Eric Pratt says, “When we were transitioning into an inbound marketing agency in 2012, I spent hours and hours reading articles and books and reviewing other inbound agencies’ websites. I wanted to know what the best of the best were doing. They were the experts, and I wanted to be successful in this new type of agency as quickly as possible. Now, we’ve made more mistakes over the years than my pride would allow me to admit here. But there is one mistake that was extremely costly and the result of my initial “study the experts” approach: tiered pricing. It’s a... [...]

Charlie Keegan says, “After pouring money into marketing for your ecommerce company, you want to know where your traffic comes from, right? The launch of a particular campaign could involve pay-per-click ads, email marketing, social media posts, blogs, guest posts, and mentions in online magazines. How could you possibly track where your buyers found you with so many possibilities? There are quite a few attribution models available, with perhaps the most widely used being Google Analytics. It’s true that Google Analytics will help you identify the click that led buyers directly to your... [...]

  Graham Charlton says, “Microcopy is often overlooked, but it can have an important impact on the user experience.  In an ecommerce context, microcopy is those little pieces of text which explain what to write in a form field, or the wording of a call to action. Here are some examples of how it can be used… Microcopy, or transactional content In our recent Implementing Content Strategy guide, this kind of copy is referred to as transactional content by author Dr Mike Baxter“. How ecommerce sites can use microcopy ‘Econsultancy’ Blog  [...]

Patrick Kulp says, “Video ads on Facebook are right around the corner. Facebook will be giving video publishers an extra push to publish video directly onto its platform as it shores up its massive video platform, it announced on Wednesday. SEE ALSO: Think Facebook is a media powerhouse? Just wait til its video player takes over The social network is starting to run ads between videos for a small group of publishers including Fox Sports, the NBA and Funny or Die. Those companies will receive 55% share of ad revenues that run against their videos — the same split offered by YouTube. Facebook... [...]

Tucker SchreiberTucker Schreiber Tucker Schreiber says, “Keeping your online store on trend can be the difference between staying relevant and losing sales. This applies not only to the products that you’re selling, but how you present them. In this post, we’ll take a look at three design trends you can leverage to keep your online store looking fresh! A Bit About Design Trends Some designers think “trend” is a dirty word, but it’s really just a way to identify interesting patterns in the collective style habits of our culture. By definition, a trend is... [...]

Peter Sheldon says, “Twenty months have passed since Forrester last published our Wave evaluation of the leading B2B commerce suite vendors. During that time much has changed. B2B eCommerce transactions in the US have grown 40% from $559b in 2013 to reach an estimated $780b by the end of 2015. Furthermore, 74% of B2B buyers now research and 30% now buy at least one-half of their work purchases online. Manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers alike are investing heavily in next generation enterprise B2B commerce technology to ensure they are delivering world-class online buying experiences... [...]

Morgan Jacobson says, “An inspiring call-to-action is equal parts design and psychology. Prompting the desired response is never easy, especially as consumers become savvy to the tricks and tactics that online retailers use. The last thing you want is for your CTAs to be labeled “click-bait,” but you have to get buyers to convert somehow, right? We’ve shared a lot of tips over the years for creating compelling CTAs. While some of the components may change a little over time, the basic requirements remain. An image of the product or service, some compelling copy, and a button that stands... [...]

Graham Charlton says, “The features you need to add to product pages will vary according to the type ofecommerce site. Some of the things on this list are essentials for any online retailer, while others are dependent on the sector and target market. This checklist contains some of the more common elements that customers are looking for on ecommerce product pages, as well as some more advanced features that can enhance the experience. Your product pages should contain the essentials listed below, and most of the others. I haven’t listed product reviews as essential, but I’d say... [...]

Richard Lazazzera says, “As an online store owner, you’re always on the lookout for new ways to drive traffic, but how many times have you invested time, energy and money into a new method of driving traffic only to receive low conversions or maybe even none at all? Facebook Ads, Google Adwords, SEO, blogging, social media and guest posting are all great methods to drive traffic, unfortunately, most of the time they don’t work as expected. There are lots of possible reasons for this, however, many times it’s because you have a leaky bucket. A website that leaks visitors as fast... [...]

Richard Lazazzera says, “It all started with a challenge – build an ecommerce business from scratch and see how many sales we could generate in three days. For many entrepreneurs, building their first business can be intimidating. There’s seemingly hundreds of steps, choices and paths to get to the finish line of just launching your business, let alone generating traffic and sales. Most of the time though, the whole process of building and launching an online store gets overthought and leads to paralysis by analysis. The truth is, building an ecommerce business can be simple—if you... [...]