The eCommerce Blog

Avoid the Website Trap: New Thinking for Small Biz Websites

Thu, 10 May 2012 16:45:00 GMT

While 87% of small businesses have a website (Forrester), many of these businesses are being let down by inadequate tools. In response, online software startup BigTurns has a platform, a web-based application that completely replaces traditional web hosting with a fresh, business- oriented approach. BigTurns is the world’s first web hosting platform that automatically tracks and profiles visitors on your website, creating a complete picture of customer behavior. This empowers business owners to know their customers more intimately, make better business decisions and ultimately improve profits.

The Website Trap Endangers 10 Million Businesses

Over 10 million small businesses in the US made their online business a priority in 2006*. Many of these businesses, however, are in danger of floundering in the complexity of running an online business. BigTurns CEO Charles Brodeur calls this the Website Trap. “The website trap is where you get stuck thinking only about web pages, and your measure of success is the number of pages viewed in any given day.” The number of people visiting your web site is indicative of interest, but it is missing the bigger picture, he said. “Which is better, 100 customers who spend $10 each, or 10,000 customers who spend nothing?” While the need to have high quality traffic has long been understood, Brodeur believes that the tools currently employed by business owners aren’t as helpful as they could be. “Great businesses are customer centric. Why isn’t web hosting the same?”

A Customer Centric View of Your Website

In bright contrast, BigTurns puts customers and their actions squarely in the spotlight. Instead of emphasizing web pages, the heart of BigTurns is a central customer database that tracks and profiles your customers. “This lends itself to a more bottom-line, business focused view of your website, which is far more useful to a business owner” Brodeur said. “When your customer Bob makes an inquiry on your website, with BigTurns you'll see at a glance that this is the same Bob that spent $100 in your online shop last week, loyally reads your email newsletters and has made 4 previous inquiries.”

End-to-End Business Understanding

Integrated Email marketing is another example of the end-to-end business understanding that BigTurns brings, according to Brodeur. “BigTurns can tell the effectiveness of an email campaign, down to a specific dollar value,” he says.”I can tell you for one campaign, 13% of respondents filled in an inquiry form on your website and 5% purchased a new widget. In a glance you know that one email campaign brought in $7,000 revenue. That’s the advantage of having BigTurns running your online business.”

BigTurns runs inside any web browser with no downloads required, and no time consuming setup. The software will be offered on an affordable subscription basis comparable to current web hosting costs. Currently you can request an invitation to use BigTurns for 30 days by going to www.BigTurns.com

If you’d like more information on BigTurns, a live product demo or an interview with Charles Brodeur, please contact BigTurns at 1-888-324-4012

Research Sources

Data Source: Forrester report: “Making Sense Of Hosted Commerce Platforms” – 44% of small businesses (roughly 24 million small businesses are operating in the USA) listed internet or ecommerce initiatives as a priority or critical priority.

Source: Forrester report: “Profiling Small Businesses’ Internet Usage” – 87% of small businesses have a website.

Google for Small Business

Thu, 10 May 2012 16:43:00 GMT

Google for Small Business

Google is the market leader in online search and is becoming the market leader in FREE tools for small business. Watch the presentation on how to get started with Google.

When the video slide appears click on the image to watch

Twelve Tips for the Checkout Design

Thu, 10 May 2012 16:39:00 GMT

Shopping online can be a great experience. You don’t have to leave the comfort of your home and you can quickly compare and read about all the competing products in order to pick the best one for you. But it can also be a little frustrating if the process isn’t designed correctly.

Looking around for that checkout link, having to fill out registration forms and then being told the product is out of stock isn’t going to make your day. Spend a little bit of time fine tuning your checkout process and polishing off the user experience and you’ll be rewarded with happier customers and more sales. Here are 12 useful tips to help you do just that.

1. Don’t require registration to shop

Your customers are here to shop, not fill out forms. Make sure that the registration is done during the checkout process and not before — and certainly not before a visitor places goods into their shopping basket. Sign-up forms are barriers because they take effort and time to fill in.

By moving these barriers further down the line you increase the chance of your visitors becoming paying customers. This is because they’ve already spent time shopping so they’re less likely to stop now and waste that initial involvement. If that barrier is placed right at the beginning however, they might just walk away. Think of it as holding the door to your store open for your customers to come in.

2. Inform customers if the item is available

Be clear about the availability of the items and inform your customers about the stock levels. If an item isn’t available, don’t take your potential customer through several steps just for them to discover that they can’t actually buy it right away. Don’t just display stock levels on product pages either, show them right on the search results page.

Additionally, if an item is out of stock right but will be available at a later date, offer a pre-order option so those people who aren’t worried about getting it right away can still make the purchase.

3. Allow your customers to easily modify the order

Everyone makes mistakes. People put the wrong goods into their shopping basket or change their mind. Make sure you don’t frustrate your potential customers during the checkout process by making things easy to modify.

If someone wants to remove an item or items from their cart, don’t force them to enter the zero amount; instead, provide a “remove” link that will delete a product from the cart and ensure order modification is quick and easy.

4. Provide users with real-time-support

Since the checkout process requires user’s input, it is very likely to assume that many users might experience problems – caused by any misunderstandings or some particular needs or interests that can not be easily defined using the available web-interface. In these situations it may be crucial to provide users with professional, personal assistance instead of sending them to large help- or FAQ-pages that may not have the solution to user’s problem. And, of course, if users don’t get the help they need and have doubts about the whole thing, they are very likely to cancel the checkout process.

Therefore it’s a good idea to add a chat- or telephone-assistance for the checkout process. Not every company can afford it, but middle and larger companies may want to consider this option, particularly if the checkout process is more involved.

5. Keep the ‘Back’ button fully functional

The back button is one of the most used buttons in a web browser, so you can be sure some people are going to employ it during the checkout process on your site. Some sites disable the functionality of the Back button through automatic redirects or error messages, which is sure to negatively effect the visitor’s experience.

Not only should the back button lead to the previous page without encountering any errors, you should also save the user’s data so that it is displayed again if it’s a form. This allows people to make adjustments and carry on without having to re-fill the whole form. Yes, sometimes it’s too late to go back, like after clicking that last ‘Complete order’ button, but by ensuring that all the other pages get along with the Back button you can deliver a better user experience to your customers by saving them time and frustration.

6. Provide photos, specifications and links for the items in the basket

Your customers will need to review their basket before clicking that final button that will complete their order to ensure they’ve actually got what they came here for. Item titles alone aren’t the best method for helping your visitors to quickly scan over the basket, so make sure to add pictures and product specifications — e.g. size, color, hardback or paperback.

