Event Marketing and Event Promotions

Your Web Site as a Traffic Filter

If someone were to tell you to limit the amount of traffic coming to your web site, how would you react? A typical first reaction might be, “the more traffic to my web site the better, right?” Ironically that is rarely the case. The topic of “the right traffic” is one of those counter intuitive strategies for web sites.

Here is an example. One of the most popular articles on this site, “Beach Running Tips,” doesn’t have anything to do with internet or event marketing. I get a decent amount of daily traffic because of the article. Yet over 99% of the users just read the article and leave. The traffic is of little or no use to my business.

The Right Traffic
It isn’t about how much traffic you get to your web site, it’s about how much of the right traffic you get to your web site. Traffic to your web site is analogous with foot traffic into a retail store.  If you get enough people through the doors, some people will eventually buy something. Yet, if you get the right people through the door of your store, you’ll sell significantly more.

Refocusing Your Content
Recently I’ve spent a lot of time focusing on creating content for this site on a very specific target market. The transition wasn’t something that happened overnight. But the time was well worth the investment. As a result of making changes, the number and quality of my leads has gone up significantly. The best part is that these new leads are contacting me not having to contact other people.

You can approach traffic in the same manner. Think of ways to filter irrelevant traffic from your web site. Is there something you can easily implement to prevent unrelated traffic from visiting your web site?  Yes, you do need traffic to your web site. But much more importantly you need relevant traffic to your web site. One of the best ways to get the right traffic to your web site is by creating relevant content on your web site. Ask yourself, is this going to be useful to the person reading the information?  More importantly, is the information helpful to the person and relevant to your business, product, or service?

Keeping Your Event List Engaged

How often do you engage your list?  Engaging your list means sending some type of information to a group of target market subscribers. The materials could be anything from an email newsletter to using “snail mail” to keep in touch.  In other posts I’ve given out information for growing your list. In today’s post, I’m going to quickly look at some ways to deal with people unsubscribing from your list.

When you’re growing your list it’s really important to get your timing interval set for what works best for your target market. Over the years I’ve seen both sides of the engagement spectrum, from too much to too little. My clients engage their list anywhere from once a quarter to every week. Contrary to popular belief, too many people under engage their list.

Ask Two Questions . . .
My one recommendation for determining how many times to engage your list is to look at all your points of feedback and data. There are two recommendations I have for my clients. Ask yourself the following two questions as they apply to your list:

1. Are a number of people unsubscribing from your list?
   If you’re getting a high number of people unsubscribing from your list you might want to take a hard look at your tactics. A big factor in high unsubscribe rates is people feeling like they’re getting “sales pitched to death.” If you are sending high quality information you can probably send more often and not see as many people unsubscribe. There is one client I have with a list of almost 600 email subscribers. They’ve been sending regular emails out, now sending weekly, and two people have unsubscribed. I would argue that 2 people unsubscribing is a very low rate for sending emails over 5 months.
2. What type of feedback are your list subscribers sending you?
   Are people very positive with their responses to your emails?  If nobody is writing you back and you find people are still unsubscribing, you might not be connecting with your target market. Look for quality versus quantity on the feedback issue.  Don’t assume that because you’re not getting a deluge of positive emails that something is wrong. When my client with the 600 person email list ask for feedback from their list only 10 people responded. But all the responses were very positive. If you are getting primarily negative responses or people are expressing concern, it’s time to change how you engage your list. 

The Simplest Thing to Do
Send your list an email and ask them what they think of the information you are providing them.  Every time I ask people to write what they think the response has been extremely enlightening. If you’re having challenges with your list, you might find that you list subscribers can give you value feedback for improvements.

Maintaining your list might be more important than growing your list. It doesn’t matter how many people you get to subscribe if they don’t stay very long on your list.

Additional Resources:

• Start Building Your List Early
• Multiple Ways to Engage Your Event List
• The Second Worst Thing For Your List
• Building Anticipation For Your Event with Email Marketing

Huge Marketing Decisions: The Devil is in the Details

Over the last few weeks I’ve been sending and producing a decent amount of electronic event marketing materials for clients.  Part and parcel of the emails is the data which the system provides.  Collecting good permission based data has opened my eyes to marketing possibilities and other view points I would have never of considered. As an example, have you ever had a scenario where you knew you were absolutely positively right about something? Then, you find out an important piece of information and what you were convinced was an absolute gets completely turned upside down. Having good data tends to force us to consider other marketing solutions or ideas.

"I Have a Hunch About This . . ."
The above scenario plays out all the time with a numerous well meaning companies. Someone in senior management gets a marketing idea in their head based on a strong personal belief or hunch. In many cases they back up their decision with “I’m the boss and this (whatever it may be) is going to be done!” What they should ask themselves and what other people should diplomatically inquire about is providing data for their viewpoint. Obviously it can’t be for every marketing decision, but consider examining good supporting data for your most important marketing decisions.  Why am I so adamant about data to backup big marketing decisions?  I’ve seen companies needlessly blow valuable human resources and countless dollars on decisions that would have been different with very basic data. 

The Idea of the Day
My suggestion for today is to always try and collect as much good data as possible. The data could be anything from email open rates, to link tracking, web stats, or even customer surveys. Online technology has made collecting data quick and very inexpensive. What took marketers weeks and months to accomplish in previous years can now be completed in a few short hours.

Multi Million Dollar Example
There was an interesting “testing and tracking” interview I listened to last week between Scott Hallman and Eben Pagan that really drives home the point.

In the interview Scott brings up the methodology of A/B split testing. He told the story of a “big realization moment” while presenting to a room full of high end marketers. During a pause in Scott’s presentation one of conference facilitators asked “How many people in the room A/B test?” Almost everyone raised their hand. The question was finally refined down to “How many people test daily?” Very few people in the room still had their hands up. The facilitator asked the few people who tested daily, “How much do you make a year?” Those people responded individually, “$20 million, $3.5 million, $6 million . . .”

If you’re serious about being successful with any type of marketing, data collection is quintessential.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• What is Web Usability? And Why You Should Care . . .
• Web Usability: The Importance of Balancing Content and Graphic Design
• Hitting a HOME RUN with Your Web Site
• Don’t Pollute Your Web Site
• Do You Make These Usability Mistakes?
• Objectivity Paves the Way to Online Success
• LCU (Least Competent User) Usability Testing
• Web Usability - ALERT! Dominant Users and Focus Groups
  
  

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

The Second Worst Thing For Your List

A few years ago a clients had an email subscriber list of almost a 1000 people.  Recently, the client’s list was migrated to a new database that featured tracking of email open rates and bounce backs.  The first newsletter I sent out for my client utilizing the new system returned horrifying results.  Over 60% of the emails were returned undeliverable. Of the 40% of emails that were delivered less than half actually opened their email.  The end result, of almost 1000 emails sent only about 200 people opened the email my client sent. Unfortunately the client hadn’t sent an email to their subscriber list in some time. 

The problem was further compounded by the fact that there was no tracking to determine email effectiveness. You can’t improve if you can’t measure and reapply knowledge.  In order for any email list to be effective you must be able to track open rates, click through, and bounce backs.  I recommend a third party application like 1ShoppingCart or Constant Contact.

Beyond Delivering Value
If you’ve read any of my other posts on list building you know the importance I place on delivering a tremendous amount of value to your list subscribers.  If you can’t deliver value to your list, your emails are probably viewed as SPAM.  There is a second caveat to list building that a number of businesses never consider. It isn’t enough just to have a list and grow it. Regardless of the size of your list, you must constantly engage your list subscribers on a regular basis. Each signup you have to your list has a limited amount of time. It is up to you keep your list subscribers engaged. 

How Often to Engage Your List
One of the biggest problems I see businesses make is not engaging their subscriber list enough.  As a result their list suffers atrophy. If you aren’t engaging your list on a regular basis, subscribers quickly lose interest.  As a general rule of thumb, send an email to your subscriber list no less than once a month and no more than once a week.  Keep in mind that there are exceptions to almost every rule. The exact time frame is dependent on your actual target market’s tolerance.  You can either test or conduct a survey with existing list subscribers.

You need to accept that very few prospects are going to become lifetime subscribers to any email list. Focus your efforts on constantly growing you list and delivering maximum value on a regular basis.

Your Domain Name and Television Advertising

For today's post I'm going to concentrate on getting the most out of your web site with television advertising.  The premise hinges on the core concept of web centric marketing. How many details can you remember about a commercial you just viewed? Chances are not very many. Getting the viewer to remember your domain name should be one of the main objectives of any form of advertising. A domain name is far easier to remember compared to numerous other details. One of the fundamentals behind web centric marketing is to get people back to your web site where they can digest the information at their own pace.

Starting Point
I'm writing from the premise that your commercial already has a unique selling proposition for the viewer and that it doesn't drown anyone with too much information. Make sure your messaging connects with the viewer in a meaningful way.

Use a Letter Box
Using a letterbox allows you to chisel out an area of the television frame to display a message. If you aren't sure what a letter box is check out the Wikipedia Letterbox article for an example. There is a matte at the top and the bottom of the screen.  You are going to use the bottom matte to insert a brief call to action and your domain name.  It is your discretion if you wish to keep the top matte. The call to action and domain name should be constant throughout the length of the commercial. By using the bottom matte you also insure that your domain name doesn't get lost due to audio or video.

Have a Strong Call to Action
Regardless of the length of your commercial, it is imperative to have a strong call to action. There are numerous commercials that list a web site but don't give people a good reason to visit the listed web site. What can you do with a few words to get your target market to your web site?  Below I've included some quick ideas:

• "Watch Exclusive Video ..."
• "Get a Free Report, Chapter, Information Packet ..."
• "Discounted Online Tickets ..."
• "Exclusive Interviews ..."
• "Get Insider Information ..."

Keep your call to action short and to the point. Consider reemphasizing your call to action at the end of the commercial.

An Excellent Example
Follow the link below for a great example of a 30 second commercial that embodies the suggestions from above. Notice the bottom static banner. The domain name is accompanied by a brief blurb "FOR TICKETS & INFO." It gives the viewer a reason to view the web site.  The domain name is constantly in front of the viewer and reemphasized at the end of the commercial. Production quality on the commercial is also excellent.

• Gathering of Mustangs and Legends 30 Second Spot (AirShowBuzz.com)

Don't Forget to Test
If you have the budget and a little extra time test your commercial with your target audience. The web and ease of digitizing has made testing quick and very affordable.  It can be as simple as posting your commercial online and emailing the link to a small group of people. The results might surprise you.

Getting Your Marketing Message Across

Last week I listened in to a teleconference presented by Eben Pagan. Some people might know Eben by his pen name David DeAngelo. One of Eben's most successful web sites can be found at doubleyourdating.com.  If you visit the doubleyourdating web site and cringe, hold off judging "a book by its' cover." The model used for doubleyourdating.com generated over $20 Million USD in revenue for Eben last year. Some of the core marketing concepts he used to generate his $20 Million in revenue were presented in his teleconference. For today’s post I’m going to share my notes from Eben’s teleconference. The crux of Eben's information focused on marketing, listening, and testing.

What is Marketing?
There are a plethora of different definitions for marketing. One really useful definition brought up during the call was that marketing is “letting people know about something they already need.”  Marketing isn’t about being manipulative.  Marketing is about identifying and meeting your customer’s needs with the products and services you offer. Most companies approach marketing and product/service creation by assuming the wants and needs of their target market.  Making assumptions about your target market is a recipe for disaster. During my own business journey I’ve been witness to several businesses create marketing campaigns built upon dangerous assumption. I cannot think of one marketing campaign that was ultimately successful. Focusing on your end user is also crucial for any successful web venture. Put the user before your company, product, or service.

Get Into Their Ego
In order to create better marketing you need to separate you and/or your company’s ego from providing your customers with the best possible product or service.  Egocentrism and idealism end up costing companies dearly.  Instead of approaching your marketing message from the “we know best” angle, as most companies do, concentrate your messaging on your customer’s wants and needs. Use words like “you and your” in your messaging.

It is far easier to get your marketing message across when you establish trust and credibility with your prospect.  Don’t try to change your customer’s mind, because they won’t let you.  You can’t use logic to talk someone into doing something they don’t want to do.  Tie your customer’s wants and needs into their emotions and feelings, “we understand your pain and here is a solution we think might help.” If people don’t have the sense of being understood they aren’t likely to feel trust or take action.

Listen to Your Market
If you want a better understanding of your market you need to listen to them.  Start with asking insightful questions and don’t make assumptions. Something as simple as an email survey can give you valuable information to help identify your target market’s wants and needs.  Drill down deep to get the best information possible.  Here are some questions to consider . . .

• What’s most important to my prospect?
• Is the prospect unhappy about something?
• Am I overlooking a want or need?

Don’t Forget to Test
Eben passes along the advice to “test everything and never get too attached to anything.”  You can test everything from your marketing messages to your products and services.  You can’t afford to approach your marketing with the “there is only one best way to do this” mindset. Think about how many different ways you can do something without overextending your time or resources.  When testing it is important not to set your expectations too high. Businesses should expect an 80% failure rate. Each failure is an opportunity to learn something new. You can only fail so many times before you figure it out. If you’re not testing you’re setting yourself up for failure. You need to repeat the cycle of testing and reimplementing on a continual basis. Approach everything you do in terms of marketing as a test.

