The Conversion Scientist™

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The Evolution of Online Advertising Man

August 19, 2009 on 2:30 pm | In Behavioral Marketing | No Comments

You can’t give a Chimpanzee a Cell Phone and call it “evolved”

We all go through stages as we endeavor to grow — to evolve — into something greater, grander or more worthy of dating. The same is true of online advertising.

Through my columns on ClickZ.com, I have looked out of the cretaceous pool that spawned my online marketing life and have seen great beasts walking the land.

I have seen brands that are capable of amazing feats of targeted advertising.

I have seen fantastic creatures capable of sorting through volcano-sized mounds of data in milliseconds.

I have seen technological wonders through which what we see online magically congeals into its most pleasing image.

I have seen the Google Mammoth and the Sabre-toothed Yahoo carving rough trails through the jungles, enough to let us lesser-evolved forms taste the power of targeted advertising.

Yet, I know that there is a process at work here, and have attempted to document our evolution from Web site advertising to full-fledged, self-aware behavioral display advertising. The earliest stages are these:

• Homo Webilisite: Web Site Man
• Homo Searchenginus: Search Engine Man
• Keyanderthal Searchilis: Paid Search Man
• Keyanderthal Convertis: Conversion Man
• Keyanderthal Displayis: Contextual Display Man

You will find them defined in this month’s column on ClickZ. Next month, I’ll document the advanced stages of evolution through Homo Optimizapien Man.

BTW, when I refer to Online Advertising “Man” I mean the species Man, which includes women, though they may prefer to downplay such an association.

Photo courtesy http://www.sxc.hu/profile/code1name

Science by Email

The First Thing Your Customers Buy From You Isn’t Your Product

August 13, 2009 on 8:53 pm | In Content that Converts | No Comments

They buy your "communication product" first

Look at any product description on any Web site. Peruse any brochure. You will find a list of features designed to tell you why the product will do the things you need it to do to solve your problem.

They will probably have a check mark next to them.

What you will not find on these lists are features like these:

• A helpful Web site so you make the right decision
• Informative reports and white papers offered free of charge
• An active Facebook page full of the opinions of our users
• A well-labeled box placed in the right part of the store so you can easily find it

How a product or service communicates is not considered an important feature. This is why marketers — who develop the communication features — struggle to keep their staff and budgets during a downturn. This is why Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) don’t have a seat at the executive table with the CEO, President, COO and CFO.

To the executives, marketing doesn’t create products or sales. Marketing is a cost.

Prospects actually become customers when they buy your communication products

The first purchase a prospect makes from your company is a communication product. It is the flyer, brochure, Web site, report, article, press announcement, blog post, Webinar, etc. that you provide, ostensibly to help them understand how your product will help them solve a problem or entertain them.

They only occasionally pay with money. More often, they pay with their time, their attention, or their contact information to continue the conversation. Since they don’t pay with money, marketing never shows up on the bottom line. It’s always seen as a cost.

Now, if a customer is satisfied with their "purchase," they become a repeat customer taking more communication products. They also buy your company’s offering — for real money. Sales will get credit for the latter.

The mistake marketers make is creating communication products that are only focused on persuading prospects to buy the money-based products. How would things change if they focused on building great communication products instead?

The New Marketing Department

Imagine a marketing department run like a product development department. How would that change the focus?

Marketing Department	Communications Products Department
Develops campaigns	Develops products that communicate (educate, inform and entertain)
Creates promotional content	Creates relevant, educational, or entertaining content
Targets product users	Targets influencers, approvers and gatekeepers as well as product users
Watches marketing metrics and buzz	Watches time spent with the "products," customer satisfaction, repeat "buys"
Has a Web site	Provides online services to help prospects solve their problems
Creates a competitive matrix	Creates better communications products than competitors (who are stuck with a marketing department)
Prepares "messaging" and approved copy matrices	Discovers new ways to help their communications product customers
Stays "on brand"	Improves the brand with great communication experiences
Bases budgets on the cost of campaigns	Bases budgets on the feature set needed to win in the communications marketplace
Builds brand with frequency and relevance	Builds brand by frequently helping prospects find information they are looking for
Segments the marketplace and creates targeted messages for each segment	Creates buyer personas for their communication products, and then delivers the products that serve them

This list could go on. What would you add? Tell us in the comments.

I’ll be talking about how buyer personas drive bigger marketing budgets at ProductCamp Austin on Saturday, August 15. Come out and let’s talk about great communications products.

Photo courtesy http://www.sxc.hu/profile/lusi

Science by Email

10 Ways to Know If Your Copy Will Convert Visitors to Customers

August 10, 2009 on 4:52 pm | In Effective Copy | No Comments

You don’t have to be a copywriter to know crappy copy when you see it.

If you read this article and then go out and read your Web site, odds are very good that you will be embarrassed. You probably should be, but that isn’t really a helpful response. The proper response is to change the copy on your site. It works. You can completely revamp your Web site without changing one pixel of the design.

Please, for all of our sakes, change the copy.

How will you keep from simply writing more of the same boring Styrofoam flavored copy that you’ve already got on your site? By knowing bad copy when you see it. Here are 10 ways to know that your copy is going to convert visitors to buyers and one bonus tip.

Thanks to Amy Lemen at Writeous Words for helping me compile this.

1. It Speaks Specifically to Someone

If you can’t tell who the copy was written for simply by reading it, you are probably in trouble. Who are your customers? What happened in their lives that made them come to your site at this particular time? Profile your visitors, understand their motivations, and write to their issues. Personas help.

