Exclusive Concepts Blog » Video http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog The Source, featuring Daily Videos on SEO, PPC, Conversion and E-Mail Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:29:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Email Thursday – Will Social Media Take Over Email? http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/email-thursday-will-social-media-take-over-email.html http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/email-thursday-will-social-media-take-over-email.html#comments Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:29:03 +0000 Andy http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/?p=2409

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No, this is not another of my pointless diatribes where I ramble on for hours on end about the general demise of civility and why people can't even thank you when you hold the door for them. No, this is about email and although it may not seem that way, I'll get to my point eventually. Back to my story.

The 90's were great, don't get me wrong. But something happened in that decade… something that changed the course of all of our lives and was the tipping point for an entirely new, never-before-seen and still to this day not completely understood phenomonon: electronic communications. Sure, we had the phone. But that was SOOO 1940's. This new technology was different; this new technology stood before us and in the time it takes to transfer a byte over a standard 10 foot twisted pair ethernet cable, everything changed.

And Then… There Was Email

And that was cool. Email ruled the school yard like that 5th grader with a pituitary issue. It was instant, it was personal, it was simply awesome. First adopted by geeks of all ages, then college kids and Prodigy and AOL users… soon, everyone had a Rocketmail or Compuserve address and was sending emails over 56k modems.

Fast forward 10 years… a young, restless Harvard freshman creates a system where he and his fellow classmates/dropouts could keep in touch with each other all at once. And BAM… social media is born. Like kennel cough at a hoarder's house, social media swept through the internet and picked up almost every teenager and twenty-something along the way. There was Myspace, Blogs, Feeedburner, Stumbleupon and, of course, Facebook. Even my parents have facebook accounts and my Aunt's Friends comment on how cute my dog is. In comes social, out goes privacy.

So now that we're all tweeting, checking-in and digging, is there even room for email? Now that status updates and instant tweets give us up-to-the-minute stats, is there even a need for email? With companies now asking for mobile phone numbers to send text messages and IM's, do we even need email for social purposes? Is the medium now relegated to the realm of the business world and doomed to live on through attachments and Out Of Office replies?

Not even close. Although many believe that social media will take over email in the near future, this is simply not the case. Email is here for the long haul and is constantly being tested, vetted and improved. Just last week, Gmail rolled out a "priority inbox" feature that uses smart technology to pre-filter your messages and gives priority to people you communicate with the most. Hotmail? It's how "the new busy" get things done. Email integrated with RSS feeds, search history, news updates, and even status updates from all your favorite social networks.

But where's the proof? How do you know that email isn't dead? Simple. What is the one thing you need to sign up for a Twitter, Facebook or Flickr account? And how do they reach you if there's an issue with the service or if they want feedback? And how do they reset your password? With an email address, of course. ]]>

]]> http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/email-thursday-will-social-media-take-over-email.html/feed 0 Conversion Wednesday – Mobile Awareness http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/conversion-wednesday-mobile-awareness.html http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/conversion-wednesday-mobile-awareness.html#comments Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:26:07 +0000 Dan G http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/?p=2405
Welcome to another installment of our Conversion Wednesday Series.

Our topic today is “Mobile Awareness”

I’ll be your host today, my name is Dan G.

If you don’t have a smartphone, ipod touch, or ipad at this point you may be in the minority… Ever since the launch of apple’s first iPhone they have seen explosive growth & demand for their products year after year. And since that launch, other smartphone makers have been scrambling to keep up with apple and its dominance in the mobile device market. They just broke ground again recently with the release of a new product, the iPad. Adding yet another mobile device into the mix. A report today: [http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/analyst_ipad_sales_could_top_28m_in_2011/?utm_campaign=feature] estimates that sales of the iPad Could Top 28 million in 2011 and will eat away at more of the PC/Notebook market!!

A comment was also left on the macobserver stating that “It is a valuable accessory. It adds in-home mobility for browsing and email without the need of hauling the laptop around. It’s nice on the patio and awesome in the kitchen.”

