Electronic Coupons and Rebates

Personally, I don’t really like coupons. I rarely use the things. In fact, I come close to going berserk in the check-out line at my local grocery store when I see a thick stack of coupons being pulled out by the person ahead of me.

But, even if you are like me, many people do like coupons and coupons are definitely an effective sales tool. So are rebates. And unlike the grocery store check-out line, there’s no waiting in electronic check-out lines.

One of the benefits of using coupons to promote your products and services is that you can place printable coupons right on your website. You can also offer cash rebates on your products in the same way.

Some shopping cart systems, such as the one I use, Kick Start Cart, have a coupon module that generates coupon and discount links. These discounts are automatically applied at check-out when someone gets to my site by clicking on one of these links. When clicking on one of these links, customers are taken to check-out and the coupon or rebate information is automatically populates the proper discount fields. This little step is also a time saver, so your customers will be doubly appreciative.

People like to get good deals on the things they buy. Using electronic coupons and rebates is one good way of doing this. And, as a bonus, some people shop specifically for discounted products, so if you are known as a merchant who gives coupons from time to time, you’ll be on the “watch list” of these bargain shoppers.

For more information about shopping carts, visit ECommerce with Shopping Carts.

Tom Antion is a success story in Internet marketing. He can show you how he makes a fortune promoting products and services online. For more information about Internet marketing, go to Internet Marketing Solutions.

Directory Enquiries Provider 118118.com

When take a study closely at www.118.com one should note just how very much www.118118.com have finished & what they have amassed within such a short frame of time. 118.com is not the only telephone enquiries service that is in operation, the business’s competition is strong. Around 2002 the UK directory enquiries service industry opened up to competitors by phasing away 192 and renewing it with a choice of new six digit number which are 118118. A a wide range of new directory enquiries service businesses have seized the option to take a share of a potentially booming sector, paying vast amounts of GBP on an advertising campaign that is going to be no where near to being as victorious as the business of 118118.

The 118118 company number is the best telephone enquiries service offering in the U.K. Each and every week personnel connect lots of callers through to people, places and corporations 118.com need, because of this 118118 business is now the most frequently called telephone number in the U.K Click here for directory enquiries from the 118118 team.

Findings presently inform that Britain’s telephone Enquiries industry is the most large in the EU area. 118118 offer a range of functions incl. the essential which is the telephone number telephone number service and then other additional products such as cinema schedules and locations, train time tables and train and tube locations.

The 118118 number stays as the single UK 118 business to sell a completely free telephone directories service targeted at their customers from across all the major landline networks. From the 18th March 2008, www.118118.com company are excited to declare its company changes. currently 0800118FREE this offering is not charged by BT and major non mobile networks. Prices from mobile telephone networks vary. 118811 is at present 40 pence per minute and the business of 118 118 is 69 pence per call, 25 p per minute, that is a huge improvement considering that it used to be greater than 1 great British pound.

Affiliate Programs - Seducing The Search Engines (Part 2 of 5)

Here is an idea that will put you miles ahead of your competition and put cash in your pocket fast!

Promoting affiliate programs is a breeze if you know how to get the search engines to send you tons of qualified prospects. The Affiliate Masters course by Ken Evoy shows you how to get the search engines attention and keep it there.

The Affiliate Masters course by Ken Evoy is the most comprehensive course on the subject and it’s available for free.

Ken says that the key to getting the search engines’ attention is to provide good quality information presented in a keword optimized context. Now, how do you define good quality information and where do you find it?

The search engines’ job, the way they see it, is to provide exactly the right information a person is looking for, the first time. The quicker they can provide the needed information, the more satisfied their clients will be. If you can provide that
content on your web-page the search engines will send you droves of qualified, willing to buy traffic.

So how do you know what people are looking for before they start their research on the search engines? Here’s how:

1. Start by doing a quick survey at your local magazine store. Yes, you’ll have to get out of that comfortable chair in front of the computer…

Find several magazines on the subject of the affiliate program you want to promote.

