Archive for October, 2011

SEO and Keywords – Part 1

Friday, October 28th, 2011

What you need to know

Little Big Voice has a broad range of SEO clients and we work uber hard to ensure that we offer the very best in terms of advice and guidance on Search Engine Marketing.

We often get asked many questions about SEO and over the past few years we’ve seen every type of business from ecommerce through to consultancy so we thought it was about time to write a blog in an effort to give clients and new readers a chance to understand keywords and SEO campaigns.

All good blogs of this nature need some kind of case study of course, so for the purpose of demonstration let’s assume that you’re a gift retailer in London and start from there.

The first thing we might want to look at is what keywords you need to rank well for in the search engines.

This might be a number of things – such as category specific products like ornaments, flowers, picture frames or it may be more general and include things like gifts for men, gifts for women, unusual gifts, funky presents etc.

Depending on what kind of budget you actually have and the in-house resources you may have then you have to be realistic about what can be achieved.  A good Search Engine Marketing company will tell you how it really is and won’t make any false promises or guarantees of any ‘speedy’ SEO results.  In fact, should someone do this walk the other way.

So how can I work out what the best keywords will be?

There are billions of web pages out there and you only need to search for a few terms to see what kind of competition you have.

It is a bit of a maze and that’s why a Search Engine Marketing professional is always recommended as they will know the kind of things you won’t find in a book.

See below our search for ‘gifts for her’ example to see that there are 369,000,000 pages!

 

 

 

So you’ve seen some competition, now as a keyword you need to work out whether you’ve got a budget that will cover that kind of competition or whether you have more specialised products that you may want to rank for that will put you at an advantage.

The age of your domain will also make a difference.  Remember that a new domain has a lot of work to do (probably months in fact) before it’s going to start seeing decent organic traffic results.  In fact it’s something that many people don’t realise with Search Engine Marketing.  They want instant results but won’t usually get that without a bit of hard labour.

Bigger brands will always get better results than you so it’s not always worth trying to compete with them.  Their sites have thousands of pages usually, so time will be the teller here.  Again, better to define your unique selling points and use those to gain traffic to a more bespoke market and build upon that moving forward.

You are not only competing with others on a selling level either.  There will be plenty of ‘how to’ articles, suppliers and manufacturers, as well as bloggers and indeed anyone else that has some kind of website presence that has a link to what you do, so it isn’t going to be easy.

Get good advice

Your Search Engine Marketing company will be able to tell you where to start and what you should be focusing on.

They will also hopefully help you define what your initial keywords will be and work with you to develop new ones and expand on those that need tweaking.

SEO is a bit like plate spinning.  The keywords are the plates and your SEO company will have to keep them all spinning.  So, at times some of the ‘plates’ will need a bit of a push while others are spinning quite happily until you’ve got all the plates spinning nicely, which in turn gets you a round of applause (or better rankings!).

We will be continuing this series so do come back in the next couple of weeks to get more information how to enhance and understand Search Engine Marketing activities.

Paul

See: SEO and Keywords – Part 2

 

 

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Essential E-commerce Tips For Christmas – Part 2

Thursday, October 27th, 2011

See also: Essential E-commerce Tips For Christmas – Part 1

Every year, Christmas seems to come around faster than ever, but here at Little Big Voice we’re always prepared and while we don’t like to mention Christmas with the summer only just disappearing, we thought we’d give you our very best tips for your ecommerce site this year.

Check your site

This may seem obvious but there are many people who forget to do this.  So go through the checkout process on your website to ensure that the checkout and the shopping cart are all working correctly and that there are no problems.

Hopefully your website will be busy and therefore if there’s an issue you don’t know about, you could end up losing sales.

Things to look for include the mechanics (check you can purchase items properly) but also that your website works in all the major browsers.

We looked at a site just yesterday and discovered not one bit of the content was displayed correctly in Firefox!

Don’t decide you suddenly want to ‘tweak’ your site

This is the last thing you should ever do coming in to Christmas season.  If your site is in working order then don’t touch it!  If you suddenly decide that something will work or look better elsewhere and change it, you might end up breaking something else on the site.  Leave it until the New Year!

SEO and your online Advertising

Talk to your Search Engine Marketing company about promotions and other things you can implement to make the most of the Christmas shoppers.  This could include free postage and packing, some discounts and even a free gift.

Ensure that your SEO keywords and promotions are in line with those promotions.

