Internet Marketing Magazine Apr-May 2015

APR - MAY 2015

> PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS WITH TUMBLR

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK

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> USE COLOR TO INCREASE CONVERSIONS P16

EDITORIAL INSIGHT:

> THE BEST LIGHTING FOR VIDEOS

> THE FUTURE OF ONLINE ADVERTISING

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COVER STORY:

MASTERING ADWORDS

DONOVAN KOVAR >> THE ORIGINAL AND BEST INTERNET MARKETING MAGAZINE DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR THE IPAD, KINDLE FIRE, ANDROID AND THE WEB

MEET OUR EXPERT PANEL Mitt Ray

is an expert at managing social media accounts, running social media contests, increasing website traffic, lead generation, conversion optimization and much more. Mitt is the founder of SocialMarketingWriting.com Read his article on Promoting Business with Tumblr on PAGE 8

Neil Patel

is a serial entrepreneur, blogger, analytics expert, and angel investor. Neil is the co-founder of CrazyEgg.com and KISSmetrics.com. Neil is also an authority blogger online at Quicksprout.com.

Jeremy Smith

is a conversion consultant and trainer, helping businesses like Dow Chemical, American Express, Panera Bread, and Wendy’s improve conversions and strategically grow their testing culture and digital presence. Jeremy’s experience as the CMO and CEO of technology firms has given him a powerful understanding of human behavior and profit-boosting techniques. Follow him on Google+ or Twitter.

Read their article on Colour and Conversions on PAGE 16

Bret Thomson

is one of Australia’s highest paid indemand copywriter/marketing & conversion strategist, best selling author, speaker, coach and mentor to thousands.

Read his article on The Best Lighting for Video on PAGE 26

CONTENTS

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1Donovan Kovar Cover Story on Mastering Adwords

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1How

to Effectively Promote Your Business with Tumblr

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1Discover

How to Use the Psychology of Color to Increase Website Conversions

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for Videos

1Know the Best Lighting

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1The

Greg Cassar

is a Digital Marketing Strategist, Entrepreneur and Speaker from Sydney, Australia. He is the leading Internet marketing strategist behind the scenes of many of the biggest Internet marketers in Australia and abroad.

Read his article on The Future of Online Advertising on PAGE 30

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Future of Online Advertising

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

T

he Internet landscape continues to change on regular basis, making publications such as this all the more important for keeping up to date with what is happening online with the big power houses and also Digital Marketing Trends.

This issue is covering a combination of traffic, conversion, content strategy, social media and mindset.

Following recent health issues with our editorial team we are continuing with the bi-monthly format of 6 issues a year but would like to change it back to monthly over time. You will see an advertisement in this issue for the opportunity to become part of our editorial team. Sing out at info@ internetmarketingmag.net if that is of interest to you.

Between issues we will post new content on our 2 blog sites at InternetMarketingMag.net and Collective. com.au/blog This month we meet with an Adwords Master in Donovan Kovar, as featured on the cover. Donovan is exceptional at producing an ROI from Adwords with his granular approach and shares with us some of the tricks of the trade.

You will find the audio interview with Donovan here. It’s got many sections in it that didn’t make the print version of this publication. For those with iTunes the Podcast version may be more convenient.

If you haven’t got access to the member’s area please feel free to do at http://internetmarketingmag.net/ become-member/ (it’s free).

A special thanks to those who have left reviews in the apple platforms as it really helps us out. If you are getting good value from Internet Marketing Magazine and you can spare 1 minute of your time to click this link to give us a quick honest review that would be greatly appreciated (click ‘view in iTunes’ then scroll down and click ‘write a review’, thanks :).

As always run your winners long and cut your losers short and have fun on the journey.

Greg Cassar Regards,

Digital Marketing Strategist & Editor – Internet Marketing Magazine

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> COVER STORY:

EXPERT INTERVIEW

“

Effective Adwords advertising is a constant pruning process. What I do is similar to a gardener or somebody who’s running a vineyard - You’re constantly massaging and training your vines.

“

ALL ABOUT DONOVAN KOVAR • Donovan Kovar is the CEO and chief strategist of the 24-7-Sales.com agency.

