Online Community Is In My Business
by Joe Tedd
ContextWeb Advertiser Advisor
In the diamond jewelry vertical, we’re always seeking new ways of attracting customers. The principal means of attracting customers online is through purchasing keywords in search engines such as DealTime, running sales, and affiliate and contextual advertising - all of which are designed to spotlight the nature and size of the product lines.
Special offerings to targeted groups (e.g., fashion-conscious shoppers, budget-minded shoppers, the bride or groom to-be) are niche markets that we have begun to tap into with more success and has resulted in larger sales through online communities.
Successful promotional messages directed to actual and potential customers through online community portals have been customized using a variety of data mining tools (like Omniture)to extract the essence of a post, identify and categorize it enough so that keywords can be extracted - using Google Analytics - as part of a profile. Then, products matching those keywords can be aggregated and appended to a subject profile and eventually passed along to a team of copywriters & marketing folks to respond to the post and offer targeted & customized suggestions to shoppers seeking a specific piece of jewelry - depending on the online community or portal. Sometimes, the marketers even create customized limited time discounts to help push along the call to action. This is an ongoing test that we are currently assessing and trying to quantify with regards to the type of discount, the duration from offer to sale, and determining the best ROI based on the discount offered.
For DiamondHarmony, utilizing the proper customer satisfaction tools such as Mercado’s and touch points in order to retain customers and increase revenue as well as satisfying customer wants and needs factors in the majority of online transactions.
Being able to respond quickly to customers who seek information, utilizing adequate pricing strategies, presenting what we offer online via the website and how we present our customized response to the online portals and blogs, all factor in to a branding of sorts. But, rather than us determining what the look and feel will be, we seek to obtain input from our customers and let them tell us what is most important to them - both in terms of products and design - as well as price.
In exchange for the customized shopping experience the online community receives, DiamondHarmony is able to identify a wealth of customer traffic patterns, which we can then categorize into any of the following areas for remarketing:
- Shoppers or browsers
- Destination traffic
- Beeline traffic
Based on the wealth of information we assimilate from our analytics package - ClickTracks - and internal quantification methods, we are able to target our pitch most precisely to either of these categories and create customized promotions and offer incentives to help close a sale.
Thanks to the online communities & portals out there, the average consumer is able to have a good shopping experience or enjoy a great bargain. As Sy Syms (the famous Clothing Manufacturer) used to say; “A satisfied customer is our best customer”, because when a customer is happy with their purchase - they become our biggest advocate.
-- From The ContextWeb Advisors
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