Back on track!

Hey gang, fell off the planet for a week...so I have a lot of things to catch up on .

First, I am currently reading "Communities Dominate Brands" which so far is a very interesting read on community engagement and the future of business and marketing. When I finish it I will report back!

I have also been working on a larger post that I should have ready by mid week. It's a little research experiment that I decided to conduct...on the presidential hopefuls.

So thanks for being patient and I'll be back posting this week!

The Top 5 Small Business Marketing Tips for Budget-Minded Business Owners

I am fortunate enough to have made great friends in the blogosphere, some of which are the best marketing minds in the business. In particular, Caroline Melberg of the Small Business Mavericks blog has been a regular in my feed reader from almost my first day blogging. I read her posts regularly for all the best insight into small business marketing tactics which also happens to be a primary interest of mine.

So I asked her if she would be interested in guest blogging and she politely accepted. Concerning her expertise in the small business sector I was very interested in what she considered to be the most important small business marketing tips for those who are on a tight budget (which is all of them!) Here is what she had to say:

When it comes to running a successful business, marketing is essential. For a small business, marketing often seems like a daunting task – especially when it comes to marketing your business on the web.

Many times, budget-minded business owners fear that small business marketing needs to be expensive in order to be effective. Fortunately - this isn't true. Here are five simple tips for small business owners who are looking to save dollars, while stil running an effective online marketing campaign.

1. Optimize Your Website

There are three simple steps to take so that you can be sure that your website is working for you.

The first is to use a descriptive title for your site as well as keywords and a description that allows search engines and site visitors alike to know what they will find when they visit your web page. Once that's taken care of, make sure that you are placing keywords appropriately in the text of your website.

Your keywords should be specific to your products and services, and should be chosen with consideration for the terms prospective customers would use when searching with Google or Yahoo or whichever other search engine they use.

Finally, these keywords should also be used in the alt image tags as they relate to the photos and illustrations that you post to your website.

2. Market Your Website with Articles & Distribute Press Releases

Article marketing is an extremely effective way of drawing visitors to your website. By creating an informative short article that relates to your business, your area of expertise and your keywords, you can show readers a bit more of what they'll find from your business – which you can link to in your resource box at the bottom of the article.

Online press releases are another effective marketing tool. Like conventional press releases that let local newswires pick up a story about a new staff member or a new product line, online press release distribution will allow you to get the word out to those who publish online newsletters or who review products and services like those that you offer.

Both articles and press releases published online create valuable, relevant inbound links to your website (via the link to your site in your resource box at the end of each article or press release). Search engines place a great amount of value on the number of inbound links you have to your site, so this is an excellent way of building popularity with the search engines, as well as your human customers.

Both article marketing and distributing press releases will enable you to establish yourself as an expert and your company as a source for products or services. Each is effective, and often, submission to article directories is free – that's right, free marketing for your business, all it takes is a little bit of time.

3. Start a Blog

It's a common statement when it comes to Internet marketing: content is king. A blog – short for a weblog – allows you to create fresh content at regular intervals, driving traffic and search engines to your website.

Like article marketing and press release distribution, having a blog allows you to establish your expertise about the products and services that your small business offers. Unlike article marketing and press release distribution, however, a blog allows you to begin to carry on a dialog with your current and prospective customers.

Your blog works like search engine magic for your website. By linking your blog to your website, you draw the search engines to your website. Your site will rank higher and your customers will have a much easier time finding your site.

4. Commit to a Link Building Campaign and Submit Your Site to Directories and Search Engines

As a small business owner building and promoting your business on the web, having quality inbound links is important. Links allow your site to be found by those who visit similar sites looking for the products and services that your company offers.

Links – like those at the end of your articles and press releases, like those that exist back to individual products or services from within your blog, like those from others who have purchased from you in the past – help to improve your site's search engine rank.

By submitting your business' website to relevant directories and even to industry-specific – niche – search engines, you'll begin to generate additional links. More importantly, however, these niche directories are increasingly used by those looking for very specific sites. Having your listing present will make it even more likely that your prospective customers will find your page; that makes them a particularly valuable marketing tool for your business, and, again, it's often free to submit your site.

5. Look for Joint Ventures with Other Like-Minded Business People

It's not uncommon for small businesses to work together – a movie theater and a restaurant offering coupons for a discount if you spend the evening at both places. In my past life working with large corporations I realized that the largest companies grow by means of joint ventures all the time. However, many small businesses do not look into joint ventures when it comes to marketing their businesses.

Is it always easy to find the right joint venture for marketing your business? No, of course not. But it is possible to find like-minded business owners whose customers could benefit from your products or services just as your customers could benefit from those that they offer.

As a result, both small businesses will be better able to extend their outreach and develop a wider customer base. If you are going to enter into a joint venture, search for companies with similar goals and a similar customer base but a different type of product or service. Stay on the lookout, keep an open mind and you just might find the perfect opportunity to market your business to a new audience.

A perfect example of this principle is a recent joint venture I did with a company who specializes in teaching business credit skills to small business owners. This company markets to the same clients that I wish to add to my customer list, but they offer a completely different service. By working together, we were able to market our services to each other’s mailing lists, resulting in both of us attracting new customers we would not have had otherwise. The great part about this joint venture was that there was no out of pocket cost to either of us – just our time and a little creativity in coming up with suitable promotions to each other’s lists!

Taking your business to the web does not need to be difficult, nor does it need to be expensive. By taking a creative approach, small business owners on a tight marketing budget will be able to find traffic and increase their customer base.

Focus on reaching the search engines: use the right keywords and use them appropriately. Let people know that you have the information they need with articles and be sure to get the word out by distributing press releases. Interact with your customers with a high quality blog, and focus on getting great links. Lastly, take advantage of partnerships with like-minded business owners.

Marketing your small business website may require a lot of hard work, but it doesn't require a lot of money – oftentimes, the best results are derived from the most creative (not the most expensive) solutions.

