The Disruption Tour - Run To Survive A Social Media Revolution

Is Your Business 70% N 7? Ideas from ShoppeSimple Network

A Bain research study found that 70% of CEOs believe their business delivers a superior customer experience, but only 7% of their customers agree.

A recent IBM study shows a complete perception gap between businesses and why they think people connect with them on social media, and why people actually do connect with them on social media. Businesses think people least connect for deals and to purchase, whereas people most connect for deals and purchase.

“Sixty-five percent of businesses view social media as a new source for revenue but, at the same time, many believe receiving discounts or coupons and purchasing products or services are among the least likely reasons a customer would seek them out on social sites.

Ironically, though, consumers say getting tangible value is the top reason they interact with a company, which is good news for those organizations hoping to monetize social media”

We have also found similar findings through our client cooperative, as customers connecting with you on social media should be about enjoyable shopping AND deals. These consumers want Daily Deals from your brand.

Social commerce is about managing customer relationships (we call it Sustaining Social CRM) – providing your customers with exclusive shopping opportunities and deals and not just pushing a barrage of self-congrats wall posts, tweets and ads.

At ShoppeSafe we do this not by filling up the Facebook Wall with deals but by respecting your consumer’s relationship with your brand on any and all of the social communities important to them. This includes mobile smart phone while also opening a special e-commerce channel on Facebook, Twitter, MyHome pages, specialized landing pages and our local, regional and national shopping portals. We call this enhancing your Social Management.

Our social commerce opportunity is also totally designed to move your best consumers to advocate status, those who want to do business with you and are happy to talk about your business.  The result totally avoids treating social and mobile marketing like a traditional sales channel.

While exclusive Deal-of-the-Day pricing and couponing is the obvious way to do this…there are also good reasons to offer your best customers (your promoters) your best prices because they are effectively your volunteer viral sales force.

• What if you could be easily guiding your consumers to buy more from you using Sustaining Social CRM marketing service which enables you to maintain complete control of your daily deal  while consumers share it with others.
• What if you could dynamically set the Daily Deals pricing, margin and frequency based on what makes sense for your business.
• What if you could have at your fingertips a social and mobile management engine that eliminates the need for redundant social management headcount.
• What if you could use a trusted social and mobile sharing engine that creates new conversations for your brand which leads to more business, more new customers, higher order values, higher order frequency and more daily brand impressions?
• What if all of this social behavior was tracked with a sophisticated social and mobile analytical package so you can see how your social and mobile program is generating orders in real time.

Well, what I just described is ShoppeSafe. A focused and targeted enhanced Daily Deal marketing service for your business coupled with a Sustaining Social CRM remarketing engine. The ShoppeSafe service is designed for your business to not only get new customers but also to maximize the value of these customer relationships while also help you convert your current web traffic and email broadcasts not only into new buyers but help you increase their frequency of purchasing and lift your average orders. This has all been proven out through our analytics and client renewals.

Currently, a Deal of the Day site (like Groupon/Living Social) just delivers new customer traffic at your doorstep. This could be good or bad depending what you are paying for each customer. However, the fact does remain that you have made an investment in each of these consumers. This could be as much as $5-20 per customer. Now, the challenge for anyone’s business is how do you bring these customers back for another purchase and at better order levels.  Bottom line: how do you generate a return on your customer investment while also building a lasting customer relationship so you are not just getting one order (your first) from this buyer group?

At ShoppeSafe we have cracked the code on how you can do all of this. And our clients are benefiting from turning on Daily Deals and Sustaining Social CRM engines all at the same time. Baked into our solutions is a seamless social management sharing tool your consumers will really enjoy using.

To learn more, simply give us a call 612-349-2740 or email us at [email protected] for a short presentation. I guarantee that you must be satisfied with the ShoppeSafe service or you won’t pay us a dime. Period End.

Looking forward to your call,

Jeffery

CEO and Founder

ShoppeSimpleNetwork.com

P.S. – Give us a call and ask about our June Try Us program.

61 percent of the 22 million wealthiest individuals in the United States own a smartphone

Approximately 61 percent of the 22 million wealthiest individuals in the United States own a smartphone, indicating a potentially untapped market for about 8 million smartphones, or 39 percent of the affluent, according to a recent study by American Affluence Research Center.

According to the data, 22 percent of those surveyed own a tablet, meaning that there is a probable untapped market 78 percent of the affluent. The study was able to dissect the ages and demographics of individuals, along with types of devices.

“There is so much talk about pervasiveness of mobile devices, but it’s important to understand who has these devices and how they are using them in order for people to market effectively through them,” said Ron Kurtz, principal of American Affluence Research Center, Atlanta. “It’s interesting that affluent have a smartphone or tablet, so clearly this is a medium in a way to reach people.

“It’s important to know what platform [marketers] need to be communicating through to be convenient and easy to access a brand’s information, and to receive or use an app,” he said.

Participants in the survey have an annual household income of $333,000 and an average primary residence value of $1.2 million. Their net worth is, on average, $3.1 million with investable assets of $1.8 million.

These are the top 10 percent of the wealthiest individuals in the U.S.

Social Sharing..the next Big Thing...ideas from ShoppeSimple Network

Social Sharing according to Harvard Business Review is part of a new more macro trend called ubiquitous sharing: What are you doing? Where are you doing it? Who are you doing it with? What do you like? Who do you “Like”? Who are you “Following” and who are “Followers” of you? These used to be things we kept to ourselves or shared with only our friends and family. Now we're willing to broadcast them to whoever is willing to listen.

Social media has led to "social sharing," the broadcasting of our thoughts and activities. It's not a fad it’s growing and growing. Social networking is a social phenomenon.

For further proof, just take a look at Nielsen research. It says Americans spend nearly a quarter of the time they're on the Internet, or about six hours a month, on social-networking sites and blogs. That's a quantum leap from a year ago and underscores the growing power of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The research also reveals U.S. consumers spend the plurality of their time online, or 36% of it, communicating and networking across social networks, blogs, personal e-mail and instant messaging.

The rise of social networks has enhanced consumption of videos, movies and news and sports articles. "Friends and family are endorsing content to others," says Dave Martin, vice president of primary research at Nielsen.

And the face of that audience is getting older: Twice as many Americans over 50 visited social networks than kids under 18, Nielsen says.

It's a sociological phenomenon, accelerating at light speed. For even more data points you just have to look around the Social Coupons sites and the players who are deeply involved with them from Google to Amazon and now Facebook. One just wonders how long will Groupon be able to stand on its own?

All of this points to just how social sharing is and will continue to change the ecommerce landscape.

So let’s step back and ask the obvious questions what is your Social Sharing strategy? How much time and expense will it take before your Social Sharing strategy is online? How will measure your Social Sharing Success?

