About Alvinl

Alvinl is the marketing and customer happiness guy at www.ReferralCandy.com, the refer-a-friend app that increases your sales through word of mouth. In his spare time he loves geeking out on technology, psychology and economics news.

ReferralCandy is now more Mobile Friendly. Sweet!

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Alvinl

So I was just having a casual chat with our product software development team today, and they made a remark on how they had come up with some small features to improve our product.

“What’s that?” I asked, thinking that it would be something obscure about HTML tags.

“Well, we are using this new method called Responsive Design to make our ReferralCorner pages more mobile and iPad friendly for our customers. Basically, the page layout automatically optimizes itself to fit the size of the browser window you are viewing it in.”

The ReferralCorner page is where your customers go to share coupon links with their friends and get rewarded for each successful referral.

Here’s how your ReferralCorner looks like on a smaller screen before the Responsive Design.

No Responsive Design, no good.

Here’s how it looks like with the new Responsive Design:

Responsive Design. It’s just Sweeter.

It’s much neater than before, and fits great for mobile and small tablet browsing: the way of the future. The words fit right into the window, like water filling up a container. Sweet.

The price of such elegance? About 50 hardworking developer hours. Well done guys!

10 Simple Ecommerce Website Updates to Implement Now

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Alvinl

There are hundreds of ecommerce website updates you could make. Anyone who’s managed an ecommerce company has a list of things to change on the site.

The biggest issue as a manager is determining the priority list. It’s hard to know what can be done easily and what really should be done.

We’ve got some help. The updates listed below are ones you can make right now on your website. Together they’ll make a difference in terms of user experience and conversion.

Let’s begin.

1. Make All Calls To Action A Consistent Color

Amazon uses consistent colors for its calls to action for the most part.

One of the most confusing things for website visitors is the color of the calls to action. It’s not all about being contrasting. While that’s important, it is actually more important to have a consistent call to action color.

If you look at the Amazon example above, you’ll notice that the color orange is used on nearly every call to action. When you hover over text links in the left navigation area you’ll see that they even change to orange.

Creating consistent coloring for your calls to action gets visitors programmed. When people go to Amazon and they see the color orange they automatically know that it’s something they should click.

Amazon still has a few exceptions. The Add to Cart button is yellow and the search button at the top is black. The search button could easily be changed to orange, but overall Amazon does a great job of keeping things consistent.

2. Have One Main Action For Each Page

The Overstock website is very focused with prioritized calls to action on each page.

A good way to go into design discussions for your website is to have one main action for each page. This keeps things easy for the visitor, which leads to more conversions. It also gives you more control over the pathways people take on the site.

The tendency on ecommerce sites is to put as many calls to action as possible on every page. We naturally want to give people all the possible options they can think of when they’re browsing the site. The problem with that is too many options is too confusing. It’s better to limit those choices to just a few things.

Look at the Overstock example above. There is one main action on the page that stands out – Shop The Sale. The action is in bright yellow and it’s probably the first thing you noticed on the page. Yes, there are other actions on the page, but they are secondary and in the background. Keep the focus to a single action. Make all other necessary actions secondary.

3. Add Search Suggestions

Zappos helps visitors by providing search suggestions.

Search is likely in the top three actions visitors take from your homepage. That surprises some people. Sure, visitors may look at your feature image, but they’re more likely to start searching right away. This usually means they have something in mind already, but even those people need some help refining their search.

You can see in the Zappos example above that there are search suggestions. These are subtle hints to get the visitor started. You want the search experience on your site to be as fuss-free as possible. By offering suggestions you’ll help people find the right words. They’ll be able to find what they want easier and that makes them happy.

A happy shopper is one that likely converts.

4. Add Reinforcement Messages on Product Pages

Newegg reinforces their offer with “Free Shipping”

You probably offer free shipping on occasion. Maybe you even offer 20% off or 25% off from time to time. These are great offers. Yet when a visitor gets to the product page they still have that final moment just before they hit the “Add To Cart” button when they wonder if they really need this item.

Reinforce your offer at this point. You can see in the Newegg example above that Free Shipping is reinforced. Now the shopper can see the free shipping notice and make the final commitment to make the purchase. It’s the last little push they need to make a purchase and become a happy customer.

5. Consider Adding Lightbox Forms to Interior Pages

Don’t be afraid to use lightbox forms.

More companies are using lightbox or popup forms for different reasons.

Even LL Bean, a traditionally conservative company, is using the lightbox form. You can see above that LL Bean is reinforcing their free shipping offer.

What is interesting about the LL Bean example is they have this popup occur on an interior page. A new visitor is not shown the item on the homepage, but once they get to an internal page like the Men’s Shirts page they are reminded.

You can use a lightbox on internal pages to reinforce a message like LL Bean or you could use it to get more subscribers to your email address. It’s a great way to get a little more aggressive without scaring off every new visitor that comes to your homepage.

6. Use Branding To Your Advantage

Edwin Watts knows that golf is about brands. They put a brand drop down in their top navigation.

