The Evolving Internet Marketer

Yelp Review Lands Reviewer in Court

I recently made a presentation on Social Media Marketing and Web2.0 at which I spoke, in part, of the need to claim your space and monitor your feedback on social network based business review sites like Yelp.com.

The question was asked, “Can an online reviewer be sued for libel?” I suggested that, while I’m not a lawyer and to seek legal advice as prudent or necessary, factual, non-malicious feedback should be okay. As it turns out, maybe/maybe not because what is and isn’t considered malicious is in the eye of the beholder (or negatively reviewed business owner, as the case may be).

See…

• The San Francisco Chronicle’s article: S.F. Yelp user faces lawsuit over review
• Grokdotcom’s blog post and reader comments on the case at: Yelp Reviewer Lands in Court
• and follow the Official Yelp Blog as they add their take on the event and its implications

My view? I love the whole online review scene both as a resource to find great businesses and to steer me clear of those who might practice their trade in a less than ethical manner. But I also recognize that there are malicious customers out there who are going to extract their pound of flesh regardless of the business owner’s efforts to satisfy them.

Read the above then leave a comment of your own either supporting the business owner or the reviewer or make the case for both…

Are Your Customers Happy? Ask One Question to Find the Answer…

What’s the question?

Would you recommend this product (or service) to a friend (or colleague)?

I came across this gem in a pile of articles (Business 2.0, September 2005, The Only Question That Matters) that have been gathering dust waiting to be filed on my desk. This question is derived from consultant Fred Reichheld’s work in the area of customer satisfaction. He found that rather than asking tons of questions of customers it was better to ask just one question, “Would you recommend X to Y?” Reichheld calls this the ‘net promoter‘ approach. (Mr. Reichheld captured this technique in his 2006 book, The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth)

Really, what else matters? Have you satisfied your customers to such an extent that they will recommend, even evangelize, your product to their circle of friends, peers and colleagues? I’m sure that you, like me, have found yourself adequately satisfied with a vendor’s products or services but not thrilled, not impressed. You felt lukewarm and lukewarm doesn’t garner enthusiastic raves to those we come in contact with.

“My bank’s okay but they’re just a typical bank, no better or worse than any other bank I’ve dealt with…”

“The car’s okay, nothing special. Gas mileage is decent. Dealer is okay. Hasn’t ripped me off; as far as I know…”

“What computer do I recommend? Well, I have Brand X and it’s alright but I’m thinking of changing to Brand Z next time I buy…”

Are the above what your customers are saying about your products, your services? Or are they saying things like:

“You’ve got to get Y, it’s a great product but, what’s more important, when I had a problem their support group bent over backwards to take care of me!”

If you’d rather have this response than the others then start asking your customers, “Would you recommend my products to your friends?” And if they won’t or if their response is lukewarm, find out the reason(s) and fix the things that are preventing your customers from being your best salespeople. Chances are, if they won’t recommend you to a colleague, they probably won’t be a source of repeat business themselves. So not only do you lose all the business they might influence to try you but their business as well.

Track What People are Saying About You, Your Company, Your Products

Don’t be caught off guard by negative reports about you, your company or the products and services you offer. Likewise, don’t fail to take advantage of the positive buzz that the online community generates on your behalf.

Failure to track and react to the negative as soon as it appears limits your opportunities to control the damage while not tracking and leveraging the latter can be a waste of golden opportunities. It’s one thing when we say something nice about ourselves, it’s exponentially more powerful when it’s said by an unbiased 3rd party.

The web presents us with a wonderful array of tracking tools and services. Google Alert is one such service that will track whatever topics you specify for you. They offer a limited free service as well as more robust personal and professional paid offerings. Do-it-yourselfers can achieve the same results by merely searching on their name or product names at Google, Yahoo, Ask, MSN Search and whatever other search engines you feel are relevant. Don’t forget to search news services, blogs and social book marking sites.

A few resources to use in tracking your reputation online:

• News :: Google News
• Blogs :: Google Blog Search, Technorati
• Social bookmarking :: Digg, del.icio.us

Don’t be the last to know when someone says something bad, or good, about you on the web. Be proactive, not reactive in managing your and your company’s reputation.

