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Activate Your Silent Salesperson with Digital Retargeting

by Kelly Kubrick on October 31, 2016

Have you ever been tempted to taste a new wine because the offer of wine overcomes your resistance to trying something new? Then gleefully bought a case of said wine?  Me too. That’s what this is about: offering your prospects content that is so irresistible that you can entice them further into your conversion funnel, willingly.

First published through the Canadian Home Builder’s Association (CHBA)

Now that we’re well past the era of questioning the value of including a website in the marketing toolkit, today’s business concern is ensuring the digital content produced, actually contributes to the larger sales funnel.

Once a business has put its contact and product information online, the challenge becomes justification for continued investment in driving awareness and usage of the website. To date, low-hanging fruit included launching additional digital channels such as a blog, an email list and social media.

What happens when sources to stagnate?

Digitally, it used to be good enough to make sure you’d sorta-kinda made your website search engine friendly and populated your company’s social media account(s) profile pages with updates. But, if asked, your marketing team will likely admit that your website reach has stalled or that Facebook’s “people-reached” update performance indicator is declining. Now what?

As lead generation sources dry up, where will sales come from?

It’s no longer enough to merely hope that digital reach will continue to grow as it has in the past. What if you could efficiently reach new people likely to be interested in your business because they’re similar to customers you’ve had success with previously?

More importantly, what if you could reach that audience in a way that both personalizes your interactions, while automating them, so there’s efficiency of effort? The concept is called a ‘lookalike’ audience and is available through a combination of advertising networks – like Facebook – and your existing website.

Activating your silent salesperson

The consumer packaged goods industry talks about a product’s packaging as a brand’s “silent salesman”. When a consumer buys a product and places it on a household shelf, the packaging dutifully reminds buyers its presence.

There’s a similar concept in digital, called re-targeting, also referred to as re-marketing. Digital publishers provide their advertisers with a small piece of computer code, often called a “pixel” – similar to a cookie – that won’t affect your visitors’ experience or your website performance, but is unique to you as an advertiser. By publishing your pixel on your website, you activate your silent salesperson.

Put your digital content to work

Next – instead of merely launching a sales-oriented advertising campaign, you use that pixel to build a new prospect list through irresistible content. Using Facebook as an example, here’s a big picture visual of how re-targeting works:

Activate your silence salesperson - digital re-targeting cycle

With that cycle in mind, it’s time to get granular. An effort like this has a lot of moving parts, but done right, your marketing team gets access to a rich source of digital leads.

Ten Steps of Digital Re-targeting

Using Facebook as an example, here’s what your marketing team will need to do:

  1. Create a Facebook Ads account for your organization and generate your Facebook pixel from within it. Publish that pixel to all pages of your website.

2. Define a specific buyer persona, with unique interests, such as ‘eco-friendly living’, or ‘vintage motorcycles’ that your company wants to pursue. Research and quantify those interest groups on Facebook – called Audiences – and then narrow that audience further by geographic – all of Canada? Or only one province / territory? and demographic ( age and gender) targeting.

3. Create a unique piece of irresistibly good content, written purely for that persona’s concerns, and publish it on your website. Provide enormous amounts of added-value information – imagine content that answers every question unique to that buyer persona, without the pressure of any kind of a sales pitch. Establish your subject authority while assuring the reader of your goodwill.

4. In parallel, create a digital advertisement that promotes the educational nature of your irresistible content, and run it on Facebook – but only show it to the unique interest groups identified in step 2.

5. As your advertisement is shown on Facebook, interested individuals will engage and click through to read your irresistible content, causing your Facebook pixel to activate.

6. However, in advance, you will have made your initial content even more irresistible by offering another piece of even higher added value information – enticing information (perhaps by providing a critical check list, a list of unique resources, a countdown calendar, or how-to instructions?) unavailable anywhere else.

7. That additional, enticing content will only be accessible in exchange for the visitor’s willing, forward movement into the sales funnel – say, in exchange for an email address. However, since most first-time visitors will shy away from giving you that information on the spot, because of the pixel, you can let them go without worry.

8. After an appropriate interval, your marketing team runs a second advertisement on Facebook, only shown to (or ‘re-targeting’) those who visited your irresistible content but didn’t convert to a lead by giving up their email. The second ad will offer a gentle reminder of the fabulous extra content they have missed out on, enticing them back to your content, this time with a higher likelihood to convert to access your higher value content.

9. As you identify the right audiences and use the right creative to entice them towards consideration, the automated – yet more personalized than a mass-media ad buy – process repeats until a lead converts. This allows you to engage with the lead on an ongoing basis through your existing qualification process.

