Loyalty Marketing: Keep Your Tried-and-True 0 4 Loyalty Marketing: Keep Your Tried-and-True Getting new customers is one thing, but keeping them is another. Marketers can try countless ways to draw new sales, but finding successful strategies that can maintain a strong returning customer base is trickier. Marketers often turn toward loyalty rewards programs to get their customers in the habit of coming back, but they must also
April Fool’s Day Prank Successes 1 2 April Fool’s Day Prank Successes Much like our own announcement about the launch of Analog Marketer, many April Fool’s Day campaigns shot through the Internet during this year's annual day of trickery, showing marketers how a good laugh can go far. The YouTube prank, in which the company said it in a celebrity-studded video that it was shutting down, was
The Art Of The Giveaway 1 3 The Art Of The Giveaway It’s no secret people like free stuff. Free money, free gift cards, free anything, really. Companies that have found ways to offer freebies and rewards without cutting too deeply into profits are themselves rewarded with a more loyal, and oftentimes larger, customer base. SwagBucks is among the companies exhibiting the art of the giveaway in
Now Accepting Bitcoins? 0 5 Now Accepting Bitcoins? The bitcoin is a digital currency that’s been in circulation for four years, but continues to baffle consumers, who are increasingly “mining” for fresh money. How did the bitcoin just materialize and start circulating? How does a currency that needs no financial institution change hands? How does the money get created with no central bank?
Lessons From Austin’s Largest E-Commerce Company 1 5 Lessons From Austin’s Largest E-Commerce Company TicketCity, the largest e-commerce company in Austin, TX, built by college sports-loving University of Texas graduates offers numerous lessons for e-commerce entrepreneurs, most importantly: Use passion to drive your business. TicketCity, which now provides ticketing services to more than 75,000 sports, concerts and theater events like the Super Bowl, the Kentucky Derby and the Grad
Can Pinterest Really Help My Business? 57 7 Can Pinterest Really Help My Business? In today’s booming social media, few networking sites are creating as much buzz as San Francisco-based Pinterest.com Offering a unique visual spin on social bookmarking, Pinterest allows businesses and individuals to create stunning palates of their works and offers. In less than three (3) years, it has become the third largest social media site in
20 Questions You Must Ask Yourself When Choosing an Ecommerce Product/Niche 8 7 20 Questions You Must Ask Yourself When Choosing an Ecommerce Product/Niche Choosing a product or niche is the most important and the most difficult part of starting an ecommerce business. With tens of thousands of possible choices, how do you find the one that will stand the greatest chance of success? By studying hundreds of successful and unsuccessful ecommerce businesses and their products I have compiled
American Express and Twitter: Why Their New Program Will Be a Hit 1 1 American Express and Twitter: Why Their New Program Will Be a Hit American Express and Twitter announced their brand new partnership this week that will allow tweeters to make purchases simply by doing what they do best... tweeting. At first glance it seems like a pretty painless process. You start by syncing your American Express card to your Twitter account. Once this is done you can purchase
What’s The Big Deal With Big Data? 0 3 What’s The Big Deal With Big Data? Big data, a practice in which data is shared among all digital marketing initiatives in a company, is set to be one of the hottest Internet marketing strategies this year. Big data is a practice that took hold last year and continues to be enthusiastically embraced by digital marketers. Marketers who use big data look
Amazon Jockeys For eCommerce Edge 2 3 Amazon Jockeys For eCommerce Edge Did anyone ever seriously use Facebook credits? Do users even know what they were? Facebook seemed to realize the answer is “no” as the social media site has recently phased out the alternative payment system for virtual items. But as Facebook is realizing eCommerce was a flop with its users, Amazon.com announced Tuesday that its
eCom, Now A Trillion Dollar Industry 5 4 eCom, Now A Trillion Dollar Industry Last summer, I attended a digital marketing conference in which the presenter was preaching (with fire and brimstone passion, no less) the merits of... selling physical goods. It seemed a little strange to be talking about selling actual widgets at a digital marketing conference, because well... there's all that annoying stuff like shipping and logistics.
