Site Conversion | eMarketing Innovation in Pittsburgh PA

Is Your Call to Action Still Valuable to Your Target Market?

October 12, 2016 Leave a comment

When testing and analyzing digital marketing data, the focus is often on the content or creative elements. While these elements certainly factor into digital marketing success, it’s important not to overlook the foundational elements that the content and creative is built on. This is especially important in reviewing the target audience and calls to action that have been effective but no longer convert well. Many trainers, consultants, and professional coaches settle on a call to action that they are comfortable with or have experienced past success. The problem arises when this call to action becomes a monotonous staple that the audience no longer values.

Can there be too much of a good thing? In digital marketing there certainly can. If an offer is repeated too frequently, even a great offer, it begins to be ignored or become valueless.

A common offer for trainers, consultants, or professional coaches is an event or webinar. Often the presenter invests a fair amount of time polishing the presentation so that it is engaging and dynamic. This creates a valuable call to action that is often well received and well attended. Since the investment in honing the event’s content is already made there is a temptation to repeat the offer. And in doses, clever timing, or effective marketing communication, it is often just as well received for subsequent events.

However, there is only so many ways to frame or package the same product. The target audience becomes exhausted with the offer and perpetually procrastinate in attending or become dubious about the value. It’s a similar effect to perpetual sale ads at a store where people believe it’s not actually a discount or that they will get the same sale next week.

Luckily, refreshing an offer doesn’t need to be a complete overhaul. There are two ways to freshen up a call to action.

Revamp It – It’s a smart move to get every drop of value out of the investment in creating a call to action. An event can be modified to target a specific group or updated with related topics so that the proven content lays the groundwork but complimentary content redefines it. In this way the call to action goes through an evolution process that keeps it relevant.
Pull it from Rotation – Digital marketing campaigns should have a series of calls to action that appeal to different target audiences. If a call to action has been overused or no longer converts well then it can be removed for a period of time. This doesn’t mean that it’s archived forever but rather let the audience have some recovery time before making it an active offer again. Often the call to action will be reinvigorated as it’s re-introduced to the audience.

If a call to action stops converting well its worth evaluating whether it’s still a valued offer. Rather than retooling the content or creative that communicates the offer, it might be time to change or temporarily retire the call to action.

Image courtesy of imagerymajestic / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Site Conversion

Digital Marketing Bias: “My gut feel is the same as metrics.” or “Don’t make judgment calls, just follow the metrics.”

August 17, 2016 Leave a comment

The use of data in digital marketing can be a divisive one because the two biases are more common than a balanced view. This is a problem because a skewed perspective on how to use metrics can steer a digital marketing campaign toward trouble or miss opportunities. Effective use of metrics is a careful balance of gathering key data and making shrewd analysis on what those numbers mean.

My gut feel is the same as metrics.

Marketing data is really a required step in the digital marketing cycle and it’s rare to come across someone that simply doesn’t have metrics. What is much more common is a trainer, consultant, or professional coach that has the data but only uses it in a superficial level. This can happen in 3 ways:

Not available – This is uncommon but once in a while a small business will not have any metrics available and are winging their digital marketing decisions. Typically it’s not an intentional decision but a lack of time, knowledge, or budget to get marketing metrics established. Reviewing and analyzing data is really the only consistent way to improve and is worth the effort.
Not really used – This is often illustrated by a general grasp of high level numbers. An example would be a simple count of hits on the website. The simple tally really provides no insight into who the hits are, where they came from, or what channels are improving or deteriorating. So the “metrics” to justify decisions are really just twisted to fit the marketer’s preferences.
Opinion Justification – The old adage that stats can prove anything has an element of truth. Often times, data will be plucked selectively to provide evidence for a gut feel rather than reviewed to see what is really working.

Don’t make judgment calls, just follow the metrics.

