Small Biz Tip: uber-simple landing pages

Do you want more from your email and social media marketing efforts? First look at your landing pages.

Most of what you do online - especially email and social media campaigns - include links back to your web site. You have most likely designed the best campaign you can to encourage people to respond - to click on that link! But have you spent as much time designing your landing page as you did designing the campaign?

A landing page is the web page people "land" on when they click your link.

But what happens next?

That's the key to effective online campaigns - making that 'next step' as interesting and as effortless as possible.

If the browser lands on your Home page, they still have work to do. They have to navigate through the site to find the offer / product / information that inspired them to click-through in the first place.

If you ask the browser to do more work to find what they're after, they most likely won't. So all your efforts to inspire them to click-through are wasted!

Design a landing page that points them directly to the topic of the originating link. If you're offering a 50% discount on wrapping paper, create a page with a huge image of wrapping paper, a huge confirmation of the 50% offer, and a huge "Buy now" button. All they have to do is click the button - no real effort required. If you directed them to your web site and made them find the gift-wrap section, you're asking them to do too much.

Here's an example from Staples. If you were so inclined to click the link on the email for a refurbished computer, optical mouse or printer paper, you're only one more click away from having the product in your shopping cart. Simple. Effective. Effortless.

That's how you increase your chances of online marketing success.

LESSON FOR SMALL BUSINESS:

• Every link you put out there through your marketing efforts should have a dedicated landing page.
• Those landing pages need to be simple, obvious and effortless.
• Don't forget to use web analytics to track campaign effectiveness (how many people land on the page; how many of them click to buy; how many of them actually buy and so on). Contact me for more information about web analytics tools and how to implement them (I don't sell them, so it's not a blatant pitch).

YOUR TURN:

• Any favourite landing pages... or bad ones?

5 web site designs that rock

I'm a web design minimalist. Less is more on Home pages, as these 5 demonstrate.

www.web2mobile.ca













www.apple.com













www.sethgodin.com













www.diyseo.com













www.twitter.com














TAKEAWAY FOR SMALL BUSINESS:

S.I.M.P.L.E.


YOUR TURN:

Any you want to add?

Recession's over - how is your marketing positioned to capitalize?

Yes, we've been in a recession.

As I talked about that with clients over the past couple of years, there were two primary responses:

1. "I have no money to spend on marketing - talk to me when the recession is over."
2. "I want to invest in marketing now so that when the recession is over, people will buy from me first."

Both are valid responses, although I'm sure you can guess which one I think is better.

Since the summer started, the TSE has risen consistently (from 11,093 on July 4th to a high of 13,052 on November 7th - that's over 17% growth in 4 months). Since March 2009 (7,567 on March 8th), it's up 72%. I'm thinking things are looking OK right now.

Sooooo....

1. OK, the recession is over, is your business investing in marketing again? How, exactly?
2. OK, the recession is over now, how did the marketing go? Are people buying from you?

The future is now, at least as it relates to the recession. What are you doing about it with respect to your marketing spend?


LESSONS FOR SMALL BUSINESS MARKETERS:

• Marketing in down time is advantageous - just pick the inexpensive tactics!
• Choosing not to market in down times puts you at a clear disadvantage (assuming at least a portion of your competition has decided otherwise)
• Remember, marketing is the art and science of creating demand for your product. If you're not marketing (regardless of economic conditions), no demand is being generated. And without demand...

YOUR TURN

Any marketing success stories from the recession?

My new favourite web site

www.customink.com. In particular, I like the "lab", where you can design custom apparel.

I found them through a Google search, and loved them right away. I'm making some custom t-shirts and the site is terrific. Here's why:

1. Everything you need is right in front of you. Through the clever use of tabs and icons that serve as link buttons, you never need to navigate away from the page - always keeping your t-shirt design right in front of you.
2. It's clean, but not bland. That's a significant accomplishment.
3. All the functions are obvious. If you find yourself asking "I wonder if I can...", the answer usually presents itself to you before you finish the thought. Terrific user experience.
4. You get exactly what you want. Promotional gear, exactly how you want it. And you can order 1 if you want.
   
