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News & analysis on digital marketing & analytics
Voters, Take the Usability Test of the Week
At Fathom, we pride ourselves on usability and conversion rate optimization. This emphasis covers a wide range of the online experience, from readable web copy to HTML design.
One solid way to test the conversion rate of a landing page with a specific goal, e.g. form submission, is to run a traditional A/B test, where one version is tested against another by offering different audiences different versions of the same page.
See Fathom’s particularly good example of this A/B testing as currently featured on Which Test Won? (a limited-time “Test of the Week”). It indicates the conversion potential of Web copy on landing pages. Take the simple test yourself! It will take you less than two minutes, and you will learn something valuable about writing for the Web.
Vote today!
Note: The above image is only a screen-capture. Please follow the preceding links to participate in the actual vote (and avoid disenfranchisement!).
What better way to exercise both your civic and marketer duties during this Election Week? You can thank me later.
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Read more about usability, conversion optimization and writing good Web copy on this blog.
Comment: Feel free to share your thoughts.
Category: Content Creation, Conversion Optimization, Usability
Warning: Slow Mobile Site Speed Causes More than Customer Rage
We’ve all been there. You’re shopping on your favorite store’s mobile site, snapping up the latest two-hour deals left and right. You’ve got everything you need (and probably a few things you don’t). You’re ready to head to checkout and …. nothing. The page won’t load.
The irritating loading icon is going round and round, but your page is blank. After an excruciatingly long minute you throw your phone down in frustration and say forget it. You didn’t need that super cute bag and three pairs of perfect pumps anyway. Or did you?
For mobile shoppers, slow load times are the kiss of death. We expect that mobile sites are going to load quickly and perform correctly – just like they do on our desktop or laptop – and when that doesn’t happen we have little patience for it.
Just how thin is that patience? The graph below (kindly provided by this great article on Web Performance Today), shows how aggressively people will react to slow load times on mobile websites:
That graph was produced using data from a recent study done by Harris Interactive on behalf of Tealeaf. This study’s complete findings actually reveal that rage-induced reactions are the least of your concern. Why? The percentage of customers having issues with mobile sites is much higher than it should be, and these issues are costing businesses big time.
How great is the impact of slow mobile site load times? This should give you an idea:
- Four in five (about 84%) U.S. adults who have conducted an online transaction via a mobile device in the last year report experiencing a problem.
- A whopping 63% say they would be less likely to buy from the same company via other channels if they experience a problem conducting a mobile transaction.
- Surprisingly (or not), 47% of customers actually expect the experience of conducting a mobile transaction to be better than the experience in-store, and 85% expect the experience to be better than or equal to using a laptop or desktop.
These stats outline trends that are showing up more and more often across the ecommerce industry. Another study, done on behalf of Gomez, Inc., by Equation Research, (Why the Mobile Web is Disappointing End-Users) reveals that mobile users’ expectations have risen dramatically since 2009. Below are a couple key comparisons to illustrate.
Percentage of users who expect a site to load as quickly on their mobile device as on their desktop:
- 2009: 58%
- 2011: 71%
Percentage of users who will bounce after waiting just five seconds for a mobile site to load:
- 2009: 20%
- 2011: 74%
Since users are expecting more and more from their mobile shopping experiences, companies that want to be successful will rise to meet these demands – and exceed them.
Need to get your mobile site up to speed (or just get one set up, period)? See Jonathan Levey’s “Google Introduces GoMo Initiative” or Fathom’s mobile e-commerce resources. Also, check out some of these helpful sites:
- http://www.howtogomo.com/en/#homepage
- http://code.google.com/speed/articles/mobile.html
- http://www.w3.org/TR/mobile-bp/
*Image provided by Impact Communications, Inc.
*Graph provided by article on Web Performance Today, entitled “Phone Rage”: How People React to Slow Mobile Sites
Comment: Feel free to share your thoughts.
Category: E-commerce, Mobile, Online Marketing, Online PR
Get LinkedIn Recommendations Without Being Annoying
We know LinkedIn recommendations beef up our LinkedIn profile (help get that bar to 100% complete), are great for job opportunities, and help with general networking. So, with everyone’s busy schedules and hefty work loads, how do you manage to get people to write those glowing recommendations? Here are some tips to help you ask for (and get!) the recommendations you deserve, without annoying everyone you know.
1. Ask the right people. Don’t just go through your LinkedIn contacts, asking everyone to write you a recommendation. Be selective with who you ask to do this for you; would you do it for them?
2. Send them a personal email/LinkedIn message. Recognize that they are busy, and you would greatly appreciate the time this will take them to help you professionally.
3. Always offer to give a recommendation back to them. If they know you will return the favor, they will be much more likely to spend 15 minutes writing your recommendation.
4. Give them an example. You can either reference a situation when you two worked together, or a project that yielded excellent results. Or, you can even draft a brief paragraph for them. Be sure to let them know they can modify or adjust your draft.