10. As you identify the audiences most likely to convert, Facebook is able to give you access to ‘lookalike’ audiences – other people with profiles and behaviour that match those you’ve successfully converted – that you can now offer your irresistible content to. And the cycle repeats…

To access a lookalike audience on Facebook, organizations need to have a Facebook Ad Account, which provides tools to create your pixel, advertising campaigns, and Audiences, including lookalikes. In Facebook, lookalike audiences can be modelled from ‘source’ audiences including specific on Facebook, people who’ve liked your Facebook page or your own customer lists.

To create these lookalike audiences, Facebook looks at the common qualities of the people in your source audience and then finds people who “look like” your source audience on Facebook for a country. Organizations can choose the size of the Lookalike Audience during the creation process.

This combination of using technology to target the interests of buyer personas you can uniquely help, without even knowing who they are – while using automation to re-target them later – can be a powerful tool to help drive your lead generation efforts.

Although tactically, this ‘silent salesperson aka pixel’ approach may feel very far from how you’ve sourced leads in the past, my hope is that you will consider adding re-targeting as an arrow to your marketing quiver.

Questions? Ask away!

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Kelly KubrickActivate Your Silent Salesperson with Digital Retargeting

Introducing MyLiberty.Life: online shopping for quality incontinence products

by Kelly Kubrick on November 20, 2015

Early in my career, I joined The Voyager Company, a digital publishing house that produced CD-ROMs. Our sister company produced the famous Criterion Collection, on laser-disk. Together, we published the media that was a precursor to DVDs, now rapidly being replaced by stream media. As there were no obvious sales channels for our products, we pounded the doors of book stores and record stores in hopes they would carry our product.

We also sold our catalogues over the Internet. I remember one particular day when our technical team called us into a meeting to show us a ‘database’ they had built to house the content for what had been 300+ static HTML product pages. They showed us how we could update the pricing for the entire catalogue with a single command. It was like hearing the Alleluia chorus break over my head. This would revolutionize selling online!

Well – it didn’t quite, but it helped build the foundation for my continued work in ecommerce. In 1997, I joined a small team at Time Warner’s interactive division, Time Inc New Media, to develop alternative revenue streams for digital advertising sales for Time Inc’s magazine assets. What an amazing era; we launched countless businesses – Fortune Database, an online community to support participants in Dr Andrew Weil’s “8 Weeks to a Healthy America” eating program, an affiliate program to drive subscriber acquisition for PEOPLE Magazine, an online customer service for our core magazines and more.

Back then, ecommerce technology was expensive and not particularly elegant. Today, things have changed, and for the better. What has remained true is that if you have a product that can be showcased online for buyers unable to find those desired products easily, you might want to consider ecommerce. Which is why, I’m very pleased to announced the launch of a new ecommerce venture for myself and two partners.

What began as a debate over likely trends in the marketplace over a summer lunch has become a Canada-wide company selling – wait for it – incontinence products. All online, all home delivery, all discreet packaging. The numbers are compelling: 10% of the population admits to being affected by incontinence and if asked about the occasional “leak” the number jumps to 50%.

Daily, we’re uncovering stories describing the need: those stick handling conversations with aging parents, runners looking for eco-friendly washables, grandparents indulging new family members with a monthly diaper delivery service, or simply those who would prefer not to deal with the teenager working at the drug store.

We’ve embraced the need for information, a bit of humour, good sense and a simple shopping experience for Canadians looking for discreet solutions for parents, for spouses, for special needs kids. Men, women, young adults and kids – My Liberty has options for all.

The product mix is changing rapidly through research and science; including an Australian line of products indistinguishable from regular underwear. We’re selling everything from liners to pads for women to guards for men, briefs (also known as adult diapers), cleansing and skin care and state-of-the-art washables in swimwear and bedding solutions to help reduce bed wetting burdens for young and old. I shake my head at the things I’ve learned in the last few months…!

We also provide a straight-forward, informative email newsletter to answer product questions and insights for consumers and caregivers, all with a comfortable, non-clinical approach. If you have a moment to take a look at https://MyLiberty.Life, I’d love to hear what you think; my partners are as eager for feedback as I am, so bring it on.

I realize it’s a rather unexpected category, and not likely on your radar, but if you know of anyone who might be interested in learning more, please consider sharing the website or newsletter with them? I’d really appreciate it. Alternatively, if you know of organizations/facilities we should be talking to, just let me know.

Thanks so much –

P.S. Feel free to check My Liberty out on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook out as well.

