From Grain to Green: Marketing A Once-Conventional Farm

 

 

If you haven't yet heard of our grass-fed meat client, U.S. Wellness Meats, you will soon. John Wood's Missouri-based farm has been making the round on foodie blogs and in green mags (look for him in the May/June issue of Sierra!) and the meat is getting quite the rep for its gourmet taste, healthfulness and sustainability. Everyone at CVM can attest to the quality of the U.S. Wellness Meats grass-fed meat, grass-fed dairy and free range poultry. We even tried the jerky.

John was featured most recently on MediaPost's Engage:Green when yours truly wrote a post on how CVM made over U.S. Wellness Meats' image. With a little creativity, ingenuity and elbow-grease, we turned the collective of grass-fed family farms into a force to be reckoned with. Check out the original post on MediaPost here.

Creating a Website for Your Personal Brand (5 Mandatory Steps)

Dan Waldschmidt's website is a great example of a personal brand site
that embodies the five tips outlined in this post*

Although the concept of transforming yourself into a personal brand isn't a new one, it's more prevalent than ever these days. This is true for many reasons--the influence of Internet/social media, ego, and an ever-evolving definition of what's cool. Not to mention, the following factors:

• It's no longer taboo for public figures to endorse brands or to put their own names on products. In fact, whereas even ten years ago, actors, musicians and other high profile people risked losing all street cred for shilling a product, it's now cooler-and more profitable-than ever.
• In the age of transparency, faceless corporations are, like, so 1998, while having a well-known face that consumers can relate to at the front of your company is totally in vogue.
• Personal brands can charge people more for appearances, books and other opportunities, than they could if they didn't have a solid brand platform. In other words, if there are two people with the exact same expertise and value to offer, the one with the stronger personal brand platform will always 1) be the first choice for most opportunities, and 2) get paid more as a result. Not only do they come with an existing audience, they also offer a certain cachet.

Really, the main tenets of creating a solid personal brand platform are the same as creating any brand platform: good messaging, widespread appeal, finding a way to say the same old thing in a new and exciting way, and smart overall packaging.  When it comes to doing this in the online world, you need to start with a website. Here's how to get started:

1. Use your name as the URL. Sounds obvious, right? You'd be surprised how many people don't do this. Even people who have made a conscious decision to transform themselves into brands are often timid or uncomfortable with the idea of, well, transforming themselves into brands. And this usually results in using some seemingly clever URL that encompasses the essence of what they're trying to communicate with their brand, rather than using their name, which is one of the simplest and most effective ways to reinforce and brand your brand.

2. Put yourself at the center of it. Duh. This might sound even more obvious than the above tip, but again, it's not always a given. You have to remember that many personal brands are not expert marketers, so they have a tough time branding themselves. Personal brands are often people who are experts at what they do, thought leaders, or other standouts in their industries. They know that they could be effective as the public face for a particular concept, but that doesn't mean that they're particularly savvy when it comes to implementing a brand strategy. If this is you, make sure that your beautiful mug is front and center on your website.

3. Showcase whatever it is that people know you for or what you want people to know you for. Your personal brand website should not just be a shrine to you and the things you like; it's got to have a very clear objective. As much as your brand is all about you, it's even more so about your audience. Are you known for you great insight into X? For your stunning looks or dazzling sense of humor? Do people gravitate toward you because they can always count on you to do Y? Well then, make sure those are the things people get the moment they land at YourName.com. This will yield a much better response than your list of "100 things you didn't know about me." (Yes, these are fun, but they shouldn't be the centerpiece of your message.)

4. What do you want people to do? So, you've done your due diligence by giving people what they want, and thus given them a reason to come to your site in the first place. Now it's their turn to return the favor and do what you want them to do. Is this inviting you to offer a keynote at their next event? Is this an interview with popular media outlets on your area of expertise? Maybe you want to pitch your own show, become the next Oprah, get a book deal or simply attract more interest in an organization you're associated with. Whatever it is, make it obvious-your being a brand alone is not enough.

