Web Design, Development & Online Marketing - Serving the Central and North Texas Markets

Looking for Affluent Men Online

Desiring interaction with affluent men is not just for single women on dating sites!  Marketers are recognizing that men like to shop online.  Although women still influence the majority of buying decisions, men are enjoying the freedom to shop anywhere, anytime on their computer and mobile devices.  This sure beats shopping with your wife/girlfriend and having to hold a purse at the mall while you wait and wait and wait!

I personally can vouch for the trend of men shopping online by even observing my two kids.  My 15 year old son shops on line 90% to my 17 year old daughter's 10% (or less).   (This does not include iTune purchases.) This may indicate future equality across the sexes for marketers' attention.

Men shop online with mobile devices

Marketing Charts published data from a iProspect study that indicated an overwhelming preference among affluent males (70%) to research and buy online as opposed to researching online and purchasing in store, provides unique opportunities for advertisers to capitalize on this audience’s behaviors. And while the majority of purchases are still made on PCs, the affluent male is doing more and more research on mobile devices, making a multi-channel approach necessary. Some details:

• The vast majority (91%) access a PC at least once daily, while 77% have a mobile smartphone and 50% own a tablet.
• Engagement with these devices is high across the board – almost 100% of survey respondents report using their PCs and mobile smartphones at least daily and 85% reporting daily use of tablets.
• When an affluent male has daily access to tablet, he is 32% more likely to have made a purchase via the device.
• In terms of visibility, 71% have seen ads on a PC while one in three has seen ads on a mobile phone or tablet. 

What Marketers Should Do to Reach Affluent Men

This trend trickles down beyond luxury brands and products so all marketers should take note. Your first priority is to have a highly functional MOBILE website.  Viewing your company website on a mobile device can be very frustrating for users and limits conversion and engagement opportunity. From there the focus is on content and visibility as with all your marketing channels.

If you are curious or new help reaching the affluent market or mobilizing your online presence, contact a digital marketing agency for a consultation.  We are here to help and can assess and prioritize a strategy based on your business goals and budget.

Avoiding the “Delete”

Email marketing is getting harder.  By nature, human behavior looks first to sort out the junk whether it’s email or printed mail.  We quickly delete or toss “junk mail” without opening it whether it be digital or printed.

Next we segregate the important from the somewhat interesting.  For email, the interesting may get left in the inbox unopened with good intention on returning to read as other more urgent matters go on top and distract us from good intention.  That “somewhat interesting” subject email gets lost in the clutter never to be read.

Email Subjects that Convert

In a short instance, your email subject line has to do a big job.  It must get attention and convert attention to interest and action by standing out from all the clutter flying through the reader’s inbox.

How can your email be irresistible so it gets read and further action is taken?

The best techniques for email subject lines were revealed by Marketing Experiments webinar today.  The marketing experiments they share with us digital marketing consultants and Internet experts is so valuable.  Here are a few points summarized:

1.   Is the email subject line clear?

It must take zero effort to understand and comprehend the point. .  A couple examples of good lines were:

            Does our landing page pass the test?

            Learn 3 tips that made 10,000 landing pages more successful

2. Is the email subject precise?

Instead of arbitrary meaning like “better way” or “leading method”, try one that guarantees a more factual content than opinion like using “scientific” as in this example :

            A scientific way to improve your email conversion.

3.  Is it concise?

Simply, don’t use more words than are necessary to make the point.

4.  Is it relevant, urgent and important?

Get relevant to target’s problem or desire and add a time-sensitive element so they don’t wait to click through to your message.  Keep the focus on these on the landing page too as you move them down toward action.

5.  Does the subject communicate exclusivity?

Does your subject line have an “only-factor”?  This can be done by using numbers or even a respected brand name or a trusted event/source to elevate exclusivity.

            7 Steps to make your offer irresistible

            WebMD.com top 10 super foods for heart health

            CEO seminar on leadership – bonus ends at 4pm.

6.  Is the subject credible?

Is the promise your subject makes believable or is it too gimmicky or salesy?  The tone should be appropriate.   Make sure the value to the reader is specific.

            Take the test and determine your body age.

Email subject line wisdom

The most basic take-aways in this lesson is: 

Your competition in email marketing is other email subject lines.

Avoid words without meaning.

Keep testing and measuring!

Incremental improvements at each point in your marketing machine are sure to add up to digital marketing success.  Sometimes it may take an outside eye to help you see these simple opportunities.  Reach out to us or another expert who can help you optimize your digital marketing efforts.

