Shopster's Dropshippers, eCommerce, and Selling Online Blog

Writing PPC Ads

Pay per click or PPC advertising can bring in targeted quality traffic to your site. The three biggest search players all offer advertising programs.  Google has AdWords, Yahoo has YSM or Yahoo Search Marketing and Bing is running on the former Microsoft AdCenter platform.  

Aside from the product you are selling and the budget another big factor that could affect your ad performance is the advertising copy you use. This is applicable to text ads, which is still the most traditional and popular ad format to use. It is a crucial distinguishing factor to lure potential visitors to your online store. A well-written ad can increase your clickthrough rate, your conversion and also improves your quality score. Successful ads are clear, specific and compelling.

The standard text ad has three parts: The headline, the description and the display URL. Let’s take a look at the guidelines for Google as it is the most widely used PPC platform today. For Google (as well as in other search engine advertising channels), character limits are strictly imposed. The headline has a maximum of 25 characters and can be written in title case. The description is composed of 2 lines of text with 35 characters each (including spaces). The display URL, on the other hand, also has a limit of 35 characters, including spaces. For languages using double-byte characters such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hebrew and Arabic, the limits are:  12 characters for the title, 17 for each line of text and the standard 35 for the display URL.

Most search engines publish their formatting rules,  including capitalization, punctuation use and character replacement. Master these first before you concentrate on improving the content. Look also into their editorial policies. There may be some issues that, if not addressed correctly, will result in the pausing of your campaigns. Be mindful of trademark policies and ad misrepresentation.

Now on to writing the ad copy. For your headline, it would be best to use keywords directly being searched by your target audience. There is no need to include your company name or your domain in the headline as it does not really attract clicks, unless of course you’re advertising an established company or a distinguished brand.

For your descriptions, focus on the benefits rather than on features. This is the best way to make the copy compelling. If space allows, you should always consider adding a call to action – this is what you want your user to do. For instance, you can use “Order Now” or “Buy Now”.

There are no specific copy rules for the destination url, but do remember that the more specific the product to the keyword being search, the better your potential  to convert.

Why Turnkey Solutions Work

We at Shopster have always focused on getting new merchants to start selling online immediately. From providing free retail website templates with our store builder to giving you access to over 1.5 million dropship products, we’ve ensured that everything is in order to get you to make money online as fast as possible.

Turnkey has become a popular catchphrase on the web. In essence, this is a business or a retail website that is built with all the features you need to start running online right away. The concept has gained popularity with both established and new online sellers. First, it cuts the time down to set up shop. What would take weeks and even months to build from the ground up can now be attained in as little as 1 week. For new merchants, turnkey stores have lowered the barrier to entry. It has become the ideal package for anyone in a rush to start selling online but has no time to learn the technical side of running an online store such as HTML, SEO, selecting the right keywords, graphic design, PPC advertising , copywriting and more.  

If you haven’t heard of the latest and greatest from Shopster, then you’ve missed some great news. We’ve actually improved the way we deliver on instant stores with our Ready-to-Go Store. This complete ecommerce solution gives you everything you need to get your store up and running in the shortest possible time.

The Ready-to-Go store offers the following inclusions:

• Fully built custom store design for high conversion
• Banners for every page highlighting important products or promotions
• Search Engine Optimization to drive quality traffic to your site
• Free access to over 1.5 million dropship products to upload into your inventory
• Customized content for category or sales pages
• A professionally designed logo
• Hosting for 1 full year

With this package, all you have to do is sit back, relax, and let Shopster take care of business. You can now afford peace of mind at $2,400. That’s a huge savings of $1,000 from the original price. Hurry, this amazing offer is only available for a limited time. To find out more about Ready-to-Go Stores, please visit http://www.shopster.com/2400.html  or call 1-800-479-0276.

 

Introducing Your Brand via a Video

 Looking for an innovative way to get your brand to market? In the past, we’ve talked about create videos for your products. It’s a great way to show the practical side of the product – including its different features and how to use it in “real life”.

Videos are just as powerful for introducing new brands to consumers. It gives it that human touch, they will be able to associate your company with a voice, a name or even a face. It creates a sense of warmth that could generate an interest in your products.

In these days of social media market, video also plays an important role in creating  a more interactive online world. Several video sharing sites have gained popularity over the years, but none like that of YouTube. Millions of videos on any and everything can be accessed via this media.

Videos also show that you are tech savvy and in touch with the latest development. This is especially usefully if you r brand deals with anything tech-related. Unlike traditional media, you also have a better reach with video – as compared to banners or billboards.

