SEO Reseller News: The Future of Retail Study 2014 (Infographic)

Many white label SEO resellers have a love-hate relationship with the months November and December, which are collectively called the “holiday shopping season.” Yes, they have more business than ever because online retail sites are booming, but at the same, they also are loaded with so much work. Well, they can expect this same “relationship” to continue this year. Just take a look at this infographic on the Future of Retail 2014, courtesy of Walker Sands.

Private label SEO reseller provider Endlessrise published a few weeks ago a blog post on 2013 online holiday shopping trends. Citing comScore data, the company wrote that U.S. holiday desktop e-commerce retail shopping was expected to jump 14% to the tune of $ 48.1 billion in November 2013. And if the findings of a new research are any indication, we are likely to see better figures in the 2014 holiday season.

E-Commerce: A Normal Shopping Activity

According to the Walker Sands 2014 Future of Retail Study, less than 1% of the 1,000 U.S. consumers surveyed said they do not shop online. Majority of consumers (40%) said they shop using the Internet once a month. Another 22% say they do it more frequently, shopping at least 1-2 times a week. Some 5% shop more than twice a week. In total, 62% of respondents shop online at least once a month. The remaining 38% shop less frequently, with 20% of all respondents saying they do so 7-12 times a year.

The report said this “pivotal tipping point” demonstrates a major opportunity for retailers who already have strategies in place. Consequentially, the popularity of internet shopping to consumers means white label SEO resellers and online marketing consultants will have more business to handle. Retailers will need support from agencies and consultants to implement strategies, especially if they do not have sufficient in-house marketing manpower.

What Consumers Buy Online Today

If you are an SEO reseller and online marketing consultant, it is important to know which products consumers are likely to buy online. Knowing what percentage of prospects buys online will help you better advise your retail clients. For instance, in the survey, it was found that 69% of respondents shop online for consumer electronics – making it the most popular online shopping category. In this case, it might be more advisable for your client to sell products directly online instead of trying to convince prospects to drop by and purchase in-store. Other popular online shopping categories are books (67%) and clothing & apparel (63%). 

On the other hand, some 37% of surveyed consumers said they have not purchased food and groceries from Amazon. Luxury goods also seem unpopular as online shopping goods at 29%. The rest of the categories like sporting goods and pet supplies hovered around the 10% mark. In this case, it might be wiser for a private label reseller to convince the client to subscribe to local marketing or Local Buzz. This unique online marketing service encourages an online-offline buzz through reviews, maps, local listings, and most importantly, check-ins via Foursquare and similar geo-social networks.

How Much They Spend Online

Consumers, despite being more and more accustomed to purchasing via the Internet, still are careful when it comes to whipping out their wallets. It’s no surprise therefore that the biggest group (45%) spends only between $100 and $500 for a product they have yet to see. Another 16% mark their budgets at $501-$1,000 while only 10% of consumers will pay greater than $1,000 for a product they have not yet seen.

(Image: Walker Sands)

Interestingly, percentages for high-ticket items rise when retailers offer consumers free shipping and free returns. From only 10%, the percentage of consumers willing to pay over $1,000 for a product rises to 29% with free shipping and returns. The mid-range group’s budget adds five percentage points to reach 21%. On the contrary, the percentage of people willing to buy items priced $100-$500 falls to 37% once free shipping and returns promotions are offered.

Based on these figures, white label SEO resellers can categorize their retailer clients’ customers. This will allow the client to offer free shipping and other promos only to the customer groups that would want those promos.

How to Make Consumers Buy Online

While free shipping and free returns can impact product or customer groups differently, they are among the many promos retailers can implement to help spur online purchases. As a private label SEO reseller and online marketing consultant, you can recommend these promotions to your client. According to research, consumers are more likely to purchase from an online retailer if that business offered, first and foremost, free shipping. An overwhelming 80% of respondents said so.

Some 66% of respondents also said 1-day shipping will drive them to buy online. Meanwhile, free returns and exchanges will push 64% of customers to buy.

