This June, the cleverbridge Ecommerce Blog devoted itself to teaching our audience about the KPIs for reducing customer service contacts, the five features of effective ecommerce sites, and the lie that is “friendly fraud.”
For our Ecommerce Digest series, we’re showcasing content that centers around using keyword research for optimizing search results, planning editorial calendars as part of an effective content strategy, considerations for taking your ecommerce global, and understanding why it is that the sales and development teams sometimes appear to be on different wavelengths.
Keywords and SEO, PPC
How to Estimate the Total Volume and Value of Keywords in a Given Market or Niche | Moz
Banishing overly simplified research techniques like relying on (often inaccurate) AdWords keyword search volume data alone, Rand Fishkin offers a practical lesson in targeting keywords for SEO and PPC. He shows how to properly research keywords, and he then explains how to take that research and use it to conduct sample tests for long and short tail versions of your keywords.
The overall lesson here is that advertisers should not just target the highest volume keywords. Finding theright keyword to target, it turns out, involves a delicate balance between search volumes, competition levels, potential ROI and the ease of creating content around that keyword.
Content Marketing
6 Tips for Planning an Editorial Calendar | Marketeer
Examining the content marketing landscape several years ago, I wrote that, “An effective content marketing strategy … can help every company in their quest to not only acquire and retain customers, but to showcase leadership and authenticity.” This analysis holds up even today as more companies across all industries attempt to win customers by wooing them with engaging content.
But inefficiencies in developing and distributing content are costly for businesses, especially B2B companies, with their dependence on a variety of content types for all stages of a very long sales cycle. Following the steps in this post will help you develop effective content more efficiently.
Global Ecommerce
Making The Case To Go Global | Forrester
Entering new markets is no easy feat, and produces worrisome questions like, “How do I expand sales globally without it costing too much?” Or, “Will a channel that worked well for me in one region perform just as well in another?” Assuming that the way to sell to customers in foreign lands is identical to the way you do it at home is foolish, as is assuming that one’s sales performance in a new market will be just as strong as in your mature one.
Forrester research director Zia Wigder helps us out with those questions as we figure out the right way to develop business in a new market, or if we should even try at all. Investigate not only the market opportunity, but your organization’s ability to withstand the vicissitudes of launching in a new place.
Software Development
If you’re selling and marketing software, but don’t really understand why you and your developers seem to be on different wavelengths, this post is for you. It is a blog post that ostensibly sets out to answer the question, “What is code?” for people who don’t code, but it is actually so much more, both in terms of content and design.
Centered around an entertaining account of a fictional meeting between a VP of Sales and a Scrum Master about budgeting for a development project, this post explores the complexity of getting a coding project ready for market. This is a lengthy article that contains some bits about the technical aspects of coding that you might want to skip, but there is also some great information about why software development projects are often delayed and over-budget.
Ecommerce Tips
How to Grow Your Ecommerce Business: Experts Reveal Secrets | FEInternational
Enjoy these 33 pieces of expertise for growing your ecommerce business (including one from yours truly). These diverse range of opinions come from some of the most respected names in ecommerce, and offer advice about removing friction from the checkout process, finding the right channel for acquiring new customers, offering excellent customer service, and creating a unique and consistent brand.
Vote for your favorite one!
