Closed Loop Marketing Blog - thoughts on SEM, SEO, usability and conversion

FitBase: Answering Ecommerce Questions with Research & Resources

2009-06-09T23:16:13Z

One great thing about attending conferences is finding new tools and resources we can use and recommend to our clients. Recently, while the CLM team was exhibiting at the ACCM conference in New Orleans, I was introduced to a valuable resource site targeted to ecommerce, one that I’d like to pass it along to the CLM blog readership: FitBase.

If you’ve read many of my posts or heard me speak, you’ll know that I think ecommerce, in general, still has a long way to go. There are hundreds of competing platforms that all claim to solve the needs of online retailers, with more coming online nearly every week. And in my humble opinion, most of these platforms are losers. They’re hard to truly customize - no matter what they may say to the contrary - they’re difficult to manage, they don’t incorporate even basic conversion optimization or SEO guidelines. And that’s just the beginning of the problems.

Retailers may not know to look for certain game-changing features (such as single-page checkout), and often end up selecting a platform based on unreliable reviews or anecdotal information. Or they don’t know how important an informed management strategy is for the ongoing success of an ecommerce venture. Plenty of credible research papers, blog posts, and discussion boards are available to address these topics, but they’re scattered across the internet in a disorganized fashion.

This, then, is why I’m recommending FitBase. It’s the first significant effort I’ve seen to pull together reliable ecommerce reviews, research and comparison, and keep it all up to date. Some of the information is free to all, much of it is subscription-based but looks well worth it. It’s an education resource for ecommerce strategy, planning, marketing, and managing. In the words of FitBase’s parent company, FitForCommerce:

“FitBase is the most comprehensive knowledge base created for and by the eCommerce community. With access to thousands of best practices, feature evaluations, expert know-how and solution provider insights, online retailers have what they need to make informed decisions and stay competitive. FitBase content is specific, actionable and organized to help you get to the in-depth info you need - saving you time and effort.”

That about says it, except for the full disclosure that Closed Loop Marketing is one of the vendors listed in their “Providers” directory. Personally, I think it’s about time for a resource like this. The sooner retailers understand that ecommerce is difficult and that a platform won’t solve all their problems right off the shelf, the sooner I can stop grumbling about it. So, thank you, FitBase.

Seriously, though, if you’re serious about improving your chances at ecommerce success, check it out. You’ll be glad you did.

Bing a Google-Killer? Get Real.

2009-06-09T21:23:44Z

Yes, this is another article about Bing. But I’m going to take a different spin. Instead of doing another expert review of the quality of the results and the cool interface like all the other search geeks (I use the term with affection), I want to review Bing the way that normal people will. So I’m going to take off my search expert hat and approach Bing from the perspective of the average user, who has very different concerns and motivations than the average search expert—starting with the fact that they don’t give much conscious thought to them at all. Because let’s face it: while every search geek in the world has been checking Bing out this week, our moms don’t even know it exists yet.

(Read the full article on Search Engine Land, here: http://searchengineland.com/bing-a-google-killer-get-real-20510)

Designing for the Subconscious Mind

2009-05-11T21:19:30Z

In last month’s column, I brought up the idea that the first impression your web site makes can have a bigger impact than many of the more traditional design considerations we tend to regularly obsess about. My theory is that users’ gut-level reactions when seeing a new site for the first time—and the split-second judgments they make about the site based on that first impression—have a major influence on the likelihood that they’ll ever end up transacting with that organization. I was intrigued to find that the amount of time it takes a major league baseball hitter to decide whether to swing at a given pitch is exactly the same amount of time it takes web users to start forming judgments about a site. The magic number for both turns out to be 0.05 seconds, or 50 milliseconds. Which is way faster than we can think consciously.

I decided to test this concept a bit at some recent speaking events. During my presentation, I show the audience a glimpse of two different sites, flashing each up on screen for about half a second (as fast as PowerPoint would let me). I then asked the audience which site they’d rather do business with. The results have been overwhelmingly one-sided. Almost everyone chooses the second site. When I ask people why they chose the site they preferred, they used words like “professional” and “credible.” For the losing site, they used terms like “small-time” and “cheap.”

Ouch. Pretty harsh judgments for a split-second view.

Read the full article on SearchEngineLand >

Tools to Make Online Search Easier

2009-04-16T18:43:13Z

With Google dominating the US search industry popularity contest, it’s easy to forget about lesser-known search tools and enhancements. For example, here are a few that regularly make my life easier and my search experience more useful:

1) Google Preview (Firefox plugin)

Google Preview, despite its unilateral name, works for both Google and Yahoo search results. This little plugin inserts a thumbnail screenshot image of the search result page, making the results list dramatically easier and faster to scan. Here’s how it looks in Google:

It also adds in a “popularity rank” bar, which draws on Alexa ranking data. I largely ignore these rankings, and they can be turned off entirely in the Google Preview preferences.

Here’s the link: Google Preview Plugin for Firefox

2) Showing more than 10 search results per page in Google

If you’re like me and often search for more obscure topics, you’ll typically dig past the first page of search results. In this circumstance it can be a pain to see only 10 results per page, but you can change this number in Google’s preferences. Here’s how to do it:

On the Google.com home page, click the small “Preferences” text link next to the search box

This brings up a preferences page, where you can set a number of options, including preferred language, Safe Search filtering, and Number of Results. You can opt to have Google display up to 100 results per page, which for me is a real time-saver.

NOTE: you must set these preferences on each computer and each browser you use.

3) DogPile.com

For a long time I was irrationally put off by the name of this search tool, but once I overcame my squeamishness and started using it, I’ve found it a valuable comparison tool for more obscure, non-commercial topics. Dogpile displays combined results pulled from the major search engines, annotating each listing with the original source of the result. Here’s how a results page in DogPile.com looks:

My one caution about Dogpile is that it mixes paid advertising right in with the “natural” search listings. Even though these search results are annotated as “Sponsored by”, it can still be confusing and potentially misleading if you’re used to the separation of sponsored results as seen on the major search engines.

Visit DogPile here to try it out: DogPile.com

4) For more serious researchers, on Mac only: DEVONagent

A frustration for researchers using standard search engines is the lack of good filtering, archiving and organizational tools. Enter DEVONagent, a low-cost ($49.95 as of this writing) search agent for the Mac OS that adds helpful functionality such as intelligent result summary, search scheduling, and optional integration with a DEVONthink database. This software runs on your computer, pulling results from major and specialized search engines. Its functionality allows you to create a truly personalized results set, with suggestions for further exploration and expansion.

From the Devon Technologies site, here’s a screenshot example from the interface:

Check out DEVONagent here, including a free trial: DEVONagent

So many tools, so little time…

Of course, there are many other search-related tools available in addition to the ones I mention here. The key takeaway? If you’re curious by nature and love exploring the web, don’t assume that you’re limited to the results you see in the major search engines. However useful the standard search tools are, a few enhancements and alternative tools can improve your overall search experience.

Happy searching!

Do Your Landing Pages “Feel” Right?

2009-04-13T17:44:03Z

Question: What do web users and professional athletes have in common?

Answer: They both make fast decisions about their next action based on limited information in the blink of an eye.

This thought occurred to me as I was reading How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer. It’s quite an amazing book. I say that because it’s a book about brain science and psychology (ooh, gotta get me some of that) and yet it’s really fun to read. Seriously.

The thrust of the book is that the traditional model of how human beings make decisions based on either a rational or emotional basis is flat wrong. Instead, the author’s position is that we make decisions using both our rational and emotional minds simultaneously.

Pretty heady stuff, to be sure. But Lehrer weaves in such compelling and well-written stories that otherwise dry subject matter really comes to life. I was reading a passage about New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s decision-making ability on the field when the similarities between his thought process and that of a new user arriving at a site for the first time hit me.