• Donovan has a strong background in Adwords, Search Engine Optimization, Lead Generation, Sales Funnels & Multivariate testing, just to name a few.

• Donovan’s impressive list of clients include but are not limited to Perry Marshall, Ryan Deiss, Perry Belcher, and most recently myself Greg Cassar.

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> COVER STORY:

EXPERT INTERVIEW

DONOVAN KOVAR MASTERING ADWORDS An Interview by Internet Marketing Strategist Greg Cassar Lot’s of business owners talk about ‘they just want free traffic’ with SEO but there is also a valid argument about the benefits of paid before free. What’s your take on this horse before the cart argument?

Donovan: Many businesses speak to us about “I want help with SEO” and what that conversation leads down the path to is “You think you just want SEO, but what you really want is better conversions. You want traffic that’s really targeted. You want a workable, predictable model.”

I turn the conversation to looking at paid traffic first, because we know we can control paid traffic, and the days of firing a bunch of backlinks at a site and ranking number one for your main keywords are gone.

Google has changed their algorithms, and they’ve cracked down on link spam, and the things that we used to do that were considered legitimate article submissions and blog posts we have to be much more careful about that now.

So, I’ve turned the focus to Adwords as it is scalable, consistent, and can be used to consistently build a business on it. Once Adwords is optimized and we know what are the 20% of the keywords are that bring 80% of our buyers, then we can then focus on the SEO part, and we can tune the website.

We can start to make sure the website is optimized for those keywords and that they’re being used properly. In some of the backlinks, but not many of them, we would use that keyword. I position SEO now as icing on the cake. Any traffic that you get organically is icing on the cake, but it could be gone tomorrow, so don’t build your business based just on it.

Greg: Another point here is people think about Google Adwords on its own. I could have a guy as skillful as you do my Google Adwords account, but if my site is ordinary, then it doesn’t matter how skillful the Adwords guy/ girl is. So a focus on the page and call to action that we are sending the traffic to is also crucial to see that it’s optimized for them to take the primary desired course of action.

You work with organisations of all sizes on their Adwords optimization. What are some of the main ways that you see businesses wasting money with their Google Adwords?

Donovan: That’s an interesting question, and it varies across the board. But mostly I would say not utilizing negative keywords properly; not split testing ads and spreading ad groups out too thinly.

Effective Adwords advertising is a constant pruning process. What I do is similar to a

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> COVER STORY:

EXPERT INTERVIEW

gardener or somebody who’s running a vineyard - You’re constantly massaging and training your vines. Making sure they’re getting what they need, and they’re being trained to move in the direction you need them to go.

and Remarketing Strategist because today it’s not usually the first click that gets the sale. It’s usually the second or third, or it’s when they’ve seen your ad or your banner in remarketing a few times, and your brand has been exposed.

When I go into campaigns, the first thing I look for is whether or not conversion pixels are properly placed. You really need to make sure that you’re properly measuring what’s going on, and that’s where conversion tracking is crucial.

Also with Negative Keywords I like to think “Is that part of the buying vernacular? Would a buyer actually use that word?” And if not, then in a shared library I build a master negative list, and we just keep adding those keywords - I like to keep them broad matched, one keyword, if possible. Negative Keywords when applied correctly really does eliminate a ton of waste.

With Adwords, it’s really about being vigilant about eliminating waste, eliminating negatives, split-testing your ads. There is a distinction I call ‘Ad Control’ - Ad Control is being in control of your ads. And if you’re not in control of your ads, guess who is? Google, and they want your money.

Remarketing is great for plugging the holes in the bucket and getting repeat customers and extra conversions. There are multiple remarketing options available to business owners these days. Do you have any ‘go to’ remarketing tools and strategies that you find consistently provide great ROI? Donovan: Well, it’s not about extra conversions as much for me, as it is about the sales process.

To me, remarketing is 50% of the Adwords process, and it’s the one of the primary focuses of my strategy. So I bill myself as an Adwords

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It’s the one of the primary focuses of my strategy. So I bill myself as an Adwords and Remarketing Strategist because today it’s not usually the first click that gets the sale. It’s usually the second or third, or it’s when they’ve seen your ad or your banner in remarketing a few times, and your brand has been exposed.

