E-Commerce

Buying and Selling in the internet

Buying, selling products and services over the internet has become one of the most rewarding and challenging business. Just last year, 2007, is estimated that sales over the internet reached 170 billion dollars, and it is expected to grow 25% every year.

Almost every business that has a website is selling a product or service, and the ones that are not selling is because they haven't figure out how to sell in this media. The challenges however are significant, but the rewards are exceptional.

How do you sell in the internet?

In most cases, it is not a matter of whether or not a company can sell their products or services over the internet, the biggest problem is HOW?.

There are many things to consider when a business decides to sell its products or services over the internet. Here is a sample of just a few of them.

1. Consumer Privacy – The business needs to provide the necessary elements to secure the confidential information of the buyers and the transactions that take place in electronic form..

2. Legal protection – Information about the products, services and the policies and regulations regarding the guaranty of the transaction needs to be clear and accessible to the buyers at all times.

3. Consumer market – The business needs to understand the limitations of their market. If the target market is local, then the website and the marketing efforts need to reflect that. If the business is doing business globally, or planning to do business globally, then the marketing business plan and the website will have to be created with that perspective.

4. Distribution Channels – How is the buyer going to receive the goods or services? As people are getting more and more familiar with the internet, the distances are not an issue for the buyers, but it is for the business selling the products. It doesn’t matter if the product is coming from another part of the world, as long as it meets the expectations.

It is important for businesses to understand that a website is an extension of their sales and marketing plans. It should not be an isolated program run by inexperienced people.

Why most E-commerce websites fail?

In most cases it is not a problem with the product or service, it is in the way it is presented to the customer. The reality is that most companies don’t know how to sell in the internet. The rules in the internet are different. A good E-commerce website is the one that converts visitors into customers. If your website is not converting, then there is a problem with it.

Let us share with you some of the reason why many E-commerce websites fail.

1. Poorly design (Unprofessional) – Let’s face it, if the website is a reflection of your business. If it is poorly designed - looking old, cheap or ugly – people is not going to buy from that business

2. Difficult to Navigate – Most people don’t have the time to figure out how to buy in the website. Therefore, the website should take them through this process in a very easy, comfortable and secure way. The buyer should be able to find everything they need in one or two clicks at the most.

3. Feeling of uncertainty – The website can have all the security that is needed to make transactions safe over the internet, but does the customer know that? The website has to “tell” the customer that the business is doing everything possible to keep the information secure and confidential.

4. Analysis of performance – Do you know how many people visited your site?, how long did they stay in your site?, what information they were looking at?, at what point did they left your site?. If you don’t know all of this, how do you know what is the problem with your website and how can you fix it? Analytics is one of the most important parts in an E-commerce website. Without them, you know that you have a problem but don’t know where it is and how to fix it.

The best E-commerce website ever

The best E-commerce website is not the one that has the most visitors or that is the pretties. The best E-commerce website ever is the one that converts the highest number of visitors into customers.

It really doesn’t matter if you have millions of visitors a day to your website, you have to convert them and make them buy your products. Otherwise your website doesn’t work and it is an expense for your business.

E-mail Marketing Campaigns

If you are not using e-mail as part of your marketing strategy, you might be missing on a huge opportunity.

In a recent survey by Datran Media, for most marketers, email was listed as the most important advertising tactic for 2007. Mainly because of its ability to drive incremental revenue.

A well structured marketing campaign should be measurable and objective. The purposes could be different; keep existing customers informed about the company, invite customers to your new web site, send out promotions, improve customer retention, etc. In most cases it will be targeted to existing customers to either up-sell or cross-sell the company’s products or services. Or it can be a campaign specifically designed to attract highly potential customers.

If you think about it, e-mail has become a very popular mode of communication worldwide. Most companies and people have e-mail accounts to receive information and to keep in touch with other people. Using this media appropriately can bring excellent results. For example, you can send an e-mail marketing campaign about your new product and invite customers to acquire this product at a discount in your web site using a given code. This not only will generate traceable and measurable results, but it will also provide you with invaluable marketing information about your new product.

Here are some of the advantages for your company to have an e-mail marketing campaign:

1. Low cost - Is relatively inexpensive compared to other media

2. Measurable and traceable - You can calculate your ROI to the penny.

3. Instant Results – In two days you can get the results of your campaign.

4. Paper-free – e-mail is paper free.

5. Trigger events - other events can be trigger when the message is opened

E-mail marketing is a very effective tool that if used properly can bring excellent results for your company.

Let us help you with your e-mail marketing and see the difference. Consider that e-mail marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective online marketing tactic.

Traffic Conversion Tools

What is Traffic Conversion?

Traffic conversion is the ability to convert visitors into customers.

In any website the main objective is that the visitor finds the information that he or she is looking for. The visitor also has to find it easy to buy your products, to call you or to fill out a request form so you can contact them in the future.

Why is Traffic Conversion important?

