Archive for May, 2009
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
eHarbor, Inc.’s softball team suffered its first loss on Wednesday, May 20, 2009 to the only other undefeated team in the Provo/Orem area’s recreation league up to that point. We lost by the closest margin for either team this year: 11-14.
Before its first loss, eHarbor won the two previous games by 12 points and 15 points, respectively. You can read about those victories in my last two blog posts about eHarbor softball: “eHarbor unbeatable after 5 games” and “eHarbor softball wins by 15 points.”
Last night, however, our team bounced back, redeeming itself with a stunning blowout. Expect more eHarbor victories as the season continues.
I will return to ecommerce and online marketing on Monday with an awesome blog post about changes coming to the paid-search industry. Stay tuned!
Tags: baseball, company, eHarbor, event, Fun, game, orem, provo, sport, success, utah
Posted in Fun, eHarbor | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Social media is a great tool for businesses to communicate with customers. It gives marketers an opportunity to establish close contact with people in ways seemingly unthinkable until just a few years ago.
Despite social media’s strengths, it should not be considered an end unto itself. Without other marketing strategies, such as search engine optimization, advertising, etc. a company’s efforts in social media could fall flat. A Brafton article entitled “Does social media increase SEO?” caught my interest and inspired this blog entry.
This is not the first time I’ve talked about social media and its effects on ecommerce in the eHarbor Blog. In one of my blog entries, I noted companies are increasing their spending on search engine marketing, despite the recession. In another, I point out companies are also reducing their social media spending slightly this year, after greatly expanding it over the last few years.
It seems like many businesses have learned the virtues of social media, but they are also prudent in their decisions to try to maximize return on investment. By getting to the top of search engines, companies can reach a wider number of Internet users than by using social media. Both are useful tools and should not be considered superior to the other. But it appears businesses are choosing the broader tool than the more personal one to help them through this recession.
In the Brafton article I mentioned above, Warren Cohen, CEO of SEO-focused Greenlight, said social media would probably not have a noticeable effect on SEO for a company’s website. SEO is built slowly by creating a search engine-friendly website, populating it with relevant content and building connections with similar websites.
A presence on Twitter, Facebook and other social sites is great and it can add to search-engine rankings, but it probably won’t have a significant impact.
Tried-and-true principles are your best options for getting to the top of Google, MSN and Yahoo. If you would like a more in-depth explanation of SEO and how to use it to your advantage, check out my blog entry “Search engine optimization at the drugstore” or my seven-part series on SEO tactics.
The photo of Winnie the Pooh and “Tigger” is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of JoshMcConnell.
Tags: article, Brafton, Ecommerce, eHarbor, facebook, funny, google, humor, marketing, online, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Media, twitter
Posted in Ecommerce, SEO, Search Engines, eHarbor | 6 Comments »
Friday, May 22nd, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Happy Memorial Day on Monday!
This is a different kind of eHarbor Blog entry. To help celebrate this holiday, I’d like to share some interesting facts about Memorial Day, its origins and what it celebrates. Enjoy!
- Memorial Day was first called Decoration Day.
- The first Memorial Day celebration is believed to have occurred in Waterloo, N.Y. on May 5, 1866. Every business was closed and flags were lowered to half-mast that day to honor the Union soldiers who died in the Civil War.
- May 30 was designated the official date of Memorial Day for many years because no Civil War battle was fought that day. Organizers wanted to honor soldiers who fought in all battles.
- Many Southern states, including Tennessee, the Carolinas and Virginia, celebrate Confederate Memorial Day in addition to Memorial Day.
- Memorial Day didn’t become an official federal holiday until 1971. The celebration date was changed from May 30 to the last Monday of May.
- Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of the summer movie season, although that has changed in the past several years.
We’ll return to ecommerce topics soon. Have a great three-day weekend! The photo of the U.S. flags is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Bart Fields.
