Flash Promotional Banner Rotator’s

You’ve seen them on just about every big ecommerce site. Many banners have gone from static to rotating. The rotation offers an unlimited resource for promoting various items without taking up a ton of space on the page — and if done correctly, they look nice too.

In my last article I talked about some of the things that should be considered when developing an effective promotional banner. I want to follow that up with a short post here on how you can promote more in less space using flash for banner development.

Flash banners come in all shapes and sizes. As of this writing two example sites using them are Target and BestBuy. Screenshots of the home page for each are below as a reference point. The red outlined area in each indicates the area the dynamic flash banner is composed of.

Example of Target Flash Promotional Banner

Example of BestBuy Flash Promotional Banner

In today’s internet age, you do not need a whole lot of flash design experience to get these types of banners up and running on your site. You will need a little technical know how (or get someone that can do it for you) but there really isn’t much to it if you have the right tools.

The truth is, you can do this yourself with a number of free and/or affordable commercial options.

Below I’ve listed a number of links that will start you down the right path toward adding a professional looking flash rotating banner to your ecommerce site.

Rotate a Banner With These XML Banner Rotators

Free XML Banner Rotator

Free Flash XML Banner Rotator

As you’ll see, there are a number of options available to you. Keep in mind that the functionality of the banner should fit your needs. Don’t just choose a banner because it “looks cool.” Looking cool won’t get you sales. Make sure it is functionally correct and provides the opportunity to run your promotions in a way that benefits your bottom line.

Got anymore you think should be added to the list? Leave a comment below and let me know.

How to Design an Effective Promotional Banner

With the tools available today, just about anyone can design a graphical banner for a promotion. But designing a banner and designing a banner that gets results is quite different.

In general you want to design your promotion to work with the user eyeflow. Standard reading is left to right so this works best. Placement of elements within the ad also is important and should be considered.

Here are some things your promotional banner could (or should) include in order to increase it’s effectiveness.

1) If using photos the photo should reflect the promo to some degree and should have room to integrate headlines etc… without making it difficult to read. Oftentimes finding the right photo can be the toughest part. The photo should direct the eye to elements within the ad yet not overwhelm. Sites like iStock have a great selection at very reasonable prices.

Example of Good Photo Usage

Example of Poor Photo Usage

2) A clear call to action. Examples would be “Shop Now”, “Start Shopping”, etc… Due to eyeflow, and depending on your layout, the best location for this is typically the right hand side of the banner (even bottom right corner is good), but that is not critical if you make it stand out and fit it within whatever eyeflow you choose for the promo.

Take note of how your eye flows and is drawn to the call to action in the following ad.

Example of Good Call to Action

Example of Poor Call to Action

3) A primary heading or focus area that grabs attention and conveys what type of promotion or message you want to deliver. Things like “24 Hour Sale”, “Grand Opening Sale”, “50% Off Sale”, “Storewide Clearance”, “Free Shipping Now Thru ‘xxx’”, “Holiday Blowout”, “Everything Must Go”, etc…

Oftentimes, but not in all cases the photo can play a role in delivering a primary focus area as seen in the examples below. The more active the photo (and with no clear “text area”) the harder it is to create focus and flow. A good ad gives the eye a starting point and then directs it in a specific pattern toward the call to action.

Example of Good Primary Focus Area

Example of Poor Primary Focus Area

4) Benefits to the customer. (i.e. what do they get from the offer and/or product). This is often best completed in short text or bullet point descriptions. Give them a reason to click.

Example of Good Benefits

Example of Poor Benefits

5) Avoidance of centered text. Centered text is hard to read. You want all text to be preferably left aligned and in some cases right alignment might work. The only time you should use centered text is in headers — and that too depends on the layout of the photo and message. When in doubt, left align text.

Example of Good Alignment

Example of Poor Alignment

The above is just a very brief sampling of ad concepts. Again, placement of these items is important and should be considered during development. Promotions can vary widely and should be based upon your individual goals and objectives. Testing is key and what works for one company many not always work for another.

Got any additional insights to share? Let me hear them below.

Create Facebook Fan Page That is Welcoming to New Visitors

Raise your hand if visitors to your Facebook Fan Page see your Wall comments when they arrive at your page. Now raise your hand if visitors see a well executed welcome page (and no, the Information tab does not count as a well executed welcome page).

If your visitors see a well thought out welcome page, then this post isn’t for you.

If you’re wondering how you can get your Facebook page to default to a tab other than the Wall and how you can use this functionality to keep new fans or customers, then this is the post for you.