Additionally, you should link these items to their product pages just in case the customer wants to verify that it is indeed the right item.

7. Provide a progress indicator

Checking out is usually a multi-step process. This means the customer will have to navigate several pages before the order is complete. To make this process usable be sure to add a progress indicator that says exactly at what stage of the checkout process the customer is right now and how long there is left to go — i.e. list all the steps.

Knowing where you are in the topography of the site or process will give your users a sense of control, which is important from a usability perspective. Also, knowing what stages are yet to come will eliminate any confusion — i.e. they will know when they get to the last step. This will makes it easier to click through as you know you can still modify or cancel the order at any of the stages before that.

8. Keep the checkout interface simple

The checkout process is different to the rest of the browsing experience on your site. During this process your customers aren’t shopping — they’re making the purchase. This means all the browsing controls are redundant here and would only distract your customers from the task at hand. Eliminate these unnecessary elements — e.g. product category links, top products, latest offers, and so on — to keep the interface simple.

Provide a “return to shopping” link in case the customer wants to go back and buy something else. Additionally, ensure all the buttons that point to the next step in the process are large and prominent so they’re not missed.

9. Don’t take the user out of the checkout process

It’s essential that the checkout process isn’t disrupted, for example, but taking the customer to a different page. Taking the user out of the process can cause two problems: 1) they might get confused about where they are and even lose the checkout page by closing the tab or window. 2) they may get distracted and fail to complete the process.

To remedy this, we really need to find a way to show all of the necessary information on the checkout pages themselves. If you need to provide some help or information that doesn’t fit on the current page, use floating windows or, as a last resort, a pop-up window to display this. This allows you to present new material to the user without taking them out of the checkout process.

10. Inform the users about delivery times

Shopping online has one big disadvantage to shopping in your standard ‘brick and mortar’ store: you have to wait to get your stuff. To address this be sure to tell your customers when they can expect to receive their products.

This is essential for a couple of reasons. Firstly, your customers may need to make sure there is somebody at home to receive the delivery; and secondly, you’ll set an expectation so they won’t need to keep guessing. Make sure these dates are shown as early as possible, preferably on the product pages themselves, so that your potential customers can judge whether or not they’ll get the item fast enough for their needs.

11. Tell the customers what happens next

Okay, your customers have completed the order and clicked that last button — so what happens next? Finalize the order with a “Thank you” note. This is just being polite and your customers are sure to appreciate the kind words.

Also, make sure to tell your customers what will happen next — i.e. a message informing them that they’ll receive a confirmation email when the goods are shipped. This will clear up any uncertainties about their order and set the right expectations.

12. Send out a confirmation email

Your customer may have checked out and placed their order, but the process isn’t yet complete. Send out a confirmation email with the details of their order and a delivery estimate. The order details will be helpful as they’ll allow your customers to verify that they’ve ordered the right things.

If there’s a mistake, they should be able to log back in and modify their order before it has been shipped. Simple mistakes like choosing the wrong size or color will happen, so make the shopping experience easy and supportive for your customers.

To Conclude…

Building a good checkout experience is about several things. It’s about eliminating distractions to help the user focus at the task at hand. It’s about providing all the necessary information and help so that the customer understands all the stages of the process. Most important, it’s about making it easy, because after all, the quicker a customer can check out, the happier they will be and the quicker you’ll close the sale.

Untangling Small Biz eCommerce with Fresh Thinking

Thu, 10 May 2012 16:37:00 GMT

Last year over 10 million US small businesses were prioritizing eCommerce initiatives (Forrester), yet the eCommerce world remains a nightmare of confusion and complexity. It’s that nightmare that BigTurns puts to rest with it's all-in-one software, a web-based application that makes running an online store easy by bringing together all the tools that business owners need to succeed. In contrast to existing solutions, BigTurns completely replaces the traditional website-ecommerce pair with a holistic “online business” approach that puts the spotlight on understanding your customers and getting better results – whilst saving time and money.

Marketing Trends and Specialized Systems Slow Business Down

Building an online store is hard work for small business owners. Modern trends in marketing towards blogging and email marketing simply highlight that business owners need more than just a shopping cart. Web analytics and lead management are also high on the list of priorities, but vendor selection is daunting and their approach specialized. “In many cases, business owners are working with a fistful of disconnected systems to manage their online shop. That means they need to waste time importing and exporting data to keep the systems in sync,” BigTurns CEO Charles Brodeur says.

BigTurns - A One Stop Solution

BigTurns takes an integrated approach with a results focused attitude. By incorporating website management, eCommerce and payments, lead management, blogs, and business analytics, BigTurns is a one stop solution. Most importantly, BigTurns offers a customer centric vision of your online shop, with every feature integrated into a central customer database. This means businesses can automatically build customer profiles and track behavior across their online business, to make better decisions and improve profits.

Less Time, Less Money, Better Results

The result is that businesses are spending less and achieving great results. “We’ve got customers telling us that BigTurns' integrated approach is saving them a day of work a week,” Brodeur said. There’s a significant cost benefit too, according to Brodeur. “You could spend 5 times as much for a solution comparable to BigTurns – and you’d need a lot of expensive integration work done by programmers. Our customers are spending less money, and getting far greater bang for buck.”

BigTurns runs inside any web browser with no downloads required, and no time consuming setup. The software will be offered on an affordable subscription basis comparable to current web hosting costs. Currently you can request an invitation to use BigTurns for 30 days by going to www.BigTurns.com

If you’d like more information on BigTurns, a live product demo or an interview with Charles Brodeur, please contact BigTurns at 888-324-4012

Research Sources
Data Source: Forrester report: “Making Sense Of Hosted Commerce Platforms” – 44% of small businesses (roughly 24 million small businesses are operating in the USA) listed internet or ecommerce initiatives as a priority or critical priority.

The Benefits of All-In-One

Thu, 10 May 2012 16:41:00 GMT

Why "All-In-One" Matters

Last weekend I moved into a new house.

In the usual flurry of last minute craziness, I managed to pack my stuff and get my furniture to the new house. Now I've got a list of things to do:

connect the electricity
connect the phone
connect the gas
connect the internet (most important, of course)
change address with my bank
change addresses for magazine subscriptions
change drivers license address
change health insurance address

The list goes on for about a page!

What if I could do it all in one step?

If instead of calling 20 different numbers I could just call one? Imagine the time it would save!

