Yahoo! Search Marketing

Social media is a valuable marketing tool retailers of all sizes and industries should use. Consumers spend a lot of time on social media sites, and retailers should take advantage of this. In comparison to many outbound marketing practices, social media is a simple, cost-effective tool for retailers to reach consumers and lead them to their website, as well as convert leads into sales. Here are four easy ways retailers can use social media to successfully market their business:

As we rapidly move from old media to the new media of the internet, retailers must shift to also take advantage of the digital economy where their customers are now shopping. This digital transformation is the greatest opportunity in the history of trade and commerce. For the first time, the internet creates a digital democracy of marketing and advertising because few retailers can afford consistent advertising, while the internet makes multimedia affordable and creates a revenue center.

Retailers took spending on product listing ads (PLAs) to another level at the end of 2014. According to data from Adobe Digital Index, Google Shopping ad spending in the retail sector grew 47 percent year-over-year and 53 percent quarter-over-quarter in last year's fourth quarter. Meanwhile, spending on Google text ads was down 6 percent year-over-year. PLAs accounted for one-fifth of U.S. retail search ad clicks in the fourth quarter of 2014. Despite their decline in spend, Google text ads led in share of search engine marketing clicks, grabbing two-thirds of the total. 

Yahoo is casting off its e-commerce business, including Yahoo Stores, later this year when it spins off its Yahoo Small Business (YSB) unit. YSB will move over to a new public company, currently referred to as "SpinCo," along with Yahoo's approximately 384 million shares of Alibaba. Amer Akhtar, head of YSB, announced the news on the unit's blog. "With this new opportunity, we can invest even more in our platform and chart our own course," he said. However, Yahoo had just launched a "next generation" Yahoo Stores platform in August under Akhtar's predecessor, Amit Kumar.

With all the acclaim that Amazon.com receives for being an innovative, bleeding-edge technology company/online retailer, it may come as somewhat of a surprise that its workforce is primarily composed of white men. Without knowing any better, I would have thought that the online retail giant had a more diversified workforce.

There was a time not that long ago when retailers exploring new ways to execute effective social engagement strategies would face a barrage of questions about return on investment. How do we know, CFOs and other company leaders would ask, if all that tweeting, liking, and pinning is doing anything for the bottom line? Where's the proof that the investments in maintaining, monitoring and updating an ever-expanding array of social media outposts are driving conversions and increasing profits? Fair questions to be sure.

American Apparel's board fired CEO Dov Charney over allegations of misconduct. Fans of the retail chain rejoiced, tired of Charney's inappropriate behavior. Consumers were told it was a fresh start for the company, that John Luttrell, American Apparel's interim CEO, was the "anti-Dov Charney" of CEOs. After having ads banned five times in the last two-and-a-half years by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the company would start new and, hopefully, stay away from from its marketing strategy of inappropriately sexualizing young women. Think back, all the way to … June.

Yahoo showed its commitment to e-commerce on Thursday by launching what it calls a "completely reimagined, next generation" version of Yahoo Stores. The company is emphasizing how easy it is to set up a store, start accepting payments, and get found through its search engine optimization features. Yahoo Stores has been around for 16 years, and Amit Kumar, head of Yahoo Small Business, says the new Yahoo Stores draws upon what the company has learned from its millions of customers. 

As a small business, how do you build an effective mobile strategy? Consider the following tips:

Force Factor, a sports nutrition brand founded in 2009 by two Harvard University rowers, launched a display advertising campaign in April for its Test X180 Ignite supplement. The campaign has delivered a clickthrough rate (CTR) of 0.86 percent, which is more than eight times above the industry standard. The ad, a 300x250 above-the-fold placement, runs across SportingNews.com, a top 10 U.S. sports site that reaches millions of unique sports fans daily.