This is a breakdown of an email marketing campaign by @pizzahut. 11 reasons why it works and even some suggestions they may try for future endeavors.  Scroll down to see the list of how Pizza Hut does it right and why their conversion rates are probably pretty high for this type of campaign.

Remember, my point here is not the design.  Conceptually design matters at some level, but most designers that are not conversion rate optimization conscious would probably say this design isn’t great.  However, at the end of the day, it’s all about moving the needle.

1.  First email was sent Monday February 28th at 1:11 PM EST.
2.  Second email was sent Monday March 7th at 5:16 PM EST.
3.  I did not opt in for these emails.
4.  Subject of the email was:  The Legendary PAN PIZZA 10$!  (notice how PAN and PIZZA are both capitalized)

1. Brand Awareness -  They do a very good job with other outside promotions. I knew exactly who they were when I received the email. Since Pizza Hut is such a strong brand, there was no confusion about the purpose of the email.  Once I clicked it (probably because I wanted to analyze it) there was additional brand recognition in the top left corner.
2. Great Image – Zesty and filled with melted cheese, it heightens emotions with just one glance.  If you are hungry, it may sway you to make the famous dinner call home, “honey… do you feel like pizza tonight?”.
3. Additional Offering – Everybody knows that you can’t just get pizza, you have to get breadsticks and a 2 liter as well. Without this, the up-sell on an additional offering would be less, therefore generating less revenue.
4. Secondary Value – If you are not in a pizza mood, they have other choices too.  The 3 column display does will in conversion optimization techniques, even in emails as well as landing pages.
5. Day Of The Week – Huge benefits here as outlining what specials there are on any given day of the week. Not only can you get discounted pizza, but you can also receive discounts on other products depending on the day.
6. Large Font Titles – Gaudy, but it works. It grabs your attention immediately after you locate the brand image and you know without a doubt what this page is all about.
7. Value Proposition – As soon as we see something we want, we immediately want to know how much it costs.  They do a great job here with immediate value, economical as well as large font types to draw the eye that direction.
8. Definition – Defines the offer without making the user have to guess. Any size and up to 3 topics communicates clarity in the offer as well as promotes a feeling of limitless choices.
9. Call To Action – This button is made clickable inside the email campaign, with a green color change from the themed reds and whites through the email.
10. Theme – Every day has a different theme.  Wing Wednesday for example.  A title goes along way in conversion.  This helps clarify the offering with a creative twist.  Also, repetition of this can lead households to say, “hey it’s Wings Wednesday at Pizza Hut”.  Helps to create stickiness in the campaign promotion.
11. Savings – Notice how each theme has a different price attached so there is no confusion how much something costs.  We want to know immediately what something costs, which is clearly defined here according to the day.

• Notice the time of day it was sent.  Maybe test different times of day.  I would suggest analyzing the time of day people start to think about dinner and see if there is any conversion increase there.
• Although the design is not great, it doesn’t really matter, as long as there is conversion. I would add a box around the day of the week it is when sent. It will draw the eyes as well to that point.
• I would test different sizes of the call to action button.  To me, it seems a bit small. Maybe something commensurate with the 5 dollars it’s next to.
• Multiple call to actions landing at the same page.  I would make 3 more call to actions under each day of the week.  Possibly even make the picture clickable.
• The background is a bit distracting to me.  Whenever you are using imagery or graphics, it needs to lend to the ultimate goal.  Looks like they are pepperonis floating around, but its a bit hard to tell. I might test just a full red background here.

What would you change?

Today I will have the pleasure of watching @gregoryng present at the SEO Meetup (organized by none other than our very own Phil Buckley) here in Raleigh about conversion optimization. Greg is the Chief Experience Office at Brooks Bell Interactive. As CXO (Chief Experience Officer), Greg is responsible for ensuring that marketing strategies are realized through exemplary creative work. Gregory's direct experience runs deep and includes working for clients like Dell, Bank of America, American Express, Fidelity Investments, the Salvation Army, Microsoft, DSW Shoe Warehouse, and Dunkin' Donuts. I will follow up with a blog on what I learn from Greg. I am sure it will be a "gem".