Final Reminders for Online Retail 2014

Let’s close this post with two reminders. First, ensure your retailer client’s website, whether e-commerce or not, is mobile friendly. The best configuration is mobile responsive, which allows the website to load properly on all screen sizes and devices. This setting will allow your client’s site to accommodate mobile traffic. According to Google, 75% of consumers prefer a mobile-friendly site. Ask your white label online marketing and web resign reseller provider for custom WordPress sites that are mobile responsive.

Second, optimize your retail client’s online and local presence through Local Buzz, which is the optimization of maps, local listings, check-ins, and reviews. Remember that while nearly 100% of consumers have purchased an item online, not everyone does so all the time. Consumers also like researching online before buying locally, and in this case, Local Buzz is the best optimization approach.

SEO Reseller News: Live Chat Most Satisfying Customer Support Channel

The best white label SEO reseller consultants are always looking for new ways to help clients. Some are fortunate that their private label SEO provider is up to date and offers new services – and removes outdated ones from the menu – whenever necessary.  Some providers have free reports that consultants present to their client during the initial consultation. But here’s something you should look into: live chat. 

Live chat is the most satisfying customer support channel. (eDigitalResearch)

Among a number of popular customer service channels, live chat support emerged as most preferred. According to the newly released Customer ServiceBenchmark by eDigitalResearch, live chat support has a satisfaction rate of 73%. This means nearly three in every four customers who use this channel are satisfied with the response they get from the business. Wouldn’t you want your SEO reseller business to have this kind of customer support satisfaction?

Live Chat Posts Highest Satisfaction Rate

According to the Customer Service Benchmark, which surveyed 2,000 nationally representative consumers, live chat leads email (61%) and app (53%) for the channel with highest satisfaction levels. This figure is significant for SEO resellers primarily because of a few factors. First, the rate is quite high at 73% – nearly three-fourths of users like it. Second, it beats other channels by at least ten percentage points. Finally, it’s important because only 24% of consumers have used live chat in the past year.

“Live chat currently has the highest satisfaction levels. Whilst currently, there are only a smaller number of customers using this method… those that have are predominantly satisfied with their experience suggesting that use of the channel is likely to grow,” the report said.

Phone, Email: Most ‘Expected’ Channels

While only one in four consumers currently use live chat, people expect businesses to have this customer service channel. At least 30% of respondents said they expect live chat service from businesses they deal with. But compared with other channels, this percentage is only a fraction.

Email and phone are most expected support channels. (eDigitalResearch)

Most consumers (90%) expect businesses and brands to have email support. This is even if only 85% of consumers actually use email for their concerns. The second most “expected” channel is phone support with an 87% expectation rate. There’s little discrepancy between expectation and usage when it comes to phone support as 85% of consumers use this channel. 

For a white label SEO reseller, the lesson here is simple. Your business needs the most basic support channels: email and phone. However, you need to consider including live chat on your website as its popularity is expected to grow in the future and because it has such a high satisfaction rate. 

Caution on Opening Live Chat on Your Website

There are a handful of live chat tools and services available in the market today, ranging from free and simple messaging apps to expensive enterprise-class video-enabled systems. For a private label online marketing reseller, perhaps you can start with a simple messaging tool. After all, you can conduct in-depth consultation via Skype, phone, or personally. This service is primarily for prospects that are interested in scheduling a consultation with you but may have questions that require immediate answers. 

Consumers expect immediate response from live chat support. (eDigitalResearch)

Before you start live chat support though, remember these two things. First, 64% of consumers expect to wait only one minute or less to speak to an agent via live chat. Second, 12% of consumers who used this channel experienced an error. This means you need to test the tool for speed and errors if you are to permanently use one to address customer or prospect concerns. You also need to respond quickly with at least a greeting like “Hello, I’m <name>. Good morning! How can I help you today?”

Providers of Live Chat Tools and Services

Most likely you already have phone and email support so here’s a short list of resources that can help you use live chat to support your customers.

• WP Beginner has a nice guide on how to howto add a free live chat in WordPress. You want to read this too if you want to know how you can add a Skype button to your website. “You cannot integrate Skype into your website. However, you can integrate a button on your WordPress site to show your Skype contact and display your availability,” WP said.
•  Web design magazine Designrazzi compiled the 45+ BestFree WordPress Chat Plugins.
• If you want to know howto install Pure Chat on your site, read this.
• Here’s a reviewof the 7 top live chat software solutions according to The Daily Egg. Among the products reviewed here are LivePerson, Com100 live Chat, and LiveHelpNow.

