• It is yet another way prospective customers can find your business. Linkedin ranks well with Google.
• The links to your site on Linkedin are Do Follow. Why not get yourself a little link juice.
• You can outline your top products/services and link to relevant parts of your website.
• Your staff members will be listed as part of the company. It gives a nice personal feel to the company when you see who works there.

Now that we have cleared up why your company should be on Linkedin, and you’ve made your profile, we can jump into the nitty gritty optimisation techniques.

Look Before you Leap

A classic mistake people make is the lack of planning into internal marketing activity. Most of the time companies are so focused on sales, they tend to forget that without an internal marketing strategy they are potentially missing out on new leads. So before putting in any information to your Linkedin profile (or before optimising if you have already created your account), have a think. What do you want to communicate to people that land on your profile? Surely you want to sell your company as the best at what it does. Make sure you have compelling copy, no spelling/grammar mistakes, and a well thought out structure. Ensure it matches your brand personalised too. It can get very confusing for potential customers if your branding is inconsistent across different channels.

Add a personal touch

If you are a large company, one of the biggest causes of customer angst is the lack of knowledge of the way the company works, and what their motives are. People tend to fear large faceless corporations. Linkedin (and all other Social Media sites) allows you to bypass this, and give your company not just one face, but many. If Greg in accounts has a Linkedin profile you can see what he does. If Bridget is the Head of Sales you’ll know about it. Straight away you know more about the company than you ever thought was possible. Encourage people in your company to create, and update their profiles regularly.  If for example you were trying to win a big client, what better way for them to see what they will be getting than to look at the profiles of all your staff and see their experience and skills.

A smorgasbord of products & services

Linkedin allows you to add products and services your company offers to your profile. This is a good way to show others exactly what you offer. You can attach information about each product or service, links to pages on your site, relevant YouTube videos, and who can be contacted at your company for more information. For example, if you look at the Exceed Online Linkedin Profile, you can see that under Magento Development we have videos, who to contact, and links to our site. This is a great way to introduce others to what you do, and who will be doing the work. Make sure you attach images of each service too. It can help define what each service is, and acts as another eye-catching method to engage potential customers.

Post. Post. Post

Linkedin is for professionals. These people like to read blogs or articles. If your company is writing interesting content on a regular basis, post it to Linkedin. If you are using RSS you can set it up so it posts all new articles automatically. These articles will appear in the newsfeed of users following your company, and on your company profile page. It is useful collateral to have on your profile, as it adds credibility to your company. Nothing looks more compelling than a company who has an integral network of information, blogs, articles, and other collateral.

Everyone loves the carousal.

Linkedin now allows you to post up to three banners on the product/services page to draw your eyes to specific services. These can link through to anywhere you like. Facebook, your website, or specific Linkedin Pages to name a few example. It’s a great way to draw attention to some of your key products or services. As you can see the Exceed Online banners highlight some of our more popular services. It acts as a point of difference from other pages, and is eye-catching and concise. Why not make some for your page?

There you have it. Now your Social Media pages should be well optimised and looking good. Remember, continue to push customer interaction with comments, questions, and Social Media Campaigns. In case you missed them here is the post on Facebook Optimisation, and here is one for Twitter Optimisation. Enjoy.

Written by Lance O’Grady – Exceed Online’s PPC, SEO and Social Media specialist

As a Digital Agency, we routinely track keyword ranking results on behalf of our marketing clients. Lately we have noticed that this is becoming increasingly difficult to do accurately. Our software tools access the Google API for a specific regional Google site (google.com.au for example) so we can determine how a client is ranking in their regional market. The problem is that as Google and other search engines increasingly ‘personalise’ search results per user, these ranking results reports are becoming more inaccurate because we are seeing the ‘raw’ results, before they are customised at the user level.

Twitter is a great environment to enhance customer interaction with your brand. @Orcon, and @TelecomNZ are great examples of how brands can use Twitter to enhance conversation, and promote public interaction with the brand. Twitter is best used as another customer service platform. As Social Media becomes more and more integrated with our daily lives, companies need to be evolving to adopt these methods. More and more customers would prefer to turn to a brands Social Media page in search of answers rather than picking up the phone and calling them. Got a question about billing? Ask them on Twitter. Want to know when a product will be back in stock? Post on their Facebook Wall. Instead of being limited to calling or emailing, users now have options, and can use the communication method that suits them the best. Why limit them to just one or two? The easier you are to contact, the better your company looks in the customers eyes. Now we understand the basics of Twitter for brands, what can you do to optimise your page accordingly, and enhance conversation?

