Memory Lane
Marketing Analysis
November 22, 2009
www.kidsmemorylane.com
Web Site Analysis
Brand and Web Site Quality
Pros
• The subject of the business is clear
• The site is informative
• The site is neat / not overloaded
• The information is well structured / the navigation structure is clear
• The site is quite trustworthy in terms of online shopping
Cons
• The site is not engaging in terms of information and visual aspects
• The site is lacking a bold visual statement
• No CSL certificate / VeriSign seal – less trust in terms of online shopping
• Poor marketing grid (see details below)
• No testimonials
• Images are small and of pure quality
• Typo on the main banner
• The domain name www.kidsmemorylane.com doesn’t perfectly represent the brand (see details below)
SEO
Pros
• The basic meta tags are present
Cons
• Meta tags errors occur
• No alternative text on pictures
• All pages have the same title, description and keywords
• Links to “index.php” instead of “/” occur
• H1 CSS class is overused (multiple usage)
• H1 CSS class is assigned to irrelevant or unimportant terms
• Other minor CSS errors
• Poor overall CSS implementation
Online Presence & Brand Awareness
Search Break-down
The presence of the web site based on randomly picked related keywords in the major search engines:
| Keyword / Position |
Google |
Yahoo |
Bing |
Ask |
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| Memory lane |
5 |
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| Buy toys Canada |
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| Toys for kids in Montreal |
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| buy baby toys |
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| buy baby toys online |
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Pros
• None
Cons
• The online presence is zero: The web site has very poor search engine standing. It does not appear on the first page of Google, Yahoo, Bing or Ask for key phrases that are most relevant.
• Google PR is 1
Overall Optimization
Improving Web Site Performance: What can be done?
Analytics
• Google analytics need to be implemented. It is the very basic tool that will provide you with
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• Ability to monitor your visitors
• Understanding traffic trends
• Statistical data
• Grounds for marketing decisions |
Web site redesign
• There needs to be a powerful header (For example: parents with a happy kid or a happy kid with a brand new toy)
• Significantly higher quality images are needed
• The overall visual appeal needs to be significantly reinforced
• Marketing grid (see details below) will provide visual assets (in addition to marketing related ones)
SEO
• Additional SEO oriented domains with content sites that are linked to the flagship site. For example, domain www.buybabytoys.ca is available. The term “buy baby toys” is a popular search key phrase. (200k searches in October 2009)
• SEO errors should be fixed and additional SEO techniques should be implemented
Content
• Adding a blog with news and short reviews of new toys. The blog can be on the sub domain of the flagship site but I would consider making it a separate domain.
• Adding customers’ testimonials • Adding general content
Domain Name Management
The domain name www.kidsmemorylane.com doesn’t perfectly represent the brand. Yet it is a relatively week name. At the same time, the domain name that would be more appropriate www.memorylane.com is taken. I would suggest taking www.memorylane.ca (available) due to several reasons:
• Canadian surfers trust .ca domains
• .ca domain suggests that there would be a local offline store they can visit
• Shorter domain name that exactly reflects the brand name is easier to remember and is more trustworthy then the long one
• .ca domains have priority in Google.ca results which is a default search tool for Canadian surfers
Marketing
Marketing Grid
What is missing?
• For significant part of web site visitors (from Montreal and Quebec) the web site as such can and should be the indication helping them to make the decision to visit the store. It is unclear that the offline store location is in Montreal. Making it absolutely clear will keep the potential customers “on the hook” and they will more likely visit the store. Right on the first page there should be clear statement: “Visit our Montreal store!” (Additional stimulating tools such as discount coupons should be also implemented)
• There are no additional informational / entertaining tools. For example: a poll about your baby, a game that determines what your baby would like based on birthday, etc… picture gallery…
• Social bookmarking and / or suggestion tool (tell a friend)
• Find us on Facebook / Twitter links
• Employing visual elements related to seasonal and holiday themes
• An engaging discount coupon can be placed on the main page
• An affiliate program would be a helpful add-on
Marketing Ventures
Social Media
• The brand needs to appear on Facebook and other social networks such as Bebo, HI5, Friendster and MySpace (group and business page) • Active viral social media promotion needs to be performed • The brand needs to appear on thematic forums (signature)
Link Exchange
• Text links and graphic banners linked to the main page should be placed on wide range of resources (free, paid, or semi-free: Placing banners can be done in exchange for discount coupons)
Paid ads
• CPC and CPM advertising methods should be employed (Major search engines and social media)
Affiliate Marketing
• Advertiser accounts with a number of CPA networks can be established
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SBFC
Brief Marketing Analysis
August 21, 2009
www.grants-loans.org
Online Presence & Brand Awareness
Pros
• The web site has a good search engine standing. It appears on the first page of Google, Yahoo and Bing for key phrases that are most relevant. (For some key phrases it appears first).
• Google PR is 4, which still can be improved (However PR is not a factor of a big importance).
• PPC advertising (Google Adwords) is being used and it balances well the presence in organic Google results.
• The company owns the name “grants-loans” in several domain zones .org, .com and .ca.
Cons
• The site doesn’t appear in Facebook (no business profile, no ads).
• The site apparently doesn’t appear in other social networks.
• The company does not own the domain name “grants-loans” in .net, .info and .biz zones.
• No affiliate program.
• Although the web site has good search engine standing, it is hard to remember the domain and the abbreviation SBFC.
• No active PPA advertising. (At least I haven’t found any indication of it).
