GRIP Technology Articles RSS Feed

Twitter Not For Kids

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:15:04 GMT

Young adults 18-24 make up only 10% of the Twitter population in the US and are less likely than the average user to Tweet, according to an analysis of February data by comScore blogger Sarah Radwanick, MarketingCharts reports.

This skew toward middle-aged demographics early in Twitter's life cycle suggests that - in contrast to other social networking applications - younger users are not driving popularity of the microblogging application, and the traditional "early adopter" model may need to be reconsidered in light of its popularity among older adults, Radwanick said.

In a recent blog post, Radawanick noted that the number of February Twitter users worldwide had grown to 10 million, up 700% vs. a year ago, while the number of Tweeters in the US reached four million, up more than 1,000% from a year ago.

Of the US users, 10% are between 55 and 64, nearly the same amount of users as those between ages 18 and 24 (10%). Another 5% are age 65+. This distrubution does not indicate that Twitter is the medium of choice for younger adults.

Middle-Aged Spend More Time Tweeting

To further the argument that Tweeting is not a "young" phenomenon, US Twitter users who are in the 35-to-44-year-old age group spend nearly 20 minutes on the microblogging site at any given visit, according to comScore. This compares with those ages 18- 24, who only spend 5.3 minutes on the site, and 25- to 34-year-olds who spend 5.8 minutes. After the 35-to-44-year-old age group, time spent on Twitter falls again.

Users ages 45-54 spend seven minutes on Twitter, but the number rises up to 9.3 minutes for those ages 55-64.Radwanick also cited an analysis from Reuters blogger Alexei Oreskovic, which delved more deeply into the demographics of US Twitter users and assigned them an indexed score. Oreskovic found that 18-24 year olds are actually 12% less likely than the average Tweeter to visit Twitter.

"It is the 25-54 year old crowd that is actually driving the [Twitter] trend," Radwanick said. "More specifically, 45-54 year olds are 36% more likely than average to visit Twitter, making them the highest indexing age group, followed by 25-34 year olds, who are 30% more likely."

MySpace and Facebook social networking sites have similarly experienced a surge in older users, though, Radwanick said, those increases were after younger users set the pace."Twitter is a rare example of older people embracing a new web technology at such an early stage," said Andrew Lipsman, director of industry analysis at comScore, who suggests that Twitter's popularity among older users may be linked to increasing comfort with the internet and social media as well as its perceived usefulness in business.

Nielsen data from February also confirm Twitter's popularity among older demographics.

Radwanick concluded that current assumptions about who might use a technology first might need to be reconsidered. "Not only teenagers and college students can be counted among the technologically inclined," she said.

"With those age 25 and older representing a much bigger segment of the population than the under 25 crowd, it might help explain why Twitter has expanded its reach so broadly so quickly over the past few months."

Is Your Intended Audience Over 45?

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:30:04 GMT

Most internet users age 45 or older say content online serves less their needs and interests than those of younger persons, according to Burst Media.

Still, 67.7 percent of all respondents say their daily routine would be disrupted if their online access was taken away for one week (42.9 percent say "significantly") - with "the oldest segment looking very much like the youngest segment," according to Burst.

Some 43.9 percent of those age 55+ surveyed say there would be significant disruption in their lives if internet access were taken away.

Additional findings issued by Burst are outlined below.

Though most (52.0 percent)of the more than 13,000 adult online users surveyed in February said internet content is focused on their age group, there was significant variation in the responses of various age segments:

Some 76.0 percent and 73.9 percent of the 18-24 year and 25-34 year segments, respectively, say online content is aimed at their age groups.
Most (55.7 percent) of those age 35-44 also say so.
However, just 35.4 percent of those age 45-54 year say internet content is focused on people their age. The proportions of those 55 or older saying so are significantly less.

Website design elicits similar opinions:

75.9 percent of those age 18-34 years say websites are designed for them.
55.2 percent of those age 35-45 say so.
36.9 percent of those age 45-54 say so.
Only 19.9 percent of those 55 or older say websites are designed for people their age.

Online advertising is apparently also missing the mark overall - but also particularly in the case of older users:

Just 38.6 percent of respondents overall say online advertising is focused on their age group.
Only respondents in the 18-24 and 25-34 age groups tend to say online advertising is focused on them: 56.6 percent and 56.5 percent say so, respectively.
Some 43.8 percent of those age 35-44 say online advertising focuses on people their age; 52.9 percent of them say it targets younger people - as do 72.5 percent of those age 45-54 and 83.2 percent of those 55+.

