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› INTERNET UPDATE
The STATE OF THE INTERNET Windows Phone Marketplace Launches in 22 Countries Microsoft is taking the task of expanding Windows Phone App Marketplace seriously. In a recent blog post Microsoft announced that Marketplace has launched in 22 new countries.
Google Product Search
Google Comparison Shopping Site Success Google in conjunction with it’s leading search engine also operates the comparison shopping site with the highest conversion rate in the first quarter of 2012 according to a new study by CPC Strategy, a company that helps online retailers sell through comparison shopping engines. The study, which lists the 10 largest sites online consumers use to compare prices, is based on a survey of 113 e-commerce clients of CPC Strategy. It notes that product listings in Google Product Search converted ad clicks to orders at a rate of 2.78% in the first quarter, followed by second-ranked Nextag at 2.06%. Coming in a distant sixth was Amazon Product Ads, at 1.60%, even though Amazon Product Ads produced the most traffic to retailers’ sites of the 10 shopping sites in the study. The study covered more than 4 million clicks that resulted in $1.16 million in advertising spend, and nearly 83,000 online orders that generated $7.87 million in sales for the advertisers.
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Only days after outlining plans for improving Windows Phone apps, the company added nearly two dozen countries to its Marketplace audience. These countries include: Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Croatia, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine, Venezuela, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Israel, Thailand, and Vietnam. The platform currently lags behind iOS and Android in terms of app choices. With that being said the number of apps on the Windows Phone Marketplace has grown from around 7,000 apps last year to more than 80,000 apps in May 2012. LinkedIn acquires SlideShare for $119 Million in Cash and Stock Professional social networking site LinkedIn is reportedly set to acquire SlideShare, a leading professional content sharing community for $119 million in cash and stock according to an investor release from LinkedIn. “The transaction is valued at approximately $118.75 million, subject to adjustment, in a combination of approximately 45 percent cash and approximately 55 percent stock. Subject to the completion of customary conditions, the acquisition is expected to close during the second quarter of 2012.
Founded in October 2006, SlideShare helps professionals discover people through content, and content through people. SlideShare users have uploaded more than nine million presentations, and according to comScore, in March SlideShare had nearly 29 million unique visitors, ranking it among the most heavily trafficked sites for professional content.”
part of its massive global distribution network.
Tumblr Adds Ads
By having an Australian-based Amazon distribution centre, delivery times and possibly costs, will also be curtailed for the region - not good news for a ‘bricks and mortar’ retail sector feeling the pinch from online sales.
Tumblr has released its first ads platform — except they’re not “ads,” according to Tumblr. This new feature on Tumblr allows the growing social network to use its Radar and Spotlight features on its Dashboard to draw attention to advertisers — or “sponsors,” as Tumblr calls them. Tumblr Radar gets more than 120 million daily impressions, which Tumblr says will offer sponsors “the opportunity to gain thousands of new followers, likes and reflags.” Meanwhile, sponsors also have the opportunity to be featured “front-and-center” on Tumblr Spotlight. The Spotlight feature, curated by a team of editors, is a sample of some of the more especially creative blogs on Tumblr and is a driver of “tens of millions of follows each week for new and existing users.” Amazon Planning Local Warehouse in Australia Amazon - the world’s largest online retailer - is in the market for a local warehouse in Australia as
The global giant is now said to be turning its eyes to the Asia-Pacific region. Agents say the group has been making it known in real estate circles that its expansion plans will include Australia, due to the supply of good-quality warehouses at attractive rentals.
The smartphone can detect eye movements and override the automatic shutdown feature if the user is looking at the 4.8-inch screen. The previous Galaxy S phone had a 4.3-inch screen, while the iPhone 4S’s screen is 3.5 inches.
Samsung Galaxy S III Features Edge-toEdge Display
Samsung Targets the iPhone
The new phone’s main camera has a resolution of eight megapixels, Samsung Electronics Co. intro- the same as the previous model and duced a faster, larger version comparable with the iPhone. of its flagship smartphone, now called the Galaxy S III. It features facial-recognition technology Facebook Making a Play in the and a souped-up processor that Daily Deals Market allows users to watch video and write messages at the same time. The Web’s largest social network is taking a jab at the Daily Deal Samsung is hoping the new smart- industry with its newest launch of phone will help dent its rivals’ Facebook Offers, which is a tool market share ahead of an expect- for engaging with and driving new ed new version of Apple’s iPhone customers to businesses. later this year. The offers are created from the Samsung is now the largest phone sharing tool at the top of a Page’s manufacturer in the world, but timeline. Page administrators not necessarily in the premium must click on the Offer, Event + end of the market where Apple’s button, and then create an offer iPhone is positioned. Samsung headline, upload a photo, choose shipped 44.5 million smartphones a limit for the number of claims, in the first quarter, topping Ap- add terms and conditions, preple’s 35.1 million, according to view it then post the promotion. Strategy Analytics. Samsung also overtook Nokia Corp as the big- Although Offers is a free service, gest handset maker. Facebook suggests that business-
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es run an ad or Sponsored Stories so that the offers receive more visibility.
Still, despite all the usage, Instagram had not articulated a plan for making money. Now, that will presumably be Facebook’s problem to solve.
From the Desk of the Editor
Consumers can redeem offers from brands that they have liked. The “liked” brand’s offer will show up in the consumer’s news feed, which is where the consumer can click “Get Offer” to receive the promotion. Then Facebook sends a follow-up email to the consumer, which needs to be shown to the business in order to receive the discount.
We had great feedback from Armand Morin’s ‘Double Your Business in 2012’ Interview in the last issue. In particular the audio was popular as it was far more detailed than we were able to print in the magazine. Check it out in the ‘Audio Expert Interview’ section of the member’s area if you missed it, as every Internet Marketing Magazine reader really should listen to that one.
