GCU Forum - E-Cards

GCU Newbies
artist

Posts: 23

E-Cards
Feb 22^nd, 2008, 6:07pm

It seems like when someone recieves and e-card there should be a link directly back to the artest's store as an option for the recipient.
The people I have sent e-cards to seem to be struggling to get back to my store to be able to send more of my cards.

The links all seem to take them back to GCU and if they just search my name it brings up my cards but not my store. If you search my name under e-cards my cards do not come up. There should be an option to search by artist name that will take people directly to your store front.

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Corrie_131338 Gold Member Posts: 1610	Re: E-Cards Reply #1 - Feb 23^rd, 2008, 12:08am Hi Margot! GCU's tech guru Shaun will likely answer your other concerns, but I'll just jump in quickly to say that currently, your own ecard images are only accessible in your own Card Store, and will not come up in a search of the general ecard category. Corrie http://www.corrieweb.nl
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Tom_133317

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 2207

Re: E-Cards
Reply #2 - Feb 23^rd, 2008, 2:14am

I like the suggestion very much but I do have a question. I haven't enabled any of my cards as ecards, and so I was wondering if anyone has correlated the use of ecards to more paper card sales? How about LESS paper card sales? I'm thrilled to have visitors to my store, but I'd rather have them buy something rather than leaving taking just the free stuff, but I can see it from both perspectives.

One (additional) way for GCU to leverage the shoppers is to give them ecard credits for each paper card they buy, but this would require our ecards to only be available by credits. Perhaps this could be the approach for store ecards vs. home-page ecards.

I wonder if GCU has analyzed the footprints of visitors to determine their behavior patterns to be able to tell whether ecards “buyers” only buy ecards, do they sometimes buy paper cards, and do they return regularly. I’m sure it’s a mix but this analysis would be interesting.

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Comical Captions:
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Sue_132963

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 1224

Re: E-Cards
Reply #3 - Feb 23^rd, 2008, 9:32am

Tom,
I am a relative new comer here. But I will tell you of my experience so far. Most of my cards, where I have used the free ecards option, are ones that I wished to email to people, myself. I have now started doing that a lot more. I find it puts my name and cards in front of people's noses and helps them remember what I am doing and that they 'can' order my cards. I have sold paper cards rather well for a beginner, I think, but no-one has used my free ecards, except me. So I do not worry that they take away from my paper cards sales. (Truthfully, I don't think our ecards have the curbside appeal of others available with annimation...)
SueB
Quote from Tom_133317 on Feb 23^rd, 2008, 2:14am:

I like the suggestion very much but I do have a question. I haven't enabled any of my cards as ecards, and so I was wondering if anyone has correlated the use of ecards to more paper card sales? How about LESS paper card sales? I'm thrilled to have visitors to my store, but I'd rather have them buy something rather than leaving taking just the free stuff, but I can see it from both perspectives.

One (additional) way for GCU to leverage the shoppers is to give them ecard credits for each paper card they buy, but this would require our ecards to only be available by credits. Perhaps this could be the approach for store ecards vs. home-page ecards.

I wonder if GCU has analyzed the footprints of visitors to determine their behavior patterns to be able to tell whether ecards “buyers” only buy ecards, do they sometimes buy paper cards, and do they return regularly. I’m sure it’s a mix but this analysis would be interesting.

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Card Art From The Heart:
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Tom_133317 Gold Member artist Posts: 2207	Re: E-Cards Reply #4 - Feb 23^rd, 2008, 11:12am Sue, Thanks for the feedback. It was helpful. I never thought of using ecards for my own marketing (duh). I'll have to try it out. Now if I only had a few friends.
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Dustin_133010

Junior Member
artist

Posts: 99

Re: E-Cards
Reply #5 - Feb 23^rd, 2008, 8:45pm

Hi Margot,

When I first joined GCU I sent an e-card to myself so I could see how they look. There is a link with the artists name right below the card image, and if you click on that link it takes you to the artist's store. Maybe your friends were clicking on the GCU logo, rather than your name.

The one thing I didn't care for on the e-cards it that below the text there is a box promoting joining GCU and on the one I sent to myself it says:

"Remember Dustin Kahn's Birthday and other important dates
Greeting Card Universe is 100% Free
Join now and get Dustin Kahn's birthday automatically."

I don't like the fact that GCU tells the recipient to remember my birthday and promises to give them my birthday. That feels like an invasion of privacy since I may or may not want to tell someone my birthday. Any comments about why that is done, Mindy or Shaun?

Dustin

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Corrie_131338

Gold Member

Posts: 1610

Re: E-Cards
Reply #6 - Feb 24^th, 2008, 12:10am

Hi Dustin!

I can't give you an official answer, but it's likely that GCU adds that message to ecards to promote their reminder services, which is Big Dates' core business. Obviously, they aren't going to give anybody your birth date or any other private information. The message just plugs your name in to make it more personal, and assumes the person you're sending the ecard to is a friend. That's it.

Corrie
http://www.corrieweb.nl

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Dustin_133010

Junior Member
artist

Posts: 99

Re: E-Cards
Reply #7 - Feb 24^th, 2008, 8:52am

Hi Corrie,

Thanks for clarifying. I think it was the wording that confused me. I interpreted it to mean that by signing up the recipient of the e-card gets my birthday from GCU, which surprised me!