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Kelly KubrickIntroducing MyLiberty.Life: online shopping for quality incontinence products

Homebuilders and Renovators: Stop Overcomplicating Social Media

by Kelly Kubrick on February 28, 2014
First published in the Canadian Home Builders Association (CHBA) membership email newsletter, February 2014

Ever tried to do business with an unlisted phone number?

In 2007, I met with a group of Canadian Home Builders Association members to talk about making the most of the Internet. I suggested trying to do business without a website was like trying to do business using an unlisted phone number. Seven years later, the analogy holds true for social media as well.

Think of social media as a channel

Stripped down, social media is simply a channel. Like all the other technologies you’ve adapted to over time – phone, email, web page, blog posts, texts – social media is simply another way to communicate with prospects, customers, suppliers and employees. It’s another way to answer questions people have on their path to conversion:

  • What homes do you have available where?
  • How much does a bathroom renovation cost?
  • How do I get to your sales centre?
  • What floor plans are available?
  • Can I change them?
  • Can you give me some design ideas?
  • Is the upfront cost vs. energy efficiency trade off worth it?

Name the home-owning topic and someone is looking for information about it through social media. And yes; as with commercial search engines, you can quantify demand through social networks.

Why do we support different channels?

It’s simple. From a demographic perspective, different prospect and customer segments prefer different channels. We all know that some people are phone people, others are email people, and others are in-person people. Now, some are social people. For now, put aside which kind of person you are and think about what your prospects are. By demographic, how would they prefer to get information?

Different social media networks support different types of people

Similar to preferences by channel, people have preferences by content type. Some are text people, some are picture people, and some are video people. Think about social networks the same way:

stop-overcomplicating-social-media

Please note that although there are many other social media networks, the first four listed above dominate from a market share perspective (Facebook in particular). Although research indicates Google Plus has low adoption right now, it may have a significant influence on search engine visibility later.

I included LinkedIn as I firmly believe that creating your LinkedIn profile is critical for each of you to test the waters of social media for yourselves: if you’re unwilling to put your own professional history online today, how will you lead the way for your company’s larger presence in social media tomorrow?

Social media excels at the new way to sell: content marketing

Added bonus: every year, more data emerges that social media, in conjunction with your website, can allow you to provide critical information at a much lower cost per conversion than traditional media. Why? Scale. Social media excels at assisting home builders and renovators to shift from traditional sales methods towards ‘content marketing’.

What is content marketing? What your best sales folks have always done: provide educational content at the right point in your prospects’ moment of information need. Only today, social media lets you do it at scale. Find the right combination of content type for the right social media channel for your prospects and customers, and the data will prove an exponential impact on your reach.

Biggest Challenge: Feeding the Machine

Regardless of which social network(s) you choose to participate in, be aware that each one demands ongoing care and feeding. You’ll need to allocate resources to creating content, curating content, responding, replying and measuring the impact of your efforts. Ask yourselves:

–    Which types of content could we shine at producing?
–    How could we adjust resources to produce that content on an ongoing basis?
–    Is it possible, from the start, to produce our content for multi-channel distribution?

For now, don’t let your internal discussions to get tangled up in the “which social media network” question. Instead, talk about whether your prospects and customers might need you via a different channel than you offer today. And always, always, remember the generation coming up behind you. Don’t let them dismiss your expertise at answering their questions as they cross the threshold into becoming home owners themselves.

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Kelly KubrickHomebuilders and Renovators: Stop Overcomplicating Social Media

Feeling fragmented by digital?

by Kelly Kubrick on October 15, 2012

Working in digital is like being caught in a earthquake of change.

Late in April 2011, after many conversations with my web analytics industry colleague, Andrea Hadley, I made a fateful comment. Since first meeting in 2008 and as a past member of her advisory boards for Internet Marketing Conference, SMX Canada and eMetrics Canada, we had spent many hours debating the future of our industry.

Kelly Kubrick

Kelly Kubrick, Vice-President and Partner, dStrategy Media, producers of Digital Strategy Conference

andreahadley_100

Andrea Hadley, President and Partner, dStrategy Media, producers of Digital Strategy Conference

Andrea is as passionate as I am about digital, and also happens to be a conference producer, based in Vancouver. She and I regularly discussed how it seemed that everyone we spoke to felt increasingly overwhelmed by the never-ending tactical options in digital.

The only advice out there seemed to be “You should quit; go work for someone who ‘gets’ digital”.

We didn’t like that advice. How could our industry build capacity in digital if the only advice was to encourage churn? We’d get nowhere as an industry or country.

