Articles - Page 9 of 10 - Nett Solutions Blog

Does your pricing “Thrill” your customers?

04/29/201306/11/2013 mwon

JC Penny (JCP) has been making headlines over the past year due to a strategic shift in its pricing model. About a year ago, newly hired CEO, Ron Johnson, announced that JCP will no longer promote sales and offer coupons to its customers. Instead, they would offer everyday low prices. JCP wanted to offer shoppers a no-nonsense way to shop without worrying about whether or not they are getting the best deal possible. Theoretically, that made some sense. From a business owner’s perspective, that makes even more sense. A simple, systematic, uniform pricing model saves labor cost, stabilizes inventory, and allows a method to manage costs/margins much easier. Time and labor is money, so if you’re saving those two resources, you’re going to save money. So how did JCP miss the mark?

A recent NY Times article interviewed Tracie Fobes from Penny Pinchin’ Mom. She epitomizes the fallacy in JCP’s logic.

When, a little over a year ago, J. C. Penney stopped promoting sales and offering coupons and instead made a big deal about its “everyday” low prices, Ms. Fobes stopped shopping there. It wasn’t that she thought the prices were bad, she said. She just wasn’t having any fun… most shoppers, coupon collectors or not, want the thrill of getting a great deal, even if it’s an illusion. In recent months, Penney recognized that human trait and backtracked on its pricing policy, offering coupons and running weekly sales again”.

JCP grossly underestimated the human aspect of its customers. Humans don’t just buy based on price. We buy based on feelings and emotions. (Ironically, Mr. Johnson was recruited from Apple, a company notorious for selling on perceived value and brand equity, not price) We want to feel like we got a steal. It’s an experience. It’s a great feeling to see a discount on our receipt. It’s the reason grocery store cashiers are now trained to grab a red pen and circle the “club card” discount total on your receipt before you leave. It’s not because you got the best deal available. It’s to give you the proud feeling and emotional elation of realizing you did a great job on your purchase. That’s what we like.

Does the same hold true for online retailers? Would JCP’s strategy work for e-retailers? Online shoppers have fewer barriers to price shop compared to brick-and-mortar shoppers. With a few keystrokes you can compare prices from multiple websites. Due to these low barriers, the assumption is that online retailing is all about price. Traditional shoppers don’t have the luxury of walking or driving to 10 brick-and-mortars for price comparisons. If they want to touch the product before buying, their options are limited, so you don’t need to be the lowest price to earn the sale.

While online retail may be more price sensitive, you need to take a look at yourself and your competitive landscape. Price is important. However, check the ease of navigability on your site. Compare the efficiency of your shopping cart process compared to competitors. If yours is clunky, update it. If it’s ugly, redesign it. Simplify your sitemap. Offer shipping deals. Build a retargeting campaign to stay connected when they shop around. Note a regular price next to “your” price. If your company has a mission or cause (think Tom’s shoes), make it known.

Just remember, people don’t always buy based on the absolute lowest price. Before focusing on how to sell more… focus on understanding why people buy. Tap into their emotions a bit. This may allow you increase sales while, most importantly, maintaining healthier margins.

SEO & the Art of War

04/12/201306/11/2013 mwon

“If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.” Sun Tsu, The Art of War

SEO has become a series of battles to be won. Years ago, it was easy to be a one trick SEO pony and be successful. Using link farms, bots, cheap overseas labor and other automation tools made SEO a robotic process. Fast forward today and you’ll see an entirely different battlefield. It’s not enough to run what we call “Ronco” campaigns (Set it and forget it). Every month there seems to be a new Panda or Penguin update altering the landscape of the SERPs. You need to know your “opposition” as well as you know your own business. (Of course, I’m not saying Google is an enemy. My point is that their decisions sculpt the challenges that we must overcome in our landscape.)

SEO isn’t easy. You must optimize but not over-optimize. You need good, healthy, fresh content, but not too thin and not too thick. You need links, but they need to be quality and “natural”. Use keywords but don’t overstuff them. Try hard without appearing to try too hard. Make people like you. Now do all this without knowing the exact recipe or strict outline of the “perfect” result.

As a Certified Google SEM agency, we decided to jump into the Organic game just as Google began its game-changing updates. How is it that our clients continue to “not be imperiled in a hundred battles” during the most volatile time in our industry’s history?

As Sun Tsu states, “know yourself.” We’ve done paid placement for years. We know ourselves, and that has been our forte. We’re damn good at it. As a proverbial tiger, I didn’t want to change our stripes or water down our talent pool. I knew our paid search team were not organic SEO guys. I set off to find an equally damn good SEO to either acquire or create a strategic partnership with. I literally spent years meeting with SEO agencies, trying to find someone who wants to do it right, and who blends seamlessly with our culture. I finally found one through my alumni network. I don’t mix the two departments. Our team members are all local, U.S. based SEOs who only focus on being the best at what they do. They’re passionate about SEO & Content Marketing. This way our paid search team can continue to be the best at what they do.
As the Art of War states, “know your enemy.” We study google and learn everything we can about them. In other words, we dedicate a lot of time and resources learning about Google’s goals, strategy, and mindset. We don’t have one particular software or rigid gameplan for SEO. We’re constantly changing and improving based on what Google wants. It’s not the easy route but it is the best route.

