Kenny Hyder - Marketing Consultant

Top 5 Mistakes from the SEO Clinic

2012-01-05T16:45:32Z

Next week I’ll be attending and speaking at Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas. Once again I will be a panelist for the SEO Clinic alongside Rae Hoffman-Dolan, Michael Gray and Michael Martin.

SEO clinics are always one of my favorite panels to speak on. Not just because I don’t have to write a powerpoint presentation, but because site clinics are a great way for site owners to get specific help with their current problems.

If you’re not familiar or have never been to an SEO Clinic — it’s basically a big Q&A where audience members get to ask the panelists for specific advice on their websites. Panelists review and give recommendations to site owners live in front of everyone.

Site clinics are great because attendees are able to go home with real to-do’s and advice from professionals on how to improve their site. The problem is, every time I’m on a site clinic I see the same problems over and over. It’s especially counter-productive when multiple sites in a row have the same problems in the same session!

Rather than sounding like a broken record, I’ve come up with a checklist of the most common problems seen in SEO clinics. So before you submit your site for review make sure you fix these 5 common mistakes!

Domain Canonicalization

While this is definitely the most difficult problem to pronounce, it’s an easy one to fix.

Domain canonicalization is a fancy way of saying that both http://www.yoursite.com and http://yoursite.com resolve. They shouldn’t. Redirect your favorite one to the other if you have this problem.

Overuse of Inline CSS & JavaScript

This is a pretty common problem especially among framework sites that rely on plugins, such as wordpress.

What I mean by “inline” is CSS and/or JavaScript that appears in the HTML of a page rather than being referenced by an external file. Inline scripts make your pages heavy, and slow down site load times.

If your site uses a lot of CSS or JavaScript, put it in external files to decrease page size and load times.

Example: <script type=‘text/javascript’ src=‘http://yoursite.com/location-of-javascript-or-css-file.js’></script>

Lack of XML Sitemap

This seems to be the most common problem. If you have a website, an XML Sitemap is a must.

Don’t worry, they sound more complicated than they are! In fact there are many tools out there that will automate the entire process. (check out the tool I use)

XML sitemaps are used by search engines to discover pages on your website. You can also use them to tell search engines which pages on your site are more and less important. If you’re having trouble getting pages indexed in search, make sure you have an XML sitemap first.

Poorly Formatted Title Tags

Although it seems more and more sites are getting their title tag game together, you would be surprised how many people are still doing it wrong!

Title tags appear between the <title></title> elements in the header of your page. In a browser they are the text that appears at the top of the browser, or on the tabs depending on which browser you use.

What a lot of people don’t realize is, the title tag is also the clickable text that appears in organic search. Title tags are important for several reasons. First, they are a known ranking factor for organic search. Meaning: what you put in your title tags has an affect on where you rank for search terms. Also, because they are the clickable text in search they can affect your click through rates.

Rules of Thumb:

Keep title tags under 70 characters, including spaces
Don’t “stuff” or use too many keywords
Include important keywords for the page at the beginning of your title tag

Lacking or Duplicate Description Tags

Description tags in my experience are hit and miss. It seems to me that most sites either don’t have any problems with their description tags, or they have every problem. Don’t be the latter.

Description tags, like title tags, also show up in search results. They are the snippet you see for a listing under the clickable text. When you don’t have description tags all together — search engines will create them for you, taking snippets of text from the page that they deem relevant. My philosophy is: I’d rather decide what potential visitors see about my site than let Google decide.

Another common mistake among description tags is for site owners to copy and paste the same text across multiple, sometimes even hundreds of pages. DON’T DO THIS! This is especially common among newly launched sites. While it may be easier to copy and paste descriptions for pages, it’s better to leave them blank.

Rules of Thumb:

Keep description tags under 150 characters, including spaces
Write unique tags for pages
Support the keywords from title tags in description tags

Make Sure to Say Hi!

If you’re attending Affilate Summit West this year, come say hi at the Tip Off Party on Sunday sponsored by Double Play Media - or Monday at midnight for Strike Out Breast Cancer!

Above the Static — Communicating with Emergent Mobile Tech

2011-10-18T19:04:59Z

The way information is broadcast determines how people listen.

Throughout history, the biggest technological advancements have all been ways to communicate more information to more people. Starting with the printing press, the telegraph, the telephone, television and the internet were all giant leaps in our ability to communicate more effectively.

The world is a virtual information fast food joint. And today, the ways to broadcast information outnumber the stars. It’s important to know what your customers are listening to and how they are tuning in to hear.