5. They use words that everyday people use in everyday conversation, like "talk to a real person" and "super rush delivery". It's just nice to see a site that doesn't pretend to talk down to you.
6. Great main navigation: Home | Products | Ideas | Lab. That's it. Simpler is better.
7. OK, this next one isn't related to the site design at all, but it has to go on the list. Sorry. Their tag line is "You think it. We ink it." Does it get any better than that for the product they have? Genius.

(WEB DESIGN) LESSONS FOR SMALL BUSINESS

• Simple is good
• Clean is good
• Tabs and buttons that keep you on a page as opposed to links that open new pages are great for enhancing the experience. You don't want people to get lost on your site. The "lab" on this site looks (to the user) like one page, yet you can do all kinds of things.
• Put yourself in the customer's shoes, and imagine they are considering or buying your product in person. What would they want to see and do? Take that, and replicate it on your site to the greatest extent possible.
• Use words and phrases that people actually use when they talk.

YOUR TURN:

What are you favourite sites from a design / user experience perspective?

The top 2 rules for advertising

Rule #1: Advertise where your customers shop

Rule #2: Make that ad stand out from all the other ads

Rolex puts both rules into play with this clever ad on pgatour.com










See what they did there? They advertised on pgatour.com, since (presumably) male golfers are their target audience. And to stand out from the other online ads on the site, they did three things. First, the hands of the watch move in real time (take my word for it). Second, the ad shows the time zone you're in and compares it to the time zone of the tournament you're watching. Third, their ad showed up when I clicked on tee times. Get it?

It's a very atypical ad, in a good way. Noticeable. Clever. Well done Rolex.


LESSONS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES:

Well, to reiterate:

1. Advertise where your customers shop
2. Advertise cleverly; creatively

Social Media "Experts" and pizza delivery drivers - the similarities

Social Media Expert. Sounds good, doesn't it?

If I had a nickel for every Social Media Expert I came across, this blog post would be about how close I came to an ace back on 16.

"Expert" is a term used very loosely, which intrigues me.

To me, an expert is someone with unique, specialized knowledge that is practically inaccessible to the average person.

Neurosurgeons. Laser Scientists. Nuclear Chemists. Those are experts.

Dominos Pizza, I noticed, is referring to themselves as "Pizza Delivery Experts". Really? Is it especially difficult to acquire the knowledge needed to put a pizza in a car and find an address?

Though not to the same extent, I feel the same way about "Social Media Experts". It is not especially difficult to acquire the knowledge needed to participate in online conversations. The difference between simply doing it and doing it well is noticeable. But the point is, with a little effort and dedication, anyone can do it. Some will be better than others because they possess that charisma and appeal (yes, it's evident even online) that makes them popular and respected. Others will be successful because they engage in the online experience more frequently, and for longer periods of time. But all that being said, there's no reason to think that everyday people can't discover the keys to social networking prominence.

I call myself an Advisor. I have advice that I can offer to people and organizations less inclined to make the effort that I have made. If I do my job well, I will share with them all the techniques I have come to embrace in a manner that inspires them to participate in the movement.

My good friend @HiDavidHicks has a blog called hibasme, which is an acronym for How I Became A Social Media Enthusiast. I like that.

I also like that Subway Restaurants now refers to their minimum-wage, behind-the-counter staff as "Sandwich Artists" rather than "Sandwich Experts".

TAKEAWAY FOR YOU:

• You will come across many Social Media Experts. Some much better than others. The best you can do is determine for yourself what you want to take from them, then have them convince you they can do that.
• The next best thing you can do is try it for yourself. If you have the inclination and the (ever-elusive) time, set up some profiles/accounts/pages and play around. Listen. Engage. Take notice of what you like and apply that to your business.
• Finally, in your own company, be careful about labeling yourself as something that you aren't. Your customers will notice and you will lose valuable credibility and brand respect.

