1. Marketing Your eBay Business
Robert Chatwani
Richard Brewer-Hay
Isaac Montaine (JomaShop)

2. Important Information
• © 2011, eBay Inc. All rights reserved.
• No part of these materials may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise) without the prior permission of eBay Inc.
• eBay and the eBay logo are registered trademarks of eBay Inc.
PayPal and the PayPal logo are registered trademarks of PayPal Inc.
• Other trademarks and brands are the property of their respective
owners.
• Please do not take our picture or record the class without asking
permission.

3. Agenda – What You Will Walk Away With
• Summary of the marketing basics
• Understanding of search engines
• Practical tools for effective eBay
marketing
• Social 101
• Measuring your effectiveness

4. Approach for today’s session
• We’ll move quickly – lots to cover!
• Materials and video will be online
• Mix of tips and tools
• We will be available for questions
throughout the day

5. Other Marketing Sessions to Consider
• Listing Makeover
• Optimize and Market Your eBay Store
• Expand Your Business – Social Media

6. The Conversion Funnel – The Big Picture
The path buyers take from discovering your
listings through checkout
• Awareness (Impressions)
• Consideration (Engagement)
• Purchase / Conversion (Sold Items)
• Loyalty (Repeat Purchases)

7. Establish Your Goals, and Focus
Where do you need the most improvement?
• Awareness (Impressions)
• Consideration (Engagement)
• Purchase / Conversion (Sold Items)
• Loyalty (Repeat Purchases)

8. Establish Your Goals, and Focus
Where do you need the most improvement?
Measure Your Success!
• Awareness (Impressions)
• Consideration (Engagement)
• Purchase / Conversion (Sold Items)
• Loyalty (Repeat Purchases)

9. How do Search Engines Work?

10. Organic versus Paid Search
Paid Search
•Traditional advertising
in
e-commerce space
•Paid placements
•Sponsored or featured
positions available
Organic Search
•No payment influences
•Relies on Various Factors
•Results differ by search engine and algorithm

11. Organic vs. Paid Search
ORGANIC SEARCH PAID SEARCH
• Also known as Algorithmic/ • Sponsored/featured
Natural/Pure
• Pay-per-click (PPC)
• “Unbiased”— no payment
influences • Pay for placement
• Ranking depends on 100s • Advertising in nature
of factors (algo) • “A science”
• Actively participate in best
practices
• “An art”

12. The skinny on search
• Over 80% of users start a web session
with a search engine
• For some commerce sites, 2% of
keywords drive 50% of the searches
• Google serves 65% of user searches;
Yahoo 16%; Bing 15% (US)
Source: Nielsen NetRatings

13. Organic Search is Critical for Driving
Online Traffic
Global Search Volume Growth
Source: Goldman Sachs; Forrester Research

14. Forrester research: 86% of the clicks on
any query are on natural search URL’s

15. Google Search

16. Search Engines are Changing Fast

17. Search Engines are Changing Fast

18. The 4 parts of a search engine

19. The 4 parts of a search engine
Crawling

20. The 4 parts of a search engine
Crawling Indexing

21. The 4 parts of a search engine
Crawling Indexing Ranking

22. The 4 parts of a search engine
Crawling Indexing Ranking
Results (Relevancy)

23. Basic SEO – Two Core Principles
1. Discovery 2. Relevance
•Your eBay content •The relationship
must be discoverable between a search
by search engines and query and your content
users •Generate content first
•Your content must and foremost for users,
facilitate crawling and but keep in mind that
exploratory paths you are “competing” for
traffic and relevance

24. Crawling: What’s out there?
• Spiders (crawlers) are automated programs that “crawl” the
Web by going from page to page, downloading the page and
looking for links to other web pages
• The more relevant, popular, or authoritaNve the Web site,
the more frequently robots will crawl the page
• Robots only do two things:
– Recognize text
– Follow links

25. Site Indexing
• Search
engines
download
HTML content
of the page
and store in
their database
• Only
extractable
content is
found

26. Site Indexing
• Search
engines
download
HTML content
of the page
and store in
their database
• Only
extractable
content is
found

27. Relevancy: What’s important (simple view)
• Relevancy is determined by
hundreds of factors:
keywords, structured data,
linking, Ntles, content quality,
etc.
• Link value partly determines
the popularity of the page
• Overall value of a page is a
combinaNon of the two

28. Basics for Creating a Good Buyer
Experience

29. The Foundation: Build Your Reputation
“The most powerful drivers of trust
are the quality of your products or
services, your customer service,
and your overall reputation.”
- The Edelman Trust Barometer

