Coldwater Creek: Your apology (with a coupon) goes a long way

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I don’t like to go shopping, so online shopping has been a godsend.  I used to give a good portion of my apparel dollars to Coldwater Creek, but a few years back, the catalogs and website started to lose me.  The clothing seemed to lose its edge completely and I and a number of friends started thinking of the brand as “old lady” clothes.

Yesterday I received a postcard from that company’s co-founder and Chairman Dennis Spence; his message was on one side and a $25 coupon was on the other.   He said:

    Several months ago I came out of retirement to help recreate a product line that seemed to have lost its vibrancy.  The results are in our stores now: richer colors, more flattering line and feminine details……….

    I know you were a good customer once.  I’d like the honor of your business again, and I wrote this myself to tell you that.

While not really an apology, Spence’s message certainly made me feel that he was personally sorry for an eroded experience and he wanted to make it up to me.

Direct mail done right is a great web traffic generator; I’ll have delivery of my new clothes in two days.

NEMOA Fall 2011 directXchange Conference

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We’re pleased to announce that we will once again be a sponsor for the NEMOA Fall 2011 directXchange Conference on September 21-22 in Boston at the Boston Marriott Quincy Hotel.  Gail Kenney and Mike Briggs will be there, and we’ll try to free up one or two other team members to attend this always educational and enjoyable event.  Mike will be hosting a breakfast roundtable on Thursday morning, the 22nd, with the topic of SEM Prep for the Holidays.  I hope you can join us for that.

In fact, let us know if you’ll be attending so we can plan to connect with you.  And remember that the early bird pricing ends August 26.

Holiday planning for our E-Commerce Clients

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Last week, Mike Briggs, our VP-Search Strategies, recorded a webinar for HubSpot on preparing your organic and paid search campaigns for holiday shoppers.  Billy MacDonald, Inbound Marketing Consultant at HubSpot, responded:

Thanks again for being a guest presenter as part of our series. I learned a ton, and especially like the tip about changing the meta description during the holidays! Thanks!

To see and hear similar tips:
http://www.hubspot.com/webinar-series-ecommerce-inbound-marketing/thank-you—website-publicity/

Google AdWords Express: Should I care?

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Google has announced another new product, AdWords Express that it offers as an advertising tool for small business.  Introduced last fall in a Beta as Google Boost, Google has formulated it in an attempt to make self-serve AdWords advertising easier and faster to set up than its previous offering.  From Google:

    AdWords Express is designed to help local businesses that aren’t already AdWords advertisers create effective campaigns….AdWords Express helps potential customers find your website or Place page, and gives you a quick and straightforward way to connect with them and grow your business. You simply provide some basic business information, create your ad, and your campaign is ready to go.

Our Search Strategies team has taken a look at AdWords Express and this is their report:

    AdWords Express is really applicable only to very small businesses that are looking to drive a small local/mobile campaign.
    But the fact that you need no keywords or keyword research to participate, added to the fact that Google will decide when to serve your ad, indicates that Google is looking for new ways to monetize its organic algorithm.

Bottom line: if you already have an AdWords campaign, there is nothing in AdWords Express that will enhance your campaign.

If you don’t have an AdWords campaign, a fully thought out campaign with all the professional strategies, research, tools and hands-on campaign management will bring you much more for your time and money.

If you have any questions, give us a call.

@WSP VP talks digital marketing education for HubSpot customers

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By Susan O’Neil, President

We’re pleased that we’ve been asked by HubSpot, to contribute to a few of the many terrific webinars the company creates for the subscribers to its inbound marketing tools.

Mike Briggs, our VP-Search Strategies, took the lead in creating a class called “Developing a Keyword Strategy” for HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing University.  If someone on your team would benefit from a refresher, here it is:

http://www.inboundmarketing.com/university/developing-a-keyword-strategy

The next webinar we’re helping with is focused on what improvements an e-commerce and search team can make now that can impact holiday sales.  We’ll post that link next week, after it is recorded.