Now maybe such a service exists, I'm not sure. But since I don't move every week this isn't a problem I really urgently need solved.

I do, however, need to manage my ecommerce business on a daily basis. And unfortunately managing an online business these days requires logging in to many different tools and interacting with them all on a daily basis. So it's a lot like when you move house - but you have to do it all the time!

That's why all-in-one matters so much - it's about saving time and being more productive in the time you have.

Running an online business shouldn't be like moving house It should be centralized, streamlined to make your life easy and setup to increase productivity.

We hope you'll agree that BigTurns does just that. I hope you agree.

If you would like more information from one of the BigTurns consultants - click here

Three Steps to eCommerce Success

Thu, 10 May 2012 16:42:00 GMT

Starting an eCommerce business is becoming easier by the day. More business owners are looking to expand their online efforts to include eCommerce and build a true online business. Unfortunately, this presents a large set of challenges, not least of which is the threat of larger, better funded competitors online.

Thankfully, the key to successful eCommerce isn’t complicated. By planning ahead and considering your goals and your audience you will greatly increase your chances of success. Here’s three simple ways to make your online shop stand out from the crowd.

Step 1) Focus on Your Best Products

Selling your entire inventory online is unnecessary and often a mistake. Instead, sell a small sub-set of your products that you think may sell well online. For each product, provide a high level of detail describing the product. Follow up with some solid advice on how to choose the correct product for you, or provide expertise and background on the origins of the product.

This way, instead of building an impersonal warehouse-style shop online, you’re providing more of a boutique, - a personal experience that actually engages the customer and answers more of their questions than other shops do. Think of a supermarket versus a boutique fashion store - one simply fulfills their function, the other assists you to make the right buying choice with passion, knowledge and a personal connection.

Make a conscious decision to be the boutique; supermarket-style online stores are everywhere. Most products can already be found online, but there’s often a lack of detail and advice regarding the product. This can become an important and trust-building point of differentiation between you and your competitors.

This approach also has the added benefit of increasing your chance of ranking in search engines for the products you sell. Because you have plenty of content and information about the products in question, search engines will see you as an authority on that product. Search engine optimization is a whole other article but to put it simply: the more content you have that’s useful and relevant about the products you sell, the higher the chance your shop will rank in search engines when people search for the products on your site.

Here’s a quick to-do list to help you gain focus in your product lines.

    *     Position yourself. Write down clearly who you are and what you do, and use this as a reference for your decision making. Don’t be afraid to go niche.

    *     Choose Your Products. Choose products that fit your positioning. Be conservative and choose your best selling or most unique, hard to find products. Your product mix can help you differentiate yourself online, so choose wisely and don’t be afraid to make a statement.

    *     Engage your customers. Allow them to leave comments on products. Write a blog about the heritage of boiled lollies. Show your passion and enable others to share their passion on your website.

    *     Write fun, interesting or useful content. Can you write a ‘how to’ article about your niche. Can you write a ‘history of’, or a ‘when to use’, or a ‘how we make’ article? Be creative and be willing to share your knowledge - this sort of content helps with search engine rankings and it helps your customers identify you as an authority they can trust.

Ask about BigTurns writing services. BigTurns will write individual articles, press releases, web page content, as well as a monthly service of consistient fresn new content for your ecommerce business.

Once you’ve chosen your product line and your online inventory, it’s time to turn your attention to your potential audience. Online shoppers are a fickle bunch who will do a lot of research as they compare your offerings to others. But rather than be threatened by the comparison shopper, embrace them and use their research mindset to your advantage.

Step 2) Embrace the Comparison Shopper

Comparison shopping is the norm online; Google is probably the biggest price comparison service around! Not only do online store owners need to accept the comparison shopper mentality, savvy web merchants can leverage this mindset to great effect.

BigTurns can get you listed on the major Comparison Shopping Engines (CSEs) like Google Product Search, Nextag, Shopping.com, ShopZilla, Bing Cash Back, Shop Bot, and more. Ask your BigTurns represenrtative about the monthly service.

In most cases, however, you cannot (and should not) compete solely on price. Usually this is because you are not the cheapest option out there… and you don’t want to be. Your point of differentiation probably lies elsewhere, such as service, quality, or those little added extras that only you provide. In this case, you should engage in a simple type of proactive comparison rebuttal.

Doing so is quite easy. Simply tell your customers why you are different. Openly and honestly compare your offering with your competitors, either specifically by name (i.e “Bob’s Sweets offers…”) or generally (i.e “our competition offers…”). There are two options in presenting this sort of comparison, Checklist or Pitch.

1. The Checklist. Here, you provide a checklist comparison chart - where you list you and your competitors and the features that each of you provide. This is easy to scan, digest and understand. It is extremely effective at conveying the differences between you and ‘the competition’. All you need to do is provide a handful of features or extras that you offer that others don’t. Naturally, do your research and make sure your comparison is accurate - especially if you do in fact name your competitors in your chart.

2. The Pitch. Provide a written, non-enumerated web page outlining in prose form why your customers should choose you. Make it a page called ‘Our Difference’ or ‘Why 1000 people chose XYZ Corp last year’. Include customer testimonials with real photos of the customers.

So, how do you choose your approach?

Simple: the first approach, The Checklist, is a winner if your benefits are clear cut, logical and if your audience is primarily motivated by facts and figures rather than emotions. This varies from industry to industry, but generally you can lean on your intuition about your customers and what they’re going to be attracted to. Think about what ‘feels’ right for your product mix and your branding. For example, if you’re selling tools, computer parts and electronics, or if your branding is no-nonsense and direct, I’d suggest that the checklist approach probably ‘feels’ right.

The second approach, The Pitch, will suit if your product or service’s advantages are more intangible, emotional or based on a ‘prestige’ mindset. This is because The Pitch approach is deliberately emotional. It avoids a logical break down of facts and uses testimonials to provide social proof. It should be convincingly eloquent - in many cases, you may want to hire a professional copywriter. It must appeal to the desires, perceptions, and even the social status that your product or service may bring. Again, this approach will feel right or wrong depending on your branding, your products and your services. If your point of differentiation revolves around emotional connections, good service, or a strong sense of heritage, then this is the choice for you.

Whatever your choice on how to do it, by openly and directly featuring why you are different you’re providing the comparison shopper with some food for thought. Most shoppers ostensibly compare prices, but they won’t always buy the cheapest option. The design of the store, the ‘feeling’ your website imparts and the overall delivery of your products or services does matter, and can make all the difference.