In search of more and new content: Most respondents (59.6 percent) say they are typically visiting more websites than a year ago - and that's the trend for all age groups, including nearly 63 percent of those 55 or older.

Nearly half of those surveyed (48.9 percent) cite local/national news as their favorite content, but content popularity varies by age group:

Age 18-34: Entertainment info (44.7 percent); local/national news (40.1 percent); online games (38.1 percent); shopping/product info (36.1 percent); info for work (35.0 percent); social networks, forums and blogs (31.4 percent).
Age 35-54: Local/national news (54.2 percent), shopping/product info (44.8 percent), info for work (42.7 percent), health info (37.1 percent), entertainment info (37.0 percent), travel info (33.7 percent).
Age 55+: Local/national news (55.9 percent), shopping/product info (44.0 percent), health info (42.5 percent), international news (38.9 percent), travel info (38.2 percent), food information/recipes (34.1 percent).

Conclusion: Make sure your content serves all audiences.

10 Tips for Launching a Solid Podcast

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:10:05 GMT

10 Tips for Launching a Solid Podcast

Not hard if you know how

Campaign studies by Podtrac and TNS found podcast advertising is three times as effective as "traditional" online advertising, and seven times more so than TV ads.

In 2007, podcasts served 18.5 million users in the US — a figure projected to rise to 65 million by 2012 (eMarketer).

These tips for launching an engaging podcast will help you build a loyal and responsive brand audience.

1. Plan your podcast schedule. An engaging podcast is more than a "one-off" episode. Plan each in advance, and launch them on a consistent day and time.

If you broadcast weekly, publish a monthly schedule so listeners get a sense of what to expect. Stick to your schedule — inconsistency encourages even devotees to look elsewhere.

2. Make it RSS-accessible. A downloadable mp3 file is only one component of a podcast. Enable people to subscribe via RSS so they can retrieve updates automatically.

3. Keep it short. It's not a one-hour radio show. Brevity encourages relevance. Unless you have a strong feature, don't press listeners' patience.

A typical episode of The Wall Street Journal’s "Your Money Matters" podcast lasts a little over five minutes.

4. Don't waste time hard-selling. Don't discuss your product or service all the time. When you do, invite a client or user to speak frankly about it on air. It's okay to promote a website if the site contains content relevant to the episode.

5. Segment your podcasts. Think "Client Talk," "Tip of the Day," "Your Questions Answered," that kind of thing. Content segments give listeners bearings and yield a sense of familiarity with your podcast's ebbs and flows. This is key to the success of any series.

6. Simplify podcast management. Keep your recording process and RSS feed management simple, so you can focus on developing content (the tough part).

Garageband, Gcast.com, ClickCaster.com and Audacity are the most popular programs for recording podcasts. FeedforAll helps with editing, and its simple GUI eases management of RSS feeds.

7. Submit your podcast to popular directories. iTunes lets users submit podcasts from within its program; here are some podcasting resources from Apple.

Pinging services like Autopinger and Pingoat will submit podcast updates to major blogs and search engines. Burn your podcast with Feedburner, which allows you to notify listeners about new episodes through email updates.

8. Build a compelling podcast website. Any ad campaign or product launch should have its own web destination, loaded with up-to-date and relevant information. Your podcast is no different. Keep the site updated with your podcast schedule, and website-only tidbits, to build listener loyalty.

Bonus features on the website will go a long way. Coffee Break Spanish uses its site to sell written transcripts of its free audio lessons. The website is also the place for visibly advocating your product or brand.

9. Let website visitors commune with one another. Provide listeners with a newsgroup so they can interact. You can also start a Facebook group or invite them to follow you on Twitter.

10. Measure and analyze. None of this does much good if you're not keeping metrics on your progress. Some handy tools:

    * Google Analytics helps track users and audio file downloads
    * Feedburner lets you measure the number of unique subscribers per episode
    * Podtrac and Volomedia help you gain deeper insight in behavioral and demographic data

Happy podcasting.

Content is Queen

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:01:36 GMT

People don’t read Web sites.

There, I said it.

Now don’t shoot me – at least not until I’ve said my piece.

The written word is obviously an important part of any Web site for, ultimately, it is the basis for one’s message. But since so much of the Web is visual, I do not think people actually read Web sites – that is, until a user finds the information they are looking for.

