I was never particularly athletic. But as a kid, there was one event that my team usually won. The Water Relay Race. You and your teammates stood in a line, and when the whistle blew, the first member would run like crazy to the full bucket of water, dip a glass in, and then carry it back to the team’s measuring jar. You then passed the glass to your teammate. The team with the most water in the allocated time, won.
Why we used to win this I don’t really know. I do remember providing the strategy of covering the full glass with your hand while running back, but surely other teams picked up on this quickly enough.
Anyhow my observation for today is that a Marketing Activity is very similar to a water Relay Race.
Here’s how it goes:
You are approached for a product or an event offer. It so happens that the offer interests you and you sign up for the event.
Hopefully, the next team member then calls you. The marketing strategy, is twofold: a) confirm your information is correct, b) remind you of the event.
You attend the event, and the third team member gets an idea of how interested you are in their product. If he uses the “hand over glass” strategy, he/she is noting down whether you can afford the product, when you are likely to buy it, why you need it, and which competitors you are checking out.
And so this Marketing Team wins the blue ribbon in the Water Relay Race.
It is a very simple allegory. And I haven’t even gotten to the “make the sale” part.
The marketing person in me enjoys watching where other Marketing teams drop the glass. Here are two examples in my personal experience:
Kaya Skin Clinic Free Check-up:
I SMS-ed my interest after watching a TV commercial (this remains the only time I have ever done this), which I think says a lot for the commercial.
I get an SMS confirming my application.
I get a call asking me a date and time, then telling me my time was not available, then telling me the time and date that was available. (I was already half-hearted at this point). Let me add here that it goes against the grain to go see a skin specialist who’ll then closely examine your face under a bright light and proceed to tell you all about your flaws.
I only imagine the above because I never went. I simply forgot my appointment.
There was no further news from Kaya of which I’m rather thankful.
Apple Workshop:
I was approached outside Chennai CitiCentre with an invitation to an Apple Mac Book Pro workshop. I signed up, chose a date and time.
I later received a call and asked if I would attend, which I said yes to, but the time mentioned during the phone call was different from the one I signed up for. I asked the lady if she could confirm the original time I signed up for and she said she'd call back.
She never did.
Rather sad in both cases, since Kaya Skin clinic is walking distance from my house, and my husband does fully intend to buy an Apple MacBook Pro, we just don’t know when.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Free writing services for social organizations and charities
I'm on a break from work, and looking to occupy my time meaningfully. If you are a charity, social organisation, etc., and require writing support such as web, ad or marketing promotional copy, please feel free to contact me. I'll be happy to offer whatever writing services I can.
I have over 7 years of writing experience for advertising, the web and corporate communication.
Email: varadarajan.vidya@gmail.com
I have over 7 years of writing experience for advertising, the web and corporate communication.
Email: varadarajan.vidya@gmail.com
Saturday, January 05, 2008
When content design makes a difference…
My last few posts have been about landing page content, but since content strategy is a part of this blog, I’m going to discuss what strategic changes you could make to start improving conversions on your landing page.
First of all by content strategy, I’m referring to decisions regarding what kind of content, where it goes and how to say it. If you think you’ve covered everything you need to say in your landing pages, but are not getting the results you expect, consider the following:
Do the subheads tell you the story?
Face it. Your users scan, so make the content flow of the page as clear as possible.
Just by looking at your page can they “see” your product/offering?
Screenshots, pack shots, special offer… what is it? They want to see it, not ready about. And if there’s a nice, large call-to-action button right next to it, the more enticingly irresistible is your action. Warning: Don’t overdo it. A page with screenshot after screenshot of the results of your software product isn’t going to work. Use images which communicate or show the product in a visually-appealing way.
Does every page fold have a call to action?
If not try to rearrange your content or page elements so that a call to action is always visible (it can be the same “Sign up now!” button, or multiple methods of inducing the same action, or even different desired actions).
Are you using your space wisely?
Users obviously go from top to bottom, (and largely focus on the right hand side content) but that doesn’t mean they don’t come back up. So is that blank space under the left navigation necessary or could you be capturing emails addresses?
Can you communicate with more than words?
Ever read through a long list of benefits? Ha ha ha…. yeah right! So try spicing up your content by adding icons that can visually communicate your benefits, and attract eyeballs to that (most crucial) part of the page.
