Nexternal Nexus v.4.05  
 
The Nexternal Nexus is a monthly newsletter sent by Nexternal Solutions to people serious about online sales. We hope that this information is useful in improving your online business.		  
 
 
 
  • Comparison Shopping Sites
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  • Email Outsourcing Part III: Your Campaign Expectations
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  • Google Adds Banner Ads
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    Comparison Shopping Sites

    Comparison shopping sites are gaining in popularity everyday as online consumers evolve. A sophisticated comparison shopping site provides shoppers with all of the information they need to find, compare and buy. It also enables consumers to read and post reviews about both products and the merchants that sell them. Thus, by the time shoppers click through to your site, they have done their homework and are ready to buy. With so many comparison shopping sites popping up, how should you focus your attention as an online retailer? As with many online marketing decisions, you need to look at the number of unique visitors.

    The current leader in this space is Shopping.com. Shopping.com was recently formed as the result of the merger between comparison shopping pioneer DealTime.com and Internet community, Epinions.com. According to Media Metrix, Shopping.com received 20 million unique visitors in April 2004 making it the #1 comparison shopping site and one of the top three retail shopping sites overall behind eBay and Amazon.com.

    How do you get list your products in Shopping.com? Once you establish an account, you supply a product data feed file that their robot picks up daily. Included in that file are elements such as product name, image file location, price, description, URL, etc. Shopping.com will then include your products in their massive database. One of the great things about Shopping.com is that you only pay them if someone clicks on a link from their site. The pay per click structure has proven to be a popular and effective method for merchants to advertise online because it often yields a positive return on investment. Shopping.com charges a flat rate per click based upon the category that your products are in ranging from $.05 to $.50. Click here to view the latest rate chart. (https://merchants.shopping.com/RateCardNew.html)

    One of the advantages of online marketing is the ability to measure your return on investment. Once you list products on comparison shopping sites, you will be able to track the number of orders and order revenue from those sources.

    Comparison shopping sites may or may not be the golden key that you are looking for to take your online sales to new levels, but they certainly can’t hurt. A wise man once said, “the more lines you throw out in the water, the more fish you are going to catch.” Listing your products on comparison shopping sites such as Shopping.com, Bizrate.com, Nextag.com, MySimon.com and PriceGrabber is one way of casting out more lines.

    As a token of our appreciation for being a Nexus subscriber, you can use this link to sign up for Shopping.com and receive one month for free! (https://merchants.shopping.com/partners/nexternal). Happy fishing.

    		 
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    Email Outsourcing Part III: Your Campaign Expectations

    An online marketer living in a perfect world would launch an email campaign and have all of his or her recipients read and take action on the email. Unfortunately, such a marketer’s utopia does not exist. Because this is reality, it is good to have an appropriate expectation level. By understanding just a few typical metrics you can better evaluate the success of your online campaign.

    The Open Rate

    Open rates (the number of recipients that actually open your email), can be "all over the map." For example, if you send a great offer or targeted message to a list that you've been actively emailing, you can expect to see open rates in the range of 40% - 60%. However, if you haven't sent an email to your list in quite some time, you can expect a far lower open rate. Overall, open rates in the 20% - 30% range are fairly common for this type of mailing. To increase your open rate, keep these tips in mind:

  • Don't try to be cute in the subject line. Using "Re:" so it appears as if you're sending these individuals a reply to a message they've sent is deceptive. This practice is now against the Federal law.
  • If you've rented a 3rd party list, try using the list owner's name in the "From Label" of your emails. Since, this is the relationship that pre-exists with people you are about to mail to, you'll want to use it to your advantage. Try to also obtain an implied endorsement from the list owner. This can be an added bonus beyond them simply agreeing to let you use the list for your message.
  • An open rate is only valid for people who receive HTML emails. Make sure you evaluate your campaign performance with this fact in mind.

    Click Through Rates

    Click through performance is always a tough statistic to gauge. What can be considered a "good" click through rate and what other factors are involved? For starters, you must always consider to whom you are mailing and what message they are receiving.

    A good click through rate for a link within your email can range from .5% - 1.5% but these are just approximations. Similar to the open rate scenario, expect to see a lower click through rate when you mail to prospect lists since you do not have an established relationship with these recipients. To increase your click through rate, keep these tips in mind:

  • Put your most important articles or offers above the fold or at the top of your email.
  • Don't clutter your email with too many offers or links. This can confuse and overwhelm your recipients and possibly have a negative effect on your sales or campaign performance.
  • Use graphics or pictures to explain your product and make it clickable so they can be directed to a web page providing more information.