Let’s assume that you get a lot of traffic to your site because your site has excellent position on the search engines or because you are paying for a Pay Per Click campaign. But what happens if no one is buying or calling you? The answer is simple; you don’t have the right internet marketing strategies in your site to convert. Here are some of the reasons:

1. Site is difficult to navigate

2. Site is poorly designed

3. There are no call to action

4. The content is not appealing

5. The distribution and colors are inappropriate

The bottom line is that the site is not well organized and built for visitor conversion.

Website Analytics

Web analytics is a very important component of any Internet Marketing campaign. With web analytics you will be able to know which aspects of the website work towards the business objectives; for example, which pages are encouraging people to make a purchase.

Data collected almost always included web traffic reports. You can also compile e-mail response rate, PPC information, click heat mapping and so on. This data is usually compared agains Key Performace Indicators (KPIs) to improve web site performance and campaign audience response.

Web analytics is an area that hasn’t been exploited by many companies because they don’t fully understand the trends and the relationship of events in the information provided.

In Goblin Creative we always say “Information is potential power, knowledge is everything”. If you know what to do with the information that you have, you have a competitive advantage because you can make well informed decisions that will drive your business to succeed where others have failed.

Pay Per Click (PPC)

Have total control of your marketing budget

What would it mean to you if you can control your marketing budget to the penny? Better yet, what if you can create a marketing campaign and reach thousands of potential customers within minutes?. Pay Per Click (PPC) offers you that and much more.

PPC has been the method of preference by many companies that are not sure whether the internet is the right way to attract new customers. The reason is simple; you don’t have to invest a lot to see the results. So for example, if your company offers custom chairs, you can easily create a PPC campaign and put your ads in Google, Yahoo and MSN to attract visitors to your site, and with the right analytics in place, you can see how much of the traffic came from each campaign and what was the behavior of the visitors. For example, you can easily determine that the people were more attracted to your office products.

PPC really is one of the most effective ways, if not the best way, to market your products in the internet; and there are many reasons why. You can create a marketing campaign in minutes. You can market by location and create ads that are appealing to very specific segments of the population, your target market. You have total control of your budget; you decide how much you want to spend.

PPC is very powerful and can bring excellent results for your company. But it can also be very expensive and inefficient if the person that runs it has no idea of what your objectives are and hasn’t done a good investigation of the keywords, market segment and the rules to position your ads in the best places.

At Goblin Creative we have a team dedicated only to manage your PPC campaigns and provide you with the best strategy. Give us a call and we will show you the benefits of PPC.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

If you need to get more traffic to your web site and enjoy the benefits of free advertisement in the internet, there are some simple rules that can help position your site at the top of the search engines for specific terms. Why is that important? Most people will click first on the organic results than in the pay advertisements.

Because search engines use different techniques and rules for site positioning, no one can guarantee that your site will always be #1 on the search results. However, a good SEO company will help you position your site in the top 10 for specific terms.

SEO will drive targeted traffic from search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Altavista, MSN and many others to your site, generating enquiries, leads and sales. Having your website optimized for search engines has proven to give a return on investment that is unmatched in any advertising industry.

Be aware of companies that guarantee you the first place in the search engines, they might be using Black Hat Techniques and can get your site completely banned from the search engines. At Goblin Creative we use White Hat SEO practices to get your site positioned in the best places in the search results using the rules and guidelines form the most popular search engines.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization is a marketing technique used to help websites to rank high in the search engines (such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.).

The objective of SEO is to direct more targeted traffic to the website.

SEO, also known as natural (organic) search engine rankings is the natural rankings that the search engines award your website based on the relevancy to the search phrase and quality of the site in the main section of the search engine.

Advantages of Search Engine Optimization

► Greater increase in traffic from each keyword or phrase

► High Positioning potential for multiple keywords and phrases

► Traffic no longer costs money per click

► Long term positioning can be obtained through ongoing assessments

► Residual effects are applied to entire site

White Hat versus Black Hat

SEO techniques are generally classified in 2 categories: white hat and black hat. White hat techniques are aimed to produce long time results. Black hat SEO might produce results fast but is taking the risk of getting the website banned completely from the search engines.

Black hat SEO attempts to improve rankings by using methods that are not approved by search engines. Black hat SEO uses deceiving techniques trying to cheat the algorithms used by these search engines.

White hat SEO is more concern about good content and the quality of links to the website.

What it is that we do

For any SEO strategy to work, there are many different components that need to be taken into consideration.

1. First of all, we need to understand the business and their competitors. A complete study of the positioning of the business and the competition is realized by utilizing different methods and the most advance software for SEO.

2. We realize a comprehensive analysis related to the different internet marketing components and the positioning of the business with respect to the major search engines.

3. Then we need to know what are the objectives of the business, do you want to just attract more traffic or do you want to dominate in a specific market segment? To do this, we have to do a complete investigation of the different keywords and terminology that are related to the business operations and to the target market.

4. We propose a target market and set of keywords to go after.

5. Elaborate strategy and plan of action

Sounds complicated? It actually is. The reality is that not everyone can do SEO. It takes time, skills and the implementation of a very good strategy to achieve the desired results.

Give us a call and we can discuss with you in more detail any questions you might have related to this topic.