@Exc33d0n!ne.

Make your Twitter handle easy to find. The key difference from Facebook is the ability to change your screen name at the drop of a hat. If it looks like this heading, change it. You need to make your brand as easy to find as possible. When people are searching for your brand on Twitter they are going to start with the most obvious which presumably is your brand name. If your preferred screen name is taken, you could localise it with your countries initials (eg ExceedOnlineAU). The likelihood of someone having that is slim to none in most cases.

Respond in a reasonable amount of time.

If people are turning to your brand’s Twitter page for advice, information, or just for a chat, it would make sense that they don’t want to wait three days for a response. People are typically asking about things like their orders, whether a service is down, or how long shipping might take. The quicker you answer them and give them the information they need, the more likely they will convert to sales (or be happy with your brand if you are not purely eCommerce). There is a bit of resource involved in monitoring and managing a company Twitter page, but thanks to some brilliant monitoring tools (Sprout Social springs to mind), it can be easily achieved. Instead of allocating the responsibility of managing the profile to one person in the office, get a team together from different departments or specialities, and they can share the responsibility. There is no point someone in dispatch trying to answer a question about a customer account.

The A-Team.

Put together a team of your best people. They don’t need to be Social Media whizzes, or Twitter fiends. They need to be able to add value to the Twitter profile. If Rick is the best person to answer any questions about products, put him on the team. If Jemima is in charge of shipping, add her to the list. By building a team of people with different fields of knowledge you can ensure that regardless of the questions being asked, someone on your team will be able to answer it. There is another very good reason to do this. Each of the team members are adding a public face, and personality to your otherwise closed up company. Take TelecomNZ as an example. In the past they have widely been known as the phone company your Dad has a contract with, but through excellent use of Social Media and branding they have changed the way we all think of them. When dealing with companies this size it is difficult to show your personal side. Enter Twitter. Ask them a questions about a technical issue. Jaidev Patel will be there to give you the answer. Straight away we can now associate Telecom to a personality, and for some reason we feel better about the brand.

It’s all in the look.

Creating a Twitter account is easy. Don’t just leave the theme as the standard. Rookie mistake. Make it relate to your brand. Use your colours, include your logo in the background. Make people realise as soon as they land on the page they have come to the right place. You don’t want them to find your page, and think that it isn’t you because it doesn’t look like your branding. It happens. Again, I’m going to use TelecomNZ as an example because they tick all the boxes. They have used a blue background incorporating their colours and logo. When I land on this page, I instantly know it’s Telecom because I know their branding. That’s what you need to make sure users feel when they come to your Twitter profile. The key is to incorporate your A-Team into the design. Instead of writing each members name at the end of the Tweet, Telecom sign off with initials. What do these initials mean? Check the key on the left. I can see that ^AC is Amber Craig, Senior Solution Designer. I also get to see her face smiling back at me. Man that makes me feel like I know everyone at Telecom personally, especially Amber who has just helped me out. That’s what every brand should do. Open up your company for public view. Break down the walls. Open up the gates. Feel free to imagine it as any ‘wall-breaking’ cliche you want, but believe us, it is worth the effort.

It’s not about sales.

The thing to remember about Twitter (and other forms of Social Media) is that is isn’t about direct sales. If someone calls your company with a question about their order, you don’t start off with a long winded sales pitch trying to get them to purchase. This applies to Twitter too. Don’t think that a Twitter account is free advertising, which you can just pump out message after message about your products and special offers. Yes it’s OK to drop those kinds of Tweets in every now and again, but go easy. People don’t want to constantly hear what’s on sale. They want to know you are there if they need help. Give the people what they want. Every time you answer a question, or interact with a customer you are increasing your brand awareness, and brand appreciation. This will eventually come back to you with sales. They might tell people about the wonderful experience they had with you. They might Retweet one of your messages to their followers. Who knows?

Give them something to sink their teeth into.

