New media channels are opening new doors of opportunity for retailers willing to adapt to new strategies. New strategies take companies to new levels while continuing to use old tactics put companies in catch up mode.

Many online retailers are exploiting lucrative micromarkets or niche markets, as opposed to wasting large sums of money marketing to the masses. How do I cost-effectively reach the right prospects? The best way to reach your niche market online is with a retail blog. Niche markets are mainly created and grow by word of mouth or online recommendations. These conversations take place every minute in the blogosphere. Consumers use blogs to write about favorite products, their experience with your company, great customer service they recieved, ideas to make products better, even to help spread the word about a new product that you offer.

Companies that are capable of thinking outside of the box can join these conversations with a retail blog of their own. Those not willing to interact with their consumers will simply open the door of opportunity to be paved by a younger savvy competitor. Drive more traffic to your products by writing about them in a retail blog!

According to a survey done by Shop.org, 83% of online retailers plan to offer free shipping during the holiday season which is the most important factor to online shoppers. A couple of keynotes from the article:
:By the end of October, about 63% of online retailers will have started running holiday promotions

:About 12% of retailers will add early shopper discounts this year, with nearly 39% offering the enticements this year

:By October, about 34% of consumers will make a holiday purchase, with another 26% starting in early to mid-November

The article also states that 97% of online retailers will invest in marketing through search engines and comparison sites.

More….

Keep the number of monthly website clicks high and the cost needed to acquire those clicks as low as possible. This is the standard concept used by Marketing Directors and marketing teams that quite frankly……are going to be left behind and forced into catch up and scramble mode as New Media continues to take over Web Marketing 1.0.

Retail website owners and marketers have begun using New Media strategies such as blogs, podcasts and RSS feeds to give their website visitors an easier path to conversion. Others have simply ignored this evolution and continue to spend more and more dollars each month with sponsored ads on Google, Yahoo, MSN etc with Pay Per Click. As search algorithms revamp to include newer up to date content from New Media Channels, so are internet consumers changing their method of finding this content when they search for products to purchase.

Marketing Directors and marketing teams are in the drivers seat when it comes to changing their company’s presentation of it’s content. It’s a matter of changing the users experience when they visit your website and using additional mediums to bring them in. Transitioning from brand compatible content to actual brand-building encounters is where higher conversions will come from. Positioning your company’s brand, and distributing your content with a retail blog will definitely improve conversion rates.

Strategy is what separates winners from losers and adapters from slow movers.  Contact Retail Blog Marketing to learn more about our strategies for your business.

I recently had a conversation with two programmers from Microsoft. We began discussing their search division and how far behind they were to rivals Google and Yahoo. Instead of playing catch up to Google and Yahoo’s search they should be focusing their efforts and leading the way in Blog Search.

With traditional media missing consumers entirely, more and more advertisers look online to distribute their content. Unfortunately, a big percentage of company’s out there still have the CMO in charge who still believes that consumers are sitting by the TV, and or radio eagerly awaiting advertisements. You can place Google in with traditionally media here since many search results on Google return garbage.

Consumers are beginning to take control and the blogosphere is allowing them to do so.

Today, consumers have the control over what information they decide to put in front of them. Google and Yahoo’s organic search results are continuing to become less relevant to consumers searches. Most Retail Searches on Google will yield results for companies like Bizrate.com, shopping.Yahoo.com, nextag.com etc. in it’s organic results. If consumers want to shop at those websites there they will. They don’t choose Google to find retail aggregators. Consumers have already begun to turn their backs on traditional search engines due to their lack of relevant results. If Microsoft is smart, they will see this to their advantage and beef up their Blog Search division.
Consumers have created their own information-gated community called the blogosphere. At the present time, there is an open market for a really good Blog Search Engine. One that will enable advertisers and consumers to reach each other without so many middle men taking advantage of both sides.

U.S. Online Ad revenues for the first half of 2006 surpassed 7.9 billion dollars, 37% higher from the same period last year.  According to Pricewaterhousecoopers, Q2 revenues surpassed the 4 Billion Dollar mark a 36% increase from last year.  Video Ads will continue to emerge for advertising, “While search advertising remains the largest format in terms of revenues, we expect to see new formats like video ads to continue to emerge as advertisers seek to leverage the branding opportunities afforded by the growing installed base of broadband users,” David Silverman, Partner, Entertainment & Media Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers. More….

Facebook is planning to roll out it’s expansion. Facebook primarily focuses on College students and is looking to grow their network space. Facebook was once offered 750+ million and turned it down. It seems they are focused on more members and more $$$. They believe that the web is evolving and that evolution can only mean their company is worth much more than 750 Million.  Article……

I couldn’t get the program installed on my machine for some reason probably due to my security settings, but here is a link to a video I found on

www.istartedsomething.com This video spends alot of time on the picture organizing and shareing and only a little on the RSS reader part which only comes up at the end but… The end that focuses on the RSS Reader looks very nice for retail marketing and retailers thinking of being more aggressive with their blog marketing… looks like product descriptions, pictures and order links can all appear instantly via rss feeds within this product in a slick user friendly way…

Link to Video

Blogs are becoming a powerful B2B presence.  In a study done by Knowledgestorm, blogs are becoming even more critical for any website business. In the study, 53% of the respondants claim that content from blogs has an impact on a buying decision.  80% read blogs and 51% read blogs once a week.  More…….

Online Ad spend was up 49% in the first half of 06 compared to the first half of 05.  The Spanish market increased 21.8% during the same period.  It’s apparent that radio and cable tv are not the markets they were once before.  It’s becoming increasingly important to advertising online and grow your business.

Read More: Online Ad Spend