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New Ecommerce Trends
New Ecommerce: Search For Blue Oceans is about the disruptive impact smartphones, ubiquitous connection and retailer innovation are creating in ecommerce.
- Smartphones and ubiquitous connection to the web
- Impact of videos and unboxing creating “gift box retailers”
- Social Shopping and slouching toward real-time
- Buying personas, web analytics & dynamic personalization
- Google and the New SEO where content is KING and social content QUEEN
Discover the trends shaping a new online commerce on Curagami: http://www.curagami.com/new-ecommerce-5-crucial-trends/?v=7516fd43adaa
People Marketing shares hard won tips, ideas and stories about loving, curating, listening to your people to create winning online marketing.
We included this link in our Startups Revoluiton Scoop.it because startups are so WIDGET focused they forget PEOPLE provide the context and emotional connection needed to SELL. It is understandable that YOU love your widget, but your customers love THEMSELVES much more.
Creating "like me" moments mean your "product" becomes a movement your customers want to join. This journey from YOU and THEM (customers) to WE is the most important journey every website and all marketing is on whether the creators know it or not.
Web Marketing Secrets
Want to know how we made over $30M online? Read our BOOKS and contribute your favorite Internet marketing reads in our new Curagami Book Store:
http://www.curagami.com/books.html
Send your favorite reads to martin(at)Curagami.com
Content curation is key for Small To Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs) online success & Scoop.it's new Content Director makes curation a marketing reality.
Biggest challenge to great web marketing may be learning to THINK like an Internet marketer. Here are 5 Secret Tips to help you become a great IMer:
* Hedge & Diversify. * Know your Over / Under. * Card Count & Double Down. * Become A Nowist.
* 4 out of 5 = Hall of Internet Marketing Fame.
Warren Buffet's Haiku Deck Lesson
One of the hardest web marketing lessons my former Direct Marketing bosses taught was to think Darwinian thoughts. I wanted to improve laggards.
Don't waste your time, came the advice and important digital marketing lesson, double down on winners. This wise lesson was just taught again by Warren Buffett.
Warren's Tips For Startups Haiku Deck has been on top of the 36 decks I've created. I started watching views by deck several months ago and my DM bosses lesson holds true.
Warren Buffett's Startup Tips (http://shar.es/10AbWU )
Buffett Gains: 878
Total Views: 8,100
% Gain: 12%
Social Media: It's A Conversation Stupid (http://shar.es/10AHlZ )
Gains: 1,915
Total Views: 6,297
% Gain: 44%
Once again Buffett proves the rich get richer.
This truth doesn't mean Social Media: Its A Conversation is unimportant. Knowing what is trending is a CSF (Critical Success Factor) for any web marketing team, but Buffett does prove Darwin was a web marketing pro long before there was a web. Double down on winners and leave laggards stands as one of the most important "laws" of our web marketing ecosystem :). M
DIY Customers Are Important
Do-It_Yourself customers may be the most important customers on earth. Here are a few ways DIY customers create benefits for digitial marketers and websites:
* Social Shares on Facebook, Twitter and +Google+.
* Creates #ugc (User Generated Content) or the best content you can't buy.
* Drive links into their content on your site.
We are working on a series of http://www.Curagami.com posts on how to engage and benefit from DIY Customer Marketing. If you have tips, ideas or experiences you think would help please share (martin(at)Curagami.com).
BURN DOWN YOUR WEBSITE.
Beat the rush. Have courage, light a match, become a NOWIST :). M
Quality Deserves Freshness QDF is important to "new SEO". This post & Haiku Deck share marketing, tactics & strategy tips so QDF works for not against you.
Stripe Story
Can a couple of 20 somethings change the world? Stripe's answer is a strong affirmative YES. Stripe is fixing the biggest barrier to the social / mobile / connected web. We can't buy stuff on our phones.
Phones are, to use the founders of Stripe's words, "Clunky" (watch that video here: http://cnnmon.ie/1DxDZMG ). Why is the phone the lynchpin? Stop thinking of your phone as a phone.
Think of your phone as a PORTAL, game console and magic wand. Soon "see a thing, buy a thing" will be taken for granted but only if the Stipers can make mobile payments less "clunky".
I poked around on their site some and would say they are half way down a very interesting road. Why is the phone the lynchpin? Because once payments work on phones they work ANYWHERE.
Once payments work anywhere social commerce becomes a reality and "see a thing, hear a thing, buy a thing" a reality. Extend the logic further and ask, "What is a website?".
If we can wrap "see, click, buy" tech on phones we can do so on Facebook, the Redbox machine and the grocery store. Scan those fritos with your phone and Harris Teeter or Wegmans or Kroger bills your account.
NO CHECKOUT because your PHONE is the checkout. Fix ecom on the phone, change the world.
For entrepreneurs, time is especially precious. Every wasted minute is a lost opportunity for networking, growing the business, and of course making money.
Via Justin Jones, juandoming
Last month, 14% of our website visitors AND new contacts came from Pinterest. Pretty good, right?
Well, for one of our clients, 48 percent of his traffic 57% of new contacts came from Pinterest.