Further down the page Edwin Watts includes logos of the brands they sell. Branding matters.

Brands are usually important in ecommerce. It depends what industry you’re in, but chances are good that people recognize the brands you sell.

Take for example the Edwin Watts site from the examples above. At the top of the page you’ll see the drop down option to shop by brand. At the bottom the site includes the actual logos of the brands.

The company realizes that brands are important in the golf industry. Amateurs see their favorite golfing pros on TV with logos plastered on their shirts and hats. They want to golf like those players so they buy the same brands.

From Edwin Watts’ perspective they know they need to show the brand logos right away so a new visitors can immediately find what they’re looking for on the site.

If your industry is influenced by brands be sure to make it evident on your site.

7. Images Trump Text

Ebay has huge images on its website.

People notice images before text when they visit a site. Just look at the Ebay example above. You looked at the image of the red mixer first. From there you noticed the blue call to action buttons (see: Call To Action Colors above).

Images trump text when it comes to shopping. People are visual and they want to be able to see every aspect of the item they’re considering for their purchase. You can include large images to make this easier for your visitors. You could also add videos to the site. More companies are doing this and finding it increases conversion.

Just because images are important, however, does not mean you should limit text. The content on the page is still very important. After someone examines the images on the page and become interested, they will dig deeper. They’ll read the content in detail. You want to make sure there is enough content on the page to satisfy any question a shopper might have. Text is also good for SEO purposes.

8. Use Reviews Everywhere

JCP takes reviews and puts them on multiple pages.

When customers visit a site they’re looking for validation. They might see something they like on your thumbnail page, but they want a little more than just something that’s interesting. People want confirmation that an item has potential.

Reviews are a great way to prove that items on the page are great. Check out the JCP example above. You can see that product reviews are pulled in and used on the thumbnail page. Not only do the reviews make the product stand out, but they also validate that these items are popular and well-liked.

Use reviews throughout your site. Add them to thumbnail pages. Add them to the feature image on your homepage. Also use them in emails and in social media.

Reviews are one of your biggest assets. They convert visitors.

9. Add a Top Line Banner

A top line banner is becoming popular.

This is an interesting trend in ecommerce. The trend dates back maybe a year or two, but it must be working because it’s everywhere.

The trend is the top line banner. Notice where it says, “Clearance 70% off top designers” at the top of the Target example. A few of the other examples above also include something similar.

This is a new trend and it’s really a good way to share a message with your visitors. The top bar really stands out from the rest of the page. If you have something interesting you want to promote, this is a great way to accomplish it with every visitor.

It will be interesting to see how long this will remain effective. For now, it seems to still be working really well, and will probably be around for a while.

10. Focus on the Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Walmart knows they are all about low prices and they show that to every visitor.

When you think of Walmart, you think about low prices. The company has spent years beating customers over the head with this USP. The reason people shop at Walmart is because they know they can get just about any product at the lowest price possible. What you need to do is figure out what your USP is, and then feature it on your website.

You can easily see the prices in red on the Walmart website. Maybe the USP is nothing about your company, but something about your product. Showcase that feature or benefit next to the product image when your promote it on the homepage, or in an email campaign.

It’s a simple concept, but it’s overlooked way too often on many sites.

Conclusion

None of these items are extremely difficult to implement! Put them high on your website revamp priority list. They’ll improve conversion and ultimately they should improve sales, which is really what matters.

Do you think anything missing from the list?

Share your ideas in the comments below!

Five New Years Resolutions For Your Sales Funnel

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Alvinl

The year 2013 has arrived, and although you’ve likely made resolutions for your personal life, now is the time to chart a bold new course for your sales funnel as well. It’s always tempting to leave well enough alone, but the best marketers are never content to just let things be and are constantly striving to hit new benchmarks with their sales. This year, commit to getting your hands dirty with the following five time-tested commitments for your funnel.

1. Truly Talk To Your Customers

This year, don’t be content to to simply count your sales. Instead, commit to getting to know your customer base. You can do this by using surveys and phone interviews to ask probing questions, and get to the core of what they are really coming to you for.

These insights can be used to echo back shopper concerns, motivations, and desires in your sales copy, which is much better than trying to craft a letter from the powers of your brain alone. Talking to your customers might not seem like ground breaking advice at first, but it goes beyond merely looking at the emails they send – it’s about starting conversations and encouraging a dialogue with them. Don’t ask leading questions like “Do you want lower prices on widgets?” Instead, go for open-ended questions like “Why did you come to this website today?”

For more ideas on how to think about the right questions to ask, and how to learn from the responses you receive, have a look at this great post on how to talk to your customers.

2. Decipher More Data

Going data-less is no way to make a killing in 2013. Anyone can record their data but it takes a seasoned mind to sift through the data and extract meaning and patterns from it that can be converted into actionable improvements. For instance, a beginning marketer would celebrate “more traffic” coming in, but a dedicated professional looks for which particular traffic is converting, and who is leaving without making a purchase.