Sequencing Copy for Maximum Conversion

Whether its online copywriting or offline, don’t “sell” on your pages.  Rather tell a story to get significantly better results.  This method is referenced from Marketing Experiments.  The case study showed 200%+ conversion improvement using this sequencing process…just by changing the copy. 

Tell a story.  People respond to stories.

Each part of the conversion process is tied to the ideal story progression.  It’s a process of transitions from set up to confrontation & rising action to climax then resolution.  The following will help to outline the structure for your own writing. 

1.  THE HEADLINE   - setup  

The “story” might start with your paid ad, for example, that sets up the promise leading them on the next step to your landing page.

Start with the “why” they may be on your page, what is driving them to look and confirm that in the title and text.

Action/goal:

a.  Attention grabbing headline that will resonate with the target audience

b.  Get them to click through or read on to the next paragraph

 2.  THE SUPPORTING PARAGRAPH/S - confrontation, rising action intensifies

 On your landing page, continue emphasizing the pain/problem you can solve with your very specific value as unique solution.  Several transitions can occur on the landing page.  Keep clarity to the viewer’s level of understanding.

First paragraph  (do NOT skip this):

a.  Where am I

b.  What can I do here

c.  Why should I do it

Body paragraph/s:  (Intensify with these elements now)

Proof  (data)

Benefits (before features)

Features  (only AFTER benefits)

Incentives  (offer)

Urgency   (today, save $200)

All of these can appeal to the external and internal motivators

Example: Boss wants you to gain/solve xyz (external) vs. advance your career by gaining experience leveraging the Internet for lead generation (internal)

3.   CALL TO ACTION  - resolution, climax

The Call to Action is the request for physical action or interaction by the reader.  It can encourage a phone call, a form completion, view a video, add-to-cart and so on. 

The Call-to-Action (CTA) must:

Be VISIBLE

Apply VALUE

Encourage IMMEDIACY

COME IN THE RIGHT TIME IN THOUGHT SEQUENCE

Call to action is presented such as  “Add to cart”, “complete the form”.  But use text in the action buttons that reassure that their action will deliver on the value promise.  Do not put “submit” or “click here”; instead use words to further the promise.  (Ex: “to receive info…”,  “Learn the xyz”, “Get the product to improve your life”, etc….)

Getting started

This is easy and it’s not easy.  As with most things, the hardest part is getting started.  With practice and ongoing experimentation with your web copy writing, the data (analytics) will prove the results of structuring your content for clarity and connection to what the viewer wants.  In doing so, in the right sequence, you will get what you want.

We are uniquely able to help you evaluate and take action on the breadth of factors influencing conversion:  Web design, website development, Internet marketing, driving traffic, conversion tactics, applying business intelligence through data.

We are here to help you achieve great things online.  As for copywriting services:

1.  We can write for you or help guide you (or your designated writers) to ensure you have the greatest opportunity for conversion success with your text & graphics.

2.  We can technically SEO (search engine optimization) your copy so it will gain better visibility on Google and other search engines.

3.  We can strategize a plan for content topics and delivery channels for strong “inbound” marketing.

Contact us today and together we’ll evaluate your most important website pages.

A wireframe is the foundational starting point of where to start thinking about how a web page is going to convert the customer from a visit into a prospect to generate revenue.  It is often surprising to hear how little emphasis is put on creating a visual wireframe of a web page before thinking about the creative design. 

The Concept

Would you build a house without having blue prints?  I certainly hope not.  The same applies when thinking about how you are going to build a web page.  A wireframe is essentially your blue print for designing a page and formulating the ‘flow’ of your customers on the page.

The Goal

The goal of any web page is to convert visitors into customers.  The first step in the process is to think about the customers goal of the page.

The clearest way to achieve your page’s objective is to clearly define 3 answers for your customer.

1.)  Where am I?

2.)  What can I do here?

3.)  Why should I do it?

Next start thinking about what the customer’s primary objective is.  Is it to have the customer call a phone number?  Purchase a product? Sign up for a demo?  If you haven’t defined what your customer needs to do what makes you think they know what to do?

The Strategy

The strategy of wire framing the layout of the site comes directly from the goals you have defined above.  For instance if you know the primary goal is to have your customer signup for a free demonstration then every call to action on the page needs to lead the customer to this conclusion.  If designing a landing page for one specific product avoid having more than 1 call to action if possible. 

