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  • - [Alison] Hello everybody, and welcome to "Marketing Your New Online Store."

  • If you're just launching your online storefront, I'm sure you're chomping at

  • the bit to start making sales, and we're going to talk about the various ways you

  • can use digital marketing to do just that. In today's webinar, we'll start by meeting

  • our digital marketing experts. Then we'll quickly go over each marketing channel so

  • you'll have a foundational understanding of what we mean when we refer to things

  • like SEO, PPC feeds, and then each specialist will share tips for using each

  • channel effectively. And last but not least, we'll answer your questions. So go

  • ahead and start typing those questions into the Q&A box in the webinar software.

  • We're going to have a lengthy Q&A at the end of the webinar, but we might get a

  • chance to answer some questions during the presentation as well.

  • So let's start by meeting the webinar team. Hello again, my name is Alison,

  • and I'm going to moderate today's webinar. I'm a Search Marketing Manager here at

  • Volusion, and I'm passionate about strategy, content, and helping small

  • to medium businesses outwit larger corporations. I'm originally from Central

  • California, but I've been in Texas for over eight years now and started

  • spontaneously saying "ya'll" a few years ago. So it's a done deal, I'm a Texan.

  • - [Sean] It wasn't spontaneous at all. It's been a long time coming. Howdy,

  • everybody. My name is Sean, and I'm the Paid Search Specialist for today.

  • I've been at Volusion for four years. I've worked specifically with shopping feeds

  • and product listing ads for the last two. I'm certified in all things Google,

  • AdWords, Analytics, and Shopping. And I'm a big fan about using

  • data-driven marketing automation strategies to help online businesses.

  • When I'm not behind my two monitors at work, I'll be out hiking

  • around in the greenbelts here in Austin, Texas.

  • - [Kavi] Hey, I'm Kavi. I'm one of the SEO Specialists here at Volusion.

  • My background is actually in publishing, but a few years ago, I took my writing

  • skills and turned those plus my love of data into a career in digital marketing.

  • And yes, you are reading that last bullet point correctly.

  • I've never seen "Jaws," "The Shining," or "Groundhog Day."

  • - [Samantha] And I'm Samantha. I am an SEO Specialist and one of the resident social

  • media gurus here at Volusion. I recently just moved to Texas from Long Island,

  • New York, and I have about four years working in social media, SEO,

  • and marketing. I've had experience dealing with clients in a multitude industries

  • from fashion to industrial fasteners. Oh, and a fun fact, I hate cilantro.

  • Apparently, they say it's a genetic thing.

  • - [Alison] Interesting. All right. So now that we've met our team of experts,

  • let's talk about the different marketing channels. We can start with the text ads

  • that often appear on the right-hand side and on the top of search results.

  • - [Sean] Alison, that's going to be me. So pay-per-click ads are going to be those

  • hyperlinked text ads that appears at the top or the side of search result pages,

  • as you can see in the highlighted box to the right here. These ads are the most

  • ubiquitous of the web, and if you haven't clicked on them, you've definitely seen

  • them before. These are going to be really short ads with only two lines of text and

  • use targeted keywords to drive really qualified traffic to your store. Keywords

  • are words and phrases that match your ads to the terms people are searching for.

  • And from this example, you'll see that we're searching for telescopes, and the ad

  • experience matches that. You're only going to be paying for ads when someone clicks

  • onto it and visits your website, rather than just having to pay a set rate.

  • And lastly, PPC is a great marketing technique to oust your competition quickly

  • because your ads can very quickly appear on the front page.

  • - [Kavi] All right. And SEO stands for search engine optimization. It's a set of

  • strategies that can affect the organic or unpaid results that make up the majority

  • of your average search results page. You can see where those organic results begin

  • for our telescope example here inside this green box. So unlike PPC or shopping

  • feeds, SEO is a slow and steady process. Results don't happen overnight.

  • Best practices are always changing. But when results do appear, they can provide

  • a lasting value long after you've started your SEO campaign. So by performing a few

  • technical changes to your website and featuring fresh, compelling content on

  • your landing pages, you can help the search engines recognize what each page is

  • about and why it should be considered worthy of appearing in the search results.

  • One thing to keep in mind, this is a common misconception that a lot of people

  • have starting out with SEO. SEO is not about tricking or gaming the search

  • engines into ranking your site higher than a competitor's. It's about

  • working along with the search engines' sophisticated algorithms to increase

  • your site's traffic and revenue.

  • - [Sean] Excellent. Moving away from organic and back to paid search for just a

  • moment, shopping feeds, or data feeds as I'll be calling them, are image-based ads

  • that appear at the top or right-hand side of the search result pages. Because they

  • have an image, they can really stand out, especially on mobile devices, and do a

  • great job of showing off your products. These ads are pretty simple and only

  • provide the product image, the product title, its price, and your domain name.

  • PPC, the text ads we just saw, can advertise services or locations, like

  • plumbers in your areas or restaurants nearby. Shopping feeds are a little bit

  • different because they're going to be an ecommerce-first type of advertising. That

  • means they can only show products. Lastly, these ads are not keyword based like PPC,

  • so you don't have to research any keywords or do much extra work.

  • Instead, your ads are going to be served to clients based on Google

  • matching your products with search terms.

  • - [Samantha] The last marketing tool we're going to be discussing is social media.

  • And social media doesn't have its own place in the search results, but it

  • definitely has a special place in the consumer's heart. The whole idea of social

  • media is to make your customers love you by showing them how valuable they are.

  • This mutual respect fosters trust between the customer and the brand, which is why

  • about 81% of small businesses use social media. When you're a small business,

  • customer relations and business reputation on social media are very important.

  • In fact, shoppers are more likely to make a purchase after reading something

  • they saw on social media. So you want to make sure that you're representing

  • yourself well. When it comes down to it, social media is an avenue for promotion,

  • but it's also an effective customer service tool and a great way for brands

  • to get noticed. It does not discriminate by the size of your business.

  • Small and large brands both have a chance for success on social media.

  • Oh, and as a bonus, it allows you to direct people to your online store.

