DALLAS -- For retailers with web pages that do little to enhance consumer appeal or stir loyalty, Eric Pratt's message is clear: Click the help button.
Emphasizing how retailers' web pages give a lasting impression on an increasingly mobile consumer base, Pratt, managing partner, Revenue River Marketing, Littleton, Colo., suggested a multi-pronged approach to branding and marketing online, one involving a user-friendly website, social-media activity and articles published in blogs.
Speaking before about 500 attendees at CSP's annual Convenience Retailing University conference (CRU) in Dallas, Pratt said today's online marketing is about letting people discover a business through their own online searches, queries and exploration of personal interests.
"It's not about pushing a message out, it's about 'pull' marketing," Pratt said. "It's cross pollination."
Describing a diagram where a retailer's home page was at its center, Pratt said multiple entry points will lead an online consumer to an operator's store, including social media, articles appearing in blogs that retailers can often influence or start themselves and what's known as search-engine optimization (SEO)--efforts done to allow a retailer's name to appear as high as possible on the list of results when a person does an online search.
Later, Pratt led a workshop on the topic where retailer Kevin Giles, marketing director for Western Convenience Stores Inc., a Centennial, Colo.-based chain of 43 stores, spoke about his experiences in upgrading his company's web presence.
Giles said from the start, the home page had a photo of a station with no cars on its forecourt, unresponsive click buttons and awkward requests for information (with one box telling readers they had to keep their responses to 800 words, which seemed irrelevant).
The initial evaluation also found that the first result in a search of their name brought up a seven-year-old article--one about a local TV investigation alleging that Western convenience stores sold improperly blended fuel.
"It's also about brand reputation," Pratt said, telling the audience that Giles' efforts at posting more articles about the company has since pushed that negative result down in any new search.
As a result of the online review, the chain revamped its website, creating areas that encouraged viewers to provide information and giving Western Convenience the permission to market to them.
These first steps proved helpful in a couple of promotions the company recently ran. With a $20 gas-card offer, the chain received a 78.8% conversion rate relative to traffic count, and with a $100 Visa gift-card promotion, it was 62%. In the gas card, 37.6% were new contacts and with the gift card, the new-contact rate was 43.8%.
Calling these steps the beginning of a longer process, Pratt said retailers have to view their online image as part of offering convenience. "People want to go on their phones and find out everything," he said. "It's a convenient world."
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