Optimizing for Your Customer Not Google

A friend of my recently blogged about using News Alerts to feed your customers content they can use and establish your expertise while you’re at it. A nice little one, two punch I’d say.

The biggest diamond I found in his post was this comment…

No matter what business you are in, if you want to know more about “optimizing” your web site, pay attention to what Jerry Rouleau is doing. He does it by optimizing what he provides his customers.

Yeah, let’s quit talking about optimizing our websites and put the focus where it absolutely needs to be — on our customers.

Kind of Relevant Note: I unsubscribed today to one of the many internet marketing ‘rags’ I follow simply because all I ever got were thinly disguised infomercials that ended with a link to buy whatever their particular blog post or ezine was pitching. Hey, throw me a bone of content once in a while. Give me something to chew on while you’re patting me down for my wallet. Don’t just show me a picture of the bone and promise me “…and there’s a great big steak attached to it too!”

How NOT to Use Testimonials in Your Marketing Campaign

I was recently emailed an offer to sign up for an expensive ($1,000; 3 month time investment) info product creation program – I won’t mention the name because I have it on good authority that it’s actually a pretty good program.

However, the sloppiness they display in promoting the program, in particular their use of testimonials, left me wondering about the quality and value of the program itself and ultimately dissuaded me from signing up.

Now I know that most people just accept the Wizard at face value and don’t look behind the curtain but I do – it’s my anal side. I noticed that all of the testimonials listed on their long-copy sales letter-type website had URLs listed so instead of reading the testimonials or listening to the audio version, I went instead to the endorser’s web site to see what kind of products they were promoting and get a sense of the success of these folks.

I was a little disturbed to find that…

• One site hadn’t been updated in a couple of years and provided a link to several blog format sites, which hadn’t been updated in from months to years. No products that I could discern amongst the cobwebs.
• The next testimonialist’s site was offering enrollment in several teleclasses. Unfortunately you’d need the old time machine to attend as the most recent session was held last Fall (2006) although you can still register through their online store hookup.In investigating further, I was even less impressed with these…
• A coaching site had a link to a testimonials page that was misleading at best as it offered public domain type quotes supporting coaching in general but with no connection to the services offered by that site’s owner. Odd because their ‘About’ page states, “Hundreds of [company name] clients have learned to succeed even in the most turbulent times.” Don’t mean to be catty but don’t you think a few of the hundreds might be satisfied enough to endorse the services they received? The site itself was pretty polished with pretty good content …
• Another offered his book as “recently published” but an Amazon search revealed a publication date of 2000. He also listed several personal testimonials; none with attribution, not even of the ‘Jed C. in Beverly Hills’ type. No other products and the site looked a bit down-in-the-mouth.
• Ironically, the next endorser listed their upcoming “The Product Factory” inspired course as coming in 2006 so it’s a little overdue, I’d say. Oh, and the ‘free’ product they had for immediate download linked to an expired page.
• The last Testimonial site I looked at did a hard sell for enrolling in their self-improvement program but when I went to enroll, I received an account not found error. Double Yikes!

Even when I looked outside the testimonial sites by googling the program’s name I found sloppiness. One of the top ranking affiliate sites was promoting the program under different terms and with a different price than the master site even though when you click to enroll you get taken to the master site – with its different price and terms. Hmmm.  Maybe the price and conditions changed and the program creators neglected to get the word out or the affiliate was negligent but it’s still sloppy.

While the program may be 1st class and the participants raving fans – even those who don’t “…explode their business…” as its creators claim – why would I invest my time and money in a program that I don’t trust. And I don’t trust them based upon information that they supplied me. It’s like calling a reference for a roofing contractor who tells me that “apart from the leaks, the roof is just fine.” How dumb is that? I have means, I have motivation, I control my schedule, I know lots of people who traffic in information (i.e., I’m a potential referral source) – I’m a perfect prospect but like my Daddy always said, “I was born at night, but not last night!”

So the good word I received from the person who invited me (and a 2 time program participant) was crushed under the ‘testimonials’ provided by the program creators themselves. Ironic, isn’t it.