Tags: eHarbor, event, flag, Fun, history, holiday, origin, past, positive, United States
Posted in Fun | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
I have discussed the growth of ecommerce many times in the eHarbor Blog. You can find lots of information on marketers joining ecommerce in my blog entries, “Bucking recession, ecommerce keeps growing” and “Strong sales attract retailers to ecommerce.” I will continue my streak by talking about ecommerce, though in a slightly different way.
The main reason companies keep moving into ecommerce is the revenue growth this industry is experiencing each year. During this recession, consumers have cut back on most spending, but they continue to spend more online, making it a popular alternative for businesses to thrive in hard times.
However, according to an article in B to B, a magazine for online marketers, companies are starting to spend less money advertising their services and brands in social networks, such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. The article I am referring to is entitled, “Social network ad spending projected to contract this year.”
The growth of advertisement spending on social-media sites has slowed in recent years, from a 129-percent increase in 2007 to 33 percent in 2008, and now an estimated 3-percent loss in 2009. To put it in real numbers, $1.18 billion was spent on social-media advertising in 2008.
Social media is an excellent way for businesses to interact with customers and even gain new ones, so it makes sense for them to jump into this arena. Maybe with all of the cuts businesses are making to compensate for the decline in consumer demand for many products, social media just doesn’t seem as important at the moment.
Ironically, it seems like social-media spending is one of the best investments a business can make, especially in a struggling economy. Consumers are shifting their time and money online, making social networks popular places to reach them. Companies that shy away from social media might be shooting themselves in the foot.
I discussed social media’s many strengths and weaknesses in my blog post, “Facebook’s growing pains could transform social media.” There are plenty of reasons to stay connected with your customers online. Keep trying and stay positive!
The photo of the scissors cutting an ethernet cable is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of nrkbeta.
Tags: 2009, article, blog, consumer, Ecommerce, economy, eHarbor, facebook, growth, internet, marketing, myspace, news, online, revenue, Social Media, twitter, web
Posted in Ecommerce, eHarbor | 4 Comments »
Monday, May 18th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
A large number of consumers need more than promises of good deals to get them to shop online. According to a report by the Office of Fair Trading, a third of Internet users don’t trust websites enough to buy products on them.
I read this in a BBC News article, entitled “Fear holding back online shopping,” which gave empirical evidence of a fact I had suspected. Twenty percent of potential online consumers said they don’t use shop online because they might put themselves at risk for identity theft or other dangers. Another 15 percent said they don’t trust online retailers enough to do business with them.
This topic goes right along with my eHarbor Blog entry on the disadvantages of ecommerce, such as consumers’ inability to touch products they see online like they can at shopping centers.
Just because technology has improved our ability to market to consumers doesn’t mean we will always reach them. Identity theft has become quite sophisticated and prevalent in our digital age, putting smart consumers on the lookout and retailers on the defensive.
We must earn our customers’ trust. How do we do this? Here are six suggestions:
- Include testimonials of satisfied customers who can vouch for your products and services. You might be surprised how willing happy customers are to speak highly of you on your website.
- Provide secure payment methods, using credible sources. I’m not going to advertise any here, but do a Google search and you’ll find a number of good ones.
- Tell customers the actions you take to preserve their security. Don’t assume they know all the trouble you go through to make sure they’re not improperly charged. You can include a prominent link to this section on the billing page.
- Make sure your customer service is top-notch. If your service staff is readily available, knowledgeable and helpful, you’ll be able to resolve problems and help customers develop confidence that you have their best interests at heart.
- Put a face on your website. People tend to feel more comfortable doing business with a person rather than a faceless organization. If you can put yourself or a spokesman out front to build credibility, you might be able to win over more customers.
- Keep your promises. If you make bold claims, make sure you can back them up with impressive actions. Words are good, but they must be built on the truth to foster trust.
Those are my suggestions on how to build trust. Don’t be afraid to take a chance and do something inventive to earn your customers’ confidence and, thus, their business. Consumers are holding back a lot of their money as they weather the recession, so you’ll need to be creative and forthright to win them over.