If you’re creating videos about your brand, don’t just post it in your website. You won’t get much traction that way. Expand your reach by posting in video sharing sites. Additionally, these give you the ability to accept comments. As early as now, any user generated content should be valued as these can be telling of your company’s future reputation.

Do remember that we designing the content of your video, consumer don’t want another channel to be sold to. They want to see something new, something interesting. Don’t do a hard sell of your services or do a list of the things you offer.

Instead, consider giving them a sneak peek into your operations.  Or introduce some key people in your company and how they can help your customers. Whatever the content you decide on making a video about, always add a touch of creativity to the implementation and you've got a recipe for success.

 

Deciding On Which Brands to Display in your Online Store

 
Hopefully by now you’ve started working on your online Shopster storefront. If you haven’t yet, it’s time to do so. Aside from putting together the content and choosing your categories, your next step is to choose the products to display on your site.                                        

There are two types of products for you to choose from: the generic, unbranded ones and the those that have a brand. The unbranded products are often cheaper and lesser known. But there is a market out there for those. For this post, we’ll focus on how to choose the brands to sell in your online store.

• Look for the latest releases. Buyers always want something new and different. When selecting products for your store, it is best to highlight the newer items that you have as these have a tendency to move faster and to sell for more. 
• Keep the classics in stock. While having the latest inventory is definitely a must, there are buyers who still want older versions of a product because they are more used to it. Compatibility with their existing system is also a consideration (ie for computer software, games and other electronic items).
• Check out reviews of certain products. It may surprise you that the latest release isn’t the most popular for certain niche markets. Find out what people are saying about certain brands to know if these have the potential to become a good sale.
• Find out more about post-sale service offerings. As a retailer, you won’t always be able to answer all the concerns or requirements of your clients. Specifically once the sale is done, you won’t be able to service repairs. Look for products that offer warranties or have service centers that could help with this issue.
• Do your market research. If you already know what kind of audience you’ll be selling to, make a list of their interests and what they might want to buy. Aside from knowing what they want, knowing the potential demand can also help you set the price.
• Think about diversity, related products and competition.  Your product offerings should present your customers with choices. Keep the inventory small in the beginning so you can focus your marketing efforts. Continue growing your product line as you grown your online store. Find products that are related to the top ones you have – accessories, plug-ins and more. Then consider competing products that potential buyers may also want to look into.

 

These are just some tips when choosing the product. The main determinant is to ask yourself questions that a typical consumer would ask. Is this product good for me? What benefits can I derive from it? Continue in this line of questioning and you’ll soon make purchasing decisions easier.

How Giving Out Coupons and Discounts Can Lose You Clients

One great thing to get your customers and visitors to talk about your online shop is by having special discounts and coupons given out. Keeping them excited is one important factor to get them coming back to your store for more. However, keeping them excited while lowering your sales is not a very good thing. They are like medicines or vitamins that, if not taken in moderation, can cause serious problems that might be irreparable.

Many online shop owners give discounts to gain more sales from more clients—if not from the usual ones. They offer discounts and exciting promos to get people to talk about their online shop and increase popularity and sales. Some use this strategy to thank and reward their supporters in having their online shops as household names and helping them keep a stable income. This is a very good technique because it gives the “human” flavor to your online shop. Since your business is intangible and transactions are mostly online, your visitors and customers appreciate your venture less than the brick and mortar ones. Giving away special deals and discounts, on the other hand, give you the sense of charity that makes you a human being who has the sense of gratitude and reward.

However, having discounts and special deals are not always a good thing. Remember that people tend to get used to things. If you give them discounts and coupons so often, they might grow too comfortable with the idea and expect it to come everyday. If not given in a healthy amount, promos and special deals may prove to be detrimental. Not only does it lower the sales of your online shop, it also prevents people from buying you at full price. Make sure you regulate your promos and discounts. Also, study your market and the right percentage of discounts you give them.

Needless to say, your promos and coupons are wonderful tools in getting large sales and acquainting yourself with a new clientele. However, you better look closely into these tools because they might be a double-edged sword you have been overlooking.

Shopster Gets Visual with Videos

 
 
Needless to say, time is of the essence for online merchants such as yourself. You cannot afford to deal with problems for so long; and we, at Shopster, understand that, as evident through our endless efforts in improving our customer support system. Available anytime of the day is our blog page which discusses a wide range of topics that you may find useful to your shop. Also, our trained customer service representatives are always ready to answer your questions once you contact them through the phone, email, or chat. And, in addition to the long list of customer support system, Shopster is proud to announce that it has become a lot more active with its video tutorials.