Mobile is here to stay

As time goes on, technology is trending toward mobile. Nielsen reports that smartphones now make up 40% of mobile phones in the US. Research firm SNL Kagan projects 100% saturation in the US by 2013. With numbers like these, it’s downright foolish to ignore the mobile market.

But what does that mean? New apps? QR codes?

I was just at CTIA – Enterprise and Applications in San Diego, walking the trenches of the wireless world learning what is new with communication. From new iPhones, to apps that help you navigate the grocery store, to colorful QR codes the mobile marketplace is exploding with new ideas and new potential.

Opportunity Arising

While chasing the “next big thing” may be exhaustive, new technologies in mobile offer a new communication channels. Currently there are 3 realms of physical to digital short-range communication that are gaining traction.

Initiated

The idea behind initiated communication, like QR codes, is a physical hyperlink for the real world. Practically, implementations of QR codes are barbaric because it requires the user to take the effort, press a few buttons, and wait for a download. Also, conversion rates are difficult to measure. Yet QR codes are being used in new ways, however use is most likely when the user is bored to tears or incentivized by a chance to win. QR codes are most effective when a captive audience desires an online experience, such as at a bus stop.

Passive

Passive communication, such as NFC, is a way to push and pull information. NFC (or ‘Near Field Communication’) is close proximity communication, ie. within 10 cm. NFC touts power saving advantages; however users need to be very close to the sensor surface to activate communication. In reality for NFC to work, you have to rub your phone on the sensor, similar to this PayPal video. Google Wallet is an example of NFC technology in action. Nokia Research Group launched an NFC game that interacts with an application running on the smartphone. As you can imagine, there are plenty of un-realized opportunities that could utilize this form of communication, especially in commerce.

Interactive

Have you ever imagined what items would say if they could talk? Bluetooth 4.0 will give items a voice for years. A Bluetooth 4.0 device can run for 2 years on a coin cell battery. The concept is Bluetooth reinvented, removing all the problems with normal Bluetooth. Bluetooth 4.0 is not made for voice or audio – it is primed for communicating small bits of information within a range of 60 feet. It does require a battery and chip which means higher costs, but will interact seamlessly with phones. Bluetooth 4.0 will broadcast information to phones and apps with settings that will allow you to determine what you see and what you don’t. Bluetooth 4.0 has the most opportunity for opt in experience and rich interaction. The best part is no effort is required on the users part.

Applications of Bluetooth 4.0 will reach health and fitness “smart sensors” (Nike+ is a great example). Many other applications remain untapped, imagine your phone notifying you of sales and specials of your favorite stores and restaurants as you walk by. Also to note, the latest Apple and Nokia phones implement Bluetooth 4.0 not NFC as the low power wireless standard.

The advances we see in mobile today will allow us to communicate with our customers in new and better ways. While it may be hard to know exactly which thing will be the next big one, mass adoption of new technology usually comes with ease of use and draw to use the technology. Technologies, especially in mobile, that emerge will allow us to make things easier and more convenient for consumers. Watch for signs of early adopters educating their less technical friends as a key sign for technology proliferation. As a surfer, I enjoy seeing the similarity between new technology and waves. See the opportunity on the horizon and get into position. Ride the wave and see where it goes.

Creative Branding — The Process to Making Your Mark

2011-09-30T15:02:00Z

Have you ever written and performed a song? I haven’t. I imagine it’s one of those sublimely transcendent experiences of bringing something truly enjoyable into being.

I say “enjoyable,” but I know that any song that I write will probably be awful. I can barely clap along in time with music, let alone write a song — a clever, popular song, no less.

Branding, much like songwriting, is more art than science. Ask most graphic designers — even ones just finishing school — and they’ll invariably say they “do branding.” But, just what does it take to “do” branding?

Well, what is it that people do to write a song? Do they conjure it from thin air? Do they find a song they like and tweak it a little? (I’m looking at you, Vanilla Ice.)

Truth is, there’s no one right way. But there are about a billion wrong ways.

10 percent inspiration

Finding yourself at the beginning of the creative process is daunting. Staring at the blank page is tough. Nobody’s best work begins with just staring at a blank page. You have to have inspiration, that elusive spark that leads you down a path of creative exploration.

With music, having a rich body of knowledge of human foibles, relationships, and pain helps you write songs with meaning and depth.

Similarly, for branding, knowing what others have done, and what is visually and emotionally stimulating can help you create marks that are attractive, appropriate, and distinctive.

In either case, you have to live life.