You will now find the new full ‘The Real Deal - $100m in Sales Per Year’ Paul Greenberg Interview audio in the ‘Audio Expert Interview’ section of the member’s area. Paul is an amazing Entrepreneur who plays the eCommerce game at a very elite level, and it’s not to be missed. It’s free, so if you haven’t Offers are free for administrators to create and been sent your link to the member’s area please share, however only a small number of local busi- feel free to register for it today at http://internetness Pages are currently able to take advantage of marketingmag.net/become-member/ this new feature, with Facebook claiming that it We’re trying to build the number of reviews we plans to “launch Offers more broadly soon.” have on the Apple platforms so as to keep dominant rankings in the search. If you are getting good value from Internet Marketing Magazine I’d Facebook to Acquire Photo-Sharing Start-Up Ins- really appreciate it if you could spare 1 minute tagram for $1 Billion of your time and click this link to give us a quick honest review (click ‘view in iTunes’ then scroll Facebook has just announced that it will acquire In- down and click ‘write a review’, thanks :). stagram, the popular mobile photo-sharing service, for $1 billion in cash and shares. Until next time… Wishing you the best of success online Photos are critically important for Facebook. Instagram has taken the arena by storm, with its delightful and elegant app and the motto, “Fast beautiful photo sharing.” The San Francisco-based company — with only 13 employees — had 30 million Apple iPhone users before it came to Google’s Android in the last month, where it got more than a million new users in just 12 hours.
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GregCassar
Greg Cassar
Internet Marketing Strategist & Editor – Internet Marketing Magazine
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› EXPERT INTERVIEW
THE REAL DEAL...
$100 Million a Year in Sales Online An Interview by Internet Marketing Strategist Greg Cassar Founded by Paul Greenberg and Michael Rosenbaum in 2004, DealsDirect.com.au has grown to become the dominant E-commerce retail store in Australia. With reported revenue figures of around $100m a year, 1.5 million unique browsers every month and shipping up to 30 thousand parcels a day, the expertise of Paul Greenberg is not to be taken lightly.
DealsDirect.com.au
Greg: You’ve been into E-commerce for a while now, but prior to that you did some business with eBay as an auction broker. How did that opportunity come about? Paul: That’s a good story. I think a lot of E-commerce successful online retailers today had their origins in eBay. I think eBay can really claim quite a crowded history of sort of incubating if you like, in those early years many entrepreneurs who would later go on to be successful online retailers.
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But I actually come in my early career from the auctioneering industry. So you’d appreciate eBay arrived on the scene in Australia in early 2000, it resonated with me, not only because it represented the new phase of retail, or E-commerce, but also I’ve spent a bit of time in the auctioning game, so it was quite a natural fit actually. I remember eBay’s early days, unlike today they had framed themselves as an online auctioneer; an online auction business, so of course as much as the
changing space with increasing competition. You’ve got to build up the supply chain capabilities in order to receive and ship goods out in sizable numbers. Customers are increasingly looking for a greater sense of engagement; otherwise the shopping relationship becomes very impersonal. Predictably the world is getting flatter and smaller, so our competitors are right around the globe now. Greg: On the supplier front in the early days before you had the reputation that you’ve got now, did you experience any whole landscape has changed the game - and October 2004 difficulties with manufacturfor a lot of us, certainly in the the real game began, which is ers or suppliers not wanting early years of eBay they posi- the launch of Deals Direct. to play the game, as far as not tioned themselves as an auction wanting to supply you stock for house, an online auctioneer. Greg: Deals Direct has a mas- items that you wanted to sell? That’s dramatically different to- sive online customer base in day, and I guess so are we. 2012, but like any business Paul: In late 2004 we were one obviously it wasn’t always of the first online department So essentially I pitched to the smooth sailing. What do you stores. We felt we had a pretty eBay management in the very think were your main chal- incredible pitch and Mike and early years of its inception in lenges during that first year of myself were reputable business Australia that eBay needed the E-commerce retail? people. But we really struggled service that Mike Rosenbaum to get the brands on board. They and myself could provide, which Paul: I think I should correct had some significant concerns is what’s now known as the you. It’s still not smooth sail- - some of them valid, probTrading Assistance Program. Es- ing, I can tell you. I think any- ably some not, but essentially sentially we helped consumer one who’s in retail knows that it was around channel conflict. brands with goods to sell, we did the well worn phrase ‘retail is So I think there was a sense that the work for them on eBay; we detail’. It’s a tough business; with some of the recognised listed them, we shipped them, there’s a lot of moving parts. But brands if they supplied online we sold them and collected the I enjoy it, otherwise I wouldn’t that put their traditional bricks money and we charged the com- be here. and mortar retailers off side, mission - it’s a very well known their anecdotal stories of some auction model. The main challenges in the first of the bricks and mortar retailyears are the challenges that ers putting a bit of pressure on The Trading Assistance Program still lead us today – there are a the suppliers, not to supply the is quite well known right around lot of moving parts; attracting online channel. the world now, so we really new customers; retaining existwere the pioneers here in Aus- ing customers; also the mantra I’m actually increasingly of the tralia. And of course from there that’s it’s increasingly diffi- view that it’s all somewhat acawe cut our teeth, we learned cult in doing business in a fast demic. Ultimately, such is the internet marketing magazine may 2012
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nature of retail it’s a customer centric journey, as I believe that ‘where the customers are, retailers and the brands will be’. So I’m predictably we’re speaking to more and more brands and we’re selling more and more well-known brands on our site.
