Wednesday, 30 October 2013
Thursday, 24 October 2013
Most significant Data Sets Every Ecommerce Company Should Measure
To see big wins in e-commerce today,
entrepreneurs need to cover all of their bases, from organic SEO to mobile
advertising.
Analytics tools can create a pretty
detailed snapshot of where your business stands — too detailed, in some cases.
Curious about which metrics really
matter, a panel of successful e-commerce entrepreneurs reveals that which
pieces of data they measure regularly and what it tells them about their
overall strategy. Their best views are below.
1.
User Acquisition Costs
If you are in the e-commerce world
and you don't know how many users are landing on your page, the conversion rate
of users to paying customers and the cost of that user landing on the page
(versus the profit you make in sales), you may not be in the industry too long.
SEO is one way to get an audience, but sometimes you have to pay for users, and
you have to know what that converts to. If you have returning clients, it's
important to know the average retention you will have, as well. Track information
on our users at TuneBash. There is a great quote and it's good for the
e-commerce world: "If you can't measure it, you can't control it."
2.
Abandoned Carts
You work hard to get people to your
site. You work harder to give people something they want to buy. Customers
click that beautiful "buy now" and go to the checkout page. And they
don't buy? What happened? Keeping a log of abandoned carts gives you the
opportunity to ask customers why they didn't buy. Recently, we saw a customer
who had five abandoned carts in a period of a couple of days. It turned out
that the e-commerce site didn't accept Canadian billing addresses. Whoops. Abandoned
carts are one piece of data you should look at and follow up on if you have an
e-commerce site.
3.
Google Analytics Experiments
In Google Analytics, you can now set
up split tests called "experiments." You can set goals and run
multiple pages against one another. Rather than guess what works on your Web
pages, I highly recommend you split test all important elements. I bet you'll
often be surprised at the results. They're not always intuitive.
4.
Visitor Value
How much is each visitor generating
in revenue? If you know that number, you can budget how much to spend to buy
traffic to your site, and you can work on improving that number by increasing
conversion rates and customer value.
5.
Lifetime Value
The lifetime value of each customer
over a certain period of time and from a specific traffic source is key. You
could build campaigns to sell one product to one person one time. But how do
you build out a marketing plan that continues to engage both past and present
customers and drive demand for both present and future products?
6.
Traffic
Obviously you’re going to get
traffic from people, who are looking for you, but it’s really a question of how
much traffic you are getting from people who aren’t looking for you
specifically, but rather for something you’re selling. The biggest opportunity
to make more money comes from non-branded, organic traffic.
7.
Lead Source ROI
Many online businesses start
advertising on the Web without actually tracking the ROI of each particular
lead source. By diligently tracking this metric, you can know which particular
lead sources are profitable and which ones to cut. On a deeper level, you can
use this to split test advertisements on a granular level to find out which
ones will maximize your ROI and develop the best ads.
8.
Purchase Funnel
Beyond the obvious metric of CPA
(cost per acquisition), we tend to focus on the purchase funnel. Understanding
where and when a customer drops off the sales process is just as important as
understanding the conversions coming in. Without understanding this, you cannot
optimize and refine for increased conversions.
9.
Percentage of Mobile Visits
If you don't have a mobile-optimized
website, you are in trouble. Most of the e-commerce companies create a monthly
report based on mobile usage, and we were stunned to learn that approximately 20
percent of the users view the website on a mobile device. Take a look at
analytics and work to create the best shopping experience possible across all
mobile devices.
Wednesday, 23 October 2013
Best Ways to Manage Your Browser
More, more, more.
Everything's always better when there's more, and your browser toolbar space is
no exception. With compelling online content behind every click, it's easy to
find yourself overwhelmed by too many open or saved web pages.
Whether your bookmarks bar
is jammed with countless interesting sites or your tabs bar is overloaded, here
are some simple ways to maximize the real estate in your browser toolbar.
1. Pin Tabs
In Chrome and Firefox, you
can pin tabs to minimize them to their favicons ("favorite icons") in
the toolbar. To do this, simply right-click on a tab and select "Pin
Tab."
2. Minimize Bookmark Icons
You can also create more
room in your Chrome and Firefox bookmark bars by simply removing the names for
each bookmark. This, again, will leave the bookmark with just the site's
favicon.
To do so, leave the
"Name" field empty when you bookmark a site, and the browser will
save the favicon alone. If some of your sites don't have favicons, check out
the I Hate Your Favicon app,
which allows you to upload custom icons.
3. Folders
This may be a no-brainer,
but folders help you organize and declutter your bookmarks bar. Just right-click
your bookmarks bar, and select "Add Folder" in Chrome or "New
Folder" in Firefox and Safari.
4. Add-ons and Extensions
If you still prefer naming
your bookmarks as opposed to just seeing the favicon, try using browser add-ons
and extensions. Different browsers offer a variety of tools, though there are
more stable bookmark add-ons for Firefox than there are extensions for Chrome.
Smartest Bookmarks Bar allows you to see the names of your
bookmarks when you hover over them.
Another option is the Roomy Bookmarks Toolbar, which has similar
functions. It allows you to also add multiple rows of bookmarks, though this
feature is a bit buggy.
5. Bookmarklet Combiner
The Bookmarklet Combine allows you to put all of your
bookmarklets in one place. While this can be done with a folder function in the
toolbar as well, the Bookmarklet Combiner provides additional functions that
may prove even more helpful, including the option to run all of your combined
bookmarklets at once, and various display options.