Marketing is by far one of the most important factors in determining the success of your product or service. The most effective way to get your marketing message across is by listening and constantly testing. Take a few minutes to consider how you might be able to integrate some of the concepts presented above.

Additional Resources:

• Ego: How to Destroy Your Web Site
• On Failure: Thomas Edison and the Internet

Do You Test Your Web Site Often Enough?

If you bring up the subject of testing your marketing, most people let out a groan of exasperation.  Most companies don't like to test their marketing or their web site. The process to develop a web side is arduous enough, then to go and test can be even more work. The honest truth is that testing your marketing message and your web site is one place that will make a world of difference in terms of your online success.  You should constantly be asking yourself if your marketing and web site are connecting with your end user.

The Right Kind of Testing
One problem companies have with testing their marketing or web site is the potential hit to their ego. Companies put a great deal of pride into their work.  In the case of the company web site, it's the company's version of a digital presentation.  Difficulties arise when companies can't separate themselves from their own pride. The company's ego is getting in the way of its' online success. The best kind of testing is accomplished when a company can separate itself from its' ego. Putting the user as your focal point will put more dollars into the bank, guaranteed!

What to Test
When it comes to web site testing the possibilities are nearly endless. There are a few core areas where you should definitely focus your efforts.

Key Areas to Test

• Headlines
• Web Site Copy
• Checkout Process
• Forms

How to Test
One of the easiest ways to test is with an A/B Split Test. You have one version of a web page and test it against a similar version. Some of the differences can included different headlines or body copy.  The bottom line is that you want to test which message or web page better connects with your user.

Test on a Regular Basis
There is no best time frame for testing. My personal recommendation is test your web site on a quarterly basis. The more testing you can do the better.

Usability and Marketing Intersection
The realm of testing is one crucial area where web usability and internet marketing intersect. If you test to ensure your marketing is effective and that your web site is easy to use, it's difficult not to make money online.

The web was built for versatility. It is fairly easy to update and change almost any web site. Use that versatility to your advantage.

Stop Drowning Your Users

Have you ever gone to a new web site and been completely lost upon arrival? If so, take note of that feeling. Too many business web sites have a tendency to overwhelm their users upon arrival.  It’s like getting hit with a fire hose of information. Instead of staying focused on a very specific message that connects with the user, web sites try to cram as much information onto the home page as possible. If you want to be successful online you can’t drown your users in information.

Being Bombarded by Advertising
Consider how much advertising you get bombarded with on a daily basis: billboards, television commercials, radio advertising, junk mail, etc. If your target user sits down to their computer after being bombarded with advertising, what is their frame of mind? They’re probably at their wits end and won’t entertain any more marketing ploys or advertising.

Users Don’t Complain, They Stop Visiting
As a side note, most users don’t take the time to send a web site owner an email indicating their dissatisfaction, users just stop visiting.  There is enough competition and variety that if a user can’t find what they’re looking for on your web site, they’ll probably be able to find it on another web site.  It is imperative to hook any new users that your web site can provide them the information they seek. If you’re getting traffic to your web site and people are taking a desired action, you must honestly ask yourself “why not?”

Give Them One Simple Message That Connects
Successful online web sites typically have one message that is usually contained in a strong headline. The message is specifically targeted at the target audience. Everything contained on page, design, graphics, and text, is there to support the messaging. Take the time to identify what you’re prospects are looking for and then create your marketing message that hooks them in immediately. Copywriters follow this process with any ad they create. The headline leads to the first sentence, the first sentence to the second and so forth.

Some Simple Tips:

• Keep the message simple and specifically for your target user.
• Don’t add elements to your web site that will distract your users
  (advertising, distracting multimedia, unnecessary verbiage)
• Pull at your target user’s heart strings, get them emotionally involved

Remember it’s usually the simplest and most direct message that makes the biggest difference in marketing. Instead of focusing on dozens of ways to get your message across, just focus one very specific high impact message.  In today’s world, less is more.

Online Success: A Hands On Example

On Tuesday, Beth Davis of HandAnalyst.com was good enough to give me some of her time to conduct a phone interview. I would encourage anyone reading this post to give her web site a quick look over before proceeding further, HandAnalyst.com. Per her biography, "Beth is a professional palm reader specializing in non-predictive palmistry." Beth was just recently awarded the Glazer-Kennedy 2007-2008 Information Marketer of the Year.  She sells a Hand Analysis home study course on her web site, entitled "How To Read Your Own Hands: 5 Proven Steps To Bring More Health, Love and Money Into Your Life," and provides a variety of coaching and consulting services. During my telephone conversation with Beth, she gave some tremendously helpful advice and insider knowledge on how she's attained a high level of success. The best part is that her success continues to grow. Anyone looking for success on the Internet should read carefully and think about some of the ideas presented as they pertain to their own web site.

Going Beyond the Graphics
Too many businesses get caught up in how a web site looks. Beth does web usability people proud by emphasizing the delivery of high quality content before graphic design. At the same time she doesn't believe that web sites should be ugly. She actually passed along a great quote regarding web design:

“Better to have a basic boring site web site that generates interest and captures traffic than a beautiful web site that strokes your ego. It’s about the depth of the content.  Pictures should be there to add validity to the content.”
Beth Davis
HandAnalyst.com

• Present your users with easy to understand, relevant, and useful content FIRST.
• Support your content with good design SECOND.

Capture Leads and Build a High Quality List
Beth's web site has several places where she asks her users to sign up for her e-zine. To some businesses the sign up box and pop up might seem a bit overkill, but in truth Beth is doing a very smart thing.  Most people visit your web site never to return. Beth's site is structured for the permission based capture of email addresses. The only people who sign up are those that are interested. Are you doing something to actively capture visitor information?

Many Internet marketers are caught up on the size of their mailing list. Beth's list is comparatively modest in size, but very high in quality. She emphasized her desire to create the highest quality list possible. Most of her list growth has occurred over the course of the last year. Beth sends out an e-zine every two weeks to her subscribers with relevant high quality information. The e-zine helps Beth build relationships with her customers and potential customers.  Always remember that trust and credibility are huge factors for any web site looking to sell a product or sell services.

• Are you engaging in lead generation on your web site?
• Do you currently have an e-zine?
• If not, can you provide useful information to your subscriber base on a regular basis?
• Provide way more information than sales pitch in your e-zines.
  (95% Info, 5% Sales Pitch) per Joe Vitale.

Be Passionate!
One point that Beth really emphasized was the need to be passionate about your work. If you love what you are doing it helps to drive your business and your success. The only point I might add is don't get discouraged. A number of my friends who have for their own businesses tend to get discouraged far too easily.  Some of the biggest success isn't always found by working hard, but by being persistent with the right things. In many cases the right things are so simple that many people don't consider them important.

• Stay tenacious about your passions and let it drive your work.
• Turn your failures into lessons, the more you fail the more you learn.
• There are only so many times you can fail before you get it right.

Make sure you take the time to consider some of the points presented above and visit Beth's web site.  The advice might seem overly simplistic but it work wonders when implemented. Thanks again to Beth for her time and all the great insight that she provided. Beth's tremendous success was originally brought to my attention by my friend Nancy Roberts of iNsights PPS, so my thanks also goes out Nancy.

Additional Resources:

• The E-Zine Queen - How to publish your own simple ezine
• Looks Lousy But Performs Like a Champ
• The Most Fun You Can Have with Your Clothes On

Separate Yourself From Everyone Else

Today's post is a short riff on finding success online.  This post is geared a little more toward entrepreneurs, hopefully traditional business people can get something out of it. It has absolutely nothing to do with what technology or any given Internet strategy.  It has more to do with "stem power," brain stem power to be precise. Of all the great Internet techniques and strategies I've come across few if any are universal to every online success story.  One person might be extremely successful with something that doesn't work for anyone else. There are commonalities at the mental level and they have to do with you as an individual and your business approach.  If you have the right mindset and approach you'll probably be far more successful than the person with all the tricks up their sleeve.

Your Mindset
The first place any online entrepreneur needs to start is with their own mind set.  This might sound cliche but what you believe dictates your reality both online and off.  If you think that there is little opportunity online or off for you than that is your reality. The most successful online entrepreneurs see the Internet as a hotbed for opportunity. You need to adopt an abundance mentality. There is more opportunity than you could possibly imagine.

Don't Limit Yourself Because of Your Educational Background
Many of the most highly sought after Internet Consultants don't have a Masters Degree in Computer Science or Internet Marketing. Some super successful online entrepreneurs don't even have a college degree. There are certain people who can teach you more about being successful online in a few days than you'll ever learn from a top Business school and you'll save yourself $100K+.  Formal education is important, but it isn't required.  It is more important to educate yourself on a continuing basis than it is to have a traditional education in a specific field.

One of the best education steps you can take is "going to the top of the mountain." Find something your passionate about and then approach the very best in your field. Don't let the Monday Morning Quarterbacks try to tell you what to do. Attend the conferences and seminars where the best in your field are to be found.  You can also find a wealth of information online in blogs and forums. Follow the advice of the best, not the second or third best.

Execute Your Ideas and Embrace Failure
Focus in on ideas that you are passionate about.  Play around your ideas and then QUICKLY put your ideas into motion. I spent years on perfecting million dollar ideas that have never been launched. How many times have you heard the saying, "An idea is no good unless you do something with it!" You'll be amazed by what you can learn just from trying something new.

I have friends with unbelievable talents and ideas who started their own web sites.  They're not going to see their dreams come to fruition because the can't overcome simple challenges and minor failures. Too many people are easily discouraged.  Learn to embrace failure and quickly get back in the saddle.  Just like Thomas Edison it isn't about how many times you fail, it's being able to look at each "failure" as a valuable lesson. You can learn an abundance of things online without spending a dime.

The ultimate litmus test for any online business endeavor is dollars in the bank, regardless of what technique or methodology you use.  I've seen the most improbable web sites make money and the most pristine fail miserably. Tomorrow I'm going to follow up with a real life success story full of great actionable advice.

Simple Customer List Building Suggestions

Every company or business owner should have there own dedicated list of customers, members, or perspective customers.  For all my years doing Internet development and marketing, I believe that list building is one of the best ways to generate interest and sales for your products and services. In a number of cases a well build list can significantly reduce and in some cases replace the need for traditional advertising.  For all the benefits a dedicated customer list has there aren't that many businesses that build a list. Even fewer businesses properly manage and leverage their list. Below are a few consideration that almost anyone can easily implement.

Permission Based List Building
If you are doing any type of list building, make sure it is permission based.  Always ask for permission and acknowledgment from every person you add to your list.  For list building purposes, acknowledgment comes in the form of the double opt-in.  In a double opt-in the person is asked to verify their intension with an email send back to them.  Most bulk email programs have the double opt-in as a standard feature.

If people are signing up for an email list, make sure they white list you in their email and SPAM programs. Contact information is no good if you can make contact with someone.

Start with The People Who Know You
The easiest place to start list building is with your existing and perspective customers. If you have a traditional brick and mortar company like a restaurant, consider asking your patrons to sign up first.  It is much easier to get emails and mailing addresses from people who have an affinity for your product. If you have an event web site that has been running for a few years, consider asking all the people that emailed you to become subscribers. It is important that you ask people to sign up for your list. Because someone emails you doesn't give you the right to automatically add them to a subscriber list.

Use a Contest or Promotion
Remember when the Nintendo Wii or the iPhone was released? People will jump through hoops to get something they really want for free.  It might be worth giving away a highly sought after product or service in exchange for people subscribing to your list.  Consider running a promotion or giveaway to collect email addresses.

Disclosure
Let people know what they are getting into when they sign up to your list. If you promise them coupons on a regular basis make sure you deliver on your promises.  Create a privacy policy that is easily accessible.  Be very specific in letting people know they won't get spammed. Last but not least, don't spam! The quickest way to negate the effectiveness of your list is by spamming list subscribers.

Consider a List Broker
List brokers are a great way to jump start your list building endeavors. You can give a list broker specific demographic parameters and for a reasonable fee they will return target list of prospects.  If you're just starting with list building a broker might be the easiest way to go.

Go Old School For Big Returns
There are so many businesses that are currently using email marketing that you might want to consider going retro. Some of the savviest Internet marketers use the web to generate leads online and then follow up with snail mail.  For some this might be counter intuitive, but it really does work. One of my client's enjoyed a 1200%+ return on investment by leveraging one of her mailing lists with traditional snail mail. In today's digital world people still like tangible items.

Think Small for Big Returns
An intriguing question for any list builder is the quality versus quantity dilemma. Some would argue that the bigger the list the better. Interestingly enough smaller lists have proven to be diamond mines for a number of Internet Marketers. A small highly focused list will always get you more than a large board list. You are better off building a solid relationship of trust and credibility with a smaller list, as opposed to a general list

I'll be revisiting the notion of list building in future posts. There should be enough information above to at least get you thinking about setting up and refining your own list.