  • - [Alison] Excellent. All right. So let's talk about the strategies and tactics you

  • can use today to start marketing your online store. We've broken each channel

  • into three parts: Overview, Tips, and Takeaways. We'll also be providing you

  • with some resources. But before we do just that, I want to give

  • you some homework for tonight. If you do one thing today, please install Google

  • Analytics on your store. This way you can begin gathering data immediately and track

  • your store's performance over time. Volusion offers some easy do-it-yourself

  • instructions linked here, and the Volusion Tech Support Team can certainly assist you

  • with this. But trust me, it's literally copy and pasting. So you can do it,

  • and it's free. But if this is too intimidating, we also offer an

  • implementation service. But again, it's copy and pasting. It's free. I promise

  • you, you can do it on your own, which is great, because the data Google Analytics

  • provides is priceless. You'll learn everything from visitor demographics

  • and behavior to which channels are driving your traffic and conversions. So you'll

  • want to monitor your traffic data over time so you can make informed marketing

  • decisions in the future. We recommend that you explore Analytics in bite-size pieces

  • just to avoid being overwhelmed. There are a bunch of wonderful free tools out there

  • to help you learn the ropes. I recommend starting with this Metrics Webinar and

  • Google's free training resources. All of these links are not clickable now, but

  • they will be when we send you out the slideshow after the webinar concludes.

  • All right. So let's get to why you're really here. Marketing your store and

  • driving sales. We're going to start with pay-per-click, also known as PPC.

  • - [Sean] Excellent. Thanks Alison. As mentioned earlier, if you're a new store

  • just getting started or even an older, established store, PPC is a cornerstone to

  • any marketing strategy. Getting started with pay-per-click advertising can seem a

  • bit daunting, but it's really not too much to it. You're going to begin the

  • process by creating a campaign and then subdivide that campaign into

  • something called ad groups. Many of you may already be familiar with

  • AdWords and kind of know this, but ad groups are the subdivision where you

  • actually create the ads, add in your two witty lines of text as well as your call

  • to action. This is also where you're going to be setting your keywords. PPC is going

  • to be great to bring highly qualified traffic, and a reason for that is just how

  • flexible that it is. These ad types can change very quickly to accommodate store

  • changes, like a flash sale, as well as for seasons and holidays like Black Friday or

  • the Christmas shopping season. There really is a ton of flexibility of what you

  • can do. You can raise and lower daily budgets with a few clicks, test new ad

  • text, and add in new keywords. PPC is going to be great for marketing new

  • stores. You can direct the customer to any part of your store. And this means that

  • the landing page, the first page that the customer sees after clicking your ad can

  • be the homepage, an article, a category, or even a product page, anywhere on your

  • site. There will, of course, be better places to send them than not, so you can

  • try out a lot of different things and test a lot. So focus on popular categories and

  • higher margin products, it's always a great place to start. Lastly, it's going

  • to be great for gathering quality data about your store's traffic. Because the

  • data is tangible and quick, you can make a lot of great decisions that contribute as

  • you continue to build your store. So let's go ahead and consider some tips

  • to get started. First, you're going to want to make sure that your store is

  • presentable. Take your customers to an attractive and functional website.

  • Of course, it doesn't have to be perfect, and you're never going to be truly

  • finished building your store. But you still want your new customers to have a

  • really good experience when they get there. Second, you really want to organize

  • your categories and subcategories well. Think about your online store like a

  • real store. Different aisles or different categories and different shelves are the

  • different subcategories. So you're going to want to separate your products in

  • an appropriate way. If you sell apparel, you want to separate that from your sports

  • equipment and gear. If you have men's and women's lines of clothes, make sure that

  • they are not all jumbled together. For an example, let's look at considering

  • gift baskets. If you sell gift baskets, this would be your aisle, and the

  • different types -- baby gift baskets, movie gift baskets -- would be their own

  • subcategories and their own shelves. For PPC, if someone is searching for wedding

  • gift baskets, you want to show them products specific to that search.

  • It's going to be more qualified and they're likely to enjoy the

  • experience a little bit better. The third tip about PPC is try to keep

  • your CPCs, your cost-per-click bids, as low as you can while still getting the

  • traffic that you want. If you're just getting started, a rookie mistake that I

  • see far too often is that you're going to be overpaying for traffic because you want

  • people to get in the door. Instead, try to slow it down and focus on building a

  • sustainable and successful campaign. With this, experiment with ad position.

  • It doesn't always really pay, nudge, nudge, to be in the first spot. You're

  • going to want to see a good ROI, a return on investment, at a lower spot without

  • spending as much. So just don't overspend when you don't have to. And with that, try

  • to be more specific than too broad. You don't necessarily want anyone coming to

  • your store. I know it may seem like that. But instead, you're trying to advertise to

  • people who are looking to buy your specific products. PPC doesn't take a

  • shotgun approach to getting people into the door. A way to avoid the shotgun

  • approach is to add negative keywords into your account. Negative keywords are the

  • complete opposite of keywords. They are words and phrases that you don't want to

  • show up for. Common examples include the words "cheap," "used," or places like

  • "Craigslist" and "Walmart. " These people who are searching for "gift basket

  • Walmart" already have a destination in mind, and you don't want to pay for clicks

  • along the way when someone may just be searching and browsing around.

  • As a final takeaway, I want to say that PPC is going to be a great way to meet a

  • new audience through compelling text ads. It brings really quality traffic to your

  • site very quickly. But before you start paying for traffic, remember to have your

  • site in its best form. Structure your categories and subcategories as best they

  • can be to align your products with your campaigns and your ad groups. And finally,

  • try to offer some stuff that's going to stand out from your competition.

  • Well, I've added just a few little resources for you as well when this slide

  • deck and webinar are made available after we wrap up. These few little hyperlinks

  • include the AdWords Keyword Planner that will help you get an idea of how much

  • you'll be paying for your keywords, as well as some new ones you can add to your

  • account. I've also included a list of a few blogs and webinars that we've done

  • here at Volusion and will give you ideas of how to start as well as one of my

  • favorite articles about PPC Strategies for Procrastinators. This article is about

  • getting started in the holiday season in, like, November, but the basic steps

  • provide you the ability to create a brief skeleton and the same type

  • of structure you'd be doing when you're just getting started.

  • So I definitely recommend that third link.