BigTurns can update your site and improve your sites' overall user experience. Ask your BigTurns rep about the ways to improve your user experience which will ultimately increwase your conversion rate.

After embracing and then converting our comparison shoppers, it’s time to turn our attention inward to the most important part of any online business: you.

Step 3) Grow your eCommerce business

Many online merchants still think of their online store as a website that sells products. And yet, how many times have you heard business owners complain that their website and online shop were a waste of money "no-one visits and no-one buys" The truth is, their lack of success is due to a failure to see their website as something more than a brochure that one creates and then leaves online for customers to find.

The harsh reality is that there are billions of websites out there - how many of them are actually being seen by their intended audience? Building a website is simply the first important step towards growing your ecommerce business.

A store owner with this mindset treats the launch of their website as they would the opening of a new branch or office. Just like their bricks and mortar store, their online store is an ongoing business that needs attention.

Here’s a checklist to help you treat your online store as a business.

1. Have you prepared a marketing plan? A website needs marketing to gain exposure, will you be buying advertising? Conducting search engine marketing? Or will you be writing articles for online article directories? How about press releases? Are there any complementary businesses that you can engage in cross-promotion with? How will you be analyzing results and targeting your messages? You’ll need answers to all these questions.

2. How are you capturing your leads? Customer information such as names, phone numbers and email addresses are extremely valuable. Capturing this information gives you another chance to convert them into a buyer in the future. How are you capturing these details?

3. How are you converting visitors? What’s your primary goal for your website? Every website must have a business-oriented goal. Is it a purchase in your online store? Is it filling in a ‘contact us’ form? Signing up to your email newsletter? Your website should be built around driving visitors to your goal.

4. What's your strategy to bring customers back to your store? After a customer purchases from your site, or submits a ‘contact us’ form, you need a strategy to re-engage them with your business. Email marketing is a common way to do this, and is very effective for online stores. You can offer discounts, make product announcements or simply share the latest tips and tricks, the possibilities are wide and varied.

But don't get discouraged. You are not alone and don't need to go it alone. BigTurns can help you every step of the way. We offer Strategy and Tactics Planning, Marketing Services, Writing Services, Email Marketing Services, and Management Reporting services. Essentially, you can outsource your eCommerce development to the BigTurns experts for less than the cost of a new employee.

It’s Worth the Effort!

In 2010, more and more business owners will take their sales online - but how many of them will succeed, and how many will be wasting their money in a fruitless exercise? Ultimately, the key to success lie in careful thought, preparation and planning. There are no get-rich-quick schemes - committing to your ecommerce business is a significant undertaking that requires on-going effort from its owner.

However, it really is worth the effort. An online store is the most scalable, efficient and effective way to grow your business, and the opportunities, exposure and profits that it can bring to your business are significant. But remember, as with most things, a little effort and preparation goes a long way.

I hope this helps.

10 Questions You Need to Ask Your Web Designer

Thu, 10 May 2012 16:45:00 GMT

Are you wanting better performance from your online marketing? Is your website effective in generating the leads and sales? Here are 10 questions you should ask your marketing department / web designer.

1. How clear is it on your Website as to why people should buy from you instead of your competitors?

2. What is your average monthly traffic and what is the primary source of that traffic?

3. How many leads are you generating from your site right now and what is your cost per lead?

4. What is your current conversion ratio?

5. What keywords are you targeting currently?

6. Are your web analytics tracking conversions? If so, what is your conversion rate?

7. Are you doing any Adwords and if so what is your return on investment?

8. What is the target revenue from your website for next year?

9. What is your overall marketing budget for next year and what percentage is for the web?

10. How do you know if your website is effective?

Managing a website is more of a science than an art. Web design is necessary for developing the user experience but it means nothing if you don't have the analytics to tell you whether or not the user is buying your marketing / sales techniques or not.

Analytics helps business owners manage their marketing dollars more effectively.

Nine Common Mistakes Retail Stores Make Online

Thu, 10 May 2012 16:43:00 GMT

Sure, your web store looks just great and you have a right to be proud of it. But did you ever sit with a focus group to see what problems they had with it? Did you ever have top web site designers analyze it to find its hidden flaws? Have you listened to dozens of eTailers describe in detail how they vastly improved their online sales and conversion rates just by making basic design changes that eliminated the most common web site design faux pas?

Online retailing is expected to return to double-digit growth this year, and the web merchants that enhance their web site design and usability early in the year will lead the way. The growth will be achieved by avoiding the most common web site design and usability mistakes that cause shoppers to abandon the retail sites and result in an average conversion rate of just 3%.

Here's a list of 9 common online store design mistakes:

1. The Self-Satisfaction Syndrome

It may comfort you to assume that because your web designers and staff can whip through your site without problems your customers can do so, too. Unfortunately, beauty is in the eye of the online shopper, not the web designer. You need to find out how customers really use your site. Find out how to test your site to make sure consumers can navigate it as easily as you can.Contact BigTurns for a No Obligation Free Consultation

2. Throw money at your Web Designers to fix problems.

This idea can be an excellent way to throw money away. The Internet is overturning the old adage that "You get what you pay for." Many free or low cost design and usability tools can help retailers uncover how to take their sites to the next level of performance—if they know where to find those tools and how to evaluate them. Contact BigTurns for a No Obligation Free Consultation

3. What Works in the Store Works on the Web

No, not so much. Many merchants still mistake online merchandising as an extension of in-store merchandising where the merchant simply stacks items in aisles for shoppers to see. But online merchandising must be a much more engaging and interactive experience. Contact BigTurns for a No Obligation Free Consultation

4. My Existing Web Site Will Work on Smart Phones

You're right to think about mobile commerce, because it's going to explode in 2010. But thinking that you don't need a specially designed web site to lure customers on smart phones just isn't very smart. Learn how to make your site mobile. How you can inexpensively modify your existing site—or create a new site—specifically for m-commerce.Contact BigTurns for a No Obligation Free Consultation

5. Great Site Search Is All the Navigation My Site Needs

This can be a mistake of Titanic proportions. True, having a great site search tool is essential to success online, but you need a lot more than that for your site to be truly navigable. Learn how to make sure that absolutely everything you sell is available through a navigation path that keeps your shoppers headed in the right direction. Contact BigTurns for a No Obligation Free Consultation