Leveraging Your Existing Customer List

Last week a client sent out a direct marketing piece to their customer list via traditional snail mail.  I was aware that the client had both an email and traditional mail database for two years, yet I wasn't aware of the size of their traditional mailing list until last year. To my surprise the client had over 3,500 people on their mailing list for their local and national clients. They had built their list over the last twenty years.

It had been a few years since my client last tried any paper sales letters or announcements with their existing client base. They decided to send out an announcement about upcoming education sessions and the redesign of their web site.  I received a copy of the letter they sent out to their list and it left much to be desired.  But my emphasis was on getting something out, regardless of quality.  After almost a year of urging the client finally caved in to my request. The original mailing went out to 100 people in the local area. It pulled a very respectable response rate of around 5%. A few weeks after the campaign we measured the Return on Investment to be over 1200.00%. The above example illustrates one of the best revenue generating tools available to almost any company, an existing customer list.

Lead Online Follow Up With Mail
Now that many businesses are preoccupied with email marketing fewer companies are using traditional marketing methods. Some of the best internet marketers use their web sites as lead generation tools and follow up with traditional methods such as paper sales letters. Cultivating online leads with paper follow up has proven to be highly successful for a number of people.  Yet it is technique that few companies consider. It is important to remember that in today's digital world, people still like tangible items. Use tangible marketing materials to your advantage.

Those Who Have Bought Are More Likely to Buy
If you have spent the time to cultivate a good relationship with your potential customer and existing customer base, try approaching them before anyone investing in additional marketing of new customers. Some of the easiest people to sell to are those who already value and trust your advice, service, or product line.

A major blunder companies make is soliciting their customer lists with relentless sales pitches. People grow resentful of such techniques. I'm still a firm believer in Dr. Joe Vitale's suggestion of giving your customers/potential customers 95% information and 5% sales pitch.  You should build and reiterate the feelings of trust and credibility with customers and potential customers on a regular basis. Send them information that would be useful to them and don't get preoccupied with making the sale.  It might seem counter intuitive, but it really does work.

Revisiting Something Successful
In terms of event marketing, consider ticket sales. I have had experience with a service that sold event tickets online.  That particular service was able to enjoy an over 90% satisfaction rate for their ticketing service.  What good reason would there be not follow up with previous customers for upcoming or similar events? In my opinion, one of the single best investments of time and money for event marketers is in their previous customer list.  Use the time between events to build your list and keep your existing list subscribers informed.

If you are looking to quickly generate some additional revenue, start with your existing customer list. It's hard to think of any other marketing conduit that offers such a high return on investment.

Fortune is In the Follow Up, But You Need to Follow Up

Do you have a follow plan for all your prospects? A few days ago I posted on a new client's success with traditional advertising they ported to a different medium in "Bring Your Offline Marketing To The Online World." Since then, the client was fortunate enough to have the same advertisement emailed to a list of local government employees.  According to the client, their telephone didn't stop ringing for two days with government employees calling to inquire about the email advertisement.  The success garnered with the advertisement is a great start. If you have advertising or marketing that is pulling a great initial response, it doesn't mean you can rest on your laurels.  It is important to have a follow up method to engage warm leads.

Start By Getting Their Information
When a perspective customer calls or emails you and they're interested in your product or service based a piece of marketing or referral, get their contact information. One of the most important things you can do is kindly attempt to get their contact information. This is the first step in establishing a follow up process with warm leads.

Have a Follow Up Process In Place
One of the biggest mistakes I see businesses make is not having enough follow up with a perspective client or customer.  Most businesses send one or two pieces of marketing material, usually laden with a bunch of sales pitch and little valuable information.  They don't do enough to establish trust and credibility with a perspective client or customer. How many businesses do you have a five or more step follow up process?  I'm not trying to encourage anyone to frivolously spend money. But the more times you target the right people with the right message, the more success you'll enjoy.

People Are Unlike To Say "Stop!" if there is Value
Some people are nervous about asking for contact information or beginning the follow up process. There is a difference between "I'm not interested right now" and "stop calling because you're getting on my nerves!" Always have some information ready to go to send out to a perspective client or customer.  It can be anything from a free report or other pertinent information.

Engaging your customers or clients takes more than just a few short interactions.  Consider the sales process like a relationship.  How many people are successful with asking "Would you like to get married?" after the first date?  Compare that with someone who asks the same question after the 50th date.  Take some time to build trust and credibility through a good follow up process.  You'll find it much easier to close deals and keep your business going.

"I Have No Clue What They Do, Do You?"

A few weeks ago I was in a follow up meeting with a client.  The client couldn't stop raving about the positive feedback they were receiving on their newly redesigned web site. The design firm that redesigned the client's web site had done a great job. My part of the project was to advise on web usability issues. During the course of our discussion the client decided to visit the development company's web site.  It was at that point that the discussion became very interesting.

We've Spent Three Months Working With Them
As the client loaded the developer's web page, I took the opportunity to conduct an impromptu usability study.  Initially, the client spent a few moments on the home page and then a few minutes noodling on secondary pages.  After a few more minutes of exploring the developer's web site the client responded with this statement, "we've spent the last three months working with this company, yet when I go to their web site I have no idea what they actually do." The irony of the situation is that this same scenario presented above plays out on a regular basis for many companies. Regardless how good your product or service, your web site might not give users the information they seek.  It is also important for companies to ask the question, "am I giving the web user a good reason to pickup the phone or contact me via email?"

Going to the Stat Sheet
After meeting with the client, I decided to look into the matter a little further. The first place I started was with the development company's web statistics.  The owner of the development company is a friend and he was good enough to allow me access to the company's web statistics. Their web statistics tell a very interesting story.  The average user spends over eight minutes of time on the company's web site and views more than 7 individual pages.  Those are some pretty respectable numbers for any company web site. A majority of their users aren't bouncing out off the site after viewing a page or two. Thousands of people visited this company's web site, and not one visitor has picked up the phone or emailed to inquire about their services. If thousands of people are coming to your web site and taking absolutely no action, you should be concerned.

A Silver Lining
I do believe that the situation presents an advantageous opportunity for the development company or any other company caught in a similar dilemma. If you haven't had an opportunity to do so, get your current clients to review your company web site. I find that satisfied clients are pretty good about providing good feedback without patronizing.  If don't have clients to rely on, ask some friends who are objective to help. As long as you can view the feedback objectively, the information you collect can be used to strengthen and refine your online presence. You might be surprised what you can learn.

The lesson to be learned is pretty straight forward. If thousands of people are visiting your company web site, viewing numerous pages, and spending a lot of time on your site, then doing nothing about it . . . you have a problem.  You need to recognize the situation and do something about it.

The $martest Advertisers Recognize the Need To Test

Over the last two years I've spent a tremendous amount of time studying some of the most successful marketing strategies on the Internet and from traditional marketplaces.  Most, if not all, of the top marketers test their marketing materials. Those that fail to test their online efforts: web site, email marketing campaign, Adwords campaign, etc. are setting themselves up for failure.

Test, Measure, Change, Retest
The ability to test and measure a web site or a piece of marketing material, e.g. an Adwords Ad, can make a significant amount of difference in your marketing efforts. Tested ads save advertisers money and increase their revenue. Too many companies and individual are turned off by the prospect of repeatedly testing a web site or their ads for effectiveness. Some classic excuses are "we don't have the time" or "we tried X once and it didn't work."  Consider your Google Adwords Campaign.  Do you test, measure, and retest changes to your Adwords copy and associated landing pages regularly?

The Internet is one of the single greatest testing mediums available to almost anyone.  Thanks to live web log analysis and the ability of online interactivity you can test marketing ideas in just a few minutes.  One caveat to this that you are giving other an opportunity to see "the cards you are playing." But if you test smartly and regularly the benefits far outweigh the risks.

Testing Outside the Company
Another mistake prevalent to testing of ads, marketing pieces, or web sites is failure to test with the intended audience.  Numerous companies test inside the company with their own employees, but this isn't true testing.  It is very difficult to understand the user's perspective objectivity unless you are testing with the intended audience.  Whenever and whatever you test make sure you make use of real users from a targeted demographic. Someone in the next department doesn't work.

It is possible to get carried away with testing at times so make sure to set reasonable limits.  Some testing is far better than no testing at all. From my experience, as it pertains to web site testing, companies are amazed by user feedback derived from web usability testing. Objective user feedback can give companies information and insight they might have never considered.  Dollar for dollar testing your advertising or web site shouldn't even be a discussion, just do it. Provided the web site or ads are tested properly, they'll always perform better than untested ads.

Additional Resources:

• Do You Make These 12 Adwords Mistakes?
• How to Test Your Online Advertising
• Online Ads Tested

Delivering High Quality Service Via Valuable Information

On Wednesday, I had a meeting with to a client to discuss the possibilities of their participation in an event marketing coaching program.  The emphasis of the coaching program teaches companies how to inform their clients, members, or patrons about their various events in a timely and effective manner using proven Internet marketing techniques.  During the meeting the client raised a number of valid points questioning the value of coaching program to their organization and specifically to their patrons.  Their primary goal is to provide their clients the highest possible quality of service. While being asked all the questions by the client regarding the service an interesting (yet completely unoriginal) thought came to my mind, can you deliver high quality service through relevant and timely information? I believe the answer is absolutely!

The Value of Information
All information has value.  Depending on the type of information, its' presentation, and ultimately how it is used, the value of that information could be insignificant or massive.  It's intriguing to see how people and organizations value and act upon various forms of information.  If you're a consultant or web developer, how many times have you given away free professional advice only to have it fall on the client's deaf ears?  As soon as you take the same exact information you gave away for free and charge for it, the perceived value of the information changes dramatically.

Someone Has Figured It Out
Information marketers are a neoclassical example of selling information which possess a high perceived value.  Over the years I've purchased a number of expensive information marketing programs that were crammed with great information.  The irony is that you can find most of the information contained in the programs I purchased for free on the Internet or local library.  At the same time, it would have taken hundreds of hours of my own time collect all the information. What's worth more to you, hundreds of hours of your personal time or hundreds of dollars from your wallet?

What's Important to Them
One of the key factors to valuing information is asking the question, "What is the value of the information that I'm providing my clients, members, or patrons?" What information do they think is of higher value and what is of insignificance to them?  A lack of know the answers to the previous questions is one of the largest disconnects when it comes to companies and their customers.  Numerous companies believe that they know what's best for their customers.  Trouble arises when companies "think" they know what their customers want and the customers know what they want. That disconnect forms the basis for testing a product or web site repeatedly.

I believe that any organization or consultant that can provide clients, members or patrons, information of that relevant to them and time delivers a tremendous amount of customer service.  How can anybody not be satisfied with a company that meets all their wants and needs when it comes to customer service? The challenge is providing the right information to the right people at the right time.

Bring Your Offline Marketing To The Online World

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak with a local business owner regarding a marketing campaign for her business. She had recently integrated portions of a print ad into a Craigslist post.  The strength of the ad was rooting in a compelling headline, a good unique selling proposition, and a specific call to action. Within a short time of posting the online ad she had a number of inquires regarding the promotion. The ad reinvigorated a promotion that the business had been running for a few years with only some success.

Have you run successful marketing campaigns offline?
Businesses should explore the possibilities of bringing some of their offline marketing campaigns to the online world.  Do you have an ad or piece of print marketing material that could be easily integrated into an online campaign? One of the easiest ways to integrate your traditional marketing materials to online marketing is through a keyword based pay per click (PPC) campaign. PPC campaigns allow advertisers to setup an ad and test its effectiveness in a matter of a few minutes. Not only is the advertising time frame to market shortened, but so is the cost involved.  You can start most PPC campaigns for less than $10 USD. I cannot think of any other form of advertising that allows you to test advertising with so little initial investment.

If you want to take the test a little further, setup a specific landing page to expand on your offer and give users even more interest in what you have to offer.

Beware Watchful Eyes
As with most things in life, for every virtue there is a vice. One of the dangers of bringing marketing items from the offline world is that competing advertisers and marketers will see your ad almost instantaneously.  Savvy competitors can quickly reverse engineer one of your ads for their own purposes.  The offline world allows marketers to run certain campaigns for a few months, in some cases a few years, before they need to make changes to their headlines, copy, or unique selling proposition. Unfortunately the speed of the Internet can create a marketing liability for certain marketers.

Regardless of some of the vices associated with bringing your offline marketing to the traditional world, every business owner should consider the possibilities of modifying offline campaigns for the online world. The results might just be a pleasant surprise.

Additional Resources:

• Watch Your Pay Per Click Advertising
• Part I: of The Most Powerful Form of Online Advertising
• Part II: of The Most Powerful Form of Online Advertising

Beyond the Obvious: Regarding Your Web Site . . .

One of the most common questions asked in the business world is "Do you have a web site?" The question is somewhat of a self validating factor for many companies. "If you build it, they will come" worked wonders for Kevin Kosner in Field of Dreams, but as many companies and individuals find out that mantra doesn't pan out so well on the Internet.  There have been companies that spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on their web development with little or no return on their investment.  Companies should view web sites as an extension of their marketing, not as a piece of artwork to be admired.

