Posts Tagged small business
eBrand Media Research Brief: Retailers increasingly invest in site optimization
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
According to Internet Retailer’s recent monthly survey, retailers are creating interactive page treatments and adding video, customer reviews and other advanced features. Merchants also are making site optimization a top priority and redesigning their web sites to achieve speedier navigation and faster performance.
The survey finds retailers updating their web sites, with 49.9% of merchants having rolled out a new design in the past year, including:
– 26.6% in the last six months
– 13.3% within 90 days
Improved site optimization is the top priority for 72.9% of merchants, followed by:
– Clearly organized home, category and product pages at 62.4%
– Better navigation at 49.4%
– Improved site search at 47.1%
– Faster checkout at 40%
Posted by Tom Polanski in Website Optimization on May 4th, 2009
Why banks (still) aren’t lending
By David Weidner, MarketWatch
Banks need to stop the charade, ignore the political and public pressure and admit they’re not lending.
It’s not because they don’t want to, but because it’s bad business.
Don’t think so? Take this pop quiz. Bank of America (BAC, news, msgs) posted smashing first-quarter profits and its chief executive, Ken Lewis, said the Charlotte, N.C., company is lending as if the good times never ended. So, in the bank’s conference call, which of the following statements did Lewis make?
A. “Credit is bad, and we believe credit is going to get worse before it will eventually stabilize and improve.”
B. “Even our internal economists are a little at odds as to the timing (of the recovery), with some seeing recovery earlier (than year’s-end).”
C. “We believe unemployment won’t peak until next year at somewhere in the high single digits.”
D. All of the above.
E. None of the above.
Posted by Tom Polanski in The Economy on April 23rd, 2009
Sloppy retailers won’t survive 2009. Respect for customers and business efficiency are of paramount importance.
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
We all should be recovered from anesthesia by about now. There are companies that I think are really going to be in trouble this year. Did anyone really need to decorate their home solely with Pottery Barn and Williams and Sonoma furnishings? How many businesses started, and grew, because of the real estate and credit bubbles? Of course they had to grow to serve a hungry public but did they have an exit plan? Were they working hard to build and maintain quality relationships with their current customers? Did senior management understand that there really would be a day when the easy money would stop flowing? Did management invest in preparations for the economic dénouement?
More often than not, in my experience, the answer is, “no”.
Here is what we suggest to help put your business in a position to succeed in 2009:
Posted by Tom Polanski in Marketing on January 19th, 2009
Smart companies with sound strategies will use this recession to grow their brand
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
As a friend of mine said recently, when someone is going down, someone else is coming up. We’re seeing that today. In 2008 we saw a number of companies go under. It seems to me that most of them found their niche, fame and fortune in the rising tide of the internet and debt driven consumerism fueled by rising home prices and easy access to credit. Those companies were myopic in that they didn’t take the time to look down the road. If they did so they would have seen that their business model would only remain viable as long as credit and real estate conditions stayed the same.
Starting in late 2004 and regularly through 2005, alarm bells were being rung by the UCLA Anderson Forecast, and other leading think tanks. The information was there. We were living an illusion of wealth. Unfortunately, that means many of the businesses we’ll see go bankrupt in 2009, probably weren’t real businesses. I read an article about a poor lady who is being forced to close her hand picked pear business. After years of taking home a six figure salary, she’s living off of credit cards now. My heart goes out to her, but on the other hand, would anybody who was based in reality think that they had a sustainable business selling pears?
Granted, I’m using an extreme example but my point is valid; her business, as is the case with many existing businesses today, was rooted in the illusion that we would always have an endless supply of luxury dollars to throw around.
Starting a business? Don’t be seduced by easy access to low hanging fruit, if there is any left. If another great opportunity to monetize appears like the Wall Street, Internet and Real Estate bubbles, know the economic reality for what it is so that you can formulate a cogent, coherent plan for the future. Use your successes as a springboard for sustainability.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Growing a Business on January 2nd, 2009
3 Simple Steps for creating a successful viral e-mail campaign to your house lists.
By Tom Polanski, Mojo Marketing Maestro, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
The case study that I’ve included to below got me to thinking that any advertiser could use the success principles InterContinental Hotels Group discovered to market to their house lists. They would just have to tailor the incentive to their offer. If it’s too capital and labor intensive to create a rewards program or a frequent buyer program, perhaps gift cards of varying amounts could be used to create the same virality. I hope that the case study sparks your thinking in new directions.
Viral remarketing case study, InterContinental Hotels Group:
Summary: Making your best customers really feel appreciated can solidify their loyalty. But is it worth the investment in customers who are already your brand champions?
Find out how marketers for an international hotel chain crafted a simple email that got a 100% response rate from their most active loyalty club members. Ultimately, 1,766% more people than were initially sent the email responded.
Challenge:
Cassandra Jeyaram, Social Marketing Manager, InterContinental Hotels Group, and her team wanted to thank the 150 most active members of their Priority Club rewards program while boosting stays at the same time.
They intended to boost the already strong loyalty of their club members and get more people into rooms at hotels such as the Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Hotel Indigo while keeping costs at a minimum. Such a campaign required a balancing act.
What type of campaign would make their biggest fans feel rewarded and leverage their passion for the hotels without making them feel like pawns? And still provide a solid ROI?
Posted by Tom Polanski in Marketing on August 15th, 2008