I’ve recently had some success with pages where the content was great, but the page itself simply needed some design improvements. The points above have helped me ensure each element on the page is working towards moving that conversion needle up.
Hope it does the same for you!
First of all by content strategy, I’m referring to decisions regarding what kind of content, where it goes and how to say it. If you think you’ve covered everything you need to say in your landing pages, but are not getting the results you expect, consider the following:
Do the subheads tell you the story?
Face it. Your users scan, so make the content flow of the page as clear as possible.
Just by looking at your page can they “see” your product/offering?
Screenshots, pack shots, special offer… what is it? They want to see it, not ready about. And if there’s a nice, large call-to-action button right next to it, the more enticingly irresistible is your action. Warning: Don’t overdo it. A page with screenshot after screenshot of the results of your software product isn’t going to work. Use images which communicate or show the product in a visually-appealing way.
Does every page fold have a call to action?
If not try to rearrange your content or page elements so that a call to action is always visible (it can be the same “Sign up now!” button, or multiple methods of inducing the same action, or even different desired actions).
Are you using your space wisely?
Users obviously go from top to bottom, (and largely focus on the right hand side content) but that doesn’t mean they don’t come back up. So is that blank space under the left navigation necessary or could you be capturing emails addresses?
Can you communicate with more than words?
Ever read through a long list of benefits? Ha ha ha…. yeah right! So try spicing up your content by adding icons that can visually communicate your benefits, and attract eyeballs to that (most crucial) part of the page.
I’ve recently had some success with pages where the content was great, but the page itself simply needed some design improvements. The points above have helped me ensure each element on the page is working towards moving that conversion needle up.
Hope it does the same for you!
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Hitting the Landing Page Jackpot
Yesterday, after two months and a dozen iterations, I tasted what I can definitely describe as success through content. A landing page for an analytical product suddenly began to perform.
Here’s how it went:
Recognizing the Initial Problem
We had something I could term as a Master Landing Page. It simply had everything anyone needed to know about two of our products, and was used extensively across a majority of our campaigns. This means whether a person was searching for “analytical reporting tool” or “database report” or “report writing” they would come to the same Master page. And over time, as the page showed some success, it had generally been extended to other campaigns as well, until about 60% of our campaigns were pointing at this one page regardless of the keyword.
By studying the results of these various campaigns over a period of time, it became clear that only a couple of campaigns were actually converting from the Master Landing page, while a few like Analytics were performing rather poorly.
Creating a Focused Landing page
We first created a landing page, with new content and supporting material (case studies, brochures) that focused completely on analysis and what our product could do. What we also did was tailor the page content towards corporate analytical requirements, as our product was mainly an enterprise product.
It didn’t work.
Redesigning the Page
We then enhancing the visuals that supported our content, sample analytical reports, screenshots of the product, graphs charts etc. I had the download buttons placed regularly across the page so that our call to action was always visible regardless of how much a visitor scrolled.
It didn’t work.
Making the Content Personal
While reviewing the content, it seemed to me that the language was not direct enough. Talking on an enterprise level tends to be a little impersonal, and so we rewrote the content to be more on a first-person basis.
It did slightly better, but not really the success I was looking for.
What are my Competitors Saying?
I then went into research mode (something I should’ve done first) and looked at what our competitors were doing and adopted some of their good points into my page. Some of these activities included, making the page headline more visible, increasing the size of the download buttons, putting some important keywords/phrases in bold, linking to flash demonstrations.
Performance still average.
At this point it must be noted, that point of comparison was against the Master Landing Page. When I say performance was average, visitors were downloading, but no more that they were on the Master Landing Page.
What do visitors want?
Having also redone a lot of the ads (with much greater success) I was familiar with both the keywords and headlines that were bringing visitors to my page. So I went back to the basics: What can I say that answers/reemphasizes the headline that they clicked on? How do I bring the top keywords into the content? How do I make the content (which by now was a VERY long page) short and succinct?
After answering these questions, I finally began to see the results I was looking for.
So what worked? No doubt about it. ALL of the above.
The Winning Combination…
Getting the right content on your landing page is a process. You have to try multiple ideas, and even harder, combinations of these ideas to see what’s going to work for you.