Here are the lessons I took away from the first part of the book:

Read the full article on Search Engine Land >

Diversify with Business.com: Great Results, New Enhancements

2009-04-08T17:39:04Z

If you are managing PPC across the three major search engines, I would guess that your budget allocation looks very similar to many of our clients’ – ~75% to Google, ~15% to Yahoo and ~10% to MSN.

And honestly, that’s being pretty generous to the latter two, unfortunately.

Truth be told, as happy as I am with Google (no seriously… minus some frustrations, I really am), for the sake of diversification I would very much like to see our spend more evenly distributed. Similar to investing for retirement, it is worrisome to have too many eggs in one basket.

But, alas, I don’t see any major shift in spend among these three Tier 1 engines happening anytime in the near future… if ever. The search volume from Google, combined with the ease of their platform, the robustness of their reporting tools among other pluses leaves us pretty much addicted to Google.

But what about the 2nd tier PPC engines, comprised of platforms such as Ask.com, Business.com, 7Search and others? Is this a source of diversification worth exploring?

Results from Tier 2 engines are mixed as you can see from PPC Hero’s recent survey that asked ‘Which second tier PPC search engine has generated the best results for you?’. 31% of advertisers have never tried a 2nd tier engine. 16% of advertisers said that none of the Tier 2 engines have ever worked well for them. But there are some bright spots like Ask.com and Business.com that are producing results for some:

Until 1/2 year ago I would have been among that 16% who had tried 2nd tier engines, but not seen good results. Recent experience, though, lands me happily in the purple piece of the pie. We have actually seen some great results for some of our B2B clients on Business.com and are excited about the unique features this platform provides! If you are a B2B advertiser and you have not yet explored Business.com, now is the time to do so for a number of reasons.

Reason #1: Data Speaks. Here are last month’s PPC results for one of our clients. As you will note, Business.com is the 2nd highest campaign for lead volume and the cost per lead is $22 less than Google:

Reason #2: Cool Features. Business.com has some unique features that make this a pretty sweet channel to include in your marketing mix.

For starters, you get a WHOLE 60 characters for your headline and 150 characters for your description! Holy PPC, this is like Christmas for those of us who are used to squeezing in 95 characters total into an AdWords box!

Second, it is not a blind auction. You can actually view the top 5 bids to help make judgments about what to bid yourself. There are pros and cons to this, but I have to say that I personally find this to be a nice mini-vacation away from the blind auction/quality scoring black box.

But what I like best about Business.com, is the option to include ‘Multlinks’, or multiple landing pages/calls-to-action as such:

Reason #3: New Conversion Tracking. The clincher. For those of you who have steered away from Business.com in the past due to their lack of conversion tracking, those days are gone. Granted in beta, you can now track your listings to conversion and ROI data:

So will Business.com work well for all B2B advertisers? Absolutely not - among our clients, the results have been mixed thus far. As with any channel, you’ll need to test, track, analyze and refine to determine if Business.com is a viable marketing channel for your organization.

Best of luck if you decide to diversify and venture down the Tier 2 path - Business.com or otherwise. Feel free to share your experiences, we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Web Design for ROI - Huge in Poland

2009-04-06T21:43:47Z

One of the coolest parts of being an author is receiving unannounced foreign language copies of your book in the mail. Last week we received the Polish version, which they apparently named “E-Business.” So watch out, Czech Republic; Poland just gained a competitive advantage.

Sandra is upset about a minor color shift in the cover design. And that button label is way too long! But otherwise it looks very nice - great job on retaining the page layouts!

For the English version and related freebies, visit http://www.WebDesignForROI.com.

SEO for Multiple Points of Entry - Keeping the Focused Shopper in Mind

2009-03-31T21:47:15Z

One of the big “a-ha” moments many of our SEO clients experience occurs when we talk about how websites, serving as virtual stores, differ from their brick and mortar cousins.

The simplest and most basic difference comes from the fact that brick and mortar stores generally have one “official” entrance while websites, through the virtue of search engine indexation, can be “entered” at almost any point.

Say a searcher is looking for, let’s just go out on a limb here, “sour cream”. (Known here in the UK as “soured cream” – a fact I recently discovered.)

In the online world, a searcher would simply type the query into Google for example, and Voila!, millions of web pages (4.08 MM to be exact) having something to do with “sour cream” would show up.

In the “real world”, however, the pattern is different. A shopper would generally enter through a store’s main entrance and begin the “search”. In my case it was Tesco, here in Swansea last Sunday, when I was shopping for “sour cream” (we were craving chicken fajitas).

With brick and mortar stores, people are familiar with the concept of browsing, knowing that while most stores have a similar organizational pattern (e.g. products requiring refrigeration are generally located together, as are breads, vegetables, wine), it can still take a while to “learn” that organization when one is a new shopper at that store.

For example, my “sour cream” experience at Tesco on Sunday took more than 45 minutes. At first I browsed for the “soured cream” myself, then I asked for help from an employee who took me to the “salad cream” section (salad cream appears to be a mild mayonnaise people put on their salads), then I browsed some more on my own, then I asked another employee who helpfully said it was in the “milk” section. Once there (again), I frantically examined each shelf on the “milk” aisle until I found the sour cream. All this took place whilst also hearing the countdown to the store closing time and fearing our chicken fajitas would not, in fact, include the critical ingredient.

In short, there’s an element of patience and perusal associated with brick and mortar shopping – until, that is, you learn exactly where the sour cream is and can make a beeline for that aisle the next time you need it.

Online shoppers are not that patient.

The Focused Online Shopper

According to a 2007 study sponsored by SLI Systems, more than 70% of online shoppers will abandon an e-commerce site within 1-2 minutes if they can’t locate the products they’re looking for.

And shoppers often don’t start at the home page and work their way through the site. Instead, they find and enter a site through any one of multiple entry points by using search engines as their method of navigation – and they do this more than 43% of the time (Source: “The User Revolution”, Piper Jaffray, 2007).

Which means all that time and energy spent on creating the “perfect” home page and studying searchers behavior, clicks and progress after users land on the home page, can be wasted if users never see the home page in the first place.

Caveat: This is certainly NOT to say that home page optimization, design for ROI and usability best practices should be forgotten. For the users who DO land on the home page, and experience subsequent pages of a site, every touch point does matter. Check out these great posts by my colleague Sandra Niehaus on exactly that topic:

Every Touch Point Matters – Optimize the Log Out Thank You Page

Every Touch Point Matters – Optimizing the Email Unsubscrib e

And if you’re interested in reading THE BOOK about designing for ROI, check out Lance and Sandra’s book: Web Design for ROI.

What This Means for Websites

I’ve talked with a number of clients who have wanted to “do SEO”, but still think of their sites as brick and mortar entities, which means they expect visitors will all enter their site through the “main” entrance, the Home Page, which is certainly not true.

Thus, these clients are often surprised when we start talking about:

An overall SEO site strategy
Optimizing for short- and long-tail keywords
Engaging in a full-scale page mapping strategy for strategic keywords
Removing duplicate content
Enhancing their internal search engines

We talk about these aspects of a comprehensive SEO strategy because any domain can generally only rank once, maybe twice, on the first page of Google search results for a non-branded query.

With this kind of limited real-estate for each domain, web sites need to be aware of the many opportunities offered to them by optimizing deeper level pages so they rank well in search results for related queries – opening the door, if you will, to those multiple entry points, rather that keeping them closed tight.

If the Tesco store I was at on Sunday was an online store, I would have bailed within a few minutes of not being able to locate my sour cream. I would have gone back to the Google search results and either clicked on another result on the first page, or conducted another search entirely.

And I wouldn’t have been alone.

