Colorado Web Solutions

Should you add Cascading Menu’s to your Yahoo Store?

Posted on June 29th, 2010 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

At Colorado Web Solutions, one of our most sought after add-on features for Yahoo! Stores is the Cascading Menu’s RTML enhancement. While expanding category navigation features can be nice and in some cases a must-have for client’s sites – not all stores need or should have them.

Cascading Menu’s or Navigation Drop-down Menu’s essentially allow customers to drill deep within a site’s category structure simply by hovering over a main category on the navigation. The Cascading Menu then reveals what’s “underneath” that category without the customer manually clicking through. As the category list expands the customer can click on any of the exposed links which will take them directly to that page. (look at the navigation on the Colorado Web Solutions site for an example)

The ideal Yahoo store candidate for Cascading Menu’s would be a store that is high in product selection, having deep category/sub-category structures. While there are arguments to be made for having customers click through sub-category pages, esecially if you have an extensive product line, generally the less number of clicks to get to a Product Detail page, the better chance your site will have for capturing the conversion.

An important consideration when choosing to have Cascading Menu’s or not – is whether or not your product line will be intuitively recognizable to your customers or if they’ll need detailed information on a category level which will help steer them to the correct product. For example – let’s say your Yahoo store is offering complex or technically challenging products which aren’t easily understood by the average customer. If that is your case, you might consider forgoing Cascading Menus and instead focus on detailed category page descriptions which if clicked through in succession from the homepage end up “informing” the customer as they move through the sub-category structure. The category page descriptions in essence can help the customer make an informed purchase and help drive the customer to the correct detail page.

For most clients however their product lines aren’t nearly so complex and customers will already know what category/product they’re looking for, or at least have a general idea. In that case, having expanding menus will make their search for the right product that much faster – and effective. If your store has over 100 products or at least one level of hierarchical categories underneath your top level categories, then considering this add-on feature would be highly recommended.

If you would like to see a few examples of Yahoo! Merchant Solutions Stores with Cascading Menu’s installed, here are a few to enjoy:

Left Side Navigation Examples:
http://diethighprotein.com/
http://alarmresource.com/
http://store.organicdivas.com/

Top Navigation Examples:
http://www.candlesandsuch.com/
http://www.popdeluxe.net/
http://www.coffeecakes.com

If you would like to learn more about our Cascading Menu’s for Yahoo Stores, please visit:
http://www.coloradowebsolutions.com/rtml-cascading-menus.html

Have a great week everyone.

Matt Sampson | CEO | Colorado Web Solutions
http//www.ColoradoWebSolutions.com

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How to Import Yahoo Store Customers to Constant Contact

Posted on June 25th, 2010 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

The majority of our clients are using the Constant Contact email service for their stores, and one of the most common questions we receive is “How do I import my Yahoo Store Customers into Constant Contact?” It’s a great question, and one that we would love to answer for you.

First of all, something to consider – I highly suggest that you keep your paying customers and your email list members in individual groups. For example, I would suggest a GLOBAL mailing list for everyone that is on ANY of your mailing lists and then I would suggest adding a new mailing list called “Yahoo Store Customers” or something like that to import your paying customer info into. These customers are extremely important to you and should be kept in their own list as well as in the global list.

We have created an online video training tutorial about how to import your Yahoo Store customers into Constant Contact as well if you would prefer to watch and listen vs read these simple instructions. The written instructions are directly below the video presentation. Here is the training video on how to import your Yahoo Store Customer Data into your Constant Contact Account:

VIDEO: How to Import from Yahoo Store to Constant Contact

In order to perform these steps you will need to be able to log into your Yahoo Store and your Constant Contact Account. If you need to sign up for a Constant Contact account, please click here to start your free trial (will open in new window) and then you can come back here to import your customer data.

Step One: Exporting your Yahoo! Store’s Customer Data

• Log Into your Yahoo! Store’s Manager Section and click the ORDERS button
• In the SUMMARIZE section, enter the order number range you would like to export. It is not a problem at all to export customers that have already been imported to Constant Contact so you can export all of your orders, or, if you are keeping track, you can export the next batch of orders you want to export. Larger batches will take a little longer for Constant Contact to process, but it’s not a big deal at all.
• Once you’ve entered the order number range, click SUMMARIZE
• On the next page you will see a summary of the orders. At the very bottom of this page click EXPORT TO EXCEL.
• The next page will give you a list of downloads, please select the DOWNLOAD link next to ORDERS.csv.
• This will prompt you to save the file, I would suggest your desktop or someplace easy for you to find it.
• The export process is now complete.