This is what I think worked for me: focusing and personalizing the content, making the visuals and buttons larger and accessible, adding supporting material like flash demos and screenshots, ensuring top keywords were clearly visible on the page, and bringing the page content down to a single scroll.
…Trial & Error
It always seems obvious when we list it out like that, but when I applied these tactics to another poorly performing page… it just didn’t work, so here I go again.
It’s tedious and frustrating to say the least, but when you hit the jackpot I can assure you, it will be worth it.
Here’s how it went:
Recognizing the Initial Problem
We had something I could term as a Master Landing Page. It simply had everything anyone needed to know about two of our products, and was used extensively across a majority of our campaigns. This means whether a person was searching for “analytical reporting tool” or “database report” or “report writing” they would come to the same Master page. And over time, as the page showed some success, it had generally been extended to other campaigns as well, until about 60% of our campaigns were pointing at this one page regardless of the keyword.
By studying the results of these various campaigns over a period of time, it became clear that only a couple of campaigns were actually converting from the Master Landing page, while a few like Analytics were performing rather poorly.
Creating a Focused Landing page
We first created a landing page, with new content and supporting material (case studies, brochures) that focused completely on analysis and what our product could do. What we also did was tailor the page content towards corporate analytical requirements, as our product was mainly an enterprise product.
It didn’t work.
Redesigning the Page
We then enhancing the visuals that supported our content, sample analytical reports, screenshots of the product, graphs charts etc. I had the download buttons placed regularly across the page so that our call to action was always visible regardless of how much a visitor scrolled.
It didn’t work.
Making the Content Personal
While reviewing the content, it seemed to me that the language was not direct enough. Talking on an enterprise level tends to be a little impersonal, and so we rewrote the content to be more on a first-person basis.
It did slightly better, but not really the success I was looking for.
What are my Competitors Saying?
I then went into research mode (something I should’ve done first) and looked at what our competitors were doing and adopted some of their good points into my page. Some of these activities included, making the page headline more visible, increasing the size of the download buttons, putting some important keywords/phrases in bold, linking to flash demonstrations.
Performance still average.
At this point it must be noted, that point of comparison was against the Master Landing Page. When I say performance was average, visitors were downloading, but no more that they were on the Master Landing Page.
What do visitors want?
Having also redone a lot of the ads (with much greater success) I was familiar with both the keywords and headlines that were bringing visitors to my page. So I went back to the basics: What can I say that answers/reemphasizes the headline that they clicked on? How do I bring the top keywords into the content? How do I make the content (which by now was a VERY long page) short and succinct?
After answering these questions, I finally began to see the results I was looking for.
So what worked? No doubt about it. ALL of the above.
The Winning Combination…
Getting the right content on your landing page is a process. You have to try multiple ideas, and even harder, combinations of these ideas to see what’s going to work for you.
This is what I think worked for me: focusing and personalizing the content, making the visuals and buttons larger and accessible, adding supporting material like flash demos and screenshots, ensuring top keywords were clearly visible on the page, and bringing the page content down to a single scroll.
…Trial & Error
It always seems obvious when we list it out like that, but when I applied these tactics to another poorly performing page… it just didn’t work, so here I go again.
It’s tedious and frustrating to say the least, but when you hit the jackpot I can assure you, it will be worth it.
Monday, October 15, 2007
(Re)Learning Content Strategy from Landing Pages
If you ever written content for a landing page, especially one which has an obvious measure of success or failure, like a sign-up or download, then you’ve probably been through one of the most challenging (if not frustrating) experiences of a writer/content strategist.
I work with landing pages on almost a daily basis. These are mainly pages on which visitors have landed after being directed there by a PPC (pay per click) campaign. We measure results based on a visitor downloading a trial version of our products.
When I took over content and campaign management, I inherited a legacy of keywords, ads, and landing pages that had been created over a period of three years. I’m going to put down individual posts regarding my experiences, frustrations and learnings gained while working with these pages.
I work with landing pages on almost a daily basis. These are mainly pages on which visitors have landed after being directed there by a PPC (pay per click) campaign. We measure results based on a visitor downloading a trial version of our products.