5. Partner with someone who knows you better than you know yourself. For the same reason that every writer needs an editor, every personal brand needs to partner with someone who can give critical feedback and offer an outside perspective. Because you know yourself so well, it's easy to misinterpret the way you appear to others. In other words, your image of yourself is based on a well of information that other people don't necessarily have access to. For this reason, you must take into consideration an outsider's point of view. And make sure that outsider is qualified to do such-meaning, they must know your industry, understand what you're trying to achieve, and have experience with what you're trying to accomplish. Going back to the writer-needing-an-editor  example-your mom and best friend are always going to tell you that they love your book-but  at the end of the day, they're not necessarily qualified to give you a credible opinion that matters. Find someone who is.

*What can we say? We practice what we preach: site created by us.

Have You Searched Your Brand Recently? (And Did You Do Anything About What You Found?)

Yesterday I noticed this little blurb on The Atlantic’s Politics blog:

(click image to enlarge)

Now, if I were an average person hoping to learn a little bit more about Rick Santorum (let’s just assume that I wasn’t aware of his fraught political past), my next step might just be to do a little research on the good old Internet. So I’m off to Google...doo do doo... Where I type in “Santorum” ‘cause, hey, I like to know who’s running for president—or even thinking about it.

 

(click image to enlarge)

Holy moly! Egad! Dear Lord! I won’t bother to quote from the very first hit on Google—I’m assuming if you made it this far, you’re capable of reading it yourself—but, um, yeah, that’s 1) gross, to say the least, 2) so not what I was expecting to find when I googled the name of a potential presidential candidate, and 3), assuming you’re wired like me, so compelling that I now have to click through and find out why, on the page that’s supposed to be leading me to presidential discovery, at least four are the kind of results I’d expect from a very different kind of search. 

Of course, clicking through will pretty quickly help me understand that the “santorum” is the brainchild of sex columnist Dan Savage and his readers, who were none too pleased by the then-senator’s anti-gay stance, which linked homosexuality to incest, polygamy, and zoophilia (aka sex with animals).  And, boy, oh boy, were they successful.  I would imagine that to anyone under a certain age, Santorum slips in right alongside Carl and trombone for words that can pretty quickly take one down a particular associative path.

So the real question is, how the heck did Santorum—and his people—ever let this happen?!  I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m delighted that they did, but isn’t this Online Crisis Management 101?  Wouldn’t someone have had the common sense to organize some grassroots efforts to knock those less-than-ideal links off the first page of Google?   Because—and I realize I’ve neglected to mention this additional little nugget—this all blew up in 2004.  2004!  They have had five (5!) years to do something about it.  And at least some of those years, Santorum has to have been contemplating a run for the presidency.  I can only say, oy…

Fortunately, the egregiousness of the Santorum case offers some lessons—especially about online marketing, social media, etc.—for the rest of us:

Listen.  Okay, I don’t even know why I have to say this, but we see it all the time:  People are incredibly motivated to talk about themselves, blog about their interests, look for followers, make “friends,” but they’re not all that concerned about what other people are saying.  There is nothing more important in public relations, in social media, in any sort of brand preservation and creation than knowing what people are saying about you, your issues, your product, even your competitors.  You need to be out there listening so that when the crisis arises—and it will, at some point—you're prepared to nip it in the bud, head it off at the pass, and put out fires before they get out of control.

Build Relationships.   Dan Savage engages with his readers and listeners, he’s funny, he’s honest, and his fans feel like he’s a real guy who connects with them and their lives.  He doesn’t just talk at them.  So when Dan decided to have a little fun at the hate-mongering Santorum’s expense by launching a friendly competition to see who could come up with the filthiest faux definition for “santorum,” they laughed.  They got involved.  They delivered.  And the gay community, the people who listen to his show and read his columns, teens and twenty-somethings (and apparently lots of post-twenty-somethings) who like things that are funny, dirty, and a little insider-ish were happy to spread the word.

