If there is a disconnect between whatever you are using to drive customers to your website and the website itself, then right now, as you are reading this, you are flushing money down the toilet.

Here are a few examples:
 

• Your radio ad is hyping some super-duper summer special and giving people your website address as the place to go for more info.  Yet when listeners head over to your home page, they can't find anything that talks about the advertised deal.

• Someone searches on a keyword and you snag 'em with a Pay-Per-Click ad, but the landing page you point them to doesn't include the advertised keyword or phrase in its headline.

These examples are both examples of broken scent. You see, people sniff out content online in the same way that animals forage for food, they follow scent trails until either:
 

1. The scent trail runs out, forcing them to start over again, or
2. They get to the content they want

If people come to your Website following the scent of a special offer and you kill off any trace of the scent on your home page  - in other words if you fail to include any information about that offer or any intuitively obvious and visible link to more information on that offer - then most of your visitors will give up that scent trail as dead and go somewhere esle.  A minority of visitors might take a stab in the dark by clicking on the most likely navigation element, only to then give up when and if they don't immediately see some kind of reemergence or confirmation of the scent trail.  And since these visitors had already responded to your offer, chances are good that every one of those bounced prospects represent a flubbed sale that had essentially been yours to lose.

Don't believe me?  According to Web-wide industry usage statistics, 54% of Website visitors leave after only 1-2 clicks.  Bad scent drove them away.

Of course, at this point you're probably thinking that you can only put so much stuff on your home page, right?

Well, that's the beauty of campaign-specific landing pages.  When you advertise a specific offer, deal, service, etc., you simply create a page specific to that advertising campaign, so that there is a maximum match-up of scent between the advertising and the landing page.

This is easy to do with PPC ads, as you can effectively direct ad click-throughs anywhere you'd like, including any campaign specific page you've created.  It's a little harder with offline ads in traditional media, but not that much harder; it just requires a little advanced planning.

If you are promoting a new service, why not get that service its own landing page under a new url specific to the product/offer/service name?  Same thing with a major event.  Say a dog grooming business has a new process for sucking out every last bit of loose hair from your dog so that your furry friend will stop shedding for the next month.  Basically, as long as you keep sending fido in for this process every month, you'll have a dog-hair-free house.  If the groomer was running a radio campaign for this service, wouldn't it make sense to develope a micro-site or landing page with a URL like www.nomoreshedding.com?  That's a lot better than trying to promote this service from the home page of Billy-BobsPetGrooming.com, isn't it?  Not only does this tactic of creating an offer-specific URL make it easier to increase the scent match-up between ad and landing page, but it makes the Web address much easier to remember for the radio listeners, as well.

And if you can't get a campaign or offer-specific landing page because the name you want is already taken (i.e., someone else has already snagged that URL), I recommend you think long and hard about prominently promoting your special from your home page. 

Because if you end up directing traffic to a page with no follow-up scent, you'll be flushing money down the drain - both the money you spent on the ads AND the money you would have made in sales. 

Read About Jeff Sexton

Does your small business have a newsletter or a database, customer club, etc?

And are you trying to motivate your website visitors to sign-up or join by offering them a free report of some kind?  Maybe it's an e-book, or a short how-to manual, or beginners guide. 

If you said yes to both questions (and if you haven't you need to rethink how you're marketing to early and mid-stage buyers), the following techniques will boost your sign-up/download sucess rate:

1) Make sure you have a privacy statement/reassurance directly next to your sign-up form.  Just a simple 1-line of text saying you'll never sell or trade the visitor's information.  Bonus points for linking that statement(or a "we respect your privacy statement") to an actual privacy policy.

2) Show a pciture of the cover of the actual report/PDF/guide/whatever you are offering.  If you don't have cover art for your free download, create it.  Make sure it has a graphic and looks enticing.  Whatevery you do, don't just use the stupid PDF icon.  If you treat the report or e-book as if it was important enough to deserve a cover, your visitors will treat it as if it's worth trading their personal info to get.