Actionable data is how you begin to cut all the fat off your sales funnel and turn it into a lean, cost-effective conversion machine. In 2012, you might have thought “I’m spending $25,000/month on advertising, and my retail website is bringing back around $40,000. I’m coming out ahead so I’m doing well!” Don’t stop there this year. Instead, ask how much of that $25,000 is pure waste, and how can you squeeze even more effectiveness and sales out of your investment.

If you really don’t have a clue about analytics and you run an online store, you could do worse than to start by watching this 60 second video on how to track ecommerce with Google Analytics!

3. Build a Stable of Great Products

(source: coolmikeol)

As advertising costs continue to soar, it becomes increasingly difficult to make a profit on your very first sale. This underscores how important it is to sell more things to the same customers over time. This creates a functioning cycle of more profit, which leads to more funds available for advertising, which leads to more profit.

Conversely, if you only have a single $50 product for sale, it might be very hard to continue to profit as you expand your efforts from PPC to inbound marketing and beyond. But by creating a stable of products that build on each other and can be sold to the same customers to increase the profitability of bringing them into the funnel, you can survive the stormy seas of rising ad costs.

4. Refine Your USP

Many businesses are afraid to repel certain parts of the market. They shy away from bold, polarizing messages because they are worried that they might lose potential customers that aren’t necessarily in their exact narrow market space. Paradoxically though, by keeping your unique selling proposition (USP) tame and vague, you are missing out on the opportunity to completely blow away those in your target market and might be missing out on untold numbers of sales that could be made through total ownership of that space.

Find out the biggest benefit that your business is specially designed to serve and focus on reaching that market specifically. For some thought exercises to help you better define your USP, consult this quick guide from author David Airey.

5. Make This The Year Of The Test

Experimenting with what works can be a scary proposition. “What if I break it?” is a common fear, especially when you’re talking about something like your headline, or the sequence of your follow up emails. However this flawed logic is the same that keeps people from asking out the love of their lives, or switching up their work out routine in the gym. If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.

A better approach is to make calculated experiments to the aspects of your sales funnel that could produce the biggest gains. Try split testing your offer page across several different variables:

Headline
Sales copy
Navigation design
Color scheme
Call to action

You can try out services such as Optimizely and Visual Website Optimizer, which are designed to make testing easy and effective for you.

Remember, if your experiments are a success your sales funnel will be better for it. If they are not, you can always revert the website back later. For a complete guide to user testing including speicific ideas and strategies you can begin rolling out today, check out the book Don’t Make Me Think by author Steve Krug.

Always Be Improving

There is a common theme running through these five separate resolutions: always be measuring and improving. Whether you’re taking feedback from your customers, performing behavioral testing on your landing page, or refining your sales letter, your key to success in 2013 (and every year for that matter) should be to stay hungry. Once you decide that your funnel is “good enough” and stop thinking of small ways to improve it, you set a cap on how great your company can be.

Image credit: Hiddedevries, Marius B, Dphiffer, Milosz1

Candy Tips – How to Write Great Emails Asking for Referrals!

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Alvinl

Merry Christmas in advance! It’s time for another Candy Tip, this time on how to write emails asking for referrals that work. Most marketing and sales folk know that word of mouth is a powerful tool to generate new sales, and that the old adage goes ”If you don’t ask, you won’t get.” That’s why it makes sense for salepeople to ask for a referral if they have just made a successful sale of say a lawn mower, property or car.

In the new economy of the Internet and eCommerce, online stores can also ask for a referral from a customer immediately after a sale. That’s what ReferralCandy does with an automated email to your customers. Assuming they like your product (and a good product always comes first), they’ll be happy to share it with friends that might want it too. But what to say in the email? Here are some tips and best practices that we’ve found through our interactions with numerous online retailers who are our clients.

Candy Tip #1 – Keep Emails Short and Sweet

So your customer has just bought that hot new item from your shop and is happy and excited by their purchase. She opens an email from you, only to find that it’s a long and winding road without a clear call to action which tells her what you would like her to do. So she quickly closes the email, moves on, and the opportunity is lost.

While there are certain cases where long and complex emails are better (e.g. you are telling a great story and building it up slowly), in general, you want to keep your emails asking for referrals short and sweet. Thank the customer for their purchase, and be clear in your call to action. Of course, you are free to add a bit of spice and colour in your email to suit your brand. Just not too much!

For example, in the sample email below, we’ve kept the email short and made a simple call to action “forward this coupon link” in a prominent colour and position at the bottom of the email.

Keep your emails short and sweet with a clear call to action.

Candy Tip #2 – It’s All About the Customer, so use “You” more than “I”

A simple rule in marketing is to demonstrate value to the customer. In other words, it should be about “You”, not “I”, “Me” or “We”. Demonstrate how your customer can benefit (e.g. get $10 cash!). As a general rule, if your email contains the words “I” or “we” more than the words “you” or “your”, you might want to look closely at rewording it!

