Headlines Must be “Made to Stick”

The headline on your page is the one thing that about 80% of your visitors will read. Most headlines (and copy for that matter) suffer from what Chip and Dan Heath refer to in their book, Made to Stick, as “the curse of knowledge”— once you know something, it’s difficult to imagine what it is like not to know it.

Now take action

1. Make sure that everyone understands what your headline is about, even if they have no reference to understand it.
2. The headline should set expectations about the content it is referring.
3. When sitting down to create headlines be sure they are clear, enticing, and relevant. Then invest as much time as possible testing your headlines’ abilities to both (1) gather attention and (2) entice visitors to invest the next 30 seconds on your page

Stay tuned for tip 5 "Don’t be indifferent to reviews".

Enjoy!

Better Product Images Are Worth A Thousand Calls to Action

Having better-looking product images than other sellers will do wonders.

If recent research is any indication, product images are a major factor in converting visitors. In fact, 83 percent of eBay shoppers skip listings without images, while sites with galleries get 15% more activity and those with so-called super-size photos show a 24 percent spike in sales.

The better photo wins every time.

Most visitors have spent many more hours shopping offline, where the sensory experience is superior. We can touch, hold, smell, and feel products before we buy them. So it is a little puzzling why so many companies have done little to try to recreate the visual aspect of the offline experience by providing better, more and more detailed product images. Many skimp on the quality of their product images and use manufacturer supplied images. Ouch!

Want to see a another great example of product images used well. Check out TigerDirect.com. Not only do they show multiple product images they also redline the features for their visitors. The extra effort is worth it.

A good example is from Swell.com showing larger images and different views.

Companies with thousands of skus cringe at the idea of taking and managing a whole new database of product images. No need, you don’t need 7000 new images to make a difference.

The same holds true if you are in B2B; better product images are worth a thousand calls to action. Many B2B site offer downloads of whitepapers or demos for completing a form but fail to make the most basic of efforts to persuade them. Don’t just tell them about your whitepaper; merchandize it! Show a cover; show them how easy it is to read with all your pretty charts. Test to see which pieces matter the most.

Puma allows people to navigate around a high quality image of any product.

Now take action

1. B2Cs can start by taking their 25, 50, or 100 top trafficked/popular products and upgrading those images. Consider this a marketing expense rather than a development expense.
2. B2Bs can merchandise their offerings better. Don’t just tell visitors about your whitepaper. Show a cover; show them how easy it is to read with all your pretty charts. Test to see which pieces matter the most.

Stay tuned for tip 4, " Headlines Must be “Made to Stick” "

Enjoy!

Call Your Traffic to Action

If you don’t ask someone to do something, the odds are they won’t do it.

Every good salesman knows that you have to ask for the sale.

Online, it is essential that a website present its visitors with visible and enticing calls to action. Calls to action must be meaningful concise links that tell the visitor where they are going and why they should go there. Avoid cliches and overused links like “read more,” “click here,” “learn more,” and “submit” buttons. Replace them with something persuasive to get your traffic off their butts taking an action!

This technique is simple and very valuable.

Now Take Action

Build calls to action by combining an imperative verb and an implied benefit.

Example - Which hyperlink is more persuasive: a or b?

1. George found an investment secret that changed his life. Read More
2. George found an investment secret that changed his life. See how George doubled his income in one year.

Stay tuned for tip 3 "Better Product Images Are Worth A Thousand Calls to Action".

Enjoy!

10 Tips to Start Optimizing Your Website

Optimizing a website doesn’t have to be a complex task and, in fact, is more of a continual improvement process. You will never be “done” improving your website.

You can start with just a few of your site’s pain points and begin helping your visitors convert. The following is a list of 10 common problems we find everyday when analyzing websites and some tips on how to solve them. Enjoy!

1. Find Trigger Words That Excite Your Visitors

People navigate the web by “scent.” Scent was first described by Xerox Parc to describe the parallels between human’s information-gathering techniques on the web and animal’s food-gathering techniques in the wild.

People seek information through the “scent” given offby their trigger words. According to research performed by usability guru Jared Spool, when a visitor found the trigger word on the landing page, they were successful at completing their task 72% of the time; if the trigger word wasn’t on the page, they were only successful 6% of the time. The scent of the key words kept them on the right path; lacking that scent, they stopped searching that particular “trail.”

This means your visitors are on a mission, they are goal oriented, and if they don’t see the trigger words they came to the site with, they are likely to move on to a site that has the right scent.

The solution is not that difficult. If a prospect arrives at a landing page having used a term like “buy baseball cap”, they must see “buy baseball cap” on the page.

Now Take Action

Make sure you have your visitors’ triggers words are visible, even use the scent for copy on each major button or link:

1. Complete this sentence: “I want to _____.”
2. Includes trigger words / strong scent

I hope you enjoyed this valuable piece of marketing information. Watch for the second tip to start optimizing your website called "Call Your Traffic to Action ".

How to Put Your Websites In An Order That Will Not Confuse Your Target Audience

There are three types of websites you need that are absolutely vital to your sales.

1. The Branding Site allows prospects to learn about you and your business
2. The Sales Letter Site sells a product, service or event
3. The Power Squeeze™ Site captures the contact information of your prospects

If I had to start all over again, the only site that I would ever put up is a Power Squeeze™ site, because that allows me to capture people’s information and market to them over and over and over again. From a sales perspective, realize that a confused mind never buys. Well, when a prospect goes to a branding site and there are tons of little different things to click on, the prospect is going to click away and he or she is never going to reach the outcome that you want them to reach. That’s why we have specific sites.

From a sales perspective, realize that a confused mind never buys. Well, when a prospect goes to a branding site and there are tons of little different things to click on, the prospect is going to click away and he or she is never going to reach the outcome that you want them to reach. That’s why you must have three specific sites, in this specific order.

1) Branding site
2) Sales letter site
3) Power Squeeze™ sites

I’ve noticed recently that either a lot of people are listening to what I have to say, because they’ve started putting their Power Squeeze™ sites in front of their Branding sites. And they’re putting it in front of their sales letter sites to capture people’s information. Have you seen a site where you submit your name and email just to get to the information you wanted? That’s a perfect example of a Power Squeeze™ leading to the Branding or Sales Letter site.

Here’s the interesting thing; If you put a Power Squeeze™ site in front of one of your sales letter pages, you will find what we have tested - your conversion rate does not change. The only thing that is changing is you are capturing more people’s information, so now you have the ability to market to people more and more. It’s just huge for us and it’s going to be huge for you too.

In my next article, I’ll discuss some big website myths.

Warmest Regards,


James Faasse`

Just SUPPOSE you can make money like this...

Would that change everything?

Make E-Mail Pull Its Holiday Weight

Just before Labor Day, I was in the local Food Emporium in UTC picking up provisions for the weekend, when I do a double take. There, in all of its sugar-coated splendor in the cookie and candy aisle, is an end-cap display with an assortment of prepackaged Halloween M&Ms, Hershey bars, and Snickers.

Come on, summer is barely over!

I waited for a couple of minutes to see if anyone had the guts to actually purchase their Halloween candy two months in advance. To my surprise, in literally seconds I observed half a dozen folks pick up multiple bags of Halloween candy. At first, I reacted with great disbelief. But the more I thought about this preholiday strategy, the more I found it useful in thinking about the ways in which marketers must wage their competitive battles during tight economic times.

Let's face it. We're entering the most important time of year for marketers, the peak holiday season, when consumer spending is at its strongest and the vast majority of sales take place. Especially critical during an economic downturn, strong fourth quarter sales can make or break the year, compensating for weak performance during the first three quarters.

E-mail becomes more important than ever during these tough economic times. That's because e-mail is unquestionably one of the most cost-efficient marketing channels out there and it targets existing customers, a group far more likely to listen and respond to your messaging and promotions than new prospects. How can you maximize your e-mail efforts to capitalize on the fourth-quarter buying activity?

A few basic tips:

* Cut through the clutter. Your message is vying for attention within some very full inboxes this time of year. Marketers must ask themselves, "Why would a consumer open this e-mail when there are 25 others in the inbox?" and "Why would a consumer take advantage of this offer when she has 25 others to choose from?" Your communication needs to rise above the proverbial holiday noise. Make sure your offer is compelling and your message action-oriented. This isn't brand-building time, this is "buy now" time. Make an offer the buyer can't refuse.