Website Optimization

"The real power of the internet is in its ability to market directly to individuals, by giving them the information that they need, when they need it. The websites that achieve this will grow exponentially while the sites that don’t will ultimately fail to those who do."

Everything is about Conversion

Just like in real estate everything is about "Location", in the world of internet marketing the most important thing is "Conversion".

Whether you want your visitors to place an order online, or to call you for more information about your company and your products, you have to get them to take action. If your website is not doing that, then it needs improvement.

Is your site delivering the results you expect? If it is, congratulations you are in the 5% of companies that are getting a good return on your investment.

The reality is that most websites don’t deliver because they were not created strategically according to the company’s objectives. In most cases the website is not viewed as an extended part of the corporation but as stand alone entity.

If your objective is to attract more customers or to deliver the right information about your company, the website should be considered one of the most important elements for your corporate communications, marketing and sales strategies.
If you are considering a Website Optimization you might ask yourself the following questions.

1. Does Your Website Look Professional?

Remember that the website is the reflection of your company. Is the information current? Are the graphics and photographs professional quality and optimized for the internet? How are your competitors doing?.

2. Is Your Website Helping your Business?

You may be using your site as a brochure to show existing customers, but are new potential buyers finding your site when they are searching for products and services such as yours?

3. Is Your Website Easy to Find?

If you do a search, for the product or service you sell, where is your company listed? Is it on the first page of search results? If not, you are losing business. Studies have shown that search engine users rarely look past the first three pages of search engine results before moving on to a new search.

4. Does Your Website Speak to Your Customers' Needs?

Think about all the questions your customers ask you before they decide to buy. Think about all of their concerns. Do you answer those questions in your website? Do you address those concerns? If you don't, you are losing potential customers.

5. Is Your Website Easy to Use?

Is your website user friendly? consider that most people are not computer experts and if the information is not 3 clicks away they will get frustrated and will leave your website.

6. Does Your Website Covert Visitors?

Do you know the percentage of people that visit your site and the number that actually call you, email you or download something?

7. How do You Stay in Contact with Customers?

Are you collecting information about the people that visit your site? It is important to keep in contact with customers and potential buyers.

At Goblin Creative we will help you evaluate your current website to determine whether your website needs an upgrade, adjustment or a website Re-Design.

“In less than 10 seconds your visitors will decide to stay in your website or to go somewhere else...probably with your competitor”

Website Design

Did you know that more than 80% of the existing websites are poorly designed?

There are many companies that can create your website at a very low price; you can even build your website using the software from your hosting company and get it almost for "FREE". But is it really free? Have you considered how many visitors might go into your site and won't buy from you just because the site is poorly designed?
A poorly designed web site not only will cause your visitors to leave your page, but it will also leave the impression that your business is not reliable and professional. Believe it or not, your website sells, your web site is an extension of your business. So why not spend the time and effort to have a professionally designed and highly functional website.

It is not just about nice colors and pretty pictures

The colors, the content, the position of your ads, the attention grabbers and many other factors are key in the success of your website. These are some of the principles of internet marketing and yet many web designers forget about them. So it is important that not only your site looks professional, but also it has to be functional. A professional web development company should always consider different aspects like:

► The content –  The content should be rich and targeted to the specific audience of the people that is interested in your business.

► The usability –  Simply put, it has to be user-friendly. How many times have you been in a website that is too complicated?.

► The appearance –  The style should be professional, appealing and relevant

► The visibility –  It should be easy for the visitor to find what he/she is looking for. It takes 10 seconds for the regular user to browse your site, if you don’t grab his/her attention in those 10 seconds, they will leave.

It is all about creating a great lasting impression and show that you mean business through your website.

In GOBLIN CREATIVE we have a team of web designers and marketing professionals that can help you create a professional website for your business.

Is your website a reflection of your business?

Professional:  You website is your business card to the rest of the world.

Trustworthy:  A professional looking web site gives more confidence to the visitors and reflects an image of a trusted company.

Functional:  Site navigation and overall functionality are key to help your visitors to find what they are looking for.about your business.

Innovative:  Technology is changing every day. Your website has to tell your visitors "We are here to stay an compete in the information age"

Ready:  Having a professional website is like saying to the world, "We are ready to do business with you"

Website Development

Are looking for a website that delivers the results that you want? There are many things you should consider.

Whether you are doing B2B or B2C marketing, we can help you with your internet strategy.

Can your business afford losing one or two years looking for the right solution?..

What is the purpose of having a good website if no one can find it?

If you have a website but no visitors, then your website is not working, period.

Let us help you with the development of your website. This is the information era. There are 1.2 billion internet users around the world and last year internet sales reached 137 billion dollars. If you are not doing business over the internet, you might be missing on a huge opportunity.

Did you know that by 2008 online marketing will be the dominant media for Business to Business initiatives?. According to the Direct Marketing Association direct mail, fliers, promotional events and other marketing media will take a back seat to more efficient online efforts.

Whether your business is big or small, if you are looking to attract more customers, increase your sales, take your business globally or reduce costs, we can help you evaluate different alternatives and offer you the best solution. We can guarantee you the best results.