It’s a simple concept that can be difficult to implement.

Writing for the Web is different than writing for anything else. You have to be short, direct and concise. It you take 15 words to get across a message that can be told in five, people won’t stick around to read the wordier version. Nobody is going to read four sentences to find out where next to click, much less wade through a three-paragraph mission statement or company vision.

And as much as Web writing must be short, it also must be straightforward. A marketing brochure might be peppered with clever slogans and cutesy plays on words – a tone that probably reflects the company’s brand.

When writing for the Web, though, you must cut through the cuteness. Fancy taglines and slogan only get in the way – especially if it is written in a way to support the brand.

The priority is to facilitate the user experience, and allow the user to find his endgame – and buzz words and marketing lingo will only roadblock that direct path.

But Web copy isn’t only short – it is strategically short. For example, do not write, “For more information, click here” with the “click here” a link to the next page. Simply write “Read more” or “More information” and make those direct links. Don’t ever use “click here” on a site. Good copy leads to obvious links.

Advice I like to give is simple: After you write copy for a Web site, go through and cut half the words. Then go back and take out half the words, again. The end product should be just about right.

More advice: more copy is appropriate the deeper you get into a Web site. If a user goes to a Web site in search of ways to cure poison ivy, the reader will read several paragraphs once he makes three of four easy clicks to find the right information. But, that same user won’t read more than a few words in navigating towards the final destination.

Again, the object is to get the user from Point A to Point B – and Point B is the content, it is what the user wants to read.

The best opportunity to connect to directly connect with the visit is through visuals, not through copy.

A home page is a Web site’s “Table of Contents” – and the writing should match.

Improve Your Search Engine Ranking on Google

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:00:14 GMT

As many of you are probably already aware, Google ranks a page according to the number and quality of links leading to that page. For example, if your page has 100 quality links leading to it, it will rank higher than another page that has only 20 links pointing at it. Quality links come from pages that are themselves "important" (Google's own terminology).

Note that this is not a secret. Google actually publishes information about their ranking algorithm on their website. You can read it for yourself at http://www.google.com/technology/.

Improving Your Page Rank on Google

There are numerous tips floating around in webmaster circles about how to improve your ranking in search engine results on Google.

1. Get Those Inbound Links

Since Google ranks your pages according to the number of links pointing at your page, it stands to reason that you should try to get as many links pointing at your pages as possible. This is so obvious that I'm only mentioning it for completeness sake.

2. Your Title Tag

Google seems to give weight to the title of your page. By title, I mean the text that is sandwiched between the HTML <TITLE> tags in the <HEAD> section of your web page. If you use a Web editor that automatically inserts a title like "New Page", remember to change it to some meaningful text with your keywords inside to reap the benefit of this feature.

3. Content-Laden Pages (Keyword Density)

It has often been observed that Google considers keyword density a large factor in ranking pages in search engine results, more so than many other search engines.

4. Keyword-laden Links?

According to a paper published by one of Google's founders, if the links pointing to your page has the relevant keyword text in them, it will cause your page to be ranked higher in search engine results. For example, a link with the text "Tall Mens Clothing" pointing at your site will cause your site to be listed earlier if a visitor searches for "tall mens clothing" than if the link simply said "click here". You can find a copy of the paper online at The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine.

Other Google Tips

1. Will Disabling Caching of Your Page Affect Your Page Rank?

Some time ago, it was claimed that Google would penalise pages that forbade it from caching their pages. As you know, Google caches the pages it indexes unless otherwise instructed. To avoid problems with people who feel that this is a copyright infringement (and other reasons), they allow sites to instruct the Google spider not to cache those pages using various means. Google has apparently publicly denied that disabling caching would affect the page's ranking in any way. I tend to believe their claim.

2. Dynamic Pages and Google

Unlike some other search engines, Google is able to index dynamically generated pages, so long as a link exist to those pages somewhere. For example, a page like "http://example.com/showstuff.php?page=19" can be indexed by Google.
So if you have a dynamically generated page that you think should be indexed, make sure you put a link to it somewhere on your site.

3. ALT tags on Images

If you have been placing images on your website without bothering to place ALT tags, now is a good time to add ALT tags. Google apparently indexes the text given in the ALT tags of images.

4. META Keywords Tag is Ignored

Google ignores the META keywords tag, so, optimising of this tag is not going to help you any with Google.

