Buzz!Words

Website Credibility

Forgive my obsession with all things website these days. I've been doing some fine tuning of my own site, to improve its credibility, and I ran across a great list from Stanford University Persuasive Technology lab called 10 Guidelines to Boost Your Website Credbility.

Given all the badly designed websites out there, with content that is hard to read, not useful or just over the top "sales speak", these guidelines are really useful rules to live by.

Writing Good Messages

There is a lot of bad writing out there. Just look at the number of ads, website and other materials that scream about the person, and about their company, and about their solutions, but don't ever address the customer's problem. I recently read a great article Three Psychological Triggers in Your Message, on MarketingProfs.com

One in particular "trigger" that I find missing in my own writing is "relating to the problem". You have to demonstrate the problem effectively before you can move the reader on to the solution. If the reader doesn't agree that there is a problem, then it's likely they'll edit out the message, with a quick, "that's not for me", and move on to the next website, ad or article.

I try to have a quick set of is that so facts at the beginning of each piece that people can relate to the problem. To quote Dr. Phil, you can't resolve what you don't acknowledge.

Story Telling in Marketing

Story telling has become the latest hot thing. In the book world, biographies have been hot for a few years. In the movie world documentaries are the latest rage - just look at Michael Moore.

But stories have a role to play in marketing too. According to Barry Schwartz, in his book, The Paradox of Choice, people weigh personal anecdotes far more heavily than statistical research in their decision making process. So although Volvos have the best statistical safety record, if you know someone who has had trouble with a Volvo, you will likely weigh the personal experience of one person more heavily than the total experience of all Volvo buyers all over the world.

Story telling is a way to personalize, to bring meaning for consumers. Look at those annoying Tim Hortons "real story" TV ads. They do a great job of personalizing Tim Hortons for us, and they also strongly reinforce the "Canadian-ness" of the brand character -- something that we love about Tim's.

So what does this mean to marketing? Well, use story telling as part of your communication strategy. Testimonials, case studies and personal stories all have a place in your website, in your advertising, in your public relations plans and in your email and direct mail campaigns.

Marketing 101 - Innovation

Read a great article on "fashion" driven categories in blog called Influx. What's interesting about this observation is that they believe that any product or service can take advantage of fashion. The implications of following the fashion, or creating a fashion is that the competition is likely to follow quickly, and customers will get bored quickly, so your business strategy is about speed and quantity of innovation. Some great companies have done an amazing job at innovation -- SC Johnson and Colgate are a couple of package goods companies that are innovating their way to great profits.

Here are some thoughts on innovation:

1) Not just product companies need innovation, service and retail companies also need to innovate.
2) Innovation is not just about building a better mousetrap. It's about innovating in every way you interact with your customer, from customer service, to communication, package design to the type of service you offer, to the way you price it, to the selection of service or goods you offer.
3) Every business needs to have an explicit innovation plan. Not just the big companies, every company. (As Dr. Phil says, if you don't have a plan, how can you work it?). Write it down and track it. Be accountable for your plan.
4) Good innovation can be a great point of difference from your competition. Make sure that you let people know about your innovation and what it can do for them.

Lesson learned: If you don't innovate, your competition will.

Website Marketing - Effective Use of Hyperlinks

Read an interesting article about website links today in Clickz by Brian Eisenberg, The Resolving Door. The gist of the article is that there are two kinds of links. The first is a call to action, such as "contact us", "email us", "sign up for a newsletter", "shop online", "search for a retailer". These are what you want the customer to do.

A "Resolving" link is one that helps the visitor in their buying process, by providing information to clarify and solidify the buying decision. A visitor can dig deeper into the research, or they can enter a call to action by clicking on a call to action link on each page. A solid internal linking strategy can also help search engines more effectively index your website.

In yesterday's post, Consumers Research Online, Buy Offline I noted how many consumers are using the internet for research prior to a bricks and mortor shopping trip, and how critical it is to have a website that is effective in providing the right information.

Brian Eisenberg shows us how to make it easy for website visitors to do that research online, and to encourage them to complete a call to action.

Consumers Research Online, Buy Offline

Great article from Clickz on online shopping behaviour Majority of US Consumers Research Online, Buy Offline.

Cross-channel shoppers actually comprise the majority of all online consumers, 65 percent in 2004. Of these, 51 percent are characterized as active cross-channel shoppers who made at least one purchase in the past three months.