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And another site: http://geekswithblogs.net/tshaaban/archive/2010/01/28/whatwillappleipaddotoecommerce.aspx added that all they could think of, “was all the house wives sitting on their sofas watching” shows like QVC and the Home Shopping Network, “and using their iPads to do the shopping”. Before, they used, “a laptop with a power cable that the children tripped over.” He also added that, “An iPad not only promises the ‘best browsing experience’, but that it also avoids the biggest barrier to the average housewife/granny: The technophobia. Yes! The iPad is a computer but it doesn’t look like a computer, and as we’ve seen with all Apple’s products they are very easy to use and have a great user experience. This alone will be the biggest attraction for the non techie users who do not know what files are!” “they have created the ultimate experience where things just work and you do not need to know how they do! And still, because the iPad does not look like a computer, it will attract the Sofa dwellers to use the internet and order their Pizza, grocery, dresses online. Possibly even act on an advert they have just seen on Television before they forget all about it. Think of all the things we now do with a laptop accessible to all the non laptop people!”, “eCommerce retailers will benefit from the increased site traffic, but they will have to contend with a new breed of online shoppers: the grannies with their iPads. Sites will start to have simpler navigations with oversized elements to suite human finger dimensions.” I believe that sums up the change from mobile shopper’s that we are about to receive!

With the amount of mobile-internet users growing everyday, eCommerce sites need to start wondering, “what is my mobile experience like”? (if they haven’t already)

So what is the mobile-experience of your website like? Have you tried browsing your site on an iPhone or iPad yet? Here are some things to consider when browsing your website on a mobile device:

  1. Are there any Errors? Is the site inoperable? If so, you’ll want to get your developers on this immediately. That means any and possibly all of your potential mobile customers are being turned away from your site and not completing any orders at all. To find out faster, I would look into your Google or Yahoo Analytics to find out if any mobile devices may be having a problem with your site.
  3. Is it easy enough to Navigate? (Are your buttons or links too If your finding it difficult to click links or buttons on the mobile device you’re testing this on. Chances are, other mobile users are having the same problem. Consider making those frequently used buttons and links a little larger for your mobile users.
  4. Is your checkout process too complicated. (Do you save account information for returning customers?) Seeing how there’s no “real keyboard” on mobile devices, you’ll want to keep Data Entry to a minimum. Make sure your only asking for, or point out, your required fields during the checkout process. And if you don’t have it yet, consider adding a login process to your cart for return shoppers. That way all of their data is already saved on your site, and all they need to do is click “checkout”.
  5. Is your site too wide? (Do you find yourself moving around a lot just to read product descriptions?) You may find that some of your product description or rating descriptions are too wide or too long. Consider using a more conservative length and width for these sections and resort to using an auto-scroll for these sections to make content like this easier to read.
  6. Do your changes justify looking into an App Solution? Or can you get by with making some of the changes mentioned above? If your overwhelmed after viewing your site from a mobile device, and there are just too many changes you’ll need to make to cater to these shoppers, you may want to consider just looking into an app solution. A lot of sites exist out there that can do all of this work for you and give you a professional looking app for all of your mobile users.


So I hope this presentation has brought you awareness of your mobile customers, and given you some good ideas for what to look out for. Here’s a quick Recap:
  1. Mobile Shoppers are Growing in Numbers. And there’s no denying that. A report today is estimating that the iPad alone Could Top 28 million units in 2011 alone. Not to mention the 85 million iPhone & iPod touches Steve Jobs was boasting sold back in April! This is a growing trend, and to deny that is foolish.
  2. If you haven’t already. Start looking for Errors on all of the major mobile devices. Check your Google or Yahoo Analytics to find out which mobile devices have had the most usage on your website. Then test out your mobile experience on those devices.
  3. Is your site Easy Enough to Navigate? (Are your buttons or links too small?) Consider making your most frequently used buttons and links a little larger for your mobile users.
  4. Is your checkout process too complicated? (Do you save account information for returning customers?) Consider keeping your required checkout fields to a minimum and adding a login process to your cart for return shoppers if yout don’t already have one.
  5. Is your site too wide? (Do you find yourself moving around a lot just to read product descriptions?) Consider using a more conservative length and width for these sections and resort to using an auto-scroll for these sections to make content like this easier to read.


    6. We call this service “Conversion Booster” , its ExclusiveConcepts full-service testing option . We do the work for you by gathering your analytics and determining the best changes for your site to maximize conversion rate. Then, we test those changes in an AB or Multivariate test and present you with the winning combinations! Its that simple. Give us a call at 1-800-504-4324 if you're interested in learning more.