30. Make the Most of Basic eBay Tools
Each Listing = • Use both Fixed Price and Auctions
Promotional • Brand your Store and listings (colors, logo, theme)
Space
• Link from your View Item Pages to your Store
eBay Store • Email Marketing
Marketing • Custom listing headers
Tools
• Promotional flyers, cross-promotions, RSS Feeds
Other Basics • Use your About Me page – fill it with great content
• Include your Store name in online posts
• Register your own domain and link to your Store

31. Build Great Listings – Novica eBay Example

32. Maximizing Your Position in Best Match

33. Maximizing Your Position in Best Match
http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/sellingresources/searchvisibility.html
No “silver • Many factors considered
bullet” • Good business practices = good for Best Match
• Track your competition!
No “silver • Price competitively + reasonable or free shipping
bullet” • Right format and the right categories
• Accurate and relevant titles
• Clear item descriptions with item specifics
• State terms clearly
• Focus on the customer

34. Selling Internationally - More Visibility
• 13% increase in bidding activity for US
listings for sale internationally
• 6% improvement in conversion rates if
available to Canadian shoppers
• Over 50% of eBay buyers are outside of
the USA

35. Optimizing for the Buyer
Experience

36. How can you compete?
THREE SIMPLE STEPS
1.Great Title
2.Great Content
3.Great Links

37. Make Listings More Competitive
1 Great Title
2 Social - Links
3 Great Content 4 Links

38. Great TITLES
• Highly relevant to the page
• Refrain from “filler” terms i.e. *NWT* or L@@K!
• Focus on the product
• Be mindful of length
• Place important keywords close to the
beginning of the title

39. Terapeak Keywords for Titles
• Create titles that
inspire buyers
• See the best
keywords based on
real eBay sales
• Save time
• Sell more - see
what keywords
buyers are using
and include them in
titles

40. eBay Research Labs
http://labs.ebay.com

41. Optimize Titles with Bay Estimator
Bay Estimator
http://labs.ebay.com/erl/demoto/to?
http://labs.ebay.com/erl/demoto/instructions.html
• Enter your current listing title
• You get back a modified title
• See related keywords
• Get a “BayEstimate” by keyword
• Desirability for each word
• See positive / negative related
words
• Category suggestions

42. Good content vs. great content
GOOD CONTENT GREAT CONTENT
• Satisfies the searcher’s basic • Surprises and delights the
information requirements searcher by being remarkable
• Written by a human and not • Produced with intent to be
duplicated elsewhere shared and enjoyed by the
• Long enough to fulfill basic community
needs of engines for depth/ • May leverage video, audio,
uniqueness graphics & photos to convey
• Grammatically correct; free of a unique experience
spelling/punctuation errors • Produced by extraordinary
Sellers like you!

43. New Content Keywords with
eBaySaurus
http://labs.ebay.com/demos/qnet/
• eBaySaurus generates keywords that
buyers are typing into the eBay search
bar that relate to your keywords.
• Tells you which words are the most
popular with eBay buyers
• Displays new search terms by adding
in words associated with the original
search string

44. New Keywords with eBaySaurus

45. Google Keyword Tool – Powerful!
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Google Keyword Tool provides
related terms, search volume
esNmates, and search trends for
any keyword or URL that you
enter.

46. Google Keyword Tool – Powerful!
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

47. Google Keyword Tool – Powerful!
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

48. Use Structured Data – Will Impact Sales
http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/sellingresources/searchvisibility.html
Include • Make sure your listings is found by search engines,
Unique include unique identifiers (e.g., UPC, ISBN)
Identifiers • Include your item's brand name and Manufacturer's
Part Number (MPN) in Item Specifics
Provide as • List your item's features,
many item attributes, and condition by
specifics as using Item Specifics
possible • Product condition is one of the
top purchasing criteria for eBay
buyers – be sure to provide the
product's condition

49. Turbo Lister (UPC Field as of 9/5/2011)
Each Listing =
Promotional
Space

50. Blackthorne (UPC Field as of 9/5/2011)
Each Listing =
Promotional
Space

51. eBay Guides – Powerful Traffic Generator
http://guides.ebay.com
Each Listing =
Promotional
Space

52. fashionphile (11,313) 98.9% Feedback
This guide viewed 371,869 times
Each Listing =
HerPromotional
13 guides have over 3.6 million views!
Space

53. fashionphile (11,313) 98.9% Feedback
First 4 Listing = search positions for “Louis Vuitton Code”
Each
natural
Promotional
Space

54. eBay Guides – Powerful Traffic Generator
Each Listing =
Promotional
Space

55. A Great Book on Content Creation
Content Rules
How to Create Killer
Blogs, Podcasts,
Videos, That Engage
Customers and Ignite
Your Business

56. 50 Books to Give Away!
• Visit RBH in the
Social Media
Kiosk in Expo Hall
• Send a Tweet
using #eBayOL
• Get your copy!

