It’s Cyber Monday!  Are you doing your online shopping?  Well, you can bet your customers are.

Just look at the stats this year.  $11.64 billion has been spent online in the US this holiday season, up 13% from the same period in 2009, according to comScore.

Although there is a lot of hype surrounding holiday shopping and Cyber Monday, the reality is consumers are purchasing more and more online year round.  For many, it has become a way of life.

As marketers, it is important that your company is prepared to take advantage of the increase in e-commerce.  The first and most important factor is to make sure your company website is user friendly.

Below are a few tips for improving website usability and increasing customer conversion:

1)   Make sure your website is easy to navigate and information is easy to find.  Content should constantly be changed and updated to keep the site fresh and relevant, but it’s easy to clutter up websites as new products are added.  So, take some time to look at the site from your customer’s perspective and evaluate what they experience.

2)   Make it easy to buy your product.  Navigation should be simple and to the point, making the purchase easy for your online customer. Don’t clutter the purchase process with unnecessary information or pop-ups.  A clean and attractive design makes it easy for customers to access and navigate. Quickly guide customers smoothly through the purchase process.

3)   If you sell through distributors, make it easy for your customer to locate them with direct links to their websites.  Reduce the number of steps a customer needs to take to buy your product so you don’t lose them in the process.

4)   Make it personal by suggesting other products that might be of interest.  Customers will appreciate it and you will boost sales. Offer special pricing, gift with purchase, product upgrades or free shipping to help close the deal.

5)   Become a resource to visitors by providing helpful digital downloads such as training guides, free videos, or tip-sheets. Help them out and they will begin to trust your expertise.

6)   Just because someone didn’t purchase your product this time doesn’t mean they won’t in the future. Invite them to sign up for your email announcements and keep them informed of upcoming product launches, promotions and offerings.

7)   Deliver on your promise.  Whether you’re touting free shipping, a white paper, a case study or specific product benefits always follow through on your offer.  Provide your customers with a positive experience and they will come back again and again.

Are you considering advertising in a magazines digital iPad edition?  If so, there is some new information that may prove beneficial.

Condé Nast, has stepped out as a leader in developing iPad versions of their magazines, which include The New Yorker, Wired, Glamour and GQ.  After months of tracking how readers are using their iPads and extensive research into what works and what doesn’t, some new findings and best practices for advertising within these iPad apps are beginning to emerge.

One significant piece of information Condé Nast found is that many people aren’t using their iPads as mobile devices, but instead as household devices.  From a publications standpoint, this means there are probably multiple readers per copy.  As an advertiser, this is great news because it means your ad is reaching more people.  However, it means that the device is not necessarily a true mobile device, so incorporating functions in the ads that are location-based may not be as important quite yet.

It was also found that the iPad was, for a lot of people, their first Apple device. This is very important for advertisers as they design and create ad content.  There are a large group of iPad users who are still becoming familiar with the swiping, pinching and zooming features.  Providing on-screen instructions and walking readers through the special functions in your ad will ensure that all the bells and whistles aren’t missed.  Make sure ad content is clearly visible and use arrows, callouts, etc. to call attention to interactive features.

In an effort to assist advertisers, Condé Nast used the research to put together some suggested best practices for advertising in magazine’s iPad editions.  Below is the list of five best practices provided:

1. Take advantage of the new platform’s functionality. Users liked ads better when they provided experiences that print could not, such as video, photo galleries and links to websites. One successful ad unit promoting a new TV series kicked off with video of the star addressing the magazine’s readers and naming the magazine.

2. Provide clear instructions. It might clutter up the page a bit, but it’s better than seeing consumers swipe past without even knowing about those extras you included.

3. Don’t repurpose your TV commercials or other materials you created for other media. Conde Nast had advertisers who just used a 30-second TV spot that had already been seen a lot of times.  Repurposing for no other purpose than that it was convenient didn’t work so well.

4. Tell a story. Consumers remembered the ads best when they contained narratives.  Some video was created that wouldn’t have been used for anything but the iPad.  It showed people how to use the product being advertised, an in-depth how-to.  It had a little story but it demonstrated something actually useful.

