Inside eCommerce - MicksGarage -Content is king - Rob King

Inside eCommerce Content is King

www.insideecommerce.ie@insideecommerce

@micksgarage@DerekThaDog

Rob King – Content Manager

Content is King

email - video – photography - category management - social

Do’s & Don’ts:DON’T mention religion……ever

email

Bad taste I’ll never buy from you againIn some countries you’d get beheaded for that!

“ “email

Do’s & Don’ts:DO: Visualise your audience then test, test & test again

email

Go Create!Plain text: Great deliverability but no visual impact. html templates: Simple & fast to set up but poor inbox consistency, repetitive, limited creativity & flexibility. Image mapping: Great flexibility, great inbox consistency but slow load times. No text version. Slicing: Great flexibility, visual impact, inbox consistency and load times

OptimisedPlatform consistency – creativity – speed - open rate - revenue

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When?Largely over emphasised. There are hundreds of reports & studies all contradicting each other. A bit of common sense & some A/B testing brought us to a set of simple guide lines we generally work to:

• General car parts: 11am-2pm mon-fri (needs)• Tools, accessories, gadgets: 7.30pm-8.30pm (wants)• High value items: 25th – 30th of the month (pay day) • 9am– 10am mon-fri (work stuff)• Friday afternoon (limited numbers)• 4pm-6.30pm (home/dinner)

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Subject lines, open rates, segmentation & personalisation Segmentation, relevance & personalisation are key to open rate

email

video

We did some in-house A/B testing and found that when a video was present on a product details page it drove a sales increase of 40% Hence why we now have an in-house team of experts working on video.

“ “John Smyth – head of marketing, Micksgarage.com

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video

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video

Software & HardwareWe use the Adobe Creative Suite. Videos are edited in Premier Pro and After Effects provides text, graphics & special effects, Lightroom and Photoshop are used for photography and email creation.

Basics - Camera, tripod, lights, mic, backdrop: €1290Total: €5635

video

video

+ AVS video editor

Despite filming in a dark warehouse and working on a part of the car that would normally be in shadow, through good lighting setup we have a clear, bright and crisp view of what is going on. (shot in 1080p full HD)

Video Content :• Attention spans are short but don’t assume your video has to be a certain length• Watch-ability is key. No matter what the subject, your video has to be interesting enough to watch• Get straight to the point. Don’t tell people what they’re about to see, get on and show them. (20% of viewers gone in 1 st 10s)• Know your stuff! Unscripted usually works better. That said, planning is essential. Have a clear vision & concept worked out• Accuracy! Remember there are no pedants on the internet!• Make sure the piece flows. if you do need a script, try to bullet point the topics you need to talk around, it will help you plan your shots• Research. Watch similar videos, learn from their mistakes, fill in the blanks & make yours better!

Poor sound and light can ruin a good video but they won’t make a bad video good, so first concentrate on the content

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video

• Cut out customer service issues• Increased positive product reviews• Cut returns by over 50%

Product placement – Einszett Gummi Pflege• Nov 2011: €255 profit (before wind deflector video)• Dec 2011: €2258 profit (after wind deflector video) – 785% increase

Driving Revenue Through Video Get creative & utilise video to drive real revenue

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• 3.6m video views• 1.1m from embedded player• 25,000 views per week• 1964 CTA clicks YTD• Average view duration: 1.57 (48%)• Top 10 videos all ‘How To’

Before ‘How To Video’• 45 subscribers per month

After ‘How To Video’• 200 subscribers per month

PC Mobile Tablet0%

10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%

Video Analytics

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Category management is a huge, multi-faceted area of the business that largely revolves around data and analysis. Knowing your product range inside out, understanding the competition, using sales history to forecast and plan promotions and understanding the additional volume you need to drive to achieve targets.

With over 1.5 million products in our database, assigning category managers to key product ranges was crucial in helping us realise sales potential.

Category management

Description Templates

Category management

What posts work?Know your fan baseCheck out your insights

social

62 interactions, 3.5K reach

variety – photos – news – competitionsVideo – humour - genre – advice – ask!controversy (careful now) – mention the government if you dare!

social

The Twitter Machine• Make use of the background• Activity • Relevance• Keep sales messages to a minimum• Engage / interact• Post with image• Video: screenshot image

email

The Filter:• Jumping on the bandwagon• Editorial pieces /Original content• Opinion• SEO optimisation

social

Stuff you can try immediately:• Download AVS Video editor for FREE• Shoot a video on your smart phone, upload it to YouTube and link (annotate) to a product (Don’t forget to include a related product in your video!)• Double your Facebook activity for a week and monitor the change in reach and likes.• Do the same for Twitter• Run a simple Facebook competition• Segment your email list• Go on a half day film/photography course• Use your website on a daily basis – see it through the eyes of your customer • Let your company’s personality shine through

recap

Any Questions?