Step Two: Editing the Data for Import

• This step is optional, but we highly suggest doing it to save time in the end.
• Open the file you just exported in either Excel, Numbers or even Google Docs.
• I’m going to suggest that you delete a bunch of the columns in the file so that you don’t have to tell Constant Contact to ignore all the unused columns. While this is not a required step, we do suggest that you edit your file to same enormous amounts of time while importing.
• Once the file is opened, delete the first few columns (order ID, Date, Numeric Time) so that your file’s first column is Ship Name. Continue to delete columns so that you are left with only Ship Name, Ship State, Ship Country and Email. Be sure to continue to scroll to the right of the spreadsheet, there are a lot of fields.
• Once you only have the few remaining fields, you can save the file (override the original) and close the window.
• The Editing Phase is now complete.

Step Three: Importing Into Constant Contact

• Now that we have the edited file ready to go, log into your Constant Contact Account (link).
• From the home page, click on CONTACTS in the top navigation bar.
• On the Contacts screen, click Add / Import under My Contacts
• The first screen will ask you to select the List(s) you would like to add your contacts to. If you have not yet set up any lists, you will see one list (General Interest) as the only option. As I mentioned before, I would highly suggest keeping a second list with only your Yahoo Store Customers on it, so let’s create a second list.
• If you want to create a new list, click CREATE A NEW LIST
• Enter the new Lists Name (for example: Yahoo Store Customers) and click SAVE
• You now see that your new list is check marked for you. If you would like to add these names to additional steps either check the lists you want to use or create additional lists.
• Once your Lists are selected, click NEXT
• On the “How would you like to add your list” page, select IMPORT CONTACTS FROM A FILE and click NEXT
• On the next screen, click BROWSE and find the file you downloaded and/or edited in excel. It might be called Orders.csv if you didn’t change it.
• Click SUBMIT DATA
• You may see a few warnings and confirmations. Read through those and accept terms, etc.
• The next screen will present you with a selection of your data and ask you to map it to the Constant Contact fields. This is the part that makes you glad you edited the file in excel before importing…
• You will see a drop down menu above each column asking you to either “Select Label” or guessing for you. Select the correct items for Name (we suggest using First Name since Constant Contact does not support Full name), State and Country. Email may already be detected for you, but if not, be sure to specify the email column as well.
• Once you have mapped your fields, click START IMPORT
• The entire process is now complete.

We go into more details and explanations as to “why” on the video if you would like to get some more information. The steps are exactly the same as above. If you have any questions about this process, let us know.

We have a Free Constant Contact Templates Program as well! If you are interested in learning more, please visit:
http://www.coloradowebsolutions.com/contact-email-free-template.html

We offer a number of additional Constant Contact services that are described in detail on our website at:

http://www.coloradowebsolutions.com/yahoo-store-email-marketing.html

Have a great day everyone.

Matt Sampson | CEO | Colorado Web Solutions
http//www.ColoradoWebSolutions.com

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Thoughts on Yahoo Store Automatic Order Processing

Posted on June 24th, 2010 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

Lately we’ve had a few clients interested in Yahoo’s automatic ordering processing. Each client has expressed concern that reviewing each order will end up being very time consuming. In all but one case we convinced the client that manual order review is the better way to go.

Yahoo does have the ability allow for automatic order processing. On the surface this seems like a no-brainer as this feature would dramatically cut down on the time spent managing your site. However on closer inspection, manually reviewing each order is time well spent.

The biggest drawback to auto-processing is the increased likelihood of receiving fraudulent orders. If you chose to use auto-processing, Yahoo’s Risk Tools can’t be applied. The Risk Tools module is invaluable as it will allow you to configure various rules which will verify AVS and CVV rules for each transaction. Sure, you’ll need to review each order manually as a result, however you’ll likely end up saving yourself money and inventory.

For a number of years I ran a fairly successful Yahoo store. We did have Risk Tools enabled and the result was on a weekly basis we stopped fraudulent orders from shipping. The fraudulent orders came in many different formats; some with correct addresses, but incorrect cards. Others would have the correct card and address but the CVV wouldn’t match.

We always had a dedicated customer service representative contact the appropriate bank in all such cases and saved ourselves thousands of dollars as a result. In your case, you might not have a CS representative to do the checking for you, but you’ll be glad when you’ve stopped an order that could cost you hundreds of dollars in lost merchandise.

