Maximize Your Web Tools
As opposed to marketing-focused IT people, technology-focused IT directors will correctly tell you that shoppers have to enter nearly the same information to use guest checkout that they do for a standard checkout. But they’ll argue that guest checkout doesn’t require a password and password hint.
But it’s all about what’s easier, or at least what seems easier, to shoppers. And shoppers strongly prefer the guest checkout option. Women’s plus-size clothing cataloger Ulla Popken saw a 24.9 percent increase in sales by adding the “Continue as a Guest” option to its checkout page. Score one for the marketers.
4. Triggered e-mails yield three to 10 times the response rate of bulk e-mails.
Because of last May’s postage increase, there’s more pressure than ever to produce revenue from e-mail marketing. But how many messages can you send before you wear out your list?
Here’s the trick: Integrate browsing behavior into your e-mail campaigns. E-mails triggered by things that shoppers do on sites produce incredibly high conversion rates.
Today’s premier e-mail platforms can collect browsing data by tagging a site. Marketers can use the data to send triggered e-mails and/or segment files.
One cataloger captures a shopper’s visit to its outlet category. When the cataloger adds new products to the outlet, these shoppers receive an e-mail. It’s a significant revenue generator for the cataloger since 10 percent of the people in its e-mail file visit the outlet monthly, per the below chart.
Unfortunately, many companies using premier e-mail platforms pay premier prices, but they never fully implement the tags necessary to take advantage of this functionality, which is a big waste.
5. Personalized recommendations: Make your site “be all it can be.”
Most Web site homepages are the equivalent of a 1950s television show. The early shows mimicked popular radio broadcasts rather than exploiting the power of the new medium.