About the Author
Caroline Melberg is President and CEO of Small Business Mavericks, a division of Melberg Marketing. She has over 20 years of experience creating marketing communications materials and writing copy for some of most successful companies in the world. She publishes the popular eZine, "Small Business Maverick Secrets." Learn insider Maverick Marketing secrets you can use immediately to find new customers and increase your sales. Subscribers also get a FREE copy of her e-Book, "Local Small Business Internet Marketing Secrets." Get your FREE subscription at www.SmallBusinessMavericks.com.

Porn emails have better deliverability than you...

When I waltzed into work today my boss passed along a blog post that he thought was particularly interesting and I have to agree with him.

In a recent study by Lyris, it was determined that content isn't always the factor that trips you up in the spam filters. Here are a few insights that stand out. Of the top 10 types of content that most often trigger spam scores, only two appeared with a frequency that might cause concern. Here they are:

1. Heavy use of images, which can increase spam scores up to a full point and render poorly in email clients with image blocking enabled.

2. Sending messages with a "From Name" composed of numbers or symbols rather than an actual name.

Not rocket science, but interesting nonetheless concerning that its so high in relation to everything else on the deliverability list.

Wendy at imediaconnection makes an interesting parallel about how the porn industry is able to endure high deliverability rates.

"Take the industry for adult content, for example. I'm talking about legitimate pornographic content: websites and distributors with paid subscribers who expect those emails to get through. There is no industry more closely watched and no email content more likely to trigger spam filters.

Yet, legitimate messages from purveyors of pornography or other sex-related content do manage to successfully land in inboxes. How? The senders scrupulously follow best practices and manage their reputations. They use double confirmed opt-ins, they scrub their lists regularly, and they're quick to respond when someone complains."

If there was ever a reason to clean up your email marketing act the time is now. Take a lesson from pornographers.

clipped from www.imediaconnection.com From your first communication, set up clear expectations. Tell people how to sign up or opt-in, and tell them exactly what they're opting-in to. Tell them how often they'll receive something from you and what it will be. Tell them how to opt out. Make them confirm the registration, and again remind them what it's for. Be aware of the company you keep. If your customer service department works hard to follow best practices, but your marketing department does not, then -- just like your mom warned you -- you'll suffer guilt by association. Don't learn this the hard way; if your friends smoke, your clothes will reek, too. Sometimes reputation is a matter of IP address. If it's new, the ISPs tend to be wary. Obviously, there are legitimate reasons that you might have a new IP address; if you're switching providers, for example. But if you have to switch, ramp up slowly.

If Seth Godin had hair...

Okay, so I was chatting with an old college buddy tonight over Yahoo Instant Messenger and somehow we got to speculating about what Seth might have looked like when he had hair. Since we are both old photoshop hacks we pinged these pics back and forth.

The one on the left belongs to my buddy and my attempt is the one on the right...


I think the one on the left is a pretty convincing Top Gun...and I have no idea what I was going for.

So which one do you think Seth most looked like pre-Kojak? Or if you think we missed the mark entirely, send in your own renditions!

And if anyone has a real pic...we can put the speculation to rest.

**Updated**

We can put the speculation to rest! Can you find him in the line up?


Thanks to Seth himself for commenting with the link to the image!

B2B and social media...wheres the love?

Its interesting about how much buzz is given to social media marketing...I must have read ten articles over the weekend about it. But the more I read about marketing on sites like myspace, friendster, facebook, blogs, etc. the more I realize that it is primarily B2C companies taking advantage of this new medium with the B2B crowd staying cautiously out of the fray.

Why is that?

Of course it is inherently easier to mass market a consumer product. You have a much larger pool of potential customers and the marketing is less complex than that of B2B. It will always be easier to go viral talking about the iphone instead of email marketing deliverability rates. And you can market the iphone to millions while an email marketing solution is limited to hundreds of potential clients (maybe thousands if your lucky).

So does it make sense to abstain from social media marketing then?

In a word...no.

The B2B approach to this kind of marketing should not follow that of B2C. You don't need to rely on huge buzz to drive interest in your product so don't feel the need to employ trendy video gimmicks, silly contests, or controversial blog posts in an attempt to "go viral". Its not your style man!

Here are some simple mistakes to avoid.

1. Resist the urge to create a "company" myspace account. This will just make you look silly - especially when no one signs up to be your company's friend.


2. Don't try to accumulate a mass amount of friends. You will look as desperate as the high school geek trying to build a friend empire online.


3. Don't waste your money advertising on myspace. I don't think many high school and college students are in the market to buy your products or services.


4. Like I said before...no cheesy you tube videos. You will never be able to compete against a guy getting hit in the crotch or the cat playing the piano.


5. Don't blog because everyone else is doing it. Alot of people wore a mullet in the 80's too. Know when something makes sense for YOU to do...we can't all be Billy Ray Cyrus.
   

Instead, just simply encourage your employees to use them.

The best way to approach social media in the B2B world is to actually use the social networks that all of your friends, colleagues, and business associates use. Specifically, Linked In is fast becoming the "professional" alternative to sites like myspace, friendster, and xanga. It is a social network site specifically for maintaining business and industry contacts.

But it is not the only resource. If a lot of your contacts are using myspace, get on myspace. In the end you want to stay in touch and be accessible to those people you know and have relationships with. And by using those social networking sites you will find additional contacts...who may even eventually buy something from you.

I'm not saying that there is not a larger marketing opportunity with these sites either. The potential for brand building is great and well thought out strategies exist for making the most out of marketing on them...even if your B2B.

But in the end it's always been about building relationships ...and its no different online.

Converting consumers with multiple impressions.

An interesting study appeared late this week in e-marketer about how varied touch points across multiple websites can lead to increased conversion rates. It also reminded me of a great post by Jeremy Reynolds that explains the importance of understanding this. Getting to know where your customers "hang out" online is important to consider when you decide to start investing in online advertising.