Matt Sampson | CEO | Colorado Web Solutions
http//www.ColoradoWebSolutions.com

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Use Google Alerts to help understand your Yahoo! Store

Posted on June 22nd, 2010 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

If you’re not using Google Alerts yet – you should be.

Google Alerts is a content monitoring service offered by Google. If you’re a Yahoo store owner – this service can be invaluable for keeping track of your competitors, your site’s performance and any related content that you feel would be helpful in tracking your products and your industry. Track product lines, track your competitions newest pages that have been indexed, and follow your own indexing. If you are actively blogging – Google Alerts can also be a great way to determine how quickly your posts are being picked up by google and indexed. Once you’ve signed up and selected  your various alert matches and preferences, you’ll be notified automatically, once a day or once a week if those terms are served via web content, blogs or video’s.

Currently the following alert types are available:

• Comprehensive
• News
• Web
• Blogs
• Video
• Groups

It’s very easy to sign up. Here’s what you’ll do:

Be sure you are logged into your google account. Head to: http://www.google.com/alerts . You will see a text box where you can enter various terms you’re interested in. You’ll then need to enter in the following:

Search Terms
Type of Alert you Want
When you would like to be Alerted (Daily, Weekly or Automatically)
Your Email Address

To start off with we would suggest the following search:

Search term: YourDomainName.com (change it to your Yahoo Stores domain)
Type: Everything
How Often: As It Happens
Number: Up to you
Email: Up to you

This will provide you with an email every single time google indexes a new page within your site. An invaluable resource to understand and see.

Once you’ve completed those steps you’re finished. You can set up as many alerts as like. Get Creative, you can always delete them if the content isn’t what you were expecting. It’s worth the time and effort to track terms related to your industry. Knowing is half the battle and Google Alerts is a great step in gathering detailed information pertaining directly to your site and products.

Matt Sampson | CEO | Colorado Web Solutions
http//www.ColoradoWebSolutions.com

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Great News for Yahoo! Stores accepting Credit Cards

Posted on April 29th, 2010 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

Hi Everyone!

I am really excited to announce that we just secured record low rates on credit card processing this week for our clients! I know it’s not as exciting as a new feature release for your store, but these new low rates can save you some serious cash instantly! I’m assuming that you are paying somewhere between 2.19% and 2.69% depending on who your processor is. We just negotiated a record low of 2.04% for all of our clients. AND we got them to waive the set up fees, lower the cost per transaction fee and also lower the monthly statement fee’s!

Here’s what we are now able to offer you:

2.04% Fee’s on Credit Card Transactions

$0.24 transaction fees
$8.95 Monthly Statement fees

There has never been a better time to switch your credit card processing than right now.

How do I go about signing up for these low rates?

Signing up for credit card processing is super simple. We’ve got an online form for you that can be found here: http://www.coloradowebsolutions.com/yahoo-store-credit-card-processing.html

Do you already have a decent rate?

Let us run a comparison for you at no charge!

We are so confident that we can lower your monthly costs that our credit card partners have offered to run complimentary cost comparisons for any of our clients based on their current credit card company and our new lower rates. If you would like to take advantage of this free offer, please fill out this form and we will get in touch with you today!

http://www.coloradowebsolutions.com/contact-credit-card-request.html

Is it hard to switch my credit card processing? I’m really busy right now!

Switching credit card processing is an extremely simple process. Once you fill out the application and get approved we will take care of the rest for you. Typically within an hour we can switch your current processor to the new lower cost processor in your store. Nothing technical required at all on your side and your store will not have a moment of down time while we make the switch.

What’s the catch? Seems too good to be true.

There is no catch. That’s the beauty of it all. Our negotiating power has grown over the years as we have turned out hundreds and hundreds of Yahoo! Stores. Our goal is to pass the savings on to you. We know how hard it is to run a small business, we’ve been doing it for over a decade, and we know that cutting fixed costs (like credit card processing) is a huge benefit to businesses of all sizes.

I know this isn’t the most exciting announcement I’ve made this year, but it’s one that can save you a lot of money, so that makes me excited! Take 5 minutes today and look at this offer, it will be worth your time. And don’t forget, if you’d like a free evaluation of your current rates vs our new lower rates, it’s really simple, just fill out this form and we will get in touch with you quickly to go over everything.

Have a great week everyone, we hope you enjoy the new savings!