57. Create great links between your content
DISCOVERY RELEVANCE
• Links to your site help the • Keywords in Links help search
search engines discover engines determine relevance of a
your content website to the query of the user
CORRECT:
Find great deals in my eBay Store
(Store Name Here)!
INCORRECT:
Mysite.com Find great deals in my eBay Store!

58. Linking is a Leading Ranking Factor
• Quantity of links to page
• Quality of the links to page

59. Linking is a Leading Ranking Factor
• Quantity of links to page
• Quality of the links to page

60. Linking is a Leading Ranking Factor
• Quantity of links to page
• Quality of the links to page

61. Linking is a Leading Ranking Factor
• Quantity of links to page
• Quality of the links to page

62. Linking is a Leading Ranking Factor
• Quantity of links to page
• Quality of the links to page
Create lots of links between your content

63. eBay MyWorld - A Must Have!
http://myworld.ebay.com
Each Listing =
Promotional
• Complements
Space your
About Me page
• Showcase your eBay
Brand
• Customize your page's
look, layout and
content

64. Your Hub for Commerce, Community, Content
Reviews and Guides
Groups and Boards
Each Listing =
Promotional
Space
My Profile My World My Network
Neighborhoods
Description and dialogue around
Descriptions and dialogue ukuleles or any other topic of
shared interest
My Listings
My Favorites
My Store

65. Get Active in eBay Neighborhoods
http://neighborhoods.ebay.com

66. eBay To Go Widgets - Easy and Engaging
http://togo.ebay.com
Each Listing =
Promotional • Promote your Store or
Space listings on your own
blog
• Enables searching of
your Store “off of
eBay”

67. eBay To Go Widgets - Easy and Engaging
http://togo.ebay.com
Each Listing =
Promotional
Space

68. Other Great Tools

69. Enable RSS Feeds – Buyers Love It!
• RSS makes it easy
to see your most
recent Store listings
by other websites
• Buyers can
subscribe to your
RSS feeds
• Post to blogs, auto-
Tweet new listings

70. eBay Store Newsletter Marketing
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/email-newsletter.html#designing
Each Listing =
What to write about?
Promotional
Space
• Newly listed items
• Rare inventory
• Sales
• Stories – make it personal
• Build reputation – your
company, your growth,
category knowledge

71. Terapeak Marketplace Research
• Detailed marketplace
research including hot
categories, hot items
for your categories
• Current success rates
for items like yours,
category trends, and
top searches

72. Discover the Apps Center
http://applications.ebay.com/

73. Discover the eBay Solutions Directory
http://solutions.ebay.com

74. Why Facebook Matters
• More than 750 million active users worldwide
• 50% of active users log on to Facebook every day
• People spend 700 billion minutes/month on
Facebook
• More than 30 billion pieces of content shared/month
• 13% of online consumers visit retailer social network
pages
• 7% of US consumers research products on social
networks
63

75. GoSocial Facebook Store for eBay Sellers
http://www.wishpond.com/ebay
• What is a Facebook Store?
– A store INSIDE Facebook attached to your
Fan Page
• What’s the benefit?
– Drive traffic from Facebook to your eBay store
• Try Wishpond
– Fully integrated with eBay, setup in minutes,
stays in sync with your eBay store
64

76. Wishpond
Features
• Search capabilities
• Live Update checks for
price/availability
• Social Marketing
(Fan-gating, Sharing)
• Social Analytics
• Supports existing
categories
• Cross-sell with related
products
65

77. Wishpond for eBay
http://www.wishpond.com/ebay
66

78. Measure your impact

79. eBay Listing Analytics

80. Try eBay Listing Analytics – Free!
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/listing-analytics.html
http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/sellingresources/listinganalyticsapplication.html
• eBay Listing Analytics: review key metrics of your listings and see
how they're performing
• Listing Analytics can tell you any number of things about any group of
your auctions that you choose to ask it about, including:
• Impressions: Number of times your listing appears to potential
buyers in search
• Clicks: Number of times buyers clicked on your listing
• Sold items: Number of times buyers purchased from your
listings

82. eBay Listing Analytics

83. Smart Counter Analytics
http://applications.ebay.com/selling?EAppsHome
Smart Counter Analytics
•Best dates times for your listings,
regional and national success rates,
and most cross-visited listings.
• Who is on your listings, how long
they are on your listings, what
items are cross visited, what
states and countries are the most
popular, what days are the best
days to launch or end your
listings.