* Focus on testing, targeting, and analytics. Targeting and testing are the two best ways to ensure that you're sending the optimal message to consumers. Now is a great time to start mining customer data to create more advanced segmentation schemes that would improve relevance during the holiday months. Marketers may find, for example, that some segments respond better to content-based e-mail (such as gift guides) while others are more driven by deals.

* Test to improve response and reduce e-mail fatigue. If you aren't doing so already, consider implementing multivariate testing schemes that would allow you to determine the optimal content, creative, and offer mix for your campaigns.

* Extend your reach. Already have prebuilt marketing campaigns? Increase the number of targeted geographies and the number of lists to which you send. This can have a multiplicative effect on campaign returns. Marketers are finding it much more difficult to keep their e-mail list growing organically, but e-mail list rental, especially during the promotion-driven holiday season, can help grow that list quickly during a period where consumers are primed to buy.

* Use transactional e-mail to up-sell and cross-sell -- but follow the rules. "Thanks for your order" is a nice message, but it falls short in capitalizing on the opportunity to sell additional product and services to current customers. Using order confirmations and service messages to market related products and services can be extremely effective and lucrative, particularly during the holiday buying season. But be certain to follow CAN-SPAM regulations. Keep the main focus of the message, including the subject line and body of the e-mail, on the transaction or service message at hand and the promotional messages as secondary elements.

* Use e-mail to drive a social media strategy. For marketers who have been hesitant to roll out a full-blown social media strategy, this holiday season marks an excellent time to test ways to use e-mail marketing to generate more consumer involvement with your products. For example, product reviews from peers have become extremely important to buyers, as a growing number of consumers say they look to these reviews even more so than to professionals to help them decide about product purchases. Consider including customer reviews in your e-mail promotions and newsletters, and include a link to a feedback page where customers can input their own stories. Once consumers see that your company is listening to what they're saying, engagement will increase quickly.

We head back to work this month for four incredible months of opportunity ahead of us. The fourth quarter each year (regardless of economic conditions and electioneering) holds great promise and opportunity for those who are ready. Are you?

Five Simple Tips for Lead-Generation Sites

Several of my recent columns have dealt with testing and optimization. Today, I'll focus on the other half of the online marketing world, those who must drive leads through their site.

Review Your Lead Generation Forms

Typically lead-gen site forms fail in two major areas:

* Many lead-gen sites simply copy forms from a site they like, giving little thought to the nuances and the difference between their business goals and the site they copied. The result can lead to a slew of unqualified leads, or low conversion to lead.

* Some companies make their complex lead scoring requirements the visitor's job. We worked with a client with a highly complex lead scoring system that, in turn, created an intimidating lead form with a dozen intrusive questions and several drop downs with more than 20 choices. Only the most determined of leads would actually complete the entire form. The obvious result was an offensively high form abandonment rate.

The obvious advantage to collecting information from potential prospects in a lead form is that it can help a business convert more qualified leads. To solve both of the above problems, there's one successful approach: use a two-part lead form.

On the first page, ask the minimum amount of questions possible for a visitor to become a lead, where each field is a required field. Ask for the contact information and little else.

On the second page, ask several more optional questions that will help the company better qualify the lead. Above the form, explain that the more information they provide, the better you can prepare for a conversation with them. With this technique, even if little (or no) information is provided on the second page, you at least have contact information that the sales team can follow up on.

Develop More Than One Lead Form

Many sites still link to one lead form on the site. Consider placing lead forms in several places on the site. Providing lead forms on each product/service pages and on other key pages allows you to track where the lead form was filled out and provides a helpful nugget of data for the sales team as they contact that lead.

Avoid Asking for the Lead Too Early

While recently shopping some demand-gen companies, I did a Google search for Eloqua. The second paid listing for Marketo caught my interest, so I clicked through.

click to enlarge

Someone on my staff ended up on a landing a page that successfully enticed them to learn more -- specifically this person wanted to see the video demo. Unfortunately, one couldn't watch the video without filling out the lead form.

Many visitors in this situation aren't ready to begin the sales process by filling out a lead form with only a promise to watch a demo. My colleague was one of those visitors and bailed. Ironically, another member of my team noticed that the logo on top of the page was a link to the Marketo home page and was able to watch a demo video without filling out a form.

While it may be a "best practice" to limit visitor choices on landing pages, this certainly isn't a persuasive practice, especially for someone in the early stages of the buying process. My colleague didn't know what Marketo was, and certainly wasn't ready to give up personal information at this stage to find out. Marketo is losing conversion opportunities by not providing more actions on this page for visitors who aren't ready to give out personal info until they know more.

How to Do Lead Gen the Right Way

Our partner and marketing to women guru, Michele Miller recently blogged about Jenny Craig's successful persona-based marketing plan. Whether on purpose or by intuition, Jenny Craig's celebrity spokeswomen appeal to specific personas and buying types. As we dug further, we were even more impressed. We Googled both Queen Latifah and Valerie Bertinelli and were surprised to find that Jenny Craig had purchased some AdWords ads on those two terms.

Even better, as we clicked through the ads to their landing pages, we noticed that each landing page was crafted and had elements for the persona type that would be attracted to each celebrity.

We extrapolated that Latifah appealed to a more humanistic persona. The page was filled with relational language giving the overall impression to the humanistic persona that becoming a lead for Jenny Craig meant starting a relationship -- a key motivator for a humanistic buyer. Take a look at the page and see if you can see the strategy at work.

click to enlarge

Bertinelli's page reflects her methodical style, thereby making it easier for a methodical prospect to get more information. Elements on this page are more information focused and allow for the methodical persona to take action their way. Can you see the difference a persona-based page makes?

click to enlarge

Aggressively Optimize Your Lead-Gen Process

Many e-commerce sites pour resources and time into improving their checkout process. Lead-gen sites don't seem to have the same commitment to testing and optimizing their lead generation process. If you're a lead gen site, your lead-generation process is your checkout process -- it's just as critical to your business as a shopping cart is to an e-commerce site.

What have you done lately to improve your lead-gen efforts? Let me know and I'll share it with my readers.

Minimize Shopping Cart Abandonment

20 Tips to Minimize Shopping Cart Abandonment

It's October. Are you thinking about Christmas time conversion rates yet?

Industry research shows up to 75 percent of shoppers abandon their online shopping carts before completing the checkout process. I'm not sure how comfortable I am with that statistic, but shopping cart abandonment is a significant problem. Numerous factors influence this rate, but I'll address those that move the lever in the right direction this week and next.

* How many steps are in your checkout process? This is usually what most people focus on. Our clients' checkout processes range from one to seven steps. We've discovered the number of steps is not all that critical. One client was able to bring the checkout process from six steps down to one; we found no correlation between reduction of steps and reduction in abandonment rate. Once people found what they came for, they found the time to check out no matter how many steps were involved.

Should you change the number of steps? Yes! But if you don't have an inexpensive and simple way to test, it may not be worth the time, effort, and expense of reducing the number of steps in the checkout process. Try some of these other ideas first.

* Include a progress indicator on each checkout page. No matter how many steps in your checkout process, let customers know where they are in the process. Number the steps, and label the task clearly for each step. Give shoppers an opportunity to review what they did in previous steps and a way to return to their current step if they go back.

* Provide a link back to the product. When an item is placed in the shopping cart, include a link back to the product page. Shoppers can then easily jump back to make sure they selected the right item. I was shopping for a printer and wanted to know how many and what color cartridges come with the printer. It wasn't obvious where I should click to review the product description. I had to navigate using my back button until I got my questions answered.

* Add pictures inside the basket. Placing a thumbnail image of the product increases conversions by as much as 10 percent.

* Provide shipping costs early in the process. If possible, provide an estimated cost while visitors browse. They want to buy but want the answers to all their questions when they want them. Total cost is one of those critical questions. Also, if the shipping information is the same as the billing information, include a checkbox to automatically fill in the same information.