Matt Sampson | CEO | Colorado Web Solutions
http//www.ColoradoWebSolutions.com

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Colorado Web Solutions launches Yahoo Store Image Peeler

Posted on April 8th, 2010 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

Colorado Web Solutions is pleased to announce the release of our newest service, the Yahoo! Store Image Peeler. If you’d like to read the details of this service, we’ve got it all outlined here.

To give you a quick summary, our Image Peeler service is designed to go into your Yahoo! Store, download every single product image active in your store, rename them with the correct formatting (Item ID Code based for CSV uploads) and then deliver a single zipped file straight to your inbox. The service costs $225 and is typically delivered within 24 business hours.

The Image Peeler is perfect for stores that are switching from Manual Item Additions to a CSV upload, for merchants who want to edit all of their product images in bulk, for store owners who want to keep a backup of all of their product images, for merchants opening a second (or third!) Yahoo! Store and even for merchants looking to expand their store to additional platforms. Any of these scenarios would traditionally require hours and hours of work for merchants, but with the introduction of the Colorado Web Solutions Image Peeler, it’s all automatic and perfect each time. Could be the best $225 you spend on your store this year.

If you have any questions about the Yahoo! Store Image Peeler or if you would like to sign up for an Image Peel, please let us know. We’re here to help.

Have a great Thursday everyone.

Matt Sampson | CEO | Colorado Web Solutions
http//www.ColoradoWebSolutions.com

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Update your Yahoo! Store’s Copyright Date Automatically

Posted on January 6th, 2010 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

It’s that time of year again, the calendars switch to 2010 and we struggle for a few days to remember to write 10 instead of 09 on our checks and other dated materials. Don’t forget an important change you need to make to your Yahoo Store as well… it’s time to update the copyright date in your stores footer.

For most store owners this can easily be accomplished by going to your VARIABLES and looking for the “Copyright” field toward the bottom of the list of default variables. If you have a custom designed store you may have to look in a different location depending on your developer. For example, our customers can typically look in a field called “cws-footer” to change their footer. CWS clients, however, will not need to update their copyright dates because we code our sites to update automatically.

If you would like to update your Copyright date for the final time, here’s a sample of the code you can use.

© Copyright <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
<!--
// current date - from http://rainbow.arch.scriptmania.com/scripts
// Array of day names
var dayNames = new Array("Sunday","Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday","Friday","Saturday");

var monthNames = new Array("January","February","March","April","May","June","July",
                           "August","September","October","November","December");

var dt = new Date();
var y  = dt.getYear();

// Y2K compliant
if (y < 1000) y +=1900;

document.write(y);
// -->
                  </script> Your Company Name

I hope this little tip was helpful for you. While you’re at it, make sure all of your Holiday Promotions are cleaned out and you’ve got everything back to normal again after the holidays. Our entire team at Colorado Web Solutions wishes you all a very successful 2010.

Have a great week everyone.

Matt Sampson | CEO | Colorado Web Solutions
http//www.ColoradoWebSolutions.com

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Unsatisfied Customer? An example of what NOT to do.

Posted on December 3rd, 2009 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

Hey everyone. I haven’t written about customer service in a little while and I just had an experience that sparked my interest in sharing some thoughts with you.

As you all know, the holiday shopping season is upon us and regardless of how hard you try and the effort you make as a merchant, you will ineveitably end up with customers that are not going to be satisfied with their purchases. It may not even be something in your control, in fact it could be as simple as “I didn’t like the product.” More than likely, you already have a “Return Policy” in place and if you sell sensitive products you may even have some restrictions with your returns. I encourage every merchant we work with to establish ground rules for customer service related issues, but I also know that those rules need to be flexible if you are 1) going to survive online and 2) want to keep your customers coming back.

This is the story of a customer who will not be returning to a merchant, and that customer is me.

To make a long story short, I purchased two high-end specialty Yoga Mats from a company called YogaMatic. My wife is a very active yoga instructor and I knew she’d love one of their custom designed mats. They are quite remarkable. They are also quite expensive ($80 as opposed to $20 for a regular sporting goods store mat). I ended up purchasing two of these mats, one for my wife and another for her best friend who is also a very active yoga participant.

The mats arrived and were fantastic looking. I was very pleased. Unfortunately though, the very first time both mats were used, we discovered that they were abnormally slippery when even a slight sweat was broken. We’re talking ice skating rink slippery. Completely unusable for yoga practice (other than mild stretching) without a towel on top. And with a towel on top, what the point of purchasing these beautiful mats? None of our other mats are slippery that we use, in fact, you could even call them tacky, which is great. We tried washing them down with water and a few other remedies and nothing worked. I wasn’t exactly sure what to do to fix them, so I wrote Yogamatic an email to see if they had any thoughts for me.