Know Your Audience.  It’s clear that Dan Savage did.  But it’s not so clear that Rick Santorum did.  At the time, Santorum was a senator.  Of a big state.  With a relatively moderate voting history.  Sure, they had voted him into office on his conservative platform, but statistically, it was safe to assume that only a minority of voters shared his extreme views.  Democratic and Republican Senators frequently fall into more moderate, compromising lines once they are elected to office not because they lose their convictions, but because they recognize the challenges of representing a multifarious constituency in a complex and diverse country.  Rick Santorum is perfectly within his rights to pursue an extreme path, but he couldn’t expect Pennsylvanians to follow.  Which might explain why there wasn’t a strong voice countering Savage and his audience through websites, blogs, and discussions that outweighed or, at the very least, balanced out the “santorum” voices.

Own Your Name.  It takes work, it takes involvement, it takes pr, it takes content creation… you get the picture.  You need to be out there driving the discussion, making the news, owning the keywords that relate to you and, above all, owning your own name.  Sure, the occasional piece of negative publicity or a critical website, article or post might creep into those top ten search results, but if you’re consistently shaping, generating, and driving the conversation, it’s only going to carry so much weight.  Check out other lightning rods for criticism like Hillary Clinton or Rush Limbaugh.  You know people are saying lots of nasty things about them, and yet somehow they still manage to control the top spots in search.

When All Else Fails, Triage.  So you let things get away from you.  While busy managing one crisis, you didn’t see another brewing.  Your team was too busy developing strategy to think about the external face of your brand.  You simply weren’t listening.  It’s time to take the horse by the reins and get things under control.  First things first…  Look at your own website.  How frequently are you updating it?  Are you giving people a reason to go there?  Are you building your relationships with your supporters so that they’ll drive traffic to your site?  Are you creating fresh, readable, informative content that people will make people return to your site regularly to see what’s going?  If not, it’s time make that a priority.  Next, think about enlisting the help of your enthusiasts, supporters and target audience.  By tapping into this community, you build your audience and shift the conversation.  Finally, if you need more help, hire an SEO firm, get a better publicist, enlist the help of marketing strategists who know this stuff.  Do you really think other people aren’t fighting off criticism too?   And for goodness’ sake, don’t let five years pass before you get started!

 

New e-Book: "GOING SOCIAL..." Developing a Social Media Program for Your Business, Your brand or Your Clients

 

 

We're just as sick of reading about social media as everyone else out there, but despite all of the available literature, we can't help but notice that people are still in need of some serious coaching in this space...

In our new (and free) e-book—GOING SOCIAL... 12 key things you must consider when developing a social media program for your business, your brand, or your clients—we set out to answer the following question once and for all:

What's so difficult about social media anyway?

The short answer? The "social" part...

Look strictly at the traditional offerings of the different types of marketing agencies out there, and it's quickly apparent that it's more than hierarchy and bureaucracy making it difficult for traditional marketing agencies (or even in-house marketing departments) to roll out their "social media programs." It's the fact that they have to reorganize and learn new skills in order to offer something they've never offered before.

In this glorious e-book, you will learn:

Why bad social media happens to good brands

What it takes to get noticed

The unique functions of social media

Where social media falls in the traditional marketing mix

The difference between a social media campaign and a social media program

And, as promised, 12 things you must consider when creating a social media program for your brand, company or clients:

1. Audience Identification
2. Platform Development & Design
3. Brand Campaign Integration
4. Content Creation/Coordination
5. Goal Mapping
6. Brand Identity/Purity
7. Audience Generation
8. Social Media Listening
9. Community & Social Responsibility
10. Internal/External Community Engagement & Response
11. Brand Advocacy
12. Customer Service

Did we mention that it's glorious? Also, beautifully designed and accessible. Ahem.

Download Now!

4 Steps to Brand Recovery: Regaining Consumer Loyalty after a Brand Crisis

Last week, I sat down to chat with a friend who I hadn't spoken to in nearly a year. The friendship didn't end well--there were complications to say the least--but he reached out to make amends, explain things, and start over. A few years ago, I may have rebuffed these attempts at reconciliation, but in the name of maturity and personal growth, I decided to hear him out. At the very least, I thought, I may get something useful out of the chat.

I did: a blog post.