I don’t remember who said it but “People need to see your product or offer an average of seven times, before they’ll buy.” Well, why would they buy on the first click, then?

So what we really try to do is make sure that once they’ve been exposed to our website and our brand that they’re seeing our remarketing banners. They’re seeing our remarketing video on YouTube and that’s usually where we see a large percentage of people come back and buy.

So I’ve used that extensively.

I always want to pixel site visitors with Facebook and Google when they land on a page, so that they’re getting followed around on Facebook, as well as on the Google Display Network. Those are the primary sources of traffic in the world.

> COVER STORY:

EXPERT INTERVIEW

Dynamic remarketing is also a feature for eCommerce stores where it taps into the use of your merchant feed, and it will show images of the products that they looked at. So, that’s certainly an important part for eCommerce remarketing.

of advertising, and they want to keep their reputation as such, and they’re just not letting in a lot of riff-raff. So no unsubstantiated claims, “You can make this much money in this amount of time.” - You can’t say those types of things. You can’t sell prohibited items, or have adult content on your page.

Donovan, one area that I have used your specialist services in is with the recovery of Google ads accounts that are banned. Why do you believe most ads accounts get banned these days and what can business owners do about it when it does happen?

You want to get along with Google. I did black hat SEO for years and I was taught a lesson the hard way. It’s just not worth it to keep trying to ‘game the system’ and beat Google. You have to play by the rules, and just be really good at playing by the rules.

Donovan: It seems to me that Google’s being a little more lenient these days, given that Facebook’s giving it such a run for its money.

But with that said, the days of just ‘wild westing’ and thinking like “I’m going to slam up a whole bunch of affiliate links and do crazy stuff.” - Those days are behind us now.

It’s about building a long term sustainable business rather than a short term promotion that may or may not last. I have a large track record of success and can often assist business owners who need a hand recovering previously banned Google Adwords campaigns.

Google is the leading channel in the world

Donovan can be contacted at info@24-7-sales. com and www.24-7-sales.com IMM

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Is Tumblr a part of your visual social media strategy? Would you like to promote your business with Tumblr?

Many businesses have quickly jumped onto visual social media like Pinterest and Instagram, but have ignored Tumblr even though there are over 130.5 million Tumblr blogs, which is more than WordPress (70 million). Tumblr users spend an average of 12 minutes on the network, which is 1.5 minutes more than that spent on Facebook.

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One unique benefit of Tumblr (among other popular social networks) is that it can help you reach a younger audience as 50% of its users are under the age of 25.

If you aren’t using Tumblr, this would be the right time to get started as fewer competitors are implementing it and making your presence felt will be easier. So set up an account and use this infographic from Neil Patel of Quick Sprout to promote your business with Tumblr, before every other business gets on it and the noise is just too loud to get through‌

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USE COLOR TO INCREASE CONVERSIONS

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF COLOR TO INCREASE WEBSITE CONVERSIONS

By Jeremy Smith Color wields enormous sway over our attitudes and emotions. When our eyes take in a color, they communicate with a region of the brain known as the hypothalamus, which in turn sends a cascade of signals to the pituitary gland, on to the endocrine system, and then to the thyroid glands. The thyroid glands signal the release of hormones, which cause fluctuation in mood, emotion, and resulting behavior.

Research from QuickSprout indicates that 90% of all product assessments have to do with color.

“Color,” writes Neil Patel, is “85% of the reason you purchased a specific product.” It’s a nobrainer fact of any website that color affects conversions. Big time.

So, the bottom line is: use the right colors, and you win.

What is Color Psychology?

In order to really appreciate the tips below, you’ll benefit from a little information on color psychology.

Color psychology is the science of how color affects human behavior. Color psychology actually is a branch of the broader field of behavioral psychology. Suffice it to say that it’s a pretty complicated field. Some skeptics are even dismissive of the whole field of color psychology, due to the difficulty of testing theories. My own research on the topic, as this article conveys, lacks scientific evidence to back up every claim. But that alone is no reason to dismiss the profound and unarguable effect that color has on people.

There are key facts of color theory that are indisputable. In a peer reviewed journal article, Satyendra Singh determined that it takes a mere

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90 seconds for a customer to form an opinion about a product. And, 62-90% of that interaction is determined by the color of the product alone.