“You should bring a conference to Ottawa”, I said. Innocently. Not understanding the significance of the gleam in her eye…

Within the year, we formed dStrategy Media, producers of the about-to-be-launched Digital Strategy Conference.

Introducing Digital Strategy Conference

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In digital, not only are we challenged by the need to juggle multiple dimensions – our people resources, our technology resources, our data, our content and social strategies…but on top of it, there’s non-stop fragmentation: new platforms, new channels and new business models.

What do do? Join us at Digital Strategy Conference. It will be a deep dive into digital strategy, bringing together senior directors and managers with industry leaders to learn the essentials of planning, organizing, integrating and implementing digital initiatives.

Digital Strategy Conference is an instructor-led, three day educational event intended to explore the fundamentals of digital strategy. We’ve outlined the key areas of learning so you know what to expect. Learn more here:

The first Digital Strategy Conference will take place in Vancouver, British Columbia in April 2013 followed by Ottawa, Ontario in June 2013. In each city, we’ll be tackling the following topics:

  • Defining Digital Strategy
  • Establishing Your Digital Maturity
  • Data Strategy and Performance Measurement
  • Digging into Content Strategy
  • Mobile to Multiscreen Strategy
  • Social Strategy
  • Making Sense of Paid Media

The call for speakers for both Vancouver and Ottawa is now open, and we look forward to reviewing your submissions. We hope you can join us!

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Kelly KubrickFeeling fragmented by digital?

Critical tidbits from a Web (now Digital) Analytics bookshelf

by Kelly Kubrick on July 19, 2012

Online Authority's Digital and Web Analytics bookshelfLike many of us in the web analytics industry, I’m indebted to every colleague who has put fingers to keyboard and documented our ever-evolving world of (now) digital analytics. Over the years, as new books have released, I leap to them and have always found a critical tidbit or two (or ten). To express my gratitude, I’ve noted what I’ve found valuable about each book. I hope this helps as you consider additions to your analytics book collection. Enjoy!

Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics (Third Edition) by Brian Clifton, 2012

I love this book for the sheer amount of detail it contains; it’s been an invaluable resource to me and I’ve returned to it, and its earlier edition(s)* repeatedly. If you are looking for specifics on Google Analytics implementation, this one’s for you. Brian’s instructions and recommendations on customizing the Google Analytics Tracking Code are crystal clear, precisely detailed and very pragmatic. The fact that he also publishes the Advanced Web Metrics blog to support the (book’s) community, was Head of Web Analytics for Google EMEA for three years and was instrumental in creating the Google Analytics Individual Qualification program (making him a “Xoogler” – per Brian, pronounced “zoogler”, and it refers to ex-Google employee) is just icing on the learning cake.

* Previous editions: first edition published in 2008, and the second in 2010.

Google Analytics, by Justin Cutroni, 2010

Similarly, if you need implementation specifics for Google Analytics, you need to own this book. It covers the full range of questions you’ll bump into, from a great chapter on Must-Have Profiles right through to mobile application tracking. Hit the ground running by taking advantage of Justin‘s chapter on creating your analytics implementation plan and you’ll never look back. The book offers is a more detailed version of Justin’s 2007 Google Analytics eBook, also published by O’Reilly, but together, they reinforce the wealth of analytics insight Justin has shared that you will find immediately applicable.

Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability & Science of Customer Centricity, by Avinash Kaushik, 2010

I’ve long admired Avinash‘s accessible writing style – humorous, practical and laden with metaphors that illustrate and amuse. From the man who brought us HiPPOs (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion) and Analysis Ninjas vs Reporting Squirrels, this book drew my attention in its consideration and treatment of emerging analytics: social, mobile and video. Further, every single analyst must read Chapter 2, Step 2: “Ten Questions to Ask Vendors Before You Marry Them”. Back in my Time Warner days, I learned how to interview potential vendors, and over the years, it has proven an invaluable skill. With Avinash’s help, you can now take crash course yourself. Go for it!

Actionable Web Analytics, by Jason Burby & Shane Atchison, 2007

This book is for those of you who face analytics issues relating to change management and organizational structure issues. There are two full chapters on addressing business culture landmines that analysts ignore at their peril and on the inside scoop on how to work successfully with analytics agencies (and the ZAAZ guys should know!). Finally, there’s also an incredibly useful section on how to staff your web team: the skills and roles you’ll need and the team structures you might want to consider. If you are responsible for building out an analytics area of practice at your organization, you can thank Jason and Shane for providing you with an instruction manual.