  • - [Alison] Awesome. Thank you, Sean. And just as a happy reminder, as questions

  • come up, you know, regarding PPC, SEO feeds, please send those on in.

  • No question is too basic. We'll tackle them all.

  • All right. So now, let's take a minute to transition from the paid side of things to

  • what we call the natural, or organic, search results. Kavi will give us

  • an overview of SEO strategies for getting your store featured

  • in Google's natural or organic search results.

  • - [Kavi] Okay. Thank you, Alison. SEO is a great search marketing tactic for

  • ecommerce stores in almost any industry. Search engine visibility is an absolute

  • must for getting brands discovered, and that's true whether you sell sundresses or

  • networking cables or anything in between. No matter what your site is about, you're

  • going to need some unique and relevant content to signal to your customers and

  • also to the search engines what you're selling and why it's great. Before

  • beginning an SEO overhaul, though, you do want to do some thinking about customer

  • behavior. Make sure your site looks and feels like a place where people want to

  • shop and actually make purchases, as Sean said before, because the search engines

  • can tell how much time visitors spend on your site and how often they just leave

  • the store without buying anything. So think about things like: Does your site

  • use a responsive template? Will customers have a good shopping experience if they're

  • on a desktop or a mobile platform? Those are important considerations for the

  • search engines, so they should be important to you as well. The way the

  • search engines treat your site and, as a result, your traffic and your revenue will

  • improve the more customers interact meaningfully with your online store.

  • In my opinion, the best thing about SEO is that it costs nothing but your time and

  • your brain power. When it's done right, it's a totally free way to improve your

  • presence in the search results and to attract new customers. SEO can definitely

  • be time-consuming, but the time and energy you spend is definitely worth the return.

  • I saw a recent digital marketing study that shows 88% of all shoppers do some

  • research online before making a purchase, even if that purchase ends up happening in

  • a brick-and-mortar store instead of online. So in order for potential

  • customers to discover your brand during that online research period, they have to

  • be able to find you using channels like Google Search. Think about the actual

  • phrases that your ideal customer is typing into Google. Think about what makes your

  • brand or your products unique, and then make a list of keyword phrases that are

  • specifically relevant to your business. Incorporate those phrases into the content

  • that appears on your product pages and your category descriptions. When they're

  • compiling their search results, search engines consider a landing page's

  • relevance and authority within the industry, as well as the user behavior

  • that surrounds it. So like I said, make sure your website's navigation is

  • user-friendly and that your content really reflects your industry expertise.

  • So here are some tips that you can use going into your SEO campaign. There are

  • two basic pieces involved in SEO. There's on-page and off-page optimization. On-page

  • optimization includes things like title tags, meta descriptions, and H1 tags, and

  • all of those are things that can be easily edited in the admin area of your Volusion

  • store. For your on-page optimization to be complete, though, you also want to include

  • about 150 words of unique, relevant content on each landing page. This content

  • should describe what can be found on the page and should contain compelling

  • marketing messaging as well to push people to buy. But you should not just stuff in a

  • bunch of keywords so that it sounds unnatural. That's a big no-no for the

  • search engines. On to off-page optimization. This focuses

  • more on how other influencers, like other websites and online thought leaders,

  • interact with your site. When you earn a link from another website, assuming that

  • site isn't spammy or totally unrelated to what you're selling, it's kind of like

  • they're giving you a vote for your website to signal that you're also relevant and

  • authoritative. So the best way to earn meaningful links to your site is, you

  • guessed it, by creating content that people will want to link to. Helpful

  • original content that demonstrates your expertise tends to earn the most

  • attention. Write stuff that people want to read and share. This can take the form of

  • a blog or some well-researched infographics or even a how-to video

  • series, if you have the resources to put something like that together. One thing to

  • keep in mind is that earning links can be a bit tricky because the search engines

  • have several rules that you have to adhere to in order to avoid harmful penalties

  • that can kill your search rankings and, therefore, your traffic as well. So for

  • example, paying for links is a major no-no. Links have to come in organically

  • and actually be earned in order to be considered legitimate.

  • So to wrap up our tips, it's pretty clear that having a good content strategy in

  • place is absolutely critical for SEO. And I know this can seem intimidating, but it

  • really doesn't have to be complicated. The most important thing to keep in mind is

  • what your customers are searching for throughout the sales cycle. So to give you

  • an example, I had an SEO client who sold organic skincare. So to draw in customers

  • who were in that research phase of the sales cycle, we created a resource library

  • that included explanations of some of the more exotic ingredients that she was using

  • in her products. But we also put a lot of focus on their individual product

  • descriptions so that customers who were pretty much ready to buy would know

  • exactly how to use that particular face wash or a moisturizer or whatever

  • they were looking at. So as I said before, you want to think

  • about the terms and phrases that your customers are using and incorporate those

  • as naturally as possible into your on-site content, whether that's in your product

  • descriptions or a short paragraph that appears on a category page or a useful

  • blog post that's connected to your site. The right content not only helps you make

  • sales and attract customers through the search engines, it can also help you earn

  • those valuable links that I mentioned earlier.

  • And one more thing to note, Sam will talk about this a bit more as well a little bit

  • later on, but you also want to consider how your social media strategy can support

  • your SEO. Make sure your social media profiles are optimized with the correct

  • business information and some good keywords for discovery on those platforms

  • as well. Plus, if you've written some really great content, avenues like

  • Facebook and Twitter and your other social media profiles are the most natural way

  • to share all of that. So our main takeaway for SEO is SEO is a

  • long-term process that can earn exponential results. It requires patience

  • and thoughtfulness, but it's the single most important way to signal your

  • relevance and authority to the search engines and, therefore, to your potential

  • customers. The earlier you start thinking about your SEO strategy, the more quickly

  • you should start seeing increases in traffic and revenue, which is

  • what we all want. So here are a few SEO resources for you to

  • get started. When you're doing your keyword research, Google Trends, which is

  • linked here, and even just carrying out your own searches can help you discover

  • what terms your customers are searching for. There might be customers in a certain

  • area of the country using a term for one of your products that might not come to

  • mind immediately for you, and that's a great way to discover things like that.

