Nick Valente» Blogging http://www.nickvalente.com Internet Strategy Digital Marketing eCommerce Wed, 28 Dec 2011 02:50:42 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 eCommerce & Digital Marketing 9 Week Holiday Planning Calendar http://www.nickvalente.com/ecommerce-digital-marketing-9-week-holiday-planning-calendar/ http://www.nickvalente.com/ecommerce-digital-marketing-9-week-holiday-planning-calendar/#comments Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:18:02 +0000 Admin1 http://www.nickvalente.com/?p=758 We’re almost in October and the leaves in the Northeast are already starting to change. That means the holiday season is upon us. My friends at NetElixer, one of my favorite Paid Search partners, sent out this great email with a 9 week holiday planning calendar in it. 

I like the NetElixer Calendar. Below I’ve added [...]]]> We’re almost in October and the leaves in the Northeast are already starting to change. That means the holiday season is upon us. My friends at NetElixer, one of my favorite Paid Search partners, sent out this great email with a 9 week holiday planning calendar in it. 

I like the NetElixer Calendar. Below I’ve added chart covering the key items you should consider for your holiday digital marketing plans

Date

Key Holiday Actions

Now to October 20
  • Build your Holiday Editorial Calendar for blog posts, social media engagement and blogger outreach
  • Start communicating to your affiliates about holiday schedules

October 23 to November 15
  • Early Emails. Keep your standard email schedule
  • Offer special deal and vertical holiday email newsletters
  • Coordinate offers with home page of site, PPC, blog, social, landing pages and outreach
  • Landing pages with specific offers

November 16 to November 23
  • Continue Emails, blog and social integration Push last minute shipping deadlines, let folks know when they will get their products
  • Preview Black Friday offers
  • Don’t forget to feed affiliates Black Friday offers
  • Consider publishing Black Friday offers to Fans of Facebook and your favorite Affiliates early
  • Make sure your customer service and support groups are educated ready to handle increased questions on products and offers.

Black Friday through Cyber Monday
  • Monitor traffic, make sure everything is running correctly
  • Note successes and disappointments. Plan for post CyberMonday sales

November 29 to December 10
  • Adjust editorial calendar, posts, outreach and home page to reflect sales levels, competitors and any other relevant factors
  • Last minute specials coordinated through all channels.
  • Be sure to coordinate with product management and purchasing to identify last minute deals

December 11 to 19
  • Critical to re-post shipping deadlines
   

Have you built your holiday calendar yet?


]]> http://www.nickvalente.com/ecommerce-digital-marketing-9-week-holiday-planning-calendar/feed/ 0 Give First, Then Receive – Better Affiliate Marketing http://www.nickvalente.com/give-first-then-receive-better-affilaite-marketing/ http://www.nickvalente.com/give-first-then-receive-better-affilaite-marketing/#comments Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:25:08 +0000 Admin1 http://www.nickvalente.com/?p=615 Like all social content, it is best to mix your promotional material with a healthy amount of content that is of significant interest to your audience. If as part of your Internet strategy you’re writing a blog about audio equipment, a minimum of  60% of your posts should be about the technology and music that [...]]]> Like all social content, it is best to mix your promotional material with a healthy amount of content that is of significant interest to your audience. If as part of your Internet strategy you’re writing a blog about audio equipment, a minimum of  60% of your posts should be about the technology and music that help deliver enjoyment to your customer. The other 40% or less can be about your product. Each post should close with a short pitch which relates to the post, but keeping your audience engaged and wanting to open your emails, read your blog posts or visit your facebook page depends on delivering content that interests them.

Engaging your Affiliates

Affiliates are like any other sales channel, the more information you give them the better they will perform. This also includes the frequency and content of your messages. Reach out with new content about your products on a regular basis, but also reach out to them on matters that will help there overall business. A high performing affiliate will mean more sales for you. Look at the email I just got from the Volusion affiliate program. It addresses an issue that all affiliates are concerned with; getting their site to the top of the search engine results. This affiliate newsletter does not even mention the Volusion product, it only purpose is to help affiliates succeed.