More than 68% of the time, searchers only look at the first page of results (Source: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Guide 2009) – which gives your site a roughly 1 in 10 chance of catching their interest before they move on.

Thus, realizing that online shoppers can enter your virtual store from almost any point (as long your site is properly indexed) and that they will abandon your site within a few minutes of not finding what they’re looking for, means that optimizing your site for multiple entry points is more important than ever.

Optimizing for Multiple Points of Entry

Step 1: Realize that searchers have the potential to enter your site via any of your indexed pages, based on their queries.

Step 2: Identify the strategic keywords for your site. This is done through keyword research, identifying keyword trends and emerging terms, checking your keyword referral data from your site analytics package, and understanding what pages of your site have the potential to contribute most to your bottom line. This applies to both short- and long-tail keywords.

Step 3: Map your strategic keywords to those pages identified in Step 2 (roughly 2-3 unbranded keywords per page is ideal) and plan to build new pages that address keyword areas not currently represented. THESE pages are the ones that will become the multiple entry points into your site, and thus, these are the pages that can have the most potential impact on your site’s overall success.

Step 4: Optimize those pages, focusing on the “on-page” content, the code and Meta data, and “off-page” elements such as link building.

Step 5: Build into your site page templates a “path to purchase” or “path to conversion”. There’s no use in having specific pages rank in search results if users can’t do what you want them to do (e.g. buy, download or sign up) once they are there.

Step 6: Revamp your internal search engine. Remember those helpful Tesco employees? Even though they were nice, and gave me specific options (like “salad cream”) or a general section to investigate (e.g. the “milk” aisle) I still couldn’t find what I was looking for. This experience is the mirror image of the numerous experiences I’ve had using a site’s internal “Search” box. And if you’ve got visitors entering your site through multiple entry points, chances are they will conduct a search. Don’t let those potential customers get away by having less-than-adequate internal search results.

Step 7: Measure your results. All the planning and strategy in the world won’t pay off unless you know where your most valuable sources of traffic are coming from, how well they’re converting and what you can do to improve those conversions.

What Next?

Take a good, hard look at the pages on your site and ask yourself these questions:

Do you have a keyword strategy in place, an overall site strategy?
Are your pages well-optimized?
Do they include conversion points at each possible entry?
What about your internal search engine? (Do a few searches of your own and see what kind of results you get.)

Then talk to your agency or internal SEO team about their overall strategy for optimizing your site for multiple points of entry.

Such an emphasis on optimizing for multiple points of entry is especially important now, during the economic downturn. While other retail channels are slumping miserably, retail e-commerce is holding its own, relatively speaking. It also has the most upside potential, with a lot of shoppers shifting their discretionary income from brick and mortar stores to online channels – which is why 76% of Senior Marketing executives plan to increase their search marketing budgets in 2009 (Source: eMarketer, 2009).

In addition, every month in the US sees a year-over-year increase in the number of searches being conducted on the major engines – February 2009 saw 32% more US searches than in February 2008 (Source: comScore). This means there are more and more chances EVERY MONTH that pages from your site could show up for some of those millions of queries.

Thus, you can understand my sense of urgency. If you don’t have an SEO site strategy in place that includes optimizing for multiple points of entry, I highly recommend you get one. Soon.

And What about the Fajitas?

Rest assured, they were good – and it was the sour cream that made ALL the difference.

SXSW Interactive Wrapup - Friends, Wine & Prizes

2009-03-26T16:07:16Z

If you’ve been following our blog posts over the last couple weeks, you’ll already know that we loved the SXSW (South by Southwest) Interactive Festival. Here are a few more pictures from our trade booth on the Exhibition Hall floor:

Our friend Jared Spool of User Interface Engineering stops by to chat with Lance Loveday, joined by Jessica Hagy of ThisIsIndexed.com.

We held a drawing for a magnum of Silver Oak Cabernet wine, and the lucky winner was Dave Dauber, pictured here holding the prize bottle (front, 2nd from left). He’s joined here by the CLM team and his friend Gene Rodgers (far left). Dave and Gene produce The Gene and Dave Show, which is “a glimpse into the lives and lifestyles of people with disabilities through entertaining, interviewing, and informing.”

John Evans and Amy Greer talk with Nikki Silva (far right) of The Kitchen Sisters - “offbeat, original, award-winning storytelling.”

Lance greets David Glenn (right) of Small World Labs, and enterprise social networking provider.

OK, We Promise That’s It For SXSW

All in all, a terrific time was had at SXSW! Next week we’ll get back to our regular, informative blog posts on topics pertaining to online marketing.

Search: Too Boring For Branding?

2009-03-18T16:05:00Z

I’m not a big fan of TV. But my wife and I decided to cancel our satellite TV service effective next week, so I’ve found myself watching more TV than ever recently, trying to squeeze the most out of my remaining days. I guess Cinderella was right: You don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone.

Anyhow, my wife and I cracked up the other night at a TV commercial that’s had me laughing ever since. The commercial involves two characters: a guy and a llama. The guy (who looks suspiciously llama-like himself) chews on a Starburst, which makes him look exactly like the llama chewing cud (or whatever llamas eat). Then you see the guy’s arm feeding the llama a Starburst, which it continues chewing. Then when the shot switches back to the guy, you see a llama’s arm (Leg? Paw? Hoof?) reach up and feed the guy a Starburst. It’s unexpected and funny, which makes it memorable. I’d argue that it’s a rare example of a TV ad that does a brilliant job of branding.

It did this by appealing to multiple senses. Most TV ads use both video and audio, thus playing to our sense of sight and sound. This ad went further by playing off the unique chewiness of Starburst candy in such a funny way. It was easy to imagine being the funny-looking guy, chewing the candy yourself (touch), savoring the flavor (taste) and inhaling the aroma (smell) with your llama-esque nose.

The essence of branding

Branding has been on my mind a lot lately because I just finished reading “Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy” by Martin Lindstrom. It’s a fascinating book that provides great insight into how branding really works in the minds of consumers. It also explains how most companies get branding wrong by continuing to focus on stale advertising tactics and logo design instead of engaging consumers’ senses and emotions. The author conducted research using brain scanning technology to see how consumers really react to various types of stimuli associated with brands. It’s a very compelling read that yields some eye-opening takeaways about how human beings are wired.

… Read the full article on Search Engine Land >

My Take on SXSW

2009-03-17T21:36:15Z

Wow.

I have heard time and time again about how great, awesome, cool, mind-blowing SXSW is. The part of me that is the cynic (90%) was deviously hoping to dispel all the hype by attending SXSW and then giving my own point of view.

Well, I just got back, and I’m sorry to say all of the hype is well-founded.

The Conference

I was not able to attend very many sessions, but what I did attend was eye-opening, and there wasn’t even standing room. The CSS3 panel I checked out was so packed I had to sit in the aisle, and yes, it was worth it. I won’t go into what’s on the horizon with CSS in this post, but let’s just say my jaw dropped. Oh, and by the way, the latest IE 8.x release is finally fully CSS 2.1 compliant. What year is it? But seriously, kudos to Microsoft for this. Now we can all actually start moving forward….

The Music

I play guitar. Well, I thought I did before checking out the local music scene. Friday and Saturday nights I saw guitar players that are truly world-class, and they were playing in local bar bands for tips. If you ever get the chance to take in Austin’s local music scene, take it. I still get chills thinking about it.

The People

The people at SXSW Interactive just seem to get it. I really enjoyed talking to everyone who came by our booth. It was refreshing and very motivating to talk to such forward and positive thinking professionals.

Conclusion

Don’t miss SXSW next year. Don’t miss the top minds in our industry, inspirational people, and nonstop entertainment. It’s a motivation machine.