When I took over content and campaign management, I inherited a legacy of keywords, ads, and landing pages that had been created over a period of three years. I’m going to put down individual posts regarding my experiences, frustrations and learnings gained while working with these pages.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Chasing down the bogus leads
Spiderman 3, American Idol winner, Britney Spears.
These are the keywords that brought you here. This is something any online communication manager or web strategist learns first. But what’s often overlooked is the importance of knowing which keywords to avoid to keep unwanted traffic away.
For those who landed here by accident, this is a blog about online content writing and marketing communication. You were brought here because of the combination of words at the start of this article (generated by Google trends/zeitgeist, as current top searches). My apologies for wasting your time.
The subject of my post for today is keywords search relevancy. Most online communicators understand search relevancy as how a search engine determines whether a Web page or site is important for a particular search query. But I’m looking at it from an online business perspective.
These days, with the numerous online tools available, most business websites can quickly figure out the basic set of keywords that will drive traffic towards them. Once regular traffic has been established, the next step is in ensuring that a higher percentage of traffic results in sales. This means focusing on the quality of your traffic, rather than quantity.
As always, the first step is measurement. Which of your keywords are resulting in sales and which are not? Most good web analytical tools will tell you this, once you’ve set your conversion goals. But they won’t tell you what percentage of each keyword is bringing in people who have no interest in your product or offering.
For example, if you’re selling the Volkswagen Beetle, you may be driving a large number of naturalists to your site, who may be more than happy to fill a form for a free-test drive. But as a target they are unlikely, if ever to make a purchase. And if you’re paying for every naturalist who clicks on your Beetle ad, that’s just money down the drain. This gets further compounded when multiple teams are involved in following each lead up.
You will therefore need to track backwards (from your sales team, registration page or whatever your conversion goal), every bogus lead based on the keyword search. And then identify which keywords are resulting in the highest misses.
This is basically the opposite of lead conversion. By tracing bogus conversions and knowing which keywords are resulting in high misses, you can then take action.
Unfortunately, once you find the problem there’s really no single way to solve it. For me, it’s a combination of trial, error, fine-tuning and getting specific with negative keywords.
If you know of another way, do let me know.
These are the keywords that brought you here. This is something any online communication manager or web strategist learns first. But what’s often overlooked is the importance of knowing which keywords to avoid to keep unwanted traffic away.
For those who landed here by accident, this is a blog about online content writing and marketing communication. You were brought here because of the combination of words at the start of this article (generated by Google trends/zeitgeist, as current top searches). My apologies for wasting your time.
The subject of my post for today is keywords search relevancy. Most online communicators understand search relevancy as how a search engine determines whether a Web page or site is important for a particular search query. But I’m looking at it from an online business perspective.
These days, with the numerous online tools available, most business websites can quickly figure out the basic set of keywords that will drive traffic towards them. Once regular traffic has been established, the next step is in ensuring that a higher percentage of traffic results in sales. This means focusing on the quality of your traffic, rather than quantity.
As always, the first step is measurement. Which of your keywords are resulting in sales and which are not? Most good web analytical tools will tell you this, once you’ve set your conversion goals. But they won’t tell you what percentage of each keyword is bringing in people who have no interest in your product or offering.
For example, if you’re selling the Volkswagen Beetle, you may be driving a large number of naturalists to your site, who may be more than happy to fill a form for a free-test drive. But as a target they are unlikely, if ever to make a purchase. And if you’re paying for every naturalist who clicks on your Beetle ad, that’s just money down the drain. This gets further compounded when multiple teams are involved in following each lead up.
You will therefore need to track backwards (from your sales team, registration page or whatever your conversion goal), every bogus lead based on the keyword search. And then identify which keywords are resulting in the highest misses.
This is basically the opposite of lead conversion. By tracing bogus conversions and knowing which keywords are resulting in high misses, you can then take action.
Unfortunately, once you find the problem there’s really no single way to solve it. For me, it’s a combination of trial, error, fine-tuning and getting specific with negative keywords.
If you know of another way, do let me know.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
If your home page could talk…
“Welcome to thiswebsite.com. Now that I’ve finally got you here, I suspect you’d like to understand our offerings. You can browse through our assortment of services by clicking on the menu bar at the top, or just let your eyes wander to our Key Activities that we’ve emphasized for your interest right here on the home page.
