Marketing Insights

In this brief video Jen Horton discusses the importance of answering the following 4 questions in order to keep your website visitors engaged:

1. Am I where I expected to be?
2. Is it relevant to me?
3. Do I believe you?
4. Is it easy to take action?

Click to watch now!

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We spend a lot of time in B2B marketing talking about email segmentation, but I recently came across a great example of website segmentation that I’d like to share: www.rallydev.com.

The folks at Rally Software help organizations develop software using Agile practices, so they have several possible purchasers at a company all the way from a Developer to a VP. Take a look at this screen shot from their home page:

I really like this guided, personalized approach because it takes the guesswork out of the web experience for the visitor. If I’m a developer, I can listen to another developer describe the benefits of Rally’s solution. Quick and simple. I don’t have to wade through pages of information to get to the heart of what matters to me.

In the demo center, this concept is carried through again with role-based demos:

Yes, there are product-specific demos on this page as well, but you have to scroll down to find them, presumably for people further along in the buying cycle who are willing to spend a bit more time on the site.

Do you use this guided approach on your website? Have you seen another great example of this concept? Please let me know by sharing a comment.

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Now let’s talk copywriting…your email and landing page copy is intended to get the person to convert right? Get them to click through or submit a form…

Everyone is busy, so we need to make sure it’s relevant and compelling, so we don’t get ignored!

So here are your 4 copywriting dos…

1. Get to the point! We’ve all seen the never-ending email…you need to capture attention, so get to the point as quickly as possible…short paragraphs, short sentences…create the urgency with an active voice

2. Be relevant! Use real data to make key points, helps with credibility and proof, make sure your content and your offer is relevant to the audience.

3. Be real! Enough with the corporate speak, get real and have a conversation, using simple and conversational words. Use industry or technical language depending on your audience, but avoid catch phrases, clichés or buzz words

4. Get a response! Don’t make the user scroll, place the primary call-to-action links above the fold

So let’s summarize…Get to the Point, Be Relevant, Be Real, Get a Response.

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The Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO) recently reported that spending on search engine marketing (SEM) in North America is expected to hit $26 billion by 2013.  And the majority of respondents (70%) said they are trying to generate leads for direct or indirect sales models.

The analysis indicates on MarketingCharts.com however, the only metrics marketers are using include: increased traffic, conversion rates, click-through rates.  In addition to these metrics, you should also track “net new” web visitors, known vs. unknown visitors and form abandonment rates.

But what do these metrics tell you? What should you focus on improving? With any metric, there should be an action based on the result. What are these actions?

• Increased traffic
  Track volume spikes or peaks to your landing page or website based on when campaigns are launched and overall trend on an ongoing basis.
• Conversion rates
  For web metrics conversion rates we typically track form submission from suspect to inquiry, however, you should also track conversion rates from other stages of the lead funnel – we need to understand which key words bring in the closed deals vs. which bring in researchers.
• Click-through rates
  It’s important to understand the increase traffic number and then one level deeper is the click-through rate, how many people clicked on an email or a web link to then get to your landing page or website. This tells you how many people raised their hand to your offer. So it’s a metric that helps you understand if your message was relevant to the audience.
• “Net new” web visitors
  Having increased web traffic is one thing, but are you bringing in “net new” web visitors from your campaigns? This metric needs to help you understand if you are bringing in leads at the top of the funnel or helping you convert leads already in the funnel.
• Form abandonment rate
  This metric helps you track how many clicks convert to prospects and how many prospects are not completing the form. This helps you decide whether you need to re-think your form (how many questions are you asking), do you have too much friction? Does your offer not resonate? Or perhaps your key word is not relevant to the offer?

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