Known Moons…

…ideas from Jeffery Giesener – SourceMob.com – CEO

Many evenings you can see along the horizon the “evening star” called Venus. Above Venus is the planet Jupiter, which has more than 60 known moons.

Don Peppers from a recent blog post states, “The solar system is a network of planets, each of which has its own network of moons, so it provides a analogy for social networks, which are also networks of networks.”

Should your company be engaged in Social Talent Acquisition?

Should you be jumping on the Social Talent Acquisition bandwagon? Frankly, NO. But read on…

Based on my career experience, you shouldn’t jump into Social Talent Acquisition unless you are ready to dive into the water from the deep end. This isn’t “toe in the water” stuff.

Diving in means your Team is ready…

• to participate, champion and manage this new Social space for better and for worse
• to participate and monitor Social conversations on your Career Sites in a timely fashion
• to try new things and not look over its shoulder or get bogged down with cultural or organizational obstacles or politics

I know all of the above are easier said than done. But to start, who on your Talent Acquisition/HR Team is going to hit the Board Room table or your Leadership team and challenge your business to dive into Social Talent Acquisition? Who will be your Social Champion?

Case in point: when I worked for DoubleClick in the late 90’s early 2000, I often heard Fortune 1000 companies say, “eCommerce? Heck, I will stay with my stores or my catalog. Spending time on this eCommerce thing–come on Jeffery, you got to be kidding. We make all our money with stores or catalogs.” Look what has happened just a decade later. Where are these stores and catalog businesses now? Many are simply gone!

Embracing Talent Acquisition…

Unless you are willing to embrace Social Talent Acquisition (and that means also marketing to drive candidates to your Social Career sites), why bother starting? Ahh…I can hear your thoughts. It’s Kevin Costner’s dilemma in the film Field of Dreams: “if I build it, will they come?”

Everyone knows, of course, that “network marketing” is the best way for your Candidates to find out about job openings and career opportunities. But is there a way to leverage your current employee to generate visits to your Social Career Centers?

The answer is yes, and it’s called Talent Acquisition Marketing. Almost 30 years ago, a landmark study by Granovetter called “The Strength of Weak Ties” showed conclusively that the best leads for job opportunities are more likely to come from your more distant colleagues and friends, as opposed to your closest ones. This isn’t because your close friends don’t give you good recommendations, but because you and your other close friends are more likely already to know about the same job openings, while the job openings known to your more distant colleagues–those with whom you don’t interact very often–are not as likely to be known to your own friends.

So why is this all important? It’s exactly how Social networking will work to find you Candidates who won’t find you on their own. Simply put, your best source of Passive Candidates is your employees’ networks, and your success rests upon enabling them to virally spread your job postings and Social Career Centers. At SourceMob we call this creating SourcePools™, and it’s what we do best.

To learn more about how we can help you start conversations with targeted Passive Candidates, simply ring me up at 612-349-2740 or email me at jeff@sourcemob.com for a conversation and a short virtual presentation. Visit our website at SourceMob.com to learn more or check out our video http://vimeo.com/40314839

Best,

Jeffery

Jeffery Giesener

CEO/Founder

SourceMob.com

email: Jeff@sourcemob.com

Phone: 62-349-2740

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jefferygiesener

Growing Your Likes and Followers…

Growing Your Likes and Followers…ideas from Jeffery Giesener – CEO – SourceMob.com

 

In the last week several prospects have asked, how would I suggest increasing their number of Facebook Likes, Twitter and Google+ Followers?

They indicated they can’t seem to move the needle of their Likes and Followers. It’s certainly a great topic of discussion and as CEO of SourceMob.com we work to assist our clients to doing exactly that.

SourceMob.com Grows Your Likes and Followers

• We build your Career Centers on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Mobile
• We auto-post your jobs into these Career Centers without your IT involvement or HR program management
• We deliver a host of social, mobile, data mining and marketing services that will dramatically help grow your Likes, Followers and Applicant flow.

However at SourceMob.com just focusing on the aggregation of Likes and Followers is not the only answer to success in Social Sourcing. The challenge goes much deeper. Growing Likes and Followers that lead to deeper levels of Candidate conversations, engagement and eventually into hires is the Social Sourcing Holy Grail.

To that point, we were instrumental in helping PBS grow their Likes from 250,000 in 2010 to over 1.7 Million in 2011 and Sportsmansguide.com from 407 in 2010 to 110,000 today. And we will help you too. But the key to success in Social Sourcing is to deliver relevant conversations to wherever your Candidates want them.

For instance, one of our Social Sourcing clients in the Medical Vertical had a Passive candidate who was sourced from Facebook. Unfortunately the timing of the job search vs. the skills of the Candidate just didn’t match. However the professional-level Candidate credentials were so strong that the Recruiter didn’t want to loose him. So over a six-month period the Recruiter continued to engage with the Candidate through a stream of conversations in several Social Media Networks (especially Facebook), eventually creating a new position and filling it with this individual.

 Another SourceMob client (a regional Accounting firm) wanted to keep social conversations going with all of their Interns who were also their best potentials for future full-time hiring. The Hiring Manager had the vision to know she could stay in touch using Social and Mobile conversations so when a position was available she had a qualified pool of Candidates to immediately engage with and hire. This Hiring Manager saw social conversations as a perfect way to accomplish her goal and as such she signed up with SourceMob to help her accomplish her objective.

Knowing Your Candidate…

My years of Social experience indicates that when it comes to using Social for sourcing we tend to make things more complicated than they need to be. The basic requirement is to get engagement with a prospective Candidate going, to get to know your Candidate and for your Candidate to know your Company at a much deeper level than the job description.

But the mistake that is often made is thinking that pushing job descriptions at a Candidate(s) like a fire hose is in fact being Social or simply mining Social Networks or job boards for resumes is another form of being Social.

From my seat, I see it so differently The triple play of Social Sourcing is driving valued content, conversations and engagement as the catalyst to a successful hire. That means engaging the Candidate in a stream of relevant conversations that are two-way and respectful. As you well know it could take months to fill a position and keeping connected with your top Candidates works wonders when you use Social to accomplish this goal.

But unfortunately, and with all due respect, what is the common pattern of a Recruiter conversation? Perhaps in more cases than we care to admit, these conversations can better be described as a series of interrogations. And if interrogations happen in Social it is exactly where the Social connection will break down. Even worse they will come to a DEAD STOP.

We would know much more about Candidates if we would have real conversations with them. A conversation that is free of “Big Brother” and one that the Candidate would engage in as if they would feel that they would be already working for the Company. It is within this environment where your best candidates will also help you find other Passive Candidates.

But can your organization enable this level of conversation or strive for this candidate engagement?

Be Who You Are

Social Networks make it easy to get to know Candidates and for them to be themselves. Social Sourcing goes even further when a Recruiter opens a relevant and engaging conversation with their target Candidate over an extended period of time. This is exactly what happened in the two examples above. And you can bet that both these clients are on their way to growing a substantial amount of Likes, Followers, conversations and Social hires.

Best,

Jeffery

Jeffery Giesener

CEO/Founder

SourceMob

612-349-2740

Jeff@SourceMob.com

Sourcing for Super Socials

… ideas from Jeffery Giesener CEO Shoppesimple

We all know people who seem to know everyone…people who can get you in touch with just about anyone.

Malcolm Gladwell in his visionary work called The Tipping Point (written in 2002) used the term “Connector” when describing people who like making connections.  They’re totally comfortable meeting people and offering help in facilitating connections on behalf of others. Gladwell was onto something.  His book was way ahead of the curve, written before the birth of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

From a Social Sourcing perspective have you thought about where the Connectors are hanging out today?  As you may guess, they’re hanging out in Social Networks. In fact, BusinessInsider.com has given today’s Connectors a new label, “Super Socials”.  Specifically, Super Socials are those people who have 150 connections on a given network.

Where are Super Social’s hanging out?

BusinessInsider.com reports that 84% of Super Social’s are connecting on Facebook, 39% are on Twitter and 38% are on LinkedIn. Do these numbers surprise you?  Most HR Pros we speak with believe LinkedIn is where the Social Sourcing action is taking place. But the Social Sourcing game is not just about LinkedIn. It is about Facebook and Twitter too.

When you consider that in 2010 (the last year reported) 1 out of 6 new hires found their job through social media, the growing Social Sourcing trend is one you just can’t ignore any longer. If you aren’t targeting your recruiting efforts beyond LinkedIn you are missing a huge Social Sourcing opportunity. Isn’t it time to begin pushing the Social Sourcing boundaries in your business?

What Gladwell Foretold Pales Compared to Paul Revere

In April 1775, Paul Revere caught wind of British orders to capture rebel leaders and forcibly disarm the colonists. So Revere and his fellow rebels devised a warning system and we all know the “one if by land, two if by sea”. What’s less known is Revere’s networking savvy.

Revere needed to reach Lexington to warn rebel leaders Sam Adams and John Hancock. First, two acquaintances rowed Revere across the Charles River, to Charlestown; there a horse was waiting for Revere, lent to him by another pal, Deacon John Larkin.

Chased by Redcoats, Revere was diverted to the town of Medford. Because he knew the head of Medford’s military, Revere rode to his house and warned him.

Most of us know the Lexington part of the story. Less known is that on the same night that Revere made his midnight ride, a man named William Dawes went galloping off in the other direction to muster the militias to the west of Boston. Revere’s ride stirred up an army, while something like three people showed up from the towns Dawes visited. Why? Revere was networked.  He knew everybody and so was able to storm into one village after another banging on all the right doors and calling out all the right people by name.

Revere was blessed with an uncanny genius for. . . you guessed it . . .being Super Social and used his talents to Socially Source his rebel brigade. He became our very first Super Social recruiter!

Today’s recruiter needs to be Super Social too and ride all the right Social Sourcing horses they can to find the best job candidates.  The Super Social numbers tell the story so don’t limit yourself to just LinkedIn for you can never tell from behind which door your next great recruit will be found.

Best,

Jeffery

CEO/Founder

ShoppeSimpleNetwork

612-349-2740

jeff@shoppesimplenetwork.com

www.shoppesimplenetwork.com

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jeffery-giesener/0/600/b82

Being Super Social…

ideas from Jeffery Giesener CEO ShoppesimpleNetwork.com

We all know people who seem to know everyone…people who can get you in touch with just about anyone.

Malcom Galdwell is his visionary work called The Tipping Point (written in 2002) used the term “Connector” for those people who like to make connections and is totally comfortable meeting people and offering help in facilitating connections.

It’s amazing that The Tipping point was written 10 years ago even before the birth of LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and the iPhone.

From a Social Media perspective have you thought about where your Social Advocates are hanging out today? As you may guess, they’re hanging out in Social Networks. In fact, BusinessInsider.com reports that people who have 150 connections in Social Networks are called Super Socials.

Where Are Your Super Socials Hanging Out?

84% of Super Socials are connecting on Facebook, 39% are on Twitter and 38% are on LinkedIn. Do these numbers surprise you? They shouldn’t. BusinessInsider.com reports as expected, Facebook is the 800 lb. Super Social Gorilla. So if you aren’t targeting your marketing efforts towards your Social and Mobile customers you are missing a huge opportunity to engage with your customers and turn them into your Advocates.

So isn’t time to begin applying part of your marketing budget to testing/learning how to market to your Social and Mobile audiences?

The Power of Super Social Word of Mouth…

• When asked what sources “influence your decision to use or not use a particular company, brand or product” 71% claim reviews from family members or friends exert influence. (Harris Interactive)
• 53% of people on Twitter recommend companies and/or products in their Tweets, with 48% of them delivering on their intention to buy the product. (ROI Research for Performance)
• In a study conducted by social networking site myYearbook, 81 percent of respondents said they’d received advice from friends and followers relating to a product purchase through a social site; ClickZ
• Users put great trust in their social networks. One-half of respondents said they considered information shared on their networks when making a decision. (eMarketer)
• A study found that between 10% and 24% of US social media users turned to social networks when making purchase decisions about various categories of products and services. (eMarketer)
• 67% of shoppers spend more online after recommendations from online community of friends. (Internet Retailer)
• Facebook, blogs, Twitter and customer sharing are considered the most effective tactics for mobilizing consumers to talk up products online. (Etailing)
• Consumers say that word of mouth is still the number one influence for purchases. (Retail Advertising and Marketing Association/BIGresearch Study)
• Recommendations from family and friends trump all other consumer touch points when it comes to influencing purchases. (AdAge)

Tapping Super Socials For Commerce?

Here’s how I see marketers, we are working with, succeeding in Social and Mobile commerce. First they have identified their Super Social audiences by tagging source. Then they are targeting specialized Social marketing campaigns to impact this group. Their intent is to enable word of mouth enabling conversations to flow through to friends and family on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, email and of course Mobile Texting.

Imagine the viral effect for your business when you stimulate your customer’s social graph.

A suggestion: when you take the marketing time to focus on your Social and Mobile programs, it won’t take long for your business to see positive outcomes from your top Super Social customers driving their friends and family back to your website for transactions.

Best,

Jeffery

Jeffery Giesener

CEO/Founder

ShoppeSimpleNetwork

jeff@shoppesimplenetwork.com

612-349-2740

http://www.shoppesimplenetwork.com

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jeffery-giesener/0/600/b82

PS. Need help putting your plans together just give me a ping or ring and I would be happy to

Creating A Community of Facebook Store Buyers . . .

By Steve Neseth – SVP Business Development – ShoppeSimple

Today, when you think of contacting friends, you think of Facebook.  It’s by far the largest social media site as it approaches a billion worldwide users early next year.  It’s currently growing at the rate of a completely new LinkedIn user base about every 4 weeks.  And, earlier this year it surpassed Google as the most visited site!

Almost everyone is on Facebook so it’s tough to ignore it much longer for personal and also business use.  Marketers can no longer avoid considering the commerce potential of this consumer community.   Yet, there are still so many merchants who choose to stand on the Social Commerce sidelines while their competitors learn how to win in this space.

Enable more powerful Product Reviews in Facebook

When I shop online, I rely heavily on product reviews to make my buying decision.  Granted, the reviews I reference on a website are posted by product users who are unknown to me, yet they are still very helpful.  But their impact pales in comparison to reviews from people we know.

90% of online consumers trust recommendations from people they know; 70% trust opinions of unknown users. – Econsultancy, July 2009

One of the great things about Facebook for a merchant is that users on their Facebook merchant page can create their own personalized product reviews.  These are product reviews generated by your Facebook friends so they’re even more powerful in helping make buying decisions.

When asked what sources “influence your decision to use or not use a particular company, brand or product” 71% claim reviews from family members or friends exert a “great deal” or “fair amount” of influence. – Harris Interactive, June 2010

To enable this capability, merchants must provide consumers instantaneous access to their friends while they are shopping on their site.  This can be done by providing social sharing tools on the product detail page.  When your Facebook connections are activated within your shopping session, you can now send individual messages requesting reviews from people you know and trust on specific products you’re thinking about buying.  One- to-one communication is now underway between friends within Facebook as you consider your purchase.  It’s as if the merchant enables you to ‘beam in’ your friends at will to join your “shopping trip” from wherever they are.  And, a good word from a friend will always help to cement the sale.

Facebook Store Tips for Success

Here are ideas to consider in addition to Personalized Product Reviews that will increase your probability for Facebook store success:

1. Consider only those Facebook Store platforms that link the consumer to your product detail page on your site when they want to place an order.   As a merchant, you want to control the shopping experience and maintain check-out consistency whenever a consumer buys from you online.  The only sure way to achieve this is to direct all ordering through your existing website checkout process.
2. Facebook stores that feature targeted product offers are generally more successful at driving social commerce than stores that offer a fire hose of product.  Focusing on Daily Deals, New Arrivals, Specials, Closeouts, Event specific product etc. will be more successful than featuring everything you already feature on your site.
3. Look for a platform that enables you as a marketer to present your products in innovative product groupings on- the-fly to take advantage of special sales opportunities.
4. Provide a way for consumers to share product offers on the top social media channels.  Avoid  providing too many options that confuse or frustrate the consumer.  Giving them a choice between the most popular ones will do (Facebook, Twitter, My Home Pages, LinkedIn, and Google+)
5. Enable the consumer to place relevant merchant Facebook Store(s) on their own consumer Facebook page so they can receive relevant product offers from merchants they like without ever leaving their Facebook page.

If you’ve been sitting on the fence thinking that Facebook is just a personal communications channel . . .   think again.  According to Justin R. Levy in his book, Facebook Marketing, “Social networks are the new way to communicate and market your brand.  You can either choose to embrace it or watch your competition pass you as they figure it out.”

ShoppeSimple Facebook Stores drives new incremental business

ShoppeSimple makes it easy for merchants to create, publish and track relevant product offers to wherever their online consumers are.   That includes Facebook stores.  Typically, merchants are challenged by limited IT resources to add more online marketing programs that can generate additional sales.  Because we require no internal IT to implement our program, the merchant is free to create, publish and track as many new relevant product offers as they want, at any time.

The ShoppeSimple program is permission-based where consumers can choose to receive specific products that are relevant to them.  The results:  consumers place orders of higher value, will buy with greater frequency and convert more readily.

Imagine that your business is not meeting plan and the IT queue is backed up for months.  But you don’t stand still.  Instead, you add a program to fill the sales gap because you have the tools to create a successful new sales opportunity when you need it most.

Ring in the New Year right and contact us about putting a Facebook store in place.  There are no implementation costs.  Your investment is limited to an affordable flat monthly subscription fee that is guaranteed to bring a positive return.  Your store can be in place generating sales by mid January.

Additionally there are a limited number of New Year – New Customer Trial Offers available for the first to call us.

Call 612-963-3434 or email me at steve.neseth@shoppesimplenetwork.com.

Happy Holidays!

60% of Mobile Conversations happen where?

Mobile Commerce is really about connecting and having a conversation with your consumer. But what’s different in Mobile marketing is the connecting and conversations happen wherever your consumer is.

What makes Mobile marketing even more challenging is that these Mobile engagements are no longer dependent on your consumer being at home or at the office or in social communities tied to a PC.

40% of Mobile Conversations happen at work; 20% at home*

Now, when your business begins to focus on Mobile marketing, the stickiness of this medium will be all about creating faster engagements and better conversations. When you plug into this “on-the-go” marketing medium the result will be something that we as marketers have never been part of before.

Another Innovative Marketing Sea Change…

YES – another sea change of new Mobile innovations are coming at marketers and they are about to provide an undertow that could sweep your business out to sea  if you’re not ready for them.

And you’re still trying to catch up regarding what to do with Facebook and Twitter marketing? Sorry… no rest for the marketing weary.

From my seat, you should be looking at the competitor to the right and then to your left and determine how they could disrupt your business using Mobile and or Social platforms.

 Or does your business still have an attitude like this…

We still see attitudes like this all the time and advise merchants to mitigate these  legacy attitudes. Remember, Facebook has been in existence for nearly 8 years and now has over 800 Million users. So I often ask, at what point does a business “get it”?

The challenge is if you wait for competitive innovation to hit your business it may be too late.  With your consumer now in control of their marketing acceptance points, they will dictate where they will be marketed to and by whom. Companies prepared to enable the consumer to control their touch points will be the big winners.  Are you prepared to thrive or will you perish in this new consumer-centric marketing landscape? It’s survival of the fittest on the Social and Mobile tundra!

Would You Say Goodbye to 25% of Your Business?

Today, Mobile Commerce  is already 10%+ of sales according to IBM and growing rapidly so there’s no time to wait. This is not the late 90’s anymore when marketers questioned if they should be in e-commerce. You have to make the Mobile decision much more quickly than that!

Here is what you need to be thinking…and thinking it today!

• Mobile marketing is a way for your business to stay connected to your audience 24/7, regardless of their location.  It’s a way to connect with the consumer who is on the go.
• Mobile marketing is a tremendous opportunity for your business to reach your consumer while they’re in your store, on the web, in social communities or while they’re shopping your competitors retail or website store.
• Mobile Search volume has grown by 4X over 2010 because it provides timely information at that critical moment when a buying decision is made.* It’s now possible to draw traffic away from your competitor through a better quality Mobile search.
• For the first time, the use of Mobile marketing enables you to connect with a customer using a QR code placed in your catalog or storefront. With a simple  downloadable QR reader App, consumers can now move in real-time through a unique online experience where one never existed before.

My suggestion is that all of this needs to be in your Q1-2012 Marketing Plan as you drive your business into the Mobile Commerce world.

Already, our ShoppeSimple analytics show that more than 12% of  the visits to our clients digital sites are by consumers on mobile devices and Tablets. And, we’re just at the beginning of this Mobile sea change.  Morgan Stanley says Global smartphone usage in 2011 is around 835 Million subscribers’ vs. 5.6 Billion Phone Subscribers overall. Just imagine the quantum innovation opportunity coming at all of our businesses when you consider the tremendous headroom for Smartphone and Tablet growth is still ahead of us.

Meet The Mobile Challenge…

ShoppeSimple can help your business generate mobile sales now… not months from now.  The ShoppeSimple Get Daily Offers mobile platform includes:

• ShoppeFetch Engine:  patent-pending technology that enables you to easily create and distribute relevant and personalized product offers daily to your consumers on their Mobile smartphones phones and Tablets which they can also share with their Likes on Facebook and Followers on Twitter. The consumer buys through merchant checkout.
• Mobile Analytics: develop a cost effective mobile strategy and identify which Mobile platforms to pursue and when.
• Mobile Landing Pages: branded micro-sites are built on-the-fly for you for all Smartphone devices and Tablet platforms.
• Opt-in Mobile Data Collection:  build an opt-in database of mobile phone numbers that you can market to immediately because you own this data under pure permission with your consumer.
• Barcode Enabled: The ability for you to take advantage of all the unique “wherever you are” benefits of Mobile marketing like leveraging your stores through barcode marketing and driving additional business through QR codes on your catalog.

You can get started without requiring any assistance from your internal IT, time or resources. So, if you’re looking for an easy to implement, cost effective way to introduce Mobile marketing into your business in 2012, I’d welcome your call at 612-349-2740 or email me at jeff@shoppesimplenetwork.com. 

Best,

Jeffery

Founder/CEO

 

*National Retail Federation

*Morgan Stanley Mobile Trends Report/Mary Meeker

*Yahoo Press Release http://connectedtv.yahoo.com/

* http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/29/study-shocker-mobile-users-piddle-around-on-the-internet-while

A Killer Cyber Sales Week

Online shopping for the month of November has hit $15 billion, a 15% increase compared to last year, comScore says.

Discounting efforts by some online retailers, including Amazon.com and Apple, in the hopes of bringing some of the mall’s Black Friday magic to the Web appear to have paid off.

With a 26% jump over last year, the day after Thanksgiving saw the highest increase in spending compared to 2010 than any other period in November, according to comScore. However, online spending on Cyber Monday still outpaced Black Friday by a healthy margin, the research says.

This year, the Monday after Thanksgiving became the biggest shopping day in the history of the Internet, with an estimated $1.25 billion spent online. Monday was the highest-grossing online shopping day in U.S. history, with spending reaching $1.25 billion, That’s up 22% from the previous record, which was last year’s Cyber Monday. (from CNN.com/Comscore)

How did your online marketing programs compare to these benchmarks?

Here’s a sampling of ShoppeSimple client results from Cyber Week November 23^rd through the 30^th.

Client One: added $29,000 from their ShoppeSimple Program during Cyber Week on  256 visitors to their ShoppeSimple landing pages. This client is in our lifestyle vertical and has a mostly male audience. They received $113 dollars per visitor and paid an ad spend of 2.8% through monthly subscription fees.

Client Two: added $91,000 from their ShoppeSimple Program during Cyber Week. They saw 6,699 visits to their landing pages through the program. The client is in our gift vertical and has a mostly female audience. They received $13.54 dollars per visitor and paid an ad spend of .5% through monthly subscription fees.

Client Three: added $46,000 from their ShoppeSimple Program during Cyber Week. They saw 3,003 visits to their landing pages through the program. The client is in our gift vertical and has a 50/50 male/female audience. They received $15.31 dollars per visitor and paid an ad spend of 2.4% through monthly subscription fees.

Client Four: A new client launched 10 days prior to Thanksgiving and did $8,500 in the ShoppeSimple Program during Cyber Week with 7,481 visits. The client is a multi-channel marketer with general merchandise stores and has mostly a female audience. They received $1.13 dollars per visitor and paid an ad spend of 2.0% through monthly subscription fees. This client is 50% ahead of a comparable client launched at the same time last year who has had over $1.4 Million in ShoppeSimple annual program revenue in one year’s time at a 2.4% ad spend.

But what did Cyber Week teach us about Mobile Commerce?

Could Mobile Commerce help you close the gap in your sales?

Morgan Stanley says Global smartphone usage in 2011 is around 835 Million subscribers’ vs 5.6 Billion Phone Subscribers. Just imagine the quantum change coming at all of our businesses as it’s obvious that there’s tremendous headroom for Smartphone and Tablet growth still ahead of us.

Let’s take a moment and also look through our rear view mirror. . .

You know that iPods changed the media/music landscape.  iPhones ramped even faster. Now, according to Morgan Stanley, iPads will leave their “i-siblings” in the dust.   And don’t forget about Google as Android phones are scaling even faster than the iPhone*.

The mobile marketing opportunity grows even more challenging when you look at eMarketer’s Reasons for In-store/Online Abandonment from Smartphone Users (a 7/2011report)

They state that a consumer ‘mobile abandoned’ because they:

1. Found it online through mobile search at a better price
2. Found it at another store through mobile search at a better price

Morgan Stanley also reports that your consumer’s Mobile Search is already four times greater than it was in 2010! *

So, when you look at what’s coming from Mobile Search and the potential affects this could have on your existing business as Marketers in shopping abandonment, how will you defend your business? Should you just wait and watch or should you go on the mobile offensive?

ShoppeSimple clients already see high Mobile Visitor counts

For Cyber Week, between 10.0% and 23.5% of all visitors generated from all ShoppeSimple client programs visited client-landing pages on a Mobile or Tablet platform. We expect this to continue to scale quickly in 2012.

Catch The Mobile Wave in 2012!

We recommend that you start by determining . . .

• Your Mobile visitor rate by Smartphone device.  This will help you align your initial mobile investments with the devices your consumers are using today.
• Your Mobile revenue level.  Just because you may not see mobile dollars being called out as material in your analytic yet, can be sure that there are not consumers already shopping your site from their mobile device or tablet?

Knowing your current mobile playing field, however insignificant you believe it to be will provide clearer direction as you build your go-forward mobile strategy. And no, a mobile program doesn’t always require a huge investment of resources.

ShoppeSimple Answers To Your Mobile Marketing Challenge

Without requiring any resources from your IT team, ShoppeSimple can help your business bridge the gap to Mobile. We can help your business quickly set sail (or should I say, ‘get sales’) on the Mobile Wave so you can generate mobile sales soon… not months from now.

You receive the following through our ‘Get Daily Offers’ mobile platform:

• Our patent-pending ShoppeFetch engine that enables you to easily create and distribute relevant and personalized product offers daily to your consumers on their Mobile phones which they can also share on  Facebook and Twitter. And as always, the consumer is driven back to your website for conversion.
• A robust set of ShoppeSimple Mobile analytics to help you develop a cost effective mobile strategy and identify which Mobile platforms to pursue and when.
• Mobile enabled landing pages (branded micro-sites) built on-the-fly for you for all Smartphone devices and Tablet platforms.
• The ability for you to build an opt-in database of mobile phone numbers that you can market to immediately because you own this data under pure permission with your consumer.
• The ability for you to take advantage of all the unique “wherever you are” benefits of Mobile marketing like leveraging your stores through barcode marketing and driving additional business through QR codes on your catalog.

You simply won’t believe how easy it is to accomplish all of the above!  And once again, we do it all without requiring any assistance from your internal IT, time or resources.

If you’re looking for an easy to implement, cost effective way to introduce Mobile marketing into your business in 2012, I’d welcome your call at 612-349-2740 or email me at jeff@shoppesimplenetwork.com.

Best,

Jeffery

Founder/CEO

 

 

 

 

*From the Internet Trends Conference Web 2.0 Summit (Mary Meeker – Morgan Stanley)

 

10.3% of Black Friday Sales are from Mobile

Are you viewing the rise of mobile marketing as a boon to your business? Executives view the rising popularity of mobile platforms along with Mobile marketing (already 10%+ of online sales) with a mix of optimism, excitement and obvious nervousness.

So which camp are you in?

Mobile marketing offers significant advantages and challenges over more traditional methods of customer engagement.

They are… Advantages/Challenges

• Your mobile marketing message can reach difficult-to-find customers, no matter where they are. However these consumers are your most loyal and best customers so you must treat them with stellar customer service.
• You can find your consumer in close proximity to your store. But so can your competitor.
• Your Mobile message is instantly on. If you’re not on, your consumer can easily go elsewhere.
• Your Mobile message will connect with customers when it’s convenient for them. Are you Mobile available 24X7?
• Provides marketers with unprecedented opportunities for engagement, conversions, long-term retention and Mobile monetization. Competition for these consumers is already heating up and they have already proven to be price sensitive and less brand loyal.

So while these  challenges may make you hesitant to jump into Mobile marketing,  the market facts speak to just the opposite. Take a look…

• HubSpot says…in the next two years, one billion people will have accessed the Internet using a Mobile device. Hopefully as you read this you are thinking WOW; I thought Facebook is a big marketing opportunity but the trend looks like Mobile marketing will dwarf Facebook.
• HubSpot also indicates that in the U.S., 25% of laptop users have abandoned them for exclusive use of Mobile devices. Just think about the implications for your ecommerce business if 25% of your consumers are already on your website but using their mobile phone! Have you tested your website on a mobile Smartphone and Tablet platform? What does your Mobile checkout experience look like?

Can you afford to dismiss 25% of your market?

• Morgan Stanley predicts 50% of all e-commerce will be done on a Smartphone/Tablet device by 2014 (just two years away).
• A report in IDC Retail Insights states that nearly 30% of the more than $447 billion spent by consumers during the 2010 holiday season can be directly attributed to Smartphone and Mobile device sales.

Black Friday 2011 Mobile Results

John Squire, IBM Chief Strategy Officer, reports that “10.3% of online sales are coming from Mobile shoppers. And about 17% of all shoppers are using mobile devices.”

Additional IBM findings for Black Friday 2011, at 7 pm ET, are:

• Black Friday 2011 online sales continue to hold at a 20% increase for this same time period over Black Friday 2010.
• Black Friday 2011 online sales eclipsed Thanksgiving sales at 2:20pm PST 
• The number of consumers using a Mobile device to visit a retailer’s site is holding firm at 17.04%.
• The number of consumers using their Mobile device to make a purchase is holding steady at 9.51%.
• iPhone continues to lead all mobile device traffic at 6.58% (38.6% of all mobile shoppers), followed by Android at 5.20% (30.5%) and iPad at 4.71% (27.6%).

Has your Marketing Team figured out how your business will Mobile enable every website visit, every email and keyword search campaign, every Facebook, Twitter experience, and every point of customer contact? How will you make these Mobile experiences available at any time to customers everywhere they are? With statistics as glaring as the above, how is your business moving to Mobile marketing in 2012? What is your Mobile Marketing Plan for Q1-2012?

Getting Your Business Ready For Mobile

• Identify your mobile users. Through your current analytic program determine which mobile devices are being used to access your site. Knowing the specific Mobile devices on your site will help you understand how to build your Mobile marketing campaigns. A key point… don’t use your gut; use your analytics.  Just because Droids may be the rage… it may well be the iPhone platform that is driving your Mobile traffic. Trust your analytics.
  

• Set appropriate Mobile marketing goals. Before you know you have a mobile business, one which is driving revenue, why spend tens of thousands of dollars on Apps or large-scale website enablement? Before Mobile or Social came online wouldn’t you have done a marketing test before spending big dollars on a marketing initiative? So why throw caution to the wind in Mobile?
• Treat your customer with respect. If you’re just getting started with Mobile marketing treat Mobile like you did when you began capturing your email-marketing database. For example, if you’re looking to begin a Mobile program, a good starting point would be to build an opt-in database of mobile numbers, which you own.  We recommend that you don’t use 3^rd party Sharing Apps to build your opt-in database where you have no idea where the data is going or with whom the data is being shared.

ShoppeSimple Answers To Your Mobile Marketing Challenge

Without requiring any resources from your IT team, ShoppeSimple can help your business bridge the gap to mobile by providing the following:

• A robust set of ShoppeSimple Mobile analytics to help you develop a cost effective mobile strategy and identify which Mobile platforms to pursue and when.
• The ability for you to build an opt-in database of mobile phone numbers that you can market to immediately because you own this data under pure permission with your consumer.
• Mobile enabled landing pages (branded micro-sites) built on-the-fly for you for all Smartphone devices and Tablet platforms.
• Our patent-pending ShoppeFetch engine that enables you to easily create and distribute relevant and personalized product offers daily to your consumers on their Mobile phones which they can also share on  Facebook and Twitter. And as always, the consumer is driven back to your website for conversion.
• The ability for you to take advantage of all the unique “wherever you are” benefits of Mobile marketing like leveraging your stores through barcode marketing and driving additional business through QR codes on your catalog.

You  won’t believe how easy it is to accomplish all of the above!  And once again, we do it all without requiring any assistance from your internal IT.

If you’re looking for an easy to implement, cost effective way to introduce Mobile marketing into your business in 2012, I’d welcome your call at 612-349-2740 or email me at jeff@shoppesimplenetwork.com.

Best,

Jeffery

Founder/CEO

C-Level Directives…

CMO/CEO to Bob – Marketing VP:

“Ah Bob, we need to be on Facebook and Twitter and let’s start a blog too. Our sales are way down and I see our competitors are all over social media and their sales are up… so obviously the missing ingredient for our business is social media, so get to it.”

Bob: “You got it, we’ll get started right away.”

Fast-forward a month or two after the company started their Facebook, Twitter and blog accounts.

CMO/CEO: “Bob, our sales are still way down, what’s going on? Why hasn’t social media helped our sales liked it has our competition?”

Bob: “Um…”*

Has a similar discussion happened inside your business?

Is your Social and Mobile Media generating the sales dollars you’re expecting?

If not…why not?

My online experience dates back to the mid 90’s, way before anyone was talking about social media. As part of my current role at ShoppeSimple, I provide consulting for our clients. I help them understand their specific online channel issues and objectives along with why their current Social and Mobile Media programs are not generating the results they expect.

The reasons why…

Social is about consumer engagement wherever consumers are
For those not succeeding with social or mobile, we find that the thought process has typically fallen into the philosophy that “consumer engagement has to happen on my website”.

For Mobile, it’s likely all about building Apps (but which ones) along with a “field of dreams” mentality around Apps marketing.

From my point of view, I always encourage companies to pivot off these positions and acknowledge that social and mobile conversations and sharing are happening all around their business and through a myriad of channel touch points.

Holding firm to a mindset that everything must happen on “my website” is like setting your business up to fight against the exponential growth tide of social and mobile. If you truly believe you can position your business to fight the social battle ground against Facebook, Twitter and Mobile enablement, I have some social and mobile swampland to sell you in Arizona.

Social and mobile should be all about distributing relevant product offers to your consumer. Having your consumers willingly accept your offers under their terms, permissions and in their Social communities and on their mobile Smartphone.

Is your business in a position to enable your consumer to personalize product offers they want to receive from you and with just one click place them into their social, mobile, email and bookmarked customized landing pages?

I am not speaking to using the Facebook and Twitter share icons, which just congests your consumers Facebook’s Wall with more billboard like advertising. This builds the Facebook and Twitter brands, not yours.

Do you really believe it is sophisticated social marketing to clutter up your consumers Facebook Wall with advertising just like their email inbox?

When you reach a highly focused and sophisticated level of consumer engagement through the delivery of consumer selected product offers into your branded store on the Consumer Facebook Page (on the left navigational rail . . . not the Wall) the result will be sustainable incremental sales. We’ve proven this to be a successful formula time and again.

But you may be asking yourself . . . how can we distribute product offers that are highly relevant to social and mobile spaces when our IT team holds us back from working at our marketing best? We have heard the same frustrations from marketers time and again. They want to test Social and Mobile but their internal IT complexities, inflexibilities and archaic web infrastructure prevent them from doing so.

Enter ShoppeSimple . . .

No two businesses are alike…

ShoppeSimple is not a cookie-cutter social and mobile marketing solution. Our consulting is a key part of what makes ShoppeSimple successful for our clients.

We don’t simply hand over our technology and leave you to figure out how to apply it. We properly fit our solutions inside our client’s business and assist their Team in driving Surround-Sound™ Social Business through all consumer channel touch points.

We assist your business monetize social and mobile horizontally across the organization and create a sustaining incremental Social Business that you can bank on.

I welcome the opportunity to visit with you about generating new incremental revenue for your Holiday season, or to discuss how you can integrate ShoppeSimple into your Marketing Plan for Q1-2012.

To get our conversation started, call me at 612-349-2740 or email me at jeff@shoppesimplenetwork.com.

Best,
Jeffery

Jeffery Giesener
Founder/CEO
ShoppeSimple Network

PS. Please feel free to forward this email to a friend or colleague.

* from a blog post by Steve Olenski/Social Media Today

Sitting On Your Hands…ideas from Jeffery Giesener – CEO, ShoppeSimple

Are You Being Forced to Sit On Your Hands?

Ecommerce Marketers should always be in a position to personalize and distribute relevant content to wherever their consumers are.

But, is your online marketing team handcuffed by legacy technology, stagnant web architecture and aging websites?

Do your IT handcuffs hold back your marketers from doing their jobs more effectively and driving the most revenue for your business?

If you might be suffering from the above…read on…this blog post is for you…

Ecommerce Marketers Unite!

ShoppeSimple can help you build your own Surround-Sound™ Social Business platform that enables you to engage with consumers more deeply creating significant opportunities for your business to grow.

We make it easy for marketers to create and distribute relevant content to wherever their consumers are. We enable your consumers to personalize the category content they want to receive. The relevancy and targeting of the ShoppeSimple program increases consumer engagement as proven by client-reported increases in average order values, frequency of ordering, higher conversion rates and new customers.

It’s a Game-Changer for Ecommerce Marketers

ShoppeFetch is at the core of what makes ShoppeSimple so different. The ShoppeFetch toolset provides marketers with the technical ability to quickly respond to the unique needs of targeted consumer groups on their own. They no longer need the IT department or Web Team to making things happen. This innovative IT SaaS solution provides new marketing horse power for your ecommerce team and total control over all marketing touch points to drive more sales.

With ShoppeFetch the marketer essentially “vacuums” all of the relevant data off their site (without the involvement of IT) and then based on their unique requirements repurposes this targeted data on branded landing pages created on-the-fly.

Our patent-pending, content creation and publishing engine writes once and distributes content everywhere with just one click. Imagine if your business could solve many of its user-experience, IT and web infrastructure issues quickly (in weeks not months), at such a low cost (monthly subscriptions start at $500) and without any implementation fees. Now it can!

ShoppeFetch also includes a proprietary analytical reporting package that provides relevant, dynamically generated data so you can drive your own analytical bus. Now, you can grow all of your online marketing channels in ways that may have seemed impossible in today’s business climate.

I welcome the opportunity to visit with you soon about driving new incremental revenue for your Holiday season. And, if you call us in the next week you can even be up and running before Thanksgiving! Just call me at 612-349-2740 or click here to email me and get started.