Monday, April 7, 2008

Web-Centric Architecture

"A Website should contain as few pages as will meet the condition which give it rise and under which we operate, and which the website designer should strive continually to simplify; the ensemble of the pages should then be carefully considered that comfort and utility may go hand in hand with beauty."

Thank You Frank Lloyd Wright!!

3 Steps to Recession-Proof Your Online Marketing

Written by: Bryan Eisenberg

Everyone’s using the “r” word. Just a month or two ago, online marketers were whispering the word for fear of contagion. Now it’s spoken out in the open. We all seem to sense that we’re in a recession or that one’s stalking us and tapping on our shoulder.

Some sites are experiencing slight sales declines; others are prepping for the recession by trimming marketing budgets and tightening their belts in other areas. Online marketers are being asked to do more with less. It seems it’s going to get worse.

It’s interesting to watch how different companies respond to tough times. Traditionally during a recession, most will cut their marketing spend and ask the sales staff to squeeze more from what marketing delivers. In the online world, most decrease ad budgets, but the first cuts are aimed at any sort of marketing optimization (like analytics or testing). This bunker-type approach often leads to stagnation. Optimization is the last line item you can afford to cut.

Others will pour more money into traffic acquisition and flashy advertising or gimmicks. This kitchen-sink approach is highly inefficient and risky.

Effective Optimization Is a Scientific Process

I prefer a more scientific approach.

The “r” word doesn’t mean failure or certain doom. While we don’t control the factors that cause a recession, we can optimize the factors we do have control over and do our best to build and continually improve a recession-proof Web site.

A site that converts better will decrease cost per acquisition and, in turn, will increase ad spend efficiency. A site being continually improved for conversion can withstand the storms of finicky economic times. Optimizing your site should be a scientific process that gives customer insight and is accountable, efficient, and measurable.

In the midst of the dot-com boom, we took on our very first conversion optimization client and helped the company build an internal process to continually optimize its conversion rate. Everyone else was talking about eyeballs and, to their detriment, got spanked by the mother of bursting bubbles. Site after site went into the trash heap, while our client’s continued to grow and thrive through the worst of it. During that time, the client enjoyed an aggregated 400 percent increase in conversion. Its advertising spend was potent, each dollar spent on advertising was worth four times more in top-line sales. Its competitors could spend the same and a lot more on advertising and couldn’t get similar traction. Some went under.

Building a recession-proof online marketing campaign is common sense, but you must work on it. It’s well worth it. It’s not about getting the occasional gain from a test or analytics but about having a continual process for doing so.

The Cost of Not Improving Your Conversion Rate

Let’s suppose your site draws 100,000 unique visitors per month and you have an average conversion rate of 2.5 percent. If you average sale is $50, then you gross about $125,000 a month. Let’s also say that after some optimization work and a couple tests, you increase your overall conversion rate by just 10 percent (a very achievable goal), and your conversion rate is now 2.75 percent. Your monthly gross is now $137,500. The annualized revenue realized by the move of the needle is $150,000. With a minor conversion increase, you’ve earned a baker’s dozen: 13 months of revenue in 12 months’ time.

If you continue to optimize better every month throughout the year, that 13th doughnut gets bigger and bigger. Assuming traffic costs remain static, ad spend becomes stronger and your cost of acquisition goes down. Even in the likely scenario that your traffic costs inch up, you’re riding the curve instead of falling below it.If you don’t become recession-proof, your competitors will. There are simply no more excuses. A decade ago, putting together the resources for optimization was a challenge. Today, analytics and optimization software are much more easily available and affordable when you look at them in this light. Google even offers them both for free.

Steps to Recession-Proof Online Marketing

Here are three steps you can take to make your online marketing recession proof:

1. Turn your analytics into customer insight. It’s not enough to get reports. Each click is an action taken by a real person. Learn why your customers do what they do on your site.

2. Turn your insight into action. If customers leave your site or landing pages, theorize as to why, then test variations to confirm or refute your insight based on step one.

3. Rinse and repeat.

Don’t become a victim of a recession; instead use it as an opportunity to take control of the things you can and jack up your conversion rate. The dot-com bust would have been a blip had many focused more on the fundamentals of increasing conversion online.I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to live through another bust. So I leave you with the wise words of Blackie Sherrod: “The reason history must repeat itself is because we pay so little attention to it the first time.”