6. My Site Is Stale and Needs a Complete Redesign

Big redesigns produce big results—sometimes. Often, however, low-cost, easily implemented incremental design changes can create equally big results for a lot less money. Learn how to identify a series of common minor design changes that can add up to a big online sales boost.Contact BigTurns for a No Obligation Free Consultation

7. Indecision is the cause of Shopping Cart Abandonment

Maybe that's the case in store-based retailing, but not so online. Online shoppers who get to the "add-to-cart" stage almost always abandon that cart out of frustration with your web site, not because of indecision. And more often than not, the check-out process itself is at the root of that frustration. Learn the steps in online checkout that typically cause shoppers to bail from the purchase and what can be done to keep shoppers moving forward to the Submit Order button. Contact BigTurns for a No Obligation Free Consultation

8. People Go To Retail Web Sites to Shop

Of course they do, but if that's the limit of your understanding about retail web sites, you are limiting your site's appeal. Hundreds of Internet retailers are discovering that giving consumers a reason to come to their sites other than to shop can create sales. Maybe it's advice on using a product that they are looking for or an answer to common problems your shoppers experience. Maybe they want to connect with others using the same product or encountering the same problem. Before there were big impersonal retail chain stores, independent merchants were the font on such retail wisdom, the hub of retail communities. Now, good web sites have taken over that role and they're ringing up sales in the process.

9. Web Shoppers Love Video

It's true that consumers love online video—but don't think they'll watch anything you put on your site. The truth is videos must be targeted, succinct and relevant. Learn how to best use videos on retail web sites. Contact BigTurns for a No Obligation Free Consultation

Call your BigTurns representative to learn more about your web design and how to improve your online sales.

Small Business "Like" Facebook

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:56:00 GMT

With over 800 million registered users, Facebook is considered a marketing goldmine for entrepreneurs looking to communicate with customers and reach prospects.

A Facebook page allows your company to collect fans who endorse your products and services and post comments. Its popularity in the business community is growing because of its capacity to build brand awareness, manage a company’s reputation, generate sales leads and get valuable feedback from customers.

If you’re considering using it for your business, here are some basics to get you started and make the most of the medium.

Set clear objectives. Do you want to use Facebook to attract more clients, reinforce your brand or improve customer service?
Make sure your Facebook page truly represents your business. Much as personal Facebook profiles mirror individual likes and dislikes, your page has to convey the unique facets of your company, such as your customer service approach or your stance on the environment.
Once your page is in place, you need a good strategy to lead people there. You can start with promoting it through your website, an email campaign or other social media such as Twitter. Some companies build a base of fans by inviting friends, family and clients to click on the “like” icon. Some even find inexpensive, creative ways to reward people for becoming fans.
Give your fans a compelling reason to continue visiting your page with value-added information such as article or videos about your business, industry, events or contests. Much like Twitter, it’s important to avoid overtly selling your products and services. Facebook is more about interacting and engaging interest than selling.
A rule of thumb is to post three times a week. However, it’s also important to devote time to listening to what people are saying about your company on wall posts. You can use this information to make improvements to your business, such as fine-tuning customer service or enhancing products.
Ask your employees to be vigilant about what they are posting to avoid revealing confidential information or inadvertently criticizing colleagues or customers. This should be part of a wider social media policy for employees.
Take a look at Facebook’s advertising page to see how you can connect to potential customers. Facebook allows you to target your audience by location and interests. As well, budget-conscious companies can buy pay-per-click advertising where they pay only when visitors check out their ads.
Measure your results. Facebook offers limited, free analytic tools for public use. You can go to Facebook Insights for information on analyzing user trends and demographics. For more sophisticated analytics, you can pay for reports from social media monitoring firms.

Cloud Computing at its Best

Thu, 10 May 2012 16:43:00 GMT

Shared File Server

Every office has and needs a shared file server, but they’re expensive, a nightmare to set up, a nightmare to connect to and so many of them are neither backed up properly or located off site so if there was a fire you’d still lose everything anyway. I read a statistic recently claiming that 75% of businesses that suffer from significant data loss (a fire, robbery etc.) fold within three months, whether or not that’s true I don’t know, but it would certainly prove pretty crippling for my business. I think a lot of businesses save cost in the area of disaster / recovery because they simply think that it won’t happen to them and it will cost a lot to sort out.

It doesn’t need to be expensive and honestly whether you’re a freelancer working on your own or a SME you can’t afford not to have some sort of backup solution.

First problem to sort out is storing files locally, this is as bad as storing emails locally (POP3), arguably worse because if you were to loose all your emails whilst it would be a massive inconvenience for most people it would be nothing like as serious as loosing all your files. You can solve this really easily using a piece of software called dropbox. You install dropbox on your computer and any file you place in it will automatically be uploaded and backed up to the dropbox server, your copy is still stored locally so it behaves as a normal file. Dropbox is free up to 2GB, I trialed it and loved it so much that I placed my dropbox at the root of my hard drive and therefore now store every file on my computer in it. I store near 50GB in my dropbox and it cost me $9.99 a month. It’s amazing, I work with all my files as normal, never have to trigger dropbox and it just perpetually updates the version of my file on the server. This can also work cross platform and device, so when I get home and power up my PC laptop I can access all the same files and versions of those files that I was working on at the office on my iMac. Using dropbox you can easily set up shared directories with colleagues, freelancers and clients. And when a file is added or updated on another device you will get notified. And as if it couldn’t get any better dropbox comes with an iPhone app that lets you access all your files from anywhere. Recently I went to Spain for a few weeks to work remotely and as I rushed through the French countryside on the TGV I answered urgent emails on my iPhone and then I was even able to send a 70MB PSD to a client via the dropbox app, which simply sends a low bandwidth email with a link to the file in dropbox. As I did this I felt pretty smug and if I hadn’t been bragging to my client over email that I was remote working on the TGV they wouldn’t have known that I wasn’t in the office, however be warned my mobile data charges were an absolute shocker and I was only using email… i.e no int. calls.

Versioning & Recovery

So you’ve got your files backed up off site… the next problem to solve is versioning and recovery. If you’re sharing files with clients and freelancers what happens if someone accidentally deletes all the files in your shared folder? Well you can pay for a recovery service with dropbox it’s something like $2 a month, I’ve used it to reinstate a deleted file, which was great, but I haven’t used it extensively and I’m not sure what would happen if you wanted to recover a previous version of a file, i.e you haven’t deleted it, but you’ve over written it with a new erroneous version… perhaps if someone knows they can leave it in the comments at the bottom.

