Archives for June 2012

Web Content: Don’t Forget the Punches

June 30, 2012 by admin Leave a Comment

We have all been hearing how little content is required on ecommerce websites from a certain section of services providers. Yet another section has been arguing the opposite. Which camp is lying about it?

Neither one, to be honest. Ecommerce sites do not require as much content as do other sites.

Sure, they can always use articles, blogs, and press releases for promoting their products. The site or store itself requires only a small amount of content such as product descriptions and pages such as About Us, Company or Returns Policy, help files for placing, paying for, and receiving an order, gifting, and so on. Beyond that, little to no content is necessary.

Content Writing — Web Content: Don’t Forget the Punches

Those who crown content king will be reluctant to agree with this, but that’s really how it should work. Or should it?

Well, the point is, someone who is out shopping online is not merely a shopper at the time he or she is shopping. It’s a person we are talking about. If something catches their eye, they might decide to go ahead with the purchase. If they do not like something, it could be good-bye webstore.

Content is the channel that keeps your customer focused. Sure, they wanna watch the pictures, the video, and even take in the overall design. But they want to be led to the juiciest parts of the store too. And content does that best.

Plenty of your content will be boilerplate; we do this, we do that, we are no. 1, we are the best … and so on. The true value of quality content lies in NOT saying any of it. Have you seen such phrases on sites such as Apple.com? Well, it’s certainly not as blatant.

Your customers definitely do not want any of that. So what do they want? They want information. Content provides that the best. That is a prime reason why search engines rely almost exclusively on content than on anything else.

At this point, I’ll stretch matters a bit further and hop over to the interesting part of the conundrum.

Shoppers want to read exciting news, info, and other content that generally help them in multiple ways. Just using web content that is refreshingly original and straight from the heart makes a huge difference to the perception of your webstore. Someone who has thoroughly studied your site, your business, and your capability to expand both is in the best position to write such content.

Punches in your sentences, phrases, are what matter the most. I’ll take up a post with examples of punches some other day, but for now, I’ll say that those critical words at the bottom of a paragraph, blog post, or web content is what pulls your customer in.

Good punches necessarily require highly valuable content to precede them, and that content needs to be written by someone who knows what they are talking about. Entertaining, honest, simple, easy to follow … these are adjective that describe the best content.

So go on, ‘punch’ your way to success!

(See what I mean?)

Cheers!

Why Social Media Doesn’t Work

June 28, 2012 by admin 1 Comment

The truth is that social media has simply been added to the rest of the constantly expanding media-sphere. And by itself, it’s not any more important than the rest of the media. The reality is that it’s not about the media at all. It’s about engagement. The way to make social media work is to forget about social media. At least for the moment. Advertisers must return their focus to developing an effective communication strategy. A good communication strategy will dictate not just whether social media is an option but it will also define exactly how social media is going to work for the brand.

The key point: Social media is just one aspect of an effective communication strategy. So how does that work exactly?

Three things you must have to make social media work for your brand.

An effective communication strategy has three primary aspects. They are:

a content development/message strategy,
a media channel strategy,
and an engagement strategy.

You need to know who it is you’re trying to reach and what it is that they are interested in and what that has to do with your brand. Put it all together and you have something you can work with. Primary research has never been more important than it is today.

Working out the nuances of content/message are vital but potentially worthless if the media channel used to deliver it is either inappropriate for the content or the customer.

The reason why social media doesn’t work is simply because marketers are thinking too small. When they consider the cost of creating a Facebook page (basically free), then they take a “sure — why not attitude” and their foray into social media starts and ends with the expectation that they will be getting something for nothing. But it’s not that easy. Advertising is a lot harder today than it ever was before. Or at least it’s still as hard as ever. You still have to produce big ideas that engage people if you want advertising to work.

If you aren’t currently using social media to good effect, please contact Ydeveloper. We will undertake an in-depth study of your business and then provide a host of services to help you make it work for you.

Benefits of an eBay Store for Your eBusiness

June 26, 2012 by admin 2 Comments

To begin with, an eBay store allows you to upload a great number of products for sale on eBay for only a very nominal listing fee. Your store on eBay affords greater control over the products you upload. It also lets you create your own business strategy.

eBay has a great reputation out there, among online shopper. That in itself is a major advantage for your business, provided the business can fit into the particular model followed by eBay. In addition, there’s a huge user base that eBay enjoys that will stand your business in good stead.

Getting an eBay store not only provides the benefits of the platform, it also brings a huge amount of exposure for your business. Once your business gets off to a flying start on eBay, you can take it forward from there. Of course, you are the best judge of what works for your business, but it may help acquire the initial footfalls and sales.

