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They Did It, Did You?
Too many marketers think that great marketing comes from that “fabulous” idea or from the next shiny new object that captures people’s attention. The truth is, occasionally it does happen. However, just as Thomas Edison tried 10,000 times to make his “fabulous” idea work before it finally did, great marketing takes persistent, continuous execution and experimentation.
On June 18th, I posted a conversion rate exercise on this blog. Two simple exercises to help others understand why they should do business with you. Several people emailed me examples of what they did. However, I did want to point out two companies that took this “free” advice seriously and implemented it.
The first are my buddies from the segmentation, targeting and personalization platform extraordinaire, Monetate. They were at the Internet Retailer Trade show when they saw this exercise and realized how powerful the TwitterVP is in explaining to attendees what they do.
Empowers segmenting of traffic, targeting offers and messages to personalize the site experience, increasing conversion and AOV with zero I.T.
This is pretty solid! But more impressive was the second exercise about the “25 interesting things about you” which they turned into “25 Online Marketing Challenges You Can Meet and Beat with Monetate.” What do you think of this?
It makes me proud to be an advisor to Monetate because they took an idea and just executed it. I did not help them with this exercise at all.
A second example comes from renown photographer and educator Jim Miotke from BetterPhoto.com. He came up with several TwitterVPs and instead of just settling on one, he decided to ask his customers and followers to vote on it. Think that could generate some good word of mouth for his business of teaching photography?
Here are his choices: (if you care to vote, visit his BetterPhoto Jim Twitter profile).
Even if what they tried isn’t perfect, they now have a basis for continued experimenting and refining. But they got it done… have you?
If they are your competitors I’d watch out.
About the author
Bryan Eisenberg is the co-author of New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling books Call to Action, Waiting For Your Cat to Bark and Always Be Testing. Bryan is available as a professional speaker. You can friend him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter (@TheGrok).
More articles from Bryan Eisenberg
- Nobody wants to read your sh**!September 21st, 2009
- Redesign? Ask The Right Questions!September 18th, 2009
- Cross-post: How to Improve a Product Page, Part 1September 15th, 2009
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July 2nd, 2009
12:45 pm
I have 5 UVPs I am ready to test in GA. Only issue is my header file is in one include file, so I am NOT sure how to test the UVP in the header file that is on every category, item page and home page.
Any suggestions?
July 2nd, 2009
5:49 pm
This is fairly straight forward — the point to keep in mind is that even though you have your header in an included file, when the page is requested all that is mashed together and gets served to your browser as if it were one static-y file. So the script that calls Website Optimizer doesn’t know it came from a “regular” file or an included file.
I like to think of it as: did you ever know someone who mashes his peas into his mashed potatoes to mix them all up, and then inevitably someone at the table says “oh that’s gross” and then the fellow says “well it’s all gonna end up that way mixed together in my stomach”. And he’s right. the are page files and header files and includes and peas and carrots when they are on your plate (the server) but by the time you’re done eating it, it’s all mashed together in your stomach.
Hmm, time for dinner.
July 2nd, 2009
6:18 pm
[...] They Did It, Did You? …Conversion Rate Marketing [...]
July 2nd, 2009
6:30 pm
One word of caution on the TwitterVP exercise, at least in my opinion.
I TOTALLY agree with the objective of simplifying your elevator pitch to fit a “Twitterpated” world. In the process, there is the danger though of eliminating all but the most bland and platitudinous of generalities.
I would suggest that Monetate’s TwitterVP, while concise, is not very helpful when packed with empty buzzwords like, “empower,” “segment,” “target,” “traffic,” “personalize,” “experience,” “conversion,” etc.
Cross-out/Write-in: If that was your COMPETITOR’s TwitterVP, could a prospect/customer even tell the difference? Ask yourself: “Who ELSE can say that?”
If it’s not unique and definitive, it’s not useful. An elevator pitch is not a mini-business plan, it’s an abbreviated chance to differentiate and compel the other party to want to know more.
Combine the fine art of copywriting w/ the TwitterVP exercise, and you’ve REALLY got something compelling!
Using text from their own site:
“Monetate gets inside site visitors “heads” right NOW, EVERY visit. Segment->Target->Personalize->SELL XX% MORE NOW. With no I.T.”
10 characters to spare. Could probably even be retweeted.
BOTH Twitter/Facebook-oriented exercises Bryan suggested– as well as others I’m sure they have in their backpockets, are fabulous, but let’s not lose POWERFUL communication in a one-dimensional quest for SIMPLE communication.
July 3rd, 2009
12:16 am
I’m with Kurt on this one – when I saw their pitch I instantly thought of BS-Bingo.
One worthwhile check is the opposite test. Would anyone ever say the opposite of your spiel ? If not then what you are saying is empty.
July 7th, 2009
7:08 am
I had the same concerns as Kurt. My solution was to test responses to unique campaign variables against a UVP. Maybe summarising a sales hook would be simpler than summarising a value proposition in 140 characters, but you could get the same ultimate response levels.
October 17th, 2009
8:57 am
Nice post!
i love it.
An elevator pitch is not a mini-business plan,as far as i am concerned.
Thanks for the sharing!