Setting the stage

Setting the stage

1. 1. All of your hard work comes down to the few precious moments that the Internet visitors spend on your website…

   • 2. The only things stopping you from creating more compelling landing pages may be a lack of attention and imagination.
     • 3. The real experts on the design of your landing pages are your website visitors.
       • 4. With high website traffic volumes, statistical analysis allows you to find verifiably better landing pages and to be confident in our answer.
         • 5.The best way to get visitors to act is to appeal to their fundamental emotional motivations.
           • 6.We cannot expect someone to act unless we first guarantee their safety and security.
             • 7. By emphasizing too many items on a Web page,we destroy visitors’ ability to find key information and paralyze them from making a decision.
               • 8.A sense of belonging and being understood is a powerful motivator for people.

2. Websites have three desirable properties as a testing laboratory:

   • High data rates
     • Many websites have significant traffic rates.
     • The supply of test subjects is ample.
     • Some of the traffic is free, while other sources are paid.
     • All of your traffic sources result in a particular traffic mix that is unique for your website .
   • Accurate tracking
     • Web analytics software supports the accurate tracking and recording of every interaction with your website.
   • Easy content changes
     • Internet technology offers the ability to easily swap or modify the content that a particular website visitor sees.
     • The content can be customized based on:
       • The source of the traffic
       • The specific capabilities of the visitor’s computer or Web browser software
       • Their behavior during the particular visit, or their past history of interactions with your site.

