Posts Tagged ‘Web Success Branding’
December 22, 2010 at 1:47 pm
By Bob Speyer, Web Success Team
We all know Linkedin is a powerful social media marketing tool. What is often overlooked in building out profiles, joining groups and connecting with people is what I call the “passive” sell — Recommendations.
Usually getting people to give you or your company a recommendation is relatively easy. However getting the “right” testimonials and the ones that are the most effective is another matter. Too often, when asked, colleagues will give some generic fluff that sounds like many others. The trick is to get them to give you a recommendation with “teeth.”
Continue reading “The Power of Linkedin Recommendations” »
January 19, 2010 at 7:28 pm
I recently came across an article in Advertising Age about re-branding Time Warner Cable.
In my very recent past Time Warner Cable was one of my accounts on the creative services side. Being tightly controlled by the large Madison Avenue Advertising Agency. Creativity was very limited.
In this day and age with all the social media avenues Time Warner Cable can find a viable avenue to re-brand the company and its services.
We are a client of Time Warner Cable and find that the company is “stuck” in the last century, as you can see by the comments on the Ad Age post.
They are competing with the Dish, Netflix and many other more “modern” avenues like watching TV online. Customers are their lifeblood and they need to do a better job taking care of them.
I would STRONGLY recommend that Time Warner get a Facebook page and a Twitter page and USE them for customer complaints and suggestions. That would be a start. Then follow what other strong customer oriented brands are doing. Starbucks, JetBlue and others are using Social Media to better communicate their services, offer discounts or specials, field and resolve complaints, and to gain valuable customer feedback. They gain loyalty and repeat business.
Here is one of many “Time Warner Sucks” pages that I found on Facebook. It has over 1,000 members.
A Lesson for Your Business
Throw a rock in a pond and watch it ripple. The bigger the stone, the bigger the consequences. But what does this mean for your business? Do not underestimate the value of social media. It is a unique way to reach out to current and new customers. Business is about building relationships and trust. Keeping open new and popular channels of communication will help grow your business online. And it is a good way to defuse negative press before it gains momentum.
January 13, 2010 at 7:10 pm
James Cameron’s Avatar has touched a nerve in our collective psyche. Much in the same vein, Social Media has exploded into our digital world, changing the landscape on how we think, react and do business.
What does Avatar and Social Media have in common? They are both brave new worlds that have captured our imagination and have connected us to each other. In a world gone wild with war, natural disasters and the human condition, we all yearn for a place (real or digital) that will give us meaning and a way to express our individuality and our humanity.
Our Primal Need
One of the most striking comparisons of Avatar and Social Media was the interconnectivity of the Na’vi to their natural habitat and to each other. Their umbilicus was a synaptic nerve cord emanating from their head in the form of a long pony tail. When physically connected to another life form, they had pure communication of thoughts and emotions, and could have a symbiotic influence on each other. Social Media networking is fulfilling that primordial need to be connected, to make our presence felt and have the ability to influence and be influenced. In essence, make our voice or vote count. We are not living and breathing avatars, but our digital networking is connecting our avatar to yours.
A modern day analogy happened in the 1960s when the youth felt disenfranchised from our society and found meaning in the proverbial “love-ins.” As the beat poet of that generation, Jerry Rubin, so eloquently noted, “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” Those words resonated around the globe. The youth were connected through rock n roll, the Beatles, the Vietnam War, and flower power. They influenced generations and these baby boomers are still a force today.
The Bonds that Influence Us
Trust is another comparison worth noting between the Movie and Social Media. It is the glue that holds both systems together. The hero in Avatar, Jake Sully, needed to understand the rules, the customs and learn how to move in an alien world. He needed to gain the trust of the Na’vi, not just live amongst them as a intelligence gathering project. But something happened once he truly felt engaged with his mentor and love-interest, he changed and the world changed with him. Social Media has its rules of engagement and if you are to be successful you need to understand that the process takes time. Watch, learn and build trust. Be a part of an online community and actively participate.
The effectiveness of Social Media is in building relationships, making your presence felt in positive non-exploitative ways. Establish your brand of influence, offer content, suggestions, advice, reliability. In Avatar, the Sky People (aka humans) saw “gold” and wanted to mine it, regardless of the environmental impact. Bulldozing your way through the jungle with purely self-interest objectives is counter productive. Short term gains, long term angst.
Standing Ten Feet Tall and Blue
Social Media enhances your brand image and makes you stand out from your competition and be that 10 foot tall blue Avatar. Take the time to understand it, cultivate it and fall in love with it. Enjoy the experience.
December 3, 2009 at 12:56 pm
By Bob Speyer, President – Web Success Team
Today I got a disturbing call from Bank of America’s Fraud Department concerning a payment to “Web Success” that their customer “didn’t” make. During our discussion, I realized the payment was made to Web Success NOT to Web Success Team. Hence the problem.
Speak Honestly and React Quickly
Obviously there was identity theft of their customer’s credit card and some entity used part of our name for fraudulent purposes. When I asked the bank representative how they got our telephone number, she replied, “I Googled your company.” Well at least our SEO efforts are effective as we are ranked #1 on the search engines. The amount was small ($79) but significant, as crooks often use small amounts to keep under the radar.
