14
Feb
Will You Be Our Valentine?
Happy Valentine’s Day! We hope all of our merchants racked up from the annual rush of sentimental purchases, as well as received tokens of affection themselves. On this day of love and appreciation, the 3dcart team wanted to take a moment to share our gratitude and appreciation for our Valentine – YOU, our customers.
We love eCommerce; we live & breathe it, but that’s not what makes us passionate about our jobs. We are passionate about helping you build your business. We feel honored to have the privilege of helping more than 10,000 of you run your businesses everyday.
In honor of Valentine’s Day’s cheesy & heartfelt tradition, a few members of our team wanted to send you a Valentine’s message:
“If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, and it will after trying any other shopping cart, then it’s yours forever.”
- Gonzalo Gil – CEO
“Let me be your one and only! I’ll give you the best eCommerce, Web Design and SEO Services, all in one place.”
Joe Berger – Sales Director
“Our customers are amazing. Over the years as we’ve grown, so have our customers. It’s amazing to watch a small business become a real competitor in its industry. We’ve had the pleasure of watching several small businesses that have been with 3dcart over many years do exactly that.”
Jimmy Rodriguez – CTO
“We love providing great customer service for our clients. There is no better feeling than sharing the knowledge about something you love like 3dcart with new business looking to succeed online.”
Henry Suarez – Technical Support Manager
12
Feb
3dcart Valentine’s Day Specials
Cupids day of love is almost upon us. Check out these 3dcart stores that are showing their customers some love!
ParisiansPureIndulgence.com - Save 25% on Sugared Butter Whip Body Polish
Indulge someone you love with soft, smooth skin with Parisian’s Pure Indulgence Sugared Butter Whip body polish!
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www.elegantweddingsplus.com - Begin all your life events with us! Affordable luxury of elegant events
Additional discount on most LOVE Theme items – no coupon necessary. Sale runs January 15th to February 28th 2012
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www.itrendystuff.com - 10% off Store Wide discount. Use Coupon – > LOVE
We’ve got a sweetheart of a deal for you.
08
Feb
Stop Irritating Your Subscribers
Constant Contact found that users receive three permission-based emails a day. So what makes users open some and not others? Or worse than deleting your email, what makes users mark you as spam forever sending your emails to never never land?
The answer is pretty simple: Basic email etiquette, Quality over quantity, personal over pitch, and customer-centric messaging.
28
Dec
Going Global
The number of online shoppers keeps increasing, as well as the frequency of which they do so with 38 percent making at least one online purchase per month! And that’s not just a US trend, eCommerce is a global force! Online retailing breaks down the barriers of the brick and mortar world creating a virtual international market. To get a feel of just how global ecommerce truly is, check out this infographic by Kyle Anthony Miller,
27
Apr
Attract Readers to Your Blog Community
Guest post by :Bethany Ramos
How Your Blog Relates to Your Social Media Presence
As an e-commerce business owner, make no mistake that your blog relates directly to your social media presence.Did you ever think about the fact that your customers aren’t going to purchase your products or services directly through a social media website like Facebook or Twitter? So how do you get them to buy?
The best tool that you can use to attract customers to your website is by enticing them to visit your blog first of all.
The Power of Exceptional Blog Content
As a small business owner, it is essential that you blog regularly. This doesn’t mean that you need to be a slave to your blog by any means, but sitting down one time a week to write out three blogs that can be scheduled throughout the week will do a world of good. Firstly, when these blogs include your keywords, they will naturally improve your search engine rankings and make it easier for customers to find you in the search results.
Secondly, when you write exceptional blog content and automatically link your new blog post to your social media profiles on Facebook and Twitter, it will be likely that customers will re-tweet or repost this information if it is valuable. Remember, the most successful approach to take in social media as a business owner is to provide your customers with something of value for absolutely free.
Attract Readers to Your Blog Community
Once customers begin to realize that you are offering them valuable content at no cost, they will be likely to visit your blog and become loyal readers. This is the first step in attracting customers back to your brand and community to purchase products from you. Keep in mind that a blog is still a neutral ground for customers to interact, comment, and find information regarding your niche.
A blog is still NOT the place for hard selling.
To qualify, it does help to have an opt-in form on every page of your blog so that customers can opt-in for more information about your company. This means that customers are willingly providing you with their e-mail address to stay updated about your brand via e-mail.
This is your golden opportunity to continue to build relationships with your customers and sell to them in the appropriate context.
If you are attracting customers to your blog through social media and hard selling them there, then they will be likely to leave right away. Instead, your blog can serve as a functioning social community to attract more and more readers to support your brand. When these readers opt-in to your e-mail list on your blog or click on a related link to visit your website, then they will be given the chance to purchase your products or services.
Do you see how your blog works as a link in the chain to attract social media customers to your website to purchase? Providing exceptional blog content is a must to increase sales and revenue for your brand online!
Bethany Ramos is an expert in Internet and social media marketing, and she also co-owns her own e-commerce website, The Coffee Bump. For a great selection of the Best Bodum French Press, check out Bethany Ramos’ website today!
