…Is To Keep In Touch!

It can be very challenging to find an appropriate balance of communication with your customers. It seems like companies who ARE reaching out often reach out too much. Customers aren’t usually as interested in buying as you are in selling, thus the percieved surplus of marketing communications.  I’ve recently been made a little sour by a different scenario though: I’m not getting ANY communication from my seller.

I very rarely buy music online. I’m usually content just surfing myspace music pages. I came across one band last week though, and I just had to have thier stuff. They’re a small and obscure band, so I figured the only way to get their music playing in my car would be to buy their CD of their myspace page. I purchased the CD through Paypal and got the seller’s email address. After a few days without any kind of shipment confirmation, I emailed them and asked if the CD was on its way. No answer. I had to create a myspace account just so I could send them a myspace message. I’m still waiting for some response.
I’ve also recently ordered a hoodie from another band, and a birthday present for a friend. I got shipping confirmations, tracking numbers, everything. I don’t consider myself a nervous nancy when it comes to matters of the Internet, but it was very comforting to have these other sellers keeping me up to date.

The lesson here is this:  if you’re going to give customers some kind of purchasing option online, it will require more customer service than an in-person purchase. Make sure that you regularly monitor whatever kind of ordering system you have. Let customers know that you are working to fill their order, and provide them with periodic updates until the shipment is complete. Even if you’re completing the order, and everything arrives as it should, they probably wont be perfectly satisfied if you didn’t keep in touch. If nothing else, it helps build a relationship with your customer, which is always a good idea.
I’ll let you know if my CD ever comes.

…Is To Remeber Who Loves ‘Em!

This isn’t a vegan rant, so don’t X out until you’ve at least finished the second paragraph. I returned from a New York City vacation a few weeks ago. While there, I stumbled across a vegan ice cream/dessert shop (no animal ingredients of any kind: no milk, no eggs, etc). Anyone following a vegan diet knows how hard it can be to find such an establishment. I stormed into the shop, confirmed that everything was vegan, and literally high-fived the cashier in delight. There was little that could be done at this point to stop me from ordering something.

While this shop may have a hard time attracting the attention of non-vegans, they’ve likely got a solid base in vegan customers. That ice cream shop isn’t unique. Most businesses have some kind of customer foundation below their expected customer turnover. That solid base can be very comfortable; “I know that I’ll have these loyal fans while I go out and try to reach new people.” Reaching new audiences should obviously be a priority, but don’t get lazy — be sure to make the most out of your long-lasting relationships…the folks who you know have and will continue to stick around.

Be sure to reach out to your VIPs. Sounds simple and obvious enough, right? The trick here is to actually TREAT them like a VIP. I’ll explain:

There’s an eatery at the mall that I’ll eat at 9 out of every 10 mall visits. The food is alright, but that’s not why I go. I go because the owner remembers me every time I show up. What I like is the feeling of going to see a friend. He’s not just cordial, he’s personal. It could be 3-4 weeks between our 3 minute exchanges, but he still remembers me. He developed a relationship with me.

I’m willing to bet that you’ll see an increased response from your audience if you let them know that you know them. Whether it’s a fast food place at the mall or a major online retailer, the customer wants to be acknowledged and remembered (easier for the online folks, I know).

Like I said in my very first post, make it personal.

…Is To Unleash Their Inner Expert

This blog topic has been brewing in my head for months. Enjoy.

Lots of people want you to know that certain technologies and trends can REALLY make a big difference in your business outcomes.  Business owners listen, because many business owners feel the need to keep up with the (hyper-perceived)  hyper-evolution of web technologies.

Web-based or not, any business has to think of ways to improve in order to remain competitive. Thankfully (I guess), there are plenty of blogs, articles and webinars out there to help you keep up with the latest trends. Fearing abandonment in the ever changing world of business, we may too hastily cling to trends simply because an expert touts its benefits.

Now don’t get me wrong — some trends became trends for a very good reason. Many (most?) programs have benefits that deserve touting. The most important thing though, is to consider the practice, the product, the whatever, as it would apply to your business.

I bet you’d love an example right about now:

I got an email inviting me to a webinar. The webinar was about constructing the perfect marketing email. Being impressed with the construction of the email they sent me (quite an accomplishment considering all the email marketing I’ve done), I decided it was worth my time to sign up. I was impressed, almost overwhelmed, with the detail and expertise they poured into this webinar. They really knew their stuff. Unfortunately, they didn’t know MY stuff.