You have to do things, have meaningful experiences and relationships. Learn from others, make mistakes, and build upon the foundation of your past work.

90 percent perspiration

In 1989 Vanilla Ice sampled the song Under Pressure, in his recording of Ice Ice Baby. Freddie Mercury and David Bowie, the artists who first created Under Pressure’s bass line, were not credited. Call it lazy, call it thoughtless, but it sure was popular. Eventually, Mr. Ice was made to paid Bowie and Mercury for using their song, and credited them for their work.

In 1975, NBC spent $1 million (over $4 million in today’s dollars) developing a new, bold logo. That logo unfortunately was also the logo of the Nebraska ETV Network, a chain of PBS stations. NBC settled with Nebraska ETV Network the next year, giving them television equipment and money for a new logo.

In both cases, NBC and Vanilla Ice come out embarrassed. It may seem obvious in retrospect, but when you want to distinguish yourself from your competitors, copying them isn’t the right way.

Of course, that doesn’t stop people from trying. You can simply search for what you want, and you’ll get people that will sell it to you. However, that doesn’t make it good or memorable. It may even get you sued.

This is where the perspiration comes in.

In branding, as in music, inspiration takes sweat. The blank page doesn’t fill itself up the same way the melodies don’t write themselves.

There’s no easy way out when it comes to being creative. Illustrator Tim Biskup says that when you start drawing, you have 10,000 bad drawings in you that have to come out before you can draw well.

There are no shortcuts.

Spoilt for Choice

Not long ago, Hyder Media asked me to develop a new brand for their company. Kenny wanted something that reflected their independent spirit without sacrificing the reliable, trustworthy foundation he’s built with his customers.

I designed six options for Hyder, in a wide variety of styles. From friendly to trendy to stolid to iconic, I wanted to provide a menu of choices that was diverse enough to appeal to a variety of tastes. If none of the marks fit the bill, then at least I’d have a feeling to shoot for with further revisions.

Kenny liked several of the options, but preferred two: The one he chose that you now see on this site, and a very basic block H formed out of negative space.

The mark that Kenny chose was originally intended to be a gritty, authentic, no-nonsense mark that would convey street-smarts and a boots-on-the-ground aesthetic. Kenny liked the mark, but not the grit: He was concerned that some of his more conservative clients might not share the same taste.

A revision later, and the new Hyder Media mark was born. It was paired with an extended sans-serif, Trade Gothic, to give the mark a solid typographical foundation.

Can’t Unsee

Like a song, a logo, at a glance, tells the story of your company. There are sometimes little visual details, like the famous white arrow in the FedEx logo. Other times, it’s a feeling you get, like comfort or tension.

More often than not, the only thing you want from a logo is for it to be remembered.

Songs can be remembered for all the wrong reasons: Songs that you remember hearing amidst a bad breakup, or songs that are overplayed on the radio. Timeless songs, on the other hand, we remember fondly.

With branding, we make ourselves memorable. Hopefully for the better.

As for timelessness, in music or identity, only time can tell.

Take Your Eggs Out of the Basket

2011-09-27T19:54:26Z

The internet today is like an active volcano: highly volatile and constantly changing the landscape. It’s impossible to know when something new will erupt and become the new giant to out-shadow all others.

Because of this, now every time there’s a new eruption, marketers flood in to stake their claim at the top. But where does your site fit in? Do you struggle to keep up with every new outlet? Or are you focused on what you know to be tried and true?

Your Biggest Love Is Your Weakest Link

In the recent Google hearings, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman testified: “about 75% of Yelp’s traffic, overall, is sourced through Google one way or another.” He continued to explain how Google could have a very big negative impact on the traffic and success of Yelp, describing the potential absence of Google from their marketing strategy as “devastating.”

This is obviously a big problem for Yelp. While Google may be a strong source of traffic and revenue for them, it’s actually a weak link. With 75% of their traffic coming from Google, Yelp is dependent on Google. And in this case, dependency is weakness.

Don’t Put All Your Eggs in the Google Basket

As we have recently seen through the Panda debacle, Google can change in an instant. If like in Yelp’s case, your site receives the majority of its traffic from Google, the next update has the potential to wipe your site off the map.

That’s why every solid online marketing plan should spread its eggs around, don’t put them all in the Google basket!

Diversify Your Marketing

We need to start thinking about diversity. Just like any investment plan, success is best achieved through diversity.