As we treaded carefully through the steps of explanation, forgiveness, and some finger pointing, I realized that the art of forgiving and forgetting in personal relationships is really no different than returning to a product after an incident (like when I threw up a tuna sandwich from Miami Subs), or a much-needed break (yes, you can OD on Honey Bunches of Oats). And because brands have to survive the occasional maelstroms of bad press and social media turmoil that can turn thousands, if not millions, of brand loyalists away, there must be a system in place that allows them to win their once-loyal followers back.

The most recent disgusting and gag-worthy example of a brand loyalty test comes in the form of the YouTube video from two Domino's employees. We all saw it, or at least heard about it. One Domino's employee in North Carolina prepped sandwiches and pizza for delivery while putting cheese up his nose, mucus on the sandwiches, and rubbing other food all over his body, especially on his naughty bits. The other employee recorded and narrated the scene. Domino's was blindsided and a company spokesman said that, "Even people who've been with us as loyal customers for 10, 15, 20 years...are second-guessing their relationship with Domino's, and that's not fair." Fair? Probably not, but the cringe factor alone is enough to make a person think twice before chowing down on a MeatZZA Feast.

So what can companies do to minimize the time consumers stay away? A lot.

Provide a place for them to vent (or rave) about you
First, as a preventive measure, tried-and-true brands (ahem, Motrin) must establish their own social media presence if they are going to have any chance at combating this type of fallout. Consumers need a place to both laud and lambaste a brand, and if the company can provide the forum, they have a better chance at controlling (some of) the message. Gretel explained how large companies can integrate social media into their traditional marketing campaigns here, so I won't retread her fantastically-written steps. Read it for yourself. I promise you'll learn something.

Admit it
A primary step in the road to recovery for just about anything is admitting that there's a problem. Doing so quickly and maturely goes a long way in making things right. Companies, even more likely to want to save face, may not admit wrongdoing or missteps right off the bat. Amazon's "glitch" on a Sunday in April 2009 rendered gay-themed books unranked and therefore unsearchable and unavailable. The company took two days to address the issue, and in the meantime, the "#amazonfail" tag on Twitter was among the most popular topics on the site. Affected authors started a petition to boycott Amazon and as of Monday afternoon, they had over 18,000 signatures. Not good.

The big lessons here are that consumers never sleep, and if social media has made the spread of good news fast, it's made the spread of bad news even faster. Companies should have people on staff--newbies, interns, outside agencies, whoever--who are in the trenches listening to what's being said about the company. The sooner a company learns about a problem, the sooner it can admit it and take steps to fix it.

Just a tip: Get creative. Sure, a video is easy to produce and broadcast, but a boring corporate video response probably won't help much unless it's just as dramatic and gossip-worthy as the offense that prompted it.

Say "I'm Sorry" and Mean It
JetBlue's screw up in 2007 seems like ages ago, but I don't think that most of the passengers who were stranded on runways for 11 hours are rushing back to the airline for free Terra Blues any time soon. Still, JetBlue's quick action, public apology, and genuine regret over the incident helped them back-pedal just enough to win the JD Power & Associates Award for #1 Customer Satisfaction for the airline industry that year. Crazy, right?

This worked because the genuineness did not only come in the form of words, but actions. The company established a Passenger Bill of Rights that was retroactive to the date of the screw up, spent an estimated $20-30 million to appease the thousands of angry customers, and pledged to revamp its plans and backup plans so that nothing like it ever happens again. If you're going to say, "I'm sorry," show it, don't just say it.

Revamp your image (for real)-and make it stick
Like that crazy high school friend who is now reformed, a company known for a murky or unappealing past should take special care when revamping its weak image, lest it seem disingenuous. Simply keeping the status quo is not acceptable, nor is becoming something you're not. Instead, become the company your customers want you to be. The aforementioned JetBlue fiasco was as big as it was because they were expected to be number one in customer service-the company had built itself around that ideal. To fix it, JetBlue had to go above and beyond where they were before.