We recommend that you set-up a separate Christmas campaign – outside of your usual activities.  It is much easier to manage and will allow you see how successful you’ve been.

We also suggest that you look at Google Trends to get an idea of where people are looking but also how many searches are being done for particular products.  If you do this, then your ads can pick up on those searches and drive people to your website.

Social Media can work for you

Once you’ve decided on what promotions you will be running, then make sure you use all your arsenal to tell people about it.  Facebook, Twitter and even your blog should be places you use to tell people what’s going on.

Social Media is excellent if you have products that ‘sell out’ quickly.  For example, electronic games consoles or this season’s ‘gold dust’ toy.  If you’ve got it and no one else has, then tell people in virtual ‘real time’ and they’ll buy.

Help your shoppers buy

We all have different approaches to the way in which we shop.  You might like to add things like price options for buyers (gifts by price) or gifts for him / her.  This will make navigation much easier for people and they’re more likely to stay on your site if you make searching a breeze.

Stocking fillers please

A company with £2 million + turnover a year, always said that on an ecommerce site you should always have a £5 or under range of items as they knew that they’re great for adding to the average shopping purchase totals.  Stocking fillers can be lower value items but are always great additions when you shop so if you’ve got this as an option, make sure you use it.

Shipping information and returns

When people buy online they have worries when it comes to Christmas presents in particular.  If they’re buying clothes for example, there’s always a chance it may not fit, or the recipient may not like it.

Therefore, be really clear with your shipping policies and returns and if possible, try to have them on each and every product page so they are very clear.

This will instil confidence in you as a company but it will also save a lot of time for the buyer.

Many people forget to do this at any time of the year, yet it is the single most important factor for many buyers who have time constraints.

Offer a gift wrapping service

A very easy thing to do for your customers, is to gift wrap their purchases.  Many people buy presents and get them sent direct to the recipient and a gift wrapping service means you can add charges on but also offer a better shopping experience.

Again, a simple service and an option to buy a gift tag will add to your average shopping price per person and are especially relevant during the Christmas season.

Do the work for your customers

Another option at Christmas time is the concept of you creating a gift package for your buyers.  Items that match or go together in some way can be an attraction option if one gift just won’t do.  If you’re selling scarves and gloves, then offer a discount if the two are purchased as a set.  This will really boost your sales considerably and will not require too much effort to implement.

Be very clear

When you operate an ecommerce business there is one thing at Christmas that everyone wants to know.  When will my parcel arrive?

You must let your customers know when the last day of shopping is for guaranteed delivery of their purchases.  If you can’t answer this then you will lose sales.

So check Royal Mail as soon as you can or indeed whichever courier company you’re using and get that information up on your site as soon as possible.

Returns

As we’ve said, people worry a great deal when they buy at Christmas as you never know what the recipient will feel upon receiving a gift.  Therefore, make sure that you are clear on your policy with returns and make it really easy for your customers to find it on your website.  You can have this information in the confirmation email a buyer gets, you can have it prominently on your site and if you want to use it as a way to sell, consider using better language such as ‘no quibble’ returns or similar.

Make it look festive

Just like your office, make sure you give your site a Christmas feel.  You could consider a simple header change perhaps just to give the site a festive feel that will help your customers to get in the Christmas mood.

Is your server up to it?

As we’ve mentioned earlier, extra traffic on your website will affect your server. So best check to see what kind of usage you’ve had over the year and what you think may happen come Christmas time.

You should expect extra hits which in turn will affect your site and you don’t want it to crash, so make sure you’ve got this covered above everything else.

It’s one thing to run out of a product, but if customers can’t even get to your site because it’s too slow you’re in trouble.

Allow your buyers to ship to recipients

It’s worth making sure your shopping cart has this as an option because as we get closer to Christmas you’ll find more buyers will want to know they can get their gifts sent quickly.  To resolve this, you just need to make sure your shopping system will support a billing address as well as an alternative delivery address.

Customer service and order fulfilment

This is the most important factor of any ecommerce website business and therefore you should make sure that you are ready but also willing to convey Christmas promotions and discounts with your clients sooner rather than later.

Also, if you are busy with the orders, make sure you strive to deliver on any promises and get those orders out the door and to their recipients in good time.

This part of the process really requires you to be ready so ensure you have enough staff and support to give a brilliant quality of service.