* Show stock availability on the product page. Shoppers should not have to wait until checkout to learn if a product is out of stock. Also, give an estimated delivery date. Deal with the "I want it now" mentality, and let them know when they should expect to get their products.

* Make it obvious what to click next. Include a prominent "Next Step" or "Continue With Checkout" button on each checkout page. Make the button you want them to click next the most obvious. One top 50 e-tailer mistakenly placed its "remove from cart" and checkout buttons next to each other. Neither stood out. Many people ended up clearing their carts. When they went to check out, they found nothing in there and immediately abandoned the site in frustration.

* Make editing the shopping cart easy. It should be simple to change quantities or options, or delete an item from the shopping cart. If a product comes in multiple sizes or colors, make it easy to select or change values in the shopping cart.

* Make it your fault. If information is missing or filled out incorrectly during checkout, give a meaningful error message that's obvious to see. It should clearly tell visitors what needs to be corrected. The tone should be the system was unable to understand what was entered, not the visitor made a foolish mistake.

* Show them you're a real entity. People's concerns start to flare up during checkout. Let them know you're a real company by giving full contact info during the checkout process.

10 Upsell Strategies That Will Increase Your Profits

10 Upsell Strategies That Will Increase Your Unique Personalized Gift Shop Profits

By James Faasse

It can be very expensive to attract new customers. For a unique personalized gift shop like TheYouniqueBoutique.com, a company can cut down on those expenses by "upselling" to those new customers. For example, let's say you're selling a personalized photo quilt with a
simple photo layout pattern for $159.95. You tell people they can upgrade to a more complex photo layout pattern on the personalized photo quilt for only $10.00 more. Or perhaps when the upgrade the quilt pattern layout they receive a discount gift certificate, which the customer can use for a later purchase or pass on as a gift for whom they are having the personalized photo quilt made for.

That's upselling! Your goal is to get more money out of the first sale. Below are ten upselling strategies you can use to increase your profits.

1. Deluxe Upsell-You could sell a basic product and tell people for a little more money they can receive the deluxe personalized gift edition.

2. Money Upsell-You could offer people the rights to sell the product they are buying from your business as a reseller of unique personalized gifts. You could charge an extra $30 dollars to get the reproduction rights.

3. Discount Upsell-If you're selling a product people may order again in the future like personalized wedding cake toppers, you could offer them a figurine option of one standard wedding cake toppers body with one custom wedding cake topper body at a discount.

4. Time Upsell-If you're selling a product or service people subscribe to, like a blogazine, you could tell them if they subscribe for two years instead of one, they can receive it half
off the cover price.

5. Quantity Upsell-This is similar to the discount upsell. The only difference is you increase the discount by how many personalized cake toppers they order. If they order 3 it's a 10% discount, if they order 5 it's a 15% discount.

6. Package Upsell-When you're selling a personalized baby shower gift you could offer similar products in a package deal. Tell the people the other personalized baby gifts are cheaper with the package deal versus purchasing them separately.

7. Affiliate Upsell-When you're selling a unique personalized gifts you could offer someone else's product as an upsell. You would have to make a commission on the product in order to profit.

8. Free Upsell-You could offer a free sample or trial of your custom bridal jewelry (your first sale would be free) and then tell people if they order the full set right now they will get a discount on wedding tiaras and bridal head pieces.

9. Extra Upsell-There are many things you could charge extra for at the time of sale. It could be personalized gift wrapping, imprinting, custom designs, etc.

10. Extended Upsell-If your personalized gift comes with a warranty, you could ask people if they would like to extend the warranty one more year for only $30.

In conclusion, you can use one or all these strategies to increase your online personalized gift shop profits at the point of sale, or for any online store for that fact. Don't be afraid to use your imagination to come up with other upsell strategies. Use those category catalog pages as Upsell Landing Pages!

New USB Squibkey: Promotional Non-FlashDrive Device

USB SQUIB™ Web Key Flash Drive

The birth of a "smarter" usb promotional web key flash drive token!

The Beta version of the first "web key" idea has finally given birth to a new marketing usb web key flash drive token! This tiny giant has earned it's status as the most successful and savvy innovative promotional tool the market has ever seen. The newly released USB SQUIB™ Web Key flash drive is leaving marketing directors and promotional entrepreneurs asking "What just happened?" and "Why didn't someone think of this earlier?"

iNETready Communications, inc., of La Jolla, California, researched and developed this timely marketing dynamo as a prototype 3 years ago. The amazing promotional value and easy usability of the USB SQUIB™ Web Key flash drive advertising device is nothing short of stellar! Due to a growing and immediate need to drive, capture and track targeted traffic to web sites, iNETready's research team spent years testing the SQUIB™key's "true functional potential", which includes the user friendly, effective value added invested SQUIBtrack™ ROI features.

By integrating USB OEM plug-in hardware with iNETready's™ S.m.a.r.t.™ technology, the digital fuse was lit, which has set off the first truly intelligent promotional explosion to ever hit the World Wide Web!

What is a Web Key Flash Drive?

This promotional USB flash drive keychain is a great way of getting people to remember your logo, yet it saves the trouble of remembering a lengthy URL. When integrated with the new S.m.a.r.t.™ Campaign Response Web-to-Lead Marketing Software, there is unlimited advertising and promotional value with the SQUIB™ Web Key flash drive! Just Plug the Webkey flash drive token into a USB port and your pre-programmed website automatically launches -- just like magic! If you've read Harry Potter, you'll appreciate this Muggle equivalent of the Portkey.

A standard Webkey flash drive is a low cost alternative to USB flash memory devices, and an effective way of promoting your company, new product launch, training material, or recruitment campaign. It's available in a high-tech silver metallic finish in your choice of shapes.

A standard Webkey flash drive is pre-programmed with the URL (up to 200 characters) that you provide. Every device is guaranteed to be virus free.

What is a SQUIB™ Key Flash Drive?

The SQUIB™ web key non-flash drive is revolutionary cutting-edge, money saving, cost effective promotional marketing device. The SQUIB™ web key non-flash drive is a brandable, reprogrammable usb web key that consumers can "plug-in direct" to their personal computers and interact in a results-driven, trackable promotional campaign lead tracking relations management database.

The SQUIB™ web key non-flash drive is remotely reprogrammable, utilizing the SQUIBware™ marketing campaign application. The SQUIBtrack™ ROI feature functions similar to how a television network tracks commercial ad campaigns, using interactive ad intelligence from your own web site.

Profits are soaring for clients that are now able to cash-in on real-time sales leads, score demographics and use that data to gauge campaign success! The new SQUIB™ technology makes all this possible while running your latest promotion directly to a selected audience.

iNETready's SQUIB™ web key non-flash drive is transforming the buyer's experience into a unique and fun adventure that they enjoy. Many promoters are catching on by offering customers exclusive incentives and innovative prizes, to reward them for viewing current promotions.

Potential customers can accumulate reward points and cash-in on the fun by returning to participate in the ongoing promotions you create. Sales soar by offering customers the opportunity to personally interact with your ad campaign who have a chance to win prizes and gifts! The SQUIB™ web key flash drive grants your company complete control over what your customers watch, read and hear on your website's promotion.

Discover the smartest interactive advertising web key flash drive that will turn your browsers into buyers!

Turn the key to increase your sales and drive profits! Marketing studies show that people want to buy, but they don't feel comfortable being sold. The SQUIB™ web key flash drive allows potential customers to interact on the internet in a trusted manner and feel comfortable, and this has created an unprecedented insurgence in profits by increasing the Value Per Visit (VPV) by as much as 1300%!!!

Click on the link to read about How the SQUIBkey™ Flash Drive Works.

Search Engine Positioning for the Weary

Search Engine Positioning for the Weary
By T. O'Donnell (c) 2006

Do you want to get your site from page five to page one in
Google? Here are a few tips to boost you on your way.

1. Clean Up Your HTML.

Keep a beady eye on Dreamweaver and avoid CMS software.

What, Dreamweaver, beloved program of pro webmasters
everywhere?

Yes!

Dreamweaver adds lots of extra blank space to HTML code, and
breaks lines. This is especially irritating in meta tags. Use
EditPad's 'Find and Replace' function to get rid of newlines
and double blank spaces in your pages.

