Internet Marketing | eMarketing Innovation in Pittsburgh PA

Email and Internet Testing Needs Some Planning

September 17, 2010 Leave a comment

In a previous post, I said that email testing didn’t have to be a monumental task for smaller lists. While that is true, the statement shouldn’t be taken to mean it is easy. Detailed analysis is necessary to get a true picture of how your campaigns are running. An integrated set of reports that takes all of your online initiatives into account is critical to make sound decisions on how to improve your metrics.

As a general rule a complete understanding of your online campaigns hinges on knowing how the numbers affect the bottom line. Here is a real life example.

Company X was running an email campaign and were fairly diligent about reviewing their results. Over the course of a few months they modified their emails and found that their open rate improved by 10% and their click rate improved by 2%. They were thrilled with the results and made the changes permanent.

For about a year after making the changes they saw decreased conversions. Fretting over the trend, they decided to go through a full campaign analysis.

I won’t describe the specific situation but as a generic idea, but here is a genericized comparison. They sent an email to a list with a revised subject line that said fill out a simple form and get $100 (a great offer). The copy was tweaked to make filling out the form a singular focus. The email generated recipient interest and open and click rate sky rocket. Then recipients were directed to a form that said, “Only available to 10-year-old’s from Peru” (It only applied to a small subset of their list). The conversion rate plummeted because they were getting clicks but it was coming from poorly suited prospects.

The in depth analysis revealed that while the email numbers improved, the landing page conversion plummeted by 50%. After understanding that their average lead was worth about four thousand dollars, they estimated that their “improvement” had cost almost one-hundred thousand dollars.

A big picture is critical while testing online campaigns. Making decisions on segments of data might improve that area but could cost a lot overall.

A Marketable Website on a Budget

August 18, 2010 One comment

I recently read a very funny web post about web designers claiming to know SEO. I think the points are fairly accurate and it’s an entertaining read. However, several of the comments are a great summary of why small businesses have difficulty using the model that the blog advocates. It’s typically not cost effective.

A single source for internet marketing is often critical to having an affordable internet marketing strategy for smaller businesses. The other advantage that the comments did not cover is a single contact that understands the client’s business. When a small business works with someone that has a diversified understanding of internet marketing (assuming they actually are knowledgeable), they can make educated suggestions on what makes sense for that business. That consulting is worth a lot and since the person is already ingrained in the strategy, it’s not an extra cost.

The blog post does a great job of explaining the workload of different website responsibilities. Speaking for our firm, we only create web designs by special request and don’t promote the service anymore because staying competent in email marketing, SEO, site and social media maintenance does not make it feasible. Small businesses certainly need to do their homework before hiring anyone to work on their website, but most simply don’t have the resources or knowledge to coordinate multiple experts into creating a successful internet marketing strategy.

Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization

Professional Layout is Not Optional

August 3, 2010 Leave a comment

I recently had a client call me out on what they felt was a contradiction. I harp on content being king. For a successful site they need engaging content that people will want to consume and they need to present it in a way that is friendly for Search engines.

I must have over-harped because I suggest a redesign for a section of their site that was content rich and growing rapidly. My client said, “But the content is great. You always tell me to focus on the content.” While I agree that content is most important, it can’t come at the expense of a professional layout.

Here’s why. A poorly designed site degrades credibility. Users have to have faith that the content is coming from a credible source. If great content is displayed in an amateurish way, users will move on.

A professional layout is the ring to your content’s diamond. It supports your content while displaying the information in a pleasing way that let’s users appreciate what you are offering. A poor layout is like burying a diamond in mud. It’s still a diamond but no one wants to undertake the work and the mess of uncovering it.

Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Site Conversion, Web Maintenance

Presumptions Can Kill Online Marketing

July 16, 2010 Leave a comment

Never assume you know how you achieved success online. Theories are fine but every theory that we intend to take action on needs backed up with data. Running online marketing campaigns on presumptions will lead to erratic results and makes it impossible for consistent gradual improvement.

Recently I was working on an ongoing online marketing campaign to promote events. One event in particular got a surge of registrants. The owner of the company was thrilled. He then declared that the success must have come from the new list of email addresses that had been added to the subscriber list. These new arrivals were 200 (roughly) people that had opted in to receiving promotions at a trade show. The event had 40 registrants (roughly) so if they all came from the new list that would represent a 40% conversion. A phenomenal number!

A problem arose when a follow on promotion was developed and sent there was no response. All 200 people had suddenly lost interest. In fact 10 unsubscribed, a 5% attrition rate. How had things gone so poorly?

Upon analyzing the initial email only 1 of the 40 registrants came from the new list of email subscribers. The other was a mix of people who found the event through internet sources and long-standing email subscribers. The second email did poorly because it was based on a false presumption.