Our clients have seen the benefits of this strategy. We would love to help you navigate through the confusing and evolving organic search environment. We aren’t the cheapest SEO. We don’t want to be. We don’t use low cost, overseas labor. We don’t care for it. More importantly, we’ve learned that our clients don’t want “cheap” either. As written in a great Harvard Business Review article:

– Michael Won
“Formerly Ungoogleable”

Restaurant Impossible?

10/10/201210/10/2012 mwon

I’m a huge fan of the Food Network. I love to cook. I love to grill. I love experimenting with new recipes. One of the more entertaining shows on the Food Network is called Restaurant Impossible. The premise of this show is about a chef named Robert Irvine, who always reminds me of NFL Referee Ed Hochuli due to them both wearing tight fitted shirts that show off their guns. (Let’s be real, if I was a walking gun show, I’d probably buy my shirts 2 sizes too small too.)

Chef Irvine goes into a failing restaurant and has 48 hours and $10,000 to turn it around. A majority of the show is spent fixing the operational and aesthetic aspects of the restaurant and the menu. However, there’s always a 5-10 minute segment focused on marketing. Chef Irvine always needs to find a way to generate buzz and bring customers to the grand re-opening of the restaurant. In marketing terms, he’s focused on “push marketing.”

I have a handful of friends in the restaurant business and they’re always looking for ways to attract more patrons. They all share a similar sentiment: If I can just get them to try my food, I think they’ll come back. Here are a number of very cool stats published in a collaborative study titled “The Mobile Path to Purchase” by Telemetrics, xAds, and Nielsen. These are some rather convincing numbers. Especially since I my own behavior seems to fit right into these statistics. I hope this helps all you restauranteurs:

89 percent of smartphone owners and 84 percent of tablet users have immediate purchase intent and take action within 24 hours of their research. (that’s not a typo. 89%!)
64 percent of smartphone and 44 percent of tablet users in Restaurants make a decision within an hour.
84 percent of mobile users had looked for a business location or maps and driving directions in the past month.
Smartphone local directory apps are most popular for Restaurant (53 percent)
75% of smartphone users seek restaurant info while on the go and over 50% of that activity is happening in a car.
65% of smartphone users look for restaurants within local walking or driving distance.

Bottom line: get your business on google maps/local apps, yelp, urbanspoon, and other social directories. We can help you get there.

Here’s an infograph for you to enjoy with more data: http://www.telmetrics.com/mobile-path-to-purchase-study-restaurant-searchers/

SEO Keyword Research Process

09/24/201209/24/2012 mwon

Courtesy of: http://blog.promodo.com/keyword-research-process-infographics

Cheap SEO and $5 Chinese food

09/14/201209/24/2012 mwon

I have a friend who moved to NYC in pursuit of his dream to become a writer. He was always good with words so I knew he’d be hell with a pen. His talents led him to the position of writer and, eventually, senior editor for publications such as Blaze, Vibe, and Vue. When he first moved to the city, he fit the mold of a typical twenty-something struggling to survive the concrete jungle. Due to the high cost of living in NYC, he often found himself eating what his sister referred to as “$5 chinese food” on a regular basis. Constant stomach aches would accompany these cheap, greasy meals laden with MSG. (That’s monosodium glutamate, not Madison Square Garden)

$5 Chinese food was a good fit at the time for 3 reasons. It was cheap, you received large portions, and it provided sustenance. 15 years have since passed. He’s moved on to enjoying all the culinary treats the city has to offer. $5 chinese food had its time and place in his life… those days are gone.

In the same way, cheap SEO may have had a time and place in our lives. Back in the day, SEO could be offered with the same 3 benefits of low end chinese food: cheap, with large portions, and it provided sustenance. If you do a simple Google search you’ll find countless SEO firms still selling this outdated SEO strategy. Google’s implementation of the Panda and Penguin algorithm tweaks have rendered “cheap” SEO as a thing of the past. Like my friend in NYC, Google eventually matured to the point where “cheap” was no longer wanted or needed. More notably, the stomach aches that accompanied “cheap” were made obselete. Here’s why:

Penguin can broadly be thought of as Google’s penalty for building too many irrelevant, low quality links and overstuffing your content with keywords. Large portions of low quality food was good for a while, but they have no place in our lives anymore.

Panda can be thought of as Google’s way of rewarding quality. No msg in my chow mein, please. No lard in my kung pao, thanks. Those days are gone. Google wants quality content and low bounce rates to deliver better results.

Ok, enough with the food analogy. Back to business. We’ve spoken to a number of clients who have been using low-cost SEO agencies for years. These clients were able to spend a few hundred bucks a month to achieve decent rankings in the SERPs. What they got was a ton of irrelevant or weak links and poor or thin content. After the Penguin and Panda shifts, these clients saw their rankings drop from page one to page 5 and beyond. They felt helpless and confused. You may be feeling the same way.