CLM at SXSW – Day 4

2009-03-16T20:44:28Z

One of the best parts of any conference is meeting new and interesting people, with the added bonus of discovering synergies along the way.

At SXSW, the number of cool and interesting people is exponentially higher than at virtually any other conference I’ve attended.

But since I can’t mention them all here, I’ll just pick my favorite one from today.

Being a long-term NPR fan, imagine my excitement at meeting Nikki Silva, one of The Kitchen Sisters this morning. She was here at SXSW, promoting their new book Hidden Kitchens Texas and looking for online insight for their website.

And even more interesting is the fact that she and Davia Nelson published this most recent book using Blurb, one of CLM’s clients.

How cool.

Speaking of cool, I’m popping off now to head over and see Lance’s SXSW session: Kick Ass or Suck: Escaping Internet Mediocrity, starting at 5pm in Room 19B. If you’re around, come on over and say hi.

CLM at SXSW - Day 2 & 3

2009-03-16T04:37:55Z

Well, it is Day 3 of our adventure in Austin at SXSW and we are loving it! If the names of the places we hit up on 6th street over the past couple of nights are any indication (The Chuggin’ Monkey, The Dizzy Rooster and The Thirsty Nickel), it is safe to say we are having fun in this funky, ‘weird’ town. Nighlife aside though, I do have to say it is invigorating to be in a crowd of people who are enthusiastic about the web, music and film.

So what else has CLM been up to?

The CLM Trade Show Booth - If you are here, come see us at Booth 616 and figure out the answer to how to ‘make $5000 in 5 minutes’. Tomorrow’s the last day! We are offering free Google AdWords and Landing Page live assessments.

Bike Hugger Mobile Social Ride - In true Lance Loveday fashion, he rode in the BikeHugger Mobile Social Ride through the streets of Austin. What is Bike Hugger? Best described in their words:

Bike Hugger is bike culture blogged. Our events are for like-minded cycling fans of all types to get together and talk about bikes. They’re like a coffee klatch on bikes, an excuse to get together with your buddies and geek out.

If you happen to be a cycling enthusiast, be sure to check the BikeHugger website out!

BikeHugger Brush Square Park Party - Urban cyclists and conference attendees alike have gotta eat! Yesterday afternoon we got to mingle in true Texas style eating BBQ at Brush Square Park, right across from the Convention Center.

SXSW Block Party - Tonight was the SXSW Block Party. CLM held a drawing for a magnum of Silver Oak Cabernet. I was deeply saddened that internal employees were not eligible for entry. WORST RULE EVER!

Hey Cupcake! - No trip to Austin would be complete without a stop at Hey Cupcake - a favorite of Lance, Amy G and mine. The 3 of us insisted on taking the whole gang there for cupcakes to prove that all of our hype was justified. If in Austin, go to Congress Street and look for a dirt parking lot with an Airstream trailer that has a huge glowing cupcake on top (inconspicuous, I know) Seriously, one of my favorite Austin destinations (sad, what that says about me).

So needless to say, lots of fun in Austin and a really fantastic conference. More to come…

CLM at SXSW - Day 1

2009-03-13T23:49:37Z

Greetings from Austin, Texas! The Closed Loop Marketing team has arrived, ready to meet, mingle, and have an overall great time at the SXSW Interactive festival. So far we’ve…

set up our trade booth. Stop by and see us!
gone out to dinner
seen a super hero in a green cape walking down the sidewalk.

A few photos from today:

Laura gets us all organized, Roger offers support

Scott gets a UK update from Amy

Lance and Amy try to figure out the “Table Guac”

Sandra and John plot behind innocent smiles.

Google’s trade show booth arrives!

We check out our new trade show booth - #616

If you’re at SXSW, we hope to see you either at our booth or one of our other SXSW events!

Coolest Conference Ever - South by Southwest (SXSW)

2009-03-03T19:38:02Z

In two weeks the SXSW Interactive Show begins and we at CLM couldn’t be more fired up. This year we’re taking the entire company to the show and have a whole range of activities planned. I’m not normally one to hype things, but if you’re thinking about attending SXSW Interactive, consider this a plug to go. It’s the single best conference I’ve ever attended. And if you’re going to be there, please stop by and see us at one of the events listed below.

Why We Like SXSW

Last year Sandra and I attended SXSWi for the first time to promote our book and we walked away completely hooked. You can check out Sandra’s summary of our experience at last year’s event here.

We didn’t know what to expect when we landed in Austin last year. We were vaguely aware of the SXSW Music and Film festivals, but SXSW Interactive hadn’t even been on our radar prior to then. But after only an hour at the show, it was clear there was something radically different going on here. The programming made you actually think. The panelists were truly interesting people who had something valuable to say. And yes, there were a number of famous people. But what made the biggest impact on me was the other attendees.

I can’t completely put my finger on it, but there was something different about these people. The open-mindedness, the passion for the Web, the desire to make a difference. These people had all that. But I also had the sense that these people could – and would - actually DO the things being talked about, instead of just talking about them. The people and the nature of the event itself created this hum and buzz wherever we went that was just intoxicating. Having done the event/speaking circuit for a number of years, I don’t know that I’d point to any show as being so good for business and the soul as SXSW.

What’s CLM Doing at SXSW?

As I mentioned in the beginning, the entire team is going (we’re not into doing things halfway). In a way, this is the annual company meeting, only with better music and no conference rooms. Yes, we’ll be attending the panels during the days and partying down during the nights. But we’re really going to help promote the company. Here’s a snapshot of our participation:

#1: At the SXSW Film + Interactive Trade Show
Austin Convention Center, Level 4, Grand Ballroom, Booth 616/717

Saturday, March 14, Noon – 6pm
Sunday, March 15, Noon – 6pm
Monday, March 16, Noon – 4pm

For the first time in CLM history, we’re exhibiting at a Trade Show. As skeptics of exhibiting, we’re looking to make this fun, interactive and valuable to visitors. So stop by our booth for a free, no-obligation one-on-one SEM Assessment or Conversion Consultation. Or just enter to win a really nice bottle of wine.

#2: At the Bike Hugger Mobile Social BBQ
Brush Square Park, West Tent, across from the Austin Convention Center

Saturday, March 14, 4 – 6pm

As I’m a cyclist and a few other CLMers like to ride as well, we’ve signed up to co-sponsor this BikeHugger event in Brush Square Park. Come for the food, beer, schwag and raffle. Sycons, the DJs of the Sun to perform. We’ll have a table in the tent. Follow me on Twitter for details about the After Party at Mellow Johnny’s (Lance Armstrong’s bike shop). Additional party details and registration info.

#3: At the Block Party
Austin Convention Center, Level 4, Grand Ballroom, Booth 616/717

Sunday, March 15, 4 – 6pm

SXSW, as cool as it is, has set aside time during the Trade Show for a progressive-style Block Party. As we’re representing California, we’ll be hosting a wine tasting. At the end of the Block Party we’ll be giving away a magnum of very nice California wine to one lucky attendee.

#4: Web Design for ROI Book Signing
South By Bookstore inside the Trade Show hall

Monday, March 16, 3:45 – 4:15pm

Sandra and I will be signing books again this year. Which is an honor, but still cracks us up.

#5: Core Conversation - Kick Ass or Suck: Escaping Internet Mediocrity
Room 19B

Monday, March 16, 5 – 6 pm

I’m leading a core conversation on this topic that is so near and dear to my heart. Here’s the description:

Most organizations get in their own way when it comes to online, obsessing about things that don’t matter and virtually ignoring things that do. Using examples from the brilliantly sublime to the jaw-droppingly stupid, we’ll discuss and demonstrate simple changes anyone can make to juice their online results.

Hope to See You @ SXSW!