For online marketers who think that the last ad impression (or click) seen is the most likely to lead to a conversion, a look at the Atlas Institute's "How Overlap Impacts Reach, Frequency and Conversions" study may be in order.

The study, conducted in the first quarter of 2007, found that US consumers were more likely to convert after viewing ads on multiple Web sites, suggesting that conversions should be attributed to a full set of impressions and/or clicks, rather than just the single one that preceded the conversion.

Two out of three consumers who eventually bought a product or took a responsive action were reached by ads across multiple portal sites before converting.



Nine in 10 consumers who converted were reached by placements other than the last ad seen. Also, 86.1% of ads which led to a responsive action were seen on multiple placements.



A previous Atlas study called "The Combined Impact of Search and Display Advertising" showed that sponsored search and display advertising together provided a 22% higher conversion rate over search alone.

Source: e-Marketer: Multiple Online Ad Placements Impress

More landing page advice...

In an earlier post last week I outlined how to create simple and effective B2B landing pages. When I was catching up on my litany of RSS feeds over this weekend I came across this article in Marketing Profs highlighting their Top 5 Best (and Worst) things about landing pages.

Almost everything I had covered in my earlier post was covered here. ..except for the following observation that speaks about self directed user segmentation (see clip). This is also a great strategy if you find that your visitors are still varying widely by interests or needs.

On a side note, the article also speaks about the negative effect of landing pages on the brand. While I do believe that to some extent this is true it can be minimized by making the landing pages in high quality in both design and messaging...but I digress!

clipped from www.marketingprofs.com No segmentation—clicks are treated as a commodity. Not all clicks are created equal. Ad response traffic often contains a spectrum of different audience segments. They clicked on the same ad, yes, but not all for the same reason, not all with the same needs. The one-page format of landing pages makes the same pitch to all of them, oblivious to their distinctions. If the page focuses only on one segment, it disenfranchises others; if it tries to speak to all segments at once, its passion and relevance to any one segment are watered down. A better approach is to use a landing path where the first page induces a one-click directed behavioral segmentation choice from respondents—a branch in the path depending on the segment the respondent selects—and then you can speak with conviction and authority to each segment's specific interests on page two.

The Bounce Rate Crystal Ball

The official Google Analytics blog makes a great point about the importance of bounce rates to your marketing efforts. They are a simple enough metric that can be applied to nearly any kind of website.

It is a metric tailored especially for landing pages...where a high bounce rate can tell you almost as much as a defined conversion funnel.

If you need a resource for understanding which metrics provide the most insight, check out the new book Web Analytics an Hour a Day.

clipped from analytics.blogspot.com If your site conversion rates are low, Bounce Rate can help you understand why. If your Bounce Rates are also low, your troubles are likely due to site design and usability issu es. In this case, you might focus your efforts on streamlining your conversion funnel or making your site easier to navigate. But if your Bounce Rates are high, you can focus your efforts on redesigning entrance (landing pages), improving the quality of traffic to your site, and doing a better job of pairing landing pages with ads.

ExactTarget Campaign Monitoring Widget

In an earlier post I commented on a cool Google Analytics widget that allowed for key web metrics to be displayed as a widget on the users desktop by the Yahoo! Widgets desktop application.

And then I ran across a neat email campaign monitoring widget for ExactTarget created by Doug Karr. In full disclosure I used to work for ExactTarget and my company is an agency client and preferred partner, so I may be biased...but I think this is a great tool!

Basically you enter a "job id" (a unique id applied to an email send) and then it updates that campaign every 15 minutes so you get near real time reporting on campaign activity. Pretty slick.

Also, There is another "Advanced Tracking" widget, but as of right now I could not get it to install properly on my computer. I do look forward to using it once they get it figured out! Once it is I will post it here.

So if your an ExactTarget client and find yourself obsessively logging in to see how your email marketing campaign in doing...this little tool may be the answer!

Engagement Marketing - Free PDF Download

I’ve got the latest Web 2.0 guide "Engagement Marketing" by eMarketer and WebTrends that was just released and I'm providing it here free without cost or registration. It covers a lot of interesting data that supports the emergence of web 2.0 technologies and how they fit into the broader marketing picture.

Download the study now.

The WebTrends case study at the end is actually pretty weak compared to the rest of the document...but I guess thats to be expected since they are sponsoring it. Overall however, the document contains some solid information on the latest technology trends (social networks, podcasts, mobile media, video, digital downloading, etc.) as well as the opportunity that exists to take advantage of these trends.

del.ic.io.us links for 2007.06.27

• Marketing Sherpa: How to Quadruple Lead Generation Response With Job Title Segmentation and Targeted Messages
  
  See how one financial tech company developed two separate integrated campaigns -- one that targeted by company size and one that segmented by job function. They're ecstatic that segmentation has quadrupled response rates and boosted conversions 24%. Includes test results and creative samples.


• A List Apart: Human-to-Human Design
  
  Help your audience fall in love with you by moving beyond human-to-computer interfaces and embracing human-to-human design.

And the funny one. This made me laugh out loud!

• SEOmoz: We Add Words to AdWords... Google Subtracts them.
  
  Rand asked me for some help with AdWords content. But I really don't know how to grab someone's attention in two lines. That is, without being really crass. So it got a little PG-13 in our apartment this afternoon, what with the liberal use of words like "Viagra" and "Yo Mama" jokes
  

6 Ways to Increase Your PPC Traffic

A great post today from the PPC Hero blog...as I stated in my previous post, this is a great search marketing resource.

Whether your goals are to drive sales, leads or sign-ups, increasing traffic to your site is one action you can take to get closer to your goals. Below I’ve described six ways I was able to increase traffic for my clients without spending additional money. And in turn, I was able to generate more leads and revenue for my clients.

