MegaPixels-DataMind Blog: June 2009

Megapixels Ltd have been sellling online since 1999. We are always learning how to give our customers better service & value for money. Since September 2008 we have used Actinic software for www.DataMind.co.uk and www.MegaPixelsTrade.co.uk sites. I've selected some top tips from Chris Barling and Bruce Townsend Book.

download the entire pdf book (free).

27 Ask the question, what’s working? It’s a sad fact that when it comes to marketing, the anoraks are in the driving seat. Although being creative is crucial, the way to success is to measure the results and put the next round of money where you got the most results last time. So measure everything you do, and try to find out where all your leads and customers come from. When visitors buy from your site, make sure you post a question there asking how they heard about you, or use technology that tracks this automatically. Google supplies a free online service called Google Analytics to help analyse your traffic.

28 Find sites that are complementary to yours and offer mutual links. If you can, find specialist sites that cater for your particular niche, and get them to either link to you or put you in their search results. In return, put a link back to them. This can offer added value to your visitors as well as boosting your traffic - it’s a win-win situation. It should give you more traffic through the link, and also raise your listing in the search engines, giving more traffic that way as well. You could also set up your own referral scheme so that the linking site receives a share of the sales that they generate. The downside of this is that you need to buy some software or a service to do this.

29 Use a commercial referral scheme. There are also a number of referral schemes run commercially that you can join for a fee, and then pay a reward for clickthroughs or sales. Some sites report that this is their most cost-effective method of acquiring sales, but it will depend on what industry you are in.

31 Learn from the success of others. Keep an eye on your competitors, and on successful sites in other market sectors. Don’t just copy them; but do learn from what they are doing, and think about how you can adapt good ideas in appropriate ways. Trawl magazines and ecommerce suppliers’ web sites for case studies, and find out what other sites attribute their success to.

36 Market offline. It’s true that all of your prospects are online (if they are not online, they can’t buy from your store!) But it’s sometimes forgotten that 100% of these prospects also have a life offline. You need to ask whether traditional marketing methods such as direct mail may drive traffic costeffectively to your site.

Marketing your website: Top tips for good search engine results There are two ways of getting people to visit your site from search engines. ‘Natural’ or ‘organic’ listings are the results which the search engine itself has determined are most relevant to the search. ‘Pay per click’ or ‘sponsored’ listings are advertisements which appear when certain specified words have been searched for. The merchant pays each time a searcher clicks on an advert. The good news is that everyone who comes to your site by either method is probably searching for the stuff that you sell. Eighty percent of users do not look beyond the first page of search engine results. That means if your site is not on the first page, you will hardly be noticed. So make sure at least one page on your site - preferably your home page - is set up as described here, to give yourself the best possible chance of getting noticed.

37 Choose two or three key phrases that you think customers will use to search for a product or service like yours. Avoid single words like ‘shoes’ or very broad terms like ‘ironmongery’. There will be so many sites in these kinds of category that you will be very unlikely to get ranked on the first or second pages. Don’t try to cover too many phrases on a single page. If you need to target more phrases, set up another page

38 Test the phrases you choose. Use a keyword research tool such as Wordtracker (http:// freekeywords.wordtracker.com) to check how many people are actually searching for the phrases you selected. Search the newsgroups for these terms, and see what alternative phrases are used there to describe the same thing. These steps will also help you identify any phrases you have missed.

39 Try a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising programme. Google Adwords, MSN Adcenter and Yahoo! Search Marketing are the best-known schemes. PPC ads can be useful and cost-effective traffic generators in their own right, and you should at least test them. But they attract fewer clicks than natural or ‘organic’ listings and are generally much more expensive than optimizing your site for those. However, you can get a “double whammy” by using PPC as you both test whether PPC is cost-effective and also test out how good various key words are. You can subsequently optimize for the natural listings using the best-performing key phrases.