Always interested in opinion... especially from Experts!

We are never free of SPAM! An ugly example of Twitter spam.

I continue to have mixed emotions about Twitter.

Don't get me wrong - I like Twitter. I think it allows people... and business... to interact, share, learn and grow. Never before in our history have we been able to share thoughts and content so quickly to so many people. There is good in that on its own.

There are just too many examples of Twitter abuse which continue to taint my impression of its value slightly. Mostly, I see through the abuse and place blame on the Tweeter, not on Twitter. But my Twitter experience is still diminished slightly.

Case in point: this example of Twitter spam.

This is further proof that we are NEVER free of unwanted messages, no matter where we are.

This Tweeter follows NO ONE, has 568 Tweets (at time of writing), each about a topic they are hoping will catch someone's attention. The theory is, if the Tweet is interesting, someone will click on the link. Then they have you - they've directed your interest to their site, where they bombard you with whatever message (unwanted, at that) they choose to promote. Spam. What's more, they've included a random Twitter address. This increases the likelihood someone will notice the Tweet and click on the link (since those random addresses will show up in the "Mentions" section of that person's Home page). It's just another obtrusive tactic to insincerely get your attention.

They have no interest in engaging in a conversation, which is the purpose of Twitter (and other social sites). Their only interest is pushing a message out to you (surreptitiously) when you didn't really want it.

That's spam.

Shame on you, Trixa, and the others like you.

You're giving Twitter a bad name, which it does not deserve.

I really don't know what to make of Twitter, in many cases!

I have written a number of posts now about the peculiarities of Twitter that sometimes make me wonder if Twitter deserves all the credit it is receiving.

Now, I have to admit that Twitter has obviously, with 100 million users, reached a point where it's ingrained in our collective online experience. These peculiarities will not adversely affect its popularity or importance. But, if I can bring some attention to these things that bother me a bit, perhaps I can make a minor contribution to improving the experience for people.

Or at least I might feel better getting some of these things off my chest.

This tweeter has 3 lousy tweets, yet 14,000 followers. There is no chance 14,000 people are interested in what this person has to say. The fact that he follows 14,000 people leads me to believe he's part of the auto-follow community - tweeters who follow auto-followers to build their follower list. They share nothing and gain nothing. They only build their follower list to feel good about themselves.

To me it's an obvious abuse of the application's main feature.

TAKEAWAY FOR YOU:

1. ONLY FOLLOW TWEETERS THAT INTEREST YOU.
2. There's no point in growing a list of auto-followers, because they're not interested in you, so they won't read anything you have to say anyway.
3. Say something interesting!
4. Some people will say that maximizing your following is manageable by creating "lists" of followers and people you follow. OK, but you still need to say something interesting (see #3)!

Customer information is like gold to marketers - handle it with care!

For all businesses, and especially those that classify themselves as small or medium-sized, good customer data is the cornerstone of any decent marketing function.

Email marketing, the second most important marketing tactic according to marketingsherpa.com (next to social network marketing), is quite simply impossible without good email addresses. Direct mail, making a comeback of late, also depends on accurate data.

We all know how hard good data is to collect. Marketers want it, and consumers want to protect it, thus creating the most significant struggle marketers face. So when we have an opportunity to collect it, what can be more important than showing gratitude to the prospect for their willingness to offer it to us, and thanking them afterwards?

Still, I see examples of unappreciative data collection, which to me is quite troubling.

Take this example: This is the online registration process for submitting a classified ad in our local newspaper. As you can see, there is no indication of how my information will be treated by this organization. I am asked to submit my information and move on to the next step without being promised that my information won't be sold to the highest bidder. In this case, because I am the one that wants to place an ad and I'm led to believe that this is the only way to do it, I am forced to submit.

They are saying to me: "we don't really care what privacy concerns you have, if you want a classified ad, this is what you have to do."