    We would be honored to perform a free conversion audit on your qualified website today. (6) Do your changes justify looking into an App Solution? Or can you get by with making some of the changes mentioned above? If your overwhelmed after experiencing your site from a mobile device, and there are just too many changes you’ll need to make to cater to these shoppers, you may want to consider just looking into an app solution. And if you don’t have the time or effort to put into deciding and making these changes to your site, let us do it for you! We can design & test these mobile-commerce strategies for you, procure and analyze their overall effect, and then present you with the winning changes for your site. ]]>

    ]]>     http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/conversion-wednesday-mobile-awareness.html/feed 0 PPC Tuesday – Transfer Yahoo! Accounts to adCenter http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/ppc-tuesday-transfer-yahoo-accounts-to-adcenter.html http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/ppc-tuesday-transfer-yahoo-accounts-to-adcenter.html#comments Tue, 07 Sep 2010 18:36:09 +0000 Chris http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/?p=2400
    While Yahoo ads are not being run through adCenter yet, there is now the opportunity to begin this process and get everything in order through your Yahoo account.

    This will leave you in a strong position for when the switch is flipped. So far, all reports point to mid-October of being the go live date.

    So lets jump right into it.

    Now when you log into Yahoo, there is a new tab that is the default screen.

    This screen will help you move your entire build to MSN, or setup the Account shell.

    There are also additional resources including guides and help centers.

    If you already have an adCenter account and don’t want it to be linked to this Yahoo account, you will want to choose the Download Campaign option on the right, then log in to adCenter and upload your campaigns through their UI.

    For the purpose of this video we are going to go through the process of transitioning the entire account.

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    Once you click the button to transition, you will be asked to link to an existing account or to create a new adCenter Account.

    If you need to create a new account,then fill out all of the information, and follow the steps until you login to your adcenter account and then presented with the following screen. This is to confirm that the correct accounts are being linked, and it also allows use to opt in to Canada as well as set the date.

    You will then be asked to confirm the previous screen settings. On this page there is an important link in the middle of the page.It points to a 24 page pdf outlining the compatibility between the two systems.It can be found at this link on the screen. This will be an important reference as you move forward and I would suggest you download it to diagnosis any issues that may arise after the new ads are running.

    Once you confirm the accounts are linked Yahoo & MSN will take care of the rest. They state that it will take a few days, depending on the size of your account. Once the transition is complete, an email will be generated to notify you.

    You can return to your MSN tab when you are logged into your Yahoo! account and review the progress along the status bar across the bottom of the page.

    Once ads are running in adCenter and the transition is complete, you will be targeting both engines. So far there is no way to control targeting between the different networks.

    I hope this video has been helpful!

    To Learn More about Exclusive Concepts Profitable PPC product, or any of our excellent services in our suite of online marketing offerings including our Conversion Booster, SEO Foundation or Precision Email Marketing, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We have also launched our new Software As A Service destination, Conversions On Demand.com. Visit it today and see what we have to help your business.

    Also, if you have specific questions about how your PPC Account is structured, sign up for one of our Profitable PPC Audits, they are quick and offer some great insight in how to optimize your campaign along with relevant recommendations.

    We also want to open up the door to your feedback!

    Do you have any lingering questions after watching this video…do you have a topic that you would like to learn more about? Then send an email to blog@ exclusive concepts.com.

    If we choose your feedback for a video we will email you to let you know when it goes live!

    Thank you, this has been Chris for Exclusive Concepts Daily Concept: PPC Tuesday. I look forward to talking to you next time. ]]>

