Non-Line Blogging

For several years I have been urging marketers to kick their dependence on "Moveable Type".  It was a great way to scale information dissemination in 1439 but the world has moved on.  Ironically it has been the publishers who have managed to seize the video content initiative.  Conservative organisations like the Telegraph have morphed into a CNN/BBC hybrid with loads of video content...and they have even cracked the monetisation with pre-roll forced viewing of ads. 

However, few sites have really optimised video/flash for their "successful outcome" journeys.  I was recently encouraging a hotel chain to do more engaging things than "download sample menu PDF" on their site, or think of alternatives to call-out boxes with short text testimonials;  by the end of the session we'd identified 20 different "rich media" opportunities to bring their hotels to life including...

• Video interview with the head chef
• Virtual tours of the gardens - season by season
• "Vox Pop" testimonials recorded before people leave
• Welcome message from Hotel Manager

I have a couple of clients who have even dismissed my over-cautious recommendations about "testing" text versus "rich media" because they know that the video/audio stuff is the right thing to do (with search-optimised text transcripts alongside!).  So, why wait?  Today's digital project for you...what's on my web site that would be more successful if it were in audio/video format and how cheap and quick would it be to execute (get your teenage kids to do it for you..they are the video generation)?

I admire the efforts Salesforce.com have done with a flash presentation for each of their target personas delivered by the most appropriate person...it shows an understanding of the need to tune messages to decision makers and that a personal touch is engaging...although it may be a little too cheezy for some puritan British prospects. 

I have been a fan of MSN's Bring The Love Back campaign and noticed this morning that they have released the next video instalment.  The idea is to promote take-up of integrated marketing by having a giggle at marketers who don't get it..."I did try and look at that Web 2 dot zero stuff you told me about but I just couldn't find the exact URL"

You'll have to look at the first video to get the point of the second one.  So MSN are getting across a complex business proposition (don't be a stupid marketer...get to know and use digital marketing, preferably with us not Google!?) through video.  Now who'd have thought that likely a couple of years ago.

Way back in April 1999 the "Cluetrain Manifesto" nailed the concept of honesty and transparency in on-line copy, and probably predicted the easy-going,  tone of voice that many sites are falling into... 

"Markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can't be faked.

Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do."

Now, whilst many sites have their own tone of voice guidelines, it doesn't seem to have reached the twilight world of their error messages.  Bad error messages seem to have a few things in common:

• They pop up on the critical paths where a gentle touch is vital (email sign-up, shopping carts)
• They are in red
• THEY ARE SHOUTING AT YOU IN CAPITALS
• They use the inaccessible language of legal professionals ("...that requires correction??")
• You are being told off
• You feel stupid and humiliated

Most of the time it's not even an error, for goodness sake.  It's because the web site was not clear enough in its instructions, or its bad navigation...that's an "oversight message" or an "I'm terribly sorry we've confused you" message.

Here is my all-time favourite.  It's for a car manufacturer that really should know better. 

It's in the middle of a key process (brochure request) and it must be doing more harm than good.  I'd love to know if anybody in the marketing team has EVER looked at the drop off point for this page.  I'd love to know if anybody has ever done the maths on the "cost per rude error message" affecting sales per year.  Here's my calculation based on the assumption that 1 in 20 people who get a brochure take a test drive and 1 in3 of them buy a new car (a reasonable industry assumption)...

• 1,000 Visitors per week start process
• 10% leave site because you annoyed them
• That's 100 losses a week
• Or 5,200 visitors a year
• Which is 260 test drives
• And 86 car sales
• At £12,000
• Cost of Rude Error Message £1,032,000 a year
• Time to correct rude error message - 30 seconds

Now, how about that for a quick, big win?

OK, so it's not as politically incorrect as the "Name 3 Famous Belgians (There are only 2)" trick question, but its a troubling poser for different reasons:  I've been rummaging through the impressive library of emails I have amassed for professional reasons and have something sad to report - there are very few good email marketers.

I'm actually pulling some slides together for E-Consultancy's Email Marketing Masterclass next week so thought it would be easy to get my hands on some "best in breed" emails.  No such luck.  So what is it with emails that leaves me, and maybe you, feeling a bit deflated?

