Expanding from a niche to wider sales

This is the big task that we’re working on right now.

The site that I’m working on is very successful at SEO and sales within it’s niche. While efforts go forward to solidify that space, the product offering of the site is being expanded to transition from the niche to a broader market.

The way that we’re doing this is putting the new product line in the site with their own category and then running through some basic keyword research on what it will take to get the products to rank. One of the target products ranks #13 on Google for it’s product name (searched for over 13k times/month) just based on the strength of the domain that the page is sitting on.

The next steps for the test is to run link building and promotion efforts for the product and it’s page on the site and monitor the results. The challenge will be to gain clicks from searchers who see the niche-focused domain on our result vs. the more general named domains in other results. Once we reach page one, the headline (title) and meta-description will become very important for gaining clicks.

Video Marketing: Selling by Entertaining

I received an email this morning that did a great job of getting me to click through onto the store’s web site. They didn’t sell me on the product (because it’s not something I need right now), but this looks to be a pretty good idea to test out in other markets.

The email was titled “Best Soccer Goal Ever?” and showed me a video thumbnail. When I clicked on it I was taken to the store’s web site, where they showed the YouTube video of a really sick indoor soccer goal.

As I’m watching the goal and the replays of it, I notice the description to the left of the video. They have added a description talking about how creative the Brazilian players are and how much practice it takes to get this good. Then in the second paragraph they state that you have to have really strong leg and back muscles to be able to pull this trick off, and that world class soccer players all use some type of medicine ball workout.

The sentence about the medicine ball workout was linked to a specific medicine ball product (most likely their best seller.)

Now, I’m not a soccer player, but if I were one and active in trying to improve on my skills, I sure would have clicked on that link.

The video inspired me. The copy, while sparse, provided me a way to achieve some of the greatness shown in the video.

Something to test in your own markets.

BTW – Here is the video:

Sick, eh?

Amazon Spends $2.50 to Hook Customer Loyalty

This morning I opened an email from Amazon that was about a recent order.  When I opened it and read it I suddenly had renewed love for Amazon and vowed to make my next purchases from them.

All they did was give me $2.50

Here’s the text of the email (with the order information stripped out):

Greetings from Amazon.com.

During a recent review of your order, we noticed that we now offer a
lower price on “[Product]” than at the time you
placed your order.

We value your business and have requested a refund of $2.50 to your
credit card.  This amount reflects the difference between the price
you were charged and the current, lower price.  The refund should be
processed in the next few days and should appear as a credit on your
next billing statement.

You may view returns and refunds by clicking the “Your Account” link
at the top of our web site, then clicking “Go!” next to “open and
recently shipped orders.”  Completed refunds will appear at the bottom
of an individual order’s summary page.

Thank you for shopping at Amazon.com — we hope you will visit us
again soon.

Many web sites and stores have “low price guarantees” where if you see the price of the item lower within 30 days you can go back to the store and request a refund.  Those stores bank on you *not* requesting the refund – they load all of the benefit of the risk reversal statement into the front end.

Amazon has totally flipped this around.  Instead of making me see a lower price, get annoyed enough to call a customer service rep, and feel like I’ve got to jump through hoops to get a couple of bucks back, Amazon took the initiative.  They showed that the value me as a customer and value our “relationship” enough to invest that $2.50 in me.  What they’ve done is spend $2.50 on a customer loyalty program.

Amazon already had a good place in my mind – they ship fast and the prices are decent.  Maybe I could get something for a couple of dollars cheaper at another site, but my buying experience has always been good.  Now they are way at the top of my list because they showed that they are looking out for me and will work for me proactively.

So, they took what could be a customer service hassle and part of the “cost center” and flipped it into a marketing and customer loyalty/retention expense investment.

I’ve been inspired and am already looking for ways to surprise and delight my customers with proactive, customer-centric programs.

Would this work for you?  How can you apply it in your business?  (Please leave a comment to let me know.)