1. Stop Ad Text Testing, Temporarily - If it’s near the end of the month, one way I increase traffic for my clients is to pause my ad text testing and only use the ad with the highest click-through rate to get maximum traffic. Then, at the beginning of the next month when goals and budgets start over, I un-pause my ad text and begin re-testing.

2. Separate Content Network - After speaking with my Google rep, she said that one way to increase traffic to your site is to turn off the content network in your sponsored search and create a new campaign where only the content network is being used. The keywords you should put in your content only campaign should be very general keywords. General keywords are more likely to be picked up by publishers versus specific keywords. She also suggests that you use the content network placement performance report to see which sites are driving the majority of traffic and which are not.

3. Add All Match Types - If you’re currently not running all match types in Google, I strongly recommend it. I have one keyword with all three match types (exact, phrase and broad) in a separate ad group in Google and all three keywords get clicks and conversions. It’s not always necessary to keep your different match types in a separate ad group, but you might find a higher click-through rate if you do. It’s something you’ll have to test on your own.

4. Keyword Tools – Keyword tools are not only important when you’re setting up new campaigns and ad groups. You should be using the keyword tool at least once a month to add new keywords to your ad groups. The more people type that go to Google and Yahoo and type in new search queries, the more new keywords will show up in the keyword tools. I recently used the keyword tool for one of my accounts that I haven’t used for a while. I managed to find tons of new keywords to add into my ad groups.

5. Site Related Keyword Tool – This is a relatively new tool for Google and I just started using it for my accounts. You type in your landing page URL and the tool will find relevant keywords according to that page. At times when I have used this tool, I have found it helpful most of the time. Even if there’s one or two keywords that the tool brings up that you didn’t think of or didn’t have in your ad group it could possibly bring a significant increase in traffic.

6. Set Daily Budgets, Lower Bids – Everyone knows that raising your keyword bids will increase site traffic. But if it’s near the end of the month and you don’t have the extra money to spend, set a daily spending limit and if you begin to hit that limit consistently, lower your bids. This will allow more traffic to come through at a cheaper cost, and in turn you’ll increase your traffic without spending additional money. Make sure you don’t lower your keyword bids too aggressively at first, or you could end up losing traffic if you go below your daily spending limit. I check my accounts at various times throughout the day to see if and when I’ve hit my spending limit. At one point I found that my account was hitting it’s spending limit at 10am. So I began to lower my bids and saw a significant increase in traffic yet didn’t go over my budget. If you don’t have a daily spending limit set up on your account set one, then gage whether or not you should need to lower your bids.

Source: PPC Hero: 6 Ways to Increase Your PPC Traffic

Pay-Per-Click Hero

I have a friend who is an extremely successful pay-per-click marketer and as he has grown out his business his team has taken to blogging on the topic of PPC. After checking out the posts for a few months I have to say that I am impressed. I have worked directly with Patrick and his company Hanapin Marketing in the past and can attest first hand to their expertise and success in the search marketing arena.

So if you are doing any paid search marketing go check out PPC Hero, it has some great tips and advice.

Simple Newsletter Changes Bump Clicks 190%

I was reading Marketing Sherpa this morning and came across this interesting case study about how a simple change to your newsletter can make all the difference.

This is a great reason to start doing that email testing that you have been putting off because the results can be amazing. Every email that goes out without a split is a missed opportunity to gain insight into your recipients behavior.

clipped from www.marketingsherpa.com SUMMARY: Sometimes even the smallest change can make a world of difference in your email design. See how one publisher transformed a related stories link into a gray utility button and immediately saw a 190% increase in clicks and traffic is up 6% on a different landing page. It's an easy tweak that if you haven't considered, you may want to test on your own newsletters.

11 Tips for Successful B2B Landing Pages

Chances are good that if you do even a small amount of online marketing you have come into contact with landing pages.

Landing pages are described in Wikipedia as "a specific web page that a visitor ultimately reaches after clicking a link or advertisement". This could be anything from a search campaign in Google to a banner ad placed in a local business association. These are almost always transactional pages that exist to help fuel the customer conversion, whether it is to purchase a product, download information, or simply sign up for an email newsletter.

We place a lot of importance on these pages as they are the gateway to all customer interactivity with your company. Get it wrong and you could miss out on a lot of potential revenue. It is especially important in the B2B realm - where the value of the conversion is typically greater.

So in an effort to help you get off on the right foot I have compiled a list of tips that have served me well when creating successful B2B landing pages.

1. Carry the message through from the advertisement: Do everything you can to make sure that you aren't pushing your traffic to a "one size fits all" landing page. If the ad that brought them was about a particular feature - then highlight that feature. If it was a discount that brought them to you...don't waste time talking up the feature set. It may be more work to create multiple landing pages...but you will definitely get more conversions


2. Personalize the content: I've seen marketers spend hours segmenting a list and crafting a highly customized message that speaks directly to each recipient...only to forward them to a generic landing page once they decide to take action! If your email program allows for personalization of content... drive that personalization through the link in the email and into the landing page. If you want to see how you can do this through using simple javascript, see this earlier post.


3. Keep the form simple and above the fold: You can test this yourself, but I have ALWAYS gotten better response when the form is above the fold. And of course, its always better to limit the amount of information to only that which is necessary. Do you really need to know the state when you have the zip code? If possible its even better if you can...
   


4. Pre-populate the form: Want to know the easiest way to increase conversion? Pre-populate the form on the landing page. If you are driving traffic from an email campaign then you already have alot of this info...don't ask them for it again! Again, you can do this using simple javascript.
   


5. Minimize outbound links: You spent alot of money to get the visitor to the landing page so it is perfectly acceptable to drive traffic to a landing page optimized for conversion. As long as you are giving the visitor exactly what the ad promises...you are not entitled to give them access to every page of your website. If you want to force a conversion or an exit...then that is acceptable. I will usually offer a few ancillary links if they aren't ready to take action, however...the intent is obvious and I try to do everything I can to encourage the dominant call to action.


