Successful Blog

4 Ways to Increase Average Order Value of The Shopping Cart

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Colin MacDougal

With algorithmic changes across the search engines becoming nearly a weekly occurrence, it’s been a perpetual hell for businesses this past year, especially when it comes to getting targeted customers to buy from them. When you’ve lost your organically grown traffic resources due to faulty content or linking incidents, the creative side of increasing the average order value needs to come out to play, and level the losses which occurred because of Pandas or Penguins scolding your content. Here we’ve taken into account that normal traffic flows have slowed, whacking part of your organic sales, and have provided you with some creative ways to increase the net profit without increasing the COGS (cost of goods sold). By working on ways to increase order values, you’ll improve overall sales once your organic placement has been successfully arbitrated by Google upon completion of content overhauling or other improvements, which previously prohibited natural sales without upselling.

Ship ‘Em Free

On the surface, one may believe that offering free shipping would decrease overall profit margins; you’d be happy to know it’s actually the opposite. Temporal sales can increase to epic proportions if you offer free shipping codes across your sales pages, social media drives and search engine marketing ads. Consumers have been known to ditch $1,100 shopping carts simply because the cost to ship goods floored them. With ingenuity and logical pricing, you can leverage free shipping offers in numerous ways, including:

  • Time-sensitive offers: Historically works well with seasonal shopping items which you wish to unload. Offer free shipping on certain items you wish to clear out of your warehouse to make room for the next shipment or season.
  • Flat rates: Provided your customer meets a certain purchase threshold, offer flat-rate shipping costs which are slightly less than you’d normally charge. This increases shopping cart sizes and allows you to eat shipping costs you’ll never miss.
  • Free shipping IF: One of the greatest, and easiest, shipping methods to increase AOV is forcing the overall dollar amount spent to rise where you want it, in which then you’ll slap free shipp.ing on those items. Works well with small items which can be slammed into one flat-rate box via USPS
  • Eligible products ship free: Here you can concentrate your sales pushes on higher margin items by offering free shipping if “x, y or z” is purchased. You can do the same with items which go well together (free shipping on coffee and coffee pots, etc.).

The costs of shipping goods become arbitrary when you push the overall consumer spend to more comfortable thresholds, allowing the profit margin to exceed shipping rates.

Up-And-Cross Selling

Ever shopped for some service or product and seen that to get what you really want, the next package higher needs to be purchased? Sure, it may cost $10 extra, but the value merited the increase expenditure. The keys to making an upselling or cross selling campaign happen effectively is clearly identifying items which can be placed in higher categories along with accessories to inflate the worth to your customers. Once clarity is witnessed in what each customer will receive, through a warranty, extra customer support, or free music downloads, the upgraded purchase is normally made. Inhibitors to sales that aren’t made are directly related to the lack of value in the next package or product above the one that is desired. Purchases that increase self-efficacy through larger purchases are also historically effective, especially when customer support is adequate enough. There are definitely some don’ts that come with suggestive upgrading, which include:

  • Suggesting products outside of customer’s chosen parameters;
  • Black boxing items which would have little companion use with products in shopping cart;
  • Offering extended warranties from outside companies which, inevitably, mean the customer must spend more money elsewhere.

The goal of product co-suggestion and upselling is to provide increases in value and tangible receivables; if companies suggest unrelated or non-plausible items, the customer will more than likely ditch the cart and move onto the next vendor or service provider.

Find Strength In Volume Priced Items

Another highly effective AOV tool at your disposal is offering volume priced items in groups that appeal to customers based on historical visitor interests. This is generally accomplished by offering two similar items, grouped together, and tossing in the third one for free, or something similar in nature. You’ll still profit from all items, regardless of how you accomplish the volume pricing model. Other useful ideas to propagate sales though volume pricing include:

  • Kitting: This simply means putting several items together which increases value and can be sold with slight discounts; when broken apart, the customer can see they are getting value.
  • Bundling: This usually takes a kit and throws in accessories to increase the usefulness of the kit. This could be extra clasps for necklaces, creamer packets with coffee, etc.

Volume priced items can still proffer excellent AOV during times when organic search traffic has severely halted natural sales.

Offering Free Gifts

This, by far, is the best way to introduce up and coming product or service innovations: give sneak peeks or free goodie bags when “x” amount of dollars are spent. You accomplish several key business ideologies simultaneously: first, you are selling and profiting off regular items and second, you are offering your new product lines a showcasing before new customer eyes, which can bring them back for more purchases, or even bring new buyers to your storefront. You can also give away free eBooks with site subscriptions, giftcards with larger purchases and more; the possibilities are nearly endless when you seek innovative free gift giveaways as the means necessary to increase AOV. The free gifts could have been ‘throw-away’ items that sales representatives left for you to sample; they may even be eBooks you’ve been dying to give away.

Multichannel Lead Capturing

Now that you have multitudes of ideas to begin your quest for AOV leveraging, you need to harness the power of social suggestion to push these offers along. You can accomplish this through Wildfire contest application integration, Tweets, Facebook fan page pushes or anything you feel would spread the word about your freebies, gifts or shipping values. Once it becomes viral—if the deal is excellent, it will—social media will naturally circumvent your offer and increase your AOV immeasurably.