Deals Direct group to have a go. Now that doesn’t mean being reckless, it doesn’t mean betting the farm on one thing, it’s about taking some calculated risks, some side bets and learning by doing, That’s the concept of failing forwards. The essence of it is that the stepping-stones to success are ofOne things for sure I always knew that the brands ten small failures. would come on board, because they would follow the customer. Clearly, the online channel is proven Greg: With supply chain, It is well reported that as the channel of choice. your business ships up to 30 thousand parcels a day and I know from our discussions that you’ve Greg: Yeah, they’ll go where the buyers are. Its got the capacity to ship even more than that interesting, we work with a whole bunch of differ- from your 25 thousand square metre warehouse ent market segments online and one of the things in Sydney. If you could do the whole supply chain that we’ve noticed is the rise and rise of the E- and fulfilment piece over again with the wisdom commerce store, especially over the last two or that you have now, thinking back to the early three years where brands that previously just had days, is there anything that you would do differa traditional website because they didn’t want to ently? compete with their stores, but now they’re setting up their own E-commerce store for their particular Paul: I think it’s a great question, but I have to tell brand. So things definitely are changing and that’s you I’m really happy with what we’ve achieved in probably out of a sense of competition and neces- our supply chain arrangements. We run the largest sity as others around them are doing it, so they E-commerce performance centre in Australia, cerhave to compete. It’s a very interesting space and tainly by square metre and certainly as you have it just changes so fast. alluded to, managing a supply chain is not an easy thing. Here again, we failed forward, we’ve made I’ve heard you speak about a business concept mistakes. There’s nothing that I’d really do difthat I really like that you called “Failing For- ferently. From day one, even though I didn’t have wards”. Can you explain to the Internet Market- much experience in this area, we’ve invested heaving Magazine community what you mean by that? ily in the warehousing and in automation. We now have a paperless warehouse management system Paul: Absolutely. Look, it is a term that I think that and it’s automated, we use ‘voice picking’. Our I use a lot. I wish that I could claim it, but it’s ac- pickers in the morning get their voice instructions tually been a term bandied loosely around Silicon to pick stock from the picking bays, which increasValley for some years. So the concept of failure I es their output. think is a very subjective concept and often very emotive. So if you think of the word ‘failure’, you think of it as a failure, as a miss, as a disappointment and something that you wish you’d never done. But increasingly, I think there is recognition in this brave new world we live in, in this increasingly digitised economy that the script hasn’t fully been written yet, and that ‘learning by doing’ is a very powerful strategy. And in some cases the risk of inactivity, the risk of doing nothing, is often much higher than the risk of doing something. So the biggest danger, and we’ve seen that with some of the bricks and mortar retailers, Deals Direct Cart Design is the risk of inactivity. So increasingly, I’m encouraging myself and the
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I think there is recognition in this brave new world we live in, in this increasingly digitised economy that the script hasn’t fully been written yet, and that ‘learning by doing’ is a very powerful strategy. In some cases the risk of inactivity, the risk of doing nothing, is often much higher than the risk of doing something.
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Paul Greenberg
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Deals Direct Product Layout
There are a lot of things I think we’ve done really well. Have there been small niggles on the way? You can absolutely bet there have been. There’s really - I can honestly tell you there’s nothing that I would have done differently. I think this is an area of the business we’ve had a combination of just good luck and good focus, and of course most importantly good people. Greg: You lost me with one thing, which was the voice picking. Are you talking about the pickers and packers getting a pick sheet, but not a printed pick sheet to go out and grab the stock?
things that you haven’t thought of as worthwhile? Paul: I’ve got some pretty simplistic counter-intuitive views on branding, particularly in our space. I think you know - when I’m public speaking I say things like, “We know half our advertisings working. We just don’t know which half”. Almost as if it’s a pride in its achievement. I think there might be something to that. At times we can get overly complex; getting a business out in front of your customers.
The first good thing for branding is stay in business and I say that without any hint of sarcasm. But you Paul: That’s exactly it. So, when the guys get onto know, building a brand footprint, a tenure for the their forklifts with their picking trolleys, they’ve got length of time you’re in business is a very valuable on their headphone and voice recognition or text to asset, which I think is often under estimated. So, voice tells them where they should pick, so they we’ve been in business a long time, I think there’s a good brand footprint, particularly online from the just have to listen and go. years we’ve been in business. It is smart enough to know that Item A is in this column, and Item B is in that column and send them in I’m a bit of a fan of ‘rotation marketing’, which the right order, so that they do more efficient travel I don’t know if it’s an official term, but I like to through the day. It’s a really nice innovation we’ve mix it up a bit. In other words, if you’ve got a tight market, like most of us have, to keep your marput in over the last 12 months. keting dollars moving I think there’s a traditional Greg: With building up traffic to over one and a marketing view that repetition is often a very good half million site visitors a month, and an ever- strategy - and that might well be, but I like moving growing brand awareness and profile - have you around. So that’s perhaps something that not everyhad any strategies, or tactics that you’ve really body would agree with. enjoyed good success with over time and other
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Greg: I see what you’re saying. Maybe you and I are different in that regard. I’m very into the lead source tracking so if I spend X dollars on PPC, for example, I’ll track down to the results in Y dollars in sales and with the stuff I’m working on I know every traffic source and what it’s resulted in over time. But I believe what you’re talking about is the overall marketing and branding mix. Paul: I believe we’re in total agreement here. The granularity of the tracking of the marketing spend per channel and its return on investment in digital marketing is one of the attractions of the space. But I think there’s more to it than that. I am a fan of ‘above the line’, where media’s like billboards outside shopping centres and airports makes sense for big business. An example is for Deals Direct we do office furniture online and so as a result we have got some quite big billboards mainly around airports. With that being said, ‘content is still king’ in the online space. So I often say to our team that hypothetically if we could sell iPads for $50 we wouldn’t need any marketing. And I think business like the daily deals sites have done very well in quite a thin marketing stream by driving some powerful content. So good content can create a lot of activity online.
content side is with their reviews and the fact that they haven’t filtered out a lot of the negative reviews. It might damage the sale of one individual product, but for the sales platform itself there’s a high degree of trust for it. I really like that sort of user-generated content that feels honest and integral. Paul: Agreed, two points on that. One is absolutely the authenticity of the brand is far more important than any one individual product. But secondly, I think there’s a lot of research that shows that customers are reluctant to buy products that only have five star ratings on them. It’s almost too good to be true. So the perfect example of a good product review is the decent mix where there’s a number of people who are very satisfied with the product, but there’s always got to be a handful who are not entirely happy as you can’t please everyone all of the time. I believe it rings true as customers are savvy and five star rating page after page doesn’t feel right.