Maybe it should say "be reminded of (name of friend's) birthday automatically" rather than "get (name of friend's) birthday automatically."

Thanks,
Dustin

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Ernestine_131365

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 853

Re: E-Cards
Reply #8 - Feb 25^th, 2008, 1:44am

Dustin--

I wholeheartedly agree about the misfortune of having that birthday reminder verbiage on the e-cards, especially the way it's written. I wanted to use e-cards for promotion, too, but chose not to because of that very thing. . . I want to promote my cards, not my age Wink

I understand that the reminder service is the main part of "Big Dates" so there probably isn't much we here at GCU can do to change promoting that service with the e-cards, but a suggestion for a little change in wording can't hurt!?!

-Ernestine

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Linda_132742

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 1796

Re: E-Cards
Reply #9 - Feb 25^th, 2008, 1:27pm

I have offered many, many cards as free e-cards, and to date no one except me has used them. I don't know what to say about the pros or cons, sometimes I think it is not a good idea to offer freebies, but then 2 seconds later I change my mind. To be honest, I don't even know how many free e cards I might have at the moment. I do send them myself, though, and am glad I noticed this post because I just added a card that I want to send as a ecard and had forgotten to make it available!!! Just brain dead lately, I guess!!!

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Margot_133341

GCU Newbies
artist

Posts: 23

Re: E-Cards
Reply #10 - Feb 25^th, 2008, 6:48pm

Thanks everyone for your input.
When I first found the site it was because I was wanting to simply add e-cards to my web site. The idea of on demand printed cards had never occured to me. I think from a marketing perspective the e-cards could be a wonderful way to get people to our shops and to GCU.
I wish instead of the birtday thing it simply said check out this artists other cards.
On the flip side I'm really new here and have already sold 7 cards with out having even told more than a handful of people about the site. The one sale was someone in Florada I don't even know. My friend who ordered received her cards today and just raved about how beautiful they were and their excellent quality.
Anyway, before I send out a bunch of e-cards annoucing my new shop I will send myself some and make sure I do a good job of explaining how to get back to my site.
All in all I am pretty thrilled with the site. I love that there is a forum and things like this can be discussed. I am confident there are people listening and they are doing what they can to keep us all happy.

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Margot's Cards:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/MargotsCards

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Mindy

GCU Administrator
Community Manager

Posts: 6537
Gender: female

Re: E-Cards
Reply #11 - Feb 26^th, 2008, 12:33pm

Thanks for your collective discussion and suggestions on Ecards.

1. The ecard image your recipient receives has your "Image by" credits below it which is linked to your storefront. If this text is not obvious enough we are willing to change it. Perhaps "See more cards by:" ?

2. In general ecard senders are not paper card buyers. There of course are exceptions ie: send a last minute ecard vs paper card, never send an ecard to Mother, etc. but for the most part the ecard senders we see are "freebie" people.

Because traditionally ecards are free the marketing tactic to try to squeeze some value out of them has been to convert them into reminder service users. This has worked well for us across all of our sites.

The reminder service promotion does not show in the ecard email. It only shows if the recipient clicks on the top link if they can not see the image in the email. It also only shows if you are not already a registered shopper or artists.

An opportunity does lie with the ecard recipient. They certainly may be a card buyer and likely interested in seeing more cards/images like the ecard they received.

Another opportunity (and on our wish list) is for GCU to offer more tasteful ecards than what's available today online in general and even charge for them.

3. We have barley touched the tip of the ecard iceberg. Artists' ecards are not yet shoppable in our ecard store, they are somewhat buried in the storefronts, they are not included in email reminders. Lots of work to be done. We have yet to focus on energy on that side of the house yet.

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Margot_133341 GCU Newbies artist Posts: 23	Re: E-Cards Reply #12 - Feb 26^th, 2008, 2:34pm Thanks Mindy, Yes if the credits by could say something like click to see more cards by (artists name) it would be more obvious. It never even occured to me to click on the artist credits. Sounds like the e-card iceburg is a big subject. Thanks for the info on what happening.
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Mindy

GCU Administrator
Community Manager

Posts: 6537
Gender: female

Re: E-Cards
Reply #13 - Feb 26^th, 2008, 2:37pm

Quote from Margot_133341 on Feb 26^th, 2008, 2:34pm:

Thanks Mindy,
Yes if the credits by could say something like click to see more cards by (artists name) it would be more obvious. It never even occured to me to click on the artist credits.

Sounds like the e-card iceburg is a big subject.
Thanks for the info on what happening.

We've put this text change on the to do list. I'm sure others have missed the link too.

Update - DONE!

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« Last Edit: Feb 26^th, 2008, 3:51pm by Mindy »

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Karen_131257

Senior Member
artist

Posts: 332

Re: E-Cards
Reply #14 - Feb 27^th, 2008, 4:28am

Hi there
The only ecards in my store are the ones with no front or inner text. Every single "blank" card I upload I make ecard available. These cards can be used for practically any occasion. It hasn`t upset actual sales as I have sold over 700 cards, in fact I think to date only 2 ecards have been sent from my store anyway, but I like the option. Hmmm, nice idea about sending them yourself, why didn`t I think of that?...!!!
((hugs))
Karen

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