So, how do we diversify? First, let’s take a look at some statistics:

% of internet Users Who Do Each Activity

Source: The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project

How Internet Users Spend Their Time

Source: Nielsen

Reports show that email and search are the most popular activities online, but social media dominates when it comes to where users actually spend their time.

To me this means that at the very core, every online marketing plan NEEDS to include: email, search, and social media.

Email

Email marketing is one of the oldest and most widely used forms of online marketing. And there’s a reason: it works.

The reason this form of marketing is so popular is because it’s the best way to directly communicate with your audience. With email, you gain the ability to send your audience updates, product offers and news whenever you want.

The best email marketing goes un-noticed. Not that it doesn’t get read, but the best email marketing doesn’t feel like marketing to the recipient. That’s because when your audience signs up for your email list, they want you to email them!

A well built opt-in email campaign is the perfect platform for your business to market content, products, and deals to people who asked to hear about them.

Tips for getting started:

Sign-up for a service

Aweber and Mail Chimp are the only two services to consider, both have affordable pricing models so you can get started.

Add the forms to your site

Most services will have an easy step-by-step tutorial on how to create and add a form to your website. There are plenty of plugins and add-on’s that can assist you with any popular platform such as WordPress. For more tips on where to put your forms, see this article.

Add Popups

While some may consider pop-ups annoying, they work! Just make sure to control where your pop-ups occur manually, as long as they don’t show up all the time, you shouldn’t scare people away. Suggested services: Popup Domination or Pippity.

Content

Once you’ve mastered the above, you’re should be set to go. Now it’s time to pump up the content and start collecting addresses!

Search

As we can see from the report above, search has been a close second to email for a decade, and continues to be on the rise. This makes search a vital part of any healthy online marketing campaign.

While for many, like Yelp, search is a major piece of the traffic pie, many still have failed to capitalize on search opportunities.

While it’s great to be found in search when someone is looking for you (some don’t even show up for their own name!), the potential to show up for what you’re selling is even better.

The trick is to figure out how people are searching for your products, and then show up in those results.

Tips for getting started:

Keyword Research

Figuring out what you should rank for is a crucial step to successful SEO. There are a number of tools available that can help you with your keyword research. If you’re just starting out, check out Google’s free Adwords Keyword Tool. Start out with the keywords that come to mind, and then refine your list with suggestions from the tool. For more information on how I do keyword research, check out this article I wrote.

On-site Optimization

Next it’s time to start getting your site in order. Simple things like title tags, url structures and adding an XML Sitemap have the potential to make big differences in your search performance. For a good basic overview, check out the Google Guide.

Links

Lastly, to perform well in any competitive environment, you’ll need to get some links. Link building is an often debated topic among SEOs. Tactics and techniques for link building are somewhat of a debate. But the gist of it is: the more that other websites link to you using the phrase that you are trying to rank for, the more likely it is that you will rank highly for that phrase. So the goal is to try to influence other websites to link to you. There will be more on this in a later post, for now simply stray away from any paid linking programs or networks.

Social Media

While still an underdog in number of users, social media is a major force when it comes to online activity. Internet users spend far more time on social media websites than any other form of website.

Social media is also still in a growth phase, meaning more and more users will be on social media websites every year.

This make social media a mandatory piece of your marketing strategy.

Tips for getting started:

Focus Your Efforts

Refine your focus in social media, don’t worry about having the most friends on every site. Be active and engage your audience on a personal level. Nobody cares for accounts that friend everyone and post links all day.

Go Niche

Did you know there is a social network just for whiskey drinkers? Today, no matter what industry you’re in, there is a place online where people are talking about what you do. Whether it be a forum, a sub-reddit, or a full blown social network, people are talking and they want to listen to you. Find the communities online that are specific to what you do and get involved.

Sharing Is Caring

Social media is and should be exactly that: social. Get over yourself and share stuff. Share your own stuff too, but make yourself valuable to others by sharing and spreading useful information and ideas. In turn others will share your useful content, when you have it

Spread Your Eggs Around

The key to a successful marketing strategy that will last is diversity. Not putting all of your eggs in one basket will help you to withstand the tides of the internet.

Not only will you be protecting yourself from becoming dependent, you will in-turn have a better and more well rounded marketing campaign that will last.

For more information and tips on how run a successful marketing campaign sign up below!

Practical Domaining

2011-09-30T03:40:22Z

For me, the business of “domaining” has always had appeal and allure. Maybe it’s because of all the stories I’ve heard about millionaires making their money domaining, or because it seems like I’ve heard all of the smartest people online talk about it at one time or another. Yet information on “domaining” seems to be illusive. I wouldn’t by any means consider myself a domainer, but I have definitely had success using what I’d like to call “practical domaining” for my efforts in search and online marketing.