Not exactly the treatment I expect as a prospective customer.

And they SHOULD be treating me better than this. This is a newspaper! Newspapers, perhaps more so than any other type of business, are threatened by the prevalence of online news and information. They need my information. They need me to like them. They need to treat me better than that. If I had a better online experience with them, I might be more tempted to subscribe to their paper. Instead, I will rely on local web sites and media sites for my news, thank you.

After some digging, I did discover that they have a decent privacy policy, but I shouldn't have to dig! Make it obvious for me early on in the process and treat me like the valued prospective customer that I am.

TAKEAWAY FOR YOU:

1. You need good customer information. Check the accuracy of the information you have.
2. When you have an opportunity to collect customer information, there should be nothing more obvious than the privacy policy (only a link to it is required) that dictates how delicately you will treat it.
3. Your privacy policy better not be three pages of legalese.
4. Thank the customer for it!
5. Give them something in return! You can sell them something later. Now is the time to thank them.

To create a good home page... don't do this.

Every once in a while, a web site home page catches my attention, for the wrong reasons.

In this case, the London Health Sciences Centre.

Newspaper people use the term "above the fold" - the top half of the front page - to describe the most important portion of the paper. That term has carried over into internet vernacular, and appropriately so. The information on your home page that fits into the browser's screen (without scrolling down) is the most important portion of your entire site. LHSC has used that prime real estate for... the colour brown. What do we, the browsers, gain from looking at the colour brown? That's right. Nothing.

I took a screen shot of this home page a week ago or so, so I figured I should revisit the site to see if they had changed it since. Much to my surprise, they made the SAME critical error with their updated home page!

TAKEAWAY FOR YOU:

• What does your home page say "above the fold"? More importantly, is it useful to the browser? And a photo of your building and the number of years you have been in business is NOT useful to anyone. Nice try.
  
• Use this space to tell the browser why they should spend any time on this site.
  
• Tell them why they should do business with you.
• Tell them how they will benefit from using your product.
• Tell them something!

YOUR TURN:

What are your favourite home pages?

It has started: the death of web sites as we know them!

Check out this online ad for Heineken Light

















Notice anything odd?

1) Prominence of Facebook link
2) ABSENCE of any Heineken brand web address

Not even the slightest reference to www.heineken.com.

This is not the only example I've seen lately. Many brands are using Facebook as their landing page for ad campaigns. And it's not limited to online campaigns - I'm noticing this development on TV too.

Wow.

The power of Facebook.


TAKEAWAY FOR YOU:

Get a Facebook page... NOW! If you have one already, use it more!

Avatar as an examination of marketing

According to BoxOfficeMojo, Avatar has grossed more than $1.4 BILLION, and counting! There is no definitive answer at the time of writing this, but production costs for the movie appear to be close to $300 million, and marketing costs close to $200 million.

So, here's a question (for which there is probably no answer):

How much would the movie gross if they had spent less on marketing? Or more on marketing? How much would the movie gross if they had spent less on production (presumably weakening the quality of the product)?

This is a very common question - one that we grapple with all the time. Will more marketing lead to enough sales to earn our money back? Is the product good enough on its own to be successful without extensive marketing?

And here's another thing business owners and marketers need to keep in mind: It's possible that the movie would have grossed, say, $1.25 billion with no marketing, putting them $50 million ahead of where they are now (saving $200 million on marketing but earning $150 million less). Would that mean the marketing was a waste? It's tempting to say yes, but think of all the awareness for the movie and for James Cameron and for Fox that was generated!


All marketing has benefits beyond its direct impact on sales.


Remember that as you consider investing in marketing.


Your turn: What's your guess about the box office sales with more (or less) spending on the product or on the marketing?

More Twitter abuse, but this is also good... sort of.

Here's something I noticed on Twitter that can also be classified as "abuse" (although some of you might argue that).

