Missed Marketing Methods - Are You Missing The Mark?

Alas, the final presentation of the Spring ‘09 Boot Camp wrapped up a few minutes ago. Our final discussion, presented by Affiliate Marketing Manager Michelle Pushefski, Senior SEO Account Manager Jeff Stolarcyk and SEO Specialist Nicholas Matthews delved into the ever-important, but often missed marketing methods; Affiliate, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and E-mail Marketing.

Most site-owners are familiar with PPC or Paid Search, but more often then not that’s where the line is drawn. Any marketing is better then no marketing, we all can agree on that, but the point of today’s presentation was to show site owners how important it is not to limit yourself. Paid searches limit your audience and in-turn limit your potential income.

In addition to Search Marketing panelists discussed other marketing avenues, which include:

• Affiliate Marketing
• Comparison Shopping Engines
• Search Engine Optimization
• Social Media Marketing
• Email Marketing

Affiliate
First up to bat was our in-house expert Michelle. While affiliate can be tricky to understand she helped to break down the mystique which is it.

Key take aways:

• Commission based referral.
• Great supplement to paid search revenue.
• Exposure to new potential customers.
• Control Cost Per Acquisition (Only pay when sales are made).
• Increase your bottom line by 10-20%.
• Top three network affiliate sites to look into - Google Affiliate, Commission Junction, Link Share

Comparison Shopping Engine

• Compete in a unique market based upon prices, service and expertise.
• Reach customers searching for your specific product.

Search Engine Optimization

The main take-away Jeff expressed he’d like everyone to get from his presentation,
“SEO is a set of protocols which, if done right, your rankings will [sic] increase. But it’s time consuming.”
Thus, a managed solution will save the day (not to mention a headache.)

Benefits

• Drive organic search traffic.
• Capture customers at all points in the shopping cycle.
• No ‘cost per click’.

Social Media Optimization
Even if your not doing them, certainly you’ve heard of them - Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Blogs, etc. These SMO’s can help build your customer base with the most unlikeliest of customers - those which you may have never targeted before.

Benefits

• Engages customers where they interact. (You go to them, they don’t have to come to you.)
• Encourages viral promotion.
• Empowers customers to promote your products.
• Allows you to listen (or view) the buzz about your brand.

Email Marketing
Allows you to interact with and engage your current customer base, thus (hopefully) creating a lifetime customer.

Benefits

• Reaching out to clients who have already shopped with your store.
• Allows them to pass along, digitally, savings, features and new products which in-turn exposes you to a new audience.
• Again, reaching out to the customer as opposed to always looking for them to come find you.
• Highest ROI (Return on Investment) across aforementioned marketing methods.

As the sun sets on the last of this Boot Camp fun, I wish you all good luck! Even if you couldn’t attend, I hope we’ve taught you a thing or two to help optimize your site and potentially increase revenue!