Put yourself in the shoes of the customer. If you were reading your email as a customer, would you like what you are reading?

Candy Tip #3 – Have your Email Design Suit your Brand.

If it’s at all possible, you should use emails designs and text that suit your store’s character. What colours, fonts and designs best fit the message and image of your brand?

For ReferralCandy users, you can find out how to customize the design for your email based on our templates at the FAQ page below:

http://help.referralcandy.com/customer/portal/articles/792987-can-the-design-for-referral-emails-be-changed-

Bonus Tip – Be Specific in what you Ask for

Finally, here’s an advanced tip that requires a bit of creativity and judgement. Referrals are often more effective if you are making a specific ask. For instance, instead of asking

“Do you know anyone who wants these nutrition supplements?”

You can ask,

“Brad, can you think of 3 friends who would want to get ripped with these awesome Bion-X supplements? Forward this coupon to them today!”

We think the second sentence would definitely be more persuasive as it is asking the reader to think of 3 specific friends who want to get a “ripped” physique. So long as the email is well-crafted and creative, it should lead to better conversions.

So that’s it for this week’s Candy Tips. Oh by the way, can you think of two friends who want to get more word of mouth sales online through referrals? Might want to forward them this article.

5 Ways to Establish Your Own Brand as an E-commerce Retailer

Posted on December 18, 2012 by Alvinl

Internet retail continues to up the competition factor among similar brands. Department stores like Belk and Macy’s compete with a range of retailers, from Walmart to Nordstrom to each other. Shoppers visit their local electronics store to browse and then turn to their smartphones to compare prices on sites like Amazon and eBay. An increase in competition is forcing both E-commerce and brick-and-mortar retailers to quickly adapt to the ever-changing landscape — as it changes, they must find a way to differentiate themselves.

As an Internet retailer, one of the best ways to stand out among the competition is to establish your own unique brand. This can be especially tricky if you retail other brands, as most consumers will comparison shop and make a final decision that’s largely based on price. If you’re not competitively priced, then you better have something truly different to offer that keeps them from “bouncing” away to find what they need somewhere else. That difference is defined in your brand. Here are 5 ways to establish your brand as an E-commerce retailer.

Engage.

Engaging your customers is key in a competitive landscape. The easiest way to engage people these days is through social media. We will just go ahead and assume that your brand has a Facebook page (but if you don’t, then stop reading now and go create one!) Over-promotion is one of the biggest mistakes I see among brands on social networks today. Don’t talk about yourself too much. Yes, it’s okay to promote special offers and deals as they occur, but true social engagement is about relationship building.

Talk to your fans and followers. Ask them questions that encourage responses. The more specific you get, the better. According to an article on Mashable.com, questions, famous quotes, photos and tips are all types of posts that tend to get more responses/likes/comments. Here are some other examples of posts may that elicit responses from followers:

“Like / Share this post if…”

“What’s your favorite…?”

“Fill in the blank: _____…”

Try this strategy for a few months and you’ll probably see more customer engagement than you’ve seen previously.

Some brands are finding other creative ways to engage customers outside the social networking space. Threadless has an engaging experience built right into its brand. Everything the site sells is made by ordinary people. Artists submit designs to one of the company’s design challenges. The community then gets to rate and critique the submissions for inclusion in the Threadless store. The more votes a particular design receives, the more likely it is that you’ll see it on Threadless apparel, accessories or home goods for purchase.

Do Something Different.

TOMS Shoes did something different when they pioneered the “one-to-one” charity concept. This concept is built right into the essence of their brand. For every pair of shoes you purchase on the TOMS Shoes website, the company donates another pair to a child in need. This idea was so unique that many other brands have since decided to jump on board. (In fact, Skechers created a carbon copy of the concept in their BOBS shoe brand!)

Warby Parker embraced the one-to-one concept with eyeglasses. But they didn’t stop there. They went a step further to establish their brand in a unique way by giving consumers a new way to shop for eyewear. Realizing that most people would not feel comfortable buying glasses online, the company developed several different try-on systems that would enable customers to try before buying. The first is a virtual try-on software built into every product page that lets website visitors upload a picture of themselves and see what any pair of glasses will look like on their face. The customer can then choose to do a home try-on: Warby Parker will ship up to 5 pairs of glasses to them at no cost and allow them to try each pair for 5 days. They even include a pre-paid return shipping label so that you can send back the pairs you don’t like and keep the pairs you love. This creates an especially unique and reassuring experience for buyers who may be hesitant to shop for eyewear online.

Have A Unique Voice

Your voice is established largely in your copywriting. Develop a brand “persona” and keep that persona in mind when you communicate with your visitors.

One great place to do that is in your company product descriptions. Once you know your brand persona, write from that persona’s point of view. You can also approach it from an audience mindset. If your target market is mostly women in a certain demographic, write to that target market.

A great example of a company that uses creative copy to establish a unique brand voice and tell a story is The J. Peterman Company. Every one of their product descriptions tells an entertaining story that gives the product a history and unique personality. If you can relate to the story, then you’re more likely to buy the product.

