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Helping Businesses Get Online With Australia Post

April 30th, 2013

By Tracy Mu Sung

Australia Post and MooMu Media

Australia Post is encouraging it’s business customers to get online, and we are helping them.

On Monday this week I presented at a joint initiative between Australia Post and Google to try and help more small businesses get online. This is a priority for Australia Post because traditional mail is in decline and a huge proportion of their business is in delivering purchases from online retail.

 

As a search marketer, I was representing the ‘Google’ side of the presentation, and covered topics around how to increase your sales through search marketing. My presentation included;

  • What is search marketing?
  • Customer Journey
  • Your Business on Adwords; and
  • Why Work with an Agency? (Call me and I’ll tell you!)

Australia Post discussed all the products they have available to both a) help businesses get online and b) make purchase deliveries easier. For example

  • Their simple content management system for online retailers called “MyShopInABox”. Uniquely, for a CMS, you can pick up a copy at your local Post Office!
  • SecurePay – the Government backed online payment system bought by Australia Post
  • Click and Send – easy way to create the documentation you need for sending parcels to your customers, as well as an easy way to organise and pay for deliveries
  • Reply Paid Returns – a way of increasing customer confidence is to allow them to return goods to you free of charge. Online retailer StyleTread uses this to excellent advantage.
  • Local business hubs – Post offices dedicated to helping their business customers
  • They also covered a bit about direct marketing, and their ‘lifestyle’ survey of householders.

I think you would be surprised at what Australia Post now offer, so if you are an Australian business, I would recommend getting on to their website and checking it out.

 

One of the most interesting topics, for many online retailers in Australia, is the hot topic of free shipping, which Australia Post was well placed to discuss. I think this deserves its own post, so I will cover that separately.

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Universal Analytics – Should Everyone Upgrade?

April 24th, 2013

Universal AnalyticsCheck out this graphic image created by Google to promote the public beta release of Universal Analytics. What does it tell us? It looks like a mobile device, a shopping cart, a tablet, desktop, cash register and game console – all linked in to Google Analytics.

That’s because this is what Universal Analytics is here to do – give business owners better and more complete information about how all their touchpoints work together to achieve outcomes (like sales). Universal Analytics has just been rolled out in a public beta, meaning anyone can now start using it. It’s free to use, but you should know that it’s also quite complicated and not necessarily going to be the magic marketing bullet for your particular business.

 

What is Universal Analytics?

Universal Analytics is Google Analytics but with new features which allows businesses to get more understanding about how their customers move from offline to online, from mobile to desktop, between browsers and more. It is basically following your customer through the many touchpoints they use to interact with your business.

 

How To Start Using It?

Like I mentioned – Universal Analytics is free, and now available in public beta, so in theory you can start using it now. All you need to do is;

  1. Set up a new web property (can’t be your existing one)
  2. Update your tracking code

In relation to updating your tracking code – you can use Google Tag Manager to do this, and it is also a good idea not to remove your existing analytics tracking.
 
What New Features Does Universal Analytics Provide?

  • Custom dimensions and metrics – which means you can add new dimensions like phone calls, point of sales and other offline interactions.
  • Online/offline data sync capabilities – you can upload/import offline data into your Google Analytics
  • Multiplatform tracking – allowing you track incoming data from any device

  • Simplified configuration controls  -access to options within the Google Analytics interface that were previously only available in the development environment

How Will It Track Customers?

To track customer activity from offline to online and across browsers, you will need to assign customers a unique ID and have this associated with all their transactions on and offline. For example, you might use a sign-in form online to track across devices, or you might have a customer membership number to track offline and online(e.g. loyalty card).

If you can assign an ID to an action, you can track it and follow user behaviour. E.g. if you had people swipe a card at your event, at your store, or use the number in your mobile and on your site or on a phone call – you could understand their behaviour across all those touchpoints.

Accordingly, you will need to update your privacy policies and allow people the option of opting out.
 
Measurement Protocol

How will Google Analytics get all this data? It will use their new Measurement Protocol to allow developers to make http requests to send raw data directly to the Google Analytics servers.
 
What Should I do with Existing Analytics Profiles and Code?

Because Universal Analytics is in beta, doesn’t have a lot of community experience/support yet and is quite complicated – it’s best to keep your Google Analytics code running as is for now. You can put the new snippet on your site alongside your old one, and have both running simultaneously.

You will also want to maintain your current profiles in analytics to maintain your history.

Before diving into Universal Analytics it would be a good idea to map out all the data you want to integrate, how you would do it, and what your reports might look like. If this is then considered valuable information to your business, you can go ahead and implement.

 

 

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Lessons From Google Panda – Don’t Forget

March 21st, 2013

It’s no secret that in 2013 Google is going to continue making both Panda and Penguin updates to further clean up search results and reduce spam. Google has already made 24 Panda updates altogether, and at SMX, Matt Cutts admitted that there were more to come (with one update very ‘soon’).

