Shopster's Dropshippers, eCommerce, and Selling Online Blog

5 Steps To Give Your Marketing A Shot In The Arm

Wow.  I was supposed to be posting these tips throughout the day.  I have some bad excuses (much anticipated marketing team foosball championship. inbox overflow, filling out a long expense sheet, etc), but I won't subject you to those.

Let's get right in there:
1.  Start blogging.  Blogs are exactly what search engines are looking for: Loads of focused, keyword-targeted copy, fresh content, and outbound links.  Make sure you write about your store (or wherever you're selling from) and get some links in there.
2.  Fix your meta content.  Get those keywords written up.  Make sure your descriptions are keyword heavy.  Update page titles to include content that your visitors might search for.
3.  Update your landing pages.  Write some new copy for those home pages and category pages.  Wherever your visitors might land, make sure you have some incentive there (hot product, new offer, etc).
4.  Refresh your product offering.  Check out your competitors and some industry blogs.  See what's coming out; see what's selling.  Make sure you add those products (and maybe write a post about them).
5.  Personalize your site copy.  "People buy from people" is a great axiom to remember when you're marketing.  Don't make it sound like your store is an institution that's talking at your visitors - make it sound like you're a salesman who's talking directly to them.

Those are some quick tips.  They're not going to be the end-all-be-all of your success, but they're relatively quick and painless steps to take to get going.  I'll post some more in-depth stuff soon.  We're going to be experimenting with some of what I picked up... If it works, you'll hear about it.  (And if it doesn't, I will.)

Michael

Greetings from Miami

Hey everyone!

MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2008 just wrapped up.  As promised, I'll be posting some of the most valuable lessons I've learned down here in Miami.  You'll learn how "open bar" actually means "$11 mojitos".  You'll learn how sitting in a giant air-conditioned room in Miami is similar to being outside in Calgary in February - both ways you know that outside in Miami it's really, really nice but you can't do anything about it.  Plus, you'll learn how I stretched my food budget by eating two kinds of rice and a huge block of provolita for under ten bucks a night at a little Argentinian restuarant.

Well, actually, you'll learn some tips for increasing your clickthroughs and converting those visitors to customers.  I've got to sift through an enormous volume of materials, so tips will be streaming in throughout the day on Thursday.  Tune in!

From a laptop on the road,
Michael

SEO 101 Webinar success and Miami

Shopster's webinar on Wednesday was a resounding success.  Thanks to everyone who came out.  Some great SEO tips were imparted, and we think many of you found it useful.  We'll be running more in the future.  If you have ideas for future topics, let us know by leaving a comment.  We'll be posting the webinar next week for anyone who missed it.

On another note, Michael (the marketing team's "Communications Analyst") will be heading down to Miami to attend MarketingSherpa's Email Marketing Conference.  MarketingSherpa is an industry leader in marketing research and is an excellent resource for learning the tricks of the trade.  We're sure he'll be garnering a wealth of tips to pass on to you.  We're looking forward to seeing what he learns down there and sharing it with you.

eBay News - New Fees Take Effect Soon

Hey everyone!

On February 1st, eBay announced a plan to restructure their fees.  These changes take effect on February 20th.  They are of particular note to dropshippers and users of Shopster's Listing Manager for eBay.

Here're the highlights:
1.  Lower Insertion Fees.  Final Value Fees have also been "adjusted". 
2.  Increased benefits for PowerSellers - including discounts and increased protection.
3.  Improvements to feedback structure.

Links:
Read the full Fees 2008 Overview.
eBay ran a webinar discussing how these changes may affect dropshippers and other eBay sellers.   View eBay's official webinar.

Our take:
Although there has been some concern regarding the Final Value Fees adjustments, the fee restructuring is intended to decrease the up-front cost of selling on eBay.  We'll have to wait and see whether eBay's new fees average out to savings on the dropshipping side.  We're keen to think the new fees will [ultimately] benefit sellers.

Upcoming: Shopster SEO Webinar

Hello everyone!

We're hosting a free, one-hour webinar to give you some tips on how to use organic SEO techniques to improve the search engine ranking for your Shopster online storefront.

Knowledge Box: Profit From Seasonal Buying

After seeing the success Shopster retailers had over Christmas, post Super Bowl and with Valentine's imminent, we wanted to make sure all online retailers were aware of the opportunity that seasonal spending presents to boost your sales. A bit of common sense and forward thinking can make the difference between making an average income and a great income.

Affiliate News: Shopster Ups The Ante

Hey,

We wanted to let you know we've improved our affiliate program.  Shopster's affiliate program is a great way to diversify your income stream.  While Shopster retailers generally make money by selling products on their online storefronts or via dropshipping, a great many others have discovered the added bonus of our affiliate program.  Shopster will pay you to send us more potential retailers, visitors to your site or people you know looking for a complete e-commerce solution or a dropship product source. All you have to do is refer us leads that sign up for valid accounts.

Profit after the holidays - Keep the momentum going

Near the end of December, we wrote an industry "white paper" to help you optimize your marketing efforts through the post-holiday sales slump.  (Post-Holiday eCommerce Shopping and Retailer-Driven Sales Strategies)

We wanted to make sure that you didn't slacken your efforts on account of a perceived futility.  Average weekly sales during the holiday shopping rush were about $3.25 billion.  The estimated weekly sales average for January through October (excepting seasonal spikes) is $2 billion.  While only a fraction of the holiday number, $2 billion isn't exactly small change.

Delivering The Goods: Valentine's Day

While you may be suffering from a post-holiday retail hang-over (or be taking the week off to focus on Super Bowl XLII), we urge you not to miss the online retail opportunity that is approaching faster than a cupid in a wind tunnel. It is estimated that this year US consumers will spend $17.02 billion on Valentine's Day gifts. Everyone in a relationship knows that being in love is an expensive proposition but not delivering the goods on Feb. 14th is a kiss of death. So, in a time-and cash strapped world many people end up ordering online to save their skins and a few dollars.