Unruled & Unfiltered

Most brands that sell their products and/or services online invest significant amounts of time, effort and money into attracting visitors to their website. But once consumers get there, if they don’t eventually convert, the investment isn’t nearly as valuable as when they do — especially when it comes to impacting the bottom line.

Common sense tells us that selling to an existing customer (customer retention) should be both easier and less expensive than finding and converting new customers (customer acquisition) — especially if the existing customer has been well-served. After all, the logic tells us, starting from scratch to gain a new customer will require more effort, more resources and more time than simply keeping a customer you already have.

As professional marketers and business owners know all too well, a lot of time, effort and money go into catching consumers’ attention and attracting them to visit a brand’s website or brick-and-mortar store. But once they’ve arrived, the job is far from over. If the prospective customer encounters any significant hurdles to conversion along the path to purchase, all the work and spending can be for naught, at least when it comes to the business’s bottom line.

Over the past five years, U.S. holiday e-commerce sales have risen from $108.7 billion in 2016 to $239.26 billion in...

When it comes to finding e-commerce success, there are a lot of different paths you take to the top — as evidenced by the long list of modern businesses turning huge profits selling their products and services online. But no matter the type of business or what it’s selling, if it’s prospering in the online marketplace, it’s likely employing some key tactics in its online strategy. It’s also likely that some of those same powerful tactics are holding prominent positions in leading competitors’ e-comm game plans.

Working in the realm of public relations, there is no better aspect of the job than getting the opportunity to plan and implement a press trip or media event. And while we may be partial, planning one in the outdoor space may even surpass all other industries (combined).