With FBML and a few Wall settings, you can turn your Facebook page from a social media dumping ground into a fun (or serious) extension of your brand.

Here’s how:

Create your welcome page. Depending on the service(s) or good(s) you’re providing, your welcome page can include a brief introduction about you or your site. It can provide instructions for where else on your Facebook page visitors can get good deals, chat, download coupon codes or buy your products (Starbucks’ fan page does a good job of this). You can also point visitors in the direction of products they can purchase or how to connect with you in other ways (1-800Flowers.com fan page does a good job of this). Your welcome page will need to be created in HTML (which is what FBML supports). If you’re not familiar enough with HTML, you can consult with your website designer or use one of the Fan page templates available online.

Add the Static FBML application to your page. (Click on the link to be taken to the page). A window prompt will ask you which page you’d like to add the application to. Select the page you’d like to add the app to.

Adjust the FBML Application. Once you’re back on your Facebook Fan page, you’ll need to find the “Edit Page” selection (usually directly under the image you have set for your site). Once you’ve arrived at your list of page applications, find the FBML Application and click the “Edit” option.

Change the name of the Tab. It will default to FBML; however, you can change it to something like “Welcome,” “Who We Are,” “Discounts,” etc. Paste your HTML code in the box provided and click save.

Once you’re back to your fan page’s edit page, click on the Application Settings option in the FMBL box (now called whatever you named it in the step above). Application Settings allows you set the your FBML up as a box and/or tab on your page. If you select Tab, it will stay as a Tab on the top of your page. If you select Box it will not.

Now that you have your FBML set up, you’ll need to make your new welcome page the default landing page.

To do this, head back to your page’s Edit page. Find Wall Settings and click Edit.

You’ll be given a number of options that you can select. To make your new FMBL page your landing page, select the FBML page you created. Once you’ve made your selection, hit save and voila. You’ve just created a new and improved landing page for your visitors.

Free Tools To Enhance Your ECommerce Website and Social Media Campaigns

10 Factors That Help Build Trust Online

Although a number of factors come into play when a customer makes a buying decision on the Internet none other is more important than trust.

Ultimately customers choose to purchase from a given online retailer based on their ability to trust the transaction taking place. Therefore it should be no surprise that all successful business relationships require building trust with the customer. If you can’t build trust with your potential customer you won’t get the sale.

To illustrate let me give you a brief example.

For simplicity sake let’s say you have a flat tire on your car. You need that car to get from place to place and thus you need that tire fixed. It’s not a desire but rather a need-a necessity.

Your door bell unexpectedly rings and a man in a greasy jumpsuit is standing there. He says he was driving by and noticed that you had a flat tire. He points to a rusted out old pickup truck loaded with tires heaped in the back and says he’ll sell you a tire on the spot.

He indicates that he will even install it for you at no extra charge. You glance at the truck and find no sign indicating the business he represents. Furthermore the state of repair of his own truck leaves you questioning his ability and honesty.

Would you buy it from him? I doubt it. Even though you need the tire and you need it now, the likelihood of you completing the transaction at that moment is hampered by your ability to trust the seller.

Can you trust the tire will be installed correctly? Are the tires old, new, refurbished? Why are they just thrown in the back of his truck in a big unorganized pile? Who does he work for and is his business even legit? What are his qualifications? These questions–along with others–are all examples of what would likely go through your mind.

Each question involves basing a decision upon trust and because of the lack of it in this case, the sale will likely be lost.

The above example illustrates how much of an impact trust plays in the final decision making for consumer. Now let’s turn our attention to the impact trust has online and detail numerous factors that can help you build it.

Factors That Influence Building Trust

Before we delve into how to build trust let me just state there are many ways to misconnect or disconnect with site visitors and thus break trust.

Most often it can be seen in bad design (which equates to the rusted out old pick-up truck and unorganized pile of tires in my offline example) or usability issues. A few of the most common design and usability mistakes I’ve seen include: use of pop-ups, poorly designed shopping carts, weak checkout processes, lack of customer assurance items such as ssl seals, shipping information, payment methods, returns policies, and unresponsive or unprofessional customer service.

Those are just a few of the factors that most often break trust. There are more, but I want to really focus on building trust online not breaking it so let’s get into that now.

Below is a detailed list of items you need to consider for helping build trust online.

Usability

Building an ecommerce site with a specific target audience or market in mind is critical to the ultimate success of the store. Yet, this need is too often overlooked by many-coordination and communication is they key.

