Social Media has also made it easier for marketers to relate to a potential buyer. If the marketer already knows a bit about the prospect, his or her concerns, past experiences with products/services, etc., it is a lot easier to relate to that person and make the sale.  People thrive on that human connection.

Social media is not just used by Generation X.  It has been studied that even baby boomers, of all ages, are influenced by and interested in social media.

One doesn’t have to comb through sites to find out desired information.  There are text mining tools that will do that work for you.  Basically, text mining tools are able to scan for chosen information (words, phrases, etc.) from text.  For example, let’s say you are responsible for the marketing on a newly released movie and you want to find out what people are saying about it.  You can use text mining tools to grab everything related to that movie on popular blogs (or wherever you want to get your information from).  When you find out what real people are saying about the movie, why they liked it, it is then easier for you, the marketer, to advertise the movie according to why people really enjoyed it.  And as more people use social media, more sophisticated tools will be developed.

If you’re a smaller company and you don’t have the resources to invest in text mining tools, try Google Alerts.  Google alerts allow you to request an alert (which is in the form of an email) on the topic of your choice.  You can choose to be alerted when the topic comes up from your chosen source.  The online sources you can pick from are: news, web, blogs, video, group and comprehensive.  This can allow you to examine buying trends, identify your target market and spot your competition.

Another source of information for B2B companies is LinkedIn. Most professionals are signed up on sites like LinkedIn, which typically house all of their (potential prospects’) career information.  This is a great tool and provides some insight into who the person is and what their interests are.  This supplies you, the marketer with some speaking topics to help form the ever sought-after human connection, and make the sale.

A.C. Nielson sites:

“58% of the people polled shop in stores because they wanted to physically evaluate the product before purchasing.”

“52% didn’t want to wait for the product to ship.”

“43% didn’t want to pay shipping and handling.”

“27% wanted to talk to a sales person in person, before purchasing.”

“23% thought they could find a better price in store.”

“14% weren’t sure anyone would be home when the item was delivered by a third-party shipper.”

“11% wanted to support a local business.”

“5% listed none of the above.”

Physically Evaluate Product
For some products there is no substitute for seeing, trying on and/or holding the real thing.  That being said, there are some tactics which will alleviate customer questions.  The tactics you use depend on what type of products you sell.   A tactic that works for some of the best shoe selling eccomerce sites is offering free shipping in both directions and a no-hassle return policy. Now the consumer has the best of both worlds, the extensive selection provided by the ecommerce site and the ability to “physically evaluate” the product without hassle, cost or risk. Some products may not lend themselves to this approach. In that case, the best way to mimic personally evaluating a product is to create many different interactive views of the item, allowing the user to zoom in and out in multiple directions. If you own a retail ecommerce store this can be critical, especially for clothing. When buying apparel, people not only want to see different views of the clothing, but they want to know how it fits on their body type. A great way to show them is to display multiple sized models wearing the clothes.

Shipping
As mentioned above, free shipping can be a great solution. If you’re small, however, you may not have the funds or profit margins to offer this. A more cost effective approach may be to offer free shipping specials, especially during the holiday seasons. During the holidays, the malls are so clogged with people that shoppers will flock to your online specials. Make offers that make sense for your company. For example, if you own an ecommerce gift shop, create a special offer of free shipping on all $100 purchases. Another helpful option for shoppers is a shipping calculator. The shopper provide their area code the calculator shows them how much the item will cost to ship, well before they have made a purchase decision. This way, there are no surprises when it comes to checkout time and shoppers appreciate your understanding and help.

Salespeople
Shoppers want to talk to someone and get reissurance regaring their potential purchases. Pricing and product descriptions do help, but real opinions from other customers are highly valued. Add a customer review feature to assure consumers that they won’t be sorry with their purchase.

Cheaper Offline
Shoppers sometimes think they can find a better price in the big chain or mall store. Demonstrate that you are comfortable with the value you provide by encouraging them to check out chain store websites. This may prevent them from driving to the big-box store and making the purchase because it’s convenient. If the customer checks out the chain store website first they will come back to you if really are the better value. Shoppers want things quick and easy; if they travel to a store and find the product is more expensive they will still most likely purchase it because of the convenience. If they check it out online first you may get them NOT to make that trip.

Product Arrival
If shoppers are worried they will not be home when their package arrives, suggest they have it shipped to work.

Support the Local Business
I understand that people want to keep the smaller companies in business… let them know most ecommerce stores are also small businesses owned by people that live in their neighborhoods.