What are your plans to recession proof yourself?

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Originally posted on ClickZ.

How to Create a Rock-Solid Tagline

by James Chartrand

Rock Solid

Nike said, “Just do it.” Nortel told you to come together. Timex said it takes a licking and keep on ticking. And GE mentioned that it brings good things to life.

Well, good for GE. As far as you’re concerned, you’d probably be happy figuring out how to bring your tagline to life.

Tagline, strapline, slogan… Whatever you choose to call it, it’s all the same. It’s the key phrase that identifies your business by capturing the essence of three elements:

  • Your mission
  • Your promise
  • Your brand

Coming up with a great tagline is a struggle many people face. More often than not, they get it wrong by focusing on what their product or service is and neglecting what it offers.

To capture a reader’s eye at a glance, you need to combine all three elements of mission, promise and brand to create a great tagline that really works. Here’s how:

Step One –Your True Mission

There’s a saying in the copywriting world: Be clear, not clever.

Considering that most of us aren’t the best at coming up with the coolest phrases ever uttered on the face of the Earth, that’s sage advice, especially on the web.

Don’t be cool. In the virtual world, there’s no time for cool. People who don’t know you, your business, your products or your services land on your website. In a fraction of a second, they decide whether to leave or to stay.

Be clear, not clever. Start building a tagline with the purpose of your site. Decide what you have to offer. Are you setting up a blog for marketing tips? Is your website about productivity tools? Do you sell web content? Love songs? Toilet Cleaners?

Pick the focus of your site – and stick with it.

Step Two – So What?

Let’s say your business is iced tea. You sell iced tea mixes, you offer cups, glasses and mugs, and you’re going to have a blog to establish authority as the Iced Tea Emperor.

Your blog’s tagline will probably start something like this: “Iced tea tips…”

And this is where people get jammed. Rockin’ iced tea tips? Great iced tea tips? Iced tea to go?

None of the above. The average visitor that lands on your site doesn’t care. Nothing stands out, nothing seems attractive, nothing compels him to stay.

There’s one fast, easy way to get past this obstacle. Ask yourself this question: “So what?”

The answers you’ll come up with are the benefits a visitor (or potential customer) receives from staying on your site – and that’s important. People always want something. By adding benefits to a tagline, you’re telling people what’s in it for them and what they get from you.

If you’re really smart, use those benefits as selling points throughout your site copy, too. Don’t harp on about how great your product is – tell people what benefits they receive if they buy what you have to sell.

So what are the benefits of iced tea? Iced tea can:

  • Help you quench your thirst
  • Help you hydrate your body
  • Perk you up
  • Cool you down
  • Leave you feeling refreshed

Benefits are the key to better copy, better sales and better business online.

Step Three: A Little Pizzaz

Alright, so you have your mission and you have your benefits. Now you have to add some branding.

Make your tagline reflect your business image. Differentiate yourself from the competition. Your business has a personality, so show it. Give people a little taste of your business’s brand in your tagline.

Let’s say your iced tea business is a little Zen-like. You like to promote tea as relaxing. You want people to enjoy a quieter life. Your website colors are pale and fresh, and even your blog’s tone seems to be calming. That’s your branding at work right there.

Put it to work in your tagline, too.

Pick an adjective that encompasses your business image, take the summary of your benefits and tack that to your mission. What do you get?

“Soothing iced tea tips to revitalize your life.” That’s a great tagline.

Bonus Section: It’s Fun to Pick on Others

Need some practice? Here are two taglines for you to pick apart:

  • Web Business Tips for Writers, Freelancers and Online Entrepreneurs
  • Copywriting Tips for Online Marketing Success

Do they answer all three elements of a great tagline? Are they effective for the web? Would they attract you? What would you change?

Or, maybe you have your own tagline to worry over. Put it up and see if inspiration comes from some helpful suggestions.

You might just end up with a rock-solid tagline that truly works.

About the Author: James Chartrand is the interim editor of Copyblogger due to the abrupt disappearance of Brian Clark. He blogged previously at Men with Pens.