Be consistent with advertising

If you do have promotions, make sure that your site visitors can find them easily.  You will want to be consistent with the branding across all mediums, from landing pages on your site through to emails and leafleting.

The more relevance your site conveys in relation to your other promotions the more sales you will be able to make.

Gift certificates anyone?

These are very often under-utilised by many ecommerce businesses, but they are a brilliant way of turning over more business.

The Christmas season is a busy time and very often people get stuck, not knowing what to buy their friends or family, so having a gift certificate option will encourage purchases.

They are particularly good for the last minute shoppers as well – so whether it’s a paper gift certificate or if you have an option to offer a ‘virtual’ gift certificate – make sure you get them out there!

 

Wishing you a Merry Christmas

Paul

 

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E-commerce And The Rise Of Video

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

If you have an e-commerce website and religiously follow your Search Engine Marketing regime, you might be looking for new and interesting ways to promote yourself further, without spending thousands of pounds on advertising?

Well, if you are then you should consider a new trend online that will eventually become the norm!

We always like to stay one step ahead of the game here at Little Big Voice and over the past three years, we’ve watched as You Tube has become an all encompassing machine of how to, how not to, what to do, product review videos – and that’s without the entertainment content available.

Early on, clever companies like Firebox offered video demonstrations of their products, offering the buyer a much more intensive view of something they were interested in online.

So how does a demonstration video work?

If you imagine you’re looking at buying a new desk online.  You see the photograph (which has been created professionally in a studio) but when it arrives suddenly you realise the colour you thought it was, is actually much darker and you’re now not so sure about the handles!

Well a video demonstration can offer the buyer a much better view of what you’re offering.  It allows you to get close up, to open the drawers, to look at the handles and see it against something else to produce a sense of scale.

This makes it much easier for a buyer to make an informed decision.

Videos can be short (perhaps 30 seconds) or a bit longer (say up to 1 minute) but if it’s something that is a big purchase (such as a video camcorder) you can probably spend a bit more time demonstrating all the features.

Video: An example of a good instructional video demonstrating the fitting of an aftermarket vehicle suspension system

How much does video production cost?

This is a big area in video but you’d be very surprised what you can achieve with a smaller budget.  Obviously if you’re heavily branded you may feel that a highly polished video is the answer, but more and more, You Tube users like to see real people simply demonstrating the products and talking about features.

For this reason, a good quality HD camera will work.  The only thing you will really want to be sure of is the sound quality.  This is very often forgotten when it comes to producing of videos.

So, for demonstrating it’s best to use a clip on microphone, rather than a directional one.  The sound quality is usually much clearer and you will find that it makes the video look a lot better!

If you are using a directional microphone, then you’ll need to be extra careful when filming and check levels regularly.  If in doubt, stick to a clip on microphone that is good quality!

What kind of stuff can be demonstrated?

You can choose a massive amount of things to demonstrate.  There is one company that features very simple videos of their furniture and have done for the last three years with success!

Technical videos that cover what a product can and can’t do are good, as well as gift videos that demonstrate a product more closely.

Pretty much anything can be demonstrated as long as you’re willing to put in the effort.

Sound Advice

The main thing to remember is that unless you’re a skilled editor, you are probably best opting for a close up demonstration of a product with a voice over, rather than trying to achieve Spielberg style shots.

While it’s nice to mix things up with close ups and mid-shots, unless you really know how to frame something you are best leaving it well alone.

A good option if you want some simple editing is to film the demonstration twice.  Once as a close-up and then again as a mid-shot, so you can then intercut between the two in the editing process.

However, again, we would repeat, the simpler you keep things the better result you’ll get.  Remember that people using You Tube are looking for advice, not high production values that cost the earth and that don’t really do what they’re supposed to do.

And before the curtain goes down

Obviously in retail terms, you will find products come in and out, so it’s probably not worth trying to film them all.  Instead, have a think about your popular products, what people tend to ask you about them and then put these in to your video.

Also, if you want to be really clever and get people to your videos, make sure that you tell them in any literature you send out with products so that they know they can come back.

Paul

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This One’s Just For Fun! We’re Holding You In Contempt!

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

Okay, sometimes there are things that make me laugh out loud – some are not really appropriate for this blog but thankfully there are on occasion odd stories which are just too good to ignore and this one is both amusing and perhaps a statement about how the world has embraced Facebook in all corners of life!