6. Optimize them for search: It makes a lot of sense to optimize each landing page for a few specific (usually long tail) keywords. Since you will be driving alot of traffic to these pages they will likely gain relevance and therefore prominence. A good way to encourage volume traffic is to link to these landing pages from your website, add them to your sitemap, andkeep them as close to the design and layout as your web site pages (while keeping in mind #5). There are too many SEO tips to cover here...I suggest reading up on any number of SEO blogs available.
   


7. Keep the messaging to the point: The tendency is to try to do too much with the landing page copy. Its perfectly understandable since we ask so much of this page. But the fact of the matter is that this is no time to beat around the bush or push a lot of marketing fluff. Get to the point, offer real benefits, and answer those last minute questions that may be that last barrier to taking action.


8. Use visual elements to peak interest: A picture is worth a thousand words. The more you can do with images (or even better...embed a presentation) the more likely you are going to pique the interest of your visitor and encourage them to take the desired action. Leave nothing to the imagination...because nobody buys that way.
   


9. Set a testing plan in place: Don't just create the landing page and then hope that everything goes right...start testing some combinations of messages. With Google releasing Website Optimizer to the public for free you can immediately begin seeing what headlines and action calls your visitors are responding the best to.


10. Monitor your results closely: I single out my landing pages for special treatment in my Google Analytics...in the form of goals and campaign tracking. This will provide a lot of opportunity to understand campaign traffic segments in relation to goal conversion. I also like to use Crazy Egg's heat map and confetti view to track specific click behavior. Mine the data...and you will be able to make key insights that help your conversion.
    


11. Survey them: The best thing you can get from #10 is quantitative data...thousands of reports that will tell you all of the activity that has taken place...but it will not give you the "why". Why did they choose Product X over Product Y? Why did they decide to leave without converting? Why are people who come from email more likely to convert than from search? Surveying on exit or conversion can help fill in those gaps that analytics cannot.
    

The most important thing to consider when crafting a landing page is to never sacrifice your message for short sighted gains in SEO or web analysis. Keep your primary focus on the customer and being as thorough as possible in describing the benefits or your product and/or service. Do only those things that make sense for your customer and watch the conversions come in!

Putting Email Design in the Hands of the Subscriber

I was doing my regular surfing of my favorite website today and came across another cool article that I wanted to share...

clipped from customer-driven-marketing.blogspot.com Why not let your customers pick an email template and color theme from a set of available themes when they register/optin to your marketing campaign? It could be something similar to how blogger lets you choose a template and color theme for your blog. Your mailer program could then leverage this to send out visually personalized email.

I am a fan of the Customer Driven Marketing blog and it never fails that I run across some interesting ideas every time I visit. This little musing got me thinking about how we always fret over the look and feel over our email templates...and what if we just turned it over to the subscriber? And make it a part of their preference center so they can change whenever they want? Its food for thought.

Changes to Skatterbox.com

If you haven't noticed, Skatterbox is undergoing some cosmetic changes...primarily intended to increase the focus on content. I decided that it would be a much better experience for my readers, because thats who I care about and why I write.

The first noticeable change has been the elimination of the sub header (with the stacked stone image) which was taking up way too much screen "real estate" and pushing a lot of content below the fold.

The second (and biggest) change was the removal of advertising. My intent was not to blog to make money...but I did want to understand it. So using my blog as a testing ground was a great learning experience and a lot of fun...but its time to devote full focus to my audience now.

So I hope that the changes make it an overall better experience for you. Over the next few days I will be expanding my blog roll to include a bigger list of sites I frequent. If you would like to be included, please let me know and we can possibly do a link exchange.

Be well!

Open Source CMS Done Right

Okay...the time has come for me to formally endorse a content management system.

I have come across ALOT of content applications in the 7 years of developing on the web. I have even built some of my own from scratch.

In my career I have used Interwoven, Hot Banana, Web Side Story, Plone, Drupal, Post Nuke, and a host of smaller PHP and .NET applications.

About three years ago I came across an open source CMS that went by the name of Mambo. While at the time I was impressed with the functionality, i was not entirely sold on the ease of implementation and the community was somewhat fractured.

So I went on about my search and settled on some smaller open source program that did "just enough to get the job done".

Fast forward to about 6 months ago where I revisited Mambo. It appeared that the community had finally split into 2 camps...the new community calling itself Joomla. I decided I would take them out for a spin.

What I learned right away was that this new Joomla application was an unbelieveable improvement with a huge community of developers and users. Mambo was improved as well - but the community seemed to be lagging while Joomla seemeed to be thriving.

If any of you have experience directly with open source applications it is no secret that they are only as good as the community supporting it. Well, Joomla is the best supported application I have ever come across. The community is rich and the list of extensions run a mile long. Chances are good that if you need it, someone has developed it.

I have developed a handful of websites using Joomla now, and have to say that I cant imagine going back. I was recently asked to do some work in Hot Banana again and it was so painful to navigate and customize. Not to mention that its written in Cold Fusion...yuck

Implementing Joomla is easy once you understand how it works... and believe me, its worth it. You need no direct knowledge of programming to install it and creating templates is fun and easy. Joomla is a simple content management system that can "extended" to make it as complex as you need it to be. Think about Firefox and all its extensions and you will get a good idea of how Joomla works.

So I highly recommend Joomla when you decide to navigate the murky road of CMS. I have used my share of them and must tell you that it is heads and tails above all open source... as well as most commercial applications. So dont spend all your money on a proprietary CMS, instead donate to Open Source Matters (the not-for-profit responsible for Joomla) download the program and benefit from the community of thousands and the hundreds of open source extensions that Joomla offers

Its no wonder Joomla was awarded the best Open Source CMS for 2006. You should check it out!

