Stores Online (Storesonline)
I recently attended a Storesonline seminar, in which they were quiet candid about the cost and that it was about selling their product. However, there was quite a lot of useful information given during the seminar. It was a great introduction to search for the newbies, and an there were a few tidbits for the old hands as well.
It is interesting that they use different marketing (direct mail) to sell the StoresOnline business
than they recommend that their customers use to sell their products (online). If the methods they say work for selling shoes, why not for selling web based businesses?
Jason, VP Business Development, started the morning, and he made the point that all the sales employees are StoresOnline users, with their own storefronts. The selling part of the seminar started early, which is a refreshing change, usually these thing work with the information first, and then the lead into the sales pitch and the price information at the end.
So they hand out forms to pull credit before 10am and have their own financing system set up, and you sign up for one-on-ones on the day of the seminar. I didn't because I would be what they class as a "know it all". He said that is a term which is used with the same affection as the word "geek".
The reason that they do the seminars on weekdays is to make sure sure that
attendees are motivated.
StoresOnline customers invest in knowledge first, and then in the StoresOnline product.
He notes that their are disgruntled people out there because of problems
that they had in the past. It now takes 3 weeks for them to build a site, if
you choose not to do it yourself, as opposed to 3 months in the past.
The average successful merchant has 6 web sites
The workshop offer is 3 web sites for the price of one at $2700, plus $25/mo hosting each, with no initial
software license fee.
He tells an anecdote of someone in TX who drove to the
airport to make sure he got the workshop (day of) offer because Jason refused to let him buy it tomorrow at the "today's price only". This, I don't believe.
Victor Gonzalez
Victor Gonzalez - author, he doesn't work for StoresOnline. He is a good populist web
marketing speaker. His web site is victorgonzalez.com He slips into either a Bill Cosby like
black accent or Robin Williams type when he is illustrating a point in
character.
He gave a
brief outline of brainstorming - no criticism (especially from self), quantity, free
wheeling, combining ideas.
Portland, ME power authority - how to get rid of ice off power lines - coat
them with honey and bears will come and shake the wires, instead of ridicule
then say "well how do we get the honey on the wires?"
Average conversion rate is 2%
value per visitor (VPV)
Guarantees to be able to put you #1 on Google and be the only one.
Abandonment rate is about 50%, should aim for about 20%
Email campaign to your list has 5 to 8% response rate. Send it once. Direct
mail is about 1%
StoresOnline has a reverse search engine tool. It is basically the Overture keyword
selector tool.
They have a keyword analysis report that tells you what sites are ranked
high for your keywords and why. Victor says you would normally have to pay
$500 for this report if you asked a consultant to do it.
Drop shipping is either regular (where the site you buy off is not on the
paperwork when the delivery comes) or blind (where end customer is "blind"
to the fulfillment company)
Thomasnet.com is similar to Alibaba.com and is good for finding suppliers.
The sites that rank lowly on the SEs are also good potential suppliers
because they NEED sales.
StoresOnline sites are willable and transferable. Maybe there is a market for them.
StoresOnline customers/merchants set up their own sites.
ECI does the credit card processing.
Storesonline (Stores Online) continued
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