I'll tackle email more in my blogs in future, but here are my Top 3 based on working on getting me to open.

Number 3 - iMedia Connection

I like iMedia because they use a few tried and trusted techniques to capture my attention.  Ask questions to draw people into the story;  Create lists - 5 mobile success stories implies a quick fix of top tips; if all else fails a dollop of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt works a treat "The target audience you shouldn't ignore if you want to keep your job" is the implicit threat.  Copy some of them.  They work.

Number 2.  Motley Fool

The From field defines the relationship with the recipient and Motley Fool recognises that their brand has a number of facets.  Using brand extentions that are short and snappy creates the recognition you need and manages the expectation of the content.

Number 1 Email Labs/Lyris

Plenty of losers, not many winners in the "design for the preview pane" game.  Why oh why do designers insist on slamming big images into the preview pane area when it's so easy to create HTML code that renders well in the preview pane area when people have images disabled.  With so many email clients offering both image disabling and preview panes there are really no excuses for not copying what EmailLabs/Lyris do...even their Logo is rendered in HTML code rather than an image.

So, three companies who understand the value of great From fields, Subject Lines and preview panes.  How easy is that to emulate?  If you want to see a more detail I recently presented a session on Testing in Email Marketing for the Institute of Direct Marketing.

Of course, finding one company that does all three well is another issue!

Yahoo's board, according to Carl Icahn, is "asleep at the wheel" and under pressure to resign en masse because they can't come up with any ideas to out-smart Google.  Meanwhile, Facebook are one of the few sites to knock up something quick and easy we can all play with - Facebook Ads.

I could try and convince you that you can create engagement by dynamically inserting the Facebooker's photo in your ad's...

...but that only happens when you look like a credit crunch model.

With the mischevious tag-line of "Reach your Customers before they start Searching" they have built a wonderful little ad serving suite.  First up you have a super AJAX-enabled count engine that gives on-the-fly segmentations.  They'll help you identify (if you so chose) the 18-30 year old surf dudes living in Aberystwyth.  You then have the option of CPT or CPC and frankly who wouldn't go straight for the performance option?

And that's the clever bit.  Facebook have out-smarted Google with their demographic/behavioural Content network ad serving and put micro-targeting into the hands of every marketer at an acceptable cost.  So, if I'm promoting a clearance sale at my Aberystwyth surf shop I could knock up an ad and keep hitting these Facebookers for free until somebody clicks.  And yes, there are no more than 150 characters to weave your magic but you do get A PICTURE to add to the impact.

I did a tactical, local, seasonal campaign for a client that generated 8,000 impressions and a handful of clicks for a whopping $1.60...about 90 pence all in.  Although the ad's are hardly right up there in the "engagement" world you could always link to a coupon or pop in a unique phone number and measure the non-line impact.  And with so few ad players out there I recon the cost per click will be really competitive compared to CPC display deals on other sites.  Surely too good to be true?

A case of "Reach your Customers on Facebook before somebody else does" 

Presented at Aberystwyth University last week on a Welsh Assembly programme for graduates looking to start up new business.  Aim of the workshop was to give some practical advice on how the web can support them and it struck me how complicated we make all this interweb marketing stuff.

Download it from http://www.nonlinemarketing.com/html/downloads.html

How many big companies with teams of business anaylsts and web designers can really strip their business down to the simple things: 

Work out your allowable cost per sale - without that you should not be touching Google AdWords or Affiliate programmes.
Focus on a few key succesful outcomes - as likely to be "ring this number" or "print out this page and pop in and see us" as much as "click here to visit our micro-site". 
Create persausive web sites - get rid of the clutter, use great photos and think about audio and video content that gives you an honesty and transparency.

OK, so I also told them to know and love Google, to play around with social media and think about testing and measuring, but the key was to get them to do the basics well.  And on my travels I came across simple sites doing things really well.

Persuasion with good photograpy and simple colour palate...

And for the BtoB world, how about Persuasion by being simple, clear and honest...

So there you have it, by paring back our cluttered sites we can probably deliver a more pleasant, engaging experience.  Sites like www.thomson.co.uk  and www.innocentdrinks.co.uk have already done it.  So now we all have to catch up with them.

Less is more and all that.