26
Apr
How Product Recommendations can Boost your Sales 10-25%
Guest post by: Amy Weissfeld
Big retailers like Amazon.com and Netflix reap big profits through product recommendations, “Customers who bought this, also bought…” This is because recommendations help your customers find what they’re looking for. They create a better shopping experience. Because of this, they also boost sales. Personalized recommendations convert browsers to buyers, generate larger average order values, lower cart abandonment and result in more repeat business. Recommendations have quickly gone from a nice-to-have to a must-have. They are an integral part of your online marketing and customers expect them.
You might be thinking you already have recommendations, because you manually enter them through your admin panel, or have business rules that pull recommended product from the same category as a viewed product. Perhaps you’re thinking that your merchandising or sales expertise is better than any automated system could be. But using intelligent, automated recommendations is not only easier, forget the resource-intensive maintenance effort you may be used to; Our customers’ tell us they receive a much bigger sales boost as well. For example, Smartpakcanine.com boosted revenue a whopping 36% over manual recommendations. On average, most retailers experience a 10-25% increase in sales. If you’re not yet using personalized product recommendations, you’re definitely leaving money on the table.
So, how does it work?
Automated systems provide much more robust recommendations by leveraging your existing data, including historical sales data, new sales data, and product catalog information. The resulting recommendations are displayed on your site – including in product detail pages, landing pages, within the shopping cart, even in email. Different types of recommendations can be used in various locations throughout your online store, but all take into consideration what a customer is looking at, who they are and/or what’s in the cart.
Delivering this personalized experience, by leveraging the sales and product data you already have, is easier and more affordable than you might think. We’ve created a plugin for 3dcart that makes integration a cinch. You don’t have to change your page templates or do any coding. This means no IT or agency bills. It takes less than an hour to integrate, and uses historical sales data so it’s smart on day one.
Here are a few things to consider when adding recommendations to your site:
- Ease and speed of integration with your ecommerce platform
- Minimal start-up time, meaning that the system does not require a lengthy burn-in/learning period prior to being able to start making recommendations
- Ability to generate recommendations for each customer, known as one-to-one personalization. Some vendors are selling market segmentation solutions as personalization. These segmentation solutions categorize shoppers into only a few segments, and, thus, are not as effective as a true personalized recommendation system. They also take longer to setup.
- Ability to generate effective recommendations even for products with limited sales volume or history
- Try before you buy trial
- Transparent pricing, avoid long term commitments, set-up fees and hefty integration charges. These can add significantly to the total cost of ownership.
For more information, you can download our free whitepaper, “Personalization Q&A”, or contact me at amy@4-Tell.com or 503.516.1800.
Amy Weissfeld is the Senior Director of Sales and Marketing at 4-Tell. She has 7 years of ecommerce and interactive experience, successfully leading companies of all sizes. At 4-Tell, Amy works to bring value to clients and partners by helping strategically implement 4-Tell’s personalization and recommendation solution.
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12
Apr
The Best Way to Spend an Hour on Social Media
By Lara Galloway, The Mom Biz Coach
If you’re reading this post, there’s a good chance you run an internet business or market yourself heavily online. And you probably already know how critical it is for small businesses to use Social Media to increase their visibility, build their credibility and drive traffic to their websites, right?
So much of my business coaching practice runs through the arteries of social networks like Twitter (which I consider “my office”), Facebook and LinkedIn. In fact, about 95% of my new clients first find me on Twitter. I’m evangelistic about the ability to build my brand and connect with my ideal clients using Social Media. But the biggest resistance I get when I suggest my clients do the same is this: “I don’t have enough time.”
I know, I know. Hopping onto the internet, surfing around social networks, and trying to keep up with everything your network is talking about can be an incredible time suck. Some of my clients fear Social Media altogether since they want to avoid “falling into the black hole” that it can be.
How can you be effective and efficient on your social networks? I list five tasks below that teach you the best ways to spend an hour of your time each day on Social Media.
Set yourself up for success.
Stop visiting each of the main networks individually. Use a program that allows you to link your networks together instead. I use Hootsuite to link my Twitter, Facebook (personal and business page) and LinkedIn accounts together. Hootsuite has great video tutorials to teach you how to get started and how to link your social networks together.
Next, create “groups” in Hootsuite to track your most important contacts (groups like “Clients,” “Friends,” and “VIP” or “Mentors”). When you’re looking for some good information to retweet or share with your network, see what the contacts in these “groups” are saying first. This helps drown out the “noise” that clutters a Twitter timeline when you start getting lots of followers.
Once you’re set up in Hootsuite, do the five tasks below (in order). Each task (except the last one) assumes you’ll spend about 10 minutes on it, so you could do all of your tasks in a one-hour chunk, or you can spread the tasks throughout the day, just 10 minutes or so at a time.