All Looks and No Brains
There are company web sites that are visually extraordinary and do absolutely nothing in terms of generating leads or revenue. The lack of return on investment then prompts these companies to dump even more cash into a hopeless cause. At the same time there are web sites that look visually horrendous yet bring high quality leads and thousands in revenue month.

In my experience the companies that have the most successful web presence are those that are steeped with good marketing experience.  Those companies take the basics of good marketing and bring that to their web site. The best web sites are a amalgamation of directing marketing basics, strong copywriting, consistent testing, and lastly decent design.  Design is one of the most over emphasized components on the web.  Design is important to any web site, but it isn't the most important element. Users will almost always opt for simple and useful over superior graphics and technologically advanced web sites.

It helps to set practical marketing goals for your web site. How many sales leads did you generate from your web site last month?  If you didn't generate enough leads, what are you doing to correct the problem? 

Think about the following questions as they pertain to your web site:

• Is your web site part of your current marketing plan? If not - why?
• How does my web site contribute to additional sales or services for my business?
• Do you integrate feedback given by your users?
• When was the last time you looked at your web statistics?

Companies need to start thinking of their web site as a tool for marketing and extending their business, not just something you have "because everyone else has one."

Additional Resources:

• Companies Need to Connect with the User
• Ego: How to Destroy Your Web Site
• Online Marketing Like P.T. Barnum

Keeping Email Marketing in Perspective

In a previous post, “A Simple Way To Sell More,” I explored the importance of delivering value in every email you send.  Delivering value is a critical element in any sort of email marketing campaign.  Today I’ll look a little more into email list performance, tracking, and some other simple suggestions. 

Delivery Tracking
Make sure if you are sending emails you employ some type of delivery tracking.  Most people would be surprised how many companies DON’T utilize some sort of tracking for their email campaigns.  Many companies assume that just because they send an email that users open everything they receive.  It is critical from a marketing perspective to employ some sort of performance tracking on your emails

Email Open Rates
Recently I looked at open rates for all my clients who do email marketing and asked friends to submit their data.  Of almost 70 separate emails broadcasts sent to permission based opt-in lists the approximate average open rate was around 40%.  The data isn’t to discourage people from email marketing, but to give perspective.  One of the biggest shocks to clients is seeing how few people are opening emails. It is important to keep expectation grounded in the reality.  Nobody gets 100% of their subscriber list to open an email.

Home Grown
The best email list is the one you grow yourself.  There are lists that you can purchase, but you are better served building your own.  Always think in terms of the user’s perspective. Users won’t sign up to an email list that isn’t of at least some interest to them.  Focus on your target market and giving them a good reason to sign up.  Also make sure you properly advise your list subscribers on how to setup their SPAM filters.  You wouldn’t want them unintentionally blocking your email.

List Size - Quality Versus Quantity
You need to keep the highest quality list possible. Too many list owners focus on the size of their list compared to the quality of their list. You’re better off with a smaller list of interested readers who are excited to dive into your offers.

The Copy Factor
The more I read, learn, and experience, the more credence I give to good copy writing.  I would argue that the single most important factor to any email marketing campaign is the ability to create compelling copy.  Regardless of how nice the pictures, users need words to give perspective and incentive.  Headline, benefits, and a call to action are just a few things to keep in mine.  The importance of copy is a lesson few ad agencies and graphic designs truly understand.

Email Marketing is an important step for keeping in contact with customers and clients.  But it is only one facet of an overall marketing campaign.  Make sure you diversify your marketing both online and off.

A Simple Way To Sell More

Over the past few years I’ve been doing a decent number of electronic newsletters (ezines) for clients. One of the hardest things to get any client to understand and incorporate is the concept of delivering value before asking for a sale.  The concept isn’t just limited to electronic newsletters.  It can be anything from the sales process used by a company to a sales letter or email. 

A History Lesson
Last year I worked on an electronic newsletter project that was visually spectacular. The ezine contained a number of articles that were loosely related to their company’s areas of expertise. There were two offers displayed within the ezine for services the company provides.  Much to the client's dismay the ezine failed to provide any leads or sale.  The client sent the ezine once and has yet to send another almost a year later.  This is a typical scenario for many companies.

Those Who Win
At the same time there are people who generate thousands of dollars each month via their electronic newsletter or sending a sales letter via snail mail.  One of the big differences is that those who are successful with their newsletters place an emphasis on delivering value first and asking for a sale later.  In some cases the successful people ask for the sale much later.

An Abundance of Value
Dr. Joe “Mr. Fire” Vitale has a great standard that he uses when it comes to delivering value to your user base.  He suggests providing your user base with 95% information and 5% sales pitch.  I completely agree with his statement.  The concept of delivering value also plays into trust and credibility.  Regardless of how compelling the offer, perspective consumers buy from you if there isn’t a high level of trust and credibility.  When you provide value you raise the level of trust and credibility.

Whom to Buy From
Who would you rather buy from?  Someone who pushes an offer in front of you every opportunity they get, or someone who your trust and they go out of their way to provide you value first? Always provide the client with value several times over, before asking for the sale.  It can be a difficult concept to integrate, but eventually leads to a great return on investment.

Additional Resource:

• The Value of Free Information
• What is the Perceived Value?

 

Looks Lousy, But Performs Like a Champ

I can’t help but come back to this conclusion time and time again: some of the most successful web sites are visual bombs.  These visually unappealing web sites usually follow a systematic method which includes a specific focus on proven direct marketing principles.  When you ask most companies what they'd look to improve with their web site, the most prevalent answer is: "We need to make it look better." Few web site owners or companies say "we need to find a better way to generate leads or increase our online conversion rate."  What is your online litmus test for success?

Flashy Air Show Web Sites
One industry that is very visually oriented when it comes to web sites is the air show industry. There are some extraordinary looking web sites produced by very talented artists. Yet, I honestly question weather most of the flash and dash air show web sites bring their owners an appreciable ROI. Yes you should look good, but at the cost of increased sales or marketing potential?

Stay Marketing Focused
Most web site owners are better vested in spending more time focusing on sound sales and marketing principles as opposed to focusing too much on the visuals. Dan Kennedy has some very interesting viewpoints as it applied advertising and marketing:  “Some of the most productive, profitable advertising and marketing in the history of the planet could never qualify for any of the awards.  Much of the best marketing gets its results in an ugly way.”

Kennedy also points out some of the challenges faced by most web sites. “Most web sites are designed by techno-geeks and/or graphic artists who are not sales people. They do not know how to sell. They do not know when they are disrupting or destroying the selling process with their technological bells and whistles.”

It isn’t about what a web site looks like, it’s what the site can accomplish.  Is your web site generating good leads for your business and helping sell your products or services? That should be the ultimate question for any business oriented web site.

Radio versus Pay Per Click: Snapshot

This is a follow up to last week’s radio advertising post.  That post revolved around a buzz marketing web site, Pony-Hawk.com. Because of the short run of the project the following information should be considered more of a casual observation as opposed to any type of definitive and tested evidence.  One of the most intriguing findings was the difference of radio impact versus the performance of a simple PPC campaign.

To My Surprise
I thought that having the web site pushed on a local FM radio station with tens of thousands of listeners would result in more web traffic.  The premise and content were an ideal match for the station’s demographic.  It was mentioned on the radio at least three times during the morning hours and then numerous other times during the day. The associated graph shows the start of radio coverage and resulting traffic.  The highlighted numbers represent web site visitor counts.

PPC Numbers
The PPC (Pay Per Click) campaign was run with a budget of $5.00 per day and bidding on two keywords, sanjaya and pony-hawk, in Google Adwords.  A number one position could be bought for 4-5 cents per click.  $4.80 delivered an average click through rate of approximately 2% on 6300 impressions and approximately 113 visitors. The PPC campaign was started after the noon hour.

One thing to keep in mind is that the site had not been indexed by search engines.  This made organic search engine optimization extremely difficult and an Adwords PPC campaign the first choice.

The entire process gets me interested in comparing and contrasting a well implemented radio advertising campaign with a pay per click campaign.  Every web site owner should understand the importance and usage of basic web analytics to track and measure advertising impact.

Additional Resource:

• Radio Advertising: What You Ought To Know

Radio Advertising: What You Ought To Know

Last week I started an interesting project with a friend revolving around buzz marketing. We decided to setup a niche web site for American Idol’s Sanjaya Malakar. The web site focused on Sanjaya’s “Pony-Hawk.” You can visit Pony-Hawk.com for more information.  One of the marketing channels that we had at our disposal was FM radio. We were able to secure a number of “plugs” from a local radio show.  The station we selected was an ideal demographic match for the web site. 

Our project didn’t involve actually buying advertising.  The station agreed to feature the web site a number of times during the morning as part of a cross promotion.  Each time the web site was mentioned the listener was prompted to visit the site.  Pony-Hawk.com led to some interesting observations when it comes to radio advertising.

Compare Ad Run Times with Web Traffic
If you are advertising on a radio station make sure you can get a report of when your ad is broadcast. To my understanding this is something the radio industry will provide clients as part of their advertising package or upon request. Use your web statistics and compare the advertising times with when people are visiting your web site.  Use the correlation to determine a rough return on investment.  It might take a few weeks of advertising to get accurate and good data.

Try To Advertise When People Are Using Their Computers
It’s so easy to forget a domain name by the time you get in front of a computer.  There are also times when you can’t even search for the company or service because the web site isn’t indexed properly.
Try to run radio spots when people are at work or in front of their computers and listening to the radio.  Companies try to dissuade personal internet use during work, but people check the web all the time.  If someone hears an ad and is interested in the product or service, they might be apt to visit the web site.

Some Other Radio Advertising Points To Remember

• Is the domain name easy to remember?
• Is the domain name repeated at least three times during the ad?
• Does the radio add have a USP and call to action?

Our radio results for web site mentions that translated into web site traffic were fairly low.  This isn’t to suggest that radio advertising doesn’t work.  I’m a big believer in consistent messaging across multiple channels.  You can’t just advertise for short period of time expecting big results.  At the same time I don’t believe you should advertise on a medium with no ROI.  You statistical data can help determine if you’re missing the mark.  Dan Kennedy has great advice when it comes to marketing: “get the right message to the right people via the right media and methods.”

Additional Resource:

• Your Domain Name and Radio Advertising

The Myth of the Magical Online Bullet

Yesterday I had an interesting conversation with a perspective client. They are looking into the possibility of redesigning their web site.  As with almost any web site conversation, the myth of the “magical online bullet” was brought up.  The magic bullet myth goes like this: “If you build a great web site the flood gates of traffic and sales immediately open up to your company.” Too many companies and web site owners think this way.  In order for your web site to be successful you need to approach marketing in a holistic manner and beyond just your web site.  Business success involves both online and offline marketing.

Diversify Your Marketing Investment
A web site represents one important aspect of a company’s overall marketing and sales strategy.  Yes, web sites have amazing versatility and capability. But you can’t place all your eggs into one basket.  Too many companies hedge their marketing bets entirely on their web site.  Look at traditional investing as an analogy.  Any financial planner is going to tell you to diversify your portfolio. The same should be done with your marketing strategy. Spread your marketing strategy across both online and offline marketing.

The Holistic Approach
Recently I listened to an interview with marketing guru Dan Kennedy and the late Corey Rudl.  Savvy marketers combine a variety of techniques with both online and offline marketing.  There is no magic bullet or perfect web strategy. Successful marketing requires constant analysis and time appropriate changes.  It’s also important to recognize you aren’t going to get it right the first time around.

Online Leads – Offline Follow Up
One of the examples from the interview touched upon lead generation. Web sites are great for lead generation via permission based marketing.  At the same time email marketing is becoming so saturated that people are starting to ignore it.  You take the leads you acquire online and apply them to the offline word.  What takes months or weeks to get old online could take years and decades to get old offline.

How Many Times do you Follow Up?
How many times do you follow up with current clients and perspective clients?  Most people follow up once or twice.  There are some marketers that have a follow up process that is over 50 steps and they’re extremely successful. Those 50 steps are 49 more than most marketers are willing to take.

Ultimately, the most successful online strategy is carefully married to smart offline strategy.  Learn how to leverage both and get the most out of your marketing. There are no “magical online bullets” that will guarantee you success.

Additional Resources:

• There is No Perfect Web Strategy
• Missed Opportunity and Online Strategy

Money Back Guarantee

Money back guarantees are nothing new.  They have been around for decades if not hundreds of years. Guarantees help to alleviate the risk of buying.  I’ve seen guarantees for products and services priced from $9.97 to $4,997.00 and higher. Many business people are averse to offering any guarantee.  The biggest fear is that too many customers will try to use the guarantee and a company will “lose their shirt.”  In reality this rarely happens. Some people I know say their return rate for their money back guarantee is in the low single digits, less than 5%.