There are three kinds of eBay stores: basic, premium, and anchor. Most businesses will only require a basic store that costs just under $16.

Markdown Manager – generate sales on your listings
Accounting Assistant – easily export eBay store transactions and associated PayPal transactions into QuickBooks
Selling Manager – manage your sales better
Picture Manager – host your product images on eBay’s servers
Email Marketing – build an email/newsletter list and promote your products using targeted emails

In addition, the Store Referral Credit gives you a 75% credit on the Final Value Fees once you have made sales from your listings. An eBay store can also be designed to reflect the colors and design you have in mind for your eBay store.

With an eBay Store, you can have a majority of your products listed at your own store and use only a few in the general listing to drive traffic toward your eBay store. You can use auctions for this purpose. Just mention in your individual listings that you have these other interesting products at your own store and promote that larger selection of products.

If you need any help with setting up your eBay store, just contact us. We’ll not only take care of the processes and guide you; we’ll also be there for you later, just in case you should require any help with your eBay store.

Web Content: A Strategic Review

June 20, 2012 by admin Leave a Comment

Web content strategy is not accorded the due importance that is only inherently present in the very concept. And that is because everyone from marketing (including SEO), design, mobile, and social media are too busy trumpeting the importance of their own specialization. The truth, however, is that without an appropriate web content strategy, without appropriate web content, no one’s going anywhere.

So what is so wonderful about your web content and the strategy it follows?

To begin with, web content strategy is about asking all the right questions way before any kind of real work is done. That’s how important it is. The questions involved are as follows:

What human and other equipment do you have internally to promote your content efforts?
Where do you want your organization to go from where it is currently?
How much of a gap exists between your corporate objective and current corporate situation?
What resources do you own that could help take your organization in the right direction?

I used to wonder a lot about the reason why the Internet is so full of crappy content despite the efforts of movers and shakers such as Google. But if you were to answer and address those questions, much good work can be done on your web content.

Formulation of web content strategic suddenly becomes achievable.

Getting people to take a close look at the kind of content that’s being produced in-house is the first positive step forward. Related issues include the following:

What impacts content internally?
What’s driving it from what sources?
What resources can have a positive impact on its quality?
What factors are affecting it negatively?
What can be done to set matters right?

A go-forward plan based on the recommendations in answer to these questions will be a potent instrument in addressing content and web content strategy related woes of your organization.

And it’s not about only marketing, only social, only SEO, or only design. It’s about all of these working in unison to align with the full prowess of content.

In particular, content developers at your firm have to be coordinated with those guys that actually talk to the customers.

Watch this space for more on web content and relevant strategy.

Pinterest Sells Products Better Than Facebook

June 12, 2012 by admin 2 Comments

Pinterest users are 79% more likely than Facebook users to purchase a product they see on the site. Traffic coming to ecommerce and online business websites seems to be qualitatively and quantitatively better from Pinterest.

It is not really surprising to anyone familiar with the orientation of the two social networking sites. Facebook is more for online exchange of sweet nothings whereas Pinterest is exclusively for online barter of sweet little somethings!

Given that Pinterest is only a collection of things and baubles found on other sites, it is amazing how just that has enabled Pinterest to create for itself the status of a legitimate social networking site. And a very successful one at that too.

pinterest ecommerce — Pinterest for eCommerce

Sure, there have been some issues with copyright, and Pinterest had already provided an emergency exit for just such issues. It requires an insertion of a comment by the person who posts a part of another website. That makes it legitimate.

Till date, we haven’t heard of any major action taken against Pinterest.

Pinterest is a favorite with members of the fair sex, being dominated by a majority of members. It was an invitation-only site for a very long time. It still is.

Pets, craft projects, flowers, decorations, cakes and sweets of many kinds, painted fingernails – that’s the sort of fare you get on Pinterest. So could you sell submersible pumps on Pinterests? If you decked it up enough so it looked cute, somehow. But you can always sell designer goods, sunglasses, fragrance products, electronic consumer items, and anything else that looks or feels just cute.

So is it really a great place to sell your cute products? Well, most certainly.

The visual experience you get at Pinterest is responsible for that guarantee. What attributes sell on Pinterest? I have my own list, though you can always make your own:

The item should ‘look’ great
It should appeal to Pinterest’s audience – comprising a majority of women
It should not be too complicated to understand – don’t expect to sell a Jacques Derrida book
Your images should be accompanied by a remark and a link to the original site
Original site should open fast, despite whatever images on it

So have you sold anything lately on Pinterest? What was your experience like? Please tell us in the comments. Meanwhile, if you need professional help with managing your Pinterest account, just call us.