How Do You Get Shoppers to Open Their Wallets in Today’s Economy?

Consumers are spending less.  That’s hardly a novel headline in this economy, but just because spending is down, it doesn’t mean wallets are completely sealed shut.

Bazaarvoice commissioned a survey of 800 U.S. consumers to learn about what factors have the greatest impact on shoppers during the decision-making process.  Not surprisingly, 61% of respondents acknowledged that online resources can sway them as they’re making purchases.  Factors like “user ratings and reviews (77%), and recommendations based on other consumers’ purchasing or browsing behavior (66% and 65%, respectively)” played heavily into their final decisions.  This data reflects that word-of-mouth is alive and well online – even among people who may not even be on the same continent.

What does all of this mean for your site?

Make sure you’re allowing online shoppers to get involved!  Make it easy for them to leave reviews and ratings.  Incorporate systems that intuitively know when to suggest products or link to purchase histories of other shoppers.  Brett Hurt, founder of Bazaarvoice, explains it simply, “companies have a tremendous opportunity to provide online shoppers with authentic, user-generated content that is proven to build confidence, increase satisfaction, and drive sales.”

It’s an easy step that can have a far-reaching impact.  Work with your web designers to find ways to incorporate more user-friendly features and you may just find that you’re creating a loyal (and growing) consumer base.

Cost Effective Marketing Can Minimize Economic Distress

The concern of a recession is beginning to become a reality as businesses look to cut spending, decrease overhead and bunker down during the possible economic turbulence. Despite the old adage that it is best to spend your way out of a recession, many business owners are preparing to freeze their marketing budgets.

The good news is that cutting marketing budget doesn’t have to negatively affect the your bottom line. By diverting deflated budgets to more cost-effective mediums, companies can boost their marketing power while reducing advertising expense. There are low-cost solutions to fit a variety of marketing budgets, including email marketing, search engine optimization, PR, professional web presence, pay-per-click and mobile marketing, not to mention the value of ensuring good relationships with existing customers.

For most companies that weren’t open during the last recession, the impact of a struggling economy may be more difficult to handle. This is why it’s important for a company to have its marketing forces armed and ready, so if the recession hits they can immediately take charge and begin generating new sales. Preparedness is key to competitive advantage.”

The Direct Marketing Association estimates that email marketing ROI will hit $45.65 for every dollar spent this year. When compared with traditional direct mail marketing, email marketing allows a company to reduce the production costs and focus more of their advertising budget directly on the consumer. Starting a direct mail campaign will incur significant costs and the response ratio is usually much lower than with online campaigns.

Moving your marketing budget online offers great advantages. With online marketing, a company can view detailed statistics about their campaign including how many people have opened their email, geographic distribution, click-thru-rates, ad effectiveness and conversions. Traditional marketing including television and print doesn’t offer this advantage. Close observation of these metrics help ensure the company receives premium ROI.

Developing a strong online marketing program allows companies direct interaction with potential customers and powerful marketing at a fraction of traditional advertising costs. Interactive marketing as an extension of a company’s current advertising efforts has proven invaluable in both strong and difficult economic times. Interactive marketing should be considered when business owners find economic impact is impeding their marketing budget.