Have you seen How To SELL Anything?

This incredible sales handbook distils an expert's lifetime of sales and marketing experience and hands it to you on a platter, in a simple, easy-to-follow format. With existing customers being the most valuable source of income for any business, this book will teach you how to increase your return business and make more profit from your most loyal customers - and even how to reduce the costs of dealing with your least profitable customers.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)

E-retailers could gain more loyalty from their data

The report, entitled '2009 E-Commerce Customer Experience Survey', found that 68% of the nearly 600 online retailers polled were uncertain if they were using all of the data gleaned through on-site technology to recruit customers and maintain their loyalty.

Additionally, only 55% said they integrate the various on-site applications they are using. According to SLI Systems' CEO, Shaun Ryan, "This is a missed opportunity to improve the user experience as well as marketing efforts. To capitalise on the holiday shopping season, retailers should prioritise technology integration and analytics."

For example, Ryan suggests, when companies combine applications such as web site searching with email marketing, or user reviews with online video, the results can be much better than when these applications are used in a 'silo approach'. Effectively, he argues, in a highly competitive selling environment, online retailers could capture more sales and conversions, and have more meaningful engagements with customers, if they integrate their data gathering applications.

Of the technologies highlighted in the survey as the most frequently used for engaging with customers, site search, web analytics and email marketing were the top three with 88% using site search, 87% using web analytics, and 81% using email marketing.

Following these were user-generated reviews (53%), product recommendations (47%) and online communities (43%). Almost half (42%) said they are not integrating data across applications.

Encouragingly, some 95% said they are using analytics on their web sites to track conversions, measure the effectiveness of campaigns, conduct keyword research and to better understand their online audience. However, 63% of these businesses said they are still not confident that their analytics are accurate.

"The concern companies have regarding the accuracy of their analytics may be a result of implementation and integration issues, challenges with the analysis of the data, or variations over time due to ongoing site changes," explained Ryan. "Analysing campaign effectiveness can be difficult when applied across multiple marketing programmes and variations. The keys lie in ensuring that applications are integrated, and in sharing information, and in making sure that analytics are run and evaluated across all available technologies and applications."

Other findings highlighted by the survey included:

• 83% of businesses polled said that the ability to measure the effectiveness of tools or campaigns is critical or very important to their marketing efforts;
• Of the technologies e-commerce businesses are using to improve the online experience for customers, 88% said site search, 87% analytics and 83% highlighted email marketing as providing the greatest return on investment (ROI);
• Specific to the 2009 holiday shopping season, 35% of online businesses expected to increase budget in preparation for the holidays;
• 59% believe their web site marketing strategies were ready to capitalise on the coming holiday shopping season.

Have you seen How To SELL Anything?

This incredible sales handbook distils an expert's lifetime of sales and marketing experience and hands it to you on a platter, in a simple, easy-to-follow format.

With existing customers being the most valuable source of income for any business, this book will teach you how to increase your return business and make more profit from your most loyal customers - and even how to reduce the costs of dealing with your least profitable customers.

You'll learn to sell yourself, sell your products, and sell your brand on the internet, writing high-conversion landing pages, social media posts, and more. You'll start attracting customers you didn’t even know existed, and learn the top trade secrets for customer retention.

You'll become a lean, mean selling machine. See how the experts do it and learn to adapt what they've done for your own profit. You'll learn to write strong, powerful, effective sales copy, whether it's for a sales script, sales letter, flyer, insert, advert or just about anything else.

You'll learn how to sell whether you're selling by telephone, by mail, or even meeting prospects face-to-face. You'll find out how to size them up, present yourself, nail down their true needs, close the sale, and learn to tackle the tricky ones.

You'll discover the biggest secrets of successful direct mail sellers, sales letter writers, and how to segment and choose the right prospects for each campaign.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)