41 Repeat the key phrases at least four times near the top of your web page. If your page is based on a table, this will mean placing them near the top of the left-hand column. Add a Meta Description tag (as shown in the previous tip), but don’t worry about Meta Keywords tags unless you know you will be targeting a search engine that uses them. Most don’t. Also, work your key phrases into text that describes your site, so it reads well for visitors.

42 Get as many links to your pages as possible from other relevant sites. This will affect your ranking in some major search engines. The text of the link should ideally include one or more of your key phrases.

45 Manually submit your pages to your target search engines. Make sure you include the major search providers listed below (note some require payment). Don’t worry about the hundreds of others, and don’t believe any pitch that emphasises them. The key ones are: Google Yahoo! (web sites and directory) MSN Open Directory (dmoz.org)

46Consider concentrating on smaller search engines. If you operate in a market where there is a lot of traffic through search engines and a lot of competition, consider concentrating your effort on smaller search engines. You may get better results for the same expenditure, and the overall market volume means that there are still good pickings, even from the smallest engines.

47 Avoid the scam where a supplier offers you “guaranteed top rankings”. No-one can guarantee top rankings except for phrases that aren’t important and will generate hardly any traffic. So that’s what you will get.

48 Do not ask them to log in or supply any details before they can look at your products. There will be plenty of time to get their name and address once they have decided to buy something. It is nice to offer regular customers some form of recognition, like showing their name, but if you ask for it too early, it’s like an over-familiar salesman. Most buyers will leave your site rather than fill in a form. Your job is to eliminate everything that gets in the way of making a sale.

49Do not use Flash, large images, front doors or other gimmicks. If you really need a short introduction, then at least have the grace to offer a ‘Skip intro’ link. Otherwise, 80-90% of your visitors will leave without opening the door. The rest will watch the animation and then leave. Ask yourself - do I need to impress, or to sell something?

50 Do make it easy to find your products and services. If you have a home page, have a clear link such as ‘Shop Here’ in large letters. Do not rely on clever graphics or animations. Do not make it flash or blink - everyone will assume that the rest of the site will give them migraines! Even better, use your home page as part of the store and start selling straight away.

51 Make it easy to recognise what it is that you sell. Have pictures of the sort of products that you sell in each category - some of your buyers may not speak your language, but they know what they want to buy. If you sell branded goods, use the brand logos (get permission) to reinforce your credibility and to speed people through. Link logos to the relevant sales section.

52 Keep it simple. Make sure it is obvious how to add something to the shopping basket, and use common metaphors. If they cannot see how to buy, they won’t - there is always another store to go to.

56 Offer to keep the name and address of buyers - you can use a cookie on their browser to avoid security issues. This will allow your customers to checkout without having to type all their details in again. They will appreciate it, and it’s an incentive to shop again. But do make it clear that a cookie is being used, and give them the option not to store it - after all, they might be in an internet café.

57 Make your promises and guarantees clear and unequivocal. Include them within the checkout process, even if they appear elsewhere on the web site. You need to inspire confidence in buyers who have never met you. If you ever have an issue, just make the refund - unhappy customers tell many more people than happy ones do, and will also waste lots of your time.

Marketing your website: Top tips to avoid abandoned shopping carts Abandoned shopping carts aren’t necessarily negative. Visitors quit their carts for many reasons. They may be competitors checking out your site, or consumers comparing prices and finding out your trading policies. Equally, customers may use your site and then place the order by telephone. On the other hand, shoppers may quit because they find your checkout too complicated, or because they can’t find a next-day delivery option. The following tips will help you minimize unnecessary abandonment,

60Most importantly, build trust and more trust. Provide your contact details throughout the site, including a telephone number and physical address. Promote confidence, respond quickly to emails, and answer the telephone professionally.

62 Communicate your shipping costs early in the transaction. Everyone hates surprises on cost. If the customer proceeds to checkout and decides the postage is too expensive, you have lost the sale. However, to justify a single postage charge, a customer may buy more than one product.