Here is a great list of books that deals with conversion optimization. Find them, read them, know them all. They are great. (Compliments of Bryan Eisenberg)

Psychology, Human Behavior, and Persuasion

• “Made to Stick” by Chip and Dan Heath
• “Waiting For Your Cat To Bark?” by Bryan Eisenberg and Jeffrey Eisenberg
• “Persuasive Technology” by B.J. Fogg
• “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert Cialdini
• “Your Key to Sports Success: How Understanding Your Brain Type Will Enhance Your Athletic Ability” by Jonathan Niednagel
• “Please Understand Me: Character and Temperament Types” by David Keirsey
• “The Art of SpeedReading People” by Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger
• “Why We Buy” by Paco Underhill

Marketing, Branding, and Selling

• “Ogilvy on Advertising” by David Ogilvy
• “Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads” by Roy H. Williams
• “Call to Action” by Jeffrey Eisenberg and me
• “The Psychology of Selling” by Brian Tracy
• “How to Master the Art of Selling” by Tom Hopkins
• “The Sales Bible: The Ultimate Sales Resource” by Jeffrey Gitomer
• “Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing” by Harry Beckwith
• “5 Steps to Successful Selling” by Zig Ziglar
• “Focus: The Future of Your Company Depends on It” by Al Ries
• “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions” by Dan Ariely
• “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie

Usability and Information Architecture

• “Designing Web Usability” by Jakob Nielsen
• “Web Usability: A Designer’s Guide” by Jared M. Spool
• “Information Architecture for the World Wide Web”
• “Web Form Design” by Luke Wroblewski
• “The Persona Lifecycle” by John Pruitt and Tamara Adlin
• “The Elements of User Experience” by Jesse James Garrett
• “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug  (one of my personal favorites)

Copywriting

• “Persuasive Online Copywriting” by Jeffrey Eisenberg and Bryan Eisenberg
• “Breakthrough Advertising” by Eugene M. Schwartz
• “Advertising Secrets of the Written Word” by Joseph Sugarman
• “The Associated Press Guide to Good Writing” by Rene J. Cappon
• “Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer” by Roy Peter Clark
• “Copyblogger Blog” by Brian Clark

Testing

• “Landing Page Optimization” by Tim Ash
• “Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer” by John Quarto-vonTivadar and Bryan Eisenberg

SEO, SEM, E-mail Marketing, & Social Media

• “The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization” by Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, Rand Fishkin, and Jessie Stricchiola
• “Winning Results with Google AdWords” by  Andrew Goodman, while we anxiously await “Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Marketing: An Hour a Day” by David Szetela
• “Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day” by  Dave Evans
• “Email Marketing: An Hour a Day” by Jeanniey Mullen
• “YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day” by Greg Jarboe
• “Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone.” by Mitch Joel
• “Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust” by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith
• “Twitter Marketing: An Hour a Day” by ClickZ’s own Hollis Thomases
• “Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs” by Brian Halligan, Dharmesh Shah, and David Meerman Scott

This is a great list.  I have read many, and have many more to read.  Stay tuned for more great stuff.

Any smart SEO professional will tell you that having a solid keyword strategy behind your social marketing campaigns is the key to achieving a high return on your digital investment. While short- and long-tail keywords each have their place within a tactical marketing plan, it’s important to know which will work best in regard to specific social media initiatives.

As a general rule of thumb, long-tail keywords rank better for conversion, while short-tail keywords are more useful for developing interest and driving general traffic. However, all things considered, web traffic that doesn’t generate conversions is only worth so much. Here are a few tips for building a winning digital keyword strategy that can be easily worked into your overall search and social media marketing approach.

Twitter

Your Twitter keyword strategy must reflect and respect the fact that this platform operates in real-time. Focus on short-tail words and phrases that can be easily digested, indexed and found by an audience searching for related topics. Long-tail keywords are unlikely to produce a high ROI due to the very nature of Twitter – a constant stream of new information combined with an audience that embraces the 140 characters, less-is-more mentality.