Become an Authority.

Consumers need to be educated. They shop online, not just for competitive prices, but to find information about the goods they are buying. Integrate that information into your customer’s user experience. One of the easiest ways to do this is through a company blog. You can also create buying guides, or — as in the case of the men’s fashion retailer, Mr. Porter — a “stylepedia” of product terms.

Offer Something Exclusive.

According to an article in The New York Times, many retailers are choosing to carry exclusive lines to stand out. As a brick-and-mortar store, carrying exclusive brands puts you ahead of your competitors, especially for those brands you carry. As an E-commerce retailer, the offer becomes even more exclusive: “not only can you not buy this item in another store; because it is only sold online, you must shop our site to get it.” In addition to offering exclusive brands, you may choose to offer online-only coupons. This works especially well if you have brick-and-mortar locations, because it forces customers to shop your online inventory in order to get the deal.

Some online retailers also use an exclusive members-only shopping model. Sites like Gilt Groupe, Rue La La and Fab.com offer exceptional deals on luxury brands. The catch? You must first be a member to shop. Gilt Groupe even requires that to become a member, you must be invited by someone who is already a member, making the experience even more exclusive.

As we’ve demonstrated, there are several ways to make yourself stand out above the competition as an E-commerce retailer: engage, be different, have a unique voice, be an authority in your niche and offer something exclusive to online customers. The first step in all of this is to figure out who you are. Define your brand, and then decide what makes you different. Once you embrace those differences, come up with innovative ways to engage your customers by creating a truly unique online experience.

Candy Tips: 2 Simple Steps to Get More Referrals for Your Refer-a-Friend Program

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Alvinl

Here at ReferralCandy, we’re often asked about how online retailers can improve their referral programs to get more sales. In response to these questions, we’re starting a series of “Candy Tips” to help you make better use of word of mouth marketing. To start with, here are 2 Candy Tips to get more participants making referrals from your refer-a-friend program.

Tip No 1: Include a link on your homepage to your referral program.

One of the simple things that we have found often works in getting more referrals is to include a link to your referral program from your homepage, where customers and other visitors to your website can easily spread the word about your product through emails, Facebook and Twitter and get rewarded. For example, 525 Boutique, a contemporary fashion store and ReferralCandy retailer, places a prominent link on their homepage to their referral program. If you’re a ReferralCandy retailer, find out more about how you can help your customers access their personal Referral Corner from your homepage.
Continue reading →

What’s your Facebook Engagement Factor?

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Alvinl

One of the great ways to reach out to your audience and position your brand is through Facebook, and our last post on the Top 10 “Most Liked” Online Retailers on Facebook got a great response.

While researching for that piece though, we stumbled upon a far more interesting phenomenon. As you may know, in addition to “likes”, there is a “people talking about this” metric on Facebook, which is basically the number of unique users commenting, liking or sharing your wall posts over the last 7 days. The metric also includes “viral shares” – whenever fans share a page’s post, any subsequent likes, comments, or re-shares will be counted towards a page’s “talking about this” number as well. (To find out more about the “talking about this” metric, check out this great explanation here.)

Introducing: Facebook Engagement Factor (F.E.F.)

After too many rounds of caffeine-fueled discussion, we decided that the ratio of the “talking about this” number to the number of “likes” was a pretty good measure of the overall level of engagement on your Facebook page. Think of it this way: the number of likes is a baseline measure of how many people have come across your Facebook page and found it useful or liked it, whereas the “talking about this” page gives you an idea of how many people are actively commenting on and liking your posts.

Hence the number of “talking about” divided by the number of “likes” is a good indicator of what proportion of your users are actively engaged on your page. After some research online, we found that variants of this metric had actually been talked about (hey great minds think alike!). For instance, it had been used to calculate the Facebook engagement levels of casinos in Las Vegas.

We called this metric the Facebook Engagement Factor, and here’s how we calculate it (Note – because this ratio of “talking about” to “likes” is usually small, we multiply it by 100 for more intuitive comparisons):

Facebook Engagement Factor (F.E.F.)

= (Number Talking About This / Number of Likes) x 100

Let’s take the example of everybody’s favourite teen singer, Justin Bieber. Justin had about 2 million screaming teenage girls and their mums talking about him over the last 7 days. Divide this by his 46.9m likes on Facebook, multiply it by 100, and you get a Facebook Engagement Factor of 4. Now this number doesn’t seem like much, but it’s still way better than his girlfriend Selena Gomez (0.9) and another teen pop sensation Miley Cyrus (0.6). (Note that this works only for pages of celebrities, companies and the like, and not your personal profile, which doesn’t have the “talking about this” metric.)


Justin Bieber’s Facebook page: high popularity, middling engagement

What the Facebook Engagement Factor Means for Your Brand

If you’re a company selling a product, the first thing you want to look at on Facebook is probably the number of likes on your Facebook page, which is a decent proxy for how popular you are overall on Facebook. However, the F.E.F. is a proxy of how (for want of a better word) fanatical your online followers are, and how much of a viral reach you have with your posts. This could translate into a stronger brand for you and more loyal paying customers, although the jury is still out on this one.