As well as customer service, why not post interesting (non-sales) related content. A recent blog that someone at your company wrote. An article you read in the news that was interesting and you think others will like. A photo you took of a funny sign on the way to work. The possibilities are endless. Show people that you aren’t all about sales. Give them a reason to follow your brand on Twitter. If you are posting brilliant content from all different sources, you are making it easier for them. They don’t need to search around for it, because your brand is providing it. What a perfect way to construct your brand in people’s minds. You want to become the authority, and the place to go for information. Give it a go. See what happens. What have you got to lose?

There we go. Another 6 optimisation techniques you can use to promote and enhance your brand in the Social Media space. Check back again next week for optimisation techniques for Linkedin, and if you have any other optimisation suggestions, leave them in the comments below.

View the 6 basic Facebook Optimisation Techniques Here.
Written by Lance O’Grady – Exceed Online’s PPC, SEO and Social Media specialist

The Rub

At the risk of making this sound like one giant disclaimer – the reality is that we can’t. Well not perfectly at least. In fact, by not taking a position, we de-facto endorse whatever comes our way. You add in the sometimes opposing goals of our various clients and it can get very messy – very quickly. That’s why, as a rule, we do not typically comment publicly about current or pending Internet legislation and its potential ramifications for our clients.

It all comes down to ethics and managing business risk. In our position as an agency we have the opportunity to offer our opinion on legislation from the perspective of the Internet front lines and we feel this does add value for our clients and the Internet eco-system as a whole. We believe this applies to all agencies that operate in the Internet vertical.

In the Beginning

Since the original infrastructure of the Internet began in the US, that is where most of the governing legislation over the Internet also originates. From domain laws, to privacy, to communication protocols, to the largest web companies, most of the control of the Internet as we know it emanates from the US. As such, so goes the US, so goes the world for the most part – for good or bad.

If anyone doubts the long arm of US Internet law, one simply has to look at what happened recently as a result of the FBI chasing Kim Schmitz (aka: Kim Dotcom or just ‘Kimble’) to New Zealand in its efforts to enforce US copyright laws.

We’re Here To Help – We Promise!

Unless you have been living under a rock, you will already know that there are moves afoot in the US to implement new online laws, ostensibly designed to protect copyright holders and content creators rights.

This sounds reasonable, right? I mean really, what incentive would digital content creators have if their work could be freely re-distributed without any royalties or payment being made to them for their work? How would they make money? How would they survive?

These are valid questions but one must also look at the ultimate motivation behind these new laws. Are they purely designed to protect content creators or are there more questionable corporate and political agendas at play?

SOPA/PIPA

For some big corporates, independent content made available for free on the Internet threatens their very lifeblood. The 2 minute clip of ‘Betty playing with her puppy’ on YouTube is not going to threaten the main content providers any time soon.

But what about the more organised efforts? What about the independent film and documentary makers who make their content available for free online to create an audience for their paid for work or supporting merchandise? If select corporate titans can tar all free online content with the same ‘infringing’ brush then it becomes much easier to shut down or dramatically limit the free distribution channels online.

One man claims to have evidence that could support such a conclusion. SOPA – the ‘Stop Online Piracy Act’ is currently being considered in the US House of Representatives and its cousin, PIPA or the ‘Protect Intellectual Propert Act’ is currently before the US Senate.

Even Wikipedia and Google took a public stand against SOPA and PIPA. When 2 companies that help generate a huge percentage of Internet traffic are concerned, maybe we should all be paying attention. It certainly begs the question, if current US copyright law was sufficient for the FBI to chase Kim Schmitz all the way to New Zealand then why would the US government need to expand its powers via SOPA and/or PIPA?

It Wasn’t Me – Honest

The law becomes even murkier when you factor in links from one site to another where the destination site might have copyrighted material hosted on it unbeknownst to the original linking site.

It is virtually impossible to know if a site that you link to hosts copyrigted or otherwise IP encumbered content somewhere on it, yet sites are being shut down for this very act and Verisign wants to dramatically expand their power to do this and more according to this UK Register article.

A Slippery Slope?

Accepting that some of the largest companies in the world may want to own and control the most popular waypoints on the Internet superhighway does not require a big mental leap for most people. However, what about the political ramifications? The Internet (and specifically Social Media sites) has proven its worth as an avenue for political dissent. Whilst most would see this as a good thing, would government want the harsh light of public scrutiny shone on everything they do and say?