Keep in mind that hash tags are keywords too. Use them frequently to engage with people who tweet and are searching for updates or following threaded conversations on a particular subject. Hash tags help bridge the gap between the today’s immediate conversations and the yesterday’s relevant news. Also, never forget about your competitors – their company names can serve as keywords as well.

Facebook Social Ads

Facebook keyword strategy is somewhat different. Many organizations are finding extreme value in Facebook’s highly targeted advertising campaigns. Though these small side-bar ads only enable you to target a short-tail keyword or two at best, advertisers can drill down an extremely precise demographic – from specific location, age and sex all the way to relationship interests, workplace and keywords. Use these to your advantage. Leveraging filters on the front end will help deliver your message to a much more qualified lead, yielding higher potential for conversions.

Outside the advertising sector, long-tail keywords can pull more weight on Facebook than their short-tail counterparts. Remember that everything you write on Facebook or any other social media platform is indexed by search engines (unless your privacy settings are set otherwise). Because Facebook allows for more substantial interaction through fan pages, groups, event pages and more, long-tail keywords can be effectively targeted in a number of ways. Facebook’s viral nature combined with substantial internal linking can mean higher rankings and conversions for your business. Keep this in mind when writing on a page or using the FMBL tool.

Metrics

Measurement is an important part of evaluating any social campaign’s success and can be helpful in identifying key areas for improvement. If you’re using Filtrbox or another social media measuring/monitoring platform, don’t hesitate to explore your options and use more than one. Why? Because you can. The more you listen, participate and contribute to the conversation, the more successful your long-term efforts will be.

Using a tool like Filtrbox or Radian6 allows you to create even more unique search capabilities inside your metrics campaigns. These tools help create Boolean based searches with your keywords, using operators such as “includes,” “must include” or “have at least one of” these types of keywords. This tool alone can allow you to search the entire internet in seconds and get a better understanding of how other content is being purposed. For example, if you wanted to do a search on “home security systems Raleigh,” it may be more beneficial to search on “home security” with the “must include” operator, “Raleigh,” and the “have at least one of” operator, “system.” The Boolean evaluating conjunction (AND) allows you to see results of the first two parameters as true, and the disjunction (OR) evaluates the argument if either one of the parameters is true. This is extremely helpful in data mining your keyword results based on a specific segment or campaign.

Highly targeted PPC campaigns can also be a powerful way to turn qualified leads into customers. When developing a PPC campaign, always know your industry’s click-through rates to help quickly eliminate or validate specific keywords throughout the research process. Also keep in mind that geo-based optimization combined with a long-tail keyword strategy will always yield higher conversions.

Other Long-Tail Keyword Tips

• Are YouTube videos part of your overall marketing strategy? Make sure you’re optimizing the content that accompanies them with long-tail keywords. Remember, Google owns YouTube and continues to index new sites and material thousands of times of every day.

• Incorporating long-tail keywords into your local business listings in Google, Yahoo and Bing is an easy optimization opportunity that many companies miss out on, and one that can pay dividends if executed in coordination with other on-site SEO tactics. Because Google lists a few local results above the organic results when users search for geo-based information, there is a unique chance to overtake your competition in the rankings and steal their web traffic (and maybe even their business).

Which keyword strategies have you found effective in regard to social media marketing?

How does your organization incorporate keyword strategies into your social media marketing campaigns?

What successes have you had in using long-tail vs. short-tail keywords for social media marketing purposes?

As I approach and check in, I find out that I have just become the mayor and ousted @1918 for mayorship.  That was cool, but what happened next was even cooler.  When I checked in inside the Foursquare application, my phone showed a message that said “Special Here” with an arrow pointing to click to see the next page.  It was looked like I had just won something and I was excited!  It was the feeling you have as a kid at Christmas about to open an early gift (which I will have you know, my Dad always knew when I peeked and taped the present back together, ha).  Not only was I excited to discover my prize, but I was exited to witness The Pit’s new interaction, embracing Social Media.

I quickly clicked the “Special Here” offer and to my surprise another treat was waiting for me!  Naturally, I was congratulated on my newly crowned mayorship, but more importantly, there was a great offer.  As the mayor I deserve a little appreciation.  Man, was I tickled to death and so excited to see the participation, not to mention the fact that I felt like I won something.  However, most people will definitely feel like the brand is watching and listening, which is extremely important.  This is the image that appeared on my iPhone.

