Brandwidth Blog

I have to admit that all the way to Cleveland I was thinking “Oh, great, what a dump of a city. This trip surely will be all about meeting with a potential new client - we’ll fly out of there as quickly as we arrived.” Boy, what a surprise!

A few of the Brandwidth team (Tony and I) headed up to Cleveland to meet with an up and coming International Entertainment company specializing in live online events – a PPV model nonetheless (that’s Pay-Per-View for all you acronym haters). I’ll spare you the details of a great meeting with said company with a great idea and the toolset to make it happen. They need a story and distribution – the rest is there. More on that later.

We arrived the night before our meeting and were looking for something to entertain ourselves, to keep our minds off our families at home. So off to downtown we went. Soon we’re lost, driving aimlessly, although successfully, in circles. And the city is looking pretty good. In fact, it’s clean and it’s active and on a Wednesday night, there were actually people walking the streets, going in and out of stores and bars and other local establishments. It was looking promising. Once we realized we weren’t going to be the victims of some senseless crime in the dirty old streets of Cleveland, we snap out of it…Oh yea, what was it we were hoping to find…

The House of Blues. We pull over and ask a gentlemen for directions. Turns out we made a wrong turn or didn’t pay attention to the street signs. Whatever happened, we did another successful circle. Again, we pull over and ask another guy for directions. Same story from this guy, except this time as we’re paying attention to the street signs a car weaves in front of us and cuts us off – beeping their horn and hanging out the window. Suddenly we realize that it’s the guy that just gave us the directions and he’s leading us right to the spot. He either borrowed somebody’s car really quick or hijacked one. Either way, he went out of his to get us to The House of Blues. Cleveland experience one, a sign of things to come.

We valet park and hike to the venue. From the street, we can see the place is dead. We’re hoping at this point that the party’s in the back. We’re greeted at the door by the bartender who informs us the show for the night is canceled. As quick as he told us there’s no point in hanging around, he offers up the best spot in town and suggests a cab down to the flats. As we’re walking back to the valet, the guy reaches in his pocket and offers us our money back. We tell him to keep it but ask a favor, driving directions to the bartenders recommended venue for the evening. A few turns later and we’re in the money. Cleveland experience two, wow.

What’s in the flats? You’ll have to discover all the entertainment for yourself. Sorry, but it’s my pitch for Cleveland. It’s the least I can do in return for the hospitality. Suffice it to say, we had a blast and that bartender knows where the pulse of the city is on a Wednesday night. Cleveland experience three, fun and a nice distraction.

Surely you’re wondering how this could possibly be about marketing. It’s a beautiful display of something that can’t be bought and is infinitely invaluable. You could call it viral marketing if you want to, I’ll call it hospitality for the sake of proving a point. The point is that even if Cleveland put out a huge campaign across the Midwest touting how nice and earnest their citizens were, no one would believe it and no one would visit on that basis. It’s just something you have to experience. So was it marketing or just people? Who cares, it works. If we weren’t on a tight timeline, we surely would have stayed the weekend.

Although we didn’t get to rock out in Cleveland, suffice it to say that Cleveland Rocks! And thanks to all of the hospitable folks who guided us! We’ll see you again soon.

The best definition of branding I’ve heard is “A Promise Made Is A Promise Kept”. With so many brand promises touting “quality, service, and value,” it’s a wonder why the words even exists. They’re old and tired and it surely doesn’t say much and can’t be trusted any longer. With megalithic communication, energy companies, and big box stores who seeming have a monopoly on consumer choice, could customer service be at an all time low? I hope it’s just not my lens on reality. You’ve probably heard this fact: “It can cost up to five times as much to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one.” I did say monopoly didn’t I…too bad for the rest of us. So, why is it that so many companies promise to deliver customer service but it’s only their lips that do the talking? I’ve come up with a small list of possible answers. That being said…I’d like to hear yours as well. Chime in.

#1 - They Don’t Care
Good God, I can’t fathom. Actually and unfortunately I can. In the case of a monopoly, I can understand how this happens, outside of that, it makes me worried for the portions of the human race that participate.

#2 - They Don’t Know How To Fix It
Yes, some companies are so out of touch with their customers and the problems that exists with their products and services that they are at a complete loss in knowing how to fix their own problems. Or yours, for that matter.

#3 - They Don’t Know What Customer Service Is
“I’m sorry that our installer didn’t show up while you took a day off work and sat on your thumbs waiting. We can be there tomorrow between 1PM and 5PM.” Enough said.

If you work for an organization that has one or more of the above traits as a corporate culture…do yourself (your conscience that is) and their customers a favor and do something about it! There’s right and there’s wrong and you’re smart enough to know the difference. So do it.

Customer service is not just warm and fuzzies, it’s part of building a relationship with your customers. In every business, it’s people that make it; that being said, mistakes will happen. It’s the resolution of those mistakes that makes all the difference. That’s building a relationship built on trust - that’s customer service and that’s branding. Or is it?

