeting you choose.

Twitter:
The key to building a network on Twitter is to gain followers and to follow the right people. One easy way to gain followers is through Twitter’s Promoted Accounts. With Promoted Accounts, you show up in the Who to Follow widget on the right side of the Twitter panel when there is a relevant recommendation. Recommendations are based on interests you target in the Promoted Accounts settings. You can also target locations worldwide or by country. With Twitter you can also use Promoted Tweets where you can more widely promote your regular Tweets. The same targeting options are available as in Promoted Accounts but with Promoted Tweets, users searching within Twitter will be served a relevant Promoted Tweet in the first position that will stand out with a yellow Promoted By: (your company) box.

LinkedIn:
Because LinkedIn is a business networking site, it may not benefit all companies. LinkedIn advertising allows you to target groups much like you would with Facebook, but you can go even more granular and target specific job titles such as “Director Of ___” or “Vice President of ___”.

Mobile:
Starting a mobile PPC campaign can be very easy. If you’re running successful desktop targeted campaigns, simply duplicate those campaigns and target mobile devices and tablets instead of desktop and laptop computers. Add additional shorter keywords to the mix because this is often what people search with on mobile devices. While some standard landing pages show up alright on mobile devices, having a mobile landing page is a relatively quick and simple way to ensure you’re giving your customers a good user experience. It’s also important to note that ads should be kept short and sweet to stand out on the mobile screen.

1. Reduce Product Returns and Increase Satisfaction:

Videos provide a truer representation of a product than a photo or text description can. It allows for a better presentation of the product so that the customer knows exactly what he/she is purchasing, therefore leaving less dissatisfaction upon receival and less product returns. For example, Diamond Jewelry Limited saw a 60% reduction in returns after adding product demo videos.

2. Reduce Call Center Costs:

Video gives a product dimension that cannot be achieved through traditional text and photos. Customers can better understand a product by watching a video, which can lead to a drop in pre-sale customer inquires. This allows for a reduction in call center costs. For example, Luzen Outlets experienced a 30% drop in customer pre-sale calls.

3. Adapt to Mobile Users:

Video can help bridge the gap between online and offline shopping. As more people turn to the Internet for shopping, a disconnect grows between when a user researches a product online and when they visit the retailer store. Video, however, can allow for customers to get the information they want on a product while they are standing there right in the store. Most often this can be a huge sales tool by attaching a QR code to a product, which a customer can then scan and watch a video about the product, read reviews, etc.

4. Augment Social Commerce:

Video commerce can tie in with social media sites so that customers can not only learn about a product from the videos, but also from customers who review those products. For example, eBags.com accompanies many of their products with video and a Facebook feed where, as you watch the video, you can read posts from other consumers or post your own comment.

5. Conveying Trust in Your Product:

Adding product videos means you trust your product enough to show it in multi-dimensional formats and that you, as an etailer, trust your product enough to invest in your site to give your user the best experience possible.

The experts at Fathom Online Marketing can help you take the next step in adding video to your ecommerce site so that you can see your business grow.

Managing an e-commerce site is more than just making sure your shopping cart functions properly and all product photographs are easy to see. To get the most out of your site, you need to make sure the content supports your objectives and makes it easy for consumers to buy your products.  The copy on your e-commerce site needs to accomplish two goals: establish trust and convince visitors that your product is right for them.  In order to accomplish these goals, you’ll want to avoid these common e-commerce copywriting mistakes:

1. No copy on product pages.  Writing content on each of your product pages helps you express what your product does and build trust with consumers. Before people buy, they want to know that the product you’re offering meets their needs and content is a great way to communicate this.
2. Inconsistent tone.  Everything from the homepage copy to the product descriptions needs to follow the same writing style and tone of voice.
3. Exaggeration.  Never exaggerate your product’s capabilities in order to make it seem more desirable.  Always use logical arguments when explaining the benefits of your product.  Your credibility and reputation are at stake if you exaggerate the benefits of your products, and you’ll be left with many unhappy customers.
4. Conventions are ignored.  It can be tempting to get creative with the wording on buttons and links, but it’s best to stick with what works.  Use the conventional “add to basket” and factual, descriptive anchor text to link to product pages.  Although creative wording might not have a negative effect, it most likely won’t improve your conversions.
5. Forget to localize.  Some translations just don’t work as intended, so make sure that your copy is culturally sensitive.  In addition, some cultures are more aggressive with their advertising, while others are less aggressive.  The best way around this is to write copy that is compatible with all cultures.

