The Evolving Internet Marketer

Is Your On-line Store Front Inviting?

Does it attract visitors? Do you give a clear idea of what your site is all about and what solutions you offer to the browsers you attract? A few months ago I wrote a post titled, “Your Home Page is Your Storefront; Invite Visitors In.” Today I received my monthly ezine from Dr. Ralph Wilson (you really should subscribe if you aren’t receiving Web Marketing Today) in which he cites MarketingSherpa’s research to support the notion that “Your Home Page Is Your Window Display” and how leading internet retailers effectively use this space to merchandise their sites. Worth a read…

The Bermuda, er, Google Golden Triangle of Search

Thought it was imperative to get first page listings in Google? Think if you make the top 10 you’ve got it made? Think again oh clueless one. According to search engine user eyetracking research conducted by Eyetools, Enquiro, and Did-it, you’re chances of getting noticed drop from 100% for the first three organic (non-paid) listings to only 60% for the 5th position. Positions 6-10 drop range from 50% to 20% visibility. As far as paid listings, your chances start out at 50% for top position and drop from there to a low of 10% visibility for positions 5-8. The heat map on the right shows the scan and click behavior of Google search users and illustrates why the study sponsors are calling this the Golden Triangle of Search. (Click the link above for a synopsis of the research and info on how to buy the report.)

What’s it mean for you? If a high organic search position is important to you then you need to realize it’s a long term committment to strong content, consistent link building strategies and doing the right things as far as site-setup from the search engines’ perspective goes. If you choose to go the paid search route then realize that the only positions that matter at all are the top 4 so bid accordingly.

Who has the Biggest Piece of the Search Engine Pie?

According to comScore Google is the leading pie-hound, gaining market share for the 9th consecutive month with newcomer MySpace squeezing onto the table for the first time ever with 43 million searches. Guess those crazy teens want their own space at the pie eatin’ contest. The chart shows the current search standings as of April 2006:

In raw numbers Americans conducted 6.6 billion searches in April – that’s enough searches, if stacked one on top of the other, to reach from Earth to Pluto, twice – with Google gaining almost 7% of the market at 2.9 billion searches conducted. Other than MySpace, the other major properties all lost share with MSN leading the way at a -3.2%. Take that Bill!

What does this mean for you? Well, if you’re tempted to sign up with one of those services that registers your site with 3,000 search engines you might want to reconsider as the 6 sites listed here account for 97.3% of U.S. searches in April 2006. It’s obvious that the lion’s share of your search optimization budget should be targeted at Google & Yahoo unless you know that your customers are MSN or AOL-centric. If you don’t have a search engine marketing budget, either for organic or paid search, you should consider adding it. The search engine advertising market is currently at $7 billion and growing while print yellow pages usage is declining. At least make the investment in local search such as local.google.com or local.yahoo.com. I, for one, turn first to the internet and then to my local Yellow Pages. It’s one thing to find a list of restaurants in the yellow pages, it’s another to actually get a look inside the door, at the menu and chart a course from your door to theirs all via your friendly search property.

My advice, if you don’t have a web site. Get one. If your site doesn’t sell. Overhaul it. If search isn’t part of your marketing/advertising budget. Make it a part. Have fun.

The 7 to 10 Rule For Getting Business

For all of you marketing whizzes out there you’ll read this and say, “Yeah, doh! Tell us something we don’t know!” My response? “Too late, you already read it so quit your bellyachin’!”

This is one of those chestnuts that bears repeating and it further supports why the internet is such a great medium for marketing. The rule is simple … your prospect has to see or hear your message 7-10 times before they’ll even take action; as they say, the fortune is in the follow up.*

Too many of us give up after one, or 2 contacts and wonder why we never get the business we know we deserve. Think about your own experience. How many times do you see that same stupid insurance commercial, you know, the one with the duck. Okay, what’s the duck say, and who would you call if you needed that particular brand of insurance? Yeah, see, repetition works. (Of course I’d rather eat the duck then hear it one more time but hey, I like duck…). Now think about how you buy something and who you buy it from – you go to people you know, right? And you know them because somebody you trust told you about them or you feel comfortable with them because you know a lot about them … and how do you know? Because they’ve told you over and over again. To mangle an old saying – The message is in the medium; multiple times.

