Selling Points: Optimizing E-Commerce

TrialPay ’s New Features – October 2009

Thursday, October 15, 2009

TrialPay’s elite team is constantly improving our state-of-the-art platform to maximize our merchants’ margins and increase conversion rates.

We push dozens of new features every month. Here are a couple of new features we pushed live in October:

Stored Credit Card Option for Faster Checkout
Customers who purchase virtual currency or subscriptions with their credit card will have the option to complete subsequent purchases with a single click. Merchants who use TrialPay’s solution for Social and Casual Games can now increase customer “stickiness” by allowing customers to conveniently store their credit card information for faster checkout.

Payoneer Prepaid MasterCards for Merchants
TrialPay merchants can now get paid via prepaid MasterCards, adding to the convenience of existing payment methods such as PayPal, wire transfers, checks and ACH. Prepaid cards are particularly convenient for international merchants located in countries where transaction fees can be high or where traditional payments are not readily available. This is particularly relevant in Russia, China and Eastern Europe.

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E-mail Marketing, Social Media and Mobile Devices, Oh My!

Monday, September 28, 2009

When researchers at the Nielsen Company set out to prove that social media has a negative impact on how much we e-mail, they had no idea that the test would prove the exact opposite of what they hypothesized. Based on their findings, it’s evident that the more consumers use social media, the more they are also using e-mail.

Nielsen isn’t the only company onto the correlation between e-mail and social media. David DanieIs of Forrester Research recently spoke at the Shop.org summit in Las Vegas, explaining that while e-mail marketing is still an effective medium for marketers, there are many challenges to deal with. Namely, social media and mobile devices.

With Facebook boasting user numbers that rival the entire US population and Twitter recently being valued at $1 billion, social media is the new black. And as more and more consumers continue to jump on the social media bandwagon, they are also becoming more savvy (and more mobile) when it comes to how they access their information online. According to comScore, the number of people using their mobile device to access news and information online more than doubled from January 2008 to January 2009. And SurveySampling reports that about 65% of decision makers view marketing e-mails on their text-only mobile devices.

So what does this mean for Internet marketers?

While e-mail marketing continues to be an effective marketing strategy, online marketers must be mindful of the changing behaviors of their audiences—and embrace that change. Start today by incorporating social media into your e-mail campaigns, enabling consumers to share the information with others, and writing plain text e-mails to ensure your messages can be readable on any e-mail platform.

Have any other tips? Feel free to share them below.

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Harvesting Virtual Acorns in East Asia: A Study of Virtual Goods Internationalization

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Many app developers have been focusing their efforts on reaching the global community by translating their apps, and this move is certainly appropriate considering that 70% of Facebook's recent growth has been occurring internationally. But it's not just that users around the world are joining social networks. It's that they're becoming active members of social network ecosystems by purchasing virtual goods and virtual currency. Users in East Asia are particularly keen on participating in virtual economies—South Korea's Cyworld first created the virtual currency model by allowing users to purchase virtual “acorns” which are used to buy wall decorations, gifts, and other virtual items. As of 2006, Cyworld reported a daily revenue of $300K solely through the sale of acorns.

After looking at the following facts, it is clear why East Asia is a natural target for app developers.

• At 338 million, China's online population is larger than the US total population.
• 43% of the world's online population will reside in Asia by 2013.
• The virtual goods market in East Asia is estimated at $5 billion USD.
• China's online game industry is estimated to grow 25% annually and reach revenues of $8.3 billion in the next four years.
• China's online population is younger (74% is under age 35) and entertainment-focused.
• TenCent (a very popular Chinese social network) recently reported annual revenues of over $1 billion, 88% of which came from virtual goods sales.

So what should developers do to penetrate the East Asian market?

The first step is to localize applications as fully as possible. Sure, language translation needs to happen before anything else can follow. Even this seemingly simple task proves problematic because of various linguistic conventions that only native speakers understand. But as Playfish COO Sebastien de Halleux stated in a recent interview, “Localization goes beyond language; there are also cultural aspects to respect and adapt to.” For instance, East Asia is very status-conscious, which means that users in East Asia will be more likely to buy virtual goods that display status.

Next, developers should gauge and respond to user preferences. This element is absolutely crucial to an application's success in unfamiliar territory, as shown by the example of Cyworld US. Cyworld recently attributed the disappointing results of its 2006 US launch to a failure to gauge the unique needs and preferences of the American audience.

If there is anything we can be sure about, it's that East Asian users care about aesthetics. According to Dyne Lee, Assistant Manager of Cyworld, “Western sites are often perceived to be too function-orientated and somewhat crass to Korean users who are accustomed to a 'cute' and 'decorative' user interface.” Developers have a lot of control in this arena, and they must use this control to their advantage. Alan Hshieh, human-computer interaction expert from Harvard University, agrees. “Developers are versatile; Facebook moves slowly as it is a huge platform, but developers have applications that they can create according to exactly what users want.”

