• September 22-24, LENSER Summit, San Rafael, California – D.M.insite is proud to again sponsor this outstanding annual event.
• September 27-29, Shop.org 2010 Summit, Dallas, Texas – D.M.insite recently became a part of the quickly growing family of shop.org member companies, and we’re excited to attend our first Summit in late September.

I, along with Brad Curtis, our new Senior VP of Sales and Marketing, am planning to attend the LENSER and shop.org Summits this year. We’ll also have Steve Sneath representing D.M.insite at NEMOA’s Fall 2010 Conference in Newport, Rhode Island on September 15 and 16.  As a proud sponsor of this great event again this year, D.M.insite is hosting a breakfast roundtable, “Winning Strategies for Your Ecommerce Website Redesign and Major Upgrade Project.”

If you’d like to meet up at any of these events, email your.partner@dminsite.com.

We look forward to seeing you on the road later this month.

Prior to Caffeine, when you searched via Google, you weren’t getting an actual current result.  Instead, you were getting a result based on the sites on the web that Google had previously crawled and identified as relevant for the search phrase you entered.  These results were possibly compiled days or even months prior to the time you performed your search. 

In fact, many SEO experts used to tell clients that it could take up to three months for the engines to crawl the web again for new content. 

Not anymore!

Google now analyzes the web in very small portions and updates the web index on a continuous basis.  The result is that as new pages or new information on existing pages is uncovered, Google can add these straight to the index.  That means they appear much quicker than before and, oftentimes, on the very day the new content was created.

So, what does this mean to you?

What it means is that all of the previous search engine optimization best practices are still very important.  It also means that new content is now king.  Now that Google is indexing things very quickly, the fresher your content, the more likely you are to appear near the top of the search results page.  And you can quickly slip down the page as others in your space add fresh content on a continual basis.

Here are some things you can do to keep fresh content on your site on a regular basis.

1) Create new content articles on your website regularly.  Use new content that is not easy to duplicate, and include a smattering of your main keywords throughout.  Tweet about them once they go live on your site and include a link back to the article.

2) Create press releases and post them on your site.  There are many opportunities for creating a press release and each one contains new content that you’re putting on your site.  You can also disseminate your press releases via reputable online newswires and generate fresh content that links back to your site—always a good thing.  Again, you can tweet each time a new press release goes out.

3) Create regular customer newsletters and send them to your best customers and prospects.  You can include special offers and incentives, along with fresh content and include lots of links back to your site.  Be sure to post the newsletter on your site and archive past issues.  On release, be sure to tweet and blog about the newsletter, with links pointing back to the version on your site.

4) If you haven’t created a Facebook page, now’s the time.  Update the page regularly to keep it fresh.  You can include your article content, press releases, newsletters, etc.  Be sure to include plenty of links back to various pages on your site.  It would also be wise to include some content on your Facebook page that can’t be found anywhere else and then links back to your site.

The bottom line is that Google’s new Caffeine web indexing system is a game-changer.  Gone are the days where a static page will continue to rank well month after month.  Now, fresh relevant content plays a huge part in getting those top rankings all ecommerce sites are looking for.

Note:  I’ll be attending the 7th annual LENSER Summit in San Rafael, CA from September 22 – 24 (Click here to learn more about attending this dynamic event).  Drop me a note if you’d like to meet while I’m in the area.

At the movie theater, you can opt for the jumbo popcorn for just $0.25 more.  Car rental companies will often offer to upgrade you to a nicer car for less than $5 more per day.  You can add 32 gig of extra storage to your iPod for just $80 more dollars.

Companies do this because they know that getting us to spend just a little bit more can really supersize their profits—sometimes by as much as double.  That’s because their overhead and sales and marketing costs don’t go up with the additional purchase, so more of that extra revenue goes straight to the bottom line.

For ecommerce sites, there’s a second benefit to driving up average order size.  The single best predictor of customer lifetime value is the dollar amount spent on the first purchase. 

Here are just a few ways you can increase your average order size.

1. Basic Cross-selling: Make sure you show shoppers “people who bought this also bought that.”  This cross-sell alone can increase average order size by nearly 10 percent.  Make sure you use it in your shopping cart.  A number of sites have this feature, yet they use it only on product pages.  That’s a big missed opportunity—the cart is the number one place your shoppers click on cross-sells!