Color psychology is a must-study field for leaders, office managers, architects, gardeners, chefs, product designers, packaging designers, store owners, and even expectant parents painting the nursery for the new arrival! Color is critical. Our success depends upon how we use color.

Where Should You Use Color?

Let’s get oriented to our context. Since color is ubiquitous, we need to understand where you should use these color tips. This article discusses the use of color in website design. Specifically, we’re talking about the color scheme of a website, which includes the tint of hero graphics, headline type, borders, backgrounds, buttons, and popups.

In the example below, NinjaJump uses a greenyellow-red color scheme in their logo, phone number, video C2A, menu bar, graphics, category menu, sub headings, and sidebar. The tips that we discuss below can be applied in similar ways — menus, sidebars, color schemes, etc.

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USE COLOR TO INCREASE CONVERSIONS

Where Should You Use Color?

Color Tips that Will Improve Your Conversions

Color is a tricky thing. You have to use it in the right way, at the right time, with the right audience, and for the right purpose.

1. Women don’t like gray, orange, and brown.

They like blue, purple, and green.

For example, if you are selling bouncy jump houses — those things that kids play in — you don’t want to use a black website. Props, NinjaJump.com.

The sociological differences between color preferences is a whole branch of study unto itself. Patel got it right when he cited the colors preferred, and disliked, by the two genders.

For the jump house site, you want lots of bright and vibrant colors, probably some reds, greens, and maybe a splash of yellow for good measure. If, on the other hand, you’re selling a product to women, you don’t want to use brown or orange. Maybe that’s why L’oreal uses black and white, with purple overlay, in their e-commerce homepage.

In a survey on color and gender, 35% of women said blue was their favorite color, followed by purple (23%) and green (14%). 33% of women confessed that orange was their least favorite color, followed by brown (33%) and gray (17%).

I’ll explain all the tricks below. In order to succeed at using the right color psychology, you need to follow these core principles: • The right way • The right time • The right audience • The right purpose

Other studies have corroborated these findings, revealing a female aversion to earthy tones, and a preference for primary colors with tints.

Look at how this is played out. Visit nearly any e-commerce site whose target audience is female, and you’ll find these female color preferences affirmed.

Milani Cosmetics has a primarily female customer base. Thus, there’s not a shred of orange, gray, or brown on the homepage:

Here are some tips that the pros use when dealing with conversions and color.

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USE COLOR TO INCREASE CONVERSIONS Woman’s Day uses all three of the favorite colors of women (blue, purple, and green) on their homepage, thus inviting in their target audience:

Most people think that the universally-loved female color is pink. It’s not. Just a small percentage of women choose pink as their favorite color. Thus, while pink may suggest femininity in color psychology, this doesn’t mean that pink is appealing to all women, or even most women. Use colors other than pink — like blue, purple, and green — and you may improve the appeal of your e-commerce website to female visitors. And that may, in turn, improve conversions.

The color blue is a color of trust, peace, order, and loyalty. (source) Blue is the color of corporate America and it says, “Chill . . . believe and trust me . . . have confidence in what I am saying!” (source) Blue calls to mind feelings of calmness and serenity. It often is described as peaceful, tranquil, secure, and orderly. (source) There is wide agreement in the research community on the psychological effects of the color blue. Its subtle message of trustworthiness and serenity is true. You can use this to your advantage on your website and landing pages.

The world’s biggest social network is blue. For a company whose core values are transparency and trust, this probably is not an accident.

2. Men don’t like purple, orange, and brown.

Men like blue, green, and black.

If you’re marketing to men, these are the colors to stay away from: purple, orange, and brown. Instead, use blue, green, and black. These colors — blue, green, and black — are traditionally associated with maleness.

However, it comes as a slight surprise to some that brown isn’t a favorite pick.

3. Use blue in order to cultivate user’s trust.

Blue is one of the most-used colors, with good reason. A lot of people like blue.

Read the literature on blue, and you’ll come across messages like:

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A company that serves as a conduit for billions of dollars, PayPal, also prefers the color blue. Chances are, this helps to improve their trustworthiness. If they were to try, say, red or orange as the theme color and branding, they probably wouldn’t have the same level of conversion.

