El Blog

How do you create a website that will yield success and revenues? One of my favorite marketing masters- Rohit Bhargava/Influential Marketing Blog (rohitbhargava.typepad.com/) touches on the hottest Ecommerce site out there – Gilt.com and brings up many points in creating a successful ecommerce site, I pulled 5 Marketing Techniques of what he mentions that are not only vital for Ecommerce sites, but massively IMPORTANT when even creating any business website. 1. Feature amazing imagery. Create your brand’s experience with amazing imagery. Everything about the imagery used on your site should scream a desirable experience compelling a client to WANT to work with you. On Gilt.com, they go as far as changing out their site’s images every day, which demonstrates that there is fresh content all the time and that the site will be worth visiting again and again. 2. Offer a sense of exclusivity. Core to the Gilt.com experience is a sense of exclusivity, this tactic has worked extremely well for many brands- Google’s gmail email service when they started out, The Google voice program, both items that required invitations to access it. The wholesale clubs, e.g. BJs, Costco, also offer the members only allow you to reap the benefits of exclusive pricing. The irony of Gilt.com’s members only club is that they have plenty of "sneak in" ways to become a member without getting invited through secret links - but the SENSE of exclusivity is what is most important. It doesn't pay for them to actively prevent people from becoming members, but they work hard to make their current members feel as though they are part of an exclusive club. 3. Creating an urgency to purchase without excessive pressure. Another smart tactic for a successful ecommerce site that Gilt implemented is for every product that you put into your shopping cart expires after 10 minutes. This may seem like a diabolical move to pressure you into purchasing - and to some degree it does work like that. The aim, though, is to limit the amount of time you can hold onto a product that someone else may want to purchase. As a result, the sense of urgency to buy is built into the site, and when coupled with a relatively easy return policy, it means that they can focus more on converting browsers to buyers in a timespan (10 minutes) that most other ecommerce sites would envy 4. Providing significant rewards for referrals. Once you become a member with Gilt.com, the reward for referring someone else to the site is a whopping $25 in credit - far more than most other sites. This adds to the exclusivity experience, but also makes it likely that people will share their referral link far and wide with others. As you probably noticed, it is working for me also since I used my own referral link in this post as well. 8. Standing behind products they sell with editorial. Not only does Gilt.com offer new products every day, they also stand behind the products they do offer. This "seal of approval" concept lets consumers know that the products they are buying are authentic but also tested for quality and will be exactly what they expect. This also allows Gilt.com on the backend to work with more and better companies to feature products because there is an inherent validation that takes place for a brand that does get featured on Gilt.com that may extend to that brand building more of a relationship or awareness among a desirable group of consumers. Reflecting on some of these above concepts of a successful ecommerce should equip you with some great ideas to implement in your new website or upcoming marketing initiatives.

In today’s tough B2B and B2C economic climate, a lot of our clients are asking us where do I find new leads? Implementing a smart and successful lead program is easier said then done. And once you find leads, either via networking events, Search Engine Marketing or Optimization or even by other means, how do you keep their interest, keep them coming back and close them to buy your services or products. As MarketingProfs (www.marketingprofs.com) we recommend the following tactics to start you off in the right direction: Share your expertise gratis. Let your leads now you are an expert at what you do. Share your expertise and answer questions free of charge. This starts to build a trust factor, and also let’s the client know you are offering your services to build their business in their best interest for ultimate success and you are not just in it for a one time transaction, but want to build a future with them Keep it casual & inviting Ease into a new business relationship by keeping it casual. Most people, for instance, will gladly exchange their name and email address for valuable content, so make sure your site or email newsletter has valuable advice to offer. Building a prospect list is often very hard to increase but even harder to maintain, so if you are only out to get names and email addresses to blast them with promotional offers every month, chances are you will lose prospect faster than you can ever obtain them. Make contact on a weekly basis. This might seem like alarming and bold frequency to some, but if you offer something—even a tidbit—that adds value to a prospect's professional life, your email will be welcome. If you're afraid of driving away prospects that feel they're being spammed, carefully watch the prospect list, for those unsubscribing and if it is not shrinking, keep going. Top of mind awareness among prospects and hitting them at the right timing will make the difference of closing them.