Case in point – it was largely public outrage expressed via the Internet that has thus far stopped SOPA in its tracks (there were a LOT of angry emails sent to US Congressmen over this one). Would government want Joe citizen to be able to effectively create an atmosphere of direct democracy via the Internet?

No matter how pure the intent, government’s everywhere seem to want to exercise power in their own way, free of as much dissent as possible. The Internet has upended the traditional democratic process by making personal political opinion, debate and discussion widely available to a larger group of citizenry than ever before.

Fear Factor

This is a problem if you are a government trying to operate in relative secrecy. What better way to limit dissent on the Internet than to put content distribution road blocks in place with harsh penalties for infringement? If the idea of ‘fair use’ is sufficiently ambiguous, then many may well be frightened away from posting their opinions online for fear of breaking laws they may not understand or even know exist. It’s called a ‘climate of fear’ and it works remarkably well at stifling potential dissent.

Pirates Ahoy!

Whilst we as a business of course do not condone piracy and content theft, in many cases there is a strong case to be made for the fair use doctrine and this is one of the lynchpins of the Internet that should never be threatened.

This helps protect everyone from ill conceived or poorly drafted rules, regulations and laws that can have dramatic unintended consequences when implemented. As a business we are at the pointy tip of the spear and have to deal with these consequences every single day.

Business With a Conscience

It should come as no surprise that there are groups thant want to put the reigns on the free and open Internet. It is our obligation as individuals and businesses with a vested interest in seeing the Internet grow and flourish to remain informed about any threats to that freedom coming down the pipe and take action accordingly.

The Internet Genie is truly out of the bottle and we believe it will ultimately be very hard to stuff back in again.

Jason Greenwood
Digital Account Manager
Exceed Online

Exceed Online is a full service eCommerce and Online Marketing agency serving clients throughout New Zealand and Australia.

In the Beginning

Let’s just go back to the beginning, so we are all on the same page. The basic email that we know today began properly in the 1980s (although the first email was sent in 1971). Originally emails could only be sent to people within the same server infrastructure. This soon expanded to allow emails to be sent between organisations but only if they ran the same email system.

Hotmail. The Birth of Webmail.

1996 was the year email changed for good. Hotmail was launched on 4th July 1996 (I think they were going for the ‘independence from ISPs’

angle), and users could create a personal hotmail account which could be accessed anywhere in the world. Amazing. Many years on and Gmail & Yahoo have joined the webmail ranks. After these players entered the market, everyone wanted a piece of the pie, so ISP’s decided to up their game and allow users to sign into their email accounts using the webmail platform.

Enter the new Millennium

Over the years technology became more advanced, and easier for the average household to own. Email became a popular alternative to phone calls, or good old fashioned letter writing. By the time Windows 1998 came out email was widely regarded as the best thing since sliced bread. People could send emails images, or laggy videos, over 56k dial up speed Internet. By the early 2000s, when DSL Internet became more common people were sending emails like never before. According to a study by Forrester Research, over 420 billion commercial emails were sent in 2000.

The Dawn of Social Media

Between 2000 and 2005 emails continued to increase in popularity, and were becoming the perfect substitute to human interaction. Introverts all over the world could sit in the office and relax knowing they could do all their correspondence via email. Wonderful. Then Social Media came along. First was MySpace, with Bebo hot on its tail. People flocked to the new system of online communication. You could send hearts, befriend Tom, and chat to people anywhere in the world. Email just carried on going, picking up momentum every year, and instead of evolving into something new, it remained unchanged (apart from webmail, better UI, and easier access).

2012 – Year of the Dragon

Now we are living in a ‘plugged in’ society. Everything has changed. Mobiles, social media, and eCommerce have rocketed to new heights, and yet still email remains the same. But does email marketing still work? If you think about your own email habits, how many emails a day do you receive for the purpose of marketing? From the top of my head I can think of around 4 emails I receive daily aiming to make me buy something? Do I read them? Yes. Do I buy things? Yes. Whether it be emails from a daily deal site, or my favourite menswear store, there is always a good deal just waiting for me.