While their tips were practical and intelligent, I knew for a fact that they would be detrimental to the work I was doing.  I knew my audience VERY well, and I knew for a fact that my way was better (I had the performance reports to prove it). How could a company that sounds so smart be so dead wrong?

Unforunately, what they DIDN’T know was:

WHO I was marketing to.

WHAT content or product I was marketing.

WHERE my audience was.

WHEN we launched marketing campaigns

WHY we sent out marketing emails.

Frankly, they were suggesting I do the complete OPPOSITE of what I knew worked best for my company.

There’s no website, technology, product or trend that can substitute for knowing your business and knowing your audience. Don’t let the experts push you around. You (should) know better than anyone else what your customers respond to, and what works best for your own business.

…Is A Reason To Make A Decision (Part 2)

It’s always a good idea to know how and why your customers reach your site. Equally important though, is how and why your customers leave. Good web analytic programs should be able to tell you bounce rates and exit rates for each page of your website. Bounce rates and exit rates can seem kind of similar, so let me provide the Google Analytics definition of each:

Bounce rate: Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page.
Exit rate: This metric identifies the number of exits from your site, and, as with entrances, it will always be equal to the number of visits when applied over your entire website.

So how do we use this information?

A high bounce rate means that people arrive at your site and find no reason to get into your content/products. They’ve decided you either don’t have what they want, or that it will be too much trouble to find it on your site (read: bad navigation and/or design). An ugly site is a bad reason to have a high bounce rate. Imagine you’ve got a restaurant with your customers’ favorite food. If your restaurant is dirty, they’ll probably leave and never come back.

So why did they wind up on a path to the wrong destination? You have to look at your traffic sources (see Decision part 1). Is most of your traffic coming from search engines? You should probably review your keywords.

Remember, search engines can put users anywhere on your website that’s most relevant to their search. They may go to a specific product page, or they may go to the About Us page, or they may go to a contact page. Make sure that the keywords really match the page that users will be landing at.

If most of your traffic is from referring sites, make sure that the referring link accurately describes what users will find on your page. If a referring link says “Free offer from our trusted partner!” and they click through to a site with price tags all over it, you can bet they’ll bounce.

If a large amount of your traffic is “direct” (people clicking a bookmark or directly typing in your URL), you will probably have lower bounce rates. Think about it…these are people who know exactly what your site is; they’re going to you on purpose. Unless they can see in one look that there’s nothing new on your site, they’ll probably stick around.

In a nutshell, you have to look at the path users took to get to you (traffic source), and figure out why your page is different than what they expected.

What about your exit rates? Exit rates tell you the percentage of users who leave your site from specific pages. So if I go to www.bestbuy.com and look through their computer products, then car audio, then DVDs and then I X out of the page, the DVD page is my exit page. This is not a bounce because I viewed more than one page. So how can you use this information?

Imagine Company X has a 50 percent bounce rate on their product ordering page. Half of the people who go to an ordering page abandoned their purchase. For one reason or another, they’re uncomfortable making a purchase (it could be your check-out security, or they’re unsure you know what product they’re buying). These are customers who had half a mind to become your customer. They’re interested in your product. It’s urgent to get the exit rate down on that kind of page.

What if instead you have a high exit rate from a content page, like a blog? If you want users to stick around on your site, you have to make sure they have options. If your site is difficult to navigate and you don’t have any related content/products linked on that page, where would you expect them to go? Don’t put users in a dead-end; when constructing a page, ask yourself “THEN what?” Design your page in such a way that users can quickly and easily flow through your content or products.

Remember, don’t use analytics to merely tell you what’s what. Use it to make your site better. Analytics give you a reason to make a business decision.

…Is A Reason To Make a Decision (Part 1)

In my last post I talked about the importance of user information, particularly demographic information. There are other kinds of information out there for web companies to use that are equally important though. If you’re doing business online, you need to use some kind of web traffic tracking tool. In this post, I’ll go over how to use traffic sources to make better business decisions.

Chances are your web hosting company provides statistics about your website. Typically, this information includes your number of page views, where your visitors come from, how long visitors stay at your page and where users are mostly likely to X out of your site. It might just look like percentages and graphs, but you can use it to figure out what your users like and how to change your business for the better.