At the end of the day, your copy could make or break your e-commerce efforts.  You should always make sure that your copy is flawless and gives your audience all the information they need in order to make a purchase.  With this, you’ll establish trust and be seen as a credible vendor on the Internet.

How do you gain trust on your e-commerce site?  Let us know in the comments section below!

Email marketing flexed its muscles at the start of the holiday season with thousands of messages being sent from all of the top online brands.

Analysis of over 1200 commercial email senders showed strong volume the day before Thanksgiving and on Black Friday. Sending peaked on Cyber Monday with almost one third of senders being active.

With the biggest single days of the year behind us, here is what you can do to maximize your email marketing revenue generation during the remainder of the holiday season.

Increase your frequency. Monitor your metrics closely to avoid annoying your subscribers. You could even go a step further and inform them of the increased frequency.

Send on weekends. Again, monitor your metrics on this one because it might not be a good fit for your industry.

Deep link to products on your website. Links in your email should go to very specific and relevant landing pages.  Remove as many clicks as possible between email and conversion.

Build smaller segments. Take extra time to build those smaller segments you skipped over earlier in the year. Target them with ultra-relevant content and watch email conversions take off!

Image Description - This image shows the number of emails sent by the 1200 senders analyzed each day from November 24th through the 29th.

With the holidays around the corner and chilly winter weather coming fast, buying new clothes has been on my mind.  When I heard about Google’s latest venture, www.Boutiques.com, I knew I had to check it out.

What is Boutiques?  Boutiques.com is basically Pandora for fashion.  The site, geared towards women and e-commerce, offers content from independent and large retailers.  Boutiques is built around collections of fashion picked by “taste makers” (i.e. celebrities, designers, bloggers, etc) and it attempts to mimic the in-store shopping experience by allowing you to browse the fashion trends and get inspiration.  Individual users can create their own boutique and any boutique can be followed by others.  The more followers your boutique has, the greater exposure it’ll get.  Since the site sounded so easy to use, I decided try it out and here’s what I experienced.

Window Shopping the Boutiques  Since the site is really all about window shopping online, I decided to start by browsing the boutiques to get a feel for the site.  I found out quickly that just scrolling through all of the boutiques can be pretty overwhelming.   So instead, I clicked on the “popular” tag and the first celebrity that popped up was Lauren Conrad.  I like her classic, youthful style and so I decided to check out her boutique.  When I got to her boutique, I could look through her personal picks or fashions inspired by the reality show star.  The prices ranged from an affordable $30 top to more expensive designer fashions.  What I really liked was that the items in the boutique were affordable for whatever budget you have.

Creating Your Own Boutique  My tour of Boutiques.com would not be complete without trying to create my own boutique.  Although I love to shop, I’ve never considered myself a fashionista so I was a little skeptical about how easy this would be.  I know what I like, but would the website be able to figure that out?  Boutiques.com actually makes it really easy.  When you decide to create your own boutique, you’re first asked to choose between styles you prefer by looking at pictures of celebrities.  As I scrolled through the pictures and decided which was “more my style,” the site was analyzing my likes and dislikes.   You’re then asked to choose which styles of dresses, tops, bottoms, shoes and designers you like and dislike.  It took about 10 minutes and I wasn’t sure that the site would actually get me right, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it nailed what they called my “classic” style.

Even though there are a variety of options for browsing on the site, it’s actually not all that complicated to use.  You choose the styles that you like based on pictures and there are hundreds to choose from.  Your likes and dislikes are quickly analyzed to give you fashion options that fit your style.  Although you wouldn’t guess that Boutiques.com is at all affiliated with Google because it lacks any standard Google branding, one thing very Google-esque is the ease of usability.

Take the time to research your competition especially, the specials they are offering and the email coupons they are sending to their consumers. Think about the ways you can outperform your competition such as, including the cost of shipping in the price of the product and advertising “Free Shipping”. Shoppers’ psyche love the idea of getting something for “free” and if they perceive value from your promotions they are more likely to purchase your products rather than your competitors. Don’t be shy with offering coupons via email, twitter, and facebook. You already know they are a fan of your products so give them a reason to buy them.

Even though your site is online make sure the custom experience is everything the consumer is looking for, include expected arrival dates and follow up emails with clear contact information and the status of their order. According to How We Shop in 2010 55% of consumers report that a product with a high rating will increase their likelihood to purchase, so include a reviews section for every product to amplify your sales. This article also states that 68% of consumers aged 18-26 use emailed coupons, so implement a marketing plan that targets this unique and emerging market. For more information on how to run an effective Ecommerce website and Opt-in Email campaign please visit the Fathom SEO website. Happy Holiday Shopping to All and to All a Happy New Year.