So if you’re thinking about coming to SXSW this year, then get off the fence and do it. If you can’t make it this year, then pencil it in for next year. And if you’re already coming, please stop by and see us at one of the events listed above. We’ll be the ones smiling and soaking it all in. Hope to see you there.

Every Touch Point Matters - Optimize the Logout Thank You Page

2009-02-24T21:48:19Z

This post is part of a series examining some oft-neglected online customer touch points and exploring ways to optimize them. Today, I’ll look at a type of page very similar to thank you pages - the logout confirmation, or logout thank you page.

As appealing as a loading dock?

Logout thank you pages are utilitarian, and often overlooked. Similar to an e-commerce confirmation page, a logout page appears after a completed transaction, so it’s outside the sales or conversion funnel. Also similar to other types of thank you pages, logout pages are typically starved for design and marketing attention. All that creative attention is focused on the site’s interior - the cool account management tools, real-time information, or whatever else is provided in the logged-in area.

It shouldn’t be this way. Logout thank you pages can be a prime opportunity to support your brand and offer more ways for your current customers to engage with you.

It’s where and when you say it

I recently re-read Paco Underhill’s great book “Why We Buy” and was struck by how his discussion of store signage and zones could apply to web sites. According to Paco, it’s important to take every opportunity to communicate with customers, but communication alone is not enough.

The message must suit its environment.

Store owners, in Paco’s example, should understand what shoppers are doing in each area, or zone, of a store before placing signage there. What actions are customers taking in that zone? Are they walking quickly past, or are they waiting in line? What else is in that zone to look at, what might customers be thinking? As he puts it,

“Each zone is right for one kind of message and wrong for all others. Putting a sign that requires 12 seconds to read in a place where customers spend 4 seconds is just slightly more effective than putting it in your garage.”

If we relate Paco’s insight to web site design, we’d realize that most sites ignore this considered approach to messaging. Advertisements and other peripheral content are usually plopped into whatever space is available, regardless of other factors such as what the site visitor is doing, what their state of mind might be, and what else is on the page.

Which results in promotions and important messages being missed or ignored, and underperforming. And what happens when an on-site promotion underperforms? Usually the message itself is blamed, or its design. Sometimes its position on the page is blamed. Too seldom do we look at the selection of web site “zone” as the culprit.

What’s happenin’ in the logout thank you page ‘zone’?

Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of a site visitor for a moment. He’s been logged in to his banking, investment, dating, or other membership site. For our purposes we can consider the entire logged-in area as a single “super-zone” where the visitor completed a number of tasks. She checked her account balance, sent a message to customer service, maybe updated her profile. Now she’s done using the site, and logs out.

And sees, however briefly, the logout thank you page. Here is a transition state, a zone where the visitor’s attention is not yet focused on a new task. Here’s your opportunity.

What will you say?

Five examples of logout thank you pages

#1: CityMax

CityMax is a nifty self-serve site creation tool, one of the most usable tools of this type I’ve used. But their logout thank you page is a wasted opportunity. Here’s what you see after managing your site for a while, then logging out:

Positive things to notice here:

The page is well-branded. At least the visitor knows she hasn’t completely left the CityMax site.

Some negatives:

It’s confusing! There’s no acknowledgement of the log out
It’s a little rude. No thank you for using the service.
At this point the visitor is asking: Didn’t I just log out? Did I do something wrong? Why am I being asked to log in again? OMG, were my changes saved??

#2: LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a well-known business networking site, one I’m certain I don’t use enough. Their log out thank you page is slightly better than CityMax’s, here it is:

A couple major positives:

The page is well-branded
There’s a very clear page title and content-area message confirming that the visitor is logged out. Great reassurance.
There are two potential next steps presented in the content area, which is where the visitor’s attention is likely to rest - “return to the home page”, and “sign in again”. This page has considered the visitor’s state of mind, what they’ve just finished and what they might want to do next.

A missed opportunity?

The standard site header & footer navigation elements are available here, nearly overwhelming the content area.
For a site this large and well-known, it seems a little odd that there’s no promotion or advertising on this page. Have they tested it, and found it too annoying for their members? Even a bit of soft self-promotion to make members feel good about their choice of networking platform?

#3: Bank of America

Bank of America is, I’m told, on a bubble, near the edge of collapse unless they receive an additional $6 billion or so. But I dig their online banking tools, and plan to use them until I can transfer to a safer bank. If there is such a one.

In any case, here’s the logout thank you page I’ve been seeing for the past couple months:

Some positive points:

Well-branded.
Strong use of the opportunity.
Good use of their knowledge of me, their customer. This offer invites me to extend my engagement with Bank of America from online banking to a credit card. Appropriate not only for the ‘zone’, but also for the audience.
Good use of simplicity to focus attention on the offer. Notice there’s no navigation other paths unrelated to the offer. I’ve cut off some legalese, but that was positioned well below the offer.
The simplicity also allows it to be repeated. It keeps coming back on my next logout after I’ve clicked the “No thanks” button, but it’s not annoying. Not too much, anyway.
Repetition is a valuable tactic. This touch point is so brief, the message should bear repeating. I saw and bypassed this credit card offer possibly 30 times. On the 31st, I clicked the “Apply Now” button. That’s the potential of message repetition.

A big negative:

No validation that I’m logged out of my banking account. I can’t afford to bail out BofA, but access to my little checking account is still a pretty big deal to me.

#5: American Express

American Express is a financial company currently scrambling to get customers off their books. Guess I’m just waiting for the hammer to fall, here. While I wait for that, here’s their logout page:

Positive points:

Well-branded
Confirms that the visitor is logged out
Polite and pleasant! It thanks me and wishes me a great day. In all-caps! (The all-caps thing is not recommended for everybody, by the way).
Great visual prioritization of task paths. The “log back in” and “visit home page” paths are placed high on the page, but visually they’re ‘quieter’ than the large message box below them.
Appropriate offers for further engagement - and only 3 of them, so they don’t overwhelm the visitor
A nice self-promotion about Amex’s 50th anniversary, which subtly reassures me that hey, they survived the Cold War back then, they must have the chops to survive the economic crisis now.
Promotions are labeled “From American Express” and “From Our Partners”. Which is a nice way of saying they’re not responsible for the ugly animation on their beautiful page. Also puts the information into context for me.

Nits:

None, really. Amex obviously thinks this seemingly minor touch point is important, and given their logout thank you page the attention it deserves.

Logout Thank You Page Optimization Guidelines

An optimized Logout Thank You page contains answers, and extends to visitors opportunities for further engagement. Let’s look at this from a visitor’s perspective, answering the questions they may have at this web site ‘zone’:

VISITOR QUESTION	OPTIMIZATION GUIDELINE
Is this the right place?	Maintain a consistent branding experience. The Logout Thank You page should look similar to the logged-in area’s design. This is also your last chance (for a while) to reinforce your company ethos and leave your customer feeling good about the interaction.
Am I logged out?	Provide a clear confirmation that the logout process is complete. For example, “You are now logged out”
Are you grateful for my continued business?	“Thank you” is such a simple, easy thing to say. “Have a nice day” might not fit your brand, but the sentiment is one that encourages engagement.
Whoops! I forgot something. How do I log back in?	This is a very common need for membership sites. In the page content area, provide a clear link to the site login, even if you already have a similar link in the global navigation or site header.
Hmmm, is there anything else interesting here before I leave?	Offer 1 - 3 opportunities to engage further with your company. This could be a new product or service, an offer of your newsletter, or simply an invitation to contact you.

Thank You!

I appreciate your reading this post! You may also be interested in these other posts in the “Touch Point” series:

AdWords Management - When to Just Say No to Google

2009-02-20T16:14:40Z

As an SEM practitioner, I am a self-proclaimed fan of Google AdWords. I love the ease of their platform, I love the depth of their reporting, I love our dedicated Google agency team and I especially love the ROI that Google AdWords drives for our clients. To be honest, Adwords management is a dream compared to the other major PPC engines.