By the way, some good news from the BBC news article is that the amount of online shoppers who feel just as comfortable shopping online as at a store increased from 26 percent in 2006 to 54 percent in 2009. This is a welcome trend.
The photo of a credit card in a computer is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of garethjmsaunders.
Tags: article, BBC, customer service, Ecommerce, eHarbor, growth, internet, marketing, news, online, positive, study, trust, web
Posted in Ecommerce | 3 Comments »
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
After winning by a 15-point margin in its third game, eHarbor, Inc.’s softball team set a new record by winning its next two games to maintain a perfect record this season.
eHarbor played its fourth game on May 6, 2009 and its fifth game a week later on May 13, 2009. The scores of the two games were 16-5 in the fourth game, and 27-17 in the fifth.
Highlights of the fourth game:
- Five players batted 1.000.
- One player went 4 for 4 with an in-the-park home run.
Highlights of the fifth game:
- One player hit a ball out of the park for a home run.
- Two players batted 1.000.
- In its first inning at bat, eHarbor went through its batting order 1.5 times.
- This is the fourth game eHarbor has won by 10 points or more this season.
As I mentioned in one of my first blog entries, eHarbor’s slogan for 2009 is “Swinging for the fence.” Our softball team is doing just that. Our success on the baseball field is symbolic of our success in the field of online marketing and ecommerce.
Our next game will be on Wednesday, May 20, 2009 in Provo, Utah. The photo of an eHarbor player hitting the ball is from the fifth game.
Tags: baseball, company, eHarbor, event, Fun, positive, provo, slogan, sport, success, utah
Posted in Fun, eHarbor | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
The Kindle DX’s launch last week brings up an interesting discussion on the value of content in the digital age. I couldn’t cover this whole discussion before, so now I’ll follow up on that discussion, as I promised to do in my first blog entry on Kindle.
I read another article on Kindle in Information Week, entitled “Amazon’s Kindle DX Poses Profitability Challenge To Publishers.” This article focused on a different effect Kindle DX can have on publishers. The publishers it discusses are not in the news media, but the textbook industry.
Apparently, a comparatively lightweight, digital copy of textbooks appeals to schools looking to save money for themselves and students. Textbooks can be expensive and heavy to carry from class to class, so Kindle’s new version offers a useful option. But the idea of turning their products into electronic copies doesn’t appeal to textbook publishers because of the negative impact that would likely have on their value and, thus, company profits.
The reason behind publishers’ hesitance to include their textbooks on Kindle is quite intriguing.
In the article, the author points out, “One fact that’s sure to keep shareholders up at night is the drop in the value of content once it becomes digital, sometimes as much as 50%, analysts have said.”
By publishing a written work in an electronic format, its value falls. The printing press, introduced centuries ago, made books much less expensive and time-consuming to create, lowering their value to a level attainable by more people. Perhaps the Internet is our new version of the printing press, allowing information to be shared cheaply and quickly, compared to traditional media forms.
By avoiding the costs of printing, binding and distributing books, these publishers could maintain their profits while lowering prices. But change is often scary, even if it has many positive points.
The article points out that the world is changing, and it’s becoming more difficult to ignore new technologies. I covered a similar topic on businesses that have yet to enter the ecommerce industry in my previous eHarbor Blog entry, called “Strong sales attract retailers to ecommerce.” We can look to the music industry to see the consequences of failing to take advantage of online services in a timely manner, the article also notes.
The photo of a Kindle atop textbooks is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of KNK.
Tags: Amazon, article, book, business, company, content, Ecommerce, eHarbor, future, history, Information Week, Kindle, Media, new, online, update, web
Posted in Ecommerce, Media | 3 Comments »
Friday, May 8th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Let’s face it, consumers have cut back tremendously on their spending. Profits are down for many companies, and it doesn’t look like things are improving swiftly.
Unemployment is expected to keep increasing, even after the overall economy improves. We shouldn’t expect people to make a whole lot of purchases when they’re not sure if they’ll have enough income to pay for them.
Now is a good time to change our thinking on how to market to our customers.