3. THE THREE KEYS TO ONLINE MARKETING

   • *Acquisition
     • Getting people to your website or landing page. The goal is to create an awareness of your company or products and enough interest for your target Internet audience to actually visit your site.
     • Online Acquisition Methods
       • Search engine optimization (SEO)
         • Contrasted with most interruption marketing, people using search engines show focus and a specific intention to act.
         • The process of making your website pages appear near the top in search engine search results for words and phrases (also known as keywords) that are relevant to your business is known as search engine optimization (SEO).
       • Banner and text ads
         • Many popular or special-purpose websites reserve space on their pages for advertisers.
         • This is usually in the form of short text advertisements, or rectangles of various sizes containing images designed by the advertiser (banner ads).
         • Typically banner ads are sold on a cost per thousand impressions (CPM) basis.
         • Advertisements on multiple websites (run of network campaigns) are possible through a number of online distribution companies.
       • Pay-per-click (PPC)
         • PPC ads are typically short text advertisements along the top, sides, or bottom of a Web page.
       • Affiliates
         • An affiliate program is essentially a form of pure-commission selling.
       • Third-party e-mail lists
         • Many companies purchase third-party e-mail lists from a number of sources and send a single e-mail or multiple e-mails to the list.
       • Blogs
         • Blogs are public online diaries. They may mention, or “cover,” your company in one of their online entries, or “posts.”
       • Social networking
         • Social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook allow people to connect in communities of shared interest.
         • If members of the community recommend your products or services or describe them in a positive light, they can influence other people with similar tastes and interests to visit your website.
       • Collaborative authoring
         • Collaborative authoring sites include news and discussion forums, client-authored product reviews on e-commerce sites, user reviews on various city-guide websites, and extensive encyclopedias such as Wikipedia.org.
       • In-house e-mail lists
         • You can construct in-house mailing lists by asking people for information while they are visiting your site.
       • Online video ads
         • Online video content is growing quickly with the increased penetration of high-speed Internet connections in many businesses and homes.
     • Offline Acquisitions Methods
       • Brand awareness
         • Brand awareness is demonstrated by someone typing in your company’s Web address directly into their Web browser or when somebody uses your brand names as a Web search.
         • This means that the person is specifically looking for your company.
       • TV and radio advertising
         • Some Web addresses add a specific trackable landing page (e.g., http:// YourCompany.com/tv) to attribute the traffic correctly to its source.
       • Print ad magazine advertising
         • Almost all print advertising includes a URL.
         • It is standard practice to direct the traffic to a specific landing page.
       • Public relations and media coverage
         • Various public relations activities can result in mentions of your company in print and broadcast media.
         • Typically your site will experience a spike of coverage-related traffic after such events.
         • Afterward you may also get additional traffic from people who later come across the information
       • Industry analyst coverage
         • If your company is included in these publications, you will be considered by a very interested group of prospects as they research their buying decision.
         • Key industry analysts and market research firms that routinely put out reports and analyses of emerging trends, products, and services.
       • Industry tradeshows
         • Industry tradeshows can provide the opportunity to speak and exhibit in front of a targeted audience.
       • Event participation
         • Event participation and sponsorship may raise awareness of your company with a particular audience or group.
       • Point-of-sale (POS) promotions
         • Common forms include sweepstakes, contests, and games of various types.
         • The Web is used as the mechanism to complete the promotional transaction, allowing you to accurately gauge its impact.
       • Client referrals
         • If a company has a specific incentive program to reward them for referrals, the mechanism for completing the referral transaction is done via the Web
       • Outdoor advertising
         • Billboard advertising is typically used to promote the company or overall brand.
       • Promotional ítems
         • Company promotional items can feature a Web URL. Typically such items enhance your type-in traffic but cannot be tracked directly.
       • Direct marketing and catalogs
         • Sending out specialized flyers or catalogs by mail is a proven way to market to prospective and existing customers.
   • *Conversion
     • Persuading them to take the desired action(s) A conversion happens when a visitor to your landing page takes a desired conversion action that has a measurable value to your business.
     • Onsite Conversion Factors
       • Anxiety vs. Trust
         • Trust This is the most basic scale and addresses our feelings of safety and Security. Giving up personal information, allowing people to contact us, and paying by credit card all have significant fears associated with them.
       • Confusion vs. Clarity
         • Often too many internal company interests compete for real estate and prominence on important pages. Over time nothing ever gets taken away—new items are simply added to the Web page. Unfortunately, this often leads to a phenomenon know as “The Tragedy of the Commons.”
         • Some sites are simple and intuitive.
       • Alienation vs. Affinity
         • Even if we get over our anxiety and confusion to find the information that we need, we still have to deal with affinity and alienation.
         • We want to be recognized for who we are, understood, and valued.
     • External Conversion Factors
       • Brand strength
         • Visitors to your website are more likely to act if they are familiar with your company or products and trust your brand promise.
       • Seasonality
         • Some products or services are in constant demand because they are either consumable (you will use them up) or perishable (they have a limited effective shelf life or a specific expiration date).
       • Physicality and uniformity
         • The visitor to a physical store typically has already decided to invest more time and energy to the visit than a Web visitor.
       • Intention and commitment
         • Not everyone who visits your site has the same intention and commitment to act.
         • As you will see in the following chapters, visitors’ frame of mind depends on their demographics, psychographics, personality type, role, time of day, day of week, physical environment and the presence of distractions, and their position in the buying/decision cycle.
   • *Retention
     • Deepening the relationship and increasing its lifetime value. Once someone has become aware of your company and made initial contact, you must depend your relationship with them in order to extract value in the future.
     • The basis for all retention programs is the ability for the user to receive information from your company on an ongoing basis.
     • E-mail
       • E-mail is probably the most widely used of all retention media. In-house mailing lists, on the other hand, are a powerful resource that grows in value over time.
     • Newsletters
       • Newsletters are a close cousin and a specific use of e-mail retention marketing. Their editorial tone is generally informational, and calls to action subtly nudge the reader to take the next step in the buying process.
     • Blog feeds
       • Online diaries or blogs exist on a very wide range of topics. Getting someone to subscribe to a blog is the desired goal for a retention marketer.
     • News feeds
       • The information often comes from accredited news sources and major publications, and is typically less varied in quality, length, and editorial tone than blogs.
     • Rewards and loyalty
       • Various “points” programs are used to incentivize people to act.
       • Online tracking allows retention marketers to reward very granular events such as responding to e-mail promotions, clicking on certain pages, participating in surveys, or referring others.