List Rental...the Right Way

I came across an awesome article the other day and definitely wanted to share it with you. Kelly Rusk at Card Communications has hit the "mail" on the head (okay, bad pun!) with 5 easy tips to do it right. I clipped my favorite below...but you have to check out the full article here!

clipped from www.cardcommunications.com Make the most of your rental, ask for an opt-in - Make the primary call-to-action a request to subscribe. You could try to sell a product, and that may bring in X amount of dollars, but if you convert the rented names to join your own house list, you can sell to them time and time again.

The B2B Pricing Mystery

There is a great post on Grokdotcom today about the reluctance of B2B companies to list pricing on their website. If you are competing on quality over price...maybe you shouldn't be afraid to say so.

While posting price might not be a good idea or make sense for all companies, it is worth thinking about and reconsidering. Go read the full article and see if it makes sense!

clipped from www.grokdotcom.com It’s usually companies that aren't competing on price who want to keep price a secret. If a company doesn’t compete on price, they're probably competing on quality; customer service or other factors. But why avoid the question? Tell the visitor what your price is and even explain that it’s higher than the competitors–just explain WHY it’s higher. If you don’t compete on price and your visitor is shopping on price, then that visitor isn't your customer. Give him what he came searching for and sell him on your unique value. If that doesn't work, don't shy away from sending him elsewhere. That level of confidence is contagious, and often results in higher conversion, anyway.

Great Free Tool for Building Online Presentations

I have built alot of Flash presentations in my lifetime and they can be really effective at getting a point across, especially if you have a complex story to tell.

The problem was that developing those presentations either in house or outsourcing it to an agency quickly costs a lot of time and money. They were "nice to have" but always fell into the ever elusive "3rd Phase" when talking about our phased online strategy. No one ever wanted to commit the resources and budget to it.

Lately I have been marketing a lot of software and putting together an effective presentation whether it is in Powerpoint or Flash has become as important as ever. An online demonstration can help prospects a great deal when they are narrowing down their selection. The more info you can show them...the better.

So thats why I was very impressed when I came across this little tool called "Wink". Its extremely simple to understand and use...and the best part is that its free!

You can get up and running almost instantly. You just download the application, fire it up, and press play. It will immediately start recording your mouse movements and you can narrate by simply talking into your microphone. When you are done, you can add descriptions, pictures, arrows, sounds, interactive buttons, and even links to urls to help you further tell your story. It makes putting together an effective presentation quick and easy!

What do you have to loose? Go try it out!

Constant Surveys in Emails? Not likely.

Constant Contact just released a survey component to their email marketing product, a great addition...except that its late in the game to be joining the email survey crowd.

The problem is not with the idea, but instead with Outlook 2007 and the future of email rendering. Since form elements in emails rendered in O'07 do not render, you are forced to view blank form elements in the email itself and required to view the email as a web page in order to interact with it. Email rendering rules are getting tighter...not lighter.

Don't misunderstand me on this... I am a huge evangelist when it comes to the importance of surveying and obtaining qualitative data, it is infinitely important when conducting analysis. My point is that its just as possible to integrate with a dedicated survey vendor who specializes in conducting surveys like Survey Gizmo or Zoomerang. It may be a better use of your money...especially with the current email rendering trends.

As a marketer I loved having surveys in emails and hope to have them back someday. But without my crystal ball I wouldn't likely select my ESP based on that.

Nice feature set...but a little too late.

Boy does this sound familiar!

I ran across this today and have to say that this is one of the funniest cartoons I have run across lately!



If you understand this comic all too well then I truly sympathize with you!

Email Subject Line Testing

A recent article in Marketing Sherpa points out a study done by Pivotal Voracity that concludes 53% of all email subject lines are broken and what you can do to help ensure that yours are not included in that number.

I come across this alot when I people ask me why wierd characters end up in thier subject lines. The quick and easy way to ensure that your subject lines are viewed correctly is to paste them into notepad first and then re-copy and paste it into your email program. This will remove any non-ASCII formatting. If you require special characters then you will need to brush up on encoding them correctly.

This article is a must read for any serious marketer - and even more so for the SMB out there conducting thier own email marketing. You dont want to get flagged as spam...

And while your at subject line testing here is a cool little tool by Email Labs that will help save you alot of time. It will help you see how your from name, from email, and subject line will appear in all of the major ESP's.

Podcasts by Avinash Kaushik

If you are a big analytics fan like I am you have to run over to Grokdotcom and view Bryan Eisenberg's interview with Avinash Kaushik. Its broken down to two podcasts that you can find here (1st) and here (2nd).

I was able to finish his book over my vacation and I am greatly impressed...there is not a better book on the topic, and I have read alot of books that cover web analytics (Jim Sterne's "Web Metrics" is another great read). But this one is by far the best of its class.

So forgive me if I sound like a broken record...but you must go out and buy his book. If you want to know exactly how I feel about his book you can read my amazon review.

Great job Avinash!

6 Marketing Tactics Worth Paying For....

I ran across this article in Forbes.com and wanted to share it with you.

It really sums up some great tacctics that I put into use on a daily basis. If you arent doing at least 3 of these then you're not doing enough.

Make sure that you view the link at the bottom of the article that describes the article in pictures...its a great read.

Google Analytics Desktop Widget for Yahoo

I have been evaluating a cool tool provided by VivAlytics for the Yahoo widgets desktop application.

Its pretty simple to get up and running. You just download the Yahoo Widget Engine and then download the VivAlytics Google Analytics Desktop Widget ...and after customizing the application to view the reports you want regular access to - Voila! You have all of your favorite metrics available to you right from the desktop.

If you dont want to get deluged with scheduled email reports and dont want to have to login to Google Analytics every time you want to recieve your favorite metrics then this little tool may be for you.