  • Volusion and some of our other favorite online experts have written lots of great

  • blog posts and created tons of videos and webinars on SEO best practices. So there

  • are some links to those here as well, including our upcoming webinar next month

  • called "Tailoring Product Pages for SEO and Feeds Success." That's going to be on

  • August 11, and we will have a sign-up for that coming soon. And for some more

  • information and instructions on adjusting things like meta tags in the admin area

  • of your store, I'm including a link to our Knowledge Base overview

  • of Volusion's specific SEO features.

  • - [Alison] This is Alison again. My background is also in SEO, and I can

  • attest that it's a powerful long-term strategy. I also noticed that many times

  • when I started out with merchants, a question I often received was, "Okay, I

  • like that I'm showing up in the natural search results, but how do I get the

  • pictures up top or on the side? I want to see my products there."

  • So I'm going to loop Sean back in right now to talk about how

  • you can do just that. Take it away Sean.

  • - [Sean] All right, Alison. So the images at the top of the page are often going to

  • be a part of Google Shopping when they're not part of the image slideshow. Data

  • feeds or shopping feeds are a spreadsheet that has all of your products' pertinent

  • information, and it can be as simple as a CSV that you've exported from your store

  • and updated the column headers, or something a bit more advanced like XML.

  • You can take your store's data and submit that to Google for their approval so that

  • they're going to show your ads. We had a question that came in from John

  • that says, "What if your product is a service? How do I take advantage of

  • Shopping with such a product?" Well, this is the trick. Because Google is so

  • specific in what it requires, they can only be products. And a lot of this is

  • because they've got so many required fields and services. They're really trying

  • to create a window shopping experience, which is part of the benefit and also part

  • of the detriment of Google Shopping. So John, what you'll want to do is focus on

  • PPC. And we'll follow-up in the Q&A a little bit after to tell you what to do

  • with that. Back to shopping feeds for a little bit.

  • There's going to be so many required fields. They include obvious ones, such as

  • the product title, the product description, the weight, the required

  • fields in the Volusion Dashboard. There's also going to be ones that they are

  • looking for as well, such as product manufacturer and UPC code

  • and Google category. If a product doesn't meet these

  • requirements, it's going to be disapproved and won't be pulled into the data feed.

  • Or if it is taken up, it will be rejected after the fact.

  • I mentioned a little bit about the window shopping aspect of Google Shopping, and a

  • handy thing about using data feeds as part of your marketing strategy is that they

  • appear in search results and in shopping aggregators. This means that your ads get

  • to double dip where they appear. And like a PPC, Google Shopping campaigns are going

  • to be created through AdWords. Let's go ahead and just jump into some

  • tips really quickly. Because shopping feeds are so data-driven, as is said by

  • the name itself data feeds, what you'll really want to do is start by optimizing

  • the product page first. Because the landing page, that first page that you see

  • after a client clicks onto to an ad, is the product page, your customers won't

  • have the same context as they would from finding the product from searching through

  • your website, your on-page search. Instead, they're taken directly to it

  • instead. So your customers don't have the context of knowing if the item is in a

  • necklace category or a bracelet category if they're searching for something like a

  • 36-inch chain. Instead, your product title should include 36-inch chain, necklace

  • made out of silver and gold, something more descriptive that provides them all of

  • the information that they need to be looking for. Because it's just the product

  • page, just make sure that it's descriptive and thorough. Don't have any thin content.

  • Just the more robust it's going to be, the more likely Google will show your ads as

  • well as the SEO benefits that Kavi talked about.

  • Next, and this tip may seem pretty obvious, but you really need to monitor

  • your campaigns. Feeds aren't a set-it-and-forget-it. And in fact, if you

  • don't submit a new data feed every 30 days, Google is going to automatically

  • expire your product listings. You want to make sure that any changes you

  • make in the store should be reflected in the data feed itself. If your items

  • fluctuate in stock or if you're changing the price point and taking things on

  • sales, reflect that in data feed so your potential customers are getting the best

  • experience possible. If you put something on sale, you're going to want to show the

  • sale price to incentivize people to come to your store, not your competitors.

  • So keep your data really, really fresh. Talking about monitoring your campaign,

  • use the data you get from AdWords and identify those products which are best

  • performing, call back to what Alison said about setting up Google Analytics. But if

  • you can know the products which are performing better, you can increase their

  • bids a wee bit, or you can even optimize your product title to ensure that you're

  • getting a larger impression showing your ads are serving a

  • more qualified group of people. The cost-per-click of shopping feed ads

  • are generally lower than PPC ads. So try to find a really good price point.

  • Of course, there's going to be no size-fits-all, but just start lower and

  • slowly increase your bids until you find the return on ad spend that you're really,

  • really looking for. The biggest, important thing here is just consider your ROI,

  • your return on investment, and where your window is.

  • Lastly, and probably most importantly, about shopping feeds is have a really good

  • product image. If you're a dropshipper and all of your images match that of your

  • competition, it's going to be really hard to stand out. So when you can, use

  • different angles. Take your own photos. Use really high-quality images and make

  • sure that the image just isn't pixilated and just depicts your product very well.

  • If you have multiple product images, please, please include those to the

  • product page itself. The more interactive your customer will be on the page,

  • the longer they spend and the more time they glean information about the product,

  • the likelier they are to check out. So lastly is the big takeaways. You're

  • working really hard, if you're still building your store, to build out your

  • store's inventory, so show it off with data feeds. Using comparison shopping

  • engines allows you to show off your entire inventory through image ads to online

  • shoppers. With so many potential ads, you can reach customers far and wide.

  • So structure your product information correctly and use these type of campaigns

  • to show off your best brands, and the customers will find you after that.

  • Some resources I've included as well is all those rules and requirements from

  • Google. The Product Recommendations and Requirements can be very, very helpful if

  • you ever wonder, "Why isn't this product showing up?" You may discover that it's

  • apparel. It doesn't have the color and size attributes. Or you may find that the

  • tax and shipping information isn't there. So Google has great, great support

  • documentation. I've also included some videos and blogs from webinars that I've

  • created as well as some other people on the team that help really define how to

  • set up shopping feeds as well as how to get started in terms of moving very

  • quickly and what you can do when your price point isn't super

  • competitive. So that's a pretty handy one of some kind of side

  • techniques you can really do. So thank you.