What I use to solve this problem of version control is Time Machine… I appreciate this is something you can only get on Macs, but it is unreal. It basically backs up your entire hard drive every 15mins to an external hard drive and then using this really cool space-age interface it allows you to roll back the version of the file you’re working on to any point in 15 minute intervals in the last day and then to any date before that since the file has been in existence (or since you started using time machine). If you work with code it’s like a really nice simple version control that doesn’t require you to check in code… If you’re working in a rigid coding environment with other developers it’s not a substitute for proper subversion, but as a lone web designer or developer it’s perfect.

If you are in a position to use the setup above, Dropbox, with version control combined with Mac Time Machine on an external drive (which is obligatory) you have a near bomb proof backup setup with no single point of failure making potential data loss virtually impossible.

Telephone Systems

At the moment there are a lot of different phone options out there. I’m going to outline what we use, this won’t be suitable for all companies but if you stick to the basic principals you should be able to find a similar solution that works for your business.

When talking about telephone systems you should be thinking in terms of VOIP. VOIP stands for “Voice Over Internet Protocol” it basically means making calls over the Internet. Most of you will have come into contact with Skype which is a VOIP service, but today there are many alternatives, which are better set up for larger corporate situations, having said that, Skype themselves are also doing a lot in this sector too.

I started using Skype and we’ve built on that and with some additional tools and we now have system that works really well for us.

Top 10 Email Marketing Must Haves

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 05:14:00 GMT

At BigTurns, we provide the software for all businesses to easily create, send, and track their email marketing campaigns. But we don’t stop there. We have an amazing technical support department to help you every step of the way, Account Managers to make sure your campaign begins with a bang and stays successful, and a product that is very easy to use. As much as you want your business to succeed, we want to help your business succeed.

We know how busy your Holiday schedule is and since we're all gearing up for the upcoming busy season, we’ve put together a quick-read list of what we think are 10 very important “Must Have’s” for a successful email marketing campaign.

10. Email Marketing Service Provider

Using an email marketing service provider gives you an immediate boost towards the success of your email marketing campaigns - it's imperative that you choose the right one for your needs. Whether you use BigTurns or another platform, you’ll see much better results in numbers nine through one, below.

9. Design

The design of your email newsletter is much more than how pretty it looks. The design of your newsletter may effect open rates, click through rates, and deliverability. When thinking about design, you need to take into consideration leaving plenty of white space, the ratio of images to text, how much HTML you’re using, and of course readability.

8. Content

Do you have too much or too little content? How do you make sure your content is fresh each and every month? A lot of this is going to depend on your industry, your newsletter, your readers, and your message. The most important thing to remember is relevancy. You must always cater to your reader’s needs and expectations of your newsletter. An important thing to remember is, this is just an email newsletter, not Tolstoy; most people will be reading your message at their desk and we know how short average attention spans are. Keep it short, keep it relevant, and keep it interesting!

7. Subject Lines

Most of us have developed a little ritual we follow when checking our email. Initially, most people may look first at the subject lines to determine whether to read a message. Regarding subject lines, a good strategy is to have one part of the subject line be consistent, and the other is variable. This way recipients can recognize your newsletter when it comes in, as well as get a small taste as to what type of information might be featured for that issue.

6. From Name

Studies show that recipients glance at the “From” field to see if they recognize the sender’s name or email address and only if they recognize the "From" name do they look at the “Subject” field to see if it’s of interest to them. This is why we recommend using a "From" name that is either your organization’s name or a well known person within your organization —- and to keep that name consistent with every mailing.

5. Deliverability

A reputable email marketing service provider will take your deliverability into their own hands. When you use an email marketing platform, you don’t have to worry about black lists/white lists or dealing with internet service providers. When it comes to getting in an inbox, all you need to worry about are your subject lines, your message’s content and the quality of the list you’re sending to.

4. A Good List

Speaking of the quality of the list you’re sending to —- how does it look? You want a list that was built from the ground up that includes people who have made a purchase, signed for the newsletter, or have otherwise opt-ed in to receive your email messages. A bought list is a no-no. Bought lists will lead to spam e-mails, most of which will never even make it to people's inboxes - a big waste of money and time. And besides, an e-mail marketing service provider like BigTurns won't let you send to a bought list because it will affect deliverability for you and everyone we send messages on behalf of. This is important: a bought list will result in complaints and unqualified leads.

3. Tracking

One of the best, often overlooked attributes of an email marketing service provider is the ability to track how a message performed and how people behaved. With in-depth tracking, you can look at when a person opened a message, how many times they opened it, what links they clicked on, among other things. These will be good factors in deciding the next send days/times, content, or even layout of your newsletter. Tracking can also help you segment your contact lists based on identifiable interests - no more guessing! You know what they say, once you’ve used a service that allows you to track, you’ll never go back.

2. Time

You need to expect to put time into your email marketing campaigns. You need time to build a good list. You need to put time into writing content. You need to put time into editing your newsletter. You need to put time into tracking the results of your message. We all need time in a bottle.

1. You (or your organization)

As awesome as it would be, your newsletters don’t get created, written, or sent by themselves. You are the only person that can make a quality newsletter on a regular basis. The ideas for content have to come from you, the creativity has to come from your brain (or collection of brains) and you have to bring it to completion and press send! An email marketing campaign is just like any other advertising or marketing—you have to have a plan of attack and put forth energy into it in order for it to be successful.

Well, there you have it: a quick list of things that are “must haves” for a solid foundation for your email marketing campaign. Obviously there are many more factors to consider, no top ten list is the end all be all. These should serve as a light on the path of your email marketing success. Here's to you and a crazy successful year.

I hope this helps

Google's Email for Business

Thu, 10 May 2012 16:44:00 GMT

One of the most important things to keep a grip on when you run a business is the overheads. It’s so easy to let the cost of the “basics” mount up and start effecting your bottom line. We are going to outline how I first launched my office on a total shoestring but through being a bit savvy made sure that I didn’t compromise on any of the basics.

So in truth this post is half about me being a bit savvy and the half about me having made mistakes that hopefully I can now stop you making.

Google's Email System

This sounds almost too basic to mention, but it’s crazy how many people still get this so wrong. When I first started working freelance I moved into a shared office downtown Vancouver… This was probably the first good move I made, I rented a desk in an office with about 10 other freelancers, first off it was so cheap to do it this way and it also gave me an address Downtown Vancouver. For the first few months I worked from home, this was a false economy for me, I went crazy and work ended up totally dominating my life. If you’re working independently an office is a god send, it gives you regular social interaction and a regular routine, plus you can’t stay there all night. Anyway the point of the matter is that I was simply blown away by how bad some of my fellow freelancers’ email setups were. I would say to one of them did you get my email earlier and they’d be like “which email address?”… “oh that one… yeah that’s on my laptop and someone’s borrowing that at the moment” or it would be like “no it takes about 20 mins to come through because it being forwarded from this account which syncs with this one… but only when my home computer is switched on” and of course needless to say all their emails were stored locally.

