Brandwidth Blog

Differentiating between browsing visitors and returning visitors of your site can lead to the right actions of building a great relationship with people who want to have a reason to return to your brand for their needs. What are these right actions? As discussed in a “How To” article on marketingsherpa.com, there are five simple steps to QUADRUPLE conversion from your repeating customers.

Sound good? As an example, the article used a company called DYMO which is a manufacturer of label printers and the insight of the company’s Director of Web Marketing and CRM, Michael Klazema. In preparation to taking steps, the company gathered any and all website data and user surveys and took the time to really sit down and analyze the data. “A very significant percentage of site visitors were owners [of DYMO products], not new visitors or people contemplating to buy a new label printer. Nine out of 10 cases, going through our customer support calls and our online support section, were all related to the printer that they own or use,” says Klazema.

Klazema and his team took this information and launched a special section of their site devoted to returning customers. From here the steps began, step #1 was to determine how to personalize pages, this led to step #2 which is to determine what data would be required in order for a profile to formulate. Step #3 requires your website to allow users to register products.

Let them tell you what they “also have”. Step #4 and 5 involved using timely information that directly related to proposing products that they may have ran out of or didn’t know that they needed in addition to other products, and doing so without forcing the customers to provide any information. No one likes to have to jump through hoops just to get what they want.

The My DYMO site allowed users the options as to what level of information they were willing to give and therefore giving them the information and ability to purchase products based on what information they were willing to give.

In the early 1990s, online display ads (banner ads) were all over internet web pages. The banner ad was a pioneer in the beginning of online advertising models. Sadly, these ads were eventually dropped due to their low cost-effectiveness and fell behind in the race to drive traffic to sites.

Not to fear, the comeback ad is here and is taking over web pages with a vengeance! Marketers are now looking for a lower-cost for brand advertising and the banner ad fits the bill. “Display ads accounted for 22% of all US Internet advertising revenue in 2006, a 2% increase over 2005, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.”, claims a November 2007 Press Release from MarketingSherpa.com.

Now you can expect more options from these types of ads than you ever could before. They are typically used to build a brand for a product or company rather than drive clicks and traffic to their site. Which would explain why their CTR rates are so low, and fortunately has enabled the price to drop significantly and allow variations of types of ads to emerge. This comeback ad has a spectrum of new types of ads in the mix, such as static display ads, animated ads, interactive display ads, video ads, and expanding ads. While sizes of these ads vary, the measurements of effectiveness have given display ads more of a reason to be re-used. You may not receive many conversions or a great ROI with these, but you have many tools at hand to find out more about the users who are clicking on your ads. You can follow them through the entire process of getting them to the purchase. Needless to say the online display ad of the early 90s was simply ahead of its time.

You are what you buy. Nowadays this is self-evident. People are consistently identifying who they are by the very brands that they buy. And I’m sure that for the older generations this seems unreal. The common practice of the past was to rebel and not be tied down to anything created by corporate America.

For example, think about any connotation when you read the following car brands: Mercedes-benz, Saab, Audi, BMW, Infinity,
Dodge, Jeep, Cadillac, etc… We are conditioned to develop our own stereotypes and biases to the products and brands that we buy. For the market today, most people think of brands in their minds as a hierarchy. And what you buy says more about who you are than you could possibly tell someone in a conversation. A new level of non-verbal communication has emerged.

Most of the auto brands listed above come from Europe or the U.S., but what happens when you see the brands Honda, Hundai, Kia, or Subaru. It changes your entire perception of that person driving those cars simply based upon what that identity that brand has been labeled. So considering how to brand your product should be at the very top of your list and a detailed change can create a massive effect. Changing the color from blue to red creates a feel of confidence versus the very calm and cool nature of the color blue. It outlines and defines what a customer or client can expect within the first few seconds of landing on your website or any other form of media for that matter, before they ever speak to you.

Obviously this is not to be taken lightly. You really want to visually show the client what is to be expected from your company before telling them in words. Generally speaking, in media, people prefer visual communication to auditory or kinesthetic learning. So why not adhere and make the most out of the identity of your brand?

Keys open the door and they lock the door. They can let people in and they can keep people out. It is up to the keeper of the keys to decide who to let in and who to keep out.