Content Management Systems are a great time saver. An amateur
can set up a professional-looking site in a few hours. The
problem is they contain lots of code that's irrelevant to
search engines. The top of a CMS page may contain only a few
words relevant to its subject matter.

Then there's the duplicate content problem.

- Blogs have duplicate copies of their own content; sometimes
exact, sometimes excerpts.
- Thousands of people are using the same CMS as you.
- A search engine spider sees the same header, sidebar and
footer content in every page in your site.

Result? Your page is down the SERPs for any competitive
keyword. Assuming it's indexed at all.

These programs are written by geeks. Their primary aim is to
eliminate code errors and add features. Your marketing comes a
very poor second. They're also posting security updates every
few months. More hassle. For you.

Drastic solution:

1. Type your documents in a text editor like Editpad, then
2. Use a Text to HTML converter, then
3. (Use Dreamweaver to add formatting, then)
4. Use a index generator to make a HTML list of those pages,
then
5. FTP them to your web site.

Benefits:

- Search engine spiders get to the 'meat' of your page
immediately;
- You have more control over how the page looks;
- You have more control over what an SE 'bot 'sees';
- You're not relying on a MySQL database to maintain your site;
- Hackers won't be able to deface your site easily.

A clever webmaster would look into Conditional Server Side
Includes. You can use them to 'program' your web pages, while
still presenting clean HTML to search engine 'bots.

And as for Microsoft FrontPage, I wish all my competitors were
using it.

2. Get Lots of Links to Your Site.

- Submit articles to article websites;
- Pay freelancers to make software for you, and give it away
free;
- Submit to the top directories, like Yahoo and DMOZ, but don't
spend much time or money. Only half a dozen are worth a damn
for SEO;
- Post in popular forums and blogs, if they will let you use
straight hyperlinks in your signature;
- Be controversial - assault a few sacred cows;
- Do a press release, and think beforehand about how you can
make it interesting to journalists;
- Make a better, faster, cheaper version of a popular product.

That should get you a few decent links. With millions of
cheapo, 'me too', linkless sites out there, yours will stand
out like a snowdrop on a dungheap.

3. Offer Something People Really Want.

You like chat wear clothing. You think other people do too.
You make a website selling them.

Cue sad disillusion.

People want money, sex, friendship, human contact, cars, drugs,
health and happiness. They know what they want (not need, want).
You've got to figure out a better way to satisfy that want,
for a fat net profit.

Simple, ain't it?

Actually, yes it is.

Save time. Pick a very profitable, popular industry. Think up a
way to give people a better product. Or faster. Or cheaper. Or
all three! Research costs little. Thinking costs nothing.

Or just go off half-cocked. Employ a cheap, angry webmaster.
Half-finish the site for a product you're not 100% sure there's
a demand for. Then sit back and wait for traffic.

Then give up, go down to the pub and gripe to your pals: "The
internet's sh*t, innit?".

Funny thing about offering a popular good with a new twist; you
get links without cadging them.

4. Be First With a New, Popular Good (or a smarter second).

MySpace wasn't the first social networking site, but they did
it better. They designed it to be viral. Members could compete
to get 'friends', and everyone wants new friends, right? Users
could put anything they wanted online, even if it looked
cr*ppy. Censorship was minimal. Result: Huge popularity,
without needing the search engines.

Not easily done, but again, research costs little. Thinking
costs nothing.

Stop the daily slog. Go for a walk. Have a long bath. Play a
game of street-hockey. And see what pops into your head.

If you feel good about it the next day, it may be a good idea.
Test it before committing to it. If it still makes you excited
a month later, you may be onto a winner.

If complete strangers start feeling the same, you definitely
are!
================================================================
T. O' Donnell (http://www.tigertom.com/secured-loans-uk.shtml)
is a credit broker and curmudgeon living in London, UK.
================================================================

Turning Browsers into Buyers

How your Web content can influence the B2B buying process

By James Faasse

ADVERTISER: New! USB Internet Web Key Brings Traffic to Your Website Fast & Easy... Guaranteed to Triple Your Traffic!!!

Today, when people shop, the Web is almost always their first stop. In any market category, potential customers head online to do initial research. The moment of truth is when they reach your site: Will you draw them into your sales process or let them click away?

When prospects use search engines and directories to reach your site, link to it through another site or respond to a marketing campaign, you have an opportunity to deliver a targeted message at the precise moment that they are looking for what you have to offer. Yet chief marketing officers, particularly those in B2B markets, often fail to realize the potential of their corporate websites, which must hook buyers in from the start and hang on to them until the sale is complete.

Where are they coming from?
Individuals don't go to the web looking for advertising; they are on a quest for content. By providing information to them when they need it, you can begin a long and profitable relationship.

The first step is to align Web content to your potential customers' buying processes. Unfortunately, most sites are conceived from an egocentric (or worse, advertising-centric) focus, designed completely from the company's perspective. Well-intentioned marketers may think that providing product information is enough, but the fact is (your) products aren't what people are looking for; they seek solutions to their problems. Approaching Web content offerings from your customers' perspective will form the foundation of a successful sales cycle.

Before creating content, get together with your e-commerce experts, sales and product managers to learn as much as possible about the buying process, focusing on issues such as how people find your site or the length of a typical purchase cycle. Consider what happens offline in parallel with online interactions so that the processes complement each other. For example, if you have an e-commerce site and a printed catalog, coordinate the content and messages so that both efforts support and reinforce the buying process (i.e., include links to your online buying guide in the catalog).

In the B2B world, trade shows should work with Internet initiatives (by collecting e-mail addresses at the booth, for example, then sending a follow-up e-mail with a show-specific landing page at your site). Understanding the buying process in detail, both online and off, allows you to create a quantifiable process that Web content can influence.

Segmenting your buyers
The online relationship begins the second a potential customer hits your home page. The first thing he needs to see is a reflection of himself. That's why you must organize your site into distinct buying segments. Do your potential customers self-select themselves based on their job function or by industry? It's important to create a set of appropriate links based on a clear understanding of your buyers so that you can quickly move them off of the home page and onto pages built specifically for them.

One way to approach this is to link to landing pages based on the problems your product or service solves. Start by identifying the situations in which each target audience may find itself. If you are in the supply chain management business, you might have a drop-down menu on the home page with links that might say "I need to get product to customers faster" or "I want to move products internationally." Each path leads to landing pages built for buyer segments with content targeted at their problems. Once the prospects reach those pages, you have the opportunity to communicate your expertise in solving these problems—building some empathy in the process—and move them further along the buying cycle.

A friendly nudge
After you've demonstrated expertise in the market category and the knowledge about solving potential customers' problems, you can introduce your product or service. When creating content about your offerings, remain focused on the buyer and her problems, rather than elaborating distinctions between products.

As people interact with your content at this middle stage in the buying process, it is appropriate to suggest subscriptions to related content—an e-mail newsletter, Webinar or podcast, for example. This enables you to trade something of value for a registration form. But remember, if you're asking for someone's contact information, you must provide something equally valuable in return.

Prospects want to poke, prod and test your company to learn what sort of organization you are. They also have questions. That's why well-designed sites include a facility for people to inquire about products or services. Be flexible; offer them a variety of ways to interact with your company and make contact information readily available from any page on the site (one click away is best). Also keep in mind that, particularly with expensive products, buyers will test to see how responsive you are so you must make responding to these inquiries a priority. At this stage, you want people to think: "This is an organization I can do business with. They have happy customers and they are responsive to me and my needs."

USB iWebKey helps Close the sale—and continue the conversation
As the customer approaches the end of the buying process, you must provide tools that facilitate the sale. Buyers may be unsure which B2B Super Widget is appropriate—so you may need to provide a tool that allows them to enter specific details about their firm (employee numbers, annual billings, etc.) and then suggests the appropriate product. One product we recommend is the new usb internet WebKey™ that automatically launches your browser and takes customers directly to your web site fast and easy! Click here to read about it!

At this stage, it is also acceptable to lock content behind a password-protected part of the site and only make it available to qualified buyers. Depending on your product, you could offer a copy of the sales agreement with terms and conditions or information about warranties and financing. B2B companies might offer sample RFPs and ROI or TCO calculators. These types of tools go beyond simply selling to a buyer; they arm them to sell the solution to their boss or others in their organization. At the same time, the tools continue to keep the client engaged with your site and sustain the message that you are there to help them.

