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About Eric Leuenberger

Ecommerce conversion marketing expert who has been helping store owners since 1995 increase sales and build more profitable, more sustainable ecommerce businesses.

Google Web Designer HTML5 Tool

By Eric Leuenberger Leave a Comment

HTML5 is a coding language that has been compared to Adobe Flash, although the two are very different. Alone, HTML5 can’t be used for interaction and animation, it needs to be coupled with JavaScript and CSS3 to do that. On the other hand, Adobe Flash is an older technology that will no longer be supported by Adobe starting in 2020.

With that said, HTML5 has been a go to language for achieving wider reach on everything from website design to interactive online advertising. By now it’s likely that everyone at some point has encountered a paid search ad that either expands upon click to fill a portion of the screen (covering up other content on the screen) or hovered over an area of the page and an ad magically pops over the other content. This is most often achieved using HTML5 and understanding how to code as such can lead to more powerful ad campaigns.

The problem is most marketers are not proficient in coding at all, much less coding in HTML5 standards. As such, they must develop the creative and then send it off to their design team to produce the final piece. Google Web Designer is a tool that aims to change that.

Google Web Designer is an HTML5 authoring tool that assists beginners in developing engaging HTML5 creatives without the need to know any HTML5 coding. In fact, the drag and drop interface and availability of starting templates means a complete non-coder can produce interactive creatives that rival any advanced developer. Speaking of advanced developers, Google Web Designer isn’t just for beginners. It offers advanced users time saving coding features that help them code faster, and with fewer errors. The templates are fully customizable as well so advanced users can start with one of those, make any needed changes they desire, and publish the results.

Google Web Designer’s template library offers interactive ad templates for some of the most common formats including banner ads, expandable ad, and even interstitial ads.

Banner ads are those that appear on a portion of the page and only operate within a set space.

HTML5 Banner Ad Example

Expandable ads start small and often appear to be banner ads, however when clicked, they expand to a certain size revealing additional content within them.

HTML5 Expandable Ad Example

Interstitial ads are larger ads that appear over the sites’s content when a visitor either scrolls the page or transitions to another page or video.

HTML5_interstitialad

Google Web Designer is free, and easily integrates with ad platforms. Complete the creative and quickly publish directly to DoubleClick Studio. As another option publishing can be direct to Google Drive and then uploaded to Google AdWords or DoubleClick Studio as well.

Download Google Web Designer from Google and get a jump start on HTML5 ad creative today.

For more information visit Google’s Help center.

(Images in this article sourced from Google)

Filed Under: Google Adwords

How to Detect and Fix the Heartbleed Bug Vulnerability

By Eric Leuenberger Leave a Comment

What is being called the worst security threats in the history of the internet to date, the Heartbleed bug has the ability to cause widespread problems for sites / servers that use openSSL–that’s an estimated 66% of the internet. If you don’t know what openSSL is (it’s tech talk) and aren’t really concerned about it, you should be rethink your actions. Chances are you come in contact with openSSL several times a day without ever knowing it.

The Heartbleed bug is a security encryption flaw that could allow cyber criminals to snap up credit card information or steal passwords. If you (or your customers) have logged into any affected sites over the past two years, their account information could be compromised. Not only are you urged to change your own personal account information (Mashable has put together a a great page where one can get the most up-to-date sites that are affected.)

Detecting It

In addition to protecting your own information, as ecommerce store owners / operators, you should check to make sure the server you are on is not affected by the issue. I’m sure there are a number of ways to do this, but fortunately I received an email yesterday from GeoTrust with a link to their SSL Toolbox. This toolbox will let you either enter your CSR file for checking or enter your domain name for checking your server for vulnerability.

They also included a helpful checklist for diagnosing and correcting the issue if you are affected (sourced directly from the email). I’ll pass that list on below.