Here’s the marketing 101 lesson for you:

I learned long ago in Job Hunting 101 to call my references and ask them what they’re going to say about me before I hand them out to Mr. Potential Employer. Same goes here, just because you got a good testimonial in the rosy afterglow of a successful event, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t recheck that testimonial before recycling it for your next round of promotion.

I checked six of the eight testimonial providers sites and all six gave me reasons from minor to major to not spend my money or my time.

Not everyone looks behind the curtain, but when they look behind yours, make sure that the Wizard hasn’t, like Elvis, left the building.

Deepen the Connection between You and Your Customer

This is a long post so I’ll cut to the chase by offering you the marketing action points upfront that are derived from the story that follows…

1. Think outside the box by offering variations on your products and services that get your potential and existing customers to say, “Wow!”
2. Listen. Give your customers the ability to provide input and feedback on the products and services you offer to them.
3. Respond. Let your customers know you heard them and if you implement their ideas and suggestions, give them a hearty thanks and an invite to be the first to offer feedback on the new and improved ______.
4. Involve. Use web technology to turn your visitors ordinary browsing into an extraordinary experience. Consider Google’s new Street View that turns a simple search for an address into a 360° visual tour or iVillage’s virtual makeover tool that allows you to try out different hair styles, makeup combinations and the like on a virtual model of you.

How Famous Made Me Feel That Way
Do you make your customers feel special, as though their input and opinion count for something? If you don’t you’re missing the boat and you’re missing the opportunity to create that special bond we all want with our customers — the bond of loyalty.

Famous Smoke Shop created that bond with me a few months back when they really made me feel valued as a customer. Not always an easy trick to pull off in the online world.

Famous sells cigars on the internet and they do a rather good job of it. They stay in touch with their customers and offer a great selection ranging from good to exceptional values.

I recently made the decision to smoke fewer but better cigars. With 2 kids in college and a wife who’s just completed her 2nd Masters (showoff) I don’t have a lot of discretionary income to spend on the kind of sticks I’d like to smoke. Accordingly, I appreciate sites like Famous that offer premium cigars at often less than premium pricing.

I was therefore excited when Famous began offering a new Create-A-Sampler feature that allows you to build your own sampler pack of 5 different cigars … for the price of 4 (bonus!). Samplers have been around forever with the idea being that you get a chance to try different kinds of cigars without investing huge jack in the process but you are generally limited to selecting pre-configured samplers from a specific brand (5 different styles of Partagas for exampe). Famous is thinking outside the (cigar) box by providing customers the ability to customize their samplers; you can select 5 different cigars from as many as 5 different brands plus they price it a 5 for the price of 4 – a reward for your sense of adventure!

The upshot is that Famous creates a personal relationship with customers while creating an opportunity to expand their business by broadening those customer’s product buying horizons.

Famous really cemented their relationship with me after I sent an email praising their new system while suggesting that they could improve it by providing links to reviews of the cigars available. This way, a less-than-expert buyer like me would have a guide to make a more informed decision. It would be a smart move for Famous as well by insuring a better customer experience; a guy who likes mild cigars wouldn’t inadvertently pick-out a super bold smoke that would kill his taste buds for 2 weeks and vice-versa.

The cool thing is that they listened. I got an almost immediate response from, Arthur Zaretsky, the President of Famous Smoke Shop, that said that it was a great idea and he was directing his ‘web wizards’ to put this review feature in place. Then I got a follow up email from their web master, Chad Kercher, who invited me to try out the new system and provide my feedback.

To sum it up…

Famous thought outside the box with their Create-A-Sampler program which involves the customer at a deeper level than merely offering standard, pre-packaged selections and they listened and responded to customer feedback to give that customer a sense of recognition while more deeply investing him in his relationship to Famous.

What can you do to deepen your connection to your customers?

You Don’t Bring Me Flowers … (But it’s 1-800-Flowers Fault!)

1-800-Flowers.com uses email as aggressively as anyone out there when it comes to email marketing. From time to time I use their service to send flowers to friends and family. Of course, once I identified myself as a customer, their efforts redoubled. Nothing wrong with that except when you – in the interest of both customer relations and sales motivation – send your customer a 15% thank you discount good towards their next purchase … AND … it doesn’t work!