...This example of the smoothie recipes is almost too easy. I know. But that doesn’t mean your landscaping company has no choice but to create ebooks about smoothies! Let’s say you created an ebook on starting a vegetable garden. The planning process may be broken down into a few steps. Then there is preparation, a trip to the nursery or hardware store, etc. Each of those steps could use its own pinnable image. You could either create one template and change out the text. Or, you could use colorful images of vegetables and gardens with some text outlining a specific tip or step in the process.
And that, my friends, is my #1 tip for how to get massive numbers of leads from Pinterest.
Via Jeff Domansky
Bunch O Balloons Featured on TODAY Show This morning!
Bunch O Balloons, an easy to use time saving water balloon invention, may make $1M on Kickstsarter thanks to great crowdfunding marketing and the new SEO. Team Curagami is in Charlotte at the Search Exchange Conference.
This Curatti post combines a fascinating new tool set capable of making "Editors of Chaos" come true and the story of how a crowdfunding project goes "mega-viral".
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SOne of the Lean Content best practices we’ve seen several speakers at our meetups recommend is to leverage existing audiences on top of your own to increase the reach and the impact of your content.
Joi Ito's Ted Talk is a must view for web marketers. The shift from invading Russia in the winter to becoming a NOWIST is fundamental, sweeping and a tsunami of change in our thinking, actions and marketing.
No surprise a post I wrote a year ago popped up out of Curagami's long tail today. Great TED Talk video embedded in the post.
The Tao of Marty summarizes the OVER (gain) versus UNDER (loss) philosophy we used to make over $30M in online sales with hundreds of thousands of orders. Want your ecommerce site to make money online? Read and share the Tao of Marty.
Interesting, funny & sad watching car dealers create web & social marketing. Getting better is easy, fun and CHEAP as Web Marketing For Car Dealers shares.
We think of car dealers as "startups" because they need to start over and pivot their THINKING. Many of the tips shared in this Curagami post (http://www.curagami.com/magical-thinking/web-marketing-101-for-car-dealers/ ) such as:
* People not THINGS Sell.
* Stories and People, People and Stories...matter. * Humanize your approach and thinking. * Let THEM (customers and brand advocates) HELP.
apply to stsrtups too so killing a pair of birds with a single blog post today. Picture is of me (left) and Travis Lunsford in front of a ROGUE (seemed appropriate lol).
Free Genius Lunches in Columbus Ohio
I'm living in Columbus, Ohio at the Blackwell Inn on the Ohio State University's campus from now until December 3rd (being treated by Dr. Byrd at the James Cancer Center). I love meeting, discussing and learning from fellow startups, entrepreneurs, artists and cool smart people.
I'm stealing @Phil Buckley Genius Lunch idea to see what is happening in Columbus. Team Curagami stands ready to answer Internet marketing questions and learn new tips, tricks and ideas. If you would like to have a Genius Lunch in Columbus check the calendar and email when you would like to meet.
Lear More Here
http://bit.ly/Free-Genius-Lunch-Columbus
Bitcoin, Ecommerce, Money & Value Systems
In three posts I've tried to understand how Bitcoin changes ecommerce:
Bitcoin, Money & Value Systems (on G+)
https://plus.google.com/102639884404823294558/posts/YLFe4ow4rok
Bitcoin Manifesto (on @Scoop.it)
http://sco.lt/8SkV4D
And this post about Bitcoin and #startups. Bitcoin as infrastructure could change everything from online ecommerce to how we pay for groceries and a coke from a vending machine.
Sure the infrastructure to achieve such a vision is largely lacking presently, but it wasn't that long ago we didn't have an Internet either. Here is how I'm going to tune my Bitcoin radar:
* Learn how to install Bitcoin commerce (nothing is easy now, but first movers will get huge benefits).
* Understand how and where Bitcoin could create the greatest impact such as http://www.curagami.com client http://www.moon-audio.com.
* Understand how Bitcoin's platform could connect to other major trends such as social, mobile and connection.
The reason I want to understand how to install Bitcoin commerce is 1. It Ain't Easy Now and 2. Customers with large international buying groups could benefit the most and the fastest. Moon-Audio sells their magical audio cables all over the world. What they've been lacking is an easy way to safely sell around the world.
if there is even a tiny chance Bitcoin can fill those shoes I'm interested and a student. If anyone reading this has resources about how to install Bitcoin commerce please share.
15 Ways To FUNK UP Your Startup
15 Ways To Funk Up Your Startup
Watching Mr. Dynamite, HBO's great documentary about James Brown, got us thinking of ways to FUNK UP your startup including:
* Crowdfunding - James Brown knew how to ask for help.
* Content Marketing - Share your journey DAILY.
* 'Splainer Video - broll your elevator pitch & put on YouTube. * Daily Social Media Shares - Build Your Tribe NOW.
* Contest - When in doubt create a low cost high yield contest.
* Games - Make your startup a game with many winners.
* Arresting Visuals - STOP THEM NOW.
* Stories - Share yours and they share theirs.
* Awards - Find the under appreciated and give 'em an award.
* Daily Difference - do something (anything) different today. * Listen More, Talk Less.
