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Ecommerce Website Platforms That Help Grow Your Business!

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Make Sure Your Ecommerce Website Platform Is Up To Par

With summer time quickly passing by, the daunting thought of back to school shopping approaches every parents mind. If your Ecommerce platform is not up to par with your competition, parents will be choosing them over you for their back to school needs. Even if your website doesn’t have a shopping cart, you may lose business to competitors who do. Did you know that U.S. eCommerce sales will increase over 11% this year, and over 10% again in 2016 and 2017.

If you’re considering changing or adding an Ecommerce function to keep up with the shopping trends, here are a few platforms that can give your website the shopping power it needs, when it needs it the most!

ecommerce

Volusion

Volusion has a lot of features, simple interface, and good security. It has over 900 features which include store builder, design, built-in marketing, social media tools, inventory management, secure hosting, and 24/7 customer support. It also features a mobile-responsive website and administrative section. If you have a small number of products (100 or less) and still want all the features, then a $15/month Mini Plan, which includes unlimited storage and no transaction fees, is perfect for you. The Premium Plan is $135/month for unlimited products. Could this platform help you with the influx of shoppers online?

Bigcommerce

Bigcommerce is easy-to-use and has a lot of built-in features which let you create a store that converts interest into sales. It offers mobile responsive themes, flexible product management, inventory control, optimized checkout, analytics and 24/7 support. In addition, a setup wizard and Bigcommerce University offer lessons in online store design and marketing. Standard pricing is $29.95 per month, with a 1.5% transaction fee, in addition to other credit card processing fees. A Plus account is $79.95 per month with no transaction fees. Will bigcommerce be the right platform for your business needs?

3dcart

Opening and running an online store is fast and effortless as 3dcart includes many of the most needed features. The dashboard is easy to navigate and quickly allows you to access the most important store areas. The dashboard includes data on SEO, social media, mobile store templates, product management, statistics, and security. 3dcart also offers an app store with a substantial number of add-ons. Their “Mini” costs $19.99 a month for up to 200 products, while the Power Plan costs $129.99. Both plans offer no transaction fees. Will the 3dcart platform help your business when it needs it the most?

Shopify

Shopify’s features include over 100 themes, mobile commerce capabilities, your own domain name, marketing/SEO, a blogging platform, the ability to host an entire website, and online education. Shopify also has many apps that you can download and install in your store. Pricing starts at $29 per month, with a 2.9% plus 30 cent rate if you use their credit card processor. Higher plan’s have lower per-transaction fees. Does Shopify seem to fit your business needs?

Big Cartel

Big Cartel is a basic platform which targets artists looking for easy solutions to sell their products online. If you are looking to sell a few products online and don’t mind basic features and limited themes, this is for you. A basic Gold Plan allows you to feature five products for free, with no inventory management. The Platinum Plan is $9.99 per month for up to 25 products, while Titanium is $29.99 per month for up to 300 products. The more you pay the more features you unlock. Does the Big Cartel have all the things your shopping platform needs?

With Ecommerce sales on the rise year after year will your platform be able to handle the rush at back to school time or during the Holiday season?

Contact us today or leave us a comment below for more advice and information.

Does My Business Need to Be on Instagram?

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Everywhere you look (including our own blog from time to time), agency insiders, marketing pros, and influencers post blogs and articles following this general formula:

“(x) Tips to Solve ”

Personally, I think this format is a little overdone, even hedging on passé. Sure, it’s approachable, skimmable, and a decent way to deliver lots of info in a structured way. The problem is a majority of marketing problems aren’t this cut and dry. So why don’t we try something different? As I cover the topic of whether businesses should use Instagram, I’m going to break the question down—literally. Let’s tackle this issue piece by piece, starting with…

”Does my business…”

For me, this first piece boils down to the matter of intent. Is your company prepped and ready to simply give Instagram the “ol’ college try,” or will you consider your options and proceed with tact? Will you evaluate your track record for pursuing new marketing channels or rushing in guns blazing, ostensibly throwing caution to the wind?
As you move forward, just know that something that starts as a poorly-planned whim will likely end up poorly executed, poorly measured, and more trouble in the long run. If, however, your answers all point toward the positive, we can move on.

”…need…”

Next, I’d think it best to determine exactly how you and your company define “need.” Do you need to achieve your business goals this year? Do you need to spur a more meaningful, influential social media presence? Do you need to humanize the brand identity you’ve helped to create? Do you need more likes, retweets, and “doubleplusgood”’s from everyone who takes a liking to a piece of content you’ve developed?