2. It’s Written Naturally

Do people talk like your copy is written? Does it convey meaning with the kinds of metaphors, euphemisms and engaging omissions that are used in speech? Or are the words straining to persuade the reader, attempting to touch on every point necessary to make the reader buy?

“Clarity trumps persuasion,” says Flint McGlaughlin of MarketingExperiments. Stop persuading. Start communicating.

2. The Copy on the Page Matches the Offers in your Ads

Your visitors didn’t get to your site by magic. They got there from one of your ads, from a search engine or from a referral. Does the copy on your home pages and landing pages pick up where your ads started? Does your "Meta Description," which the search engines display on their results page match the copy on the page itself? If not, you are breaking what the Eisenberg brothers call the "Scent Trail."

At each step of their journey to and through your site, there should be something familiar, something related to the previous step. Nothing provides scent better than headings and copy that draws on a common thing. Images and color are also affective, but that’s another article.

One of the most expensive mistakes is made in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising on search engines. If you offer a discount in your PPC ad, the page they come to should have the discount clearly visible. Too often, great offers in ads are defeated when the visitor is taken to your homepage, on which the specific discount cannot be found.

Yes, to do this effectively means that each ad should have its own landing page on your site.

3. It gives the Reader Information They Can Use

Is the copy persuading or being helpful? It’s not about who you are and what you do. How can the visitors to your site solve their problems with your offering? Do you present a good value proposition?

When I come to your site, does your copy answer any of the following questions for me:

• How does it work?
• How will I use it?
• Which features should I care about?
• What should I be cautious about?
• When does it make sense to try something different?
• How do I justify the cost?
• How do I sell this internally?

These are just examples, but you need to understand that they are fundamentally different from telling the reader that you will give them "unparalleled visibility, divisional support and alignment."

4. An Experienced Copywriter Wrote It

Don’t look at copy as filler on your page. In the hands of an experienced professional, your copy will increase the effectiveness of your Web site and this will translate into more leads and more sales. Unlike design, though, we can all create copy. And unfortunately we do.

As I have said before, treat copywriters like designers. Get two or three “sketches” of the copy. Choose one. Correct the errors. Leave the rest alone.

5. It is Efficient

Long copy is OK. Rambling copy is not. Use efficient copy of any length to engage your reader.

Amy Lemen recommends using copy indexing formulas to help you measure the efficiency of your copy.

6. Your Analytics Tell You It’s Working

Google Analytics is free, easy to add, and relatively easy to learn. Use it or something else. Then ask someone to show you how to check the following. If copy changes don’t make these better, try again. The company that knows grows.

1. Bounce Rates: How many people leave immediately when they come to my pages? You want this to be low, at or below 30% usually.

2. Site-wide Conversion Rate: How many people visit the site? How many people take action by completing a form or buying something. When you divide the latter by the former, you get your site-wide conversion rate. You want it to be higher over time.

3. Exit Percentage: Which pages most often cause people to leave the site? These pages are either solving their problems completely or turning them off. Take a look at them. Try to get the exit percentage down.

4. Page Conversion Rate: For those pages that really count, the pages where people buy, find out how many people took action and divide that by how many people visited. This is your conversion rate for this page. You want it to be higher over time.

5. Web sales: How much stuff are you selling via the Web?

7. You had an Individual Edit it, not a Committee

Having a whole Web site go through a committee is a bad idea. Just because your marketing manager developed the product messaging doesn’t mean she should write or edit the copy. The product manager should only look for errors, not rewrite. The CEO needs to know the end result.

8. There Are Links Throughout the Copy

When someone reads your text, they are engaged. In fact, they are probably less likely to see supporting information in the left or right columns of the standard Web page. Use links within paragraphs to get readers into the site. Don’t over-do it, however. Too many links or links that encompass lots of text will make the paragraph difficult to read.

This is great for SEO, too. It provides an internal linking structure that helps search engines understand what the site is about. Your copywriter should be using important keywords for these links.

9. You Got Someone from Outside the Company to Participate

Internal writers are often too close to the material. Consider a copywriter from outside the company. This also requires that you go through the process of communicating what your company does. You’ll be surprised at how difficult this will be, even with a sophisticated copywriter.

This process should help you refine your messaging, and maybe delay updates until you’ve got a coherent story that the average human will understand.

10. You’ve Tested Your Headlines

Your heading are critical to scanning readers. Try different headings, font sizes and colors. Be patient. Watch your analytics for benefits that last.

Litmus Test

Do you enjoy reviewing the copy for your Web site? Do you feel pride when you read it? Is it something you’d consider adding to your portfolio should you find yourself looking for work? If not, imagine what your visitors think. "Good enough" just doesn’t convert as well.

If you can’t write like these guys, please let someone else do it.

Copywriters Round Table Blog
http://copywritersroundtable.com/

CopyBlogger Blog
http://www.copyblogger.com/

Nick Usborne’s Excess Voice Newsletter
http://www.nickusborne.com/excess_voice.htm

Here are some resources to grade your copy.

Fog Index
http://www.usingenglish.com/glossary/fog-index.html

FutureNow, Inc. WeWe Test
http://www.futurenowinc.com/wewe.htm

Photo courtesy http://www.sxc.hu/profile/iwd.

Brian Massey is The Conversion Scientist. He shows businesses how to turn visitors into leads and sales. Brian is the author of The Conversion Scientist blog, is a ClickZ Behavioral Marketing Expert, and author of The Market for Me: Surviving Job Loss and Building Your Lifetime Career Network. Brian lives in Austin, Texas, where life and the Internet are hopelessly intertwined.