For more than two years, Shopster has been servicing its customers with audio-visual presentations through its YouTube channel found at http://www.youtube.com/user/shopstervideos. However, it is sad to say that we did not have much time to add a lot of videos for you. That is why, for the past months, we have been making more videos on different matters that concern your online store. To date, we already have 33 uploaded videos which is increasing in number as we add one each day. This is, of course, to better serve you—the fastest way—with the information you need for you to maximize the potentials of your online shop.

While our customer service representatives are always happy to be of service to you, we believe that watching our audio-visual tutorials is a much better means of understanding Shopster and your store. It is because we, human beings, are more of a visual learner. We tend to understand and remember more what we have actually seen. Indeed, beyond Shopster, there is a lot to know about running your online store. We want to show you even those things. Our uploaded videos tackle different topics—from technical steps such as setting up your account, to marketing tips such as submitting a sitemap to a search engine. Just like our informative blogs, our video tutorials will be there to show you every single thing you need to learn for your online venture.

We, at Shopster, believe that your success is ours as well. That is why we keep on coming up with new ways to reach and help you with your questions and concerns. Watch our latest audio-visual tutorials at http://www.youtube.com/user/shopstervideos. We add one each day so do not forget to check it out often. You can also suggest topics on videos you want us to upload. And, if there is no tutorial regarding your concern yet, our customer service representatives are always glad to solve your problems.

Again, we thank you for your continuous support to Shopster and Happy Selling!

Affiliate Marketing Part 2: Protecting Your Brand

In our last post, we discussed what affiliate marketing is and what your role should be as a merchant running an affiliate program. Today, let’s focus on an important concept: protecting your brand. Growing your affiliate base is one thing, staying in control of how and when your brand and trade marks are use are a totally different (and arguably more difficult) thing altogether.

Reputation is important to online sales as reviews play a big part in the purchase decision of today’s internet savvy consumers. Working with an affiliate that chooses to spam its target audience could therefore have a negative effect on your brand.

Here are some tips to help you protect your own brand in the affiliate marketing set-up:

1. Choose the affiliates that you work with. When you’re starting out your affiliate program, you would most likely be tempted to keep adding any affiliate, just to show you have several in your network. This is where trouble starts. Choose quality affiliates that publish relevant content in their sites. If possible, manually accept your affiliates instead of automating it.
2. Have a welcome pack ready for new affiliates, orienting them on who your target markets are and the marketing stance you would like to take to capture this market. This won’t just protect your brand, it would also help your affiliates deliver targeted traffic with a better chance to convert.
3. Establish guidelines regarding the use of your brand name, logo and all other copyrights and trademarks. Be clear about this in your affiliate terms and conditions. This should be used internally among your staff and externally, among your affiliates.
4. Publish creative and encourage your affiliates to use these as the official banners/text links for their advertising efforts.
5. Check on how your affiliates advertise your brand. Consistency is the key. If you find any affiliates that are misusing or misrepresenting your brand so they can gain from it, cut them off immediately. There should be no room for creating a negative image for your brand.
6. Be very specific about what affiliates can and can’t do in terms of paid marketing. If you do not want them to bid on your brand name because it competes with your own advertising campaigns, then indicate this clearly and have them add it to their negative keywords for any campaigns they choose to run. If you are allowing them to bid via PPC as a marketing strategy, then include a list of keywords they can target plus misspellings and generic keywords to consider.
7. Constant communication is the key. While a welcome pack can help them get started, monthly email newsletters will help affiliates have a better understanding and appreciation of your brand. You should also keep the lines of communication open (whether via email, instant messenger, phone or chat) as they can use this to post questions about your brand and how to handle certain situations.

 

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing has been touted as one of the best ways to grown your online sales force. Big box companies and major online stores use it. But what exactly is affiliate marketing?

Affliate marketing is one of the many paid strategies you can employ to grow your online store. It’s similar to pay per action programs, where an affiliate is paid after a lead converts into a sale and is tracked back to them. Affiliates work on commission and usually have their own marketing tactics to advertise your brand. The commission can be a straight payment (ie $5 per sale) or a percentage of the total sales amount.

Affiliate programs usually have 4 key players: the merchant (you, as the retailer), the affiliate or content publisher, the customer and the affiliate network.

Let’s talk about your role as a merchant who runs an affiliate program. First, you have to look for an affiliate network where you could host your program. Some that are popular include LinkShare, Commission Junction or ShareASale. They often have set up fees and offer you help in putting together a good program that would attract affiliates.