But while there are many things to praise Google for, I’m not totally naive. Google is a business. A BIG business. One that needs to continue to make money and grow in order to appease stakeholders and further secure their dominance.

As a result, Google doles out some advice to its advertisers that is questionable at times. Not to mention, some of their account defaults make it all-too-easy to run a less-than-optimal campaign if you are a newbie to the game. In short, not everything that Google puts out there is in the interest of the advertiser.

Here are four examples of when you should think twice about blindly following Google’s defaults and advice:

“Optimizing” Ads to CTR (Google revenue), rather than conversion (your revenue)

When setting up a Google account there is an option to ‘Optimize’ your ads or to ‘Rotate’ your ads. Upon first thought, you might think that ‘optimize’ sure does sound nice. And hey, it has already been chosen for you by default so why argue? Google states that this will simply allow you to ’show better performing ads more often’. They even explicitly state it is ‘Recommended’.

In actuality, if you are an advertiser whose primary goal is to maximize conversion (sales, leads, etc) then the ‘Optimize’ default is not for you. Why? Because ‘optimize’ by Google’s definition means serving the ads that have the highest click-through rate (CTR), NOT the highest conversion rate.

Why would Google push for ads that have the highest click-through rate? Well, at least partially because ads that get more clicks produce more revenue for Google. Google will also make the point that ads with a higher CTR are more relevant and therefore provide a better user experience. But it’s hard to completely ignore the Google revenue incentive.

Setup isn’t the only instance in which Google hits you up to ‘optimize’ to CTR. In the past couple of months, Google has even gone so far as issuing this alert in advertisers’ accounts, once again urging people to ‘optimize ad serving’.

Hey Google - stop being pushers! If we already changed this from the default setting once, then it was probably a conscious strategic decision the first time around. We are trying to optimize to the metrics that are important to our business - please stop trying to convince us otherwise.

Broad Matching in order to “show on similar phrases and relevant variations”

Okay, I know that I am starting to sound like a broken record on this whole broad match issue. But seriously… time and time again when we audit PPC campaigns, the top culprit behind wasted spend is unmonitored, rampant broad matching.

Broad match happens to be the default match type for all keywords. As a result, many advertisers don’t even know they are using it. Yes, the onus of this mistake falls largely on advertisers for overlooking this. Still, Google isn’t helping the situation with their loosely defined parameters and lack of controls for Broad Match (i.e. no option to opt out of expanded broad match).

Here is how Google describes Broad Match:

With broad match, the Google AdWords system automatically runs your ads on relevant variations of your keywords, even if these terms aren’t in your keyword lists. Keyword variations can include synonyms, singular/plural forms, relevant variants of your keywords, and phrases containing your keywords.

And its benefits:

One of the primary benefits of broad match is that it helps you attract more traffic to your website. In addition, broad match saves you time when constructing your campaigns, lets you take advantage of global search trends, and is cost-effective.

In fairness, the above benefits are true if Broad Match is properly used in conjunction with Phrase and Exact match types and monitored closely for quality of traffic. My qualms, however, are with the blanket use of ‘relevant’ and ‘cost-effective’. Some examples we have seen in recent AdWords management audits -

Certainly not always ‘relevant’:

Wedding albums keywords broad matching to ‘wedding photographer’
Personal injury attorney terms broad matching to ‘pro bono attorney’
Printing supply terms broad matching to ‘desks’
Digital camera terms broad matching to ‘babe cams’ (not just a relevancy issue, but also a branding nightmare)
Kids cell phone terms broad matching to ’sexy cell phones’ (ditto)

And certainly not always ’cost effective’:

Capturing “additional relevant search queries” via Automatic Matching

Yikes! Google took Broad Match a step further this past year when they enabled automatic matching across many advertisers’ accounts. Even worse, it was an opt-out situation, rather than an opt-in. Messages like this just showed up in our accounts one day:

Per Google:

Automatic matching uses your surplus budget to help your ads reach targeted traffic that’s been missed by your keywords. It works by analyzing the landing pages, ads, and keywords in your ad group. It then shows your ads on search queries relevant to this information.

The obvious concern here is the statement that this helps you reach ‘targeted traffic’. I have yet to hear of any advertisers who have reported this to be true.

Automatic Matching seems an awful lot like a cash grab to me and one of the more disappointing moves that Google has made in recent years.

Using Dynamic Keyword Insertion to “provide users with more relevant ad text”

Up front I should say that I haven’t heard of Google actively promoting Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI), nor is it a default. However, many clients we’ve talked with are under the impression that DKI is a Google-touted ‘best practice’. Perhaps part of this misperception comes from Google’s Help section which describes the benefits of DKI as providing “users with more relevant ad text while using a single generic ad for multiple keywords”.

Wait… did Google just say ‘generic’?! Aren’t ‘generic ads for multiple keywords’ at odds with the principles behind Quality Scoring? Doesn’t improving quality entail being granular and well-differentiated - not ‘generic’?

Yes, DKI can be a time-saver and sometimes even a necessary evil of sorts if you’re running a monster e-commerce campaign. However, if not used properly it can result in dull non-differentiated ads, impulsive unqualified clicks and some good laughs:

Source: Find Me Faster, Implementing Dynamic Keyword Insertion in a Quality Score World, SMX Advanced 2007

Make it Work

So here’s the thing… despite the above complaints my point is not that Google is evil. Google still does more than any other PPC platform when it comes to providing robust reporting tools, powerful ROI controls and better visibility into what is working and what is not.

Furthermore, each and every issue described above can be remedied if you know what you are doing.

Want to optimize to conversion instead of CTR? No problem, simply ignore Google’s advice no matter how persistently they try to convince you otherwise.

Want to use broad match intelligently? Yep, you can do that. Create a robust negative list, use broad match in conjunction with other match types and refine over time by mining your Search Query Performance Reports.

Think automatic matching is a waste? Join the crowd. Turn it off like most of us did.

Find it debatable that single generic DKI ads are going to provide more relevance to searchers? Then take the time to customize your ads with well-differentiated, static copy that is tailored to each ad group.

In short, make it work… Learn the ins and outs and nitty-gritty details of PPC management — and realize that PPC 101 will not suffice. A deep, thorough understanding of AdWords management will allow you to make better educated, strategic decisions that are in your best interest, not Google’s.

How to Lose Money & Alienate Your Customers

2009-02-17T22:57:22Z

With all the emphasis lately on how to market in a down economy, I’ve decided to go against the grain and dole out some advice for those organizations wanting to make less money (this is the “Just Behave” column, after all, and it sure seems like we could benefit from some decidedly contrarian thinking). Seriously, everyone is so focused on helping the weak “profit-seeking” companies weather this financial storm that the needs of all the strong companies needing to waste money have been overlooked. Well, not on my watch. So for those companies looking for ways to keep those pesky customers at bay, here are my top recommendations for how to utilize SEM to achieve your unique objectives.

(See the full article on Search Engine Land: http://searchengineland.com/how-to-lose-money-alienate-your-customers-16536)

Vacillating about hiring an SEM Agency? Would you build your own house?

2009-03-03T19:40:24Z

Just because you can swing a hammer doesn’t mean you should build your own house.

That’s right, we use builders for a reason. Building a house requires knowledge and skill, not to mention time and coordination. To top it off, the State is changing building codes every day to keep you guessing. Ok so maybe every day is bit of an exaggeration and maybe you’re damn good with a structural drawing – but you get my point.

