Using Online Video for E-Commerce

While online video gives any online business the ability to gain instant recognition in society, the chances of becoming an instant viral hit must be tempered with smart design. The ease at which video allows connection with customers is an opportunity unlike anything since the invention of television.Most back-end web hosting applications have plenty of services to embed video. The challenges for a startup web firm may seem daunting, but traditional selling strategies can be integrated into this web marketing technology.

Take two retail strategies: Customer service and the up-sell. One aspect often missing from professionally developed E-commerce sites is a true sense of customer service. In a physical store, customers have the luxury of interacting with a real salesperson and ask any questions and receive recommendations about a product. Web design must emulate this intimate level of customer service. A sales representative is an asset to a brick and mortar store that online stores do not posses. If the representative is not helpful I can leave and go to another store. With an e-commerce site, this volatile propensity to leave for a competitor is much more pronounced. If I have problems with the site, who can I ask? Without a ready solution from web design, it is easier to navigate to another site.

Some solutions are video FAQs, interactive salespeople, product demos, and customer testimonials.

A Video FAQ helps educate your customers in a more engaging fashion than a text based FAQ, and can show a visual walkthrough of problems. An actual representative adds a personality to the social experience of shopping on your site. Good information saves money by giving customers the knowledge they need to purchase without taxing customer service.

Interactive Salespeople are popular on many successful eCommerce sites where nothing says "Hello!" like an actual person. Salespeople are vital in retail, and simple text cannot replace them in web retail. Interactive guides can help users through the site and demonstrate products. Real-time interaction from salespeople may soon replace pre-recorded messages.

Product Demos are easy with online video. Effective site design gives the user an idea of what the product will do for them, and nothing does that like a video. Video can do what a still image cannot, through motion, multiple images and audio overlay. Product demos provide an opportunity for additional product placement and the chance to up-sell.

Customer Testimonals add instant credibility to your product. People trust a real review over an internet marketing message any day. People can judge a reviewers sincerity through video better than through text. A well developed testimonial will make an emotional connection with the viewer and allow them to imagine themselves using the product. On the other hand, a crude or insincere testimonial damages your products web presence.

Once you have created your crown jewel internet marketing video, it can easily be repackaged in advertising networks. It only takes a few people reposting your video on social networks for it to "go viral."

Custom Applications for Online Marketing: A good choice?

Most internet businesses are working hard to improve their customer's experience on their sites. From mobile phones apps, to analytics, there are a variety of applications that businesses can use to give their customers a more interactive, targeted experience. Almost all small web businesses use analytics to make internet marketing decisions, but not everyone is confident in the decisions they are making. Here are a few tips for web developers to give customers visiting a site a satisfying experience.

Application Integration

Combining applications like site search with reviews or web video can dramatically improve results as opposed to using those applications independently. An integrated approach gives a web site more meaningful engagements with the customer. A professionally developed and efficient feel captures more sales and conversions in online business. Navigation is more natural for online shoppers when reviews and product features are integrated with site search. Let us say that a customer is searching for a laptop on your eCommerce site. One search option might bring in the top rated laptop based on reviews. Another search option could be search by features like cost, technical specifications, and uses. Integrating these options allows the customer to do full research without leaving your custom site. Fewer clicks to find the right product means higher conversion from reduced site abandonment rates.

Use Analytics You Trust

Analytics cannot are useless unless the results are understood and trusted enough to make decisions. Ongoing site changes and web development can lead to a fragmented state of online information gathering. A key to web marketing is to have a basic philosophy integrated across the whole online business and supporting applications. You may want to hire an expert web developer to manage integration of analytics across platforms.

Drive Personalized Campaigns

When applications are integrated, the holistic picture of your web customer can be harnessed to deliver personalized messages that prompt action. If your customers can register their product preferences in an opt-in product newsletter, you can leverage site data to create more targeted emails that show the customer their preferred products. A personalized email is much more appealing than a mass e-blast.

Always Leverage Data

By sharing data across applications, you are leveraging the date to the best use for your internet business. Other activities, such as advertising or SEO campaigns will be much more effective if you already ahve a database of important keywords generated through site search. The list of words typed into your business's website is a much more relevant dataset than a generic search engine keyword tool.

Analyzing the effectiveness of site design can be difficult across multiple on-site variations and marketing programs. The key is insuring a holistic view of the whole web business's data and using that data to greatest effect. Maximizing your technology investments is a great way to get an edge without cutting overhead with a second-rate web host.

Plugins to make blogs profitable

It seems like everyone is blogging now. Everyone from corporate officers to Elementary students are blogging now, but for someone trying to make money in an internet business blogging has unique problems. The common wisdom for web businesses is to "start a blog to start a conversation with customers." But according to Technorati, around three-quarters of blogs are just hobbyist s who do not make money for their efforts.

Luckily there are several apps and plugins you can add to your blog to make it more fun and interactive for visitors. And an engaged visitor is a rarity in the web marketing world. WordPress is the platform of choice for those who venture beyond hosted solutions. WordPress and blogging hosts allow web companies to market without dedicated hosting. Although dedicated host servers are a good choice, software hosted blogs allow easy addition of plugins. Lets look at a few of WordPress's plugins that will design your website into a cash bonaza.

WP-Cumulus

WP Cumulus started as just a custom widget that has evolved to allow bloggers to display your site's tags, catagories or both with a 3D Flash movie. The effect is so visually stimulating web traffic will be mesmerized.

Sexy Bookmarks

The aptly named Sexy Bookmarks offers blog visitors the ability to syndicate your content across over 50 portals. Rss and email are just a few old-school ways this plugin allows others to publish your blog without taking up much page real estate. Sexy bookmarks gives web developers as much customize-ability as the Sociable plugin.

