Another datum surfaces, again from recent browsing. Saw a sales page that just when on and on and on with video series after video series and ended off with several scroll-downs of testimonials.
While long sales pages are useful - they depend on content. Real content.
What drives a sales page is the story. Read Collier, Vitale, etc.
A sales page isn't a over-filled shopping cart full of sugar-enriched fast-food.
It's another conversation. You have to get and keep your viewers' interest - all the way down your page.
The particular sales page which set me off was simply a dozen or two NEW HOT VIDEO SERIES! - each and all with clever graphics. OK, so I got that the guy likes to do videos. Great.
But what happened to my mouse - it started to scroll down the page faster and faster and faster. Then I finally saw the guarantee, right after the testimonials. I didn't bother to stick around to read his PS. It was what goes for a "standard" sales page these days.
However, that approach is pretty dead - except to the 2-3% who will buy anything.
What the guy should have done with this was to offer a teaser, which he did, and then simply link to all these video series. Each video series would then have its own sales page and would link to the same sign-up page. (When you build like this, you are actually creating a mini-net and can actually get some good organic SEO pagerank and wind up higher on Google when you do - but that's another story...) But every single page would have great value.
Even long testimonials can go on another page - or in a side column.
I know that people are trying to keep viewers on that one page with few choices to click somewhere else. But in doing that, they also then encourage use of the back button (or close tab button).
You have to have a story and keep to that story.
You have to give real value in what you offer. Sure, make it pretty, but don't over-glam it. Keep it nice, but not too ritzy. Even diamond-sellers are known for understated elegance. The design of the page develops trust. When you design like a used-car salesman, you get people avoiding the lot.
While the rumors of the long sales page's death are exaggerated, there are more than a few which should never have been born.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Keep your viewer experience first to keep your viewers
Just came back from visiting a site from a comment link. Didn't have a great experience, but did run into something we could learn from.
This is a critique of that site.
Looked nice. First problem - violated the old 10-second rule of Internet use, which is: if the viewer doesn't see something they want in 10 seconds, they'll go somewhere else.
Now on the face of it, it's a nice site. They get you on their mail list and then give you audio clips - about 43 of them. On the face of it, it looks like value. Problem is, that's a lot of bandwidth and these audio's don't load quickly. Also, audio has the problem that it's linear. You have to listen to the whole thing in order, can't skip around. (We won't go into the audio quality, or content.)
On this site, you simply have the name of the interviewer and guest for each audio - not what that person is, what they talk about, why you should listen. There's a promo link for each speaker, but it has the same problem - no data.
So: the conclusion is that this site is a sham. Not that it is, but that's the impression.
To improve this?
0. Redesign the page from the "WIIFM" (What's in it for me?) viewpoint of the viewer. Figure the person is coming for more data on eBay sales. So tell them why they should listen to these interviews and why they are VITAL to their success.
1. Don't assume all your audience is audio-centric. Most Internet viewers are more visually-oriented, the audio is a neat marketing gimmick and an excellent way to give valuable data, but it shouldn't be the only way to get information. As above, audio is limited, and might not fit into the viewer's schedule - a lot of people would rather have podcasts and listen to them while exercising, commuting, etc. They don't want to have to keep your page open to listen to these audios - again, that 10-second rule. If your page isn't incredibly valuable, don't figure they're going to come back.
2. Get better hosting - faster downloads. Don't try to host everything from your own little server. Pay someone with big pipes to let your stuff come down. I didn't have time to listen right then, so I set a Firefox plug-in download helper to let me get their stuff (even though they thought they had it protected behind a swf button) so I could listen to it when I had the time. And promptly ran into bottlenecks even getting the audio at all.
3. Offer other versions of this data, which are more easily scanned. If you really have valuable data, then offer a pdf mini-version which has your links in it. As well, you could very easily set up a powerpoint and then create a talking slideshow (slidecast) on slideshare.net. This way people could find out what you are saying very quickly.
4. Same goes for your links. I clicked on a couple of them and was promptly told I needed to sign up for another mail-list - or buy into someone else's program. Fat chance. Give me a free download, or some reason to do so. Look, I just skipped the 5-part audio so I could maybe find out something from the link. When the link is just another landing page - skip it. If I click through on a few of these links and they are all just opt-in feeders, then the whole thing looks like a scam.
Quick summary: 40-some audios at 30 minutes a piece = 10 hours of stuff to listen to. No alternatives. Links are more opt-in landing pages, with no data on them. Little value here.
Handling:
a. Set up the audio with summaries of what is being said, who the person is and what the take-away should be. Offer a short intro audio for each series. Intro should have who that person is and why that audio is important - excerpt best clips, etc.
b. Transcribe the audio and create a downloadable PDF with your links and ads in it, as well as giveaway and resell rights. Makes your data viral.
c. Put more visuals into this. Create a powerpoint and slidecast so that you can embed this into your page.
d. Better - host the whole thing as a blog (you can still do a members-only scene) and podcast these audios, so people can get them more easily.
e. And repeat these for your links. Give real value so people rave about your site to others.