Dear Reader: Note that this is a bit of a rant. As the Director of Business Development I’m always a bit amazed at how agonized some prospects are when deciding whether they should hire an agency or continue to manage SEM on their own. And so while I get a little worked up about it, hopefully this message resonates enough to be taken to heart. With that said, I contend:

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

If you think about it though, isn’t managing your own Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Campaigns a little like trying to build your own house? Sure, Adwords management is a little cleaner than construction, and you’re not going to live in your Adwords account (or so you think), but you can just as easily end up with a horrible mess and a lot of money up in smoke.

To get right down to it, the problem is accessibility - the same element that’s contributed to Google’s smashing success. It’s so easy to get started with Adwords and see it working that anyone can do it. And before long they’ve convinced you that you’ve got wicked skills. You’re putting up a campaign and your ads are appearing! Upon inspection though, you realize you’ve got all your product keywords in one Ad Group, you’re using Broad Match where Exact should be and the Cost Per Sale is higher than any of your products are worth.

Managing a task that you would have normally thought absurd to take on yourself seems well within your grasp. Would you have thought of producing your own television advertising? But so many organizations have simply tacked SEM Advertising on as another component of an existing job. That was OK when you were spending $2000 per month on Search. But now that you’re spending $20,000 or $200,000 per month, it’s no longer acceptable to treat search campaign management like an afterthought.

So what should you do? The way I see it, you’ve got two choices.

1. Send Yourself or Your Online Director to Building School (Study SEM Management)

If you’re going to be successful and compete, you’ll need to know what you’re doing. Get immersed in how to properly setup an account, determine what your keyword strategy should be, track what your competitors are doing, test how you’re differentiating yourself, refine your bidding strategy and be a vigilant harbinger of the trends in Search Marketing. Heck, after several years of doing this you might even think about becoming an SEM Agency.

2. Hire a Builder (Hire an SEM Agency)

Find an agency to do all of this for you. Run due diligence, ask them tough questions, review their case studies, read their books, check out their blog, talk to their references and negotiate an honest contract.

Realizing, of course, that you’re reading a blog for an SEM agency, you understand that I’m going to recommend that you hire an agency. And quite honestly, if you’re spending a significant amount on SEM and view this as a primary marketing channel, why wouldn’t you want to get the very most from it? Now you might be looking at the first option with a subtle “how hard can that be? I’m smart and have a team of people that can figure all of this out!” rise to your eyebrows. And sure, you can do it (this discussion is not about your intelligence or your team’s ability). There’s land available, the plans are yours and you can buy your own skill saw, nail gun, and ladder – go for it! And I’m sure that after you graduate from Building School you’ll have all the confidence you need to make sure you’re handling everything correctly. You’ll spend a few weeks pouring the foundation, some dinner hours doing trim work. Plenty of people have built their own house successfully.

But here’s the thing, you’re not a builder. You’ve got a marketing organization to run!

While you’re busy interpreting the impact of the latest change to Quality Scores, who is answering the press inquiries? What about the product roadmap? Has someone trained the sales team on the key differentiators? That’s right, your business is always running and if you’re like a lot of managers out there, these pressing items are always seeming to trump being a truly effective manager of your own SEM Campaigns. So you move SEM into the “fix it tomorrow” category. This quickly becomes a once a month situation when you’ll jump into your accounts during the weekend to make sure you’re not bleeding. And that’s when you started carpeting the roof.

I’m not speaking theoretically.

I talk to online marketing managers often and am amazed at the pushback many are getting from their management. “They’ve told me that it’s my job” is what I hear. Then comes the admission that they do what they can, but know their SEM Campaigns are far from optimized. With one organization we work with, a reluctant CEO gave her director the ok to hire us, but wanted a short leash. A year later the same online director has been promoted and SEM is now the premier element of their marketing program – and with a 1500% ROI and revenue up 38 times where it was before we took over, it should be. Needless to say, our conversations with the CEO are on a much different level these days.

Unapologetic disclaimer

Now I said it before and I’ll say it again. I work for an SEM agency. Yes, this is biased and there are exceptions to this argument. If your SEM efforts are purely for your brand and you only buy your brand keywords like “Closed Loop Marketing”, then you probably won’t spend enough for it to be worth the time and cost of hiring an agency. If Search Marketing isn’t a primary marketing channel for you (which it should be, but that’s another post all together!), then why bother. But for the rest reading this, put down the hammer and hire a builder already. You’ll be thanking yourself when it starts to rain outside – wait, did you just feel a drop?

Every Touch Point Matters - Optimizing the Email Unsubscribe

2009-01-22T02:38:42Z

Are you ignoring an engagement opportunity?

The way an organization handles a simple email unsubscribe transaction can leave a lasting impression on the audience. It’s a customer engagement opportunity to increase goodwill - and even make a sale. Think of it as another marketing channel.

[Note: This post is part of my "Every Touch Point Matters" series. See my previous posts on Optimizing Error Messages and Optimizing the Thank You Page.]

“You don’t love me no more…”

Rejection! One of your email newsletter subscribers decides she wants a cleaner, lighter inbox - and that your newsletter is dead weight. Last year, I was that subscriber.

Looking at my email In box, it appeared every online interaction I’ve had since 1995 came with an annoying little brother of a newsletter that has followed me around ever since, waving his hands and yelling, “Watch me! watch me!” Since a swift kick was out of the question, I’ve dealt with the situation by applying filters (as if putting an email in my “To Read” folder made it any more likely that I’d read it) and by hitting the Delete button. And then one day, a particularly irrelevant email triggered an avalanche of stored-up irritation. After calming down, I resolved then and there to tackle the problem at its source:

I would UNSUBSCRIBE.

I unsubscribed from over twenty email newsletters before I ran out of endurance, patience, and caffeine. As you’ll see in the examples below my experiences varied widely.

Why does this matter to companies?

Why does such a minor interaction, far from the glamor and dazzle of the mighty landing page, even deserve a blog post? Why do email unsubscribes matter to companies? There is a one-word answer to this:

Goodwill.

Whatever your subscriber’s motivation for unsubscribing, how you handle this simple request can affect their perception of your company from that moment on. You can either build goodwill or you can burn it.

And another one-word answer:

Opportunity.

Again, whatever the reason for the unsubscribe, the visitor is now ON YOUR SITE (minimally, they’re on your email subscription platform). That’s an opportunity to engage, communicate, and present your brand in a good light. It could even be an opportunity to change their minds or redirect their interest to a different offering.

So! Let’s look at some guidelines, and then a few examples.

Email Unsubscribe Guidelines

First - Do No Harm

If you do nothing else, make sure your unsubscribe process doesn’t harm your company’s reputation. Make an unsubscribe option available, clear, easy to do, and make sure it works properly.

Provide a clearly worded unsubscribe link in the footer of every email.
Allow unsubscribes - some platforms I encountered didn’t seem to have this option at all.
Remember who they are - have the link pass along their email address. Yes, you’ll need to ask for confirmation, but many visitors have multiple email identities these days - and they probably don’t remember which one they used when they interacted with you.
Meet expectations - provide a clear path to the visitors’ indicated goal of unsubscribing from a single newsletter or email list. Several platforms I encountered wanted me to “Manage” my subscription settings, which I adamantly did not want to do.
Provide a clearly worded confirmation once the visitor has been unsubscribed.

Second - Engage

Decide what your goal is. Beyond providing the basic unsubscribe service, what is it you want this unsubscribe process to do for you? What actions do you want your unsubscribe visitors to take?
Don’t take it personally - as you design the unsubscribe process, keep a positive, respectful attitude. Just because the visitor rejects your newsletter doesn’t necessarily mean they dislike your organization or its products/services. They may still be open to further engagement.
Identify yourself - brand all the pages in the process. This provides reassurance and a consistent experience.
Remind visitors BRIEFLY of the benefits your newsletter - they may not know, or have forgotten why they subscribed in the first place.
Ask why they’re unsubscribing (but don’t require an answer). This is valuable feedback for you, and gives the visitor a chance to feel heard. Keep the survey short.