Which brings us to the internet and email and RSS – all of these are great mediums to get your message to your audience in multiple formats, multiple times in ways that will inspire them to contact rather than antagonize them or agonize you (ever stared at a list of follow up phone calls you know you need to make to prospects?!). So launch an ezine, start a blog and keep your web site fresh … offer great content that informs as it persuades and before you know it you’ll be swimming in customers — okay, maybe not swimming, maybe only getting dewy, er…

RSS Now Stands for Really SERIOUS Syndication

According to Jupiter Research (as reported by MediaPost.com) 63 percent of big companies plan to syndicate content via Really Simple Syndication by the end of 2006. The report “RSS Comes of Age: Budgeting, Deploying, and Measuring RSS,” indicates that currently only 29 percent of large companies (with more than $50 million in annual revenues) publish content via RSS technology.

What is RSS – well it’s a way to publish your content on the internet to anyone who wants to subscribe. Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL all are providing syndicated content that you can customize to your own tastes. In fact, you can add my content simply by clicking on the appropriate link in the Rss Feed section on the right side of this blog page (hint, hint). Like the newspaper, you don’t have to find a newstand, I’ll deliver The EIM right to your electronic front door.

You don’t have to use content conduits like Google, et al; you can also subscribe to RSS feeds in email progams like Mozilla’s Thunderbird or with independent, 3rd party newsreaders like the SharpReader (simple and free … like me! ) or NewsGator which can be set up to work with Microsoft (r) Outlook.

Don’t Use More Than 49 Characters When Composing Email Subject Lines

Email Labs reports some interesting research on email subject lines. Subject lines of 49 or fewer characters garnered a 75% higher click-through rate while achieving a 12.5% higher open rate than email messages with 50 characters or more in their subject lines.

They also found that the more hyperlinks the better with emails containing 25 or more links enjoying a 12% advantage in open rates and a whopping 29% edge in their click-through rates.

I can bear this out in my own experience as the link-rich ezines that I build for my customers generally pull significantly higher click-through rates than those with fewer links. For example, the April issue for one of my clients generated a phenomenal 22% click-through rate. This issue contained 62 links in the html version with 44 of the links generating clicks.

Why do shorter subject lines pull better than lengthy ones? I think, in part, because with a shorter subject line it’s more likely your reader will get the full story whereas longer subject lines may end up being truncated. In an age of email inundation from both legitimate and illegitmate sources; fewer people may be willing to take a risk on an unknown subject line. As far as links go – variety is the spice of life and apparently ezines as well. The more places available for your subscribers to go to, the more likely that you’ll tempt a broader spectrum to go there.

So shorten the subject lines and increase your links to boost your email open and click-through rates.

Do You Sell Stuff Online; Are You Secure? Do Your Customers Know?

If you are using security (you know with SSL certificates behind https:// pages with Verisign logos, etc.) but your customers don’t know about it you may be losing sales.

According to a MarketingSherpa case study (note: this article is publicly available until 5/13/06), Petco increased site conversion by around 9% simply by placing a Hacker Safe logo in prominent view on the home page of their web site. This was in addition to the VeriSign authentication available on their shopping pages and in their cart.

Now if a nationally known retailer that I would automatically assume provided site security was losing sales because of browser security concerns, what do you think is happening with your less well know commerce site? Let people know from every page on your site that transacting with you is safe and secure and make sure this notice is prominent. The less prominent the Hacker Safe logo was on the Petco site, the lower their conversion rate.

“…Yes. We got approval to move the image even higher to a test is currently running. This said, we are pretty sure that the results will be lower than the 8.8% recorded when it was in the previous position. The reason is that consumers associate the upper right hand corner with advertising messages. Placing the certification mark in the header bar does not work as well as placing it high up in the left hand navigation bar. That’s where companies will see the greatest ROI. After seeing the results of more than 325 tests in 3.5 years, we’re very sure of what works and what doesn’t work.”