Bottom line: you have to give great service, great value. Right behind King Content is Queen Choice. Give people options of how to get your data. Don't straight-jacket them into a single channel for their data.
AND - allow them and encourage them to download your data and re-purpose it, encourage them to share it and profit from it. This is how you get them spreading your conversation and helping you increase your base. This is where you move from static pages and organic SEO over into the social media word-of-mouth.
This is a critique of that site.
Looked nice. First problem - violated the old 10-second rule of Internet use, which is: if the viewer doesn't see something they want in 10 seconds, they'll go somewhere else.
Now on the face of it, it's a nice site. They get you on their mail list and then give you audio clips - about 43 of them. On the face of it, it looks like value. Problem is, that's a lot of bandwidth and these audio's don't load quickly. Also, audio has the problem that it's linear. You have to listen to the whole thing in order, can't skip around. (We won't go into the audio quality, or content.)
On this site, you simply have the name of the interviewer and guest for each audio - not what that person is, what they talk about, why you should listen. There's a promo link for each speaker, but it has the same problem - no data.
So: the conclusion is that this site is a sham. Not that it is, but that's the impression.
To improve this?
0. Redesign the page from the "WIIFM" (What's in it for me?) viewpoint of the viewer. Figure the person is coming for more data on eBay sales. So tell them why they should listen to these interviews and why they are VITAL to their success.
1. Don't assume all your audience is audio-centric. Most Internet viewers are more visually-oriented, the audio is a neat marketing gimmick and an excellent way to give valuable data, but it shouldn't be the only way to get information. As above, audio is limited, and might not fit into the viewer's schedule - a lot of people would rather have podcasts and listen to them while exercising, commuting, etc. They don't want to have to keep your page open to listen to these audios - again, that 10-second rule. If your page isn't incredibly valuable, don't figure they're going to come back.
2. Get better hosting - faster downloads. Don't try to host everything from your own little server. Pay someone with big pipes to let your stuff come down. I didn't have time to listen right then, so I set a Firefox plug-in download helper to let me get their stuff (even though they thought they had it protected behind a swf button) so I could listen to it when I had the time. And promptly ran into bottlenecks even getting the audio at all.
3. Offer other versions of this data, which are more easily scanned. If you really have valuable data, then offer a pdf mini-version which has your links in it. As well, you could very easily set up a powerpoint and then create a talking slideshow (slidecast) on slideshare.net. This way people could find out what you are saying very quickly.
4. Same goes for your links. I clicked on a couple of them and was promptly told I needed to sign up for another mail-list - or buy into someone else's program. Fat chance. Give me a free download, or some reason to do so. Look, I just skipped the 5-part audio so I could maybe find out something from the link. When the link is just another landing page - skip it. If I click through on a few of these links and they are all just opt-in feeders, then the whole thing looks like a scam.
Quick summary: 40-some audios at 30 minutes a piece = 10 hours of stuff to listen to. No alternatives. Links are more opt-in landing pages, with no data on them. Little value here.
Handling:
a. Set up the audio with summaries of what is being said, who the person is and what the take-away should be. Offer a short intro audio for each series. Intro should have who that person is and why that audio is important - excerpt best clips, etc.
b. Transcribe the audio and create a downloadable PDF with your links and ads in it, as well as giveaway and resell rights. Makes your data viral.
c. Put more visuals into this. Create a powerpoint and slidecast so that you can embed this into your page.
d. Better - host the whole thing as a blog (you can still do a members-only scene) and podcast these audios, so people can get them more easily.
e. And repeat these for your links. Give real value so people rave about your site to others.
Bottom line: you have to give great service, great value. Right behind King Content is Queen Choice. Give people options of how to get your data. Don't straight-jacket them into a single channel for their data.
AND - allow them and encourage them to download your data and re-purpose it, encourage them to share it and profit from it. This is how you get them spreading your conversation and helping you increase your base. This is where you move from static pages and organic SEO over into the social media word-of-mouth.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Social Marketing Made Simple - Beer Parties and Caterers
A review of The Social Marketing Blueprint Formula:
Thumbs down. The language (see quote below) doesn't get any better when you get inside the book. Thick as molasses in winter.
Look, you're trying to boost four things:
* Viewers (Traffic)
* Conversions to subscribers (They opt-in to your mail list.)
* Conversions to buyers (They buy something from you.)
* Upsells and Cross-sells ("Super-size?" and "Fries with that?")
Social media doesn't work the way marketers think it should. But they're stuck in an old world.
This guy has done a great job on figuring it out. But he never gets over being complex. And his "testimonials" are just more of the same. Lingo club practice meeting. Useless.
Think of his system as this:
Two circles, one inside the other. Inner circle is a roaring party going on. Outside that is caterers, selling chairs, tables, and beer to those inside. You don't go inside that party to try to pitch them buying more stuff from you. They'll throw you out on your ear. They have to come out because they're thirsty or have run out of things to sit on or put their beer bottles on.
That's the marketing problem with social media/networks, as faced by our current set-up. Old style marketing are the caterers. They're trying to sell to the party-animals inside, but aren't invited to the party.