These two people sent EXACTLY the same tweet (not identified as re-tweets) at EXACTLY the same time.

There are two reasons that's bad, and one reason that's good:

1. BAD: These people have nothing interesting of their own to say about this particular piece of internet content - they're simply regurgitating.
   
2. BAD: It appears that they're just re-purposing other content as quickly as they can and as often as they can, so as to create an impression that they're connected and socially active (at least online!). That's why I referred to this as "abuse".
   
3. GOOD: The 'Bones' story is apparently interesting enough that people want to share it, which is one of the primary benefits of Twitter. If you have something interesting to say, say it. The more interesting it is, the more people will see it (which applies to more social networking sites, by the way).

So, where do you stand? Abusive regurgitation? Or meaningful viral activity?

Creativity counts - just look at this Mac ad

In my marketing seminars and engagements I preach the importance of creativity. Marketing ideas, and in particular advertising ideas, need to stand out and make you notice. They need memory glue. They need to be different.

There are lots of examples that work, and this Mac ad is a recent example.















Most online ads take up one location on a web page. Most have some kind of animation. Mac took it one step further by buying TWO prime locations on the page, but then also integrating the ads so they work together.

In this ad, PC leaves the right-hand, vertical spot to participate in what's going on in the horizontal spot, while Mac watches (I'd show it to you, but the ad rotates so if I sent you a link, you might not see it).

Genius.

That creative thinking about how to make people notice really works.

Most ads are noise. This ad is memorable.

And that's the whole point: how can you think creatively about how you advertise or market your brand that makes it truly stand out from the noise?

Think Diamond Shreddies

Think Bic razor billboards (click to view).


THINK CREATIVELY


Your turn: what are your favourite ads that truly stood out from the rest - that were truly creative?

More evidence of Twitter abuse

As a follow up to my last post, in which I call into question the intentions of certain Twitterers, here is another example of abuse.








This is a phony Jennifer Aniston account, called jenifferaniston (notice the incorrect spelling). This is not the real Jennifer Aniston. This person is following exactly 0 other people, and has exactly 0 Tweets. Yet almost 120,000 people are following this fake celebrity that is NOT EVEN TWEETING!

That's 120,000 people that are either clueless, or trying to get other jenifferaniston followers to follow them (as part of a popularity contest I referred to in the original post). Again, neither of those are good reasons to follow this bogus account.

Twitter abuse, in my opinion. And again, not Twitter's fault.

Twitter still being abused

Twitter has done enough little things to preserve its relevance and importance and make it the tool it has become today, but it's not free of faults. And I should clarify that the faults aren't Twitter's, they are Twitter users' faults.







Twitter has many benefits and applications, but like many social network marketing tools, has become nothing more than a popularity contest for so many. I see far too many examples of users simply trying to maximize the number of followers they have, as though it is some measure of importance. More on that in another post. Today I am referring to the blind followers - those that follow anyone - presumably in hopes of finding new followers (assuming the people they follow will in turn follow them).

To me that's evidence that they are doing nothing more than seeking to maximize followers. That's why I refer to it as a popularity contest.

Here is the most dramatic example I have found so far: A Twitterer called YouIsMe. This account makes no secret of the fact that they are just an experiment in Twitter popularity. Their description spells it out for everyone: "Mysterious Twitter Social Experiment". They have only one tweet that reads "Is this even possible?" Yet they have more than 12,000 followers at the time of this post.

That's 12,000 people that have signed up to learn absolutely nothing.

They've decided to follow because they think it's funny, or (more likely) because they're blindly following as part of their popularity effort. Neither reason is a good one.

There is lots of Twitter abuse out there, and this is an obvious example.

Blackberry: the good, the bad and the spectacular

Blackberry's running a new "Blackberry Loves U2" campaign, and I'm not quite sure if I like it or not.






The good:

It's different.