While traditional domaining consists of buying domains (usually in large volume) in attempt to later resell for profit, I’ve used domains and domain buying in some alternative ways for my benefit.

Buying Domains

Most people that make a living online tend to have way more domains than they need and/or could use. For example, I own this site — which serves no absolutely no purpose other than its comedic value. While I’ve had a few offers on different domains I own, I’ve never sold one. So technically I’ve never done any traditional “domaining”. But there are other reasons to buy domains than hoping to flip them for profit.

Exact Match Domaining

One of the most common reasons to buy domains is to get a domain name that directly matches keyword phrases that you are trying to rank for. It’s well known among the SEO community that exact match domains tend to work better than they should. This is especially common among niche affiliates and sites that have a big focus on lead gen.

Type-in Traffic

Another reason to buy frivolous domains is for their type in traffic. If you are able to get ahold of a domain that receives any amount of significant traffic just because people type it in their browser, it never hurts. People tend to get into trouble here though because they post duplicate content on these types of domains. The best thing to do is put a 301 redirect on the domain to the main site where you conduct business. I’ve had clients that had as many as 20 different type-in traffic domains that were able to contribute traffic to the main website. Be careful not to get carried away though, it’s rare that you actually find a domain that is valuable for it’s type-in traffic.

Misspell Domaining

Most people are familiar with the concept of buying domains that are common misspellings of your brand name or search phrases in order to capture all type-in traffic. Maybe not as popular, but definitely full of potential is buying domains that are the common misspellings of other popular sites. Misspell domains of sites like Facebook and YouTube receive large amounts of traffic that could hypothetically be used for all kinds of things. While all of the misspellings of these particular sites are already taken, if you’re able to get misspell domains of a site that becomes popular, you could be in for a big payoff. Misspell search phrase domaining can also be used to capture misspell search traffic as these domains can be used as exact match domains on popular search misspellings.

Trendwatch Domaining

While traditional trendwatch domaining consists of buying domain names that you anticipate to be popular, we can also use this strategy outside of trying to simply sell anticipated popular domains for profit. The most popular method I think is for affiliate marketers. Affiliates who can anticipate products that will become poplar can purchase domains in hopes of being able to launch an affiliate site with either an exact match domain or type-in traffic domain they bought prior to the product becoming popular. Imagine how many affiliate commissions you could have made if you had bought up all the “snuggie” domains before the snuggie was popular.

Developed Websites

While buying domains that are already established websites isn’t technically domaining, it may be a tactic to consider. I’m not talking about buying established online businesses, that’s a completely different animal. But there are many websites online that are left dormant that can be great sources for link building. Buying these domains can often be a better way to get links than asking for them, or trying to “persuade” the site owner to link to you. While they may not be “up for sale”, owners of these types of domains can be responsive to offers.

Conversely, if you’re good at building sites that get decent traffic and/or rank well, building sites to sell is already a proven and established business model.

Good Customer Service On Yelp

2010-11-30T21:03:32Z

In today’s market economy, no business owner can afford to lose a customer. Customer retention should be the first priority of any business. And with the expanding number of ways that businesses are able to get in contact with their customers, customer service should be off the charts.

Like millions of others, I’m on Yelp. A couple weeks ago I was writing a few reviews on some places here in Santa Barbara when I gave a 3 star review to a seafood restaurant called Brophy Bros. Brophy’s has a great reputation and is regarded by locals as one of the best seafood spots in town. I wouldn’t consider a 3 star review to be a bad review, but it’s not particularly great either. In my review I said “To be honest, I think I ordered the wrong thing when I went here.” I was contacted the next day by the owner of the restaurant asking what was wrong with my experience and how he could improve. After a couple messages back and forth about my thoughts, the owner personally invited me back hoping that I would have a better experience the second time.

What’s remarkable about this to me is, Brophy Bros doesn’t really need my business. They have a wait every night of the week and no shortage of regulars that bring them plenty of business. But good customer service always puts the customer first, regardless of whether it needs to or not. This is how good businesses succeed and bad ones fail.

Paying attention to everyone is what makes the difference. I get good service at the places that I’m a regular at, it only makes sense. But to get the same treatment as a first time visitor builds loyalty. And with all of the extra channels we have available to us today to be monitoring what our customers/users/prospects are saying, there is no reason not to be providing great service.