If we look at some email usage statistics it paints a pretty clear picture about how email is being consumed around the world:

• One quarter of Internet users state they check their email upon waking
• 70% of Internet users have multiple email accounts
• $1.51 Billion spent on email marketing in US alone in 2011

Companies love email. It is quick, reliable, and can be reasonable targeted if the right systems are in place. Out of all online marketing activity, email marketing is ranked the most cost effective, and has the highest return on investment. Customer’s love email because they get the chance to receive ‘exclusive, one off offers’. If they don’t sign up, they miss out. No one wants to be in that boat. Everyone loves a bargain after all.

So when eCommerce became popular, and Social Media blossomed why didn’t email change into something new and exciting? Why would it need to? It worked back in 1998, and it works now. You can’t improve on a system that works brilliantly already. So if you’re a brand, start thinking about regular emails to send to your customers. They want to hear from you!

Out of all 900 million objects on Facebook, very few of them are configured and optimised accordingly. People tend to forget that they are designing pages for the masses. They need to think about design, usability, and content, and make sure it is seamless. Here are 6 basic optimisation techniques to make your page stand out from the crowd (and believe me, it’s a big crowd).

1. Look at your profile picture

Choose your profile picture wisely. You might have the best, most intricate logo in the world, but remember, it needs to be easily visible in the tiny little box that appears next to any updates you make. Many brands have logos of unusual proportions that might look fine on your main profile page, but do not make a good thumbnail. Change it. It should look good both as your main picture on your profile, and as a small thumbnail accompanying all your status updates. Out of 900 million pages, there is bound to be multiple pages with the same, or very similar names. Yours needs to be easily discernible by its logo, so you need to make sure it is easily associated with your brand.

2. Information

The information tab on your Facebook Page is the sole source of information about your brand. If a prospective fan lands on your page, and wants more details about what you do, what you’re about, where you are etc they will look here. Don’t disappoint them with either a lack of information or badly written copy. Think of what makes your business unique, and offer interesting information about what you sell, how they can find you, and why they might want to join your page.

3. Videos

Interaction rates for videos are higher than standard text, if the video posted is appropriate and engaging. Before posting a video you need to think “Would I watch this if I saw it on my news feed?”. If you would, go ahead, post it. Hopefully your fans will feel the same way and like, comment and share the video for the world to see. The one main consideration with any video posted is length. If you post a 15 minute video, the task of watching it can seem daunting which may result in lower interaction rates. Trial and error will give you a good idea of which videos work, and which ones don’t.

4. Photos

There is nothing more depressing than landing on a brand’s page to be greeted with a baron wasteland of nothingness. Photos are an immediate way to liven up any page and make it look well-loved. No more tumbleweeds. Photos are easy to fans to look at, like, and share with very minimal effort. No reading required. The age old saying “A picture is worth a 1000 words” fits nicely in the Facebook model. Interaction rates with photos are considerably higher than a plain text status update, or even video. A photo only takes 20 seconds for a fan to look at and interact with, so start posting.

5. Calls to Action

You need to remember the highly cliched term KISS. Keep it Simple, Stupid! Often Facebook Fans are not the most on-to-it bunch. Be very clear with you calls to action. If you want them to like something, tell them. If you want their feedback, ask for it. Research suggests that there is a huge boost in interaction rates when page admins make it obvious what they want. With most things on Facebook this can be simply a matter of testing variations and seeing what works for you. Every fan base is different, so there are no hard and fast rules about how to do the ‘perfect status update’, but through trial and error you may be able to get a good idea what your fans like. Interaction is a great optimisation technique. When someone comes to your page, and it has people commenting, liking, sharing or posting their own comments it acts as testimonials for your brand. More interaction on your page shows potential fans that you post content that is worth talking about.

6. Frequency

The question of frequency is probably one of the most asked questions in the Social Media world. How often should I be posting content? Again, this is dependant on the brand, and type of fans you have (which, you guessed it, means more trial and error). Asa guide you need to be posting at least once a day. If a potential fan lands on your page, and your last post was 25 days ago, why would they want to become a fan? Posting once a day runs the obvious risk of fans missing out on your content. It will only appear in the average news feed for around 1 hour. Posting more than 3 times a day typically has higher interaction rates, but higher unsubscribe rates. The trick is to find that sweet spot, with the ideal amount of updates a day. Just give it a go, and see what happens. Unfortunately that is just how Social Media works. It is entirely dependant on your brand, and your fans.

These 6 techniques are a good starting point for optimising your Facebook Page. Trial and Error. Keep trying new things to find what works for you and your brand. No two brands are the same, so don’t just try and copy someone else’s Social Media activity.

