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How to get on the first page of Digg in less than 4 weeks.
A common theme with corporate sites, ecommerce and service oriented sellers I speak to is what I call “The lights are on but nobody is home” syndrome.
What is this sales-killing malady and how can you solve it?
Read on!
Continue reading Can Customers Tell You Are Open for Business?
On the TV again today was another business pundit explaining how certain companies were feeling the pinch because of a retraction in advertising spend. The cooling economy in USA had impacted many media companies who rely on advertising for the bulk of their revenue.
It seems counter-intuitive to me, but just when people need sales the most, they pull back on their advertising. Doesn’t this seem strange to you?
I hate popup blockers and find them quite annoying; but then who doesn’t? And although it is hard to find users who are “okay” with popups, some sites continue to use them ignoring the basic usability and conversion principles. But of course, that shouldn’t seem too strange since experts in the industry are recommending that ecommerce sites continue the popup practice. We came across a “recognized leading expert in web site usability and ecommerce marketing strategies” who gives the following advice to ecommerce sites that are trying to get more information about site visitors. Our expert recommends:
aggressive in collecting e-mail addresses, especially if it intends to eventually cease using direct mail as a touchpoint. For instance, it could use pop-up screens to capture the e-mail addresses of forum participants and of people who abandon searches or shopping carts
I experienced one of the most valuable lessons in the late 90s when I ran my first business, Quill Publishing. At Quill we had achieved the majority of our business and financial goals and had taken great strides to carve a nice niche for ourselves. Everything seemed to go exactly how I had envisioned and hoped.
Until one day…
Continue reading 8 Lessons you should learn from your online competitors
“Making it” gives you the “authority” and advantage over other competing companies. When your name and brand are recognized as a company, you are sought out and talked about by consumers, industry gurus, specialists, news and blog outlets, etc. Your job becomes easier in terms of reaching out, viral marketing and connecting to the public.
WIIFM?
This should be the first and last idea in your mind when developing a marketing campaign or even the smallest tactic.
Answer this for everything you do and you are more likely to see results. I mean everything. Everything from your Google Adwords copy, through to your blog articles, email newsletter, white papers, or that funny video you are sure will go viral.
Heck, you need to be able to answer this next time you are handing your business card over at a networking event.
We need to get out of the old “broadcast and consume” mindset. More than ever before our customers have distractions and they have choices. “New and improved” won’t cut it. Just being out there is doomed to failure.
Look over your work. Does it talk about who you are and why you are great? Or does it speak to a specific customer with specific needs about how your service will help them?
You have an instant where you have your prospects attention, are you going to waste it on lots of flannel about yourself or are you going to talk about issues that matter to them?
Today we can’t just interrupt our customers with our message and expect them to take notice. We need to give good reasons why they should listen, attract them and hold on to them. We need to promise value and deliver on it.
You will know this from dating, Me Me Me is not attractive. What do you have to offer? You have 10 seconds, make it good!
Back when I started talking to companies about marketing online, one of the sales points often touted was “the web allows the smallest of companies to look like a big company”. Is this actually a good thing?
I would argue in many cases what people actually want is authenticity, but aside from that you might be surprised how often people do not want to work with a big company.
For years when I worked in advertising we would have a “creds doc” full of reasons why a company should choose us. In this document would be case studies of all the big brands we had worked with before, and what we achieved for them. While many companies were very impressed with the logos and names of products and companies they recognized, we found after a while there were others who were intimidated. In the end we would customize the doc for each pitch, tuning the case studies as appropriate. We had a far better success rate.
There was a similar story with our staff numbers. Like many companies in the dotcom boom and bust we went from having an army of bodies to shedding the majority and ending up with a more, um, intimate little collective. For a while we would pretend that there had been no layoffs, or not as harsh as they were, but it got to the point where we would have to be honest. Rather than baling on us some of the clients we retained actually preferred our smaller headcount. They knew they were getting more personal service and they were getting better value for money. Instead of missing the hoards of “account handlers” and having phones answered by “reception”, they preferred to be able to pick up the phone and talk to a designer, copywriter or programmer.
