Kurt, Marc & Lou, ready to rock and roll.

by Donna Talarico, Interactive Marketing Specialist

Day two of Solid Cactus Boot Camp kicked off with the ever-popular site deconstruction session. This morning, four Solid Cactus staff members dissected three sites. (Thanks to our clients you volunteered and for being so open to suggestion. We also had more clients volunteer than we had time for, so thanks to all!) Moderated by John Tomkoski, manager of sales engineering, the panel also included designer Marc Manfre, our marketing analyst Kurt Illian and senior director of sales, Lou Pagnotti. Each panelist is well-seasoned in all areas of e-commerce, but today they each specialized in their own areas. John looked at things overall. Marc considered the design elements and usability. Kurt looked at on-site SEO strategies. Lou commented on general usability and conversions. Some key points discussed today were:

Kurt points out some SEO tips

–If you are going to have a special of the day, make sure it changes daily. Otherwise, don’t put so much emphasis on it. Perhaps, while still keeping that special area, have that homepage area features other things too, such as with a rotating graphic or sequence banner.

–Get users to items with less clicks. This could mean restructuring your navigation to include more subcategories, or utilizing cascading or expanding navigation, or even something like the new Mega Drop Down that Solid Cactus offers.
If you have products, such as a book or something that would be searched by a part number, that your customers are going to buy anyway and do not need info, you may want to consider putting an add-to-cart  button on the section page, too.

–Branding is important, and can be fun. One of the sites we looked at this morning had an illustrated design which was carried from the header throughout much of the site. This particular site did this very well, but as an idea to other store owners, it was suggested to take elements from the logo or header and use them in add-to-cart- buttons, headers, and more.

–Over the years, best practices in design can change. eCommerce sites today are made a little wider (not full screen, though). This can add more room to add in right navigation or just have more space to work with for featured items.
We say this all the time. Phone number in the header! Also, live chat in header can be effective, especially upon check-out. Some store, it was noted by John, utilize live chat only on the check-out.

John moderates this highly informative session.

–One site we looked at, John joked that he ran out of room on the podium to scroll down. While it got a chuckle from the crowd, it does become an issue when there are hundreds and hundreds of item on one page. Consider dynamic paging if you have this issue, even if it is only on one category. That was the case with this store; most categories were fine and it was just one that was this extensive.

–Consider a segmented navigation. This is not so much functionality, but design. Include some separation in the left navigation bar to distinguish some major categories. One of the sites we dissected did something like this with a “Shop by Brand,” “Shop by Animal,” etc.

–If you have a product reviews feature but do not have a lot of items that have reviews, you may want to consider doing a contest or something to generate reviews through your e-mail marketing.

–About Us page- put a picture of yourself! If you specialize in something, show that in your picture.

–Beef up product descriptions

–Use more targeted keywords with your category and/or item names. This will help with SEO, but also help with browsing.

There’s a lot more, and this will be covered in the next issue of the eBiz Insider!

Directly after the Site Deconstruction session, Greg Paone and I presented on the new features we’re releasing for Yahoo! Store. What are they? You will find out soon! That’s one of the best parts about coming to Boot Camp: Attendees are that first to hear about the latest innovations from the Solid Cactus Development Laboratory.

The Solid Cactus Training Center - all ready to go for the troops!

Hard to believe it’s already after 4:00. The final Solid Cactus Boot Camp session is wrapping up, and soon the attendees will be whisked back to the Woodlands Inn & Resort to get ready for tonight’s festivities: dinner at The Cafe.

Today’s sessions focused on Internet marketing. Our team of PPC and SEO experts conducted five informative, interactive sessions filled with tips clients can implement immediately to plan for the busy 2009 shopping season, as well as discussed long-term strategies and everyday things online retailers can do to keep up with today’s changing landscape.

The sessions today were: Blogging for Brand Building, Buzz and Bucks; SMO- Facebook, Twitter, Link Building & Beyond; E-mail Marketing- Analyzing the Results; Using the Web for Reputation and Relationship Management and finally, Holiday Marketing in a Recession.

Mike Rowland presenting Holiday Marketing in a Recession on Day One of Solid Cactus Boot Camp

Tomorrow, the focus switches to store development for Yahoo! Store, as well as more Internet marketing. One of our partners, PowerPay, will also be “on campus” to discuss their services.  I’m excited to co-present New Features for Your Store from Solid Cactus in the morning. And, I’ll be reporting from our ever-popular site deconstruction session. Stay tuned for more news from this week’s event.

For more pictures, you can view Scott’s Picasa album here. More will certainly be added to this album as the week progresses.

