Stealing From Video Game Developers

Video games can teach e-commerce merchants many lessons. Video game developers can teach even more valuable lessons. This Curagami post shares five tips online merchants should steal today including:

• Create Great Products
• Develop Community and then Listen, Learn, and Change
• Give customers chances to collaborate
• Forge badges, banners, and other rewards
• Define how rewards are earned but don’t forget serendipity and surprise

With such great marketing is there any wonder why Blizzard Entertainment has more than thirty million Overwatch players? Doomfist is a new brilliantly named Overwatch character and gamers are talking about little else this summer. Doomfist is more important than Game of Thrones to gamers. 

Stealing the community, gamification, and engagement tips from video game developers will help any online merchant move from "website" to "platform" and from "us" and "them" to we: http://www.curagami.com/e-commerce-lessons-doomfist/ 

New E-commerce
New E-Commerce and a Video Game Steal says e-commerce merchants should steal customization, collaboration and community from video game developers and explains how. 

New SEO Looks Like Old SEO
Thanks to David Kutcher we've embarked on a 3 part journey. Our goal is to show how and why the "NEW SEO" is beginning to look a lot like the OLD SEO.  Our journey has three parts that all start here:

http://www.curagami.com/why-new-seo-looks-like-old-seo/?v=7516fd43adaa

 After that we move to:

* Brands (http://www.curagami.com/new-old-seo-brands/?v=7516fd43adaa )
* Love (coming soon)

* Community  (coming soon)

I'm in Columbus at Ohio State for my year anniversary of being treated by the great Doc Byrd. Will finish Why The NEW SEO is Looking Like The OLD SEO when I get home.

In the meantime BRANDS is live.  

Ecommerce is changing fast. This Scenttrail Marketing post shares and explains 30 "must master" to win ecommerce strategies and tatics.

The Little Haiku Deck That Could
Our Asking Ecommerce Questions Haiku Deck (http://shar.es/1g6S5q ) is becoming the little deck that could. To say these slides are a testimony to the power of fast feedback loops and iteration is an understatement.

With three sets of video notes (more coming soon) and three major changes based on feedback from attendees at conferences where we've been presenting the little deck that could Ask For Help: Asking Key Ecommerce Questions proves another important point - everything is a curated conversation now.

Thus the power of @Scoop.itand thus Google's QDF (Quality Deserves Freshness) demand. When we started this little deck had a few hundred views. Now, thanks to feedback and support from those providing the feedback almost 2,000 people have learned to do the hardest thing in the galaxy (at least for American men) - ASK FOR HELP!

Thanks for all the help we've received creating the little Haiku Deck That Could. Marty

Yesterday at the Digital Summit in Charlotte, NC we ran into a familiar problem. "Marty we don't have any content," an growing ecommerce website shared.

I shared the good and bad news. The bad news is developing an effective content strategy takes time, focus and money. The good news is there are things to do in parallel that bring all pieces together such as:

* Create an Ask.

* Begin to CURATE content.

* Curate 90%, Create about 10%.
* Listen and set up Key Performance Indicators to LISTEN better.
* Develop a testing culture.
* Begin the journey to sustainable online community.

Added video notes to explain all of this to our Ecommerce Questions Haiku Deck: http://shar.es/1guIF1

Find video notes on platforms, content curation and community on Curagami's YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/tSHeIxtrs4g

Showrooming Scurge
Most retailers HATE people showrooming in their stores. That's stupid as it is like trying to hold back the tide. Better to embrace showrooming - the practices of shopping in the world and then buying online for better price.

One way to embrace showrooming occurred to this morning watching Bruno Torturra discuss how easy it is to stream a live event to the web. Torturra is streaming protests, but retailers brave enough to encourage showrooming could use the same tactics to build a powerful Ambassador layer.

The recipe is simple:

1. Create content explaining how to stream live video.

2. Create a community to share your "shopping videos".

3. Provide social rewards (encouragement and features) to filter.

4. Rinse and Repeat

Your customers could help keep your prices in line, alert you to cool merchandising by competitors and a million other near real time benefits. You can't go into something like this halfway.

It's an all or nothing idea and that means listening more than you talk (some sites, brands and companies are better at 2 way communication than others). Early today team Curagami wrote a piece about competing with Amazon (http://sco.lt/58qhn7 ).

Add this "video showrooming army" to that and you get differentaion from the monster. Cool thing is cost of creating such cool and cutting edge competition is minimal (webpage and some serving). I wouldn't host on YouTube unless you were strapped for cash since you want the SEO juice flowing in your site's direction.

Soon retailers will be glad people are in their stores FOR ANY REASON, beat them by embracing showrooming now.

Why Ambassadors Are CSFs
If you don't have an Ambassador Program you need one. Ambassadors are brand advocates who want to JOIN your brand. Remember Faith Popcorn's quote?

People don't BUY brands they JOIN them.

At our marketing tools startup Curagami we are learning why the creation of an Ambassador Program right from the start of a website's life is so critical. This link shares success one of our clients, Moon-Audio.com is having with their Ambassador program.  

Social & Mobile Ecommerce
Ecommerce is being transformed by social and mobile. The implications for merchants are VAST. How your Ecommerce site creates conversations and digitally listens will determine its value. No matter how social your online store it isn't social enough for the immediate future.This Haiku Deck can help your site do things like:

* Create conversations that lower costs and increase profits.
* Build an online community.
* Learn to listen "digitally".
* Scale your store to the next level.
* Create an engine that mines User Generated Content.

Can your store be too social? Not so much as it turns out.

Zazzle, Cafe Press, Etsy and Sara Harvey show how ecommerce's social future is about collaboration, empowering and sharing. Does your store do that?

I just received an email from a woman who had a bad experience with a photographer in Myrtle Beach, SC and left him a 2 star review. He is now threatening… - Martin W. Smith - Google+

Why Ecommerce Marketing Is Broken & What To Do About It - Free White Paper
Written with +Phil Buckley +Jarrod Swart and team +Curagami our first free… - Martin W. Smith - Google+

An in-depth look at seller performance systems on eBay and Amazon. How they work, why feedback matters, and how to be efficient at managing your reputation.