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USE COLOR TO INCREASE CONVERSIONS declare yellow to be the color of happiness.

Business Insider reports that “brands use yellow to show that they’re fun and friendly.” There is a chance that yellow can suggest playfulness.

However, since yellow stimulates the brain’s excitement center, the playfulness feeling may be simply a state of heightened emotion and response, not exactly sheer joy.

Blue is, in fact, a color heavily used by many banks. Here’s CapitalOne.com, a major Internet bank:

Color psychology is closely tied to memories and experiences. So, if someone had a very pleasant experience with someone wearing a yellow shirt, eating at a fast food establishment with yellow arches, or living in a home with yellow walls, then the yellow color may cause joy by memory association.

One of the most-cited “facts” about the color yellow is that it makes babies cry and people angry. To date, I have not found any study that backs up this claim, even though everyone is fairly comfortable repeating it.

Although blue is pretty much an all-round great color, it should never be used for anything related to food. Dieters have used blue plates to successfully prevent them from eating more.

Evolutionary theory suggests that blue is a color associated with poison. There aren’t very many blue foods — blueberries and plums just about cover it. Thus, never use blue if you’re selling foodie stuff.

4. Yellow is for warnings.

Yellow is a color of warning. Hence, the color yellow is used for warning signs, traffic signals, and wet floor signs.

It seems odd, then, that some color psychologists

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USE COLOR TO INCREASE CONVERSIONS I’ve even read that “the color yellow can cause nausea,” though I’m doubtful about this.

If you find the study about cranky babies and angry people living in yellow-walled houses, please let me know. I’m pretty sure that babies are going to cry and people are going to get ticked, regardless of the paint color. Whatever the case, it does seem true that “yellow activates the anxiety center of the brain,” as reported by one color expert.

outdoors, green should be your color of choice.

Green isn’t just about nature, though. Green also is a good call to action color, especially when used in combination with the “isolation effect,” also known as the von Restorff effect, which states that you remember things better if they stand out. You remember the Statue of Liberty because it’s big, tall, green, and there aren’t a whole lot of them in the New York harbor. In color psychology, the isolation effect occurs when a focus item, such as a conversion step, is the only item of a particular color. The technique works wonders for calls to action, and green is an ideal choice.

Here’s how Conrad Feagin uses it:

A heightened anxiety level during any website experience is never a good thing, unless it comes in small doses. Thus, a yellow call to action may create just a touch of anxiety that’s needed to make them click the desired call to action.

Use yellow in small doses unless you want to cause unnecessary anxiety.

5. Green is ideal for environmental and outdoor products.

Perhaps the most intuitive color connection is green — the color of outdoors, eco-friendly, nature, and the environment. Green essentially is a chromatic symbol for nature itself.

Apart from its fairly obvious outdoorsy suggestiveness, green also is a color that can improve creativity. Labeled “the green effect,” one study indicated that participants had more bursts of creativity when presented with a flash of green color as opposed to any other color.

If the focus of your website has anything to do with nature, environment, organic, or

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All of Dell’s conversion elements are green.

> The word “green” itself is a buzzword for environmental awareness and appreciation.

Using the word and the color itself can lend an environmental aura to your website, improving your reputation among those who are passionate about environmental concerns.

6. Orange is a fun color that can create a sense of haste or impulse.

The positive side of orange is that it can be used as the “fun” color. According to some, orange helps to “stimulate physical activity, competition, and confidence.” This may be why orange is used heavily by sports teams and children’s products.

In fact, there are a ton of sports teams that use orange: Florida Gators, Clemson Tigers, Boise State Broncos, Syracuse, New York Knicks, New York Mets, San Diego Chargers, etc.

USE COLOR TO INCREASE CONVERSIONS offer” banner. The color suggests urgency, which makes the message more noticeable and actionable: It makes sense. Orange means active. Orange means fun. Orange means togetherness.

Because it’s a loud and warm color. However, orange can be slightly overwhelming. An article on Psych.Answers.com advises, “Orange will be used sparingly to bring your attention to something, but not so much as to overwhelm the actual message of the advert.”

Sometimes, orange is interpreted as “cheap.”

