I recently tuned into Marketing Sherpa's informative teleseminar on the Top 5 Tests to raise landing page conversions. While the presentation was fairly concise, I realize that everyone is tight on time with the holidays fast approaching. So in the spirit of one minute Shakespeare I have reduced the Marketing Sherpa (henceforth shortened to MS) presentation to its freeze-dried essentials.

Start the clock.

Tip #1:  Add dynamic search copy.
The MS analysts shared an incredible success story from a site called musiciansfriend.com. By dynamically embedding the user's search terms and search engine name onto the landing page ("you searched for Stratocaster guitar on Google") conversions were lifted by 48.35%. Plus the average orders were higher for those users. Top travel site Kayak.com used this same tactic and got a 71% revenue lift. Incredible. But true. Moving on.

Tip #2:  Shorten registration forms.
Less is more. Especially when it comes to registration forms. Whether your form is for purchasing, email or white paper sign-up, keep it short. Marketers know this but don't seem to act on it. According to MS 42% of those surveyed said their company's forms were too long. In one test a form was cut from 15 fields to 7. The result: 36.7% conversion improvement. Nuff said. Let the cutting begin.

Tip #3:  Make eyeflow easier.
The simpler you can make the landing page the better (except in Asia where people seem to prefer busier pages). For starters, cut the number of columns on the page. Many companies thumb their noses at this rule of thumb because of internal mandates to make landing pages match the rest of the site (which usually has several columns). But the data shows fewer columns are better. Next, make type legible. Don't center it. Don't make it too small. And don't reverse it. Lastly, buttons—make them big. UI Guru, Steve Krug, says if you can't see a button from 6 to 10 feet away, it's too small.

      Good

       Better
 

Tip #4:  Optimize interior page to work as landing pages.
79% of people searching wind up on an interior page. That's a huge number. While making every page work as a landing page is a gargantuan undertaking, a quick review of site analytics will tell you which pages are getting most of your search traffic. Once you know that, consider optimizing those pages by building in a registration form for email sign up (see tip #2).

Tip #5:  Redesign for mobile.
While only 9.3% of folks in the US are actually viewing landing pages on mobile devices, that number is much higher in the B2B space.  And it will climb higher in the years ahead (the rest of the world is way ahead of the US on this one).  Graphic designers hate this one. But a smartly designed mobile page is a thing of beauty. Especially when the conversion numbers go up.

There you have it. 5 solid tips. You'll find tons more in the full MS report. And at shows such as last week's PubCon in Las Vegas and other industry events throughout the year.

Finally, in the generous spirit of the holiday, here’s a bonus tip. Read Shakespeare in the original. There may be a few more vowels and consonants than the one-minute version, but it’s worth the time. Hey, look at all the time I saved you here. That should give you a head start on Hamlet. 

Posted by Steve Lynch at 07:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Some people might find the title of this post offensive so I should first say, it was the winning headline for our headline writing contest which was part of our annual open house.

It's hard to believe the top notch party planning staff at PARTNERS+simons (lead by Amy Kitson) pulled off another amazing open house. Kudos to you all.

Our annual December open house has become one of the best nights out in the local advertising/marketing/interactive community and what makes it terrific, aside from the always exceptional food, drink and music (thanks to The Loomers), is just the eclectic mix of people brought together in the expanse of 25 Drydock Avenue. This year's crowd seemed to top the 500-600 persons count. One of our largest gatherings yet.

It doesn't hurt that Tom Simons encourages every PARTNERS+simons employee to not only invite clients, but we also open the night up to include friends, family, business partners, and anyone else we think would make the party interesting.

This year's open house took on something of a Vegas theme. Tom played Steve Winn, presiding over his very own Vegas strip. It was pretty cool. Everyone seemed to be having a terrific time at the various tables, throwing away fake P+s money.

And then there was the headline writing contest which was incorporated into our famous poster invite. There were a handful of winners. I gave away the winning headline already. But OMG, we received in excess of 250 entries.

And so that the evening doesn't dissapear without a trace, the exceptional production folks at Boston.TV decided to show up for the evening and captured the essence of the night with some fun P+s party footage -- take a look.

Yup, another year in the can.

Posted by Chris Demakis at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If you're in the ad business, chances are you feel strongly about Google one way or the other.  It seems that the behemoth is trying to take over almost every form of advertising as we know it – some mediums more successfully than others.  It all started with paid search and now Google absolutely dominates that space, owning 58.5% of the search share in October 2007, according to ComScore.  Moving beyond search, Google spent a whopping $1.65 billion to acquire YouTube last year, then followed that move with a push into the online display advertising market. Meanwhile, Google has also made several forays into traditional media channels with newer ad and measurement models.  It has broken into newspaper and radio sales with mixed results, and more recently, it entered into the highly competitive world of television ad sales.

Despite some less than stellar ventures, Google continues to innovate and push the envelope, as seen most recently with its aggressive move into the mobile space.  This summer, Google created the Open Handset Alliance, and already more than thirty wireless companies have joined, ranging from handset manufacturers and application developers to network operators.

If Google is able to launch a mobile service, its newly acquired mobile platform, Android, will host all of the services and be the vehicle through which a whole new channel of advertising and services will develop.  While the biggest domestic wireless networks, AT&T and Verizon, have held out of the alliance (although Verizon may be changing its tune – read more by Erick Schonfeld), it seems as though every other player in the wireless space is excited about the endless possibilities that an open architecture could provide.

