Posts Tagged Tom Polanski
eBrand Media shares site redesign tips that will increase conversion rates
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
You’re spending real money driving traffic to your website but what kind of results do you have to show for it? Are your visitors leaving the site quickly? Are people abandoning their shopping cart before they’ve ordered? Are you having difficulty identifying the problems?
The industry standard conversion rate is 3%, which means that 97% of the traffic to a website isn’t sticking. Of course there are a number of reasons why this may be so, but most commonly, we’ve discovered that the majority of sites we’ve worked with, and that numbers in the thousands, are impediments to, rather than facilitators of sales.
An e-commerce site shouldn’t be a challenge for the customer, no matter the size of the product array. It shouldn’t be a spook house of dead-ends, false staircases and hidden doors. A basic understanding of the psychology of the online shopper; their interests, attitudes, opinions, and behavior, along with a concession to the fact that the internet is a super highway where people are searching and scanning quickly would lead to better site design. It’s important to understand what makes your audience tick, click, and stick.
We all suffer from a form of cultural ADD which means that we’re restless. The mouse, and better computer hardware, gives us the ability to move and groove from site to site. Take a look at your site, does it make it easy for a guest to find and get what they’re looking for? Or is the shopping process a series of frustrating friction points and irritants?
Click on the “Continue Reading” link to find a case study, shared with us by one of our partners, where one company increased their conversions with a simple redesign.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Website Optimization, eBrand Media on April 9th, 2009
Other aspects of the Facebook phenomenon
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
Over the years we’ve compiled a large database of contacts who did not respond to our attempts to engage them regarding our services. Last month we decided to try and connect with these, “not viables”, through the social media site, Facebook. We weren’t expecting much. However, much to our surprise, 98.2% of those business contacts, those who already had Facebook pages, people who wouldn’t return an e-mail or a voicemail, accepted our invitation to be “friends”; thereby allowing us access to intimate details about their lives, families, and friends.
To be clear; we didn’t, and still don’t, try to hide the fact that we’re marketers; it’s right there on our Facebook page under the “Info” tab. We were, and still are, stunned by the positive response to our invitations. Why would they do that? Why invite us into their private worlds when they wouldn’t, otherwise, give us the time of day?
Maybe people just automatically respond to a “friend” request. There’s a likelihood that the branding process we initiated with our repeated attempts to contact them achieved enough of a familiarity where that person felt they probably knew us. I suspect that there’s no easy answer. However, Facebook has succeeded in creating a positive experience which, in turn, breeds trust. Another key driver may be the need, particularly when times are tough, to feel good about ourselves. Membership in a community and the accumulation of lots of friends, who without fail will post positive comments about our pictures, and musings, is a way to do that.
Speaking of which; we’ve yet to see a negative comment from, or directed to, any of the hundreds of people who are now in our circle of “friends”. This attests to the power of “Social Proof” which means we determine what is correct by what other people think is correct. The downside is that, as Walter Lippman put it, “Where all are thinking alike, no one is thinking very much.”
Posted by Tom Polanski in Ethics, Opinions on February 18th, 2009
eBrand Interactive partners with Zappos; delivers success by beating mandated performance goals!
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
Since the day eBrand Interactive began its partnership with Zappos, and took over management of a particular marketing campaign, eBrand Interactive has dramatically increased that company’s revenue, while significantly enhancing their return on ad spend.
The work my eBrand Interactive team has done is the stuff that case studies are made of. I’d like to go into details but given the nature of our competition, I’m hesitant to reveal too much, but let me say this; eBrand Interactive uses industry-leading, next generation technologies, and expert accounts managers, to do what our “celebrity” competitors can’t; hit the ball out of the park, time and again, for advertiser after advertiser.
If you’d like to learn more about the service eBrand Interactive is providing Zappos, please feel free to e-mail us at, sales@ebrandmedia.com.
Right now, though, I’d like to take a moment to express my admiration for the company. Later in this article is a case study regarding a successfull type of e-mail re-marketing that Zappos developed.