Google Panda Update No End in Site

Google Panda Update – No End In Sight

If you thought you got away scot free from the first (and subsequent) Panda updates, it doesn’t necessarily mean you will continue your good luck. Google’s aim is to continuously improve search results, so you won’t be able to hide your site forever. Remember, the Panda updates all began with human users, so the best way forward with SEO, the most sustainable strategy, is still to have a high quality site that appeals to human users. If you want to make double, or even triple, sure that you won’t be negatively affected by future Panda updates, we have put together a reminder list of everything we learnt from Panda, and what you need to do to keep your site safe. (We will be doing a Penguin version of this post very soon).

 

Panda updates focus on the quality of the content on your site. In particular, it is thought to penalise ‘thin’ content. What is thin content, and does your website have it? Let’s see:

  • Do you have pages where advertisements outweigh normal content?
  • Do you have a heavy template, with only a small ‘unique’ content area on each page?
  • Is your content riddled with links?
  • If you cut and paste your content into a Word Document, do you get multiple grammar or spelling problems?
  • Did you pay a pittance for outsourced content writing?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, there’s a chance you have thin content on your site, and you really should fix it. Unfortunately there are no cheap/quick solutions and if you are serious about improving your site you probably know, deep down in your gut, what you need to do. We’ll spell it out, just in case you need a Panda refresh:
 

Be Panda Ready!

  • Reduce the density of advertising and ‘SEO’ links on your pages.
  • Take the time, or spend the money, to edit your existing content.
  • Fatten up your thin pages by adding relevant content – be it text, image or video
  • Look into your analytics and find pages with a high bounce rate and/or low time-on-page. Is that content thin? Better give it a refresh.
  • Look for duplicate content across your site, remove it (you might even want to redirect pages)
  • Undertake regular SEO audits to ensure you don’t have broken sections, broken links or ‘empty’ pages (This can happen in big, complicated CMS’s, like those used in online retail).
Let us know if you learnt anything else from the previous Panda updates which should be kept in mind in 2013.

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Adwords Enhanced Campaigns – The Upgrade Checklist

March 5th, 2013

Google’s big change in February this year was definitely an example of a double edged sword. On the one hand it will certainly help out advertisers who don’t have a lot of time or expertise to put into managing their campaigns, but on the other hand, it takes away some of the control that those who do have the time and expertise to manage their campaigns enjoy.

 

Google has sold it to us by saying that we need to reach out to mobile consumers, wherever they are – but the more cynical of us might say that it is Google trying to force everyone to buy mobile ads. In any case, mobile is becoming increasingly important, so at the very least, this is a great heads up to all those advertisers who hadn’t previously used mobile. (Note: Expect Mobile CPC’s to increase!)
 
No matter how easy Google has made the process of upgrading to Enhanced campaigns, there are things you need to consider when making the transition to make sure you are still buying the ads that you think you’re buying. Google isn’t going to force the change until June, although you can upgrade any time from now. Here is our checklist of things to consider when you do upgrade:
 
Enhanced Campaigns Devices


1. What percentage do you want to bid on mobile? Your campaigns will be automatically opted in to mobile, so you need to think about it. If you don’t want mobile at all, bid -100%. If you want to be competitive and in the top few positions (essential for an effective mobile campaign), you might even need to bid an increase (e.g. +20%) How much does your business want to invest in mobile?Adwords Enhanced Desktop and Laptop
 
2. Know that you can’t opt out of desktop or tablet – so if you want a mobile only campaign, it isn’t currently possible.
 
3. Check the dimensions tab for your cost and conversion data by geographic area, then consider bidding differently by area Enhanced Campaigns Location Targeting
 
4. You will need to upgrade your sitelinks separately to your campaign. Enhanced Sitelinks
 
5. Note the new features of sitelinks: you will collect more detailed data, and you can have different sitelinks for every adgroup.
 
6. Call extensions will need to be upgraded separately
 
Upgrade call extensions in enhanced campaigns
 
7. Know that the bid multipliers you choose for day-part, location and device can all interact and result in higher or lower than expected bids. Click on this calculator to double check what your overall multiplier will be
 
Google Bid Multiplier Calculator
 
8. Note that you can’t use mobile bid multipliers in any campaign that is using Cost Per Acquisition Bidding.
 
9. Check your budget – if you have opted in to mobile when you hadn’t previously – you might be exhausting your budget sooner than you think
 
10. Remember that your new campaigns will opt in to mobile, and if you want mobile-specific ads, you will have to check this check box when creating new ads
 

 
You have until June to make the move – so there is no real rush to upgrade. In fact, Google might make some changes before then, so if you are unhappy with the new features, you might want to delay the move. For example, if you have some mobile-only campaigns, like I do, you might want to wait and see if any new features get introduced before opting those campaigns in to desktop.
 
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