Test Them All First

Since so many different methods work for different brands and business models, you may find it easier to test various AOV methods on smaller scales before throwing down the gauntlet in an all-out media frenzy. Test which offers seem to work better than others, especially during periods when you are relying on anti-search traffic to appear on your website. You aren’t losing any more or less revenue by testing various offers since organic traffic has slowed down. While you are waiting for solvency of these issues, take the time to put up some great deals that would attract a social following. Once several dozen people have purchased items and left testimonials, they’ll naturally share that purchase with others and grow your AOV without the assistance of search engine optimization. Heck, you may be able to slow your aggressive SEM efforts if your deals are consistent, worthwhile and value-packed.

Photo Credit: Flickr

Author’s Bio:
Colin MacDougal works with www.HostPapa.com company serving over 100,000 customers around the world. Since launching in 2006, HostPapa has offered reliable, budget-friendly, easy-to-use web solutions for small to medium-sized businesses. You can find HostPapa at http://www.facebook.com/hostpapa

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Designing Your Office for Increased Productivity

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Alex Summers

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Designing Your Office for Increased Productivity

Office design affects employee morale and productivity. Unfortunately, much of the time not enough thought goes into planning an office. Someone sets up a few cubicles and desks, along with some office equipment, and employees are given some little area to call their workstation. It is functional and little more. Companies that really want to boost productivity, however, should know that making certain additions to an office could make a big difference.

Open the Space

Workers packed in tight, cramped areas may feel stressed and easily distracted, just as one would if living in a small home with too many people. Considering how many hours most people spend at a job, the office really is a home away from home. Plan your office space with this in mind. An open floor plan, with greater space between desks or cubicles, allows employees more breathing room and invites calm and focus.

Remove clutter and unnecessary equipment, which may detract from the beauty of the office. Place copiers and similar machinery in their own area, close enough to easily get to but not so close that the machine sounds will be distracting.

Office Furniture

The best office furniture is both comfortable and aesthetically pleasing. Luxurious executive furniture subtly creates a sense of prestige. This facilitates an employee’s appreciation and respect for their job, which leads to better attitude and productivity. Purchase beautiful leather office chairs for your office, as well as high quality, attractive desks. Add a beautiful hardwood table for meetings. The furniture may cost extra, but the increase in employee morale will eventually offset that extra cost.

Plants

The air in most building contains traces of pollutants, caused by the off gassing of chemicals used in building materials, carpeting and furniture. Plants help purify the air, creating a healthier environment for employees. Plants also have a calming effect on most people and can make the office feel more like a home and less like an institution. The relaxed focus simple additions like plants can bring naturally leads to happier employees, fewer errors, and increased productivity.

Natural Lighting

Evidence suggests that natural lighting increases focus, mood and productivity. The body responds to natural lighting with increased alertness and feelings of well being. Replace traditional lights with full-spectrum lights.

If your office has windows, avoid covering them. If you must use curtains, use only thin ones so that you still allow some natural sunlight into the room.

Internet and Office Equipment

Slow internet speeds waste company time and may lower productivity. Find ways to boost internet speed for the whole office. In addition, all office equipment should be kept well functioning to avoid breakdowns and delays. Replace old copiers, computers and other equipment with new machines that function quickly and efficiently.

Ergonomic keyboards and mouse pads aid proper wrist alignment and may reduce instances of carpal tunnel. An uncomfortable employee is generally not as productive an employee. By taking measures to increase the emotional and physical well being of employees, office work will be done more quickly and effectively.

Author’s Bio:
Alex is a blogger, freelance writer and recent college graduate. She currently performs market research for an online marketing firm when she is not contributing her own thoughts and observations to the online community.

Improve Integration & Communication in Your SMB with Document Management

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Samantha McCollough

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Improve Integration & Communication in Your SMB with Document Management

According to a research report by Solgenia, the amount of unstructured data and the volume of documents is growing more than 30% per year within small and medium-sized businesses. So it is not surprising that over 60% of SMB’s have adopted document management of some kind. Unfortunately, these companies are often missing greater opportunities for integration and communication that this technology provides.

This research should be a wake-up call for small business owners who think document management software is only for larger corporations. Rowe stated that big statistics make a good impression, but there’s no telling the size of each digital document project. Many companies may have great document management programs but are not properly trained on it or perhaps haven’t integrated it well enough.

“Almost one-quarter of the companies in the SMB category are researching new document management technologies,” Rowe said. “Major consideration is being given to collaboration tools and automation. Collaboration is important because of the traditional silos of information that make sharing difficult. It prevents information accessibility to various departments that own a portion of the business process. It can take a long time to gain access to some of those silos.”

Document management can-and should-be more than just a document repository. But too often SMB’s lack the knowledge or skills to take full use of the software. Many companies are not fully aware of the hidden benefits such a system can provide. A common problem is a lack of tight integration with other systems, so collaboration, communication and workflow all suffer.