1. Look at your most popular traffic source, and think about ways that you can make it better.

Don’t just use your analytics to figure out what’s the best. Use it to make the best better. Knowing where your traffic comes will not only give you valuable insight about your current audience, but it may help you figure out how to get new visitors as well. For instance, I recently spoke with a company (Company X) who had a lot of traffic coming through it’s manufacturer’s site. When I looked at this referring site, I noticed that Company X’s link was in a less than ideal location. Surprisingly, half of the links that had been put before Company X either didn’t work or didn’t take users to a page where users could make a purchase. The pages were so irrelevant to the manufacturer’s site that it was probably costing the manufacturer customers. Company X needed to let the manufacturer know that they have what customers are looking for. Company X deserved a much better spot on the referring site. Improving their visibility in their greatest traffic source will lead to:

- A User who can quickly and easily find relevant products

- A sale for the manufacturer made through Company X

- More traffic and sales for Company X

If most of your traffic comes from paid ads like Google AdWords, you may want to allot more budget for paid ads. If you have a lot of direct traffic (people clicking bookmarks or directly entering your URL), then you know your product and/or service and/or website is well suited for repeat traffic. You should nurture this in order to build your customer base. Constantly rebuilding the first floor won’t get you a skyscraper. You have to keep the first floor in order to add a second. Make sure you’re ADDING customers and not just replacing them.

2. Look at your weakest traffic sources, and think about ways you can make them better.

There are many ways visitors can get to a site. Unfortunately, not all of those ways are going to make it easy for your customer to find you. Some companies might notice that their traffic from search engines is extremely low. I’m not going to tell you to spend thousands of dollars to have someone improve your search engine standing (search engine optimization is what they call it). I will say that search engines can drive a whole lot of traffic to your site, and that they’re worth some attention. At the very least, you should make sure that your URL is registered in the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.). It’s pretty easy to do.

A warning for those interested in taking more drastic measures: Search engine optimization can be a very expensive and confusing edeavor. Proceed with caution.

Some companies find that their referred traffic is low. Referred traffic will often come from a site similar in some way to your own. You know you’ve got their interest. If they’re coming from a site that they trust, chances are they’ll already have a little trust in you.

Finally, if you have business partners like manufacturers or complementary service providers (a cat adoption website might link to a business selling cat furniture…closely related without being competitive), make an offer to copromote. It’s an easy way to get yourself in front of new and relevant customers who may already be purchase-minded.

These are just SOME tips on how to use SOME of the information provided by web traffic analytics. This post was about how users get to your site — in my next post, I’ll talk about why people leave.

…Is To Worship The User

There’s an old web adage that says “Content is King”. Well if content is King, then the User must be something a little higher…

The User is omnipresent. The User giveth life, and the User taketh life away. Cross the User, and you may pay dearly. Give the User what it wants, and you WILL be rewarded. See what I’m getting at?

I consider myself a pretty avid and loyal Facebook user. For those who don’t know, www.Facebook.com is a social networking site that helps people connect with friends, colleagues and strangers to share a whole bunch of information. And I mean a whole bunch.

Most of this bunch can/will/has been used by advertisers and marketers (including me). If you’re thinking about advertising online, or even if you’ve already started, you should be looking at sites that can target like Facebook. Gender, age, favorite TV shows, interests and activities can all be used to zero in on exactly the consumers you want. It might sound scary at first, but its one of the best ways to make sure you’re giving the User exactly what it wants.

The bottom line is that the User will not reward ads it’s not interested in. The User is so powerful that it can completely ignore your ad even if you get it right on its screen. Remember that when you make an ad-offering, you’ll have only a few seconds before your offering is trampled under the User’s foot. The message must be potent, personal and RELEVANT — you have to tell the User that you have exactly what it wants (AND IT HAS TO BE TRUE…misleading offerings will make the User VERY angry).

Now, don’t get confused. Don’t tell the User WHAT it wants and that you have it; remember, the User is all-knowing about what it wants. Of course, there are a lot of Users, so how do you make sure you’re making offerings to the right Users?

There are many places to make online offerings to the User. The more information you can get from your ad publisher, the better. Social networking and other membership based sites often have a nice collection of information about their members. I suggest checking these kinds of sites to see if they can paint a nice bull’s eye on your target audience (but remember, the more specific you are, the smaller your audience will get).

Before making any offering, ask yourself how relevant your offering is to the User. If your ad publisher can’t give you a relevant audience, you may want to look elsewhere. There’s a lot at stake (mostly your money), and relevance is key. Make sure you’re giving the User EXACTLY what it wants.

As a side note to marketers and advertisers out there — you may want to get in the habit of capitalizing words like User or Customer from now on. Remember, they’re pulling the strings now, not you.