Today’s chuckle came from what can only be described potentially as a slightly ‘stupid’ individual perhaps?

Tell us more…

Unbelievably, a man in Texas was recently charged with contempt of court for a ‘social’ faux par as it were, where he essentially asked to be friends with the wrong person in a court case!

No it wasn’t the judge – that would have been beyond stupid, but it was the female defendant he friend requested during the trial!  Surely this must rank as the second most stupid thing you can do with a Facebook account?

What possibly possessed him to do such a thing is frankly beyond me but this one action has created a lot of trouble for him it would seem.

He was charged with four counts of contempt of court and was promptly dismissed from the jury (because he had also updated his profile with details of the case???) but that wasn’t even the end of it…

Once he’d been thrown off the jury and perhaps realised the error of his ways, he then proceeded to contact the defendant to apologise for his actions!  I’m sure she was thrilled that the entire case had to be rescheduled and was delayed because of one jury member.

The sacked juror apparently wanted to tell her how sorry he was and that he now knew what it was like to be prosecuted.  Perhaps this is evidence of why he wasn’t suitable in the first place.

What a sorry, sorry mess!

We don’t know what the specifics of the case are sadly (maybe we’ll see if there’s any evidence suggesting that the other Jurors befriended the defendant?) but rest assured he is unlikely to be asked to jury duty again in his lifetime.

On the upside, at least he’s got another new friend on Facebook I suppose.

Despite his misguided actions, he actually was very lucky with the sentence that was handed out to him though.  He got off very lightly with just two days community service – unlike a recent UK juror who was given an eight month prison sentence for similar activities in a court room.

A lesson learned

While we’ve all become Facebook friendly and we love to update the world with our news, perhaps it’s the fact that people don’t always realise what they share on Facebook  won’t actually necessarily stay on Facebook that we should all understand.

It is also a fairly good indication that the authorities do look at social channels more often these days as criminals are silly it would seem and don’t mind what information they share on Facebook!

Advice

We would never condone any of this kind of behaviour but in terms of your own security, it may always be worth checking your security settings.  Your photos, friends list, wall and updates can be viewable by anyone if you have not restricted the settings.

Ho hum…Big Brother is watching you!

Paul

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How To Write Strong eCommerce Copy – Part 1: Keeping Things Straight

Thursday, October 6th, 2011

A lot of ecommerce websites approach their business with the mindset: ‘Copy doesn’t matter – my products will sell themselves!’ That’s a nice idea, but if your customer isn’t being engaged or given an incentive to purchase, the quality of your product rapidly becomes moot.

Effective product copy needs to succinctly and smartly engage a customer with specific reasons to buy or the customer will look elsewhere for what they need. Brand loyalty falls by the wayside in the online world, especially when your product copy resembles something from the clumsy fingers of Dan Brown.

The first step is identifying your target market and writing in the style that fits with both the brand tone of voice and your demographic. Writing product copy that talks directly to your audience will build engagement and trust with ecommerce customers.

Don’t take a detour, get to the point! 

One of the key components in grabbing your customers’ attention on a product page is a strong tagline. Online customers are usually shopping in a rush and a tagline helps to grab their attention immediately.

Offering incentives to the consumer or shocking them completely will instantly work in your favour, but it needs to be relevant. The best taglines sum up the product in one line, which will lead the consumer to read on. Keep taglines in sentence case to make it easier for the reader to scan quickly.

Good example: A cleanser that’s all bark and no bite [tagline for a natural facial cleanser in reference to the natural soap bark used in the product – it takes a popular saying that people can identify with immediately.]

Preach the benefits…

If you don’t, a new customer is much less likely to buy unless they’ve come to the site on strong word-of-mouth. You should keep ecommerce product copy to a maximum of 200 to 250 words. No one wants to read essays on the products they want to buy, they just want information; break up blocks of text into easily digestible paragraphs with clear and engaging reasons to buy. Get yourself into the habit of being as concise as possible – using bullet points is an easy way to do this.

By giving customers all of the information they need, they can make an informed choice based on their needs and the suitability of your products; this shows that you have the customer in mind and again builds trust through directing informed purchases. Sit down and think of the top benefits of the product, how to use that product if it’s something that isn’t intuitive, and who the product might be good for.

Honesty is key when talking about the benefits of a product.

Call to action

A clear and striking call to action will catch the customer’s eye and lead them on to purchase the product. This is your final pitch to the customer to buy and it is crucial to get it right. If you don’t, you can lose the sale instantly and the customer will leave the site.