I'm really tired of the "me-too" ad. Too many industries include brands that just copy each other's ads. Watch any car commercial and you'll know exactly what I mean. With the exception of the iPhone, advertising in the mobile market is fairly repetitive. All about features. "My phone has this, my phone has that, my phone flips this way, my phone flips that way". It's no wonder the iPhone does so well - their ads really stand out. Well, now so do Blackberry's. Their TV spot in particular is intriguing to say the least. And it doesn't list one feature.

The bad:

You can't tell what it is. The TV spot shows only U2 in concert, and closes with a "Blackberry Loves U2" teaser line.

OK.

So what!

I'm happy for you that you like U2, but that doesn't do anything for me - the consumer. What are you trying to tell me? What are you trying to sell me? All I can do is go to the dedicated url to learn more. But that's asking the consumer to do quite a bit. The more you ask them to do, the less they will be inclined to do it. I would have at least liked them to tell me what it is they're trying to promote. The ad is memorable, but all I remember is that Blackberry thinks U2 is cool.

The spectacular:

This ad is far from ugly. The production quality is outstanding and if nothing else, you come away from it feeling impressed by Blackberry for such an undertaking. And that's saying a lot. Do something impressive and people will remember you for that reason alone. It's not cheap, but it works. Remember the launch of Windows and the whole Rolling Stones "Start Me Up" thing? I thought you would.


So while there are some holes in the approach, Blackberry is certainly taking a leap. And getting noticed in the meantime. As a marketer, I just think they needed to tell us more while they had our attention.

Agree?

Zellers sets a new standard for terrible

This is www.zellers.com...















So let's reflect on this for a minute...

• Approximately 95% of the space "above the fold" on the home page has nothing on it
• Approximately 75% of that space is just BLANK
• I can't find any sort of catalogue (just the recent flyer) or list of products they sell
• I can't buy anything online
• The home page seems to want to promote their specials, but they don't update it often enough (that Sung promo's been there for a WHILE)

Sure, maybe they want to drive shoppers to the physical store, but COME ON. You mean to tell me that you really don't want any business from the MILLIONS of people that shop online?

The reason I saw this in the first place is I am in the market for a new flat screen TV. Zellers has an electronics department. And TVs are a big ticket, big margin item!

No catalogue.

No ability to shop online.

I took my hundreds of dollars somewhere else.

Clarity in advertising

Doesn't this ad just say it all?
















I know it's not that different from the other training ads, but most of them say "get the body you want...". This one comes right out and says it: "get THIS body".

It also appeals to a very specific audience. If you've seen 300, you'll get it right away. If not, well, you won't be tempted to click on the ad (and the advertiser won't pay a dime).

Clarity and simplicity are good. Especially in crowded advertising spaces like FaceBook.


Your turn: Any examples of "clarity" ads?

Email Best Practices

A couple of weeks ago I attended MarketingSherpa's Email Summit in Miami. Conferences like these are always so inspiring. In fact, there are 10 things I want to share with you from the conference. These are ideas and themes that will help you build business through email marketing. Some of these things will be familiar to you, some will be new thoughts. I hope you find something that will help you get more share!

Here they are: the Top 10 Things I Took Away From the Email Summit (full article can be read at shareofmarketing.com):

10) Email Marketing and Social Media Marketing are the ONLY TWO marketing tactics receiving bigger budgets by more companies than not.
9) If your email fails, try it again (but differently, of course)!
8) Email Marketing is a science as much as it's an art. Test your new emails using control groups.
7) Think about what your customers are reading (e.g. do you really want them to 'submit' to you?).
6) Put email technology tools to work. And keep tweaking to improve response.
5) A simple test to evaluate your email content: "Where am I?"; "What am I supposed to do?"; "Why should I?"
4) Analytics are a given.
3) Landing pages are a given.
2) Testing is a given.
1) People are NOT sick of emails. They're sick of receiving emails that aren't relevant to them. So keep sending them, but make them important, relevant, valuable and compelling!

Again, you can click here to read the full article, which includes commentary for each of the thoughts above. Enjoy!