5. Help consumers move closer to buying. That could mean offering more information about product colors or sizes or it could go all the way to in-app purchasing. Offering a link and nothing else fares poorly in comparison.

As iPad usage continues to grow and more publications develop digital apps, we will begin to see more feedback from users that can be applied in developing ads, but these are definitely some helpful tips to keep in mind and a good first look at some general best practices.

Times are changing in the BtoB media world.  In just the last two years I have seen some dramatic shifts as publications have merged, some have shut their doors and others have emerged as leading magazines in their industries.

One of the biggest changes has been the transition from print publications to their digital versions. Many of these leading publications have already developed digital editions of their print magazines and others are well on their way to doing so. Some have chosen to go completely digital, phasing out their print editions all together.

A new “Communications Industry Forecast” was just released from Veronis Suhler Stevenson’s, a New York based private equity firm, and indicates that by 2013, BtoB e-media spending will surpass BtoB print spending.  With the transformation I’ve been seeing, this comes as no surprise.

According to the forecast, e-media will continue to grow and by 2014 e-media spending should reach $8.03 billion, growing an average of 12.8% a year from 2009 to 2014.

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The good news?

After the decline in ad placements that came with the downturn in the economy, it appears that online advertising is beginning to pick up speed.  Marketers are predicting strong growth and increasing expenditure for their online ad programs for 2010.   During the first quarter of 2010 US Internet users received a record 1.1 trillion display ads, up 15% from a year earlier, according to the ComScore ad metrix.

But with this influx of online banner ads, each vying for the consumers eye, how will you make your company’s banner ad stand apart, unique and capture the readers attention?

Incorporating your Twitter feed into your online banner ad could be just the thing!  If you are an active Twitter user, you know that Twitter allows you to post mini-messages called tweets, quickly and easily sharing real time information.  Consider the power of designing a banner ad to include your Twitter updates.  Twitter offers instant communication, real time interaction and can bring a personal, human touch to an ad.  This personalization helps to increase the relevancy of your ad, allowing readers to better relate to and connect with your message.

The latest updates are pulled into the banner as an RSS feed from your Twitter account in real time, as you tweet.  Users can scroll to see previous updates or you can rotate through the last several tweets.

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Have you ever said something you wish you could take back?  I certainly have… just yesterday in fact.  With the use of a few wrong words, we can spend hours, even days, with our head in the sand, thinking of ways to make amends.

This happens in business as well.  Even the best of companies slip up now and then, issuing a statement or making a comment that results in a miscommunication of the message.  And now with the use of the internet and social sites, this message can spread like wildfire.

However, the opposite is also said to be true.  Through the power of social media, the right words can spread just as quickly. So, what if you had the inside scoop?  To know ahead of time what words to use on these social media sites to make your company’s message spread quickly and in a well received fashion.

Although a lot of understanding about what words and messages work best through social media is still done by trial and error, we are beginning to see some trends.  I recently came across a study by Dan Zarrella, author of the O’Reilly Media book “The Social Media Marketing Book”, which provides insight into the best and worst words for companies to use on Facebook.

The way your Facebook messages are worded can have a dramatic effect on the users opinion about your message and how likely they are to share it.  Check out the following chart of the words that are well received:

The study found that messages using words such as “best”, “most”, “why” and “how” work well and are shared more often.

Yes, communicating your company’s message through social media will still take a bit of trial and error.  But, keep your head out of the sand… begin by incorporating some of these “should use” words into your message and letting them work for you!

As the mother of a four year old, this weekend was filled with Easter egg hunts. One of them a community event packed with hundreds of kids, full of anticipation and eagerly waiting behind a man-made fence for the starting signal. The children watched as the plastic eggs were tossed onto the field, their excitement growing.

The whistle blew and mass chaos ensued as the kids collided trying to get their hands on as many eggs possible. In seconds the hunt was over and my daughter returned with tears in her eyes. She, as many of the others, had only managed to collect one egg.

As we were leaving, still disappointed about the result of the hunt, we walked by the sponsor booth and bumped into an acquaintance who happened to be working the event. After telling him of the one-egg result, he grabbed a big bag full of eggs from behind the booth and poured them into my daughter’s basket. It was now over-flowing!

As we left that day, I was reminded of a very important lesson. It’s all about having the right connections.

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