There are hundreds of web and search engine optimization (SEO) firms at your disposal. Each claims a “proven track record of marketing excellence.” Each offers to “immerse itself in your business culture;” to “learn your business and partner with you” to “get results.” Every single one claims to offer a “unique marketing and communications process” that is “proven to deliver for all your marketing needs.” Each will be quick to point out that “this is a relationship business” and then roll out a litany of its own relationships and how they are somehow more “solid” and “proven” and downright “fruitful” than everyone else’s solid, proven and fruitful relationships.

Who are we to argue? The plain and simple truth of it is, there are any number of excellent web and search engine marketing consultants who can reasonably do the job for you. Your challenge is to find one with whom you manage to click – with whom you really can develop a relationship on which to build a “winning marketing partnership.”

Size. Talent. Experience. Personality. Vision. Budget. Expectations. Cut through all the platitudes, and it always comes down to a few key precepts. Whether you’re selecting a marketing partner, an accountant, a plumber – or a prospective client relationship.

The real challenge for any company looking for a marketing consultant is finding a “partner” you can “sit down with” – with whom you can “roll up your sleeves;” with whom you can “work elbow to elbow;” with whom you can “get down to business.”

No platitudes. No funky branded processes. No fads. Nothing fancy. Just a good, old-fashioned marketing partnership, done with a good, new-fashioned array of tools and technology.

Here’s to finding ships with partners and relations with clients.

Or not. Are you getting all your e-mail? How would you even know? With e-mail inboxes bulging like the U.S. Trade deficit, who cares? Marketers do. Nearly 24.7% of all marketing campaign e-mails are never delivered. Ouch! That figure does not include e-mails which get thrown into a junk/spam folder – another 18.4%. Add those numbers together (43.1% in case you’re not good at math) and it’s more frighting than the headless horseman was when you were 4 years old. The point is, if your e-mails are not being delivered how do you know how well you are or could be performing with your e-mail marketing campaigns.

You may be asking yourself – “What’s the big deal - who cares if only 56.9% of our e-mail subscribers get the message? Wouldn’t that still give us a response measure?” True is that, depending on your list size (sample size). However, these are just industry benchmarks for marketers who are measuring deliverability. In other words, most marketers are just sending campaigns to their list(s) without really knowing if their message(s) are being delivered let alone dumped into the spam/junk folder or the golden nugget - the inbox.

Ok, let’s look at this from another angle. Current e-mail response rates range from a dismal 0% to upwards of 25% depending on the offer and list size and deliverability. Wait, he just said deliverability plays a role in my response rate? How can that be? If people on your e-mail list aren’t getting your message – of course your response rate is suffering. Consider this fact from Lyris Technologies – a leader in e-mail marketing and deliverability software. “A new deliverability study provides further evidence to dispel the widely-held myth among marketers that message content is the key reason ISPs filter legitimate email marketing messages into the spam folder. Instead, subscriber feedback, such as spam complaints, is the leading cause of most marketers’ deliverability obstacles.”

If people on your list are complaining to their ISPs that you are spamming them, not only can you not send to them, you can’t send to anyone at that ISP until you get off their black/spam list. In other words, if 15% of your list contains e-mail addresses at yahoo.com, you won’t be able to send to them until you’re off Yahoo’s spam list. Worse yet, you wouldn’t know this unless you are doing deliverability testing. In fact you could be sending campaigns with a deliverability of less than 20%. Scary isn’t it.

Ok so you’ve suddenly vowed to start checking your e-mail deliverability – at least I hope you do because showing up is half the battle. After all, the infamous AOL tag “You’ve Got Mail” is music to marketers’ ears.

Need help with e-mail deliverability? Here are some tools to help you.

E-mail Deliverability Software

EmailAdvisor – From Lyris Technologies

Delivery Monitor – From AWeber Systems

Mailbox Monitor – From Return Path

eDelivery Tracker – From Pivotal Veracity

Delivery Watch – For International Deliverability Tracking

With home page bounce rates at 48.7% across the board, visitor conversion is and will be the biggest focus in online marketing in 2007 and 2008. Remember when getting a prominent domain name was more important than the upcoming 2008 United States presidential race? Well the death of the home page is near. Home pages, the long-time favorite direct response mechanism, are dying a slow, painful death. The reasons make sense…let’s take a quick look.

#1 Know your audience
Universally dropping site visitors to your home page is like using a bass boat for a deep sea fishing expedition. Although it may get the job done in ideal conditions, 8 out of 10 times the poor little bass boat and its passengers will become victims of the sea. The same holds true for your home page – it’s a starting point into everything you do. But that’s not what your visitors want. They want you to know exactly what they want and demonstrate a compelling reason why they should consider you for it. Enter landing pages. Landing pages direct site visitors to the resources they want immediately. It’s like you know who they are…and you should.

