Righteous Marketing

Whether you’re going to be watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in a living room with no couch or enjoying the company of your 40 cousins, today is a day to be grateful and optimistic. Therefore, I’m going to pretend I’m on stage at some over-the-top awards ceremony with a trophy in one hand and a microphone right in front of me:

Thank You!

First I’d like to thank my family for raising me the way they did. That includes all 4 of my grandparents who have always supported me, my parents for putting up with me and my siblings for not killing me. I may not have appreciated all you did at the moment (like waking up at 6 am every day of the summer to move sprinkler pipes on our farm) but I now recognize I’m a better person because of it.

I’m grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ, my bedrock against adversity and trials.

Thank you to all my friends. Sure we may have gotten into a lot of trouble together, but we also kept each other out of a lot more trouble.

I’m thankful for this free country I live in and the soldiers who defend it. I appreciate my employment and all the people who have influenced my life for good.

What are you thankful for?

The panels at PubCon were all very informational, but one particular session on landing page optimization stood out to me because of how much fun the panelists and audience. If you were there you inevitably remember.

Kate Morris, Marketing Demon

To lay a foundation for further discussion on landing pages, Kate talked about a lot of the basics of landing page optimization. She talked about generous use of whitespace and making sure that your landing page is a clear roadmap showing the user exactly where they want to go (hint: the call-to-action). Tracking was discussed because if you’re not tracking how are you going to know if your landing page optimization efforts are even working? Lastly, she mentioned some ballpark figures on bounce rates. I didn’t get all the ranges but under 30% is freakin’ amazing and over 90% is B-A-D bad.

Brad Geddes, bg Theory

Building on Kate’s preso, Brad jumped in by answering the question “Where should I test first?” The answer is to test the pages with the most views because these represent both the largest opportunity and the areas where you will be able to achieve valid results the fastest. He also emphasized that you should test, test, test while remembering that landing pages need to match up with intent. If the users intent is to get more information, give them more information. Don’t tell them about your discount for purchasing a full year subscription.

Joanna Lord, YourJobStop.com

If you’re testing a lot like Brad recommended you’ll inevitably be creating more than a few different landing pages. Follow Joanna’s advice and make your life a little simple by utilizing templates and a CMS for landing page creation. This will save you time and effort as you iterate because the branding and social components of the page (and yes, your landing pages should be addressing the branding and social angles) will tend to be consistent while you test the other elements of the page. Joanna also recommends you go Full Monte on your testing by utilizing multivariate testing (MVT).

Lastly, test HOW you are presenting your information on landing pages. See how visual/graphic presentation performs against standard text. Perhaps rich media formats can give you a boost over standard media? Don’t limit your self to testing one graphic over another of three versions of the headline.

Tim Ash, SiteTuners.com

For those of you who may not be familiar with the topic of landing page optimization, Tim Ash literally wrote the book. It’s titled Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions. For this panel though, Tim pointed out 5 tools to improve your landing page optimization efforts:

• CrazyEgg & ClickTale – Both provide in-page analytics to help you know more about what users are actually doing on your pages. I use ClickTale and love watching the little videos of people navigating the site. I’m constantly surprised by what people pay attention to, what they click, what they ignore, etc.
• Usertesting.com – these guys do online usability testing. You want to see how “real” people use your site? This will show you both sides of the screen.
• CrossBrowserTesting – Ever wondered how your site looks on a machine running Windows 2000 and IE 6? Quit wondering and test it. This service has virtually every combination of OS and browser you can imagine.
• AttentionWizard.com – This service will give you a heatmap of a page (or mockup) so you can see what draws people’s attention. You may think you already know, but this way you will know for sure.

So What Was So Fun About This Panel?

Admittedly, it was pretty tame during presentations, but once the Q&A got rolling it was on. The catalyst was a difference of opinion between the guys (conveniently positioned on one site of the podium) and the gals (on the other side). Tim said he felt like saying “Jane, you ignorant slut” to the ladies (a reference from SNL) but feared they might not get the reference. Joanna then seemed to intone that the guys were old. I apologize that my rendition doesn’t truly capture the interaction, but it was hilarious. My thanks to all the panelists for a great time and great info.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the amount of love given to post-click marketing during PubCon. Most sites have so much potential here and the attendance reflected it. In my first session Janet Driscoll Miller of SearchMojo started things out strong with a few recommendations:

1. Use Dynamic Language: This allows you to do a lot of testing and you can customize the page for every user. She also recommended dynamically inserting the keyword into the headline to improve message match.
2. Test Video: In her experience she’s seen video outperform whitepapers. Just make sure to test video just like you test your other content.
3. Segment: As you segment you can qualify better users and improve conversion rates.