Struggling with those answers…hold the thought as ShoppeSafe has an offer for you and it is guaranteed…simply see below!

Social Currency. Sharing on the social web acts as a form of currency. Sharing useful information that might help someone within your network scores you points and builds equity. Sharing is also the new giving. Finding a deal and sharing that with others can put you in someone's favor, and maybe then they will find you a deal. It's important to recognize that all this sharing isn't some useless impulse. There are reasons why people are willing to share so much. Creative expression is part of it but also, there's often a benefit, value, to the individual who shares. Sharing is the new giving.

Social sharing according to the Harvard Business Review is a major behavioral shift, the most important so far of the 21st century. And the information we choose to share with friends, co-workers and even strangers, is re-defining the idea of what's private and public before our very eyes.

Charlie Brown ShoppeSimple Network’s – VP of Interactive and Creative Services weighs in with his blog post.

Social Sharing: Sharing is a part of our DNA.

We are hardwired to cooperate and to share. If someone has something you fancy…you offer to share it. Now, sharing isn’t like trading–you don’t have to give up something to get something else (unless it’s your money you are giving up to buy something).

Sharing is a way of getting along–we share a meal– we share a border with Canada and Mexico. It makes us feel good to share. Facebook didn’t invent sharing–they just exploited it.

Sometimes sharing is boasting or bragging. We take pride in the fact that we got a good deal. It’s one of the ways we make ourselves feel good and someone else at the same time.

If I don’t share I am keeping a secret–it’s difficult to keep a secret–it takes energy. It’s a relief when we can finally share it and release the burden of not being able to tell anyone. I can hardly wait to get home and share with my wife what I just heard–now don’t tell anyone (of course, I will).

As cavemen we sat around the fire at night (like sitting in front of our brightly lit monitor at home) and sharing hunting stories (shopping is like a hunt). Sometimes we embellish the hunting story–like making a comment on Facebook. We add our part (part of our personality) to the story. And then the story gets retold many times at it becomes a “legend” (a huge story that we love to listen to again and again).

Sometimes they become rumors and everyone loves a big fat juicy rumor. It’s like telling a joke. It’s entertaining, people laugh and we get accepted into the community of our friends.

But you may be thinking just how does ShoppeSafe help our site with Social Sharing and how do we get started?

Well it is really quite simple and it starts by placing a ShoppeSafe button on your website or your email or on your Facebook page. Then your consumer just pushes the button…

But wait a button on my website? Why would take the consumer away from my website. Why would I do that?

Another colleague Steve Neseth had a dialog with a prospective client on just this point this week so I am going to quote his response…I couldn’t have said it better myself…”This is a common concern we hear as traditional thinking says drive more traffic to your website and you will generate more sales.  The trend, however, is that website traffic for many merchants is a struggle to maintain let alone increase.   At least some of this is due to the growing amount of time consumers are spending on social media channels and on their mobile devices away from merchant websites.  The ShoppeSafe program is geared to complement everything you’re doing online already by linking your online store to these exciting, new marketing channels that consumers can access easily wherever they are.”

“One of our best practices, as we discussed, is to put a ShoppeSafe button on the merchant home page and on each product category page (Signals.com, for example, has placed a button on all of these pages).  This enables consumers to subscribe (or bookmark) to receive relevant product offers by category.  Consumers then receive products of interest multiple times a day/365 days a year that they buy and easily share on Facebook, Twitter, through email, or text.  They literally extend your marketing reach to their friends by creating “trusted referrals”.  Sales builds virally.  A recent survey by Lightspeed Research reported that 61% of the consumers they polled said opinions, referrals and experience of other consumers play a vital role when considering a purchase.  Our program can help a merchant create these trusted referrals that sell more merchandise.”

“Having said all that, placing a button on the website home page is not required to participate in our program.  We would not recommend it but that choice is yours.  Some merchants actually prefer to step into our program through email or Facebook to prove that we can drive sales before they put any links on their website.  So, a merchant has several options available in our program all of which will build online sales very cost effectively.

Putting Our Money Where Our Mouth Is!

I know that many of you have been reading my blog posts on a weekly or monthly basis. But what is also interesting is to watch are your behaviors. To understand why you have not kicked the ShoppeSafe program into gear or at least formulated a trial program with us to see for yourself the benefits of the ShoppeSafe program.

So in our internal meetings this week, I asked our Sales Team what do they think they needed to do to make a sales deal happen and the following is another real life example that went to a prospective client.

And from my point of view if this opportunity is good enough for a prospective client it is good enough for any of you who are reading this today. All you have to do is get in contact with me to start your test program.

“Mary, the forecasted amount of sales that I provided and that would come through the ShoppeSafe program you indicated was higher than you thought it could be.  You pointed out that our monthly minimum meant that you’d have to hit a monthly sales target that was higher than you thought you could attain given your other online program’s performance.

I told you that I’m so confident that the sales forecasted was reasonable based on what others are generating in the program. I also want to reiterate that these forecasts are not based on channel shift but on real incremental program increases from higher average order or more frequency of purchasing plus adding new customers and reactivating older buyers.  In our call, I was so confident that I actually told you on the spot that we’d cut the minimum in half because I don’t think it will even come into play.  But, I’ll do even better than that.  We won’t charge you a dime until the sales generated in the program covers the monthly minimum for an unlimited amount of time as long as this is a win/win for both our companies. I also feel strongly that a company of your size would easily build up to a level that exceeds this minimum very soon.  This assumes, of course, that we’re implementing some of the best practices we would recommend during the start up of the program so the program has a reasonable chance for success.  But you’ll have the final say on what we do.

We also talked about order attribution and how difficult it is to differentiate one ecommerce program’s impact from the next.  Here again, we’ve had success separating out the incremental gains we create through our program like I showed you in my initial forecast. The ShoppeSafe program produces higher average order values, higher frequency of ordering and improves conversion rates.  Improvements in any of these areas will easily cover any cost of the program many times over as my conservative forecast illustrated.”

So there you have it. And I will say it again…what is good for this prospective client is good for your business too. So this opportunity is available to you because we know and have proven time and again that we can help you drive incremental social commerce. We know this because we haven’t lost a client since March of 2010 and we are so confidant we also do this for your business we are putting our skin in the game to prove it to you and as such I hope you will give us a try.

What do you have to loose? And remember we are not recommending to replace what you are doing in social but we have found a successful way to enhance what you are doing.

So why not check out ShoppeSimplenetwork.com to learn more about what we do for you. To get started all you have to do is email at [email protected] or call me at 612-349-2740.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Best,

Jeffery

PS. Your ShoppeSafe Social Sharing program will be plugged into your business in less than 10 days and without any up front implementation fees

Social Paradox...ideas from ShoppeSimple Network

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a buzzword that has been around for a decade or more. Most businesses have invested heavily in CRM but have your thought about your Social program in terms of CRM?

