Branding with Facebook Landing Pages

by JFung on April 6, 2011 in Social Media with No comments

There’s nothing hotter right now than a Facebook landing page

Starbucks, Lady Gaga and Michael Jackson currently have more than 15 million “Likes” on their pages and the numbers are growing rapidly on a daily basis.

Designing your company’s Facebook page is the best decision you can make for your business. Check out the Victoria’s Secret page, Coca Cola and Adidas; you’re bound to get jealous – not because it looks so hot, but because it works as an impermeable marketing strategy to attract Facebook users (a number that’s currently up to 500 million and growing).

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Successful Landing Page Testing

by JFung on April 4, 2011 in Other with No comments

Landing pages are critical component of effective internet marketing tactics that marketers are continuously on a prowl to perfect. Landing page creation is equally an art as it is a science – and like any good science experiment, marketers need the right testing capabilities to perfect the art.

In order to bring traffic to our website, we have to employ the right keyword strategies; in order to retain the traffic on our landing pages; we have to employ the right landing page creation and implementation tactics.

A/B Testing

A/B testing involves splitting your traffic between two pages to observe conversions and lead captures. Once both pages have reached a good quantity of conversions, you’ll be able to instantly see which has pulled in more traffic. For example, you can run a test on two different email subject line of your April Customer newsletter to see which one will have a higher open-rate.

With A/B testing, we get a better take on how to improve our communication with our audiences for the benefit of optimization.

Landing pages are powerful tools for closing immediate sales, so it’s best to ensure that you are implementing the best of your marketing abilities and analytics for maximum revenue growth.

“Permission Marketing: Turning strangers into friends, and friends into customers”

by JFung on March 29, 2011 in Email Marketing, Other with No comments

The concept of Permission Marketing has been around for some time, (initially coined by Seth Godin in Permission Marketing: turning strangers into friends, and friends into customers,) we thought it would be an interesting refresher for today.

As marketers, how do we create intimate relationships with prospects? How do we do this in the most effective way?

There are many theories postulated on this question and many support the idea that in order to get the most out of our relationships with potential customers, we should give them a choice of whether or not to accept the start of a relationship.

Think of it as a contract; how many times do we get emails we don’t want, flyers in the door we never asked for, and how often are we bombarded with media messages we don’t want to see?

As respectable marketers, the only logical way to approach prospects is to give them the chance to accept the beginning of a relationship, which puts them at ease and doesn’t terrify them at the first sight of what could be an intrusive email. After all, an email inbox is the property of its owner, and they have every right to accept emails from whoever they want. Think of it as Facebook: If someone wants to become your friend, they have to request permission from you first.

If marketers approach from this angle, we begin to see the concept behind the relationships; engaging and creating dialogue is a two-way street, or as Godin puts in his book:

“By talking only to volunteers, Permission Marketing guarantees that consumers pay more attention to the marketing message. It serves both customers and marketers in a symbiotic exchange.”

The good news for us is that a relationship-based model allows us to conduct basic demographic targeting and relieves us from spending time on prospects who will never be interested in our products.

In a changing marketing world, where segmentation and targeting with relevancy is becoming a key component in the sales process, permission-based marketing should be an established component of building good rapport.

Content marketing is the process of building a long-term relationship. First you offer valuable information to your prospects, later on in the process you go in for the sale. Or as Seth puts it:

“Permission is like dating. You don’t start by asking for the sale at first impression. You earn the right, over time, bit by bit… In order to get permission, you make a promise. You say, “I will do x, y and z, I hope you will give me permission by listening.”

Don’t be afraid to ask for permission. It’s a valuable commodity for today’s best marketers.

The Fundamental Features of a Mobile-Friendly Website

by JFung on March 24, 2011 in Mobile Marketing with No comments

It has become virtually impossible to avoid mobile web marketing. Whether you are a web developer or a designer, you know all too well that mobile web usage numbers are on the rise and show absolutely no signs of stopping. To ignore the impact of this trend is something that you can’t afford to do if you plan to stay ahead of your competitors and emerge as a leader in your industry.  With faster mobile broadband connections, cheaper data services, and the move to go straight to a mobile device and skipping the PC purchase, a mobile friendly website is a top priority of a good marketing strategy.

The difference between a mobile-friendly website and a desktop-enabled website is that first, it does not need to be as flashy or as visually enticing as the latter. Visitors who are searching for information quickly to access vital insight on-the-go aren’t looking for the same kind of website experience as those who are sitting behind their computers and getting ready to make a decision on whether to contact you or not. In turn, it isn’t as expensive to create a mobile-friendly version – however, what does include considerable complexity is the need to ensure that mobile accessibility is available across all browsers, across all platforms and suits for all mobile screen sizes. From Firefox to Chrome, from iPhone to Android, mobile users will need access to your product or brand from anywhere at any time, and you have to be prepared for this by ensuring that your website is compatible with all versions.

Some Usability Guidelines

Less content, more impact

Mobile websites should be very focused. By including the most important content and features you are providing your visitors with answers to their immediate needs. When they are on-the-go, the need to get access to basic information is greater than your need to impress them.

Navigational capabilities

There are a few effective ways to create proper navigation on a mobile website. The first is placing it on the bottom so it doesn’t get in the way of reading a page. The second is placing the navigation at a dropdown link at the top of the page. The home page should be kept to a minimalist design and should maintain only the essential items without a need for users to look for specific information by navigating through complicated links.

Design for touchscreen and non-touchscreen

A difficulty for mobile users is often the inability to view standard webpages. Links that are placed close together are prone to making it difficult for users to click on the one they want to access. Your calls to action should be tapped easily and should take up more screen space to make this possible.

QR Codes – Next Level Content Engagement?

by Mike MacFarlane on March 21, 2011 in Mobile Marketing with No comments

If you are like me, you have probably seen stickers or images of what you see on the left here on websites, bus shelters or at trade show events.  I was utterly confused the first time I saw one of these; at first glance I thought it was one of those Magic Eye images that if you looked at long enough you would see a rocket ship or a sailboat.

Curious like a cat, I went home and started to dig around online to see what I could find out about these strange images.  Turns out, they aren’t so strange after all; actually, they are pretty cool.

QR Codes are like bar codes, but instead of determining the price of your purchase, you can encode other pieces of data in them, such as text and URLs to websites, documents or YouTube videos.

As marketers, we are always trying to find new and unique ways for people to engage with our content.  While we can and should still relay on our trusted Eloqua tools, such as email and social sharing, QR codes can potentially help bring a new level of engagement to your content.  Here is a really cool example from Axa Bank Belgium on how they used QR codes to help launch their new iPhone app:

This is just one of many different ways that marketers are starting to use QR Codes within their marketing campaigns.  With so many of us using smartphones now, QR Codes can help extend when and how you are engaging with prospects or customers on the move (or in the case above, while watching a commercial).

Depending on what smartphone you use today, there are different ways that you can interact with QR Codes.  I would recommend checking with your device’s App purchasing store (Blackberry App World, iPhone App Store or Android Market).  Many of these apps should be free.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this technique – have you used QR codes in your campaigns before?  Do you have some ideas on how you can use them now?  Let us know!

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