George Aspland

Have you ever been on a website watching a flash animation and wished you could stop the animation or go back a frame or two? Well, George has seen it, tested it and can tell you authoritatively that static images just perform better. For more nuggets of wisdom read the evisionSEM blog.

Team ion

It’s too bad this session was on the last day right before the super session with Matt Cutts because the content was great. Both Anna Talerico and Scott Brinker of ion interactive were panelists. Anna explained how organic traffic to a site is like a herd of wild horses, unbridled and out of control. You don’t know where they came from or why they are there. This traffic is hard to handle. Traffic from campaigns (PPC, email, etc.) is like a Lipizzaner stallion. You know why they are there and you can present information that speaks directly to their intent.

Scott Brinker took the microphone and took a very high-level approach to his comments. He called on everyone to rethink how they view digital marketing. Want to know who is on your pages? Segment them with multi-page conversion paths. Each step of the way you learn more about the visitor. Want to know what the user wants AND deliver it? As they progress through these paths they tell you what they are looking for and you can present increasingly relevant information and offers.

Chris Goward

How do you involve a tired, hung-over crowd the last day of PubCon? Play a game, which is just what Chris did. Using tests from his company WiderFunnel Chris challenged the crowd to indentify which page performed better. Though I consider myself pretty good, I admit I didn’t get all of them right. Lastly, Chris gave us the 6-foot rule, which states that if someone looking at your page from 6 feet away can’t see your CTA, make it bigger.

Last week I had a chance to attend PubCon in Las Vegas. For the record, I highly recommend the conference to anyone in the internet marketing industry from PPC to SEO to affiliate marketers. The keynote speakers were great, the sessions were fantastic and the parties were first-rate. But what did I get out of the conference besides a lack of sleep and some free swag?

Tony Hsieh’s Keynote

Tony is the CEO of Zappos.com, which was recently purchased by Amazon for around $1.2 billion. Zappos is famous for their customer service and Tony explained how that is an outgrowth of the company culture. Each new hire is given two sets of interviews. One is for technical ability (just like you would have at any other company) and the other is strictly for cultural fit. You have to pass both to be hired, which means that Zappos turns away many highly qualified applicants (who could make the company a lot of money with their contributions) because it wouldn’t be a cultural fit.

Another method Zappos uses to ensure they have the right people is the $2000 quitting bonus. After an employee is trained (about 5 weeks if I remember correctly) they offer them $2000 to quit on the spot. If someone takes the money they weren’t a good fit for the company and Zappos is willing to pay that much to avoid a bad hire. Are you that committed to hiring the right people?

PPC Session

Since I’m from the PPC world, this was a highly anticipated session for me and the panel didn’t disappoint. First up we got to listen to Christine Churchill, president of KeyRelevance. I got three main points from her presentation:

1. Test Messaging – Need a new subject line for your email campaign? Don’t know what headline to use on your whitepaper download page? Test these short marketing messages with PPC ads. It’s fast and measurable.
2. Reputation Management – You probably don’t want your homepage ranking for “[Your Company] Sucks”, but you do want to be able to tell your side of the story. Use PPC to have a presence on these searches.
3. Mobile is Growing – When viewing search results on a smartphone, the paid ads can occupy up to half of the page above the fold. Create mobile-specific campaigns that target the top-2 spots and write copy that speaks to a mobile user. For example, a mobile user searching for Burger King may be more receptive to a text coupon offer than someone sitting at home. Someone searching JC Penney on a mobile likely needs directions or store hours and isn’t looking to buy online right now.

Brad Geddes

If you use AdWords you should already know that Brad Geddes is behind www.bgtheory.com and is a true PPC wizard. He spoke almost exclusively on managing your PPC based on profit, not ROI. To understand the difference he provided several examples where a higher ROI product didn’t necessarily have a higher profit. I’ll likely revisit this in a future post because it’s hard to explain in words.

He also mentioned that often times we do our best PPC optimization outside of AdWords, MSN and Yahoo. Conversion path optimization, landing page optimization and improving the sales nurturing process can often yield much greater results than time spent on keyword bidding and ad copy writing. Lastly, he mentioned that studies have found conversion rates do not vary much by position (only 0.1%). This means that your average position really only affects the volume of clicks you get and how much they cost you. Find the spot that maximizes your profit.