Web Analytics: An Hour A Day, written by Avinash Kaushik, 2007

Talk about an eagerly anticipated book! I was definitely a “pre-order” buyer and still think the hour-a-day format works. I’ve regularly recommended this book to managers trying to get new analysts up to speed because of how straightforward it makes the analytics learning path. An hour of web analytics a day? Talk about a simple instruction to give and receive. Within, you’ll find gems like Avinash‘s 10/90 rule: Allocate “10% of the budget on tools and 90% on people (brains) responsible for insights.” Gloriously helpful when budgeting. One of my favourite sections is a step by step guide to measuring PPC campaign cannibalization rate (vs. Organic). If you’ve ever had to go toe to toe with someone over the relative value of SEO vs. PPC and that person is unfamiliar with the concept of making decisions from data, Avinash has built your case for you.

Google Analytics, by Mary E. Tyler and Jerri L. Ledford, 2006

This book raced to hit the shelves very quickly after Google purchased Urchin and released the now ubiquitous Google Analytics. Unfortunately, due to how closely the book content adhered to the Urchin interface the screen shots feels dated (for a Google Analytics book). Although the next edition, Google Analytics 2.0, published quickly, the first edition remained helpful for analysts still working with Urchin. In particular, Part 3 of provides a thorough explanation of the old Executive, Marketer and Webmaster dashboards and the reports contained within, and frankly, provides more detail than the Urchin documentation ever did. Now that Google has elected to retire Urchin, this book may prove its value primarily as archival content, but nonetheless, if you must navigate Urchian-waters, you may still find it helpful.

The Big Book of Key Performance Indicators by Eric T. Peterson, 2006

Ahh – the memories. Thanks to Eric and his downloadable e-book and its companion spreadsheets, many of us were able to get a handle on what web analytics KPIs (key performance indicators) were, and what they were not. Eric gave us definitions, examples, and explained the value of thresholds and how colours would help communicate said thresholds. He raised awareness levels of non-maths how-did-I-become-a-web-analyst persons by clarifying the whys and wherefores of averages, percentages, rates and ratios. He helped us classify KPIs by business type. My personal epiphany related to the onsite search KPIs – Searches per Visit, Percent Zero Results, Percent Zero Yield, Search to Purchase Conversion Rate, Search Results to Site Exits Ratio. Sigh. Now I’m feeling nostalgic. Most importantly however, you can get your hands on this treasure trove  – free – due to Web Analytics Demystified’s very kind free book offer. Have fun!

Best of Web Analytics Guide: 12 Timeless Articles & Insights from Marketing Experts, by ClickZ Network, 2005

I could not resist including this little guidebook, as it serves as a reminder of the old saying “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” or “the more things change, the more they stay the same”. It’s a series of 2004 and 2005 articles from the ClickZ Network, compiled and sponsored by Webtrends (back when they were WebTrends!). It’s a great snapshot of early web analytics lessons that still apply in today’s world of digital analytics – how to improve A/B testing, why audits should precede redesigns and not being afraid to fail. Like I said…plus ça change!

Web Analytics Demystified, by Eric T. Peterson, 2004

As someone who grew up professionally on the ecommerce / transactional side of web, I was very clear on how my “offline” i.e. magazine circulation marketers measured success. At Time Inc, concepts around acceptable acquisition cost and lifetime value were drilled into us, and we were asked to explain how the web source might impact those numbers. However, as the web source became more critical, we web-folk needed to learn more about what to count online and how to count it. Enter Chapter 2 and 3 of Eric‘s book – talk about lightbulbs! If you need clarity on the techniques and technologies used in web analytics, read this book. Then, give a nod to our pre page tag data collection days and romp your way through Eric’s advantages and disadvantages of log files versus page tags. Seriously. We aren’t considered geeks without good reason.

Winning on the Web: The Executive Pocket Guide to Smarter Marketing by NetIQ Corporation, 2002

Who remembers when NetIQ owned WebTrends (now Webtrends!)? I do. Who remembers those early vendor conferences when swag ruled? I do! Wait. I guess that still happens. Long live swag! Which is why I must mention this little guide, which introduced me to R.A.D.A.R. or Report, Analyze, Decide, Act and React. As anyone who’s taken my Webtrends course knows, if you want to know how to apply web analytics to your work plan this year, that acronym still contains value. Although, I also still think it should be R.A.D.A.R.R (the last R being “repeat”). So – my thanks to Webtrends (WebTrends?). Your efforts were appreciated!

