Information-based arm of Designated Editor, dedicated to demystifying search marketing& social media & advocating Clear-Clean-Concise-Content that humans LIKE reading!

Archive for March, 2010

Online conversions and usability: “Put your mom in front of your site and see if she can figure it out” — Tim Ash at Search Engine Strategies New York

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

Tim Ash — author of Landing Page Optimization Book
Siteturners Multivariate Testing Website Optimizers 
@tim_ash

I’ve somewhat deconstructed Tim’s blitz “Conversion Engine Toolbox” session at Search Engine Strategies last week. It really was about tools for testing (see below). For me, and I hope most of us, these side notes (mostly regarding landing pages) may be more helpful.  Let me know what you think. I do have incomplete notes on the pros of the tools and would be happy to share … lemme know.

Conversions = sales, forms completed, sign-ups, whatever your call to action or desired outcome is


The purpose of your home page is to get people off your home page

  1. Let them discover: Who are you?
  2. Then guide them here and there to get into more relevant content



Web design formula for conversions

2 columns only
Left column = your content, what you want visitors to do
Right column = validation, why you’re trust-worthy (see 4 types of trust, below)

Left column content

  1. Headline: What is the page about? Underneath have 3-5 bullet points that summarize
  2. Action block: colored box with pastel background call to action
  3. Desired visitor thought-process: “What do I get if I push the button?



Finer details to keep in mind

  • Guide the user from general to specific
  • There has to be a clear visual hierarchy
  • Don’t give everything
  • Don’t surprise
  • Have a tagline that actually says what you do
  • How far do people scroll? put trust symbol near the top
  • Do they actually reach the bottom of the page?



Don’t do anything unexpected or surprising

  • No hoverovers
  • No whitebox popovers for testimonials
  • No scrollbar
  • Only supply them when someone asks for it



How to determine whether your forms killing your conversions  (recommended tools, below, enter in)

  • Which form fields are left blank?
  • Which forms/fields causes the most delay?
  • Which links are hovered over but not clicked?
  • Funnel: Landed on the page, filled out the form, finished the form
  • Look at how long it’s taking to fill out each field?
  • Do we need to ask that?
  • Are we asking in the right order?
  • Why is this happening?
  • Which fields are blank?



More design and usability take-aways

  • All visual elements distract from goals
  • Determine exact amount of emphasis for key elements
  • Don’t let others’ logos take over attention, don’t make them full color



Improve a landing page design before you publish it

  • Why go live with a page you’re unsure of?
  • Think about wasted time
  • Provide a cleaner visual profile
  • Streamline your content



4 types of trust

  • General clean site
  • Appeal of authorities
  • Social consensus: 1 million downloads
  • Trust marks, not a trust mark if it’s not recognizable, use most relevant

Bottom line: Your visitors don’t care, have 8 seconds to get them to care



Recommended tools

 Crazyegg

 Mouse heatmaps
 ClickTale.com

 UsertesTing.com
 Mosquito Interactive
 CrossBrowserTesting.com
AttentionWizard.com

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Posted in Search Engine Strategies | 21 Comments »

Stemming from a recent comment on the post: “Blog and content strategies with Stephen Turcotte of Backbone Media at the Boston SEO Meetup”

Monday, March 22nd, 2010


Perhaps it’s not who should be creating businesses’ web content, but is it the right person or team?

Please participate in Designated Editor’s survey on successful company blogs.

Stemming from a recent comment on the post: “Blog and content strategies with Stephen Turcotte of Backbone Media at the Boston SEO Meetup”

Comment: seo wrote:
Thanks for sharing your notes here. The thing is, a “company blog” for
a larger company is very different than a blog from a small business
owner. The company bog hires someone to write regular entries who
considers it a job, and their heart isn’t in it. A small entrepreneur
is writing what they live everyday – their company, their baby. Much
different animal, and different rules have to apply.

Suzanne of Designated Editor wrote:
Hi
and thanks so much for sharing your thoughts. As with anything, I’d say
it depends. I agree with you: It’s probably not reasonable to expect
passion from a far-flung, minimally paid writer. Perhaps posts like
that are the new keyword-stuffing? Shoveling out content that’s
relevant but not especially useful.

On the other hand, there are key factors, to successful company blogs:

  1. The employee’s passion
  2. The corporate culture.

You might be interested in my Southwest
Airlines post “Scattered by thousands of miles, but online we can be
right next to each other” Employee Engagement & Social Media on a
Low-Fare Budget -Southwest Airlines’ Millie Richter.

Meanwhile, Designated Editor creates content for many entrepreneurs, small businesses, and some larger companies.

What we find: The business owner or the marketing team faces a variety of challenges:

  • Limited time/staffing, busy working on other things
  • Writers’ block
  • Unable to transition from “sales” communication to information-based that users expect for online content
  • Can’t create enough content quickly enough to fulfill SEO or other campaigns

Launching
Designated Editor as a small business provides a great deal of insight
to the passion that enlivens corporate blogs. Like a great actor vs a B
actor, we’re able to transfer that experience and “heart” to our
clients’ online presence.

SXSW posts forthcoming!

Posted in Survey | 2 Comments »

Pick Monday sessions at South by Southwest Interactive 2010

Sunday, March 14th, 2010

Which SXSWi sessions should I blog about?

