Altering Content on Your Marketing Feeds Leads to More Clicks and Sales

"Let the data feed experts speak!"

Okay,I hear all of you and thanks for the emails. So, Michael Lambert is CEO at MerchantAdvantage and knows a lot more about product catalog data feeds and shopping comparison sites than I do.  I thought this piece was interesting and help to small to mid sized businesses wanting advice on how best to market into shopping comparison sites/comparison shopping engines. -- Ed

by Michael Lambert, CEO,
www.MerchantAdvantage.com

"I certainly agree that the definitive source for your marketing data is your storefront…in virtually all cases. However, as we get into the details we find that it is merely only the source of your data, but it is certainly not the final marketing content which you should send to all of the shopping destination sites.

Data within a storefront application has been created, and is entirely formatted, for the storefront. Its sole purpose is to entice consumers to purchase product AFTER they have already arrived at your storefront. But to shift to an age old analogy, what you say to get someone "into a store" is significantly different to what you say once they are there. The same is true of online marketing. Data that will interest a consumer while at your site may not hit home at all when viewed on a random Google search or a comparison shopping engine ("CSE") session.

Let me insert here that I HATE spam. But I am always curious as to what the spammer’s goal is when they send me the strange emails that they send. Do they really think I will be enticed to get a second mortgage on my house because of a random infuriating email? This kind of marketing, to me, is ludicrous. No matter how inexpensive this is, I just can’t believe ANYONE will simply sign up for a second mortgage because they got a random email sent via a disreputable method. How desperate would I have to be to accept this marketing solution, and move forward with the company for my second mortgage? And I don’t even want to get into the other spam marketing emails…they couldn’t possibly be working. Sorry, I digress.

The point is that data, or a marketing message, should be adjusted for the venue to which it will be dispensed. As another example, Budweiser always has a "special" message when advertising for the Super Bowl, as opposed to standard magazine ad. So, too, should an online retailer’s message be different for someone shopping in a shopping destination site than for a consumer already on the retailer’s storefront.

That’s why it makes sense to "alter and adjust" your product information before marketing/sending it to external marketing venues. Obviously certain information remains the same – price (and quantities when applicable) for example. But sometimes it does make sense to change basic information like the product name when sending your data outside of your own systems and to CSEs, or other marketing channels.

So here is some advice for any merchant when marketing online. Before sending product data to shopping destination sites, scrutinize your own data but with a new viewpoint.

Review your data in the same format that it exists at the shopping destination sites, and then see if you would be enticed to visit your own store. If it makes sense to alter some of your content that you send to a marketing channel in order to appeal to consumers to then click into/onto your storefront then do it!"