Lesson: No matter what communication methods you use with your customers, remember to address their desires before you address yours. Give before you expect to receive.

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]]> http://www.nickvalente.com/give-first-then-receive-better-affilaite-marketing/feed/ 0 Making Your Blog Mobile Ready http://www.nickvalente.com/making-your-blog-mobile-ready/ http://www.nickvalente.com/making-your-blog-mobile-ready/#comments Wed, 20 Apr 2011 15:03:13 +0000 Admin1 http://www.nickvalente.com/?p=331 I’m sure by now everyone knows the importance of mobile. Making your web site mobile ready is something that should at least be on your to-do list. Sure, it is expensive and time consuming to make your site mobile, but even if your site is not mobile ready, your blog can be.

Make your Blog Mobile [...]]]> I’m sure by now everyone knows the importance of mobile. Making your web site mobile ready is something that should at least be on your to-do list. Sure, it is expensive and time consuming to make your site mobile, but even if your site is not mobile ready, your blog can be.

Make your Blog Mobile Friendly

For those of you who use WordPress for your blogs there are a few options making your blog mobile ready. One of the best options is WPTouch, a WordPress plugin that nicely displays your blog on iOS, Android or Blackberry, and it’s FREE.

Usability of Mobile Web

In a recent review famed usability expert Jakob Nielsen reviewed a site using this pulgin on a site that only had the bare minimum settings. He liked it but had some great suggestions. Most of his suggestions were easily implemented by changing options on the plugin. The response from the WPMobile folks is worth a read as it gives a really nice overview of the plugin in the process. Remember, how you set up your mobile site depends on your strategy.

Stop-gap measures till your site is Mobile Ready

While your building your mobile ready website you can still offer site visitors a compelling experience by doing the following:

  • Redirect mobile users to a Page on your WordPress blog
  • Have that page mimic the message on your main site with the option to go back to the regular site if they wish
  • Reproduce some of your most important content from your site on your blog, not all of it, just the critical stuff
  • Make sure you blog posts have lots of links back to your products as well as a good mix of informational off-site links. (remember, it’s a blog and it should also be showing visitors stuff that is of interest to them outside of your product or service)

You can get WPTouch for WordPress here.


]]> http://www.nickvalente.com/making-your-blog-mobile-ready/feed/ 0 Corporate Blogging http://www.nickvalente.com/corporate-blogging/ http://www.nickvalente.com/corporate-blogging/#comments Thu, 13 May 2010 02:04:53 +0000 Nick Valente http://www.nickvalente.com/?p=135 I just read a post at Building43, a site dedicated to small business on the web titled Top Five Reasons No One Reads Your Company Blog. The net net of this was as follows.

 Hiring an intern write your blog instead of the person in your company who knows the most about your product Taking before listening and [...]]]> I just read a post at Building43, a site dedicated to small business on the web titled Top Five Reasons No One Reads Your Company Blog. The net net of this was as follows.

  1.  Hiring an intern write your blog instead of the person in your company who knows the most about your product
  2. Taking before listening and participating  in other forums & commenting on blogs
  3. Talking to yourself. Meaning coming up with content that you’ve got no references for
  4. Not being timely. Pretty self explanatory
  5. Hiding your blog. Making it difficult to find on your site

I certainly agree with all of these ideas fully, especially 2, 3 and 5.

Of course there are other reasons folks don’t read blogs

  1. Bad writing and formatting. The fact is that people still don’t read web sites, they prefer video and pictures
  2. Run on text with too much content. Using bold headlines and bullets make it easier for your readers to scan
  3. Not updating on a regular basis. Customers want new, useful information.
  4. Writing only about your product rather than the challenges your customers face that either yours or a complimentary product might solve.
  5. Using too much industry jargon leaving the potential new customer feeling left out of club

There are tons of corporate blogging resources out there.

But the most important factor for corporate blogging is to go get started.


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