In fact, social commerce is all about managing customer relationships and a more broadly defined consumer relationship. Why consumer relationships? Well, the opportunity to speak to consumers through a “Trusted Referral” network is what Social and Mobile Commerce is all about.

Over my career, I have looked at more site analytics than I would care to disclose (it shows my age) and these analytics are continuing to wobble.

• We know that home page site defectioncontinue to be at an all time high. But unfortunately for many merchants legacy website architecture precludes fast changes and therefore appropriate defenses for these consumer defections are necessary.

• Email opens and clickthrough rates continue to go south; however increasing your email’s send frequency is not the answer. For instance my wife signed up for LivingSocial and she used to get one email deal a day. Now LivingSocial is sending her 4 emails with deals per day. How has your email cadence changed over the last 2 years?

Back to my wife… she is just ignoring all LivingSocial emails now. So are  opt-outs the behavioral analytic metric to look at anymore? … she said, I am just not opening LivingSocial emails anymore. So what is your open rate vs. opt-out rate? Have you been looking at this and tying it back to email cadence? Perhaps like above you should now look at these metrics from a CRM perspective and determine what message does your email cadence send to your consumer about your brand? Is it a sustaining social message?

• And now merchants are rushing to the Wild, Wild West of f-commerce (Facebook commerce) and soon m-commerce (mobile commerce). How will these marketing platforms drive new revenue channels for your business? What lessons should we marketers not bring to f-commerce and m-commerce from our years of experience in CRM?

I will tick off just a few and see how many stick.

• Are you putting up a barrage of self-congrats wall posts and ads on your Facebook page?

• Are you putting up full stores on Facebook (like JC Penny/ASOS) and asking your Facebook consumers to wade through 1400 products just like you do on your website? How are you protecting your consumer’s credit card and behavioral data on Facebook from leaks?

• Are you truly gaining marketing permission from your consumer and letting them decide what they offers/content they would like to see from you?

• Are you forcing a consumer to “Like” you before you let them enter your brand page/store on Facebook?

ShoppeSafe can enhance your social marketing programs and help you get up and running with a new Sustainable Social CRM program which will drive incremental social and mobile commerce revenue.

• ShoppeSafe can assist by helping you build a truly unique and fun shopping experience for your consumer that is not only highly relevant (CRM) but is permissioned by your consumer everyday, 365 days a year. We call this Sustainable Social CRM. Now through ShoppeSafe your business will deliver relevant and highly targeted offers by category directly to your consumers on Facebook through our ShoppeFans program and to a multitude of other online communities where your consumers want to review your offers and content including their smart phones.  We enable your message to go to wherever your consumer is online and on mobile. And we enable you to do it with just a simple one-click.

• We do not recommend that you follow the traditional marketing model of dumping your product catalog on Facebook or on mobile. This is simply Push-N-Pray marketing. And it is dying. But instead through ShoppeSafe you now can provide the opportunity for your consumer to self-select the relevant offers and/or category of offers they would like and have then add it to their profile pages on Facebook or to the mobile smart phones using our ShoppeFans Facebook program. Then since these offers are highly targeted your customer will increase their frequency of purchasing, raise their Average Order Value and have more brand exposures. This has already been proven time and again with our current clients. Plus the sales gains are incremental not channel shift.

Additionally since your consumers are interested in your offers, ShoppeSafe enables them to engage in “Trusted Referrals” with their friends and families causing your offers to go VIRAL. What that means is new customers drive new revenue coming to your business through “Trusted Referrals”.

• Would you ask a customer on your website for their email address before they are allowed to shop? I see this as a stop sign to effective Facebook brand marketing.
• I hope you wouldn’t but everyday I visit brand Facebook pages that require me to “Like” the brand before entering. I get that building a “Like” database is important but not as important than having a trusted conversation and sharing your offers with others who would be interested in what you are selling. It is somewhat like putting the cart before the horse.

Instead why not focus on creating a unique and private offer channel on Facebook/Twitter or mobile and turn your Likes and Followers into true fans that will spread your offers virally. Then since you are providing unique value to them, they will organically and holistically want to Like/Follow or text others about your offers.

For those of you who were around the net when we began marketing through email this is exactly how email marketing took hold. The circle of web marketing repeats itself.

Now you may be thinking Social is different or our CEO sees this so differently then for you and your CEO there is an interesting Whitepaper recently published by IBM, which may spin your head around. “From social media to Social CRM: What Customers Want” The study, by Carolyn Heller Baird and Gautam Parasnis, conducted on the back of the finding that customer closeness is new the top priority for CEOs, shows a complete perception gap between businesses and why think people connect with them on social media, and why people actually do connect with them on social media.  The study shows that, Businesses think people least connect for deals and to purchase, whereas people most connect for deals and purchase.  

Perception versus reality

“Sixty-five percent of businesses view social media as a new source for revenue but, at the same time, many believe receiving discounts or coupons and purchasing products or services are among the least likely reasons a customer would seek them out on social sites. Ironically, though, consumers say getting tangible value is the top reason they interact with a company, which is good news for those organizations hoping to monetize social media”

To this point, this week I attended and spoke at a meeting for CEO’s and truth be told their understanding around social was surprisingly lacking. In fact, not a person in this group has yet to crack the code on making money in social not that they said they haven’t tried. In fact comments like it is too complicated was more the norm than I need to figure out how this will work for us and how it will make us money.

So my talk looked something like this… ShoppeSafe integrates and enhances with your social marketing by leveraging existing assets of traditional marketing with powerful new Sustaining Social CRM tools, which we have developed that are adapted for your specific business.

We call these marketing tools Sustainable Social CRM.

We don’t just create social and mobile widgets.

We don’t just build Facebook shopping pages.

We guide you in maintaining control of your message at the same time it is being talked about by your customers.

Then these customer views are considered to be honest, trustworthy and credible. They are not self-serving corporate brand messages. They are not spam or slapping stuff on a Facebook wall. It is all about and around Sustainable Social CRM where consumers help define your brand. They help you spread your brand virally because a brand is more of a perception than a logo or a product.

Customers connecting with you on social and mobile media should be about shopping AND deals.  Just throwing up a Facebook store with tons of products we have found through our A/B split test analytics simply won’t maximize the selling opportunity for your business – we believe you need to offer what your consumers want and then deliver it to wherever they are online or on mobile.

