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Ray Raps…20 Questions with Fionn Downhill

Friday, August 7th, 2009

Learn the latest search engine optimization strategies from Fionn Downhill, CEO of Elixir Interactive.

Fionn Downhill, CEO of Elixir Interactive, talks SEO, social networks, Bing, and leprechauns in this month’s Ray Raps.

1. How has Search Engine Optimization changed over the last few years?

Search Engine Optimization is now about universal search and ensuring that all assets are optimized and search engine ready. The traditional 10 blue links do not exist anymore for many searches with videos, images, news appearing in the top 10. The searcher is drawn to the images and more graphic results making the image in the middle of the page the #1 result to that searcher. The top 10 organic results as we knew them are gone forever. Increased focus on quality of links rather than quantity.

2. Are there any search changes in the horizon that are going to really shake up search engine optimization?

Personal search. Everyone will potentially see a different results page. By optimizing and distributing your digital assets you are taking the early lead in the race where page 1 visibility will have less of an impact. Being present in multiple channels – especially where your clients and prospects are most likely to be, increases your chances of being found and improves awareness for your brand.

3. What are the most important steps to focus on when attempting to get high natural search engine rankings?

Site accessibility – can the search engine “bots” get into the site – if there are any obstacles preventing them from indexing (i.e. storing the content in their database) the site, then they will not be able to display that content to the user – such as robots.txt.

Site structure – is there duplicate content or pages that redirect them endlessly? Certain server related (IT issues) can make it difficult for the spider to index the content.

Relevancy of the search – does the content contain the keywords that people are using when they search? If not, how can the search engine display that content?

Links – many search engines use the number and more importantly, the quality of the links pointing to a website or piece of content in order to determine its popularity. Think of a link as a vote – from registered voters. The more votes a site/content receives, the more popular it is.

4. What are the best ways to get quality inbound links?

Create content that people want to link to. Create a blog and build good quality relevant content that not only attracts links but can pass link juice to the main site. Get people to write about your products and services. Nothing has changed here it’s all about the content.

5. Are there any methods of search engine marketing that aren’t as valuable now as they used to be?

Directory submissions with the exception of maybe 4 are a complete waste of time. Doorway pages. Keyword Density percentages.

6. What are your favorite ways to get higher rankings that not everybody knows about?

Internal linking on your site. The rest are trade secrets!!!

7. What exactly is personalized search?

Google recently added the ability to “promote” or “remove” a search listing based on whether you felt it was relevant and/or appropriate based on your search.

Search results are personalized based on your previous searches. The goal of the search engine is to provide the most relevant results based on your query – as social-based functionality (i.e.. Voting) and web history evolve the importance of page 1 ranking will be significantly diminished. Companies will need to focus more on conversions (ex. sales, leads) that originate from organic search as the more important metric of success.

8. Some people are saying that personalized search signals the end of the importance of high rankings. What do you think?

I do not agree. You will still need high rankings you will simply need to rank highly for a lot more than your web pages. You just have to ensure that all your content is out there and ranked by the search engines. If the only content you create and optimize is your web pages you could be in trouble. When people turn off certain searches you need to be there somewhere else.

9. How can businesses prepare for personalized search results?

Ensure you have more content available, more content equals more opportunities for your customers to vote and have it part of their history. You really need to be there for the research phrases as well as the conversion phrases, for example, you can answer the research questions on your blog, then when they need to commit they have the site in the history, Google will raise the profile of your site in the results, the visitor already knows the brand and will more likely click on it than someone they don’t know. Overall increased brand recognition, higher rankings, and increased conversions.

10. What do you think of Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing?

The results are the same as before unless they do something about that when the hype dies down they will go back to obscurity as a search engine.

11. Do you think that Bing will affect how companies perform their search engine optimization?

12. Will Bing ever replace Google as the most popular search engine?

No and the decision by Yahoo to use their results is suicide.

13. When you Google certain companies, like Best Buy, you get not only a link to their homepage but also links to specific sections of their site. How can companies get this type of organic listing?

Good linking and SEO. Ensuring the internal linking structure (menus) are accessible to the spiders.

14. How much attention should companies pay to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook?

Twitter is an excellent tool for sending out messages to your followers. Think of it as an opt in e-mail data base with a lot less management or investment in infrastructure. All companies should monitor what is being said about them on Twitter. If you receive a bad comment about your service from an account that has 20 followers there’s no need to panic but if they have 10,000 follower then you do need to reach out and address it. I am seeing a lot of fake twitter accounts created by competitors now.

Facebook can be used the same way. It’s a great way to send messages and keep in touch with people who have chosen to be a fan and receive that message. All companies should perform searches on Facebook you would be amazed how many pages are set up by customers, some not so complimentary. All companies should ensure they own their twitter name even if they do not use it, it stops a disgruntled customer using it.

15. How can Twitter play a role in a company’s search marketing campaign?

Monitor and track and ensure you have a process to respond to positive and negative comments.

16. How can Facebook be used in search marketing?

I have personally found Facebook ads very valuable. However, it depends on the industry the lifestyle companies do much better than companies selling boring widgets. Most people on Facebook are there for social reasons and do not want to buy boring widgets. Every company should have its own Facebook page. If nothing else it will show up high in a Google search for your brand and give you a valuable result in universal search.

17. What about MySpace, can it be effective and how does it differ from the other two?

I cannot really comment on MySpace, some of our clients use it but do not get the same traction as Facebook and Twitter. I think its value in business has diminished considerably with the explosion of Facebook’s popularity. It is still valuable if your target market are millennial’s.

18. Is there any danger in participating in too many social networks?

Well yes your time is precious. If you use Twitter, Facebook, Linked In and You Tube you will have most of the traffic covered.

19. How can mobile marketing be used in conjunction with other online marketing methods?

Geo targeting mobile paid ads will allow you to find people searching for Pizza who are within a few miles of your store and will allow you to send them a coupon to use for a free promotion. So how can you combine this with other online marketing? Good damn question.

20. If you could have a top Google Ranking for one word that was entirely nonbusiness related, what would it be and why?

“Irish Travel Writer” because I would love to tell more people about my beloved native Ireland and be paid to do it. I could set the record straight like “there are no leprechauns unless you drink 20 pints of Guinness.”

Fionn Downhill is the founder and CEO of Elixir Interactive, a full service digital marketing agency that helps companies connect with their customers and build trust through search and social media. You can read her blog here.

Tags: Elixir Interactive, Facebook, Fionn Downhill, MySpace, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Social Networking, Twitter
Posted in 20 Questions, Ray Raps, Search Engine Optimization, Social Network Marketing | 1 Comment »

Ray Raps…20 Questions with Rebecca Lieb

Friday, June 26th, 2009

Learn the Latest Info You Need to Know About Search Engine Optimization with Econsultancy Vice President, Rebecca Lieb.

RSS Ray talks search engine optimization, link building, keyword optimization, and superheros with Rebecca Lieb, Vice President of Econsultancy.

1. What are the three most important things a business must do to have high organic search engine rankings?

1. Have fresh, relevant and continually updated site content.

2. Use the keywords visitors use to find your site. Don’t know what they are? Conduct keyword research, starting with your analytics package.

3. Participate in social media. What and where depends on what kind of Web presence you aspire to have. Channels to consider include city and vertical business guides, review site, social networks and, of course, blogs and Twitter.

2. What are some of the best tools to help a business select the keywords they use to optimize their site?

The best place to start is with your own Web analytics package. With it you can see the words and phrases people are already using to find your site. I’d also recommend setting up a paid search advertising account with the Big Three search engines. Even if you don’t do PPC search, you can then use their free tools for additional keyword research and analysis. And there are plenty of other free keyword research tools out there, such as Wordtracker (http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com).

3. What can a business owner do right now to understand their effectiveness with search terms important to their business?

Think of the language your customers use to talk about your goods and services, not the words you use internally. You don’t want to use jargon, you want to reflect the terms people will use when they’re looking for you. If you’re a bank, for example, you ‘lend’ money. But that’s not what searchers are looking for. They want to ‘borrow’.

4. Explain content management systems and why they are important.

More than anything else, search engines look at the text on Web pages. How that text is architected, what pages are named, what articles and blog entries are called, whether or not there’s metadata and tags — all these elements make a search engine spider’s job really, really easy or really, really hard. If SEO is important to you, you need to make life easy for the spiders. A solid, search-optimized CMS is a critical tool that goes far to make your content findable by search engines.

5. What are some of the criteria a small business can use to evaluate a prospective content management system?

One of the first things I look at is URL structure. Consider these two URLs – both are articles on climate change:

http://www.sitename.com/article.php3?id_article=10084

http://sitename.com.ph/world/11377-climate-bill-to-cut-us-deficit.html

The second URL isn’t just telling search engines what the page is about, it’s telling searchers, too. Search engine friendly and user friendly are never far apart.

A good CMS should also offer option for tagging and metadata. If you want to know what to look for, I recommend taking a look at blog platforms. All are content management systems, and they’re some of the most SEO-friendly CMS systems out there.

6. Most SME’s don’t know what a meta tag is. Please tell us what they are and how they are used by search engines.

Meta data are short pieces of descriptive text that supplies information about what something is. Web page meta data contain keywords, as well as a short description of what’s on that page – you see it turn up in search results under the page title. This information helps search engines “understand” what a page is about, and it helps users, too. Similarly, you can add metadata to images, video, and any other type of media file that might appear on a Web page. Remember – a search engine doesn’t know that picture portrays an apple, nor does it know whether it’s a Granny Smith apple, or an Apple iPod. So use meta data to help search engines and users alike figure this out.

7. What’s the best way to build links?

They don’t call it link love for nothing. Linking is in large part about reciprocity. Link out, and others will link back to you. Often, it helps to ask nicely. But you don’t want just any links. You want links from reputable and relevant sites.

8. What should we understand before paying for a link?

Do you have to pay for it – and is it worth it? You can get plenty of free links just from being listed in relevant directories and guides, for a start. Search engines frown on paying for links just for the sake of having them, and will penalize sites that do this too flagrantly or too much, so those paid links can cost a lot more at the end of the day when you’re banned from Google (the worst-case scenario). That said, online ads are, in a sense, paid links. Exercise common sense and do what’s right for you, not what you think is right for a search engine.

9. Are all links created equal?

Heavens no! Remember, you’re looking for Reputable and Relevant. So a link from a long-established, heavily-trafficked site like The New York Times is worth way more than a link from The Podunk Journal. Similarly, if you sell screwdrivers, a link to or from a reputable hardware store or home-repair site is worth more than one from a site that sells something like toe shoes or ladies lingerie.

10. How can we tell if a link building company can really help us get higher search rankings?

I’d prefer to make linking part of an overall SEO strategy rather than outsource just that piece of an SEO campaign, unless it’s a very, very big campaign. If you do go outside, make sure they’re keeping things relevant and reputable – not connecting you to “link farms.”

11. How does social media help us get higher organic search rankings?

Social media is, in effect, about media begetting more media. It encourages relevance, context and discussion. It provides links, and offers the opportunity for everyone to participate – which enables frequently updated content. All these factors go far in SEO.

12. Tell us about universal search and why it’s important to marketers?

The game is changing. With local, news, video, book and other results appear on search engine results pages, you have to optimize more stuff to stay in the game. Moreover, all those elements on the SERPs mean less space for old fashioned Web pages results – a real game changer.

13. With the trend by search engines to personalize results, what can we do to ensure we have top rankings for all searchers?

Do you want top rankings for ALL searchers? Are you sure? Maybe you do if you’re Coca Cola, or sell toothpaste, or some other universally used CPG product. Personalized results help put the right results in front of the right people. If you sell cars, why get your Jaguar results in front of a third grader who’s writing a term paper on big cats in Africa?

14. Search engines have trouble seeing and indexing audio and video. What can we do if we have lots of video or audio on our site to get top rankings?

Use lots and lots of descriptive meta data! Put it not only in the meta data fields of the files themselves, but also in the Web page copy around and nearby those files. Use the title, the what (the name of the band, or people you’ll see/hear in the file, topics covered, etc). And if you have the time and resources, a transcript of the spoken word text is a great optimization technique.

15. In your book, “The Truth About Search Engine Optimization“, you state that “Being #1 Ain’t What It Used To Be.” What do you mean by that?

As search evolves into ever-higher levels of technical sophistication, Number One becomes a slippery topic. What’s #1 on a page, anyway? The top news result? The top Web page? Local result? Universal search (see above) is one of many game changers in this area. Personalized search, results influenced by behavioral data, and soon, by social media use, will all contribute to making your top search result for a given query very different from the one I get. The more search evolves, the less it’s a one-size-fits-all solution insofar as the search results you see are.

16. Is optimizing your website for search engines a one-time process?

Search engine optimization has a beginning, but it doesn’t have an end. Web sites change, search algorithms change, your priorities, products and services shift over time. Search never sleeps. So neither can SEO tactics or strategies.