Then, there are those that come in to a retailer already knowing exactly what they want because they've done their product research online. Forrester Research has a name for it: "cross-channel shopping." Cross-channel shoppers actually comprise the majority of all online consumers, 65 percent in 2004. Of these, 51 percent are characterized as active cross-channel shoppers who made at least one purchase in the past three months. The trend is bound to continue; the number of new cross-channel shoppers in the past year was 30 percent.

Even more important, about half of the online research consumers spent $154 more on additional items, once they got to the store.

Lesson Learned: Have detailed product catalogue online, with specs, product features and prices available for consumers to research.

Marketing to Women

80% of consumer decisions are made or influence by women in Canada, according to Marketing Magazine. And yet, out of 22 industries, only grocery stores came close to satisfying women's needs.

So, what do the experts think are the keys to marketing to women?

1) Make our lives easier. With working women, its critical to simplify and make it easy to do business.
2) Approach us in a variety of ways. Make it easy by communicating through all kinds of media and make it easy to interact through internet, email, catalogues and in store.
3) Be good. Show that you have a commitment to the community. Support good causes. Behave in a responsible way to the environment.
4) Provide useful info. Make it easy to do research either on line or through other channels.

What do I think? These tips are useful, but, it might be just as useful to listen you your female customers and ask them what they want. I've always found that women just want to be listened to.

Personal Branding

Personal Branding is the latest marketing craze to hit the services field. Whether you are a financial services consultant, a marketing consultant, a real estate agent or a medical services provider, personal branding is critical to making you stand out in a field of competitors. Tom Peters started this craze in is article, A Brand Called You, in Fast Company.

Start by identifying the qualities or characteristics that make you distinctive from your competitors -- or your colleagues. What have you done lately -- this week -- to make yourself stand out? What would your colleagues or your customers say is your greatest and clearest strength? Your most noteworthy (as in, worthy of note) personal trait?

I'm a huge believer in personal branding. However, I do believe that it is more than just slapping your picture all over every marketing program you do. Personal branding is about creating a consistent brand positioning for yourself in everything you do. Great food for thought as you continue to build your business.

Marketing 101 - Objectives

Arguably, the most important thing you can do when planning a marketing program is to have clear, single minded objectives. What are you trying to do? Who are you trying to target?

If you try to be everything to everybody, you'll end up having a confused message, and accomplishing very little. People will opt out, since there isn't a clear call to action that is meaningful.

Think about your marketing in the context of an overall plan. You already know that you have to have a positioning relative to your competition, and a target, the people that you want to engage in a conversation. That is your overall brand strategy.

Now, decide your objectives. For example, you might want to increase the number of time your current active customers purchase your goods or services. And... you might want to get your lapsed customers back.

Okay, that's two very different messages. So, don't try to jam them into one marketing program. Better to do 2 small, focused programs than one big program that tries to do everything. If you can't do 2 programs, pick the one that you think will have the bigger bang, and start there. But whatever you do, stay focused on your objective, and consistent with your brand strategy. You want people to say, hey, that's me, I should look at this.

Another advantage of objectives? If they are specific, like increase customer frequency from twice a year to 3 times a year, you can actually measure your success, and figure out if your marketing investment is paying off. 'Nuff said.

Marketing to Older Canadians Online

According to Ipsos Reid, a major Canadian polling company, 60% of people over the age of 55 have internet access, up from 48% a year ago. Almost two-thirds of those users have high speed access, spending and average of 9.6 hours online every week. Forty-one percent have made a purchase online. Stats Canada recently reported that Canadians are spent $3.0 Billion in online shopping in 2003.

So what does that mean to you? If you have largely ignored the internet because your customer base is in that 55 plus age group, you can ignore it no longer. And for those who are ignoring the 55 plus age group in your online efforts, you're going to have to consider the needs of that age group in your online activities.

If your customer base is largely the 55 plus group, you may want to consider working with them to refine the look and feel of your website, online newsletter and email programs. Consider the readability of your site, including the size of the font. The 55 plus group are very savvy consumers, who are looking for information, research and value. Make sure that your site has content that is useful to them and up to date. Also make sure that any retail shopping sites have detailed information, in an easily navigated, and read format.

This age group is one of the wealthiest and fastest growing groups online. This is the leading edge of the baby boom. They've changed things before, and they're not about to stop now.