Yes, I do realize that these questions were rather simple at first glance. Now for a curve ball. To what end do your company’s goals, presence, and social media accolades lead you? What do such things mean in the context of helping or hurting your business?

In other words, do you really need them at all?

”…to be on…”

Now, are we talking “on” like the opposite of “off,” or “on” as in “on like Donkey Kong”? In any case, we’ve now made our way to the approach itself. How inclusive is your strategy to the digital channels in your arsenal? Have you consulted with an outside resource or someone with more strategic field experience than you?

Frankly, it’s not enough to just be “on” anywhere anymore. Your customers are smart, and you can’t rely on their falling for something that may potentially disillusion them. You’ve got to firmly plant your brand identity into every avenue through which you plan to reach your audience, especially if it’s somewhere you know a majority of them have been flocking. When (not if) they reach out, will you be there? How proactive vs. reactive will you be, or can you be, given your available resources?

”…Instagram?”

Investigating the issue of Instagram for businesses.
Is our brand identity more “willow,” “sutro,” or “hefe”?

If you think about it, we could easily be talking about Vine, Tumblr, Snapchat, or any number of networks seeing a burgeoning level of popularity. The thing is, this is the part of the question that matters the least. If your customers are there, and you know you can fulfill a need, offer insight, or somehow “contribute to the conversation,” this choice should be on the bottom of your priority list.

If anything, this point lends something to the evolving nature of social. Sure, some behemoths will be around for years to come, but as marketers, we all need to understand that whether our message goes out in print, a social media post, or a tiny filtered photo, we should first ask whether we have something to say. That, really, is the most important question of all.

What do you think; did this post ask more questions than it answered? Feel free to yell at us in the comments!

The Pitfalls of Isolating Digital Marketing

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What is Digital Marketing?

For years, traditional marketing was the primary form of communication between businesses and their potential customers. It helped these businesses to create brand awareness and get the word out to potential customers about their product or service. Although traditional marketing continues to play a huge role in the business world, digital marketing has become just as, if not more, important. As the use of the Internet continues to soar, so does digital marketing. For the most part, digital marketing provides an inexpensive alternative to traditional marketing. When it comes down to it, business professionals are looking for “instant gratification,” two words that are not necessarily associated with the traditional side of the house. Digital Marketing gives businesses better insights into what marketing tactics are working and if those investments are contributing to ROI.

How Can Digital Isolation Affect Your Business?

When it comes to engaging in digital marketing, decision makers too often think that a single service is going to drastically impact their business and instantly change the competitive landscape. The fact of the matter is, looking at digital marketing in its entirety and developing well-thought-out digital strategies are what lead to success. When you isolate digital marketing, it can open the door to reckless budget spending on campaigns with no way of accurately measuring performance. Failing to see digital as a whole can greatly reduce your chances of reaching your target audience and leave you looking up at your competitors.

Digital Marketing Methods

Putting the Pieces Together

Digital marketing can be very puzzling to some. It’s important to realize that digital marketing is not a solo act; it is performed in unison. Only when you begin to look at digital marketing as whole instead of one element or service, will you begin to see better results. For example, while social media is a great way to increase brand awareness and manage brand reputation, it does not often directly impact conversions and sales. However, increased brand awareness can help drive more site traffic and improve search engine optimization–related metrics. Ultimately, the more site traffic you gain, the more likely you are to generate conversions and see increased ROI.

Conclusion

As we move throughout the 21st century and beyond, digital marketing will continue growing and become a vital step toward a business reaching its organizational goals and objectives. Building and developing long-term relationships and strategies is what digital marketing is all about. The sooner you begin to realize that digital marketing is not just as simple as a one off service, the better off they will be.

Having trouble seeing the bigger picture? Share your thoughts or questions in the comments below or give us a call at 610-743-5602!

Why Better Measurement Leads to New Memberships

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The financial services environment has always been competitive, but with today’s economic climate, prospects are more wary than ever. They are hesitant to spend and invest, and hunt for the best interest rates and terms for lines of credit. Traditional banks and credit unions are now engaging in marketing battles to win these prospects over. Credit unions in particular have seen a spike in visibility and interest as prospects grow more wary of big box, traditional banks.