My second visit to Brophy’s I had the Thresher shark. It was fantastic, and I will definitely be going back. Question is, why aren’t more businesses catching on to this whole customer service thing?

Everything Has Changed Except For Our Way Of Thinking

2010-09-29T20:28:39Z

Did you hear about the new Google update? Which one? Exactly. Any seasoned SEO has his/her catalogue of stories about how algo updates have affected rankings over the years for better and for worse. The longer you have been in the SEO game, the more stories you are bound to have about search engine algorithms changing and messing up you and your clients rankings. But what has changed really?

Blowing Up

“The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking…the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.” — Albert Einstein

When Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Roosevelt recommending the initiation of what eventually became the Manhattan Project, he forever changed technology and history. Yet the creation of the world’s most powerful and devastating bomb did nothing for world peace, go figure.

Back In the Day…

When I started in SEO there was no such thing as universal, blended, or personalized search. You could get a site ranking for a key-term, and it would stay that way for a month or two. Suffice to say, the landscape of search has changed. Each new update and change brings new challenges, new things to learn, and new opportunities.

Necessity is the mother of invention; when in need we will create the most brilliant of inventions to solve our problems. SEO’s are no exception, the things I have seen friends, colleagues, and competitors alike come up with to get rankings in competitive spaces are ingenious. Problem solving at this capacity is an ability that is uniquely human, and some of us are great at it. But what has it gotten us?

A Day in the Life

The job of an SEO at it’s core is to figure out a way to beat the search engines. Granted, it’s not always an easy job, but it’s the core function of an SEO nonetheless. While there are many different approaches and methods used by various SEO’s to accomplish this task, every SEO is always trying to figure out the best way to increase rankings. And over the years as the engines have made their changes and implemented updates, the SEO is left to overcome any obstacles left in the way. But besides the technology, what has changed?

Think Different

Near the end of his life, Albert Einstein said that signing the letter to President Roosevelt recommending the creation of the atom bomb was the “one great mistake” he made in his life. Yet he realized that even if it hadn’t been created, it would have changed nothing because our thinking hadn’t changed.

As SEOs, as marketers, I think it’s important to realize that sometimes it’s a change in thinking that is needed, rather than a change in method. As an SEO, I get asked occasionally to use and sometimes even teach “blackhat” tactics for and to various people, including clients. While I have nothing against anyone that may be a “blackhat” SEO, I simply don’t perform those services. It always amazes me though how people think they need to go to such extents to increase their performance. Most often, clients that are wanting to push the most extreme edges of the envelope, simply just need to look at their problems differently to be satisfied.

It’s usually our thinking that needs to change. Most of the times where I have found myself beating my head against a problem trying to “solve” it, I needed to think differently. The problem with thinking differently, is that often you don’t realize it’s what you need. What if there is a new way to think about the problems and goals you have currently?

It doesn’t always have to be a giant paradigm shift either, sometimes just a slight shift in thinking or perspective can open huge insight. What if you started reading a different blog, attended a different session at your next conference, or attended a different conference altogether? I challenge you to not be hypocritical in your proclamation of open mindedness.

Photo Credit: willposh, LACP, gnu

Every Website Tells A Story

2010-09-21T23:58:41Z

Yesterday I announced the launch and redesign of this website. Redesigns are fun, exciting, and motivational. I started thinking about new topics to write on, old drafts I have saved up, I even got a few inquiries from potential clients. But as I was responding to feedback on twitter during the day, an interesting retweet came across my stream:

“Why is quality website design so important for the success of an online business?” While most people perpetuate the belief that good design is important, few people explain why.

Design is most commonly thought about in terms of how something looks. Yet design implies more than just aesthetics. Design means the style, composition, and functionality of any product. Good design pertaining to websites means not only do they look great, but that they are built great, and work great.

Aesthetics

When you see a site for the first time you instantly start making judgements about what kind of site it is, what its purpose is, and the people behind it. It’s intrinsic to us, first impressions are everything. How your website looks is going to make an impression on your users. And apart from just having a good looking website, good design means a good impression.

The design of your website ought to be a reflection of the brand image you are trying to establish. How you brand yourself and set up your brand strategy are important, and design is the way to establish your branding. Design aesthetics are the face of your branding and business.

Composition

The most unthought of part of design is composition; how it’s made. With a lot of things, the design process — how things are made, is thought to be the business of engineers. But the composition of your website you should be concerned about, it directly affects your bottom line.