I actually found that the Yahoo Widget Engine 4.0 to be a very cool application and have found a number of tools that I am using it for so its worth checking out on its own. There are hundreds of widgets available for it and its increasing every day.If you take VivAlytics for a test drive let us know your experiences here!

Back in the Saddle!

Some of you over the past month have been nice enough to politely inquire as to why I have been posting less frequently lately. The simple answer is that I got really super busy at work... and then took a much needed vacation in the Smoky Mountains. I had to hit the pressure release valve on my head before it exploded...

What I realized while I was gone was that I have a great set of dedicated readers who really care about my little blog. To those of you who were nice enough to inquire let me tell you that its you who make this all fun and worthwhile.

So I am back with a renewed sense of purpose and excited to get back to work. I had a lot of time to clear the head and with that new ideas formed... and I'm just itching to share them with you here!

So to the one faithful reader who politely ribbed me if all I was going to post about this month was book reviews...

I say no.

But I did get them finished while on vacation and will be the inspiration for many of my next posts. Book reviews are here to stay ;)

Web Analytics an Hour a Day

I just received my pre-ordered copy of Web Analytics: An Hour a Day by Avinash Kaushik!

I just broke it open and will be frantically reading through it for the next day or so. I have been skimming the chapters already and it looks to be an outstanding read. I know it makes more sense to post about a book after you have read it - but this is one of those occasions where I have been eagerly anticipating its arrival since I am a frequent reader of his blog posts! Between this and Email Marketing by the Numbers, I am in heaven.

If the book is half as good as his blog then we will all be very informed!

Right On Interactive launches new website

Okay, maybe this is a self serving post but it explains why I have been somewhat absent the past week and a half. We have been updating the look and feel of our website as well as adding new information. There is much more to come in the way of content and product offerings in the coming weeks and I look forward to your comments and suggestions as we continue to update it. So stop by, take a look, and let me know your thoughts!

Email Marketing by the Numbers

I just want to take a moment and tell you about a book that has come out recently that I highly recommend - "Email Marketing by the Numbers". It is a great book by Chris Baggott and Ali Sales - both of whom I collaborated very closely with during my days in marketing department at ExactTarget. They are both extremely talented marketers to which I can personally attest.

I bought the book as soon as it came available and was delighted to find it not just a book by Chris, but a compilation of work from many talented internet marketers from around the world. Many of those talented professionals are people I worked with while at ExactTarget like Morgan Stewart, Chip House, Joel Book, and Ali Sales. Other contributors, specifically Amol Dalvi, I continue to work with in my current position at tech start up Right On Interactive.

I also want to mention Kelly Rusk with Card Communications who is an email marketing expert who contributed to the book as well - she both posts and links here and is an extremely talented internet marketer. I met her by chance when I started blogging and have been faithfully reading her posts ever since!

Besides the fact that many reputable professionals contributed to the book (my friends!) - it is also an easy read. A book on email marketing could easily put anyone to sleep (even die-hards like me) but instead it flows nicely and the examples and insight are truly inspiring.

So if you are truly interested in adding email to your marketing arsenal or just want to hone in your existing skills - you cant go wrong buying this book. Good job guys!

Google Analytics gets a facelift

Here it is...

If you logged into your Google account recently you saw a notice about Google Analytics undergoing a face lift. So I was pleasantly suprised when I logged into my account today and saw that my account had been migrated already and I was able to take it out for an initial test drive!

I have to say that I really love the new interface. Its much more intuitive and even simpler to use and understand than before...which was hard to do since it was already a pretty sleek and easy to use interface.

Here are the main improvements:

• Email and export reports: Schedule or send ad-hoc personalized report emails and export reports in PDF format.
• Custom Dashboard: No more digging through reports. Put all the information you need on a custom dashboard that you can email to others.
• Trend and Over-time Graph: Compare time periods and select date ranges without losing sight of long term trends.
• Contextual help tips: Context sensitive Help and Conversion University tips are available from every report.
  

I have to say that I really think the interface is a huge improvement in helping you find the information that is most important to you. Where you usually had to dig through to find the data - you are now able to get to it more quickly, save it, and share it.

So far I am very impressed. What do you think?

Outlook 2007 - more like 1999...

If you are a marketer you have to be pulling your hair out at the new Outlook 2007.

Check out the article at Marketing Sherpa.

What we have here is a major shift in how marketers will have to approach email marketing, since Microsoft has decided to move away completely from usability and technology in favor of security. (It should be noted that I don't accept the premise of the argument that it is ultimately a choice of one or the other...)

If you are a web designer - you may want to relearn how to design using tables because the new Outlook does not support CSS floating or positioning. The irony for us old web designers is that we actually remember what it was like to hack together a design using tables - most new designers are unfamiliar with the old way of designing on the web...welcome to 1999!

If you put forms in your email - don't expect those to render either. You know those sophisticated emails that contain surveys or registrations...kiss them goodbye because they are now the odd man out. Sit back and think about what this means as marketers...yep, it sucks that bad.

And if you were ever holding out for rich media - videos, flash, applets ect...fuhgettaboutit! Microsoft doesn't seem to think that those spam filter issues are going away any time soon - so now it will be even longer before they become available in email. Thanks alot.

The biggest point I am making besides the fact that all of these changes really impact email marketing negatively - is that its a fundamental shift in Microsoft's way of thinking. Instead of pioneering the way to help make email more user friendly and extending its functionality, they have decided to force us into much more primitive email. It almost feels like Microsoft is trying to revert back to 1999.

But then those were much better times for Microsoft.

Marketing Tool Review: Crazy Egg

When I first started blogging I came across an analytics tool called Crazy Egg. I saw that it was free and decided to take it on a test drive. It has been almost 2 months now and I have to say that its a pretty neat tool and has some cool features - however because of its simplicity I would not use it as my lone solution for analytics.

Crazy Egg is marketed primarily as a testing tool. This can be misleading for those looking for a real testing solution ala Offermatica or Website Optimizer (Google's free tool). If you are looking for a way to do complex multivariate splits do not turn here - it does not handle content serving.

