Signals from the Field

Don't Let an Interested Customer Buy Elsewhere

The latest statistics place cart abandonment rate at about 59%. That is, 59% of time a customer places an item into an online shopping cart, that customer fails to check out and complete the online transaction. With an increase in comparison shopping resources, this could go even higher. A recent study by Paypal found that 45% of customers abandoned carts more than once with an average order size of slightly more than $100.

by Neal Lappe, October 12, 2011

By Neal Lappe - August 27, 2011

Neal Lappe - July 3, 2011

The growth of online social platforms has been nothing short of explosive over the last several years. As we've watched both consumers and businesses flock to the online space, one of the greatest challenges is how to implement a holistic system that is capable of utilizing all the different areas of social technology. While almost all of us are familiar with the most popular social platforms and services, there are new ones appearing every day. With that being the case, it's almost impossible to keep up with every new service and every new network. There are just too many.

Handling Negative Social Media Publicity

By Tara Lappe—Marketing Coordinator, WebStrategies, Inc., February 18, 2011

1. Search engines and social media sites will boom and begin a "love affair" with each other.

Search engines will remain the "king" of online marketing and will continue to be the place to find information, products, services and people. The social media sites are where more and more people are going to "check out" someone or some business before engagement occurs. It's a validation process and a place to go to get recommendations. Angie's List is a relatively popular social media site that rates a variety of service providers. Rating websites are popping up every day giving consumers significant power to evaluate products and services. If you think Online Reputation Management is important today - it will be 10 times more important in 2012.

Using Google Places to Drive Awareness and Website Traffic

Google recently made some major-league changes to their search engine results listings, particularly for those doing localized searches. In their usual manner, Google understood that a significant amount of online searches are intended to find local products and services, and they reacted accordingly by enhancing local search results.

What should I do with social media? Should I invest in search engine marketing to generate leads and sales? Do I need a website that sells online? All good questions - but first things first.