17. What needs to be done on an on-going basis?

You can get all the many parts of SEO right. But that doesn’t mean they’ll stay right. Are you adding a blog? Video? A microsite? Language shifts – are your keywords changing too? What are your competitors up to? Is there a new social media platform that needs your attention? All this, and more, has SEO implications — with more to come, I promise!

18. Describe what type situations merit outsourcing your search engine optimization efforts?

SEOs are highly in demand these days and can be difficult to retain. If you’re a smaller company without the in-house expertise, it’s likely better to outsource. And don’t forget that SEO spans two very different disciplines: IT and marketing. Ideally, whoever’s handling your SEO should be very well versed in the right- and left-brain skills needed in each of this very different disciplines.

19. How do you know who to hire?

As with any other hire, get references and speak with former clients and/or employers. And for heaven’s sake, never hire anyone who promises you’ll be “#1 on Google.” Only Google controls Google.

20. Who is your favorite superhero and why?

Catwoman is my favorite superhero because her threads just rock!

Rebecca oversees Econsultancy’s operations in the United States. An expert in interactive marketing and advertising, she is also an an editorial consultant and contributor to The ClickZ Network, after serving as its editor-in-chief for over seven years. For a portion of that time, Rebecca ran Search Engine Watch. Her book, The Truth About Search Engine Optimization, was published in early 2009 by FT Press.

Tags: Econsultancy, Keyword Optimization, Link Building, Rebecca Lieb, SEO Search Engine Optimization
Posted in 20 Questions, Link Popularity and Link Building, Ray Raps, Search Engine Optimization | 1 Comment »

Ray Raps…20 Questions with Jon McNeill

Friday, March 13th, 2009

RSS Ray Interviews Jon McNeill, Account Manager for Hall & Partners USA, on Online Communities and Web 2.0.

RSS Ray recently sat down with Jon McNeill, Account Manager at Hall & Partners USA, for an in-depth look into how and why people participate in online communities.

Why do people use Web 2.0 tools?

We spoke with people who are highly visible online and those who we called ‘digital hermits,’ and everyone in between. We found that people who use Web 2.0 tools to share content about themselves on the web do so because they are looking to connect with others – either deepen existing relationships or begin new ones. Everyone knows the Tila Tequilas or Perez Hiltons of the world – those who seem to only be interested in their own celebrity – but they are just the visible tip of the iceberg and don’t represent the majority at all. In fact, the more that people get into this culture, the more it becomes about community, about something bigger than you; not self-aggrandizement. People who are already doing these things online won’t be surprised by this of course, but this is news to those on the outside looking in.

Why is understanding how humans connect in the internet era so important to business?

At a basic level, companies want to be where their consumers are, and these days many are online. But more importantly, brands are moving past the old models of one-way communication and are looking to get consumers to interact with them. Think about Burger King’s “Subservient Chicken” or Office Max’s “Go Elf Yourself” campaigns. The web is a powerful format for allowing consumers to interact with brands, and brands want to know who these consumers are, and how best to talk to them. Beyond this, there are certain rules of engagement within this new culture, and brands need to know what these are. We talk about these as part of our “book of etiquette” for the culture of exposure.

Why do people want to share online what has historically been private or personal?

People’s motivations tend to change as they get deeper into the culture. One woman whom we spoke with had started a blog to motivate herself as she trained for a marathon. But after a community of other runners began to form around the blog, she used her experiences to cheer others on with their training, and provide advice. It often starts as a way to keep in touch with friends and family, but as people begin to see the power of social media and the Internet, and begin to realize their own role within it, the desire to share becomes about fostering community and imparting some personal knowledge or experience to others to help them.

What do we know about people that present content about themselves to others on the web?

They’re not appreciatively different from those who don’t – but they do seem to have internalized some lessons from the Long Tail. They understand that their personal thoughts and experiences may not be useful or interesting to everyone, and that’s okay. The web is made up of micro-audiences, and everyone has something to share that will be helpful to a few.

Those who are not ‘in’ the culture have trouble understanding this: they wonder why anyone would be interested in hearing about their day to day experiences, and they are really not interested in hearing from other ‘normal’ people about their lives, either.

How closely do online identities reflect actual reality? After all, people have been known to behave differently online.

While it’s true that some do behave differently online, this is usually role play or misbehavior. The majority of people are not appreciatively different online and offline – but many have created a persona, a version of themselves that they are comfortable sharing with everyone. This persona is normally very close to the true ‘them,’ but it is formed in such a way that it becomes an acceptable face to show all of their audiences. Just as in real life, how people may show different sides of themselves to different people; a persona ensures that they can show the same side to everyone.

How can users of online communities control what remains private and what is public?

People who decide to participate in online communities engage in an exchange: they must give up a bit of control to gain the benefit of deeper (or completely new) relationships with others. People are comfortable with this exchange as long as the benefit balances the loss of control.

Tell us what you mean by the culture of exposure?

We saw a trend of people exposing their private lives for the world to see online and termed it the “culture of exposure.” But ultimately this is a misnomer and a bit sensationalist. This is actually about the two sides of visibility. Either one can feel exposed by the increased visibility, worrying about what one reveals… or one can view it as an opportunity to embrace openness with one another.

Why do people expose themselves in online communities?

See #1 and #3

What’s the difference between the “exposed” and the “discreets?”

There is no discernable difference between the “exposed” and the “discreet” in terms of personalities, but we have found four distinct mindsets toward sharing online: Outsiders, Dabblers, Explorers, and Fluents.

Outsiders are perfectly happy with their lives as they are, and are skeptical that there would be any benefit from getting involved. They often see social networking and the like as being “just for kids” or people with a lot of time on their hands, and they are skeptical they would be interested in other people’s sites, or that others would be interested in their own stories. For some, there is the added barrier of caution and fear about security and privacy. And without a critical mass of others in their peer group jumping in and giving them the constant impression they are missing something, there’s no need to face their fears and get involved.

Dabblers are dipping their toes into the pool. Facebook and MySpace are often the gateway drugs that Dabblers try. They worry about exposing themselves to others, and are tentative about doing so.

Explorers are the taste-testers. They have found value in visibility and are now looking for more. Maybe they’re fond of Twitter but also curious if Loopt could add more value. This is also the stage when people come up with a persona that allows them to feel comfortable about others viewing what they’ve shared.

Fluents are at the center of the culture of exposure. They are heavily engaged in the culture and confident in it. It would be a huge loss to them if their lives went back to the way they were before. Many have expertise in a subject and use their visibility to become a resource for others.

What are some behavioral etiquette guidelines for users of online communities?

Through our conversations with people we discovered that there are strong implicit rules governing behavior online, but nothing as codified as those etiquette books from the turn of the 20th Century. So we decided that these recommendations could be the first page in the book of etiquette for the culture of exposure:

Don’t be a driveller: Have conversations. The ultimate goal of the acculturated is more than just sheer self-expression – it’s to inspire commentary and dialogue. This is not a forum for monologues – each communication is meant to invite response.

Don’t be a shameless self-promoter: Think of the community. You should not make yourself the hero of your own story. Spammers are not welcome – they care about getting their message across and do so – and this is key – without being invited in. Likewise, it’s considered bad form to constantly be tweeting links to your own content – it’s simply not community-minded and it doesn’t promote conversation.

Don’t be a stalker: Build relationships. There is something unsettling about the person who spies on others persistently – especially without giving insight into their motives. People instead leave evidence of their attention generously, in the form of flattering comments and notes, which oils the social machinery and avoids awkwardness.

Don’t be a faker: Tell the truth. It makes sense that truth is an important piece of a culture based on sharing. The potential for abusing the tools of exposure to distort the truth is vast. Fakers exploit the culture of exposure for their own ends, devaluing the trust necessary for the culture to function.

What behaviors do people hate?

See #10.

How do you know what to share online?

If people follow these rules of etiquette they can share their lives, experiences, and expertise online and be comfortable that their sharing will be beneficial for others. But it’s not always smooth sailing from the get-go. Some plunge in right away, share too much, then pull back in horror. One woman that we spoke with had the address to her birthday party posted on her MySpace page for her friends – and then was astonished to find that a complete stranger showed up! On the upside, he did bring a present for her. Others are much more cautious, starting with very little revealed, and then proceeding onward as they get more comfortable. Everyone seems to have different ways of adjusting to the different ways this culture operates. In a way, it’s a bit like different people’s approaches to dating.

What are the implications of online communities for brand marketers?

Online communities are powerful ways to build relationships with a brand’s consumers, and interestingly, brands must follow the same rules of etiquette as people do: Don’t be a driveller: Have conversations. Don’t be a shameless self-promoter: Think of the community. Don’t be a stalker: Build relationships. Don’t be a faker: Tell the truth.

What are best practices marketers can use when interacting with online communities important to their brand?

The best practice – and from what we’ve seen, it does take practice – is learning to let go of some control over the brand, and then working with the consumers to build something together. Don Draper’s appearance on Twitter is a great example. Fans of the show (brand advocates) took what they loved about the brand and added to it, strengthening the brand and creating new advocates along the way. This is not something that the show or AMC could have done on their own, and they were wise to let their fans continue.

What companies are doing a good job interacting with communities and using them for business purposes?

One example would be what William Sanders has been doing on one of the largest frequent flyer communities, FlyerTalk, for years now. During that time, he has posted more than 15,000 messages to the discussion boards. One key feature that distinguishes his posts from those of other travelers is his user name – “Starwood Lurker” – as it alerts everyone on the site that Saunders works for Starwood. It’s not hidden – it’s open – and inviting dialogue. He listens on the website on behalf of Starwood, offering suggestions, and helping people resolve their complaints. He has been cited by several frequent travelers as the sole reason they stay at Starwood properties.

How can you tell who within an online community has the most influence?

There seem to be go-to people within each community that have plenty of experience to share with others. And oftentimes these go-to people will have definite thoughts about which brands are best. Brand passionates can often be the key for a brand to enter into a community. Armand Frasco is one such brand passionate for Moleskine, the makers of leather bound notebooks for discerning journalists and travelers. His blog is devoted to all of the things one can do with a Moleskine notebook – an ideal brand evangelism tool. It’s been so successful that in January 08 Moleskine made him and his blog their official spokesman. Not every brand advocate should be put on the payroll, but they all do need support of some kind to continue their advocacy.

How can a brand best reach users of an online community?

Have conversations. Think of the community. Build relationships. Tell the truth. In summary, brands must remember that it is a dialogue, not a monologue.

If you could start an online community about any subject, what would it be and why?

We have recently begun an online community with people from all walks of life to talk about how the recession is affecting them. We’re excited to see where this new initiative will lead, and we’re looking forward to when we will have some findings to share.

What does the future hold in store for online communities?

Growth. As more people realized the benefit in sharing themselves with others online, this “culture of exposure” will cease to be a trend at all: it will simply be a part of life. We think Clay Shirky is correct when he refers to the Internet as the most important force for collaboration and organization that the world has seen.

How can people best stay in touch with you?

I can be reached via email at j.mcneill@hall-and-partners.com or via Twitter: @jonmmm

Jon McNeill is an Account Manager for Hall & Partners, a brand and communications research agency with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and London. The company has worked with over half of the top 100 advertisers in the US and Europe, as well as many of the fastest growing and most differentiated brands around the world.

Tags: Brand Marketing, Facebook, Hall & Partners Interview, MySpace, Online Communities, Social Networking, Twitter, Web 2.0 Tools
Posted in 20 Questions, Branding, Ray Raps, Social Network Marketing | No Comments »

Ray Raps…20 Questions with Sally Falkow

Friday, February 27th, 2009

RSS Ray Interviews Sally Falkow, President of PRESSfeed, on the importance of RSS feeds to your business.

RSS Ray recently sat down with Sally Falkow, President of PRESSfeed, for the latest installment of Ray Raps. Read on to discover just how important RSS Feeds really are to your business.

Tell us what we mean by the term, content syndication.

Instead of putting content only on your own website you make it available to be used elsewhere. Just like in mainstream media, when a column is written by one person and published in one newspaper, and then republished by other newspapers across the country, that’s content syndication. You can write articles, publish them on your own website and then have them republished on many other websites.

What is an RSS Feed?

It is a technical application that allows you to make your content available to others. People can subscribe to the feed, so they get new content every time you add any data to the feed, or other sites can access and use that content. If you see this orange icon on a site it means it has feeds and you can subscribe to that content.

Why is content syndication so important to a business?

The days of a static website are long gone. Search is very important to any business today. To do well in search engine rankings – be on page one in the top five – you have to add new content on a regular basis and you have to build up your links. You can do both with content syndication. You can reach new and niche markets that you don’t have access to. Syndication will drive qualified traffic to your site. It builds a presence online in many different places and raises brand awareness.

Why are these page one rankings so important?

Because people do so much research prior to purchase online. And what they see online influences their purchase behavior. 80% of the business goes to those in top five on a search results page.

Are there other more effective ways to get page one search rankings?

There are certainly other ways – more effective, I don’t think so. You can add content and build links without using feeds, but it is a tedious way to do it.