3) Give visitors a few bullet points of teasers to make them want to download the free report.  Your report doesn't have a physical back cover, but the back cover material and endorsements are exactly the kind of things most perspective downloaders would want to look at before giving away their personal info in trade for the e-book.  If you don't have space within your sign-up form to give this kind of info, then create a link within the sign-up box that says someting like "See more about this report," and point that linkto a full blown landing page for your report, where you'll have the space you need to properly merchandise it.

4) Establish - and substantiate - the value of your "free" download.  If you're offering them an electronic version of a real book, point to the Amazon page where people can see how much the actual book is worth.  If the information in the special report or begginners guide could save someone hundreds of dollars, then say that. Figure out a way to both establish a market value for the information and to credibly substantiate it. 

5) Ask for as little information on the sign-up form as you can possibly get away with.  The de-facto standard for most is a first name and e-mail address.  B2B websites sometimes demand a business e-mail address and will reject gmail, aol, and yahoo accounts.  For more valuable sign-ups in more serious industries, Full names, business titles and phone numbers are asked for - which is fine as long as what you are asking for is commensurate with what you are willing to give the visitor in return and you are consciously using the download to attract midde to middle-late stage buyers.  Problems occer when you there's a mismatch between buying stage, value offered, and amount of personal info asked for.  In short, if you can get away with just name and e-mail address, I suggest you do that.

6) Develop a lead-nuturing system on the back-end that will be capable of taking full advantage of your new list.  Figure out the next logical step for someone who reads your download, predict the prospect's needs and questions, then create an e-mail or virtual conversation around those needs and questions.  Permission to e-mail someone is not permission to pester.  Make sure your follow-up contact is as relevant, customer-focused, and persuasive as possible.

- Jeff

Read About Jeff Sexton

The New York Times, probably the most literary newspaper of record in the US, just released some startling data.  And understanding it could do astounding things for your marketing.

The online version of the Times allows readers to look up the definition of words simply by highlighting them.  Not only is this a great service to readers, but that data (of which words are looked up and how often) is tracked by the paper.  And in this case, tracking that data has allowed them to compile a list of the 50 most-looked-up words.

If you're interested in the list, you can download it here.

So here are the marketing take-aways:

1) All those terms, concepts, and jargon you think your audience knows (or should know)? They don't know 'em.

Or at least your audience is probably a lot fuzzier on them than you think.  To a Times writer, whose adult life has been spent within literary circles, every intelligent reader knows the meaning of words like, "solipsistic."  The reality?  Solipsistic was the second most looked up word on the list. 

Are there reasons to use lesser known words rather than a more well known alternative word or phrase?  Absolutely.  Nuance,  precision of meaning, emotional associations, concision, displaying "tribal" identification, and just plain style.  Lots of good reasons to break out the occasional 50 cent word.  But they need to be weighed against the cost, which in this case involves confusing or turning off the reader - bad for a columnist, deadly for an advertiser.

For advertisers, though, industry terminology takes the place of highbrow language.  How many grill salesman assume that everyone knows what BTUs are and why a grill capable of producing more of them is a good thing?  How many vitamin stores assume customers know what anti-oxidants are and why it's a good idea to supplement with them?  I'd put money that the same holds true for your business and industry.

2) Be wary of uncritical interpretations of data.

Don't you just naturally assume that the people looking up those words are doing so because they don't know the meanings?  And therefore that The New York Times readership isn't nearly as literate as one would hope?  That was my first reaction.

Further reflection revealed that actually looking up a word is, in fact, a very literate thing to do.  And that it's likely that many of those readers may have already had a darn good idea of what the word meant, but hadn't previously seen the word used in the specific manner or context in which the writer had employed it. Maybe the reader knew the gist of the word, but had never bothered to get a real definition and, in seeking to clarify the meaning of a sentence, said reader looked up the word, just to be sure.  Kind of changes the meaning of the list a little bit, doesn't it? Using words on the edge of a readers vocabulary is entirely different than routinely using words readers have never heard of.

Uncritical interpretations happen all the time in advertising: "We tried radio and it didn't work," or "we had a website, but it never did anything for us, so we pulled it down."  Or any other number of assumptions.  Force yourself to come up with plausible alternative explanations and customer motivations. 

3) Test assumptions - force yourself to watch what people DO and not what people say!

