Throughout the year, events occur. You should be aligning your deals to run in parallel with these events and as a result, it will keep your shop relevant to what is happening in the world today.

Choosing the right events and promotions

Firstly, choose events that relate to your business industry, goals and target audience. I could tell you what events to promote for, but it entirely depends on your business.

Next, you need to decide on a long term plan. Some promotions may require the reduction of just a few products with a couple of banners, while others will require more thought. You typically need to plan your Christmas promotions 4-5 months in advance.

Finally, think of something more creative than just the usual. Reducing products is easy, but it won’t grab attention. Interactive games, competitions and unique experiences are likely to go a lot further.

Make it visual and fill the gaps

You need to be on top of these promotions all the time. If you have a gap in your calendar, fill it. You always want at least one promotion running at one time, whilst always planning the next.
- Block out time for the planning of the promotions. Consider the resources and staff you will need
- Split the promotions for your marketing channels. E.g. Website, Twitter, Facebook, Pay Per Click campaigns
- Don’t necessarily run the same promotion through all your channels (unless it is something big!)
- Run multiple variations of the same promotion to target different audiences

Involve your team

Your staff, friends and family will have some great ideas. Encourage them to think of ways to come up with a unique promotion and reward them for doing so. Organise a brainstorming session so you can chat about ideas.

By coming up with a solid promotional schedule for the next year or so and reviewing it on a regular basis you can increase traffic to your store, increase conversions and get your name out there.

Always remember the key events, should they be relevant to your business. Christmas, Halloween, January Sales, Mothers and Fathers day, Valentines day, April Fools, Back to School, Easter, Summer, Winter and anything unique to that year such as the Olympics, Elections and other big events.

The first one is from Google. It’s no secret that Google have been trying to get into Social Media for quite some time now and each time, failing. Until now, we’ve been able to safely ignore their attempts but in the past week we have seen a new service from them that they’re investing so heavily in that it is rumoured the entire companies bonus scheme depends on the success of it working. Furthermore, Google have utilised their most powerful of services to leverage support from this and integrated directly into the heart of their search engine.

Google +1 button – essential for e-commerce

Whether you are a fan and think it’s a great service or not, there is no denying that Google are confident this is the future of search results and will be shaping the future of their search engine.

The service is in the form of a +1 button, something you will be seeing a lot more of over the coming weeks. The earlier you integrate it, the more you’re likely to achieve in the rankings.

If you don’t already know what the +1 button is, it’s much like the Facebook “Like” button. You click +1 on the things you like most, but the difference to the Facebook like button, is that the +1 button will have a direct impact on both organic, but especially your search results in the future.

There has been arguments out there that say the +1 button spells the end for the smaller e-commerce company, with the larger sites out there getting more “+1 clicks” as a result of their already-large user base. Nobody knows for sure how the results will look in a few weeks time once the service has started to seat comfortably, but I’m sure Google are wise to this and I can imagine there will be some sort of weighting system in the algorithm that will benefit businesses of all sizes.

Whatever your opinion on the +1 button and how successful you think it may be, it is obvious that you need to get on board with it as soon as possible to achieve maximum benefit.

How to integrate the +1 button into an e-commerce site

This is actually quite easy.

1. In the HTML code of the website (most likely a footer file), you will see the </body> tag near the end. You will need to copy/paste the following code just above this closing tag:

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js”></script>

2. Wherever you would like the +1 button to appear on the website, copy/paste the following:

<g:plusone></g:plusone>

Et voila! It will place a +1 button there.  It will look like this (feel free to click it!):

You don’t have to worry about specifying a URL or page as the script will automatically detect this, but if you would like to over-ride the page with a custom URL then you will need to add the href tag to the +1 code like so:

<g:plusone href=”http://www.talkingecommerce.com”></g:plusone>

On a side note, you can also specify the size by including a “size” attribute specifying small/medium/standard/tall or optionally not include the count with count=”false”

Integrating the new Twitter follow button to an e-commerce site

The next one is a bit more straight forward to explain. Previously, you could place a button on your website that would link through to the users Twitter feed, where you would be able to follow them.

The new button, if signed in to Twitter, will be a one-click follow solution. Users don’t even leave the page and will be following your Twitter feed instantly.

For instructions and a generator for the code to create one of these buttons for your website, please visit http://twitter.com/followbutton – this will give you a button that looks like this:

Follow @nickpwatson

I hope you find this article useful and as always, I warmly welcome any feedback.