Newegg Slays Shopping Cart Trolls 0 1 Newegg Slays Shopping Cart Trolls Did you know that having a "shopping cart" on you e-commerce site was a violation of a patent? Well, unless you're one of the top 20 largest retailers online, you've probably never heard of this trolling scheme... But if your name is Amazon, Nordstrom, Avon, Radio Shack, or Newegg, you've probably received a threatening letter
BlackBerry Users Get Their Own iTunes 0 2 BlackBerry Users Get Their Own iTunes In yesterday's post, I quoted a great Benedict Evans piece in which he explained that Android's marketplace, Google Play, was most likely a tactical afterthought. That is, Google created Android to compete for mobile search users and then figured out the rest as it went along. Well, e-commerce is even more of an afterthought for
Always Personalize Your eCom Experience 3 2 Always Personalize Your eCom Experience I was toying with the idea of giving this article the title, "Personalize Every eCom Experience, Even Ebay." It's a rule that should probably be codified into eCom law, or at least a rule of thumb... and it would have a pretty awesome acronym: "PEEEEE." But I didn't title this article PEEEEE, because you don't
Amazon Resurrects Your CD Collection? 3 2 Amazon Resurrects Your CD Collection? So what's the world leader in ecommerce up to these days? They're promoting this amazing form of audio technology called the "Compact Disc," maybe you've heard of it... You might think I'm kidding, but I'm not. Earlier this week, the news leaked that Amazon will launch a new service called Auto Rip, which will give
eBay Boosts Mobile Firepower With Updated iOS App 0 2 eBay Boosts Mobile Firepower With Updated iOS App What will it take for eBay to get you shopping and selling like it's 2005 again? How about a shiny new iOS app... will that help? Actually, they don't want you to do it exactly the same way as you did back in the mid-aughties... they want you to buy and sell your wares via
Getting Started with Retargeting 2 1 Getting Started with Retargeting As a digital marketer, you're probably at least somewhat familiar with retargeting, the display technology that's largely taken the digital marketing world by storm. If you haven't yet used retargeting, or aren't yet an expert, here's an overview of what it is, how it works, and how it might fit in to your digital strategy.
Mobile: The Wild West Of 2013? 2 3 Mobile: The Wild West Of 2013? If the majority of your business comes from paid desktop traffic, there's something you should know... you are very vulnerable. The reason is that you're paying the highest rates to reach a shrinking pool of users. And according to Keith Teare, co-founder of TechCrunch and CEO of just.me, the state of online advertising will only
Kindle Fire Takes Second Place [POLL] 1 2 Kindle Fire Takes Second Place [POLL] The Kindle Fire is holding a distant second... but a SOLID one, according to the most unscientific polling system imaginable: Twitter search. This poll was conducted by searching Twitter for "First tweet on [fill-in-the-blank tablet]" on Christmas Eve and then counting how many tweets showed up. I told you it wasn't scientific... Still, the results
WSJ Calls Email Marketing A "Dark Art" [VIDEO] 0 1 WSJ Calls Email Marketing A "Dark Art" [VIDEO] This morning, as I was combing through all of the DM-worthy news on the web, I found a video that made me chuckle. Actually, it was the headline, a great headline, for a really dull subject that got my attention... "The Dark Art of Email Promotions." Let me start by saying that I like the
How To Keep Your Customers After The Holidays [PART 2] 1 3 How To Keep Your Customers After The Holidays [PART 2] It happens all too often at this time of the year: eCommerce store owners get whipped into a frenzy, trying to get everything ready for the holiday season. A list of questions races through their heads. Are my holiday promotion emails written? Does my drop shipper have everything in stock? Are my ad campaigns (Google,
How To Keep Your Customers After The Holidays [PART 1] 4 3 How To Keep Your Customers After The Holidays [PART 1] It happens all too often at this time of the year: eCommerce store owners get whipped into a frenzy trying to get everything ready for the holiday season. A list of questions races through their heads. Are my holiday promotion emails written? Does my drop shipper have everything in stock? Are my ad campaigns (Google,
Kindle Sales Double Over Black Friday Weekend 1 1 Kindle Sales Double Over Black Friday Weekend If you're familiar with Amazon's press releases, you know how much Bezos and Company like to toot their own horn. So does Apple, come to think about it... In fact, press releases from Apple and Amazon read like the lyrics to a hip hop song... each brand taking turns to flaunt all their bling, the