2. Look at the headlines on the cover.

3. Look at the headlines of the in-depth articles.

4. Look at the headlines of important stories that talk about future developments.

5. Write down all the headlines. Break out the key words and 2-3 word key-word groups and put them into three categories: words taken from the cover, major stories and other interesting stories in the magazines you reviewed.

These are the hottest key words in order of priority. Because the major publications are talking about it, people will naturally investigate further on these topics. These keywords will be on top of their mind because they have just read / heard about them.

When you build your web-pages based on the hottest key-words, the search engines will flock to your site. They will bring you the highly targeted visitors that will be the foundation of your business.

6. After building the key-word list, come back home and download the free SearchIt software. Ken Evoy has provided this tool to help people do their research. It allows you to do over 100 key searches to help people set up their Internet business:
http://searchit.bizzinfo.org

7. When you open up your SearchIt software you will find four blanks. In the first blank choose “reference library for content”. The second blank gives you 15 different sources for good, reliable content. Enter the key word in the third box. Leave the fourth one empty.

By going through all 15 search resources in SearchIt for each of the key-words, you will have an abundance of good quality, sexy content the search engines will love and your clients will appreciate.

This is the way to work your competition into the ground. This is how you can make sure your business succeeds. Offer good quality iformation to people who are looking for it. This is the ultimate win-win-win system. Work with the search engines and feed them what they want and you will grow and prosper.

Learn powerful marketing concepts that you can use
right now! My newsletter summarizes the best of
the best in short, easy to read articles:
http://www.netman-ecommerce-guru.com/mgzne

Shopping Cart Features to Consider

Often the simplest Web stores have the most success. But shoppers like special features depending upon the type of store you have, how you market and use them, and if you don’t overwhelm the shopper. Below I list as many features as I could think of, just to jog your creativity.

Coupon Codes: This seems like a no-brainer, but sometimes shoppers who don’t have a coupon code feel cheated, like, “someone’s getting a discount, but not me.” You might want to consider labeling it, “Voucher Code,” or “Promotional Code,” or some other term which does not necessarily imply a discount.

Continue Shopping Button in the Basket Screen: When a shopper at your store gets to their basket, do you give them the option to shop some more, or is your site pushing them to checkout immediately? Continue Shopping buttons should take them to the last product or category page, or, worst case, the store home page.

Remember Me: Amazon does it, and people like it. Upon returning to the store, the shopper is greeted with, “Welcome Back, Bob Smith.” This could be enhanced with order histories, preference settings, recommended products based upon purchase history, etc.

E-check Acceptance: The more payment options, the better. Electronic check acceptance is just like a credit card, without requiring a credit card account. Most banks have a simple process for accepting e-checks. Check with your host, ecommerce platform software provider, and your bank for information about what is available for your site.

PayPal Acceptance: Like e-checks, it’s just another option for payment method.

Order Status Lookup: Once a customer places an order, they wait anxiously, worrying. Help them love your site more by providing a place for them to log in and check the status of the order - has it been shipped? If so, what is the tracking number?

Order History: Some customers like to look back and see what they’ve ordered in the past. Giving them this information is both helpful, and an excellent marketing tool. If your products are consumable, consider having an easy-order system where they can reorder previous products from their purchase history.

Quantity Discounts: Face it. People like the Web because they save money. Offering quantity discounts per product is a great way to increase the size of an order, while making your customer smile.

Gift Certificates: If your products are gift-worthy, don’t make your customers choose what to buy. Offer gift certificates so they can send them to the gift recipient. Gift certificates should be easy to use, with a simple code entered upon checkout.

Multiple Ship-To Addresses: This allows customers to shop once and have gifts sent to multiple people. By offering the ability to have parts of the order go to different recipients, you’re making it easier for your customer to buy more and more on each order.

Multiple Shipping Methods: Like multiple addresses, this allows the customer to send some items overnight, while paying less to send others at a slower rate. Options are always great for web shoppers.