David Szetela

Another of my favorite PPC guys, David Szetela is president of Clix Marketing and has a weekly web radio show every monday at 4 pm EST titled PPC Rockstars. He talked about some “gray hat” PPC tactics which I won’t get too in-depth with here, but I will share a couple nuggets. First, you can use ASCII codes to insert trademark or copyright symbols into your ads. These symbols only take up one character and add trust. However, to get through the AdWords filters you need to submit them through AdWords Editor. Second, using dynamic keyword insertion (DKI) you can get a title up to 28 characters long.


That’s all the time I have for today, but I’ll be posting more PubCon takeaways soon. Let me know what you think.

This charity came to my attention during the first season of Celebrity Apprentice as it was the charity of choice for Piers Morgan, the eventual winner of the show. The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund was established in 2000 and initially was intended to provide financial assistance to families that lost loves ones in the service of their country.

In 2007 the Fund finished a $55 million facility in San Antonio, Texas for the physical rehabilitation of military personnel who have been “catastrophically disabled”. They are also working on construction of the National Intrepid Center of Excellence which will focus on treatment of traumatic brain injuries and research. This project is on track to open in 2010, but needs an additional $3 million in donations. You can contribute here. Please support our fallen heroes by donating to this worthy charity.

Also, a special thanks to Purpose Inc. for giving me a kick in the pants to use my blog for better uses. They are the sponsors of the following event at PubCon 2009:

Last Thursday Google quietly rolled out a new feature in AdWords called Comparison Ads. The official explanation (via the Google AdWords blog) is that Comparison Ads “lets users compare multiple, relevant offers more easily.” Okay, I can buy that. Google trying to make things easier on users. They do that a lot. However, this should make a lot of AdWords advertisers uneasy.

Why Comparison Ads Are Good

The most obvious benefit is that given by Google; it allows users to make a quick comparison of different offers and take action easily. Also, for some advertisers, only having to pay once a lead or phone call comes in (instead of paying for lots of clicks that don’t convert) will be a blessing.

Why Comparison Ads Are Evil

Basically, Comparison Ads are evil because this gives Google more power and advertisers less power. Just look at the example that Google put on their own blog. The screenshot shows 9 lenders, all on the same page with their name, APR, fees, two lines of ad copy and call-to-action buttons all lines up in pretty little rows. How does a lender set themselves apart? Are two lines of ad copy enough to convey your competitive advantages?

As a consumer I would look at this page and the first thing I would do is look for the lowest APR (which Google has conveniently bolded and enlarged). Then I would look at the fees and payment info next to the APR. See what’s happening? Pure price comparison. You no longer have landing pages to convey your message. You will always be listed right next to your competitors. This should make AdWords advertisers very nervous.

So What?

I’m interested to hear your thoughts. Hopefully I’ve got you thinking and if I’m wrong I want to hear why because I would dearly like to be wrong on this one.

GUEST POST:

An MBA is one degree that pays you rich dividends, especially if you’ve earned one from a prestigious school that has a good program on offer. It takes up around one or two years of your time, and is useful for both the young and the not so young. It is popular with both new graduates and people who have been in the business world for some time. And it helps improve your analytical, logical and decision making skills.

An EMBA or Executive MBA is a similar program, but one that is shorter in length and meant for executives who have been in the business world for some time and have some experience under their belts. It has its own advantages, but the general perception is that it is tailored to suit people who are already in positions of responsibility.

If you’re wondering which of the two degrees will work for you, take into consideration the following points before you make your decision:

• If you’re fresh out of college, it’s best to go for an MBA. You would not qualify for an EMBA which often requires at least three years of work experience.
• If you don’t have time on your side, you’re better off going with an EMBA. If you cannot take time off from work or if you don’t want to spend two years on a degree course, an EMBA would do just as well as an MBA.
• If your company is sponsoring your degree, you’re most likely going to have to take an EMBA course, because this is often custom-designed for working executives.
• If you want to study a comprehensive course, you’d do well to choose the MBA because the coursework is more detailed.
• Depending on the school you choose, some EMBA programs are very hastily put together and often resemble MBA programs hacked and joined together here and there.
• EMBA classes often have fewer students.
• If you’re a mature adult, you may find an MBA class filled with typical college students who may not be as serious about the degree as you are.

No matter what your choice of degree, ensure that you choose a good school, because at the end of the day, your degree is only as worthy as the reputation and legitimacy of the school you choose to earn it from.

This guest article was written by Adrienne Carlson, who regularly writes on the topic of online executive mba programs. Adrienne welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: adrienne.carlson1@gmail.com