-Donna

Boot Camp attendees during a tour of Solid Cactus HQ

At just after 9:00 a.m. this morning, Scott Sanfilippo brought the new recruits into the corporate marketing department for a tour. I was putting the finishing touches on some Boot Camp material as he introduced the team. I couldn’t help but get a little more excited. It’s one thing planning for Boot Camp, but when the 30+ clients from all over the country (and Canada, too!) actually arrive, I really get pumped!

More updates to come! The Internet Marketing team is ruling the roost right now in our training center. Pictures and more to come all week on the blog!

Also, follow us on Twitter for updates all week:  @cactus_donna, @scottsanfilippo and also follow the hashtag #scbootcamp — Check out our social media page see everyone to follow!

-Donna

Yesterday, I hosted a webinar with Jeff Stolarcyk and Alicia Magda as my guests. Jeff and Alicia are our resident social media experts and who better to talk about SMO with than them?

When it comes to getting the word out about your business, social media is now considered crucial. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social networking sites are free ways for your to spread your message and get people to come to your website.

During the webinar we discussed the most important social networking sites and which ones your should focus on. We gave tours of each and also discussed best practices and how to avoid turning people off, rather than on, to your business.

In case you missed it, or want others to watch, it’s now online for viewing. Enjoy!

Click To Play

It was a simply gorgeous Friday night in Northeast Pennsylvania and the setting was perfect for the closing night of Solid Cactus Boot Camp. Temps in the high 80’s allowed us to take advantage of having cocktail hour outside at the East Mountain Inn with spectacular views of the valley below. After dinner we had our usual “graduation” where attendees got their diploma and a bag of Solid Cactus swag.

The highlight of the evening came when Sam Blankenship of TrickShopMagic.com entertained with some magic before giving the keynote address.

I hope everyone had a great time at Boot Camp and we look forward to seeing you at another one real soon!

View the keynote address online:

Thursday night’s Boot Camp dinner was at Pazzo Restaurant. After dinner we all headed across the street to Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs for an evening of gaming. Unfortunately nobody came back a big winner, but a great time was had by all!

The final day of Solid Cactus Boot Camp proved that Mother Nature CAN cooperate when she wants to. The near 80 degree temperatures and plenty of sunshine had me firing up the grill and putting together a BBQ that consisted of 15 pounds of shrimp, 20 pounds of hamburgers, 100 hot dogs and 10 pounds of chicken. Most of us slept for the rest of the afternoon!

Photo Courtesy of www.FreeNaturePictures.com

Well, we just had the last Solid Cactus Boot Camp session for this round.  The Solid Cactus Management Team was available for an roundtable open discussion, and entertained questions from the attendees.

Here’s the skinny from the brass:

> As the company has grown, Solid Cactus has made concerted efforts to streamline operations and provide a better customer experience.  Account Managers, Project Managers and Marketing Managers work together to cohesively deliver a positive full-service experience.

> Solid Cactus continues to serve stores and sites on multiple platforms and has dedicated internal teams to handle each.

> New products are constantly in development with Solid Cactus; those products are typically released at Boot Camp.  Such features are not released to the general public until later to help provide our Boot Camp attendees with the very first opportunities to take advantage of new offerings.

> We are always open to feedback, and very much value the Boot Camp survey feedback we receive.  Do you have suggestions for future Boot Camps?  Leave a comment and let us know!

On a personal note, I can tell you that I have worked for many companies and organizations.  The talent and dedication at Solid Cactus is unmatched.  We are intensely passionate about what we do; we are a family.  We forge friendships, have fun and support one another.  We are at Solid Cactus because we want to be, not because we have to be.  A wise individual once said to me, “If you don’t wake up in the morning and look forward to what you do, you are wasting your time.”  I thought that was idealistic, until I came to Solid Cactus.  I look forward to work.  I love to learn about my clients; I know about their lives, their families.  Yes, we provide products and services at Solid Cactus, but more importantly, we foster relationships–lasting ones.

Now, it’s graduation time; we’re off to a fabulous dinner reception to celebrate our attendees.  If we didn’t see you here this time, don’t miss the next one!

Alas, the final presentation of the Spring ‘09 Boot Camp wrapped up a few minutes ago. Our final discussion, presented by Affiliate Marketing Manager Michelle Pushefski, Senior SEO Account Manager Jeff Stolarcyk and SEO Specialist Nicholas Matthews delved into the ever-important, but often missed marketing methods; Affiliate, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and E-mail Marketing.

Most site-owners are familiar with PPC or Paid Search, but more often then not that’s where the line is drawn. Any marketing is better then no marketing, we all can agree on that, but the point of today’s presentation was to show site owners how important it is not to limit yourself. Paid searches limit your audience and in-turn limit your potential income.

