thinks

It’s been a light week here at thinks. But, never fear, we won’t leave you without a set of great reads to get you through the weekend lull. Without further ado, here’s what’s been happening this week on the InterTubes…

• Leading off, Borders Books relaunched its website, taking control of its online presence for the first time in 7 years. Border’s change here highlights one of our favorite topics here on thinks: how to set the right channel strategy for your business. Where Borders previously relied on Amazon to run its ecommerce channel, the company now has a more integrated strategy, leveraging both its online and offline presence to generate sales.
• Great. So why do you care about Border’s? Because, as Marketing Diva Toby Bloomberg talks about this week, “…sales generated by small businesses via e-commerce accounts for as much as one-fourth of all consumer e-commerce in the United States, although surveys, including the U.S. Census, tend to greatly underestimate that number.” Those numbers come from Amazon exec Paul Misener. Crazy, huh? The question is, are you doing everything you should to get your fair share?
• Need help in getting your fair share? Linda Bustos and the fine folks at Elastic Path have created a new whitepaper, “How to Write an E-commerce Request for Proposal”. Very useful in helping you focus on growing your online - and online-to-offline - business. And since we all like to have a little fun on Fridays, check out Elastic Path’s tips for 404 pages. Useful and entertaining.
• Finally, Social Times has an interesting analysis of how to turn social networks into money. As social networks continue to seek revenue opportunities, don’t be surprised if they start looking into your backyard. That’s not a bad thing. And you could turn it to your advantage by focusing on how you’re using these tools, too.

Cheers, everybody. See you next week.

And remember, you can subscribe to this blog to make sure you don’t miss a thing.

I mentioned Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture last week. You can see the video from his speech here. Well, I finished his book over the weekend. What a powerful read. You owe it to yourself to watch the video, read the book, hug your spouse, your kids, your partner, and do what you want to do. If this book - if this man - doesn’t inspire you to go after your dreams, I’m afraid little I can say will. I plan to buy copies for my whole team. It’s that impactful. Read it. Then live it.

Full disclosure: Any affiliate revenues I earn through sales of this book will go to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Obviously, the focus here at thinks is helping you build your business using e-commerce and the internet. But long-time readers may have noticed a not-so-subtle shift lately into talking about search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click advertising (PPC). The reason is, today, these tactics dominate how customers find your business online. Want proof? Read on, dear friend.

• Two recent reports - Display Stumbles As Search Remains Strong and The URL Is Dead, Long Live Search - give a great overview of how customer behavior strongly favors search.
• So, how do you get more value from your search marketing? Linda Bustos provides an excellent 3-step process for PPC advertising success: PPC Split Testing: Reducing Risk When Testing New Ads Against Control, PPC Advertising: Are You Selling Yourself In Your Ads? and Testing PPC Ad Copy: Strategies for Split Testing.
• Successful search marketing techniques like these aren’t just the domain of the big guys. In fact, Jonathan Mendez gives an excellent case study of a big guy getting it way wrong in Macy’s Magical Online Disappearing Act. Maybe they should subscribe to this blog?
• Finally, Microsoft is trying to connect searching and shopping behavior. Danny Sullivan explains why they’re not succeeding at it. Better yet, the fine folks at GrokDotCom point out 3 Great (and Quick) Optimization Reads from Omniture that will help you succeed where Microsoft stumbles.

OK, so search is all well and good today. But, what’s next? The most likely outcome - certainly the most widely touted - is the shift to mobile search. I’m bullish on the growth of mobile search. And, apparently, I’m not the only one: the guys at Read/Write Web have a new Report titled The Mobile Web is the New Hangout that talks about where we’re going. And Search Engine Land talks about how NearbyNow plans to make local (product) search widely available.

Well, folks, that ought to be enough to keep you on your toes this long holiday weekend here in the States (and the early part of next week for those outside the US). Have a great weekend. We’ll see you right back here next week.

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James Kilts knows how to build successful companies. As the former CEO of Gillette, Nabisco and Kraft, Kilts helped turnaround three major organizations. His understanding of how to build outstanding brands and the discipline needed to support those brands is unparalleled. Fortunately, he also knows how to explain it. His book, Doing What Matters: How to Get Results That Make a Difference - The Revolutionary Old-School Approach, gets right to the point - despite its long title. Kelts explains the mindset and methods used to turnaround three iconic companies in terms that apply to companies small, large and in-between.

My only criticism is that I “read” the audiobook edition. The reader was a little too tense for my tastes, sometimes berating the listener with the text. Read the book instead.. You won’t regret it. Because building your company is what matters most of all.

Last week we took a look at how to conduct competitive and market research to develop your ecommerce and online marketing strategy. A strong visual layout of that competitive information will help you as you develop your online strategy.

One technique I find useful is to create a grid that shows how each competitor - and your company - rate in various strategic areas. For instance, it’s helpful to rate each company according to the 4 “P’s” of markting - its online product offering, its distribution strategy (also known as place or sales channels), the price and price strategy offered, and how each promotes itself. I prefer using a 4-point scale ranging from +2 to -2 (ignore 0). A “+2 rating” indicates the competitor does a great job, while a “-2″ says they don’t offer it - or do it so poorly they’d be better off if they didn’t at all. The middle values account degrees of success or failure. For example, comparing yourself with two competitors, you might end up with a grid that looks like this:

Obviously, you’d likely have multiple rows for each “P” to account for any differences. For instance, when reviewing product, do your competitors offer all their products or only some? Do they monetize their traffic using ads or affiliate marketing? Does their distribution strategy only include their own website? A mobile site? Use third-party distribution, such as Craigslist, Ebay, Amazon, Expedia? Affiliate sites? For price, do they offer price parity across all channels or do they offer price preference for one?

Clearly, you’ll see overlap between your online strategy and your overall business strategy. That’s a Good Thing. It’s when they don’t overlap that you should worry.

Once you’ve gotten these items placed into a grid, it should be easy to identify where you compete head-to-head and where there are gaps in the marketplace. Next time, we’ll take a look at how to exploit those gaps to develop an online strategy that’s second to none.

OK. I’m late to the game on this one. Probably way late. But, you need to watch this:

My wife just read Randy Pausch’s book. I’ve just started it. Here’s what I’ve gotten so far - from the video and from the book: Don’t you dare let anything - not one damn thing - stop you from achieving your dreams. As Henry Ford said, “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” Whether it’s business, life or love, go get what you want. Now. The only thing between you and your success is what you allow to be there.