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Kelly KubrickCritical tidbits from a Web (now Digital) Analytics bookshelf

Deadliest Online Warrior: Marketing Tactics Battle for Budget

by Kelly Kubrick on September 21, 2011

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been pulling together data and screen shots for a presentation to CMA Ottawa (the Canadian Marketing AssociationOttawa Chapter) on Tuesday, September 27th, 2011 at the Hampton Inn and Conference Centre.

CMA Ottawa - Ottawa Chapter Canadian Marketing AssociationI’m presenting “Deadliest Online Warrior: “Marketing Tactics in a Battle for Budget” to fellow marketers in the national capital region. My plan is to present online marketing campaign results in a case study format so that the audience can get a feel for how different tactics performed. Until then:

“Instead of a TV show that pits historic and modern warriors to battle to the death, how about a conversation that pits historic and modern online marketing tactics in a battle for budget?

As customers spend more time in social networks and less in their email boxes and traditional websites, how should organizations adjust their online acquisition strategies? Join Kelly Kubrick of Online Authority for insight into the effects of combining paid search and social advertising with the power of social media marketing. Kelly will take you through a head-to-head result comparison between tactical legends of the online battlefield:

•    Paid Keyword Search vs. Social Network Advertising’s Demographic / Psychographic Targeting?
•    Banners: Behavioural Targeting vs. Search Term Targeting?
•    Email Buy vs. Social Media Content Marketing?”

I’m very pleased to report that CMA Ottawa now has online registration available. Event details are:

When:     Tuesday, September 27th, 2011 from 11:45 a.m. to 2:15 p.m.
Where:     Hampton Inn and Conference Centre, 100 Coventry Road, Ottawa, K1K 4S3
Cost:         $ 40.00 for CMA members, $ 55.00 for non-members

As always, there’s plenty of free parking and the cost includes lunch, coffee, dessert, and a great opportunity to network with many other local marketing professionals.

For those of you who may not be familiar with CMA Ottawa, they “host monthly networking and educational luncheons and seminars throughout the year.  CMA Ottawa is a place of dynamic exchange among direct, interactive and customer contact marketing users, creators, managers and suppliers.”

I hope to see you there!

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Kelly KubrickDeadliest Online Warrior: Marketing Tactics Battle for Budget

Landing Page Lessons from Optimization Summit 2011

by Kelly Kubrick on June 20, 2011

Earlier this month, I attended MECLABS‘ inaugural Optimization Summit in Atlanta, Georgia. As  MECLABS is the parent of MarketingSherpa and MarketingExperiments, I was curious as I’ve been a fan of the former for years. I have only recently come across the latter but have already found their “Best of” monthly emails very useful. I expected  case studies to be at the core of the conference material and was not disappointed. As a side bonus, I was introduced to an unexpected and entertaining cast of characters including Dr Flint McGlaughlin and “the Pool Guy”, aka Marcus Sheridan, the Sales Lion.

Landing Pages Should Reflect the Rituals of Good Conversation

Dr McGlaughlin kicked off the pre-Summit Landing Page Optimization Workshop by suggesting that landing page optimization is akin to a successful conversation, whereby certain rituals and patterns need to respected before value can be exchanged. The geography of the landing page provides you with the opportunity to anticipate and manage the chronology and sequence of a conversation with your prospects. The entertainment value arose from the irresistible temptation to act out how a flawed landing page contains the same landmines encountered in a flawed pick up attempt at a bar…

My favourite comment related to marketers’ mistaken need to slam product or lifestyle ‘hero shots’ and aggressive calls to action front and centre on their landing pages (guess who’s making that mistake on the home page right now?). According to Dr McGlaughlin, those hero shots are like meeting someone at a bar and immediately asking them to move in with you. Who wouldn’t turn tail and bolt? At best, it’s overly enthusiastic and misguided, and at worst, predatory. Instead, as marketers, we need to take a step back to map the sequence of a successful conversation, and plan our landing pages accordingly.

Consider the Source: Understand Channel Relevance

Start by thinking through the traffic source or channel your prospect arrives by, whether it be via organic or paid search, advertising on social networking sites, or via your own email newsletter, etc. Depending on the source, your visitor may be completely new to your product or service or have already been sold on it, and may simply want you to get out of their way. If the former, assume more copy might be needed and if the latter, less is most definitely more.

Put yourself in your prospect’s frame of mind and remind yourself of the value proposition you implied in that source channel. MarketingExperiments defines your value proposition as “the primary reason why your ideal prospect should buy from you rather than your competitors” (expressed in 10 words or less).