Frequent Buyer Program: Offer your customers rewards for returning to shop. These programs could give points that are redeemable on your site, or discounts based upon shopping history. You might have a permanent discount for shoppers who purchase a total of over $5,000, or points that are worth 10% of an order that can be used on the next order. A return customer is often worth much more than a new customer.

Gift Registry/Wishlist: What better way for word-of-mouth than for people to tell others, “I want something from this site”? With this service, people set up an account and select items to place in their registry. Their friends and family come to the site, search the gift registry for items that have not been bought already, and place an order.

Tell-A-Friend: Another excellent word-of-mouth tool. Have your customers tell others about your products and services. Tell-A-Friend systems can be as simple as an e-mail link, and as powerful as a page that allows multiple e-mail addresses and a personal note. Be sure the system sends the URL of the page the person was on when they clicked on it, so the recipient isn’t wondering what the sender was referring to.

Mini-Cart: This is a little place on every page that shows the contents of the shopping cart. This allows the customer to quickly know what they’ve added to their cart. It could be simple, with quantity of items and total. Or, it can have features like full list of items in cart, shipping calculator, and the ability to change quantities or remove items right in the mini-cart.

Live Chat: If your products or services are complicated and would benefit from a live conversation to answer questions, this feature can be very popular. You’ve seen the banners on other sites saying, “Click here to speak to a representative.” Some of these services allow you to watch a shopper browse your store, and actively pop a window up saying, “We noticed you are browsing our store. Do you have any questions?” If you install Live Chat, be sure you have in manned most of the time. A banner that says, “offline” every time a shopper comes to your store is a negative rather than a positive feature.

Discounts: By far the most popular feature is offering some from of discount to the customer. The possibilities are almost endless. Popular discount methods include Buy 2 Get 1 Free, quantity based discounts, total dollar amount discounts,

Gift Wrap: Special packaging makes gift giving more convenient. If you offer gift wrapping, special gift packaging, or gift cards, be sure to mention it on your home page so people know they can have gifts shipped direct to the recipient, instead of having to receive the package, wrap it, and ship it again.

Breadcrumb Navigation: That’s the name for the little path at the top of some screens that show the path you took to get to the page you’re on. Usually, it looks like this: Home>Books>Fiction>Stephen King. The benefit of this feature is it helps people remember where they are at all times, with quick return to previous pages.

Featured Products: This can be simply products you choose to feature, new products, most-often-purchased products, most looked at products, or even products that are recommended based upon past purchases from the current customer.

Product Reviews/Ratings: With this feature, you allow your customers to review and/or rate your products, and show the reviews/ratings within the product information pages. The best advice for this feature is to not have the reviews automatically show up on your pages. Instead, have a system where you approve the reviews first, so you don’t get nasty messages on your product pages by pranksters.

Wait List: If you have products that run out of inventory, don’t just drop the item from your store until you get new stock. Instead, create a wait list function so people can request to be notified when the item is back in stock.

Printable Invoice: If your invoice/receipt screen has a lot of graphics from your site design, offer a “printable invoice” link that pulls up a simple black and white, printer ready screen.

Printable Order Form: Some customers shop on the Web, but prefer to call, fax or mail their order. Make it easy for them with a printable order form. It seems nonsensical, but sales can increase dramatically if you help those individuals who fear placing their credit card number online. Which brings up another point; you should most definitely have a telephone number (toll free is preferred) for orders and questions, even if it’s just to make the customer more comfortable.

As you can see, there are many ways you can enhance your shoppers’ experience at your site. Most of these are relatively simple to implement. Keep it simple, make these easy to use, and you might see increased conversions.

As an e-commerce consultant for over three years, and Web designer for over ten, Chuck Lasker has been helping individuals and organizations utilize the Internet in almost every arena. Chuck’s e-newsletter and blog, The MerchantHowTo.com Report, at http://www.MerchantHowTo.com, is free and popular amongst e-store owners.