You should also use special Facebook Fan pricing too. Offering special fan pricing provides a unique incentive for your fans (promoters) of your business. In fact those that are should be qualified to be your viral Facebook/Twitter and mobile Sales Force. We also think Facebook ShoppeFans stores, offering fan-first offers (get it before others) and fan-exclusive offers (fan only merchandise) are obvious and major ways to grow a platform that is the largest selling opportunity on the planet.

This is why we have developed a Sustainable Social CRM marketing program to target consumer and deliver your product content/offers through our ShoppeSafe program wherever they are online or on mobile smartphones.

Why not take a ½ hour to learn about the ShoppeSafe program in a personal presentation. Or you start to learn more about ShoppeSafe.com at ShoppeSimplenetwork.com Check out the webinars and online tutorials.

Please give us a call 612-349-2740 or email [email protected] to schedule a presentation. We would welcome the opportunity to share what we are doing and you can see us in action on shoppesafe.com our consumer direct portal.

Best,

Jeffery

PS. You can be up and running with the ShoppeSafe Sustainable Social CRM program in less than 10 days and without any implementation costs. Plus the cost is affordable and is based on a simple monthly subscription model and fits all sizes of business from small-mid-to even very large businesses.

Sustaining Social CRM...ideas from ShoppeSimple Network

Dictionary.com lists the following definitions for the words:

"Sustaining"

1. to support, hold, or bear up from below; bear the weight of, as a structure.
2. to bear (a burden, charge, etc.).
3. to undergo, experience, endure without giving way or yielding.

"Social"

1. pertaining to, devoted to, or characterized by friendly companionship or relations: a social club.
2. seeking or enjoying the companionship of others; friendly; sociable: gregarious

"Customer Relationship Management (CRM)"

1. The practice of building a strong relationship between a business and its customers and potential customers.

Dear Erin,

I hope this question has a resounding positive answer: What if your business could get higher average orders values, higher frequency of ordering, higher conversion percentages, more new customers, reactivate of older buyers and have multiple brand impressions that are permissioned every day?

Would you test a program that could deliver to your business any one of these metrics or any combination of them? Of course you would under two conditions:

First, the program would generate an ROI your business could afford; and second, you are not just moving dollars from one channel marketing program to another.

So if it can be proven to you that both case 1 and 2 occurred. Should you test this program? Of course you should. This is what the exact nature of market testing is all about. I sense your business does this all the time. If you could get these returns would you make this market testing a priority?

Well, this is exactly what The ShoppeSimple Network program is providing our clients and what we would like to test with your business.

In fact, we are so convinced that this program will work for your business (like it has worked for every other client) we have a special and guaranteed offer for your business.

I will tell you about this guaranteed offer in a minute please read on...

Have you done a Groupon/LivingSocial offer?  Have you sent out a catalog or a direct mailing with a planned 60-70% list rental and 30-40% buyers?  How many of your do a PPC program?

In any of these cases, what do you do once you land a new customer? What do you do to capture another order from this first or repeat buyer? How much money are you willing to invest to get another order?

So let's look at the Social Coupon business model which is essentially a revenue share, new customer acquisition business and let's run some simple math

Let's say you have a product and you gave 50% off on this offer and you had a 50% product margin. So a product which sells at  $50 retail is now being sold to the consumer for $25. Now these Social Coupon businesses take another 50% so you are left with $12.50 to cover your new customer acquisition. Let's say you were very successful with your offer and landed 1,000 customers. That would mean you paid 12.50 times 1,000 customers or $12,500 for this offer. A revenue share deal.  But when you planned this offer did you consider you would be out $12,500?

But you are now also under water by $12,500 and what do these Social Coupon sites do to help you recoup your new customer investment. NOTHING...NADA... ZILCH!   The only thing that could make this scenario worse, is if your existing customers are also the ones redeeming the deal.

What do you do to maintain a Sustaining Social CRM program with these consumers?

For those in the catalog space or pure ecom space...I can hear you thinking, "I would never do a deal like that."

Well, let's take a look at a pure ecom company who uses Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing. You manage 100 keywords and you pay .75 per click on average.  You spend $12,500 a month on PPC instead of social couponing and you get a 1% conversion. So what does this look like from an initial customer acquisition cost perspective?

Let's keep the same margins and spending level. $12,500 dollars is 16,666 clicks and the number of orders at 1% conversion is 166 orders.  At 166 orders you brought gross profit to the business at $25 per sale which is $4,125. So your out of pocket loss to do PPC per customer is $8,375 ($4125-$12,500)/166 orders = $50.45 (LOSS) Gulp. If your conversion is 2% just half this number.

Would you have guessed that PPC cost per order was $50.45/12.50 or 4X more expensive than Social Couponing for your business?

It's no wonder that in two years Social Couponing has exploded to a 3 Billion industry and is projected to be 6 billion in 2 years.

Pareto's Principle from Wikipedia...(also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few, and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. You can restate the 80/20 as it applies to CRM where your customers drive 80% of your revenue so why is there such a missing focus on retention marketing (CRM). Now, adding the Social layer, why are you not focusing energy, resources and budget on building lifetime value of your business?  They would argue that they are, just maybe not in the coupon space yet

Proof in point

The ShoppeSimple Network's Sustaining Social CRM

Now, for the first time you can manage  your consumers' Lifetime Value efficiently and effectively. We simply plug into your business and in less than 10 days you are driving Sustaining Social CRM eCommerce sales. We don't replace what you are doing in social and mobile commerce we enhance it.

Let me show you how...Let's follow what we are doing for Signals.com. Signals has loaded our "Push The Button" widget in their website header and in their email and Facebook Store. Because of this, they are also mobile enabled and their consumers can mobile order through The ShoppeSimple Network's digital properties directly to the Signals website shopping cart. It is important to note ShoppeSafe doesn't collect any personal identifiable consumer information/data.

Take a look at the top right of the Signals website. Consumers see this Push the Button everywhere they go on their website. By the way, you can manage the copy as you would like and you do not have to focus on deals. This is client dependent.

When Consumers Push the Button they are taken to a trusted 3rd party page we build for every client and it can match the look and feel of your branding. From Push The Button widget to your branded ShoppeHub page, consumers now can Pull-Place-Buy-N-Share relevant and targeted offers.  These offers can also be pulled by the consumer to appear on their ShoppeHub page which they bookmark or subscribe too.  Click here for an example.

On Facebook ShoppeFans Store.

The consumer can also place these offers on Shoppesafe.com, their personal home pages on iGoogle, MyYahoo and MyMSN. Plus from the merchants ShoppeHub page consumers can text, email, Like, Tweet offers to their "Trusted Referrals and print or enable digital coupons with barcodes.