Online marketing and communication are just the same. PPC advertising can allow your business to reach those who you want to let in the door, and keep those who you want out. By choosing keywords and adding negative keywords, you can eliminate the chance of an intruder into your domain.

By allowing a certain group such as geographical targeting, you can filter your customers down to a simple area of the country that you want to be available to purchase your product. You won’t be spending as much money as you would if attempt a much broader approach and just allow anyone to buy or see your ad online. Not to mention the ROI will be much more rewarding if you capitalize with a focus.

Decide who should and shouldn’t be allowed in and market your product based on the expectations of the revenue you would like to gain. Trying to advertise to people who are not interested will only make you spend way more money than needed. Find out who your target audience is and advertise to them your superior product. Unlock the door to mass revenue while simultaneously straining out the disinterested customers.

Today, I really wanted to talk about the differences and the requirements for a good functioning website or any media really of sorts, where the purpose is for consumer use. I’m sure I could sit here all day and talk in industry terms and you would probably nod your head until your mind shut off between the first few seconds of my soapbox lecture here. But, the point is that it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that something just doesn’t make sense when you are surfing the web for example.
There are a million websites out there that just give me a headache. Trying to find exactly what you are looking for is more trouble than it’s worth sometimes. It comes down to the appropriateness of what you are searching for and what you actually find within the first few listings of Google, because lets face it, if you are like me you Google nearly everything and sometimes for no real reason at all other than to just see what comes up.
A website should be pleasing to the eye, but for some reason, many companies out there get so excited about having so much to offer on the website that they ignore logic. Crowding your pages with loads of offers makes it feel like a dreaded pop-up or even worse, spam. It should be an easy read. The ability to locate exactly what you came to the site for should be there within the first few clicks. Searching should be left back at the search engine.
One thing that has helped tremendously with today’s websites has been the tab structure. It’s simple, easy to understand, and you don’t get lost. You have to design based around your content and your users.
Be nice to your consumers, and they’ll feel at ease with you. Throwing graphics into the site can be great with the correct balance of information. No one really wants to read page after page of copy. Besides, isn’t the whole goal of information today to send and receive it at lightning speed? This will not work if you are loading copy onto your site that you have to keep scrolling down to read.

The goal of a document recently released by the IAB was “to standardize the transfer and receipt of data between advertisers and lead generation service providers in order to safeguard consumer data and improve operational efficiency for the $1.3 billion lead generation category.” This document also posed two considerations, the first being security and the second being a common format and setup. The IAB wanted in an encrypted format, the receipt as well as the transfer of lead generation files in a common format.
Now, if you ask me, I am all about standardizing and making technology safer and easier to use for the public, especially in a world where identity theft and computer hackers are prevalent. Although, the very same reasons that I feel that standardizing is necessary are actually the reason I feel that it may not be a good idea. It could possibly make it easier for an intruder to bypass the system if all data is handled the same way.

The IAB has already had several Lead Generation Committee Member Companies endorse this document and as time will tell, I am sure that many more are to follow. One point that is definitely going to go to the IAB for this matter, is that by making standards for companies to follow, the efficiency level will grow exponentially. And since we all love the idea of receiving our information faster, this trend will catch on eventually, unless you consider leaving data untouched and allowing companies to develop new and innovative ways of data transfer and use, we might find that technology continues to be pushed to bigger and better products.

So, is it worth continuing the risks of consumer data to gain motivation to develop better products? Possibly, but if I were forced to make the decision, I’d have to agree that standardizing media for the security of all consumers is a good way to go.

“Einstein always appeared to have a clear view of the problems of physics and the determination to solve them. He had a strategy of his own and was able to visualize the main stages on the way to his goal. He regarded his major achievements as mere stepping-stones for the next advance,” states The Noble Foundation from nobelprize.org.

Concepts such as this, a clear view of the problems, a determination to solve them, and having a strategy will help you to visualize the goal. Now altogether now, let’s pretend we are listening to our favorite teacher, Mr. Einstein, and say out loud what this is called…our “Formula for Success”. Now since we know what types of steps that are necessary in order to achieve our goal or success, let’s consider his actual equation for energy. Energy is the result of mass times the square of the speed of light. And since energy and mass are different forms of the same thing, they are interchangeable.