Now a good company with good customer service would have responded differently, but let’s start with how NOT to respond.

Hi Matt.
Thanks very much for your comments.
We are very sorry indeed that you don’t find our mat suitable for your yoga practice.
We have so much great feedback about the Y-Brid mat that you do surprise me.
In fact we have some of LA’s best known instructors, who love our mats and have branded them as their own.
We do however accept that we can’t be everyone’s favorite mat,
or tick every box of everyone’s perfect mat.
Each brand of mat has it’s own strongest feature,
and appeals or does not appeal to people for different reasons. Like any product.
We state in our return policy on line that we do not take back used mats or custom mats.
The sweatier class  I go to,  there is not a person in the class not using a towel.
With every brand of mat represented.
The less sweaty classes, I find I do not need a towel.
A mat and ones own practice is a very personal thing,
and we are sorry to not be your favorite mat.
I will share your e mail with our team.
Many Thanks
(name removed for privacy)

At first glance, the response is nice enough, but if you look at it, they did absolutely NOTHING to help solve my problem. This is not how I would suggest treating your customers, at least if you ever want to sell to them again. In this example, having an active yoga teacher teaching hundreds of students a year, you would think that it would be in YogaMatic’s best interest to try to resolve the issue and try to find a solution. Instead, they completely blew me off.

What I read (through tainted glasses of course) in her response was “We’re sorry you don’t like your mat, but it’s yours now. The top instructors in LA love them. (Clearly the Colorado Instructors are not as skilled?) Good luck, use your mat for car repairs, I’ll tell the team about your complaint as we laugh with all the LA instructors about you silly Coloradans.”

Now clearly this is not what she said, but she might as well have.  Is this a way to keep a customer coming back? Uh.. no. In fact it’s a way to inspire a customer to write a “How to treat your customers poorly” article.

So what could the folks at YogaMatic.com done differently? Let’s look at a few options…

1. Knowing that the unsatisfied customer is a Yoga Instructor who works with students daily, my first assumption would have been that they would want only the best words spoken about their mats and they would want to replace it with a different one or at least clarify why the mats are as slippery as they are.
2. They could have offered a coupon/discount on an additional mat if we wanted to try one with a different design that could be less slippery.
3. They could have offered a few ideas as to how to make it less slippery. Sandpaper? Probably not, but you know what I’m getting at.
4. They could have offered to take it back for a full or even partial refund.
5. They could have made me felt like I was heard.

I understand the policy about no returns from a logical point of view. Someone dripped sweat on this mat, it’s no longer new and can’t be sold as such. Makes perfect sense. BUT, there are times when eating the expense of a dud product is worth keeping a customer, especially an influential one. If I owned YogaMatic, I would have asked my customer service reps to craft a letter something more like this:

Dear Matt -

We’re very sorry to hear that the mat isn’t living up to your wife and friends expectations! We pride ourselves on creating high quality yoga mats and never like to hear that we’ve got an unsatisfied customer. We have mats beings used all over california by some of the countries top instructors and they love them, so I’m sorry you don’t feel the same. I’m sure you’ve probably seen our return policy posted online that says that our mats are not returnable but I wanted to see if we could work something out.

I know you purchased two of the mats that have the white backgrounds, so I’m wondering if you’d be interested in trying one of the less graphically intensive mats? If you would like to consider that, we would be happy to take your wifes mat back for a full exchange (we’re happy to eat that cost to keep our yoga instructors around the country happy and promoting our products!) and I can also offer you a 50% exchange credit for your wife’s friends mat. So she would only have to pay our cost to produce it. Would that be acceptable to you? Please keep in mind that if the second mats do not work, we can’t continue to keep taking them back, but we would love to offer you another chance at using our mats. We love them and want you to love them too!

Please let us know if this will work for you and we will get new mats out to you this week and you can return the old ones in the box when it arrives. I’ll toss a UPS return label in there as well so it’s nice and easy.

Thanks so much, we look forward to hearing from you.

See the difference? Sure, my version would end up costing them a little bit of money (the cost of one mat and shipping… $60?) but in the end, they end up with a yoga instructor using this beautiful mat and all of her students wanting to know where she got it. I’ve seen it first hand, they really are striking mats and her students ask her all the time where it came from. Wouldn’t they rather have her raving about how wonderful the mat is and telling them where to get one, vs having her say “Don’t buy one, they’re expensive and slippery. Get a Giam mat.” In the end which do you think makes them more money as a company?