The opposite view is that the data holds the secrets for every judgment call. The truth is that the data can provide clues and a basis for theories but it will never map out specifically what and how you should market to your target audience. There is always a judgment call in how to best use the insights that the data provides. This can manifest in a few ways:

Data over analysis – As a general rule you should not review your digital marketing data more than once a month. Those that are over-reliant on the data tend to scour it daily looking for signs on what should change. Give metrics time to compile a useful amount of actionable data rather than trying to jump ahead on a limited subset of immediate information.
Devotion to particular data sets – Too much reliance on data often results in “rules” that prove a particular action is necessary. This is a survival mechanism to ensure that the marketer doesn’t have to scour every piece of data to have their finger on the pulse. However, it leads to false assumptions and over-reactions to their self-defined rules. For instance, if a landing page falls below a certain visit to conversion ratio then a marketer who is over-relying on data might state that the page needs to be redesigned. The truth could be that the offer was not compelling, that a small on-page element is causing conversion friction, or one of the channels promoting the offer went to the wrong audience.

Digital marketing data is critical but won’t make an effective marketing campaign for you. Review your metrics regularly for insights and make a point to disprove some of your theories to ensure you aren’t using the data in a skewed way to justify your gut feel. Once you’ve completed your analysis step away and take action on your conclusions rather than continuing to comb the data as if you’re reading tea leaves on what will make the campaign better.

Site Conversion

Test Your Conversion Mechanism – Every Time, All the Time

May 11, 2016 Leave a comment

The pre-dominant reason that trainers, consultants, and professional coaches run marketing campaigns is to generate leads or sales. While larger firms might include branding and market exposure as a goal, it’s not the primary focus. For this reason, digital marketing should always drive to a call-to-action. If someone completes that call-to-action, they are counted as a conversion, otherwise known as a lead or a sale. It’s imperative that your conversion mechanism work properly, otherwise all the effort invested in marketing will fail to meet the primary goal.

For clarity, here is a list of common digital marketing conversions:

Completion of a web form for a specific offer or to be contacted.
An email or phone call replying to a marketing message.
A social media like/follow/subscribe (though these are soft leads requiring additional effort to be an actionable lead or sale).

The primary mechanism for concern is web forms. We were recently a victim of assuming a web form mechanism would function but not verifying the functionality which caused inefficiency in conversion.

Our client initiated a migration to a new web platform. The platform’s documentation outlined a process where credit card information could be submitted securely and stored on the local server. There was not a payment processor set up for our client but they did not want to delay launch to incorporate it into their site. Not using a built in payment processor caused an extra step of manually running the credit card but the client was comfortable with that, at least in the short term, as it was a necessary step with their former web platform.

Unfortunately when registration arrived, the payment information was scrubbed from the responses. We initiated an inquiry with the platform developer who instructed us that the data was being stripped because we didn’t have a payment processor set up. Despite the user manuals stating that the data would still be captured and the support team re-iterating that a form processor was not required, we were left calling registrants to get payment information.

The form “worked” and the admin panel did not raise any alerts about a payment processor being required. But the failure to fully test the conversion left a gap in our process. Fortunately the gap was identified early and work arounds were devised.

Always test your conversion mechanism. Even if it’s a process that has worked before, test the actual implementation. This example was a systematic failure but sometimes an isolated user error will cause the problem. Once your conversion mechanism is completed run a test, every time. This ensures that it performs in the way you expect and allows you to reap the benefits of your marketing efforts.

Site Conversion, Web Maintenance

Map Your Call-to-Action Visitors Flow

March 29, 2016 Leave a comment

Is your site sending visitors on a path to nowhere? The answer to this is always “no” but the reality is that many trainers, consultants, and professional coaches have digital marketing offers that ultimately lead to nowhere. It’s important to review your site at launch and then periodically to make sure that calls to action lead visitors step-by-step to the offer they have expressed interest in. If there is any gap in that process, even a small one, it’s likely that you are losing a significant portion of your audience along the way.

During a review of a site for a redesign/development process, we followed the navigation paths of the primary offers on the client’s website to integrate into the proposed new development. One of the offers was for visitors to register to attend a free training session. The navigation went like this:

Click the offer for a free training session.
Choose one of six possible class topics from the landing page.
Click to reserve your seat from the specific topic’s page.
Land on the firm’s class calendar page.