5. Don’t bug them every day about it. If you don’t get the recommendation as quickly as you had hoped, be patient. Don’t send them a million “reminder” emails to write it. In fact, don’t send them any reminder emails. If you think they are busy and it slipped their mind (and not that they just don’t want to recommend you), go ahead and write your LinkedIn recommendation for them. This will remind them to return the favor, and you won’t look obnoxious.
6. Be appreciative. Thank them for writing a sincere recommendation for you, and boosting your professional presence online. And if you haven’t already, return the favor by writing a recommendation for them (or for their business!).
The Wait Is Over, Google+ Business Pages are Finally Here
Google is at it again. Monday, in an effort to continue to increase its presence in the social media sphere, Google launched the next installment of its already successful Google+ project: Google+ Pages. These pages have been in the works for months, and users have been anxiously awaiting their arrival. Google+ Pages will allow business small and large to connect with their existing customers, and potentially create new business.
Google+ Pages are not only a great way to enhance your business’ local and national presence, but they also allow existing Google+ users to connect with brands, companies and organizations. Many brands, news outlets and big name companies have been early adopters of Google+ pages. Below are a few examples:
So you might be asking yourself, “Okay great, I have a business and a Google+ Page, what does it mean? How can I make Google+ work for my Business?”
Below are a few simple steps that can get you on the right track to utilize this new feature effectively:
Start by setting up your actual Google+ page:
- Visit https://plus.google.com/pages/create
- Select which category your business fits into:
- Local Business or Place
- Product or Brand
- Company, Institution or Organization
- Arts, Entertainment or Sports
- Other
Enter the Basic Information into your selected category
- Agree to the terms
- CREATE!
Next, it’s time to customize the page:
- Create a Tagline
- Enter your profile picture
- Enter all of the information customers will want to know about your product.
- PROMOTE!
- Click Finish, and you will be taken to your new Google+ Business Page.
A few things to note:
One main feature of Google+ Page that you do not want to forget is: the badge for your website. Visit the developers guide for gain access to this badge.
https://developers.google.com/+/plugins/badge/config
Also, be sure to add the +1 button on your website to share even more content with the Google world. http://www.google.com/intl/en/webmasters/+1/button/index.html
Have questions about Google+ or want to know more tips and tricks? Check out this helpful resource:https://plus.google.com/100585555255542998765/posts/J4LKQnjj7z1
Fathom Core Value Stories: November Edition
Every month at company meetings, a handful of Fathomers are recognized in front of the group for extraordinary manifestations of our four core values (“everyone a leader,” “be the consigliere,” “make order from chaos,” “reward sustainable results”). This space will immortalize their accomplishments for the world to see. I hereby present the 2nd edition of Core Value Stories:
- Everyone a Leader, Kevin Herendeen – For working tirelessly on securing new benefits for Fathom employees.
- Be the Consigliere, Abby Rossbach – For helping the writing team with setting priorities, making content recommendations and meeting client expectations.
- Make Order from Chaos, Jay Ketchaver (pictured) — For saving everyone countless hours by fixing/troubleshooting various computer/Internet issues.
- Reward Sustainable Results, Mike Perla – For continuing to successfully organize and promote the Fathom Founder’s Day Award program (in memory of Bill Fox).
To the victors go the spoils … huzzah!
Google+ is now open for business(es)!
Since summer businesses have waited patiently for the opportunity to join in on Google+ and yesterday Google officially opened the doors to Google+ business pages. Previously Google+ was only open for personal profiles. Google discouraged businesses from using the profiles for businesses and even shut down a few businesses trying to use Google+ profiles as business pages.
So what now?
Businesses who want to join Google+ should head out to https://plus.google.com/pages/create to create a page. The process is simple:
- First, it is important to decide what Google+ profile you want connected to this page. For now, Google+ business pages do not have admin rights like Facebook pages so the login used to create the page will be the only login with access to update the page. So make sure you are logged into a business Google account before creating your business page.
- Choose a category that best describes your business (Local Business; Product or Brand, Company, Institution or Organization; Arts, Entertainment, Sports or Other).
- Enter the basic information for your business and click Create.
- Next Google+ will ask you to customize your page a bit with a tagline and profile picture.
- Then you will be prompted to spread the word about your new page to your circles. Remember, this is all done through the Google+ profiles you used to create the page.
- Click Finish and you are taken to your Google+ business page. The Get Started page provides some useful information about how to update and promote your biz page. You can then easily toggle between your personal profile and any pages you have created.
- Once your page is complete you can add a Google+ badge to your website to connect your website to Google+.
- Don’t forget to also add a +1 button to your website to allow users to share your content on Google+.
Now start updating your page! The process from here is similar to personal profiles. Pages can share posts and add photos and videos. A few Google+ pages that have already been created are:
Macy’s
Angry Birds
Anderson Cooper 360
Have you created a Google+ business page yet? How do you plan to use it for your business?