No one likes to admit that they don't know what a word means.  So I rather doubt if anyone ever complained about the times word choice, which is why it was the online version of the Times - and not a focus group, interview, or complaint - that provided this insight into the top 50 most-looked-up words. 

The same thing goes with your advertising: test, test, test.  Measure actions, not opinion. 

4) Know when to go tribal

As I mentioned previously, the right words can signal your membership in a tribe - meaning that confusion amongst outsiders aint always a bad thing.  If you're a hard core cyclist, you don't need to have someone tell you who Lance Armstrong is.  Foodies don't need to be told what, say, Balsamic Vinegar is.  Copy directed to hard core members of a tribe would do well to use their language and cultural touchstones/allusions without apology.  Not only does this attract the hard core, but it attracts wannabes as well. 

While The New York Times probably should be concerned about striking a balance between appealing to a broad readership and maintaining a literary style, those concerns would be poison to The New Yorker.  Aimed at an even more literate audience that the Times, The New Yorker almost has to employ writers who sprinkle in SAT-type words, because seeing them in an article - and seeing them used well - sends a signal to its subscribers about what kind of magazine they're reading and what kind of tribe they belong to.
 

Read About Jeff Sexton

Are skateboards anything special?  Anything worth looking at?

Well, they're certainly nothing out of the ordinary, right?  And that's the problem.  Skateboards are so ordinary it's hard to even see them.  Want to see them for real?  Take a look at this video

By injecting a little visual incongruity into the mix, this video actually allows you to SEE skateboards the way a little kid might see them the very first time he looks at a boarder doing his thing.

And this trick isn't something limited to the magic of digital editing and special effects.  All artists pull this same trick.  Cezanne rescued apples from the everydayness of apples in exactly this way.  That's why we're fascinated by a painting of something as putatively boring as a still life.

Writers do it, too.  Just take a look at how Neal Stephenson was able to transform something as boring as eating cereal into a riveting experience:

"World-class cereal-eating is a dance of fine compromises. The giant heaping bowl of sodden cereal, awash in milk, is the mark of the novice. Ideally one wants the bone-dry cereal nuggets and the cryogenic milk to enter the mouth with minimal contact and for the entire reaction between them to take place in the mouth. The best thing is to work in small increments, putting only a small amount of Cap'n Crunch in your bowl at a time and eating it all up before it becomes a pit of loathsome slime, which, in the case of Cap'n Crunch, takes about thirty seconds… He pours the milk with one hand while jamming the spoon in with the other, not wanting to waste a single moment of the magical, golden time when cold milk and Cap'n Crunch are together but have not yet begun to pollute each other's essential natures." – Neal Stephenson, from Cryptonomicon

So the next time you're thinking about your passion for what you do or sell, try figuring out a way to inject a little incongruity into the picture.  Getting your audience to see it anew is often the first step in bringing them to share your passion for it.

Read About Jeff Sexton

"TV is an impact medium. But there will be no impact if the viewer isn’t paying attention or if your ad's message is unfocused."
                                                                      - Roy H. Williams


As much as I like the following ad, and as cool as the "a-ha" moment is that it provides, I have to admit that the ad would probably fail to create much impact on a regular TV run: you won't get it unless you're paying attention, and there's nothing there to capture your attention.  Watch it and see what I mean:

Of course, if you could guarantee the attention of the audience, if this were a Super Bowl Ad, for instance, I think the ad would perform well, precisely because the A-ha moment near the end would make the ad memorable.

But for the other 99.9% of TV ad spots out there, I'd have to recommend this ad for the same product.

• First, the ad is impossible to ignore.  It definitely grabs viewers attention and doesn't let go.
• Second, the extremely successful humor is intimately connected with the product itself.
• Third, the song/jingle sticks in your head and probably acts as a recall cue for the product's target audience. 

Not sure if this ad ever aired on national or cable TV, but it's definitely a winner in my book.

Read About Jeff Sexton

Although I usually caution against the unthinking application of "best practices" in Website design, I know that there are whole lot of small businesses looking for solid rules of thumb. 

So with that in mind, I'd suggest you take a look at Dr. Pete's layout guide/template for websites.  Hard to go wrong following this one...