The thinking was that visitors would pick a date from the calendar that suited their schedule and then register for that class. There were three problems with expecting visitors to make this leap.

The first is that there was no instruction on what to do, just the calendar of the current month. We need to take visitors by the hand and make sure they don’t get confused. The internet is too chaotic and full of bait and switches. If we don’t show people exactly how to get an offer they are interested in, they will not fill in the gaps on their own.

The second is that there was no administrative plan set for the site after launch. Since there was not a person or process responsible for updating the site, most of the calendar was filled with recurring event information devoid of topic information. So visitors were asked which class topic they wanted to take but were not provided a way of knowing which dates offered that topic.

The third was another administrative error where certain classes would have a registration form. That process was also not developed or adhered to so only public events had a sign up form. The classes that the trainers intended for people to attend as a guest did not provide a way for visitors to register for them.

This is an obvious lapse in the call to action fulfillment process but any one of these items missing would have reduced lead generation. The heart of the matter was that the call to action process was too complex for this firm to maintain. We refined the process by eliminating the last two steps and providing a form where people could input their information, select the topic, and request a particular time. One of the trainers would then contact them to set a date and a meeting with them.

Make sure to review your offers. If you don’t have time or expertise to follow each call to action that is offered in your digital marketing, your analytics can usually point you toward problem spots. Google analytics offers a visitor flow map. If that graphic shows a lot of paths that stop at a particular page then it’s a good bet that there is a gap in the call to action there. Secondarily, your bounce reports can indicate a gap in the process if an offer page has a lot of bounces (This could also point to a lot of friction with the amount of information you are requesting, pricing, or layout). At least it will provide a starting point for your review.

Calls to action are the payoff of marketing. Make sure not to lose interested visitors by not including clear instructions or intuitive ways of taking advantage of the offer.

Visitor-Flow-example

Internet Marketing, Site Conversion, Web Maintenance

Digital Marketing Goals: Projects for Improvement or Business as Usual

December 21, 2015 Leave a comment

As the year closes out, digital marketing goals should be set for the following year. This can be especially true in digital marketing because campaigns can be repetitive and trainers, consultants, and professional coaches might allow that to lull them into complacency. This can cause swift declines in results due to the digital marketing environment changing so rapidly. As you set your goals they should fall into two categories: Business as Usual (BAU) or Projects for Improvement (PFI).

The reason to break goals into these categories is to ensure that at least a couple fall into PGI. Often times, digital marketing goals look more like a checklist of current activities rather than a list of strategic initiatives. We don’t want the status quo to be the standard moving forward. Each year should have targeted improvement.

So yes, your goals should include your website updates, email marketing outlines, social media schedules, SEO tasks, report/download call to action creation, etc. But these are BAU goals and should make up no more than 75% of your total goals. These goals, while important, should be a given for completion as it’s the action items required to run an effective online marketing campaign.

Put some real thought into PFI goals. What changes can be made to get better results? Does the website need an updated layout or additional sections to drive calls to action? Does the email marketing campaign need updated segments or additional content? Do social media channels need integrated with a particular app to refocus on a particular audience? Whichever PFI goal(s) you choose, it should serve to get marketing tasks done more quickly/efficiently or seek to improve conversions.

PFI goals are often the most difficult to set for digital marketing because they usually involve an element of the unknown. Resist the fear of the unknown and commit to the goal. In doing so you’ll find your campaign improving rather than just happening.

Email Marketing, Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Site Conversion, Social Media

Subjective Digital Marketing Analytics

December 9, 2015 Leave a comment

Metrics are only as good as the analysis. This seems obvious but many trainers’, consultants’, and professional coaches’ marketing campaigns revolve around putting the best face on the results. Rather than spending time “putting lipstick on a pig”, really look at the data to see what channels and efforts are generating results . . . and which aren’t. If you find a particular digital marketing element is lacking, even if it’s one you personally love, implement some changes that are likely to improve it rather than tampering with the data to make it appear better than it is.

