"Free" As An E-Marketing Strategy

Everyday I download "free" white papers from the Web in exchange for my contact information. I usually read the "free" newsletter that inevitably follows, at least once, but I never answer the follow-up calls that ring on my fax machine. Occasionally I make a purchase as a result of this exchange. This is how the "free" economy works for me and the businesses who court me.

Twitter continues to be free. But Twitter hasn't ruled out charging for future services or keeping it free by adding advertising. Hopefully Twitter will conclude that "free" can be a successful e-marketing strategy much as Google has with Mail, Analytics, YouTube, etc.

In a 2008 special report in Wired Magazine titled “Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business“, author Chris Anderson presents a few case studies in detail that still make sense today. The article includes an analysis of six broad categories of business models leveraging the free economy:

• Freemium: What’s free: Web software and services, some content. Free to whom: users of the basic version.
  
• Advertising: What’s free: content, services, software, and more. Free to whom: everyone.
• Cross-subsidies: What’s free: any product that entices you to pay for something else. Free to whom: everyone willing to pay eventually, one way or another.
• Zero marginal cost: What’s free: things that can be distributed without an appreciable cost to anyone. Free to whom: everyone.
• Labor exchange: What’s free: Web sites and services. Free to whom: all users, since the act of using these sites and services actually creates something of value.
• Gift economy: What’s free: the whole enchilada, be it open source software or user-generated content. Free to whom: everyone.

A related article can be found on trendwatching.com. The Amsterdam-based trendwatching agency, published a Trendreport titled “Free Love” which is all about the ongoing rise of ‘free stuff’, and the brands already making the most it. The report is free to read online or to download as a PDF.

In a soon to be release book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price, Chris Anderson makes the compelling case that in many instances businesses can profit more from giving things away than they can by charging for them. Free is the business strategy that may well be essential to a company's survival.

In Free, which will be released on July 7, Chris Anderson also points to the growth of the reputation economy; explains different models for unleashing the power of Free; and shows how to compete when your competitors are giving away what you're trying to sell.

Longer Search Queries Increase

E-commerce experts know from looking at their site analytics that shoppers with a specific product in mind tend to use multi-word, need-specific search terms when looking up product details, reviews and ratings.

Hitwise reports that longer search queries are becoming more popular. "The length of search queries has increased over the past year. Longer search queries, averaging searches of five to more than eight words in length, have increased 9 percent between February 2009 and February 2008. Searches of eight or more words increased 20 percent. The same time period showed that shorter search queries — those averaging one to four words long — have decreased 2 percent. Searches of two words comprised the majority of searches, amounting to 23.47 percent of all queries."

Search engines continue to be the primary way Internet users navigate to key industry categories. Hitwise also reports that Business and Finance, Sports, Online Video and Social Networking categories showed double-digit increases in their share of traffic coming directly from search engines over the past year.

Long-tail search has never offered e-tailers better opportunities. Are you optimizing your site for longer search key phrases?

E-Commerce - Enhancing Conversion - Links

Gary Klingsheim, "79 Hot Tips to Increase Site Conversions," Internet Search Engine Database. "Before you start spending more money to generate additional traffic, you need to do as much as you can with the traffic you are already getting", Klingsheim advises.

Phil Leggiere, "Time For An Inbound Targeting Strategy," Media Post. "Customers and prospects that reach out to you are already engaged and paying attention, Leggiere writes. Your opportunity to engage customers and prospects during inbound interactions is much, much greater than pushing a message outbound."

Jeff Sexton, "Saying Something Powerful with Signaling Theory," FutureNow. "To get to your core message (1) strip it down to the core message, but (2) if the stripped down version isn't compelling or unique, you won't be able to fix it with copywriting alone. (3) Even if it's true, people don't have to believe you. (4) Substantiate your claim by proving it -- Action/Signaling Theory. Examples are a free taste test, money back guarantee, etc."

Bryan Eisenberg, "The Power of RFM," ClickZ. "RFM stands for recency (since the last completed action), frequency (number of times the customer has completed the action), and monetary value (total value from completing these actions). RFM ranks customers in relation to each other. By this judge PPC, email, and website campaigns, and design strategies to engage
the high scoring RFM customers."

Building an E-commerce Team

Simon Rodrigue joined Sears Canada in July of 2008 as AVP of eCommerce. Before joining Sears Canada he lead the eCommerce and Interactive Marketing team at Home Depot Canada.

On his blog he says that "At Sears.ca we are continuing our quest to build the best eCom team in Canada." He goes on the describe the 12 open positions in the e-commerce team.

Bryan Eisenberg provides great insites into Simon's hiring strategy in his interview with Simon, "Building a Dynamic E-commerce Team," on Clickz. Simon says, "I fundamentally believe that marketing should be done in-house and it pays to invest in this area. Agencies and partners can assist in the process, but your company should be in the best position to drive your business forward and should always be in control."

E-Commerce - Improving Conversion

Brian Massey, "Four Guidelines for Behavioral Marketing Newbies," ClickZ. The author interviews Chris Vanderhook concerning guidelines for behavioral marketing: (1) Be proficient with targeting, converting, and measuring visitors from ads. (2) Be interested in people earlier in the buying process. (3) Use ad networks that know your industry. (4) Have the analytics in place to measure behavioral strategies' impact.

Jason Burby, "Using Segmentation to Improve Site Conversions," ClickZ. The benefits of segmentation are: better targeted messages, anticipation of visitor needs, and marketing items of interest. Gives example of with and without an existing cookie in terms of options offered.

Bryan Eisenberg, "The Portable Conversion Analyst," ClickZ. Lists important books in the fields of (1) usability and information architecture, (2) web analytics, (3) copywriting, (4) direct marketing techniques, (5) psychology, human behavior, and persuasion, (6) testing, (7) marketing, branding, selling, and (8) SEO, SEM, social media.