Nothing Beats Great SEO Service

While having a triumvirate of customer support channels – email, phone, and live chat – will help customers reach you better and vice-versa, nothing still beats providing highquality outsourced SEO services. So before your focus on customer service channels, your main objective should be to find a provider that will be able to represent your brand and your business. If you provide quality service to clients via your trusted provider, maybe you wouldn’t even have to use so many channels for customer support. You won’t have much complaints to deal with in the first place.

7 Tips to Maximize LinkedIn for Small Business Marketing – SEO Reseller Guide

SEO resellers know that LinkedIn is one of the most powerful small business marketing tools today. While a lot of companies, specifically their human resources departments, use it for recruitment, there’s so much more to this modern and professional social network. For one, it’s free to use. You won’t even need to upgrade to a premium account if you’re merely using it for marketing. Business owners should definitely take advantage of its power.

Here are at least 7 tips on how you can maximize LinkedIn in marketing your small business.

More and more businesses are creating their LinkedIn company pages (LinkedIn)

1. Be on LinkedIn

Obviously! But quite frankly, not all business owners have private label SEO resellers actually have profiles with the professional social network. It’s a sad reality that must change now. Just type Linkedin.com on your browser and you’ll find the sign up form right on the home page. Fill it out with your name, email, and a password you like. Curious how many people do this? Two people sign up with LinkedIn every second. And now the site has over 238 million members.

2. Set Up Your Business Page

The site calls them “Company Pages” but you get the point. Over 3 million companies have already published their pages. In the last 12 months alone, some 500,000 company pages were set up. This just shows how hot company pages are and that your businesses should have one. Not only will it become another possible search engine result, it can also help doubtful prospects verify your business. Be sure to include your products and services. Some 1.275 million distinct products and services are currently offered by site members.

3. Join Groups

Like Facebook, LinkedIn also allows you to join communities or groups of people that share common interests. From the point of view of a business owner, you should join groups that your prospects take part in. For instance, if you own a pet grooming shop in your area, you should join a group about pet grooming. What should be your intention in joining? Should it be spamming the group with your links? Should it be plastering your business name all over the place? Read next tip for the answer.

LinkedIn lists some of the most "actionable" updates members post. (LinkedIn)

4. Publish the Most “Actionable” Updates

According to LinkedIn statistics, the four types of updates that get the most action are as follows: company branding (inside looks and interviews), employment branding and career opportunities, tips and best practices, find facts and quotes. For SEO resellers, this means helping your clients generate content that will give their prospects a glimpse of the company that produces the item they wish to purchase. It also means coming up with quality articles that the target audience can identify with and learn something from.

5. Write a Brief Career Summary

On your personal profile, write a short but specific summary of your career. How short? A Forbes magazine article says it should be 100-300 words. “Include telling details and quantifiable achievements,” the article adds. So, have you been providing search engine optimization for small businesses for quite some time now? Make sure that’s visible in your profile. Have you been managing your own flower shop for the past few years? Make sure your summary includes that info.

6. Optimize Your Content with Keywords

It is not enough that you publish helpful content and populate your profile and page with pertinent information. You must optimize it with the right keywords. Keywords make it easier for prospects to find you and help establish you as an authority in your chosen niche. Are you an expert in SEO reseller reviews? Make sure to use those keywords in your content, as well as in other information you publish on your profile and pages.

Steven Burda (pictured above) is the most connected person on LinkedIn with over 50K direct connections.

7. Acquire Contacts

Small business marketing via LinkedIn may mean acquiring new friends. Similar to joining a group, LinkedIn contact acquisition is building a list of prospects that may be interested in your products and services. It is not easy to build a group or following in any social network, especially if you are after contacts that are willing to spend for your products and services. Always remember, be sure to contribute to your social circle. When people see that you are providing value for contacts that are interested in your niche, they will add you. If you see a prospect that may prosper your business, do not hesitate to send a personalized message together with your invite.