Though it seems a little old school now, let's go back to when Target stores rebranded from Kmart status to what it is today: Tarj-ay. Knowing that a fancy ad campaign can't sustain a company that has little to offer, Target took special care to differentiate itself from its competitors. By cutting expenses, the company was able to offer high-quality merchandise at low margins, rather than low prices on cheap merchandise. It worked. Target stores tend to attract younger, more educated, and more affluent customers than its competitors and even though its newer advertisements focus on low prices (the "Hello/Good Buy" ad comes to mind), the quality of Target stores still stands out. Because the company had the goods to back it up, Target morphed its humdrum discount store image into a shining example of smart, trendy shopping on a budget.

So that's it. It sounds easier than it really is, but take the lessons of Domino's, Motrin, Amazon, JetBlue, and Target to heart. There are ways to get yourself (or your company) out of a tough situation--by being aware of it, coming clean, apologizing, and truly reforming--but you better be sincere about it.

And as for my personal experiences: no, I will probably not ever eat from Miami Subs again, I'll likely OD again on Honey Bunches of Oats at some point in the near future, and my friend and I seem to be on the road to recovery.

I hate this blog.

Note: This was initially posted on our old, feeble blog platform...and is about our old, feeble blog platform.

Fans from all over the world have been contacting me as of late to ask, "Gretel, why haven't you been posting lately? My life is empty without your seething banter and endless wit." (Okay, so I'm paraphrasing here.) But since they—my imaginary friends—brought it up, I think it's time to address my non-blogginess publicly.

As it turns out, there are a few (deliberate) reasons I've fallen off the blog-wagon:

The first is that, about a month ago, I had grand plans of writing a sarcastic post about why brands should ditch their marketing efforts (every single one of them!) in favor of hiring a guy with an accent and running infomercials. Then Vince, the ShamWow guy, who I had planned to profile for the post, goes ahead and makes naughty national headlines, thus rendering my post just a drop in the Vince-parody bucket. Oh well. I've been busy.

We have a ton of stuff going on here at the CVM International Headquarters, not the least of which is launching our new book division (our new model is going to have the publishing world eating out of our hands! Really.), and planning out our new and improved website with actual examples of our cool work (cutting edge, we know).

And then there's actual client work. It gets ya every time, that work. Although, to be fair, I've never let work get in the way of blogging. In fact, I love blogging, which brings me to the number one reason I've been boycotting this blog:

I hate—nay, loathe—it.

To anyone who takes things like lead generation, SEO, and even, gulp, best online marketing practices into consideration, this blog platform is a disgrace on many levels. Being such a person, I've decided not to post anything (well, except this post) until our new blog platform launches next week. Same place. Same time. Same over-inflated ego.

My first post will be a full rundown of why this blog and our old site have shamed our company for the last few months. It will be a cautionary tale--a what not to do case study, and I plan to expose all the gory details. This URL should still be intact, but just in case the launch isn't smooth (stuff happens), just go to our homepage and access it that way.

In the meantime, brace yourself for the post my business partner and colleagues don't want you to see...

Our Clients' Extreme Makeovers...

 

 

Even more exciting than taking on a new web project is taking on a web redesign project. I’m not sure why this is the case, but it brings me back to an old Brady Bunch episode where Marcia decides she’s going to take the geeky girl at school and gussy her up a bit. Of course, after taking off her glasses and letting down her hair, geek becomes chic and the rest is history. It’s an exciting proposition but not one that’s easy to come by. You see, you can’t just go after a prospect and say, “Hey, your website really blows, but not to worry, we can make it awesome.” Well, you can, but we don’t. So, when that geek comes a-knockin’ at your door with a plea for just a little bit of cool, well, you just have to jump right in and lend it a helping hand.

That’s what happened with two of our most recent projects and, since we haven’t updated our website for months (new one coming in April), I thought I’d display them here while we’re geeking-to-chicing our own site. I’ll make this quick and painless. First up is HuntBigSales.com. What was once a template-lookin’ disaster, laden with a bunch of “About Us” info and a couple of black-backgrounded blogspot blogs (paging 1997), is now a content rich (e-books, webinars, essays, podcasts, custom blog, newsletters, you-name-it, etc.) dream girl of a site with traffic it never thought possible.