Once the deal is closed, there's one more step. You must continue the online dialog with your new customer. Add them to your customer e-mail newsletter or customer-only community site where they can interact with experts in your organization and other like-minded customers. You should also provide ample opportunities for customers to give you feedback on how to make the products and process better.

Effective marketers constantly measure and improve. Benchmarking elements such as the self-select links and testing different landing page content can help you make modifications on the fly. Of course, product superiority, advertising and branding remain essential to the marketing mix. But on the Web, smart CMOs understand that an effective content strategy, tightly integrated to the buying process, is critical to sales success.

3 Steps to a Customizable Landing Page Plan

3 Steps to a Customizable Landing Page Plan

Landing page optimization has finally taken hold among most companies: for the most part, we know that if we create custom landing pages for PPC campaigns, conversions will go up. And, we know that if we test and tweak those landing pages, we can improve conversions even more. But how do you create custom landing pages when you buy thousands or tens of thousands of keywords?

Obviously, you can’t create a custom page for every keyword, or even every keyword bucket. But by crafting a comprehensive keyword strategy, you can consolidate your landing pages into a sensible (and manageable group) without much trouble.

Here’s how:

Step #1. Look at keyword groups by intention

The inclination with keywords is to bucket them by category. An electronics retailer might group car stereos in one bucket, home theater systems in another, etc. But for creating a landing page optimization plan, look at how keywords signal intention.

For example, “Olympus D320” as a search is pretty high intention, and should land on a very targeted page with not just price and product, but any trust statements or information about shipping and bundling. But what about “Olympus D320 review”?

Depending on your business, visitors might be browsers or buyers, job seekers or employers, searching for a car loan or searching for an auto loan. Define intentions into two or three reasonable groups.

Then, look at those intentions and divide keywords into buckets accordingly. At first, it might be as simple as brand words (for browsers) versus category words (for higher-intentioned shoppers). As time goes on you will want to begin segmenting out people looking for speed from those who quest for massive quantities of information prior to purchase.

Step #2. Break out your categories of landing pages and create templates

Once you’ve bucketed your keywords by intention, consider the broad type of landing page that works best for each intention group and create a template for each landing page category.

For example:

º Homepage-like landing page

For many terms, your best bet is to frame the landing page with the standard home page components. This doesn’t mean that you don’t target the product or offer, or limit options in order to be relevant, but you would want to be heavy on branding, trust statements and imagery that reflect a visitor’s desire to talk to you as a company.

In the case of homepage landing pages, your goal is to get people to self-identify as quickly as possible. On comparison shopping sites, for example, you might try to discover if the visitor is interested in news, reviews, or price comparisons.

Visitors arriving from the keywords you designated as “brand” words or relatively broad categories like “loans” could be sent to this type of landing page.

In this example, selecting TurboTax from a search page for “tax software” will link you to the following page: (To see the full-size image, click on the image.)

You can see the obvious home page “look” coupled with some more targeted content for getting started. This was not inadvertent.

º Offer-based landing pages

These pages are very offer-specific with a goal of convincing visitors to act on the interest they’ve already expressed by clicking on the original ad. These pages have more limited navigation or off-linking.

For a retailer, there is the classic product page, with a product shot, pricing, features, and other elements.

For lead generation and direct marketing, this type of page will usually hit the major selling points and get you started on the order form or application.

For publishers, this could be an article that had advertising or other links to content.

In all of these cases, the key is to reinforce the source of traffic and experiment with the balance between focus on the offer and availability of off-links and branding elements.

In this example, the “site” types of elements are almost entirely absent, with only the logo and simple text. This is an E-LOAN landing page for “loan” search results.

Category landing pages

When somebody has clearly shown an interest, but the interest is in a relatively unstructured area, such as “loans” or “jeans” or “concerts,” your goal is to funnel them more deeply into your content or offering.

You might do this by grouping information in a way that allows them to make choices based on their own preferences for searching -- for example, by price, theme, editor’s recommendations, most popular, etc.

Visitors from the terms you designated as category words would be sent to this type of page.

In this case, I am going to show a category page for WEGA TV as a search term. I question whether this is an effective landing page for a category term, as it has very little reference to a highly branded category. That said, I would suggest testing to find the truth!

The category landing page is the most difficult landing page to execute well. But it is relatively easy to determine the type of tests to run. First, figure out how you want to merchandise the depth of the category – through subcategories? Best picks? Customer favorites or reviews? Second, determine the best balance between site elements (navigation bars and branding elements) and the actual category. Finally, determine how to use copy and other buying aids to help define the category and keep the sale moving.

Here’s the key:

In each template, leave “content slots,” or real estate in which you can switch content in and out, depending on the purpose of the landing page. Now you have a template that can be targeted for an endless number of keyword groups, simply by changing the content in one or two content slots.

Step #3. Test templates for general effectiveness

You can begin to test the templates with various buckets of keywords, altering the content in the content slots depending on the keywords.

Finally, once the templates have become relatively successful, you can begin testing the variables within the landing page to further improve conversions. (We’ll discuss just what variables to test, and how, in the next issue.)

This doesn’t have to be a gigantic task or mean an overhaul of every existing landing page. Consider choosing a single group of your landing pages, deciding which of these categories it fits into, and diving into it until it’s right. Then, move on to the others.

4 Effective Elements to Test on Your Category Landing Page

4 Effective Elements to Test on Your Category Landing Page

Now that marketers have embraced the idea of sending customers from paid search to targeted landing pages whenever possible, managing those landing pages has the potential to become almost as complex as managing a PPC campaign itself -- but it doesn’t have to be.

Generic vs. Customizable Landing Pages
Rather than settling for rather generic landing pages for large groups of keywords, or sending visitors to internal pages that are even less targeted, we talked in last month’s newsletter (3 Steps to a Customizable Landing Page Plan) about a customizable landing page plan you can create in order to offer visitors targeted content based upon their origination keyword and intent.

We suggested that you create a series of landing page templates geared toward visitors with specific intentions, and that you then customize them for keyword or keyword group as necessary.

One of those templates -- and perhaps one of the most ubiquitous landing page types -- is the category landing page.

Why Create Customizable Category Landing Pages?
Bringing visitors to category pages can be difficult because they may be searching broadly -- by a general keyword such as “accounting” rather than a specific keyword like “QuickBooks” -- or they could be narrowing in on a specific category -- “Puma,” for example, rather than “sneakers.” That gives you very little information on what their goal is.

When a visitor arrives from search, they’re likely to be high-intentioned, but in this instance, it is difficult to discern just what that intention is: To research? To buy? To waste time until lunch?

You can’t assume that someone who uses broad search terms is less purchase-focused than someone who uses specific ones. Broad search terms may simply be an indication of the type of person -- less specific person in nature -- rather than an indication of what their goal is. Likewise, someone who searches with targeted keywords may simply be a strategic surfer who knows how to find just what he wants, and not necessarily someone with more desire to buy.

How to Begin Testing a Customizable Category Landing Page
So when customizing a category landing page template that will meet your needs for many types of visitors, you'll need to encourage them to self-select and define for you just what they’re hoping to accomplish.

Consider testing these four basic elements:

Element #1. Key product

Since you can’t tell what their goal is, try testing a single key product or key offer. Guess, as best you can, what might give a visitor what they are looking for, and then test it.

For example, you might test a single hero shot of your absolute best product (The Sharper Image, say, might show the Ionic Breeze) versus a beautiful image that entices a visitor to click more deeply into the site (a happy couple playing with a child and a golden retriever) versus a value proposition (“lowest rates guaranteed!” or “free shipping all the time!”)

Element #2. Depth of category offering

Whether you have hundreds or thousands of products or only two or three main offerings, you want to convince your visitor to give you a little more information on what they're seeking. Showing them the depth of your category offerings is a good way to get them to self-select.

