March 8,
2006
In This Issue:
1. Upsell for Success
2. In the News - GDrive, New MSFT search
3. More News Headlines
4. This Week's Q&A - none
5. Wrapping It Up
_________________
Upsell for Success
I bought a new digital camera last week, along
with a couple extras (telephoto lens, etc.) to
go along with it. It was two separate purchases,
both made from New York-based retailers I'd never
heard of before. (Yes, risky, but I did a ton
of research on them.)
Here's why I mention this: My orders weren't complete
at either store until I gave them both the opportunity
to upsell me over the phone. No kidding. In addition
to the email receipt, one store sent another email
saying I needed to call them right away because
it was "important." Turns out the important
thing was that I hadn't ordered all the recommended
accessories. The other store bypassed email and
just called me within an hour of when I placed
the order -- again, wanting to know if I wanted
to add this-or-that to complete my order.
And then about a day later, I read an article
about Best Buy stores, and how successful they
are at using the "store pickup" service
to have various extras and accessories ready to
sell to the customer when s/he arrives to pick
up the online order. For these types of businesses,
and probably for a lot of others, the real profit
comes from selling the accessories, not the big-ticket
items. "You ordered such-and-such. Are you
also interested in these related items?"
-- that can be very effective. Those NY camera
stores wouldn't be upselling it it didn't work.
Same with Best Buy, same with Amazon - the pioneers
of online upselling.
Do you upsell on your web site? We have dozens
of e-commerce clients here at OWT, but I can think
of only a couple that upsell on their web site.
More of them should, and I'll be suggesting it
to the clients for whom it would really be appropriate.
Sure, it's an extra cost in the development and
programming, but in many cases, it would probably
be a good investment.
_________________
In The News
Google wants it all
When Google met with investors recently, there
was apparently talk of something called the "Google
Drive", or GDrive, which would be a web-based
hard drive offering "infinite storage"
to host ALL user files you want to share with
Google. Sounds like a privacy advocate's nightmare
to me..... Here's a BBC report about it.
BBC: Google
"planning total storage"
Microsoft's new search engine
Debuting today as a beta is MSFT's new search
engine, Windows Live Search, at Live.com. It has
a few interesting features, such as the display
of all search results at once, rather than on
separate pages. I'm not sure that's good or bad,
but it is different. Live.com wouldn't work in
Safari, the default Mac browser. And it's a bit
clunky in Firefox on my Mac -- both of those things
are definitely bad. Ultimately, it's the relevancy
of the SERPs that will decide its fate....
Windows Live Search
_________________
More News Headlines
Here are a few news headlines worth your time
to read. These are just some of the headlines
we've posted to OWTweb.com in recent days.
Defensive
Branding 101: The role of search
March 07, 2006 - ClickZ.com
If someone types your brand plus the word 'complaint'
in the search field, do you have any form of advertising
presence?
Search
engines by the numbers
March 07, 2006 - ClickZ.com
Different search engines mean different users
and different user behavior. How this applies
to your marketing strategy -- from campaign to
landing page.
Tune
your Google ad campaign
March 03, 2006 - ClickZ.com
Don't let an antiquated campaign structure result
in missed opportunities or waste. A step-by-step
guide to fine-tuning a Google AdWords campaign.
More headlines: http://www.owtweb.com/news/
_________________
This Week's Q&A
The question pool is empty at the moment......
(Have a question? Email questions@owtweb.com)
_________________
Wrapping it Up
That's it for this week. Thanks for reading, and
I hope business is treating you well.
Thanks for reading,
Matt McGee
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