Finally, developers must create an appropriate monetization strategy. The good news here is that East users are very familiar with virtual goods/virtual currency sales and micro-transactions. Revenue from East Asian social networks usually comes from these streams instead of from advertising. Therefore, applications must accept a variety of convenient global payment methods, including mobile payments. Creating a user-friendly and frictionless payment experience is key. Furthermore, in offering alternative payment methods, developers must provide relevant, localized offers. This makes it all the more important to choose alternative payment platforms that have direct relationships with international advertisers who will provide offers with clear value to relevant communities.

Users are always looking for novelty and innovation—this is particularly true for online populations in tech savvy countries like South Korea and Japan. It is the job of the developer to keep up with such demands and to create clear and meaningful value for their users.

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Best Practices for Businesses on Twitter

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Twitter one of the fastest growing social networking sites on the Web. Not too long ago, people scratched their heads wondering exactly what Twitter is; now it’s baffling when a well-known business doesn’t have a presence on the site. With nearly ten thousand new accounts opened each day, Twitter is a great way to boost your brand and interact with your customers. Here’s a few tips to ensure success of your Twitter page.

Personalize your page
Your Twitter page is a valuable marketing tool, so it’s important that it represents your brand. By using your official colors and a customized background, you can make your Twitter page stand out or even look like your own Web site. For a few examples, check out  @trendmicro, @Blockbuster, @TrialPay, and @bustedtees.

Follow related tweeters
In an attempt to gain followers, many tweeters follow massive amounts of people in hopes they will follow back. But that tactic will only clutter your Twitter page with irrelevant tweets. Instead, follow people that are relevant to your business:  peers, colleagues, related companies, your competition, journalists, etc. Not only will this improve the quality of the tweets that shows up in your feed, but it will show your potential and current followers exactly what you are interested in.

Interact
Twitter is a micro-blogging service that’s also a social networking site—so it’s imperative to interact with other tweeters. Use the search box to find mentions of your name and regularly check your @replies, and respond whenever relevant. Doing so will also make your tweets more personal. As Jason Snell from MacWorld put it, your Twitter account will just seem like a faceless promotion machine if you publish a flood of impersonal links.

Promote Your Page
Building a base of relevant followers takes a lot of effort. That’s why it’s important to cross-promote your Twitter page on all of your social media and online outlets. Add a “Follow Me on Twitter” link on your Web site, blog, newsletter, Facebook page, or in e-mail campaigns.

Use twittering tools
Take advantage of the myriad of tools out there that help make your tweeting more effective. For example, TweetVolume can help you see how often your business name is mentioned on Twitter. Tweetburner shows how many clicks that your links generate. And TweetStats creates graphs of your Twitter stats, such as tweets per month, tweets per hour and reply statistics.

Have any other tips? Share them below.

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Five Tips for a Successful Facebook Fan Page

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Facebook isn’t just a household name for 250 million users around the world; it’s also an important marketing strategy used by thousands of businesses. More than 8 million users become fans of Facebook Pages each day, which means Facebook fan pages are a valuable way to reach new customers and boost your brand.

Ensure Relevancy
The first step to having a successful Facebook fan page is to ensure that your page is relevant. There are countless companies whose Fan Pages have only a handful of fans because their pages are irrelevant.  Oftentimes this is the case for B2B companies, or those that offer professional services. So before putting your resources and energy into your Fan Page, be sure this is an appropriate outlet for you to reach new customers and interact with your customer base.

Include Fresh Content
Adding an RSS feed of your blog to your fan page is a great tactic for posting content to your page, but you should strive to include fresh content that can’t be found anywhere else. Without new and compelling content, customers will have little reason to visit your page or even become a fan in the first place. Offering special deals on your Facebook page (such as Busted Tees has done in the example below) is a great way to attract fans, increase your page’s relevancy and keep fans coming back to your page.

Promote Your Page
Many companies create a page on Facebook and expect the fans to come frolicking. But acquiring fans takes effort. That’s why it’s important to cross-promote your Facebook Page on all of your social media and online outlets: on your Web site, blog, newsletter, Twitter page, or in e-mail campaigns.

Implement Apps
There are more than 50,000 applications on the Facebook platform, many of which can be integrated directly into your page. Many apps, such as YouTube Box, can increase user engagement and promote viral exposure of your brand; users’ interactions with your page will be announced to each of their Facebook friends.

Brand Your Page
According to Facebook, Pages look and behave like user profiles to connect and engage with your customers and amplify your voice to their friends. But why not also make it look like your own Web site? Apps like Static FBML allow you to customize your page with HTML or FBML (Facebook Markup Language).

Be social
Finally, the most important element of a successful Fan Page is interaction. It’s called social networking, after all. Let your customers submit reviews, encourage them to submit photos of themselves using or wearing your product, respond to their questions in a timely manner, and be sure to comment on their posts.

Have any other tips to share? Leave a comment below.

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