    Focusing on your “good” responses is necessary, but don’t let your other responses such as your bounced mail fall by the wayside. Understanding what it is and what to do about it can increase or decrease your list size dramatically.

    Bounce Backs

    Bounce rates can vary greatly depending on the frequency in which you mail your list. People move around, they leave jobs, they sign on with new ISPs and get different email addresses.

    If you've yet to mail your list because you have been cultivating it for the first few months, expect a high bounce rate. This is especially true if you are collecting names without a double opt-in method. That means when the person signs up, they receive an auto email confirming their opt in.

    An average bounce back rate for a list that is mailed regularly (at least once per month) can range from 2% - 5%. An average bounce back rate to a list that is mailed less regularly (less than once per month) can range from 5% - 13%. With first-time mailing lists, the bounce back rate can be as high as 20% - 30%. To keep your bounce rate low, keep these tips in mind:

  • Mail at least once per month. However, weekly is also acceptable for certain companies.
  • Provide offers or newsletters that your recipients will miss if they change email accounts. If your content is solid they will find a way to stay connected with you.
  • Offer your recipients a way to update their email address and other details somewhere on your website.

    Unsubscribe Rates

    No matter how incredible your offers are or how targeted your campaigns may seem, you will still have folks who want to unsubscribe from your mailing list. Don't be offended, it happens to everyone. The trick is keeping your unsubscribe rates as low as possible for the mailings that you send out. A "good" average unsubscribe rate for a list that you communicate with regularly can be somewhere between .2% and .75%.

    If you haven't communicated regularly to your list, the relationship you maintain with your recipients may become fuzzy, at least on their end. To avoid this scenario, try to send monthly newsletters or offers to keep your company fresh in their minds. If you tend to mail less than once per month you can expect to have unsubscribe rates between 2% - 5%. To keep those unsubscribe rates low, keep these tips in mind:

  • Send your messages to lists of recipients who have agreed to receive offers from your organization.
  • Remind your recipient how you received their name or where they opted in (e.g., "You are receiving this email because you signed up with our Special Offer Service at SpecialOffers.com" ).
  • Send offers or newsletters at least once per month so that your recipients are used to receiving your email and you don't lose touch.
  • Don't send too many mailings to your list unless of course you are offering a "daily specials" promotion. Over-mailing your customers can result in a list fatigue, which can in turn lead to an increased unsubscribe rate.

    Hopefully this information has increased your understanding of various email metrics and what to expect from them. Of course everything relates back to WHOM you're mailing and WHAT content you are sending as these two factors will always supercede anything we, or statistics, can tell you.

    Since there are so many “players” in this game, from ISPs to ESPs, to email readers and web browsers and all of the upgrades and changes that take place with each of them, your ESP needs to be able to adapt on a moment’s notice. The ESP you choose should be in business for some time to understand the industry and be able to adapt to the ongoing changes.

    For more information on the ESPC (Email Service Provider Coalition) go to: http://www.espcoalition.org/index.php, for information on CAN Spam: http://spamlaws.com/federal/108s877.html.

    This is the third in a series of three articles related to email marketing provided by Vertical Response, Inc.. VerticalResponse is a leading provider of self-service and customized direct marketing solutions, empowering small and medium sized businesses to build, control and measure their own direct marketing campaigns

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    Google Adds Banner Ads

    As Google prepares for its IPO, it appears to be releasing a new offering every other week. The latest is that Google is breaking with its tradition of text-only advertisements and allowing for image advertisements. For those of you advertising on Google AdWords, your text ads just got a little more exciting. As you know, you are currently bidding on text keywords that show up on the right margin of Google search results. Your AdWords campaigns are also distributed to other websites that display AdWords as part of Google’s AdSense syndication network.

    For those of you unfamiliar with how this works, when you bid on the word “widgets,” your AdWords ad is showing up not only on Google’s search results pages but also on pages that might be part of the AdSense network that are about widgets, possibly a buying guide for widgets. Google is now allowing you to add banner ads and other images to your ad campaigns. They won’t show up on the Google site as AdWords, but they will show up on syndication sites as part of the AdSense network.

    That means greater visibility for your ads, stretching your advertising dollar even further. It also provides a viable alternative for syndicated banner ad placement to more established online ad agencies like Doubleclick and 24/7 Media. Check it out at https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=102&hl=en_US

    		 
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    Copyright 2009 Nexternal Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be republished in whole, or in part, without the express written consent of the publisher.

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