Your Headline Should Keep the Promise You Implied

Ensure that you keep that promise by opening your landing page with a headline that initiates the conversation between the two of you. Your only task here is to intrigue the prospect enough to keep him or her from immediately clicking on the back button. You can do that by ensuring your headline provides the connection between the source channel and the landing page itself. Be sure the visitor is able to orient him / herself by providing clarity about where they are and what to do next. To illustrate, Dr McGlaughlin provided the following examples of original vs. alternate treatment headlines:

Original: Why Try BRAND Online?
Treatment: Get Unlimited Access to all 32 Volumes of BRAND during your FREE TRIAL..
Original: Searching for the Most Accurate Mailing Lists? Your Hunt is Over!
Treatment: We Make 26 Million Phone Calls a Year to Ensure You Get The Most Accurate Mailing Lists Available!

Next, draw your visitors’ eye further into the page by offering a few brief sentences that expand on your headline. Do that well, and you can entice the visitor to scan a sub-heading that leads into a handful of bullet points that reinforce the value proposition promise. The reinforcement comes from the provision of key quantitative data (in your bullets) that validates any claims you’ve made to date.

At this stage, the conversation should be rolling along well enough that you are now in a position to suggest a call to action. As you  make the ask, you also need to provide an incentive to convince the visitor to actually take the action. Further, that incentive needs to be directly related to your value proposition, and you should include a visual to illustrate the incentive. As an example, include an image of the charts or tables from the report you’re asking the visitor to register to receive.

Avoid Landmines: Don’t Require Your Visitors To Submit

Be careful of the classic landmine, also known as the “submit” button. I wish I could play a recording so that you might hear Dr McGlaughlin’s booming southern preacher voice as he lacerated this bad habit of ours: “I SUBMIT TO THE GODS OF MARKETING!” Instead, the wording of your call to action needs to describe what is expected of the prospect. Some examples (besides “click here”!) include:

  • Help Me Choose
  • Become a Member
  • Get Instant Access
  • Download a Free Trial

Anticipate Anxiety and You Will Reduce Friction

MarketingExperiments‘ research identifies the call to action as a point of “friction”, or “the psychological resistance to a given element in the sales process”. Knowing that your ‘ask’ inevitably causes anxiety, anticipate that anxiety and counter the friction through reassurance. How?

Perhaps you might limit the length (number of) or difficulty of fields you require the prospect to complete. Or, you might use “seals” that illustrate policies such as “100% Satisfaction Guaranteed” or “No Hassle Returns”. You can also create a “backstop” by offering a single, powerful testimonial from a respected third party. Ensure these assurances are in close proximity to the source of anxiety.

Anticipating your prospect’s anxiety gives you an opportunity to “intensify the positives” in order to reduce friction. Do that well, and you’ve got yourself a conversion which results in a value exchange between you and your prospect.

The Value You Offer Must Outweigh the Cost to the Visitor

That value exchange might include critical credit card information or simply a valid email address. Regardless – you will have convinced your prospect that the your offer is worth the exchange of their valuable information. Nicely done!

In summary, we end up with a landing page layout that follows the conversation flow illustrated in the chart below:

Optimized Landing Page Flow – or “The Ritual Of Conversation”

Nine Steps for Optimal Landing Page Layout

As a web analyst, I was most intrigued with the idea that these conversational elements and related landing page layout recommendations are represented by MarketingExperiments Conversion Heuristic”*, which states C = 4m+ 3v + 2(i-f) – 2a© where:

c = conversion
m= (Your prospect’s) motivation
v = the clarity of your value proposition
i = incentive
f = friction and
a = anxiety

*Source: MECLABS Landing Page Optimization Summit Study Guide, Landing Page Certification Workshop

Using MarketingExperiments’ Conversion Heuristic, you immediately notice that the most important elements of your landing page are reflected in the relative value of the coefficients. Thus, at 4, the highest coefficient, your prospect’s motivation (4m) has the highest impact on the success of the conversion. MarketingExperiments defines motivation as the “magnitude and nature of of the customer’s demand for” your products / services.

By targeting motivated prospects by source, you have control over a key lever leading to your conversions. Translation – don’t bring prospects with low motivation to your landing page as you are setting yourself up for failure. This is, of course a core tenet of marketing — target your primary audience / market segments or suffer the wrath which results from a blown budget.

Next in importance is the clarity of your value proposition (+3v). The clarity comes from an articulation of the “appeal, exclusivity and credibility” of your offer. If well articulated, you can overcome, or subtract, possible friction your prospect might be feeling by “adding” an incentive appropriate to your value proposition [+2(i-f)].

Only then can you address the final issue that could deter the prospect from completing the conversion: anxiety (-2a). Notice that anxiety is a negative coefficient and that it is equal to the value garnered from your “incentive minus friction step”. To overcome your prospect’s anxiety, you must intensify the positives and reassure.