What Crazy Egg does allow you to do is to set up simple tests within the application where a specified number of visitors are tracked per page. Once that number of visitors is reached the test completes and stats are recorded for the test. The next step is to make a change to the page and run another test - typically with the same visitor count. This is supposed to provide insight as to what is working and what you may wish to change.

So if you want to conduct some simple(and manual) tests this tool will work fine.

Crazy Eggs biggest asset is that it is simple to follow for those who do better understanding visually (I am one of them). Crazy Egg has some unique features... the one that I found to be the most interesting is the heat map. It tracks where in a web page user clicks are being recorded and visually displays the results over the web page itself. This is rather interesting data and could be used to better understand your visitor behavior.

The biggest drawback for me is that you cannot use this tool with a true testing application. If you are using Google Website Optimizer doing concurrent split/multivariate tests then Crazy Egg is not useful. Crazy Egg does its tracking at the page level which gets muddy because it shares split level traffic and inconsistent page elements.

But I still like to use Crazy Egg in addition to other testing and analytics tools because of some of its unique features. And if you are new and interested in web page testing then this tool is a great place to start... it is both easy to implement and simple to understand.

Grade: B

Have your own thoughts or experiences with Crazy Egg? Share them!

Mr. Marketing - Add him to your calendar

Sometimes its the simplest of posts that inspire me to write. This post from Duct Tape Marketing is a great example...

"Many small business owners could benefit from using a marketing calendar as their primary marketing planning tool. The idea is to keep doing something related to marketing, according to plan, month in and month out."

This is simple but extremely important advice - particularly for small businesses who have little to no marketing department. A common mistake made by small businesses is to overcompensate for a lack of marketing strategy by throwing money at something new and seeing if if it sticks. Instead - put that money into a long term approach and make marketing an investment. Start building sound marketing strategies now (no matter how small). You will have a much better chance for success than chasing the next big thing.

It is important to have regularly scheduled meetings with Mr. Marketing - he is an important client that can bring in alot of revenue for your company...add him to your calendar!

10 Best Analytics Blogs

Here they are from Avinash.

Normally I would make a crack when someone creates a top ten list where they put themselves at the #1 spot...but hey, the guy is an analytics guru!

# 1: Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik
# 2: Web Metrics Guru by Marshall Sponder
# 3: Google Analytics Blog by Jeff Gills
# 4: Web Analytics World by Manoj Jasra
# 5: Eric T. Peterson’s Analytics Weblog by Eric Peterson
# 6: Increasing your website’s conversion rate by Robbin Steif
# 7: Unofficial Google Analytics Blog by Michael Harrison
# 8: Lies, Damned Lies… by Ian Thomas
# 9: WebAnalytics.be Blog by Aurélie Pols
# 10: Web Analysis, Behavioral Targeting and Advertising by Anil Batra

Have fun!

Catching your competition with their pants down

Imagine if you knew when a major competitor came to your site and what pages they were spending all of their time on? Wouldn't it be great if you could catch the bastards spying on you?

I read a great post from the WebAnalytics.be blog that did a simple walk-through on how to do some pretty cool competitive analysis using Google Analytics.

This is a great idea if you are worried that you might have competition lurking in the weeds. Once you know a competitor (or multiple competitors) are eyeballing a particular product - you can begin asking yourself why. You may find that you can turn the insight into a competitive advantage...

Who doesnt like catching the competition with their pants down?

Targeted bigotry from adsense?

I was shocked when I went to my blog tonight and saw this adsense ad combo on my top banner...



I clicked the link to see what nonsense was being linked to from my site and I was taken to an online quiz to assess your gayness or stupidity.

I have to say that I was personally offended by the ad appearing on my website especially the two of them together which implies that being gay is indeed stupid. While I do not plan to bring my personal politics into this blog I will state for the record that I am adamantly opposed to stereotypes and bigotry of all kinds and apologize to anyone who took offense as I did.

I will be notifying Google to see what they have to say about this kind of "targeted messaging" appearing on a small business marketing blog ...

(If you have any advice on how to protect my site from this crap I would appreciate your comments.)

Does Google have a bias against small business?

If you arent new to search optimization then you know all about the fear that search engine companies instill in marketers. The dreaded banning from Google or Yahoo because they caught you using "black hat" methods to get your page top listings.

We have all been warned against hiding text with background colors, spamming alt tags, using hidden css, multiple re-directs, link farms, cloaking, ect. These methods are unethical and have no place in fair competition for search traffic. You should be able to build a great website using white hat methods and compete on a level playing field with the big guys.

But I have found that this is not always true.

I had a client that was aggressive in their pursuit of SEO and I was actively engaged in competitive analysis for over a year against the companies top fifteen competitors. My client was considered an SMB and many of its competitors were large business or enterprise. These were also the search placement kings of our space.

I spent alot of time researching those who ranked higher than my client and noticed a peculiar phenomenon - a couple of them were blatantly using many of the black hat methods that I mentioned above.

And here were some of the big dogs doing it and getting away with it!

So I decided to do what anyone who is playing hardball does - I brought it to the attention of Google (or tattled on them, however you want to look at it).

But after multiple emails reporting the abuse I received no response. It has been over 2 years now and they still rank supreme.

Now I understand that these large enterprise companies have more inbound links, have brand recognition, tons more traffic, and probably deserve to place higher for many legitimate reasons. But the fact that they engage in black hat SEO was not enough to get them banned from the search engines - and that is a double standard.

The question was asked at the Search Engine Strategies Conference a couple years ago to the Google and Yahoo speakers - and they politely declined to comment on "specific algorithm questions". I think that the simple answer is one of self interest - the removal of these companies from their listings would reduce the search engine's relevance which trumps everything the company might be doing that is unethical.

But you the small business owner - do not qualify.