…but what if there was a way to get more from this customer? What if this one order could give you more in return on investment than an expensive pay per click campaign? Read on, my friend.

Stephen Fry has just placed an order on your site

Unlikely? Maybe. Possible? Yes. When you’re selling offline you get to meet everyone face to face, in the flesh. Say Stephen Fry walked into your shop to make a purchase? You’d treat him like royalty, giving him the 5 star treatment in the hope that his powerful influence over his vast number of connections will boost the reputation of your shop.

In the e-commerce world, everyone is anonymous at first. For all you know, Stephen Fry could have just placed an order. However, you’d only find out once you come to processing your orders and who’s to say he wouldn’t be using an alternate alias to remain anonymous anyway?

Your first order is precious, treat them like a celebrity

I’m not saying you should just treat the first order like this, but if you were to pick any time to go above and beyond with service then now is the time.

- Reassure the user that their order has been processed successfully. E-mail them with an invoice and details on how they can get in touch, with a link to your help section should they need it.
- Communicate with them every time there has been a change in the order process. Whether this is the items being picked or dispatched, it is important to let them know what is going on.

In addition, here is some things you can do to add value and really impress them:

- Upgrade their first order to priority/next day delivery and let them know
- Send them a free gift. Even something small such as a bag of sweets can have a big impact
- Pick up the phone and call to make sure they are 100% happy
- Keep a close eye out for contact and make sure you respond immediately
- Give them VIP status on your website, offering benefits such as exclusive deals, exclusive pricing and money off codes. Make sure this feels like it was done just for them

You’ve just earned yourself a hundred new customers

Not every order will result in a guaranteed return of investment, but every so often you will have a customer that is so happy they will tell their friends, tweet about it, facebook it or write on any of the social networks out there. For all you know, they could be highly influencial. They could be Stephen Fry. Imagine if he tweeted about his great experience with you? You’d be advertising to 2,607,976 customers – how small does your pay per click campaign feel now?

Word of mouth can be more powerful than any investment in marketing.

Essentially, using an iFrame you can do almost anything you can do with your normal website. An iFrame on Facebook is, essentially your own website encapsulated within Facebook’s own walls, within a page.

If you have the expertise, you can create the app yourself and place the iFrame inside. If not, there are a few apps out there that can help make your life a little easier and save you time.

The best Facebook app for putting iFrames into your page

There are plenty out there and yes, I have looked at the widely publicised Wildfire one and I think the best one out there is simply titled “Static IFRAME Tab” and is available here: http://www.facebook.com/iframehost

How to create a shop within Facebook

If you already have an online shop anywhere else, this can be very easy. There are several ways to utilise this app and make the most of your online store on Facebook, such as by simply redirecting you to your online shop at an external URL or maybe even just placing an image there, or some HTML with a few offers. The way I’m going to show you, is a fully integrated version of your online shop and can be done in just a few simple steps.

Stage 1 - add to your page

1. If you haven’t already, download the Static IFRAME Tab app and click “Install Page Tab” – here you will be prompted for a decision on what page to add the app to. When you have done this, you will be taken to your page. On the left you will see a few links, one of these is “Welcome” – click it. (You can move the position of this link by clicking the edit link below and drag-drop to reorder)

2. Click settings at the top right. Here you will need to select “URL” and enter in the address for your shop (I recommend that you don’t simply do this, however as it is more advisable to create a scaled down version of your shop as I will talk about in a bit). You can also specify the height of the iFrame and are presented with the option to hide scrollbars. It is advisable to tweak these according to the design of your Facebook e-commerce shop.

Settings for the Facebook Page

3. (optional) If you want to turn fan gating on, you can specify a different URL to show if a user hasn’t clicked “Like” on your page. This usually isn’t necessary, but can prove very useful for offering your fans exclusive deals. As you can add as many iFrames as you want to your page, it may be a great idea to have a separate one for exclusive deals, that only fans can see.

4. Finally, there are a couple of options to choose the Tab Icon and Name. Changing the Name is easy and definitely recommended, where as changing the icon is a little more tricky. Instructions are provided on how to do both. Once you are done, you can click on “Save Settings”

Scale down your website, make it Facebook friendly

NBA - An early example of a Facebook page shop (they have opted for full size shop, but this can be achieved within the page itself)

If you’ve managed to create your online shop yourself, you will probably know how to do this already. If not, you will have to look elsewhere as with the hundreds of platforms available out there, I could quite easily end up turning this blog post into a hard back book!

