Author Archive
Facebook Ads Prove That “Targeting” Demographics Is Silly
Social media advertising isn’t just another fad. With all of that juicy customer info we give social networks each day, for free, businesses of all sizes are lining up to cash in by offering the right ad to the right person, guaranteed — or so they think.
Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t.
Here’s the promise Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and CEO, made to media buyers last November:
With Facebook you will be able to select exactly the audience you want to reach, and we will only show your ads to them. We know exactly what gender someone is, what activities they are interested in, their location, country, city or town, interests, gender [etcetera, etcetera] . . .
Several months later, this is the result:
Apparently, David at Broccoli & Cheese wasn’t a good target for this ad:
As you read this, thousands of 18-34 year old men are watching Tampax commercials. Not because they want to, but because television is an imprecise medium that makes it hard to get the right ads to the right people. As a result, we’ve been conditioned over decades to expect irrelevance at the commercial break.
But wasn’t the Internet, and in particular, social media, supposed to turn that tide? Take Facebook—they know more about my day-to-day life than my parents do, and surely enough to serve me ads that I’d find remotely useful. But they’re dropping the ball. Big time.
[…] Will someone out there besides Google please get their [expletive] together?
If MarineCFO’s Chief Financial Officer is reading this, chance are s/he’s not thrilled with Facebook.
To be clear, I don’t think MarineCFO was silly to place this ad. It’s just that, like me and perhaps even you, we’re easily seduced by the promise of demographics. We like to think it’s sufficient.
Demographics are like catnip for marketers.
They make being wrong feel so right. They always seem to have the right answer. They help us justify lazy decisions. They give us such wonderful opportunities to prejudge our audience — specifically, how they define themselves and what they want to hear, see or read — based on a few scant details. Yet by themselves, demographics can never be accountable for anything because they’re based on correlation, not causality.
Marketers, and the advertising platforms that prey on them, need to look beyond the logistics of ad placement and stop thinking of “targeting” as a one-way, two-dimensional process. Demographics are important, but without the context of psychographics [define], they’re quite often useless. To paraphrase Mark Twain, to a media buyer armed with vague demographic data, everyone looks like a target.
I wonder where and how these ads would have been placed had they planned the campaign with personas.
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Written by:Robert Gorell
Study: Brand Erosion Caused By E-Commerce Friction
The new “Ouch Point” survey from the Opinion Research Corporation suggests that U.S. e-commerce websites are still — believe it or not — frustrating shoppers.
As first reported by Direct Magazine, the survey found that…
- 19% dislike learning an item was back-ordered or out of stock after said item was placed in a shopping cart
- 14% are frustrated by Web sites that malfunction as payment is being processed
- 8% are confounded by unclear return policies
- 6% don’t like unclear shipping information
- 6% dislike not getting an acknowledgment after an order has been placed
Adding another dimension to these numbers, Jack Loechner at MediaPost explains that:
. . . iCongo, Inc., released the results of a consumer survey conducted by Harris Interactive that reveals [that] 33 percent of online U.S. adults indicated they are more likely to shop online rather than in-person at a store due to the high price of gasoline.
If there were ever a time to optimize your e-commerce website, it’s now.
What else causes friction? Read FutureNow’s 2007 Retail Customer Experience Survey for answers.
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Join FutureNow’s Bryan Eisenberg on June 3rd in New York City for the Call to Action seminar. Based on his bestselling book of the same title, Bryan will show you how to improve conversion and brand affinity by reducing friction for the customer. Register by this Friday and save $100!
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Written by:Robert Gorell
Website Optimization vs. Redesign: The UFO Metaphor
Who would throw away a perfectly good UFO house?
That’s exactly what happened in Taiwan more than 20 years ago, as you can see from these Flickr photos.
Wow. An entire resort filled with UFO-style houses.
Abandoned.
Seeing this made me think of the websites that are abandoned each day, each quarter, by businesses that decide they need to redesign instead of enduring the less glamorous process of website optimization.
According to one blog, there are a several rumors as to why the “UFO house” resort in Sanjhih was abandoned. One story suggests that someone was killed there and the resort is haunted. Another is that the Taiwanese government outlawed bathing beaches in the area. But the most believable explanation is that the design was impractical; the resort is in a remote, windy area near the sea, and if the houses are indeed made of fiberglass as it appears, it would get incredibly hot in the summertime.
