While traditional models of selling games online is alive and well with veterans of the B2C sector, we have also witnessed the rise of alternative, social approaches to online marketing strategies.
In this post, we take a look at the online video game industry and analyze two different marketing strategies utilized by B2C companies. Our goal is to see how these different strategies can be applied to other e-commerce verticals.
When I think about the major social video game companies producing massively multiplayer online (MMO) games, I think about Electronic Arts, Activsion Blizzard, and wunderkind Zynga. These are the corporations structuring our play on the Internet.
It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway), that the way we play and pay for video games today is different than it was 25 years ago. Back then, I had an Atari 7800 with 4KB of RAM. I could buy a cartridge of Joust from Toys “R” Us, put the game in the console and I was ready to be interactively entertained. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under conversion optimization, Customer Engagement, Landing Pages, SaaS payment models, zynga ea ecommerce
October 26th, 2011 by Mike Batko
E-commerce professionals like to talk about methods for increasing their sales. Much of this discussion focuses on investing in affiliate programs, marketing, PPC, SEO, and landing pages; which tends to drive new visitors to your website. But what about the visitors you already receive? Are they having the best experience possible?
Understanding the following high-level data points about your visitors will assist sellers in the digital product space increase their shopping cart conversion rate and drive ROI for paid search campaigns.
Data Point #1 – Where Are My Visitors Coming From?
It is important to present product offerings in your customers’ native languages. Looking at traffic by territory may only give you part of the picture, so another important metric to consider is browser language. Users in territories like Canada, may primarily speak one of two languages (French and English) and it’s important to know who is looking at your site.
Once you know what language your customers speak, ask yourself the question, “Have I localized for my top visited languages and if so, have I used local translators?”
A poor translation may be just as bad as no translation at all. Below is a screen-shot of a video game named Zero Wing, which was released in 1989 and did not sell many copies.
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under cart optimization, conversion optimization, increasing sales, localised shopping carts, paid search campaigns
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns have quickly become a preferred advertising strategy for companies across the world. Since you are paying for directed traffic, you need to carefully consider the content of the landing page linked to your PPC campaign. As providers of digital content, you can increase your PPC conversion rates by avoiding the following pitfalls when designing your landing pages:
Pitfall #1: Using Your Home Page As The Landing Page
Many new marketers simply send paid search traffic straight to the home page of their website. The problem with this practice is that it assumes your visitors will automatically know where to go to get what they are searching for. But when a searcher types a keyword or phrase into a search engine, they are looking for an immediate solution and people will bounce out of your site if they do not see that solution in less than three seconds. By directing them to your home page, you are wasting precious time in successfully converting a searcher into a buyer.
If you would like your prospects to remain on the landing page, the content needs to closely resemble the ad they clicked on. Not only will this increase the likelihood that the visitor will convert, but it will also increase your Google Quality Score. Google values relevance between the keyword, the ad and the landing page, and they will reward you with a lower cost-per-click (CPC).
Pitfall #2: Giving Your Visitor Too Many Choices
Minimize main navigation, footer links and other distractions on your landing page. Based on the keywords used in your PPC, you know exactly what the user is seeking; additional navigation can distract the visitor from your message.
In most cases, a PPC landing page shouldn’t have a link to your Facebook page. This is a great way to get visitors to login to Facebook to ‘like’ a video of kittens, but it will likely distract them from buying your product. After all, conversions are the ultimate goal of the PPC campaign. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under conversion optimization, landing page, PPC, sem
