Tactics > looking ahead to 2011 The eleven online retail trends


that matter I


Techniques for more effective online marketing in 2011


am often asked “what’s hot” in digital


marketing. I love answering questions on best practice to improve results, but I must say I’m not so fond of this question, the reason being that rarely is anything genuinely “hot”. There are


plenty of “cool” new technologies and marketing approaches that we all naturally get excited about, but to me something really “hot” has to have a real impact and be applicable to a range of businesses. What interests me more, and what I think is more important commercially, are not the latest fads, but rather the relatively new effective techniques that should be widely adopted and aren’t. So in my review, I’ll focus on the trends that matter based on a roundup of some of the major developments in 2010 and how to respond to these in 2011.


Traffic-building


get greater. Google has driven the vast majority of searches for a long time, but with its ownership of YouTube and the Google Display Network (formerly the content network, which accounts for around 30 percent of its revenue) this extends far beyond the search box.


1 8


TripAdvisor. Google calls Microformats “rich snippets” and they appear in Google’s search results pages under the link and above the main description. In a nutshell, Microformats are samples of the type of content visitors can expect on your site. They are based on a standard called hReview used by Google, but increasingly it will use this for product information using hProduct when linked to reviews.


2 Catalogue e-business www.catalog-biz.com


So part of digital strategy has to be look for opportunities for “degooglisation”. Building a memorable brand and an online experience that visitors will want to visit directly helps—plus, Google favours strong brands more and more. Let the affiliates take the costs and risks of Google; find partner sites with low-cost display placements. Try using the Google network for placement targeting or remarketing, something that was introduced in 2010 and has produced excellent results for some of our clients.


Microformats Microformats are a tactical way to give you an edge in the search results page—think starred hotel reviews from


Reducing dependence on Google Every year, the Googlisation of digital marketing, all marketing even, seems to


influence a sale over multiple visits before purchase, can be important to make the best media decisions. I say can be, because it’s particularly important in more complex, high- value purchases. If the majority of your visitors convert on the first visit it’s a lot less significant. Some questions to ask via your analytics are how many visits does it take to first purchase? What is the latency, in other words, how many days does it take to purchase? If you find it is a complex, extended purchase then there are now more tools to help you. Google introduced its “Search funnels” to tell you whether those two- or three-word generic category search terms are contributing to conversion, for example, searches for sheepskin boots. Since they are often followed by longer product searches or brand terms such as Ugg Bailey Button Boots, these can otherwise get lost or misattributed. In the travel sector, case studies of tracking tool Tagman used on sites like Thomas Cook and Virgin Atlantic, showed how 21 percent of cost-per-acquisition commission payments were duplicates. Consequently, eliminating those led to big savings. Not surprisingly, the system is increasingly used by larger retailers.


3 Conversion optimisation 4


Segmenting your audience Of course segmentation is fundamental to effective marketing, but here I’m talking about segmentation using your


By Dave Chaffey


The starred reviews are an example of Google using microformats to enhance search results


Buyer touchpoint attribution There’s no neat way to say this, but understanding which traffic sources


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