Is content syndication a way to get top natural search engine rankings for local businesses or just the big boys?

Oh no it works for small local businesses too. It works for anyone who does it right. Great content positions you as a thought leader. Syndication leads you to new audiences. Syndication builds links and helps you to build relationships with other websites. Every business needs that. See our case study on Pacific Outdoor Living – a local SoCal garden and paving contracting business.

Why use an RSS Feed to syndicate content instead of article distribution services for inbound links?

Article distribution is a good strategy but you have a finite number of sites to go to. You are only getting your content on article distribution sites. With syndication your articles appears in all kinds of websites who have used your content because they find it useful and relevant to their audience.

What kind of content is good for syndication?

Something that is well written, useful and interesting. News, helpful educational articles, expert opinion pieces, podcasts, videos, tips, how-to, recipes, tech updates, and the list goes on.

What are common content syndication mistakes you see made by small companies and how can they best be avoided?

They don’t do it. And when they do syndicate, the content is not interesting and helpful, it’s too promotional. No one will want to republish a marketing piece for you.

What are two or three steps to getting started with a content syndication program?

Start with a content strategy – what does your audience online really need and want. Listen to the conversations and see what they talk about. Do keyword research. Find five phrases you want to be on page one for. Optimize your site for these terms. Produce content and syndicate it in a feed, linking to your site on the chosen keywords and phrases.

Are there certain industries better suited to content syndication?

No.

How else can content syndication benefit local businesses?

Raise their profile. Open new markets.

Is it hard to set up an RSS Feed?

It is technical but there are services to help you do it if your in house webmaster or IT person can’t do it.

Do I need to hire help to develop and implement a syndication program?

You can subscribe to one of the RSS services like PRESSfeed. We’re producing how to tutorials for our clients. If you are not a writer or you don’t have the time to create regular content, you probably should hire a writer, and one who knows SEO. Many small business owners do just fine on their own.

How can I tell if a firm has the right expertise to generate results for me?

Ask them for examples of their work. See if they use RSS feeds themselves. Look at the content they are syndicating – is it text and video? What words do they link on? Check Google for those words. See if they are on page one. For example check out content syndication on Google. PRESSfeed is #3 out of 17 million pages. We’re a small business. If we can do it so can you!

If you could tell local companies one thing about doing syndication the right way, what would your message be?

Create great content. No one reads or republishes boring content.

How popular are RSS Feeds amongst users and what’s in store in the future?

It’s much higher than we think. The name RSS is deceptive.Yahoo did a study and found that when they asked people if they used RSS they said no. But when they tracked the behavior of MyYahoo users, almost 80 percent were using the feeds. The number of journalists who use feeds has jumped dramatically in the last year.

Tell us about your companies and how they help people?

PRESSfeed was formed because I could not find what I wanted – an easy way to add content to a site and syndicate it. I did not want to be a techie. I did not want to learn to program the website. I did not want to have to pay a webmaster every time I wanted to add content. So in the end I built PRESSfeed with a partner who does the tech side. We used it for our clients initially and now other businesses and agencies use it too.

How can readers best stay in touch with you?

Read the blog or follow me on twitter.

Name the 3 people you’d love to have over for dinner and why you’d like to dine with them.

Doc Searls - one of the authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto and a Fellow with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Need I say more? He’s awesome!!! I have been his biggest fan since 1999.

Rebecca Lieb – the new CEO of Econsultancy. She’s wicked smart and I really like her.

Katie Paine - So we could talk about social media measurement, which is my passion at the moment.

Sally Falkow is a veteran PR practitioner and has been evangelizing the use of technology and the Internet in the practice of PR for 7 years. She is the President of PRESSfeed, a social media and internet marketing tool used to create RSS feeds for web content syndication.

Tags: Content Syndication, PRESSfeed, Public Relations, RSS Feeds, Sally Falkow, Search Engine Optimization, Search engine rankings
Posted in 20 Questions, Public Relations Online, RSS Marketing, Ray Raps | No Comments »

Ray Raps…20 Questions with Jim Sterne

Friday, February 6th, 2009

RSS Ray interviews Jim Sterne, President of the Web Analytics Association, on why web analytics is an essential part of your online marketing strategy.

RSS Ray recently sat down with Jim Sterne, President of the Web Analytics Association and founder of Target Marketing of Santa Barbara for the latest installment of Ray Raps. During the interview, Jim offered some important insights into the world of web analytics that you can’t afford to skip.

What is web analytics?

The Official WAA Definition of Web Analytics:

Web Analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of Internet data for the purposes of understanding and optimizing Web usage.

How does it work?

There are a number of ways to collect information about visitors to your website. Each web server has a Log File that stores data transmission information, the pages themselves can contain javascript that helps track a visit and each visitor can get a cookie to help recognize them as a previous visitor – and a lot more.

How is it used?

These data are brought together for benchmark reporting (how well are we doing compared to last month?), website optimization (how easy is it for people to use our site?), process optimization (how do we get more people to sign up for our webinar/download our whitepaper/buy our products?) and marketing optimization (which message/offer seems to get the best response?).

Why should companies use web analytics?

How much are you spending on your website? Wouldn’t it be nice to know if that’s money well spent? Wouldn’t you like to earn more return on your Internet investment? If you don’t measure it, how do you know?

What is the measure of a successful web analytics strategy?

When a consulting client tells me:

"We run our website by the numbers. We have specific business goals we are trying to achieve and we are using the data from our website to tell us if we are moving in the right direction. We can actually use our web analytics data to inform the rest of the company about what features to add to the product and how many to ship to which parts of the planet. We are basing our promotional pitches on the radio and in print based on how people respond online" then I say, "My work here is done."

Why aren’t more small companies paying attention to web analytics the same way they do a P&L?

Smaller companies look at web analytics as another opportunity rather than another fire to put out. If you had the opportunity to hang new curtains in the den or put out a fire in the kitchen, which would you choose? The problem with this perspective is that your website *is* a fire – it’s burning money! Web analytics gives you the visibility you need to see where that money is being wasted and how that website could be made to more than pay for itself.

What kinds of results can one expect?

Reports – lots and lots of reports. What results can you expect from a gym membership? If you don’t use it, use it sporadically, use it wrong, you can expect nothing, little or injury. By the way, the reports are very interesting, but without applying some brain power (analysis) they are not useful. They tell you what the numbers are but you have to decide what the numbers mean, what to do about it and then measure the impact of those actions. Then you can expect great and continuous results.

What are the steps to creating a successful web analytics strategy?

Have clearly identified business goals.

The ability to make website modifications easily and quickly.

A willingness to test things rather than assume you know what’s best.

Recognize that you are not the target audience and let the numbers tell you what your visitors like.

Put more attention into the people you hire than the tools you use.

Look for low-hanging fruit (things that need fixing, conversion processes with unambiguous success metrics) so you can show off your progress.

A commitment to continuous improvement.

How does one get started with web analytics?

The three things to get started are:

a) Carefully tagging all of your website pages or at least the ones you want to track.
b) Assiduously watching the numbers against a specific goal set.
c) Hiring somebody who is naturally curious and really understands your business goals.

What tools do you recommend for getting started with web analytics?

Google and Yahoo! have free tools you can use and they are a lot more powerful than you could hope for. With no experience in web analytics, the most sophisticated website could use these free tools for a year without running up against some of the reasons that there are other companies selling web analytics software-as-a-service and applications.

Is a web analytics campaign something that needs to be constantly monitored, or can companies set it up and forget about it for awhile?

Is steering your car something you can set and forget? You can get away with cruise control if you’re on an empty road in the middle of nowhere, but try that in the city and be prepared for higher insurance premiums. No – you may not forget about it. That’s because the Internet is not a brochure. You print a brochure once in a while and it flies off the shelf – great. But the Internet is a two way street and you cannot ignore how people are consuming your information nor what they are saying about you to 10,000 of their closest friends.

Are there certain types of industries better suited to using web analytics?

The websites that are not suited to web analytics are those that have been abandoned by their owners. If you have a website and you want it to improve, then web analytics is the way to go. If you don’t care, then neither does anybody else.

The most obvious website to benefit from web analytics is the eCommerce site. But that’s only because the goal is obvious. B2B companies are making great strides in improving how well their websites act as lead generation tools and how well they improve customer satisfaction.

Is web analytics a venture a company can undertake itself, or should they hire outside help?

It’s easy to get started, it’s hard to get started in a meaningful way that will lead to a long term strategic program. Haphazard is never in it for the long haul. It might be interesting to sprinkle some tags on some pages and see what the reports say, but doing it well and interpreting those reports well is a skill – one that I recommend you rent-to-own. Hire a consultant to come in and help you set it up and then teach you how to get the most out of it.

If hiring outside help, how can I separate the good from the pretenders?

Talk to their clients.

How much should I expect to pay to get started and on an on-going basis?

This is a young industry and there are lots of consultants with a large range in pricing. Talk to their clients.

What is the Web Analytics Association?

The WAA is a non-profit, membership driven, volunteer organization that … wait… where’s the official… Ah, here it is: The Web Analytics Association leads and supports the members by providing quality education, developing standards and best practices, conducting research and advocating for issues that advance the industry.

The WAA got started because the audience at the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit wanted to keep working together to guide and build the industry. Now we’re 1,700 people strong and growing.

Who should join and why should they join?

Anybody whose job depends on knowing what their website is doing and making it better should join. They should join to network with others in their same situation, to take courses that teach best practices and tricks and traps and to help define what the standards might be. We are trying to put some logic into an industry that’s only been around for a dozen years or so.

What are the major learning events for the association in 2009?

The eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit is the official conference of the Web Analytics Association. More about the nine events this year at http://www.emetrics.org. There is also an online course run out of the University of British Columbia and the University of California at Irvine that has been a huge success. We are also starting to roll our Base Camp workshops which help introduce people to web analytics.

What do you see as the future of web analytics in the next 3-5 years?

Web analysis is a different sort of data analysis. It isn’t just stirring up the data to look for patterns, it’s also optimizing specific processes. Today, those are website visitor processes, tomorrow they will be strategic marketing processes. The day after tomorrow, we will be using web data to provide strategic business insight. Some companies are doing that today.

The group I most need to join is ___________ because ______________.

The Web Analytics Association, an eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit, the Yahoo! Web Analytics Forum, and a Web Analytics Wednesday gathering near you because if you’re not measuring the success of your website, you cannot manage your website.

Jim Sterne is the President and Founding Director of the Web Analytics Association and the founder of Target Marketing of Santa Barbara. In 1994 he produced the world’s first Marketing on the Internet seminar series. Today, Sterne is an internationally known speaker on electronic marketing and customer interaction. A consultant to Fortune 500 companies and Internet entrepreneurs, Sterne focuses his 20 years in sales and marketing on measuring the value of a web site as a medium for creating and strengthening customer relationships.

Sterne has written five books on Internet advertising, marketing, and customer service including, his most recent, “Web Metrics: Proven Methods for Measuring Web Site Success.”

Tags: Jim Sterne, Online Marketing, Ray Raps, Target Marketing, Testing, Web Analytics, Website Optimization, Wen Analytics Association
Posted in 20 Questions, Conversion Rate Improvements, Online Testing Programs, Ray Raps, Web Analytics/Web Metrics | No Comments »

Ray Raps…20 Questions with Bob Cell

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

RSS Ray Interviews Bob Cell, CEO of MyBuys, on how to use personalization to significantly increase online sales.

RSS Ray recently sat down with MyBuys CEO, Bob Cell, for the latest installment of Ray Raps. During the interview, Bob discussed how eCommerce sellers can significantly increase sales by personalizing each customer’s shopping experience. Enjoy the interview and be sure to catch Bob’s on-air interview with RSS Ray on February 4th, 2009.

Why is it important for an online seller to personalize the experience for a shopper?

As we’ve seen this holiday season, more and more shoppers are abandoning brick-and-mortar stores and going to the online store for convenience and better deals. But because there are so many choices, they’re going to go to the online store that really talks to them directly and serves them in the same personalized fashion as their favorite brick-and-mortar store.

The reason for online sellers to personalize their website is that when shoppers feel the site knows them, and shows them the products they want, and alerts them to sales and products that are relevant to them, they’ll keep coming back for more. Personalization creates customer loyalty and increases lifetime customer value, and when you show shoppers relevant products, they’ll buy more, which leads to bigger shopping baskets.

When we refer to personalization, what’s the strategy that online sellers are using and why are they using it?

Personalization is a broad-based term that can mean anything from greeting a customer by name, to personalized product recommendations, to showing them items most recently viewed, to sending them personalized email alerts. Strategies can be as simple as the personalized greeting or as sophisticated as personalized landing pages and tracking shopper behavior over a long period so that recommendations are relevant in the areas of brand, category, pricing and promotion.

What are the impacts of using personalization; what are the outcomes an online seller can expect?