This year I stopped marketing my services under my company name. Instead I am just me. I came to realize that clients wanted to work with me, not a company. You will find in most service businesses it is true. Consider comments you get in your daily work, things like “They are great guys to work with” or ” I am glad you don’t just wheel out a pitch team”. Even back in the agencies I knew this, I am a little ashamed it has taken until now to act on it. I still have a company as structure, but other than in invoices and paperwork you wouldn’t know.
Have a think about it. Are you trying to project an exaggerated size and scale or are your communications reflecting an accurate picture of who your company is? Are you basing your strategy on what you guess your clients want or what your customers are really asking for and like about you?
It could be worth talking to your customers, you might be surprised at the answers you get?
Do you expect your customers to shop in ways you wouldn’t behave yourself? You would be surprised how many marketers do.
Here is one example just from this last weekend: How many times have you seen a banner ad go straight into a credit card details page?
Have you ever purchased a reasonably expensive product, previously unknown to you, directly from a banner click? I am guessing you are saying ‘no’.
Our customers are the same. Yes, we do make impulse purchases, but in the majority of cases we need to know some facts and imagine ourselves owning and using the product. It is not enough to see the product is available and be shunted straight to the checkout.
Customers have various buying modes, from not even in the market to highly motivated to solve a problem. These modes are on a spectrum, and we can move between categories as we gain more information, get distracted or lose urgency.
Just looking at how motivated the customer is, you can see how your strategy has to adjust:
As you can see, a number 1 Google result is not going to capture the first category, those people are not even looking, while the last category will have highly motivated people searching frantically for your product if you would only put it where they can find it.
We have many strategies and tactics at our disposal but it always comes down to the same thing. Knowing your product and your customer!
Time and again you see it. This isn’t just something new marketers do, it appears in the entire spectrum of business. I have seen marketing directors at Fortune 500 companies and one person operations do the same thing.
What is this mistake and why is it so devastating?
First a little history lesson. In the past there were not so many television channels and radio stations. Many more households bought a newspaper and it was pretty predictable which paper they would subscribe to. Advertising was a case of getting your message out and watching the sales come in.
With few distractions and fewer choices even the most mediocre advertising would find an audience. Like cattle at a trough, “consumers” had no option but to buy what was on offer and advertisers didn’t particularly have to engage or even be entirely truthful.
Fast forward to today and we have an ever-growing number of distractions, not just from a constellation of TV channels and the internet but in every facet of our daily lives.
We are constantly bombarded with marketing messages and todays word of mouth travels at light speed.
Old school prime-time broadcast just doesn’t cut it. The old TV ad man mentality of shoving whatever they want to sell in customers faces is getting more expensive and less effective. It’s the famous Superbowl spot. Or should I say, infamous.
Broadcast techniques from yesteryear might not work but there were marketers from the golden age that we can learn from. Direct marketing copywriters learned how to sell a ton of product by appealing to the true wants and needs of their market. Unlike the TV folks with their “because we say so” attitude, the direct marketers were persuading, influencing and offering solutions.
Which brings us to the number one mistake even modern marketers make; talking at prospects rather than to them.
Consider your marketing message:
If we do not tune in to our customers and meet them where they live our campaigns bomb.
At worst the campaigns are not just ineffective, they actually serve to damage future performance by teaching prospects the brand is irrelevant or out of touch with their needs.
Today more than ever before we have to be smart about how we speak to our customers. They are savvier and have many more choices than previous generations, and do not tolerate anything less than clear messages that address what they want.
People will not do just what you tell them, you have to explain what is in it for them in a way they will understand. If you want people to take interest in your offer you have to introduce it where it is most relevant and address what they need right now. Match the message and delivery to the audience mission. It is no good serving up music and games, no matter how beautiful and award-winning, if your prospect is searching for flash photography advice or for ways to convert PDF to excel files. On the other hand if your prospects are surfing, browsing or looking to be entertained they might prefer cartoons and humor rather than lectures and wordy articles.
Find out what your prospects think, want, need and deliver it to them where they hang out, in their language.
Do you see marketers making this mistake? How do you talk to customers real needs? Share your thoughts in the comments …
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