Lack of Measurement = Missed Opportunities

Credit unions (big and small) are now candidates in the eyes of prospects. As such, they are pitted against the larger chain banks for accounts, investments, and lending. Since credit unions tend to lack the virtually-bottomless marketing budgets that the chains do, they have to ensure that they are getting the greatest return-on-investment for their offerings and tactics. Herein lies the problem: these institutions lack visibility into the effectiveness of dated and untested marketing methods. If any measurement is taking place, it is often in a vacuum with an extreme disconnect between traditional and digital methods. The disconnect between the two marketing realms leads to inaccurate attribution.

This is not to say that any of these traditional tactics are worthless – there were surely additional revenues brought in via those billboards and banner ads. Financial institutions have been running some of those traditional methods for years, so there’s often a level of efficiency that comes with that level of experience. However, as Peter Drucker (business guru and philosopher) would say, “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” Those banner ads and billboard campaigns might be as optimized as they could possibly be – but are they generating enough incremental business? Are they right for your institution?

Marketing to the Beat of the Analytics Drum

So we’ve established that there is a problem with using dated and untested methods to measure marketing (or a total lack thereof). How can we alleviate this? By developing a solid measurement strategy across the marketing board. This will enable your institution to market based on solid analytical insights, not just on what your competitor across the street is doing. How do you even know what they’re doing is right?

I will not lie: developing a good measurement strategy is not easy. It requires cooperation of everyone on your team; from marketing to IT. It will also cost time and resources, so buy-in from the decision-makers will need to be secured. It should be an easy sell, however. Ensure that they understand the impact of measurable results tied to ROI and how they can be used to increase memberships and improve marketing effectiveness.

Following the prospective member journey from start to finish (regardless of marketing channel!) leads to an unprecedented level of attribution and ROI analysis.

The insights gathered will not only allow for leaner, more efficient marketing tactics (i.e. less money spent with more targeted results), but they will also lead to improved member and customer relations. The user experience can be optimized through the entire process, from marketing and beyond.

Are you a credit union marketer with some marketing challenges? Leave a comment below or reach out to us on Twitter or Google+ and we’ll be happy to answer your questions!

Want to Improve Your Advertising? Align Your Measurement Strategy With the Right KPIs

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The ability to measure nearly every facet of marketing campaigns and websites is nothing new. Solutions have existed for several years now and are continuously receiving updates, improvements, and new features that allow for even more in-depth analysis of customer and visitor trends. Tools like Google Analytics even allow for tracking of everything from your business’s website, to social media interactions, to your television ads (just to scratch the surface). With such a powerful (and free) tool available, there is really no excuse NOT to have insight into your initiatives!

With such a robust arsenal available to today’s marketers, however, it can become quite tempting to report on every available piece of data. While much of this data is indeed important, only a small selection of them does a good job of gauging the impact of marketing and advertising effectiveness.

So your organization chose an analytical tool to measure its campaigns and website: What should your measurement be focused on? Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)!

KPIs and You

KPIs are metrics and insights that are used to measure the success of a website or campaign. These KPIs typically demonstrate the success of your website at accomplishing the tasks it was designed for.
In order to identify KPIs for measurement, you must first determine the purpose of your organization’s website or campaign. In the case of the above visual, the website exists to generate brand awareness, increase leads, and increase sales. Once you’ve identified these high-level goals, you must then look at what your analytical tool can measure and align the right metrics to the appropriate goals. For example, the amount of new visitors and direct traffic to the website are great indicators into its ability to generate brand awareness. Keep in mind that these KPIs shouldn’t always be limited to a single tool! In some cases, they may even require insights into foot traffic (i.e. increases in foot traffic to a branch or ATM).

Want to impress the decision-makers even more? Use those KPIs to demonstrate Return on Investment! The people with the power to allocate budgets and make decisions often glaze over when presented with standard metrics. While they will definitely be impressed with the KPIs you’ve come up with, showing them ROI on the marketing budget will knock the ball out of the park. This requires that you have visibility into profit margins for a given initiative. If that isn’t readily available to you, you might want to find out how to get it!

Conclusion

It is imperative that KPIs are identified with any measurement strategy, as they greatly benefit all facets of your business. They can help individuals in your team identify opportunities for increased efficiencies. Campaign performance can be easily determined by the marketing department, which would then allow for improvements. Your entire business benefits from a solidified base in measurement and improvements, and KPIs can be great building blocks for that foundation.