Early on in our discussions it was made clear that providing platinum level customer service and a wide ranging selection was of utmost importance to the company. We’ve often heard companies espouse this but I can tell you, from the way that we’ve been treated, that Zappos walks the talk. One can tell how a much a company values its brand by the way it treats its vendors.
Zappos has treated us wonderfully. Every person we’ve dealt with, and the team we currently work with, has been and is a delight. Zappos delivers a positive experience whether one is a customer or a vendor. That compelling experience creates brand loyalty: customers come back and vendors work harder. Zappos represents what I hoped e-commerce would become when I first began my career in online marketing back 2002.
However, too many companies have lost sight of the fact that those numbers, names and e-mail addresses belong to real people with hopes, dreams, and fears. Zappos hasn’t lost sight of that.
Zappos invests in its people, processes, technologies and products. The end result is a level of efficiency that drives revenue gains while simultaneously cutting unnecessary costs. They manage expectations, and they keep their commitments. That means fewer products are returned, good will is created, rand customers return again, and again. Zappos generates the type of viral marketing that has been used for eons, and is still the best: positive work of mouth.
Kudos to Zappos…I can’t tell you how proud my team and I are to be participants in, and causative agents for, their continued success. Our companies, and our core values, synch perfectly.
Maybe that’s why they chose us when they had a host of vendors to choose from.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Success Stories, Zappos, eBrand Interactive on January 5th, 2009
Tom Polanski and eBrand Media thank Zappos for their gesture of genuine partnership!
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
A person can make a series of reasonably sound assumptions by the way a company treats it vendors. Savvy Senior Managers understand that the value they place on their vendors, customers and employees is directly proportionate to the value they place on their brand. Good relationships will always add to the brands equity.
Unfortunately, over the past 5-6 years, many managers, and merchants, have seemingly forgotten the importance of, and the investment needed, to build a brand. Most of the people I’ve met over the years have been driven by a direct return on investment now mentality. Too few were forward thinkers. These people wanted X number of dollars back for every dollar invested and many times, considering the gross margins they made, one could only arrive at the conclusion that they thought of their businesses the same way they’re customers thought of their homes; as ATM’s. I often wondered where the revenue was going. As far as I could tell it wasn’t going into creating a platinum level, end-user experience.
I think the companies that will thrive during this economic transition have been companies that have always had a coherent, cogent vision for the company’s present and future. In addition, management takes care of their employees; they create a positive environment and treat their people like a valuable resource. As a result, the return they see on the the investment they’ve made in their human resources typically exceeds the usual. These employees aren’t just showing up for work to trudge through another day.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Opinions, Tom Polanski, Zappos, eBrand Media on December 31st, 2008
The eBrand Media Quantum Marketing Theory: It’s all about the relationships!
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” – John Wanamaker
I think we can all agree that the internet is like a giant calculator. Our ability to track is unparalleled and still, money is wasted by advertisers. In this new economic reality, we’re discovering a psychology where decision makers are more hesitant to make changes, take chances and, instead, are waiting for the storm to blow over. In my opinion, when times are tough there’s a tension and fear in offices that’s absent when everyone’s feeling flush. The tendency is lay low and fly under the radar. This means that there is a real need to be careful about waste. There’s a fragility today and little tolerance for mistakes.
We conduct billions of dollars of business everyday via e-mail, IM and telephones and it’s easy to forget that we’re dealing, not with numbers only, but with human beings who are bundles of passions, hopes, dreams and fears. And we have relationships with them. We’re connected.
Work in social psychology, cognitive psychology, and anthropology is making it clear that all learning takes place in settings that have particular sets of cultural and social norms resulting in expectations. These settings influence learning and transfer in powerful ways. If this is true in the classroom, and if it’s true that your job is primarily that of a teacher, then you must ask yourself questions that can’t be quantified but affect the ability to actualize success for your client, your company and yourself. These include but aren’t limited to the following:
Posted by Tom Polanski in Advertising, Relationship Marketing, eBrand Media on December 30th, 2008