BONUS TIP: Outsource All the Hard Work

As what SEO resellers do, business owners can also outsource the hard work to service providers. Resellers, in particular, are in a great position to assist business owners in this aspect if their backend provider covers LinkedIn and other types of social media optimization. The biggest advantage of using outsourced human resources in marketing your business is being able to focus on your core business.

Marketing your small business via LinkedIn requires a lot of time primarily due to the need to produce quality content and publishing this content on the social network. Good thing though, business owners can look to resellers and providers for quality, engaging content. 

SEO Reseller Guide - 7 Remarketing Statistics Every Online Marketer Should Know

SEO resellers are more than just a bridge between the client and the provider. In essence, they are also online marketers. Therefore, it is important to understand the latest trends and methods in today's Internet marketing industry. One trend you should be on the lookout for is remarketing.

Also known as retargeting, this is a pay per click method. And for all intents and purposes, we will use Google AdWords Remarketing as example. Traditional AdWords PPC allows marketers and white label SEO reseller partners to appear on the first page of Google almost instantly. On the contrary, remarketing allows your banners ads to appear on websites that are part of the Google Display Network (GDN).

Some Advantages of PPC Retargeting

And before we discuss the Display network, let's tackle some of the advantages of retargeting. One of the many would be the free exposure. Like in traditional PPC, remarketing ads are paid only when clicked. Impressions are free! Despite not paying for anything for impressions, just the mere fact that your company name or logo is seen by your prospects, that's already a huge help in building your brand. The constant appearance of your ads creates a subconscious effect on your prospects, allowing them to remember your brand.

That's just one of the many advantages of this pay per click method. It's impossible to mention other benefits without mentioning some of the statistics. So without further ado, here are the...

The 7 Remarketing Statistics Every Online Marketer Should Know

1. According to comScore, the Google Display Network serves 180 billion impressions each month or about 6 billion a day impressions
2. The network reaches 90% of global Internet users, says the Google Benchmarks and Insights
3. 0.4% is the average click-through rate of an ad on the Google Display Network, says Internet marketing software maker WordStream
4. WordStream adds: the average click-through rate of an ad on the GDN is ten times as high as a Facebook ad
5. Businesses make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on AdWords, says the Google Economic Impact Report
6. According to the Search Engine Watch, the finance and insurance industry spent $4 billion on AdWords in 2011
7. Google's partner sites generated $2.91 billion in revenues in the first quarter of 2012, Search Engine Watch adds

How Does PPC Retargeting Work?

For these statistics to make sense, we need to understand as white label SEO resellers how remarketing works and how we can pitch it to our clients.

As mentioned earlier, it is a PPC method. But unlike traditional paid clicks, the advertisements marketers pay for will appear on Google Display Network websites, NOT on search results. How many websites are actually part of the display network? Just over 2 million! Among the independent member sites are established papers like USA Today and the New York Times. The network also includes Google web properties like Gmail and YouTube! Those two alone should make Remarketing ads attractive for business owners, aka, our clients.

As in traditional PPC, you will need an advertisement to display. Your provider should be able to create banners for your clients with ease. With the ad ready, you will also need dedicated landing pages. Again, your provider should be able to help you with this.

Next, a retargeting code must be placed in the client website. The scope of this work will vary depending on whether the code will be implemented website-wide or on just a select few pages.

What's the Logic Behind the Code?

The remarketing code is a simple piece of code that drops a cookie on the user's browser. The cookie is responsible for alerting AdWords that a particular site visitor has that cookie. If the cookie is present, AdWords will display the remarketing banners on that user. And regardless of what site that user visits, he will still see the remarketing ads... as long as he is inside the Google Display Network.

In essence, the cookie will allow you to track or follow your site visitors wherever they go, after leaving your website. This gives you the power to display your message repeatedly. This strategy also enables business owners to remind visitors to return to their website.