So who does well on this metric? Amongst the giant brands with more than 10m views on Facebook such as Converse (33.3m likes), Walmart (23m likes) and Victoria’s Secret (19,9m), none of them do particularly well. Converse, despite it’s massive popularity on Facebook, has a surprisingly low F.E.F. of 0.6, Walmart does slightly better than Justin at 6, and Victoria’s Secret does okay at 1.6. Bear in mind of course that the F.E.F. changes with time depending on how many users are talking about your brand in the past 7 days.

We got curious as to how our Top 10 Online Retailers on Facebook did on the Facebook Engagement Factor. Here are the results:

Facebook Engagement Factor of Top 10 Most Liked Online Retailers

10. Infibeam (942k likes, F.E.F. = 0.6)

9. Flipkart.com (1.1m likes, F.E.F. = 0.9)

8. NewEgg.com (1.1m likes, F.E.F. = 1.2)

7. Fashionandyou.com (1.1m likes, F.E.F. = 1.3)

6. Worldsoccershop.com (1.4m likes, F.E.F. = 0.8)

5. Yepme.com (1.4m likes, F.E.F. = 6)

4. Eastbay.com (1.5m likes, F.E.F. = 2)

3. Peixe Urbano (1.7m likes F.E.F. = 6)

2.Shoedazzle (2m likes, F.E.F. = 4)

1. Amazon.com (13.5m likes F.E.F. = 1)

As you can see, there is no clear correlation between what number of Facebook likes and your Facebook Engagement Factor. You might have the most number of Facebook likes, but if your engagement factor is low, it’s time to rethink whether those are truly engaged fans posting on your Facebook page.

So how do you increase the Facebook Engagement Factor?

So what affects the F.E.F. you ask? The geeks here at ReferralCandy crawled the web for the online stores with the highest F.E.F. (as well as more than 100k likes) and found out what makes them tick.

The winner? An Indian Online T-Shirt Retailer Bewakoof, which specialises in what looks like funky t-shirts with cool slogans for the Indian hipster market. Their Facebook page uses a tried and tested formula of posting once every few hours or even minutes, which leads to an incredibly high engagement factor, probably from viral shares by their loyal clientele. Their F.E.F. hovers at around 180(!), which is tremendous, given that Justin Bieber averages about a 4. This is possibly also because the nature of the posts (jokes and lolcats) lends itself easily to reposts and viral shares.

Let’s look at another online retailer, SuperheroStuff.com, with an F.E.F. of 29 (137k likes, 40k talking about). Their secret sauce? Again, lots of posts, as well as funny and cool stuff like the picture of Darth Vader below.


Funny stuff gets liked a lot!

Of course, some may ask whether an increase in the number of likes on your page will decrease your F.E.F. Theoretically, this wouldn’t happen as the number of people “talking about this” should increase proportionately. However, there is a possibility that websites with a large number of likes (think Justin Bieber with 46 million) may lower your Engagement Factor, possibly because the followers tend to be more casual, rather than deeply interested in a community (for instance thinkgeek, an online store selling geeky toys for overgrown boys).

What’s Your F.E.F.?

Whether you’re a small business or a huge celebrity with a page on Facebook, we think it’s useful to check out your F.E.F. to get a sense of your engagement levels and whether you should be posting more on your page. Of course, you should take this and any other metric with a pinch of salt and measure it along with other considerations such as how much social media actually helps your brand and your sales.

Here at ReferralCandy, we have a Justin Bieber Rule of Facebook Engagement. That is, our F.E.F. has to be higher than Justin Bieber. Thankfully, our Facebook Engagement Factor of 5 is just above that of JB at 4. Take that, Baby!

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Alvinl is the marketing guy at www.ReferralCandy.com, the refer-a-friend app that increases your sales through word of mouth. In his spare time he loves geeking out on technology, psychology and economics news.

Image Credit: Birgerking

The Top 10 Most Popular Online Retailers on Facebook

Posted on September 20, 2012 by Alvinl

Have you ever been to a rival online retailer’s website and and wondered how they got so many likes on Facebook? Have you ever wondered which online store owns the most popular Facebook page? Have you ever wondered why your high school crush never liked your Facebook cover photo back?

Well, the geeks here at ReferralCandy actually went to some lengths to find out, and then got me to write about it. First, we collated all the websites on Alexa that were online retailers (we took out those companies that had physical stores, so Victoria’s Secret sadly doesn’t count). Then, we crawled their webpages to find out where their Facebook pages were, and how many likes were on each Facebook page. Finally, we picked out the top 10, and checked out their pages in detail to see how the heck they got a million likes or more (and we did all this while delivering a smoother refer-a-friend web-app for your online store).

It was a lot of work, but it was also a good excuse to procrastinate with some e-window shopping at work. So without further ado, here’s the Top 10 most popular e-retailers on Facebook, as voted in by the mouse-clicking masses.