Two approaches:
1) Be a "good old boy", take off your tie and jacket, and then join the party, sending in some free beer from time to time. You know, different varieties from what they're drinking. (Educate them that there are many better-tasting beers than that one which they buy all the time.)
2) Have some friends on the inside who are in charge of ordering beer - and need chairs and tables. Means finding and building relationships.
So in marketing to social networks, either get on the inside or develop connections.
Like I said before, you have to copy life insurance salesmen who joined a dozen social clubs and got their sales on the side - after the meetings and other functions.
You really, really, really have to get over the idea that you can just spam your way to sales inside these social media. They will shut you down faster than the door to an out-house in summer.
You have to work like a salesman with clients - not consumers - CLIENTS. Their success is your success.
Marketing is a true conversation. Creating a buzz isn't like buying an ad to "Buy Beanos!". You don't work the numbers as a percentage of exposures people see. You don't have the numbers like spammers do, where 2-3% will buy anything you put in front of them - where it's just a numbers scene.
No, if you don't give them quality, you're out on your keister. If you do, then you'll get upwards of 40 or 50% or more using and re-using your stuff. And to boot, they'll tell you how you can improve it to sell more of it.
So, read this guy's report - several times through. It actually starts making sense when you get the jargon-osis (swelling of jargon) out of your system.
But the starting point is to get over the basic premise of this report, that you're a standard old fuddy-duddy advertiser trying to pitch your "Buy Beanos!" campaign by finding more places to put your ads.
Join the conversation. Bring some beer samples. And tell them that there's much more comfortable chairs and sturdier tables - if they want you to get them some. And isn't that band just great?
The Social Marketing Blueprint Formula:
"The report above introduces a formula for neatly categorizing all of the various functions of thousands of social networks into an easy to understand system (formula) that (when implemented to create a blueprint) will yield an exponential traffic effect. In other words, by using the social networks in a systematic (and planned) way, you achieve a significant amount of traffic leverage on the back end for a little bit of effort on the front end."
Thumbs down. The language (see quote below) doesn't get any better when you get inside the book. Thick as molasses in winter.
Look, you're trying to boost four things:
* Viewers (Traffic)
* Conversions to subscribers (They opt-in to your mail list.)
* Conversions to buyers (They buy something from you.)
* Upsells and Cross-sells ("Super-size?" and "Fries with that?")
Social media doesn't work the way marketers think it should. But they're stuck in an old world.
This guy has done a great job on figuring it out. But he never gets over being complex. And his "testimonials" are just more of the same. Lingo club practice meeting. Useless.
Think of his system as this:
Two circles, one inside the other. Inner circle is a roaring party going on. Outside that is caterers, selling chairs, tables, and beer to those inside. You don't go inside that party to try to pitch them buying more stuff from you. They'll throw you out on your ear. They have to come out because they're thirsty or have run out of things to sit on or put their beer bottles on.
That's the marketing problem with social media/networks, as faced by our current set-up. Old style marketing are the caterers. They're trying to sell to the party-animals inside, but aren't invited to the party.
Two approaches:
1) Be a "good old boy", take off your tie and jacket, and then join the party, sending in some free beer from time to time. You know, different varieties from what they're drinking. (Educate them that there are many better-tasting beers than that one which they buy all the time.)
2) Have some friends on the inside who are in charge of ordering beer - and need chairs and tables. Means finding and building relationships.
So in marketing to social networks, either get on the inside or develop connections.
Like I said before, you have to copy life insurance salesmen who joined a dozen social clubs and got their sales on the side - after the meetings and other functions.
You really, really, really have to get over the idea that you can just spam your way to sales inside these social media. They will shut you down faster than the door to an out-house in summer.
You have to work like a salesman with clients - not consumers - CLIENTS. Their success is your success.
Marketing is a true conversation. Creating a buzz isn't like buying an ad to "Buy Beanos!". You don't work the numbers as a percentage of exposures people see. You don't have the numbers like spammers do, where 2-3% will buy anything you put in front of them - where it's just a numbers scene.
No, if you don't give them quality, you're out on your keister. If you do, then you'll get upwards of 40 or 50% or more using and re-using your stuff. And to boot, they'll tell you how you can improve it to sell more of it.
So, read this guy's report - several times through. It actually starts making sense when you get the jargon-osis (swelling of jargon) out of your system.
But the starting point is to get over the basic premise of this report, that you're a standard old fuddy-duddy advertiser trying to pitch your "Buy Beanos!" campaign by finding more places to put your ads.
Join the conversation. Bring some beer samples. And tell them that there's much more comfortable chairs and sturdier tables - if they want you to get them some. And isn't that band just great?
The Social Marketing Blueprint Formula:
"The report above introduces a formula for neatly categorizing all of the various functions of thousands of social networks into an easy to understand system (formula) that (when implemented to create a blueprint) will yield an exponential traffic effect. In other words, by using the social networks in a systematic (and planned) way, you achieve a significant amount of traffic leverage on the back end for a little bit of effort on the front end."
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