Greg: Great unique content obviously will also help with your SEO and from a getting found point of view for each of your different products or services. Do you find that you need to create unique content for each of the main products, or can you just run with what you get from the manufacturer – or a combination of the two? Paul: That’s a good question. I think it’s got to be a combination of the two. Richer content like video will continue to increase. Customers will expect it - and successful retailers are using it well already. Greg: I really like the ‘what’s in the box’ type video, where you’ve got someone who is a real person who’s talking through for example the features of the camera, and what they like about it, what they don’t like about it, that sort of thing. One area that Amazon has really done well on the internet marketing magazine may 2012
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Greg: In order to grow fast there is often a need to raise capital and many entrepreneurs we speak with they express concerns in this area. The main concern that people speak about generally is ‘are you going to raise enough capital’ and ‘are you going to be giving up control or too big a percentage of the company’. What’s your thoughts about raising capital and retaining control?
Paul: That’s a fairly difficult question to answer in its entirety, but I think at the core of it, its about retaining our existing customers and acquiring new ones - and that’s easier said than done. We’re very much focussing on the customer experience, a great product, great prices, good supply chain and logistics, and good delivery.
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I’m happy with a smaller slice of the bigger cake - I’ll take that any day of the week.
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Good retailers also are not in the business of protecting shoddy suppliers, so increasingly if we see a number of products with one and two stars then its telling us something. We pass that information back to our suppliers and of course if we don’t see any improvement we’ll remove the product completely.
Paul: It’s not the size of the slice, it’s the size of the cake. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs sometimes get that a bit wrong and hang on to a shrinking slice. We’ve had two rounds of capital. Our first round was in early 2005, where we took on not only capital but we also gained some expertise. We had some retail investors; so they came on with some much-needed capital to grow, Increasingly a better customer experience is imbut also some retail experience. portant, so continuing work on site improvements and multi-channel customer touch points for our At the beginning of last year we took a second customer service - we’ll be focussing on speedier, round of capital from Ellerston Capital, a well- same day delivery. All those sorts of things will known Australian funds manager, and I have ab- help us continue to grow. solutely no regrets with either. Of course you know as an entrepreneur you dilute some of your As discussed when we kicked off, ‘a retail store is shareholding - but I’d firmly focussed on the big detail’, that’s for sure. And I think like any good picture and seeing the cake grow. I’m happy with retailer there is not one good thing or two good a smaller slice of the bigger cake - I’ll take that things you should do, it’s the hundred small things any day of the week. So I would be encouraging you do well that will define you going forward and entrepreneurs to look at that. into the future. In Internet retail my view is a simple one. It is a bit of a race for scale and size. I’m thrilled with our two rounds of capital, and both partners are adding value and smarts to the business in addition to the much needed capital. Greg: The rate that your business has grown and continues to grow is phenomenal. What do you think have been the main keys to growing, and to becoming the dominant E-commerce retailer in Australia?
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Greg: Thank you Paul for making your time available and your expertise; you really are a wealth of knowledge. I encourage all our listeners and readers to visit DealsDirect.com.au and have a shop around the site and see how great a business and a shopping experience that Paul and his team have built there - and you may also be able to pick yourself up a bargain at the same time.
› ADVERTISEMENT
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› WEBSITES
10 Useful Findings About
HOW PEOPLE VIEW WEBSITES Eyetracking and research have studied how people look at websites. Here are 10 useful findings you can use. 1. Top left corner gets the attention first When users land on your site, their eye path starts from the upper left corner, and moves on from there. According to this eyetracking study these areas get the most attention:
The fourth, bottom right terminal area is where you should place your call to action. Note that this is not some universal truth, but a good starting point. Designers can download a useful Gutenberg Diagram PSD overlay here. 2. People read in F-patterns Most people don’t read, but scan. A 2008 study concluded that on average only 28% of the text is read. Eyetracking visualizations show that users often read website content in an F-shaped pattern: two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe. Another study confirmed this.
Similar findings came from a study by Yahoo. Check your site and see what you have in these zones. Move the value proposition to the top left zone. Yes, there can be exceptions, but use this as a starting point and test from there. Are you familiar with the Gutenberg diagram? It describes a general pattern the eyes move through when looking at (usually text-heavy) content. It fits this zoning conclusion pretty well, with the exception of the bottom right area.
This is why you want your value proposition in the top and why your menu should be either top horizontal or on the left, vertical. How to design for F-patterns? A similar study called this the golden triangle. 3. Use visibly bigger introductory paragraphs for improved attention Make introductory paragraphs in boldface or larger font size. When the test subjects encountered a story with a boldface introductory paragraph, 95 percent of them viewed all or part of it.
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See below the example from Smashing Magazine where every article starts with an intro paragraph:
As it’s increasingly harder to get the top spots, using long tail keyword strategy is very important. 5. People do scroll, but put most important content above the fold Web users know how to scroll to look below the fold, but they won’t do it nearly as much as they look above the fold. Make sure the above the fold part contains your value proposition, but don’t try to squeeze everything in there. Scrolling is still better than slicing up lengthy content to several pages - it provides better usability. Just make sure you guide people to scroll down. Wiltshire Farm Foods gives a hint in the bottom right corner:
Keep the paragraph line lengths short and in a single column – that’s how people are used to reading text. The font that you use doesn’t really matter. Oh, and people like links – the number of clicks on the links goes up as you add more links.