Rule of thumb is you have about 7 seconds to capture the attention of a visitor.  If they have too many options and too many things to think about they will bounce off the page.  Keeping one clear goal in mind for the visitor to accomplish will result in much higher conversion rates.

The How

One of the best free wire framing tools I have found online is www.Cacoo.com which offers free membership for creating professional looking wireframes and allows easy sharing options.

Once a clear strategy has been defined and a wireframe of the layout has been created it can easily be passed on to the creative team to make look elegant and beautiful.

Just like everything else these days online marketing is going mobile. As smart phones become cheaper and more popular, people are finding themselves using their phones and tablets more and more to do their internet searching. Especially when searching for things locally. How many times have you needed to find a restaurant and pulled your phone out to search for directions?

Mobile Phone Usage is Exploding

According to CISCO mobile phone usage is going to DOUBLE by 2012 and TRIPLE by 2013. Sounds like a mobile marketing strategy needs to be developed now.

Have you ever Googled something on your phone and seen different search results then Googling on a PC? That's because Google knows your on a mobile device and wants to deliver the best results for you on the go. Thus they emphasize and rank higher those sites that are mobile friendly and have higher 'mobile ranking' because of Google Places, Local Reviews, etc.

A websites mobile traffic is averaging around 10%, but from personal experience I have seen mobile traffic double during holidays and high traffic times because people are using their phones while on the go as they travel. That's 20% of your traffic, or 1 out of every 5 people vising your site. You might think "Well but 4 out of 5 people still visit us on a computer, so do we really need a mobile strategy?" Remember it's 20%. If you grew your annual revenue by 20% would that be a pretty big deal? I think we all can say yes.

Creating a Mobile Marketing Strategy

Even before we get to the mobile marketing aspects of things, you first need to make sure your website is 'Mobile Friendly'. What we typically see is a 'watered down' version of a website when visiting a mobile website because people want to quickly aspect the most important things to them. This typically leans toward your contact information, directions, phone number, email address etc. People want these things fast, so when thinking about your mobile website keep in mind people will be accessing your site from a phone or tablet for fast information.

So don't use large images, videos, flash etc. Straight forward HTML and CSS can easily get people to what they are looking for on your site.

Start by creating a sitemap of your mobile site, just like you would your regular website. Except ask yourself what would I want to access on my website in 2 minutes or less if I were coming here for quick information?

Now this doesn't mean to exclude critical aspects of your website, but keep in mind your traffic is coming from a smaller screen and wanting the information more quickly.

Optimizing Your Mobile Website

Your mobile website can be optimized like any other site by using good practices of keyword friendly Meta Tags, Title Tags, and SEO friendly URLs. But more importantly to be found on a mobile search is how many LOCAL sites you are listed in. Remember, Google is ranking you based on it being a local search 99% of the time. The more prominent you are on local review sites will be a great improvement towards your mobile SEO rankings. A good place to start would be Google Places, Yelp, Yellow Pages, Super Pages, Four Square, etc.

Your Mobile Marketing Strategy

If you are unsure how to start your mobile marketing plan, feel free to contact us today for a free consultation review of your internet marketing strategy. You can also read our White Paper regarding mobile phone metrics here.

Marketing on Social Media sites is one of the most effective ways to market your products and services to your customers. Considering that Facebook alone has 500 million users; this should show you the importance of having a social media marketing strategy in place for your company. What may be surprising to some is that people actually enjoy interacting with companies and brands because it makes them have sense of control. If a customer can go online and comment about good or bad service (And typically bad) then they feel like they have a voice about your company's services and products.

Establishing a Goal

The first steps you should take when it comes to social media is establishing the goals for your company's online marketing strategy. Are you selling products directly to clients? Focused on managing your brand identity online? Using Social Media to reach new business? Or using Social Media to retain current business?

These are all important questions to consider when setting up your social media goals.

Don't Sell on Social Media

Most people do not want to login to Facebook or Twitter just to see blatant advertisements thrown in their face. After all it's THEIR account and they CHOOSE to follow you. The can easily choose not to.

The best approach is to interact with your fans and followers about your product and let the users take control. If you have a new widget you want to advertise, then ask people about your product. Don't just advertise it and leave it alone. The best way to approach this is by using an interactive tool such as Facebook polls to see what your customers like. For instance when you use a Facebook Poll to introduce a new product, you should create a webpage or video about your product and link to it from your Facebook Poll. This not only informs the user of your new widget, but also lets them interact back with you with opinions about it and allows for some nice feedback and data collection.