#2 Talk to your audience
Creating a compelling message, talking 1-on-1 with your audience, is nearly impossible on your home page. You can generalize, but again, your audience doesn’t want generalities. They want answers, confirmation that you have what they need. Do everything you can to connect with your audience in the first 8 seconds of their visit, or ask your competitors for co-op advertising dollars.

#3 Make sure your offer is compelling
In general, people are lazy, and that’s fine so long as we know this fact when marketing to them. So don’t make them work to find what they’re looking for – don’t dump them on your home page. Relate to them and then ask for the next step without invading their privacy. Most importantly, make your landing page your landing page and not another home page. Stay focused on your audience!

#4 Measure the results
Bounce rates on your landing pages should be around 55-60%. “Ok, smarty pants, why would I want to use landing pages with bounce rates higher than home pages?” The answer is simple. When users abandon your home page, it’s because they have nothing to say “yes” to. More importantly, they have nothing to say “no” to. As a result, you have no meaningful data to improve upon – no idea of how to convert that visitor into a customer/client. When they abandon your landing page you gave them something to say no to. In other words, it’s useful data. You can now use alternate landing pages to improve your bounce and conversion rates.

#5 Prune and repeat
There are lots of new tools out to measure landing page effectiveness. Consider multivariate or a/b split testing software to do this. Google Analytics offers both free of charge. Now that we’ve got meaningful data, prune what’s not working and repeat what is.

Next time you consider directing site visitors to your home page, consider the true cost(s) of doing so. Create landing pages, make sure your offer is compelling, measure the results and continually work to improve the results. At least you’ll have a true measure of performance. Remember, converting site visitors into customers or clients or loyal advocates is paramount to growing your business.

There I said it. The cat’s out of the bag. “But can’t we just put some keywords on our page and rank #1 in the search results on Google”. Yes and no. Yes you can and no it won’t work.

Circa 1995, web .01 – optimizing your site was as easy as falling down and getting hurt. In fact you could rank in the top 5 in any search engine you wanted with a few keywords in your browser title and a basic understanding of HTML. In 2007, the equation is much more complex. As an example, let’s do a little experiment. Go to Google, key in “click here” and check out the first ranked page. Go on, just do it…

Now that you’re back from Google’land, you might be wondering why on earth someone would want to rank #1 for the search term “click here”. And your rhetorical answer was probably – no one! Voila you’re right. Here’s the point – since Adobe ranks first in the results and no one in their right mind would want to rank for this term…unless it’s a brand name, why then is Google placing them #1 without Adobe optimizing their site for the keyword “click here”. Enter web 3.0. It’s social out there.

Social marketing is alive and well and the above example shows just that fact. Yes you can put keywords on your page, however, you need social resources (people and company’s) pointing links to your site (social marketing). Without such, you’re dead in the water.

Let’s look at a test page we created to demonstrate that keywords alone do nothing to improve your rankings. Click here, notice the browser title “Click Here - Attention Google, please rank this page #1 in your search results for the keyword term Click Here.” Now notice the excessive use of the keyword on the page. Guess what, there isn’t a snowballs chance in Global warming that this test page will show up in the first 100 pages of Google’s search results for “Click Here”.

So is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) really dead? It depends on who you ask, however, by typical definition among nearly 85% of company’s claiming to do SEO, yep it is dead. Thus the reason you won’t think “can’t we just put some keywords on our page and rank #1 in Google” anymore. As a suggestion, make sure your SEO/SEM Agency does more than throw keywords on your site - otherwise, you’re SEO is dead before the ship sank.

In a February of 2007 survey, Forrester Research reported that nearly 80% of marketers had any way whatsoever to determine return on investment from their lead marketing agencies. Is it any wonder that in that same survey only 21% of marketers would actually recommend their agency’s services to others? Now, for one reason or another, agencies always seem to find themselves in the crosshairs…and as we all know, sometimes it’s even justified! Like in the case of ROI.

One of the benefits of a targeted, web-centric strategy – whether it be traditional integrated marketing strategies driving to the web or an email marketing campaign driving to the web – is that you can measure response. Index that response against bottom line sales against expenditures for those efforts and voila – you’ve got a pretty good indication of your return on investment, something that is truly advantageous to the web as a medium and with us as your erstwhile agency.

The same holds true for Search Engine Optimization and Pay Per Click advertising strategies – whether it be sponsored listings or vertical directory advertising or what is becoming more traditional “banner” advertising. As we sit here, Search Optimization is the single fastest growing medium in the marketing industry. And that is specifically because it not only works, but can be documented to work.

As far as search optimization goes, we can actually give you a projection of your ROI up front – as long as you’re willing to share the income figures we need to be able to index against. As for offline campaigns, tying in custom 800#’s to all your campaigns – integrated as well as new media campaigns – is another strategy that should be included in the mix, but we’re going to hold that discussion for another installment.

The proof should be in the pudding and if not, buy new pudding. Bottom line, we can help you manage your bottom line – for marketing’s sake that is.