2. More Advanced Cross-selling: If you’re already doing the basics, step up to the next level by showing multiple types of cross-sells on the same page.  These can include product groupings like “category top sellers” and “people who viewed this product eventually bought these.”  You also can have your merchandiser select complementary products (filters for a water purifier, for example).

3. Offers: Part of the purpose of an offer, such as “buy $50 or more and get some bonus,” is to drive up the average order size.  Test increasing the threshold to receive the bonus if you’re using this kind of offer.  If you can get the dollar threshold up just by 10 percent without losing response rate, you likely have an easy winner on your hands.

4. Bonus Offers Based on Dollars in Cart: If you’ve ever ordered from Omaha Steaks, you’ve almost certainly received “special deals” to add to the order.  You can’t get the specials directly; you have to buy something first in order to be eligible for them. This technique translates well to the online world.

Add these to your marketing mix and watch your average order size—and your profits—increase.

Did you know that Google offers a free set of Webmaster Tools to help you monitor the areas of your site that can affect your organic traffic? Surprisingly, these tools seem to fly under the radar, getting nowhere near the love of the more popular Google Analytics.

Where Google Analytics stops, Google Webmaster Tools takes over, giving you access to important data related to how Google has crawled and indexed your website.

If you’re new to the Tools, here are a few quick steps you can take to get set up:

1) You must have a Google Account. If you don’t have one, you can set one up at: https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount.

2) Sign into Google Webmaster Tools (https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/) using your Google Account email address and password.

3) Click Add a site, and type the URL of the site you want to add. Make sure you type the entire URL, such as http://www.example.com/.

4) Click Continue. The Site Verification page opens.

5) Select the verification method you want and follow the instructions.

6) Once you’ve verified your site, you can begin using the Webmaster Tools.

There are four main areas – Site configuration, Your site on the web, Diagnostics and Labs.

Site configuration – Shows your sitemap, the number of URLs submitted and the number of URLs indexed by Google. This area also includes a Crawler access section in which you can specify how you want Google to crawl your site.

Your site on the web – See the query strings that are bringing traffic to your site, including impressions, clicks and average position on the results page. You can also see the external links to your site—an important factor in search rankings—and the number of internal links to any page on your site.

Diagnostics – Lists any issues Google is having when crawling your site, plus lets you know if your site is infected by any malware.

Labs – Google’s testing ground for new features. Currently includes a site performance indicator that you can use to measure your site’s load time.

There’s a lot in here . . . spend a few minutes every couple of weeks to see how Google is viewing your site and take steps to drive even more of that valuable organic traffic.

It’s no secret that many state and local governments are facing a severe budget crisis. These governments are aggressively seeking tax revenue from any source they can. We know that several other states are currently considering similar legislation to Colorado’s. I think that, at the very least, these laws and aggressive collection efforts by the states could have a chilling effect on online shoppers.

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) is coordinating a legal challenge to the new Colorado law, and the American Catalog Mailers Association (ACMA), the primary voice of the Catalog industry, is fully supporting the DMA’s efforts.

ACMA President and Executive Director, Hamilton Davison, recently mailed a letter to all ACMA members with a call to challenge this tax encroachment.

You can read the entire letter, which includes further details on the new Colorado law, by clicking here.

I don’t know what the Colorado law practically means for your business. However, as I mentioned above, I do think that other states will likely follow, and that ecommerce traffic and conversion rates will decline in those states. I encourage you to support the ACMA and DMA in their actions to have the law overturned.

Today, let’s go a step further and look at ways to use your ratings and reviews to drive conversions.

Feature Reviews in Your Promotional Emails – Include your “top rated” products and customer reviews in an email campaign. Show the number of “stars” these products have.

Include Top Rated Products in Your Paid Search Creative – The ad can be as simple as “find the five star rated <insert keyphrase> products at <insert site>.” Be sure to sort your landing page by product ratings so your shoppers can quickly see top rated products.

Include Reviews on Paid Search Landing Pages – Much of your paid search traffic may not be familiar with you and customer reviews are a great trust-builder.