A recent whitepaper released by Adobe Scene7 mirrors a 2009 post from StreamingMedia.com – both trumpeting the value of Internet video for retailers and consumers alike as potent sales conversion and consumer education/motivation tools.

From the Retail vantage point, the typical response from retailers on the efficacy of Internet video, as reported in the Adobe7 whitepaper, was, “the products on which I post videos significantly outperform other products.” Rico Nasol of Zappos.com echoes that sentiment in the StreamingVideo.com blog post, where the content team senior manager declared that Zappos sells from 6% to 30% more merchandise when a product description video accompanies website content. Nasol goes on to explain that Zappos intends to have 50,000 product videos in place on its website by the end of 2010!

From the consumer perspective, it’s easy to understand video’s value. The success of shopping channels such as QVC is being translated onto the Internet, where product demos and more detailed information on merchandise help to assuage consumer fears and convince them of the integrity and value of products – most often without leaving their homes.

As Internet video continues to grow and flourish in its uses and applications, consider Fathom SEO and our Internet video marketing program – Instant Replay – for the marketing of your trusted brands and products. Your competitors are doing it – shouldn’t you?

According to a study done in 2009 by Opinion Research Corp, 84% of Americans reported that online customer evaluations influence their decision to purchase a product or service. Yet, it’s not uncommon to hear concerns about whether to allow comments on a site. So, should you add consumer reviews to your website?

1) That same study also revealed that only 28% of web users in America actually left their own feedback. While that 28% vocal minority may seem small, when you consider the percentage of web users that are influenced by those reviews, the minority actually carries a lot of influence. So whether they say something neutral, positive or negative, listen. There’s a good chance you can find an opportunity to improve a product/service and/or change a weakness in your customer service or workflow, etc. The effort to improve can go a long way in changing the impression a consumer has of your product/service and company.

2) If only 28% of web users are willing to take the time to say something, they must be pretty fired up. Not allowing comments on your site doesn’t mean an angry consumer can’t (or won’t) go elsewhere to vent. If a negative (or positive) review is going to be posted anyway, you might as well have the ability to easily find it, analyze it, and take the appropriate course of action.

3) Consumer reviews also provide the ability to freshen up the content on the page. With the full-blown release of Google Caffeine, the new content can be an indicator to the search engines that the page is more worthy of being indexed, and may even help positively influence your organic search engine rankings.

4) Lastly, and keeping on the topic of organic search engine rankings, user-generated comments also provide the opportunity for “unintentional SEO.” What I mean is that it is likely to assume that in a consumer review, the name of the product, brand, etc will be written. The unintended inclusion of keywords and keyword permutations can only be beneficial to your rankings.

So, to be or not to be when it comes to consumer reviews on your site? It’s not really a question in my opinion.

If you run an e-commerce site, always ask yourself one question: Do people know what they are really buying?

There are two ways people shop online:

1. They know exactly what they want and are looking for the best deal. (Read a previous post about e-commerce promo codes)
2. They are looking for something but not exactly sure what.

For the unsure, enticing product descriptions are key. When writing your product descriptions, always paint a clear picture of the product; provide plenty of pictures from all angles (nothing is worst than buying a pair of shoes online and realizing when you get them that from the front they look like something your grandmother would wear); and add video whenever possible.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine what a video says. Test online video on a few of your best sellers. You could even have a video highlighting a specific product each month. After awhile your entire inventory could have unique video descriptions. Your online videos should make the buyer feel as if there are no surprises and in turn eliminate any buyer’s remorse. Learn more about internet video marketing by reading “Top 10 Reasons to Use Online Video for Your Business“.

You can also boost customer confidence in your products by adding reviews from industry experts and clients, or link to blogs about the product and review sites. Make it easy for potential customer to read reviews by pointing them in the right direction. If they have to scour the web to get the information they need, they’ll easily become frustrated and may never come back to your site.

Read more about Fathom SEO’s retail and e-commerce marketing portfolio.

Any number of SEO marketing strategies can add up to the big picture of increasing sales and returning customers, but today I’ll focus on one component – online coupon and promo codes.

I know this isn’t a new idea, and you may already be successfully using them in your e-commerce marketing strategy. If you aren’t using promo and coupon codes, it’s time start! Many consumers in this economy are still going through tough times, and it’s more important than ever to get them closer to clicking the checkout button and applying a discount.