When we started working with Hunt Big Sales’ CEO Tom Searcy he was a bit skeptical about the whole giving-away-free-content thing, but he tried it anyway. Working with someone who’s open to jumping head first into new ideas—he’s even a Twitter expert now, bless his heart—is always fantastic.

BEFORE:

(Click to enlarge)

AFTER:

(Click to enlarge)

Our second before and after tale revolves around USWellnessMeats.com. U.S. Wellness Meats is a grass-fed meat company (a real one that feeds its livestock ONLY grass, rather than half grass, half grain or whatever the loose government standards allow). Their site was once a garbled disaster with a bunch of randomness going on (yes, this is the professional diagnosis). When we first started talking to John Wood, the managing farmer/owner/partner he complained about the lack of accurate information out there about grass-fed meat and sustainable farming practices. He hated the loose definition of “grassfed” and that you have to pay someone off to have the “certified organic” label on your products.

But why wasn’t anyone talking about it? Of course, this is where we turned that question around and asked him why he wasn’t talking about it. And thus was born USWellnessMeats.com 2.0.

What was once a traditional e-commerce site is now a regularly-updated destination site for those looking for facts on sustainable eating, the difference between grass-fed and grain-fed meats, and the health benefits of their products. Inspired by their customers’ passion for health and cooking and the many communications they’ve received over the years, the newly-launched U.S. Wellness Meats 2.0 features regular professional and home chef profiles, a Wellness blog, and “Wellness Kids “among other features. Now, instead of relying on outside media to educate its consumers, U.S. Wellness Meats can do it on their own with full knowledge that the information they’re offering is accurate (not to mention, encased in a gorgeous skin, if we do say so ourselves).

BEFORE:

(Click to enlarge)

AFTER:
(Click to enlarge)

ME FEEDING A CALF:

 

As an interesting aside: We had a chance to go out to Missouri and spend a few days on the farms, interview the farmers, and really dive into U.S. Wellness Meats’ story (check out the picture of me feeding a calf). We learned that because of their sustainable farming practices, while all of the farms in the area flooded last summer, John’s didn’t (naturally-occurring ponds somehow contributed to a flood-proof environment, although I couldn’t give you an intelligent explanation as to how). We learned that John’s farm relies purely on the elements—meaning that he doesn’t even have an irrigation system. For years, neighboring farmers scoffed at his “alternative” farming practices, but the delineation between his farm’s health and his neighbors’ couldn’t be more pronounced. He spoke of turning solar energy into protein energy, showed us how he gives the cattle a plot of grass everyday so that the pastures can replenish themselves before the next grazing (as opposed to free-roaming cattle that eat only the healthy tops of the blades and don’t give it enough time to grow back and gain the proper nutrients), and even answered the obvious question I couldn’t help but ask: “Do they know they’re going to die?” Nope, but a lot of traditionally-farmed animals do. You can tell by looking at the meat: burst red capillaries indicate an adrenaline rush right before slaughter. They realize what’s going on and “freak out,” for a lack of better words. There’s a lot more to tell, but you get the picture.

Technocrat Takes on a Whole New Meaning...

I know that everyone on the planet is talking about the new White House website, and no doubt Gretel-who of late has been reveling in her role as the Cubicle Critic (not to be confused with our client Gordon Plutsky, aka "the Cubicle Comedian")- is going to be incredibly disappointed with me for jumping on the bandwagon, but I can't help it. I love it.

First of all, it's pretty. Yes, I know, looks aren't everything, but they definitely sweeten the deal. And the new White House site has clean, easy-to-navigate design that is accessible but still presidential. Just like our new president. Clever...

Better yet, it's loaded with information. Not cluttered with information, but filled with clearly organized, easy-to-find content that explains everything you need to know about the new administration and its policies. There's no equivocating--I'm not left to guess where the new Obama administration stands on policy-nope, it's all up there.

Want to know what Obama thinks about foreign policy? Immigration? Women's issues? No need to scrounge around online to dig up answers from long-ago speeches or an obscure NYT article, it's all there.

Looking to brush up on your administration cabinet members so you can kill next time you're drinking your way through pub trivia? Look no further...