In addition to Search Marketing panelists discussed other marketing avenues, which include:

• Affiliate Marketing
• Comparison Shopping Engines
• Search Engine Optimization
• Social Media Marketing
• Email Marketing

Affiliate
First up to bat was our in-house expert Michelle. While affiliate can be tricky to understand she helped to break down the mystique which is it.

Key take aways:

• Commission based referral.
• Great supplement to paid search revenue.
• Exposure to new potential customers.
• Control Cost Per Acquisition (Only pay when sales are made).
• Increase your bottom line by 10-20%.
• Top three network affiliate sites to look into – Google Affiliate, Commission Junction, Link Share

Comparison Shopping Engine

• Compete in a unique market based upon prices, service and expertise.
• Reach customers searching for your specific product.

Search Engine Optimization

The main take-away Jeff expressed he’d like everyone to get from his presentation,
“SEO is a set of protocols which, if done right, your rankings will [sic] increase. But it’s time consuming.”
Thus, a managed solution will save the day (not to mention a headache.)

Benefits

• Drive organic search traffic.
• Capture customers at all points in the shopping cycle.
• No ‘cost per click’.

Social Media Optimization
Even if your not doing them, certainly you’ve heard of them – Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Blogs, etc. These SMO’s can help build your customer base with the most unlikeliest of customers – those which you may have never targeted before.

Benefits

• Engages customers where they interact. (You go to them, they don’t have to come to you.)
• Encourages viral promotion.
• Empowers customers to promote your products.
• Allows you to listen (or view) the buzz about your brand.

Email Marketing
Allows you to interact with and engage your current customer base, thus (hopefully) creating a lifetime customer.

Benefits

• Reaching out to clients who have already shopped with your store.
• Allows them to pass along, digitally, savings, features and new products which in-turn exposes you to a new audience.
• Again, reaching out to the customer as opposed to always looking for them to come find you.
• Highest ROI (Return on Investment) across aforementioned marketing methods.

As the sun sets on the last of this Boot Camp fun, I wish you all good luck! Even if you couldn’t attend, I hope we’ve taught you a thing or two to help optimize your site and potentially increase revenue!

You know what you sell, you’ve totally got some pictures of it, and you’ve had a favorite color since grade school. Why waste time with a designer, right? You have everything you need to make a web site happen! Well…almost everything. You might not know exactly how to combine all those pictures and words into something that makes sense, something that people can relate to, or something that people are willing to shop from. But that’s OK, because a designer knows, and they know how to apply what they know rather perfectly.

Today’s Boot Camp Session on “The Importance of Good Site Design” with Marc Manfre, a Graphic Designer at Solid Cactus, Inc., explained that what you see when you arrive at a really amazing site was not a gift of chance. A lot of creativity, knowledge and work goes into well-built sites, but it is essential creativity, knowledge and work – and your designer needs your help to make your site the most it can be. The first step of good design is to fill your designer in on the key components of your business. As is the case with almost all projects, taking the time to get all the essentials explained from the beginning will build an infinitely better end result. It is then up to your designer to combine all the necessary elements into a site that is visually optimized from every angle, which is precisely why they need all the ingredients before they start their work. Imagine if you had just put the last sprinkle on a beautiful birthday cake and someone handed you a forgotten egg and asked you to mix it in. Yeah, it’s not going to be pretty. Don’t give your designer a last minute egg.

Your site has to be appealing. This may seem simple, but think of all the horrible sites you’ve seen that simply weren’t! It also has to emotionally engage the customer, make them feel as if this is the right place for them – the place they feel aligned with and will return to again. It has to be geared toward driving sales. The prettiest site in the world isn’t going to sell a thing if people don’t know how to use it or have to scroll high and low to find what they should be able to locate instantly. It has to be relevant to your industry, and easily identifiable as such. It has to promote your agenda – let people know who you are and what you stand for. Quite simply, it has to make a fantastic first impression. There are likely countless other sites that sell exactly what you do. If you haven’t rather quickly given someone a reason to choose you over them, they’re already busy clicking away somewhere else.

So what can you do apart from filling your designer in on the most important aspects of your business? You can supply your site with regular doses of fresh content and images. You can fill your customers in with important information about you and your site, and keep them updated as things change and progress. You can regularly monitor your own site and industry to be sure your site is exactly where it needs to be.

Designers aren’t simply creating art. They understand that your web site literally cannot afford to sit there and look pretty. And that is the key component that separates a designer from someone who has a good eye for color and layout. There is much more to good design than a universal visual appeal, and good designers know this, and know what it is. They research your industry for modern color trends and photography. They know which graphics are going to create that click with a customer and instantly assure them they’ve found the right place. They know which language to employ to carry out your agenda. And they know the wheres and whys of placing all those important features – from the mailing list to the search bar – for ease of navigation. A designer is going to combine an artistic eye with a business-oriented mind to create the total package. And that is good. Good design.