The Google Toolbar

The Google Toolbar can be obtained free of charge for Firefox and Internet Explorer. It gives you an idea of how important Google thinks your site is (in general) by showing the Page Rank of any page that you visit. ( Get Firefox with Google Toolbar )

Unfortunately, to obtain the page rank of the pages you visit, the toolbar actually transmits information about the pages you visit to Google. Thus if you are worried about people tracking your Internet activity, you might want to restrict its use to times when you check your site's ranking. You can easily enable or disable the Page Rank feature from its Options menu.

Want to talk about implementing on your site? Contact GRIP today.

Ten Key Online Predictions for 2008

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:00:56 GMT

eMarketer has issued predictions for 2008 in key online areas, including advertising, videos, social networks, e-commerce and entertainment.

The forecast finds online advertising will ride out potential economic storms in the US — and YouTube will decide political elections.

The 10 predictions for 2008, according to eMarketer:

Online ads stay resilient.
Video surge slows.
Social network advertising hits $1.6 billion.
Networking goes beyond MySpace and Facebook.
YouTube decides the election.
Beijing Olympics pumps ad spend.
"Buy online, pick up in-store" becomes stock feature.
Movie downloads go mainstream.
Music marketers roll out new business models.
Dynamic ads heighten gaming revenue potential.

Improve your email open rates

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:00:57 GMT

Whatever email open rates you get in your email marketing software or service reports, you obviously want to improve. Since the open rate is a measure of success, improving open rates is simply about doing better email marketing.

And that's a giant subject.

So here's a list of the main things to consider to get those stats up. Take the keywords and plump them into your favorite search engine (or use the box at the bottom of the page) to learn more about how you can make them work for your own email marketing efforts.

Long-term efforts

1. Improve overall strategy and approach

Adopting best practices in all aspects of your email marketing produces sustainable, significant improvements in all success measures. A commitment to professional permission-based email marketing practice is your best long-term hope of raising open rates.

Where to start?

if you send useful, relevant, engaging emails to the right set of people at the right time, then open rates will rise. Easy, eh?

2. Improve deliverability

Facetious I know. But the more emails get delivered, the better chance you have of people actually looking at them. No changes to the actual email itself will help if they never land in the right inbox.

Keywords: email deliverability

3. Refine sign-up procedures and targeting

Reader interest in your emails depends on how targeted your audience are. The better you target, the more likely you are to plunk your email in front of someone who is interested in the contents (i.e. higher open rates).

Targeting starts with where and how you gather email addresses.

You need to ensure that you set expectations correctly, so people sign up because they want what you send out. And you need to ensure they really do want those emails. Only add addresses to your list when the owners explicitly requested you do so. Respect that permission.

Keywords: permission email

Targeting also comes into play when you send out your emails. It means matching content to reader. Which is where it helps to split up your list into smaller groups sharing particular characteristics, letting you fine tune your messages to their needs: segmentation.

Keywords: database marketing, email list segmentation

4. Get people to add you to their address list

At the top of each email you send out, you can invite people to add your "from" address to their personal address list.

As well as helping you bypass spam filters set up by that individual, it often means their email client or web-based email service will now display images that were previously blocked in your emails. Which means the tracking image gets requested and opens show up where before they were missed.

Keywords: whitelisting

Short-term efforts

1. Subject lines and other headers

The subject line is probably the single most important in-email element that drives open rates. Bad subject lines, poor open rates. Good subject lines, good open rates.

When you're exploring the potential of subject lines, don't forget the other elements that appear in the headers of an email and get displayed in a reader's inbox. The "from" line in particular needs your attention.

Keywords: subject line(s), from line(s), email headers

2. Timing

Open rates will vary for the same email sent on different days or at different times of the day.

There are a lot of folk who will claim various days and times are best. Like our open rate benchmarking problems, these recommendations are based on averages and not on the specific characteristics of your list and situation.

Use your intuition to gauge when people are most likely to have the time and interest to view your email and go from there. Then test alternatives and see how they work out.

Keywords: best day to send

3. Frequency

Send too much email and people lose interest. Send too little email...and people lose interest.

What's the right amount of email to send out? It depends on your situation. And don't forget that responses to your marketing emails are affected by all the email your company or business sends out to recipients (transactional emails, personal emails, account updates, welcome messages etc.)

As a rule of thumb, it's hard to sustain open rates when you send more than two marketing emails a week to a recipient. Ditto at once a month or less. Not impossible -- just hard -- as you're fighting email fatigue and forgetfulness on top of all the usual problems.