The structure of your website affects things like: security, load times, and search ranking. While search rankings and security have obvious implications to the success and/or detriment of your site, so do the other things like site speed and load times. Kissmetrics reports that Amazon.com saw a 1% decease in sales with every 100MS increase in load time. What if you could simply increase your revenue 1% every time you made your website a tenth of a second faster? The performance of your site is easily the most important aspect of the design. After all, what does it matter if your website doesn’t work?

Functionality

The functionality of your site is the fun part. What your site does is the purpose of your presence online. Good design uses its functionality in order to differentiate itself from the competition. What you do with your website is what give you your edge.

Good design is also intuitive. Websites in particular have to be intuitive. When a website isn’t intuitive it directly decreases performance; retention rates will decrease, conversion rates will drop, and you will lose repeat visitors. A website isn’t like a smart phone where a user will spend hours to figure out how to do the task they wish to accomplish, they will simply find a different website. Good design incorporates functionality that is easy to use and user-friendly. Making your website an enjoyable and unique experience for your users will inevitably increase user loyalty, retention rate, and revenue.

All successful products on the market have one common element: good design, and any website with aspirations needs the same. It’s like Henry Ford said: “Every object tells a story”, and so should every website.

The 4 P’s in the Age of Google

2010-09-17T23:01:00Z

Between email spam, pop-up ad’s, and phishing attacks, it feels like the days of genuine marketing are long gone. On the internet, it seems as if marketers have taken an “anything goes” approach to getting their product in your face. These unfortunate by-products of our mass exodus to online immersion have given marketers a bad name. What many don’t realize is, the websites and brands online that you love and trust have simply mastered the basics of Marketing 101.

The 4 P’s

The four p’s of marketing are the pillars of what a good marketing strategy should built on. They stand for: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. Good marketing realizes the essence of each of these concepts at their core, and applies them to their unique contexts. As we rapidly evolve into an internet centric culture it’s important that we understand fundamental concepts as these in our online contexts.

Product

There is no marketing without product. Many understand the product side of the marketing equation, but it isn’t as one dimensional as it is often demonstrated to be. Clearly stated: your product is either some physical thing that you are selling, or a service that you offer. Understanding that you need a product before you go to market is trivial, what isn’t obvious is the effort that is required to substantiate yourself from your competition. Your product is the foundation and the cornerstone of your business; it’s what your business is built on, and what holds it together.

So many internet start-ups today launch a product or service really quickly, and then bust their asses trying to market themselves to everyone and anyone thinking that just the right mix of magical marketing is going to get them “there”. Marketing is important, but marketing, sales, exposure, nothing can help you if you don’t spend enough time making your product great.

The majority of your time, money, and focus should always be spent on developing, improving, and expanding your product. Companies that have longevity in the marketplace are notorious for improving their product, expanding their offering, and developing new products. There is no other way.

Price

In the world online, it seems like things are either free, or way over-priced. We seem to have lost the science and psychology of pricing as marketers. We either are making things free so people will like us and spread our free products around to as many people as virtually possible, or we are overtly greedy with our over-pricing and thoughts of how rich we might get.

There has to be a happy medium. Ever wonder why almost everything you buy ends in .95 or .99? Because it works! The simple side to pricing is figuring out how much it cost you to make your product, and figuring out a price point that allows you to remain profitable and in business. But taking it further, how much exactly will your customers pay? How much is too much? Are you making too little a profit?

Just like you test metrics on your websites to determine what buttons work better, what copy performs better, you should test your pricing models as well.

Place

Before the era of internet marketing, the “Place” part of the equation meant finding stores that would carry your product, where your product was located on the shelf and getting your product to be physically visible. Today, most of us have our one niche of online marketing that we are comfortable with, and we push our products there. We are good at this, and have success. But there are SO many avenues online to expand your visibility it’s hard to keep up.

People tend to stick to their comfort zone, but if you’re looking to expand and grow your business it’s time to look in a different place. Why continue to stick to SEO, PPC, and Social Media? What about display advertising, lead gen, or email marketing? Most online businesses are only in one or two “places” to moderate success, why not go somewhere new and expand? God forbid we actually get our product into a physical store.

Promotion

As marketers, we are all very familiar with the promotion part of the equation. What I find interesting about the 4 P’s is, promotion is listed last. I think the ease with which we can promote things these days gets us over excited about the process. To the point where we even begin promotion before we have the product.

Promotion is obviously an important and critical step, not to be diminished. But as marketers, I think we need to be reminded not how to promote, but how not to promote. Our over-zealousness tends to lead us to do things that are downright annoying when it comes to the promotion process. Maybe it’s because we just get so excited about our products that we want to do everything we can to get them out there, maybe it’s because we’re marketers and it’s in our blood.