84. eBay Sales Reports
http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/sellingresources/sellingtools.html
eBay’s Sales Reports help you track
your key performance metrics so you
can:
•Measure your existing eBay business
against sales goals
•Understand the main drivers of your
business
•Determine areas of opportunity and areas
for improvement
•Refine your business strategy to ensure
success.

85. Social Media

86. Why You Need a Social Presence
• Social media – now is the
time to establish your
presence
• Test and learn from strategies
that work for you to secure
the pole position
• Social media is not quantum
physics – just a new channel
to reapply sound marketing
principles
Source: Huffington Post 9/1/11

87. Why Facebook?
People use Facebook to connect with friends, build relationships, and
stay in touch. People “like” businesses on Facebook, but don’t want
to be spammed.
How Facebook can help your business
•Fans = marketing, promotional opportunities
•Fans are easy to poll for customer intelligence (“What do my
customers want?”)
•Engaging with fans  Trust  Repeat business
Turn fans into Engaged Brand Evangelists!

88. Getting Started on Facebook
• Create a Facebook fan page for your business. Facebook
requirement + you look professional!
• Invite your customers and fans to Like your page. Include your
Facebook fan page in your emails, packaging and customer
Thank You notes.
• Engage your fans! Get fans to participate in your content! Post
interesting information, trivia questions, encourage fans to share
with their friends. Come up with a content plan.

89. Best Practices For Facebook
• Exclusive Facebook promotions.
E.g. Provide a unique coupon code for customers visiting your eBay Store
from Facebook.
• Post interesting and relevant news.
Your Facebook page is like a mini-blog. If you’re selling sports equipment,
occasionally post interesting sports news and link to your eBay inventory.
• Respond to fans promptly!
Fans like quick, helpful responses, and you build trust for your brand.
• Make every update count!
Post 3-4x a week or 1x a day. Posting too often could lose you fans.

90. Why Twitter?
How Twitter can help your business:
• Learn what customers are talking about by searching Twitter
hashtags.
• Encourage your followers to retweet your news about
promotions and new listings
• Build up a great reputation for customer service by
responding quickly when people tweet about you.

91. Getting Started on Twitter
• Create a Twitter handle for your eBay business (separate from
your personal Twitter handle).
• Include your business Twitter handle in customer touch
points
(e.g. email, packaging, Thank You notes).
• Engage with people who regularly tweet about topics related
to your selling categories.
• Search Twitter for hashtags relevant to your selling
categories. Get into those conversations.
• Make your posts interesting! Make your followers WANT to
retweet your posts.

92. Best Practices for Twitter
• Post news and updates.
Got new items in your eBay Store? A new promotion? A new blog
post? Tweet about it!
• Provide discounts for retweeting.
Provide an incentive to get people to retweet your posts. E.g.:
“Check out the new items in our eBay Store. 5% off to the first 10
people who RT this post.”
• Retweet other people’s content.
Retweeting raises your profile in the Twitter-sphere.
• Tweet often, but tweet strategically.
Twitter has a “breaking news” feel. 3-5 tweets a day is a good
start.
• Acknowledge RTs and mentions. When someone RTs or
mentions you, give them a shout out back.

93. Blogging
• Establish yourself as an expert.
Blogging consistently and
knowledgeably establishes you as an
expert in your area.
• Raise your visibility in natural
search. Blogging raises your visibility
in search engines, so more people can
find your eBay Store and listings.
• Provide detailed product and policy
information. A blog helps you provide
Source: Huffington Post 9/1/11
more detailed information about your
products, your policies, and your
excellent customer support.

94. Blogging – Getting Started
• Set up a blog through a free blogging service, such as
WordPress or Blogger.
• Start blogging regularly. Develop your own engaging style of
writing – make your blog posts friendly, welcoming, and
informative about the area you’re blogging about (e.g., classic
Hollywood movies, sports collectibles, knitting).
• Cross-promote your blog through your Facebook and Twitter
channels.