Ask, What device should I use to get them into the dept of my content or products? You might consider testing:

º Traditional tabs with categories and subcategories
º A gift finder
º Staff picks or recommendations
º “Most purchased” recommendations or “most viewed articles”
º Editorial content

When you use one of these devices, what you're really saying to the visitor is, “I have more things to offer than I can actually show on the page.” You’re attempting to entice them to make another click to get them to the next level of interaction.

Element #3. General branding and treatment

Remember, a visitor coming from search is arriving from a whole different experience, on a page that you didn’t control. No matter how excited they are to land on your page, the experience can be jarring, because you will likely have a different mode of interaction than the site from which they arrived.

If you’re trying to persuade them to do something with you, each step calls for a different nature of interactivity.

This means that you need to make an impact not only about your brand experience, but also about how they’re interacting with you. The goal here is to make the experience seem continuous.

At the same time they have to recognize that they’re at the next step of interaction. It’s a tricky balance. You might try testing:

º whether you’re very spare like Google or dense with content
º whether it looks more like a homepage or more utilitarian like a general category page
º whether you use very interactive elements or traditional, static ones.

Element #4. Off-navigation

There are two schools of thought, here: do you want to offer only content as targeted as possible in the hopes that you’ll funnel the prospect right on to the sale, or do you want to show the other categories in the hopes of snagging their interest in another area?

This is a simple, relatively straight-forward element to test.

Then What?
Test and optimize these elements to find which work best for your visitors. Then, when the category landing page template has been finalized (at least until you decide to test again), simply switch content out for new landing pages, depending on keyword group -- remove all content relevant to books and swap in content relevant to CDs, for example.

You’ll find that you have created a simple and effective way to increase conversions and average order value by sending visitors to targeted landing pages -- that behave as though they know just what the visitor is seeking -- without having to create those landing pages from scratch for each and every keyword group.

Top Ten Success Secrets of Email Marketing

Executive Summary

As a savvy 21^st century marketer, you're looking to use the Internet more effectively to reach your prospects, customers, and clients. 93% of U.S. Internet users consider email to be their top online activity, according to Jupiter Research. This statistic confirms what you probably knew intuitively, people are living in their Inboxes.

Email is a fast, inexpensive, and effective way to target and address your various audiences, especially when compared to direct mail, outbound call centers, and other traditional marketing channels. What follows is a compilation of best practices of email marketing drawing on not only my experience, but some of the most successful industry practitioners. You'll also get a clear picture of trends and patterns to aid you in mapping your email marketing strategy.

SUCCESS SECRET #1: Building Your List—Be selective about who is added to your list or you'll create more work for yourself.

EXPLANATION

If you want to build an email list of existing customers, be sure to obtain their permission first instead of adding their names without telling them. Give your customers a value proposition that makes them want to be on your email list. For example, offer them an additional three-month warranty on a product in exchange for receiving product updates by email. This approach gives you the opportunity to strengthen the bond between you and your customers. If you add an email address without permission, recipients might complain and possibly abandon the relationship with you altogether.

When building an email list of fresh contacts, many companies think bigger is better, so they make a mad dash to build the largest email list while jeopardizing the quality of the list. This is called GIGO (Garbage In/Garbage Out), and it can backfire on you. Be sure to build a list of qualified names out of which a certain percentage will turn into prospects. Out of those prospects, a certain percentage should turn into conversions. When done right, catalogers and retailers enjoy higher sales results because their offers are sent to the right audience. High-tech or professional services firms avoid wasting time, resources, and money following up on useless contacts.

To further qualify new contacts, many companies and email publications require individuals to confirm their initial request to get onto an email list by replying to a confirmation email. This is called "double opt-in", and it can slow your acquisition rate by 50% or more, but typically makes for a much more qualified and responsive email list.

Asking a new contact to take a single action to get onto your email list is called "single opt-in". This approach grows your list faster than double opt-in, though the list may not be as responsive and as rich with qualified prospects.

Remember, once permission is granted for your email communications, relevancy and timeliness determines whether or not a recipient views your emails as spam.

DO'S

• Collect email addresses from registration cards, point-of-sale, customer service, and sweepstakes. For prospecting purposes, gather email addresses from your website, online white papers offered, from visitors to your trade show booths and from sales calls. Be careful: Just because you already have a person's email address for one reason or another doesn't necessarily mean you have permission to start sending all sorts of email campaigns to them. In all cases, give people an expectation of the value they will receive in return for handing over their email address to you."
• Post a privacy notice on your registration page at your website. People are understandably suspicious of any site they come across on the Internet so it's best to address their concerns up front. As reported by eMarketer, IMT Strategies found "93% of US internet users consider it very important that the site display a statement of how it will use personal information."
• Show prospective subscribers a sample of what they are signing up for at your website. "The link to see our sample newsletter is clicked on 25-30% of the time," says Wendy Cole, eMarketing Program Manager for Hewlett-Packard.
• Keep your registration page simple by asking for minimal information. You can always get more information later using surveys and incentives once an individual is added to your email list.

DON'TS

• Don't make it difficult for people to stop hearing from you by email. Make it easy for a person to leave ("opt-out") of any or all email communications. For example, people may still wish to receive your product updates but not your company news. If it's difficult to be removed from your email list, recipients can complain to their ISP or self-appointed spam police who in turn can have you blacklisted. Being blacklisted means the recipient's ISP will automatically filter out any inbound email containing your name or email address.
• Don't promote your company or services through the renting, sponsoring, or bartering of email lists without performing a background check of the list owners and asking how they obtained their email addresses. You could be guilty by association if you are perceived as doing business with a spammer. Furthermore, spam laws are currently getting tougher in this area. Monitor the latest developments in legislation by visiting www.spamlaws.com.

HEADS UP!

Pre-checked opt-in boxes: Some online subscription forms have the "check" box for receiving email communications pre-checked. While this speeds list growth, some U.S. courts and legislative bodies do not consider this practice as being truly an "opt-in" choice. Your list grows faster employing this practice, but the people who passively join your list in this fashion may not be as qualified as those who proactively check the box. Be sure to comply with the laws that pertain to you.

SUCCESS SECRET #2: HTML vs. text? No contest...its HTML for higher response rates.

EXPLANATION

The first time I emailed an offer in HTML, response rates more than doubled.

HTML emails are much more inviting to read. HTML helps direct the reader's eye where to go next and where to put one's attention. What's more, a good graphical layout communicates a better brand impression. HTML also lets you track open rates, click-throughs, and pass-along (recipients who pass your email communication along to friends/colleagues). All text email does not allow for tracking.

With each passing year, more people prefer the friendlier "look" of HTML, with the possible exception of Information Technology professionals.

DO'S

• Make certain your HTML email is easily understood when it is opened and read without the graphics appearing. Some corporate email servers do not pass emailed graphics to the PC clients on their networks. Furthermore, people often read their emails offline, and most graphics only appear when there is a live connection to the Internet.
• Keep experimenting with HTML formatting. Try different background colors. Try one column vs. two and two columns vs. three. Try putting key copy points and links in bold type.
• For long emails, consider inserting a hyperlinked Table of Contents or Index at the top of your email so recipients can quickly click and jump to where they want to go.
• You can conceal unsightly and unusually long web addresses in HTML through masked links. An extremely long web address can be embedded and hidden while the reader only sees the simpler address displayed in your email communication.

DON'TS

• Don't use too many graphics. As most of you are painfully aware, dial-up connections take too long to download large email messages; try to keep your communications to 20K-60K in file size. If your audience is known to use greater bandwidth such as cable, DSL or high speed Internet connection, then you should be able to increase the total file size of your email message with no negative feedback.
• Don't eliminate text-only email communications. Chandra Bodapati, CEO of eGrabber, a leading provider of data entry automation tools, says over 40% of his company's 90,000 subscribers prefer receiving their newsletter(s) in a text-only format.

HEADS UP!

It's in your best interest to give the recipient a choice between HTML or text versions of your email communications; that choice gives the subscriber a better sense of control. According to Gartner research analyst Adam Sarner, "Response rates increase when users are in control and feel they have a relationship with you."

SUCCESS SECRET #3: Relevancy—Make certain your emails are extremely relevant and valuable to the recipients.

EXPLANATION

In the recipient's mind, you have to be known for sending high-quality messages; otherwise, you will be ignored or recipients could unsubscribe or complain.

