The Marketing Message Blog

Novelty and Content 101

If you spend time thinking about what kind of content you should create for your customers, check out Why We're Powerless To Resist Grazing On Endless Web Data by Lee Gomes in the March 12th issue of the Wall Street Journal.

He discusses research done by Irving Biederman, a neuroscientist at the University of Southern California, who is interested in what motivates the human need for information.  Gomes says that "When you find new information, you get an opioid (brain chemical) hit, and we are junkies for those." Biederman calls us 'infovores.'  (Note: This also explains the heavy use of the back button when you land on an exceedingly boring page.)

So what's the take-away from this?  I think it's as simple as— Don't be Boring!  Which you already know.  But somehow when you start to sell your product or service you start writing copy like, "Our product is known for it's maintenance-enhancing, all powerful widget-bending factors like none other."  Boring counts no matter what you sell.

Do you provide a service your customers can readily understand?

This month in my Mindjet.com column I focus on how to Make your service business easy to understand.  Each month my column focuses on a marketing issue and how I'd approach solving it with a map.  I always include the actual map so you can download it and modify for your own use.  This month we feature Yovia.com.  Check it out.

Also, if you have a marketing issue you'd like to submit, please do so at the link above.

Can you encourage word of mouth?

I'm guest blogging at Online Marketing World whose conference is on Oct. 3. Check out "Can you encourage word of mouth?" if you're interested.

Landing Page Campaign: An Update

I've been creating a lot of landing page campaigns for clients recently and I wanted to go back and review a post I wrote on 4/18/06 to see what new advice I would add.  Interestingly enough, I found that I wouldn't add anything.  The top 7 tips still apply.  When I wrote the post, I don't think people were as tuned in to the importance of a good landing page.  I hope you are now.  Here's the post.

"Seven Tips to Create A Great Landing Page Campaign:" Do your ads create buyers? You're only as good as your campaign strategy. If you don't have a strong online landing page for your print and online ads, then you are missing the essential ingredient that turns visitors into customers.

When you create a landing page campaign here are seven tips to remember.

1. First Determine Your One Customer Goal

Determine the final action you want your visitor to take. When you achieve this result, you can deem your landing page campaign a success. If your goal is to get their email address, make sure you provide an incentive and make it the centerpiece of your page. Typically, you might offer a free ebook or an online tutorial in exchange for their email address.

2. Think About “What Comes First”

“What comes first” is your originating ad. Whether it’s a Google text ad or a full color magazine page, make sure that they create a cohesive message with matching graphics. To test this, simulate what the visitor will do — read your ad and then click to your landing page. If your message is inconsistent, the path to your goal will be lost.

3. Present a Professional Design

Your landing page must equal the quality of your website. The fact that your landing page functions as a single ad doesn’t mean that visitors won’t expect a well designed-page with graphics.  This doesn’t have to be expensive, just well thought-out.

4. Don’t Recreate Your Home Page

Your landing page should not look like your home page with all it’s links. It should carry your branding, but should be created for the specific goal you want to achieve.

Think about making the ‘buy path’ clear and easy to follow. You want visitors to come to your website to learn more about you— not so with your landing page. Your landing page is there to provide visitors with all the information they need to take the next step to a purchase.

5. Don’t Include Extraneous Links

Carefully lay out the path you want your visitors to take. Think about it like a visit to a museum. In a museum, the direction and place the visitor should walk is carefully delineated so that they get the maximum viewing effect. (Yes, it does also keep the line moving.) Your landing page should do the same. Decide the path you want them to take and narrow your text and links to follow that path. Don’t throw everything on the page in the hope that you will hit on something that interests them.

6. Remember Your “Call to Action”

Make sure the visitor knows what he needs to do next. If he is interested, you want to make it clear that he should call, type in his email address, or take some action. This is the point at which he will be the most motivated. Don’t miss this opportunity.

7. Track Your Results

To determine if your campaign is cost-effective, you’ll want to take some measurements. There are many you can take but these two are the most important:

a. Conversion rate (%):

The easiest measurement to take is your conversion rate. It is the number of visitors who performed the desired outcome/number of visitors to your landing page.

b. Marketing Cost per Sale ($):

This is the cost of your landing page/number of sales you attribute to the landing page. This will let you determine if your landing page campaign is a good investment.

In terms of refining your campaign, you can try split A/B testing and other tests, but the most important thing to remember is that if you start with a good solid campaign plan, you will have a much higher success rate.

David Meerman Scott's new book

David Meerman Scott's new book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR has lots of good information.  It seems there are currently some terrific books for e-commerce companies who want to figure out how to apply Web 2.0.  This one is worth getting.

Check out Chapter 3 on "Reaching your Buyers Directly" and the extension of the topic on "Personas" in Chapter 10.  I find small business owners talk a good game about wanting to reach their customers, but almost never frame their messages as benefits to the customer. 

If you ask them, they think they are.  But 'benefits' is a deceptive word.  You can say 'saves you time' or you can say 'makes you feel like you have an extra hour each day.'  Which one is more enticing?

Does Design Matter?

Daniel Pink author of the classic, "A Whole New Mind," (see required reading) was recently quoted as saying, "To be in business today, you have to be literate in design—and the impact of that design to differentiate."   The rise of Web 2.0 and the active participation of consumers has made design a key way to differentiate yourself from the competition, both online and off. 

Obviously, a product that is easy to use will attract buyers when compared with a difficult one.  But, consumers have begun to DEMAND good design and reward those who make it a priority. 

This has never been more true online.  Blogs, newsletters, websites and business cards need to work together to brand and communicate your message.  I think the days of getting by with a poorly designed online brand is over.

Technorati tags: web+2.0 competition online+marketing Daniel+Pink design marketing+message branding

Why Simple is Hard and the Obvious Isn't

Now that everyone is a publisher, I am struck by the fact that when writing for the Web, simple is hard and the obvious isn't.  This is illustrated well on CopyBlogger by Brian Clark  He writes about how storytelling is powerful and illustrates it with a story.  Check the comments and you'll see that some people just didn't get his point.  What is obvious to us isn't necessarily obvious, or even true for others.  Now that everyone can be a publisher, we're seeing this played out across the net.

This isn't a new problem for writers. When Mark Twain was sent this wire by his publisher 'NEED 2-PAGE SHORT STORY TWO DAYS." Twain replied 'NO CAN DO 2 PAGES TWO DAYS. CAN DO 30 PAGES 2 DAYS. NEED 30 DAYS TO DO 2 PAGES.'   

This reminds me that writing for the Web requires that we think about how to simplify our prose and state what's true (for us) and hope it's obvious.

Technorati tags: writing+for+the+web marketing story+telling headlines

"Selling More Stuff"

As always, management guru Tom Peters, has something important to say.  This time it's a rant about Sales  He cautions marketers to remember the famous quote from Robert Lewis Stevenson: "Everyone lives by selling something."

Does this mean that he is downgrading marketing?  He says, possibly yes.  I see it as an attempt to get everyone to focus on what he says really matters-"selling more stuff."   Online marketers get caught up in developing cute phrases and clever ads.  Do they sell your products and services?  Do you know? 

The most important part of your sales pitch is your marketing message.  Some things to think about:

1. Does your customer "get" what you're selling?  It may be obvious to you, but unless you talk about real benefits, it's just another widget.  What emotion are you addressing?

2. Be careful with tag lines. I've noticed that more and more websites and blogs are popping up with 'clever' taglines that don't mean anything to anyone. 

3. Test often.  Refining the marketing message is the best way to increase revenue.