(Compare this to black, which is the color of luxury. See below.) Forbes posed the question, “Does orange mean cheap?” in an article on the “Effect of Color on Sales of Commercial Products.” The resounding answer was “yes.” If your product offering is cheap, or if you want it to be seen as such, orange may be a good choice. Vive la Big Lots.

Amazon.com uses orange in their “limited time

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USE COLOR TO INCREASE CONVERSIONS 6. Black adds a sense of luxury and value.

Lamborghini does the same thing. Black is the name of the game:

The darker the tone, the more lux it is, says our internal color psychology. An article from Lifescript describes black as “elegance, sophistication, power,” which is exactly what luxury designers and high-end e-commerce sites want you to feel. The article goes on to describe black as the color of “timeless, classic” which helps further explain the use of black in high-value products.

In a Business Insider piece on color and branding, the author relates the significance of black:

If you are selling high-value luxury consumer items on your website, black probably would be a good choice.

“Black can also be seen as a luxurious color.

‘Black, when used correctly can communicate glamour, sophistication, exclusivity.’”

7. Use bright primary colors for your call to action.

Louis Vuitton handbags are not cheap. Absent from the site are colors and designs of whimsy and fun. This is serious value:

In strict testing environments, the highestconverting colors for calls to action are bright primary and secondary colors – red, green, orange, yellow.

Darker colors like black, dark gray, brown, or purple have very low conversion rates. Brighter ones have higher conversion rates.

Women’s Health uses a bright mauve-tinted shade for their popup call to action. They’ve got the female-associated purple/pink tint going for them, along with a bright tone.

Citizen Watch, better than the average Timex, also uses the dark-tone website design:

The biggest retailer in the world uses that

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> famous “add to cart” button. It’s yellow:

USE COLOR TO INCREASE CONVERSIONS Conclusion The Internet is a colorful place, and there is a lot that can be accomplished by using color in the right way, at the right time, with the right audience, and for the right purpose.

Some of the best conversion colors are the “ugly” ones — orange and yellow. An article on ColorMatters.com states, “Psychologically, the ‘anti-aesthetic’ colors may well capture more attention than those on the aestheticallycorrect list.” Since the goal of a conversion element is to capture attention, then you may do just fine with that big orange button (BOB).

Or yellow.

8. Don’t neglect white.

In most of the color psychology material I read, there is a forgotten feature. Maybe that’s because color theorists can’t agree on whether white is a color or not. I don’t really care whether it is or not. What I do know is that copious use of white space is a powerful design feature. Take, for example, the most popular website in the world. It’s basically all white:

White is often forgotten, because its primary use is as a background color. Most welldesigned websites today use plenty of white space in order to create a sense of freedom, spaciousness, and breathability.

Naturally, this article leads to questions about making changes in your company’s context.

What about if your company has a specific color style guide? What if the logo color dictates a certain tint? What if the lead designer dictates color requirements? How do you deal with that?

You may not be in a position to rewrite your style guide and pick your own website color palette or font colors on the email template.

So, how can you use color psychology in these situations? There are a few options: • If the colors really suck, campaign for change. In some situations, you may need to make a difference. If you’re a high-heel designer selling to upscale women, but have a crappy orange logo, share your concerns with the decision-makers. People sometimes make stupid color decisions. Kindly show them why and how a killer color scheme can make a conversion difference.

• Use psychology-appropriate colors that match the existing color scheme. Sure, you need to adapt to the color scheme, but you can still use a splash of strategic color here and there. Let’s say, for sake of example, that you have a blue-themed website. Fine.

You can create a popup to harvest email addresses, and use a bright yellow button.

The button is psychology-appropriate, and it doesn’t do damage to the company’s color branding.

The more freedom you have in your color scheme, the better. Here are some solid takeaways as you implement color psychology into your website: internet marketing magazine april - may 2015

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USE COLOR TO INCREASE CONVERSIONS The more freedom you have in your color scheme, the better. Here are some solid takeaways as you implement color psychology into your website:

it should be your BFF color, too. Reign in your color enthusiasm with a whole lot of white. Too many colors can create a sense of confusion.

How have your color changes affected your conversions?