    ]]>     http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/ppc-tuesday-transfer-yahoo-accounts-to-adcenter.html/feed 0     Wildcard Friday – Why Aren’t My Pages Being Indexed in Bing? http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/wildcard-friday-why-arent-my-pages-being-indexed-in-bing.html http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/wildcard-friday-why-arent-my-pages-being-indexed-in-bing.html#comments Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:09:37 +0000 Scott C http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/?p=2395
    The first action I’d recommend for site owners with this issue is to check to see if your site employs SEO best practices for being indexed, which will apply to both Bing and Google. Is your site easy to navigate through? If it takes more than 3-4 clicks from the homepage to get to any other page on the site, not only will users have a harder time finding it, but spiders will too and these pages won’t be indexed if they can’t be found. Does your site have quality inbound links pointing from other sites? Not only do inbound links help boost your site’s popularity in search engines, but they will also help spiders crawl from these exterior pages to your site. Additionally, by targeting some of the deeper pages on your site with these inbound links, you can help spiders come to these interior pages and continue to crawl into deeper content. Another important question…does your site contain quality, unique content? A good site will contain pages with relevant and unique content which helps encourage spiders to continue crawling. If spiders come across pages with duplicate no content, they may decide that your site is no longer valuable and stop crawling it. Finally does your page load fast enough or does it seem to take forever to load? Just as a user would probably leave a site that takes forever to load, so will spiders since they have billions of other pages to index.

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    Now that we’ve addressed the indexing best practices just mentioned, let’s talk about another solution that can help if you find that your pages still aren’t being indexed. Bing has recently released an updated Webmaster Tools section, which can help you further troubleshoot your site and find problem pages that are being prevented from being indexed. The first step you’ll need to take is to verify that you are the site owner in Bing Webmaster Tools, and this can be done by placing a small script on your site so Bing can verify that it is indeed yours. Once verified, there are several useful tools you can now use to further analyze your site. The first tool I’d recommend checking out is the “Submit URL” tool. Bing has this useful feature which will allow you to submit up to 10 pages per day, or up to 50 per month, to be indexed by Bing. The benefit of using this tool is that you can submit pages that may not have otherwise been found right away by the Bingbot and it indexes the pages fairly quickly. Another step to take would be submitting an XML sitemap to Bing Webmaster Tools, so they have a list of all your important pages. This will help them detect deeper pages on your site that may be important for you to have in the index, but might not be easy to find by the spiders through your site’s navigation. Finally, there is even a section that will help you detect crawl errors on your site, which is extremely helpful in determining why some of your pages still aren’t being indexed. This section can point out what pages currently have issues and what those issues are, which may include content labeled SPAM by Bing, malware on a page, or even a broken URL on the site.

    Well, that’s all for today and I hope that some of these suggestions will help those of you who are having problems getting your pages indexed in Bing. If your site continues to experience issues being indexed in either Bing or Google, please contact us to learn more about our Advanced SEO service and request an Advanced SEO Audit for your site.

    We’d also like to remind you that if you have a question or idea you would like to see covered on Your Daily Concept, to please send us an email to blog@exclusiveconcepts.com! If selected, we will email you and let you know when the video will be posted. Thanks for watching, have a happy Labor Day weekend and please tune in next Tuesday for another PPC Tuesday!]]>

    ]]>     http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/wildcard-friday-why-arent-my-pages-being-indexed-in-bing.html/feed 0     Email Thursday – Synergy: Email and Web http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/email-thursday-synergy-email-and-web.html http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/email-thursday-synergy-email-and-web.html#comments Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:21:24 +0000 Andy http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/?p=2388
    One of the most elemental practices for effective marketing strategies is to make sure that your efforts in the marketing realm compliment each other. Now, this may seem obvious, "Andy, tell me something I don't know." But, you'd be surprised how many companies I run into that don't seem to apply this simple and straightforward approach to marketing. I'll visit their website, see an add in a Google search and receive an email and often it feels like I am communicating with 3 different companies.

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    Many of our customers come to us for this very reason: they want synergy amongst all of their outbound marketing communications. When performing an audit and analyzing their current (or proposed) marketing strategies, we'll find discrepancies in their voice, tone, look and overall messaging. Perhaps their site will be designed with a prominent left nav bar and a certain color scheme and their title tags will have the name of the business and a tagline. Their PPC and SEO will be focused on selling a particular brand or category of products, none of which are prominent on their site nor can they be found anywhere in meta data on their site. Their ads will point to a page that is buried within the structure of their site and will be promoting a brand that they don't have in-stock. Their email strategy, if existent, will perhaps utilize an old template that bears no resemblance to the current look and feel of the site and it may not even tell you much or anything about what the company sells or does.

    In the age of digital marketing, ADHD and congested Information Superhighways, it is imperative that your outbound marketing efforts all be in-line with each other: that they all have the same look, feel, tone, messaging, value proposition and general branding. Right now, branding is as important as ever and email plays a strong part in that.