There's video, there are press briefings, there's...the list goes on. And, last but not least, there's the blog. Yup, the White House has a blog. Sure, odds are good that President Obama won't be sitting around in his pajamas drinking Mountain Dew and eating Cheetos blogging about the latest happenings in the Oval Office, but someone on his staff will be.

How novel. Instead of being late technology adopters, the new White House is leading by example. Yes, make yourself available to the people you want to reach. Yes, offer lots of informative content so that people want to visit your site regularly. Yes, build a loyal audience through authenticity and transparency. There is no more effective way to connect with people in the digital age, and President Obama and his staff are taking advantage.

With this morning's news that Obama will also be able to keep his trusty BlackBerry, it seems clear that the new president is determined to lead for the 21st century.

Live from OMS: The 7 Deadly Sins of Landing Page Design

Posted live from the Online Marketing Summit for the Online Marketing for Marketers blog

I'm in a GREAT session with the lovely Tim Ash, President & CEO of SiteTuners.com. He covered a lot of good stuff, but skip to the bottom if you're just interested in the list of 7 deadly sins.

He says that if there's one thing you're going to take away today, it's that when it comes to websites, the customer's always right. (Am I sensing a trend here?)

Are you still letting webmasters design your site? Is your boss suddenly a conversion and SEO expert? Did you launch your site after deciding that "the green looks pretty, so let's launch this baby"?" Well then, clearly you've got the wrong person designing your site and a skewed opinion of what's important to the visitor. The customer should be designing your site and the info on your landing pages is far more important than "the sage green is prettier than the emerald green" situation.

There are several important variables for landing pages...

• Page header
• Navigation bar
• Headline
• Call-to-action
• Photo sales copy
• Endorsements
• Question labels
• Question delimiter
• Question explanations
• Button text
• Button format

And all of these MUST fit within the proper context.

Are you performing A-B Split Testing?

• Test on e variable at a time (with 2 or more values)
• Send equal traffic to all versions
• Very simple to implement and track
• Minimum Data RAte: 10 conversions/day
• Typical Test Size: 1 - 10 recipes (two is typically sufficient)

Case study: "Free Quote Request" The company wanted to encourage prospects to request a free quote but had a small form accompanied by 36 client logos (to gain credibility). Thinking that the number of logos was affecting low interaction rates, the company tested the form with varying numbers of client logos. Using Google's free optimizaiton tool, the company was able to determine that the number of logos didn't necessarily matter--it was the combination of all features working together. And finally...

The 7 Deadly Signs of Landing Page Design: 1) Unclear call-to-action

• What am i supposed to do on this page? Don't waste an opportunity by not telling customers what you want them to do. Also, don't clutter the page so that they have no idea wat you want them to do
• Anything that's not obvious is wasting your money
• Don't make people think

2) Visual Distractions

• Entry pop-ups such as instant chat with a representative (Do you really want people to focus on your chat option?)
• Too many products on one page without one big call-to-action that ties everything together

3) Too much text

• Just ask yourself: "Would I want to read all of this?" If the answer's no, then assume your audience's answer is the same.

4) Lack of Upstream Continuity Does your landing page keep the promise that your traffic sources make? Remember that your visitors came to your site via somewhere and they want continuity. In other words, they came their with a purpose. There was some context and they want the same context when they get there. For instance, if you get to a site that promises a ton of product reviews and their main call to action is "join today," there's no continuity. The call-to-action should be related to the context (product reviews).

5) Long Forms

• Is the information you're requesting absolutely necessary to complete the current transaction?
• If the information is requested but not required, get rid of it
• The longer the form, the lower the conversion rate. Period.
• Give them a ton of value and promise a lot of return (free white paper, e-book, etc.)

6) Invisible Risk Reducers

• Make visitors feel less anxious. If you have trust and credibility symbols on your site (such as security certificates for ecommerce transactions, etc.), make sure they're above the fold.