Interestingly several studies point that the very bottom of a page also gets a lot of attention. That’s a good place for a call to action. 6. Left side of the page gets more attention that the right With some exceptions, people read from left to right. This is also why the left side of your web page gets more attention.
4. People won’t look past the first search results If you’re not in the top 2 or 3 in Google for a keyword, you’re losing out. In an eyetracking study by Google most users found what they were looking for among the first two results and they never needed to go further down the page.
Amazon is known for their left side menu
Web users spend 69% of their time viewing the left half of the page and 30% viewing the right half. A conventional layout is thus more likely to make sites profitable.
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If you have a vertical menu, put it on the left. Navi- than Google Android devices from Amazon, HTC, gation placed at the top of a homepage however Motorola and Samsung. performs best (seen by the highest percentage of test subjects and looked at for the longest duration). 7. Use high quality, large images “Use large, crisp images” – recommends usability guru Jakob Nielsen based on his eyetracking studies. Image quality is a significant factor in drawing attention. People in pictures facing forward is more inviting and approachable. Highrise features huge photos of customers, looking at you:
Conduit Mobile
The iPhone commanded the greatest amount of attention — 2.3 seconds, on average — in its group. Among tablets, the iPad tied with the Amazon Kindle Fire for the lead, at 2.4 seconds each. 9. Dominant headlines draw the eye An eyetracking study observed that big headlines most often draw the eye first upon entering the page – especially when they are in the upper left corner. Present a whole value proposition with the headline. Keep in mind that clarity trumps persuasion.
Fuzzy, small images are less inviting as are big glamor shots. Nielsen said the eye-tracking study also surfaced a counter-intuitive finding–people who look like models are less likely to draw attention than ‘normal’ people.
Rekko greets you with a dominant headline:
When you list a bunch of headlines on a page, most often it’s the left sides of “A call center ad with model in it on the phone the headlines may be a good picture technically, but it will more that get the atlikely be ignored,” Nielsen said. Images appearing tention. People unneeded, at least peripherally, will be tuned out. typically scan Rekko.com Avoid cheesy stock photos. down a list of headlines, and often don’t view entire headlines. 8. Need to show pictures of smartphones? Stick If the first words engage them, they seem likely to with Apple products read on. A study by EyeTrackshop that recorded consumers looking at groups of smartphones and tablets discovered that Apple’s iPhone 4S and iPad 2 drew more glances and held people’s attention longer
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On average, a headline has less than a second of a site visitor’s attention. This means that the first couple of words of the headline need to be real attention-grabbers if you want to draw attention.
10. First impressions take less than a second When viewing a website, it takes users less than two-tenths of a second to form a first impression, according to an eye-tracking research conducted at Missouri University of Science and Technology. Researchers found that their subjects spent about 2.6 seconds scanning a website before focusing on a particular section. They spent an average of 180 milliseconds focusing, or “fixating,” on one particular section before moving on. The website sections that drew the most interest from viewers were as follows: • The institution’s logo. Users spent about 6.48 seconds focused on this area before moving on. • The main navigation menu. Almost as popular as the logo, subjects spent an average of 6.44 seconds viewing the menu. • The search box, where users focused for just over 6 seconds.
• Social networking links to sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Users spent about 5.95 seconds viewing these areas. • The site’s main image, where users’ eyes fixated for an average of 5.94 seconds. • The site’s written content, where users spent about 5.59 seconds. • The bottom of a website, where users spent about 5.25 seconds.
Peep Laja is the face of ConversionXL. Peep is an entrepreneur and internet marketer. He runs a unique web marketing agency called Markitekt, a startup called Traindom and several niche internet business like T1Q and others. He has a free website called Dreaminder. If you want to get in touch with Peep, shoot him an email at peep@convresionxl. com
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› COPY CORNER
WE ALL WANT WHAT WE CAN’T HAVE! It’s the same thing with our marketing. Be very aware, when limiting your offer in any way, or when you’re using Take Away Selling, of this “we all want what we can’t have” concept. Realise the sheer power of it as you write the copy, or when you’re instructing your copywriter. You remember what it’s like when you couldn’t have something right?
As a business owner, it’s important you take this month’s lesson on board because the results will astound you. The fact is, when we can’t have something, we want it more… and you can easily apply this concept into your marketing. That’s why “Take Away Selling” is so powerful; you make them hot for what you’ve got and then you tell them they can’t have it! This makes them explode with desire; they want your offer even more when they know they can’t have it. I knew a guy once who lusted after his secretary for years. He couldn’t have her because he was married… and anyway, she was half his age. Well you know the story. He leaves his wife, moves in with the secretary, and within 3 months he was on his own. He realised real quick he did not want to spend the rest of his life with this bimbo, he missed his wife and realised he made a big mistake. Alas, too late. However, the lesson is clear. You see, he saw what he wanted to see in his secretary… blinded from the truth by his desire. And because he couldn’t have her it drove him insane.
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Well this is how your prospects will feel; so you’ve got to make them feel this loss even more in your copy. Template: 1. Make the offer urgent and limited. 2. Make them feel the pain of missing out. 3. Come from a position of strength with plenty of Take Away language. 4. Make them realise if they miss out it’s their loss, not yours. Pete Godfrey With more than a decade of experience in the marketing arena, Pete Godfrey, AKA “The Wizard of Words”, has developed a keen eye as to what it takes to succeed in business. As one of Australia’s most successful and highest paid copywriters/ sale strategists, Pete’s client list contains many of the world’s savviest entrepreneurs including Mal Emery, Greg Milner, Pat Mesiti and many others. To get to know Pete better and see how you can profit from his hard-won copywriting advice go to http:// www.petegodfrey.com/blueprint and grab his new FREE report “Business Profits Blueprint: How to Profit in The New Economy”. Valued at a very real $97, it’s yours FREE for a limited time.
