Online Marketing

When integrated, search engine marketing (SEM) and online display advertising can deliver far greater results than the same campaigns planned in isolation.

Recognizing the need to stay current in the e-commerce market and better serve web-savvy shoppers, BedBathStore.com, an online retailer of bed and bath décor products (e.g., bedspreads, curtains, draperies, bed linens, pillows, bath accessories, etc.) decided to create online videos for its entire catalog of children’s products in September 2009.

Last month's Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition (IRCE) in Chicago had all the elements of a healthy trade show -- attendance was at record levels with over 10,000 paid attendees; the exhibit floor was packed with booths and customers; and the sessions were well attended. It seemed like everyone in the industry was at the show.

Kim Siefke, e-commerce manager, web design and development at Bealls, spoke at last month's retail Marketing Conference in Orlando, Fla. on how her company has used rich media to grow its online and cross-channel sales. Joining Siefke in presenting a session titled “How Rich Media Can Help Drive Cross-Channel Success” was Wayne Sadlowski, vice president of business development at Adobe Scene7, a provider of image server software.

Marketers that use interactive data effectively — tracking each person’s clicks, opens, purchases, views, com­ments, etc. — can engage individuals with communications tailored exactly to them, at convenient times and in manners they prefer, to boost conversions, revenues and profitability.

That comes from Paul Madden, a presenter on the "Automating Twitter" panel at Search Engine Strategies New York, held last month, and owner of Crea8 New Media. Madden "specializes in the darker arts of black hat SEO," and "actively explores as many methods for automating and benefiting from social media as possible," according to his speaker bio.

PROBLEM: Chinaberry, a cross-channel retailer of children's books, craft kits, toys and games, wanted to increase its online conversion rates. SOLUTION: Partnered with a provider of personalized product recommendations (PPRs) for online retailers. RESULTS: Overall site conversion for the Isabella brand website jumped from 4.7 percent in November 2008 without PPRs to 6.8 percent in November 2009 with PPRs.

B-to-B companies are notoriously cheap, so here are some free tools and services that can improve your online marketing know-how and creative efforts.

Last week we saw highlights from the "Think with Google: Future of Multi-Channel" summit. Today we learn from Avinash Kaushik, Analytics Evangelist at Google, about measuring offline marketing impact online and measuring online impact offline. Watch the short 5-min video on non-line driven analytics.

The current buzz about GPS-based marketing on smartphones may be obscuring a whole slew of location-based marketing opportunities for retailers: namely, geo-targeting opportunities that have nothing to do with mobile devices. That's because an overwhelming majority of online purchases are still made from notebooks and desktops, and the general location of these devices can be determined by IP address. This simple fact of internet technology means any online store has the potential to market and merchandise relative to location. But does it makes sense to do this, and what geo-targeting strategies should you use?