Department store owner Joseph Wannamaker was famous for saying, “Half my advertising works. But I don’t know which half.”

When that anecdote is repeated at marketing seminars, people usually laugh.

But I wondered, are they were laughing at Wannamaker or with him?

After all, you don’t see any Wannamaker department stores anywhere on the face of the earth, do you?

I don’t know if Wannamaker ever figured out which part of his advertising worked. Seems to me if he did, he’d still be in business. After all, he’d stop advertising in the media that didn’t work, and he’d abandon ad campaigns that didn’t work. He’d be left with the ads that worked. Oh well.

Maybe back in the 1800’s people didn’t have tools to do the math needed to figure out what worked and what didn’t, so we can excuse poor old Wannamaker.

But now we do have tools to track just about everything, so you don’t have any excuse for failure!

All the tracking, measuring and reporting tools I need to run my business are easily contained in my shopping cart, MyEasyOnlineStore, a part of the 1ShoppingCart network. For one easily affordable monthly fee of less than $100, I can track any number of factors and it is all included in the price of the regular shopping cart service. Yet, many people are unaware of these services and their benefits. In this article, you’ll see how these tools can make you more money and save you from wasting your ad dollars, so you don’t become another Wannamaker.

Five Ways to Make More Sales with MyEasyOnlineStore.com

1. A/B Split Testing. This is the benchmark of any marketing campaign. The idea is simple. You run two tests to see which one gets a better response. You might test one price against another. Or one headline against another. Or an ad with one picture vs. another picture. The list is endless. You see the test results and you know the winner. Now test another part of the ad. You keep doing this and all the time you are making more money as you run ads that are more and more effective. The shopping cart has this feature.
2. Shopping cart abandonment. If life were perfect, everyone who goes to your order page would order. But life isn’t perfect and upwards of 90 percent of people will abandon your shopping cart. My EasyOnlineStore.com will show you the numbers and percentages of people who drop out from your order page. Armed with this information you can test different sales offers and wording on the order page so you can increase the orders. I did this with great success. I had a 20 percent success rate with a generic “buy” page. Then I did a split test on the order form. I had a long testimonial from a happy client with his picture. Now 49.5 percent of the people who saw that order form ordered! That was a huge difference. Next, I tested a short testimonial from that same client. The results were pretty much the same: 50 percent compared to 49.5 percent.
3. Sales reports. Every wonder which days of the week produce the most sales? MyEasyOnlineStore.com will tell you. There are a dozen other reports you can find easily, like sales reports by day, week, or month. Sales reports by products. Sales reports by affiliates. All data can be exported to a spreadsheet for further exploration and analysis so you can infinite flexibility and resources.
4. Tracking codes. To answer the age old question of “which of my ads work,” the shopping cart can provide an answer. You can put a tracking code, which is a line of code generated by the shopping cart onto any ad you place. Let’s say you are running the same ad on five different websites. Because each ad is linked to a different line of code, the shopping cart can easily show you which ads are selling and which ones are not.

If old man Wannamaker used MyEasyOnlineStore.com, he might be in business today!

If you look on Google for “autoresponders” or “email marketing systems,” you will find many different options.

Should you buy a stand-alone autoresponder and email marketing system or should you buy an autoresponder that is part of a sophisticated shopping cart?

There are good reasons for either action. I prefer the autoresponder that comes with a shopping cart system, but I want to give you a good idea of both sides of the story so you can make up your own mind.

Reasons for Buying a Stand-Alone Autoresponder and Email Marketing System

When you buy a stand-alone autoresponder from one of the leading autoresponder and email marketing companies, you are getting a very good product. Since this is the only thing they do, you can be assured that the product is best-of-class. You can also be assured that they will constantly add features and services to make it stand out from any competitor.

After all, they have nothing else to fall back on. They have to make this a success. Plus, since this is the only thing they do, they have their ear to the market and they know what services their customers need. They will also charge a competitive price for their service because there are competitors. You get a very fair deal.

What Are the Downsides of Using a Stand-Alone Autoresponder Service?

1. Price. They aren’t very expensive, but they aren’t cheap. In fact, the price of the world class leading autoresponder is just about the price of a sophisticated shopping cart with an autoresponder built in. You could save a few dollars by just using the autoresponder, but not as much as you might think because shopping carts cost just a handful of dollars more.
2. You might be paying for services you won’t use. If you need a lot of high-end features, this is the way to go. If you need only a basic function, then why pay more for services you won’t use?
3. It won’t complete the sales process. It can promote your service, but when people want to buy, they need to go to a shopping cart. Autoresponders can’t process credit cards or collect money. You’ll need to buy a shopping cart to do that.
4. It can amass a large database of prospects, but it is hard or impossible to export the database into a shopping cart. That’s because most shopping carts won’t import large databases of email addresses on the fly because they are afraid of helping spammers. The best shopping cart services will allow you to do this after you affirm the names are double-opt in. And they will charge you when their technicians import the name for you. If you start with the shopping cart that has an autoresponder, the names and email addresses will be part of the shopping cart from the get-go so you will be building one database.

On balance, stand-alone autoresponder services seem like a good deal. So why would you want to get one that’s bundled with a shopping cart?

How I Use My Autoresponder and Online Shopping Cart System

The autoresponder in the shopping cart I have is perfect for my needs. For example, the autoresponder in my shopping cart gets prospects to signup for free reports so I can build my sales funnel.

The autoresponder automatically follows up with the people who order the free reports. Each autoresponder has a link to an order page that sells my products and services. This is tied in to my cart so I can collect money automatically. This is the beauty of having an integrated program that can do your marketing and your sales automatically.

Once people buy my products and services, I have an autoresponder series that provides customer service and educates clients on other products or services that they should be buying. This way I increase the lifetime value of each client. You can’t do this with a stand-alone autoresponder system.

So, not only do I save money since the price of my ecommerce cart is only a few dollars more than the autoresponder – but I’m also making more money off it! The all-in-one autoresponder, cart and email marketing system I use does everything I need as a coach, consultant and digital information marketer. A standalone autoresponder might offer a few higher end features, but I don’t need them. Chances are you don’t either. Compare the two and see if you need the extras. If you do, then make the correct choice.

To help you make this choice, check out my free report, “7 Ways to Make More Money and Save More Time with Autoresponders”

Publicity thought leader Dan Janal offers a variety of coaching, consulting and other publicity services and tools through PR LEADS. He runs several businesses using MyEasyOnlineStore.com and its autoresponder system. See how you can run your business more effectively with a free report, “7 Ways to Make More Money and Save More Time with Autoresponders”