Customer Retention Through Email Marketing

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:00:59 GMT

Gone are the days when marketers were frenzied about gaining new customers. Today, the battle is over building loyal customer relationships and keeping those customers, obtained by spending millions of dollars. The winners of this battle seem to influence their customer intelligence through innovative and promising channels, like email marketing.

Importance of Customer Retention

Lack of coordination and communication between the organization and its customer can result in the loss of customer loyalty and likeness. It is critical for any business to retain customers due to the following key reasons:

Research shows that it is 5 to 7 times more expensive to gain a new customer than to retain an existing customer.
For many organizations, repeat customers cause the more sales than the rest. Most of the consumers exposed to the product or service are subject to make a purchase at a later date.

Role of Email Marketing in Customer Retention

Retaining existing customers by developing consequential, appropriate relationships with them and manipulating channels to do it in a timely and efficient manner is essential for save additional marketing expenditure. Below given explain how emails can assist in customer retention marketing:

Email marketing continues to be among the most inexpensive and effective ways to reach your customer base
Email marketing allows you to stay in contact with potential customers and keep your business at the top of their mind
Emails can be used for several different purposes like adherence programs, up-sell offers, surveys, service messaging, a win-back offer or at the very least, an apology
Emails can strengthen the bond between the customer and the company; improve brand allegiance and bring repeat business
Since E-mail newsletters are customer initiated and are more oriented to educate the customer than selling, one can see a drastic improvement in the value that a customer holds for the company
No quantity of attractive ads and accurate SEO will alleviate the lack of attention to customer communication and relationships but Emails for they can be personalized.

How to encourage a click

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:01:05 GMT

“Click here!”

Many email marketers believe that is the ultimate call to action: It’s clear, concise, universally understood and specific in telling the email reader what to do. Just what you want, right?

Alas, it’s wrong.

As a command, “click here” is beautiful in its simplicity, but it falls far short as a call to action – the trigger to launch the customer on the complicated path to conversion – because it doesn’t tell your email readers what you really want them to do.

Nor does it answer that universal question all readers have that drives so many actions: “What’s in it for me?”

If your email marketing program still is not delivering the results you need to see, even after you conquer the physical challenges of deliverability and list-building, the problem may lie instead in your call to action, particularly if you rely on “click here.”

In an email message, the call to action has three elements: the action you want the reader to take, the words you use to issue the call, and its physical appearance (text, image, location)

Here are eight strategies to help you cover all your bases:

1. Separate the Click from the Call

In the standard email message, you don’t have a lot of space to tell customers why they should click a link. So, the call to action – or CTA, the phrase that will compel the reader to click the link and start down the conversion path – must deliver as much information as possible in just a few words.

That’s where “click here” fails to deliver.

I can understand how “click here” got promoted from simple command to lofty CTA. The click is something we all understand. It’s easy for the reader to visualize the physical action you want them to take, because it’s simpler than saying “Please click your mouse button on this link so that you will jump from this email to the specially designed landing page we have created for you at our Web site.”

The click also is the basic unit for measuring the click-through rate, a common measure of success for an email campaign. However, this “one size fits all” command doesn’t serve the needs of the call to action, which requires a custom fit varying with the sender, the recipient and the ultimate result.

For a retailer, the email message tells the customer, “Buy now!” However, the buying process doesn’t necessarily start when the reader clicks through to the Web site.

Instead, the link you provide takes the customer to a product page for more information: product descriptions, pricing, image shots, discount
amount, and the like.

So, the email message isn’t necessarily asking the customer to commit to a purchase but merely to learn more about the product. If the customer isn’t ready to seal the deal right from the email message, “click here” might appear to demand a greater commitment than he or she is willing to make. “Learn more” might actually more closely reflect what’s going on in the customer’s head.

An email publisher has a different end result in mind. Newsletters usually contain article abstracts or introductory paragraphs. The action, then, becomes “Read the full story.” Again, “click here” inadequately expresses the action you want readers to take.

Be realistic and clear about what actions you want your email message to inspire. This will help direct you to design an effective call to action.

2. Express the CTA Clearly

Once you know the action your email message should inspire, you must design the call so that it tells the reader what to do and what to expect for doing it.

As with so much else in marketing, a CTA often explains the benefit the reader will get, answering the “what’s in it for me?” question, and should be expressed as an action. Again, this varies with the email’s type and purpose.