Sellers will build credibility with shoppers, which leads to increased loyalty and overall increased lifetime value. One of the most powerful marketing tools is word-of-mouth, and a personalized site creates an experience shoppers will like and will want to share. If a shopper has a great experience on your site, they’ll tell others, and that will drive additional traffic. So not only will you make more money per shopper, you’ll expand your base of customers. When we look across our customer base, the numbers speak to the outcome – on average, overall site revenue is up 5-20 percent, AOV is up 45 percent and conversion rates are up 90 percent.

What are some examples of personalization used by online sellers?

The classic example is Amazon.com—and at MyBuys we have many senior staff members from Amazon. You’re greeted by name, you’re shown relevant products, personalized landing pages, the gold box with top deals and personalized incentives, and so on.

I’ll take an example from our client base. SKECHERS tracks everything you buy or browse, then on Saturdays sends out email alerts with new products and products on sale that are directly relevant to you. That leads to high click-throughs and conversions: In fact, 7.8 percent of people that open those highly personalized emails go to the site and buy one or more pairs of shoes.

Another example from among our clients is Figi’s Gifts in Good Taste, a Charming Shoppes brand, which has a loyal customer base that comes to them to buy treats for themselves and gifts for friends and family. Figi’s presents “Other gifts that may interest you” recommendations that make it easier for the shopper by displaying products based on what the shopper has previously bought and what they’re looking at in the current session. This reproduces the feel of thumbing through a catalog online—with the added bonus of seeing only the gifts that are most relevant and appealing to you.

How does a company start creating a “store for every shopper?”

The secret is to get to know your shoppers. We do this at MyBuys—we build a profile for each and every shopper. When an online retailer signs up for our service, we take as much transaction history as they have available and we start to understand each shopper’s buying patterns and behaviors across brands, categories, pricing and more. We get a sense if a shopper is a trend buyer, bargain hunter, loyal to specific brands, etc. When that shopper comes back to the seller’s site, we incorporate that knowledge into the context of what the shopper is doing in the current browsing session. Then we show the shopper—just like a personal shopper would at a boutique—highly targeted, highly relevant, highly appealing recommendations. As the shopper moves around the site, it’s like shopping at their very own store, because the merchandise is tailored to them. That creates a “store for every shopper” experience. At MyBuys, we look at it as being able to have unique window displays for every shopper as they come to your store.

Explain for us the concept of dynamic merchandising.

Until recently, online sellers have manually merchandised their sites, so that every time a shopper views a certain pair of cargo pants, the site recommends the same T-shirt and socks. Every shopper sees the same things.

In contrast, dynamic merchandising leverages a daily, weekly, or monthly product feed so that the recommendation engine constantly has access to the latest assortments and pricing. It can then, dynamically and in real time, decide what to display in the recommendation zone on each page for each shopper. Not only is it dynamic in that it’s not serving up manually pre-set offers, it’s dynamic because the merchandiser doesn’t have to manually make those assignments. So it’s both dynamic and personalized for each shopper.

What impact can recommendations have for both the shopper and the seller?

For the shopper, a site with recommendations makes them feel comfortable, and mimics their favorite, personal, in-store shopping experience. It also creates good will and loyalty, and makes them trust and value the site and come back for more. For the seller, recommendations boost average order value, raise conversion rates, and from our experience at MyBuys, boost overall online revenue by 5 to 20 percent.

To give a specific example from our client base, Scentiments.com is an online discount fragrance retailer in Southern Florida that combines dynamic, personalized email alerts with a personalized experience on the website. This holiday season, Scentiments ran several promotions, and relevant products were recommended to specific customers on their 700,000-name email list. The CEO, Howard Wyner, received many thank-you emails from shoppers saying, “Thank you for alerting me to the price drop on my favorite fragrance. Emails like that, and the experience I have on your site, will keep me coming back only to Scentiments for my fragrance purchases.”

How can personalization be adapted through the customer lifecycle?

The MyBuys methodology I’ll describe is based on our team’s 100-plus years of e-Commerce experience. At the beginning of the customer lifecycle, you have to get to know them. We do that by inviting shoppers to sign up for email alerts—they can ask to be told about “more products like this,” can specify brands and products, can ask to be notified when their favorite items go on sale, and so on. Alert sign-ups help us get to know the shopper. The next steps are getting to know them better as they repeatedly visit the site, making recommendations, and adding to their profile. The way we do that is to store every click they ever make, so your company’s recommendations to them are 100 percent relevant and their profile gets more and more comprehensive. The next stage is to make them offers in real time while they’re shopping.

You also need to pay attention to where you place recommendations, which can also evolve through the lifecycle. There are key strategic site placements, or “site recommendation zones,” which are on a category or brand page, the product-detail page, most importantly in the shopping cart, at order confirmation and, to make them even more loyal, in the email where you ask them for a review. Customers like to share their experience with other shoppers. You can make recommendations at the point of that review request, which often drives people back to the site to buy more.

You can also drive shoppers back to the site by putting abandoned shopping cart items, new products, or sale products—or a combination of the three—into an email alert.

To sum up, get to know shoppers by asking them their preferences, continue to get know them better by building their profile, communicate with them throughout their buying experience with personalized offers at the various places on the site, and send them the right alerts and right incentives to keep them coming back for more.

Why not set up cross-sells manually?

Because it’s extremely labor- and cost-intensive. We have clients who, before they engaged us, spent anywhere from 12 to 200 hours a week above and beyond regular job business hours building these manual recommendations. And manual cross-sells get stale—no one wants to see the same recommendations every time they come to a site for new ideas. Tastes change, they may be shopping for someone else, the recommendation may no longer be relevant for that shopper (if it ever was), etc. One size fits all no longer works for today’s savvy online shopper.

Are there certain styles of recommendation formats (best sellers, discounts, etc.) that appear to work better than others?

It depends on the merchant, their assortments and their target shopper. At MyBuys, our mantra is Test, Test and Test, and Optimize, Optimize, Optimize. We constantly test to find the highest-converting words to use to frame the whole recommendation zone and what words to use to frame the actual product recommended. We find it’s different for every single retailer. For some of our merchants, formats as simple as Top Sellers and On Sale work well. For others, we use Recommended Just for You, You May Also Like, Related Products or Great ideas.
For a purchase like electronics, where the shopper is doing lots of research, he or she will probably want to know why you are making the recommendation, so Related Products works. But for something that’s more of an emotional buy, like jewelry or apparel or gifts or housewares, it’s more effective to use You May Also Like, or Hot Seller—anything that has more a qualitative than quantitative angle.

What criteria are used to determine the best recommendation formats?

To get the highest-converting recommendations, a few things are critical. Number one, place the recommendation above the fold. (Though we’re often surprised by the high conversion rates even for clients who place recommendations below the fold.) The ideal location is on the right side, vertically formatted, above the fold—although horizontal and below the fold can also work. Another thing that can help with conversion is displaying the review rating directly under the product in its placement. And it’s key to test, test, test to see what framing words best complement your placement.

How is shopping cart abandonment impacted through personalization?

The number one strategy to tackle this issue with personalization is to put abandoned shopping cart items in personalized email alerts in the top left corner. Not only will seeing the abandoned item move the shopper to buy, but if you include other great products and attractive pricing, followed by a personal experience on the site, shoppers not only buy the abandoned item but add other items to their cart.

Does personalization invade shopper privacy?

MyBuys did a study in June 2008 with the e-tailing group and we found that 75 percent of consumers are willing to provide some meaningful amount of personal information in exchange for a more personalized, relevant shopping experience.
For direct contact, the best practice is to give people the ability to opt-in and opt-out. Second, alerts are similar to airline practices that allow you to sign up for updates on your favorite routes: MyBuys’ philosophy is that you’re alerting shoppers to things they’ve said they want to know about. The bottom line is that when you’re adding value, and enhancing the customer experience, and making it easier, faster and more fun to go shopping online, the consumer is not going to mind.

We looked at another angle of this question in a study conducted on our behalf by Harris Interactive, which polled 2,382 U.S. adults on their preferences and reactions to retail promotions in light of the current economy. The study found that retailers who promote price cuts without personalizing the message may not see sales jump—and could even lose customers. In fact, nearly half (48 percent) of online adults are annoyed by online promotions that are irrelevant to them and 43 percent say they would consider not visiting a Web site in the future if a promotion irritated them. So personalization actually reduces the chance that you’ll irritate customers or make them feel like you’re invading their privacy.

What are some specific personalization tips for holiday sales success?

What we’ve been seeing across our diverse merchant client base is that our sellers are creating more and more incentives for shoppers to buy. Free shipping or free shipping with minimum purchase, special clubs for discounts, and so on. The names of the game this season is discounts and bargains and free shipping. Also bundles—many of our clients are doing “gift with purchase” based on bundle purchasing. And, as I mentioned above when you combine these promotions with personalization, your chances of conversion are much higher.

One example is Cost Plus World Market they have 10,000 items for $10 or less on their site, and those items are flying off the virtual shelves. Shoppers are more willing to buy lots of small items rather than one large item. Sellers can incent shoppers with this creative merchandising, and then close them after they’ve spent enough money with the reward of free shipping.

With a new administration, it appears that the US government will be unveiling economic stimulus initiatives to encourage shopping. What do you think online sellers can expect?

While there is no specific incentive credit that directly ties to the consumer per se, there appears to be major investments in the nation’s infrastructure that will create jobs. The expansion of tax cut plans will create increased GDP and as a result will lift retail sales. A portion of the infrastructure investments combined with Obama’s keen interest and knowledge of technology and his key Silicon Valley based advisors should lead to more ubiquity of broadband Internet which will ultimately lead to more online spend. More people will be online more often and this will create more opportunity for them to go shopping. As we see this infrastructure expansion, I expect to see online retail growth, which has doubled in the last 4 years, to be a trend that will continue.

What are the basic steps a company should take when establishing a personalization approach to online selling?

We all know personalization creates value. I personally have spoken to over 500 clients over the past 10 years while working at companies like Kellogg’s and Blue Martini where I have been on the leading edge of personalization. Over the years, I have sponsored and tested numerous studies. Results are clear – relevance creates value across all channels.

To get started in establishing a personalized approach to online selling, it is important to note that creating relevance will be different based on the retailer, their systems, their assortment and their consumers.

Here is my advice: First, ask yourself – in what ways do my consumers interact with my brand? What other ways can I engage them that I do not currently employ? What can be done to personalize and create an individual dialogue with my consumers?

There are many new things in the market right now, such as personalization for product recommendations, email alerts, landing pages, direct mail , catalog, promotions, follow-up support and call center. You should evaluate all that apply to your business.

Next, determine what time and costs are required and balance them against the incremental gain you stand to make and stack rank your options based on ROI. Test, evaluate, test again, always be optimizing.

Today, you will find that many of the solution vendors out there create so much value that they are willing to invest a lot up front in implementation so that they can then share the value on an ongoing basis.

Finally, be sure to integrate personalization across channels so that you can recognize your customer at the point of sale (POS), in the call center, online, and on support calls. Use this in a holistic way so that your shoppers not only respond to your relevant interactions, but so they perceive you to be smarter and then, as a result they will be more open and appreciative of creating a relationship with your brand.

What criteria should a company use when evaluating companies to provide them with a personalization platform?

They should look for a vendor that offers personalization capabilities in a SaaS, Software as a Service, format—there’s no reason you should have to allocate extra staff or spend extra hours to get this done. Second, the vendor should build profiles on each customer. Look for a pay-for-performance model, because that gets “skin in the game” on the part of the vendor. Make sure the vendor has executives with experience in the e-Commerce space. And finally, look for a multi-algorithmic approach where it’s not a case of “one algorithm to sell them all.”

Can any size seller set up personalization systems or is this only for the big boys? What can one expect to pay?

Personalization is for just about anyone. At MyBuys, we can work with clients who have as few as 500 or 1,000 SKUs all the way to millions of SKU’s. Personalization is a strategy that can benefit retailers large and small.
You should expect to pay a percentage of incremental revenue generated, depending on the margin of the products.

How is your company, MyBuys, helping online sellers and why do customers benefit from working with your platform and company?

MyBuys is the leader in cross-channel personalization for retailers. We developed the company from the ground up to track and monitor every interaction every consumer has with each of our clients. Being a team of e-Commerce experts has created the most sophisticated data model and algorithm portfolio that automatically creates 1:1 recommendations for consumers across channels. We are the leader in recommendations and our personalized product and offer recommendations create the greatest lift for our retail clients. Additionally, we are the only service that can actually live up to the holy grail of the close loop interaction of the consumer. We watch every click of a consumer and follow up with personalized email alerts with the items we know they want. The responses we generate are 3-10 time higher than other email program and most importantly, are synergistic to existing email programs. Upon receiving an alert, when the shopper comes to the site, they are greeted with the same personalized experience. As a result we are seeing recommendation conversation rates improve as much at 120 percent or higher.

At the end of the day, what we are seeing is that our clients get online lift between 10-20 percent of total online sales.

If you could invite any three people in the world over for dinner, who would they be and why would it be those three?

