Relevance is the right content sent to the right audience, which results in high response rates, delivery rates and reader engagement. Advances in email list management software and customers’ increasing willingness to provide specific information about their preferences mean that email marketers can now use sophisticated segmentation in email campaigns to tailor messaging to be more relevant than ever.



Now, marketers can provide different messages to many different segments of their database, using all sorts of factors that affect buying behavior. This procedure, called segmenting, allows you to create a series of highly-focused mailing lists without having to re-enter the data every time or require subscribers to sign up for many different mailing lists in order to get the email they really want. Read More

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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.
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Fifty characters could be all that stands between you and the success of your next email campaign. Why? Because 50 characters is all the space you have in a typical subject line – to catch the attention of your reader, entice them to open your email and take action. With so much at stake, marketers need a quick and proven reference tool for developing subject lines that get the desired
result: opened emails.

Let these rules be your guide.

Rule 1: Read the Newspaper

If you want to develop subject lines that result in higher open rates, pick up your local paper. Headlines usually highlight a story’s most important point with brevity, while taking the audience into consideration. Use that approach to make your subject lines short and intriguing enough to compel your subscribers toread your emails.

Subject lines should clearly state what your readers can expect from your email, what’s in it for them and what you want them to do as a result of the email. And your subject line must stand out from others in your customers’ crowded inbox in the most relevant way. Emulating the headlines from newspapers can be a good starting point in the development of subject lines.

Rule 2: Focus on the Objective

What is the objective, or end goal, of your email marketing program? In most cases your end goal is not necessarily high open rates, but rather to have subscribers take a specific and measurable
action. Determine what that one action is, and make sure your subject line will achieve your objective. For instance, if your goal is for recipients to purchase from your online store, don’t use a subject line that is informational in nature. Instead, use a clear call-to-action that emphasizes their opportunity to make a “must have” purchase.

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The year 2010 should be used to optimize your existing eCommerce Platform. Many Online Shops I see out there have enormous potentials for improvement. Some of them can't be implemented easily, e.g. Clean URLs (URLs which just reveal their resource, but not their technology) - here you are often limited by the technology and platform you use. However, there are many things you can do in the field of technical Search Engine Optimization (SEO). For this purpose one option would be to create a whole new template to get started. You can overhaul the GUI (graphical user interface) and optimize the template for all the search engines like Google and Yahoo. What needs to be done for this can be listed quickly:
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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

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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.

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When you are setting up an online store you should consider in which currency you charge your customers. Either you accept only one currency or you offer your customers the opportunity to choose from different currencies. In this article some of the of the Pros and Cons of single and multi-currency stores are discussed.

Single-currency Store

• Allow anyone around the world to purchase - but in your currency.
• The customer's bank takes care of the currency conversion.
• Are easy to set up - one payment gateway, one set of prices, one set of shipping options.

Here's an example: You set up your store on a xyz.com site. Every visitor on that URL will be shown US product prices, US shipping options, US tax codes an so on. The visitors will be charged in US dollars via the payment gateway that is assigned to the USA.

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This is the first Post for The eCommerce Blog from Sales and Marketing Automation. 

Our mission with this blog is to promote eCommerce Best Practices to Small business owners. We will be including topics that relate to building eCommerce Sites, marketing eCommerce Sites and managing eCommerce Sites.

We are not sure where this journey will take us but the general direction we are going to set out on is to expose the tricks that make successful sites sell.

We will discuss topics like eCommerce Technology, SAAS, Email Marketing, Internet Marketing, Blogging, Content, Conversion, Customer Automation, and more.

I will be the main contributor to the blog postings, and all of our contributors will some how be related to BigTurns Business Systems, an eCommerce Consulting Company with an eCommerce Platform for sale and a team of eCommerce Consultants.

I Hope you like it.  Read More

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