Naturally, this article leads to questions about making changes in your company’s context.

What about if your company has a specific color style guide? What if the logo color dictates a certain tint? What if the lead designer dictates color requirements? How do you deal with that?

You may not be in a position to rewrite your style guide and pick your own website color palette or font colors on the email template.

So, how can you use color psychology in these situations? There are a few options:

• Test several colors. Despite what some may say, there is no right color for a conversion text or button. Try a green, purple, or yellow button. Explore the advantages of a black background scheme vs. a white background.

Find out which works best for your audience and with your product.

• Don’t just leave color choice up to your designer. I have enormous respect for most web designers. I’ve worked with many of them. However, don’t let your designer dictate what colors you should use on your website. Color is a conversion issue, not just an “Oh, it looks good” issue.

Color aesthetics is not everything. Color conversion effects are important! You should be heavily involved in the color selection of your landing pages in order to improve your conversions.

• Avoid color overload. I’ve just spent over 3,000 words telling you how important and awesome color is. Now, you’re going to go out and color something. But don’t go overboard. Remember my final point. I put it last for a reason. White is a color, and

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If the colors really suck, campaign for change.

In some situations, you may need to make a difference. If you’re a high-heel designer selling to upscale women, but have a crappy orange logo, share your concerns with the decisionmakers. People sometimes make stupid color decisions. Kindly show them why and how a killer color scheme can make a conversion difference. IMM

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>EDITORIAL INSIGHT:

THE FUTURE OF ONLINE ADVERTISING

CONTENT AMPLIFICATION THE FUTURE OF ONLINE MARKETING

By Greg Cassar

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ne thing that’s gained a lot of momentum in the last six months, and I believe this is the future where online advertising is going – is the rise of content amplification.

Content amplification is where you create an awesome piece of content – not like a brief blog post, but an authority piece on the subject. For example, ‘The insider’s guide to Logitech Display Clickers – Everything you need to know from how it’s made to how to point and click it’. It should have photos, perhaps even a video and it’s really the authority-type piece.

Creating good quality content is the first step (and it might only be a couple of different pieces for your market) and then next amplifying that content. To amplify, you want to drive paid media such as Facebook ads or remarketing ads to your content (not to a sales page).

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The content is what Google wants, it’s what Facebook wants and it’s really where the web is heading, more and more. If you do a good job on content amplification you can have some really good success from it.

Here’s how it works First, you create an engaging piece of content on your blog or your website and share it on your social media channel. You always start with something on your website first and then push it out.

Then from there you buy paid media such as Facebook Ads to promote the blog post out or the authority page. People engage with your content. Some of them will take action because of course, every page you design on your website should have a primary course of action on it.

> EDITORIAL INSIGHT:

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THE FUTURE OF ONLINE ADVERTISING

One of the best ways to make money on the web is to know where things are going and then to position yourself ahead of the curve before it all catches up.

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>EDITORIAL INSIGHT:

THE FUTURE OF ONLINE ADVERTISING

Turning Your Content into Conversions

Getting Started with Content Amplification

Every page you design on your website should have a primary course of action on it. For example, a banner that says ‘Enquire Here’ or ‘Your Next steps’. On every single page of your site, you should really need to be thinking about ‘what’s the primary course of action of this page?’ and then ‘What’s the secondary course of action of this page?’ Ask yourself: ’Have I designed it in such a way to do that?’

And if not, then, again you’re leaving money on the table. With a call to action available, prospects may take up your offer, or they may leave your site. And then if they leave your site, that’s still okay, because we just re-market to them again to the next piece of content.

So if this is where the web’s going, why not start thinking about: ‘what are the main messages that my market really wants to know?’ And then: ‘how can I write an authority piece on each of those or a video and then start content amplification?’

Know your search volume – Using content to get ahead of the curve There are certain businesses where there’s not a lot of search volume. If you know where there is low search volume, you can use content amplification to position yourself ahead of the curve by creating content on the search topic. One of the best ways to make money on the web is to know where things are going and then to position yourself ahead of the curve before it all catches up.

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internet marketing magazine april - may 2015

It doesn’t matter if people are not searching.