You may be thinking, "why would I want to direct my valuable traffic away from my site and onto your ShoppeHub page?" The answer lies in our secret sauce. As I said at the beginning of this blog post, would you do this if you could increase average order values, conversions, order frequency, new customers, reactivations and brand exposures? Of course you would.So now is the time to provide your business with a "skin in the game" guarantee. You must be happy with the program results or you just don't pay us. Period End.

My hope is that you will contact me to start your Sustaining Social CRM program for your business. Please reach me by phone at 612-349-2740 or by email [email protected].

Best

Jeffery

PS. Please join me for our June Webinar "Is Your Social Toast Burning" on Wednesday June 22nd at 2 PM ET.

Feel free to forward this eNewsletter to colleagues who might find the topics covered here of interest or would be interested in learning more about working with The ShoppeSimple Network.

How Baby Boomers Are Embracing Digital Media

Jamie Carracher is a digital health strategist with Edelman Digital in Washington, D.C. You can connect with him on Twitter, LinkedIn or read his blog, Aging Online.

This year, some of the nearly 80 million Baby Boomers in the United States have turned 65 and are now “officially” senior citizens. Need context? Vint Cerf, Google’s chief Internet evangelist and one of the fathers of the Internet, turns 68 in June. The web, often viewed as a realm for just the young, is getting older.

The Boomer generation isn’t just big — it’s made up of people who think and act differently than previous generations. As Boomers confront “old age,” they will certainly defy what we think it means to “get old.” It will challenge us to rethink how we use the web and how we engage older people with newer technologies.

Connecting With Friends and Loved Ones Through Social Media

It’s no secret that senior citizens have typically been slow to use new technologies, including social media. But recent trends show older people are among the fastest-growing demographics online. Social network use among Internet users 50 years old and older has nearly doubled to 42% over the past year. In fact, in the U.S. alone there are nearly 16 million people 55 and older using Facebook.

One of the main drivers is the ability to connect with friends and family, as well as share experiences with strangers and new friends. Hesitation to go online is often not because of lack of interest but because many technologies and social networks are not developed with older people in mind.

With numerous social media profiles on Facebook and Twitter, the AARP provides an excellent example of how one large organization is reaching out to older people who are savvy with digital. To create conversation online, the AARP focuses on sharing relevant news, conversation starters and inspirational stories that are of interest to people in their membership. One recent post on people who have given up landlines for mobile phones sparked 138 comments.

Embracing the Smartphone Boom

Smartphones are finally breaking into the older adult market. Numbers vary, but as many as 15% of people aged 55 and older are using smartphones, according to data from Nielsen.

Tablets like the iPad are an excellent example of mobile devices that are enabling older people to access and explore the web in new ways. While actual usage numbers are hard to pin down, each week news media across the country report on ways older adults, senior centers and retirement homes are using these devices. It may not be a quantitative trend, but it certainly is a cultural one.

While overall usage of mobile devices is still small among older people, it’s important to note that mobile usage is growing, and in surprising ways. Older people are gaming on their phones. Around 13% of 55- to 64-year-olds and 5% of people 65 and older play games using a smartphone or standard cellphone, according to a recent study.

Elie Gindi, founder of the senior-focused tech blog ElderGadget, recently told me that the people who follow him and his writers are interested and excited by gadgets and new technologies.

“If it’s good technology, seniors embrace it the same as everyone else,” he said. “The key here is if it is truly ‘good’ and they see a real use for it, whether for entertainment or business or lifestyle. They are smart shoppers who aren’t so much interested in [the] useless ‘bells and whistles’ many products contain.”


A Thirst for Search

Last year, the U.S. web search market grew by 12%, with Bing alone growing 29%. Search sites are often the first stop for any Internet user, and an increase in older users will have huge ramifications for web and content developers. As one commenter wrote on AARP’s Facebook page: “Google search has answers to all questions.”

Not surprisingly, older people in general are more inexperienced at using search. A 2010 paper from Yahoo! Research found some of the oldest users are 29% more likely than younger users to type the full URL of a website into the “Search” box.

While generations may search for things differently, what they are searching for is surprisingly similar. Health information is the third-most common search activity for adults of all ages, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Boomers aren’t researching health information just for themselves. Many are caregivers, which means they are investigating ways that they can help other people (their parents, for instance) get information on questions ranging from Medicare to coping with Alzheimer’s. In fact, 16% of people aged 50 to 64 have searched online for information on long-term care for an elderly or disabled person.

Redefining What It Means to “Get Old”

In the movie Gran Torino, there is a powerful scene where Clint Eastwood’s character, Walt, receives a telephone “for old people” from his son and daughter-in-law with giant buttons and numbers on it. He angrily kicks them out of the house. The generation that sang along to The Who’s “My Generation” and popularized innovations like the personal computer are becoming senior citizens — but they don’t want to be called “old.”

Organizations ranging from retailers to consumer electronics makers are being forced to rethink how they market and make products for older people. As we all look to the future, we must all start to realize that things are going to be different and we need to pay attention and listen.

Key Takeaways

A growing number of older adults are taking advantage of the web right now. Don’t ignore them.

As our society and the web mature, we need to make sure we are building it to empower everyone, not just the young and tech-savvy.

New technologies and web services will need to be intuitive and easy to use but not insulting.

Accessibility has to be built into the planning processes for new projects from the beginning, including consideration of design, text size and physical usability.

Once new products and services are ready for public consumption, education is key to make sure seniors don’t fall behind and become victims of a “digital divide.”

Why Not? ...ideas from The ShoppeSimple Network

Last week was an exciting and interesting week after participating in more sales meetings than anytime in the Company's history. There was a tremendous amount of learning from these sessions and I thought my notes from these visits would be of benefit to you as well. My conclusions in many ways were not surprising and they are also typical of what we see happening in the Social and Mobile space as marketers-as-brands try to deal and/or cope with the monumental marketing challenges being thrust upon them today.

At The ShoppeSimple Network we not only assist in providing you with answers to these challenges, we help drive more incremental revenue to your Social and Mobile Commerce channels. We help your business think strategically about where you should be going and how you should be getting there. That is exactly what "Ideas from The ShoppeSimple Network" weekly blog intends to do.

We educate our audiences on the best practices of Social and Mobile Media. We do not look to replace your social and mobile efforts, just enhance them.

Reserve your spot in our April Webinar. Using Social and Mobile Analytics As Your GPS To Drive More Social Commerce To Your Business. Wednesday April 20th at 2 ET by clicking here.

In preparation for these meetings, my due diligence took me to http://www.compete.com where I sized the client's opportunities from a year to year Unique and Repeat Visitor perspective. I then reviewed each of the respective websites looking for their social icons like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and their page positioning. I also looked and tested the site's Mobile Apps.  From there I reviewed their Facebook Like number,  and whether they had even built a Facebook Store. Next, I went to Twitter and looked at what the brand presence looked/felt like and whether there was a robust presence there. Then onto YouTube to understand how the brands were using YouTube?