Make it Easy for Consumers to Find Your Top Rated Products – As consumers scan your homepage, a prominent placement of your top rated products can increase clicks and sales to these popular products. You can include a “top rated products” image or include images of your highest rated products with a direct link to buy now. You can also provide a quick list of the top five or 10 rated products in a category. This quick list will be among your top converting links.

While the main benefits of a robust ratings and review program are increased shopper trust and increased revenue, you can also use your customer feedback to make product improvements…and even eliminations.

Not every rating and review is going to be positive. Listen to your customers. They’ll give you suggestions for improving specific products and things you can do to turn low-rated products into top-rated products with some fine-tuning.

And don’t be afraid to eliminate low-rated products. Your merchandisers may tell you that you make money on the initial sale of these products. However, if you analyze the true costs, you may find that they are real losers. Returns drain margins. Products that don’t satisfy drive your customer to look elsewhere the next time they need something you sell.

Well, customer ratings and reviews are today’s version of social media for ecommerce sites. They’re a perfect way for your community to tell you and the rest of your shoppers how they feel about the products they’ve purchased.

And these ratings and reviews can go a long way toward increasing sales. A recent survey on product-page conversion rates showed that highly rated products convert 40 percent more shoppers than the site average.

So how do you get your shoppers to provide this valuable feedback that can increase your sales? Try these:

Create a Triggered Email Campaign – Set up a triggered email to be sent to customers shortly after a purchase asking them to return to your site to submit a rating/review. You can increase response by offering free shipping or a discount on future purchase as a “thank you” for submitting a review.

Solicit Reviews Offline – Consider using your call center to gather reviews. Stuff outgoing product shipments with a product review request form. And if you have a brick and mortar location, have your staff gather reviews or include a promotional piece requesting reviews with every purchase.

Launch a Ratings and Reviews Sweepstakes – Give a reward ($ off coupon or free gift) to a randomly selected customer who has submitted a rate/review during the campaign. Mention the sweepstakes in your order confirmation emails and include a link to submit an entry. You can even run an email campaign to your previous buyers announcing the sweepstakes and making it easy to submit a rating or review.

Once you get the reviews, how do you capitalize? Stay tuned for my next blog post.

When the US Department of Commerce reported online retail growth as 4% in 2008 and as flat in 2009, these old timers must have felt ecommerce drank the same potion as Alice did before entering Wonderland…everything got smaller!

The rest of the US retail economy, though, downed a bucket of Alice’s shrinking potion in 2008 and 2009. As the chart below shows, ecommerce continued it’s fairly steady growth as a percentage of all US retail sales.

Ecommerce Growth Rate

IBIS world projects that US retail ecommerce will grow from about $132 billion in 2009 to almost $300 billion by 2019. In other words, ecommerce will grow by more in total dollars in this decade than it did in the last.

And these numbers still disguise the true impact of ecommerce on retail. Online search and websites are now also driving shopping into other channels.

Ecommerce was in its infancy in the last decade. It’s only just now beginning to grow up. Look for traditional bricks and mortar retailers to pay more attention to and invest in ecommerce this decade. To stay ahead, existing ecommerce sites need to tighten up web design, navigation, search, landing pages and trigger emails.

Ecommerce is about to drink Alice’s “growth” potion and emerge from Wonderland; make sure your business grows with it!

I can’t count the times I have heard that over the last 20 years.

When I hear someone say this, I’m reminded of a quote from bank robber by the name of Willie Sutton. When asked why he robbed banks, Sutton simply answered, “because that’s where the money was.”

Test where the money is.

For ecommerce sites this means conducting tests around:

• Checkout. One hundred percent of your buyers go through it.
• SEO and SEM landing pages. A significant portion of your new customer acquisition happens here.
• Email signups. Some 90 percent or more of new visitors to your site leave without making a purchase. Each email address you capture is worth $10 to 20 in annual revenue with very little marginal expense.
• Home page. Some 40 to 50 percent of your shoppers begin on this page, particularly repeat customers.
• Cart page. For every dollar you get through checkout, there’s another dollar stuck in a cart. Try to unstick some of them!

You can easily design a year’s worth of tests around these areas. Then, next year, try another year’s worth of tests here. It’s where the money is.