Even though in-store sales are plummeting, the e-commerce industry is seeing a continued growth in online sales. Forrester forecasts online sales to grow from 11 percent to 13 percent in 2009, increasing $156.1 billion. One might question how online retail is one of the only industries not falling during our tough economic situation.

Online retail platforms are serving as a convenient, easy way for customers to shop, saving them gas from driving store to store. Cutting down on transportation costs, online retail also benefits retailers by eliminating the use of paper for shopping bags as well as customer service capital expenses. Today, much attention is being placed on going “green” and online retail platforms help support these practices. As traditional advertising budgets continues to fade, the costs saved on paper materials and printing are now being put toward online advertising. With the accurate measurements Web analytics provide online marketers, retailers are able to analyze conversion rates, improve customer retention and validate ROI which is harder to do in-stores.

So with the increased efforts by online retailers, having high organic search rankings is key to stay ahead through the economic downtime. Triangle Direct Media helps online retailers effectively cut costs and stay on top through new media marketing and social media strategies. With high value techniques to increase online exposure, clients begin to see improvement in search engine visibility and are able to compete more effectively being a step ahead in their given industry.

Responsible for most household purchases, it is a beneficial investment for your retail store to target marketing efforts toward moms. Blog marketing has become a popular, inexpensive marketing strategy that reaches moms through a fast and effective approach. According to consumer data gathered by Forrester, moms are 50% more likely to create social media content and participate in online communities than the average online user.

Moms today are blogging by the thousands and they do so through user-generated conversations on their own individual blog. Reaching these moms on a personal level is important and can be done by sharing content about relevant products tailored toward families. Moms want information about household products before they buy them and today they are turning to the internet to find those like-minded peer reviews. Always looking to get the most for her money, posting coupons online is an effective way to get moms to buy your product over another. Not “pitching” your brand is important, as you want to keep your blog in a conversational, participatory tone. After all, moms want to be comfortable with the products that they are purchasing and know that they can consistently trust and rely on a particular brand.

If you are considering blog marketing or other social marketing strategies to reach and engage moms, please do not hesitate to contact a Triangle Direct Media account executive to learn more about our custom solutions.

With summer now in session, it is the perfect time to revise your college marketing plans before school starts back up. Targeting students can be easy but at the same time it can be very tricky when the minds of college students can easily be drawn into other interests. An article at MediaPost successfully gives some insight into how you can enliven your marketing plan to keep the Gen Y demographic engaged.

Making up 30% of the Internet’s users, the Gen Y demographic is flooding online channels of communication, particularly social networks. What better way than to reach to them through social media and new media marketing? If you get their email through on-campus promotions during the first week of school, take the extra step to add them on FaceBook and Twitter. Use a blog to share student deals and write about the benefits of what you are trying to sell to them. Connecting to them through these channels will give them more of a personal connection and will also give opportunity for customers to recommend your business to their friends.

Make sure your company’s message that you are sending out through these channels are targeted towards this demographic of consumers. Also make certain that it is well defined and consistently carried throughout online and offline marketing strategies. It is also a good idea to make sure that all of your marketing representatives who visit the campuses that you “hone” in on are carrying out the same message to these students and the coveted Gen Y demographic.