  • - [Alison] Thank you, Sean. Okay. And last but not least, we cannot forget social

  • media marketing, which is a very cost-effective way for a new store to

  • build their following. And Sam can tell us a little bit about that.

  • - [Samantha] Thanks, Alison. I love social media. I think it's sometimes overlooked,

  • but it's actually one of the best marketing tools out there, and as Kavi

  • said earlier, it works hand-in-hand with SEO. It can boost traffic to your website,

  • improve your brand authority, and enhance customer loyalty. Not to mention, it works

  • well with a multitude of industries from fashion to food and everything in between.

  • There's a wide array of social media networks out there, and many of them are

  • industry-specific. The vastness of the social media landscape makes it easier for

  • people to find networks where their brands can thrive. So while I bet your first

  • inclination is to choose Facebook, it's important not to discount others such as

  • Twitter, Pinterest, Polyvore, Reddit, or even Instagram. So for instance, if you're

  • in the fashion industry, Pinterest or Polyvore might work better than, say, I

  • don't know, Twitter. You don't have to be active on every channel all at once, so

  • choose one or two networks to devote your time to. It's better to be active on one

  • or two platforms than inconsistent on all of them.

  • Not only is social media extremely versatile, but it's also a cost-effective

  • marketing strategy, because guess what, creating a social media page is free. So

  • to get started, the only thing required is your time. There are tons of social media

  • networks out there. As I mentioned before, I've listed some of the most popular

  • networks. So you can use those to promote your brand and interact with customers.

  • You may be familiar with some of them, or perhaps even all of them, but I thought it

  • would be helpful to see a wide variety of your options. We've got the big guns that

  • are very well-known like Facebook and Twitter, and then we have some more

  • visual, lesser known ones like Pinterest and Instagram. However, if you are in a

  • very specific industry, it might be worth taking some time to look at networks that

  • are created specifically for your niche. For example, Houzz, it's a social network

  • for interior designers and brands in the real estate or housing market. So you can

  • use anything that relates specifically to your audience, and that's pretty much the

  • main point. You want to be on the network where your audience interacts most.

  • It's also important to note that, like SEO, social media success takes time. But

  • social media can also help enhance your search visibility. To give your brand the

  • best chance at being discovered, you want to begin by optimizing each social network

  • you decide to use. So what this means is filling out all of the fields in the

  • "About" sections of your social profiles by using relevant keywords and search

  • terms. However, please do not publish duplicate content. Don't just copy and

  • paste content from the "About Us" section on your website. Instead, try to write

  • similar, new keyword rich content that shows what your store is all about.

  • If you have a store with a brick-and-mortar location, make sure

  • to add your address and other locally specific information as well.

  • Social media is also the best way to engage with customers and potential

  • audiences. You can see what people are talking about by using relevant hashtags

  • and join those conversations on Facebook and Twitter. This will showcase your

  • authority and your relevance within your industry. And please, don't neglect your

  • followers. They love receiving replies. So make sure that you're always replying to

  • those messages or comments to keep the conversation going, because social media

  • can actually be your best customer service tool.

  • And last but not least, if you have a little bit of wiggle room with your

  • budget, social advertising opportunities like Facebook ads and boosted posts can

  • really help your strategy, plus they're reasonably priced. With Facebook, it's a

  • pay-to-play environment, so we recommend using social advertising to reach new

  • customers and grow your presence online. Facebook ads can be used to garner page

  • likes or to drive traffic to your website. However, if this seems a little bit

  • overwhelming to you, you can choose to boost individual posts right on your

  • timeline to reach more people. These are really easy to use and can serve your ads

  • to large numbers of people for a minimal cost. The best part about the boosted

  • posts is that they can also allow you to target your audience using a variety of

  • filters. So this means you can serve ads to people who already like your page and

  • their friends, or create a custom audience by targeting specific locations, genders,

  • interests, or keywords. Now, you may be asking, "How do I go about

  • doing all of this?" I know it can be a little bit overwhelming, but don't panic.

  • I'm going to share a few tips and some social media best practices to make

  • that a little easier. So first, posting regularly is extremely

  • important, because it lets your customers and your followers know that you are

  • active. I would suggest spending about 15 minutes per day posting and engaging.

  • Creating a weekly or a monthly content calendar can be a huge help. This will

  • keep you organized so you won't have to spend too much time thinking about what to

  • post every day. We recommend posting around three to five times per week to

  • keep that content fresh. And you don't want to clog the timeline with too many

  • of your posts. Speaking of posts, you have to get to know your

  • customers. Learn about your audience to find out what type of posts they like.

  • Once you have an idea of what type of content they like, make sure you aren't

  • overloading them with too many self-promotional product posts. Instead,

  • try creating your own unique and engaging content, you know, the stuff that people

  • will want to share. Don't just post links to your products. We tend to use the 80/20

  • rule. About 80% of your posts should relate to your brand's industry and your

  • target audience, and the other 20% should be self-promotional and used to introduce

  • sales or giveaways or contests or anything like that. Try to use your own images if

  • you can, or create them on your own using Canva.com or other free design tools,

  • which I will list later. And remember, here, unique content is key. Unique images

  • can also be used for promotions. Promotions, such as sales, giveaways, or

  • other contests that I mentioned before, can enhance customer engagement and help

  • you gain new customers. We recommend using those boosted posts to promote all of your

  • exclusive deals, content, or even new product launches.

  • Another tip is to always track your success. To get a good idea if your posts

  • are working, dig into the Facebook Insights or another network's analytics to

  • see how well your posts perform. This will help you figure out what type of posts

  • your audience likes and what prompts them to take action. You can use this

  • information to identify your strongest performing posts and re-create similar

  • posts to garner higher levels of engagement.

  • And finally, as I mentioned before, if you decide to delegate some of your marketing

  • budget to social advertising, don't forget to monitor those campaigns. Ads must be

  • monitored periodically to ensure that they are performing and you're getting the most

  • bang for your buck. I recommend checking them bi-weekly. You can edit the copy, you

  • can edit the target filters or images on poor performing ads to see if they begin

  • to work. And this also goes for the boosted posts. Make sure that you look at

  • your results after the paid campaign ends to see how your audience responded to that

  • post. This can help you decide how you want to refine your targeting the next

  • time you want to boost something. So what's the main takeaway regarding

  • social? Well, when it comes down to it, social media management is the best way to

  • get to know your target audience, drive traffic, and engage with potential

  • customers. It requires patience, creativity, and the willingness to learn.

