From: Jeffery Giesener – CEO – ShoppeSimple
Are you buying Keywords for your Search Engine Pay Per Click (PPC) program?
What percentage is your PPC Program of your overall online business?
If you stopped doing PPC what would happen to your online business?
How is your PPC business trending from a CPO and budget consumption basis?
These are tough and thoughtful questions for any online marketer. Why? Because I sense PPC continues to consume more of your marketing budget while you also see a weakening of results year over year. If you haven’t given this consideration recently, I would recommend you continue reading…
What percentage is your PPC business of your overall online business? Is it 10%, 20%, 45%? Does that exposure to PPC marketing make you feel comfortable or does it make you feel exposed?
- Have you thought about how your business would recover if overnight you were outbid for your top keywords and your business was no longer on page one or above the fold on Google/Bing/Yahoo?
- What impact would there be to your sales plan if this new higher “bid ask” pricing would send your keywords over the allowable cost per order threshold?
- What would be your business recovery plan?
If you think these scenarios are not real…think again. They are very real, have happened to merchants we’ve spoken to and they can happen to your business too
Is your mouth is starting to feel dry…stomach feeling queasy…keep reading…because your business could already be locked into a “PPC Addiction”!
Now that I have your attention, here are some other tough questions to ponder…
Ø Are you comfortable with the knowledge that the Search Engines to whom you’ve been paying good money also know your top keywords and which of your consumers are clicking on them?
Ø Have you thought about the fact that they can trace the “Keyword Click Stream” and track the consumer to your website and to a purchase since they also have tied all of this business intelligence to the email address for your consumer?
Ø Have you thought about the power of these search data repositories and how they can be used against your business?
Ø Have you thought about your conversion equation since you know you are only converting at best 10% of these keyword consumers?
And the final question…who is converting the other 90% of your consumer keyword searches and? I’ll keep going…
Yes, my intent with the above is to get you to think about the hard questions around PPC Marketing and how comfortable you feel being locked into a PPC Keyword buy model? And, to further understand that Keyword Marketing happens outside of your control and is steered as a bigger marketing play which can happen (or is already) around your business. What do I mean? If you are using Google as part of your marketing mix, have you asked yourself why Google gives away their e-commerce enabled services like Google Base, Google Analytics, Desktop, Toolbar, Maps and let’s not forget about the fastest growing browser, Chrome, just to name a few. Do you just believe Google is ultimately altruistic? Or, do they have another self-serving game plan in mind? Same for Facebook?
Now, I have a strategic question for you? Don’t you believe Google/Facebook will figure out a Social Media e-Commerce platform and/or do a deal/partnership which will drive e-Commerce away from your business and capture your consumers? Did you know Facebook has already done a data deal with the world’s largest fulfillment company…Amazon.com. Did you know that Facebook is working to bring e-Commerce into its platform? And, what is Google doing really?
I am sure you have been asking yourself and your colleagues how your business will be playing in the Social and Mobile Commerce space in 2011? And, it’s OK to have lots of questions. But don’t lose sight of this threat to your business as social sales will not be happening on your website but instead on new global Social Commerce platforms which your business does not own or control.
Keep thinking here…what are your analytics already telling you when you have 90% home page defections and 80% non-open rates to email broadcast? And if you think your consumer brand is safe…from “social cannibalization” Think again.
If the above discussion has resonated with you, (obviously bias disclosed) then you owe it to yourself and your company to at least learn what ShoppeSimple is all about and how we are innovating in the areas of Social Commerce and Mobile Marketing without locking your business into a Google or Facebook channel. Plus, we have plenty of client success stories to share and would welcome the opportunity to have a meaningful conversation.
For instance, one client who began with us in July just hit $2.1 Million mark in Social Commerce sales (a website which has 1 Million Unique Visitors per month). They are on a monthly subscription program with no commission “toll”, which puts their actual order acquisition expense at 2.5-3%. Another client (around 300K Unique Visitors) began with ShoppeSimple Program the day before Thanksgiving 2010 and in just 20 days they have done over $450,000 in Social Commerce sales using just 1 of our 15 social components. With their monthly subscription cost, it puts their order acquisition rate at just under 2%.
So the question I would ask … Would you be happy to acquire orders at less than 3% with an upside kicker of more order frequency and a higher average order value? Plus both of these clients now have a new online marketing channel, which lowers their risk and exposure to Pay Per Click and Email.
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 Mobile Commerce program that will fit your company’s unique situation and strategy.
To start the process, just indicate your interest in a no-obligation phone discussion by replying to this email and we will be in touch with you to start the conversation immediately.
Best Regards and Happy New Year,
Jeffery