I would have to start with Albert Einstein, because I am always looking for ways to further improve our algorithms and I bet picking his brain would prove worthwhile. Also, University of Michigan football coach, Rich Rodriguez. I am not sure how he let this happen; but he allowed us to go 3 in 9 this season. So clearly he needs a little help from an alumnus, namely, me, who can give him some advice on strategy. And finally, Jennifer Aniston, because this imaginary dinner is the only way I’ll ever get a date with her. Jennifer, if you’re reading this, please join us. I’m sure Albert and Rich would enjoy your company as much as I would.

Bob Cell is the CEO of MyBuys and is an expert in retail, advertising, and consumer products. Most recently, Bob was Chief Executive Officer of AdSpace Networks, where he led the company through rapid growth and strategic restructuring to focus on becoming a mall advertising network while also growing, and subsequently, divesting its CoolSign video merchandising enterprise business. Under his leadership as Chief Operating Officer at Blue Martini Software, a pioneer in e-commerce solutions, the market capitalization tripled, license revenue doubled, and net results increased by $40M.

Tags: Conversion Rates, cross-selling, Customer Lifecycle, Customer Loyalty, Customer Value, eCommerce, MyBuys, Online Holiday Sales, Online Sales, Personalization, Product Recommendations, Shopping Cart Abandonment
Posted in 20 Questions, Conversion Rate Improvements, Ray Raps, eCommerce Marketing | No Comments »

Ray Raps…20 Questions with David Oates

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

RSS Ray interviews David Oates, President of Stalwart Communications, on how to use public relations to build your business and boost profits.

RSS Ray recently sat down with David Oates, President of Stalwart Communications and overall public relations guru for the latest installment of Ray Raps. During the interview they discussed how businesses can implement public relations strategies to boost their profits in any economy. Check it out:

What is Public Relations (PR) and what can it do to help a business?

In short, Public Relations is the art of getting industry influencers to sing a company’s praises. Such people include journalists, industry association members, leaders of local business groups and loyal customers. Engaging such audiences in a strategic, proactive and personal matter will help increase awareness that will shorten sales cycles, increase partnership opportunities, generate investor interest and improve employee recruiting initiatives, regardless of the current economic conditions.

Is PR something only for large companies or can the small local business benefit from a PR program?

Any company of any size can – AND SHOULD – be leveraging PR as part of their marketing mix. For small- to medium-sized organizations, the tactics can be quite different, though. Instead of press releases, these companies will want to focus more on “grass-roots” tactics that include securing speaking opportunities at area business and industry events, applying for local awards and recognition, and offering themselves to trade and local journalists as expert sources on the topics they know best. In doing so, the organization’s “sphere of influence” rises.

Additionally, these companies should leverage the power of the Internet for PR purposes. I don’t care what type of company it is – be it an auto repair shop, a dentist office or a software engineering company – each firm should at the very least have not only a Web site, but a blog and online newsletter. The audience for such initiatives should be customers, suppliers, partners and business acquaintances. Doing so will easily allow these people to become evangelists for the company by forwarding their information along to their contacts, who in turn become leads.

How can small and mid-size businesses use public relations to grow sales and profits?

The online and offline grass roots tactics I mention earlier are the best way for small- to mid-size companies to promote their services and competitive advantages, particularly in uncertain economic times like today. I guarantee that employed properly, organizations will see a rise in both sales and profits. The best way for them to know if such initiatives are succeeding is to ask any new prospect that comes in by phone, e-mail or the Web site how they heard about the company. I’ll bet if all other initiatives remain constant, they will see a sizeable increase in the number of new prospects with a great majority of them coming as a direct result of the PR efforts conducted.

What are the elements of a sound public relations strategy for small and mid-size businesses?

I don’t care what type of company it is – be it an auto repair shop, a dentist office or a software engineering company – each firm should at the very least have not only a Web site, but a blog and online newsletter. To make best use of these tactics, organizations must do the following first:

Identify three key messages that explain how they are better than their competitors.
Identify with whom they want to communicate and how they like to receive such information.
Set up a reasonable schedule to make that happen.

How do they get started?

I’m a firm believer in starting small. If companies understand what they want to say and to whom, they should create a good Web site, blog and e-newsletter to start. There are very inexpensive ways to do it. I personally use Yahoo! Business Services to create and host my Website and blog as well as Constant Contact to create and distribute e-newsletters. They are very easy to use as Microsoft® Word. What’s more, the total combined bill costs me less than $50 each month – far less than what I spend for phone service!

From there, companies can expand to other tactics, such as pitching and securing speaking opportunities at industry organizations and local events as well as introducing themselves to local media outlets. A word of caution here – organizations need to take less of a sales approach and more of an expert source stance. A pitch that sounds too much like a telemarketer will go nowhere fast!

Can small business compete against big business in the internet era?

The Internet was MADE for small businesses. In addition to the Web site and e-newsletter services I mentioned, companies can leverage free social networks to their advantage. I personally am on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, and also started my own social network, http://payonperformance.com, to promote my unique revenue model to small and mid-size organizations. All of these tactics are easy to use, free, and have given me a much greater audience to promote my services than I could ever get offline.

How has the internet changed the field of public relations?

It’s improved it. I know that sounds contrary to what a lot of PR people think, but I believe it has given the small and medium-sized businesses a greater chance of having their message heard. No longer is the city newspaper or local evening news the only place for people to learn about an organization.
The big issue for companies now is to understand how best to use the Internet to improve their bottom line. It also means that organizations must be comfortable with maintaining open dialogue with their audience, who will have more of an immediate and direct impact on its reputation and brand than ever before.

We hear a lot about optimized press releases. What are they and how can they help companies?

Optimized press releases are ones that include key words and phrases that (a) explain what a company does and how they are better than others, and (b) are embedded with hyperlinks to specific pages on the organization’s Web site.

Here’s an example: Say an auto parts dealer puts out a press release about a new line of wheel rims for sale to a trade publication that blasts the news to its subscribers via e-mail. If the announcement uses the specific product names that include embedded links to the dealer’s Web site or product page, Google sees that as a good thing and will move the auto parts dealer’s site higher up in their natural search rankings. The higher the rankings, the more people see it when they conduct a search about the wheel rims. That drives more traffic to the site, and results in more prospective customers for the auto parts dealer.

How can a company determine if something is newsworthy?

The best answer I can give is two fold: (a) Do a gut check – if a company REALLY feels something is a big deal, then it just might be; and (b) ask others besides customers and staff to be the judge. If they saw it in the paper, would they take time to read about it?
Another good sounding board is to look and see what competitors are promoting. If they’re getting media coverage for similar events, it may be a good indicator of what is newsworthy.

What are two or three tips you can share that a business can use to get a media outlet interested in a story?

Make the story more than about you. Most news organizations want to hear about events that impact a majority of their audience. If the story is just about one company, particularly small ones, they are less apt to consider it of value. That isn’t to say that some announcements, such as a big client win, aren’t newsworthy. However, it will be easier to sell a story that showcases a trend in a particular industry than about one organization.
Get to the point. When pitching a story, marketers, PR professionals and business owners have about 5 seconds to make their case, either by phone or e-mail. Editors and reporters get literally hundreds – and I do mean HUNDREDS – of pitches every day. Provide the facts and the value in one or two sentences max. When sending the information to a reporter via e-mail, make sure the subject line reads like a headline. As Dragnet’s Joe Friday used to say, “Just the facts, m’am!”
Promise only what you can deliver. There are times when a reporter or editor jumps at a story idea and needs to conduct interviews with the right people within the next few hours to meet their deadline. This is typical – the 24/7 news cycle demands it. So when pitching a story, be sure you can offer people up for interviews and background data at a moment’s notice. Failure to do so will result in being “black listed” by the editor.

What kinds of results should a business expect from a PR program?

A well-planned, well-executed PR program should shorten sales cycles, increase partnership opportunities, generate investor interest and improve employee recruiting initiatives, regardless of the current economic conditions. Companies should see the time they spend introducing themselves and their value propositions to prospects decrease as more and more folks become aware of them.

What are some common mistakes companies make with public relations programs?

There are lots, but here are a few:

Companies that can’t explain what they do. Each industry has its own language known only to them. Organizations that can’t clearly articulate their mission and value in plain English will get little attention. Remember – in PR, it’s all about the audience.
Companies that turn their sales material into press release. It’s important to recognize that sales materials don’t translate well in press releases and other PR material. Words like “revolutionary,” “state-of-the-art,” and “extraordinary” are virtually useless. Media outlets – both print and online – get turned off by the internal boasting, and will put such information in their Spam folder.
Companies that claim to have no competitors. Telling a media outlet or an industry audience that they have no competition is another way of saying that they have no market. Media outlets and industry influencers will perceive companies that claim such as not relevant to their audience, and ignore them. Everyone has competitors, even if it is simply apathy.

How can you measure the revenue impacts of public relations efforts?

This takes some doing, but is very much worth it. Companies can start by implementing Web analytics to see what the increase in online traffic, leads and sales conversions were as a result of a media hit, e-mail newsletter or speaking event. Google Analytics is a great and easy tool to do this. Best of all, it’s free!
The same type of process should also be done with leads acquired over the phone. Those in charge of fielding inbound queries should be trained to ask how the person heard about the company. Such feedback should be tracked and reported to upper management.

Additionally, organizations can measure the benefits of their PR efforts by how much their sales cycles have been reduced. Over time, good campaigns should shorten the time between acquiring a new prospect to closing a deal. Measuring the ROI of PR efforts is not only possible, but necessary to justify the associated costs.

LYING is the one thing forbidden in your company.

We pride ourselves in our integrity. That means doing what is right – not what is easy.

Is PR something a company should out-source? Why?

That all depends on how much a company is willing to do, and really boils down to a time and money issue. For a start-up or smaller firm, PR efforts may be a role the CEO can play. Often times, however, such people are already doing too many things simultaneously, but don’t want to take on the overhead of hiring someone in house to handle such efforts. For them, hiring a qualified firm may be the answer, but I’d caution anyone against going with a retainer-based agency. Rather, companies should demand PR firms put their money where their mouth is, like we at Stalwart Communications do with our Pay-on-Performance model.

What are some of the more important criteria that should be considered before hiring a PR firm?

Most PR agencies will tout experience in certain markets as the reason to hire them. While that’s important, it’s not enough to go with a firm that is resting on past laurels. I’d recommend any company – but particularly small- to mid-size organizations – ask the following questions of any PR agency before engaging their services:

How will they be compensated – as a product of producing results or billing hours?
What do they see as the top priorities for successfully garnering press and awareness for their company?
How will they go about generating such results?

What quantitative measurements of success will they put in place?

If a company hears the word “retainer” in response, they should run! Furthermore, if the PR firm is unwilling to be held accountable to specific success criteria or can’t articulate in precise terms what their focus will be in creating and executing a successful strategy, the organization should look elsewhere for help.

How do public relations firms charge for their services? How much does one need to spend to be effective?

A good PR campaign will run companies somewhere between $3,000 and $5,000 each month. While most agencies operate similar to a law firm by charging a monthly retainer and bill an hourly rate against it, I launched a unique Pay-on-Performance model, which means clients don’t pay our full fees unless we actually produce. I believe it’s a much better way for PR firms to do business – both for clients and the agency, much to my competitors’ objections!

Why do you offer the Pay-on-Performance model and how does it work?

I got tired of working for PR and Marketing agencies that were afraid to put their money where their mouth was. We are hired to help companies shorten the sales cycle, and should be held to the same standard as those who are in charge of bringing in new customers.

Pay-on-Performance is the alignment of at least 50 percent of our revenues to actually delivering marketing and PR results for a client. The "R" word (Retainer) is not in Stalwart Communications’ vocabulary. We also do not track hours, but rather the success of actually producing results, such as securing positive press coverage. In turn, customers understand what they are getting each month for their PR dollar, because there is a guaranteed return on their investment when using us.

What makes Stalwart Communications different from other PR firms?

The Pay-on-Performance model is the biggest differentiator. Unlike most agencies, we’re not afraid to tie the bulk of our fees to results. Additionally, we’re focused in serving the small- to medium-sized businesses that recognize the value of PR, but have been hesitant to sign the $10,000 – $15,000 monthly retainer to engage a firm with no guarantee of results. Most agencies want to target the big players, leaving everyone else to fend for themselves. I think that’s a disservice to most businesses.

The most overused business expression is:

“A LEADING PROVIDER OF.” I absolutely HATE that phrase. If a company is the leading provider, they don’t have to state it. If they feel otherwise, then probably (a) their market is too small for others to care about it, or (b) their market doesn’t really exist.

If companies believe as they should that they have a true competitive advantage, then they should explain it in straight terms. Let’s say a company sells gift baskets online. They may tout unique products, a wide variety of offerings and/or exceptional customer service. If true, they should emphasize those instead of saying something like “We’re the leading provider of gift baskets.” That doesn’t say anything.