- Jeff

Read About Jeff Sexton

"What do you think of __________ [insert cool interface design, multimedia technology, Entertainment-inspired Website, etc.]?"

As a Persuasion Architect and Copywriting Instructor, I get asked those kind of questions a lot.  Someone visits a website for their favorite band, celebrity, athlete, or way-too-hip brand and then wants me to weigh in on that website's design techniques - with the implied but unasked follow-up being "would these same things work well for me?"

The short answer is, "no." 

Most celebrities, entertainers, fashion-oriented products, and slick ad agencies have to be percieved as cool and hip in order to be credible within their glittering world.

Moreover, these people have the added bonus that they, themselves are usually the center of attention; people are interested in celebrities themselves, not in what that celebrity can do for them.

But for most other e-commerce and lead generation Websites, just the opposite holds true.  Drawing too much attention to the website's interface or design takes attention off of the messaging.  It actually detracts from the Websites credibility and persuasiveness.

More importantly, visitors are only interested in any given company insofar as it might provide them with a solution to their own challenges and problems.  They're really not interested in you - only in what you can DO for them.  This all important difference in focus/interest necessitates an entirely different design approach.  One focused on how the visitor can kick butt with your product or service, not one centered around how cool and stylish you are.

Seth Godin uses a great analogy to drive the point home in this recent blog post.

Read About Jeff Sexton

Russell Taylor is a university-degreed geographer who is also a husband and a homeowner at the tender age of 24.  The following is a real-life conversation he had with his mom:

"I can't believe that a city the size of Austin doesn't have a carpet cleaning company or a lawn-care service."

"What do you mean?"

"I just spent 30 minutes trying to find a carpet cleaning company. Evidently, Austin doesn't have one."

Russell's mother, operations manager Corrine Taylor, is from a different generation; one that doesn't immediately think of searching the internet when they have questions about a product or service. Reaching inside her kitchen cabinet, she quietly handed her son a telephone book.

"I think this might solve your problem."

Staring at it, Russell replied, "Gee. That never crossed my mind."

This conversation took place in 2003*, by the way.  And in terms of the Internet, it now represents ancient history because a quick Google search of “Austin Carpet Cleaning Services” will bring up 10 pages worth of results. 

But of course, that just further proves the point: a whole generation of Americans went digital and then up-sold the Google habit to their parents and grandparents.  The Internet is now where everyone turns to first when they have a question or a problem or a buying itch they want to scratch.
 

The Basics of Establishing a Web Presence

This Google-ification of America means a Web presence today is more important to your business than a Yellow Page ad was 10 years ago.  Think about that when considering your Website budget. 

In other words, if someone types in your city’s name and whatever keywords define your product/problem/solution into Google, will your business come up in the first page?  If search is the new Yellow Pages, do you even have an ad in the book?  And would your ad make someone want to call you?  If a prospective customer actually searched on the name of your company, would they find the answers they're looking for when they land on your Website?

The good news is that building a respectable, leadn and business generating Website can usually be done for less than what you used to pay for Yellow Page ads.

The even better news is that you don’t even have to have a fancy site that actually sells stuff online.  It’s enough just to have a decent looking site with solid sales copy capable of answering people’s questions and convincing them that you’re the one to call.

Think of your Website as a half step between the customer thinking about your product and actually walking into your store.  You can also think of your Website as the cheapest 24-hour sales person you’ll ever have, or even of a Yellow Page ad that finally gives you the room you need to tell your story. 

A Few Tips On Your Site – Where to Spend The Money

Now that you’ve got a rough idea of the importance of your Web presence and what kind of budget you should be looking at, here are a few tips on how to get the most from your site.

1)    You can't afford to have your Website look cheap.  Here are some "must-haves" that will keep your site looking professional and trustworthy:

• a professional banner with your logo and phone number in it.  
• a navigation bar that looks professionally designed
• an attractive and appropriate color pallet
• pictures and graphic elements that look well placed and integrated with the text rather than awkwardly "pasted" in
• 3-dimensional buttons or “Calls to Action.”  In other words, if you want someone to click a button, then your button should look clickable.