Form without function is art, not business.
In August of last year, Internet Retailer’s Form and Function survey of “243 chain retailers, catalog companies, virtual merchants and consumer brand manufacturers,” and found that…
60.3% . . . have redesigned their e-commerce sites in the past year, including 20.1% in the past three months and 14.3% within six months. Of the retailers planning to overhaul the look of their web sites, 74.7% expect to do so within 12 months and 28.6% within 90 days.
[…] “The pace of web site design is brisk because more retailers know that having an attractive site that makes it easy to find merchandise and make a purchase is a competitive advantage,” says Joey Lechtner, director of e-marketing services for Fry Inc., an Ann Arbor, Mich., web site design and e-commerce development company. “Retailers ‘keep up with the Jones’ [sic] and if their competitor redesigns a site, they notice and take action.”
A costly redesign? Just to keep up with the neighbors? What if these earthlings — these so-called “Joneses” — take their design cues from outer space? Sure, there are times when a website redesign makes sense, but if you plan it with human visitors in mind in the first place, redesigning each year would seem crazy.
And let’s face it. Maybe you don’t need a redesign. Maybe you just need to recognize that you’ve built a cool-looking-yet-impractical UFO house that would be fine if you just painted it white and installed solar panels, reflective glass and an air conditioner.
That’s my website optimization metaphor and I’m sticking to it. For now.
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Written by:Robert Gorell
Win Tickets to the IMC Mobile Marketing Conference
If you’ll be in New York City on June 4th — or looking for an excuse to visit — here’s your chance.
The IMC Mobile Marketing conference, in addition to offering a 20% discount to all GrokDotCom readers (click here for details), is letting us give away three free tickets to their event.
How To Enter
All you need to do is leave a question — not a comment — below that addresses a common or interesting concern about mobile marketing.
Be specific. The more detail you give, the better our chances of giving you a clear answer.
The three most interesting questions (according to Bryan and me) win. It’s that simple!
Who Should Enter
Anyone reading this who wants to learn more about mobile marketing; especially those who read GrokDotCom often but don’t comment. We’re setting one of the free tickets aside for a first-time commenter, so don’t be shy!
Why You Should Bother
Because EVERYONE’S questions will be answered. That’s right. Even if you don’t win, we will have mobile marketing experts (from the conference and others) answer your questions. Besides, your odds of winning free tickets are pretty darn good.
How You’ll Know if You’ve Won
We will email you. We’ll also announce the winners next Monday in a new post.
Good luck, and may the best questions win!
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Editor’s Note: Happening in the same hotel, the two days prior, June 2nd and 3rd respectively, FutureNow’s Persuasive Online Copywriting and Call to Action seminars give you even more profitable excuses to visit New York. Register by Friday, May 9th and to save up to $300.
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Written by:Robert Gorell
Tips From a Client Who Doubled His Conversion Rate
When I wrote about how Mint.com quickly builds trust with visitors, I forgot to mention that — although coworkers had recommended Mint’s financial planning service — a former FutureNow client had written in to say he was impressed by how Mint’s website appeals to the four buying modes.
Ah, yes, the four buying modes; Spontaneous, Competitive, Methodical and Humanistic.
Since I was stuck in Competitive (fast + logical) buying mode, I ended up blogging about how Mint’s site addressed my trust concerns by using trigger words — “does not store your account numbers”; “bank-level data security”; “anonymous” — that appealed to me. Meanwhile, our former client, Patrick from JigsawHealth.com (see small picture above), was looking at the big picture.
Patrick even did a screencast to show how understanding the four buying modes is essential to creating a website that converts by speaking to many types of visitors at the same time.
If you’re interested, you can read the Inc. Magazine case study on how Patrick worked with FutureNow to double his landing page conversion rate from 10% to 20% making just a few copy and design adjustments in order to speak to these different buying modes.
There’s no doubt that Patrick’s a smart guy, but this is hardly the first time one of our clients has outwitted me with our own methodology. To be perfectly honest, it happens every day. Brian Bond, our VP of Marketing and Product, the guy who markets the marketers, is a former client.