I read an article on ZDNet, entitled “Forrester: e-commerce ‘better suited to withstand economic downturn’,” which gives some exciting information about the growth in the ecommerce industry, thanks, in part, to the economic downturn.
Ecommerce is a less-expensive way to do business because it doesn’t involve most of the usual costs of doing business in a mall or other shopping center. Plus, it’s cheaper to advertise online than in traditional media, as newspapers have painfully learned.
Most of their online spending is on email campaigns. Social media is also becoming a popular avenue for businesses, although search engine optimization is another way to reach targeted audiences. We had a seven-part series on search engine optimization that might be helpful in successfully implementing it on your website.
This topic is building on ideas I introduced back in March when I wrote back-to-back blog entries on the ecommerce industry: one about how retailers are investing in ecommerce and Web advertising, and the other on how consumers are spending more online.
In the second blog post, I pointed out that ecommerce sales will likely dip slightly in 2009 before increasing again in 2010. However, in the ZDNet article, the author says they might grow by 11 percent to $156.1 billion. Whichever study you look at, it appears ecommerce is outperforming nearly every other retail industry.
Profit attracts competition, so be mindful of how you enter into this market. Be sure to put your best foot forward by using eHarbor, Inc.’s affiliates to guide you through your website design and other important steps.
The photo of the water drop is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Gaetan Lee.
Tags: article, consumer, Ecommerce, economy, eHarbor, Forrester, humor, Media, news, positive, research, retail, search engine optimization, SEO
Posted in Ecommerce | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Technology might actually be a boon for traditional media providers, thanks to Amazon’s new version of Kindle, called Kindle DX.
If you read my blog posts on the New York Times and news media in general, you know that traditional news providers seem to be in trouble. Their revenue keeps falling, readership is mostly in decline, and other factors point to a shift in the way people gather news.
This Kindle development is a welcome bit of good news.
I read about Kindle in an article in Computer World, entitled “New Kindle creates new challenges for publishers.” This sounds quite exciting. The previous Kindle version had a six-inch display, but the new one will have a 9.7-inch display, making it easier to read books, newspapers, magazines and other content.
Instead of facing the problem of providing news free of charge, news publishers might actually be able to pull in decent revenue with portable devices like this. The New York Times has already been offering its content to Kindle readers for a monthly fee, but it is expected to lower that fee for the new version.
This is certainly a good opportunity for news publishers, but it comes with a few question marks. Since the technology is so new, it might be difficult to tell what price consumers are willing to pay. Also, news websites and blogs are still popular, and it might be difficult to persuade people to give up their free news sources for a portable, paid service. Cell phones can be used to read news articles, but they are much smaller, so maybe this is a viable option.
Amazon is the first to delve into this new industry, but there will surely be competitors soon, and that could also help news providers by giving them more avenues to sell their content through.
I’m glad to share this positive story. I might write a follow-up blog entry about the Kindle product after it debuts. We’ll wait and see. Stay tuned for more ecommerce stories like this in the eHarbor Blog.
The photo of Kindle and the New York Times is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of jocke66.
Tags: Amazon, article, Ecommerce, eHarbor, internet, Kindle, Media, new, new york times, news, online, positive, revenue, technology
Posted in Ecommerce, Media | 3 Comments »
Monday, May 4th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
eHarbor, Inc.’s softball team continued its winning streak on Wednesday, April 29, 2009 by beating the other team 27-12. That’s right, a 15-point victory. Our team’s record this season is now 3-0.
eHarbor's softball team includes President John Russell (top left) and CEO Oliver Bigler (top center, with three on his right and left).
Here are some of the highlights:
- Five players batted 1.000.
- One player had two triples.
- Despite the high score, no one on the eHarbor team managed to hit a home run. One player hit the ball off the fence, though.
I’ll get back to ecommerce topics soon. Stay tuned for more positive stories from eHarbor and its affiliates.
Tags: baseball, company, eHarbor, event, Fun, orem, positive, provo, sport, success, utah
Posted in Fun, eHarbor | 3 Comments »