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› FEATURED ARTICLE
THE BEST MARKETING TIP I’VE EVER GOT Over the course of a 25 year career in Marketing, I’ve had the privilege of being mentored by what I would consider to be some of the world’s most brilliant marketing minds, many of whom have given me some cracking good ideas for giving your organization the edge over any competitors. But recently, while going through a presentation of a new client’s business, I was reminded that there was one particular marketing tip (given to me by a man that was responsible for building one of the largest consumer businesses in the U.S.) that still stands out above all others… But I’ll come to it in a minute. When I was younger and working as a marketing consultant, and having acquired much of my marketing experience from working in large Fortune 500 companies, there was a tendency to confidently stroll into any new client’s office imbued with the knowledge that whatever the problem (because lets face it, nobody calls in a marketing consultant unless there is a problem), you would be able to roll your sleeves up and apply a set of standard methods and applications – improved sales aids, rebranding
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exercises, better communication channels, cunning promotions, etc., that would be pretty much guaranteed to get them back on track… to a point.
pride and joy, a newly minted website that was guaranteed to take the market by storm. This thing had every bell and whistle you could cram into it and on the face of it, certainly looked impressive. He enthused about how it would speed up the ordering process, and give customers unfettered access to a whole range of new products, all they had to do was register online and then proceed to online retail heaven. He then proceeded to log on and walk me through the registration process. The only glitch came when he attempted to move onto the next page of what was a fairly extensive registration process, and found, to his consternation, that for some reason the system wouldn’t let him go anywhere.
But one thing I soon realized, was that even when throwing all the tricks in your marketing arsenal at a problem, there was one thing you could never fix – and that was a less than perfect product. And by inference, a less than perfect customer experience.
After much mumbling and false starts by his marketing team, a young tech-head was summoned, who immediately spotted the problem – if you left a particular field blank, the system made you start all over again before you could move on to the next page.
Back to my new client – a very intelligent businessman with a fairly large business, who was happily running me through his
“Well that settles that” said my client, as he moved on and continued to sing the praises of the site.
It was only when I made a simple observation that he stopped dead in his tracks. My observation was this – “You’re the owner, and luckily you had a young internet genius to call upon to walk you through the problem – what do your customers do in the same situation?” And this leads me back to the greatest marketing tip Ive ever received – You need to look at every aspect of your business from 2 key perspectives (besides your own). The first and most important point is from the customer’s perspective, the second is from your competitor’s. I am constantly amazed at even very large companies who just assume that elderly people can get the lids off their jars, 12 year old kids can open their packaging, people with English as a second language can read their instructions, and internet luddites can magically navigate their way through their websites. So my first tip is this – put yourself in your customer’s shoes for a day and get the complete sales experience from order to delivery. It might all look good on paper, but if the fulfillment of your sales promise leaves a bit to be desired – FIX IT! The second half of my tip is to put yourself in the shoes of your most aggressive competitor. If they were looking at your website or product or marketing material, what holes could they shoot in it? Due to the emotional attachment we have to our own business, service or product, we all have a tendency to gloss over the imperfections and focus on the bright shiny things – (just like we do with our children). But if we really want our business (and our children) to succeed, we sometimes need to look at things from a third party perspective and offer up some tough love. Your customers will thank you for it.
Tony McAuslan is a Director of The Interim CEO - a strategic consulting business that specializes in providing marketing and fund raising advise to start- up companies . He has successfully launched a number of international startup businesses in both Australia and the U.K. And he can be contacted by email - tmcauslan@hotmail.com
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7. Always provide an affiliate program for any product or service you sell online. Without affiliates and JV partners (higher paid affiliates), I wouldn’t be where I am today.
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internet marketing magazine may 2012
› FEATURED ARTICLE
Are You Ready For A
SOCIAL MEDIA CRISIS? Are you ready for a social media crisis, should magnitude of the response they would receive, and one strike your brand? therefore could not fully deliver on their promise – launching them both into a full blown social media What would you do if you woke up one morning attack, and giving them much more nation-wide to find dozens, hundreds or even thousands of brand awareness than they had bargained for! negative tweets and Facebook comments flooding in, all expressing negative sentiment about your brand? How would you feel, and better yet, how would you react? Would you take the opportunity to strengthen your client relationships and create new and stronger brand advocates? Or would you do, like most brands, and panic, feel overwhelmed and potentially damage your brand even further? Unfortunately these days, this is not just a hypothetical question, but a reality that more and more companies, from brands-of-one to mega corporations, are finding themselves unexpectedly faced with. And truthfully, the majority of them are failing big time! Common misconceptions Many people and companies have this misconception that, should a crisis arise, they’ll simply be able to wing it. After all, they have years of customer experience, and they don’t plan to do anything to anger their customers anyway! But that’s both the beauty and the beast behind the power of social media. You can make a human error, or you can launch a hopeful campaign, and in either case, you can be woken to a full-blown social media attack. Let’s take the cases of Timothy’s Coffee and Wotif. Both companies, one a well-loved cafe, and the other a major online reservation service, decided to build brand awareness and acquire new customers by means of a positive Facebook campaign. Both companies innocently underestimated the
Everybody is susceptible to an attack In today’s social reality, anything can turn into a social media crisis. From a simple hashtag campaign (remember #McDstories and #QantasLuxury?), to creatively challenged print campaigns (Chapstick, Groupon and The Circuit Factory), right through to human error or a lack of moral or ethical judgement (Susan G. Komen, PayPal and so many others). The worse part, is that a social media crisis can strike at any time, and usually does so when you’re least expecting it. To top this off, the damaging effects can be brand-threatening and long-term. I’m talking loss of brand credibility, loss of customers, and ultimately, it can have a negative impact on your business’s bottom line. internet marketing magazine may 2012
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However, this doesn’t need to be the case. It is possible to turn a negative brand experience into a positive PR opportunity, just as it’s possible for you to come out of a social media crisis with stronger and even more loyal customers then you had going in. All it takes is the right social media crisis plan Being prepared with the right social media crisis plan means: • Being able to detect a crisis in the making – before it spirals out of control. • Knowing exactly how to respond – and how to optimize that response for maximum reach. • Positioning yourself as the primary source of credible information, news and updates concerning the crisis. • Having the ability to leverage the powerful help of your still happy and loyal customers. • Regaining complete control of the situation, in minimum time. • Strengthening the valuable relationships you currently share with your customers, while making new ones. Imagine being able to take such a negative situation and turn it into a positive brand experience, and a positive publicity opportunity!