    A simple glance at an email from jetBlue and their current homepage yields an obvious relationship between the 2… heck, they have the exact same graphic. What this shows is solidarity and synergy between their outbound communications: a consistant, similar and continued experience when "traveling" from one medium to another. The near seamless integration of graphics and messaging makes you feel not like you are crossing from one communication medium to another, but rather that they are both an extension of a greater brand experience, one with a bit of a warm, happy feel if you ask me. With colors reminiscent of sunsets, blue skies and clear blue water, the themes and tone are clearly carried through all outbound communications. Talking about it kinda makes me want to go on vacation…

    At Exclusive Concepts, we offer Optimized Lifecycle Email Marketing for our clients who are looking to maximize their revenue through this unique and ever-growing channel. If you are looking for a way to get a lot more revenue from your e-mail approach, consider our Optimized Lifecycle Email Marketing service to augment your other marketing efforts. We’ll show you how it works if you’d like – just give us a call at 800-504-4324.

    Thank you for listening – have a wonderful Email Thursday! ]]>

    ]]>     http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/email-thursday-synergy-email-and-web.html/feed 0     Conversion Wednesday – 3 Things to Keep in Mind While Testing http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/conversion-wednesday-3-things-to-keep-in-mind-while-testing.html http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/conversion-wednesday-3-things-to-keep-in-mind-while-testing.html#comments Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:12:36 +0000 Exclusive Concepts Blog Team http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/?p=2380
    My name is Chris C., and today I’ll be reminding you of three things to keep in mind while testing your website.

    The big things to keep in mind while testing are:
    • Your future website vision
    • Everything is constantly shifting
    • Throw out assumptions
    Lets get into what each one of these mean.

    The first is: Have a future website vision.
    Know where you are and where you want to be. Use testing as steps towards where you want to go.
    For example, if you know your site works great for methodical shoppers but you want to open up your funnel and appeal to a broader customer base, design a few tests to improve a spontaneous shopper’s experience.

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    Next, remember that everything is constantly shifting online
    The web moves so fast and we constantly need to keep up! It’s important to understand that your vision will change and that it’s a good thing.

    Your website and the reasons for visitors arriving on your website are constantly changing. Try not to view your testing as a way to create standards for marketing, design, or copy on your website. Instead, view it as a constantly changing entity. Remember, this is a long term process and reinforces why having a future vision is so important.

    Every website is unique. Yes, even yours! This why we test. If there was one, universal formula for a website, everyone’s sites would look the same…

    Which leads us to: throwing out assumptions.
    When designing a test, don’t assume that an idea won’t work. Just because what is being proposed in the test isn’t an industry standard doesn’t mean it won’t perform better. Sometimes the changes that have the best impact on your website can seem counter intuitive.

    During testing, don’t get frustrated if your assumptions are wrong. Even if a test doesn’t deliver desired results. The tests that don’t perform the way we expect them to frequently tell you something new about your users. Apply what you have learned to your vision for your website. Tests that don’t get desired results help you understand more about your business and can make your future website vision even better!

    Every site is unique, so trust your users! They are the ones using your unique site, which makes them all unique as well.

    So, while testing, keep in mind:
    • Your future website vision
    • Everything is constantly
    • Throw out assumptions

    No matter what your testing results tell you, remember tha tyour users determined the results. The whole point in testing is to understand more about your customers. If they are telling you that something is working, you should trust them.

    We think about these items constantly during our Conversion Booster service. Conversion Booster is an Exclusive Concepts full-service testing option . We do the work for you by gathering your analytics and determining optimal changes for your site to maximize conversion rate. Then, we test those changes in an AB or Multivariate test and present you with the winning combinations! Its that simple. Give us a call at 1-800-504-4324 if you're interested in learning more.

    We would be honored to perform a free seasonal conversion audit on your qualified website today.

    If you have any questions about conversion booster, website testing, or website optimization, be sure to let us know. Email us today at: blog@exclusiveconcepts.com.

    Thank you for your responses and have a great conversion Wednesday! ]]>

    ]]>     http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/conversion-wednesday-3-things-to-keep-in-mind-while-testing.html/feed 0     PPC Tuesday – The Holiday Pre-Season http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/ppc-tuesday-the-holiday-pre-season.html http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/ppc-tuesday-the-holiday-pre-season.html#comments Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:38:40 +0000 Kevin http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/?p=2375
    Today is the last day of August, Tuesday, August 31st 2010

    My name is Kevin and I will be presenting today’s topic which will be The Holiday Pre-Season.