95. Best Practices for Blogging
• Post informed and well-researched opinions.
Build up your reputation as an expert in your field.
• Devote each blog post to a specific topic.
Don’t cram everything you know about your subject into one blog post.
Craft each post to one (or a few) aspects of your field.
• Develop an engaging style.
Invest some time discovering your own distinctive “blogging style.”

96. YouTube – Why Have a Presence?
Create YouTube videos if you sell complex items and/or your
customers could benefit from getting more visual information
•Visual appeal. Show off your product in a video!
•Educate your customers!
– Product demos
– Video tutorials
– Product assembly and usage instructions

97. YouTube – What Works Best
• How-to demos
If the items you’re selling are complex and require assembly, win your
customers’ hearts with video demos on how to assemble your products. If
you’re selling camping equipment, create videos on putting up a tent,
starting a campfire, even cooking s’mores!
• Cross-promote your videos
Promote your videos on your blog, Facebook, and Twitter channels to
maximize reach to all your followers.
• Create videos with a long shelf life
Creating well-made videos takes hard work! Make sure you pick video
topics that you won’t have to update frequently.

98. For more information…
eBay.com/socialselling

99. JomaShop Case Study

100. Overview of JomaShop
• Online luxury and watch retailer
• In business since 1999, 10 years on eBay
• Jomashop: Just broke 10,000 feedback
• 2,000 items listed on average
89

101. Old Page
90

102. Quantify Results
91

103. Market Research
92

104. Terapeak
93

105. What’s Selling?
94

106. Overall Analytics
95

107. Visitor Amount and Bounce Rate
Previous Average Time 7 Seconds
Previous Bounce Rate 97%
96

108. Optimize the eBay Product Title
TECHNOMARINE CRUISE SPORT BLACK AND ORANGE MENS WATCH
97

109. Optimize the eBay Product Title
TECHNOMARINE CRUISE SPORT BLACK AND ORANGE MENS WATCH
<title>Technomarine Cruise Sport Black and Orange Mens Watch |
eBay</title>
<meta name="keywords" content="Technomarine Cruise Sport Black
and Orange Mens Watch, Jewelry Watches, Watches,
Wristwatches">
<meta name="description" content="Technomarine Cruise Sport
Black and Orange Mens Watch in Jewelry Watches , Watches ,
Wristwatches |eBay">
<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.ebay.com/itm/
Technomarine-Cruise-Sport-Black-and-Orange-Mens-Watch-/
150638281992">
98

110. Basic eBay Account Linking Structure
eBay Store
or Search
Product Product Product Product
99

111. Your Store Link is Small
100

112. Your Store Link is Small
101

113. Your Store Link is Small
101

114. Internal SEO and Linking
• Brands/Navigation Bar
• Cross promoting products
• Linking to a Sale section
• An email sign up button
102

115. Internal SEO and Linking
103

116. Internal SEO and Linking
103

117. Internal SEO and Linking
104

118. Internal SEO and Linking
104

119. New Page: Internal SEO and Linking
105

120. New Page: Internal SEO and Linking
105

121. Basic eBay Account Linking Structure
eBay Store
or Search
Product Product Product Product
106

122. The Effect of Categories
eBay Store
Category Category Category Category
Product Product Product Product
107

123. The Effect of Cross Selling
eBay Store
Category Category Category Category
Product Product Product Product
108

124. Effects of Internal SEO and Linking
CHANGES RESULTS
OpNmizing Titles Increased Visitors
Brands/NavigaNon Bar ‐Bounce Rate %
Cross promoNng products ‐Bounce Rate %
Linking to a Sale secNon ‐Bounce Rate %
An email sign up bu^on Increased Visitors
109

125. External SEO and Marketing
Social Website Blogs Forums Other
eBay Store
110

126. Social Networking
• Associate your Twitter account with eBay
• Twitterfeed.com
• Associate your Facebook account with eBay
• Bidstreamer.com
• My eBay >> Site Preferences >> Share your eBay items with friends
111

127. External Websites
112

128. Examples of Blogs
• Wordpress.com
• Blogger.com
• Weebly.com
113

129. Examples of Forum Posts
114

130. eBay Store Growth #s
Bounce Rate Then 97%
Bounce Rate Now 80%
Time Spent Then 7s
Time Spent Now 1m2s
115

131. eBay Store Growth $$$
1‐Jun 7/1/108/1/109/1/10
10/1/101/1/102/1/10
1 1 1/1/112/1/113/1/114/1/115/1/116/1/11
116

132. Q&A

133. Thank You!
For more information, please visit the
Seller Information Center
www.ebay.com/sellerinformationcenter