I had the pleasure of taking part in a few prospective client pitches last week and the consistent theme was that site traffic was either down or flat year over year. What was also discussed was that company’s had higher online sales in 2010 than 2009. So what is going on? How can you have more sales with less or flat site traffic? Was their average order higher? Both said no. Was order frequency higher? Both said no. So what is going on…?
Two sidebars:
#1: Facebook surpassed each of the top three web properties Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft based on time spent. Facebook now accounts for 12.3% of all time being spent online, up from 7.2% in 2009.
#2: According to Forbes, Twitter surpassed 200 million registered users who now post more than 110 million tweets per day. Twitter is also increasingly becoming a critical communication channel for brands to win customers, drive sales, find/solve problems, and manage customer service. In fact, hundreds of brands across every vertical market industry – including automotive, travel, sports, entertainment, finance, technology, food and beverage, and retail – are now actively building a Twitter strategy and integrating this powerful communication channel into the marketing mix.
It was also interesting to hear them say they were very happy with the growth of their Facebook Likes and their Facebook activities. In fact, they had exponential growth with Facebook Likes. One went from 40,000 Likes to 800,000 (yes 800K) and the other from 407 Likes to now over 60,000 Likes.
Where oh where are your consumers?
So let’s take a closer look at what is happening here. Hmmm…site traffic is flat to down year over year but Facebook traffic is exponentially up. It is what I have been coaching our clients to understand about their online businesses for several years now. Consumers are changing their online behaviors. They are no longer coming back to websites for brand messaging and conversations.
On the contrary, they are demanding that you engage and begin a conversation with them wherever they are in social media and/or on their mobile smartphones. Site stats and Facebook Like numbers from clients are absolutely spot on in support of this position.
Now all of these discussions got me wondering…
Ø is your business experiencing the same behaviors?
Ø do you even track your social and mobile behaviors outside of your website?
Ø how do these social and mobile behaviors impact on your online sales efforts?
So like these prospective clients, you too many be thinking just how does The ShoppeSimple Network work? In a nutshell, we give consumers control over what they want to see and where they want to see it. We call this marketing Pull, Place, Buy and Share.
At The ShoppeSimple Network we have created an integrated network where the consumer are in control of the advertising, content or offers they want to see. They also stay anonymous and keep their data private. Consumers have told us and demonstrated with their velocity of buying just how important this is to them and something that is truly empowering to them. They are truly tired of having their data and information sold to 3rd parties without their consent.
Have You Lost Your Consumer’s Trust?
We don’t push advertising at them…What they get is what they asked for and then they Pull, Place, Buy and Share the advertising they want to see everyday, 365 days a year. It really is as simple as that. And if you look at it from the merchant perspective we give you a suite of elegant SaaS tools to reach consumers wherever they are on social communities, mobile smartphones and iPads/Tablets. Additionally, we protect your data as all checkouts and credit card captures continue to be done on your site. So you are in control of your data and large platform providers aren’t sharing it. This also protects your Privacy Policy with your consumers. So it is all a win/win/win.
To learn more check out our February Webinar titled: Who Is Stealing Your Consumer click here http://shoppesimplenetwork.biz/casestudy
Additionally, we build your Social and Mobile Loyalty Program for an affordable monthly subscription fee with no commissions, tolls or maintenance fees. There are also no implementation fees of any kind and your program will be up and running in less than 10 days. Plus, we guarantee that your program will return 30% ROI in 30 days or you just don’t pay us. It doesn’t get any simpler than that.
But this answer didn’t satisfy the skeptics in the meeting and they said Jeffery wait a minute, for all of the years, I have been in internet/online marketing we have been taught and experienced that online marketing success comes from minimizing the number of clicks to a buy. Not moving consumers off the website. We have always pushed product at them and it has always worked.
And yes, I agree to a point, but that worked in the past. That was then and this is now. You only have to look at your site analytics. Lower or flat site traffic, cannibalization of channel programs, declining email opens and clickthroughs and I can continue…
To further see the tectonic shift in how consumer online marketing is changing, you only have to look at success stories like Facebook, Twitter, Groupon, iPhone, Driod, Blackberry’s and the Tablet product category. Baseline is that the consumer internet population is moving away from being forced to return to websites. In fact, Facebook has 550 Million subscribers and many of these subs are your consumers and buyers. Morgan Stanley in a Mary Meeker Trend Report predicts by 2014 that half of all ecommerce will be done on a smartphone. Not to mention 50% of all phones sold this year (2011) will be smartphone.
So why do you want to wait, hold out and cling to the past marketing ideas when you can test new ideas easily and quickly? Isn’t this what Internet Marketers are tasked to do? Help me understand why would you allow your competitor to leap frog you when you can run testing that is painless with The ShoppeSimple Network?
And that is the big difference around why The ShoppeSimple Network program works. It isn’t rocket science that when you give your consumer more of what they tell you they want they inevitably buy more frequently and at higher amounts. That is the Social and Mobile Loyalty Program we plug your business into. Not to mention these consumers, tell their friends about your brand and we all know a friend’s advice is worth tons in helping others into a buying decision. This is about stimulating viral selling. Wouldn’t you do the same as a consumer? I would. So would my wife and so do your customers!
To help you understand what The ShoppeSimple Network does, we put together some video tutorials, simple click here http://shoppesimplenetwork.biz/about
We are also pleased to announce the next Webinar scheduled for March 23rd at 2 PM ET: How To Tap The Power Of Your Consumer. To register mailto:sales@shoppesimplenetwork.com.
Social Commerce is more than the latest buzzword. It works! A case in point… we have a client that after three months in The ShoppeSimple Network program netted over $900,000 in revenue using ShoppeSimple Social Commerce. That’s right and they paid only $5,000 per month!! Another client is doubling their Social Commerce program every month using ShoppeSimple.
Can you do the same? We know you can as we have seen similar and dramatic results for each of our clients!
I’d recommend that we set up a time over the phone where we can get to know your specific online objectives. With that understanding we can begin to design a Social and or Mobile Commerce program that will fit your company’s unique situation and strategy.
I sense that if you are like other merchants you may be planning to start investing aggressively in Social/Mobile Commerce.
The bottom line: To start the process, just indicate your interest in a no-obligation phone discussion by replying to this email or giving me a call at 612-349-2740 and we will be in touch with you to start the process immediately.
Best Regards,
Jeffery