Also referred to as alliance marketing, this kind of cooperative style of linking is very effective not just for the business, but for the consumers as well. Many times we entrepreneurs think we have to do things alone, but it is amazing how much traction we can gain from collaborating or aligning with partners. Fusion marketing can allow you to take your business to levels you never dreamed were possible.

Fusion arrangements can come from different avenues such as combining your mailing or email list with your partner’s list to do a joint mailing. You can offer an incentive to your alliance partner for each purchase of your product on their site and offer the same incentive to your partner through your site.
Here are few quick steps you can take to set up your fusion marketing arrangements:

Step 1: Define who you want to align with. Who will your alliance partners be? An alliance partner is someone who has similar prospects as you, but isn’t in the same business as you, so you aren’t in competition.

Step 2: Get together with your alliance partner and work together to figure out what your offer will be. Maybe you give a two-for-one offer while your alliance partner offers 25% off. Work together and come up with a joint offer that makes sense.

Step 3: Write up a general letter of agreement between your two businesses. This is not an expensive legal document you need to have attorneys review. The goal is to have a general letter of understanding that will help you communicate. This assures who does what and gets what. It can be a simple e-mail exchange if need be, just make sure what you are agreeing to is written down.

Step 4: Market your joint offering. Write up the ads, email, and copy for your offering and then send it out to your prospects. Combine mailing lists and communicate to both sets…be creative. Don’t worry about who has more or less prospects, your goal is to reach as many prospects as possible.

Step 5: Make sure the deal you’re offering is easy for the customer to take advantage of. The easier it is for the customer, the better chance you have of success. When you get a communication from a customer, ensure follow-up happens as soon as possible and that results of the communication are tracked. Always close the loop and make sure the customer is 100% satisfied with your business.

Fusion marketing is cool and can take your business to heights you never thought possible. It also helps you connect and benchmark with other similar businesses that you are not in direct competition with. Use this synergy to reach new levels of performance for you and your business.

A new way for retail websites to capture a visitor’s interest is by creating unique e-tail displays (let’s call it eCom-merchandising ). Just like a brick-and-mortar store uses eye-catching product display cases and tables to get customers to take a look, online stores can do the same with graphics, pictures, colors and fonts.

How to create effective e-tail displays for your online store

Get the homepage advantage – Your homepage is your storefront, so when visitors arrive at your website, they should be able to determine what it is you sell within ten seconds. Most web surfers don’t have the patience or desire to hunt around your site to figure it out. If it’s not obvious on the first page, then there’s a good chance your potential customers will leave and find another site that gives them the information they’re looking for. It doesn’t take much to explain your site’s offerings: a tagline under your logo, some telling pictures of your products; just be sure that when a potential customer arrives at your site, they know they’ve found the right place. Think of it this way: if you walked into a store at the mall and couldn’t tell within 5-10 seconds what they sold, you probably wouldn’t stay to find out.

Know your customers – Learn all you can about your customers and use distinctive colors, logos and fonts that they will find appealing. The customers for a motorcycle accessories store would certainly be different from a site selling tea sets, and so should their e-tail displays. Perhaps the tea site’s e-tail display would have pink and purple colors, a Victorian-style font and pictures of best-selling tea sets. On the other hand, the motorcycle site might have an e-tail display with black and silver colors, bold fonts and photos of the newest chrome-plated or leather motorcycle accessories . It’s important that you show either your best-selling or newest products in your e-tail displays – something that new or returning customers can get excited about.

Think like a consumer – Overlap products in several product categories and be sure to take advantage of upsells by showing complementary products on the same page. Your e-tail displays should be organized, yet foolproof for disorganized minds. Remember, not everyone thinks the same way – what one person thinks is an obvious category A product, another might think of looking in category B or C. Test out your site by getting different friends or family members to search for certain products that you sell. If they weren’t able to find some on the first try, then you might want to think about re-organizing your product layout.

If you can get visitors to stay on your site longer than 46 seconds, then you’re doing better than average. However, an e-tail store’s success inevitably comes down to whether or not visitors are staying long enough to make a purchase. The key is making your site inviting enough for them to stay, and then convincing them that your products are desirable enough to buy. Design your site around your customers, their likes and their interests. You’ll find that catering to their needs has a direct effect on your bottom line.