Retargeting is Marketing to Warm Traffic

Remarketing allows SEO resellers, marketers, and business owners to display their message to traffic that has already warmed up to the brand. That's because the ad is displayed to people who have the cookie, and therefore have already visited the client website. They were visiting the client site for a reason when they decided to leave. Whatever their reason for exiting is, remarketing allows us to come after that warm traffic and make a pitch once again. It's like getting a second shot at selling to them... or even a third, a fourth, depending on how you configure your AdWords remarketing campaign.

But here's the catch. Not all SEO resellers offer this service.  Even if it's already a couple of years old, many service providers tend to focus on SEO and traditional PPC. Bigger and more established companies, however, already have this in their fold and if you want to start reselling remarketing as a service, go ahead and give your provider a call right now.

Good News SEO Resellers – SMBs to Raise 2013 Technology, Marketing Budgets

Small and medium businesses are a great prospect for SEO resellers. In fact, we suspect most of your clients would be from this segment of the economy. This statement, just to be clear, is purely from personal experience and should not be taken as a statistic. But until there’s data to prove otherwise, we can assume that most of our clients are SMBs. This is why news of plans to increase their budget for technology and marketing this year is such music to our ears.

For one, it means SMBs are bullish on business and are looking forward to growing this year. They are spending after all and because they have long been considered the “backbone of the economy,” this bids good news to the economy, too. That economic benefit aside, white label SEO resellers just like you are in a great position to gain from this anticipated increase in spending.

Technology Crucial for SMBs

A new study conducted for technology provider Cbeyond Inc. found that 64% of SMBs (sometimes called SMEs or small and medium enterprises) plan to increase their budget for technology this year.  The report, “Summer 2013 Cbeyond Business Leader Snapshot,” also said that 31% of companies planned to retain their existing budgets. Those who plan to slash tech spending in 2013 are a minority at 5%. The researchers from market research company StrateSci who conducted the Cbeyond study surveyed over 711 senior executives at businesses with fewer than 250 employees.

Cbeyond CMO Paul Carmody attributed the anticipated budget raise to technology becoming more and more critical to smaller enterprises. “We know most of these businesses do not have IT departments. They are not IT experts, and there is a need for someone to do tech work for them,” Carmody told marketing strategy magazine B to B.

The Technologies SMBs Need the Most

When asked to rate the most crucial technologies for operations, respondents ranked network access (95%) as the most critical. Desktop/laptop management (92%) and mobile services (93%) composed the top three.
Now, this is the part that SEO resellers want to hear. When it comes to what type of communications are crucial for growing their business, respondents rated social media as among the most important. Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms earned the approval of 47% of respondents.

Another interesting nugget: 22% of surveyed executives said social mobile platforms like Google Maps and Foursquare are important to growing their business. This means SMBs are increasing their technology budget for this year and are spending more on social media and social mobile to grow their business. This also means they will be looking for help in using these platforms so they can grow their business. It is now your job top look for these businesses and offer them white label social media optimization or local buzz services.

Overall Marketing 2013 Budget to Go Up

SMBs plan to spend more on technology and marketing this year. (Source: Cbeyond, Aweber)

Apart from technology spending, SMEs also plan to increase their budgets for marketing. Earlier this year, email marketing provider Aweber reported a study that found that 97% of marketers plan to at least maintain their marketing budget. Some 68% plan to raise it. Also, some 47% of respondents said they felt the economy had changed positively last year.

Hunter Boyle, senior business development manager at AWeber attributed the anticipated raise to a more optimistic outlook on the part of SMBs. “There was plenty of uncertainty in 2012, but SMBs are resilient, and 58% said they were optimistic about revenue growth for the 2012 holiday season,” he said. If this doesn't excite the SEO reseller in you, what else will?

What to Offer SMBs Planning to Spend More

Smaller businesses are more particular when it comes to spending because they have limited capital, unlike their bigger counterparts. That is why they are sometimes reluctant to spend on innovative solutions, both for operations and marketing. But this year, they have a more positive outlook and you should help them convert this optimism into profit.

As found by the technology survey, SMEs find social media crucial in growing their business. If they have SEO campaigns running, offer social media optimization as an add-on. Help them create Facebook and Twitter pages that are not only complete, but are also optimized to be visible and attractive to their prospects. If they want to focus on their SEO, offer Google+ as the social add-on. Posts on the Google-owned social network can be indexed and can affect organic rankings.