* Curate - mashup this, that and the other thing. * Coach - say something nice about something YOU didn't do daily. * When THEY tell you there are RULES don't believe 'em. * Teach - Watch one, Do one and then TEACH ONE to really get the hang of marketing in a digital age.
Marty Note
Love this Jody Porowski post since she shares directly and doesn't lay claim to expertise she doesn't have (rare). I also love here reasons for why content marketing matters beyond pure traffic generation such as:
1. Drive Traffic. 2. Increase Awareness. 3. Create new Connections.
4. Produce Warm Fuzzies.
Great list. I would add:
5. Creates online community (net effect of 1 - 4).
6. Voice is authority, authority is reputation, reputation is all. 7. Provides grappling hooks out to social media to accomplish #2.
8. Shares values and nonverbals communication such as WE LISTEN (especially when you curate or incorporate content from users).
9. Promotes User Generated Content (they won't share if you don't).
10. Define your USP and UCA (Unique Selling Proposition and Unique Customer Aspiration).
YES, we live in a post content-shock world, but construct a website without a voice and see how it performs (it won't). Stories, shared intimacy and risk form the basis of any successful online community. Remember 1:9:90 Rule says 1% of a site's visitors will advocate and share valuable UGC (User Generated Content), 9% will vote and share especially content from the highly trusted 1%ers and 90% read and visit (important to traffic numbers but hard to engage).
We used to think content and voice was the ante for an Ambassador Program or the creation of valuable brand advocates and Sheraps. Team Curagami changed our mind recently and now advise customers such as Moon-Audio.com (manufacturers amazing audio cables and sells high-end headphones and earphones) to ASK for help NOW.
Continue to develop content and voice since the more trusted you are the greater chance you have at the gold at the end of the web marketing rainbow - sustainable online community. BUT ASK FOR HELP immediately, specifically and often.
Such a great post by Jody I couldn't help adding a riff from my experience as a content marketer, content curator and former Ecommerce Director. Added to Startups Revolution because content marketing is one of the rocks many startups get hung upon. Don't over think content marketing and create something daily.
Marty Note On Developing Trusted Content
Startups must create content to develop trust and community. Content marketing. and this may be a surprise to some, is not an end unto itself. You create and share content to help, educate and share. Startups should create content to develop a self-sustaining community.
Sharing content requires being vulnerable, real and authentic. The six tips from the linked post focus on creating honest communication. My 4 content marketing tips describe how to create content sure to be shared (a form of trust), built upon and provide the feedback loops you need to run an online business:
Six Content Tips (from the link) * Eliminate Hype. * Make Your Content As Unbiased as possible. * Present alternative perspectives (from trusted leaders and gurus). * Include objective research. * Beware of product pitches (just say NO to product pitches). * Proclaim your identity (be honestly who you ARE as any disparity creates dissonance).
Marty's 4 Content Marketing Tips (to promote shares and feedback)
* End with a question asking for feedback & don't mind if none comes (1:9:90 Rule says only about 10% of your visitors are going to engage with your content is ways you can see).
* Shorten your sentences & paragraphs and lose the conjunctions and personal pronouns.
* Create short (10 words or less) headlines with "grabbers".
* Create, shoot or develop original art.
Questions are great. We use questions in three ways:
* We ask and then answer our own question as a way to engage a clear line of reasoning and thinking.
* We ask contextually relevant questions at the end of a post looking for feedback on a reader's experience.
* We ask and leave open questions in heading sand sub-heads to promote the content as answer reading the curiosity of a question prompts.
Short and Sweet
Shorten and create SEO writing. SEO writing is reducing your "stop words" such as personal pronouns or other words search spiders can't understand. SEO may be out of favor these days, but those "spider tips" apply to creating content to promote online readership and engagement too. Think Hemingway more than Faulkner.
Original Art
Startups shouldn't use stock photography. Stock creates dissonance with any startup's main positioning. All startups are claiming to be smarter and more creative than the other guy. When you use sock you look just like the other guy. Just say NO to stock no matter how much your designer wants to use it. CORNED use stock but ask your design team to create unique edits and perspectives so your stock doesn't look like everyone else.
Know thyself is great Internet marketing advice and this post helps explain how to define your Unique Selling Propositions and Unique Customer Aspirations.
UCA is the startups secret weapon. When you are aligned to UCA your startup scales. When your ideas are out of alignment or not communicated well (been there, done that) your startup doesn't scale.
Wrote this piece for Atlantic BT during my tenure as Marketing Director.
The Curagami Story
Curagami was launched by Martin Smith and co-founder Phil Buckley when they found a need in the marketplace they felt was not being served and a window of opportunity.
Curagami helps ecommerce merchants discover the "new ecom" where commerce and content live harmoniously together. This is their story.
Marty Note
Great write up by @Lori Wilk about our #startup Curagami.
The ABCs of business have had a makeover. Instead of always be closing, today it's always be converting which is essentially the same thing but requires different tactics in the digital era:
1. Optimize the navigation . 2. Diversify your payment options
3. Speed up load times
4. Manage your reviews
5. Use outreach carefully
6. Stay on top of social media
7. Show gratitude
8. Keep quality in mind
9. Target the right demographics
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