The thing to remember is, over-zealous, cheap promotion isn’t helpful, and isn’t making your product look good. Promotion is about looking good and making your product look good. Auto-tweets, spam emails, phishing attacks, and begging people doesn’t make you or your product look good.

There are many places, and many ways to promote your products; just be sure that you look good when you’re doing it. Stay Classy.

Photo Credit: Leo Reynolds

Descriptive Marketing

2010-12-19T10:40:16Z

A friend of mine is a writer/editor for a company that publishes reference books and research materials. Despite my upmost respect for her as a writer, we often get into debates about grammar and whether or not commonly used phrases are proper English. She favors what you would call a descriptive philosophy of the English language. In her words:

In a descriptive philosophy of English, the language is described as it is used rather than how certain authorities prescribe it should be. In a prescriptive philosophy, the rules dictate the language. For example, our generation often says: “I’m gonna” rather than: “I’m going to” — a prescriptive grammarian would deem this incorrect, whereas a descriptive grammarian would not ascribe any right or wrong to its usage but rather would accept the language as it is spoken and adhere to the belief that language largely dictates the rules.

Whether or not she is right or wrong about this and other arguments is an ongoing debate — however, I believe that the idea of prescriptive vs. descriptive philosophies has ramifications in other areas as well. In my world this means marketing.

Marketing, whether online or off, ought to be thought of as descriptive in this same sense. Your marketing should be defined by the needs and opportunities presented from your customer base.

Chevrolet vs. Chevy

Recently, Chevrolet told its employees that they were to no longer to use the word “Chevy” in an attempt to consolidate their brand. I am not going to even try to understand their thinking on this decision. All I can come up with is “WTF?”

Not only has Chevrolet been using “Chevy” to brand themselves for years, “Chevy” is a part of its customers’ vernacular. I can’t remember the last time I heard someone refer to their Chevy as a “Chevrolet.” It just doesn’t feel right. From a number of standpoints, a case can easily be made for Chevrolet to employ the use of “Chevy” as strong branding tool:

It has less syllables and is easier to pronounce and spell
It’s a nickname, which often indicates a term of endearment
It has been heavily saturated into pop-culture, including various songs

Someone obviously caught on to these things back in 1957 when they started incorporating “Chevy” branding into their television advertisement campaigns, and the two names have been synonymous ever since.

Prescription for Failure

Someone clearly forgot to remind the corporate executives at Chevrolet of the old idiom “If it ain’t broke, don’t try and fix it.” Rather than continuing to run with “Chevy” and capitalizing on the familiar and trusted brand that its customers have embraced, the company is choosing to prescribe a marketing strategy that is contrary to its own success. This is a clear and obvious mistake on Chevy’s part because they are trying to conform to a rule they think ought to exist.

When there are no physical, legal, or moral ramifications to breaking a rule, why would anyone choose to continue to adhere? Especially when abiding by that rule means serious detriment to your revenue stream, reputation, or any other measure of success?

Rules Are Meant to be Broken

While there are not necessarily rules that dictate the do’s and don’ts of marketing, there does seem to be a correlation of tactics and methods used. The concept of “descriptive marketing” would say that we ought to use any method or tactic that makes it easier or better for us to market our products/services, rather than following a set method that has been predefined. While this makes sense in theory, I don’t always see it put to use in practice. I see people blindly follow rules set out by Google, not knowing the real consequences or rewards of breaking them. People following a “code of conduct” online, because “spamming” is bad and annoying — but what if it made you more money? Droves of readers follow the advice of bloggers they’ve never even met rather than doing their own testing, prodding, and problem solving. If we are fine with using the phrase “I’m gonna” because it facilitates our speech, even though it may be prescriptively incorrect, what limits us from pushing the envelope in our work, lives, and other areas?

Imagine what your conversations would look like without descriptive colloquialisms; now conversely, imagine how big your horizons could be broadened if you began to think descriptively about your marketing, branding, and vision casting. Maybe it’s time to start thinking differently. I know I’m gonna.

Kenny Hyder - Marketing Consultant

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Every Website Tells A Story

Aesthetics

Composition

Functionality

The 4 P’s in the Age of Google

The 4 P’s

Product

Price

Place

Promotion

Photo Credit: Leo Reynolds

Descriptive Marketing

Chevrolet vs. Chevy

Prescription for Failure

Rules Are Meant to be Broken

Photo Credit: the_munificent_sasquatch, z5, voteprime