Years ago we discussed whether an all-inclusive quarterly newsletter was the best strategy for an email campaign for our client or whether breaking the content into smaller chunks and doing more frequent communication would be more advantageous. We were proposing the idea of less content more frequently because there was a downward trend in the opens and clicks on the newsletter. We wanted to test whether the shorter communications would be more engaging.

Using the email downtrend reports as evidence, we proposed the less content more frequency model. The marketing coordinator (who loved gathering and editing the articles into a publication) rejected the idea flat out. “People love our quarterly newsletter, changing it is a bad idea,” she claimed. In reviewing the numbers, she insisted that the data from the email report was incorrect and pulled up her own report that showed numbers at 60% more than the email platform showed. After going through the reports, we realized that her report came from the website rather than the email marketing platform and showed a second jump in hits and several small increases missing from the email report.

As we discussed the differences in the reports, the marketing coordinator revealed that she posted each of the individual articles to social media individually (which resulted in the series of smaller hits) and that the newsletter was redistributed by an association (which resulted in the second jump in hits).

So the real problem we faced was compiling the reports into a single campaign report and analyzing which channels were doing the best. The expanded data, especially the social media data, further suggested that breaking the newsletter into smaller more focused communications and distributing more frequently would be advantageous.

This is where subjectivity and her love of the quarterly newsletter tempted the marketing coordinator to dress up the data rather than improve the marketing campaign. Her suggestion to combine the reports was to use the email platforms tracking links in the social media posts and in the association redistribution so that all results went to the email platforms report. “After all,” she said, “It doesn’t really matter where they came from, just so long as they are reading the articles.”

Her proposal was to artificially inflate the effectiveness of the email newsletter rather than test ideas that might actually increase its effectiveness. And the reason for it was completely subjective, “Our subscribers want a newsletter with meat. It should be like a magazine, not just a single article. It won’t feel special if we publish it more often.”

Thankfully the marketing coordinator did agree to test a more frequent focused communication and the email marketing metrics improved as well as the other channels from the revamped publishing schedule. Let the metrics tell their story, don’t try to skew them to meet your preferences, and then objectively make a plan from that.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Internet Marketing, Site Conversion

Make Social Sharing Easy

September 30, 2015 Leave a comment

Most people engage in social media to interact with a target market and gain a following. Often times, generating that interest is easier said than done. Valuable commentary and content is a prerequisite to gaining a valuable following but beyond that, sharing should be made easy on your audience to broaden your reach.

The unique power of social media is the ability to share. That one feature makes social media a vastly scalable channel. So if the goal is for others to share your content, then why do many trainers, consultants, and professional coaches make it so hard to share?

When asking that question many people will say, “They can just like it, or retweet it, or share it, or pin it, etc.” The problem with that thinking is that it presupposes your audience interacts with content in the exact same manner you do. That’s a dangerous assumption and one that can limit your overall reach.

Look for ways of making sharing easy across social media platforms. A simple way is to include your content on multiple platforms. Trainers, consultants, and professional coaches often target LinkedIn due to its business focus and neglect other platforms. While LinkedIn does tend to perform the best for trainers, consultants, and professional coaches that doesn’t mean that other platforms can’t contribute value.

Make sure to include social shareability off of your social channels. Share buttons for websites and email have become prevalent and easier than ever to implement. This allows people to share your content with a single click. We suggest using Addthis as it includes tons of social media platforms, customization, and makes integration simple. Widgets, I frames, and plugins are all available for different integration applications. If Addthis does not offer a necessary component, find a social sharing utility that suits your needs, there are many quality ones available.

As a general rule, check each channel for a two-click share process. If it takes more than two clicks for users to share your content then the process is likely a barrier that prevents some sharing.