Marketers whose email message generates a product or service purchase should match the CTA to the landing page where the email link will send clickers. If it’s a page of images showing different varieties of the same product, the call could invite the reader this way: “See all 20 colors here.” Or, if you simply must include the word “click:” “Click to see all 20 vibrant colors.”

Informational messages – newsletters, bulletins, updates – direct the reader to get the full story at the Web site. Again, you need to tell the reader not only what to do but what he can expect by doing it. “Learn more techniques to increase click-through rates” is both information and action-oriented, where “click here” falls flat.

One other shortcoming with using “click here” as your main CTA: It’s repetitive and boring! Vary the wording to reflect where in the sales cycle your customers probably are, what you’re saying in the body copy that leads up to or surrounds the CTA … Just don’t repeat it more than once in one message.

3. Sprinkle Links Generously

Obviously, the CTA must be a clickable link. But that cannot be your reader’s only path to the landing page. Readers will click on domains, product names, etc, within the body copy just as they'll click on the CTA at the end of the copy. Giving readers more options will increase your total CTR.

Examples:

Newsletter readers often click on an article headline as well as the call-to-action link. Make headlines informative and action-oriented, so that they can perform this double duty.

The same is true for commercial emails. The product or service name and images should link directly to the landing page. Never strand a shopper on your home page or a general information site.

4. Use Text to Make CTAs Pop

Besides linking the product or service name to your landing page, you should also boldface it to help it catch the eye, especially if you rely on text more than images to tell your story. Boldface makes scanning much easier.

You can also boldface action words, key phrases and anything else that can drive the reader’s eye down to the official call to action. (These can be but don’t necessarily have to be hyperlinked.)

Most importantly, though: Boldface the CTA. (See how that got your attention in this paragraph?)

I often see copy that sprinkles boldface type too liberally through a message, only to camouflage the CTA in plain text and make it look like the least-important part of the copy. CTAs need to stand out, not blend in:

Increase the font size of the CTA - don't shrink it. Make it prominent and obvious.
Use white space to offset or highlight the CTA. If the action at the end of an article abstract is to read the full story, don't just run the last sentence into the CTA. Use a hard return, indent and make it easy to see exactly where the CTA is.

5. Location, Location, Location

The most obvious place to drop a CTA is at the end of the copy. But readers jump around when they read. That’s another reason to boost the number of links to your landing page. But also drop the CTA higher up in the body copy, where appropriate.

Threes Ways to Use Images Better:

I often see three huge errors in image-based CTAs:

The missing link: Readers click on logos, product shots and brand names, but often you see them not hyperlinked. If nothing happens when they click, they’ll assume the email is broken, delete it and be done with it and you.
Image-blocking: It’s a big problem, and one that’s going to get worse as more email programs block images by default as a way to protect users against spam and viruses. If your CTA is enclosed in an image, and if the image is not displayed, neither is your CTA. This is a no-brainer, yet I see it happening all the time.
Image maps: Image maps highlight a small region that restricts where the user can click. I see the "click here" text in offer-
related images mapped so that only those words will drive the action, and not the full image. If you restrict where users can click, you make it more difficult for them to respond to your offer. That will depress your CTR. Use text links for navigation and to get around preview pane and image blocking limits. Make the entire image clickable, and include supporting text under the image and in the “alt” tag the reader can click if the image is disabled.

In a Nutshell:

Adding more CTAs, and using CTAs that are more clear and obvious, will make your email messages more effective in driving conversions - no matter what that conversion might be.

Make it easy for the recipient to understand not just where but why to click through, and what they can expect on the other side, and you'll see your CTR increase.

Visual Value

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:01:07 GMT

Web sites are many things to many different users, but a few things are clear – a Web site is not the primary place to promote your brand or broadcast your mission statement.

Not that those things don’t have a place on your Web site, but those should not be – and can not be – the primary focus of a successful site, especially if the site is designed to be a revenue generator for a company.

Now, before your marketing director has a cow, let’s talk about what should be on your site, and how the site can support a company’s sales and marketing efforts.

The top priority for any Web site is to provide the straightest line between the information available and what the visitor is looking for. If you sell shoes, and the visitor to your site wants a pair of men’s Nike brand sneakers in a size 10, then your home page must allow that visitor to find that particular shoe in the fewest number of clicks possible.

Clicking through a video of a football player – or, worse, having to wait for the video to end -- only slows down the user. In fact, that is what happens at www.nike.com.