Whilst I’m not going to tell you how to get down and dirty with your HTML, PHP, ASP or whatever you use to customise the appearance of your site, I am going to offer some tips when you do decide to proceed.

1. Keep it simple. Remember, you only have 520px wide to work with and you have no control over the design of Facebook. Your design must compliment Facebook’s effectively.

2. Test everything. When done, it is essential to test all the pages you have given access to via the new simplified e-commerce site. The user must have a fully integrated solution.

3. Reassure security. Users can enable secure browsing in their settings and browse Facebook securely. If you have SSL installed on your site also, you need to re-inforce this and let users know they are completely safe.

4. Lose the header. Or at least, strip it down to something short that will fit perfectly within the iFrame. You may also want to incorporate the mini cart at the top, so the users have a consistent feel throughout. Strip down the navigation and footer too.

5. Building for Facebook is like building for mobile. You have to create a much cleaner, more simple feel to your e-commerce site specifically for serving Facebook users. Don’t use the functionality people love about your site, however.

6. Test payment gateways. Some third party payment providers such as Sagepay allow you to customise the way your payment page looks. Do this and keep it consistent with the feel of your website, as you would for your main site.

7. Use a unique URL for accessing the Facebook version. You can then serve the Facebook site as a completely seperate site from the main shop.

If you have a fairly complicated design for your e-commerce site, this could prove to be quite difficult. If it is simple and streamlined, chances are you can make some changes in minutes. Either way, I’d be interested to know how you got on and found the whole experience.

…or NOT!

It’s great dropping a keyword in here and there to aid Search Engine Optimisation, but without technique it’s meaningless. When reading the paragraph above, did it appear as though I was trying to help you or simply just dropping in a keyword at every opportunity – simply just to increase the visibility on Google? Search engine optimisation is great, but make sure you do it right!

Didn’t that second paragraph made a lot more sense? I still managed to drop in some keywords, without making you cross eyed and confused by the end of it! As you can probably see, I’ve tried optimising the word “keywords” and the phrase “search engine optimisation”

The same principle applies for blog posts, product pages, information pages, category pages, the lot!

The great SEO blogging technique

If you have an e-commerce store, or for that matter any website then get a blog for it! Ideally using WordPress, due to its high search engine optimisation methods and organic rankings.

Once you have installed and setup your blog, here are some techniques on writing content that you shouldn’t miss out on.

Use keywords for content optimisation

I demonstrated this point above. Search engines are intelligent and will recognise cramming every other word with a keyword or phrase. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to drop keywords in every now and then, just do it naturally with a conscious memory to use them where you can.

• Identify a primary keyword and include it in your Title, URL, first paragraph and H1 tag.
• Try to identify 1 or 2 other keywords to mention in your post
• Include your identified keywords throughout the post
• Make sure the first and second paragraphs are the most thought out.
• Make sure you keep your content readable. Top ten lists and bullet points are often easy to follow, plus break it down into headings and sub-headings.
• Remember to include keywords in your blog tags as well. WordPress has built in functionality to make this easy.

Query deserves freshness. Update your content regularly.

It was Dan Cave that taught me about this last year. Regular, current and updated content will get you higher rankings. Google loves fresh content! Be the first to write about something current and reap the rewards!

Build links and add value to your content

By writing valuable, useful content – you will get links back to your site. Back-links or “link juice” is essential for search engine optimisation. Here are some ways to do this:

• Make the first paragraph count. If it doesn’t, users won’t continue to read.
• Guest blogging on other people’s website (with a link back to yours)
• Utilising social media and building a network of friends that will spread your content to others
• Use social bookmarking sites such as del.icio.us and stumble upon
• Talk to anyone that you know who runs a blog, maybe get them to write an article and cite your blog post as a reference
• If you really want to get your post out there, send out a press release. There are many companies on the web that offer this facility.

In conclusion

I’m just touching on the surface of search engine optimisation here, but with the right principles you can really make this work. Install statistics such as Google Analytics and identify the keywords bringing traffic to your site so you can optimise further for these. This way, you will send your blog on the way to success allowing  you to then focus on promoting products in your posts, but remember to offer valuable content and not just a “buy our stuff” archive!