Third - Promote

The confirmation page is your chance to shine. Without overwhelming or obscuring the confirmation message, include branding and promotional messaging. Keep it simple.
Include at least one clear Call to Action such as “Shop Now”
Consider forwarding over to an appealing promotional page following the unsubscribe confirmation.

Fourth - Say NO to Temptation

Keep your word - Don’t re-subscribe the visitor later! It’s simply short-sighted and disrespectful to not honor a visitor’s clear request.

Fifth - Learn

Review your unsubscribe reasons feedback. Are visitors indicating anything you could change, such as the frequency of your emails?
Measure your unsubscribe stats, and analyze for trends and correlations. Does any content in particular seem to trigger unsubscribes? How about the frequency, or the day or time they’re sent?
Measure conversions. If you provide a call to action on (or after) the confirmation page, track its success metrics just as you would on any other conversion page.

OK, with those guidelines in mind, onwards to some examples culled from the 20 or so I experienced on that infamous day…

Good Email Unsubscribe Examples

#1: Nordstrom.com

This was a very simple but good email unsubscribe process. Here’s step 1, take a look and then I have some comments:

Nordstrom Step 1 - Things to notice:

Branding elements are present, but they don’t overwhelm.

The tone of the copy is in keeping with the brand.

My email address was captured & transmitted to this page

The page is easy to scan.

The available actions are clearly labeled and explained

Notice how 2 of the 3 actions allow the email contact to continue. The first option lets me reduce the frequency, and the third lets me change my mind entirely and remain a subscriber.

Nordstrom Step 2 - Things to Notice:

The confirmation page is short, but does its job. It explains what just happened and sets expectations for what’s next.

A clear link to Start Shopping is provided. Here’s a company that doesn’t assume I hate them just because I don’t want their emails.

#2: 1-800-Flowers.com

This is quite different from Nordstrom’s approach, with a stronger promotional aspect. Here’s step 1:

1-800-Flowers.com Step 1 - Things to Notice:

Good branding, with no distracting elements.

Clear page title

My email address was sent along to the page

It’s very clear what action is available - there’s only 1 button.

1-800-Flowers.com Step 2 - Things to Notice:

A short, 2-question survey is inserted here. A long survey might be ignored, but this looks simple and easy to do.

1-800-Flowers.com Step 3 - Things to Notice:

Clearly confirms that I’ve completed my task of unsubscribing.

Politely thanks me for taking the survey, even though I kind of had to do it, in order to unsubscribe.

1-800-Flowers.com Step 4 - Things to Notice:

I was forwarded to this page after about 15 seconds on the unsubscribe confirmation page.

This is a custom landing page, NOT the site’s home page. The company is essentially treating their email unsubscribe path as if it were just another marketing channel.

The URL (not shown) was tagged to allow tracking, so 1-800-Flowers can measure how successful this email unsubscribe landing page is.

#3: Costco.com

This is an example of a very minimal email unsubscribe process - only 1 step, and all I had to do was click a link. Here’s the one step, then I have some comments:

Costco Step 1 - Things to Notice:

From my standpoint as an irritated visitor, this single-click unsubscribe was perfect. From a marketing standpoint, however, it doesn’t give visitors enough time to absorb where they are and who they’re dealing with. Adding one more step would allow time and opportunity for engagement.

Well-branded, but the page uses the standard site header and footer. Better to create a custom landing experience.

Mildly Irritating Examples

Now that we’ve seen some positive ways to leverage the email unsubscribe process, let’s take a look at some that don’t do as good a job.

#4: ToysRus.com

There were many unsubscribe processes that irritated me. What surprised me was the variety of irritating things they do. Take the following example:

Toys R Us Step 1A - Things to Notice:

It appears I’m being asked to enter my email address. Since I have quite a few, it’s just silly to ask me to remember which one I used. Especially when it’s so easy for the company to just pass it along.

Toys R Us Step 1B - Things to Notice:

After a long pause to (I suppose) access their database, a very odd email address appeared in the email field. It looks like an anonymized Google Checkout email address. Confusing. Good thing they passed that on, I’d NEVER have remembered it.

Toys R Us Step 2 - Things to Notice:

Clearly confirms that I’ve completed my task of unsubscribing.

Does a poor job of promoting. The call to action is weak and not in line with my task, and no interesting offers are made at all.

#5: Fathead.com

I like Fathead.com because they’ve made me a star with my basketball-loving nephew. But I took issue with their email unsubscribe process. See for yourself:

Fathead.com Step 1 - Things to Notice:

Ouch! They’re asking me for my subscribed email address!

The page title, “Contact Preferences” doesn’t align well with my understanding of the task. I wanted to unsubscribe, not adjust my contact preferences.

My irritation is tempered somewhat by the lightly humorous tone of the text.

#6: Tenrox.com

This process was clearly designed by some techies. It works, but that’s about it. Check it out:

Tenrox Step 1 - Things to Notice:

This is super-confusing! Since I clicked on a link that said “unsubscribe”, I shouldn’t have to select that option here. I also shouldn’t have to pick in what format I don’t want to receive emails.

The “Thank You” is a bit premature.

Tenrox Step 2 - Things to Notice:

Polite, but slightly confusing use of language. Whoa - I’ve been removed… from what?

Worst possible call to action, “Click Here”. Completely missed promotional opportunity here.

#7: Dell.com

Dell is a behemoth with many divisions. Evidently I purchased my old tower computer through their “Large Business” division, and as my reward I’m forced to deal with their Enterprise-level unsubscribe process. Lord have mercy.

Dell Step 1 - Things to Notice:

Lots of options. I’m impressed and annoyed.

It’s difficult to find the button or link I need. More annoyance.

Dell Step 2 - Things to Notice:

Yikes! What did I do? All the red text grabs my attention, but looks like a gigantic, Enterprise-level error message.

Nothing promotional other than the standard site header & navigation, nothing targeted at me as a potential purchaser. This is a missed opportunity.

#8: Guidestar.org

Nonprofits send out emails too, and many could use some help with their unsubscribe process. Here’s one example:

GuideStar.org Step 1 - Things to Notice:

Even though I’m sent into a “Subscription Management” area, the next steps for my task are quite clear. So far, so good.

Well branded.

GuideStar.org Step 2 - Things to Notice:

This extra step isn’t too difficult, but misses an opportunity to mention the benefits of the newsletter, or give me an alternative to completely unsubscribing.

GuideStar.org Step 3 - Things to Notice:

Here’s where things went sideways.

The call to action (”Back to subscription page”) doesn’t resonate with me. I don’t really remember ever being ON the subscription page before.

Nearly Hopeless Examples

Then there are the ones that sent me out into the garage to kick the heavy hanging bag. Here’s the first one:

#9: Hosting.com

Hosting.com Step 1 - Things to Notice:

The title of the page is “Subscribe” - the exact opposite of what I want to do.

Not branded. I’m not even sure I’m in the right place. There’s a person’s name and address (why?), but no company identity.

Again, I have to remember which email address I used with these guys.

Options are confusing, since the form is trying to do double-duty as both a Subscribe and Unsubscribe interaction.

Hosting.com Step 2 - Things to Notice:

Wow. The nonexistent branding was replaced by yet another anonymous look and feel.

No promotional messages at all. No branding. I’m definitely not feeling engaged at this moment.

#10: Nameless

This company had an email unsubscribe process that did not work at ALL, and they send out newsletters almost every day. I thought about trashing them, but decided they don’t deserve even a mention.

Unsubscribe This!

That’s it for this post, but if you have email unsubscribe horror stories or good examples to share, I’d love to hear about them. Post them in the comments.