Task #1. Your first priority during your hour is to respond to the people who are talking to you or talking about you (mentioning your @twitttername on Twitter, tagging you on Facebook, etc.). Answer the public messages (@mentions or Wall Posts) as well as the private ones (DMs on Twitter, messages on Facebook, inbox on LinkedIn). Spend 10 minutes.
Task #2. Next, find some good, relevant, high quality or entertaining things to retweet (or share posts on Facebook) from the people you’ve included in your groups. Keep your brand in mind. Stay professional and relevant to your target audience. Spend 10 minutes.
Task #3. Now, create some original content that helps showcase your expertise: tips, good ideas, a great blog post or podcast you’ve created. Spend 10 minutes.
Task #4. Find new people to follow who are either part of your target market, who are following your competition, or people you can learn from (either people in your industry or those who teach you what you need to know). Spend 10 minutes.
Task #5. Just surf. You’ve got 20 minutes left. Go see what your friends, clients, people in your industry, and people you’re interested in are talking about. Browse your Twitter timeline, get lost following links that others share, join in conversations on blogs or on Facebook, read the questions people are posting on LinkedIn. Strike up conversations with strangers. This is critical learning and connecting time and allows you to keep your fingers on the pulse of your social networks.
Sound doable? Give me your questions and feedback in the comments below. Let me know where you’re getting stuck and I’ll see if I can offer a solution!
Lara Galloway, The Mom Biz Coach and founder of The Mom Biz Academy—The “MBA” for Mompreneurs, is an avid user of Social Media to help build her business. Listed in Forbes “Thirty Women Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter,” Galloway helps women business owners manage their time, their family and their business so they can be successful on their own terms.You can nearly always find her in her Twitter office: @mombizcoach. Learn more about her coaching and mentoring at www.mombizcoach.com, or tune into her weekly radio show at www.blogtalkradio.com/MomBizCoach.
24
Mar
Facebook Marketing: Learn a Thing or Two from Starbucks
By: Bethany Ramos
It’s no secret that Starbucks is one of the top corporations in America, and their success didn’t happen by acc
ident. Starbucks has always stayed ahead of the curve when it comes to off-line and online marketing, and we as e-commerce business owners can learn a thing or two from their approach to social media.
The majority of Starbucks customers order directly through franchise locations, yet Starbucks still has a solid online presence and following that is rapidly growing. Why is that? The truth is that an online following can benefit any physical retail business, as well as an e-commerce website, to ensure customer loyalty and draw even more customers to your brand.
Here are a few top tips that you can learn from Starbucks’ approach to social media marketing via Facebook:
Default Page: The Starbucks default page on Facebook focuses on the Starbucks Card. Why is that? Well, for one thing, the Starbucks Card can be ordered, filled, and used online, so it is Starbucks’ primary focus in social media. On the main landing page of the Starbucks Facebook page, Facebook users can gift a Starbucks Card via Facebook or manage their own card accounts. This approach is simply brilliant because, with the click of a button, any Facebook user can purchase a new Starbucks Card online to give to a friend without leaving the Facebook website.
Global Awareness: Starbucks also has an “Around the World” tab on their Facebook page to promote their activities worldwide. Since social media is primarily driven by user awareness, this is an excellent concept to showcase Starbucks’ global impact and involvement in charities. Starbucks also takes it further by using the Events tab in Facebook to promote their new specials and product launches to generate interest in the Facebook community. Facebook fans of Starbucks have the opportunity to virtually attend Starbucks events launching new products or concepts.
Content Promotion: Starbucks constantly updates specials and new product information and facilitates conversation with fans by asking questions directly to customers. This is a hugely successful component of social media marketing for any e-commerce or retail business. Starbucks has generated a serious following for their brand with over 20 million fans by constantly engaging and interacting with customers online.
Last but not least, Starbucks has also used the driving force of social media to create their own community called My Starbucks Idea. There, customers are prompted to submit their own ideas about Starbucks that will be taken into consideration by the company. The real kicker is that Starbucks actually uses these customer ideas, so customers are encouraged to continue to contribute to the brand. What we as e-commerce business owners can take away from the Starbucks social media example is that we must engage with customers as often as possible. When a customer actually sees you listen, respond, and answer one of their questions or comments online, you will solidify customer loyalty and create a positive reputation that will spread like wildfire online.
Bethany Ramos is an expert in Internet and social media marketing, and she also co-owns her own e-commerce website, The Coffee Bump. For a great selection of the Bunn home coffee maker, check out Bethany Ramos’ website today!
10
Mar
Don’t Get Stuck in a Facebook Rut: How to Market in Social Media
By: Bethany Ramos
By now, you may have already set up a few social media profiles to increase your presence as an e-commerce business, right?
Well, what so many e-commerce business owners come to realize as they start to market in social media is that it is often harder than it seems to create long-lasting relationships, reach out to new customers, and improve your visibility. If you’re having a difficult time reaching out to customers and friends on a social media website like Facebook, there are some important guidelines for you to keep in mind to stimulate conversation without spamming.
Here are the best practices to get you started in marketing your e-commerce business through social media.
More…
11
Feb
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