As a graphic, before and after example of these items, take a look at this Website redesign done by my colleagues Paul Boomer and Tim Miles to get a sense of “homemade” vs. “professional” looking sites.  This isn’t just about pretty – it’s about instilling confidence in your visitors.

BEFORE

AFTER

2)    Spend the money on persuasive copy.  Contrary to popular belief, people DO read online, and what you say to them through your website WILL determine the difference between visitors clicking over to your competitors vs. picking up the phone and calling you.  A recent study on lead generation Websites found that 50% of potential leads where lost due to inadequate information.  In other words, half your leads could be lost simply because you haven't answered your potential customers' questions.  Spend the money, hire a great copywriter to answer your customers' concerns and questions, and then steal your competitor's lunch money when all the good leads sign up to do business with you.

3)    Good Web copy resembles a sales conversation rather than a sales “pitch.”  Good salespeople talk about what matters to the customer and respectfully answer their questions.  Bad salespeople “Show up and throw up,” forcing prospects to leave angry.  A good copywriter should be able to talk with your sales staff and really dig into your prospect’s concerns, typical questions, and buying criteria.  Then they should create copy that answers those questions within the sales copy they’re writing.  If a copywriter suggests sticking the answers into a FAQ page, fire ‘em.  The last thing you want to do is to force visitors to search for answers to their questions.

4)    Bad Web copy is about you.  Good Web copy is about the customer.  How can you quickly tell if your copy passes muster?  Easy, just count how many “We” statements you’re using vs. the amount of “You” statements.  If you’re constantly talking about how great your dealership is, how great your product is, etc, than you’ll likely rack up a whole lot of “we” statements.  That’s called “we-we” copy, and it’s about as attractive to customers as constantly talking about yourself is to a date.  Stop “we-we”-ing all over yourself by focusing on “Why would this matter to the customer.”  This is very similar to the old Benefits vs. Feature distinction so familiar to good sales professionals.  People don’t buy features, they buy benefits.  Is your copy is feature rich and written from the customer’s perspective, or is it all about how your product has the best features in the business?

5)    Place a picture of your office building and staff in your “About Us” page.  People will always rather buy from an established business than a guy working out of his truck.  A picture of your office and staff says a thousand very powerful words about why your web visitor should trust you.

A Few Words about combining Radio Ads and your Website

Once you have website, the next question will be how to drive customers to it.  You’ll be tempted to start a Google Ad Words or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign.  And while that may be a profitable option for you, I’d suggest you also look into a radio advertising campaign as a driver of local traffic to your small business Website.  Here’s why:

1)    Radio reaches about a 1000 times more people per dollar than PPC

2)    A properly constructed radio campaign is cumulative – this year’s success can build upon last year’s and so on.  With PPC Ads, there’s no cumulative effect or build-up - it’s strictly Pay-Per-Click: you pays yer money and you’s gets yer click. 

3)    Radio is an ideal traffic driver for websites while websites are an ideal half step for radio.  With radio, you can get a mass audience to remember your distributorship when they think of water purifiers – to the point that they’ll likely Google your dealership’s name rather than a general search term.  Plus, your website allows you to tell the prospect all the things you’d like to say in a 60 second ad but don’t have time to.  And it’s a lot easier to remember a website from a radio ad than a phone number, isn’t it?  In short, Radio can allow you to beat out the competitions Website before a prospect even goes online for your product, and your website can move an interested radio listener into a qualified lead.

4)    There are only so many people ALREADY LOOKING for your product.  So part of your marketing burden is convincing people who aren't already actively shopping for your product or service that they'd be happier or have a lot less aggravation in life or be able to kick more butt if they only had your product or servive.  PPC has almost no ability to do that, but a Radio-Website combination can do wonders in this area.  Plus, if you stamp your company's name into tens of thousands of listeners memories, so that your the first name they think of the company that they feel best about whenever your product or service category is mentioned, what do you think is going to happen when these people do become actual buyers?  Do you think they'll search for the name of your company, or do you think they'll just do a general search using category search terms?  Chances are they'll search on your name - thereby eliminating your competition from even getting a chance at selling them.  And that's no small advantage when gaining market share becomes crucial to just staying flat, let alone growing.