The Combiner is simple to
use: Copy the javascript URL of each of your bookmarklets (which can be done by
editing your bookmarklet's properties) and past it into the respective field.
Then follow the simple directions, and you will have an all-in-one bookmarklet
for all of your bookmarklets.
6. Add New Toolbar in Firefox
For shortcuts rather than
bookmarks, you can add an extra toolbar in Firefox. To customize your Firefox
browser, right-click on an empty section of your tab strip and select
"Customize." From this menu, click "Add New Toolbar" and
give it a name. To save it, you must immediately drag something from this menu
onto the toolbar.
You can't actually drag
individual bookmarks onto this bar (though you can choose to drag all of your
bookmarks onto this bar), but it does provide another accessible menu for
shortcuts, including History and Print.
Do you have any tips for
getting the most out of your browser space? Share them in the comments below.
Friday, 18 October 2013
Wednesday, 16 October 2013
Great Evergreen Content for Google Hummingbird
Google’s latest Hummingbird algorithm change is possibly the biggest thing to happen to search for a long time. One of the biggest alterations is that Google has now shifted increased focus onto ‘Evergreen’ content or articles that offer more depth, are established and very descriptive.
Creating ‘evergreen’ content however is often easier said than done as it takes a lot of preparation and work. However, when it does go right, it provides a lot of rewards even more so now Hummingbird is with us. So, let’s take a look at six of the best but most attainable forms of evergreen content.
The How–to
‘How to’ posts are a fantastic form of evergreen content and a lot of the instructional posts of this nature tend never really to go out of date. Think of how often you go to search for how to do something online – if you’re like us nine times out of ten.
Of course, there are plenty of ‘How to put up a shelf’ articles out there –so the only way to truly benefit is to create the best one out there. Comprehensive articles that take time and effort offer the real rewards here, while a bare 400 words is never going to compete in race and will have shed its leaves within weeks of posting.
The other thing about the How-to post is it can be updated – so take for instance a post on how to change the display settings on a Samsung Galaxy S4. Next, year with a few tweaks you can update it to provide the same instructions for the Samsung Galaxy S5. This means that though it’s an investment in the short term, well put together evergreen content like this can really push traffic in the longer term.
What is?
Often when we start working on something new, we come across fundamental terms that we’ve never had a notion of beforehand. The ‘what is a (item)? Post is also a great back to basic offering and one that can be extremely successful and as most items are always the same, the post will always work. Once again, ensure it’s the definitive post on the web to get the right amount of traffic.
List
Lists are fantastic for sharing, generate large amounts of interest and are easy to compile, change and compare. Websites such as Listly, allow you to create socially shareable lists that can both look great and also keep attention spans for relatively prolonged periods of time. Listly also allows users to help curate the posts themselves and add to them, pushing the social element, as well as the curation side of things.
Story of
The story of something is often a good way to create something of the evergreen nature. Creating ‘history of’ or ‘The Story of’ posts can be a great way to create interesting reading that never goes out of date and will be searched for on a daily basis.
News
Depending on the industry, curating news and up-to-date information and bringing news and views together in one place can work well once relevant. Just add a link and a brief synopsis and watch as you’re elevated in your industry to the status of a go to person and watch as people consistently return to your site each day to follow the latest in the industry. It’s not necessarily evergreen content, but it’s an evergreen attitude.
These are just some of the great forms of evergreen content out there that Hummingbird will lap up as it truly interests and benefits readers
Tuesday, 1 October 2013
5 Typography Tips for Every Presenter
Today, everyone is a typographer. If you have access to a keyboard and a basic software program, you have control over typography. For instance, if you construct email, write for a blog or build presentations, you have a type of control over your words and letters that your great grandfathers would envy. Be thankful. Typography used to only be an art form available to the ink-stained laborers of the early 19th century.
A
lot has changed, but the sad reality is that even though today’s presenter has
control over type, most don’t quite understand — much less utilize — it as an
art form. It is one, and its power can be immense.
Here
are 5 basic tips to get you thinking within the right context:
1. Match Your Brand
For
starters, if you have a brand style guide, stick to it. There are most likely
1-2 fonts that you must adhere to keep brand consistency. If so, follow the
rules. If not, take advantage of the opportunity to seek out a new font that is
still visually engaging and in a similar font family.
2. Pick Two Fonts
Aim
for only two font styles. Why? One font style is too boring. Three font styles
are too much. Consider two font styles as the Goldilocks approach. It’s just
right. If you insist on using multiple fonts, three should be the absolute cap.
3. Go Big
Think
500 point size. It was go big or go home, and it’s a simple and easy design
tactic that anyone can implement.
4. Be Bold
Certain
points are always going to be more relevant than other items. For instance,
let’s look at the phrase “Change the world.” Depending on your perspective, you
may want to really emphasize the idea of “Change.” Utilizing the bold feature
to create contrast with your message then becomes essential: “Change the
world.” Even with something so simple like the phrase above in this blog post,
adding contrast adds plenty of visual value.
5. Keep it Simple
At
the end of the day, your font choices need to be easy to read. It’s that
simple. If you can’t
decipher a letter, then you can’t expect your audience to decipher it, much
less comprehend your message, as well. Choose wisely.
Remember,
typography is an art. You aren’t going to become a typography expert overnight
but you can definitely start building some more engaging slides by
understanding the rules
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