My theory (haven’t proved it with data) is that the new list responded unfavorably because they got an email and then a quick follow on email presuming they were interested. Immediately getting two emails and assumptive “sales” language led to a distinctly negative response. They feared they were opting in to a SPAM list.

It turns out that the email subscribers that registered for the event had, on average, been receiving promotional emails from this company for 3 years. The spike had more to do with the topic and presentation than a fresh list of names.

Don’t take action on presumptions. It costs time, money, and future opportunities. It’s what you know for sure, that just ain’t so, that can cause the most problems. Use your email and web data to confirm your theories before acting on them.

Note: These numbers are rounded to easily illustrate the point and provide some anonymity

Email Marketing, Internet Marketing, Site Conversion

Internet Marketing: Diagram Before the Details

September 28, 2009 Leave a comment

People tend to love designing the details of any marketing initiative. I truly understand why too. It’s the slick and cool piece of marketing. Unfortunately, it’s typically the least impactful to your audience and should garner the least attention. If you are doing any internet marketing activity, plan an overview before considering any details.

I was in a meeting where a new web design was being proposed. A basic wireframe was presented with hierarchy and navigation for a website. I felt the proposed layout was practical, provided good visitor flow (scent), and ultimately made a lot of sense for the company. The company representative’s comment was that the colors should be brighter and that she couldn’t read the text. She also pointed out a few typos.

While the presenter obviously did a poor job prepping the company representative for what she was going to see, I’m always a little put-off when I hear this response.

The first problem was that the text was just sample text. A lot of it was gibberish so I had to chuckle inwardly at picking out typos in the first paragraph. The second problem was that the company representative was focusing on all the wrong things. She was discussing design tweaks rather than hierarchy and navigation. The latter two are much more likely to effect ROI.

When setting up, designing, or re-designing any online marketing initiative. Get the overview down. Clearly define a goal and then create a diagram that will support the audience taking action on that goal. A slick layout will not convert your audience. The detail and design is a supporting feature of the larger hierarchies. You have to map out a trip before worrying about whether to take a left or a right.

Many people miss the forest for the trees. Make sure you understand what and where the forest is before deciding how to place the trees.

– Eric
eMarketing Innovation

P.S. No I am not the presenter in this story (though it seems like a “my friend” scenario. I was involved to collaborate on how the email campaigns would update and be incorporated into a new design.

Email Marketing, Internet Marketing, Web Maintenance

Improving Online Marketing is Like Managing Fantasy Football

September 3, 2009 Leave a comment

As fantasy football hits full swing, it occurred to me that internet marketing and managing a fantasy team is a lot like managing internet and email marketing. Its about paying attention to numbers, making educated guesses about what will reap the most reward, reacting to past trends, and hoping for a little luck.

People get obsessed with fantasy football but few people get consumed by their internet marketing numbers. The truth is online marketing can be fun. Yes, looking over the numbers and formulating a strategy to improve can get tedious but no more so than pouring over player stats. Seeing the results is typically more fun than winning a fantasy game as it can show a measurable impact on the business.

The secret to motivation in online marketing is not placing bets for performance or setting up a smack talk feature. It’s realizing that you are gambling with a lot more than fantasy football glory. Online marketing has the power to drive sales or leads which will improve business returns and likely improve the lifestyle of the people who make up the organization.

Think of it as a game, but one that needs to be taken seriously. You should have some fun but also need to focus on what and how you are improving.

Why bring this up? Too many people focus on the wrong end of improving their online marketing. They want to do the “fun” stuff like redesigning the webpage or putting together cool banner ads. Nothing wrong with those things but they aren’t likely to significantly increase ROI unless the metrics have been weighed and evaluated.

Find the fun in incremental growth. It will keep the site improving toward set goals and avoid a lot of energy wasted on “improvements” that likely won’t display measurable benefits. That can be a lot more exhilarating than hoisting your virtual trophy.

– Eric
eMarketing Innovation

P.S. Yes, I am a fantasy football player (I limit myself to 2 teams a year to avoid the addict label) so I know first-hand how all-encompassing it can be.

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

Communicate Online in the Preferred Manner

August 17, 2009 Leave a comment

Social media is the newest form of online communication. It’s the band wagon everyone is jumping on as the next marketing media for business. But is it? For some people it will be, for others it will be just one more hot topic stop on their way to the next “new thing”.

Online marketing boiled down is about communication. It’s getting our message to a desired audience. The beuty of the internet is that message can be delivered quickly and cheaply. That doesn’t mean there should be little thought or investment made in crafting the communication. Every online media is just another avenue for doing the same thing. I don’t say that to marginalize any one form of internet marketing. They are all important if the audience prefers that form of communication.

So if someone asks, “How can I use social media sites to support my business or organization?” The answer is easy, just convert your other forms of communication to social media. A blog is easy to convert. However, SEO and email marketing can be simple too. A landing page is a great place to point a social media post. Email marketing can provide great content for social media posts.