• No PPC advertising other than Google. (At least I haven’t found any indication of it).
Web Site
Pros
• The site is informative.
• The site is trustworthy.
• The information is well structured. (Straightforward navigation / no dropdown menu items).
• The location of every business on a Google map in “Case Studies” add creditability.
Cons
• The site is lacking a powerful visual impact.
• There is no clear indication what services exactly potential customers will get and why they should use the site rather then dealing with the government offices directly.
• The information is clattered. (Too much information within a certain space reduces the value of this information).
• The site primarily encourages active user behaviour. This approach reduces the number of potential transactions. (Upon reading the program types the user finds phone # and mailing address. The request to contact is only under Contact us tab).
• No VeriSign Seal – Less trust. Although it is not 100% relevant as there are no transactions on the site, the VeriSign Seal adds creditability to any site.
• A simple simulation wizard allowing surfers to make an approximate estimation of what they can get based on the information they provide (several dropdown / bullet fields) would be a good addition to the site.
• Online chat with an operator would be a good addition to the site. (Some people are hesitant about phone conversations due to many different reasons (such as: self-confidence, accent, temper / intolerance / attitude, etc). You should consider additional methods to keep this segment of customers “on the hook”.
• No social bookmarking and / or suggestion tool (tell a friend) on the site.
Other Points
• 1100 daily visitors in average during last year is a good number but it can be definitely increased. (I found out that I have an access to SBFC Google analytics data).
• Due to its popularity the website may be used as a platform for promoting related products and services.
• Do you employ any mechanism that allows monetising the information about emerging business that you collect? (Offering related business products, other (non government) financial products, etc.)
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SBFC
Affiliate Program and Marketing Optimization Proposal
August 29, 2009
www.grants-loans.org
Affiliate Program Goals
• To determine and to attract additional quality traffic not accessible otherwise.
• To lower investment risks.
• To establish long term relationships with major publishers (affiliate marketers).
• To optimize marketing budget (You are currently spending considerable resources on the traffic segment that is available to you organically. In other words, you are buying the traffic you could have for free)
• To add creditability and reputation to your online brand.
• To gain better control over marketing expenses by combining PPC with PPA (PPL and PPS) advertising methods. (You are currently focussed on PPC while your affiliate program would be primarily based upon PPA model).
Affiliate Program:
Step by Step
Before you start developing your own affiliate program, you should become an advertiser with one or more affiliate networks (For example: “Commission Junction”, “Azoogle” or less popular but more niche ones).
Advertising with such networks will allow you:
• To test the efficiency of PPA advertising model as such.
• To determine whether your offer is attractive to potential affiliates.
• To gain recognition and creditability among publishers and affiliate marketers.
• To develop key principles and the most optimal compensation structure for your affiliate program.
While setting up an advertiser account with a PPA network is easy, building your own affiliate program may become a challenging project. You have two options:
• To develop custom software application.
• To purchase an affiliate program software package and to customize it according to your needs.
Your own affiliate program versus ad networks
Dealing with ad networks is a good starting point but once you achieve most of the goals outlined in the first paragraph you will need your own affiliate program due to the following reasons:
• Major affiliates will start contacting you directly as they will try to get rid of the extra link in the money chain. (Publisher >>> Network >>> You).
• Based on the quality and quantity of clicks and / or leads, you will be able to negotiate personalized terms with your affiliates.
• Any ad network is a black box in terms of control. As soon as you reach the level where you start spending considerable amount of money, full control becomes vital.
While planning the principles of your affiliate program, you should think about Advertising methods, advertising models and compensation structure. Providing your affiliates a variety of advertising models and methods is usually a very good idea.
Advertising Methods:
Social networks
Affiliates will be allowed to use social networks as an advertising platform.
E-mail
Affiliates will be allowed to employ email marketing. (The spam aspect has to be considered).
Search
Affiliates will be allowed to use search arbitrage (placing sponsored ads on wide range of commercial search engines like Google Adwords, 7search, ABC Search, etc.)
Web
Affiliates will be allowed to place your banners and text links on their own or third party web resources.
Advertising Models:
Pay per Lead
You will pay certain amount of money (to be determined) to every affiliate who sends you a visitor (a click) that eventually performs a query (submits request to contact) or initiates a conversation with an online operator.
You may consider setting limitations: For example 10 leads per day from each affiliate, a single IP address per visitor per day, etc.
You will provide every affiliate with a special coded URL on individual basis. This URL will be used as a click URL for search method or as a link from the banners for web method.
The above link will lead a surfer to the special landing page dedicated to your campaign. The coded URL generated for each affiliate on individual basis will allow you (and ad network to track every click you receive).
If the surfer decides to make a phone call (in which case it would be hard to track the action) a special code would be generated on the landing page every time the page loads (which means every surfer would see a new code). The operator will ask for this code and enter it manually into the system.
Pay per Sale
You will pay certain amount of money (to be determined) for every completed sale. The tracking principle will be similar to the one described above.
Pay per Click
You will pay certain amount of money (to be determined) for every click. Based on the conversion rate of each affiliate, the system would set bids on individual basis. For example: the affiliate who provides highly converting clicks on a regular basis will receive up to $3 per click, while the affiliate who sends you poorly converting clicks will receive $0.005 per click.
Referral Program
You will pay certain amount of money to the individual who has recommended your offer to other individuals. Typically you pay this individual certain percentage from the total money made by the publishers he has brought to you.
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