I’d like to think the reason our clients consistently get strong results is because everyone who works here is a genius, but that’s not true. Could it be that only smart clients hire us? (As much as I’d like to say that and mean it, past experience suggests otherwise.) No, it’s much simpler than that. The reason FutureNow’s clients get results is because, once you optimize your website from the visitor’s perspective, you’ll never look at websites — any website — the same way.
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Written by:Robert Gorell
Johnny Bunko Sure Knows How to Market a Book
The other week, Holly wrote about using video to build better customer relationships. But what if you have a specific product to sell?
Here’s a great example of using video to sell a book online:
Riverhead Books and Penguin Books hired Lindsey Testolin to make made the words of Daniel H. Pink and the illustrations of Rob Ten Pas come to life in the shape of a film trailer — complete with gratuitous needle-dragging-on-record sound effect to suggest a sudden change of expectations. There’s a strong call to action for the book’s website and it insists at the end credits that Johnny Bunko is the best graduation gift of 2008.
Poor Johnny may not know where his career’s headed, but he sure knows how to market a book.
ERRATUM: Turns out that the publisher had nothing to do with the creation of the trailer. Hmm… No surprise there, really. Publishers, take note. This sort of content is worth your money.
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Written by:Robert Gorell
Top 10 Online Retailers by Conversion Rate: March 2008
Here they are, the top 10 converting retail sites for March 2008*…
1. Office Depot - 20.9%
2. QVC - 19.0%
3. Vistaprint - 18.3%
4. Roamans - 18.1%
5. Lands End - 16.2%
6. eBay - 15.7%
7. 1800flowers.com - 15.5%
8. Ebags.com - 15.3%
9. L.L. Bean - 14.6%
10. Pottery Barn Kids - 14.2%
Last month, when Snapfish and Vistaprint found their way to February’s list (at the #1 and #2 spots respectively), Bryan wondered whether they were being tracked for the first time or if they had done something specific to move the needle. Although Vistaprint has slipped to #3 on this month’s list, their conversion rate has actually gone up. Snapfish, meanwhile, has dropped off entirely.
We also noticed on February’s list that LL Bean had dropped from the 23.6% conversion rate they had in January and December to the 14.7% conversion rate they achieved in February. This month, it seems LL Bean has held, but their position has slipped thanks to a higher overall average from the other sites.
Who do you think will make it to next month’s list?
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*Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts
Editor’s Note: Want to know the secrets of top-converting websites? Join Bryan Eisenberg on June 3rd in Manhattan for FutureNow’s Call to Action seminar.
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Written by:Robert Gorell
Have We Gone 2.0 Far? Facebook Wedding Invites!?
I got an email from Facebook this morning, informing me that I had been invited to the wedding of one of my best friends:
I repeat, I got an email from Facebook this morning, informing me that I had been invited to the wedding of one of my best friends.
Apparently, he and his fiancé — also a friend — are worried their close friends, all devout music geeks, might buy tickets to this concert in September (a legitimate fear in my case) and thus have an excuse (albeit a weak one) to miss the wedding (which they would understand because they’d totally be there if they weren’t, um… getting married).
Have we gone too far?
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Written by:Robert Gorell
How to Increase Shopping Cart Abandonment
So, it wasn’t exactly Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood (”I’ve abandoned my CAAARRRRRRT!!!”), but when Jeffrey told me today that he still hadn’t bought his nephew the Fisher Price Grow to Pro Basketball hoop after two weeks of putting it off, I assumed he was being dramatic.
Jeffrey claimed to be sticker shocked from shipping cost inflation, a common reaction while shopping online. One minute, you think you know the whole price. Then — bam — you proceed to checkout, only to find that the price has shot up as much as 25%.
Was Jeff being cheap? Probably. But it’s understandable.
The truth is that online shopping has spoiled us. When Amazon ships for free — at least it feels that way if you buy into Amazon Prime — and when Zappos wants you to return those shoes (yes, really), anything less feels like a cheap plastic substitute for the real thing.
ToysRUs.com does so many things right. The product image views are clear and show multiple angles. The customer reviews are helpful and thoroughly integrated. I could go on, but the important thing — the reason they still haven’t sold Jeffrey a Fisher Price Grow to Pro Basketball hoop — is that they set a poor expectation of total cost before checkout.
Here we see Toys ‘R’ Us insisting that their price is $39.99; a price even our CEO can afford. 
Sounds like a great deal!