I am glad the banks are checking fraudulent charges to try to contain or catch the perpetrators. But as a legitimate company who has a reputation to protect, it is paramount for us to be on top of any incident, no matter how seemingly small. Because these things can take on a life of their own, protecting your reputation, no matter how fraudulent the claims, is critical. We have spent years building a significant online presence and efforts as an honest, customer oriented company. We will not tolerate our hard earned reputation or name of being tarnished (or even a part of it, as web success is one of our keywords).
The Best Defense Is an Offense!
Be advised that people can post anything negative on the Internet, with impunity. So what can you do to manage your reputation? You should attack it head on and minimize the incident. I spent time talking to the bank representative until she was satisfied. We are then writing this blog to further document what happened. If ones online reputation has been besmirched then more aggressive tactics need to be implemented.
However, it can take 2-3 months to eliminate the unwarranted bad press. If you or your company needs reputation management, the Web Success Team has a program designed to help you monitor, combat and prevent negative posts on search engines. Identity theft or negative press can happen to anyone, and usually does. Contact the Team today to find out how we can help you repair the damage and protect your reputation and your bottom line.
Please Stay Tuned…
The Web Success Team will be blogging a series of other web related issues that can directly effect your business and your ability to do business online.
September 14, 2009 at 4:53 pm
by Bob Speyer, President, Web Success Team
As the saying goes, “there are lies, damn lies and statistics.” Well, in the worldwide web, statistics are our gold standard, and always tell the truth, but not the whole story. That’s left for savvy marketing interpretation. But stats are our reality gut check. Point of fact, most websites convert visitors into customers at just over a 2% clip with a few reaching upwards of 9-14%. So how can you increase the conversion rate? This article provides insight into what converts a visitor into a customer and how to increase your percentage to maximize your return on investment.
1. Understand Your Customers, Then Give Them What They Want or Need!
If you want to sell or entice your customers to further inquire or buy, you must get to know their demographic profile: Are they predominately males or females? Males respond more to facts and figures, logically; females respond more emotionally and rely on feelings to influence their decisions. Income, education, age and geographic location also play a part in their decision making. Then of course there are customer goals and objectives — what questions do they ask; what benefits or features are most important; how does your products or services solve their problem or satisfy their need; what are their objections or resistance to buying or signing up; do you have guarantees. By addressing their suspicions or fears, you can bridge the gap. For example, an FAQ section on your website is very helpful in a confronting customer concerns up front.
2. Retool Your Thinking
Stagnation is part of the human condition. We either get too comfortable or too resistant to change. You need to think out of the proverbial box and retool your thinking, reinventing or reinvigorating your thought processes or your company’s personality. In marketing lingo, it’s called a unique selling proposition (USP) and makes you stand above your competition. Often a tagline can help support the branding. The USP should be compelling and benefits-driven. If done right, it will spark a positive imagery in the minds and hopefully hearts and wallets of your potential customers. It can’t be as trivial as “We will save you time and money.” It should state something like, “Our service will free your time to be more productive and improve your bottom line.”
3. Lead Them to Water and Then Let Them Drink
The buying decision is complex. For some it’s emotional, some impulsive, others compulsive, still others information drives them to decide. No website (or psychiatrist) can solve all the complex personalities, but you can help improve your odds. Start with you site navigation and architecture. It’s a step-by-step process to lead site visitors to water and make it so enticing that they not only want taste it but feel good and confident in doing so. If your website is overburdened with information, they will leave. If your website is too flashy, it becomes too distracting and they will be bored and leave. If your website doesn’t make its case in 10-20 seconds, they will leave.
You can persuade people to engage your site and give you a fair chance if you can address their quest for answers. They don’t have to leave a web-page to continue the buying. But if they seek more information, simply provide them with a helpful hyperlink directing them to another page. Once satisfied, they will click back and continue the process. I also highly recommend calls to action and inducements or promotions. People respond favorably if the offers are credible, and not just too good to be true. Sometimes offering them less will get you more play or credibility.
4. First Impressions Are the Only Ones that Count
Your best chance for conversion (whether they choose to buy on contact you on the first visit, or bookmark to return to the conversion process) is with your first time visitor. Hence their first impression is the only one that counts. In redesigning a website it is always best to keep to recognized formats: conservative colors familiar with your industry (i.e. green or blue for medical); keeping your navigation horizontal below your header or either in a left or right column; contact links in the upper corner and on the bottom of the website.
5. Converting Visitors into Customers
If you want to improve your conversion rates, you must study also your metrics. Which pages are being visited most; when do visitors leave the buying cycle; and ask yourself why. You need to analyze the data, then revise, reword, rewrite, test and track. If you have a form that is not converting, maybe it is too long, or too short. Test and track. Another method is A/B testing. You can test an offer or promotion with two similar pages, changing it to suit your test. With two test market webpages, you can see what and which converts higher, then implement the results and continually test and tweak. You can test anything and everything, from colors, layouts, images, offers, calls to action, home pages, and navigation.
Often times, adding a button and repositioning it or writing more direct response call to action copy will give you a boost in conversions. Remember, like your customers, your website is a living and breathing entity and needs to be feed and cared for if it is to grow up to be productive adult websites.
Sources for this article: SeoChat and ClickZ
The Web Success Team
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