A Real World Example
It takes a little daring to offer a guarantee. One of my business mentors, Ray Justice, was the first to offer a 24 hour “clean car” guarantee in the car wash industry.  If you car became dirty within 24 hours you could get it washed for free.  At that time people thought he was dooming his business with such an audacious idea.  Today most car washes offer at least a 24 hour “clean car” guarantee.  Some car washes offer a week or longer clean car guarantee.

Money back guarantees aren’t for every business person or service offered. But if you take some time to implement a guarantee you can make the potential purchase of your product or service even more attractive.  Think through the process carefully.  Below are some points and suggestions.

Some People Will Abuse the Guarantee
There are some people who will take you up on your guarantee.  They’re going to purchase your product or service knowing that they’ll make use of the guarantee.  This happens in every industry regardless of how good the product or service.  Remember most guarantees are measured in single digit percentages.  You’re going to need to accept a little risk with the opportunity for greater reward.

Set a time limit on the Guarantee
Depending on the product or service the length of guarantee can vary.  I’ve seen guarantees as short as a week to an entire lifetime.  Make the time frame long enough to properly evaluate the service or product, plus additional time to evaluate the benefits.  Again, take some time to find the right length of time.  Look towards your competition and see what they are offering.

Well Defined Return/Refund Process
Let your customers know what is required to properly process a guarantee. Be very specific and clear on the return process. Leave nothing to chance.

Use a Guarantee to Improve Your Product or Service
If a customer is unhappy and request a refund use the opportunity to collect feedback. Use the customer feedback to improve your product or service.  This will lead to a better product and fewer returns in the future. 

Does Your Web Site Stick?

Do you have a sticky web site?  To some people this notion conjures up thoughts of your fingers after handful of cotton candy.  When it comes to the Internet a sticky web site is desired.  Some companies spend years trying to create a sticky web site.

Why is a Sticky Web Site Beneficial?
If a web site is sticky users not only stay on web site longer, but also visit more often.  The benefits speak for themselves.  You get more traffic, more often, and they’re interested in what you have to say.  The easiest way to make a web site sticky is by asking yourself: “what can I do to attract users to my web site and get them to stay longer.”

What Makes A Web Site Sticky?
Sticky web sites are usually updated often and deliver high quality content. Content and regular updates are craved by users.  Jakob Nielsen’s HOME RUN Acronym is an excellent base for creating a sticky web site. Web sites aren't aesthetically driven, they're content driven. It's an old cliche on the Internet: "Content is King!"  Web usability also plays its role in web site stickiness.  The easier it is for a user to get around a web site, the easier it is from them to stick around.

Examples of Sticky Web Sites
News web sites and Blogs are inherently sticky.  They always have something new to offer.  Humor web sites are another great example. How many times have you received a link to a funny video or picture?  When you click on the link you usually end up at a humor site. Niche marketing is also very important.  Blogs are a great example of niche marketing.  Many Blogs serve a very narrow audience. 

A Virtue and a Vice
Content and often updates are a virtuous part of any web site.  Regular updates can create user loyalty and trust. The vice comes when a web site that has built the user base’s expectations.  In today’s blistering world of trying to get information users expect information immediately. Would you continue to visit a news web site, Blog, or sports web site that stops posting regular updates?

The bottom line is you need to give users a reason to come back to your web site.  Are you offering your users incentives to return to your web site?

Below are links to articles on creating a sticky web site.

• Hitting a HOME RUN
• Why Create High Quality Content?
• The User Attention Span
• Getting Users Involved with Involvement Devices

Off site Links:

• 10 Ways to Make Your Web Site Sticky
• Creating Interactive & Sticky Web Sites

The Future of Online Retail = Trust

As we move toward the future more Internet user are going to make purchases online. Smart companies are positioning themselves for the future starting now.  Consider the following information offered by Jupiter Research …

By 2010, 71% of online users will use the Internet to shop compared to 65% in 2005, however, online retailers will find it difficult to find new non-buyers to convert. Online retailers will rely heavily on existing online shoppers to spend more than compared with previous years.

"Retailers can expect to be dealing with an increasingly experienced population of online shoppers," said JupiterResearch Analyst Patti Freeman Evans. "The online retail environment is maturing, and online buyers have become more savvy about finding free shipping and deeper discounts," added Freeman Evans.

Source: Jupitermedia Corporation

Not About Getting Found
One of the biggest fallacies that most novice web site owners make is assuming people will buy because they find you online. This sound advice is given by Internet experts all the time: “Most people visit a web site and never return.” Are you doing something to capture their information?

Permission Marketing
If you can capture a potential consumer’s information through permission marketing, you’re one step ahead of most people.  Users require a very good reason to give up any type of personal information.  The most successful online entrepreneurs have a process in place for soft selling users.  Instead of one chance to make a sale to a user they create several selling opportunities.  It is a matter of establishing trust and credibility.

Friends Buy From Friends
One of my business mentors always reminds me of an important business lesson.  It is true to both the online and offline consumers.  It goes like this, “when all things are equal friends buy from friends.  When things are unequal, friends still buy from friends.”  When it comes to products and services, price doesn’t always matter.  For the consumer, it’s about who can you trust.

Are you doing what it takes to build trust and credibility with your user over the long run?

Additional Resources:

• The Value of Free Information
• Focus On Web Site Conversions
• Building Trust and Credibility with Follow Up
• Companies Need To Connect with the User

Master of Your Domain

Recently, I ran into some challenges with a prospective client and domain registration.  The experience reemphasizes the importance of vigilance with one’s domain name.  You always need to make sure you know exactly what is going with your domain.  When it comes to domain names there are some issues everyone should take into consideration.  First and most important is ownership.  Do you own your domain?  Other factors include branding and search engine optimization.

Who Owns The Domain?
Make sure your domain name is registered in your name or your company’s name.  One perspective client invested thousands of dollars into a domain they didn’t even own.  It was registered to the web site developer building their site. This can create a number of headaches, especially if you’re the one who should own the domain. 

Branding and Identity
In regards to branding and identity, your domain name is the leading edge of your online marketing efforts.  Users are going to have an affinity for the domain you have been marketing. If you are going to change your domain name keep the old domain up and running. There have been instances when companies have deactivated their old domains prematurely.  People who tried to find their web site through search engines were met with an error page.  If you’re registering a new domain name use a redirect to send the traffic from your old domain to your new domain.

Search Engine Optimization
Make sure that your web site stays visible to search engines. Frequently it is a time-consuming and uphill battle to get a proper search engine listing.  Some search engines give credence to the age of your domain.  Over the years you would have built up links to your web site.  Make sure all that hard work doesn’t go to waste.  Also give consideration to any links that have been built up over time.  Sometimes it's easier to buy an existing domain than it is to start a new one.

Whatever you decide, make sure you think through the process.

Additional Resources:

• Time to Register a New Domain?
• Domain Name Guidelines
• Your Domain and Radio Advertising

How to Quickly Orient Users

Are you quickly orienting users to the purpose of your web site?

There are a number of web sites that suffer from poor user orientation.  A user loads up the web site and has no idea what the site is about.  Regardless of all the text and pictures found on the page being loaded, users can quickly become lost.  Business sites need an effective way to quickly pass along their purpose and service or product benefits.  In many cases users can be oriented with a web site’s purpose through a tagline.  A short and well crafted tagline can orient users and draw them into your web site.

In Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think, he offers some tagline suggestions:

• Taglines are located above the fold usually next to a company’s logo or identity.  Most users know to look near the logo for some hint regarding the purpose of the web site. Take a look online for tagline ideas, almost every major site has one.  Some companies don’t really need a tagline.  Amazon is a good example.  So many people are familiar with what Amazon does that their reputation alone orients users.
• Taglines should be clear and concise. There is little benefit to being overly wordy. Try to keep your tagline less than ten words.
• It is important that the tagline pass along a clear benefit regarding the company, service, or product.

Don’t confuse a tagline with a motto, like “We bring good things to life,” “You’re in good hands,” or “To protect and to serve.” A motto expresses a guiding principle, a goal , or an ideal, but a tagline conveys a value proposition.
Source: Krug, Don’t Make Me Think

If you don't already have one, spend a little time coming up with a good tagline.  Don’t assume you will be able to create something in a few minutes.  Some companies take weeks to create a compelling tagline.  When a good tagline is in place you will quickly convey a powerful message that connects with your target market.

A Web Centric Marketing Example

A Web Centric Marketing Example
On my way home from the air show conference I decided to stop in Buffalo, New York.  During a stop at the Walden Galleria shopping mall I noticed the pictured advertisement.  It is a large indoor banner advertisement hanging in the middle of the mall.  The banner ad is a decent example of web centric marketing.

It has a few elements that help it stand out from most of the other advertisements I viewed.  It was the largest advertisement in the mall.  Because of its size it was difficult not to notice. Regardless of size it was positioned in a good location, right in the middle of a high traffic area.  Your almost forced to look at it because of size and position.  I doubt anyone goes to the mall with the intent of purchasing a new or used car.  But, shoppers might have the notion of needing to make a car purchase before or after visiting the mall.

Other elements that stand out on the pictured advertisement:

1. The headline, which is arguably the most important element of any advertisement, is at the top.
   
   
2. The person who I believe is the owner of the auto dealership is the person pictured. The individual pictured is also the dominate element of the advertisement.  This draws attention.  Around the person are a series of various car company logos.
   
3. Below the picture and logos is the company's logo and associated tag line. This component establishes brand awareness.
4. If you are interested in learning more about what West Herr has to offer they give you a web address.  The address is the smallest sized font on the advertisement, but it does stand out.  If someone is interested in more information, they can visit the web site.

The key to web centric marketing is getting people to come to your web site to find out additional information.

“The Secret” Marketing Method

Have you heard of “The Secret”?
For those not familiar with “The Secret” it is a feature movie and book focusing on the law of attraction for creating a better life.  Learn more about the Secret.

During my visit to a local bookstore I overheard a discussion regarding “The Secret.” There was a woman at the customer service desk asking for information regarding “The Secret.”  The customer service person responded with “we don’t have anything left, no books, no audio, nothing.  It’s all sold out!”  The Secret was recently featured on Oprah. If you go to Amazon.com “The Secret” is a best seller. There have been a few conversations where I’ve overheard people discussing the secret.  Two bookstore employees were baffled by The Secret’s sudden success.

The creators of The Secret smartly leveraged the Internet. They use the Internet to position their product and create a tremendous amount of buzz. Anyone can utilize the marketing process that made The Secret a tremendous success.

When I First Discovered The Secret
Back in late 2005, I stumbled across a web site and trailer advertising “What is The Secret.” In typical internet marketing fashion they asked for your email address to get more information. To satiate my curiosity I entered my email.  Every once in a while I would receive another clue or morsel of information.  When ever an email came through it was always something interested.  You were never spammed.

The Secret was originally suppose to air on network television, but was deemed unmarketable.  The television station was so convinced that The Secret wasn’t going to be successful that they gave up their rights.  With no network to broadcast, The Secret debuted online in 2006 and was available on DVD. Since its release last year the program has generated over $22 million USD in revenue. (Source: Not a Secret for long, The Age.) This is more than four times the cost to produce the movie.  This doesn’t include any of the ancillary products.  What was suppose to have been a bust turned into a bang.

Use The Secret’s Marketing Methodology
Whoever created the marketing plan for the Secret deserves a great deal of credit.  They used curiosity and a high quality product to create a fire storm of interest. If you check out the Alexa rankings for the site it shot up vertically from nowhere after the Secret debuted online. You can use a similar methodology for your own purposes of marketing a product via the Internet.  Focus on building product anticipation and delivering a high quality product.

Build Product Anticipation
Anticipation is probably one of the biggest reasons the Secret enjoyed so much success. The creators utilized an email marketing to build a tremendous amount of buzz.  Not only did I get emails directly from the Secret site, but also from some of the experts who contributed and endorsed The Secret.  If you have a product you are looking to launch use the web to build anticipation. The Secret’s hook was curiosity. Can you think of a way to build curiosity for your product?

Create a High Quality Product
The production cost of “the Secret” was millions of dollars.  Obviously we all don’t have that type of investment capital.  But that shouldn’t stop us from creating a high quality product. Use your web site to test your product before it’s released.  Surveys and user feedback are great ways to get people excited about what you have coming and allow you to make product improvements. The Secret was segmented into books, audio, and video. If you have an information product how many different ways can it be delivered?  Are there opportunities for ancillary products?

The Internet is a great way to build product anticipation and make improvements.  There are a number of successful models you can emulate.  There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Go online and find one today.

Traditional Advertising and Your Web Site

Greetings from Mont-Tremblant, Quebec.  The views here are majestic. But I don’t believe I’ve ever been this cold in my entire life.  This is honestly the coldest weather I’ve ever experienced, -29 Degrees Celsius or -20 Degrees Fahrenheit. All in good fun.

Limits of Traditional Advertising
Traditional Advertising is highly competitive.  As additional advertisers enter the game more advertising pollution is created.  When your user opens a newspaper or turns on the television they are bombarded with advertisements.  Most consumers don’t even know where to start.  How many times has your advertising been lost amongst other advertising? Everybody is jockeying for attention.