If you can target them, you can start to position yourself now as a thought leader, then start to cookie and re-market to them and follow them around the web and when the message is right – if you’re doing a good job, it sort of ‘sorts and sifts’ itself. A certain percentage of people will put up their hand and say, “You know what? I’d love to talk to you guys more about what you do,” and other people won’t be interested and that’s fine.

That’s just the way it works.

A Content Amplification Use Case Example A use case that I saw that I really resonated with was for a security firm in the U.S. They got permission from a bank to do what’s called an ‘ethical hack’. So an ethical hack means basically, so for example, ‘It’s signed off by the CEO, our security firm’s going to break

> EDITORIAL INSIGHT: into your bank digitally and we’re going to do within the next 30 days. We’re not going to damage anything but we are going to tell you how we got in.’ So banks want to know that stuff and they do that sort of thing all the time.

The company that did this, then turned it into this content piece later. And they figured out who were the C-level executives in the bank and then they sent a USB mouse with a virus on the USB component. They packaged it back up into the mouse container, and then sent it off to this c-level executive within the bank.

The C-level executive gets it in the post and plugs it straight in thinking “Oh, wow, far out!

This is awesome!” Within 24 hours, they were able to send it to the CEO. Basically what happened when it plugged in, they had set it so that it sent an email straight to the CEO saying, “You’ve been hacked. And this was the

THE FUTURE OF ONLINE ADVERTISING

time frame,” and it had a counter of how fast it happened.

Then, by turning that into an authority piece and then amplifying that content out into that security community, (obviously they didn’t mention the name of the bank), they were able to position themselves as a thought leader and demonstrate their ability. As a result of that, by doing that content amplification, they got a heap of other businesses.

Think about it in your business and what topics/ subjects you can start to create good quality content on. Have you seen any businesses that are doing excellent content amplification? As an example we do content amplification on our ‘8 Best Practices for Website Design that Sells‘ post. Let me know any ideas for your market that you have below and I can give some feedback. IMM

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BEST LIGHTING FOR VIDEOS

THE BEST LIGHTING FOR VIDEOS

By Bret Thomson

H

ow To Get A Near-Perfect Video In Minutes!

I don’t ever write a sales letter WITHOUT a video script these days.

Same goes with my Project Success team.

When I suggest using video to clients, I’m usually met with these objections…

• I’ll need time to organise the right equipment • I don’t really know what to say

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Let’s tackle the first objection…

In most cases, you don’t need to waste money on expensive cameras, lights or a green screen.

Look, there are two (and only two) critical factors for a good quality video.

Lighting and sound.

I’ve spent thousands of dollars decking out the garage with expensive lights, backdrops, stands, and audio gadgets.

>

BEST LIGHTING FOR VIDEOS

Waste of money.

perfect, however…

First up, here’s the BEST solution for perfect lighting…

… If you want my team or I to write your video scripts for you… For your home page, opt-in offer, upsell, down-sell, product pages (or whatever)…

Walk outside around 5:30pm.

This natural daylight around 5:30pm (approx.) is the most flattering time for video.

… Then here’s what to do…

And it’s free!

The techy-term for this time-period is “Tungsten Lighting” and it gives off natural, bronzed, warm tones.

Warm tones are A LOT more flattering (and forgiving) than fluorescent lighting.

Also, all I use is my iPhone or iPad camera.

With sound, well, ideally, you should use an audio jack that sits on your collar.

Follow this link to see how we can work together.

However…

Most importantly…

I’ve found if I stand no more than 1 to 1.3 meters away from the iPhone (Any further away will lesson the sound), then the sound is great.

If you know you need to do videos, but you’re procrastinating… Then use this email as an asskicking-motivator to take action!

And that’s it!

Stop over thinking it.

Project your voice, inject enthusiasm and most of all, be yourself. Authenticity is magnetic.

Remember… A video that’s only 80% good sure beats having no video at all.

As for the script…

Till next time…

Well… there’s a well-researched science behind captivating video scripts…

(Especially if you’re trying to move people to action) It is teachable, takes time and practise to

Think big. Be different.

P.S. Disclaimer: I’m no video techy (at all)…

I’m more about implementing fast instead of waiting for perfection. You’ll always feel better for taking action. IMM

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internet marketing magazine april - may 2015