65 Explain your security and encryption process. Offer customers the visible security of the ‘golden padlock’ that comes with using a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) on your site. Your ISP or web host can advise you how to set this up - or you can use a secure payment service like the one offered by Actinic.

66Categorise your site content into attractors (what people like) and detractors. Try to minimize detractors (ad pop-ups, need to register before buying and so on) and at worst balance them with attractors.

67 Experiment. Different site layouts and options can have a dramatic and unexpected impact on sales. For instance, one site reported a 20% increase in revenue after they added Paypal as a payment option. Another reported a 50% reduction after they prominently added the ability to input a voucher during checkout. People who did not have vouchers were obviously put off. Experimenting is important because each site will have slightly different visitor demographics - meaning that the people who visit different sites will behave differently. So you need to do your own trials.

68 Remember customer service is key. Encourage repeat business by going out of your way to meet customer needs. A happy customer will tell his friends, but an unhappy one will tell anybody who will listen.

69Be available. If customers cannot find out what they want to know from your site, they may try to get in touch with you. If they are unsuccessful, they will expect the same difficulty if they ever have a problem with an order - and they will go elsewhere.

Marketing your website: Top tips for pricing and promotion

70 Always offer more for slightly more money. Never discount something that a lot of people will buy anyway, it will cost you much more. Offer them a great deal if they buy something else at the same time. This will please them and encourage them to come back, and it will increase the value of each sale that you make.

72 Use vouchers or coupons. A person with a voucher or coupon feels that they have a special deal. It also ties them in to buying from you, because they cannot redeem your vouchers anywhere else.

73 Email electronic coupons. That way they are exclusive to your email group, and you reward your loyal customers without losing out on potential revenue from one-time buyers.

74 Understand how customers behave in your market. That will determine which tactics will work. Watch the trends in pricing and promotions among your competitors and in related markets. Learn from them, try things out, and see what works.

75 Try to find ways of reducing price for those who are very price conscious, at a cost to them. Airlines do this by discounting seats booked way in advance and sometimes at the very last minute, both of which are less convenient and popular than booking a few weeks in advance. You might do this by discounting returned goods or end-of-lines. Provided that it’s not loss making, it’s better to sell to price conscious customers at a discount than to lose the business to the competition.

76 Get customers to return to your online store. Analyse their sales patterns and make a special offer if they haven’t come for a while. Get and retain their permission to keep in touch with them by email by making it worth their while.

79 Don’t under-price. The quickest way that you can destroy a business is to engage in a price war where no-one makes any money. Make your offering the best overall value, not necessarily the cheapest - unless you have clear cost advantages which mean that you can sell low and still make a good profit.

80Upsell in your cart and after they have ordered. Once people have placed items in the cart, offer further items at a discount. You could offer the extra items post-free as an incentive; you may want to identify your best selling lines, or to look at linkages between items (e.g. batteries with toys or a case with a laptop). With good software, you can do this easily. A customer who has just decided to buy is generally feeling favourable towards you - so it’s an ideal time to sell them something else. You could contact the customer post-sale to check everything is OK and to suggest some more possibilities. This gives a personal touch to your operation as well as generating additional revenue.

TOP TIPS 81–102 Security and the law

81 Reassure visitors that you are real. As a vendor, you should list your actual address and phone number, and provide a point of contact where your web site visitors can speak to a real person. Also, if applicable provide your company registration and VAT numbers as it is the law to do so. Say on the site: ‘If you have any questions or queries about us or our products, please call us’. Provide facts about your business, and maybe pictures, as this will promote confidence. This point has been repeated from earlier. Deliberately. It’s that important.

82 Join a professional scheme. These provide reassurance for shoppers through a system of independent registration and verification of online retailers. SafeBuy or the IMRG’s Internet Shopping is Safe (ISIS) scheme are the best known. Display the logo on your home page, but not in the checkout. You don't want people to stop and think twice about security when they are about to make a purchase.