The web is distinctly different. Each web site represents a different channel of very specific programming. The catch is ensuring users can find and remember your domain name.  You can build awareness through traditional marketing channels by consistently repeating your domain name.  The best part is when users load your site you command your prospect’s undivided attention.  Users who aren’t interested in air aren’t going to visit your web site.  This is unlike other advertising where the consumer is almost forced to watch or listen to something of little or no interest.

Your domain name should be a marketing focal point.  This is the premise behind web centric marketing. It is the single most important piece of marketing information that you want your perspective customers to remember.  If they can remember your domain name, they don’t need to remember other specific details.

Advertising Suggestions
Every advertising channel has it’s own unique way of delivering your message. It’s up to you to determine the best way to position your brand. 

If you have print advertising make sure your domain name is a prominent element. Just listing the domain name isn’t enough.  Entice user with unique information only available on your web site.

Use your web site statistical data to analyze which forms of marketing were most effective.  If you know when a certain marketing campaign started go back to your web stats and correlate the data.  You might find one marketing channel worked better than the other and adjust future campaigns.

Watch Your Pay Per Click Advertising

Today more companies are using pay per click advertising for their web site.  Unfortunately too many of these companies waste money on PPC advertising.  They falsely assume that your PPC is directly tied into return on investment (ROI).  The more you spend the higher the ROI. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are a number of nuances at work. Before you start a PPC campaign for your web site make sure you do some homework.

Wasting Your Advertising Dollars
Perry Marshall illustrates a wasteful PPC spending example on this web site.  You are spending $1.00 per click for a certain keyword.  Instead of using a landing page with a compelling offer most companies send visitors directly to their home page.  With nothing compelling to draw users into the web site users go elsewhere and never return.  All of this happens in about 15 seconds.  In terms of cost this translates into $4 USD a minute or $240 USD an hour.  Would you pay someone $240/hour to unsuccessfully sell your product or serves?  A number of companies are happy to spend the money.

Here are some quick Pay Per Click suggestions/tips:

• Take baby steps with PPC spending.
• Target the right market and keywords.
• Carefully craft your Pay Per Click ads.
• Try rotating ads and measuring performance.
• Setup conversion tracking for all of your ads.
• Set measurable goals.
• Create a specific landing pages for various keywords.
• Create incentive or a compelling offer on landing pages.
• Balance your PPC campaign with other advertising.

I current manage three campaigns across Google, Yahoo, and MSN.  Google is the most expensive service. Yet it also out performs both Yahoo and MSN ten fold for the same keywords.  Yahoo PPC seems to be more conducive to product sales, but it takes a little while to get your campaign rolling.  I’ve had little success with MSN.  You need to explore all the options.

There are companies that smartly spend on PPC advertising and find success. There was someone who once spent $14 USD on a monthly PPC and generated over $20K in revenue.  This is a rare exception, but still interesting.

Spend some time learning about PPC before diving in head first.  My recommendation is go to a firm with a proven track record.  Have them show you their results and pay them for your expertise.  Consider starting your own campaign to just learn.  You won’t become an expert, but you can at least have some exposure to the various services.  Most places let you sign up for $5.00 or less. Always do your homework before spending on PPC!   

Your Domain Name and Radio Advertising

Are you getting the most from your radio advertising?

One traditional media channel I notice a number of companies not leveraging is radio advertising.  Some companies spent top dollar to promote their brand but never mention their web site.  There have been some recent improvements in this area, but we still have a way to go.  Make sure you mention your domain name in all your radio advertising!

With radio advertising you are typically limited to a 30 second spot or shorter.  How many times have you heard a radio commercial that crams too much information? It becomes information overload.

Use the radio advertisement to inform people about your product or service and direct people to your web site.  Directing people to your site is the really important part.  If you mention your web site, listeners only have to remember a few short words.   Here is an example of advertising for an airshow radio commercial. Which of the following is easier to remember? The domain name: RochesterAirshow.com or “The ESL International Airshow taking place at the Greater Rochester International Airport, June 5 and 6th, featuring the USAF Thunderbirds …” People aren’t going to remember all those details. It is much easier to remember just your domain name.

In order for users to remember your domain name, it should be short and easy to spell. Recently I heard a commercial for an online service that caught my attention. Their domain wasn’t easy to spell or remember.  It gets even better when you cannot locate the company using any of the search engines.  I had to wait until I heard the radio spot again to get the domain name correct and finally visit their web site.

You should repeat your domain at least three times in a 30 second spot, once near the beginning and twice at the end.  To some people this might be a little much, but repetition is an important step in building brand awareness.

As with other advertising mediums, make sure you are taking a Web Centric approach to your marketing.  When you get people to your web site you can provide them with significantly more information about your product or service.  I cannot think of any other form of traditional advertising that offers you the flexibility found on the Internet.

Getting Users Involved with Involvement Devices

Involvement devices are methods of getting your prospects involved with your web site or your offer.  They also assist you in converting your prospects.

Getting Involved With An English Accent
In Epcot’s United Kingdom showcase, I observed a great involvement device.  One of the English “cast members” (Disney’s name for employees) was behind a shoppe sales counter.  On the sales counter was a small chalk board listing ten questions about the United Kingdom with the heading “Can You Answer These Questions?” It could have been pure coincidence, but a few moments after I noticed the chalk board a family inquired about the questions.  They spent the next five minutes talking with the pleasant young lady from the United Kingdom, complete with an English accent.  (Disney brings people in from each individual nation to work at their World Showcase.) I’m not sure if the interaction resulted in a sale, but I know that the people spend a significant amount of time at the sales counter.  After five minutes of conversation with the lovely young lady from England I’m sure they were quite charmed.  That simple interaction also increased the probability that someone from the inquiring family would make a purchase.

Integrating Involvement
The previous example shows a simple disarming process to get users involved in your message or web site.  You should think of ways to integrate something similar on your web site.  You can use online surveys, checklists, or interactive media presentations.  High quality content is the simplest form of an involvement device.  It allows you to capture people’s attention.  At the same time don’t confuse involvement devices for hype or trickery.  Your efforts and information need to be sincere and truthful.  Users are already skeptical of anything they see online. They’ll see right through any trickery.

Communicating Involvement
Use communication as an involvement device.  Encourage people to contact you beyond just online forms and email.  Too many people hold the false assumption that because you have a web site that everything should be automated or computer driven.  Email and online forms are a one way communication channels.  Think of other ways to get people involved.  What takes a few emails and a half hour of time to accomplish via email could probably be resolved in a 5 minute telephone call. There are any number of ways to engage people online and offline. 

Involvement devices are a great low pressure ways to keep people on your site or deliver your message. Think of what you can do to keep people on your site and open lines of communication.  There are multiple approaches to create a trust building process.  It’s up to you to figure out a creative hook.  Don’t forget to be sincere.  Focus on getting people great information or honestly answering their questions, not on making another sale.

Internet Marketing Like Walt Disney

Recently I was fortunate enough to visit a number of different nations during a whirl wind tour.  The day long journey included Canada, Norway, Japan, and Mexico. The evening finally culminated back at the United States for a spectacular fireworks show.  The best part of my journey was that it all occurred within an area of about a half mile. My adventure came courtesy of the Walt Disney people. By the end of the day I had plenty of new ideas and lessons learned.  It was a unique way of observing extraordinary marketing in motion.

I believe that any business person can learn a lot from the simple process that Disney uses at their theme parks. They excel at creating Lifetime Value Customers and generating additional revenue after each ticket purchased. Most adults are paying around $65 USD for the park entrance fee.  I haven'™t been able to find any statistics, but based on my observations while visiting Epcot I would safely estimate that each adult probably spends an additional 50% - 75% past their ticket fee.  They spend it on food, beverages, and any number of novelties. All of this occurs in a low pressure environment.  They don't manipulate the customer to buy and deliver value all day long.   

Being Passively Unique
Epcot and the World Showcase is great example of passively unique marketing. When you enter the park you are free to choose which attractions you'd like to experience.  Their target market is pre-qualifying themselves for additional purchases upon entering the park. When you finish almost every ride or attraction you exit into a conveniently placed gift shop or other areas with tantalizing offers. The staff is extremely pleasant and happy to answer additional questions about the ride or offered products. This sort of process and environment makes it much easier for people to buy. P.T. Barnum would be envious.

Targeted Markets
What does Epcot and Disney have to do with my web site?  You can use a similar sales process to promote online revenue generation.  Just like Disney, you can create individual attractions via different web sites that target certain markets.  People visit the attractions that interest them, the same hold true for web sites.  How many times have you returned to a web site that didn't hold your interest?  When your target market shows up, shower them with high quality content. Lead them through an "edutainment" process of what you have to offer.  This helps you get your prospects involved in what you can do for them.  You need to build trust with people before you can expect them to make a purchase.

Use Lures to Keep People at Your Site
Disney theme parks make use of sales lures throughout the day. Some of their lures include live music, street entertainers, and fireworks at closing. There are no sneaky sales techniques here or need to pressure people into buying something.  Their objective is to keep people in the park.  Successful online business people know they need to keep users at their site for more than just a quick look. Give your users a reason to stay at your site.  This can be through ancillary information that supports your product or service.  These include simple things like testimonials and product reviews.  Stay user focused in everything you do.

Are You Creating Lifetime Value Customer?
Disney also creates Lifetime Value Customers.  They're much like Amazon and Ebay in this regard.  The Disney people keep their customers so happy that they keep coming back and interested in trying new things.  If you have a new offer or product, test it with your existing customer base.  Your customer base has already demonstrated some level trust and credibility in your business.  Disney can port their movies and theme parks across a wide customer base.  They get people to think to themselves "If I had fun there, I'm sure their other offerings are going to be worth my time." The same thing happens online. Many people who buy from Ebay or Amazon don't just purchase or sell once.  Many people come back to buy their products. If you want to generate consistent revenue online you need to keep your customers coming back.  It is much easier to sell to an existing customer as opposed to paying to market and acquire a new one.

I hope that some of the simple examples described assist you in creating a better sales experience and Lifetime Value Customers.

Watch Out: People Are Googling You!

I’m sure most people have heard of Googling someone. For those that haven’t here is a quick overview.  If you’re curious about someone you can go to Google and enter their name in the Google search box. Make sure you use quotes around “their name.” This helps Google narrow down its search to only the name entered. You can probably Google most of your friends and find some reference to them online. There are very few people I know who cannot be Googled.

Googled for Jobs
Many people ask, "can find out who is Googling you?" More employers are starting to use Google and other search engines to find out additional information about their interview candidates. For some people this can be both a virtue and a vice. You should consider any content you have online to be open to public view. That includes your MySpace and Facebook accounts. 

Be careful of the type of content or information that you post. Pictures of drunken debauchery probably aren’t something you want anyone in the public to view. Remember that a picture can be worth a thousand words.  Your pictures might be interpreted differently than your actual experience.

The Web Site Factor
If you have a Blog or Web Site be very cognizant of your articles and pages.  One famous Blogger was fired from her job because she was writing about some of her coworkers.  One of my friends accidentally posted a work performance review of some of his coworkers.  He forgot about the file for a few days and it was eventually index into Google. Even after the file was deleted the references showed up in Google for a while.

Being Googled For Your Advantage
You can use the knowledge of people seeking more information about you to your advantage. First, start by Googling your own name.  If you want to get really technical use different variables such as middle name and initials.  You should also search on other common search engines: Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and Ask. For people with common names you might find someone else showing up in search results.  Go through the first few pages of results.  Make sure there aren’t any links or information that might represent you in a poor light.  If there is information that someone might misinterpret take it down. Check out the 'Leveraging People Googling You to Your Advantage' article for additional information.

Self Marketing
After you have ensured that there isn’t any negative information that can be Googled, start to concentrate on positive information. One of the most important things you can do is position yourself for your career.  This can be accomplished by having your own personal web site.  Web sites are a great way for job seekers to create their own extended resume or business card.  If you aren’t ready for a web site you can still secure your online real estate.  Visit one of the registration companies and register your name today.

Your site doesn’t necessarily need to be related to your future field of employment, but it should be captivating.  It can show more information about you and what you are passionate about.  Many people have a web site to display their personal photo albums. Other people maintain their own personal Blog. Blogs are a great way for you to flex your writing talents.  Personal web sites and Blogs are also a great way to self market yourself.  Whatever you do online make sure it accentuates your positive site.

Googling has even found its place in the dating scene.  Don’t be surprised if your date knows more about you than you might have disclosed.

Whatever you do online always remember someone else is watching!

Get More Information:

• Leveraging People ‘Googling You’ to Your Advantage
• Job Out of College

Conversions and Making the Right Impression

Today’s post refocuses on some of the finer details of web centric marketing. We’ll take a look at the interaction of impressions and conversions. Both topics have been discussed separately in earlier posts.  I thought it beneficial to bring both topics together in one post.