  • And while growing a social media presence can be a long-term process, it allows

  • businesses of all sizes to increase awareness, boost engagement, drive traffic

  • to online stores, and prompt followers to take action.

  • That being said, we've complied a list of resources that can help you save some time

  • and further educate you on social media best practices. These include free tools

  • that can help you create amazing, sharable images along with a few apps that can help

  • you schedule posts during your busiest days. I've even included some guides that

  • provide information on how to best drive engagement and get the most out of your

  • social campaigns. The last resource there is a helpful tutorial on how to create

  • your own Facebook ads if you decide that that's something that you want to explore

  • more. Also, keep an eye out for our upcoming webinar on September 1 about how

  • to craft a social media strategy for the holidays. It's going to be full of great

  • information, so be sure to keep checking for sign-up dates.

  • - [Alison] All right. Thank you, Sam. So that rounds out the four digital marketing

  • channels we wanted to cover today, and the questions have literally been pouring in.

  • So without further ado, let's get to those questions. We might start with

  • paid search since that was the first section we went over.

  • - [Sean] Sure. Yeah, I'll talk a little bit more about PPC if I can. So Marin you

  • asked, "Can you explain a little bit more about negative keywords. Why would I want

  • to attract someone who wants free, cheap items when I sell quality goods?"

  • I'm sorry I wasn't clear. Negative keywords will do the exact opposite of

  • that. When you create a new campaign, you will set your keywords for your goods and

  • the products that you offer, and the negative keywords, which go in a slightly

  • separate location, are going to be the ones to dis-include your ad from. If

  • someone searches for a cheap car and you're selling cars, that means that your

  • ad would not serve if the negative keyword appears in the query itself. So whenever

  • there's a term or a phrase you don't want to show up for, you can throw that right

  • in there, and then your ad wouldn't appear.

  • Thomas, a little bit more about PPC. You asked, "Can you track PPC through a sale?"

  • The answer is yes, absolutely. This is why installing Google Analytics today is so

  • vitally, vitally important. Within your Google AdWords account, at the very top of

  • the page under "Tools," you'll see the option and ability to create conversions.

  • That conversion is what you'll put on the order finish page, one of design site

  • contents page. You'll put on the order finish page to ensure that when someone

  • gets to that page after the one-page checkout, it will be registered. This is

  • vitally, vitally important for monitoring your ROI. You really want to make sure

  • that you're seeing return on ad spend and that you're just not bringing in a lot of

  • traffic without seeing where it's coming from.

  • To follow up with John about PPC and the services and shopping feeds, I'll talk

  • about shopping feeds a little after SEO to give some other people a chance to talk.

  • But John, to follow up with you about PPC as a service, is that I looked at

  • specifically the services denied for Google Shopping, and they include product

  • bundles, online services, such as financial or downloading, and this is

  • maybe likely the case for you is business services, including locksmiths, plumbing,

  • or with ecommerce consulting. If you offer IT setups or any type of consulting,

  • instead you'll want to be using PPC, the two lines of text. This allows you to

  • target keywords about business consulting, IT, or whatever the service you may be

  • offering, rather than Google Shopping. Google Shopping as a product aggregator is

  • kind of very similar to Amazon. You're likely not going to find a plumber onto

  • that resource, so that's why you have to use a slightly different

  • type of advertising model. Both are amazingly effective for what

  • they're doing, and your vertical will probably recognize that as well. There can

  • be things that you can offer and others that you don't. So just try to focus on

  • what the best fit for you when starting with paid advertising is going to be. So

  • John, if not, shoot us an e-mail too, as well. We'll follow-up with you

  • if you want a further explanation of what you can be doing as well.

  • - [Alison] It looks like we've got quite a few SEO questions as well.

  • One of you want to focus in on this?

  • - [Kavi] Sure. I can start off with a question from Cindy. She said, "I heard

  • that Google does not use the keywords tag any more but still uses the meta

  • description. Is this true?" So a little more info on that. Cindy,

  • Google actually doesn't read the meta keywords or meta description tags. The

  • keywords tag really doesn't serve much of a purpose at all any more since it doesn't

  • show anywhere. But still, having a good list of keywords around is great for your

  • own reference, just don't worry about actually inputting them because, like I

  • said, they don't show up anywhere and Google doesn't read them. So the

  • description tag does still show up in the search results though. That means that

  • customers are seeing it even if Google isn't paying attention to it. So that

  • description tag is a great field to include some marketing messaging to

  • encourage people to click your link instead of someone else's. Phrases like

  • "free shipping" and really enticing marketing tactics like that can attract

  • a lot of clicks. I also wanted to answer a question from Joe.

  • He asked, "How do you know your search ranking when talking about SEO?"

  • So search rankings are something that ecommerce sellers obviously care about a

  • lot, and Google's Webmaster Tools, if you have that set up, can show you your

  • average ranking for certain keywords. But keep in mind that your search rankings are

  • going to change all the time. The SEO experts generally agree also that it's

  • much more beneficial to focus on your site's improvements, like how much traffic

  • you're getting and how much money you're making rather than focusing on your search

  • rankings, just because they change constantly. There are tons of competitors,

  • and you really want to make sure that you're attracting more customers and

  • making more sales, and that should be your top concern rather than that ranking.

  • - [Alison] I've also noticed that a lot of ranking is personalized. I've had a few

  • merchants call in and they're like, "I'm number one now for this."

  • I'm like, "You need to log out of your Google account."

  • - [Kavi] Yeah. That's [inaudible 00:40:29].

  • - [Alison] Because your results are being tailored to your search history.

  • - [Sean] Very much so. And that comes into PPC all the time. Some people will say,

  • "Why aren't my ads appearing? Do we have the right keywords?" Well it's often that

  • you're searching for your own ads too often, and, therefore, Google thinks

  • they're less relevant to you and therefore stops serving them as much.

