Cover Story: 50 Best Tips of 2010

We're excited to offer you Retail Online Integration's 50 best tips of 2010. Our editorial staff reviewed every word published in our print publication, e-newsletter (The ROI Report) and website over the past year. From there, we've extracted the best money-making and cost-saving pointers. Enjoy.

Melissa Campanelli, 
editor-in-chief

B-to-B
1. Using any home digital video camera, you can shoot and now edit an effective video to complement your website's product 
presentations. If your lighting is even and audio clear, you can create an effective online video. As a rule of thumb, keep videos short. For beginners, less than a minute is best. If you're going over two minutes, your name better be Francis Ford Coppola. Don't let an individual scene run longer than 
10 seconds.
George Hague, HAGUEdirect
"5 Free, Fantastic Web Marketing Tools," May, Retail Online Integration

2. "For B-to-B retailers, focus your initial investment in social media on developing a company blog with online video support. Allocate 1 percent to 2 percent of your total marketing budget to social media to get started. Think of it this way: If your marketing budget is $1 million, devote between $10,000 and $20,000 for a social media test."
George Hauge, HAGUEdirect
"Do You Feel Stupid That You Don't Tweet?," September, Retail 
Online Integration

Channel Integration
3. Integrate your messaging. "Now that Google has introduced real-time search, it's more imperative than ever to have your message constantly available in multiple channels. That means constant engagement: Tweets have to be written and answered, branded communities must be monitored, websites kept up-to-date, and search marketing must reflect your attention to the changing face of the internet."
Neil M. Rosen, eWayDirect
"Best Practices for Integrating Your E-Marketing Efforts," March 16, The ROI Report

4. Leverage and adapt great creative. "Start with a great product and expose it repeatedly. Put it on your catalog's front cover, on your homepage, in your emails, and on your landing and category pages."
Margaret Moraskie, Boston Proper
"Ways to Maximize Your Multichannel Experience," June 8, The ROI Report

5. "Consistent messaging throughout an online marketing campaign typically produces higher conversion rates. Make sure the theme of the search campaign is in line with the display campaign. Check that the messaging of the display campaign and the language used in the copy match the keywords you're buying for search. Make sure the keywords searched for will have appropriate creative and will lead to landing pages designed to guide searchers to their desired action. And close the circle by designing the landing pages of the search campaign to be aligned with those of the display campaign."
Paul M. Wilson, iProspect
"The Dynamic Duo," August, Retail Online Integration

Creative & Copywriting
6. Show your catalog's products in a lifestyle setting. "Combine aspiration with clarity (e.g., a model wearing your swimwear in a resort setting, your upscale pots in an upscale kitchen, etc.). Insets of products plus aspirational images can work, too."
Susan J. McIntyre, McIntyre Direct
"Catalog Doctor: Conquer 'Fear of Selling'," April 13, The ROI Report

7. Design your catalog to fit press and paper sizes. "Look at sizes that don't waste paper but that can also run on a lot of different presses so you have some options when bidding. Look at sizes like 8-1/4 by 10-1/2 or thereabouts, and talk to your printers to see what fits on their presses."
Carol Worhtington-Levy, LENSER
"5 Creative Catalog Techniques That Save Paper Costs," March 2, The 
ROI Report

8. Get customers to invite you into their "personal" spaces. Offer an opt-in newsletter subscription so buyers can subscribe to receive special offer notices and valuable tips. Best of all, your company stays fresh in consumers' minds.
Denise McGill, catalog, web and promotional copywriter
"Copywriting Tips to Boost ROI in Slow Economic Times," Feb. 2, The ROI Report

9. Appeal to consumers' emotions. "To bring new life to product descriptions, appeal to the different emotional needs of consumers. Depending on your target audience, choose the emotions you want consumers to feel about your products, and bring more variety to your product descriptions."
Denise McGill, catalog, web and promotional copywriter
"How to Easily Write Several Descriptions for One Product," March 16, The ROI Report

Customer Service
10. Ask the extra question of your customers and prospects. Negotiating expectations with customers will leave them more satisfied when you can meet those expectations. But don't promise what you can't deliver on.
Shep Hyken, author, professional speaker and consultant
"10 Tips to Improve Your Customer Service," April 27, The ROI Report

11. Get closer. Offer customers an outlet to discuss their shopping experiences both good and bad. Listen to what they have to say to make improvements. The answers may provide useful insights into better products and/or enhanced services.
Andrew Benett, Arnold Worldwide
"5 Ways Retailers Can Cash In on the Back-to-School Season," Aug. 24, The ROI Report

12. Make it easy to find help. Your website should offer links to helpful information such as support information, user communities and frequently asked questions (FAQ). A customer with a question who can easily find a helpful answer on your website is a happy customer.
Eric Groves, Constant Contact
"How to Turn Customers Into Raving Fans," July 20, The ROI Report

