Ghost Mall Phenomenon

As a young boy, the Mall was the center of my universe. A place to watch movies, play video games, shop for clothes and meet friends after school and on the weekends. With the local Mall being the only outlet for most products, it was the center of commerce as well.

Ghost Mall Phenomenon
With the poor economy and the migration of customers to the Internet, many Brick & Mortar retailers and product manufacturers are seeing a major decrease in sales at Malls around the US. Malls are becoming ghost towns and the customers that are shopping probably have iPhone in hand doing comparison shopping for better deals by scanning barcodes.

Looking to the Internet to regain sales levels, these companies have a large learning curve and can spend tens of thousands of dollars learning how to marketing products on the Internet.

Mall Store = Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is similar to paying for mall space. The new mall is Google. Instead of people visiting malls they are visiting Google to search for the products they want to purchase. Getting listed among organic search results in Google is critical for the success of an Internet retailer or manufacturer that wants to sell direct on the Internet.

Local Advertising = Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Instead of purchasing newspaper ads or regional television ads, Google offers paid advertising for both national and local visibility. Start advertising without delay and quickly promote a sale or special promotion. However, before paying for visitors, make sure the conversion process is flawless. There is no reason to pay for customers if you know they are not going to convert.

If you are in this situation, cQualified has helped retailers transition successfully to the Internet, helped weave SEO into their Companies DNA, and put them back on the road to success. Email us to talk more about this opportunity.

Google Remarketing: A One-To-One Conversation

If you have driven down the interstate in the last 50 years you would see billboards promoting restaurants and amenities all along your trip. My favorite is the drive to Las Vegas right before you get to Jean, Nevada. You see a succession of signs promoting everything you can do when you visit the casinos in this city.

Google Remarketing
Google Remarketing works in this way as well. You know that the customer has visited your website (or intends to pass it on the interstate) and they are interested in your product/service. It is now time to convert those potential customers.

One-To-One Conversation
Talk directly to the customer and identify the Benefit to the Customer if they purchase. Then, create a succession of banner ads to educate them on your product/service and entice them to return and convert. For example, eBay would have banners with themes like; save money, browse a wide variety of products, ship it today, etc. Figure out what will motivate your customers and create a set of banners and improve your conversion rate.

Banner Blindness
Be sure to rotate in new banner ads on a regular basis. After 4 impressions a day, most banners become white noise. Also consider different color backgrounds since most blogs and websites are built on white backgrounds. This will give your banner ads more pop.

Conclusion
Google Remarketing gives you the opportunity to advertise to interested customers. Speak directly to your customers and tell them what they will get if they purchase. Don't waste the opportunity!

Google Analytics Multi-Channel Funnels: Last-Click Attribution is Dead

If a tree falls in the forest and Google Analytics is their to hear it, does it make an impression. Corney, I know but this is a great example of the issue with last-click attribution. We all know that most conversions take more than one touchpoint. Just because Google Analytics doesn't record those touchpoints for conversion click-paths doesn't mean you shouldn't spend time and money on those top of funnel search queries.

Google is now a player in multi-attribution analytics. With the full roll-out of the new Google Analytics features including the My Conversion tab on Google Analytics it is much easier to understand the click-path of a conversion. Obviously Google Analytics needs much more work to compete with other specialty analytics packages that can tell you the exact search query that triggered the multi-touch.

First-Click & Last-Click Attribution is Dead
Just because Google doesn't attribute conversions to general organic search queries, Google Remarketing and other top of funnel search queries doesn't mean that they are not integral in the conversion process. This at least confirms that the first-click, last-click attribution models are dead.

Traditional Marketing Executives
Before Internet Marketing, most marketing executives would say, "I know I am wasting 50% of my budget but I don't know which half." Well now you have a little bit more insight into the conversion process and that it is made up of multiple touchpoints from multiple channels.

Multi-Channel Buying Cycle
Don't forget that the buying cycle includes more than just online channels. Consider all online and offline channels when building multi-channel funnels.

Attend the Google Analytics Webinar on Multi-Channel Funnels October 11, 2011.