Dan Masterson - 3 Legs of Conversion-Rate Marketing

And once again some more useful tips for those in Internet marketing

These are my notes from a lecture given by Dan Masterson who was CTO when MyFamily.com launched. He spoke on: “3 Legs of Conversion-Rate Marketing” -Ways to get people to return to your site and to purchase from your site:


CREDIBILITY
-Good content
-Transparency-Not afraid to show team behind the site-People want to know there are people behind the site, that they will be taken care of
-Designed well-Professional look-design consistent with theme
-Testimonials
-Show degrees or accreditations
-1-800 number
-Privacy policy
-Feedback element
-Return policy

USABILITY
-http://www.sensible.com/
-Book: “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug
-Book: “Design for Non-Designers” by Robin Williams
-www.useit.com/
-www.webpagesthatsuck.com
-If it takes more than 10 sec for your page to load people will leave.
-Be careful how many images and how big they are
-Bold keywords so people can get a gist of content-people scan, they don’t read so bolded words stick out

SALABILITY
-Testimonials
-Seth Godin books
-USP, communicate that within a few seconds e.g., Avis: We try harder; Budget: Cheaper; Enterprise: We’ll pick you up at your door
-Most people will drop out of the eCommerce process when they see how much shipping is. Incorporate shipping into cost of product.
-Scarcity-e.g., “Offer only valid for 7 days…” or “only have a limited number…”
-smiling people, show regular people, “Feel good”-emotional sale

Examples
-carrotink.com

 

Dave Martin: Take Your Internet Business to the Next Level

Here’s some great things to think about when running an Internet business.
These are taken from my notes after listening to Dave Martin speak on:
“10 Specific long-term things that will take your company to the next level”
I apologize if they are somewhat random.

1. Start with a plan
2. Create Routines
-It won’t get done unless you plan time to do it
-Spend 70% of time on these things:
A. Measuring and improving ROI
B. Writing quality content
C. Link building

3. Identify Personas
-Book: Brian and Jeffrey Isanberg “Waiting For Your Cat to Bark”
-Identify primary segments: Everybody in the company should know all about them

4. Keyword Prioritization
-Be a chess player: know the next series of plays ahead of time
-http://startlaunch.com/research
-http://tools.seobook.com (SEO for Firefox)

5. Essential Metrics
-Create two sets of metrics
-A larger set for yourself
-A smaller set to show management (to combat meeting marathoners)
A-Closed web deals
B-Cost per lead
C-Leads by product
D-Converting keywords
E-Keyword ranking report

6. Usability – At all costs
-Test & Measure – Rinse & Repeat

7. Build Trust & Resolve Concerns

8. PPC – Put the Odds in Your Favor
-Start with less expensive ones and work your way up
-Start with a small set, weed out ineffective words, then move on to next set (build up)

9. Enticing Content
-Quality, relevant content (Don’t over do SEO)
-“getafreelancer.com” – Copy writers

10. Mosaic Link Building
-Probably most important element to SEO
-Make link building look natural





 

Marketing Research Pays

 Jim Nuckols, the Vice President of Marketing for Cardinal Health, spoke recently about some mistakes his company made in regards to marketing research. In respect for the company I won’t share specifics but I would like to share the overall lesson learned.

Management at Cardinal Health was looking to expand their services. A product idea was conceived that everybody liked and that seemed to just “feel good”. Because everybody in management liked it and felt it would be a success little marketing research was done. They launched the product and two years latter they still weren’t profitable.

Fortunately this story has a happy ending. Cardinal Health decided they should do some marketing research and found that they were marketing to the wrong demographic. Once they understood this some minor adjustments were made to the product and their marketing shifted to the new target demographic. Jim said that almost over night they saw a huge increase in sales.

Lessons learned:
-Do marketing research
-Understand who your target demographic is
-Rely on raw data and not always your gut