10. InfiBeam (937k likes)

We kick off the list at number 10 with the popular Indian e-commerce site InfiBeam, which sells everything from computers to flowers. Their Facebook page is full of pithy and earnest sayings, like this one above from Charlie Chaplin. I think it’s sweet, and their customers like it too, apparently.

9. Flipkart.com (1.09m likes)

Flipkart.com founder Binny Bansal tells a great story about how he started the Indian online bookseller from a two-bedroom apartment with his brother in 2007. In a recent interview, he says that every day, one of them would go on a bike to buy books and make their own catalogue. ” We would sit down on the floor and make the packages to give to the courier agencies for shipment.” It’s since come a long way from it’s humble beginnings and now sells music, movies, games, cameras, etc. It’s been likened to India’s Amazon, but with cash-on-delivery and other innovations tailored for the Indian e-commerce market.

Their Facebook page goes by simple themes (this month’s theme is “technology” and last month’s was “rain”). We also really like their use of infographics that their customers can relate to, like this one on the A-Z of Indian cuisine.

8. Newegg.com (1.09m likes)

The guys at newegg.com sell a wide range of electronics, as well as some geeky-techy eenie-meenie stuff, like this TV Universal Remote Control Keychain, in case, you know, you needed to switch channels while on the go. They’ve got a great Facebook page which asks some quirky questions such as “Do you consider your computer a male, female or just an object?”. Well, more than 1400 people responded to that. Some sample answers. “Don’t know, I respect it’s privacy” or “It’s female. Her name is Cortana.” and so on. Clever and conversational content that resonates with the right audience, that’s why Newegg.com comes in at Number 8 (beating out Flipkart by about 500 votes, this one was closer than close).

7. Fashionandyou.com (1.12m likes)

Fashionandyou.com is a leading Indian fashion site that specializes in 3 day deals for site members on clothing and accessories. While their Facebook page is not exactly groundbreaking stuff (nice pictures of nice ladies in nice clothes), their social refer-a-friend programme and deep discounting has helped to generate over 3.6 million members via social media channels. Hey, referrals rock!

6. Worldsoccershop.com (1.35m likes)

It’s no wonder that the beautiful game is in the top 10 list of most popular online stores on facebook. Started by a failed soccer player from Brixton, England in 2001, Worldsoccershop.com has turned into something of a behemoth in online sales of replica team jerseys, boots and all other kinds of soccer paraphernalia. According to their website, they ordered 200,000 balls for the FIFA 2010 World Cup alone (up from 20 for the 2002 World Cup). That’s a lot of balls, Mr Anderson!

Their Facebook page is pretty straightforward, with droolworthy pics of the latest boots and replica jerseys on sale. But when your clientele is made up of the world’s testosterone laden young men playing the world’s most popular sport, you’re bound to get a few likes!

5. Yepme.com (1.36m likes)

Having started just two short years ago, Yepme is an India based online retailer specializing in private-label mens’ and women’s clothing for the 2nd and 3rd tier cities in India, where designer labels fear to thread. An aggressive social media and viral tv campaign (see the funny youtube clip above) has seen Yepme reach more than 1.3million likes on Facebook. Who’s gonna be watching this up and coming brand closely? Yep me.

4. EastBay (1.46m likes)

Americans are fanatical about sports, and EastBay is one of the leading online retailers of sportswear from football to cheerleading. Like worldsoccershop.com, their Facebook page seems to follow a tried and tested formula by posting snazzy pictures of sportswear and sportsmen (be like Mike, anyone?), and asking their scores of customers to comment on which ones they like best. It’s kinda like sports porn. And 1.4m people are addicted to it.

3. Peixe Urbano (1.59m likes)

Coming in at No. 3 is the only Brazilian online retailer on our list. Peixe Urbano (which means urban fish in Portuguese – yay Google Translate!) was founded in 2009 as a group buying site for local products and services, and is today present in major Brazilian cities as well Argentina, Mexico and Chile. With more than 16 million users and an expanding Latin American market in ecommerce, this is one site to watch.

2. ShoeDazzle (1.99m likes)

And the first runner-up of our inaugural online store facebook popularity contest? It’s none other than ShoeDazzle, a online Ladies’ shoe store with a personal stylist function thrown in based on customer preferences. We like their website for its sleek look set against a minimal white background, and their Facebook page is chock-full of item promotions and fun polls, interspersed with other social media like Twitter and Pinterest.

Infamous shoe fan and wife-of-a-dictator Imelda Marcos once said “I did not have three thousand pairs of shoes, I had one thousand and sixty”. Personally, I believe that you only ever need two pairs of shoes, one for work and one for playing soccer (see item 6 above). Unless you’re a soccer player of course. But hey, it seems that 2m rabid ShoeDazzle fans on Facebook beg to differ.