Mimic the Brick and Mortar Experience

This is so true in the E-Commerce world as well. No matter how great your company, product or service is your website will ultimately make or break you. Abandonment is hardest felt in the shopping carts of e-commerce stores. Although perception is only one factor in shopping cart abandonment, it is an important one.

This reality of human behavior has sparked an amazing innovation at Exclusive Concepts. We have created a one-of- a -kind Conversion Booster Service that makes sure your website accurately portrays the trust and dedication that your company exhibits off line.

Increasing your conversion just a fraction of a percent could mean thousands of dollars in additional revenue.

Make your visitors comfortable, propel them to take action, increase your sales and check out Conversion Booster.

There was only one other option, hit up Google and Yahoo!

I searched for “Morocco Music” “Casaba Lounge Songs” and “Middle East techno.” I couldn’t find what I was looking for. I was getting extremely frustrated.

I am spoiled and used to having my questions answered immediately on the internet.

I wondered whether this was a failure of the Search Engine or the failure of an E-Commerce site that is not optimized. Maybe I failed as a searcher?

Maybe there is a company that sells the music I am looking for and their site is not optimized.

Are they going after keywords like “CD’s” and “Buy Music” that are too competitive, going up against amazon.com and buy.com? Sometimes finding the right e-commerce site on search engines is like navigating through a jungle and you just get beat up and disoriented, so you just exit.

If you are an E-Commerce owner that is unhappy with your organic traffic this could be your problem.

About 70% of the searches done on the major search engines are unique, your business is unique…capitalize on it.

Potential customers are trying to navigate through a jungle to get to your site and to the product they want.

If a company like Exclusive Concepts optimizes your site we essentialy help clear the forest.

It all started several months ago. Scott, Dan, Dave, Sheila and Herb were in the conference room and I overheard them talking about something called One Two Punch. And no – I wasn’t eavesdropping – my office just happens to be located near the conference room.

Anyway, Scott seemed pretty excited and that made me curious. Is a team-building exercise on the horizon? No – it couldn’t be. I couldn’t imagine 20 cerebral search engine marketers dropping their keyboards for boxing gloves… talk about viral link bait!

In the weeks and months that followed the chatter about One Two Punch continued… but no one will spill the beans. I asked Lauren if she had any idea what One Two Punch was and she surmised it to be a new sugary drink for kids, and then she asked for a glass! I asked Jared and he responded, “The first rule of One Two Punch is that you do not talk about One Two Punch.” No help there.

I continued my sleuthing without much luck and then this morning, out of the blue, I received an email from “anonymous@anonymous.com.” The following graphic was attached with no note or subject line. DOES ANYONE OUT THERE KNOW WHAT ONE TWO PUNCH IS?

We are easily distracted by what Godin calls “the fires in the kitchen.”

We have so many day to day tasks that we forget about our medium to long-term goals. At some point we have to either give ourselves more time or break out of the comfort-zone and take a risk to improve ourselves. Let the small fires burn a little longer.

Eveyone looking at this blog propably has a pile of day-to-day tasks to get to.. including myself. But at what point do we make long term success a daily goal?

This past weekend I sat down to write and I noticed that I was staring at a black screen.  I just purchased a new dell laptop and it was already on the fritz.  Long story short my power cord fried the motherboard.  This minor set back has been devastating.  I no longer have the luxury of my portable portal to deliver me to ANYTHING I want. That right there is the cost of technology.

As a person who is familiar with the web 2.0 experience, the monetary value of laptop replacement is diminished by the fact that I am locked out of the internet?  What did people do before the World Wide Web?  What is the point to my rant? The internet has an unforeseen value that can be leveraged given the right tools.

I have posted before about getting involved in the online community and how easy it is becoming to do so.  The value of the internet goes beyond blog posts and social networking. I speak with prospects everyday who are reluctant to invest in the internet.  Just as my laptop was my gateway to the internet; internet marketing tools are the gateways to increased revenue for your business.  You already have a website, do something with it!  Your homepage is the face of your business.  You may not know it but 50% of your potential prospects are using the internet to find you.  Traditional search methods (trade shows, yellow pages and professional directories) are becoming less effective as culture assimilates into the online world.

Jump in and get involved.  Engage the community and you will find that we are very responsive and can provide the most comprehensive feedback around.  The internet itself is free.  Test products, tweak campaigns and innovate in real time.
 

Of course there is a leap of faith involved, but know that many of your competitors are hitting the ground running. Do you want to be the last one to jump on the internet bandwagon? 