I just wanted to share my experience and show a real life example of The Pit’s use of Foursquare and social media combined with word of mouth marketing to increase visibility and brand awareness.  Great job to Phil for the excellent prelude post and hats off to The Pit for embracing this change in how we talk to our customers.  Side note:  The Pit is the only one in Raleigh currently using this feature.

Here is a link on foursquare’s website that shows all of the businesses using foursquare and mayorship to reward customers.  http://www.foursquare.com/businesses/

When we (Twine Interactive) post a job listing, we receive hundreds of emails each time. The key is to stand out amongst everyone else applying for the position. This may not be the case for everyone, but when I read a resume for the first time, hell… I really don’t even read it. What I am trying to say is, give me a compelling reason to read your resume. Start with the email/cover letter. BE ORIGINAL (oops did I say that already?) Highlight your creativity in the cover letter, giving incentive to open your resume. Tell me something most people don’t know about you or tell me that you have taken two FREAKIN seconds to go look at our website and see some of the work we have done. Tell me why we are a good fit and how our culture makes sense to you. Hell, tell me that we suck or a website we did sucks and show me where we made a mistake. Do you see what I’m getting at here? So, if you apply for a job with us here are some quick tips.

1. In your email, write something, anything! Don’t just send me an attachment with your resume. It will likely be deleted. It shows us you didn’t take the time to look at who we are and are just applying aimlessly to a bunch of job postings.

2. Stop saying the word I. I can do this. I can do that. I am great. I am the best. I have this. I, I, I, I am going to go freaking crazy if I see anyone else promote themselves to no end. Yes, I have written resumes before. Yes, I have embellished a bit on them. It’s no secret. We all do it. Find a new and creative way to promote yourself (even if you are a developer). You are coming into a creative company that deals with social media, web design, and is very public facing. Tell me about you and not so much what you can do.

3. Tell us why you are relevant and what you will bring to the company. Sorry, but if you’re fresh out of college, chances are your experience delivering pizzas is not going to land you a job. Your blog posts about your passions or examples of your side work may very well catch our eye. Tell us how you may add to our team going forward or what you can see yourself doing in the future with our company. It may be something we haven’t even thought of yet and that can add real value to our company.

4. Don’t misspell anything (even though I do all the time). I may not be the only one reading it and spell check in a Word document is the easiest thing to do. You may have our new Director of Marketing reading the resume and she is a spell check commando. Just don’t rule yourself out on the first pass if you can help it.

5. Read this blog Punk Rock HR. Laurie is an expert on HR issues. I can assure you it’s not for the weak at heart. Make sure you are sitting down when you start to read her blog. She has great tips about getting hired and how to deal with companies.

6. Do a video resume (even though I know Laurie doesn’t completely agree with me on this one). Again, it’s about being original and different. It’s going to catch our eye. We are small, creative and live on the cutting edge. We want to see different. That’s why we do what we do.

7. Find me. Yes, that’s right. I am easy to find. Find me on Twitter, comment on my blog, find me on Facebook. Find me around town. Find the people that work with me. Find them online. I am at a ton of events and always pretty accessible and (I think) approachable… but that depends on who you ask– haha. But really, I love to talk to people especially when it’s about something that my business partner and I have spent years creating. I am not saying to come blow smoke up my ass, but engage me in conversation.

8. If we have a position for a designer, send a link with your portfolio. Show us your work. If we have to hunt down your portfolio, chances are we are going to pass. If you are a content writer, point us in the direction of your blog. If you are a SEO person, show us something you have done quickly. Get our attention.

I feel like a broken record sometimes and I maybe I am a bit too passionate about this stuff. We try to hire the best. We have no room for anything but all stars. We love everyone that works with us and we are a big family. Yes, we act like a family too. We get on each others nerves. We have our tiff’s but we kiss and make up nicely. Even if we aren’t hiring, tell us why we should.

Does anyone else have any other reasons they can add? I would love to hear some. Hello? Hello? Anyone out there?