    We here at Exclusive Concepts have already begun to prep our clients for the upcoming Holiday season and the increased traffic, competition, and business that comes with it.

    But as we look ahead we should keep in mind that there are other Holidays coming up that can provide your business with a sales boost as well as provide a testing ground for the “Big One”. So today I thought I would offer some helpful hints for the Pre-Season Holidays of Halloween and Thanksgiving that can be carried over into the primetime.

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    The first holiday hint is to take some time and freshen up your ad copy. Take advantage of the season and work some holiday themed ad copy into your text. This will allow you to stand out from your competitors and engage the searcher on a personal level.

    While your testing some new ad copy, why not try a special holiday offer? This can be a percentage off or a free shipping offer with a fun holiday coupon code.

    One last tip for your ads is to make sure that you have taken full advantage of your ad extensions within your AdWord’s campaigns. Product Extensions, Site Links and all of the other ad extensions weren’t available last year so ensure that you are giving yourself a “turkey” leg up on your competition this season.

    You will also want to make sure that you are aggressively bidding for the first page and that your budgets allow for you to do so. Halloween and Thanksgiving gives you the benefit of seeing how not only your customers react but also your competition. If you notice that your competitors are making adjustments now you can be assured that they will be doing the same come December.

    Lastly, update your site with a holiday theme. If you have a mascot why not find a clever way to get them decked out for the holidays. Not only does this carryover the messaging of your text ad but returning customers will remain engaged with the site because you are keeping things fresh! One side note on holiday themes that I will make is to ensure that you never lose the site’s overall messaging and the main goal of driving sales.

    Those are just a few helpful holiday hints for your pay per click campaigns. Remember, Halloween and Thanksgiving allows you to experiment and test your ad copy, landing pages, seasonal sales, and measure how your customers respond to your site during these holidays.

    You can then take these lessons learned and ensure that you are in the best shape for the Big Game in December and have a happy holiday season yourself!

    That’s going to wrap up today’s PPC Tuesday. If you are looking to grow your revenue through your pay per click campaigns why not give us a call. We offer Profitable PPC as a service to our clients.

    If you would like to learn more call us at 1 800 504 4324. ]]>

    ]]>     http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/ppc-tuesday-the-holiday-pre-season.html/feed 0     SEO Monday – Google Realtime Gets a Homepage http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/seo-monday-google-realtime-gets-a-homepage.html http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/seo-monday-google-realtime-gets-a-homepage.html#comments Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:59:07 +0000 Tim http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/?p=2370
    My name is Tim, I’m an internet marketing strategist here at Exclusive Concepts, and today I’ll be talking about the new Google Realtime Search homepage.

    For those not familiar, Google Realtime Search lets you see up-to-the-second social updates, news articles and blog posts about hot topics around the world.

    For a while however, there was no way to search these realtime results – they would simply populate in the standard Google results pages if you just happened to be searching for a hot trending topic.

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    Now, Google has finally given Realtime search a home at www.google.com/realtime

    Basically, you can type in any keyword and see the very latest results streaming from facebook updates, twitter updates, blog posts, news articles and various other social media outlets.

    There’s a number very useful applications for Google realtime, including getting up to the minute updates on breaking news, getting a wide variety of opinions on a specific topic, following events you’re interested in – and doing so all in one place.

    You can even refine your Realtime search results based on things like location and time – in addition to having the ability to follow full conversations people are having about the particular topic you’re searching on.

    In the ecommerce world, Google Realtime search could present a great opportunity to find additional exposure to your products, highlight your promotions, generate product reviews and much more depending on how creative you can get.

    To learn more about Google Realtime search you can visit the official google blog – or you can just go to Google.com/realtime and start trying it our for yourself.