David Oates is the President of Stalwart Communications and possesses nearly 15 years of extensive experience managing marketing and public relations programs on a tactical and strategic level through a long and successful career that spans both agency and government environments. At Stalwart, his Pay-on-Performance pricing model has allowed many clients to achieve maximum results with little risk.

Tags: David Oates, Pay-on-Performance, PR, Press Releases, Public Relations, Ray Raps, Social Networking, Stalwart Communications
Posted in 20 Questions, Public Relations Online, Ray Raps, Social Network Marketing | No Comments »

Ray Raps…20 Questions with Lisa Morgan

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

RSS Ray interviews business and marketing expert Lisa Morgan about staying competitive.

RSS Ray recently met with past show guest Lisa Morgan who is a management and marketing consultant to discuss some important issues that affect professionals and organizations.

The interview provides great insight about how to better succeed even when times are tough.

Today’s unstable economy has a lot of individuals and businesses worried about their future and yet you maintain opportunities for strong growth still exist. Why?

In every economic cycle there are companies and individuals that fare better than others. Buying patterns tend to shift so where and how money is spent changes. For example, luxury item sales tend to slow but sales at thrift stores and off-price stores can actually grow in a soft economy. Similarly, software and hardware upgrade purchases are often delayed because they still operate just fine but just don’t have the latest bells and whistles but the cutbacks may not affect all software or hardware purchases. It depends on what people consider a “necessity” for their personal well-being or corporate competitiveness.

Can you give us an example of something that’s a “necessity”?

Sure. Marketing is a great example. Whenever the economy slows down marketing generally gets hit. When there’s less revenue and perhaps lower profitability, marketing budgets tend to get cut but most organizations realize they still have to have a presence if they want to compete. As a result, people look at ROI or cost vs. benefit. Search marketing experts are doing well but people selling print advertising aren’t doing so well. And although analytics tools are an expense they actually save money in the long run because they take the guess work out of what works and doesn’t as it relates to site design and marketing campaigns. Bottom line, some areas of marketing are suffering more than others.

How are some of the agencies dealing with the economic slowdown?

A number of them have been evolving the mix of services they offer. For example, some PR agencies claim to be experts in social media and SEO. Traditional advertising agencies have added interactive services or departments as dollars move from traditional channels to online channels. One of the more interesting developments I’ve seen is a move from providing services to solutions. Some agencies are actually starting to develop measurement or content management tools so they can get better results. I just heard yesterday that one agency is going to make its tool available free to the public. Necessity is the mother of invention.

Are you suggesting that agencies should become solution providers?

Of course not. Having a core competency is critical to success. Some agencies just happen to need a technology solution they couldn’t find so they created one so they could do what they do best even better. I’m not suggesting agencies should become software companies but I am suggesting interesting things can happen when you decouple form and function.

What do you mean by decoupling form and function?

If I own a public relations agency you may think I write press releases and ping editors and reporters. That’s a gross oversimplification of what PR agencies do (if not an archaic view) but if you consider PR a narrow service or just a service in itself then developing software may seem counterintuitive. But, when you’re trying to solve client problems and run your agency more efficiently all of a sudden developing editorial calendar software or campaign management software starts to make sense.

Should all agencies consider changing their mix of services?

Change for the sake of change is rarely prudent. You have to consider what’s happening like the emergence of social media and other internet-based channels, you have to consider what your competition is doing and again you need to keep your core competency in mind. You should consider what’s right given where you stand competitively, what your clients actually need, and what skill sets you have on hand. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do it and that goes for in-house, outsourced/partner and acquired options.

A lot of agencies grow by hiring new skill sets. Is that a viable solution?

Finding the optimal balance of breadth and depth of services is a moving target. It’s true you can hire other types of expertise but what you may not consider is that it may not actually be a fit for your culture. There was a very successful PR agency in Silicon Valley that was well-known for publicity but the owner decided that it was time to add more marketing services to the mix so he hired some senior people who had run marketing and had other types of agency experience. In doing so he stepped out of his own comfort zone, the existing staff was uncomfortable with the new mix. The senior people with broad marketing experience were eventually asked to focus on publicity. Long story short, the transformation didn’t work and in fact it actually backfired. There wasn’t a cultural fit.

How does culture play into a business?

The success of some companies actually turns on culture. Apple and Zappos.com are two great examples of companies that are driven by culture. I can’t think of a business that doesn’t want the kind of recognition and success that Apple and Zappos.com enjoy. You can’t simply walk around and say, “We have a cool corporate culture” and then you’re successful. Zappos.com puts every employee regardless of title, department, or compensation through the same six-week training. That’s an investment that almost no companies make except perhaps large companies that have a longer-term program that grooms future executives who come out of Ivy League schools. Also, most of us are focused on the small stuff: what we do, what our department does, corporate politics, etc. That leads to a lack of cohesion and you don’t have one culture you have several competing ones. Culture is not just about vision or training, it’s a mindset that pervades every aspect of the business and is not only reflected by employees but influenced and even sometimes driven by them. Some cultural barriers are historical, others are conceptual disconnects.

What are some of the historical barriers to culture?

Hierarchical organizations and departmental barriers: I do this, you do that, who’s in charge. One solution to the inefficiency of hierarchies was the emergence of “flat” organizations where supposedly everyone is one the same footing but in a lot of organizations that’s more talk than reality and also flat organizations can be difficult to manage as they grow because more processes and procedures may necessarily have to be put in place. Sadly in both cases there is usually a small, empowered group. On the other hand if it’s OK for anyone to come up with sticky notes or teeth whitening strips then great things can happen.

What about the conceptual disconnects you referenced?

Well, one is talking about a culture rather than cultivating one. Interestingly, I think social media poses a cultural challenge to companies. For example, you hear a lot about “transparency” but how much is really good for you and how much is too much? Some companies have been very open about the shortcomings and as a result their communities have helped them solve problems. And in some cases customers are more tolerant of product delays if they understand what’s causing them. If you’re regulated there may be real limits, the leaking of trade secrets or IP are concerns, and of course anyone can set up a blog or social network page not sanctioned by the company that nevertheless affects the company. Some companies have one or a handful of approved bloggers. Sun claims in has more than 4,800 blogs from more than 6,900 bloggers. There can also be cultural disconnects at a personal level.

How so?

We are increasingly moving toward real-time in today’s ever-connected world which means we’re less isolated as individuals. The fact we can and do communicate with each other incessantly via phone, IM, email, text, and social networks is one part of it. The other is the influence of Millennials or Generation Y who regularly talk with each other even to make purchase decisions. In essence there is a shift from the “Me Generation” to the “We Generation”. At the same time Millennials are accused of being self-centered spoiled brats while some Generation X and even Baby Boomer thought leaders have not completely embraced the open, interactive community-driven nature of business today and what that means to them as individuals as well as to their companies. A great business practice is to ask not what you can do for yourself but ask what you can do for the benefit of the community. That practice can be infectious in a very positive way.

A lot of companies are establishing communities as part of their businesses. Doesn’t that demonstrate a different degree of openness or evolution?

It some cases it does and in others it doesn’t. If you’re going to set up a community you need to have clear objectives in mind that typically involve business and marketing but may also involve sales, technology, or other parts of your business. Experts will advise you not to just set up a community and abandon it but rather seed, feed, and care for it so it grows, actually provides value and not just from an SEO or here’s-the-latest-bandwagon-we-just-jumped-onto point of view. Your community should reflect your culture and if you’re going to have a strong culture it’s got to be cohesive. It’s difficult enough to get agreement within a marketing department let alone throughout a company.

Marketing is a fairly defined role in a company. Where are disconnects happening there?

There are internal and external disconnects. Within a marketing department you can have fiefdoms where different people own search, PR, events, research, other advertising, creative services, partner programs, etc. It’s natural for all of these people to want to put their fingerprints on the brand and quite often the person overseeing all this doesn’t get into the weeds so you have different departments sending out slightly different or even completely different messages. Add agencies to the mix and the effect can be more pronounced. It’s hard to educate a market if you don’t have a consistent message and such practices also can be unnecessarily costly. Also, as marketing becomes more fragmented the problem can get worse.

How is marketing becoming more fragmented?

Before the Internet there were certain channels through which you could market: magazines, newspapers, billboards, TV, radio, direct mail, events, etc. The internet has given rise to entirely new channels and means of promoting yourself: SEM, SEO, ad serving networks of various kinds, social media in the form of blogs, podcasts and video, tying that in with mobile, etc. Who owns what can be a problem when something new comes down the pike. There is also the risk of becoming myopic.

If marketing is becoming more fragmented what risk is there of becoming myopic?

As marketing professionals it’s really easy to get seduced by The Next Big Thing like search or social media. Sometimes people regard new technologies, techniques, and methods as silver bullets. That is, if they just do that new thing right then all will be well when as always having a more holistic strategy is usually the smarter way to go. It’s really an exception when someone becomes successful solely based on SEO or social media, for example.

One problem with having a “holistic strategy” can be budget and another can be what that means to begin with. What’s the best way to address those obstacles?

If you work in a company you’ve likely been given a budget that covers a certain time frame. On the agency side your client will either give you a budget or approve one you propose. Either way, dollars are limited so you have to consider what you want to achieve, how much money you have to work with, and what will yield the best return given the budget. Campaign management tools help because you can optimize campaigns very quickly. As for the broader view, the mix is determined by budget and also what actually works with customers and prospects. Having a Facebook page may not actually make sense if you’re selling asphalt grinders.

What role do assumptions play in marketing strategies?

Despite all the tools we have at our disposal today we still have to make assumptions on some level. In the past we made lots of assumptions and tried to mitigate risks by understanding the details of a media kit or running focus groups. In essence we were making educated guesses. In the online world you need to make some assumptions about keywords, email campaigns, advertising campaigns, or site design and then test those assumptions with tools. The good news is you don’t have to wait days or weeks or months to find out whether it worked, you can run split and multivariate tests to find out exactly what’s working, what isn’t and why. The results are comparatively immediate and you can quickly make adjustments. You can also ask people for their opinions in advance to further lower the risk.

You’ve brought up a lot of issues that point to the complexity of business and marketing. How can small companies deal with that?

Well, first of all just because you have a brand name company doesn’t mean you have an endless budget. I know of several companies that would surprise you with how little they’re actually spending on marketing. The upside of larger businesses is they typically employ more people. If you own a small business you need to be realistic about what you can spend and what it is you personally can do. Some of the smartest entrepreneurs I know hire the expertise they lack. That obviously takes money; however, it may be money well spent. The Internet is a great source of information. In today’s soft economy there are most low-cost and no-cost educational options like seminars and webinars. There are free tools and applications like Google applications, Google AdSense and Google Optimizer which are actually great and cost nothing. If you outgrow them you’ll know it and by then will likely be in the position to purchase what you need. Professional associations are also great sources of information.

You’ve worked with some extremely successful, influential, and wealthy people. What separates those types of people from the rest of us?

I don’t think you can make a blanket statement about everyone and be correct but I can say the people who have impressed me most are also the most humble and genuine regardless of where they went to school, how many companies they started or sat on the board of, how many millions or billions of dollars they may be worth, and the truly awesome difference they’ve made in their industries or to the public at large. All of these people have actually been more concerned about adding value to other peoples’ lives than making money. And today despite their incredible wealth, influence or both they are humble. They don’t take credit for everything; they admit they had help from others. They admit failures and also say luck played a role. People love them because they’re genuine, they have a vision and they’re genuinely concerned about other people. They don’t tell people they’re great. Instead they do great things.

Out of curiosity, have these people also been catalysts for strong corporate cultures?

Yes, although “organizational cultures” is actually a better term given whom they influence and what they do. These people truly lead by example and people follow them because they’re incredibly likeable, they have very strong visions that make logical sense, and it’s incredibly fun and inspiring just to be around them. They’re not egocentric. In fact, they come across as ordinary people and as such are the best examples of the communities they inspire.

The bottom line here is in good times and in bad it really pays off not just to talk about “customer experience” but to deliver a strong, positive experience to the customers, prospects, partners, employees and other people you encounter. That means not focusing solely on your own profits, your own career or notoriety but instead finding what value you bring to the table and being great to work with 1:1. The result is strong, long-term relationships that outlast titles, companies, and economic cycles.

Lisa Morgan is a recognized management and marketing consultant who helps build companies, markets and industries. In addition to working with clients she chairs and speaks at conferences, is an active journalist and radio personality, and often serves as an industry awards judge.

Tags: Business Culture, Campaign Management, Holistic Marketing, Lisa Morgan, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Ray Raps, Search Marketing, Social media, We Generation
Posted in 20 Questions, Marketing Resources, Ray Raps | 1 Comment »

Ray Raps…20 Questions with Arnie Kuenn

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

RSS Ray interviews Arnie Kuenn, Founder of Vertical Measures, on how to get high natural search engine rankings with link building best practices.

RSS Ray recently sat down with Arnie Kuenn, Founder of Vertical Measures, an award winning link building and social media marketing company. Together they discussed how to use link building best practices to get high natural search engine rankings. Check it out:

Why are high natural search engine rankings so important to businesses?