Internet Marketing, Site Conversion, Social Media

Making Your Digital Marketing Relatable

September 17, 2015 Leave a comment

It’s not uncommon for us to run into a trainer, consultant, or professional coach that says, “I’m putting a lot of effort into marketing and I’m just not seeing results.” Sometimes the effort is questionable but many times there is a legitimate marketing campaign being rolled out with little to show for it. If you have a well-constructed campaign but no results from it, the problem is likely that your messages are not relatable to your target audience.

A digital marketing campaign will only be relatable to your target market if you understand your target market. It’s impossible to make compelling communications if you don’t understand your prospects and clients and the concerns they face on a day-to-day basis.

If you are certain that your communications are pertinent to your audience then the problem might be in the authenticity of your messages. Are they honest and transparent? Many marketing communications are watered down clichés or confusing corporate speak rather than a truly interesting or insightful message. If marketing messages aren’t saying something that resonates with the individual, then it will be ignored.

Marketing provides a stage for you to communicate why you are relevant to your target audience. Companies, even small firms, often have a brand but no voice for that stage. The voice of a company is the people that make up an organization. When it comes to trainers, consultants, or coaches, people don’t relate to companies. Rather they relate to the person they are interacting with.

Use that connection in your communications by communicating and reinforcing the same enthusiastic, compelling, and insightful messages that the trainers, consultants, or coaches provide when dealing with prospects or clients directly. If the digital marketing campaign can’t provide that same level of engagement, then it will be a shadow of what the company can truly provide and will remain largely irrelevant and ignored.

Image courtesy of sheelamohan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Email Marketing, Internet Marketing, Site Conversion, Social Media

Always Keep Key Performance Indicators (KPI) in Focus

August 5, 2015 Leave a comment

Every marketing campaign should have clearly defined key performance indicators (KPI) that are completely within the control of that marketing campaign. For instance, a KPI could be registrations for events, requests for more information, RFPs, or sales from an online store. Those KPI’s should then be assigned target numbers that serve as a benchmark to gauge performance. Any changes or analysis of marketing campaigns should ultimately be viewed through the lens of those KPI’s to determine if they are beneficial or detrimental adjustments.

Trainers, consultants, and professional coaches can get caught up in the details of their marketing efforts and lose sight of the end goal. This commonly happens because the details are so apparent and the ease of accessing and comparing them appears to be a ready-made way of gauging success. But if results are viewed without the lens of KPI’s, some very questionable decisions might be made.

Look at the graph below. Without any context on what the numbers mean which email is the best?

#1 sure looks like the clear cut winner with the highest open and click rates. #4 looks like the loser with an average open rate and a terrible click rate. Furthermore, using the industry average gauge makes it appear as if the entire campaign is slightly underperforming.

But when viewed through the KPI lens the data tells a very different story. The KPI for this campaign is people registering for events or training programs. Email #1 is an article email with a report download. While it’s a good sign that the audience is engaged, that particular email had no direct effect on the KPI. It is a support email to keep audience engagement to support KPI driven emails.

The true KPI driver is email #3 which was an invitation to an event that garnered progress toward KPI goals and direct revenue. Even though the click rate is much lower most of the people clicking will go on to register for an event or program. What about email #4 that looks so bad? Did you notice the emails sent are far fewer? This is a reminder email for registrants to a particular training session. While the performance looks poor there was almost no clickable links in the email, but again it was a critical support to KPI’s.

What about the entire campaign looking substandard? This training firm offers live customized events where most of their competitors have short on-demand online training. The industry standard is higher because the barrier to entry is typically much lower. This training firm is actually doing a great job with their open and click rates given the depth of their offering and the need for relationship development that the rest of the industry does not experience.

In this small subset exercise this seems obvious but your data can be much less clear when an entire ongoing digital marketing campaign is analyzed. This exact data but in a larger chart led to a question, “Why don’t we do email #1 all the time and stop wasting time on poor performers?”

The answer is because then the campaign would not support the KPI’s that were set. As you make adjustments to improve performance, make sure thatr those adjustments support your end goal, the KPIs.

Email Marketing, Site Conversion

« 1 2 3 4 5 … 10 »