Apart from explaining the nomadic logo, Petco’s response demonstrates a couple of important tenets to creating effective web sites:

1. Never be satisfied. Even though they’d achieved an almost 9% gain in conversions from their previous (3) tests they thought, “Yeah, but we didn’t test it up there.”

2. Always be testing. Notice that they’ve averaging about 8 tests a month over the last 3 1/2 years. Yeah, I know, big player, big staff, big budget but even small player, small staff, small budget can manage to run a test or two every few months. Change the position of your ezine’s subscription box. Make it more prominent; change the color. Add an offer for a free whitepaper or a money off coupon. Run it in one position one week and a 2nd position the next. What happens? Start small, keep it simple but try something! You might be surprised at the results.

A New Way to VoIP

Here’s a site that will give Skype a run for it’s money. Jajah.com is a new voice over IP (VoIP) service that uses the internet to place cheap long distant phone calls — domestic & international. The difference is that unlike Skype where you’re tethered to your PC you enter your number in jajah.com along with the number you want to call. Click dial and Jajah rings your number connecting you to the call and then rings the party you’re calling. Other than initiating the call, the computer is no longer part of the equation so, if you used your cell phone, you can be out the door and on your way chatting with your mate in Merry Olde England while on your way to the dry cleaners. They offer a 5 minute free trial which I used to chat up a buddy in Adelaide ($0.0232/minute otherwise) and then I called my sister in Houston at $0.0174/minute. The only confusing part is that, while you can pay for the service by credit card, it’s a ‘post-paid’ system – you pay after the fact.

Hey, look a dollar! Guess I’ll call my buddy in Australia back and chat for 43 minutes!

Writing Sales Copy for the Web – Tips from Jim Edwards

Jim Edwards is a web marketing guru who specializes in writing sales copy that sells – think long copy type sales letters. Personally this is not a format that I’m comfortable with; mainly because I never read long copy … something to do with my ADHD plus I just feel like I’m being sold (duh!) and I hate being sold. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not discrediting this format. There have been a number of studies that say that this works. Just not for me.

Having said this, I watched a short web video from Jim that makes sense – in my view – whether you’re writing long copy or short. It was titled “5 Bad Words You Should Never Use”. These are words that Edwards maintains you should never use when writing web site sales copy, email sales copy or sales letters. They are:

1. Buy — Don’t use because it means people have to pay money — use claim (click here to claim your report on … ) or invest (go to mywebsite.com to invest in … ).
2. Learn — Don’t use because it makes people think work -- use discover (discover the secret of … )
3. Tell — Don’t use because people don’t like to be told to do something – use reveal (We will reveal the power of … )
   The next two words he labels cop-out words which are used when people can’t think of better words to use…
4. Things — as in tell you things, show you things — Instead use tips, tricks & techniques (You will discover tips, tricks & techniques that will … )
5. Stuff — as in show you stuff, tell you stuff — Instead use insider secrets (We will reveal insider secrets that only the … )

Jim also emphasizes the power of email headlines maintaining that 80% of results from email teaser or sales letter come from the headlines you use because they determine whether people will read the email, web copy or sales letter. Powerful headlines will pull people into your copy instead of push them to the Back button on their browser.

So claim more sales by writing effective copy that allows your readers to discover the benefits of your products when you reveal the tips, tricks & techniques that, until now, have been insider secrets!

Worried That RSS is not that “Simple” – Let Readers Receive Updates by Email

Do you think that RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is confusing to your readers (and you) and want to give them an alternative to subscribe? You might consider using email notification services like Feedblitz or Bloglet which allow them to receive updates via email rather than through RSS.

A recent MarketingSherpa report cited research showing that while 75 million people are currently receiving RSS feeds, 50 million don’t know it. Setting up a service like Feedblitz (see my Feedblitz subscription box on the right) allows your visitors to get your latest blog posts via a format they understand – email. Signing up for these services is free at the basic level and pretty easy. It took me less than 5 minutes to open a Feedblitz account, load my feed and insert the subscription code in my blog’s template.

I can now offer subscribers a choice, RSS or email. Choices are good.