Graphic designers are rarely aware of the impact their use of animation, images and graphical text can have on search engine visibility or compatibility with mobile devices. In a similar vein, programmers developing backend functionality are not frequently educated on the impact of dynamically generated content and code can have on visibility and browser compatibility.

Most importantly, the entire development team may create a site that looks absolutely wonderful on all screen sizes and types, but is, in fact, very difficult to navigate to accomplish a desired task. One answer is to involve a usability engineer and search engine optimization specialist throughout the development process.

Don’t neglect the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid). Make your site simple and informative. Oftentimes the more information you provide the greater your chances are of customers not trusting your brand and becoming confused.

Security

Get a private SSL Certificate (vs. a shared one) and keep it up-to-date.

Clearly display the seal and words like “your transaction is 100% safe and secure” on all pages of your site especially in areas where you are asking for personal information like credit card numbers.

Uniqueness

Few ecommerce stores operate in markets where there is no competition. To stand out, it is essential that you differentiate yourself from the rest–this is often called your UVP or unique value proposition. It’s what will make a customer choose you over your competition when all other factors are closely related or constant.

When a prospect visits your site, how are you differentiating yourself from the competition?

Too often, companies use their competitors as a baseline when developing their own site. While this is not a bad idea (providing your competitors do it right and you have done your homework), make sure that when you design your site it is not so closely related to your competition that it takes away from your uniqueness.

The inclusion of key differentiators and less tangible benefits like your brand identity, culture and values all factor into the overall customer experience and are what will help you gain the competitive advantage.

Social Media

Don’t neglect social media. Social media includes things like Twitter, Facebook, and can include blogging. Taking advantage of this new channel can help give your company a personality, an identity beyond the site itself. Harness the power and you can create trust through relationship building.

Contact Information

It seems obvious to include contact information on a Web site, but far too often, companies bury this information or omit it completely. All sites should include the basics: contact form, phone, fax and mailing address. If you do business locally you may want to consider including a map to your location as well.

Don’t hide from your customers or they will hide from you.

Visibility

The presence of your site across the internet through marketing and promotion also helps build trust. The more positive exposure you can get for your business the greater the trust.

Get mentioned in blogs, get listed in search engines (using both paid and organic methods), send out press releases, run contests, sponsor events, etc… These are all ways to gain positive exposure for your business and create trust at the same time.

Respect Your Audience

Know who your customers are and respect their needs.

Any B2B company worth its salt will have one or more of the following elements on its site: industry certifications, reviews, awards, press coverage, articles, customer testimonials, case studies, product demos, free trials and white papers.

The key is to understand the benefits of each in building trust, and determining relevance to your company, industry and target audience.

For business-to-consumer (B2C) Web sites such as e-retailers, there are entirely different expectations and requirements. Some of the more important site elements include: strong brand/identity, security certifications and guarantees, shipping, return and privacy policies, customer testimonials and product reviews, merchandising, promotions and product comparisons.

Rather than get distracted by the bells and whistles, it’s critical to ensure the site functions reliably and visitors are able to find what they are looking for without the need to dig deep for it.

Anticipate Every Question

I’ve written numerous articles on answering your customer’s questions before they ask them. This is done through first understanding your customer and then placing the proper elements in the right locations on the site to address their concerns at precisely the right moment they typically would ask.

Anticipating their questions and answering accordingly helps build trust. Any impression of secrecy or preciousness, anything that makes a customer’s visit to a site difficult, can annihilate trust.

Confirm, Confirm, and Confirm

It’s often said the most important time for car manufacturers to advertise is within four weeks after purchase. Why? This is the period during which consumers need confirmation they’ve made the right choice. The principle is no different online, but the reality is more important than in the brick-and-mortar world.

Confirm orders placed with emails to the customer immediately following a successful sale. Confirm the shipment of the item when it is sent and include tracking information for them as well. Don’t forget to follow up with an email sometime after delivery (not to soon after) thanking them again and asking them if they are satisfied with the product or have any questions about it.

This type of pro-active approach builds a relationship that has trust as its foundation. Even after purchasing, customers want to feel they made the right choice. It’s your job to assure them they have.

Answer customer inquires quickly

If a customer asks a question, answer within 24 hours. Nothing can hurt your business more than not responding to a customer inquiry on time. It sends a message that they are not important enough to warrant a quick response and often leads to lost sales and bad pr.

Trust is built on a foundation with a multitude of influential elements. The fewer of the above elements included in your Web site, the greater the likelihood the visitor will go elsewhere, like a competitor’s site. By following the above recommendations, you are all but guaranteeing an increase in trust and online sales.

Got some more? Add them to the list by leaving a comment below.

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