That’s all I got for you this month.  But if you're looking to hire a web developer/persuasive copyweriting and planner for creating your website, I highly recommend Paul Boomer, Dave Young, and Tom Wanek.   Tom Walters is also an excellent copywriter.  All of these people can be found right here at AmericanSmallBusiness.com

-    Jeff

* Beginning example and dialogue taken from Roy H. William’s Monday Morning Memo of January 20th, 2003 titled: Societal Metamorphosis.  You can find it here:

http://www.mondaymorningmemo.com/?ShowMe=ThisMemo&MemoID=1433
 

 P.S.  Tim Miles was kind enough to respond to this post with the following bit of news that really drives home the point of this article:  "Interestingly, we've gotten five contact us leads - three for business, two for employment in the last 36 hours. Including two (both sales leads) in the middle of the night ... when no brick and mortar HVAC business is open."

Read About Jeff Sexton

"She says the only Jew she knew was Jesus."

Hard to stop reading after that isn't it?  And that's exactly the point: assume you’ve got committed readers and lose your audience; open big and take another leap towards the company of giants. 

Leonard Pitts, Jr. (from whom I stole the quoted opening line) is a master at this.  And I've snipped the opening sentences from about 15 of Leonard's recent articles as object lessons on opening big by dropping the turd in the punchbowl without any hemmin’ and hawing.  You can read them below.

But how, exactly, can you do the same in your own writing?

My colleague Chris Maddock advises physically lopping off the first third of your copy and starting from there.  And it's good advice because it almost ensures you'll open with a sentence that refers to an unseen action or makes reference to an as-yet-to-be-introduced person/topic of interest/event.  Readers feel compelled to keep reading until they've gotten the gist of things.  If you surprise readers in the first sentence, or deny them a complete summary, you're far more likely to compel continued reading.

Of course, if you don't want to physically cut off the first third of your writing, just ask a friend or colleague to help you pick out the highest-impact line and move that one to the top, then re-write from there.

But enough "how to" - take a look at Leonard's opening lines and get a clearer sense of the "why to":

• At one level, it sounds like a very bad joke.
  
• I like stuff as much as the next guy.
  
• She says the only Jew she knew was Jesus.
  
• Clint Eastwood has had it up to here with sensitivity.
  
• Today's column is presented as a public service for Muslim readers.
  
• Dear President Bush: I am glad you are, at 62, still a relatively young man.
  
• On Tuesday, Barack Obama will stand on the steps of the U.S. Capitol and take an oath making him the nation's first president of African heritage.
  
• And I wish Rosa were here.
  
• It begins before the sun does.
  
• It is, of course, a calculated outrage.
  
• A story for women and girls.
  
• This one is for Doug.
  
• Wait a minute. He said that? There were cameras and microphones? Somebody caught it on tape?
  
• It began before it began.
  
• Your wife is dying.
  
• Maybe now we'll see what we have not been allowed.
  
• It is not precisely true that Americans don't talk about race.
  
• On the day after the day we never thought we'd live to see, in the first dawn of what some regarded as post-racial America, historian Lerone Bennett Jr. awoke and turned on the television.
  

Read About Jeff Sexton

Back in 2003 Roy H. Williams proclaimed that it was 1963 all over again.  Basically he predicted a radical shift in cultural values and perspectives that would take place between 2003 and 2008 - that we would be moving from the Baby Boomer's rejection of "conformity" to the Millennial rejection of "pretense." That we would come to embrace keeping your feet on the ground, doing your part, and pulling together over dreaming big and living large. 

As you might have noticed, Roy was right.  But if you missed all that and want a quick and dirty "feel" for the cultural outlook of this rising generation, just watch these two videos back-to-back:

http://www.gen-we.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA

And if you're wondering if that'll ever sink in at the corporate level, then watch this Sun Trust Bank commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZthOnwO6sc

Got it?  Good

Now, if you want to do more than understand this new generation - if you want to start communicating and selling to them in ways they'll respond to - consider taking a trip to Denver to catch the Wizards on the Road.

Read About Jeff Sexton