By the way...when was the last time you ran your own social and mobile test drive as I did above?

Conclusion: The State of the Social Nation; Not Pretty...

Why not check off what your site findings looks like on each point below then call/ping me 612-349-2740 or [email protected] and we will be happy to assist you in building a Social and Mobile strategy and execution plan for your business. Trust me, it is affordable and worth your time to do it. Why Not?

Findings: Declining year after year Compete numbers on most of the sites we spoke with.

Answer: Look at the growth of Facebook, Twitter and Mobile. Where do you think your consumers are hanging out when Facebook makes up more than 12.8% of all time spent online? If this is the case how are you touching consumers in this new and changing social and increasingly mobile environment? How are you engaging with them, listening to them and conversing with them? Or are you just falling back to the traditional methods of Push-N-Pray marketing in these new channels? Hitting consumers with the same technique...hitting consumers with a fire hose of product offers? A fire hose of unfiltered product offers. Consumers want relevant content delivered when and where they are at. Your website must now go to them and not the other way around. But most importantly you must deliver relevant and targeted offers to them. Are you doing this? How do you plan to do this?

Findings: Social/Mobile Icons are given basement space, far below the fold, despite their increasing popularity and huge market share.  Jeff, I do not believe findings can be formed as a question.

Answer: I do not believe this has been answered.  By working with The ShoppeSimple Network we help you harness the power of Social/Mobile by guiding you through our Best Practices on placement, socialization and promotion.

Let The ShoppeSimple Network help you build the "Right" social platforms and determine positioning and you will see a minimum 10X increase in social captures.  Why Not Test Us?

What I found most surprising in my due diligence is that sites are now moving their email capture to the bottom of their pages. Here is another question...why would you take the marketing channel that is the least costly, probably one of your highest revenue channels and also one of the new drivers to your social efforts and constrain your email captures by putting the email capture below the fold?

Findings: More of the same Push-N-Pray marketing on Facebook pages for those who have built a Facebook Store. I just don't get why you would continue to Push products like you always have in Social and Mobile? Products that are irrelevant or un-targeted for your consumers? Just because you have product on your website doesn't mean it is relevant to your consumer in their social spaces.

Answer: There is a tidal wave of change that your business is experiencing around the fact that your consumer wants to control the offers they receive and where they want to receive them. Push unwanted offers at your consumer and watch them change their advertising channel.

To this point, check your "time on page" stats over the last couple of years and you may see that they have already changed the channel.

Take the "time on page" negative change multiplied by the number of visitors per year multiplied by order conversions and you will find out what your negative impact on sales is. Analytics don't lie.

At The ShoppeSimple Network we have perfected Pull-Place-Buy-Share™ marketing where consumers preselect the offers that are of interest and place them on the social/mobile media of their choice. By doing this consumers tend to buy more because these offers are of interest - highly targeted - which increases their likelihood to share them with friends on social and mobile. Why Not... try us for this reason alone? We guarantee you will be successful with Social and Mobile Commerce.

Findings: Merchants typically have ½% of Facebook likes compared to their UV Count. Many of which do not even have Facebook presence or further to that point a Facebook Store.

Answer: Other priorities...X?!%$#??

If that is your thinking or doing just outsource your Facebook program to The ShoppeSimple Network and we will make you money on Facebook...It is also guaranteed with our ShoppeSocial program. Why not?

Findings: The use of Twitter is low to non-existent for some merchants.

Answer: Twitter is the biggest social platform opportunity that is being missed by brand merchants today. Of course, Tweets fly by like jets dotting the globe, but the opportunity is to figure out how to harness the power of Twitter marketing to your consumers not to mention its use for customer service, and to distribute your content/offers using tools like Bit.ly is very critical to social marketers. Yet, I haven't found a merchant who is using both effectively. Remember there are now over 200 Million consumers using Twitter and they are your customers.

Findings: Despite the rapid growth of m-commerce, many merchants do not have a solid m-commerce plan devised and/or implemented. What consumers can see from your site, regarding how to use mobile to shop with you in my due diligence, is mostly non-existent or worse.

Answer: Using our ShoppeMobi enablement SaaS your ShoppeHub page will enable all your consumers to use any smartphone platform to shop with you. And you don't have to spend six figures to get there; just a very affordable monthly subscription fee. Just call us to discuss. Why Not?

At The ShoppeSimple Network what we do best is first help you think through the strategies behind your social and mobile commerce approaches. First and foremost, we are not here to replace your Social/Mobile efforts or your teams. We are here to provide additional resources and tools to make your business successful in these new social and marketing environments.

Plus as a cooperative business, your business benefits from the learning of the entire cooperative. We prevent you from making the mistakes others have made in this space. We provide positive marketing ideas that will help you leap frog in social and mobile.

In essence, just like you use a trusted third party to do merge/purge or to clear and place media, we act as a "Trusted Referral" partner for your business to reach more of your Social and Mobile consumers. These consumers use your branded social and mobile enabled bridging page (ShoppeHub) within The ShoppeSimple Network to enable your business to reach new consumer Likes, Followers, mobile and email contacts of your consumers.

The power of The ShoppeSimple Network model is that consumers can enjoy lurking and find relevant offers without having to give up their personal data or signing in with their email address, as we are a pure-permission, anonymous network for consumers who love to shop. Consumers trust us so they will also trust your business.  Plus all of the transactions are done on your site so all credit cards are secured and their data is protected according to your Privacy Policy.

The proven results are more Social and Mobile Commerce business from your customers and a new channel of consumers who buy from you. You will also benefit from higher average orders and more order frequency.

•    So how and when are you going to be making investments in social and mobile?

•    Why don't you just simply test into these markets?

•    We all know we vest in our tried and true marketing channels but why would we allow them to prevent you from trying new things?

•    Are your internal resources too vested in trying new things?

•    If you do not move and you are not the top three in your market space you could soon be in last position.

Why not give The ShoppeSimple Network a test? What do you really have to lose? You can NOW test The ShoppeSimple Network Absolutely Free for a month to see for yourself what our other clients have seen;

1. More Social and Mobile Business.

2. Higher Average Orders

3. More Order Frequency and More Customer Loyalty.

What we do really well is drive incremental and new Social and Mobile consumers to your business and you will see this happen in less than 30 days.  Simply click above and fill out the simple form to start your Trial.

There are no strings attached. When you are satisfied and want to start the program we will work out an affordable monthly subscription program (based on your business size) without commission or implementation fees of any kind.

I am often asked why doesn't every business just try The ShoppeSimple Network? Well, it wasn't always like this but now 100's of business are joining and for good reason our business works for them and makes them money.

