How do you encourage off-line customers to shop online?

Many companies have a large existing customer base who may not be aware that they could also transact or service their account online. Encouraging these shoppers to visit the website should help grow customer lifetime value by encouraging extra sales with lower costs.

One way of doing this is to give off-line customers an incentive to visit your website & buy online. e.g. providing a voucher / coupon that gives shoppers 10% off their first online order. Include a valid until date and any other conditions that may apply. Incorporate an offer code so you can also calculate your Marketing ROI. 

By including a requirement for an email address in the online order you can also build a customer email database to enable smart low-cost email marketing.

Remember...web marketing is about solving customers' problems profitably.

Peter Hawtin is an internet marketing specialist with Brand New Way, a UK web marketing agency which helps companies to attract and retain valuable customers online.

Facebook proposed data ownership changes upsets users

Facebook recently amended its terms and conditions to claim lifelong ownership of uploaded content even after user profiles have been deleted. This gave concern to a significant number of Facebook users as previously a clause allowed users to 'permanently delete any uploaded content'. 

Within 24 hours, numerous Facebook groups had been launched to protest with widespread media / blog coverage. Facebook quickly did a u-turn on the policy change. 

However, they propose to develop an alternative clause as they believe the existing terms are unclear, as once a page has been published the information is out there on the web even if the content is removed from Facebook. I assume that they want to retain ownership as they are concerned that it would be hard / impossible to remove the non-Facebook content that might exist elsewhere that was based on the original Facebook pages. Critics are concerned that they may want life-long ownership for some form of commercial gain. Different people will have different views, to some extent based on the trust between users and the brand.

Lessons for companies big or small

• What policy do you have in place regarding customer data? 
• Are customers / prospects clear about what you will do with their data?
  
• Does it comply with your legal obligations?
• Is it up to date? 

For more information to ensure that your data capture improves (rather than damages) your business performance take a look at my blog Do you have a web marketing privacy policy?

Remember...web marketing is about solving customers' problems profitably.

Peter Hawtin is an internet marketing specialist with Brand New Way, a UK web marketing agency which helps companies to attract and retain valuable customers online.

UK retailers relying on internet for sales growth

Marks & Spencer announced their Q3 UK like-for-like sales were down 7.1%. During the same period, their online sales increased 29%. Debenhams like-for-like sales for the 12 weeks beginning 21st Oct 08 were down 3.3% whereas their online sales were up 37%.

Smart retailers know that the internet can help grow their sales and cut their costs. As someone who has been active in internet marketing since 1996, I am clearly an internet advocate. However, in my view the majority of UK business websites fail to perform well. So in these tough economic conditions, it is crucial to make sure you focus on getting the best marketing return on investment.

Amazon's approach

Regular readers of my blog will know I am a great admirer of Amazon. Their Chairman & CEO, Jeff Bezos is widely quoted as saying 'We are not great advertisers. "So we start with customers, figure out what they want & figure out how to get it to them."

3 Ways to transform your internet marketing ROI

In my experience, there are 3 key ways to transform your internet marketing ROI:-

1) Attract more target prospects 

As Jeff Bezos says, you need to start with the customer. What customer segment or profile do you want to attract? What problem are you trying to solve for them? Have you developed a compelling brand thought?

Are you making full use of KeyWord Research, Search Engine Optimisation & Google Pay Per Click advertising to make it easy for target prospects to find your website?

2) Convert more website visitors to valuable customers

Do you have a strategy to capture website leads? Do you have a strategy to follow up and convert these leads? e.g. email marketing.

Is your website designed to do business?

Is measuring marketing ROI a key part of your web marketing strategy? 

3) Grow customer lifetime value

Do you have strategies in place to grow customer lifetime value?

If your website is failing to perform, don't delay and let others steal your business.

Remember...web marketing is about solving customers' problems profitably.

Peter Hawtin is an internet marketing specialist with Brand New Way, a UK web marketing agency which helps companies to attract and retain valuable customers online.