Fixing It

Steps to Success:

  • Identify if your web servers are vulnerable (running OpenSSL versions 1.0.1 through 1.0.1f with heartbeat extension enabled). Use our SSL Toolbox to detect this. If you’re running a version of OpenSSL prior to 1.0.1, no further action is required.
  • If your server is impacted, update to the latest patched version of OpenSSL (1.0.1g), or recompile OpenSSL without the heartbeat extension.
  • Generate a new Certificate Signing Request (CSR).
  • Reissue any SSL certificates for affected web servers using the new CSR (do this after moving to a patched version of OpenSSL).
  • Install the new SSL certificate and test your installation.
  • After the new certificate is successfully installed, revoke any certificates that were replaced.
  • Website administrators should also consider resetting end-user passwords that may have been visible in a compromised server memory.
  • Always refer back to the Knowledge Base for more information.

If you have additional questions, please contact your SSL Reseller for further support and more information.

If you have any further resources or up-to-date information on the Heartbleed bug please let me know by commenting below.

Filed Under: Security

Cyber Monday Marketing Tips

By Eric Leuenberger Leave a Comment

Cyber Monday marks the first major increase in online holiday spending as people go back to work after the Thanksgiving weekend and begin to think about how to get a jump on their holiday shopping. And this year’s holiday shopping is the shortest one yet.

According to this article I found on venturebeat.com, Adobe is forecasting the biggest Cyber Monday sales in history.

What can you do to help increase sales from your share of Cyber Monday’s sales? Here are a few Cyber Monday marketing tips:

  • Give a free gift away for orders over a certain amount
  • Create product bundle gift packages
  • List a promotion on CyberMonday.com
  • Follow up with consumers both before, and after Thanksgiving
  • Give customers a way to spread the word
  • Offer certain special deals ONLY on Cyber Monday but run your promotion for several days

There you have it. A few ways you can get a piece of the “holiday shopping pie”.

Now, get working on those ideas, and prepare your store for the holiday shopping season! Cyber Monday will be here before you know it.

 

Filed Under: Increase sales, Marketing Strategies Tagged With: cyber monday promotions, cyber monday sales, increase ecommerce sales, increase online sales, tips for ecommerce sales

Why the Customer Experience is Most Important

By Eric Leuenberger Leave a Comment

Many online business owners focus solely on technology and design when building their websites and forget about the most important element: what the customer expects!

Most online business owners simply add some content, launch the website and then wonder why they don’t have customers.

To really make an impact and influence customers, businesses must move beyond a seller’s perspective. Generating business value happens by creating a customer experience driven from the buyer’s perspective.

Website Usability

Usability guides the placement and direction of content within the design and technology. The goal is convenience for the visitor’s interaction. Powerful usability enables a frictionless customer experience where intuition versus thinking drives the visitor’s movements.

A well-designed website that has high usability includes intuitive and instructive navigation, clear call-to-actions, articulate value propositions, credibility-building communications and a convenient order process.

Customer Influence

Influence is where the seller guides the buyer down a deliberate sales process. A usable website generates average sales; an influential and usable website can skyrocket sales. An influential website is like a consultative sales person providing information, helping to evaluate alternatives, adding reassurances, feeding the emotional appeal, and skillfully pulling the visitor towards the purchase not always “now” but assuredly at a point in the future.

Influence includes personalization, suggestive selling, relevancy, trust, assurance, sincerity, helpfulness.

Influence is not manipulation. It is not the stereotypical used car salesperson tactics of cheap talk and deceptive ploys. Powerful influence is about intimately understanding the visitor’s needs to provide them the right information at the right time. It moves them clearly and easily through their buying process.

Usability and influence are buyer-driven because what is usable and what influences a purchasing decision is entirely controlled by the buyer. And just like you can’t manage what you don’t measure; you also can’t influence what you don’t understand – the visitor’s intent.

Website Design

Design is the façade around the technology. It adds curb appeal to the website and directs the visitor’s eye towards a desired path. Great design directs a visitor’s actions through the effective use of colors, graphics and lines.