There are numerous ways to push your online coupons to your existing and potential customer base, but how do you make sure they are getting to the right people? Below are observations I have gathered from a Fathom SEO e-commerce client, and the SEO strategies we recommend to leverage search traffic for online promo codes for a particular brand or product.

Organic Search Observations

When monitoring one of our client’s keyword traffic in Google Analytics, I noticed a trend in the number of visitors getting to the site using the words “promo” or “coupon” code.

The screen shot below shows filtered organic search keywords from January 1st of this year thru August 20th. The filter included any searches that contained “promo code”. Although the visits for each keyword aren’t through the roof, it is still a trend that sparked interest to me – especially when clicking on the “Ecommerce” tab. The quality of this traffic compared to the site average is phenomenal. Please keep in mind that these types of keyword searches were barely on the radar for this client in the previous year.

Observations Continued…

The numbers above tell me that our client’s audience is now actively looking for promo codes before making a purchase. This led me to perform a few manual searches on Google where I discovered that the top “promo code” keyword wasn’t even ranking #1. The top result was going to a coupon site that was advertising a different domain that was spelled similarly to the clients. The #2 ranking was going to the client’s domain, but wasn’t going to an ideal page for people performing this type of search query. It was going to a very specific product page that only had a promo code for that product.

Increase Traffic and Sales with SEO Strategies

Unless you are actively submitting promo codes to websites made for them, it is crucial to make sure this type of traffic gets to your site before it gets to others. This makes it much easier for a potential customer to get the correct working promo code, make a purchase, then apply the discount. The last thing you want to do is frustrate someone who is in buying mode. If you sell products/services in a competitive market, you may never see those people visit your site again.

An effective way to get promo code search traffic to your site is to create a new page. This new page should be solely about promo/coupon codes offered on your site. Following on-page SEO best practices will improve your chances of securing the top ranking for the right keyword traffic, whether it is branded or not. Consider various keyword modifiers to help get variations of the keywords you are targeting – i.e. coupon, promo, code discount, sale, deal, free, affordable, cheap, low-priced, inexpensive, reduction, money off, markdown, price cut, economical

If you don’t have any current promo code offers, don’t remove the page; simply change the content to explain there aren’t any discounts available at this time, and to visit back often.

Once your page is added, you’ll need to make the search engines and website visitors aware of it. Place internal links throughout your site, blog, traditional sitemap, and XML sitemap to get the page crawled and indexed.

Another effective place for promo codes is on your ‘Thank You’ or ‘Confirmation’ pages. If people are already expressing interest in your products by contacting you through a form, then give them some incentive to take action and make their first purchase.

Also add the link to your social media profiles, e-newsletters, display ads, paid search ads, live chat scripts, print ads, etc. Leveraging your existing ad campaigns will keep your available discounts top of mind with your customers.

If you are actively engaging your audience with social media marketing, consider using the promo code in your conversation to show you offer the product they are looking for at the right price. Offering them a promo code is also a great incentive for them to “follow” or “friend” you to receive news, tips, and future discounts.

Evaluate Your Promo Code Campaign

After your page is launched and promoted, don’t forget about it! Check your promo code manager to make sure the codes are being used to generate loyal customers and profitable sales.

Your website analytics will show the keyword variations and referral sites that drive traffic over time, and how well they convert. Measure these results regularly and make adjustments to your on-site content and off-site promotion efforts, with the goal to continuously increase sales.

Fathom SEO and e-Commerce

Learn more on how to GET potential buyers to your site, educate them, and CONVERT them into LEADS/SALES and REVENUE. Contact Fathom SEO to schedule an Internet Marketing Demo.

Since May 2005, the average time between a consumer’s first visit to a Web site and an actual purchase increased from 19 to 34 hours, according to the report. One fourth of the shoppers took more than three days to decide what to buy, and one fifth took more than a week.

What does this have to do with search? Well, for many the ultimate goal of an higher ranking in the search engines is to drive customers to “click the buy button” on their websites. So what’s interesting in this study is that it shows how search is growing, and how search firms need to expand their battle plans to keep up.

The days of just hoping for a simple visit to your site is gone. Now, today, visitors want more. They want to be educated with reviews, and product comparisons.

They NEED & EXPECT to have this information to “click the buy button”. Are you providing this information? Is your team working to help you develop content that your buyers want?

Apparently, consumers’ comfort level with the Internet continues to grow or at least remain strong.

They’re going going to be busy buying something. Even if it’s not online, the selection begins with the Internet. But they won’t even consider a business if it doesn’t rank well for the right keywords and phrases.

The data has useful insights into other Internet behaviors and the technology that people prefer.