Simple Steps to Effective Electronic Coupons

Online coupons are a very effective way to attract new customers and encourage existing customers to return to make new purchases. Furthermore, people who search out online coupons tend to be the ones who are most likely to try new products and tell their friends about their online shopping experiences.

However, badly designed coupons will work against you, preventing you from reaching your marketing goals. Here are some tips for designing a successful e-coupon campaign.

Offering Online Coupons Can Generate New Business – When Done Right

1. Make the Offer Appealing to a Wide Audience
It might be tempting to restrict the coupon to a few products that you’d really like to sell. However, narrowing your offer also means discouraging potential customers. A coupon that will appeal to any site user will be far more effective at convincing more people to buy.

2. Keep the Discount Fair
It’s easy to get greedy and try to nudge people into buying more in order to receive the benefit of the coupon. However, it’s better to remember that the goal of your coupon is to convince people to try your site and tell their friends about it. Offering discounts that are too small, or which have a minimum purchase price that is larger than most people pay on their first sale, will only discourage new buyers.

3. Reinforce the Coupon on the Website
If you use the coupon in an email or a banner advertisement, be sure to reinforce the message on the landing page visitors first come to when they click through to your website. Otherwise, they might feel lost or worry that the offer is no longer valid.

4. Make the Coupon Code Easy to Use
Many companies create complex codes, assuming that their visitors will copy-paste the text into the correct field. However, many people simply write down codes and save them for later. Codes that are too complicated or use confusing characters might not work when users try to type them in, leaving them feeling frustrated.

Also, make sure that the place to type in the coupon code at the checkout is easy to find and use. Many customers get easily frustrated by having to follow obscure links to enter coupon information, and leave the site in disgust.

5. Build a Sense of Urgency
The “use it or lose it” urge is a compelling way to convince people to go ahead and make a purchase. People absolutely hate to miss a good deal. Using expiry dates on your online coupons will make users far more likely to participate in your deal.

Electronic coupons are an intelligent addition to any marketing plan. Test what works with your own business model and ad campaigns, and see what a big difference they can make to your bottom line.

If you are looking for ways to improve your online sales, give me a call on 01491 614121 for a no obligation consultation.

2 The Pros and Cons of Concentrating Your Advertising on Google

Google is quickly becoming the 800-pound gorilla of the marketing world, especially after buying DoubleClick, one of the internet’s largest ad firms. As Google offers more and more services and features to internet advertisers, it’s a good idea to consider the pros and cons of investing most – or all – of your ad budget with the world’s greatest search engine.

Pros of Investing Your Ad Budget with Google

• Google has worked very hard to put together an advertising network that provides real value to consumers and businesses around the world. Google offers a wide range of options for advertisers, from simple SEO tactics on your web page, to geographic targeting of AdWords ads to target the precise audience you are aiming at.
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• The AdWords content network allows you to reach your target audience on websites where they spend the most time, as well as on the search results page.
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• Importantly, when it comes to being listed in the natural results or next to them with AdWords ads, you are reaching people right when they are most likely to buy – in the very places where they are actively searching for the products and services your site offers.
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• Google has an absolutely enormous audience. Recent figures show that 64% of US web searches and 79% of UK searches were made through Google. Considering the proliferation of search engines on the World Wide Web, this is the lion’s share of a market that is growing exponentially. Billions of searches are made on Google.
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• The AdSense network also allows websites to earn additional revenue by simplifying the process of adding advertisements to the site. Because the ads are relevant to the content, they perform well and earn more money for publishers.
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• Finally, the Google AdWords and AdSense programs are easy to use, and work together with other tools and services Google provides, such as Google Analytics, to help businesses make large profits without hassle.
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Dangers of Relying too Heavily on Google

• In its quest to eliminate spammers and to return relevant results, Google is constantly changing its search algorithms. This means that a tactic that works perfectly one day may backfire the next, even if you are not knowingly using any Black Hat search- optimization methods. If Google is your only source for new leads, a simple mistake on Google’s part, even if it is corrected within a few days, can be devastating.
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• Situations change fast online. If something catastrophic happens to the Google company, it could bring down your business as well. Over-reliance on just one source of revenue is a bad idea for any company.
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• Google is so popular you can be sure your ads will be competing against the major players in your business arena. However, your competition often overlooks similar services run by Google’s top competitors, such as MSN and Yahoo. This means you can find some great deals on keywords by using other sites.
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While Google is not a revenue source that should be dismissed lightly, diversifying your advertising budget can help shield your company from fluctuations in the online market or in Google’s offerings. Consider supplementing your advertising campaign by using Google’s competitors and by using other tactics such as starting a blog, writing for article directories, email marketing campaigns, and negotiating advertising deals with select websites directly.

You can call me on 01491 614121 if you would like a no obligation consultation regarding the effectiveness of your online marketing activities.

Using the Internet to Build Customer Relationships

Converting a new site visitor to a paying customer is almost always more expensive and time-consuming than retaining the customers you already have. In fact, depending on your business model, convincing an existing customer to buy again can be up to ten times less expensive.

Yet, far too many businesses concentrate their efforts and marketing budget on new business, to the exclusion of everything else. Learn how to use the power of the internet to maintain customer relationships and maximize your profits.

Grow Profits by Maintaining Customers for Life

First off, think of some of the reasons why a former customer might not buy from your company again. Some of these reasons might include:

•  - They had a bad experience and didn’t give you a chance to rectify it
•  - They’ve found better pricing or responsiveness elsewhere
•  - They don’t know about other products/services that could help them
•  - They’ve simply forgotten about your company
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The internet makes it easy and cost-effective to address all these issues and more. Why? Traditional advertising methods such as radio, television, magazine or billboard ads are a one-way conversation. You are using marketing to tell your customers what you want them to know, and you have very little opportunity to speak to them on a personal level.