  • I think I talked a little bit more about paid search. We've got two very similar

  • questions about, "What percentage of my monthly income do you recommend to a

  • start-up, to invest in PPC and feeds, and a reasonable monthly budget to show

  • results?" Two very similar questions. When you're first getting started, I hate this,

  • because I always want to say it depends, but start small. If you want to start with

  • $10 a day daily budgets, I think that is a fine medium if you're just getting

  • started. Ten dollars a day is small enough that it's going to be $300 for the month,

  • assuming you're hitting your daily budget, and allows you enough money to have some

  • flexibility. As I said earlier, you don't want to be overspending, and you really

  • need to be tracking this information. So rather than starting to potentially waste

  • or spend ill-advisedly $20 a day, start with $10. The best thing about both of

  • these paid advertising models is that you can go in and change your bids and daily

  • budgets whenever you want. It's just a small click. You don't pay upfront. So if

  • you're finding a lot of success or you're not, you can very quickly lower those

  • bids. I can keep talking about ... Oh there's another one

  • about shopping feeds, if I may. We'll wrap it up. John and Jeff, you

  • asked about, "What are shopping feeds?" Once again, I apologize for not being very

  • clear. Two great resources to find them. Support.Volusion.com, you'll be able to

  • find out a further explanation what I've blabbered through very quickly. But a data

  • feed is just a spreadsheet of all your store's information. From the dashboard,

  • if you go to Inventory Import/Export and export your product table, that's a data

  • feed that Google Shopping will take. You just have to change the product title

  • headers just a little bit. We call it "Product Title." Google just calls it

  • "Title." We've got "Product Code." They call it "ID." So what you'll do is you'll

  • export your product information and then start to tweak the column

  • headers a little bit to what Google specifies. But we've got a lot of

  • great support documentation on that stuff.

  • - [Samantha] We've also got a bunch of social questions rolling in here. One of

  • them from Brianna, "What is the best way to get followers quickly if I just started

  • a Facebook business page?" This is a great question. My answer would be Facebook ads.

  • Facebook organic reach has slowly been declining, so the best way to kind of get

  • people to start liking your page is to set up an ad campaign. You can set your budget

  • and your targets. You can target based on a variety of different things, such as

  • what interests you know your audience might have or your potential customers

  • might have, and set your daily budget. From there, people will start seeing your

  • ads based on your targets, and you'll start gaining "likes" that way.

  • Marisema also asked about LinkedIn, which is a great question. We don't really get

  • too many B2B questions, so this is good. "The 80/20 rule, how does it work on

  • LinkedIn?" So basically, when you're on LinkedIn, you can have your published

  • posts or whatever, and then you can also join groups. When you post in groups,

  • you want to make sure that you're posting relevant stuff to that industry. So take

  • some newsworthy content and post it in the group so it would help your fellow group

  • members. The 20%, use your own posts, your own blog posts or anything like that to

  • post personally from your own page. That's the best way that I can kind of

  • break down that 80/20 rule that way.

  • - [Kavi] I've got a couple more SEO questions here. One should be a pretty

  • quick answer. From Pete, he says, "We've activated the SEO-friendly URLs in

  • Volusion, but this still creates paths like the slash category S/107.htm, for

  • example." And he's asking, "Is there a better way to do this in Volusion so that

  • we have tidier URLs?" Yes, there definitely is. First of all,

  • great job activating those SEO-friendly URLs. That's a really important thing to

  • have checked off. That URL structure is the standard that Volusion uses, and it's

  • very easy to change that category to a phrase that more accurately describes

  • what's on your page. So you can change it to, for example, "/redmittens-s" instead

  • of just "/category." That's a really easy thing to change that you can do in the

  • Admin area of your Volusion store, the same way that you would change your title

  • tags, your meta descriptions, things like that, that I mentioned earlier. In the SEO

  • section of the webinar slides, when that's sent to you later, you'll see a link to

  • the Volusion support article about how to change all of those fields.

  • One more thing, this is a really important question for SEO. Somebody asked, "What do

  • you mean by a penalty, and are paid links not effective?" So earlier, I mentioned

  • that not following the search engines' rules when it comes to earning links to

  • your site can be really harmful and can cause the search engines to put manual

  • penalties on your site as well. So a penalty is basically when Google or

  • another search engine recognizes that you've done something that they don't

  • like, like paying for a link, and they decide what they put on their

  • search results. So they can decide that they will not list you

  • when someone searches for a product that you sell or something that's relevant

  • to your site. Obviously, you don't want that. You want to be listed as much as

  • possible. So in order to avoid upsetting the search engines, you just have to

  • follow their rules, and they do have a very strict rule against paying for links.

  • Paid links used to be a very common practice in SEO. They are not any more

  • because they're so frowned upon. They may be effective in terms of earning traffic

  • to your site in the very short term, but Google will very quickly catch on to the

  • fact that you're using that tactic and will penalize your site and

  • cause you to not show up in the search results. So don't do it.

  • Don't even think about doing it. It's a terrible idea.

  • - [Alison] I remember, like a year ago, there was period of time where there were

  • a tremendous amount of penalties being leveled through Webmaster Tools, and we

  • got so many requests for people, like just do some disavows and clean this up. It was

  • a very difficult task. So it is just not worth the risk.

  • - [Kavi] We've also got some other marketing questions. Another one from

  • Brianna, "How can we add a blog to our site? Is there a specific article we

  • should use?" Volusion actually has this awesome tool. It's called the Knowledge

  • Base. If you go in there, it's right on our website. You can type in "how to set

  • up a blog for your Volusion store." It'll give you a complete how-to guide.

  • The first thing you want to do, obviously, is create a blog on a third-party site,

  • whether it's WordPress or Blogger or something else. Then you want to make it a

  • subdomain of your Volusion store. I'm not going to get too technical with this

  • because the guide is going to have pretty much word-for-word directions on what you

  • should do. So I totally encourage you to go on the website and look through that.

  • - [Alison] Another alternative to a blog that, I mean, it just depends on what

  • you're trying to accomplish, would be creating your own, like, resource library.

  • Kavi referenced this earlier with her organic skincare client. So sometimes

  • there are times when it might make sense to have some of that content living on

  • your website. But I think our team often uses blogs, because blogs are really great

  • for producing content quickly and pushing it out there and having an audience.

