Google’s tough tactics for tough times
December 7, 2008
A timely page from Google for people thinking of reviewing their Adwords tactics.
I did chuckle at one stat they used to support the Adwords business case.
Marketing is more important than ever. Ninety-four percent of CMOs believe that “a tough economic period is precisely the time when marketing plays a key role.”
Source: Epsilon, “Epsilon CMO Survey,” September, 2008.
What I want to know is, which 6 percent of CMO’s don’t think marketing will play a key role.
Stop ‘clicking here’
November 25, 2008
When I was younger, I went to Ireland to see some relatives and although I little remember the visit, I do recall both fishing in the Shannon, and some of the things people said.
“I’ll have black coffee without milk” was one phrase that has stayed with me for 30 years.
In much the same way, if there’s one thing about interweb language that people should know, it’s to NOT write “click here”, in their links to web pages….
It’s repetitive without saying anything extra, there’s no point, it’s redundant and doesn’t aid understanding. (That’s irony for the american audience). What’s more, we could improve search engine’s understanding of the web (the poor things need some help).
In case you didn’t know, search engines take a LOT of notice of what’s written in ‘link text’, as well as the links themselves. If you don’t know how search engines operate, it’s well worth finding out, I can tell you (I mean, I really CAN tell you).
So write a description of the thing you’re linking to instead, such as when pointing to a friend’s cosmetic dentist’s blog.
There, you didn’t have to be told it was a link…did you?
Help your local search engine today and link properly!
Social media generates interest? Who knew.
November 20, 2008
Did you know?
There is a BNP member location service on the web already? Just type in your postcode, and it will list the name and address of your nearest 20 members. click the link, and it shows their location on a google map. There are two within a mile for me apparently.
(I think the site went down under heavy load, 20,000 visitors within minutes, try later)
Did you know?
Whenever you add an article to your website, it can often be in search engines (google) within 30 minutes (with the right information architect)
I bet more people are searching for the BNP list today than are searching for information security. So, surely information security professionals’ websites will already be tagging onto this news story - with an ‘opinion’ or angle of course.
But I bet they’re not.
News travels faster (and further) with new media, and so do links. And yes, visitors aren’t everything, but awareness does help: whether it be search engines or humans that take note.
Is there any news that relates to your industry today, and is it on your website yet?
We’re not in old media land now you know. Make your own news.
Do websites need to look fantastic?
November 8, 2008
If you were faced with two equally suitable candidates for a job, would you choose the the most attractive?
If American, did you vote for Obama?
Obama for president
I’m not sure whether being presented with two equally good choices should be a reason to discriminate on attractiveness alone.
If presented with two equally suitable houses in the same area, would you buy the prettiest one?
OK, so that may be ambiguous, - but the answer is “No, of course I wouldn’t..”
Sometimes we just need to work harder to understand differences in our choices, because initial attractiveness is often superficial.
In case you disagree, just for a moment, imagine that you aren’t the sophisticated and discerning human being that looks back at you from the mirror. Put yourself in the shoes of someone really quite bad at making choices.
Firstly how do you know you’re that bad? Well, that marketing led vision of the perfect solution to your problem - it didn’t work our very well last time out, you do remember Smash?
You should know that instead of blaming the product or service, people blame themselves, for making bad choices. But, that bad feeling motivates people to try harder in choice making, which is great news for all those of us with great services and great end products.
But marketing campaigns, they’re smarter now too, pushing harder and faster than ever to make things even more attractive, to give us more choices, to stop us from making the wrong right decision!
Well, the answer is that this has been bubbling away for quite some time and we’ve all been around that block many times. We’re all a lot smarter than we used to be, and hardly any of us eats Cadbury’s Smash any more. Good advertising, but it left a bad taste in our mouths.
So, when people speculated whether people would vote for or against Obama because of the way he looked, because he was black, or not - and afterwards whether or not they voted to prove they weren’t racist. It took me right back to the 1980’s, it is a simplistic old world view, an old world argument, old hat.
I prefer to think Americans just worked harder at deciding, because their last choice went so badly wrong and made them feel terrible.
We, the People, are better at choosing than we used to be.
With that in mind, if you believe that making your website look fantastic will get you the business, then go right ahead.
It wouldn’t matter to me more than brushing my teeth, putting on a shirt and brushing my hair.
It’s about credibility, and people voted for that with their wallets.
Internet marketing numbers, quick look
November 3, 2008
If your website isn’t working as well as it might, how much do you have to improve to make a significant impact on the numbers?
Without measuring, lets say the poor site is converting visitors to prospects at perhaps just .5% - lets go with that low figure for the moment.
By the way, when you look, exclude people who search for your business - this includes referrals, existing customers, suppliers and competitors and so forth -they already know you, so you’ll get those prospects anyway. Also exclude any possible robotic visitors….this is about potential new internet customers.
At half a percent, just a 1 percent extra conversion rate could triple your prospects.
Once you improve the conversion rate, lets say we doubled the number of relevant visitors, or tripled - wouldn’t that mean we were adding 6 to 9 times as many prospects?
It’s not difficult.
If you don’t know how your website is working - that would be the first step.
And yes, ok, lots more questions to be asked, but it’s useful to keep in mind how a little effort can go an awful long way.
The affluent are wired
September 17, 2008
Someone said recently - I can’t remember who it was - that in this age of credit crunch the 50+ age group are still spending money, they can afford it.
So, I saw a piece on behavioural insider (signup required, if you don’t like copious emails, don’t bother!) about market profiling. The upshot is that older more affluent people are more likely to be using the internet more of the time. Excerpt below.
The rich are different. Not only do they have more money, but they are simply more wired than the rest of us. While marketers chase youthful demos as the natural target for digital goods and interactive advertising, they may be missing the real sweet spot: the wired affluent. A standout insight from the 32nd iteration of the Mendelsohn Affluent Survey is how the 23.3 million households making $100,000 and up (19% of U.S. adults) are deeply committed to digital media. For example, while less than 20% of all cell phone subscribers use their mobile devices to access the Internet, 40% of these affluents do. Even more striking is how that share escalates quickly to 57% of those making $250,000 and above.
Better be marketing to them in their preferred environment then?