Explanatory Dictionary

Remember when every blogger or news source on the web was trying to profit on in-line text ads? Explanatory dictionary allows you to use the same popups for underlined words or phrases to better explain expressions or phrases to your audience. This tooltip is a great way for eMarketing firms using blogs to add additional information to topics without overwhelming customers.

Custom Login Page

Create a custom login page to give subscribed viewers a login theme that matches the overall site design. The plugin allows changes in background image, color, main image, and custom CSS. Even an internet marketing firm without web development skills can use the simple interface.

SI CAPTCHA Anit-Spam

Rouge spam comment blasts always downgrade site quality. Without your own dedicated web hosting solutions company, CAPTCHA adds anti-spam tools to any comment, registration, or login form. Configurable from the admin panel, CAPTCHA allows private web designers security features like ping-backs and trackbacks that are invisible to would-be spammers.

WPtouch iPhone

Make sure your weblog works on mobile devices like the iPhone and Blackberry. The WPtouch iPhone theme plugin transforms WordPress's theme into an iPhone style theme. Complete with AJAX loading articles and effects, visitors can switch between themese without modifying a single bit of code.

Bloggs no longer have to be just a generic list of information and news. Developing a custom app for your business can bring great profits if the app works well with your business model and can be developed by many web design companies.

Online Business: Incorporation and Tax Havens

Even if your website or online business does not work out of a corporation or LLC, you have probably given some thought if there was any liability or tax benefit from incorporating. Online businesses have differences than can lead to advantages over businesses without a web presence.

One great reason for incorporating is because of the legal separation it creates between you and your web business. Online buisness fudges the borders of tradtional jurisdictions because the web business may be incorporated in one state, have its owners in another, while the web hosting company and server may be in completely different countries from the customer. Your business becomes its own legal entity that pays taxes and has the option of being incorporated in whatever country you decide. Therefore, there is no reason to limit yourself by incorporating in your home state. While businesses can be domiciled in whatever state they choose, they still have to register and pay taxes in each state in which they transact web business. While each state has different definitions, for the most part, if you have employees or office space in a particular state, you are conducting business there.

In a pure online business, your company may only exist in a virtual world. If you do not have office space and contract out services like programming, server administrators and web development, you are a perfect candidate for saving money in a tax haven. Contracting out hosting and web marketing saves money because the corporation is never legally domiciled.

Tax havens allow eCommerce sites to incorporate in states that have pro-business laws - no corporate tax, franchise tax or personal income tax. The two major tax havens in the US are Nevada and Wyoming. Wyoming has lower fees and less stigma which may be appealing to startup eCommerce sites.

For a truly virtual online business, all that is needed is a Nevada or Wyoming corporation. Remember, it cannot be a LLC unless you elect corporate taxation with the IRS. Otherwise, all income passes through your individual tax return in the state in which you reside. This means paying state taxes on the individual level for your we business as if it were income to yourself.

Forming a corporation requires going through red tape in a bureaucracy hundreds of miles away, so most recommend using a professional service. Although startup web developers may be used to going at it alone, specialized national companies with relationships with state agencies can expedite the process. It is important to remember that as soon as you issue yourself payroll, your corporation or LLC will need to register to transact business in your state. Your online business will now have to pay taxes on all income derived in that state. The away around this for online businesses is to take money out of the company in the form of loans and dividends.

Professional incorporation services in these states will help you set up (or you can do it yourself) a qualified registered agent who lives in the state to keep you updated on filings and in good standing with the state. Your must use the address of your registered agent and have a bank account opened in the state to look like you legitimately do business in that state. Think of it as a complete separation of yourself and your web business. Because you operate an online company it is easy, but it needs to appear as your business operates out of the state in which you are domiciled.

Comparison Shopping Engines

Web startups are always looking for an edge in web marketing. A new tool is the comparison shopping engines, which are search engines for products. Merchants upload their products to a CSE, then when users search for a product, the merchant and competitor products show up. Ranking is different based on CSE. Some sites rank based on bid while others sort by relevance and popularity. Comparison shopping engines add another weapon to the eCommerce Pay-Per-Click arsenal.

CSE is gaining popularity over traditional Pay-Per-Click marketing because the traffic generated has a higher conversion rate. The person clicking on a listing is likely further along in the buying process than someone in a general search. Furthermore, listings feature a product picture and merchant specified description before the user even clicks which helps funnel serious buyers.

Like all forms of internet marketing, effective web development cannot be overlooked when funneling in potential customers. The linked landing page from the CSE should be easy to use, or that paid referral can not result in a conversion. A good domain name and competent web design are still musts.

At the moment CSEs are less crowded so merchants do not have to compete in the crowded marketplace of major search engines. The customer benefits because he can research product reviews and price from one web location. Right now Yahoo! shopping is the CSE most prefered by online retail. Although the popularity of sites like Yahoo! Shopping is valuable, less popular sites can be more profitable. The PPC model often creates a bidding war for web commerce sites trying to find a ranking. Less popular sites may cost less per click and per conversion. Around 25 percent of web merchants use the sites as part of their online marketing strategy. However, only 10 percent of web retail sites use 2-4 CSE sites.

Although more than half of web consumers report using CSEs, it is important for web startups to have a way to measure Return on Investment. All CSEs offer some reporting features for web designers, but the best way to track investments is through third party analytics. Most web development firms offer some sort of analytics support.

One way to track your success with CSEs is to create unique URLs for the product feed. Unique domain names can be purchased also, but really all you need is to separate the traffic generated from different sources for accurate measurement. Popular shopping carts like Mivia and Volusion allow the creation of parallel affiliate sites. Each affiliate's unique URL can be tracked to see if Comparison Shopping Engines are actually a good investment. Consumers are using CSEs to shop, but the average eCommerce site is not doing the analytics necessary to get value out of the system.