The key to improving integration and communication is to properly define your processes before implementation, connect the workflow across the organization and separate systems and choose a solution that will be powerful enough to achieve this but simple and flexible enough to be managed. Training is also key, if employees aren’t utilizing the system or are finding ways around it, then the company will not realize the benefits associated with the system.

Author’s Bio:
Samantha McCollough write about business and technology at http://www.idatix.com. You can find her on twitter @smccollo.

Social Media Decoded for Small Business Owners

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Kenneth Javellana

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Social Media Decoded for Small Business Owners

Every small business has a chance to become a bigger fish in a bigger pond, but this opportunity is always tied in with your ability to take full advantage of social media. Unlike other marketing platforms, social media consists of numerous ways to advertise about your business effectively but without paying a single penny for such services. More importantly, social media is a platform in which you rarely require third party services like an advertising firm or a marketing consultant to create and handle your company’s online marketing campaign. Social media is yours to conquer but only if you are willing to work hard at learning its fundamental principles and continuously hone the skills required by online marketing.

Always have a specific goal in mind.

When people talk about social media, you often hear people say it’s incredibly important to be “creative” and “unique”. That’s all well and good, but at the end of the day, social media marketing is still about making money. You still need to establish goals that would result into higher profit margins. As such, the same principles for goal setting still apply. The best goals are still SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.

Prepare a solid foundation.

At present, every small business should have a consistently active account on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Having your own private-domain website and blog are also critical components of the foundation of your social media campaign.

Be where your market is.

You also hear a lot of people saying that Facebook should be the hub of your social media campaign. That may be true for most markets, but it’s not always so. In the end, you should focus on the websites which your target market spends most of its time in. Are they really active on Facebook or do they prefer LinkedIn?

Knowing which websites your target market frequents allows you to allocate your time and resources more effectively. Of course, this does not mean you should ignore other aspects of your social media campaign. Rather, it just helps make your priorities clear.

Make good use of feedback.

Feedback is incredibly important in social media. It’s the best basis for determining whether a particular technique is successful or not. You can create opportunities for receiving feedback by inviting readers to comment on your posts or email you their opinions. As for unsolicited feedback, you can configure search settings of Google so that it will notify you every time the name of your business crops up in the Internet.

Prioritize quality over quantity.

It’s been said over and over again, but it’s remarkable how so many small business owners still ignore this all-important social media tip. If you want your presence to matter online, then you need to give people a very good reason to follow you on Twitter, like your page on Facebook, and link to your website or blog. For that to happen, you need to consistently provide them with high-quality posts instead of simply maintaining a specific number of posts each week.

Social media success is ultimately dependent on the consistency of your efforts. As such, it is important that you spend as much time online as needed. For this to happen, you may want to contact a broadband expert about upgrading your current Internet service plan.

Author’s Bio:
Kenneth Javellana is a writer on technology, lifestyle and businesses at Broadband Expert. During his free time, Kenneth writes for relevant blogs in order to share his ideas on his favorite niches.

How to Choose an SEO Agency for Your Business

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Brian Taylor

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How to Choose an SEO Agency for Your Business

Well-optimized, effective websites aren’t just for Fortune 500 companies and tech companies anymore. Now more than ever, it’s important for small business owners to fully understand just how beneficial a successfully executed website can be for them as well.

In order to make your website successful, you need to make sure it’s fully search engine optimized and unless you’re an SEO expert yourself, you’ll no doubt want to hire a team of experts to help you get the job done right. Here’s how to make sure the experience goes as pleasantly as possible.

Have Faith in the Professionals You Choose

As is the case with hiring any other team of professionals to help you with your business, trust is an extremely important factor in your relationship with your SEO team. Once you’ve chosen the right professionals for the job, it’s important to have faith in their ability to do the job right and deliver you the results they promised. Avoid micromanaging and nagging at all costs.

Be Patient

Even once a given SEO strategy has been formulated and officially set in motion, it still takes time for the changes to yield results. Rome wasn’t built in a day, after all! The SEO agency you’re working with most likely gave you an estimate as far as how long it would take for you to start to notice results. Definitely give it that much time to work and take root.

Treat Your SEO Agency as a Partner

When working with any SEO agency, it’s of the utmost importance that you treat them as the partners they are. These are trained experts who know their craft just as well as you know yours, so they should be treated as equals working toward a common goal. Be professional in your communications and realistic in your expectations. Definitely address questions or concerns politely and with respect.

Pay for Quality Work

The SEO agency you hire to help you make the most of your website is made up of qualified business professionals that are doing what they do for the same reasons you are – because it’s their profession. As such, they expect to collect payment for services rendered according to their terms of service. Respect and adhere to the company’s business terms and be sure to pay them promptly for good services rendered. Always be sure to hold up your end of your business contract in every way, shape, and form as well.

Teaming up with an SEO agency in order to get results that deliver for you is simple when you follow a few simple guidelines.

Author’s Bio:
Brian Taylor is the VP, Business Development at Forix SEO in Portland, OR. a team of crack SEO experts with an impressive record when it comes to results, experience, and expertise. Forix offers affordable and ethical SEO services in Portland helping small businesses with their Internet marketing needs.