As of August 2003, 50% of email is now spam. This is according to Brightmail, one of the largest spam filtering companies with clients such as Verizon and Earthlink. It's no wonder that the most common Inbox activity is delete, delete, delete.

Your name in the "From" field represents your brand and reputation for sending messages that directly appeal to the recipient. The "Subject" field represents the timely and relevant proposition.

DO'S

• Get the first and last name of your subscribers, when possible, so you can later address them by name in the subject header and/or the body of the email. People like to receive personalized communications because it doesn't imply a mass email distribution.
• Use your website's registration page to ask recipients what content they want to see. Check out a good example of this practice by subscribing to IBM's customized weekly eNewsletter at https://isource.ibm.com/.
• Encourage your existing subscribers to register all of your products in their possession. In turn, you can send them relevant product updates, tips and offers in the future.
• Personalize offers based on the customer's previous buying patterns and requests from your customer service agents. Hewlett-Packard emails 120,000 unique versions of its Newsgram newsletter to over eight million subscribers. HP's eMarketing Program Manager Wendy Cole says the Newsgram is configured to start with content about HP products the recipient owns so each subscriber sees the most relevant content first.

DON'TS

• Don't overuse the first name of the recipient in the body copy of the email. After awhile, it comes across as too contrived.
• Don't ask for too much personal information on your registration page. This can be seen as being too intrusive and can turn people off, and may cause them to abandon the sign-up process all together. Get deeper and more personal information as they get to know you better.

SUCCESS SECRET #4: How Often to Send Email? Start off slowly. Get the kinks out by sending monthly or quarterly before going weekly depending on your business.

EXPLANATION

Whether you're building a house list in order to send offers, or starting an email newsletter, you are essentially getting into the publishing business. The challenges of publishing deadlines and production may not be familiar to you. So take it slow at first. You can always increase the frequency of your email communications later.

How often should you send? As often as your subscribers want to hear from you. See how cataloger Lands' End handles this at http://www.landsend.com/. After you subscribe to their email newsletter, they give you the option to select your content, frequency, and format (HTML vs. text). With the frequency option, they allow you to select "weekly, twice-monthly, or monthly".

DO'S

• Map out the publishing process. Assign specific tasks and deadlines to each member of the team. Look for prior experience when assigning tasks.
• Do a dry run. Before you publish in public, do it privately to make sure everything runs smoothly.
• Be sure to:
• Check for proper grammar and spelling.
• Check that all links are working correctly.
• Allow enough time for internal approvals.

DON'TS

• Don't wait until the last minute to produce email communications. Build up your inventory with offers and "evergreen" content ready for deployment. "Evergreen" content is not time sensitive so it can be scheduled and produced months in advance of its usage.
• Don't send too often. In many cases, too much frequency can depress response rates and increase unsubscribes.
• Don't send overnight, advises President and COO Michael Mayor of NetCreations (an email list management firm that sent approximately 300 million emails in 2002). Spammers often send their messages after midnight. You don't want your email to get lost in the morning clutter.

SUCCESS SECRET #5: Email Length—Keep it short and packed with value.

EXPLANATION

People are overwhelmed with the number of email messages they receive daily. In addition, they are inundated with direct mail, telemarketing, print magazines, and TV ads and will only pay close attention to what is immediately important. Your enemy is the delete key; make every word and graphic work hard to deliver value to the reader.

When I meet subscribers to my Web Digest For Marketers at trade shows and ask them what they like about my email newsletter, they typically appreciate the brevity of the reviews. Why? Because small chunks of information are more digestible than a 2,000-word article.

When it comes to straightforward offers, shorter is usually better. When it comes to informational and educational content, readers typically have a greater attention span.

DO'S

• Present your information in small packages. Use bullet points, check boxes, and put lots of "air" around each unit of information. The "look-and-feel" should say "Come on; I'm easy to read."
• Watch members of your target audience, one at a time, peruse your email on-screen. Say nothing at first and simply watch their reactions as they absorb your message. You will probably find what's obvious to you is not so obvious to them. When they're finished, then ask your questions.
• Prepare offers and content so exciting that even you get enthusiastic.

DON'TS

• Don't forget to print out the email you're preparing to send. Many recipients do exactly this. For emails longer than a few pages, consider embedding a link in your email to your website where the recipient can read the entire communication.
• Don't use long URLs. In the text-only version of a communication, a URL will break apart when it auto-wraps to a second line. Only the first line will be a live link and probably lead the visitor to a nonexistent web page.

SUCCESS SECRET #6: Content—Give them something they can't live without.

EXPLANATION

Whether you're preparing editorial or commercial content, make sure it is distinctive and can't be found anywhere else. Industry news and analysis, useful insights from your experience, or product tips are examples of content that can jump off the screen and into the minds of your readers. Make your content so good that your readers pass it along.

Newsletters from Hewlett-Packard feature creative ways to get more out of your HP printers, scanners, computers, and the like. Timely reminders to replace toner or extend your warranty supplement helpful product updates and tips. This approach earns HP tens of millions of dollars each year. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings are realized because recipients tend to use lower cost email and website technical support in place of the more expensive call centers.

With the help of integrated customer service programs, you should actually be able to predict what content your customers want next. This proactive approach to anticipating customers' needs can only help strengthen your relationship with them.

DO'S

• Subscribe to all competitive lists and see what is being done. Typically, you will notice a type of editorial that is not being offered in your space. That editorial hole has your name on it. The founders of consulting firm Future Now, Inc. saw that there was no newsletter that dedicated itself to conversion rates. Thus, they started the GrokDotCom, which now regularly feeds their firm with new clients.
• Develop your own voice or distinctive style. People like reading the words of other real people more than plain old "corporate-speak" that tends to be dry and impersonal.
• Use humor when appropriate; it humanizes the copy and warms up the reader. We all need a good laugh whether it's in the B2C or B2B space.

DON'TS

• Don't talk about yourself too much. People really don't care unless you're a big celebrity.
• Don't just feature links to articles on other sites written by other people. This is helpful content, but by itself doesn't brand you as strongly as if you create your own.
• Don't talk down to your readers. This is a common mistake in copy tone when imparting wisdom or experience.

SUCCESS SECRET #7: Design—Don't turn your email into a visual circus; remember...less is more.

EXPLANATION

It's uncomfortable staring into a screen for long periods of time to read documents. You want to offer your readers an inviting "look-and-feel" that's attractive and easy-to-understand at a glance. Make your emails look like an oasis when compared to the sea of chaos found in the rest of the recipient's Inbox.

DO'S

• Make the focal point of your email message obvious. Consciously decide and design where you want your reader's eye to travel.
• Remember, many people don't scroll. This means you need to pull your best offer or content up into the "first screen", "above the fold".
• Design emails to be viewed in the Preview Pane. You have five inches or less in which to squeeze your best content or offer. Be careful not to try and squeeze everything but the kitchen sink into this space, obviously resulting in an unattractive email. Design your logo so it has optimal visual impact (for branding purposes) without taking up so much "screen real estate" that it crowds out the value you have to offer thereunder.
• Reinforce navigational cues by stating the wanted action, such as "Click Here", "Go" or "Buy Now", etc. Don't assume the reader knows to click on an embedded link or graphic.

DON'TS

• Don't overdo the use of moving images; use them sparingly or not at all. You don't want to turn your email into a three-ring circus where readers are confused as to where to put their initial focus.
• Don't use too many exclamation points or red type. The spam filters don't like them, and the jury is out on the effectiveness of the color red.
• Don't use "reverse type" for your copy. Except in a small graphic element, it's extremely hard to read white letters on a colored or black background.

SUCCESS SECRET #8: Test everything—Test your subject header, your content, your offer, your pricing, your call to action, delivery days and times.

EXPLANATION

Get the most mileage out of your email marketing efforts by tracking everything you can, and then improving on those results.

Improving your results online is a very attractive proposition because you can do it faster, cheaper and often more efficiently than in offline media. Business Week Online reports that according to AMR Research, "finely targeted email marketing campaigns can garner 7 to 12 times the response rate of comparable snail-mail direct-marketing efforts."

Some firms find sending email on Mondays works best for them, while others discover it's better to send later in the week. Much depends on your target audience and the purpose of your email messages.