I’m sure this sounds familiar… it doesn’t need to be like this! I have so many devices, an iPhone, an iMac, a MacBook Pro, a PC laptop and whatever device or email client I use I see exactly the same inbox and directory structure. If you’ve worked in a corporate environment you probably think you need a Microsoft exchange server for this or a lot of people try to use mobile me, but set it up all wrong. The answer is you need Google Apps. Google Apps gives you IMAP access this means a copy of all your emails remains on the server and every time you read or delete or file an email, a message is sent back to Google and they record that change and make sure that next time you connect with your phone or any other device those changes are relayed to that too. Apart from the obvious benefits of keeping all your devices in sync it means you can drop you laptop under a taxi and you’ve lost no email data.

Google Apps has two services, a free one and paid one… another mistake of mine. I signed up for a paid one and every time I wanted to add an account I had to pay $50 a year, which started to get expensive. The free version is exactly the same as the paid version except the capacity is less. The free version is 7GB and you can upgrade anytime, the paid one is 25GB… I have insane volumes of emails dating back to 2004 and I’ve still not hit my 7GB limit (…I eventually swapped back from the paid account, which you can do and loose no data).

Google Apps lets you set up email with your own domain name i.e you@yourdomain.com and it lets you point any number of domains to it. Over the years I’ve probably racked up about 10 different addresses and I’ve got them all aggregated in the one inbox from where I can send and receive from any of those addresses.

Google Apps also has shared calendars that can be set up to sync with iPhones etc. It is a very credible alternative to Microsoft exchange server and it can be totally free – amazing. If you remember anything from this post… stop accessing email via POP3 and start using IMAP.

The Holy Grail of Web Analytics Custom Reporting

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 20:18:00 GMT

For those of you who love to wade through the plethora of standard reports offered by Google Analytics and spend hours mulling over reams of data trying to find that elusive key metric please feel free to skip this article.

However, if like most of us you want quick access to key web analytics custom reporting data and your boss (and his boss!) are breathing down your neck then look no further than the superb blog post written by the outstanding Avinash Kaushik over at Google.

Avinash provides details of what can be only described as the holy grail of web analytics custom reporting, in fact he practically does the reporting for you and provides you with a link to three awesome downloadable reports! Minus your data of course...

He is a huge fan of eliminating standard reports and turns the idea of what a standard report is on its head by introducing the concept of creating a focused custom “micro-ecosystem”.

The creation of a relevant micro-ecosystem should reduce the number of reports, be a one stop destination for most answers on a topic and most importantly be hyper relevant.

The process of creating a self-contained micro-ecosystem with relevant data involves 3 simple steps.

1. Identify and understand who will consume the data.

2. Understand their needs and success criteria (this involves actually talking to them!)

3. Use your experience and initiative - what do they really want?

The micro-ecosystem example he provides is an analysis of the performance of a Paid Search Marketing program with an ecommerce focus - which should probably apply to the vast majority of visitors reading this post.

He identifies three key parties that would usually require the valuable data offered by a micro-ecosystem and they include the SEM team, the Website Director and VP of Digital.

The micro-ecosystem in this case is simply one report with three tabs containing relevant information for each of three parties above.

In summary, the information in each tab looks at three key areas namely input, activity and outcomes. He then provides an in-depth analysis of the data in all three scenarios and why the data in the each tab is important to the relevant team.

For the SEM team the data provided concerns things they do everyday and that will impact their bonus such as impressions, ad performance and CTR. It also provides details on CPC and Total cost. However, he does point out that this report will serve as a great base for initial analysis by the SEM team but that they will perform further reporting and deep dive analysis.

Further up the chain the report for the Website Director will look at what is happening under the bonnet and not just the upfront stuff. They are focused on what is happening under their responsibility and on the site. The key metric here is revenue and figuring out if there is a mismatch between this and the number of visits.

Lastly the report for the VP will contain fewer relevant metrics. The focus here is not just on revenue but also on cost and productivity.

The process described above outlines a super efficient way to present relevant web analytics data and keep everyone happy. Adhering to this process should pay rich dividends in terms of eliminating data dumps, focusing on what is important and having one central location for web analytics reporting.

This process has changed our approach to web analytics custom reporting here at Bigturns forever (especially for Adwords campaigns) and we hope that you can find some value in it as well.

Oh and before I forget here is the link to the reports.

Note: This is the Google Analytics V5 version created by Rob Taylor who updated the original version provided by Avinash. Don’t forget to login to Google Analytics first.

Finally, here is the link to the blog post which also contains some nice bonus items at the end.

The 4Cs Strategy to Marketing Online

Thu, 10 May 2012 16:44:00 GMT

Content is the basis for all marketing online. Content creates credibility. Credibility leads to conversion. And conversion leads to new customers. Read the 4Cs formula

The 4Cs Formula

Create Content

Good content will address your customer's needs. You need to continually create, recreate, and build content. Search engines love good content and will reward you with sending visitors to your site.
Traffic coming to your site for your content is your traffic. You own the traffic and can decide what and how to greet the visitors.
Our formula says to "Regularly publish content on your site through these channels:"

News Articles
Blogs
Email Newsletters
Product updates
Web Page Additions
New Landing Pages

Build Credibility

Credibility is part of the formula and not only available to the large multi-national sites. To build credibility you need to address your customer's information needs first. And second, make it easy for your customer to give you feed back.

Use Testimonials
Display Customer Case Studies
Allow Customer Feed Back
Provide Online Customer Service
Create a Community
Blog about yourself

Once your visitors can see other visitors, similar types of customers, they will feel more comfortable with your site and give you the credibility you need in order for them to click on the "Buy Now" button.

Get Conversion

Conversion is the art of getting customers through to your primary or back up goals. Getting your customer to "Buy Now", "Sign Up", "Log In" and more. Once you have the conversions occurring on your site it's time to start to measure the effectiveness of your marketing & communication efforts.
Measure, manage, and address the conversions rates.
Examples of conversion goals include:

Email Newsletter subscription
Site registration
Comments on Articles / Products / Services
Forum Participation
Online Inquiry
Event Booking
Survey Participation
Online Sale

Communicate With Customers

After the sale takes place and your customer is wondering what they just did you need to start your communication.
Your post sale processes and customer service must work seamlessly with the first 3cs to ensure longevity.

