The Ativio Vault: news and happenings from the IT world.

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The E-Commere Challenge: How We Make It Work

by Nikhil Mistry (June 16th, 2009)

The Game Has Changed

Let’s face it- the stress-free days of easy online fortunes are long gone. Today, our minds are filled with worries of hyper competitive markets, rapidly changing content delivery platforms, and that ever-elusive loyal customer. The monkey on your back seems to be getting heavier and heavier, and it’s a constant chase to keep up your “A” game. You wouldn’t guess this from reading all the launches, SEO hype, sales letters, and money-making pitches on the Internet.

Yes, there are lots of consultants who will volunteer to teach you paid-per-click advertising, search engine optimization, or some other form of online marketing, feeding you a promise of recurring income and automatic success. What they don’t tell you, and what they probably don’t know, is that it’s not 2006 anymore.

Any successful e-commerce practitioner knows that the holy grail of online marketing lies with Google AdWords. And if you’re not careful with who you select as your online marketing advisor:

• You'll promote some affiliate program that they are somehow tied into, which means they'll always make at least some pocket change even if you lose thousands of dollars
• You'll do things that tick Google off and might even get you banned
• You throw good money after bad in a frenzy of constant changes and attempted fixes, ultimately throwing up your hands in total exasperation
• They lecture you on a set of bad habits, leading you into a vicious cycle fed by frustration and disappointment.

When Google AdWords started back in 2002, nobody really understood it (Google included!). Most AdWords Campaigns employed a “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” methodology. Back then, having a bigger keywords list than your competitor was enough to get you on top. 2009 presents us with a set of new rules, new challenges, and our job is to change our game and stay ahead of the curve. The reality of Google AdWords in 2009 is:

• In most markets worth playing in, you're up against 30 to 100 bidders. Big money markets usually have 150 or more, and if you're not on the first page of results - one of the top 8 to 11 - then you might as well forget it.
• New advertisers are distrusted by Google and often pay 2 to 3 times as much for their clicks as established ones - until they earn Google's trust
• New ads are only shown 10-20% of the time and if Google doesn't like you almost immediately, your ads vanish and you get slapped with $1.00, $2.00, $5.00 and $10.00 minimum bids
• The new Google AdWords interface feels like a jumbo-jet airline cockpit, and having ONE wrong setting can wreck your entire campaign

It Doesn’t Have To Be That Way

Knowing the problem is only the first step. Building the solution is the key to your success, and that’s what we’re good at: solution building. Here’s how we make e-commerce work:

Know Your Business

The first step in any business, online or brick-and-mortar, is to figure out your unique selling proposition (USP). What sets you apart from your competition? What can you guarantee your customer? How can you make it impossible for your customer to say no? This stage involves defining your products, your services, your market, and most importantly, your revenue model. You already have the answers, we’ll teach you how to ask the right questions.

Who’s Your Competition?

Maybe you’ve just discovered the greatest lemonade ever made, and open up shop at the corner of Main and 5th. You’ve got your cups, your pitcher, ice, and your all-important secret recipe. You tell all your friends about your great product and invite them to come visit your stall. You wait. Your friends arrive and they pat you on the back and tell you what a great job you’ve done, and all you hear is the cash register ringing. You wait some more. A few more people come, but the crowd is thinning and your smile is slowly fading. What you don’t realize is that you’ve opened up shop around the block from Lemon-O-Nade, a nationwide lemonade superstore, selling bulk lemonade in flashy cups for half the price. Your dreams, weighed down with the bitter taste of reality, come crashing down. The moral of your story? Know your competition! Who are they selling to? What are their price points? How are they marketing themselves? It’s just as important as knowing your own business. Ativio has the tools and know-how to dig up this hard-to-get information. We’ll show you how to do it.

Who’s Your Customer?

Your customer is someone with a problem. Someone looking for a solution- whether that be a product, a service, advice, or just plain old information. Ativio helps you untangle the conversation inside your customer’s head. Think of selling your product to someone who’s already looking for it. Now that’s the kind of customer I want, wouldn’t you agree?

Who Isn't Your Customer?

This is a biggie that most novice internet marketer's don't even think about. Bringing traffic to your site is one thing, but bringing in quality traffic is an entire different beast. You can easily rack up thousands of dollars in clicks from buying popular keywords and writing average ad copy- but how many of those clicks turn into sales? What are 1000 clicks worth to you if only 1 becomes a sale? Ativio will show you how to weed out the unwanted clicks and find your customer in the crowd.

Build Your Web Presence

Here’s where Ativio comes into its own. Our tech-savvy web geeks are gearing to go to build your SEO landing pages, shopping carts, FAQs, contact forms- all the components of a successful online store. The key here is the launch. Our marketing gurus will use their knowledge and expertise to advise you in designing your own launch program.

Get Customers and Convert Them Into Sales

Think of this as the bread and butter of your online store. You have to be good at getting customers through your door; otherwise the competition vultures circling around you will come down with everything they’ve got. Once they’re in, they’re no good to you unless they buy. Paid per click advertising campaigns, email campaigns, social media networks and affiliate exchange programs all play a role in bringing you more traffic. Sure, you can use the “school of hard knocks” method and learn the tricks yourself. But know who you’re up against. There are hundreds, if not thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of very well paid professionals whose sole means of income are to be good at building traffic. If you think you’ve got what it takes to go head-to-head with these super-competitive gurus without the tools of the trade, then I wish you well!

Keep Your Customers

This is by far the most overlooked stage of building an e-commerce site. Once you get your customers in through the door, what do you have in place to bring them back? A loyal customer will buy from you 5 times, 10 times, maybe 100 times in a year. Perhaps they become a lifelong customer. What do you think that’s worth? Can you put a number on that? I certainly can’t, but I can think of a word: “priceless”. Properly implemented email auto responders, newsletters, blogs, affiliate marketing programs, and constant, never-ending good value content will always bring people back- say it with me: ALWAYS!

Continuous Adjustment

The lifecycle of an e-commerce site does not end with a sale. It certainly does not end with SEO or even Google AdWords. The conversation in your customers’ head is always morphing, and so should your business model. Split testing ads, landing pages, marketing copy- even the very products or services you sell; this has to be done constantly to ensure that your content stays fresh and toasty.