Written by Lance O’Grady – Exceed Online’s PPC, SEO and Social Media specialist

New Daily Deal Sites (DDS) seem to spring up almost daily. Is it any wonder? With most consumers having the attention span and customer loyalty of a gnat, DDS cater to the consumer that is increasingly both strapped for cash and strapped for time. Let’s face it, few of us have the time or energy to stay abreast of what our favourite eCommerce sites may have on offer at any given time. Add in the increasing consumer penchant to buy online and you have the right mix of factors to make DDS wildly popular. Recent data bears this out.

So, should businesses list on DDS sites or not?

The Skinny

Although online marketers are getting ever more clever, DDS tend to take one of several popular forms. They either offer products directly that they have procured at a steep discount from suppliers or they offer coupons for sale for discounts at featured local businesses. Some sites are a bit of an almagamation and TradeMe NZ goes one step further and amalgamates 3 different business models into one core site: online auctions, daily deals (products from auction listers) and daily coupon deals. Many eCommerce sites are moving to a hybrid model, with standard products and prices across the site with perhaps one section/area of the site dedicated to daily deals like Mighty Ape. Another popular DDS model is one where the site offers deals from other E-tailers. The DDS takes the order and payment and this is then forwarded to the listed business for fufillment.

Big Deal

The key benefit for consumers is obvious – cheap stuff. DDS typically offer deep product and service discounts through their sites. Often consumers can expect to save 30%-60%+ off the retail price of their chosen product or service. These sites offer daily email updates so you don’t even have to visit the sites to stay informed about the deals on offer. In fact, there are DDS aggregator sites, where all popular regional DDS sites are listed, tracked and monitored. They aim to be your ‘one stop shop’ for daily deals in your area. They tend to make their money either through online advertising like AdSense or through fees charged to the DDS that they list on their site. DDS also offer you the chance to try a new product/service on the cheap to see if it is worth a repeat purchase at the regular price.

The benefits to a business are less clear cut. On the plus side of the equation, you have access to a large potential client base that are ready to buy if a deal takes their fancy or meets a need at the time. These are typically impulse buys and if you have good imagery, compelling copy and a great price/product (or service) combination, you could move a LOT of product very quickly. This is tempting if times are slow or if you have excess product to clear.

Raw Deal

So is there anything negative to be said about DDS? Of course! There is no perfect business model – it hasn’t been invented yet. As such, there are definitely ‘cons’ for both the consumer and businesses in question.

For the consumer, all is not roses and light in the DDS world. There is a real risk of paying full price and then seeing the same product on a DDS at a later date. Although you might think that the $40 toaster you bought online was a great deal, what happens if you see it the following week for $20 on a DDS? Wha whaaaa. In addition, you might be signed up to 5 DDS at a time. Who has time to read 5 emails/day and scan them for the deals that might suit you?

A huge % of DDS emails get the ‘delete’ treatment without ever being read. And how do you keep up with all of the DDS sites and their offers? With new DDS being launched frequently and businesses listing on multiple DDS, how can you ensure that the deal you see today won’t be bettered tomorrow? There’s very little ‘comparison shopping’ to be done between DDS since the deals are of such a short duration and rarely concurrently overlap between DDS at the same time.

Customer service through DDS can also be patchy. If the site offers the product directly, can they support products as diverse as shavers and ham? Will they care about you beyond the single sale? Since DDS build their reputation on price (and variety secondarily) almost exclusively, what happens when something goes wrong? For sites that offer coupons only, the service you will get depends entirely on the business behind the coupon. The DDS does not care what level of service they offer you, so long as they get to clip the ticket along the way. Any ‘vetting service’ a DDS may claim to provide is likely to be lip-service only.

For businesses listing on DDS, consumer ‘deal fatigue’ is becoming increasingly common. With so many options flooding the consumer inbox each day, you run the risk of your customers ‘switching off’ before they get to your deal. And what if you list on one DDS but not the one your customers prefer? Alternatively, you might need to offer deeper and deeper discounts to achieve the sale, never good for the profit margin of a business. There are also the risks of brand devaluation, delayed consumer purchasing, consumers purchasing alternate product simply because it is featured and more.