Database Marketing
13. "People who become [social media] fans of retailers are usually their best and most engaged customers. Retailers should think about segmenting those customers and treating them as they would their traditional best customers."
Kevin Ertell, ForeSee Results
"Is Facebook a Friend to Retailers?," March, Retail Online Integration

14. Identify customers who are likely to "crossover" and buy from other merchandise divisions. If a men's shoe customer is willing to buy men's outerwear, then you have a customer that could receive a men's outerwear targeted offer. Conversely, it's wise to identify customers who are unlikely to crossover and buy from another merchandise division. It's this audience where you save a ton of advertising expenses and, as a result, become more profitable.
Kevin Hillstrom, MineThatData
"3 Ways to Improve Offline Targeting," March 2, Dear Dr. pROfIt blog

15. Filter your housefile on the basis of multiple online channels. In other words, classify customers who buy from multiple online channels e.g., email, search, affiliates, banners, social media, etc. These customers are moving further and further away from catalog marketing.
Kevin Hillstrom, MineThatData
"4 Ways to Filter Customers for Profit," Feb. 23, Dear Dr. pROfIt 
blog

E-Commerce
16. Simplify checkout. "The more steps required and pages to load to complete the process of buying a product, the greater the chances for prospective customers to fall out of the purchase funnel. Go to your website and try buying some product yourself to see what buyers encounter; then look for opportunities to make the process faster, easier and painless."
Mason Wiley, Hydra
"5 Tactics to Boost Online ROI," Jan. 19, The ROI Report

17. Focus on procastinators. Early sales and promotions can be interesting, but ultimately they're not all that big of a factor.
Lauren Freedman, the e-tailing group
"Strategies to Maximize Your Online Holiay Sales," Aug. 17, The 
ROI Report

18. Use the weather to your advantage. Recalling last December's blizzard that crippled much of the Northeast, Kenneth Cole identified these house-bound consumers as a captive online audience. The retailer created timely offers to capitalize on this event, generating added online revenue for those days.
Tom Davis, Kenneth Cole
"Strategies to Maximize Your Online Holiay Sales," Aug. 17, The 
ROI Report

19. "Implement cross-selling on your website. Make sure you at least show shoppers 'people who bought this also bought that.' This cross-sell alone can increase average order size by nearly 10 percent. Make sure you use it in your shopping cart. A number of sites have this feature but use it only on product pages. That's a big missed opportunity — the cart is the No. 1 place shoppers click on cross-sales!"
Larry Kavanagh, D.M.insite
"Supersize Me," April, Retail 
Online Integration

20. "Add a 'Recently Viewed' box. This sounds too simple to work, but it's one of the best things you can do on a shoestring budget. It gives users an easy, at-a-glance way to remember products they've seen in case they want to go back to them. It takes the pressure off your navigation, but more 
important, it triggers to returning users that they've been there 
and were interested in your products."
Amy Africa, Eight by Eight
"12 Ways to Spruce Up Your Website for the Holidays," July, Retail 
Online Integration

21. Be ready to capitalize on busy online shopping days. Target the third weekend of December with a planned promotion. For all of the hoopla surrounding Black Friday weekend, this weekend is bigger. Plan something for that weekend and you'll generate incremental sales.
Tom Davis, Kenneth Cole
"Strategies to Maximize Your Online Holiay Sales," Aug. 17, The 
ROI Report

Email
22. Hold a contest. People love the chance to win a prize. Keep in mind that you don't have to have a huge prize; it could be as simple as a $250 shopping spree on your e-commerce site.
Reggie Brady, Reggie Brady Marketing Solutions
"6 Ways to Increase Engagement," October, Retail Online Integration

23. Take advantage of triggered emails. Trigger emails are sent to individuals based on their actions. The action could be good (thanking them for signing up for your free e-letter), bad (abandoning a shopping cart) or indifferent (confirming a vote in a poll), but it's always a happening, event or instance. Triggers have higher response rates, better deliverability and improved lifetime profit.
Amy Africa, Eight by Eight
"TESTING, TESTING: 5 Web Attributes to Test This Season," September, Retail Online Integration

24. "Large contact lists don't always equate to larger customer lists. This means lower open rates because many subscribers may no longer want to hear from you, or the list contains invalid addresses. Costs can really add up if you're charged by number of contacts and/or sends. Reconfirming contacts gives you an opportunity to separate true prospective customers from long-dead leads."
Gregory Davis, Solid Cactus
"Shop Talk," September, Retail 
Online Integration

Fraud/Security
25. "Put a barcode or promo code on your coupon. Even if your point-of-sale system can't accept a code to give a deal, you can scare off fraudsters by putting a barcode on your coupon."
Seth Sarelson and Jonathan Treiber, RevTrax
"10 Ways to Protect Your Brand From Coupon Fraud," June 14, The ROI Report