    That’s it for SEO Monday – I hope you enjoyed the update and I hope you have a great day. ]]>

    ]]>     http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/seo-monday-google-realtime-gets-a-homepage.html/feed 0     Wildcard Friday – Make Phone Calls Using Gmail http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/wildcard-friday-make-phone-calls-using-gmail.html http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/wildcard-friday-make-phone-calls-using-gmail.html#comments Fri, 27 Aug 2010 20:16:49 +0000 Tim http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/?p=2366
    My name is Tim, I’m an internet marketing strategist here at Exclusive Concepts, and today I’ll be talking about Google Voice and how it now allows you to place and receive phone calls using Gmail.

    Since this is Wildcard Friday, I thought I’d diverge a little bit from the marketing side of things and take some time to update you on a cool new Google feature.

    Two days ago, or Wednesday (August 25th ), Google launched the ability to make and receive phone calls using Google Voice – which ties right into your Gmail.

    You can make and receive calls and text message for free anywhere in the US – and all international calls are charged a relatively small fee.

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    In addition to the ability to place and receive calls and text message for free, Google Voice has a number of other cool features.

    For instance you can:
    1. Use a single number that rings you anywhere
    2. Get transcribed voicemail messages delivered to your
    3. Share voicemails
    4. Screen callers
    5. Make conference calls
    6. Video chat for free
    7. Much more

    If you want to learn more about making calls with Google Voice, you can visit www.google.com/voice – or you can visit the Google Voice blog at googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com

    That’s it for Wildcard Friday – hope you enjoyed the offbeat update, and I hope you enjoy your day! ]]>

    ]]>     http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/wildcard-friday-make-phone-calls-using-gmail.html/feed 0     Email Thursday – When Your Offer is Too Good http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/email-thursday-when-your-offer-is-too-good.html http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/email-thursday-when-your-offer-is-too-good.html#comments Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:02:25 +0000 Andy http://www.exclusiveconcepts.com/blog/?p=2360
    So I'm not sure how many of you have heard of Groupon, but for those not familiar with the service, Groupon offers a daily coupon to their customers through email. Groupon uses your geographic region to specify the deal for you since they are almost always coupons for local businesses like the salon down the street or a restaurant offering 65% off your next meal. Well, this past week, Groupon branched out and ran their first national campaign with Gap where if you purchased $25, you got $50 worth of Gap clothing, good for in-store only. At the same time Groupon sent this mailing, Gap sent a similar deal to their email list.

    Now, according to the gentleman who runs the email marketing program for Groupon, this offer was getting responses at almost 10x the normal response rate. In fact, Groupon was seeing their LIST SIZE increase by over 2000 per minute. That's 120,000 users every hour who are now on the Groupon mailing list. The offer was so good that people felt compelled to inform their friends, neighbors, co-workers, siblings etc. about the deal. In addition to Groupon's 10 million North American users, they atttribute the success of the campaign to their Twitter handle, Facebook page as well as @earlybird. As the response rate climbed, the traffic was so great that Groupon couldn't handle the traffic and their site went down. So what did they do?

    They directed the traffic to an overflow page that read

    "We've got good news and bad news... The bad news is that the site is currently unavailable because we are experiencing unusually high demand for today's GAP deal. The good news is that if you give us your e-mail address here, we'll notify you as soon as the deals are available again."

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    Brilliant. So, not only was their site down because of the overwhelming flow of traffic and the number of new users singing up and showing interest in the deal, but they were still able to capture email addresses as signups even though the site itself wasn't functioning. Once the IT crew solved the issue and either opened up more bandwidth or the traffic subsided enough to begin processing the backlog of signups, a follow-up email went out announcing that the coupon was now available again.

    The end result was the above email when they tell you that the deal is once again available for purchase. They thank you for your patience and sign off in a very personal way. This is a very smart approach to a problem that even though they anticipated, executing properly was just as important. It could have been very difficult to keep prospective customers interested and engaged with the brand if they tried to visit the site to sign up and simply received a timeout error. But some forward thinking and best practices proved that "By day’s end, 441,000 Groupons were sold, bringing in a little more than $11 million." Not bad for a site that sells coupons.

    At Exclusive Concepts, we offer Optimized Lifecycle Email Marketing for our clients who are looking to maximize their revenue through this unique and ever-growing channel. If you are looking for a way to get a lot more revenue from your e-mail approach, consider our Optimized Lifecycle Email Marketing service to augment your other marketing efforts. We’ll show you how it works if you’d like – just give us a call at 800-504-4324.

    Thank you for listening – have a wonderful Email Thursday! ]]>

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