Dell promptly sent my laptop back to me.  So I’m back, but I definitely wasn’t myself the last couple of days. By not being on the internet your business is wounded and at a competitive disadvantage.  So get in the game, pay your initiation and reap the rewards of a giving community.

For the last few months I have been seeking the financial advice of friends and family. Most of these people had strong financial backgrounds (CPA’s, Heads of Households, etc). I did some financial research on my own on. I still couldn’t decide what to do with my cash flow.

One of my close friends kept probing me about the amount of money I wanted to work with. He offered me suggestions for strategies that were way out of my ball park. I just did not feel comfortable fully revealing my financial situation, whether good or bad.

So I decided to get some free consultations from banks. These people were helping me because their institution and their job depended on giving me great advice, acquiring my business and more importantly keeping it. I was also able to talk to them about my “Financial Pain”without feeling embarrassed.

The same thing goes for internet marketing. So many small business owners pay money to web masters within their sphere of friends and family, solely based on peace of mind. Do these people research your business? Are they competing with other internet marketers? Is this even their day job?

Of course a lot of these people create great looking websites and that’s what you asked for. But did you ask them to make you a website that will rank well, make you competitive in your industry and more importantly make you money? Are you willing to admit to them you have “internet marketing pain”?

Free Exclusive Concepts consultation.

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I recently came across a post Is it a blog or website? on duct tape marketing that highlighted the emerging value of Wordpress as a web tool. Users are utilizing Wordpress’ capability as a CMS to bypass the technical expertise necessary to build out a quality site.

As an internet marketing consultant I talk to people everyday who are confused and uncertain on how they want to move their business forward in a web 2.0 world. “Should I spend money on a blog or should I consider building a high functioning website? Is there any way that I can bypass doing an SEO project?” The short answer is to be doing all of these things to position your business correctly. Wordpress lets the inexperienced and experienced test the web 2.0 waters without breaking the bank or driving themselves crazy. And now with the emergence of third party developers the sky is the limit on what Wordpress can do.

Web 2.0 is more than just blogs, widgets, social networking and podcast. It has become a mentality and a way of life for the masses that spend a majority of their day connected to the internet. I have personally thrown around and heard web 2.5 and web 3.0. So what are you to do if you just mastered text messaging and the concept of an RSS feed blows your mind? All you have to do is change your way of thinking and web 2.0 will follow.

On February 6, Exclusive Concepts re-launched our webinar series. The event itself was a success, focusing on SEO basics for yahoo stores. However, what was most surprising was the feedback from our audience. Everyone had an opinion and appreciated our follow up. The audience was filled with internet savvy marketers but there were also many first timers. For these first timers our webinar was their first taste of web 2.0 and they loved it and all they had to do was go to www.gotomeeting.com.

The lesson learned is that we are social creatures; whether we fly across the country to go to a conference or log on to a webinar, we all want to be a part of something. The web 2.0 rookie can now go back to his cohorts and brag about his webinar experience.

I launched my sales career at Exclusive Concepts in February 2008 with certain life lessons under my belt. My father, a successful sales engineer in his own right, imparted on me values and morals to take with me in and out of the workplace. When I was a kid, he gave me a book titled The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian. I have referred to this “pocket oracle” during many different phases in my life and today it proves to be just as relevant at Exclusive Concepts.

I have always been able to sell. I was successful in high school business competitions and as a manager of a wine store. When I read the aforementioned passage I realized why a career in sales would be a good fit for me.

It is not because I have some mastery of language or wonderful sales pitch (although it helps). It is because I have been lucky enough to associate myself with the best companies and ideas. I interviewed with lots of companies in the last year. I entered each meeting as if I were a potential client. This was the place I was going to be spending 75% of my day, “you better be good,” I thought.

At Exclusive Concepts they were great…now we are great. We are a team of unique individuals working towards a common goal; the success of your company.

So, I am here today building relationships with the best internet marketing firm in the country. If you are pursuing other firms, the most important advice I can give you is to seek out a company with a clear moral back bone (here is ours).

I speak to so many CEO’s, CMO’s and E-Commerce Owners that have been burned by internet marketing firms. How can we form positive relationships in an industry full of sharks?

I could try to come up with something cute here, but I am going to kick it to my boy Baltasar;

“An honorable person. Good conduct has departed, debts of gratitude now go unpaid, and few give others the treatment they deserve…Take notice of the bad behavior of others, not to imitate but to defend yourself from it. Your own integrity can be ruined by the ruinous behavior of others. But the honorable man does not forget who he is because of what others are.”