Ponder this thought in deciding what to do next with your marketing plan, if you are wanting a specific result, then you must develop a clear view of your problem first. Jumping into a problem head first will not only overwhelm you but it will cost you more time and energy to get out of the new problems that could have been avoided. Thinking pro-actively can eliminate further stress.

Our “Formula for Success” now has a clear understanding of what problems we are trying to solve, we need to remember that different forms of our well thought out solutions can be achieved by testing. For example, if you are trying to decide what topic for your promotional videos is the most popular, testing a few out and analyzing the data can help you decide what the best topic is for you to promote. If you are wanting more exposure to your website, then by testing different distributional ideas out can enable you to have a much more clear idea of what works and what does not.

Keep in mind that we are using our testing for our main goal which is to find your “Formula for Success”. Once you find out what works for you, you now have the strategy to achieve your goals. Roll with it and change your formula as you grow.

In a land far far away, in the land of Carmel where the hustle and bustle of people in the city streets, ordinary people doing their ordinary things; there lies the team of Brandwidth. This team may seem like any average business, but to those involved contain the secret lives of heroes.

In the tallest room in the Majestic tower, you will find much more than meets the eye. In fact, this is considered the fortress of solitude for our main hero Bamboleo. He is known as Bo. During the day he listens to Spanish music and works on creating masterful code, but when trouble comes a calling, Bo goes salsa dancing.

Now, our hero wouldn’t be complete if he didn’t have his trusty and Irish sidekick with him… Sir Spud. Working alongside Bo to administer systems for Brandwidth, he is known as “boy blunder” around the office for his history of messing things up and creating a need for Bo to save the day.

Stay tuned for Episode 1.

“This year, 40% of all leisure and 35% of business travel bookings will be done online,” claims Max Starkov and Jason Price when discussing hospitality industry trends for 2007-2010. And “by 2010 over 50% of leisure bookings are expected to be online. An estimated 89% of planners are researching event locations on the web, and by 2008, 41% of all groups and meetings travel revenues will come from the Internet.”

Quite frankly, these statistics and trends are too strong for companies in the hospitality industry to ignore. So why not make the most of your resources? Companies like Brandwidth can provide a portal for revenue growth and provide a solution to reservation stress not only for your company, but also for your customers. It can make sales increase; which will lead to happy owners and customers - because now their employees aren’t as stressed in dealing with reservations, and ratings of hotel and travel with your business will grow exponentially. Let’s not forget the incredibly reduced cost of distribution.

Since the rise of consumer generated media, there are many blogs and sites online where you can read what others think about your business and can create marketing strategies to promote the things most liked by your customers and resolve any points of disapproval at the same time. The assumption that your customers believe everything that is put on your website is simply not true at this point in recovering results of their stays or usage of your product.

The age of technology and mass communication has quickly made that thought superfluous. Customers now research and make many decisions about your business before they ever reach for the phone or place a reservation through your site. “Contrary to some opinions, reward programs do matter. 80% of online bookers belong to a travel reward program and more than 60% belong to a supplier-sponsored program(Forrester Research).” With this in mind, why not step your business up and embrace the marketing strategies that you have available to you?

All over the web today you will find blogs (like this one), wikis, and social networking sites that hold the portal to lead generation. Your relationship with these portals can provide your business with an enormous group of possible customers. Like a relationship it takes some time to get to know the individual site and the users.

Find out what they like, know, enjoy, dislike, and want. Befriend them so as to not invade their space. It’s a balancing act that can be accomplished with some research and planning. Their opinions and ideas should be taken into account before you make any decisions about changing the way you advertise to them, remembering that their friendship can benefit your product greatly or destroy it completely.

According to Marketing Sherpa, the company Information Builders(a software maker) “used a B-to-B social network as a distribution channel for a serious of white papers. They’ve already exceeded their goal for leads by 42.4% and have seen a 750% ROI.” Obviously the time and resources that this company invested in their relationship with the social network of choice paid off. While it may be somewhat risky to try and gain the friendship of these types of users, keep in mind that nothing was ever gained without first taking a risk and that anything can be accomplished with time, research, and planning.