With the internet, on the other hand, you have the opportunity to revolutionize your communication. You can instantly create highly tailored information for your current customer base, leveraging the information you already have about them to customize offers that will appeal to their tastes.

For example, look at the highly effective book recommendations Amazon offers its clients. The more people use Amazon, the more helpful it is for them. This creates a feeling of loyalty, and a barrier to choosing a different company instead.

You can also tailor your marketing emails to address the personal interests of your current customers, tell them about new products and services that might interest them, and remind them of your business. Using e-coupons and sales notifications, you can help them realize your company is giving them the best possible price and service available.

Furthermore, you can turn your customer interaction from a monologue to a dialogue.

By using corporate blogs, feedback forms, polls, case studies, and website information, you can clearly show your company’s willingness to listen to your customers. By encouraging customers to speak up about their experiences, you have the opportunity to successfully resolve problems and collect information you need to streamline your operation to make your clients happier.

Finally, you can use the internet to find out what your customers do, which is not necessarily the same as what they say. Information about how they use your website and how they react to marketing emails is invaluable information that will help you make your offerings more attractive.

Only the internet can give you so much power at so little cost. Give me a call on 01491 614121 if you wish to explore how we can help you build better customer relationships.

4 Use SWOT Analysis to Make Better Business Decisions

Have you ever wished for a better tool to determine whether a new online product or service will be successful or not? If so, you should learn about the power of SWOT analysis.

Whether you are starting a new business or considering expanding into the online arena with your company, a SWOT analysis can help you predict success and anticipate potential problems before they occur, minimizing their impact.

Understand What a SWOT Analysis Is, and How it Can Help Your Company

SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. The first two are internal factors – conditions within your organization that could impact the goal. Opportunities and Threats are external factors, market conditions that could aid or jeopardize your undertaking.

When creating a SWOT analysis, it’s important to be as specific as possible, and to consider each of the four factors as they apply to a concrete goal. Otherwise, the analysis does not result in any actionable information.

For example, let’s say your company is considering offering a new online service. You might start your SWOT analysis like this:

• Strengths – Your company has a strong reputation in its field.
• Weaknesses – Your staff is too small to support the extra work the new online service might require.
• Opportunities – There is a large target audience for this new online service.
• Threats – You have several established competitors that are already offering this service.
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Your completed SWOT analysis will have many factors listed under each category. It is a good idea to support these factors with concrete data and references whenever possible.

When you are finished, look at the result and consider what steps you can take to maximize the advantages and resolve or minimize the impact of the problems. For example, you can parlay the strength of your reputation into an advantage for the new online service by offering current customers a free trial. And you can evaluate ways to eliminate the weakness by hiring extra staff members or eliminating less profitable services from your current enterprise, freeing up more staff time for the new service.

Having come up with actionable steps to address the factors you developed in the SWOT analysis, you can decide whether or not to proceed with the new online venture.

Good business decisions are based on facts, not guesswork. A SWOT analysis can help you determine the facts about a new opportunity, and enable you to clearly formulate the steps required to achieve success.

If you would benefit from a more thorough consultation about your online business strategy, please call me on 01491 614121 for a no obligation appointment.

Google Launches Online Payment Method in the UK

Google Checkout, an online payment method that allows merchants to easily and inexpensively accept credit card payments from consumers, has been launched in the United Kingdom.

Google Checkout has been very popular in the US because it allows consumers to shop across a wide range of online stores without having to enter their information over and over again, while providing increased security features. They do not have to expose their email addresses or credit card and bank information to potentially untrustworthy online retailers.

Retailers also benefit from Checkout, which integrates with their current websites and shopping carts. Checkout is much simpler to obtain and use than standard merchant accounts are, and it also includes advanced fraud and chargeback protection. Furthermore, increased customer trust usually results in more sales.

For AdWords users, a Google Checkout logo will appear on your ads, which would be an attraction to the millions of consumers who use this service. This in turn could improve the click-through and conversion rates of your ads.

Google is aggressively marketing Checkout services in the UK and the US, including no-fee processing until 2008, discounts for AdWords advertisers. Low fees and free incentives for customers to buy are two big reasons to try the service.

Even if you already have a payment processor, you can use Google and appeal to a wider range of customers.

With consumers and businesses celebrating the opening of Checkout in the UK, the one group that is sure to be unhappy at the news is PayPal, the current leader in the global online payment arena. With only a few insignificant competitors, PayPal has dominated this very important niche for many years.

Although breaking into a market with such a dominant presence is difficult, even for the great Google, Checkout has a good chance in this case. Even Google Checkout’s non-promotional fees are far lower than PayPal’s. Combined with the offer of £10 of free processing for every £1 spent on AdWords, Google has a very clear price advantage.

Furthermore, many businesses and consumers have registered complaints about PayPal’s poor customer service and sometimes draconian decisions. A good example was when SomethingAwful.com had a fundraiser to help Katrina victims – and PayPal responded by freezing their account because it suspected fraudulent activity.

However, PayPal still offers some important features that Checkout can’t match – at least, not yet. Checkout can only be used for consumer-to-merchant payments, whereas PayPal allows payments to and from anyone in any of the 100-plus countries they support.

Recurring payments for subscription services are also easy to implement with PayPal, whereas Google Checkout does not support them.

In general, more choices are an advantage for business owners and consumers alike. Will Google Checkout become a threat to PayPal’s dominance? Watch this space.