Now please understand, I’m not telling you that you need to change your rules for every customer who wants to return something. Just think about it for a moment from your customers eyes and see if you would be happy with your reply if you were them. Some customers will never be happy no matter what you do, and those are the customers that fine print and policies are written specifically for, but if you have the opportunity to forge a stronger relationship with a customer who could potentially send you more business from either themselves or those in their community, I would suggest thinking twice before shutting them down.

Now get back to your holiday sales. Take care of your customers that can be taken care of. It’ll pay off in the end.

Oh yeah, if anyone needs a really slippery yoga mat, they’ve got beautiful ones over at YogaMatic.com.

Until Later -

Matt Sampson | CEO | Colorado Web Solutions
http//www.ColoradoWebSolutions.com

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Cyber Monday Tip: Last Minute Details for your Yahoo Store

Posted on November 28th, 2009 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

Part 14 of our month long Cyber Monday Prep Tips Series. Every day, we have been giving you one small piece of advice to check, fix or confirm within your Yahoo Store in preparation for Cyber Monday 2009. View Past Yahoo! Store Tips.

Weekend Edition: Cyber Monday Yahoo Store Preparation Tip #14: Checking the last Minute Details

Hi everyone, I know it’s the weekend and I typically only post for you on weekdays, but Cyber Monday is in just two days, so I think this is a good time to give you a few last minute things to consider. These should all be fairly simple ideas so you should be able to take care of all of them in just a few minutes.

1. Make sure that your Yahoo Store Analytics are turned on and collecting data. Read more about this here.
2. Double check the credit card you are using for Google Adwords payments. Has it been paid down enough to avoid getting declined and thus shutting off your ads this weekend?
3. Be sure to import your current customers from previous orders into your email campaign program before you send out your next promotional email.
4. Post something about your store on your Twitter page. Do the same for Facebook. Encourage people to click the link they see.

That should be enough for you today. It’s a busy weekend, but be sure to check all those items off as soon as you can.

I’ll see you all on Monday. It’s time. :)

Matt Sampson | CEO | Colorado Web Solutions
http//www.ColoradoWebSolutions.com

Sign up for your Free Yahoo! Store SEO Report today at: www.15seo.com!

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Cyber Monday Tip #13: Get your Email Campaigns Ready

Posted on November 27th, 2009 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

Part 13 of our month long Cyber Monday Prep Tips Series. Every day, we have been giving you one small piece of advice to check, fix or confirm within your Yahoo Store in preparation for Cyber Monday 2009. View Past Yahoo! Store Tips.

Cyber Monday Yahoo Store Preparation Tip #13: Prepare your email campaigns in advance

I could go on about email campaigns for hours, but today I’m going to just talk about a few aspects. First of all, if you do not have any email campaigns planned, it’s time to do that. Get it done this weekend. I would suggest up to 3 emails for the month of December, don’t do anymore or people will get annoyed.

Here’s a few tips for these emails you’re going to prepare.

1. Make sure your Yahoo Store email campaigns have a point. Why are you sending it? What is the customers benefit for reading it?
2. Be sure to have a strong “call to action”. Ask your customer to do something. Encourage them.
3. Never ever send out an email with the same content the next week. Always change it. Even if the offers have not changed. Re-write it, re-market it. You will guarantee yourself unsubscribers from your list by sending a duplicate this time of year.
4. Don’t overcrowd or underwhelm. Keep your emails simple, but make sure (as i mentioned above) to have a clear point and goal with your emails.
5. Don’t send them Monday morning. If your primary customers typically shop from their homes for your products, consider sending your first email Sunday late afternoon. Just as they settle down to start shopping. If your customers typically shop from you while at work, I’d suggest a mailing either Tuesday mid-morning or possibly Monday Mid afternoon.

Ok, the list could go on forever, but I’ll stop there. If you’d like more information on our Constant Contact marketing services, please visit this link:

http://www.coloradowebsolutions.com/yahoo-store-email-marketing.html

Be sure to get those email’s planned and implemented soon! I’ll be back next week with some thoughts on Analytics. See you all then.

Matt Sampson | CEO | Colorado Web Solutions
http//www.ColoradoWebSolutions.com

Sign up for your Free Yahoo! Store SEO Report today at: www.15seo.com!

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