1. Amazon.com (12m likes!)

And the one Facebook page to rule them all? You guessed it, it’s none other than Amazon.com, and they tower over the market with a whopping 12m likes. That’s 5m more than Mitt Romney! Amazon’s Facebook page keeps things interesting by asking viewers to comment on their favourite singers, movies, games, gadgets etc. It also touches on key product launches and the human stories behind them – its post on the re-launch of the Furby asked customers to relate the longest time they’ve waited in line for a hot toy (and got 1700 comments). But mostly their Facebook page got a lot of likes by being, well, Amazon.

How to get more likes on your Facebook page

So, after a few days of Facebooking, what have we learnt from the most popular online retailers on Facebook? While it’s clear that how big your Facebook following is necessarily a function of how many customers you have, there’s a lot of things we can learn from the top 10 nevertheless. Here are three tips we picked up from the best in the business.

Know who your customers are

The best Facebook pages for B2C businesses understand their target demographic. Newegg.com targeted their geeky clientele by asking them a whimsical question about what gender their computers were. Flipkart.com reached out to their Indian mass market with infographics that they could relate to, such as this one about cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar. The best content speaks to the heart of your loyal Facebook friends, who will spread the word in turn.

Let your audience do the talking

Many of the top 10 online retailers on our list use interactive activities to get the audience involved. For instance, ShoeDazzle is a master of this with online polls and contests such as this one on the winning look for the Emmy Awards, with the winning items getting a discount on their store. Getting your Facebook community involved in commenting, voting and posting gives them a sense of ownershop of the Facebook page, as well as your brand.

Post. Alot.

Most of the Top 10 on our list post on a daily basis, some multiple times a day. Keeping things fresh with a joke or the latest product update helps keep your Facebook following coming back for more, and adds a sense of vibrance and activity to your page.

Which Top 10 List do you want to see next?

So from India to Brazil to the US, from Football to Furbies, that’s our roundup of the most liked online retailers on Facebook from around the globe, as well as what makes them likeable. We hope this helps you understand better what works on Facebook for your online store.

Got a top 10 list you want to see on the ReferralCandy blog? Let us know below. Till next time.

Image credit: Sean MacEntee

Writing Persuasive Messages: Tips from a Nobel Laureate

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Alvinl

It’s not everyday that you get tips on messaging and marketing from a Nobel Laureate. But that is exactly what Nobel Prize Winner in Economics Daniel Kahneman does in his recent bestseller Thinking Fast and Slow. Much of his book centres on the two Systems in our brain – The first system, simply called System 1, intuitively processes information and is quick to make decisions (think driving a car), while the second system, System 2, makes deliberate and considered choices (think taking a math test).

Kahneman tells us that if you have a well thought out message that you want others to believe, it’s not just what the message is that matters, but how you say it. In general, if you engage the intuitive and automatic part of our brain (System 1), the message is more likely to be believed quickly. And the psychology lab experiments bear this out.

We’ve distilled the three best tips that Kahneman dishes out on writing persuasive messages based on the science, and summarized them into a mnemonic. So here it is, The ReferralCandy S.M.L. Rule for Persuasive Messaging.

Tip No 1: Make it Simple

Many students believe that writing in complex language and with bombastic words will lead to better marks from Professors. Kahneman details how Princeton Professor Danny Oppenheimer refutes this myth with his brilliant paper Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly.

Oppenheimer gave undergraduates at Stanford sample essays to read. But some of these essays had deliberately been made more complex with longer words. The result? increasing the complexity of a text made the students judge the authors to be less, not more intelligent.

So if you have something important to say during that business presentation or marketing blurb, keep it simple and concise. It’s the smart thing to do.

Tip No. 2: Make It Memorable

Besides keeping it simple, Kahneman recommends that you make your message memorable with rhymes. He cites an experiment where participants read unfamiliar but rhyming sayings such as:

Woes unite foes.

A fault confessed is half redressed.

Other students read some of the sayings, but with non-rhyming versions:

Woes unite enemies

A fault admitted is half redressed.

You guessed it. Readers judged that the sayings which rhymed were more insightful than those which did not, though they were equally unfamiliar. No wonder Celine Dion songs always rhyme!

Tip No. 3: Make It Legible

Which of these statements is true:

Adolf Hitler was born in 1887.

Adolf Hitler was born in 1892.

If you are anything like most people, you would have chosen the second answer. But the right answer is neither (the evil dictator was born in 1889). The idea is that the more your message stands out from the background, the more believable it is, other things being equal.

So the next time you’re designing a website or writing advertising copy, use bold fonts, and maximize the contrast between characters and their background to make the message more legible and clear. Kahneman also advises that if you use colour, use bright blue or red as they are more believable than lighter shades of say green, yellow and pale blue.

It’s All About Cognitive Ease

It’s all about what Kahneman calls cognitive ease. The human brain likes to believe what is familiar and easy to process. So the next time you need to get your point across, use our very own S.M.L Rule of Thumb. Keep it Simple, Memorable, and Legible. Hey, that rhymes!

Photo Credit: Osborneb

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