86 Encryption is the key. Credit card information is fully encrypted by virtually all vendors as it travels over the net. Provide details of your security method. This usually comes from using Secure Socket Layer (SSL).

87 All of the big boys do it. Billions of pounds of transactions are now being conducted across the internet every month. This is despite viruses and all of the other problems. Thousands and thousands of purchases are taking place, and many huge companies such as Dell are making the web their main ordering mechanism. Would they do this if it was fundamentally insecure?

88 Offer alternative ordering and payment methods. As a vendor, even if you are pushing web sales hard you should give alternative ways of ordering such as by fax. A few people will take advantage of the facility, but for the rest it shows that you are fully confident. And offer additional methods of payment such as cheque or PayPal.

90Present customer endorsements. Whenever customers make positive comments about your company, try to get their permission to quote them on your web site. Scatter a few such endorsements around the site, and change them regularly.

91 Put some pictures of staff and your premises if you can. It helps to establish how real you are, and is much more appealing than a faceless organisation.

93 Understand tax on shipping. People often don’t understand the finer points of VAT. For instance, if your products are a mixture of VATable and non-VATable, then the VAT charged on shipping should be in proportion to the mixture of VATable and non-VATable goods. Make sure your ecommerce solution can handle all of the VAT rules.

94Exempt EU business buyers from tax. If your customer is a non-UK business in the EU and is registered for VAT in their own country, they are allowed to quote their VAT registration number to you in order to be exempted from tax. If you can’t accommodate this, those customers are likely to look elsewhere.

95 Charge the country VAT rate if you exceed the country VAT threshold. Not many people know this, but if your online store is wildly successful and you are starting to turn over serious bucks selling into other EU countries, you hit some additional regulations. If you exceed the individual VAT threshold for Germany, France, etc. then you should charge VAT at the appropriate country VAT rate when selling into that country, not the usual UK 17.5% rate.

96Remember your jurisdiction. We’re in the EU so we are bound by EU rules. It’s not the same when handling US buyers. US states might want to charge tax on sales into their area, but it’s their responsibility to levy this tax. You don’t have to charge this “use tax” which is between the buyer and the state where they live. So as a UK business you can sell into the US tax free.

99Allow for disabled visitors - it’s the law. Make sure that you comply with the disability discrimination law. The key requirement is that you have to take “reasonable” steps to provide access to people with disabilities, and this includes your online store. One way of doing that is to make sure that all images have alternate (‘Alt’) text tags so visually impaired people can still navigate your site.

100 Privacy matters. You probably need to register with the Data Protection Registry at www.dpr.gov.uk. Registering takes just a few hours of careful work and thought.

103 Manage customer expectations. In an e-store you need to make sure that customers know exactly what they will get, and when. Amazon tell you that a book ‘normally ships in 2-3 days’ so you aren’t too upset if it takes four. If you offer ‘24 hour delivery’ then when do the 24 hours start? What are the time constraints, e.g. ‘Orders received by 4pm normally ship the same day’.

106 Give plenty of feedback. Placing an internet order may feel risky for the buyer. Make sure your buyers are told that you have received their order, and keep them up to date with its progress. If you have to make a back-order, let the buyer know when the rest of the order is expected.

109 Say what you mean and mean what you say. Don’t over-promise. Repeat customers are much more valuable than one-offs. Make it clear when you will deliver and then stick to it - even if it costs you more. Customers appreciate merchants who go out of their way to meet their commitments.

110 Selling overseas. There are all sorts of pitfalls to exporting. Who is responsible for any duty or taxes on the goods? In Europe, the EU Directive on Distance Selling sets out a legal framework for shipping within the EU. The good news is that shipments within the EU are free of duty. In the US, Congress banned new internet taxes - but government policy can change. Most large carriers can collect duty on goods when they arrive, but you need to be clear about who is going to pick up the tab. Generally it is the buyer’s responsibility. Make sure they know. If it comes as a surprise to them when the goods are delivered, you are the one they will blame.