  • There's one more question I would like to address. Alexander asked, "How can we

  • convert the visitors on our site into sales, and how long to start having

  • sales?" I just wanted to, Alexander, point out that I think it was last Tuesday we

  • had a conversion webinar. We should be getting out the recording fairly quickly

  • on Thursday. So that's going to be a good hour devoted to that topic. As far as

  • going to how long is it going to be to have sales, that's going to depend.

  • There's too many variables for us to say definitively. But you can start driving

  • qualified traffic now, which means a sale could happen at any point.

  • - [Samantha] One last social question we had from Jennifer. "What are the best

  • keywords to have in your social descriptions?" So basically, what I was

  • talking about before is you kind of want to go into your "About" section and think

  • about keywords and your products and everything that you sell, what kind of

  • words really embody your store and your products, and just kind of fill those into

  • your "About" fields. There should be a short description on Facebook, a long

  • description, stuff like that. If you really want to get involved in the keyword

  • stuff, you can go into the Google AdWords, if you have Google Analytics already, and

  • take a look at some of the keywords that people are searching for products similar

  • to yours and kind of fill them into a natural description on your social page.

  • - [Kavi] There's a question about tags in SEO. Marcia asked, "What tags is Google

  • paying attention to for SEO?" I mentioned that keyword tags and meta descriptions

  • aren't things that Google particularly looks at any more. But they do pay

  • attention to a number of other things. For example, your title tag and then the H1,

  • which is kind of the biggest header that appears on any particular landing page.

  • Again, that's a tag that you can just manipulate within your HTML, super easy to

  • do, and we have information about that in our Knowledge Base as well that I linked

  • to in our SEO slides. So the title tag and the H1 tag, I would say, are the most

  • important ones that you need to pay attention to for Google. We'll actually

  • have a product optimization webinar that I mentioned a little bit earlier. Again,

  • it's on August 11. In that webinar, we're going to be running through all of the

  • different tags that you can change in your Volusion store in order of importance to

  • the search engines so that you know exactly how to change each one and exactly

  • how much time you should be spending writing each of those.

  • - [Sean] A question from Joe, "How much does it cost per click for PPC, and does

  • that change often?" So the cost-per-click for PPC is a bid that you will set within

  • your own campaign. That bid is how much you are willing to pay whenever a certain

  • customer visits your site based on their ad. That bid will change, and you can set

  • it at a different time, and then Google will charge you up to that amount. If you

  • bid $0.50 for a customer to visit your site, Google can only charge you up to

  • that much. They may charge you $0.25, they may charge you $0.30, but they know that

  • you are willing to spend up to $0.50 for that qualified traffic and, therefore,

  • that's what it is. There is something a little bit more complex called the AdWords

  • Auction of how often you will truly be changing. But it's really about the bid

  • that you choose to set. In the resource, right at the end, about the Keyword

  • Planner will give you the best idea about the keywords in your specific vertical and

  • how much you'll be paying for them. So it's going to vary, of course. But you get

  • to set it yourself. You've got a lot of control in that situation.

  • There's also one from Glen that I wanted to take too. Glen, you asked, "How often

  • should you redo your sitemap?" The best thing about that is you don't have to.

  • Under "Marketing and SEO," Volusion automatically updates your sitemap daily.

  • It's going to regenerate it for you. So every change that you make are going to be

  • reflected in your sitemap later that day. Unlike maybe former platforms and things

  • like that, you've had to manually create it, but Volusion takes that step away

  • from you. So as you continue to add new products and new categories

  • your sitemap will be regenerated daily.

  • - [Alison] And I mentioned Webmaster Tools, just briefly, earlier. That's

  • another thing that's good to have set up along with your Google Analytics account.

  • When you submit your sitemap to Webmaster Tools, that's another great way to get

  • Google to recognize each of the pages that's on your site and sort of your

  • general site structure and navigation. That's super easy to do as well.

  • It's literally just a click of a button.

  • - [Kavi] Alejandra, "Is there anywhere where I can learn more about how to use

  • Google Analytics effectively?" Yes. There's a ton of resources on the Volusion

  • website. If you want to go to our ecommerce blog, there's a "Welcome to

  • Metrics." It's an Analytics webinar. It will kind of show you what metrics are

  • important for you to pay attention to, how to set things up. There's a lot of

  • resources on the Volusion Knowledge Base. And then also, Google puts out its

  • own kind of instructions on how to install it and what metrics need what.

  • - [Female] Okay. Maureen had one about keywords and sort of keyword hierarchy.

  • She asks, "For SEO, do the keywords have to be on each page, or can you have

  • keywords that are relevant to the entire site?" That's a great question for when

  • you're thinking about the way to structure your overall site content. So there will

  • be some keywords, obviously, that are relevant to your entire website, but it's

  • important to differentiate your lower-level pages from each other so that

  • you don't end up competing with yourself. So if you sell gardening supplies, for

  • example, make sure that your homepage includes keywords and content about

  • gardening supplies in general. Then make sure that your rakes and your gloves

  • categories each contain content that's more specific to rakes and gloves rather

  • than focusing on, again, just gardening supplies in general. Just when you're

  • writing out your list of keywords, make sure that each one is particularly

  • relevant to that page so that people will get to that page, specifically, when they

  • type in those keywords rather than just finding your site as a whole.

  • - [Alison] All right. It looks like we're getting close to the hour here, so we're

  • going to be wrapping it up. As a happy reminder, you're going to be

  • receiving these slides and a video recording in a couple of days. So you'll

  • have all the resources that we covered here at your fingertips. We also offer

  • regular webinars, as we keep referencing these, but it's something we do all the

  • time. They're on all these sort of marketing topics, and we go a bit more in

  • depth than what we did today. Some upcoming webinar topics include the

  • product page optimization that Kavi referenced and crafting a social media

  • strategy for the holidays, and that one will be on September 1. All of our

  • marketing webinars are absolutely free, and we encourage you to sign up

  • for as many as you can. Our team also offers marketing services.

  • So, if at any time you want to outsource your marketing efforts to our experts,

  • simply reach out to the number you see on the slide or the e-mail on this slide.

  • And again, we want to thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to join

  • us today. We wish and your store tremendous success. Happy selling.

- [Alison] Hello everybody, and welcome to "Marketing Your New Online Store."

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