The most important page on any Web site is the home page – the first page a user finds when he types in a company’s Web site. Space on that home page is, obviously, the most valuable. It is the company’s best, and only, chance to capture a user’s attention, and keep it long enough to allow the user to find the information he is looking for.

With that in mind, how many users come to a site looking for a company’s brand or mission statement? Few, if any. So that’s why those types of messages are given support roles. They can be found on the site, but they are not given primary roles.

So what should be promoted on that prime real estate that is your company’s home page? It’s something we call “Visual Value” – and if not used properly, it will make or break the success of a site.

“Visual Value” is a process of bringing to the front of a Web the elements that you feel are the most important.

Decades before we had Web sites, we had department stores, such as Macy’s and Lazarus. And to get shoppers into the store, they promoted their goods in store windows. Not all of their goods, of course, but just enough to entice a passer-by to come into the store and browse all of the offerings.

A store window

The store window was designed to stop you in your tracks, create a good impression and pique your interest enough to come into the store. Once inside, the store is laid out in a fashion that allows you to find what you are looking for. Looking for men’s jeans? Finding the men’s section should only take a minute or two. Same with women’s or kids clothes. No matter the needs of the shopper, the path is quick, easy and clear.

A Web site should do the exact same thing, by assigning “visual value” to the elements that will bring an user into the “store” and then delivering the “goods” in a matter of a click or two.

Another way to look at the home page is to relate it to meeting someone for the first time. You look a stranger in the eye, greet her with a handshake and exchange a polite hello. And then you walk away with an impression of that person – good, bad or indifferent. Fair or unfair. In just a second or two, you have an impression that will last.

Same with a Web site. The first impression will last with the user. The only difference is, there won’t be a second meeting if the impression is negative.

The fastest way to create a negative impression is to burden a user with too much to read. Visitors to a site don’t have time – or the desire – to read more than a few words until they find exactly what they are looking for. So the most important aspect of “visual value” is the word “visual.” Seeing is always believing, but not more so that online.

The Web is 100 percent visual. With very few exceptions, any other elements – video or audio – will only prevent a user from finding the information he is looking for.

If a picture is not only worth 1,000 words, it’s better than 50 words. Or 25. Or 15.

Images are also the best way to make a good first impression with a user – and make it in the fastest way possible. So when you find the four or five things that represent the information visitors to your Web site are most likely interested in, the best way to present that information is visually.

No matter the reason for the visit, the compelling image will catch you attention, and then a clear menu of options provides a path to what you are looking for.

The path would not have been as quick, though, if that image would have been a slow-loading video or audio. Only a picture will catch a person’s immediate attention. And failure to do so will lead to a lost customer.

The deeper one goes into a Web site, the more likely that visitor is to take time to read a paragraph or two. People don’t read Web sites. They look for information. Until, of course, they find that information. And then they will read – but not before.

Immediate feedback

And, the Web provides a tangible platform for users to take action.

One of the hidden beauties of the Web is that is tells us almost immediately how effective other, more traditional advertising campaigns are working.

The “call to action” for many advertising campaigns is to visit a Web site. So, if a company runs a large advertising campaign, a Web site will you immediately the effectiveness of the site. Web sites are measurable, tangible and the best way to gauge marketing efforts.

If the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Bureau runs a $5 million advertising campaign in USA Today and the New York Times, it will know immediately whether the campaign was effective. If traffic to the site increases – and thus bookings through the Web site increase – then the campaign was a success.

If the campaign is up and running for a week or two and traffic to the site is stagnant, then changes need to be made to the campaign. Immediately.

Along the same lines, if traffic to the Web site increases dramatically, but sales on the site do not increase, then the Web site probably needs an update. The “visual value” of certain elements is not registering with the user, and changes can be made swiftly.

And, how do you know what to change? The Web site will tell you – truthfully.

Want to know which pages visitors are looking at, the Web site will tell you. If users are going to a page touting “special packages” on the site, but aren’t buying the packages, chances are they aren’t a very good deal. If shows are getting a lot of traffic, but those aren’t highlight on the home page, then you can adjust and give the user what he is looking for.

Three things a home page will do:

Create an impression: when a user comes to your site, you must impress – and impress quickly

Establish your position: you are in business, literally or figuratively, for a very specific reason; make sure that comes across loud and clear

Allow users to identify themselves: users visit a site for many different reasons, so design your site to allow all visitors to find what they are looking for in the shortest period of time