Apart from social media, you can also pitch mobile responsive web design to your prospects. If this is the year they are willing to spend more on technology and marketing, then this is the year they should move a mobile responsive site, or a site that properly loads on mobile platforms like tablets and smartphones. This is Google’s “preferred” approach to catering to mobile visitors. And because mobile Internet users are expected to outnumber desktop users by next year, getting a mobile responsive website is also a long-term technological investment for any SMB.

SEO Reseller Guide: Video Marketing Infographic, Reviews, Vine, and Instagram

Part of reselling search engine optimization to clients is the generation of content. Most of the time, this content is in written form so that it can be used for article and press release submissions, blog posts, and social media updates. However, in some cases, video is the better choice. That is why a lot of SEO reseller providers offer video marketing services.

In video marketing, the most common method is to go through YouTube. We need not list down the statistics but Google-owned YouTube is simply massive and if you want your videos to be seen, that's the place you go to. If you want traffic from videos, that's the place you go to. White label SEO reseller providers know its power and that is why they focus on this video-sharing site.

Video Statistics: The Marketers Summary Infographic

Video solutions company Invodo has just released an infographic about the power of video and how marketers can harness this power. According to their infographic, each person in the United States consumes 19 hours of video each month. "But there's more to it than crazy cats and giggling babies - video drives consumers to purchase," declares Invodo. Click the image below to see the high-res version at MarketingProfs (opens in new tab).

Video drives consumers to purchase. Source: Invodo

Among the most striking video statistics presented is about product videos. Apparently, consumers watch product videos 60% of the time. Also, 52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in their purchase decisions. Three in five consumers will also watch at least two minutes of product video.

These figures bring hope to businesses that want to reach their target audience via video. Also, since 60% of consumers watch at least two minutes of product video, businesses might want to insert most convincing proposition inside the two-minute frame. This is great information for SEO resellers because now they can pitch the idea to prospects with research as support. They can also ask their providers to create or edit product videos in such a way that the message is conveyed within the two-minute mark.

Use Video As Reviews?

According to white label SEO reseller service provider Endlessrise video, like other forms of content, has at least four benefits:

• Attract, inform, engage, nurture, and guide your targets into the sales funnel
• Social media engagement and sales
• Traffic and repeat-traffic
• Lead generation (and sales)

But one thing we noticed Endlessrise does is posting videos of product reviews. Below is a sample of a video the company uploaded. It not only drives traffic to its YouTube page and back to the company website, it also adds credibility for Endlessrise as a service provider. You can suggest this video strategy to your clients, although of course, you need to check with your backend provider first if they offer video creation and marketing services.

Video can also be used to create product reviews. Source: Endlessrise

Twitter Launches Vine Video App

As another indication of video's growing influence on search and on the Internet in general, Twitter rolled out Vine earlier this year. Twitter's blog post announcement pretty much sums up what the new program is all about:

"Today, we’re introducing Vine: a mobile service that lets you capture and share short looping videos. Like Tweets, the brevity of videos on Vine (6 seconds or less) inspires creativity. Now that you can easily capture motion and sound, we look forward to seeing what you create," the microblogging site said.

The app is currently available on the iPhone and iPod touch and is free from the App Store. Twitter said it will be available for other platforms in the future.

Here's a sample video created via Vine:

Vine videos can also be embedded.

It's a pretty nice tool and holds potential not just for regular users of Twitter, but also for marketers. Think about it: How can you showcase your products in under six seconds? It's quite challenging but can also get your creative juices flowing. At present, there are no major white label SEO reseller providers who are offering this service. But, let's see. Maybe you can talk to your provider and talk to them about the potential of this new video platform.

Instagram Introduces Video Feature, Allows Embedding

Instagram will always be loved by users as a photo editing and sharing tool. However, it also ventured into video recently. Instagram announced that users can now upload and share videos too. To make things sweeter, it also enabled embedding of photos and videos, alloowing users to display the content on their own blogs or websites.

Is this owner Facebook's bid at getting some of YouTube's traffic and userbase? Or is this simply a business expansion move? Whatever the motive, the introduction of video and embedding is an indication of video's growing influence on the Internet.