To get caught up on web centric marketing feel free to read the following posts:

• Web Centric Marketing
• Choosing the Right Online Market

Here is what I believe to be one of the biggest misconceptions in the business sector as it applies to marketing. Too many organizations concentrate in getting the maximum number of impressions. “Which media outlet or form of advertising is going to give us the most coverage?”  Companies should concentrate on getting the most effective coverage, not the most coverage.

What do you perceive to be more valuable?

• 10,000,000 general impressions.
• 1,000,000 impressions with people who have an affinity for what you are offering.

Businesses waste money all the time advertising with people who don’t care about what they have to offer. The end result is hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in wasted advertising.

Quick primer on Conversions:

• Focus on Web Site Conversions

When looking at impressions you need to bring conversions into play. Conversions allow you to value your impressions via the rate of conversion. If you get a 2% conversion rate on a million impressions that’s 20,000 people who would take action on your offer.  You need to target  niche markets.  If you target outside of your demographic the conversion rates drop significantly.  Who’s going to act upon an offer that is of no interest to them? 10,000,000 impressions might fetch you a 1/2% conversion rate or roughly 50,000 people.

Ask yourself; is it worth paying 10 times more in advertising dollars to get an extra 30,000 potential conversions?  Keep your marketing focused on the channel and methodology that will bring you the highest return on investment.

Consider doing something to increase your conversion rate. Small changes can bring big results.  Even on a million impressions if you can increase your conversion rate by a percentage point or two, you can double your effectiveness.

Those companies that know how to get the most effective impressions and create compelling offers that convert, win!

Companies Need to Connect with the User

One place where companies frequently disconnect from the user is when it comes to messaging. Here is the typical scenario: The user arrives to a web site and they're dropped into a company's online experience.  The copy on a web site usually goes something like this "Our ... We .... Our ... About Us." This can be classified as the "Me Me Me" syndrome.  Too many companies want to tell the world how they are the greatest thing since sliced bread. Please don't misunderstand me, I do believe you need to tell the user your capabilities and accomplishments.  But in order to be successful online you need to make sure you are focusing on the user.

Successful web sites take the approach of carefully crafting the online experience.  They craft their message to develop trust and provide the user with relevant information. This in turn makes it much easier to sell a product or service online.

I was listening to an interview with Robert Bly in which he talks about Bill Bonner's Four-Legged Stool. The Four Legs of the Stool are Credibility, Track Record, The Big Idea, and Future Benefits.  Use each leg to position your company and its products or services more effectively online.

Credibility
Unless you're a recognizable brand like Amazon or Yahoo, you will need to establish some credibility.  Do the things necessary to establish credibility and trust. One great way is to provide people with high quality information.  Make your user feel like you genuinely care about them.  Give them so much great information that they don't know what to do with it.

Track Record
Even though they aren't as effective as before, testimonials are a great place to start establishing credibility.  How has you product or service performed over time? Make sure your testimonials are benefit driven not featured focused. Users are interested in reading about what your product or process can accomplish for them.  "We saved $10,000 dollars by using the process outlined by XYZ Corp."

The Big Idea
How is your company or service different than your competition?  Describe the process or product involved in user centric terms.  Today everyone has a widget.  How is your widget better than other widgets? Perhaps you have a unique methodology that has evolved out of your product or service that can help people.

Future Benefits
If someone purchases your product or service how will it benefit them moving forward?  Tell people why it is worth investing in what you have to offer now and its impact in the future.  Show them how your product or service is going to create value  or save them money over time.

Make Sure You Use All Four Legs
The Stool is most stable on all Four-Legs (Credibility, Track Record, The Big Idea, and Future Benefits.)  It can still stand on Three Legs (Any Three of the Above).  But it will fall with only two legs.

You need to make sure your messaging is framed for the user.  Leverage your company's accomplishments, but in a way that allows the user to take notice; "Here are all the great things we've accomplished and here is how we want to help you ..."

If you can craft your web site using the methodology described you have a much better chance of being successful online.  Give user's what they seek and you will be rewarded.

Web Site Email Suggestions

In today's world it has never been easier to setup an email address.  Yet many small business owners make simple mistakes along the way.  Something I notice on a number of web sites are contact email addresses that don't match their associated domains.  This is very prevalent amongst small business/personal business web sites.  People use their personal email address instead of using an email associated with the domain.  I don't think this is a good idea.  Today we'll look at some simple suggestions you can easily implement.

People go to Email First
It is very important to give people a place to contact you.  A recurring theme in all our usability studies is that people prefer to initiate contact via email, even before a telephone call.  If you are in business people are going to want to contact you.  Make the process as easy as possible.

Trust Building
If you are doing business via your web site think about building trust and credibility with the consumer.  Contact email addresses are a small step in trust building. There have been several occasions when I've wanted to write a small business. I proceed to the contact info page and see an unfamiliar email.  I'm forced to ask myself who is MrGolf0842@aol.com?  And is this going to the right person?  There is no additional contact information. This always leaves me a little hesitant.

If you are going to use your personal email address setup a small disclaimer about it.  Tell them it's your personal email address and where it's going. It's also help to provide your full name.  Some people get concerned with privacy.  But realize that people are going to be a little hesitant in doing business with anonymous people.

Keep Separate Emails - Business & Personal
One simple way to keep your anonymity and build trust with customers is to have two email addresses. Keep a personal email address and a business email address. This way you can use your personal email address for personal things and business email for business.

If you want to just maintain one email account, setup a business address and have email forward to your personal address. This gets you the best of both worlds.

SPAM Filtering
Make sure you set your SPAM filters properly.  It might be a pain, but read through the documentation.  Proper setup should stop the blatantly obvious SPAM.  But not block people just because you haven't white listed them.  I've run into this on a few occasions.  People ratchet down their SPAM filters allowing almost nothing through including legitimate emails.  Why is this bad?  Because someone might be writing you regarding a customer service issue or look to make a purchase.

There are a number of additional steps you can take.  What you see above should get you into the right frame of mind.  Make sure you are making it as easy as possible for people to do business with you.

Web Site Traffic Driving Revenue

A friend asked me yesterday "How does web traffic drive revenue?" It is a simple yet very important question.  There are a number of layers involved in the process.  Most businesses confuse the basics of traffic and revenue.  Because of confusion or ignorance many businesses don't do well online.  I'd also argue that too many businesses give deference to traffic over conversion.  There are a myriad of ways to generate traffic.  Converting traffic is a little more difficult.  The entire process starts with a simple formula and then branches into individual sections. Let's take a look.

A Simple Formula
Online Marketing guru Ken McCarthy provides his First Law of Internet Marketing: "Traffic + Conversion = Profits"  It's a very simplistic perspective on what it takes to be successful online.  For being so simple, the formula works. Unfortunately most businesses muddy up the process.  They add their own flavor and spin to the equation and get tepid results.  Check out "Why Do you Have a web site?" for a similar online success formula.

Markets and Generating Traffic
Online revenue generation starts with choosing the right online market. Many businesses incorrectly assume that if your site generates large incoming traffic streams that you will generate large sums of revenue. This rarely is the case.

Traffic generators can come from email subscribers, organic SEO, affiliate marketing, and traditional advertising.  There are a number of ways to generate traffic.  A simple concept that many companies confuse is the quality versus quantity debate in relation to traffic.  If you get 100,000 unique visitors a month and nobody cares about what you have to offer, your going to have a difficult time online.  I'd take 5,000 visitors a month that had a genuine interest and affinity for my product or service.  Visitors with affinity and interest for your product or service constitute qualified traffic.  You can help facilitate qualified traffic by selecting targeted keywords.

The Conversion Process
You need to convert your traffic.  Many businesses face the standard 1-2% conversion rates synonymous with the business world.  The nice thing about the Internet is that many online businesses have found a way to crush the standard rate. Some online entrepreneurs are converting at over 10% and others even higher.  When it comes to conversion you need to ask yourself: Do you have a sales process in place to convert traffic? You need to find a way to answer "YES!" to the previous question.  The web offers us many ways to create compelling offers.

Many web sites suffer from being poorly designed from a usability and direct marketing perspective.  Users quickly bounce off your web site because of the following: not compelled by the messaging, don't understand the messaging, or find the site difficult to use.  These factors usually result in the kiss of death for most web sites regardless of traffic. 

You need to create compelling messaging and test it on a regular basis.  Learn the techniques of direct marketers.  They have been creating compelling messages for hundreds of years. The web is only a different medium of delivery.

Back to the question "How does web traffic drive revenue?"  You accomplish this by smartly combining targeted niche marketing with a compelling offer on a highly usable web site.

Building Trust and Credibility with Follow Up

I'd like to greet everyone across the World with the New Year!  There has never been a better time where those who desire success can make their dreams reality. Here is wishing you prosperity in the business year ahead.

How many times have you heard this saying: "The Fortune is in the Follow Up"?   The Internet makes this piece of business wisdom even more true.  Those that use this adage stack the deck in their favor.  It is simple to implement, yet so many people find it simple to ignore. 

As I've mentioned before; one of the top factors for people choosing to do business with you is trust and credibility.  Would you buy a product from someone you didn't trust?  Those people who do a great job in following up with their leads build trust.  It isn't instantaneous, but takes time.  If you make the time to understand this important portion of the business game, you're well on your way to being successful.

One great way to follow up with your prospects is via an autoresponder.  My description is very simplistic.  People write entire books just on this subject.  In short, autoresponders allow you to keep a database of customers or perspective customers.  People sign up at your web site with their email and their contact information gets stored in a database.  This process is the essence of permission based marketing. 

The really keen individuals use autoresponders to obtain target market leads. People aren't going to willfully sign up to a list that is of no value to them. The first step a web site owner takes after someone signs up to their mailing list is to confirm a user's decision to join the mailing list.  After their willingness to participate is verified, a series of high quality emails are sent to list recipients.  Verification helps you establish that your email isn't considered SPAM.  This process is a great way to build trust and credibility over time.

If you choose not to use an autoresponder you can still send information via email.  You can follow the suggestions outlined above and below.

Some quick points to remember:

• Provide your confirmed mailing list with high quality information.  This will assist you in positioning yourself as an expert and build trust.  Free is great!

• If you are using email instead of an autoresponder, don't send emails BCC or CC'd. Each email should be sent to people individually.

• Make sure your emails don't look like they're cookie cutter.  People are very smart on picking out bogus email. Keep your message sincere and personalized.

• Subject lines dictate if many emails even get opened.  Keep your subject line interested and to the point.

These points are only a fraction of what you really need to know.  Remember to follow up with everyone.  Even if it doesn't result in an immediate sale, you might be successful at a later time.  People are much more apt to buy from those they trust!

Focus on Web Site Conversions

Are you converting your web site traffic?

One of the largest marketing mistakes web site owners commit is not having a plan to get visitors to take action upon arriving at their web site. Numerous companies look at their web statistics for the past month and are confused as to why so many people visited their site yet there is no appreciable change in revenue.  This is where the conversion factor comes into play.

A conversion is the process of your user taking some predetermined action or series of actions.  It is a measurable metric.  As an example, 10,000 people come to your web site in a month.  Of the 10,000 visitors, 100 of your visitors take a predetermined action.  In this case they make a purchase from your web site.  The end result is a 1% conversion rate.  100 purchases / 10,000 visitors = 1.0% Conversion rate.  In order to be successful online you need to concentrate on converting your web traffic.

Conversions don't always need to be in the form of a purchase.  Many people concentrate on building email lists to soft sell their product or service. Doing so increases the lifetime value of that perspective customer.  I know of one person over the last few years that amassed over 15,000 email addresses.  He delivered high quality content via his newsletters on a regular basis.  Imagine what you could do with 15,000 people dedicated people on your email list?

The cold hard truth is that most visitors come to your site and never return.  There are a plethora of reasons.  In some instances it takes several visits before a visitor will take any action.  You need to establish trust and credibility with your user.  A miniscule number of people will convert in their first visit.  You need to get people to come back to your site often enough to establish credibility.  In today's day of information privacy that can be a very daunting task.  After the trust is ultimately established it becomes much easier for you to convert users. Web sites that retain their traffic for subsequent visits are referred to as having a high degree of "stickiness."  Users are attracted to come back because of any number of onsite factors.

Here is a brief list of things you can do to establish trust and credibility:

• Deliver High Quality Content.
• Provide clear content, concise content, and relevant content.
• Respect the user's attention span.
• Present a professional looking web site.
• Balance your web site information with aesthetics.
• Update your web site often.
• Make your web site usable.

If you can establish the criteria above you should be in good shape.  Can you put a check mark next to each item listed above? If so, you should be well on your way to creating a trustworthy and credible web presence.

Are You Taking the Time to Analyze Your Web Statistics?

My main focus for today is to encourage people to get setup with analytics software and learn how to use it.  A later post will look into some of the finer points of analyzing web statistics.

There are plenty of decent analytics programs on the market.  One of my personal favorites is Google Analytics.  It is a free service with few restrictions.  Google Analytics is easy to install and web based.  This allows you to check your web statistics from anywhere with a web connection.  Data is compiled every few hours, making it near real time.  Their current restriction allows you up to 5 million page views per month.  If you have a Google Adwords account their page view restriction is lifted.  If you are getting over 5 million page views a month, that’s a good problem.  Purchasing higher end analytics software should be a question at that time.