Avoid Symmetry

Dr McGlaughlin also made a point of reiterating that their research shows that easing the “eye path” in relation to landing page layout is also critical. Of utmost importance, don’t make the mistake of seeking balance by equalizing page components in your design. Avoid equally weighted columns which are another source of friction as they encourage indecision.

Instead, use a 2/3rd left hand column to contain all of the elements described above – headline, copy, subhead, bullets and calls to action. However, use the right hand column to support the content on the left. Examples of support content could include additional testimonials.

Be Clear About The Objective of Your Landing Page

If you’d like to try assessing your existing landing pages, use the framework offered by MarketingExperiments’ Conversion Heuristic, and then see how well your page performs in relation to the critical elements. Before you do so, however, ensure you have consensus on the goal of that page so you can be sure that you maintain your focus throughout the assessment. This offers the added benefit of helping you identify any conflicting objectives you may have inadvertently allowed on the page.

Just to make sure the audience was taking everything in, MECLABS hit us with an exam at the end of the day. Due to the amount of caffeine consumed, I am pleased to say that yours truly did make the grade:

Marketing Experiments Professional Certification Program

Evidence of my Membership in MarketingExperiments Certified Professional Members Directory

What do you think of MarketingExperiments proposed framework? Would you consider amending your landing pages to reflect the proposed approach?

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Kelly KubrickLanding Page Lessons from Optimization Summit 2011

Thank you CMA Ottawa

by Kelly Kubrick on October 28, 2008

A big thank you to everyone who attended today’s CMA Ottawa‘s luncheon, “Secrets to Effective Internet Marketing”. I enjoyed everyone’s questions and appreciate the time you took out of your day.

For those who may not be familiar with CMA Ottawa, it’s the local chapter of the Canadian Marketing Association, “the largest marketing association in Canada representing the integration and convergence of all marketing disciplines, channels and technologies.”

CMA Ottawa welcomes marketers from all sectors, public and private, from both sides of the river to its monthly luncheons (September to May). For information about upcoming sessions, please visit http://www.CMAOttawa.com.

Thanks!

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Kelly KubrickThank you CMA Ottawa

Internet Marketing Secrets Revealed

by Kelly Kubrick on February 3, 2008

Good news for Ottawa’s business owners and entrepreneurs – details about the City of Ottawa‘s Small Business Forum 2008 are now available. The Forum is set for February 22nd, 2008 from 7:30am to 2:00pm at the Ottawa Congress Centre and the cost is $90.00 CDN (plus GST).

This year’s keynote is Cora Tsouflidou, Founder, President and CEO of Cora’s Breakfast and Lunch. As a result of one of my standing committee meetings, I’ve become a regular at the Ottawa-Kanata location so I’m looking forward to hearing the scoop on how Ms Tsouflidou grew her restaurant chain from a single location in Montreal in 1987 to more than 90 Canadian franchise locations today.

Speaking of scoop, I invite you to “Internet Marketing Secrets Revealed”,  a presentation I’m giving at the same event from 9:00 – 10:00 AM. For those who might be interested, my plan is to explain

  • How to identify rich sources of website traffic
  • Why you should play nicely with robots
  • How perception vs. reality can work in your favour
  • Why assumptions can hurt (but testing can help)
  • How to take immediate advantage of the dawning “other” Internet

I’m going to assume that you have a website for your business already, but if not, please pop by anyway – if nothing else, I hope you’ll leave with a few plans in mind for when the moment does come.

Register  for the Forum online or contact Kim Kelly Associates at (613) 521-3910 or kim@kimkellyassociates.com.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Kelly Kubrick
Online Authority

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Kelly KubrickInternet Marketing Secrets Revealed

Is your web marketing MIA?

by Kelly Kubrick on February 3, 2008

Calling all Ottawa home builders, renovators, designers, trade contractors and suppliers! Have your Internet marketing efforts gone missing in action?

If so, GOHBA (The Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association) invites you to get your Internet marketing on track. Learn how to use the Internet to your advantage through improved customer service that remains accountable to the bottom line.

Join Kelly Kubrick of Online Authority for a web marketing breakfast workshop on Tuesday February 12th, 2008 from 8:30 to 11:30 AM at the Cleo Banquet & Convention Centre located at 156 Cleopatra Drive, Ottawa, Ontario.

To register, please contact Stephanie Norbury, Event Planner / Office Manager at GOHBA at events@ochba.com or call (613) 723-2926.

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Kelly KubrickIs your web marketing MIA?