I mean, it’s a great strategy. I’d ordered flowers for my niece’s graduation and 1-800-Flowers showed me some love with a discount – no strings attached – for my next purchase. I knew Mom’s Day was coming so I set the coupon aside for use then. As soon as 1-800’s Mom Day’s email solicitations began to pour in I made my move. Ordered pretty flowers; Applied the coupon and voilà – bupkis! So what did I do? Well of course I peevishly canceled my order. I can get what they sell at a lot of places. What they had going was convenience and the warm-fuzzy they’d generated with my previous order. Once they killed the warm-fuzzy, the convenience became irrelevant.

So as a marketer and merchant of whatever you offer you need to keep in mind that good will is a warm-fuzzy. Nurture and feed it and it will nurture and feed your business but if you kill it, you’ll get a Cold-Nasty in it’s place and cold-nasty’s are business killers.

Don’t Get Greedy When Requesting Information on Your Website

My friend, Mark Sanborn, related an experience where he lied when asked for certain information in order to register on a website. His point is that while, “…smart marketers want to capture information … making it hard for customers and prospects to do business with you is worse than getting little or no information at all.”

When you ask for information whose value is perceived by your visitor/prospect to be greater than the value received in exchange, you’re likely to either lose the prospect or get lies instead. So if your website doesn’t seem to be doing a very good job of convincing your visitors to take the actions you’d like them to take (buy, subscribe, inquire, etc.) then maybe it’s time that you looked at the price you’re asking your visitors to pay in return. While you can ask your visitors for more you should only require that they provide the minimum. You’ll be pleasantly surprised with higher conversion rates and more satisfied visitors.

The Internet is a “…Want it Now” Medium

Gimmee, mine, wantit; the favorite words of my 2 and 3 year old children (back when I had 2 & 3 year old children).

Well guess what, the web is populated with the emotional equivalent of 3 year olds. We want it now, we don’t want to wait, we don’t want to have to click too many times. We want to enter one word in Google and slam, bam, thank you Sam, there’s a page of perfect search results.

Heaven forbid you frustrate us in our efforts; you bury what we need 12 layers down in your Minotaur’s maze of a website; you hide our precious info behind an insidious email-asking-for, phone-number-requesting form. And, worst of all, you make us wait: Under construction, coming soon, available Spring 2010… Yeah, right!

What’s causing my terrible twos to flair up again? Took a look at a friend’s site. Hadn’t been there in a while and noted he was now promoting 2 new newsletters like this:

Newsletter Title (Spring 2007)
2 Newsletter Title (Spring 2007)

And that’s it. No link, no subscribe now box – nothing. Just a couple of lines of promise as real as the phone number you got in the bar last night.

Guess what? IT’S SPRING! Where’s the newsletter! Anyway, I dashed off an email telling him…

       Took at quick peek at your web site. Had a couple of suggestions…

       Get rid of Spring 2007 on your pending cool ideas newsletters, replace
       them with “subscribe now” and start taking subscriptions. Not only
       will a potential subscriber not check back periodically to see if your ‘pending’
       ezines are available yet but you’ll frustrate them because they can’t have
       it now… the web is a “have it now” medium. Oh yeah, having subscribers
       is also motivation to get that ezine out sooner, rather than later…

To summarize:

• Under construction in any form is verboten on the web
• If you want them to know it’s coming but it’s not ready yet, give them something. Let them sign up to receive notification of when it’s ready and incentivize them to do so by offering some sort of premium. You’ll replace frustration with anticipation - a much better feeling to leave your visitors with and you collect contact info to boot, YAY!
• Having a list of real people waiting for you to stop procrastinating and start delivering is a great incentive to stop procrastinating and start delivering … (What?)
• Never keep your site visitors’ waiting because on the web, they won’t!

Build Consumer Confidence & Comfort – Give Them Alternatives

Here’s a snippet of info gleaned from OMMA Magazine … Only 35% of the U.S. population as a whole feel somewhat to very comfortable using credit cards on the internet.

What do you do if you’re selling goods on the internet? Give them alternatives like an 800 order number they can call or an order form they can download and mail or fax back. It’s even more important to provide purchasing alternatives if you’re serving an older population. For example 65-and-older men’s confidence in purchasing with credit cards is only around 14% … And you wonder why your Grecian® Formula sales have stagnated online?