These mega mistakes include: • Deleting negative comments • Not taking the attack seriously • Hiding silently, in hopes that it will just go away • Letting your frustration get the best of you and responding negatively to the comments Taking any one of these actions will instantly escalate your social media crisis from bad to worse. Alternative actions In order to avoid taking part in that seventy-six percent, here are some alternative actions you could – and should – take: • Give your unhappy customers a voice and allow them to express their discontent with your brand. • Go a step further and reply to each negative comment with an apology and a personalized message. (Do not write the same generic message to each person.) • Take responsibility for your actions, and sincerely apologize to your customers. • Post an official response detailing every single event and detail concerning the crisis.
In fact, the Altimeter Group recently released a report stating that 76% of social media crises could have been averted, had the companies invested in a social media crisis plan before the attack struck. Seventy-six percent! Those brands are surely kicking themselves today! But that doesn’t need to be you! You don’t have to follow in their unprepared footsteps. Start by learning from their mistakes There are some common (and huge) mistakes that brands tend to make, over and over again, whilst in the midst of a social media attack. These mistakes are simply the result of being caught off guard, overwhelmed and unprepared. They’re also mistakes that can be completely avoided.
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Reach out to customers online
By acknowledging the crisis, taking responsibility for it and addressing your customers’ concerns, you will begin to regain control of the situation – putting an end to the attacks. Once you fess-up and take responsibility, there’s really nothing left for anybody to say, so the attacks will diminish and you’ll start to see positive comments begin to take shape on your wall.
Whether you’re a small brand-of-one, a world-wide reputable brand, or a firm who is responsible for the reputation of their clients, social media crises don’t discriminate. They can attack anyone, at any given moment, whether you’re prepared for it or not. But if being prepared means benefiting from the crisis and strengthening both your brand and your customer relationships, wouldn’t you want to be a part of that select, and very wise few? Especially since all it requires is a little preparation and a clearly defined response strategy and plan-of-action! So I’ll ask you again. If you woke up to find yourself in the midst of a social media attack, what would you do? Would you take the opportunity to strengthen your client relationships and create new and stronger brand advocates? Or would you do, like most brands, and panic, feel overwhelmed and potentially damage your brand even further? Are you ready for a social media crisis, should one strike your brand?
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Melissa Agnes is a social media crisis specialist, and the creator of the Social Media Crisis Academy. She has a passion for helping brands protect themselves from a crisis – before they find themselves faced with one. The Social Media Crisis Academy is an all-inclusive, 4 module training program that teaches brands, beginning to end, how to properly protect themselves from a crisis, and how to turn a social media crisis into a positive PR opportunity. Connect with Melissa on Twitter: @smcrisisacademy ot become a fan on Facebook: facebook. com/SocialMediaCrisisAcademy Leigh Kostiainen is an Australian Facebook Marketing pioneer, having taught hundreds of businesses how to gain the Facebook marketing advantage for their business pages. Leigh owns Facebook’s largest page promotion fan page – Promote My Fan Page with over 35,000 fans, speaks at corporate events, provides Facebook customization services, and runs workshops teaching business owners how to use their viral influence for real business profits. Connect with via Facebook http://facebook.com/TheFanPageCoach
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› GOOGLE ADWORDS
COPYWRITING FOR GOOGLE ADS The Real Art and Science of Internet Marketing
Selecting your Google AdWords budget and keywords is just the first part of the battle. Whether your ad is actually clicked on, and whether those clicking are from those most likely to buy from you, all depends on how well your ad is worded, and this is where the magic really lies.
When I was first starting out, finding out what worked for my magic business was really an exercise in test and measure. Results varied significantly, and I had to decipher what it all meant, so that I had some “rules” to use in the future. In a nutshell, here is what I came up with.
Copywriting for Google ads is truly an art in itself. It is definitely no easy feat to not only capture attention, but also inspire action (that all-important click), in just a few words.
Firstly, you cannot write an ad if you have no idea why you are advertising in the first place. Do you want to raise awareness about a sale? Then talk about your promotion and be specific about how much people can save and on what products. Do you have a large variety of products and services? Or is it your added extras, such as free shipping and packaging that sets you apart? These key competitive differences are what will get that traffic to your website. Don’t forget to add in at least one of your keywords, which will appear in bold, to ensure that those people who searched for it can easily spot it. Next is the important part; your call to action. People need to be told what they have to do next. For example, “Click Here to Claim Your Offer” or “Book Your Free Quote Now.” It surprises me how often advertisers leave out their call to action, and as a result, are missing out on a potentially enormous number of valuable clicks. When people take the action you have asked of them, you need to ensure that they are immediately taken to the place where they can carry out the action. In essence, what I am saying is that it’s not enough for them to land at your home page and figure out what to do from there. People generally don’t have the time to navigate your entire website to find out how to organise their free quote. Even if it is clearly advertised on your home page, never assume your audience who have clicked through will immediately notice it. Your landing page (where they are taken when they have clicked) needs to very specifically match your ad and provide content
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people would expect after seeing the ad and clicking through to your site. For example, if your advertisement invited them to “Book Your Free Quote Now”, their click should take them through to a matching landing page where they can do so immediately. Finally, do not be afraid to experiment with differently worded ads to see what translates to the most clicks for your business. AdWords can even automatically show the better-performing ads within an ad group more often. This removes the guesswork and ensures you are always placing better performing ads for your budget.