It’s Official: Fathom 2nd-Largest Marketing Firm in Cleveland
According to Crain’s Cleveland Business, Fathom is the 2nd-largest marketing firm in the Cleveland area based on its number of full-time employees (120) as of June 30, 2011.
What strikes me the most about this list—published last month in the November issue of Crain’s Cleveland Business—is the fact that 14-year-old Fathom is paired up with several other firms that have more than a decade of age on it. In a couple cases, Fathom has 6 times the number of local full-time employees than that of venerable traditional marketing firms.
The 2nd thing I noticed is that the 3 other agencies on this list that topped 100 employees (pictured above) all have at least 8 years on Fathom, with one company winning the seniority trophy by a full 6 decades.
Taken as a whole, this list says two things to me loud and clear:
- Digital marketing is a boon to Cleveland.
- Fathom is good at attracting and retaining top talent.
Case in point: when I started working here 5 years ago, Fathom had 25 employees, mainly doing SEO. Sure, there was email marketing and paid search on the periphery, but the proportion of employees devoted to either of these activities was very small, certainly under 20%. Internet marketing as a whole wasn’t exactly mainstream. Facebook was just starting to get big. Twitter didn’t even exist yet.
But yet, through all those years (which might as well be eons in Internet time), Fathom found a way to grow … quickly yet sustainably. So, thanks, Crain’s, for recognizing our size. Based on the recent past, I imagine it won’t be the last time.
p.s. We may be #2 in this area for size, but we’re first on the whirlyball court.
Don’t Write Like You Multi-Task
I’ve noticed a change in my writing lately. And I blame October.
It was a chaotic month—a lot of detail work here, quick tasks there. The small but mounting assignments made for plenty of time-juggling, multi-tasking and inch-by-inching to accomplish everything on my scattered schedule.
Then I looked at my writing. Like my task management for the month, my writing seemed to jump around a bit more than usual. It was antsy, trying to communicate several messages to several audiences all at once.
My writing was multi-tasking like a master.
It wasn’t until I came across this article in Copyblogger that I realized what the problem was. The article talks about how to write more effective landing pages by taking on a fiction writer’s frame of mind. It seemed I needed to
S l o w d o w n a n d s p e l l i t o u t .
Fiction writers typically don’t throw all the plots and subplots at the reader on Page 1. They take their time to develop a solid story, engage their audience and reveal information as it becomes relevant. It’s good advice for landing page writing, as the article points out, but it’s also useful for any type of content task you’re approaching.
I started paying attention to the pacing of my writing and found that whether posting to a blog, developing content for a website, or writing up a news release, taking time to tell a story makes all the difference.
Don’t be afraid your readers will miss something if you don’t cover every single point in the first paragraph. It will only make for hard-to-digest content and bombarded readers. Instead, focus on telling your audience a story through your writing—one that remains centered on a main point and adds details to enhance that point as needed.
And if you’re thinking,
But online writing is different!
Then remember that the way we process what we read is not. Readers still expect organization; structure; and a beginning, middle and end in what they read online. Taking the multi-tasking approach to writing isn’t going to deliver this. But taking your time to clearly develop your points and present them in a logical order will.
How has the storytelling approach to writing worked for you in the past?
Image provided by Speculum Mundi on Flickr.
Category: Content Creation, Online Marketing
Infamous Social Fails
You still have time to join me and Rebecca Roebuck for tomorrow’s “Infamous Social Fails: What Your Business Can Learn from Celebrity Mistakes” webinar. We’ll take a sometimes light-hearted look at the Types of #Fail and what you can do to avoid them.
We’ll also acknowledge that none are immune from mistakes, and offer advice for the steps you need to take to recover from social media marketing errors if they do occur.
It is not too late to sign up! I look forward to your questions.
Optimize Your Landing Page
What makes a good PPC landing page great? It is one where visitors complete your goal, whether its making a purchase, sign up for a webinar, request more information, or something else. The only way to continually optimize your landing page is to test new versions of it. We’ll give you some tips to start creating a better landing page.
- Clean pages are better than cluttered pages. Don’t have too much copy on the page, but don’t tell new visitors too little either. About 100-300 words in short paragraphs, bullet points, or lists is best.
- Focus on conversions. The best place for a call to action is on the right side of the page. Make the conversion button bigger and brighter than you think you need and place it above the browser fold. Keep things simple by only providing 1-2 options and remove all other links. Only include fields in your contact form that are absolutely necessary.
- Include action verbs in the headline and submission button. Make sure your visitors know what to do. Keep your message consistent throughout the text and use the same verb on the submission button instead of the word “submit.”
Once you have these basics down, test a few versions of the landing page. Try changing the color of the submit button, the action verb, copy, or images to see how visitors react. The Google Website Optimizer is a fantastic free tool that allows you to test these elements. Google provides great tutorials and tips to help you get started.
Run an experiment on two landing pages to see which converts best, but don’t stop there. Take the better performing one and test it against a new version. Continue to run these experiments and your landing pages will get better and better over time!