Will private label SEO reseller providers pick up Instagram and offer optimization for it? We can never tell. But again, this is something you can contact them about.

SEO Reseller Guide to Marketing to Millenials and Travelers

You've heard us mentioned before that an SEO reseller is basically a B2C business. That is despite the truth that you cater to fellow businesses, which in turn cater to the customers or the big C. However, there's also the idea that because the SEO and the online marketing you carry out is for clients, you should be thinking as if you were the client. You should be thinking all the time on what initiatives would help your clients reach their customers. Think of those customers as yours, too. And in this post, think of millenials and travelers as your customers.

Who Are Millenials and Travelers?

SEO resellers can be legitimate online marketing consultants if they offered more advice to clients. To do this, however, you need to be able to understand what your clients are selling and who they're selling it to. You can do this during the in-depth consultation period. In this post, we're targeting millenials and travelers so it's important to understand who these people are.

Millenials and travelers: Young, will purchase online, and go places.

Travelers are what they are. They like to go places. From a marketing perspective, this also means they are people who need to book accommodation, buy plane tickets or fare for other transportation means, and are into researching about tourism and products. Think of nice tropical islands, high-tech theme parks, and outdoor adventure. Think of outdoor gears like tents and waterproof cameras.

According to data-driven marketing solutions provider Asking Smarter Questions, millenials are U.S. consumers born between 1981 and 2000 so they are at present between 18 and 34 years of age. Take note though that 93% are them are avid Internet users, making them very comfortable with new technology and social media. They Internet penetration is higher compared with adults aged between 35 and 54, where avid Internet usage is only 88%. The percentage falls to 42% for people 55 years old and older.

Millenials Spend Time on Retail Stores

Millenials are actually a great target for e-commerce sites because they have a tendency to go online often and spend time on retail websites. Nonprofit research group the Urban Land Institute studied the shopping behaviors of the 18-35 age group and found that 45% spend at least an hour on retail sites. Some 20% of male respondents said they were likely to spend more than two hours on these sites. The percentage was lower at 13% for women.

An interesting figure reflects a common belief today that Internet users actually research online and then buy locally, or at the physical store. The study found that some 50% of respondents researched electronics online and then bought the products at the physical store. Meanwhile, 38% of those who bought electronics said they preferred online purchases. When it comes to shoes, majority of millenials said they research online about the products they intend to buy. Less than 30% said they prefer buying footwear online.

Travelers Use Mobile Devices to Buy

Meanwhile, a report run by digital marketing experts eMarketer said Internet users are now using other devices to make "travel-related" purchases online. Travelers are no longer confined to booking flights or hotel rooms using their personal computers at home, said the report, which was based on a JiWire Q1 2013 study. The study analyzed travel-related purchases on mobile devices.

Travelers’ choice: Most travelers still prefer laptop when making purchases or researching online through a mobile device.

Majority of travelers who use mobile devices to buy travel related products still prefer to purchase via a laptop at 63%. Tablets were second choice at 39%. Smartphones came in third with 27. The same order was found when it comes to researching about travel-related purchases. Some 56% of travelers used a laptop to research about products online. Some 46% used a tablet while smartphones were a close third with 48%.

What This Means to SEO Resellers, Clients

Here at SEO Reseller Guide, we want you to take advantage of possible opportunities to expand your business and raise your bottom line. It's time to consult your SEO reseller provider on two things.

Looking at these statistics, this means two things 1) your clients need optimized pages that feature their products and 2) your clients need mobile responsive web design services.

Millenials are spending time on retail sites not just to purchase products but also to research about them. This means your clients can engage them and rouse their interest by providing more information on products and services. As an SEO reseller, this is your opportunity to offer content creation services such as article writing and video creation. These pages can then be optimized through SEO.

For clients that target travelers, it's important that their website loads properly on mobile devices such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones. Offer your clients mobile responsive web design today. Ask your provider about it and of they have marketing materials so you can start selling that service today. Some of the clients that fall under this category are hotels, place and transport ticket sellers, restaurants, and entertainment establishments.