The DDS themselves do not have it all their way either. They are facing extreme competition in their own right and perversely, they are driving some businesses out of business by squeezing their margins to the point of unsustainability. This ultimately means fewer businesses able to list on their DDS and a resistance by remaining businesses to discount steeply enough to make it worthwhile for the consumer.

DDS are resorting to TV and Radio ads to promote their businesses and set them apart so they can get the most popular listings and prove value to those companies that list with them. By relying on very expensive traditional advertising models to promote their site, they are eliminating one of the major cost benefits to being a ‘pure play’ Internet business in the first place.

Heavy Hitters

In almost every country/region in the world there a few key players that dominate the DDS space. Below we list some of the current leaders of the pack.

USA

• Groupon
• Living Social

AU

• Catch of the Day
• Spreets
• Groupon
• Cudo
• All the Deals (Aggregator)

NZ

• 1 Day
• GrabOne
• TreatMe
• Yazoom
• Cudo

Is listing on a DDS right for me?

If you are a pure play Internet E-tailer then think long and hard before rushing into the DDS craze. Reference my Raw Deal list for businesses above. Yes, you will have access to a broader customer base but are the risks to your brand and business worth it?

Let’s think about this for a minute – say you spend a huge amount of time and money to build your brand online and you make sure you offer a good product, at a fair price with excellent service. How is that going to square if you steeply discount via a DDS? Are your margins high enough to withstand discounting? Will you have to continue to discount to make the sale? Is it worthwhile sending only your clearance items to a DDS? What kind of cut will the DDS take on the sale? Should you list short term in the hopes of building your customer base for the long term? If I am a business thinking about going online, should I simply sell all product via a DDS and perhaps Social Media and skip my own site altogether?

If you are a brick-and-mortar business offering primarily services (ex: a hairdresser) then many of these same concerns apply and should be considered as well.

In perhaps what is a sign of the times, in the USA, Most Merchants Won’t Run Daily Deals Over Next Six Months according to a study.

eCommerce Killer?

If you decide to build a business online, one of the risks is DDS. You might be able to leverage them to build your business but most of the wins reside squarely in the consumer side of the equation. So what is a business to do?

Well for one, you MUST focus on value and differentiation. What makes your business different and better, regardless of price? Does your product knowledge give you the edge? Do you offer something no one else does? Do you have a freephone number for people to ring? How can you create brand loyalty? Can you offer a daily deals section on your site directly?

DDS is not the death knell for businesses (online, traditional or hybrid) but to ignore them is to do so at your own peril. For the consumer, about the only thing they have to manage is their own desire to buy!

Jason Greenwood
Digital Account Manager
Exceed Online

Exceed Online is a full service eCommerce and Online Marketing agency serving clients throughout New Zealand and Australia.

The Internet is the way to fame, fortune and the gilded lifestyle you have always dreamed of right? If you could just think of that ‘brilliant idea’ or invent the ‘perfect product’ your problems would be over right? You’d slap up a website, put it online, put your products on there and wait for the wads of cash to roll in right?

Wrong.

Hard Graft

The reality is much more challenging than that. In the’early days’ of the Internet, the above may have been more accurate but it was never EASY to get rich quick using the Internet. In those early days (think early 90′s here), there was not as much online demand as people were just getting used to what the Internet even WAS, how it worked, how to find things on it and what it was good for.

As personal computers became more prevalent and proper Internet browsers and search engines became widely available – the Internet rapidly expanded beyond its early academic roots and spread to become (along with email) one of the most widely used communcation mediums of modern society.

Demand

Great, so now we have HUGE online search demand. Now what? The early forays into ecommerce were not pretty. Most were single pages that were designed to look and act as a simple business brochure. These early ‘brochure’ sites merely provided contact details for an existing brick and mortar business. When the first true ‘buy online’ eCommerce site went live is up for debate but according to Internet lore it may have been a Pizza Hut in California in 1994. With this huge demand came competition.

Competition

Since then the Internet has burgeoned and now you can buy almost anything online, from nuts and bolts, to baby diapers, sports cars and even entire islands! By far the most common payment method has become the credit/debit card and this has accelerated online adoption as it has sped the payment clearing process so that there is little delay from purchase to delivery. Now there is not just one site for each product offering but typically there are hundreds. The multinationals have understandably sat up and taken notice and this has led to the next phase of Internet and eCommerce development…

Consolidation

It was always clear from the outset that due to the geographic reach of the Internet as well as modern courier services, there did not need to be as many ‘stores’ operating online as there were in the ‘real world’. This has meant that not only were the early online players typically those that carved out niches for themselves but like all businesses they had to do right by their customers or face rapid extermination as better and brighter shops popped up online. Now the main players and online stores in common business verticals are well entrenched and have good brand recognition and good search visibility.