There are a couple of reasons. One, the amount of traffic a website can receive from a top 3 ranking on Google is about four times greater than if you were in the same position with a sponsored ad. The sponsored ads on Google are all based on pay-per-click which means you are paying for every visitor to your site. When you quit paying the traffic stops too. Where with a natural listing, all of those clicks are free. The second reason is that being listed on a search engine means that people actively sought out your service. This is the real hidden value to being on a search engine compared to having a display ad running on another website or traditional media like a newspaper. In the later examples, people stumble across your ad, on a search engine they are looking for you.

Companies can get on page one of the search results by using paid search advertising? How do paid search results contrast with those from natural search?

As I mentioned above, you can get as much as four times the traffic from a top search engine ranking as compared to paid search or PPC ads. Some studies indicate that the conversion rates from natural search are better than from paid search as well. Those are two strong reasons to work on getting higher search engine placement.

What does a company need to do to get high natural search engine rankings?

There are three things that go into good search engine optimization (SEO). First, you must have good, original content. Search engines look for sites that are adding value to the community. If you are presenting information that has been presented 100 times by others, it is going to be tough for you to get ranked. Second, you need to optimize the site itself. Everything from good keyword usage on each page to having your meta tags set up correctly on each page (not just your home page) to internal navigation. Third, you need inbound links from other sites. Google counts these as votes for your sites. The more votes you have from trusted sites, the higher you will rank.

What’s a link and what’s an inbound link?

Most people refer to a link and an inbound link as the same thing. And for the most part that is true. The only difference is that you can (and should) actually have internal links helping users move from page to page on your site. Inbound links, mean links coming from other websites. For example, this text: link building is an inbound link to our website. Because we are using text in the hyperlink it is also referred to as a text link.

What role does inbound links play in high organic search rankings?

The best way for me to answer this is to give you a quote directly from Google’s website. “Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at considerably more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; for example, it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages ‘important.’”

Are all inbound links valued equally by Google and other search engines?

The search engines look at inbound links as a sort of popularity contest but more importantly, they are looking at the quality of the pages that are linking to you and the "anchor text" – the "clickable link" and what it says about the page that it links to. The key to linking is to have the right anchor text on a link that points to a page that has content using the same keyword phrase.

Where do inbound links come from?

Simply put, they come from other websites. Website owners or managers decide they want to link to your site and add a hyperlink to it.

How do you attract inbound links?

There are many ways to get inbound links to your website. You can barter for them or attract them naturally. But is usually boils down to having quality content. You need to give other website owners a compelling reason to link to you. Do you have a great top 10 list that they would like to recommend to their visitors? Maybe a clever video? Or even a useful tool? These are all ways to attract links to your site.

How do you approach other companies about linking from their website into yours?

Generally this is done with a personalized email to the owner or webmaster of the sites you are targeting. Notice I said personalized. Spamming website owners looking for links will get you nowhere. Every once in a while we actually pick up the phone and call. You would be surprised at the success rate via the phone. But remember, you must have a good offer for them. Usually this is a link back from your website. You can read a pretty good article on this topic here.

Let’s say you want to get started with a link building program for your company? Where do you start? What are the important first steps?

The very first step should be to identify your most important keyword phrases and the best landing pages for each phrase. Hopefully you did this when designing your site and you have the information handy. Then you might draw up a list of potential link partners. Brainstorm with others, you will be surprised at the number of opportunities. Determine why those sites should link to you (what is your offer?). Then go after them.

What are some common mistakes companies make when starting a link building program?

There are probably two big mistakes that people make. First, they quickly realize that link building is hard and they start to take short cuts or even give up. Short cuts often mean paying some company to get them hundreds of links for $99. As in every business, you get what you pay for. The risk here is that if you get a lot of spammy links, you risk being penalized by Google. The other mistake people often make is not trying to control how someone is linking to you. Ideally you want hyperlinks using your important keyword phrases as the anchor text. This helps tell the search engines what your website is all about.

How long do I need to work on link building before I start to see results?

I am asked this question 2 or 3 times per day. The standard answer is that you should expect to conduct link building for a minimum of 90 days before you see any significant results. However, there are a lot of factors that go into this; what is your competition doing during that period, how competitive are your keywords, are you getting links from good sites, and so on. We have seen good results in less than 90 days, but for the most part it takes a few months of continuous link building, and then you need to keep at it to protect your position.

Is there such a thing as a “bad” inbound link?

Good question. It used to be that there was no such thing as a bad link. The logic being that why would Google or Yahoo or anyone else, make it easy for a competitor to sabotage you if all they had to do was send you a bunch of "bad links". But in recent months, there has been several indicators pointing to Google penalties from bad links. A bad link might be from a spammy site or one that is perceived to be a paid link. Get links from trusted sites, and mostly for traffic and you will be just fine.

Is it OK to pay for inbound links and what’s the going rate?

It is a very common practice to pay for or buy links. The intent is what matters most. If you buy links with the intent of increasing your rankings, then Google frowns on it. If you purchase links for traffic (an advertisement), then Google is okay with it. Going rates is almost impossible to answer. You can rent links for as little as $5 per month and as high as $2,000 per month. You can even buy one time, permanent links with prices ranging from almost nothing to thousands of dollars per link.

What are reciprocal links and how are they viewed by search engines like Google?

A reciprocal link is when two websites agree to link to each other. Usually from one "links page" to another. Until recently, it was thought that this strategy no longer worked. However Google has recently commented that a reciprocal link from one site to another is often appropriate and can help with rankings. Like everything else, the links should make sense and be from a trusted source.

How many inbound links are needed to get high organic search engine rankings?

Another question we are asked almost every day. And another question that does not have an easy answer. It all depends on your market, your competitors and the quality of the links. However, there is one thing I can assure you; quantity is almost never the issue. There are many factors that go into valuing backlinks and quantity of links is very low on that list.

Lots of companies are offering link building services. How can you separate the good from the bad?

Generally if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Link building is like any other business service. There are always people who are going to cheapen the service and sell it for less. But as you have seen throughout my answers, quality is what makes the difference in link building and rankings. Even Google will tell you the value the link based on how much they can trust it. One of our favorite blogs just put a post up on link builders you should avoid. You might want to read it.

How does Vertical Measures bring results to its clients that are different from other companies?

There are all sorts of link building companies. From offshore companies (who in my opinion are to be avoided) to high end link builders with programs starting at $5,000 per month. Many of them focus on the links themselves whether it is the quantity of links or the quality of the page from which the link originates. At Vertical Measures we tend to focus on how well we are improving the search engine rankings for our clients’ keyword phrases. To our clients, that is the bottom line. So to us that is also the bottom line. We usually win by building links from a variety of sources, just the way our client would if they had the time, expertise and resources to do it themselves.

You’re a big NBA fan and a long-time season ticket holder of the Phoenix Suns. Who wins this year’s NBA title and why?

LOL. Yes, I am a big Suns fan. They tend to find a way to break my heart year after year. My guess is this year will be no different as it will end with some crazy playoff series – not a trophy. My best guess is that it will actually be a Western conference team this year and the nod would have to go to the Lakers.

Vertical Measures is an award winning company providing quality link building, website publicity and social media marketing services. Clients include ecommerce sites, media companies, career colleges, and SEO agencies.

Tags: Backlinks, Google Rankings, Inbound Linking, Inbound Links, Link Building, Organic Search, paid search advertising, PPC, Search engine rankings, SEO, Vertical Measures
Posted in 20 Questions, Link Popularity and Link Building, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »

Ray Raps…20 Questions with Chad Ritchie

Friday, October 17th, 2008

RSS Ray interviews Velaro Director of Marketing, Chad Ritchie, about how to use live chat for high conversion rates and eCommerce success.

Velaro
RSS Ray recently sat down with Chad Ritchie, the Director of Marketing at Velaro, one of the leaders in live chat technology. Together they discussed how companies are using live chat to increase conversion rates, decrease shopping cart abandonment, and keep customers happy. Check it out:

What is live chat?

Live chat is a software as a service technology that allows companies to interact with website visitors via chat in real-time. These days consumers expect their online shopping experience to provide the same benefits as shopping in the store. If they have questions, eCommerce merchants need to have ability to chat with them immediately. If web site visitors need help with their shopping carts, online retailers must be able to provide real-time assistance.

How does live chat increase online sales?

Live chat allows sales agents to interact with website visitors at critical conversion points. By chatting with potential customers, sales agents can answer questions, up-sell and cross-sell products and services right in the chat. Ultimately keeping the visitor engaged, and focused on why they are visiting your site. Once website visitors lose focus and start to look for contact information or cannot easily find an answer to a question you risk losing them.

What types of businesses benefit from using live chat?

Any business that spends money driving traffic to its website benefits from live chat. Velaro’s customers range from large corporations such as LG, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, to small businesses looking to increase their online conversions.

What benefits can businesses expect from live chat solutions?

Three main benefits are: increased online sales, reduced shopping cart abandonment and improved customer satisfaction.

How are live chat options commonly presented to website visitors and how can you determine what is best for your business?

Live chat is made available via a live chat or a click-to-call button. When a website visitor clicks the button on a website, a chat session is immediately started with a sales agent. Depending on the volume of web traffic a site receives, website owners can opt to show the live chat button to every web site visitor, or only to web site visitors that meet certain criteria. For example, some of our clients have hundreds of thousands of website visitors a month. They only want to show the live chat and click-to-call buttons to visitors that meet certain rules in order to avoid inundating sales staff with too many chats.

Where on websites is it prudent to offer the visitor a live chat option?

Critical conversion points on your website. Be that the shopping cart page, the check out page, or a form page where you are trying to get the customer to interact with your website. The rule of thumb is a web site visitor should never have to leave a critical page try and find answers to questions. You want to keep them engaged and keep their visit as productive and simple as possible.

How can you offer live chat without scaring the customer or giving them the “big brother is watching” type feeling?

It should be an elective element of the website. It’s there if people need it, but never pushed aggressively. You can also offer proactive chats to customers, inviting them to chat with your sales agents. But use discretion. Idle times are a good rule for offering proactive chat invitations. You don’t want to bombard customers with a chat invite 10 seconds after being on a web page. However, if they are idle for a minute, they may be having trouble. An invitation to chat could keep them from getting frustrated and leaving the site altogether.

How does offering live help decrease shopping cart abandonment?

It gives the customer an immediate response to their question or problem. Not only can sales agents immediately respond to questions, they can co-browse with customers, push documents to customers in real-time, and assist the customer in filling out forms. Or to put it another way, customers get the “in store” experience. If a customer goes into a retail store at the mall, you wouldn’t expect them to fill out a form and come back tomorrow if they have a question. But this is exactly what business owners are doing when they force people to use a standard Contact Page on their website. Your customers want to buy, but they have questions. Live chat enables companies to answer those questions and keep the customer shopping.

Is live chat offered to all website visitors or just those meeting a certain criteria?

Both. Some of our small business clients like to interact with every customer who needs assistance. Conversely, some of our larger clients only want live chat or click-to-call available for web site visitors who are on certain pages, or meet certain criteria. Our service allows eCommerce merchants to set up simple rules for deciding if and when live chat is offered.

Can I measure the impacts of my live chat efforts and what kinds of things can I learn?

Absolutely. Velaro is keenly aware that website owners want to be able to track their return on investment. With our Progression Analytics tool we are the only live help company that offers the multi-step conversion tracking. This is an industry first. Progression Analytics allows you to track the path of every website visitor, which paths were successful and which paths were not. So for example, you can easily determine that shoppers who initiated a live chat on a checkout page were 50% more likely to purchase. And our analytics tool is not tied to just chats. You can track multiple sequences of events to see which steps lead to more sales.

Can live help enable me to better track my online marketing campaigns?

Yes. Real-time monitoring comes standard with live help. It allows you to see, in real-time, visitors on your website. It shows where they came from, which keywords they used, geo-location information and marketing campaign information. For example, as the Director of Marketing, I do not take many chats, I leave that to our experience sales team, but I do have Velaro’s real-time monitoring running all day. If I run an online advertisement I can see which of my visitors are coming in from that campaign and how many are buying. I don’t have to wait 24 hours to pull data and sort through reports. Not only that, but I can choose to have our sales team offer proactive invitation to chat to website visitors from certain marketing campaigns and engage a visitor from that campaign. The information is invaluable. Instead of just waiting to see reports, I know who the visitor is, which company they work for, which campaign they are coming from and where they are going on my website. This gives me the complete view into what was once an unknown.

What is commonly done to a website to enable live chat?

Velaro is a completely hosted software solution. It only requires one line of HTML to be placed on any page you want live chat. Our technology uses no applets or plug-ins. Companies can be up and running in as little as thirty minutes, but we encourage them to take advantage of free training and to customize the chat window to look like their brand.

What does the business need to do to support live chat?

You’ll want sales agents staffing the chats. That’s it. And even then, if a company does not have sales agents available to staff chats, we have global staffing firms available to assist web site owners if needed.

