Etailology.com | Strategies and tactics for etailers and multi-channel retailers.

Seth’s Blog: Sometimes, the best part of buying something…

David Thiel on Apr 22 2008 | Filed under: Checkout

A short, sweet insight from Seth Godin. Etailers take note:

“Sometimes, the best part of buying something…is the buying part.”

SWEDING

David Thiel on Apr 14 2008 | Filed under: JARGON

Sweding is a term coined in the movie “Be Kind, Rewind” (see the wikipedia entry about the movie.) It’s best described as when fans “take classic films and remake them into short films using videotape, a virtually nonexistent budget, amateur actors, and insane amounts of creativity.” (quote from alwayswatching.org).

The movie’s makers have capitalized on the sudden enthusiasm around the concept of “sweding” in the real world and have created an excellent YouTube channel which promotes the film and shares sweded materials from regular people around the world.

So here it is: a film invents a word, Internet users run with it, and the filmakers run with the Internet-users’ idea and turn it into a fantastic marketing vehicle. Genius.

(And oh, btw some of the sweded film submissions are hilarious!)

Diagram: Customer Lifecycle and Differences in Online & Offline Media Consumption

David Thiel on Apr 01 2008 | Filed under: Branding, Customer Acquisition, Digital Marketing, Email Marketing, Etail Customer LifeCycle, Guerilla/WOM, Social Media

Gang,

Attached to this post is a diagram I use quite a lot to describe the online media landscape and the etail customer lifecycle. It continues to evolve, but I thought I’d share it. Click for the full size version. Some key points and takeaways:

Customers are at different stages: This simple truism is oft forgotten. Customers come from different stages in the buying cycle; what may be appropriate for your most loyal customer, might not be appropriate for someone trying your product for the first time. And despite the clear arrow at top moving from left to right, it’s important that customers move back and forth quite a lot — the sales funnel is less like a funnel than it is like a popcorn popper.
Pursuing competitor evangelists is often a waste of time and resources. You’ll find that your competitors’ true evangelists may in fact be your worse prospects. Note the opposing arrows on the diagram and the relationship between “your” conception of customer-lifecycle-stage and your competitor’s perception of the very same individual. Remember the “popcorn popper” concept: instead of bombarding happy customers of your competitor with costly interruption marketing, wait instead for those customers to “pop” out of the evangelist column (read: wait for your competition to screw up.)
Online media consumption is different: When we recognize that customers may be at different stages in the lifecycle, we (naturally) target messages differently: for offline awareness we might use a billboard, and for offline customer service we might send a personal letter. While this spectrum of communications methods seems clear, what’s less than obvious is that it’s unlikely that any individual customer will be seeing the billboard and reading the letter at the same time. That is, in the offline world, media tactics are usually separate and distinct because of geography, format, and media consumption patterns.The same is not true online. A customer performing a search might see a pay-per-click ad, then a banner, then read a customer service review, then visit a website… all in a single user session. The separation of messages we enjoy offline rarely exists on the Internet. In addition, customers evolve more quickly: a web visitor might transition from being a “stranger” to an “evangelist” (by writing a review) all within a single site visit.
Online conversion and offline conversion strategies are different: In online communications that drive online response, the primary goal is action. In these cases, customer response can be immediate (i.e. if they receive an online message, they can immediately respond/act by visiting the website). Design these communications with the goal of quick action towards conversion without necessarily trying to embed a lasting memory or impression. For online communications that drive offline actions, our primary goal is instead “recognition and memory” of the offer and benefit. Users responding to an online promotion requiring offline action need to remember that promotion during their next drive past your store.

Ultimately, this means we need to think a bit differently about online marketing. While technologies like behavioral targeting might make it easier to identify buying signals and place customers at the appropriate stage in the sales funnel, the reality is that most marketers won’t be employing such sophisticated (and expensive) techniques. For the have-nots (e.g. you and I!) it’s important that we consider these factors during offer and creative design, and that we — above all — insist on consistency and clarity in brand messaging.

69% of companies do not email checkout dropouts (via E-consultancy.com)

David Thiel on Mar 14 2008 | Filed under: Checkout, Email Marketing, Profile Information, The Shopping Cart

Most of the things we do wrong in etail are actually the simple things we don’t do at all. For example: 69% of companies do not email checkout dropouts (via E-consultancy.com)

The Secret to Effective SEO? Do what you’re told.

David Thiel on Mar 07 2008 | Filed under: Search Marketing

I’ve attended numerous presentations on Search Engine Optimization lately (at least 10 in the last month). They’ve all been “okay,” but honestly a bit repetitive. It seemed to me that they kept making the same points and each/all the presentations could be streamlined into a series of sensible and descriptive bullet points.

Which is why I was delighted, but not surprised, to find this page on Google’s Webmaster Guidelines which basically summarizes all the presentations I’ve seen on a single page, in easy to understand language.

Print this one out and tape it to your monitor. Save your conference budget and simply do what Google tells you to

Seth’s Blog: Sometimes, the best part of buying something…

SWEDING

Diagram: Customer Lifecycle and Differences in Online & Offline Media Consumption

69% of companies do not email checkout dropouts (via E-consultancy.com)

The Secret to Effective SEO? Do what you’re told.

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