The design is initially recognized by the visitor in forming their first impressions about your ecommerce business. Design is like a person’s clothes or dress style; it doesn’t provide substance, but it forms our willingness to interact, to commit time and to frame the possibility of fulfillment.

And like people’s clothing style, we naturally associate stereotypes to a design to speed our decision process.

Whether fairly perceived or not, design plays a crucial role in setting expectations. With the average visitor spending 10 seconds or less determining our website’s relevancy with their goals, our designs either connect or expel them.

Ultimately design plays a supporting role to usability. Great design drives great usability.

Technology

Technology is a website’s foundation that must work seamlessly supporting the customer experience. Visitors shouldn’t notice the technology and typically only do when it is broken.

Technology is like a car’s engine; most drivers don’t know or care how it works, it’s just a vehicle to get them from point A to point B. But it quickly grows frustrating when it slows down, breaks down or falls apart.

Remember, in developing and evolving your online business – put the customer’s perspective first.

Filed Under: Conversion, Design & Usability Tagged With: ecommerce business, ecommerce help, ecommerce tips, online business, online business usability

Check It Out: 75 Words to Consider During Your Next Electronic Campaign

By Eric Leuenberger Leave a Comment

75 Words to Consider During Your Next Electronic Campaign

Social media and e-mail, for all of their popularity, can only offer so much reach to potential customers. You can have the perfect sale at the perfect time using the most pristine analytics possible but lose conversion because your message got lost along the way.

How can you be sure your message will get in front of as many eyes as possible?

  1. Consider using some of the most popular retweetable and repeatable words on Twitter and Facebook.
  2. Avoid words that will land your message in a customer’s spam filter

The 20 Most ReTweetable Words & Phrases (according to DanZarrella.com) are:

you twitter please
retweet post blog
social free media
help please retweet great
social media 10 follow
how to top blog post
check out new blog post

According to spam filter experts, there are at least* 55 words or phrases you want to avoid in your e-mails include:

#1 Accept credit cards Affordable
All natural Apply online Bargain
Best price Billing address Buy direct
Call Cards Accepted Check
Click /Click Here / Click Below Click to remove Congratulations
Cost / No cost Do it today Extra income
For free Form Free and FREE
Free leads Free membership Free offer
Free preview Full refund Get it now
Giving away Guarantee Hidden
Marketing Marketing solutions Money
Name brand Never No Hidden Costs
No-obligation Now Offer
One time / one-time Opportunity Order / Order Now
Order today/ Order status Orders shipped by priority mail Performance
Please read Price Risk free
Sales Satisfaction guaranteed Save $
Save up to Special promotion Urgent
US dollars

You may obviously need to use some of the words above in your next e-mail, however, be sure to use the word(s) sparingly and never put a word like Free or Now in all capital letters. Increased frequency or repeated use of these words can highly increase your chances of an email landing in the spam folder.

Many third party email systems like Constant Contact, iContact, and AWeber automatically pre-check your email for you against a spam database and then give it a “spam rating”. The rating is supposed to help you gauge how your email stacks up against other spam and thus provide an idea of whether it will be caught in spam filters or not. I highly recommend one of these types of services if you are not already utilizing a third party system.

*This list was adapted from //www.marketingforsuccess.com/wordstoavoid.html. For a list of 250 words and phrases to avoid, take a look at Words and Phrases that Trigger Some Spam Filters at: //www.wilsonweb.com/wmt8/spamfilter_phrases.htm.

Filed Under: Email Marketing, Marketing Strategies, Social Media Tagged With: ecommerce business support, ecommerce business tips, ecommerce expert, ecommerce marketing, ecommerce traffic conversion, Email Marketing

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The Ecommerce Expert offers products and services that help move ecommerce businesses toward growth and success. Our products and services help store owners maximize their ROI, decreasing expenses and increasing revenue. The net result is sustainable growth and stability with above average results.

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