Energy level is still high; I saw a Tweet that said something along the lines of “gorging on awesomeness.” Like Sunday’s sessions, there’s just so much to choose from, I thought I’d ask which sessions you’d like to hear about.

Here are the options, please comment & scroll down for 5 p.m. (CST) sessions if you’re seeing this late:

Monday, March 15th


Concurrent sessions

Don’t Get Sued! A Guide For Content Creators

Funding Your Projects from the Crowd

Managing Your Content Management System


More concurrent sessions

Best Practices for Contextual Applications

Conducting Great Interviews

Indirect Collaboration: Collective Creativity on the Web

Making Content Relevant To Me, Here And Now

5 p.m. concurrent sessions

Augmented Reality – Gimmicky Trend or Market-Ready Technology?

Coconut Valley – Building a Tech Community on the Beach

Passionate People: The Key Ingredient to Social Media Success

Please comment and thanks for the help!


Previous SXSW posts:

Which SXSWi sessions should I blog about?

Thanks to Michelle for voting on Sunday’s SXSW session selections


Posted in SXSWi 2010 | 1 Comment »

Thanks to Michelle for voting on Sunday’s SXSW session selections

Sunday, March 14th, 2010

Thanks to @SassyMichelle for voting on my SXSW session selections. Here’s a brief update, more thorough posts TK (to come, little newspaper speak there) later this week. Not enough time to filter and digest while there’s so much great stuff going on.

Imagineering the Fully Digitized and Connected Future: intriguing, think LOTS of screens and attention overload, mitigated privacy with cultural acceptance of that. #digitizedconnected

Blah Blah Blah: Why Words Won’t Work by Dan Roam #WhyWordsWon’tWork: a preview of his new book, interesting approach to problem-solving embodied in the fox and the hummingbird

Winner of the day so far Persuasive Design: Encouraging Your Users To Do What You Want Them To! #persuasivedesign:highly actionable information, think smells in stores, all theseleading tactics and techniques. How it happens to me: why did I comeinto the Green Grocer for 2 things and walk out with a literal armload!

More general info on SXSW

Should I put up another poll for Tuesday, sorry for the short notice, been busy!!

Posted in SXSWi 2010 | 1 Comment »

Which SXSWi sessions should I blog about?

Friday, March 12th, 2010

Super-excited to head to Austin tomorrow for South by Southwest Interactive.

There’s just so much to choose from, I thought I’d ask which sessions you’d like to hear about.

Sunday, March 14th


Concurrent sessions

Exploiting Chaos — How to Spark Innovation During Times of Change
OR
Imagineering the Fully Digitized and Connected Future


More concurrent sessions

Blah Blah Blah: Why Words Won’t Work
OR
Can Wikipedia Survive Popular Success and Community Decline?
OR
Extending Your Brand? There’s an App for That
OR

How Social Media Can Destroy Your Business Model
OR
Leave Your Job, Start An Agency

Even more concurrent sessions

Persuasive Design: Encouraging Your Users To Do What You Want Them To!
OR

The 10-Minute Transmedia Experience
OR

Writing Web Content For A Living

See what I mean? And that’s just the start! More general info on SXSW

Please comment and thanks for the help!

Posted in SXSWi 2010 | 8 Comments »

We have to ask: Who are these people and how can we make it easy to buy? Rishad Tobaccowala: “Data Doesn’t Bleed” Keynote at OMMA Behavioral

Friday, March 5th, 2010

Agencies, consultants, B2Bs need to listen to clients: They really want to know what their customers want

State of the market

  • Too much plumbing not enough poetry
  • Too much keeping an eye on money sources: VCs are not the answer
  • Not possible to understand a person based on 6 pieces of data, mostly beyond behavioral
  • We need to think much broader about people, need to be thinking both off and online
  • It’s not about pure simplicity

Marketers’ perceptions

  • 33% say behavioral is important
  • 50% say paid search
  • 30% say SEO

Don’t underestimate how overworked agencies are or how smart they have become

Keep in mind what are they looking for

  1. Continuous improvement
  2. Service (answer the phone)
  3. Collaboration

Recommendations for online agencies and marketers

  • Trust is lacking – across all industries – trust expedites speed
  • If you’re doing a powerpoint, you’ve already lost, you’re defending
  • Take clients out for a drink and treat them like people
  • There should be a strong link between behavioral and creative agencies.

“Rishad Tobaccowala @rishadt serves as a key component of the VivaKi executive management board (Digitas, Razorfish), where he oversees innovation and reinvention efforts … Prior to his current role, Tobaccowala was CEO of Denuo – a Publicis Groupe company that invents, inspires and instigates new forms of creativity to help brands meet challenges of modern marketplaces.


OMMA Behavioral: Winning the Data Games of 2010
“Data, data everywhere. But which attributes and behaviors really match your marketing goals? In 2009, new technologies and layers of user data flooded the marketplace — from social affinities to purchase patterns, demand-side agency platforms to optimization platforms for both buy side and sell sides. But in 2010, marketers need to roll up their sleeves and make these tools work more efficiently for their clients. It is not just about vetting the vendors and running tests anymore. Real money is coming online to be allocated in ways that prove effectiveness. Execution is key, and behavioral targeting is now an integral part of that marketing mix.”

Posted in Behavioral marketing | No Comments »