Now it is your turn. We guarantee it. Why Not?

Best

Jeffery

What Stays In Las Vegas...ideas by The ShoppeSimple Network

Would you bet $3,000 dollars on a new advertising channel which will get (no could) $53,000 in incremental business in less than 30 days? Having been in Vegas, it dawned on me that perhaps their tagline line “What Stays In Vegas” is a good one for Vegas but having sat in sales meeting after sales meeting, keeping secrets in the online space doesn’t benefit any of us.

In fact, all of us who make a living in this industry need to have open minds to new ways of thinking that can drive new Social and Mobile Commerce revenue.

Your invited to our Webinar scheduled for March 23^rd at 2 PM ET Entitled: How To Tap The Power Of Your Consumer.

I would take this week’s blog post and discuss how The ShoppeSimple Networks is changing the face of online advertising and share with you the fact that these ideas are working for our clients and we want them to work for your business as well.

Additionally we are also not here to tell you we are going to replace what you are already doing in Social and Mobile, quite the contrary, our programs will enhance your consumer social/mobile marketing efforts. If you do not yet have a Social or Mobile marketing program The ShoppeSimple Network can provide you with one in less than 10 days.  Our overall program/service offering can be done without implementation cost or the use of your IT resources.   You will be up and running with your own Social and Mobile Commerce program — one that has proven to work regardless of client or industry.

I will also point out the differences between The ShoppeSimple Network and our competitors and before we are done I sense you will have a better understanding of the power of The ShoppeSimple Network.

As the Leader in the Social and Mobile space, and unlike Vegas where the secrets stay in Vegas, I will tell you our secrets. I am going to reveal the “Secret Sauce” that will drive your new Social and Mobile Commerce revenue, or enhance it and we will prove it to you within 30 days or you don’t pay us.

So first let’s lift up The ShoppeSimple Network hood and give you 3 client success stories from January 2011. I have purposely picked these e-merchants so it would be easier for you to create direct linkage to your business. I have also included Key Performance Indexes (KPI) and picked a slow month so you can scale the opportunity for your business.

Client #1: According to Compete.com our client, a female giftware company, had 52,000 unique visitors to their website in January 2011. They did $53,000 dollars, 616 orders with an increase of 38% in average order through The ShoppeSimple Network. This equates to $1.01 of revenue for every unique visitor to their website in the month. The cost of their program is $4,000 per month.

Client #2: Client doesn’t have an analytic package because they are small, so they use our ShoppeStats program for their tracking purposes. As such, they had 1,800 visitors to their branded ShoppeHub page and these visitors provided $16,093 of revenue in January to the client.  That is $8.94 in revenue per unique ShoppeHub visitor. The cost of the program for them is $3,000 per month.

Client #3: Client had 5,228 visitors to their branded ShoppeHub and these visitors provided $45,000 of revenue in January to the client. That is $8.67 in revenue per unique ShoppeHub visitor. The cost of the program for them is $4,000 per month.

So what exactly is the “Secret Sauce” that will make your business velocity really scale like the examples above when you join The ShoppeSimple Network?

First let me tell you what we are not….

• We are not a technology solution. Over time you may have heard IT people say they can build solutions like this internally. Frankly for 25 years, I have heard IT Managers tell me this too. Heck, what IT person doesn’t think they can build anything and everything internally? Of course, there is always a build or buy decision tree. There is always an endless queue of IT projects and decisions around ROI, which ones get built and when. But we always know that objections like these get raised when looking at any third party solution and it is an appropriate objection that we overcome very easily.

• Here is why: IT departments just can’t replicate the non-IT nature of our marketing services solution. Yes…they can try like Walmart, BestBuy, Target and others have done but they have all failed or not optimized the opportunity available to them. Why? Because they fail to get The ShoppeSimple Network consumer experience right. This is exactly a key major point of differentiation between your internal IT team’s answer and The ShoppeSimple Network.

More to the point, can your IT department deliver a total turn-key social and mobile solution in 10 days or less that costs an affordable monthly cost of $1,000—7,500 per month? If I were a betting man, I wouldn’t bet your money on it.

So who is The ShoppeSimple Network and exactly what do we do so well?

I am sure you have asked your friend for a recommendation on where to eat, get your hair done, shop for a handbag? Of course you have and frankly it is the preferred way you would want to buy. Getting a trusted third-party referral creates buying behaviors. It’s also less risky and fun to engage in shopping conversations with your friends and family. It is also proven that testimonials from friends drive sales.

Well, this is the essence of what drives the The ShoppeSimple Network experience. We provide a bridge between your consumers and the sharing of your content/offers with their trusted friends on Facebook, Followers on Twitter and mobile texting lists. We are essentially the conduit, which facilitates buying and sharing of your content.

So when your consumer enjoys buying your brand they want to talk a lot about you to their friends and family and the result is a Social and Mobile Loyalty program that brings you new customers, increases buying frequency and increases your average order. We do all of this through an elegant suite of marketing services tools, which we provide your business.

Our Secret Sauce…

Ø  We let your consumer control the content they want to see and where they want to see it on any social community and mobile smartphone including iPads and Tablets.

Ø  We don’t Push products at consumers. Consumers Pull, Place, Buy and Share your content/offers. Essentially we deliver your content to wherever your consumers are.

Ø  We protect your data and your Privacy Policy as all of your transactions and credit card information are kept on your site.

Ø  Your consumer stays anonymous and has a fun and safe shopping experience until they are ready to buy.  Their data also remains safe.

Ø  Since you have your consumer’s permission they allow you to communicate with them everyday of the year with content they want to know about.

So the short story about The ShoppeSimple Network —and it is worth repeating— is that we have created a simple and easy way for consumers to carry on social and mobile conversations with their favorite brands.

The ShoppeSimple Network program is built entirely for your business in less than 10 days with absolutely no implementations fees. You just pay  an affordable monthly subscription fee and if the program doesn’t make sense after you try it FREE for a month you easily disconnect and that’s it. It’s guaranteed.

So why not let us personally show how you can reach a new level of listening, engaging and have new Social and Mobile conversations with your consumer on The ShoppeSimple Network. We know you will see what our other clients have seen…  new Social and Mobile incremental revenue.

To learn more, let’s set up a personal phone visit to learn more. Just drop me a reply to this email or phone me at 612-349-2740.

Best,

Jeffery

PS: If you could bet $3,000 and get a guaranteed 30% return in a month would you do it?

Ambitious Sales Performer Needed for Leading Social and Mobile Company in Minneapolis, MN

Put your strategic sales mind to work and bring your passion for delivering tech-savvy solutions to the country's top B2B, e-Commerce and Multi-Channel Retail companies using ShoppesimpleNetwork.biz Social and Mobile Commerce Solutions.