Second, you need to decide on your commission scheme. It should be good enough to reward affiliates and have them stay on and “sell” for you, but it shouldn’t put you in the red, meaning don’t pay your affiliates in excess of the profits you make on any given product.

Third, you need to provide materials for your affiliates to use to advertise your site. These are called creative and it could be in the form of a text link or a graphic banner. Each creative links back to your site and is tagged with a specific affiliate cookie assigned by the network to your affiliates. These cookies track the visitors to the affiliate website that click on your creative, visit your site, and make a purchase to enable tracking of the right amount to pay your affiliates. Creatives could focus on specific products, advertise an on-going sale on your site or simply direct the affiliate’s visitors to go to your site.

Fourth, communicate with your affiliate. Come up with a monthly newsletter to highlight the new promotions you have or the items you would like them feature. You need to encourage your affiliates as you would any sales force working with you. Create promos that are specific to them or talk to them about tiered commissions based on performance.

Last , make sure any payments due to your affiliates are paid in a timely manner. If your network is the one cutting the checks for your affiliates, then make sure you have the necessary credits to pay these off. Also, check on the progress of the sales of affiliates. You could put together a rewards program for your top selling affiliates to ensure that they stay on that top bracket.

Affiliate programs can do wonders for your sales if you know how to use them. Study how others in your field are doing it and design it such that it attracts the right kind of sellers for your brand.

Improving Your eBay Sales

If you’ve been selling in eBay for a sometime now and have yet to see profit, then you should try changing your strategy. eBay customers, as a market segment, are essentially different from those who buy from ecommerce stores. First, the interface is different. eBay offers products from hundreds of suppliers across the globe so the competition can be fierce. Second, even the payment platform is different. eBay is an auction site that allows direct purchases via the Buy Now functionality. Third, even their language won’t compare to the normal retail transaction. Codes like BNWT (brand new with tags) is something that both buyers and sellers in this environment would easily understand.

Here are some tips you could follow to help improve your eBay sales:

1. Make your listing attractive to buyers. Add images and complete information about your products. eBay offers packages to help you highlight your listing, but you’ll find that even the slightest change to the way you present your products could already make a huge difference. Review the text you are including in your listings. The tone should be light and casual, making you seem more approachable yet it should be informative and should have everything that your customer needs to know to make you more credible as a seller. Try looking for other existing auctions for the same product or product category to get an idea how other eBay sellers do it, then give it your own unique twist.
2. Improve your rating as a seller by getting good feedback. Most eBayers are aware of the importance of the feedback system and you’ll be surprised that a lot of them actually create feedback even without you asking. But for transactions that have already completed, it would help to ask for feedback especially if you’re a fairly new seller.
3. Be clear about your policies on shipping and product return. In the world of ecommerce, these are the two things that buyers most often look for. It gives them assurance that they are dealing with a company that is reliable and can be trusted.
4. Make sure your prices are competitive. Whether you are selling the item outright or putting it up for auction, you need to be realistic about the value of your products. If others are selling their items for a much lesser price, then that’s already a lost sale. If it’s an auction, even your starting bid should be within a good range of the actual value. The only time you can dictate the price of an item without considering parity is if you are selling a unique product that only you can provide, even then you need to exercise care and have a good estimation of what your intended audience is willing to pay for such an item.
5. Plain and simply said: good customer service. Whether its reply to an inquiry prior to the sale or checking up on the status of the item, establishing good communication with your buyers would increase the likelihood of being given a good rating. More than that, it also gives you a better chance of getting repeat customers.

There are a lot of ways to increase your sales in eBay, but it really boils down to understanding your market and its needs.

Happy selling!

How to Write an Effective Sales Letter

Let’s go back to one of the most basic tools of sales and marketing: the sales letter. Even before the internet was born, traditional sellers have been using this tool to generate leads and to convert warm leads into sales. It was used as part of direct marketing efforts, then in the earlier days of email, as email marketing campaigns.

Today, the sales letter tactic is still alive and well. You shouldn’t be surprised to see that some landing pages are designed to resemble the traditional sales letter. So, let’s get started.

As you outline your sales letter think about two things: what’s in it for the customer and how do you deliver on it. This will help you identify (if you don’t already know it) your unique selling proposition. And this should reflect in your first paragraph.

Next, think hard about how you write your letter. Remember, this is about your customer, not about you. Let them know how the product benefits them. Review your language and tone. Your initial text should have more “you” than “I” or “we”.

