I’m going to revisit a portion of the pre-conference intensive session I presented that took place earlier this year at the Catalog and Integrated Marketing Summit in Chicago. I received feedback from many that it has changed the way they have been looking at their business and how they need to position their business for Read More Not All Lifetime Value is Created Equal: A Lesson in Housefile Management
Category: Digital Strategies
Opinions are Bad Business
A good e-commerce manager is constantly monitoring, maintaining, and (perhaps most importantly) testing and optimizing their website. How do you find areas for improvement or decide what changes to make? I’d imagine that a lot of ideas come from word-of-mouth; a blog post, a conference session, a conversation with a co-worker, a nice (or not!) Read More Opinions are Bad Business
Using Website Data to Understand Intent
We all use purchasing data to guide our marketing plans. The recency since last purchase, frequency of purchases, and the total amount spent have been the cornerstones for predicting customer performance in direct marketing for over 50 years. We have gotten better at refining RFM using other purchasing signals, such as products or category purchased Read More Using Website Data to Understand Intent
From My Inbox: Gentle Critique of an Email Marketing Program Resurrected, Part 1
From time to time I’ll pull a message from my inbox and do a walk-through of its pros and cons. These gentle critiques are intended to educate; I hope that the companies mentioned as well as readers will keep that top of mind. I received this email earlier this year from a long-time industry acquaintance we’ll Read More From My Inbox: Gentle Critique of an Email Marketing Program Resurrected, Part 1
Email Marketing Case Study: a 96% Increase in Revenue with 6 Tips for Preheader Text
Years ago I was obsessed with preheaders, aka snippets or autopreview text, and wrote about them in my ClickZ column. Back then I did a lot of testing of preheader copy and generated some great results for clients. Fast-forward to today. I still consider preheader text when I’m helping clients optimize their email efforts, but am no longer Read More Email Marketing Case Study: a 96% Increase in Revenue with 6 Tips for Preheader Text
From My Inbox: Gentle Critique of an Email Marketing Program Resurrected, Part 2
Last week I discussed some features and flaws of the below email I had received from an industry acquaintance: This week, it’s time to discuss how this email message might be improved. Use Descriptive Subject Lines. While the subject line “A scintillating start” (above) is intriguing and cute, it doesn’t provide any value to the reader. Read More From My Inbox: Gentle Critique of an Email Marketing Program Resurrected, Part 2
Online Cart Abandonment: 3 Disturbing Industry Statistics and 7 Tips for Successful Cart Reminder Programs
I had the pleasure of leading not one but two webinars last month on digital marketing for retailers. I always like to round out my case studies and practical advice with industry statistics. And what I learned about online cart abandonment surprised and disturbed me: 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned (Bronto/Magento Study) Shopping Read More Online Cart Abandonment: 3 Disturbing Industry Statistics and 7 Tips for Successful Cart Reminder Programs
3 Statistics-Based Reasons to Make Your Website Responsive
1. Your desktop visitors are disappearing. How many of you have seen a chart where every year a few more of your desktop visitors get replaced by more visits on a mobile device? Ok…let’s be accurate…your desktop visitors are getting replaced by smartphones. This phenomenon is occurring across our client base and is very consistent Read More 3 Statistics-Based Reasons to Make Your Website Responsive
3 Tips for Improving the ROI on Your Email Marketing Efforts
What’s the return-on-investment (ROI) for each of your organization’s marketing channels? According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing delivers a higher ROI than any other online or offline channel. And not by a little – by a lot! See the chart below – email marketing is delivering more than four times the ROI of Read More 3 Tips for Improving the ROI on Your Email Marketing Efforts
3 Reasons Why SEO Still Matters After Google’s SERP Changes
Earlier this year Google started rolling out updated SERP (Search Engine Results Pages) with a new layout. The new layout typically displays four paid ads above the organic listings, with PLA (product listing ads) now prominently featured in the upper right corner. After the paid ads you will often see local results (like if you Read More 3 Reasons Why SEO Still Matters After Google’s SERP Changes