Nett Solutions has forged a team of experts who stay on top of their game and understand what Google wants. They don’t just want a ton of links to your site. They don’t want a lot of thin content. They want natural links and steady, organic growth. They want insightful content that is useful for your site visitors. They don’t want gimmicky weight loss programs. They want a steady, natural, constant fitness routine. Our entire SEO team is based here in the U.S. We believe the best way to align with Google’s shift towards quality is to use quality content writers, strategists, and campaign builders. The best quality SEO knowledge still comes from America. We’ve become efficient enough to be competitively priced without being “cheap” (low quality). If you’re struggling with your organic rankings, reach out to us. We’d love to help. 949-330-7060.

– Michael

Ad tips for the Holidays

11/02/201109/10/2012 mwon

Now that Halloween is behind us, it’s time to focus on everyone’s favorite time of year. Ok, maybe not everyone… as a surfer, the water temp drops and the mornings are so chilly I don’t want to head down to the beach. Other than that, the malls are full of Holiday cheer, Starbucks is serving pumpkin spice lattes, the morning air is cool & crisp, and it’s a time for families to come together and truly appreciate each other.

Yahoo! Advertising recently released their 13 tips for effective ad copy during the holiday season. As you’ll see, many of these tips are fundamentally effective year-round. Cheers!

Best practices for marketing holiday gifts

Personalization: Be sure to promote any monogramming/name engraving or other personalization offers that are available, whether the gift is for children or adults.
Uniqueness: Many people like to know that a gift for their loved one will be rare or “one-of-a-kind,” and not simply something that is available in every store.
Have a Holly Jolly Holiday: Holiday gifts for both kids and adults are for fun, so be sure your ad copy emphasizes the fun factor appropriately.
Family Occasion: Emphasize family togetherness for holiday offers like recipes, food, candy, board games, etc.
’Tis Better to Give than to Receive: Ads that contain copy about giving gifts tend to perform better than copy talking about receiving them.
Holiday and Seasonal References: Tailor copy that is appropriate to the festive season with special holiday language and references.
Big Selection: An emphasis on a large selection from which to find exactly the right gift is important when bidding on general holiday shopping keywords.
Shiny and New: People like to know that their gift will be hip, trendy and the latest fashionable thing.
Gift Wrapping: If a gift wrapping option is offered, be sure to mention it.
Free Content: Spotlight anything about the offer that is free.
Shipping – Fast and Free: People prefer free shipping when it is offered at all times. During the holidays, fast/same day or overnight shipping verbiage is equally important, since the user must be sure that the item will arrive in time.
Famous Brands and Trademarks: Appropriate use of trademark symbols with official brand names can increase user confidence and click-through rates.
Deadlines and Calls-to-Action: Subtle language encouraging a click today can perform well. Sales with a specific end date, or an upcoming holiday deadline to prepare for, encourage the user to click and get the deal before it’s too late. (But be sure that your copy does not promote a date or season that has already passed!)

— Michael Won

Yellow & White make… green?

02/02/201109/10/2012 mwon

A commercial and residential phone book were walking past a haunted house when they hear a terrifying scream.

Commercial phone book: “Did you hear that? It came from the haunted house!”

Residential phone book: “We need to go in and investigate.”

Commercial phone book: “No way man.”

Residential phone book: “What’s the matter? You yellow?”

Ok, sorry for the silly joke. What’s even sillier is the huge stacks of phone books delivered to my condo building every year. I live in a rather large development so there are enough phone books in the mail room to easily fill 2 pallets. These phone books sit idle, wrapped in plastic, hoping for someone take them home. Week after week these things sit there untouched. The only time I was tempted to pick one up was when I needed paper to ignite my charcoal chimney (that’s right folks, real men bbq with coals, not gas).

Well it looks like this nuisance is coming to an end. At the end of 2010, Verizon Communications received permission from New York, Pennsylvania and Florida (with Virginia pending) to stop distributing phone books. This is a milestone that is far overdue. I don’t remember the last time I heard anyone say “check the phone book” when they needed a phone number. Nowadays, all you hear is “Google it” or “check Bing.” When you need to find someone or something, you can find it much faster online and get more information than you would in a phone book. (Don’t believe me? Go to www.Spokeo.com and search for your own name.) On top of that, phone books only record information in your local area while the internet provides access to people around the world. The bottom line is very few people depend on the yellow or white pages so I fully expect to see this trend continue. My only question is: What took so long?

We’re seeing a similar shift in newsprint. Advertising in phone books and newspapers are down as these companies try to figure out how to monetize their online assets. Advertisers are shifting their budgets online. Newsprint and phone books need ad revenue to survive so we’ll see how they continue to evolve.

My favorite benefit of eliminating the yellow and white? We’re going more green.

– Michael

Nett Solutions is a SEM agency working with Yahoo! and Google. We are a SoCal based company built of an eclectic cornucopia of: marketers, mothers & fathers, husbands & wives, college grads & MBA’s, surfers, church-goers, athletes, comedians (and those who think they are comedians). Our common bond is that we like to help people succeed.