Some niche industries and truly unique ideas can seemingly spring from nowhere and even create a new business opportunity where there wasn’t one to begin with. These businesses create their own demand as opposed to trying to exploit and capture existing demand. However, the name of the game online today is ‘consolidation’. This ultimately happens in all mature business models but the Internet due to its rapid growth has reached a level or maturity much sooner than previous business models. As such, the big players are either out competing and eliminating their rivals or buying them up and either shutting them down (effectively absorbing them) or running them under the umbrella of the parent company with revenue accruing to the parent as a business unit.

Getting Found vs. Getting Online – Barriers to Entry

Establishing an online business is still not all that hard or costly. Well it doesn’t have to be anyway. There are very basic platforms out there that can see you have an online store operating at your own domain name inside of a month. This includes the systems to allow you to take secure credit card payments from within your store.

The problem is not opening your virtual online doors, it is getting the word out to potential customers that not only are you open but you are their best supplier of choice for what they are looking to buy. And remember, you are still competing with legacy brick and mortar stores too and some products simply lend themselves to being more easily sold in person. This includes items such as anything with a fragrance (perfumes and soaps are but 2 examples). Yes, some shoppers will do their browsing in a physical shop and then look for the best deal online but you can’t count on that and savvy salespeople know this and will aggressively close a deal in person if they can.

SEO & PPC – the Pot of Gold?

The reality is that the top free search results (SERPS) for almost every existing vertical and product are already dominated by someone. And since search engine users do not typically look past the first few search results or ads, if your store turns up on page 2+ of the search results, forget it, you may as well not even be in business online.

And with the ever increasing competition and cost of Pay Per Click advertising (rising at circa 12%/year), trying to survive on ad traffic alone is not viable for many businesses. As such, it is in the best interest of your potential online business to do plenty of research before you consider selling online. This extends from determining what the overall search demand there is for your target products but also how much competition already exists in your intended vertical. That online ‘Pot of Gold’ is more elusive than ever.

Closing Windows

The longer you wait to open your online business, the more challenging it will become. You will have to deal with either more competition with better brand recognition or competitors with very deep pockets, or all of the above. So, if you have always had a passion for business and the Internet, our recommendation is don’t delay. Act sooner rather than later. Make sure YOU are the barrier to entry to your competitors instead of the other way around.

The Good Life

Who knows, if you do very well you could become an acquisition target to a multinational and then you will be in the drivers seat. You will be able to write your own cheque and retire living the good life you always thought the Internet could provide you. Or you might keep your business and let others run it, retaining ownership and an income stream for you to live ‘happily ever after’ on.

Either way, the longer you wait, the harder it will become so if you have a great idea, great suppliers (or you are one) and a knack for sniffing out opportunity, then do at least one thing every day that will make your online dreams come true. Unless you know everything there is to know about eCommerce, I recommend that you engage with an agency that can help you thread your way through the minefield of online business, minimising your risk and helping to maximise your potential returns.

Jason Greenwood
Digital Account Manager
Exceed Online

Exceed Online is a full service eCommerce and Online Marketing agency serving clients throughout New Zealand and Australia.

Magento Connect

You will find most extensions through the ‘Magento Connect’ website found HERE.

When you first come to this page, you will think you have entered Magento nirvana. The reason is that it appears that there are Magento extensions to do almost anything weird and wonderful you can imagine on an eCommerce website built on Magento. However, with over 3 years experience building some of the most sophisticated Magento based websites (single and multi-store), we at Exceed Online can definitively tell you: do not be fooled.

Sinkhole of Time

Yes, extensions CAN certainly add to the Magento toolkit but they can also be a sinkhole of time and frustration, for both you (if you are an agency) and your clients. Here are just some of the pitfalls or ‘gotchas’ to look out for when implementing Magento extensions.

Exceed Online’s Top 10 list of do’s and dont’s when selecting Magento extensions: