UNBRANDED

Social Search: Making the Online Store Experience More Like the In-Store Experience

2008-10-02T12:14:00.000-07:00

I went to Online Market World yesterday. It was surprisingly really empty. One company that I found quite interesting was Baynote, who delivers on-demand recommendations and social search for websites. Similar to Amazon.com, product recommendations are made based on your behavior and those that have displayed similar behavior. The difference, if I understand correctly, is that product recommendations and link recommendations are made in real-time, rather than the next time you visit the site.

I recently made a recommendation to a comparison shopping site to make their online retail experience more like the in-store experience. It’s great to see Baynote moving in that direction. I think this will be really effective for e-tailers that decide to partner with them.

The algorithm acts somewhat like an in-store salesperson (if salespeople had photographic memories and impressive pattern recognition capabilities). An attentive salesperson that suggests products to you no doubt increases the purchase probability and basket size compared to one that ignores you the entire time you are browsing the store. Now, if only Baynote or another company could take it a step further. For example, what happens if the product recommendation is rejected or ignored? What would a live salesperson do? They would be suggesting additional items, gathering feedback and digging deeper to find out what the shopper is really looking for. Because of this, the end conversion rate is much higher than if every salesperson stopped at the first recommendation.

On the other hand, e-commerce sites must also be weary. What’s effective in-store could backfire online. There are many reasons why people prefer to shop online. For some, it may be that they do not want to be bothered by annoying salespeople.

My favorite part of Baynote’s technology: it ignores demographics. Yes! When are people going to figure out that this is an individualistic age? Advertisers, you are wasting your dollars on serving me with endless weight-loss and dating ads. Not all 27-year old females are the same!

Traditional Media or New Media? CPC or CPA?

2008-08-27T15:08:00.000-07:00

Long gone are the days of mass advertising. Information is right at consumers' fingertips. They are no longer opinion-less recipients of controlled corporate messages. Today's consumers are smart shoppers. The power has shifted from business to consumer. How do you not fall victim to negative user reviews or having to provide the lowest price points to survive? How do you prosper during this time of absolute advertising adversity?

A lot of new marketing agencies have sprung up, promoting that they are a new marketing company or that they are experts with new media. Well, the reality is that new becomes old pretty fast. Marketing leaders develop new ad models to overcome current challenges, but the new ad model quickly starts to be ineffective and face challenges. The advertising model life cycle keeps getting shorter. After DVRs were invented, advertisers moved TV spend to online spend. At first, corporations saw great returns on their online investment, but then users stopped clicking. CPC becomes CPM and CPA. Current ad tactics will always be ineffective and new tactics won't be effective for long. As soon as a new ad model is launched, consumers rapidly figure out how to avoid and ignore that too.

Did you ever stop to wonder why people don't like being advertised to? Because people don't like being a target. Stop thinking of your prospects as targets. Turn you customers into strategic partners. Stop counting clicks and start measuring your relationship equity with consumers. Like any relationship, it’s about trust. Compete on price and consumers will “cheat” on you the second your competitor offers a lower price. Your current customers are your most valuable asset to the sustainability and success of your business. Treat them with respect. Be open, honest and fair. Let them play an integral role to the growth of your business. Listen to them. Let them help you shape your product lines and ad strategies.

It’s not traditional media vs new media. It’s about effective media.

It’s not marketing as a science vs marketing as an art. It’s about marketing as life.

It’s not push vs pull promotion. It’s about businesses and consumers coming together.

It’s not interruptive vs subliminal. It's about a conversation.

It's not mass communication vs one-to-one communication. It’s about real, non-BS communication.

It's not demographic targeting vs behavioral targeting. It’s about relationship building.

CPC vs CPM? What about (CPR) cost per referral? (Turn your best customers into evangelists and let them drive clicks, impressions and action)

Are weaker ties more influential?

2008-08-19T16:58:00.000-07:00

In the world of social networking, are people's actions more influenced by their close friends or by those that are merely just a facebook friend and nothing else?

Every single one of my closest female facebook friends took some Sex and The City quiz and sent me invites to take the quiz myself. I have ignored each request. It wasn't because I’m not a fan of SATC or of taking quizzes. I own almost every episode of SATC and taking personality quizzes is actually (embarrassed to admit) one of my favorite unproductive things to do online. I didn’t even bother to see their quiz results. These are girls I talk to on a frequent basis offline. I spend a lot of time with them. I know them well. I value their opinions and recommendations. They know that if they call me up to grab a drink with them after work, I’ll want to go. Then why would I reject their invite to take an online quiz? Why do I reject 90% of the application download requests they send me?

On the other hand, my best friend attended an event a few weeks ago, of which he heard about through a status update of one of his facebook friends that isn’t a real life friend.

My guess. I already know which SATC girl I’m most like and I already know which SATC girl each of my close girlfriends are most like. We are real world close friends so we have common interests, common conversation topics, etc. My best friend went to an event he probably wouldn’t have heard about from a close friend offline. This facebook friend whom he has never met in real life is less like him. Thus more likely to do different things, go to different events and offer new information. I have many commonalities with my close friends, but also some differences. If one of my close friends loves to go clubbing, but I don’t, she’s not going to convince me to become a clubber chick through a twitter feed. If I had any interest, she would’ve convinced me a long time ago already.

There are a few other factors to keep in mind. 1) This fb friend that twittered about the event is what people would call a leader and my best friend is a fan. 2) The event does fit into his realm of interests. 3) The event wasn’t a major decision that would majorly impact his life. I doubt he would choose a doctor based on her recommendations.

On the other side, some people may have the persuasive power to get others to do something only because of the way the request was framed. For example, I added the party app because my close friend sent me the request “I like partying with you? Do you like partying with me?” I really wasn’t interested in adding the party app, but I can’t really tell my friend that I don’t like partying with her, can I?

Who influences YOU online?