Target Your Click Throughs Carefully
With ad services like Google Adwords, having control of the page a viewer sees once they click on your ad means you have the advantage of presenting a targeted message.
One of the worst mistakes you can do is to create a compelling headline and brief description, and then just send someone to an all-encompassing home page — that momentum is lost and a visitor is often confused by their choices.
The message on the home page — unless you have a very lead-generation specific website with only one presented message — is not often an extension of the ad message that had the visitor interested enough to click in the first place. That confusion is a “road block” to converting that visitor to your objective.
So it makes sense that the page they see accurately reflects the advertising message … you should use a page that specifically meets this purpose.
However, be careful to TEST that it works!
I clicked on an ad on a web page yesterday (from within Google Mail) … for a bookkeeping company. They had created a specific page for that ad. However, the page I saw had this message:
You are not authorized to view this resource.
You need to login.
Oh no … lost sale. Road block. Crash. Wasted money spent on that click!
Most likely, the person creating the ad landing page was logged in, and didn’t even realise the potential for this type of error. How much money will they waste until they realise this problem?
Admittedly, some visitors may then use the navigation to click on the home page and track down what they were after. But you’re at the mercy of their resourcefulness, and that’s a dangerous place to be, especially when your home page is not prepared to carry that same targeted message.
So … don’t just use your home page as an ad landing page, unless it is very consumer targeted. And make sure that if you do have a specific page, you logout of your web content management system and test the page just as a visitor would see it!
Yellow Pages
Mal Emery has published an outstanding article about the right way to use Yellow Pages, in his latest Rebellious Rant.
I’m not just saying that because Mal has recommended his clients and subscribers contact me for a “done for you” Yellow Pages service!
It’s because Mal is sharing great advice about maximising the impact of your Yellow Pages ad and making it up to 750% more profitable.
Like Mal says, 60% of those who consult a category in the Yellow Pages, have NO company in mind — and of the other 40%, around one third (13%) are will to be swayed … that’s a chance at persuading more than 7 in 10 readers with an effective ad.
The regular Rebellious Rants are a great free resource for any entrepreneur or business owner, well worth a free subscription!
Bargains in misspellings
I just watched an auction end online for a brand new pair of men’s workboots … a brand with an excellent reputation … being offered for $15 — $100 below retail!
Number of bids?
Zero. No sale!
Here’s a pretty good reason why … the boots were advertised as “Bloodstone Workboots” — but the actual brand is Blundstone, not Bloodstone.
Now there’s always been a market on sites like eBay to find a bargain via misspellings — whether a typo or simply the seller not knowing the correct spelling!
I know for sure that typo’s slip through my fingers more than I’d like, and I don’t profess to be a leading authority on spelling and grammar (an aside: why isn’t grammar spelled “grammer”, like hammer or stammer?).
If I was a smart seller, I’d at least do my research to confirm the right brand name. I’d also include the common misspellings in my listing, so it’s more easily found by people who don’t know the correct spelling when doing their search (especially on eBay when they search title and description).
Of course, if I was a smart buyer, I’d be searching on misspellings to find bargains like a pair of brand new top brand workboots for sale at $100 less than retail with 0 bids!
Timezones matter
Picture this … it’s just after 1am right now … the dead of the night here on the weekend … all’s quiet in the neighborhood, everyone is tucked in their warm cozy beds … lights are out … even the cat is curled up dreaming of what he might get to chase and stalk tomorrow.
Ring ring riiiiiiiiing! Off goes the phone at full pitch: a rather startling sound to snap you out of your sleep in the middle of the night. The first thought, of course, is that it’s a family emergency call … who else would call at 1:01am? Maybe someone has had an accident or needs help?
Grabbing the phone, I notice the caller ID says “Unavailable” … which means a call from overseas. Picking it up, I hear a pre-recorded voice broadcast …
“Hi, this is Bill Glazer and I just wanted to …”
Slam!
A voice broadcast … at 1am on a Sunday morning! Are you kidding?
My ONLY response to this kind of call is to slam down the phone and not feel the least bit impressed about the caller or their campaign.
My only guess is that at 1:01am in the middle of the night in Melbourne Australia is the equivalent of some decent hour of the day in the USA for this kind of telemarketing.
But if you have a global mailing/calling list, you could do much better taking into account that a suitable time of day to call is different according to what timezone your customers live in!
(You wouldn’t even have to ask for the info: the country code and area code in the phone number gives you an indication, especially for land line numbers).
This timezone concept also applies to the “launches” now undertaken for many online products that go on sale at a set time.
For example, “12 noon this Friday” for sometime in the eastern United States is a whole lot different for us Aussies. Yet very few campaigns factor in to their communication a way to help their list figure out what the time will be where they live.
It’d be easy enough to include more than one timezone in the pre-launch messages (maybe covering 5 or 6 high profile locations around the world) … or at least setup a link to an online time service so visitors can easily work out what “12 noon on Friday” will mean to them locally.
And if you’re going to use voice broadcasts in your campaign, know enough about your global mailing list to help prevent unwelcome phone calls in the dead of the night!
Heads Up to Sellers on eBay
I was in the eBay discussion forums today and, in a thread highlighting the frustrations of one particular seller, they had posted their email exchange with eBay.
In part, eBay’s answer about feedback included this:
Please understand that we will not remove feedback because it seems unfair, or the member lied.
eBay does not censor feedback or investigate it for accuracy…
So an eBay member can lie in their feedback, and the feedback won’t be removed.
Seems to me that eBay is making their marketplace way too orientated towards attracting buyers of any kind. They don’t just want nice, paying buyers… by removing the chance for sellers to now leave negative Buyer feedback, and even with neutral feedback affecting the percentage calculation shown for the buyer on an auction page — it’s getting much tougher for Sellers with near encouragement of “dodgy” buyers.
Here’s just one example of how an inexperienced eBay Buyer can affect a Seller’s rating:
I have seen some really mystifying feedback such as the example I saw yesterday. This buyer left two neutrals for a seller and said very happy with items purchased in each case.
What it really means for Sellers is this: your communication must go to lengths to both be complete and accurate — both to potential Buyers in your listing and to the actual winning bidder after the sale is made.
You have to do everything possible to ensure there are no “Buyer surprises” in the transaction process… from the description of the quality of the item through to packaging and postage. If you’re getting regular questions, address them in your listings or About Me page (and link to them). Make everything as clear as possible.
This is how your marketplace works and you cannot afford to ignore the buyer-orientated environment. This won’t stop unscrupulous Buyers. But it will do two things: it may stop a Buyer with good intentions from misunderstanding the process, and if your listings clearly address relevant issues (and use other ways to help build trust and likeability), then potential Buyers will have a better feeling about you too.
Over time you’ll find ways to use your listings to highlight the positive “trust” issues that mechanisms like the feedback system no longer deal with.
It’s an undoubtedly frustrating situation — especially when bad buyers go without negative feedback — but there are still ways to minimise the impact it has on your eBay business.