Whatever analytics software you use, take the time to read the manual.  There are so many people that only have a basic grasp of how to use their analytics software.  The more you understand about the program the more you can leverage the data.

You should check your analytics on a regular basis. Some people check monthly or every few months.  This isn’t enough.  My usual routine is checking at least twice a day.  You don’t need to spend an extended period of time going through statistics. As you learn to use your web statistics program the process becomes very quick.  It should only take a minute or two each time you check.  Real time tracking is beneficial in this area because you don’t need to compile a report each time you check your data.

When I check my statistics daily I look for two things: daily traffic trends and referring traffic sources.  First, I compare my daily traffic from day to day. This helps me gauge in the short term my traffic performance.  Second, analyzing referring traffic sources helps me to determine the effectiveness of my organic and paid search engine campaigns.  I might also look at what pages or articles people are checking regularly.

Make sure you understand the difference between hits and statistics.  Businesses need to recognize the difference because they are inadvertently misrepresenting their statistical data. 

Another pet peeve is hearing business people brag about how much traffic they get to their web site.  Traffic is great as long as you can capitalize.  You need to start with concentrating on getting high quality traffic.  High quality traffic refers to users from your target market, not the general user populous.  Those users are interested in what you have to offer. After getting high quality traffic, you can then focus on converting that traffic.  A conversion usually involves an online sale, capturing an email address, or another set of performance metrics.  It’s not about quantity of traffic but quality of traffic.

If you are serious about your online aspirations make sure you have a good web analytics application working for you.  After you have good data to work from you need to be able to interpret that data.  Get setup and go play.

More Marketing Like P.T. Barnum (Part II)

Here is the continuation of Joe Vitale's outline of Barnum's "Rings of Power".  The Last Five Rings of Power center on people, creativity, networking, writing, and speaking.

P.T. Barnum's Last Five "Rings of Power"

• He believed in people helping people to get results.
  Vitale points out that Barnum was a proficient at getting the most of personal and business networks.  His amicable personality and established trust made it easy for people to help him. He used his personal contacts and connections to get him privileged access. This helped him significantly in furthering his business.
  
  Use the networking power of email lists, family, and friends to help promote your online ventures. With the emergence of YouTube and MySpace, social marketing has set the Internet ablaze with buzz marketing. Use this to your advantage. If you have friends inside the Internet industry they might be able to share valuable advice.  Have family and friends test visit your site and provide user feedback.


• He believed in negotiating creatively, treating employees and performers with respect.
  Barnum was a crafty negotiator.  He would always look at the possibilities a situation offered and attempted to capitalize.  He was revered by those around him. He treated his employees and businesses associates with the highest respect. 
  
  In the business world you need to be a great negotiator.  If you are fortunate enough to ride up the ladder of success, bring those who helped you along. Nobody ever succeeded in business without help.  The same applies for the online world. There are few if any people who make it to the top without the help of others.  If you surround yourself with successful people you are more likely to be successful.  Use can also get your associates to assist you with link building.
  


• He believed all was well.
  He lost personal property, his fortune, and his family. Regardless of personal circumstance Barnum always found a way to forge ahead.  His personal experience never left him with a chip on his shoulder.
  
  You aren't going to get your web site perfect the first time. Each version is a new opportunity to learn something and make improvements.  You might make several mistakes along the way but that is part of the journey.  Some people go through multiple web sites before they finally make their mark.
  


• He believed in the power of the written word.
  Barnum loved to write.  He used his word smith skills on the general public and with public officials.  To the very end he was dedicated to his writing.
  
  Apply the power of words to your web site.  Learn copywriting skills to deliver a meaningful message to users.  Some of the simplest web sites on the Internet are very successful because they make the most of their copy.  They compel their users to take some form of action with words.  You can't do much online without words.
  


• He believed in the power of speaking.
  Speaking was almost second nature to Barnum. "He knew that the spoken word could move mountains."  He used his speaking abilities to further just public causes, cultural learning, and his business.
  
  Public speaking is a great way to get the masses to visit your web site.  Your credibility will increase and you can establish yourself as an expert.  If you aren't comfortable speaking in public utilize a blog. Blogs allow you to get your message out to the masses from almost anywhere.  Blogs are also becoming a tool companies are using for product and service feedback and to create new products.

Source: Vitale, There's A Customer Born Every Minute, pp.11-16.

After you had an opportunity to review all of Barnum's Rings of Power get a pen and paper and come up with your own interpretations.  Sometimes the simplest ideas can lead our brains to discover completely new ideas.

Additional Resource:

• P.T. Barnum Biography

Online Marketing Like P.T. Barnum

Another one of my favorite historical business heroes is P.T. Barnum.  He was the greatest marketer on Earth during his lifetime. Like Thomas Edison, P.T. Barnum would be an Internet "Rock Star" if he lived in the present world.

In Joe "Mr. Fire" Vitale's Book, There's A Customer Born Every Minute, he describes many of the techniques Barnum used to become the world's "King of Marketing."  He achieved all this in a time without radio, television, or the Internet.

Through in depth study Joe Vitale outlined Barnum's "Rings of Power".  They were the keys to Barnum's amazing business success.   These keys can be slightly reinterpreted and applied to most businesses and their web sites.  Hopefully some of the suggestions below spark new ideas.

P.T. Barnum's First Five "Rings of Power"

• He believed there was a customer born every minute.
  One of the largest misconceptions is that P.T. Barnum said "there is a sucker born every minute."  He never said that.  Barnum virtuously believed that the world was his marketplace.
  
  Vitale points out that Barnum considered anyone with .25 cents in their pocket a potential customer.  Each day that goes by more and more people go online. You need to think well beyond your local market. If you are online you are worldwide.  Use that massive audience to your advantage.  With such a large audience focus on a narrow target market.


• He believed in using skyrockets.
  People described Barnum as a master of public relations.  Barnum would push the limit to get public and media attention.  These came in the form of publicity stunts.  Both P.T. Barnum and Thomas Edison used elephants to attract media attention.  In Edison's case, he executed Topsy the elephant.  Both men received an amazing amount of media attention because of their antics.  This attention trickled down to the public and created an amazing buzz.
  
  Is there something you can do to stand out from the crowd?  With every business trying to get consumer attention you need to be different. Try to be passively unique. Think of what will help you move to you're audience's center of attention. 


• He believed in giving people more than their money's worth.
  Barnum traveled to the ends of Earth in order to find what fascinated people.  He would bring the most unique entertainment to his audience. His focus was on his customer.
  
  The same analogy can be painted in regards to your web site users.  When someone shows up to your site are you presenting them with high quality content and a quality product or service?
  Few people are disappointed when your web site delivers what you promise. Too many web sites push content of no interest to the user.


• He fearlessly believed in the power of "printer's ink."
  Barnum knew how to get the most out of the media. Because of his ability to provide interesting and unique stories the media became Barnum's prized resource.
  
  Provide the public with unique stories on your web site.  Perhaps you can tell a compelling or powerful story to sell a product or service. Are you getting the most out of your public relations campaign?  Regardless of how good the message. If nobody knows that you exist you will never be noticed.
  


• He believed in persistently advertising.
  His use of free and paid advertising ensured that his marketing message was delivered around the world.
  
  You need to actively get your message out to the public. Harness the gold standard of online advertising: high quality back links. In today's world you can use SEO and PPC campaigns to help get your message out.  Don't forget that positive word of mouth is still one of the best free forms of advertising.
  

Source: Vitale, There's A Customer Born Every Minute, pp.11-16.

Throughout his life Barnum keep to his systematic methodology.  This proved immensely successful. Anyone interested in being great at public relations should study P.T. Barnum.

Learn about Barnum's Last Five Rings of Power.

Marketing with Stories

I finally made it to Vegas yesterday.  It is amazing how quickly one city in the middle of the desert can continue to grow.  Everywhere you look something new is being developed.

Today I find myself at Zion National Park, Utah.  The views are majestic and inspiring. 
During my hikes there were small historical placards with all sorts of interesting history and stories.  This reminds me of Seth Godin’s writing on the value of telling a good story. Whatever you do in life have a good story to go along with the experience.  The same methodology applies for web sites. If you are trying to sell a product or service online get the user engrossed via a good story. Create a story with words and pictures focusing on your target market.

One web site that does a great job of telling a compelling story with their product is Surefire.  Surefire sells some of the highest quality flashlights in the world.  Check out their web site and see how they use stories to sell their products.

Visit Surfire.com

Choosing the Right Online Market

Yesterday I went out with one of my good friends for dinner.  We discussed possibilities for creating additional revenue streams. My friend is already doing well with one of his side businesses.  He's known as "The Gumball King!" The King wants to expand his empire with other business ideas.  As always I pushed my online agenda.  One thing I mentioned was that he needs to choose the right market before expanding his ambitions.

Ken McCarthy, an online marketing guru, makes an excellent point when it comes to choosing the right market.  Success for many online businesses comes down to one simple thing. Are you choosing the right market?  Mr. McCarthy stresses that the right market should also be an easy market.

Ken McCarthy's list for an easy market:

1. Easy to reach
2. They have a burning desire for what you have to offer
3. Based on past behavior a willingness to spend money on what you have to offer

If your online market exemplifies the above characteristics you should be in for a much easier journey.  Too many people fail the day they start their online business because they choose the wrong market.

The most immediate example I can think of is the fast food industry. Millions of dollars have been spent to ensure my brain associates fast food with McDonald's.  Yes, there are a number of other companies.  But unless you have very deep pockets, it is going to be very difficult to compete with all the fast food chains that are already established.

Are you in an easy market?

Additional Resources:

• Ken McCarthy's Blog
• Are You Targeting Search Keywords?
• Missed Opportunity and Online Strategy
• Web Centric Marketing

Online Video Explosion

It seems like many people are jumping on the online video bandwagon.   With Google's recent purchase of YouTube more people are looking to integrate video in to their web site.  As with everything else in life, with every virtue comes a vice.  There are a number of things you should consider before using video on your web site.

The virtuous side of video is that almost anyone can easily post their videos online.  In years past video production was a very expensive process.  Today people with camera phones are capturing video and quickly posting it online.  Video allows you to easily present messages in different ways.  A number of companies and organizations are pushing online video through their web sites.  You can show your users or potential consumers something that words might not always be able to convey.  Video also allows you to pass along sound and music with your imagery.  George Lucas, states it best: "sound and music are 50% of the entertainment in a movie."

How can video be a vice?  With so much video going online very little of it is high quality content.  The quality has nothing to do with how nice the video looks, but the quality of the information you convey.  The more time passes, the more low quality video makes it online.  How many times have you sat through a two minute video and found it to be a complete waste of time?

Use video responsibly.  If you are going to post video on your web site make sure it relates to what you are trying to convey on your site and to your target market.  Tease people with your videos.  There is a reason why movie trailers are only a minute or two long.  They want to get you wrapped up in something without boring you or giving too much away.  Many people forget to optimize their online video presentations. They'll post large files that take a while to download even with broadband connections.

Take a look at how YouTube.com presents video.  After you select a video to watch, featured video is presented in the main window with related videos (presented as static images) off to the right.  You don't want to overload your user with options. An example of information overload can be found at: http://www.dosomethingamazing.com/. The videos are nice but presented poorly.  They are task saturating the users as soon as the home page loads with sound and video.

Online video is here to stay. Make sure you use it tastefully and responsibly. One of the most important things to remember is because you can have video on your site doesn't mean you need to have video.  You can create highly effective messaging with words and pictures. Some of the most effective messaging comes courtesy of the written word.  Make sure you don't load your site up video just so you can say you have video.

Online Communication - Email and Telephone

Being able to contact a person or company is essential to any business.  It is the at the forefront of customer service. One particular deficiency that I notice on many web sites is they don't always make the contact info easy to find or upfront.  If you are doing business online, you need to make sure people can easily contact you. 

Most users will send an email before they call via telephone. Email is a quickest and easiest way to make contact, it's painless.  For some people email isn't enough.  You should always offer a telephone number where people can contact you or your business.  If someone is desperate for information or has a pressing issue it will come as a telephone call.  People call when there is a customer service or technical issue.

A great place to feature your contact information is on the home page, above the fold.  One standard location is in the mast head or header bar.  The contact info should be noticeable, yet discrete.  You can also feature a contact us page link in the navigation or footer of each page.  Doing so builds redundancy into the system and ensures people won't miss the information.  Make sure it is easy for the user to contact you.  It should be noted, based on the size of your company and privacy issues, you might not always want users to contact you directly.  In this case it is the company's discretion on what information to make public.

One particular hurdle that I find many users reacting to negatively is online contact forms.  Instead of allowing the user to contact a company directly they need to fill out a form.  I understand that the forms help companies deal with a multitude of inquiries.  But, in many cases having an email or telephone number available can resolve an issue much faster.

Communication is an essential part of any business.  You need to ensure people can quickly and easily get in contact with you.  Good contact information is essential to the user when making online purchases or the consideration of services. This also helps to build trust and credibility for your company.