Direct Marketing

Archive for May, 2010

Whatever medium you’re using and whatever you want to achieve from it, it’s always best to put internet users first. 

Search engines love to give users the best possible online experience. When you put the user experience first, Google and co look on your website favourably. That means pleasing internet users in general – the online community – as well as those who visit your site. 

But how do you know what’ll keep internet users happy?

Easy. You’re an internet user. Ask yourself what an excellent online experience means to you. You’ll probably come up with something like this:

• finding really exciting, interesting, relevant information
• discovering a site that’s fantastically logical and easy to use
• reading without a struggle because it’s clear and well laid out 
• getting exactly where you want to be in the minimum possible number of steps
• finding the information you need at a glance 
• tracking down unique knowledge that’s written with authority and expertise 
• buying cool stuff in a few clicks without faffing about
• enjoying the perfect site that covers everything you need in one place

Source: admin

A couple of years ago, I heard Sir Tim Berners-Lee describe the muddled
state of his splendid creation in  this way : ‘If your sink is blocked for a few weeks and you remove the plug to dig out the obstruction, the offending mangled mess of soap, fish bones, human hair and other horrible gunk in which bacteria has set up home, is exactly like the World Wide Web’.  Now, for many tech-heads, geeks, tinkerers, everyone in Silicon Valley and other early-adopters it didn’t get much better than this organic mush.  And the gooey paradise remained intact for a long time.  However, for the mainstream (aka Everyone Else In The World) the web remained a mysterious, slightly sad place where only-the-lonely gathered.  But the online social revolution has blown away this view.  In part, by throwing up some gated communities, such as AppStores and Social Networks, where regular folk can talk to each other without fear of their Gucci loafers getting sullied by geek-grime.  In fact, for many, it even became rather exciting to mix with the technorati and let some of their magic coding dust rub off.  But not too much.  And certainly none of the whiffy stuff.  Personally speaking, gated communities where the comfortably-off huddle from the excrutiating ravages of real life, such as potholes and unmown lawns, always sound pretty dull to me.  However, there are times when we’d all like to withdraw into sanctuaries of expert topiary and poo-free paving, away from the open clutter of the real world.  In such harbours of tranquillity there are no worries about unsightly neighbours or anti-social viruses.  The no-nonsense management are constantly poised, ready to pulverise any shady individual who dares to disturb the peace. 
For some, such walled gardens become claustrophobic as they tire of the same faces and fences.  The security guards start to look like prison screws and the disorderly streets where the everyday folk dwell begin to look enticingly vibrant.  (Not that I’ve ever spent anytime in a gated community you understand. 
Although I did once spend two weeks at Centre Parcs and was very
relieved to escape, er, I mean depart).  However, for many these well-ordered suburban enclaves that consist of friends, family and neighbours is exactly what’s required.  All the time.  And this is what the early-adopters, geeks and webnorati struggle
to
understand.  The gurus who rail against the vice-like grip of Steve Jobs brighter, lighter, whiter Appstore, or Zuckerberg’s perfectly manicured Facebook empire, overlook that most people don’t want to see what’s blocking their sinks.  And they don’t mind if that hardwired convenience means the management is watching over them.  They just want to get on with their happy, gunk-free lives.

Source: James Cherkoff

John Mueller, Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google Zurich, says it makes more sense from an SEO perspective to create quality content for your own website rather than give away great content, via article distribution, to others.  

It takes a lot of time and effort to create, run and maintain a successful website. So it makes sense to keep the credit for excellent content yourself instead of giving articles to a bunch of random strangers.  

OK, you’ll get a few links when people use your content and, fingers crossed, link back to your site. But Google prefers natural SEO. People naturally appreciate quality content and a percentage of them will link back to your site as a matter of course.

It’s also good to be unique. Google and co appreciate unique content, placing more value on it than stuff that’s duplicated all over the internet like a nasty rash. 

Quality is at the heart of everything Google does. As long as you bear the quality of internet users’ experience in mind, you won’t go far wrong. Here’s a link to a collection of excellent SEO tips straight from Google’s mouth.

Source: admin

It’s unwise to make sweeping assumptions about overall customer behaviour based on the way networkers behave.

It might be tempting to analyse the preferences, reactions and buying behaviour of a large social network database, extrapolating your findings to make assumptions about the population in general.

It might sound sensible to analyse a member database and use your findings to make assumptions about non members. 

But if you do, you’ll be missing a trick.  

People who naturally enjoy joining in have a unique profile. They’re very different from those who prefer not to join in. Yes, billions of people belong to at least one social or business network. They’re the joiners in. But there are also billions of others who have no interest in networking, online or offline, socially or for business. They’re very different animals.

Here’s an example. Take the UK’s Federation of Small Businesses. There are millions of small businesses and sole traders in the UK, a proportion of whom join the FSB. A small percentage of those who join are active members, attending conferences and getting directly involved in shaping the business landscape.

You could extrapolate findings about the buying behaviour of this small group of highly active FSB members and apply them to ordinary members. You could even apply your findings to the small business arena as a whole. But your assumptions would be worth very little. They could even be commercial suicide. 

As usual, common sense is your best bet. Always treat data analysis with a healthy pinch of salt!

Source: admin

Prioritise your website menu and improve sales conversion

When you prioritise the information on a web page with sales in mind, you engage visitors, guide search engines and improve conversion rates. 

The same goes for your menu. The most important buttons – in a sales context – should come first. The fine detail can be left ’til later.

• when your menu buttons are in logical order, visitors are more likely to read the sales focused information first…
• …and more likely to buy into your customer journey at the correct stage 
• a sensible menu order also encourages sales because people can find key information instantly without having to delve deep for it 
• plus you’ll give search engines a handy clue about the relative relevance and importance of the information on your site

Source: admin