7) Lack of Trust Indicators

• Why should I trust you?
• I need proof that other people have had a good experience with you and had a good outcome
• Trust indicators: client logos (especially of recognizable brand clients if you have them), and media mentions (or just the logo of outlets that have mentioned you)

Live from OMS: Maximize Conversions and Revenue

Posted live from the Online Marketing Summit at the Online Marketing for Marketers blog

Now I'm in the Advanced session, which is [not surprisingly] full considering today's audience of savvy marketers.

Olivier Chaine, CEO of Magnify360 is waxing poetic about the money pit that websites can be; why Google is often a big waste of money that's used by misinformed marketers (particularly if its their only strategy); and why people continue to pump money into their websites without increasing conversion rates.

Here are some highlights...

• 97.7 percent of people coming to your site are not satisfied. This is not your site, per se, this is an industry-wide problem.
• Call-to-actions: Take Sprint's site. What does someone who wants to buy a cellphone see? Olivier notes, "Wow, what a beautiful two-minute flash movie you have here. That's nice and all, but what do I do if I just want to buy a cellphone? There needs to be a 'buy' call-to-action."
• Conversion: He's now showing a cookie site (don't know what brand). Olivier points out that its strategy is based around making people hungry, but notes that catering to a consumer's present hunger on a website is the wrong approach. (Seems obvious, right?) The consumer knows it's going to be four or five days for delivery, so that's not how you're going to convert them into a customer. The company should showcase satisfied customers who boast the ease of working with the company or other qualities that are more likely to appeal to the end user. Remember: websites are different from physical stores.
• Showcase products against user personality, intent, and usabilty. For instance, if you're offering a deal, do the math for the consumer. For instance, instead of "20% off," do what Amazon does: "Was $27.99; now $23.99; You save $4.00." Also, don't force people to fill out unnecessary informaiton on forms. Do you really need the visitor's fax number and street address? Really? Finally, don't confuse the consumer with a bunch of unrelated call-to-actions that don't cater to getting the intended behavior. Google has one box on their site; no wonder they're so successful. Capiche?
• Keyword-based headlines. Want a free 17% lift in traffic? Get your keywords in your headline.
• Segment, segment, segment! Do not attempt one-size fits all optimization (or one-size fits all anything for that matter). Instead of putting 15 bullets on one page in order to cover all the bases, segment your bullets into different pages based on the different audiences you're trying to reach. Fill those pages with your keywords, develop link strategies so that certain keyword searches lead visitors to the page that will best help them...and quickly.
• Ah, good old personality disorders and how they affect testing and strategy. Basically, we're all more than just "clicks," and therefore traditional testing methodologies don't work. People all have different stressors; we think differently, talk differently and have different experiences. Some people are competitive, methodical, insecure, neurotic, etc. These people are all having different experiences even if they're doing the same thing on your site.
• Then there's demographics: if you were to open shops in NYC and San Diego, they'd have to be completely different. Same thing with websites. This goes back to segmenting your audiences and speaking directly to the needs of each one. And not just speaking to them differenty; addressing each of their different needs.
• Some characteristics are more important than others: Knowing whether someone's tactile, for instance, is often more important than knowing whether they're a boy or a girl, or where they live. This stems back to direct mail methods and figuring out exactly how people will physically interact with your site.
• Developing Personas: This is ultimately what this is all about. Before you segment your audience, you have to figure out the different personas it's composed of. Are they looking for a discount? Are they looking for fun? Are they looking for...? How do they buy? Are they impulsive? Do they have to talk to their boss?
• And don't forget browser types. Do I even have to elaborate here? Remember that visitors' experiences are often different depending on their browser.

Imagine the consumer walked into your store and said, "Hi, I'm Olivier." Would you throw your catalogue and tell them to let you know when they're ready? Nope. You'd ask them questions about what kind of lawnmower they're buying, what their needs are, how they'll be using it, etc. So, why would your website be any different?

A lot of marketers come from traditional sales and are used to a certain type of interaction with customers. Sales methods are shifting right along with marketing, though. Whereas once you just had to make the sale and then let the experts deal with the experience, now sales people are required to be the experts as well. Traditional sales and marketing have been abandoned in favor of offering an experience and knowing more than the next guy about everything the consumer needs and how they need it.

Bottom line: Talk in terms your customer will respond to.