Category Archives: Helpful Hints

September 18, 2012 · 10:20 am

Love The One You’re With

One of the trends I hear discussed all the time is that of chasing the next shiny object.  As it turns out, that’s not something that occurs solely in the tech space.  A recent study from Adobe – The Adobe Digital Index – shows that online retailers are ignoring the 80/20 rule by ignoring current customers in favor of attracting new ones.  Maybe today’s screed should have been titled “You Always Hurt The One You Love.”  Their summary:

Online retailers spend nearly 80% of their digital marketing budgets acquiring shoppers (new visitors), but does this focus make sense? To find out, Adobe Digital Index analyzed 33 billion visits to 180 online retail website in Europe and the United States from April 2011 to June 2012. Our data indicates retailers should shift spend to returning and repeat purchasers, two existing customer segments that drive a disproportionately high share of revenue, exhibit higher conversion rates, and really step up in the Christmas holiday season and tough economic times. Migrating just 1% of shoppers to returning purchasers could generate as much as $39 million in additional revenue per retailer.

In other words, we’re spending way too much time and money chasing new customers while we ignore a lucrative user base that’s just waiting to be asked to the dance.  40% of revenue for online retailers comes from returning or repeat purchasers, who represent only 8% of all visitors, according to the study.  In other words, you have to attract five to seven shoppers to equal the revenue of one repeat purchaser.

Having run an online retail business I can tell you that the vast majority of our thinking was about attracting and converting new customers.  It wasn’t as if customer service was an afterthought and we did allocate a good deal of our marketing to up-selling our existing customer base.  However, this study opened my eyes to the fact that we probably could have done more with those who’ve already demonstrated a desire for our products and I’ll keep that in mind as I work with clients going forward.  How about you?

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September 14, 2012 · 8:34 am

Naked In The Kitchen

For our Foodie Friday Fun today, let’s get naked.

Ingredients

(Photo credit: Beyond Elements)

Not in the clothes sense – in the foodie sense.  You see, to me the hardest challenge for a cook is to cook something like a roasted chicken.  There’s not a lot of technique to hide behind and generally the seasoning is pretty simple.  Maybe there’s a gravy which is a simple pan sauce but there’s certainly no highly refined, triple-reduced sauce with which to drown the improperly prepared protein.  The quality of the ingredients is naked, as is the cook’s ability to capture and present that quality.

I’m a fan of simplicity in the kitchen as well as in business (an after all, that’s what the screed is about!).  I don’t do molecular gastronomy. I look for great ingredients, prep them using relatively basic techniques (but I practice those basics a lot) an deliver them to the table with a simple presentation,   In short, I try to let the goodness speak for itself.

Ideas are the same way.  Don’t muck up the basic goodness with some overly complex sauce.  Respect the building block, nurture it along carefully and get out of the way of the underlying strength of the idea.  People too – they’re the great ingredients of every business.

We conceal ideas behind layers of complexity and like a heavy sauce that complexity can mask what’s good or bad about what’s underneath.  Generally, if what’s underneath is really excellent, you want it to shine on its own , so when I encounter some idea or business model that’s overly complex I assume there are some serious flaws within.

I like elevator pitches.  They’re the business without the clothing of complexity.  I like one page term sheets – they’re deals without the sauce of lawyer language.  It’s really hard to make a lot of complicated business issues simple.  When you do though you’ll be surprised how much more clear (and delicious!) they are to all concerned – if they’re any good, that is!  If they’re not, you’ll see it right away.

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September 10, 2012 · 10:52 am

Unoptimized Optimization

Logo of Adobe Systems Incorporated

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The folks at Adobe

came out with their annual Digital Marketing Optimization survey and I finally got around to spending a little time going through it.  The results are kind of troubling to me.  You can get a copy of it here (registration required) to see for yourself.  The gist of the survey is to ascertain how well marketers are using the data available to them to optimize what they’re doing in digital media.  For example, one thing I usually tell my clients is low-hanging fruit is to optimize content and marketing around on-site search – what your users are typing into the “search” box on your site.  It’s a great indicator of content that’s either missing or not presented in a way that’s obvious to your user. 34% of site visitors use site search first (according to the study) yet fewer than 50% of respondents are optimiz­ing on-site search results.  Hmm…

Here are a few other findings that make me want to scratch my head:

  • More than 50% cited testing was not a company priority
  • Marketers spend $92 per user to acquire traffic yet only $1 to optimize it.
  • Landing pages (41%), home pages (33%), and paid search (29%) are the top areas in which marketers are conducting online tests. 38% are not conducting any.
  • Social sharing was only chosen by 9% of respondents for optimization even though there is other research that shows how social sharing can play a big role in conversions (especially for online commerce).

If I spent $92 to get you to my site I’d do everything I could to get you to stay!  Here are the study’s top 5 recommendations:

  • Prioritize optimization across your organization as a strategic process
  • Use a data-driven approach to optimization
  • Optimize conversion with video
  • Optimize social engagement
  • Optimize for all mobile channels

All of which is pretty good advice (but not always so easy to do!).  In other words, commit to refining digital as you might your “real” product – ascertain what’s working based on data and commit to making it better every day.

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