When using email campaigns to acquire new contacts or sales, NetCreations President and COO Michael Mayor observed in October 2003 that high-tech and B2B communications seem to perform better when released earlier in the week. Campaigns targeted to small businesses seem to do best towards the end of the week. Mr. Mayor advises mailers to avoid sending on weekends.

To increase response rates of email campaigns to existing contacts and customers, simply ask them how often they would like to hear from you.

DO'S

• Consider everything you do as a test. Even a successful campaign is a test on its way to providing more input to you for the next campaign.
• Benchmark yourself. When launching and testing a new campaign, direct marketers establish what they call "the control". The control is that effort which drew the best response. Thereafter, they always try to beat the control; you should do the same.
• Benchmark your competition. Track the competitors in your field that are known to be smart and savvy marketers. If you see them doing the same thing over and over, it means it's working for them. You should incorporate their best practices into your knowledge base.
• Use "split copy testing." Send one offer worded in a certain way to part of your list and the same offer worded differently to another part of your list and see which does better. Try to do it at the same point in time so results reflect similar market conditions.

DON'TS

• Don't take anything for granted. Over the years, I've found any number of basic assumptions to be proven false after testing.
• Don't assume test results speak for the ages. I've noticed things that didn't work five years ago perform well now, and vice versa. Revisit old assumptions and test them again from time to time.

HEADS UP!

In order to optimize your email campaigns, it is critical to employ "split copy testing" (mentioned above), also known as "parallel testing". The speed of email gives you the power to test the marketplace in minutes, hours, and days rather than weeks and months. This competitive advantage is often lost for lack of the right tools and software. Many email campaign applications cause testing to be extraordinarily complex and confusing; it's no wonder many organizations test modestly or not at all. When reviewing these applications, be sure to examine closely the ease of use and depth of all testing capabilities.

SUCCESS SECRET #9: Multimedia Emails—Know your audience before you venture in.

EXPLANATION

There are many compelling reasons for marketers to consider using multimedia in their email campaigns. Recent statistics show multimedia ads on websites draw above average click-through rates. This is probably because they're more dynamic and possibly more involving.

The majority of computers in use are capable of playing multimedia presentations. Furthermore, broadband usage (which is needed to play multimedia productions more easily) has increased dramatically. There are 39 million U. S. households connecting via broadband to the Internet. This is a 49% increase from May 2002 to May 2003 according to Nielsen//NetRatings.

Just because multimedia emails are technically feasible to produce and distribute, does this mean you should jump in now? Not necessarily. Your particular audience may or may not want to see multimedia playing in their Inbox. If you give your recipients something they're not ready for or want, you could seriously damage your relationship with them.

Certain market niches may be more apt to accept and want multimedia emails, such as gamers and people in high-tech industries.

DO'S

• Ask yourself if multimedia emails really add to the experience or if you're just showing off. If you're demonstrating how to better use a product readers have already bought, you might well be justified.
• See if your competitors are sending multimedia emails. You might want to do likewise. If they're not sending multimedia emails, you might gain a competitive advantage by being the first. Just be careful. There may be a good reason why your competitors haven't done it yet.

DON'TS

• Don't assume your audience wants multimedia. Ask them first, or try a small test. Better yet, send them a link back to your website where they can test drive your multimedia presentation. If you get a lot of click-throughs and positive feedback, you may have a winner.
• Don't jump into multimedia production without a storyboard. A storyboard shows the production team each scene (with copy) and how each scene bridges to the one before it and the one after it. Without a storyboard, your multimedia presentation can look disjointed and not make sense.

HEADS UP!

In an interview I conducted with Forrester Research analyst Jim Nail in October 2003, Mr. Nail thought marketing budgets would be better spent on database marketing rather than on multimedia productions.

SUCCESS SECRET #10: What to Expect After You Hit "Send".

EXPLANATION

It's always exciting monitoring the launch of an email campaign using your on-screen console because it's happening in real time. It's like watching election returns. In both cases, you're watching people vote. In your case, people are voting with their mouse for your offer, your content, your product upgrades, etc. Some feedback you'll like, some you won't, and still other feedback will be unexpected. Open rates tell you the success of your subject header and "From" fields. Click-throughs tell you how interesting your offer or content is to the reader.

Every time my Web Digest For Marketers is released, I see which offers from my advertisers work best. I also see what content readers like and what they ignore which helps me develop the basis for next year's editorial calendar.

DO'S

• Expect to see at least six kinds of responses as soon as you hit the "Send" button.
1. Valid responses: These most important, non-automated replies are from real people requesting specific information or action on your part.
2. Hard bounces: These are abandoned email addresses. Delete them from your email list.
3. Soft bounces: These are typically mailboxes that are full and can't accept any new inbound emails. Leave these email addresses on your list for the time being. If the same soft bounces occur regularly, then delete those addresses as well.
4. Spam filter rejections: These messages tell you your email has not been delivered. You will probably receive more and more of these notifications as recipients institute controls to cut down on spam, which is growing rapidly. According to Jupiter Research, the number of unwanted email messages per email user will increase from 2,551 messages in 2003 to 3,639 unwanted messages in 2007.* In some cases, you can manually interact with these emails so your message is delivered to the recipient.
5. Spam filter messages: Pay attention to these messages because they tell you why your email has been filtered out. Some spam notifications will actually give you their rating system and show you the words that sent you over the allowable threshold. You may want to avoid some of these words in the future in order to stay under that threshold.
6. "Out of office" replies: Be prepared to receive many of these replies, especially around holidays and the last two weeks of August.
• Reserve judgment on the success of your email campaign for at least a few days. Many people do not read email communications immediately. Recipients often put new emails in a "read" folder for review days later.

DON'TS

• Don't feel bad when people unsubscribe. No matter how valuable your email is, people are bound to do so. Follow how many people unsubscribe from one campaign to the next. If the number suddenly increases above your average, pay attention, because there was probably something that people didn't like in that last communication. Think of unsubscribes as a way to keep your database updated and clean.
• Don't use the word "Free" in your copy too often or at all. Spam filters hate that word. If you must use "Free", embed the word in a graphic because the spam filters cannot read words embedded in graphics.

HEADS UP!

Every time you send out an email campaign, be prepared to receive hundreds or even thousands of live and automated responses in return. You can handle these replies using your personnel, which can be costly. You can also have your email campaign application handle some or all of these responses. Be sure to closely examine this aspect of your email campaign solution before you commit to purchasing it. See how effectively both automated and live responses are routed. This is critical.

Conclusion

The key theme throughout all of these secrets is that you should take nothing for granted because email marketing changes at an incredible velocity. While you're building solid customer relationships, you simultaneously have the opportunity to generate substantial revenue and savings. I urge you to share these secrets with other members on your team. Use them as a catalyst for mapping out your near-term email campaigns.

While planning your upcoming communications, your long-term interests will be best served by integrating your email marketing efforts into all of your customer acquisition and retention programs.

What's Next?

Integration

As both Internet marketers and users become more conversant with the medium, it's in your best interest to knit your online efforts seamlessly with your offline efforts.

You want to create a complete customer experience through as many channels as is appropriate. The tracking of behavioral patterns on your website might trigger a special offer sent to that person via email. Your customer service agent might collect information on the telephone and then follow up by email or postal mail.

By integrating your online and offline efforts early, you will open up a substantial lead on your competition.

Segmentation

Technology and the Internet, in particular, allow a marketer to economically slice and dice smaller and smaller segments in the marketplace. Typically, the smaller the segment, the more relevant and fitting the communication and level of service. The email medium is especially good at targeting niche segments.

Your mission is to identify profitable niches in your respective marketplaces and cater to them accordingly, using email and whatever other channels you deem advantageous.

Anticipation

People don't always know what they want next. One way to delight a prospect, customer or client is to live in their shoes and walk ahead a few more steps than they have. Project what their needs are going to be from that vantage point and then fashion your email marketing accordingly.

Get Going Right Now

The implications of email marketing are far-reaching. The sooner you get started, the sooner your learning curve begins. As an email marketer since 1995, I can tell you that the more experience you have in the email marketing trenches, the greater your competitive advantage.