And look at these reviews:
Wow, that’s a popular basketball hoop! You’d think he were buying an iPhone.
But when Jeffrey proceeds to checkout…
Fifteen dollars isn’t a big deal, but it’s something you’d never be asked to pay in a toy store. It’s not as though Jeff doesn’t have fifty-five dollars to spend on his nephew. [Author’s Note: Jeff has reminded me that he was shown a $22 shipping fee, making the $40 toy cost over $70 after tax. This begs the question as to why we were shown different shipping charges since neither of us was asked to enter a postal code and we visited the website from the same office.] It’s just that, like you, me, and the millions of people who shop online, we’re turned off by hidden fees.
Is it believable that it costs the company $15 to ship this product? Of course. It looks big and bulky, if not heavy. Is it reasonable to expect them to ship it for less than that? No! In fact, it’s very unreasonable. But logic has very little to do with it. This is about setting the right expectation.
People rationalize buying decisions with logic, but we make buying decisions based on feelings.
As Sitebrand’s Carolyn Gardener points out,
. . . when shipping becomes a pain point due to lousy check-out procedures, strict delivery options and exorbitant fees, the odds of cart abandonment increase.
When you consider the abandonment literally squashes someone’s intent to buy, not to mention the e-store’s ability to make money, it’s a very serious issue.
How to Avoid Shipping Shock
Jeffrey insists that he still plans on buying the basketball hoop from toysrus.com — and I’m pretty sure he will — but let’s brainstorm some ways for e-tailers to reduce the emotional impact of shipping cost shock.
- Offer multiple shipping options - Why should the retailer choose the shipping method? By giving the customer their choice of delivery options, the conversation becomes more about how soon they want it and how much the parcel service will charge them, not how much you’re going to charge them. Doing this also makes it easier to provide some level of free shipping. But good luck getting anyone who’s been spoiled by Zappos’ free overnight shipping policy to get excited because you offer complimentary snail mail. Still, as long as you show the costs for each shipping option right there in the shopping cart, you should be fine.
- Include shipping in price - Why not say “all prices include shipping” upfront on the product page? Some sites allow you to enter a postal code on the product page to estimate shipping rates. Others use new e-commerce technologies to show an estimated cost to ship to the visitor’s current location. If you don’t want to do either of those, at least tell the customer that shipping is not included in the price on the product page. This is especially true for larger items that are expensive to ship.
- Offer free shipping - A lot of established retailers may consider this to be a channel conflict. (”Why should we offer free shipping online? It would kill our profit margins.”) Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but if it’s at all a viable option, it will almost certainly lead to increased volume. Jeffrey would have gladly bought the same product on Amazon, but they told him it would take 1 - 3 months to ship. The irony, of course, is that without free shipping, it might take Jeffrey 1 - 3 months to actually buy it!
What other ways are smart e-tailers reducing shipping shock? If you have examples, please do share them in the comments.
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Want to reduce cart abandonment without sticker-shocking your CFO? We can help.
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Written by:Robert Gorell
Bryan Eisenberg on Websites That Stink (in a Good Way)
Is it really such a bad thing to have a website that stinks?
In the second and final installment of Bryan’s interview with Ralph Wilson — recorded at February’s Search Engine Strategies conference in London — the two shift their focus from personas (as discussed in Part 1) to improving landing page conversion by creating better “scent” for the visitor.
In the video, Bryan talks about a study conducted by usability guru Jared Spool that shows, among other things, that…
- When visitors found the “trigger words” — keywords that either get stuck in their heads, either consciously or subconsciously, often from advertising — on the landing page they’re sent to, they were content with what they found a whopping 72% of the time.
- When these same visitors didn’t see their trigger words on the landing pages they found, their search was only successful 6% of the time.
(If video doesn’t load, click here.)
Despite all the heady research that analyzes how people actually search for — and find — things on the Internet, it’s so obvious that it’s almost funny: We sniff around for relevant info like animals on the hunt. We go where the scent takes us. If we find what we’re looking for, great. Game over. If not, we retreat to home base, regroup and go out on a slightly more refined path until we see it in the corner of our eye. Then we pounce.
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Want Bryan’s advice on how to make your website stink (in a good way)? Meet him at FutureNow’s Call to Action seminar on June 3rd in Manhattan.
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Written by:Robert Gorell
