Look to Christmas 2010 to Improve Your Web Marketing in 2011

Flash sales, an increase in search engine optimization, and a surge in remarketing: These were among the online marketing trends apparent during the 2010 Christmas selling season. And Suzy Sandberg, president of PM Digital, says they suggest steps to take going forward in 2011.

Among the findings Sandberg says marketers should learn from:

* Coupons, flash sales, and deal-of-the-day promotions were popular. Inspired by the success of business models such as Groupon, many retailers promoted time-sensitive coupons and limited-time-only discounts on a finite selection of goods. If you haven’t yet tried flash sales and the like, they’re certainly worth testing. The narrow time frame of the offers create a sense of urgency that no doubt encourages some shoppers to make a purchase sooner rather than later. And by suggesting limited availability, flash sales can heighten demand (“If I don’t act now, everyone else will beat me to it, and no more will be left!”).

* The period of time between when people start searching for items and when they actually buy them is increasing. That’s why, according to PM Digital’s Rewind Paid Search Performance Index for December 2010, Dec. 6 and 7 were the busiest days in terms of clicks on paid search listings, but Dec. 13 was the busiest day for online sales. Sandberg points to Uggs footwear as an example: According to Google Trends, the number of people searching for “Uggs” began to rise as early as August, though sales of the fleece-lined boots didn’t increase until later in the season.

While this sort of behavior might suggest that marketers would be wise to begin their date-specific paid-search campaigns sooner rather than later, that’s not always practical. “Lots of times, people don’t have the budget to run the ads when people are searching,” Sandberg notes. “Also, retailers don’t always have the inventory yet. You simply can’t run on terms on items you don’t have.”

* More companies used remarketing tactics. If you’ve ever left a Website only to see an ad for that very same site on the sites you subsequently visited, you’ve been subjected to online remarketing.

“It’s been around for several years, but last year Google got into the game and made it affordable with full transparency,” Sandberg says. “You’re able to see which Websites your orders are coming in from, on a cost-per-click model” rather than paying by cost per 1,000 impressions (CPM) or cost per acquisition, which often made the tactic too costly for retailers.

Google’s entry into remarketing “has been a complete game changer,” Sandberg enthuses. For her clients, “it’s been unbelievably successful.”

Remarketing has proven itself an effective email tactic as well. Abandoned-cart, abandoned-search, and abandoned-site follow-up messages can perform up to six times better than standard promotional emails.

* Mobile has finally proven itself as a commerce medium; now it’s time to improve mobile Websites. “There’s going to be a lot of learning going on this year,” Sandberg says. But while much of the attention has been on how best to use mobile as a traffic driver, “I think the big discussion is going to be about the Websites themselves: how to make them better.”

Sandberg points to Walmart’s ads and promos spotlighting its mobile site; when Sandberg was shopping via her iPad, she was automatically directed to the mobile version of retailer’s site rather than its core online version. Unfortunately, “the mobile site was stripped down in terms of selection.” How many sales did the company lose by steering shoppers to a less-than-complete product offering?

* Facebook display ads “are still really kind of tricky,” Sandberg says. Ditto selling via Facebook fan pages. The latter in particular was much more effective for very niche marketers than for general merchandise and apparel retailers. And for her clients, Facebook display ad campaigns “were completely hit or miss.” That’s not to say you shouldn’t test them, but don’t expect to make a killing.

* “We’re definitely seeing a resurgence in search engine optimization,” says Sandberg. Some of this is a result of Google refraining from making frequent, sweeping changes to its algorithms and ranking criteria, “so people feel more comfortable making the investment in SEO.” Then, too, “people are so comfortable with their site analytics, they can definitely track the effects of making improvements in their SEO.” So if SEO has languished near the bottom of your to-do list, you may want to make it more of a priority, to avoid losing ground, and top placement, to your competition.