Ben Bradshaw is one of Australia’s most established and renowned online marketing and Google AdWords pioneers. He is the founder and CEO of Australia’s largest Australian owned, multi-award winning AdWords management company and is one of the most sought-after and respected speakers and trainers on Internet marketing and entrepreneurshipin Australia. Ben is no stranger to success - not only is he now a self-made millionaire, an author, and one of Smart Company’s Hot 30 Under 30 among other prestigious award-holders, but he also holds the Guinness World Record for the fastest escape from a straight jacket! Ben’s entrepreneurial approach and knowledge on Internet marketing has resulted in his business doubling its revenue year on year since its inception. Just after it started, SponsoredLinX was approached to become one of only a very select few authorised Google resellers and is now a Premier Google Partner - one a small prestigious group of companies handpicked by Google. Ben is an expert columnist on multiple international and US Internet marketing specialist print and online publications, Ben is also regularly quoted on Internet marketing topics locally on Sky Business, in business publications like Smart Company and BRW, and in major metropolitan newspapers. www.bbradshaw.com internet marketing magazine may 2012
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› PODCASTING
Podcasting for Business
THE NEW ONLINE FRONTIER Podcasting for business is the new frontier for those seeking an innovative online marketing strategy. Not yet prevalent in the online marketing space in Australia, businesses who adopt this platform now will be considered the forerunners in their industry. Imagine having your voice heard by thousands across the country; but not just your country, countries beyond your shores. Consider what it would do for your bottom line if you could promote and sell online digital programs to a global market. We’re no longer hindered by our own geographical boundaries and when using digital mediums like podcasting, your business can attract a global audience. What is a podcast? A podcast is essentially an audio or video (I’ll be focusing on audio in this article) that is accessible via an RSS feed (Real Simple Syndication). It works the same as a blog. When you subscribe to it, it will automatically update each time a new podcast has been released. With the advent of smart phones, you can now sync your favourite podcasts to your phone. This allows the listener to engage with the content at their own leisure. Think - cleaning the house, walking
the dog, working out at the gym or riding your bike. All of these activities can still be in motion with a headpiece in your ear and an arm or a pocket to hold your phone. What does this mean for the podcaster? It means that your content can be easily consumed at a time that is convenient for the consumer.
The online benefits Unless you’ve got the inside scoop on how to successfully market online, it can be a pain in the butt at best. Trying to filter through the consistent changes Google enacts and trying to keep track of what they require can give you a migraine! But one thing we do know is that Google loves relevant, high quality content that is aligned with the context of your website and
engages the visitor in an interactive manner. Audio does this. Click the play button and you’ve immediately engaged your visitor. Add to the regularity of the content creation and you’ve got a high quality product, produced frequently, featured on your website, linked to iTunes, mentioned in your blog and social media platforms. Think about the online credit you’ll receive. Google will love it! How can podcasting benefit your business? Apart from the online traction and the potential global audience, podcasting can benefit your business in a number of ways and I’ll show you how it has helped my business in a moment. But for now, have a think about what your biggest challenge is in regards to selling your products or services? For many, it’s brand awareness; ensuring that their target market not only knows who they are but what they offer and what it can do for them. If you plan your podcast well by offering high value content for the most part, then you can quite freely discuss how you can help them and what you have to offer. It’s a balancing act but when you get the ratio right in can well work in your favour.
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partnerships with many of my guests allowing me to cross pollinate with their list. My speaking engagements have increased along with international and national teleseminar and webinar invites. I’m regularly invited to write articles for magazines (such as this) along with guest blogging. And the biggest benefit of all? It has increased my personal profile in ways that none of my other marketing approaches could.
What has it done for my business? Since starting Red Tent Radio in March 2012 it has become my number one online marketing strategy. Within six weeks of the show being released we were picked up by a US radio station where we have 2500 – 3000 listeners per week. We also have anywhere from 1000 to 4000 downloads per episode via iTunes which gives us massive online exposure. We have fans all around the world that regularly tune in and comment on our show or leave a review on iTunes. Also, iTunes consistently has us in the ‘What’s Hot’ list. In fact, this week we’re sitting at number 49 on page one for business audio podcasts. Our product and service sales have increased threefold. Our Google ranking has increased exponentially which has given us a lot of ‘accidental’ traffic to our site. I have had the opportunity to interview amazingly successful business owners, entrepreneurs and CEO’s of major corporations who all cross promote the episode they are featured in. I have created joint venture
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What’s the first step? If you’re considering creating your own podcast show, first ask yourself, “What’s the outcome I want?” As with any new strategy you implement, you must be certain that you know why you’re doing it. Is it for lead generation, online exposure, profile building or to lead people into your marketing funnel so you can build ongoing relationships? Whatever your reasons are for producing a podcast, be clear so you can design each episode around your desired outcome. Be mindful that you don’t ‘oversell’ on your show as it will turn people off and most importantly ensure you optimize each show by providing show notes on your website with the right keywords and a description for that episode.
Ludwina Dautovic is the host of the global podcast show Red Tent Radio. For inquiries about being on the show or how to subscribe, simply visit the website – www.RedTentRadio.com. We also offer new and start-up businesses the opportunity to be featured on our new show, ‘The Business Podcast Show’, as a part of our Media Package. To find out more go to: www.TheBusinessPodcastShow. com or call 1300 799 491 in Australia or +61 3 9939 4258 for international callers. If you’d like more information about how to podcast, go to www. HowToPodcastLikeaPro.com.
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