Use follow up email campaigns for high value customers
Use drip marketing campaigns to build loyalty with customers
Use auto-responders with customers to generate credibility
Use Monthly Newsletters with contacts to stay in touch

The cost of acquisition is significantly greater than retaining customers. Communicate with your customer, be relevant and timely and your customers will come back again and again.

Email Marketing Analytics

Thu, 10 May 2012 16:44:00 GMT

CONDUCTING AN EMAIL MARKETING REVIEW

Here's a wealth of hints, tricks and suggestions on how to increase the effectiveness of your email marketing programs. Before you start, however, it might make sense to get a good picture of where your campaigns are today by conducting an email marketing review. This review should include an analysis of key performance metrics, a look at any recipient feedback or surveys, a review of your website analytics, a comparison against internal and relevant external benchmarks and a review of your creative and content.

Once this is complete, you can use what you’ve learned to map out an improvement plan for your email marketing programs using the information in the guide. The steps for an Email Marketing Review are listed below.

Analysis of Key Performance Metrics

Your first step in the Email Marketing Review process is to develop a spreadsheet that contains your email marketing program results from the past 6 -12 months. The idea is to give yourself a broad enough sample size to extract meaningful information and to conduct deep analysis as easily as possible. Once this report is developed you should be able to calculate your overall averages and determine the best and worst performing message for each metric. What metrics should you include in your report? Depending on your business, we suggest inclusion of the following:
Conversion Rate – number of orders, transactions, down loads or actions as percentage of the total number of email messages delivered

Open rate
Click-through rate
Click-to-open rate – number of unique clicks divided by the number of unique opens
Bounce rate
Delivery rate – number of email messages sent minus the number of email messages that bounced
Unsubscribe rate
Referral rate (“send-to-a-friend”)
Net subscribers (number of subscribers plus new subscribers) minus (bounces plus unsubscribes)
Subscriber retention (number of subscribers minus bounces minus unsubscribes divided by number of subscribers)
Percent of orders, transactions, downloads or actions of emails sent or delivered
Total revenue generated as a direct result of the email program
Budget invested per email sent or delivered

Once you’ve pulled your metrics, take a look at them based on the following factors:

The Priority Based on Objective and Industry

What are the most important metrics for your email marketing program? If you are a retailer it’s probably things like conversion rate, number of orders, average order size, etc. For newsletter publishers it might be net subscriber growth, referrals and open rates. For companies sending corporate newsletters it could be click-through percentages on specific/recurring topics/links and subsequent conversions to information or demo requests. The key, however, is that you determine the critical measures of success for your unique email marketing programs, and not focus solely on generic open and click-through rates.

Consistency

Were your key metrics consistent within a certain percent range? If your open rates varied significantly then you might have experienced delivery issues or used confusing “From” addresses or subject lines. Wide variances in click-through rates would likely suggest that the relevance of your article topics, products, offers or content varied significantly. Take a moment to look for spikes or valleys in your metrics. If the lows or highs vary dramatically, then there is likely a lesson – positive or negative – to be learned from this data. An off-the-charts conversion rate, for example, would suggest that a promotional email fired on all pistons – timing, subject line, design, offer/price, product relevance, website content, etc.

Message Metrics Variances

What if you have a combination of great and horrible metrics resulting from a single email marketing campaign? For example, you might have a low open rate, but a very high click-to open rate. This can happen when you have a subject line that didn’t appeal to the recipients, a delivery problem or if you recently changed your “From” address, for example, but still provided highly-relevant message content. If this is happening, test a new message that addresses the problem you identified, and see what results you get. This will help you confirm the issue and/or identify the real cause so you can continue to optimize results using data rather than guesswork.

STEP TWO –

Review of Recipient Feedback, Surveys, Website Analytics, Sales Statistics

If you have a way for your email recipients to provide you with feedback, review the responses you’ve received throughout the year and look for both positive and negative comments. If you receive little feedback, you may not be making it easy for readers to provide it or haven’t established enough of a “personality” to motivate your readers to respond.

Another good source of reader feedback is social media. Take a look at the last few months’ worth of posts about your company on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites where you have a presence, or where customers and prospects may be commenting about the types of products or services you offer. Is there anything you can learn from these comments? If you haven’t already done so, post a message asking for feedback and suggestions on how to improve your email campaigns.

If you’ve conducted subscriber surveys, now is a good time to review those results. What were the key actionable findings you can address in the coming year?

Last, analyze your website statistics. Which types of articles are most visited on your website? Which product categories are most visited and which products and categories produced the most orders and revenue? How can you use this information to improve email marketing?

STEP THREE –

Comparison against Internal and Relevant External Benchmarks

If your organization produces more than one email newsletter or campaign, see if other email marketers – partners, colleagues or vendors – would be willing to share their data so you can benchmark key metrics. Even if the information you receive is not detailed, there is often learning associated with taking a look outside of your company. You can also research any available “industry averages” to compare to your specific results. These are not precise, but sometimes it is helpful to look at where your company can improve compared to the market at large.

STEP FOUR –

Review of Creative/Content

Next, pull together samples of the recent email messages themselves, including subject lines. Compare the email content to the metrics and see if you can identify which approach drove the best results. Look particularly at:

Subject Line – length, tone, style and whether you included a company or publication name
Layout/Format/Length – Did you change formats? Did you switch from full articles to teasers? Did you try longer, more detailed copy versus short, breezy messages?
Content Style – Do some newsletters or email messages have more personality than others? Is your style full of humor, just the facts or conservative in nature?
Segmentation/Personalization – Did you send special messages that had a higher level of personalization or segmentation than others? Were the results significantly different?

STEP FIVE –

Review of Competitors and Best Practice Examples

Finally, pull together samples of email messages from your competitors as well as samples of your favorite newsletters and email campaigns, no matter what industry. What things knocked your socks off – subject line style, design, personality and style of writing, great approach to offers, etc.? Is there anything that you are inspired to try in your own campaigns?

Conclusion

Taking the time to assemble all of this information, conduct your analysis and reflect on the “big picture” can be a big step towards increasing the effectiveness of email programs. That learning, combined with the suggestions in this guide, should put your email marketing campaigns on a positive and sustainable trajectory.