Creating Unique Content

One of the most important aspects of your social media strategy is to include content that your audience wants to see. Photos and Videos are key to achieving good results. After all, people join Facebook and Twitter to share their own photos so why not as a brand or company share yours and directly talk to your audience about your content. Never assume just because you post a comment, photo, or video that someone is goign to interact with you. Best approach is to directly interact with them by talking to your audience and asking them questions about what they like.

Building Your Online Community

What's the point of your social media strategy if no one is following you on Twitter or liking your page on Facebook? You can't just create some social media entities and hope people find you. You need to go to them.

Step 1 - Setting Up Social Media Properties

First step of course to create user accounts and pages on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc.

You more than likely already have traffic on your website and/or blog, so the most common sense approach is to link to your Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. properties from your website and blog. Easiest way to do so is add some 'icons' or 'badges' to your site and link to your social media pages. Click here to download a few we have collected. You can also include these badges and link directly in your Outlook signature.

And I highly suggest using a widget like AddThis to add sharing tools to each of your blog posts (Take a look at the bottom of this post!).

Step 2

Have your company 'follow' and 'friend' your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Start creating content on Facebook and using #hastags on Twitter. Hashtags (a 'tag' or 'topic' about your Tweets, but with a # in front) lets other users find content based upon trending topics and keywords. This will let users stumble across your content.

Social Media Strategy Webinar

Next month on July 7th 12:00PM CST, WSI will be having a free informational webinar regarding Social Media Strategies for your business and brand. Click here to contact us, or here to sign up for the free webinar.

How so-called digital marketing agencies deliver creativity but fall short on reality.

Okay, so I’m doing a little surfing to see what companies are doing marketing in some of the target industries we’re expanded into and I happen upon a couple agencies that claim strength in digital marketing.  Hmmm….really?

The guilty will remain anonymous but, in the 2 cases I’ll rant about here, this is what I find:

“Wait while our site loads, it will be worth it”.  That, by itself, is so funny I must wait.  Wait..waiting…wait….  Poof…a pretty picture and a navigation “structure” that is so confusing I’m not sure what to click to find their services.  This is an agency that is working for large retail brand of beauty products and promotes a state’s visitor and entertainment bureau among other significant sized clients. It really made my brain hurt to look at their own site. 

Another agency site that focuses on health care digital marketing opens with a Flash image rotation with one little molecule looking symbol that says “drag me” when you hover over it.  Okay, weird.  Clicking the little nodules on the symbol brings up a portion of the content on top of the big rotating picture.  Then the content comes up over the image and is in 4 columns.  You must scroll down separately for each column’s content…thus FOUR scroll bars on the one page.  I could scream… “What? Are you kidding me?”  Keep those scalpels away from me.

My thought is that these agencies sell their clients outrageously costly, yet “creative” websites that don’t deliver beyond a gee whiz impression.
I cannot believe that a true business objective was ever at the forefront when sites like these are created.  When there is frustration, there is friction in the conversion process.  Digital marketing allows such great opportunity to eliminate friction.  Why create it just to be creative?

The Most Creative Websites Lose

Some of the most creative sites do win awards for creativity from other “creative” people or organizations.  But the real award should come from a client who’s increased sales by 20% or expanded into new markets without adding resources or added valuable customer service features that reduce client turnover or doubled lead generation without increasing marketing budget…and so on.  Digital marketing should focus more on making the client a winner!

Problem Solvers Win.

Keeping a balance between creativity and results is important.  But, if you are in a profit-focused business, face it, beauty doesn’t make payroll!
Don’t get me wrong.  Creating a great visitor experience on a website does include the first impression and a look and feel that reflects the image of your target audience.  But, it is more about making it easy for your visitor to quickly see how you can solve their problem or fulfill their need and take action in the fewest clicks.

A real digital marketing agency will help you strategize how digital can further the overall marketing objectives of your business before getting creative with your website, search engine optimization, social media efforts or mobile visibility.  In addition, a real digital marketing agency will put analytics in place to ensure your business objectives are being delivered through this medium and the data is actionable to constantly improve results.  Last I checked, Google Analytics didn’t have a Key Performance Indicator called “website awards”.  LOL.

It makes me happy to know we provide real digital marketing services that deliver great results to our local, regional and national clients.    You can take that to the bank!