Increase your conversion rate

When growing an online business, the challenge is in your methods to vary the sources of qualified traffic coming to your website.  Both SEO and PPC efforts will do a very good job but like all businesses, building depth in qualified traffic sources will assist in reaching growth targets.

Affiliate marketing is the act of building commercial relationships with other websites who acquire the targeted traffic you would like sent to your website.  If traffic is referred on to your website, you provide the referring website a commission (percentage of the sale). 

…continue reading “Affiliate Marketing – How can it help you grow”

I had a potential new client come and visit, wanting a new website.  They came with all kinds of functionality requests clearly listing all the “bells and whistles”.  It was funny to listen to this person list a large number of technology tools, many of which contradicted what they wanted their online business to achieve.  I thought about this conversation and realised it’s not their fault! 

…continue reading “Sticking to the basics”

My last article discussed how people get caught up in fancy technology and never even consider the online business fundamentals in meeting visitor needs and ultimately building credibility.  This article breaks down what you need to do to achieve this.

Whether you are a new or existing online business, when you have a first time visitor to your site, the product offering is important, but it is the methods in building credibility with the visitor that will determine whether they buy from you now, or come back to purchase later.

…continue reading “Methods in building credibility”

The potential problem all online businesses face is, as sales increase, ROI decreases.  This is due to the increase in cost/resource to deliver the orders.  It is fine for online businesses to say they are acquiring 250 + orders per day through the website, but how profitable are they?   The automation of processes reduces cost and builds efficiencies.

The focus on fulfilment is two pronged, building fulfilment processes is critical in both building customer loyalty and in creating a scalable and profitable business.

…continue reading “Fulfilment – Building Scalability and Profitability”

To acquire new customers typically costs money, whether it is online or off, so there needs to be methods in retaining and building their long term value.  True online customer service is defined as all the activities conducted once the customer completes a purchase.  This is referring specifically to the conduct of the customer service team towards their customers.  

…continue reading “Online Customer Service”

Our brains respond to colour. It’s no accident that Coke and Ferrari use red, IBM blue and black, and the UPS courier service use brown. People tend to relax in green rooms, weightlifters have been found to perform better in blue gyms, babies cry more in yellow rooms. Prisons and hospitals now use specific colours to influence the behaviour of inmates and patients.

If you’re thinking of redesigning your website, or re-branding, it pays to research your colour choices carefully before you commit.

…continue reading “Choose Your Colours Carefully”

Our consultants talk with hundreds of businesses each year who ask our advice about buying Google Adwords versus optimising their sites for free organic listings. Lets face it, Google dominates the search landscape both here in New Zealand and Australia.

…continue reading “SEO or Google Adwords?”

Here’s a question for you, “If one of our greedy little banks offered a deal on one dollar coins for fifty cents, how many would you buy?”

Most normal people would say, “I’ll take the lot”, right?

Why then do companies have an advertising budget?

…continue reading “What Advertising Budget?”

This approach is so simple, yet so powerful, that most clients mentally kick themselves that they had been wasting time struggling with how to do shipping online. It may take a little time to get your head around, however it has succeeded for every one of Exceed’s eCommerce clients to date.

…continue reading “How to Set-up Shipping Online”

The process of connecting to a market has always been arduous for many.  For those who truly feel an online presence is key to growth (that should be all of you), the ability to implement a strategy around feedback loops is critical.  If you are a pure play, this is compulsory.  

…continue reading “Building “Connectedness” - Keeping in Touch With Your Customers”