Twitter is the hot site now with new accounts popping up everywhere. My guess is 1 in 10 will actually stick with it and provide usable content. Many marketers are declaring an end to email marketing but all my favorite subscriptions are going strong, get consistently delivered, and I prefer receiving them in my inbox.

Make good content and communicate it to your audience in any form they prefer. Are people looking for your information on search engines? Make a blog or online directory. Are they expecting to get them trough social media updates? Get the content on those sites. Did they ask for an email? Deliver an email campaign.

The secret isn’t in the media, it’s in the content and the energy exerted in delivering the communication.

Internet Marketing

Don’t Oversimplify Action on Web Anaytics

July 22, 2009 One comment

For the most part site owners are beginning to see the value in tracking their sites performance. Several surveys have indicated that most people gather the data and never do anything with it. That’s not the best idea as reports are nice but the whole point is to measure improvement. However, there is a growing number of people that do take action on the numbers. Unfortunately, many are finding that their actions are negatively effecting site performance. Take time to critically analyse site data to make sure that the prescribed solution is not an oversimplification of the problem.

I recently encountered a site that had been performing moderately well, providing small niche recorded material. The site owner had let data compile for two months and sorted through it to see if he could improve orders. He was reasonably pleased with his traffic but felt that pages were being abandoned too much. He had a 5% order rate.

His conclusion was that people weren’t getting the information they needed because the time on page was small. For his products index page the average time was 2 seconds. Since it had the lowest amount of time per page he decided to focus his efforts there. He set out to increase that time and felt some revised content that was more in depth would help conversion.

Here’s the problem, the products index page only listed the items he had for sale with a photo. It was a good thing that people were only there for a very short period. Page tracking showed that 93% of them moved off to one of his half dozen products. The page was working perfectly by getting people to the information they wanted.

He added descriptions to the links and found that time on page increased to around 25 seconds. He was pleased until he found out his monthly revenue dropped slightly three months in a row afterward. Upon further analysis we discovered that he had gone from a 93% rate of people making it to the individual product page to a 79% rate. Site abandonment on this page went from 4% to 7%. People couldn’t find the product they wanted as easily and were getting lost in added descriptive paragraphs.

The site owners oversimplification of the numbers blinded him to user experience. He tried to apply a “universal rule” to his numbers and found it was actually detrimental.

Understand who uses your site and how. Always think critically about why analytics are showing what they are showing before making changes. Most importantly track changes you make so that if you miss the mark on an optimization you have the ability to recognize the error and correct it.

Internet Marketing, Site Conversion, Web Maintenance

Navigation in All Website Aspects

July 8, 2009 Leave a comment

Great content is only good if people can find it. Some thought towards navigation is always necessary in any internet project. This means social networking sites, blogs, wikis, traditional sites, forums, etc. Make sure that all your online efforts provide an easy way to access information.

Most of us know that website navigation is important (look at all these articles). Navigation doesn’t end with just the website. Any content driven media online should provide convenient ways for finding desired material. People tend to ignore navigation outside their website. The good news is that it’s not too challenging. It just takes diligence.

A blog is an easy example. Most of the navigation is built in for you. Search features are common and adding categories or links is a good way to provide an ability to sort material. It’s just a matter of doing it. Many people get caught up in writing content they don’t take the last step to categorize it. Be diligent and always make sure that people can find what you’ve written.

Another danger is getting caught up in “the rules” or “the style guide”. Having defined standards on a site, blog, forum, etc. that people can follow is essential. However, there needs to be some room for exceptions. Don’t be afraid to buck a rule if it causes confusing navigation.

I recently encountered an example. The site I was revising had several pages that served as indexes for different sections of content. So far so good, the sections were all unique categories. However, the second level provided the quandary. The site rule was that all lists would be in alphabetical order.

Not inherently a problem. However, one of the category pages had a link that 83% of visitors ultimately clicked. However, the time on the page was much longer than one would expect to simply move on to a content page. Furthermore the service group routinely got calls asking about the location of this link. It was by far the most popular link on the page but was not easily located.

Where should it be placed? Logically we would expect it to be right on the top of the page, right?. Wrong, the link started with “Materials” so it was the 21st link out of 28. It wasn’t even visible without scrolling down.

Now anyone freshly looking at this information would say put the most popular link on top. Maybe it should be bolded or emphasized in some way as the analytics are clearly showing it’s what visitors are looking for. However, the site owner fell into the “rules” trap. The rule was alphabetical lists so “M” was toward the bottom. No exceptions.

Make sure navigation is available and logical. It’s important to remember that it has to logical to visitors rather than site owners. Don’t make rules that work for you but not your visitors. When visitors can find what they are looking for, the credibility of your content and your organization increase.

Internet Marketing, Web Maintenance

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