111 Will your customer be in when it arrives? Customers usually have to go to work, so there may be problems in receiving your goods. One obvious solution is to deliver to workplaces, or allow special delivery instructions like “deliver to neighbour at number 5”. Some companies are experimenting with deliveries to known drop-off points like petrol service stations. If you can offer this, make sure that you can deal with goods that ‘go missing’ en-route. Another approach is to offer delivery within more precise time periods.

116 Go multi-channel. If you have a printed catalog, ask if they would like a copy when they order. Don’t feel that the web is your only channel - you have multiple routes to your customer. It is much easier and cheaper to sell more to an existing customer than it is to win a new one. Research suggests that customers who buy through multiple channels are the most profitable customers.

117 Look for every opportunity to personalise your service. The internet is generally very impersonal, so you need to communicate that your business is run by human beings who care about their customers. This also reassures them that they have a contact, if there is any problem - it is much better than a faceless corporation.

118 Image is an issue when a customer has never met you. Take all the chances you have to exceed expectations and build your reputation. If you need to call a customer for any reason - for example for security purposes, if the credit card and delivery addresses are different - take the opportunity to offer something extra such as a gift-wrap service. This helps protect you without offending the customer.

119 If there are any problems, like out of stock items or a problem with delivery, tell the customer immediately and take full responsibility. Never, ever blame anyone else - even the courier. Nothing is more infuriating for the consumer than when a supplier blames some third-party over whom they have no control.

120 When a mistake happens, correct it at the highest level. Customers appreciate it when a manager calls, rather than the most junior person - it makes them feel important to the company. Also the manager has more power to offer compensation or to rectify the problem. An apology works wonders, especially if it is accompanied by a token to acknowledge the problem, such as a discount voucher against future orders.

121 Review your service continually. Contact customers, or a cross section of customers, some time after delivery and check that they are happy with what they bought and with your service to them. You can do this by email or by telephone. This gives you feedback on your operation and also gives you another legitimate chance to sell something. Your customer may have ordered one of something to try it out - if they are happy, you may get a larger order immediately. If they have any problems, apologise and deal with them.

123 Treat customer complaints as an opportunity, not a problem. As well as exposing specific problems that need to be fixed, customer complaints are a great opportunity to learn and improve. They should not be buried away and forgotten, but analysed. It’s also good to share both positive and negative feedback with everyone in the organization. If staff are mentioned by name, pass this on for praise but don’t publish it in the case of criticism. This reminds everyone how important it is to keep customers happy - and provides a well-earned pat on the back when things go well.

124 Avoid fraud. One problem when selling online is fraud. Don’t get things out of proportion, there are problems with any business and no-one has managed to entirely eliminate shoplifting yet. Unfortunately it’s true that foreign orders from some countries seem to be much more likely to be fraudulent than others. If in doubt, stick to ones from Western Europe and North America. To help avoid fraudulent orders look out for these indicators of fraud: • They tend to use the most expensive shipping method available • They tend to choose the most expensive products • They tend to use free email addresses such as Yahoo or Hotmail. In addition you can check whether an order is fraudulent by asking for a fax of a copy of the back strip of the credit card; asking for proof of name and address to be faxed; or you can telephone to make sure that the number is genuine. Most fraudsters give up at the first hurdle and you don’t hear from them again. If you use a payment service such as Actinic or Worldpay, this normally provides some standard antifraud measures.

125 If you can’t get big, get niche. The world wide web is huge, but you can be successful by being different. Maybe you can present a range of specialist products that is hard to find elsewhere.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Evernote funding story - never ignor Swedes emails!

Selling successfully online - Over 120 top tips for running an ecommerce web site by Chris Barling and Bruce Townsend of Actinic.co.uk

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Friday, June 12, 2009

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Backwards approach

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Feel the beat