What are common mistakes companies make with their live help strategies or tactics?

Not taking the small amount of up front time needed to consider the best ways to make live help successful. Particularly in regard to where and how live help is offered on their websites. And then not enforcing a proper staffing strategy to make sure people are available to answer questions.

What are the common costs a company can expect when offering live help options?

A lot of live help companies will charge set up fees, training fees and then the cost of the actual service. As one of the original live help vendors, Velaro’s seen many live chat companies come and go with the idea it’s fine to charge eCommerce merchants for anything and everything. Velaro uses a simple subscription model. You pay per agent per month and you can cancel anytime. That’s it. No set up fees, training is always included and no support fees. Our clients stay with us for years because they know they are getting a great return on their investment.

There are many companies offering live chat solutions. How can we separate the good from the bad?

There are only a few companies that have been around as long as we have, it’s pretty easy to tell which ones are good choices. First look at the customer list. Any company worth their salt is going to have a long list of recognizable businesses as clients. Second, look at their press releases. The live help market is growing even now in the tough economic climate, because businesses need now, more than ever, to increase their online sales. A good live chat provider will be sending out press releases regularly to keep the media and eCommerce market up to speed. Lastly, try their technology. We offer a 10 day free trial and work with clients who want to try live chat. You should be comfortable with the technology before you are ever asked for payment.

How long does it take a typical company to see bottom line impacts from live chat efforts?

Three months maximum. While live chat can be up and running in a day on your website there are some additional things you want to keep in mind. You’ll want to brand the chat with your corporate look and feel – so website visitors have a seamless transition from your website to a chat. You also want to train your admins and sales agents. Again, while you can start chatting right away, we encourage all our clients to take advantage of the free training. This helps companies learn best practices, and write up pre-made or canned responses to commonly asked questions.

How does your company, Velaro, bring value to customers?

We help our clients increase their conversions, and we do this by keeping their customers happy. Companies are paying thousands of dollars getting traffic to their website, but then what? Some web site visitors buy, some don’t, and at the end of the day you’re left wondering why. We answer that question and provide a solution to interact with web site visitors at critical conversion points on your website, leaving consumers feeling confident in your product offering.

What type of customers do you serve?

Anyone in eCommerce. We have automotive clients, medical clients, retail clients, real-estate clients, travel clients, technology clients, and the government. Anyone selling good or services online benefits from live chat.

Tell us one thing about your company that prospects NEVER ask about but you wish they would.

How does live help, help make their customers happier?

People always come to us looking for ways to increase their sales or reduce their support costs, but seldom realize that both of these benefits are usually a direct result of the fact that live help improves their customer satisfaction rates directly. It has been shown in study after study that live help is consistently the best tool when compared to telephone and e-mail, and that your website visitors end up leaving your site after haven spoke to someone using a web based chat service like Velaro, with a better impression of the company.

Chad Ritchie is an expert in online conversion management. As Marketing Director for Velaro, Inc. Chad helps organizations increase online sales by educating them on the benefits of reaching customers at critical conversion points.

Tags: Conversion Rates, eCommerce Marketing, Live Chat, Online Chat, Online Sales, Ray Raps, Shopping Cart Abandonment, Velaro
Posted in 20 Questions, Ray Raps, eCommerce Marketing | 2 Comments »

Ray Raps…20 Questions with Bryan Eisenberg

Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

RSS Ray interviews online testing, conversions, and marketing analytics guru Bryan Eisenberg about his new book “Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer.”

RSS Ray recently sat down with past show guest and online testing and conversion guru Bryan Eisenberg to discuss theimportance of website testing, Google Website Optimizer, and Bryan’s new book: Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer.

The interview provided some fantastic advice for anyone interested in getting started with online testing or improving their existing campaign. Take a look:

When you refer to testing, what do you mean and why is it so important?

What we mean is ‘trying to improve’ — taking something already existing on the site and making educated, thoughtful changes to it for the purpose of improvement: conversion rate, gross sales, sign-ups, etc., whatever the business goals might be.

What other kinds of business decisions does testing help us make?

Great questions. You know at first blush one might think the only stuff to test is what I just mentioned above: conversion rate or gross sales — whatever the company wants to achieve. But that really speaks to the late-stage goals of the visitor, which often overlap what the business wants to achieve.

But if you think about it, once you get some optimization testing going at that point, a smart business also starts thinking of other ways to improve interaction with the customer, perhaps earlier in the buying process — how do we supply the potential customer with better info while she’s still “just looking” — and how to we optimize the post-sale process. Both of these impact future sales, looking beyond just this quarter’s profits, and that’s where true long-term growth comes from.

Is testing something only big companies with huge marketing budgets can do?

No, not at all. In fact, it’s often the smaller companies that test more efficiently. Big Companies are often challenged by their very size, and in the same way that a small improvement in a key KPI — say, conversion rate — can have a huge effect at big companies in an absolute dollar amount terms, it also means that much more pressure to test well, which in turn can lead to fear of failure responses by the team involved. In smaller companies they are often a little more aggressive about getting it right as soon as possible exactly because the risk of not testing is just as great as testing in efficiently.

I often think of this analogy: the big company is a like a passenger airliner: it carries a lot, somewhat comfortably, but all that bulk means it’s slow to turn in new directions. Smaller companies are often more akin to fighter jets. They’re nimble and fast, very light but don’t have a huge range and aren’t built for comfort.

What kinds of things should we be testing? What parts get us the quickest return for the least amount invested?

Well you’ve touched on Part 2 of our book {chuckles}. There can be so much to test that you end up seizing up in analysis paralysis. We’ve devoted the entire second part of the book to giving you a massive set of ideas to draw from, and we organize based on what context you’re testing in. Is your business retail-based and you’re looking for ideas to improve product detail pages? We got a bunch of tests for that. Are you a lead-gen sort of site and you are looking to impact landing pages? We got a bunch of tests for that.

Here’s something to keep in mind: don’t always shoot for ‘quickest return for the least amount invested’. If you knew ahead of time what would get you that, you wouldn’t even test, you’d just go for it. Instead, think of getting “quickest improvement over what I’m currently doing for the least amount invested.” That gives you room for mistakes — which are going to happen no matter what you do — while still improving.

How does someone get started setting up a testing program?

One of the reasons we focused on Google Website Optimizer in the book, is because it’s free. Sure, there are very good analytics platforms out there you can buy, but that’s an issue for marrying testing and measurement. A really good testing idea will improve your business whether you’re using a free or a paid analytics platform.

And, a lot of folks’ objection to testing is that they don’t have the money for testing — as GWO is free, that pretty much kills that excuse!

How do we know that we are actually getting statistically valid information from which to make business decisions?

Fortunately, the statistics for doing that are built right in to testing and analytics platforms. Without going into the statistics — and let’s face it, if you need a Masters in Stats to use a testing platform, how often will you actually use it? — but GWO does all that for you behind the scenes and gives you various levels of statistical confidence that what you’re testing is having an impact or not. IN this political year, it’s like watching a bunch of polls. One given poll may return Candidate A in a lead over Candidate B, but it might be within the margin of error. And that’s one poll. But if you see 5-10-20 polls all showing Candidate A ahead, you start to get the idea that as close as the election might be, Candidate A likely has an edge.

How often should you test and when do you know you are done?

We try to tell clients to, well, “Always Be Testing”. Always have a 3-6 month plan for testing and continuously be adding new tests as old ones are completed. As for how long to run the test and how to know when you’re done, we think the minimum is about 2 weeks, and that only if you’re getting really high enough amounts of traffic to get actionable results. But if the test is not getting a lot of traffic, or if what you’re testing just doesn’t seem to have a candidate that is pulling ahead, we advise stopping the test and moving on. After all, the point of a test is to improve or not, not just to stand still. If you keep running a test that doesn’t seem to be moving the needle, it’s better to just go on to the next test. In that sense, you’d almost prefer a test that “fails” (that is, your original set-up does better than the proposed changes) over one that doesn’t move the needle, because the point is to learn what leads to improvement generally.

Is testing something most companies can do on their own or should they look for outside help?

Yes companies can do this on their own, of course, if there is what we call a “culture of testing” at the company. Often though, it’s good to have an outside ally, someone who can give you ideas for testing, someone to bounce good (and bad) ideas off of, and someone to make sure you’re not drinking your own kool-aid. That’s something we do a lot of at FutureNow.

Tell us why you wrote your new book “Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer.”

My co-author John and I found most marketers weren’t testing very effectively. Most companies (about 77% by a recent report) do absolutely NO testing. Amazing, huh? But those that do test, often they start off well but then get side-lined several months in because they need help coming up with a plan for continuous testing. We wanted to show with this book how that can be done

Who should be reading the book and what will they gain from it?

We positioned this as a weekend read for marketers and business people who want to get into testing without getting caught up in a technology barrier. Let’s face it: Google is a brilliant company, but not known for writing well.

A reader will finish the book ready to start testing, for free with GWO if that is what she wants to use, and can immediately start testing ideas that have been mulling around in her head for weeks or months. And don’t let your tech team talk down to you about testing — it’s likely after reading this book that you’ll know more about testing conceptually than anyone else at your company.

Tell us about Google Website Optimizer. Why did you focus on this testing platform from Google rather than others?

As I mentioned earlier, it was the price! GWO is a great leveler, because it means you don’t have to be spending $10k/month just to get started testing. That’s really it, the point is to get started and “free” is a great motivator in that regard. We like stuff for free, we think you should too. In fact, with the $25 AdWords coupon inside each of our books, our book might be thought of as “free” too, although of course we at FutureNow would say everything in there is invaluable.

How can people get it?

At your local bookstore or at any of the online merchants. Amazon.com comes to mind.

Is it hard to implement and what costs and other things can they expect when installing it?

NO, there’s nothing even to install. GWO is a hosted service to you, just sign up on the Google site and you can start testing right away. If you have access to your web site’s pages you can make the extremely minor changes right away with some simple copy and pasting, or the online tool will send the changes to make directly to your tech team.

What are some of your favorite features?

What I like best is that instead of waiting for the test to “finish” before reporting results, GWO reports the data as of the date you run the report — so you can get an idea of what confidence you can have in the results if you stopped the test right at that moment, and therefore you know what action you can should (or should not) take at that moment.

What other things will people learn from your new book “Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer?”

We also spend some time talking about testing in general. What it means to test, how it’s important not to start with the conclusion you want but instead to watch what the data is telling you, and to always be thinking of the results not as an isolated event but rather as one in a series of tests all marching towards improvement for your company. Most importantly they’ll learn the 30 factors we identify as impacting conversion and what they can do improve their results.

Can the principles discussed in the book be applied to any testing situation outside the Google Optimizer platform?

Yes absolutely. We use several examples in the book that can be easily implemented with other platforms — you just have to be familiar with your other platform particulars to get it done. But just as valuable are the business examples in the book which illustrate the more important concepts of testing and creating that culture of testing I mentioned earlier — those all go much beyond any simple “platform” argument.

Some companies take the perspective that better initial planning could minimize or eliminate the need for testing. What are your thoughts?

We’re all for initial planning. We’d just like to see more of it. Our experiment has been that a company that gets hung up on initial planning never gets around to actual testing. They are so concerned with a theoretical “perfect” that they never get a simple test done “good enough”. Instead we find companies that spend some amount of time planning ahead for testing but then jumping into actual testing sooner rather than later, they end up learning tons of new information that leads them to more insightful testing sooner. The adage, “no war plan survives first contact with the enemy” comes to mind. We want to get to testing – even simple testing — ASAP exactly because we don’t know what new roads those initial tests will open up for us.

In addition to writing and speaking can companies hire you to help them improve conversions and profits?

Yes, in fact that’s the majority of what we do. We help companies optimize their marketing efforts online and we do so through continuous and dynamic testing. We put a lot of good ideas in the book so companies could get started but obviously we’ve also got a few smart ideas always up our sleeves.

How do they do reach you and stay current with your latest happenings?

The web is always the best way: www.futurenowinc.com, if you want to contact us to talk about doing some work together, we have a contact form on every page. By the way, we are also the authors of one of the top marketing optimization blogs in the world, www.GrokDotCom.com so readers can always hear new and interesting ideas for us there, too.

You’re one of the co-founders of The Web Analytics Association with Jim Sterne. Would Jim look better with a toupee and a complete shave?

Well that should be tested, no? Maybe he can have the rug on one side and shaved smooth on the other. I would want to hear him with an English accent saying “Engage, Number One!”. We’ll have to see if we can convince him to try it at the upcoming eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit in Washington, DC in October.

Bryan Eisenberg is recognized worldwide as a leading expert on online marketing and marketing analytics. One of the co-founders and Executive VP of FutureNow, Inc., Bryan has been helping companies realize that to maximize results it is essential to incorporate expert persuasion techniques and a deep understanding of customer behavior into all marketing efforts.

Tags: Always Be Testing, Conversion Rates, Google Website Optimizer, internet marketing, Online Testing, Web Analytics
Posted in 20 Questions, Ray Raps | 3 Comments »