People always think that ecommerce copy can’t be good copy because it has to factor in so many different things; in reality, ecommerce copy can be engaging, friendly and informative without stagnating under its own burdens. It’s challenging, but that’s half of the fun.

Paul

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Essential E-commerce Tips For Christmas – Part 1

Saturday, October 1st, 2011

See also: Essential E-commerce Tips For Christmas – Part 2

We all know that as retailers, Christmas can be a very challenging time.  Not only do we have to worry about the usual day-to-day business, but we’ve also got the festive period to cover.

This can be more stock, more staff and a whole lot more orders (hopefully), so in an effort to try and assist our search engine marketing clients, here is our definite guide to enjoying the turkey without feeling stuffed!

Two issues affect retailers

The main issues for businesses online is the marketing for a festive period and then the logistics problems associated with getting the extra orders out.

Now without the marketing, you won’t necessarily have to worry about the logistics, so let’s start with some basics.

Take a look at last year

Often online retailers worry more about what’s coming than what has happened before, but looking back can be very beneficial to your business.

So, take a look at what sold last Christmas.  Is there anything similar in stock this year?

You should even consider looking at what the top Google searches were last year using the Google Keyword Tool and Google Trends to give you some ideas as to what you may need to promote this time around.

Don’t forget your current customers

Very often we forget about the people who have purchased from us previously, so our biggest piece of advice is to make sure you email your customers with your promotions and discounts early!  This will trigger some of your previous buyers to visit your site.

Remember, you are looking to get attention in a very crowded market place, so you will need to remind people you’re around.

Boost your PR and off line marketing work but don’t forget about your Search Engine Marketing campaigns.  If you’re using PPC then make sure you are co-ordinating your advertisements with your promotions to gain maximum effect.

Time sensitive promotions

Think of the ‘early bird’ who likes to catch the worm and you may get a chance of early sales if you produce time sensitive offers. This could be an extra £5.00 off an order or a discount that is only applicable for those who are shopping early.

Don’t under-estimate this either as it’s a proven method of retail online.

Wind up your resources

If you’re expecting to be busy, never let your customer service slip.  It’s time to think about getting in extra pairs of hands or maybe even a bit of customer service training to prepare everyone for the onslaught.

This will pay dividends when you’re working to capacity and need a well oiled machine to keep things moving well.

At Christmas, anything’s possible

During the festive season, you’ll find new customers coming to you – who may only buy from you once a year, so bear this in mind when you’re considering service expectations.  If some of your customers buy regularly from you then they’re used to the way things work.  A new customer may be less patient and in fact doesn’t potentially have a clue how good you are.  So, remember to instil confidence and offer guarantees on delivery etc.

Get your extra stock in now

As you’re looking at selling more (hopefully) then you will want to make sure you’ve got the stock to sustain those orders.

Popular lines should be purchased at double the quantity at least but don’t forget things like packaging, tape, wrapping and labels.  Might sound funny, but if you suddenly run out with a week left before Christmas your customers will not be willing to wait!

If you’re really unsure what you might be doing by way of sales, take a look at your figures for the previous year.

Look for the peak in sales and see how much stock you got out the door that week as it will give you a fairly good indication of what you’re going to need this year.

Great service is everything

For many businesses, they forget about the simple things and one of the easiest ways of keeping people happy is to ensure you are a good communicator.

As a rule of thumb, try and answer a phone within three rings and emails within the hour.  If you do this you will see just how much people appreciate your efforts.

Remember, people are very impatient and if you leave it too long, chances are they will have found the same product somewhere else because that company answered their enquiry more quickly

Never, ever take an order you know you can’t delivery on

If you can see you’re going to run out and cannot replenish the stock, do not take an order and make a false promise.  This is ecommerce suicide.

If you haven’t got something, then find out if the customer is willing to wait.  If not, then try and help them find an alternative or similar item if it’s a gift.

There are so many things you should look at in the ecommerce run up to Christmas, with many of the things in this list being based on experience with real clients, who have become seasoned at dealing with the kind of issues that come up year after year.

Remember to come back soon to view Part 2 of our Essential E-commerce Tips For Christmas .

If you need help with your Search Engine Marketing and SEO or you’re worried about how you can better equip yourself for the festive season, remember to contact us for some good, honest advice!

Paul

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