Be sure to check out the news items and assorted collateral to understand how big a company we really are. If you’ve enjoyed your experience, do spend 10 seconds or so entering your mail id for our database, as there’s more useful information we’d like to send you.”
Ok so I’m dramatizing. But if you’ve sat and pondered over what needs to be covered on a home page while creating the information architecture, then perhaps personifying your website could help.
If not, here are some other ways to get a hold over what goes on your home page.
Go to your objectives. The home is the first face, or window to the rest of the site. The objectives for the website therefore apply directly to the home page. So while the rest of your site must support your website objectives, your home must reflect them accurately. The sequence of importance in objectives will also give you both the priority of elements, for placement in your IA, as well as act as a checklist for you to ensure your home page is doing everything you expect it to do.
Look at your sitemap. Your next immediate layer (the ones that usually appear as your top menu) are gateways to more information. But if a person doesn’t enter, what would they miss? Scan through the pages of each sub-section. If a visitor never saw those pages, which objectives would be lost? You’ll then get an idea of what needs to be highlighted on the home page. You may find at time this won’t even be a page, but some information on a page, or a particular white paper that shows your product in good light.
Think company size. One of the first decisions a visitor wants to make when they see your home page is on company size. Overplaying a small company or inadequately representing a large one, are both mistakes that can send a visitor away. Try and be as accurate as possible while reflecting size. Large companies are reflected through press releases, quality white papers or industry reports by recognized experts, important case studies, or key partnerships. Small companies are seen through individual statements, internal news features, upfront contact information, etc.
Know your finish line. An email id? Software evaluation? A filled-in contact form? Figure out how you get a visitor from A to Z, in as few steps as possible. The answers could lead to some new ideas like an email entry box for a free whitepaper on the home page or an ad spot for a free 30-day product trial.
Give visitors what they want. If you’ve defined your target, you should be able to list out the top ten things they are looking for. Make sure the answers (or pointers to the answers) are available on your home page.
When creating the information architecture of a home page keep in mind that a visitor can instantly perceive when you’ve done your homework. And that perception does reflect on what they think of the company.
Be sure to check out the news items and assorted collateral to understand how big a company we really are. If you’ve enjoyed your experience, do spend 10 seconds or so entering your mail id for our database, as there’s more useful information we’d like to send you.”
Ok so I’m dramatizing. But if you’ve sat and pondered over what needs to be covered on a home page while creating the information architecture, then perhaps personifying your website could help.
If not, here are some other ways to get a hold over what goes on your home page.
Go to your objectives. The home is the first face, or window to the rest of the site. The objectives for the website therefore apply directly to the home page. So while the rest of your site must support your website objectives, your home must reflect them accurately. The sequence of importance in objectives will also give you both the priority of elements, for placement in your IA, as well as act as a checklist for you to ensure your home page is doing everything you expect it to do.
Look at your sitemap. Your next immediate layer (the ones that usually appear as your top menu) are gateways to more information. But if a person doesn’t enter, what would they miss? Scan through the pages of each sub-section. If a visitor never saw those pages, which objectives would be lost? You’ll then get an idea of what needs to be highlighted on the home page. You may find at time this won’t even be a page, but some information on a page, or a particular white paper that shows your product in good light.
Think company size. One of the first decisions a visitor wants to make when they see your home page is on company size. Overplaying a small company or inadequately representing a large one, are both mistakes that can send a visitor away. Try and be as accurate as possible while reflecting size. Large companies are reflected through press releases, quality white papers or industry reports by recognized experts, important case studies, or key partnerships. Small companies are seen through individual statements, internal news features, upfront contact information, etc.
Know your finish line. An email id? Software evaluation? A filled-in contact form? Figure out how you get a visitor from A to Z, in as few steps as possible. The answers could lead to some new ideas like an email entry box for a free whitepaper on the home page or an ad spot for a free 30-day product trial.
Give visitors what they want. If you’ve defined your target, you should be able to list out the top ten things they are looking for. Make sure the answers (or pointers to the answers) are available on your home page.
When creating the information architecture of a home page keep in mind that a visitor can instantly perceive when you’ve done your homework. And that perception does reflect on what they think of the company.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