We have an incredible opportunity for you to join a team that recognizes and rewards your sales accomplishments.​ You will be tasked with the challenge to grow and expand our customer base for accounts in North America while earning a compensation package, which includes a base and uncapped commission along with an equity component.

Don't you want to be part of a team that offers such an amazing career opportunity?​ 

Based out of our Twin Cities, MN office or work virtually nationwide, your primary mission is to create new business opportunities through your own lead generation efforts and close new business on a local, regional and national level.​  You must have a proven track record in selling advertising solutions,  business insight technologies or online or offline advertising solutions aimed at a senior level sales/​marketing audiences or business owners.  If you worked in broadcast TV, radio, DEX, Yellow Page, Newspaper Advertising will be a plus.

You must have an established network of contacts and demonstrate a successful record of selling.  

Your prior ability in selling a technology/online/social or mobile services will allow you to quickly understand our product, enabling you to hit the ground running.​  Your outstanding communication skills (both written, use of the computer and verbal) will establish credibility with senior level executives/business owners and will get you time with the key decision maker(s) to drive the ShoppeSimple Network value proposition (reach consumers wherever they are) and close the deal.​ 

Your experience with both transactional and consultative sales will ensure that you are successful at growing a healthy pipeline of new business opportunities.​  Although you will focus primarily on closing new business, you will also be tasked with maintaining existing relationships and cross-selling/​up-selling opportunities within your account base.​ 

Your role will involve little travel as most of our selling is through email, phone and virtual selling (ie GotoMeeting). ​ We are also a family-first company. 

If you are a self-motivated, ambitious, sales professional that wants to work with an outstanding Social and Mobile Commerce product line inside a successful, growing company that loves to have fun, explore this opportunity today! Email your resume in MSWord Format only. Please include Cover Letter. Send to [email protected] No phone calls please.

Is Your Business Addicted...ideas from ShoppeSimple

From: Jeffery Giesener – CEO – ShoppeSimple

Are you buying Keywords for your Search Engine Pay Per Click (PPC) program?

What percentage is your PPC Program of your overall online business?

If you stopped doing PPC what would happen to your online business?

How is your PPC business trending from a CPO and budget consumption basis?

These are tough and thoughtful questions for any online marketer.  Why?  Because I sense PPC continues to consume more of your marketing budget while you also see a weakening of results year over year. If you haven’t given this consideration recently, I would recommend you continue reading…

What percentage is your PPC business of your overall online business? Is it 10%, 20%, 45%? Does that exposure to PPC marketing make you feel comfortable or does it make you feel exposed?

• Have you thought about how your business would recover if overnight you were outbid for your top keywords and your business was no longer on page one or above the fold on Google/Bing/Yahoo?
• What impact would there be to your sales plan if this new higher “bid ask” pricing would send your keywords over the allowable cost per order threshold?
• What would be your business recovery plan?

If you think these scenarios are not real…think again. They are very real, have happened to merchants we’ve spoken to and they can happen to your business too

Is your mouth is starting to feel dry…stomach feeling queasy…keep reading…because your business could already be locked into a “PPC Addiction”!

Now that I have your attention, here are some other tough questions to ponder…

Ø  Are you comfortable with the knowledge that the Search Engines to whom you’ve been paying good money also know your top keywords and which of your consumers are clicking on them?

Ø  Have you thought about the fact that they can trace the “Keyword Click Stream” and track the consumer to your website and to a purchase since they also have tied all of this business intelligence to the email address for your consumer?

Ø  Have you thought about the power of these search data repositories and how they can be used against your business?

Ø  Have you thought about your conversion equation since you know you are only converting at best 10% of these keyword consumers?

And the final question…who is converting the other 90% of your consumer keyword searches and? I’ll keep going…

Yes, my intent with the above is to get you to think about the hard questions around PPC Marketing and how comfortable you feel being locked into a PPC Keyword buy model?  And, to further understand that Keyword Marketing happens outside of your control and is steered as a bigger marketing play which can happen (or is already) around your business. What do I mean? If you are using Google as part of your marketing mix, have you asked yourself why Google gives away their e-commerce enabled services like Google Base, Google Analytics, Desktop, Toolbar, Maps and let’s not forget about the fastest growing browser, Chrome, just to name a few. Do you just believe Google is ultimately altruistic?  Or, do they have another self-serving game plan in mind?  Same for Facebook?

Now, I have a strategic question for you?  Don’t you believe Google/Facebook will figure out a Social Media e-Commerce platform and/or do a deal/partnership which will drive e-Commerce away from your business and capture your consumers? Did you know Facebook has already done a data deal with the world’s largest fulfillment company…Amazon.com. Did you know that Facebook is working to bring e-Commerce into its platform?  And, what is Google doing really?

I am sure you have been asking yourself and your colleagues how your business will be playing in the Social and Mobile Commerce space in 2011? And, it’s OK to have lots of questions.  But don’t lose sight of this threat to your business as social sales will not be happening on your website but instead on new global Social Commerce platforms which your business does not own or control.

Keep thinking here…what are your analytics already telling you when you have 90% home page defections and 80% non-open rates to email broadcast? And if you think your consumer brand is safe…from “social cannibalization” Think again.

If the above discussion has resonated with you, (obviously bias disclosed) then you owe it to yourself and your company to at least learn what ShoppeSimple is all about and how we are innovating in the areas of Social Commerce and Mobile Marketing without locking your business into a Google or Facebook channel. Plus, we have plenty of client success stories to share and would welcome the opportunity to have a meaningful conversation.

For instance, one client who began with us in July just hit $2.1 Million mark in Social Commerce sales (a website which has 1 Million Unique Visitors per month). They are on a monthly subscription program with no commission “toll”, which puts their actual order acquisition expense at 2.5-3%. Another client (around 300K Unique Visitors) began with ShoppeSimple Program the day before Thanksgiving 2010 and in just 20 days they have done over $450,000 in Social Commerce sales using just 1 of our 15 social components. With their monthly subscription cost, it puts their order acquisition rate at just under 2%.

So the question I would ask … Would you be happy to acquire orders at less than 3% with an upside kicker of more order frequency and a higher average order value? Plus both of these clients now have a new online marketing channel, which lowers their risk and exposure to Pay Per Click and Email.

I’d recommend that we set up a time over the phone where we can get to know your specific online objectives.  With that understanding we can begin to design a Social and Mobile Commerce program that will fit your company’s unique situation and strategy.

To start the process, just indicate your interest in a no-obligation phone discussion by replying to this email and we will be in touch with you to start the conversation immediately.

Best Regards and Happy New Year,

Jeffery