So, despite an incredible $215 billion market cap, Google clearly is not content being just a "search" company.  As advertisers, we have to ask if it is good for one player to harness so much power and to control so much of the advertising inventory in the marketplace.  So far, my answer would be that I have no problem with it, and here's why.

The beauty of Google's products is that they are all geared towards delivering highly relevant content to users.  It all started with paid search, where advertiser can bid on keywords relevant to their businesses.  Continuously updated algorithms, however, ensure that the highest bid prices do not alone ensure the best placements.  If you pay more than your competitors to be ranked in the top three positions, but your website is entirely irrelevant, your ranking will quickly drop.  You're probably thinking, "Yeah, but all search engines use algorithms that incorporate relevance into their rankings." Yes, but what separates Google as a company now is that it has transferred the simple idea of relevance to all of its new product offerings, enabling advertisers to deliver messages that are not just highly relevant – or at least more relevant than those that previously existed – but also highly measurable.  In fact, one of Google's biggest differentiators is that it provides a much more detailed level of reporting than its competitors across almost all of its ad products.  Knowing that I can deliver a highly relevant, highly measurable message to my client's audience across a variety of channels makes Google a highly valuable option in my advertising vendor arsenal.  Also, the more Google blurs the lines between channels, the more hope I have that we will all be able to better measure and evaluate multi-channel marketing campaigns in the near future.

So, just because Google constantly innovates and tirelessly seeks new angles to dominate the advertising marketplace does not make it inherently bad.  If it started jacking up prices and we had no competitive alternative, I would certainly argue differently.  So far, that has not happened and the positives far outweigh any negatives.

P.S.  Rumor has it Google is working on a set-top box for TVs that will have an open architecture, similar to Android.  I'm sure this will be a hot topic in the next year or so.     

Posted by Doug Ellinger at 08:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Focus groups.  You gotta love them.  Even when they go wrong, at least they're fun (more on that later).  But the point of focus groups is to get meaningful information about your target audience and how they react to a particular set of concepts, positioning statements or product promotion materials.  If done right, a focus group can give you excellent results – giving you the information you need for your program development.  But, if done wrong, they can be disastrous – leaving you with a big bill, not much useful information and an unhappy client.  So how do you make sure that you have a good experience?

Stay Focused:  Often people say they want to test a message or ad concept using a set of focus groups, but during the development process other things start to creep into the scope of research.  Often it is a hope to kill two birds (or more) with one stone – and save money.  But the problem with scope creep is we lose focus.  For the best result, stay on track.  Use the focus groups to find out the answer to a specific set of questions about one specific problem.

Use the best research method: Focus groups can be an effective "qualitative" way to understand how your target audience will react to a positioning statement or concept.  But, remember, a small group of people will only give you a glimpse into what the larger audience will do – and what that larger audience will be like.  Qualitative results really can only be used for general direction.  If you need "quantitative" or "statistically significant" results, then a telephone or Internet study with a much larger audience sample will be required.

Visuals need to be simple: Testing specific visual images and asking a few specific questions can be very effective in a focus group.  For example, it would be okay to show a diagram of a knee with osteoarthritis and ask people if the image would be helpful in gaining a better understanding of osteoarthritis of the knee.  However, focus groups are not generally the right place to show complex concept visuals such as a an ad that states: how "sweet" a cable TV product is, and uses a visual of a woman eating chocolate cake.  For the former, some people may look away from the knee diagram at first, but mostly they will come back and say, "yes, that is helpful," or "no, it is not." But with the cake ad concept, you are likely to have more comments about the cake than an answer to your questions: "I don't like chocolate cake." or "Wow, she doesn't need to eat that." Or  "What does chocolate cake have to do with my cable TV?"

Use a great moderator: Focus groups can be brilliant with an experienced moderator who tells a great story and manages the focus group well.  Be sure you know the moderator's track record.  Are they better with certain age groups? Are they able to keep people on track and on time? Do they have experience with your type of product?  Are they industry specific?  This can be especially important for regulated industries such as pharmaceuticals, medical devices, healthcare, investment products, etc.

A well-developed moderator’s guide:  Work with the moderator to develop a moderator's guide for the focus groups.  Make sure the moderator understands your objectives, your product and your audience.  A well developed guide will help the moderator keep the focus groups moving and will help them gather the information needed for the final report.

Screening attendees:  You need to know who your target audience is and who you want to have in each group.  Screeners at the focus group facility will contact people for the focus groups and ask a series of questions to find your target audience.  For example, If you have a type 2 diabetes product and you need two groups, one that has control of their diabetes symptoms and the other that does not, it is important to ask the right questions and get the right people in the right groups.

Have fun: I love focus groups because they are entertaining.  You get to sit in the back room behind the one-way mirror, watch the focus groups, eat good food, and hang out, all while paying attention and taking great notes of course, but the best part is the people watching.  There is almost always one person who is a bit crazy.  There is always one person who loves to talk and has more opinions than you can imagine.  Sometimes people even get into arguments and the moderator has to get them back on track.  All of the personalities and interactions are fun to watch.  Think of it as a reality TV show.

So, good luck with your focus groups.  Be sure to follow these simple rules for an effective focus group experience.  Have fun.  And get the best results for your marketing or advertising program. 

Posted by Ed Feather at 03:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)