12 Posts of Christmas: Post Three—Tell a Friend

In a recent Yahoo! sponsored survey about Holiday buying habits, sixty percent of respondents said recommendations from friends and family were a top influencer in purchase decisions. So how do you make sure that friends and family can easily make recommendations to others once on your site? Make it easy for them to send an email.

Below is one method for adding a JavaScript to pages that creates an email link with a pre-formatted subject and message along with a link to the page which the shopper is viewing. Note: The instructions below are for adding the script to pages built in the Store Editor but this script will work for any HTML editing tool where you can add code to the head section and body section of the page. This method also requires the shopper has an email client on their computer.

To add this feature:

1. From the Store Manager, click the Store Editor link.
2. Go to the Variables page and add the head section code to the Head-tags variable. (You can also override the head-tags variable on a per-page basis if you wish to use this feature only on a few select pages.
3. Go to the page(s) where you wish to add this feature and add the body section code to the page.

Note: If you wish to add the link to all pages, you have a few options of where to add the link

• final-text variable
• intro-text field
• HTML-below-nav-bar (Editor 3.0 only)
• HTML-above-nav-bar (Editor 3.0 only)
• Use the Link button to add a link to your contents navigation links
• Create a custom type that includes a new property for this link where you specify in a custom template

Head section (add the below part to the head-tags variable)


<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
<!--
function emailafriend()
{
var emailbody = "Insert text here to appear in the email message. Hint: Don’t include any words likely to trip up spam filters "+window.location;
var emailsubject = "Enter text here to appear as the subject—Hint: Don’t include any words likely to trip up spam filters.";
window.location = "mailto:?subject="+emailsubject+"&body="+emailbody;
}
// end -->
</script>


Body section (add the below part to your page where you wish the link to appear)

<a href="javascript:emailafriend();">Tell a friend</a>


You can also replace the “tell a friend” link text with a tell a friend graphic that you create to match the look of your site and make this feature stand out more. Also, while it is possible to set up this feature without using JavaScript, this method allows you to customize the subject and body message of the email to fit the season (for example “Saw the perfect stocking stuffer”, or “Here’s a great gift for Mother’s day”).

You can also set up a more formal solution that will not only send the email, but also allow you to collect the email address* (of those that approve) of the sender and recipient. This method allows anyone to send an email but it does require more time to set up, and some shoppers may be wary of providing email addresses to a newly visited site for fear of spam.

*Note: Be sure you are in compliance not only with the Yahoo! Small Business Terms of Service and the Yahoo! Store guidelines but also with all state and federal laws regarding privacy and unsolicited commercial email (spam).

So don’t wait. For a few minutes of set up time, you can start getting some highly qualified leads at no cost to you.

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business

12 Posts of Christmas: Post Two—Customize your header for the Holidays

If I didn’t have a calendar I would know it was the holidays when my uncle swaps his regular welcome mat for his festive one that says “Ho! Ho! Ho!”. So how do you put out the welcome mat for holiday shoppers?

You can pretty easily customize a few elements on your site to get it ready for the holidays. In my last post I wrote that you may not wish to put up your “holiday decoration” early but you may need time to produce “holiday graphics” for your site.

So how do you deck the halls in your site?

• For Store Editor 2.0, replace the name-image (located in Variables) your site may normally have with one that incorporates holiday graphics.
• For Store Editor 3.0, you can do one (or both) of the following:
  • Upload an image to the header-background-image variable. Note you will need to edit your CSS to upload a taller header background image than the default height setting.
  • Upload a special holiday banner image to the Intro-text field on the Home page to have an image appear at the top of all pages of your site.
  • Upload your image to the files area and reference the image using HTML in the tagline variable. Note: You will need to make edits to your CSS if the graphic is larger than the default size (225px). You can add new rules for the #brandmark and #slogan ids to the css-edits file to adjust the default padding and width.

Example store shown with image uploaded to tagline variable.

With using either the Intro-text field or the Tagline variable the HTML you use to reference the image can also include links. You may wish to create a special holiday category (section) with sub-categories of products sorted by price or who the gifts are for (gifts for him, her, kids, etc). You can then have the entire image be a link to your holiday section.

For more examples of incorporating the holidays in your store branding, check out 37 Signals Holiday Ecommerce Ideas.

Up next—spreading the word.

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business

Yahoo! Small Business Holiday Shopping Survey Release

Just a quick note to point out a survey that we released yesterday in cooperation with Harris Interactive. The survey polled a group of shoppers on questions related to their holiday buying. Some interesting findings include:

• Almost two-thirds of shoppers said niche or boutique stores were the best place to find unique gifts.
• Three-fourths of those surveyed said they are likely to purchase gifts from an online small business.

Other interesting survey results:

• A trusted secure online payment system led in terms of providing a positive shopping experience followed by a site that is easy to navigate and a simple checkout process.
• Free shipping followed by online discounts and hassle-free return policy were the greatest incentives to make a purchase.
• Recommendations from family and friends slightly beat out search engines in terms of influencing where shoppers buy products.

For more info read our press release.

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business

PubCon

Conference Information:

Date: November 14 - 17, 2006
Location:Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada
Registration Fee: $50, Expo Hall; $599, Full Conference
Description: The leading edge event for sharing real world information about SEO, SEM, and general Site Owner/Webmaster issues.

For more information, please see the PubCon website.