Then, you need to personalize it and add human touch. A sales letter directed to a general audience rarely works. It needs to be written with a particular audience in mind. If you can personalize it to the degree that you are adding their names, then so much better. This can be realistically done with email marketing and by using a clean, opt-in list. If it is not possible to do this and you are using other means to deliver your sales letter, then might as well just work the angle of having human touch. Add testimonials from real clients, good case studies or a real story from a real person. This isn’t just a play on emotions, but actually increase your reliability as a merchant. Your potential buyers will tend to trust you more if they see that other people do.

Finally, include a clear call to action. Your sales letter will be totally useless if your intended audience is at a loss with what to do next. Give them precise instructions on what you want them to do after reading the sales letter. For instance, click on the link to go to your online store or to give you a call to find out more about the products. If you think the action you want done is a long shot, then try offering an incentive to have them complete the action.

The last tip we have on writing effective sales letters is to continuously test it. Test the content, test the messaging, test the design. Test. Test. Test. This is the only way for you to continuously improve how you communicate with your potential clients.

Happy selling!

Building Links to Your Site vs. Expanding Conversion Pages

There are some places out there that lets you build out pages for your company. Examples include Facebook’s Fan Page, Multiply, Squidoo, Wikipedia and Google Places. As many places as there are for posting information about your company are the ways in which to use those pages.

Let’s start with the two most important reasons to create pages outside of your own online store. First, there’s link building. This is the act of purposely creating links that point to your website. There are different ways to build links, including social network postings, directory submission, social bookmarking, and more.

With pages like Squidoo, Facebook Fan Pages and Multiply, you can create information about your company and add a link directly on those pages that lead the visitor to your online store. Wikipedia also functions the same way, but is more strict about what goes on in the page. They generally don’t like self-advertised pages, but would sometimes allow pages that discuss company history, products and the like – really more of a business information page than anything else. Finally, there’s Google Places. This is the latest from Google, where business can claim listings mapped per location. This is ideal if you have a local store or at least an office where you operation your online store out of.

Second, there’s expanding conversion pages. Here, you allow the visitor to directly complete the action you expect in your online store. For instance, if you offer bookings in hotels, you can put your calendar page right in those pages. If you’re doing retail, you can place the products and the buy now button in there already. Unlike link building, you do not need to push the visitors to your own online store to get them to buy, rather, you are leading them to convert right there. Now, this is only possible if your links to your shopping cart are hard coded and can be used in other websites. Additionally, not all of the mentioned sites above would allow it. Facebook, Multiply and Squidoo would. Wikipedia, as an information site, will not. Google Places will allow you to go as far as offering coupons, but the actual selling will not happen there.

There are pros and cons between these two ways to use the sites where you can post. Link building will definitely help build traffic to your own site and you are directly promoting your own brand. Meanwhile, adding the call to action to those pages would mean having a wider start point for your conversion funnel and a bigger chance of getting more people to buy from you wherever they are.

Happy selling!

Seasonal Ad Copies for Your PPC Campaigns

Here we go folks, it’s the first day of December. While we’re past the peak of online holiday shopping (which is in November) and the purchases are starting to wind down, we still have some shoppers look for last-minute gift items. You have about 20 days left to sell your products in full blast, assuming that the last 5 days will be for shipping schedules.

If you haven’t yet tweaked your pay per click marketing on Google AdWords, YSM and Bing like we’ve advised, then you might want to look into it as we head into the final stretch of the holiday season. Pick out the keywords that are popular for the holidays, this may include appending “free shipping”, “holiday sale” and “buy online”  to your top keywords.

The next big change you have to make is to change your ad copy such that it is geared more towards those buying for the season. Ensuring your have references to the season in your ad text will make it more relevant to the search terms you have chosen. It also avoids that disconnection between the search term and the ad that shows.

In your ad copy, you may mention Christmas Parties for dresses you are selling, or Christmas Day for gift ideas ad, for toys you can mention gifts for kids, for sweaters something to keep them warm and fuzzy on cold winter nights.

Remember that the bidding strategy becomes more competitive and that new players will try to outbid you for terms that you may previously been topping. Relevance plays an important role in improving your quality score. You can also take this opportunity to explore tactics you’ve never tried before. You can try including prices, a call to action, new offers, seasonal offers, shipping information and more.

Consistency is important for running seasonal campaigns. As you are focusing your keywords and your ad copies on the holiday trend, it would be best to also align the landing page with the same theme.

Happy seasonal selling!