Internet marketing
The World’s Best Digital Marketing Campaigns
Nov 30th
BEST DIGITAL CAMPAIGNS 2011 by gregory pouy
Gregory Pouy is rapidly becoming one of my favorite social media marketing brainiacs!
Earlier this year the Paris-based marketer rocked our world with his free eBook on eCommerce, and now he has been kind enough to let me share with the {grow} community his latest work — an exhilarating take on the best digital marketing campaigns of 2011.
In this presentation, which he prepared in English exclusively for you, Greg goes beyond reporting on 11 catchy digital campaigns. He tells you WHY they excelled, and WHAT the results were. And it is all presented in an entertaining and stylish manner.
If you love marketing as much as I do, you are going to bookmark this one and have a lot of fun with this presentation!
Would you care to share your reactions with Greg in the comment section?
If you can’t view this presentation within the blog, click here: The World’s Best Digital Marketing Campaigns
Key to digital marketing success? Be less digital.
Nov 23rd
One of the things that distinguishes me in the world of social media blogging is that I am old … at least old enough to remember how things used to be before we were digitally tracked, sliced, diced, priced, immersed, consumed, and tethered to these social platforms.
I was working in sales and marketing before Facebook … before email … even before computers. And you know it wasn’t THAT long ago that business relationships were built through a firm handshake, a trusting friendship, mutually-shared experiences, and trust.
And then, sometime in the late 1990s, your company probably took all its order forms, sales brochures, and customer service policies to a strange person called a web developer and said, “turn this into a website.”
We could have hardly realized it at the time but we were creating a layer of digital distance between ourselves and our customers that would only become more tangled as layer upon layer of technology was wedged between us. And it was a one-way ticket.
Sure, it was efficient. Administrative costs went down and customers had the convenience of placing orders through our new machines at any time of day or night.
And yet, something was missing. The soul of business was reduced to computer keystrokes.
Robert Cialdini
I thought a lot about this as I was writing my upcoming book. As I was working on it, I had a chance to ask Dr. Robert Cialdini, the celebrated author of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
His reply was simple.
“Be more human.”
Doesn’t that seem ironic?
Being human, simply being ourselves, can create competitive advantage!
“One of the things I advise when I’m consulting in corporate environments is to accentuate certain features that may be deemed attractive and include them in personal bios — the about us categories and so on,” Dr. Cialdini told me. ”We should be including hobbies and how many kids we have, whether we’re hockey fans or runners, and so on so people can register a connection that they wouldn’t necessarily get online, but is typical of face-to-face contacts. Why not infuse those online contacts with the type of information that humanizes them more and leads to cooperation and rapport?”
Dr. Cialdini pointed to research at Stanford that revealed the importance of human connection:
“Participants were told they were going to negotiate through a problem as part of an exercise, but they were told that if no agreement could be reached, both sides would lose and neither side would receive credit for even in the exercise. When they had participants only negotiate via e-mail, 30 percent of the negotiations remained dead-locked and people walked away with nothing.
“However, in the instances where they had the participants exchange some personal information about themselves via e-mail prior to the negotiations the dead-locks dropped to 6 percent. So the general human tendency is to respond positively when we know something about them, when we see something similar to us, when we see humanizing features of that person’s persona available to us. Those things still work – even over the Internet or e-mail — but we have to do something to infuse those technologies with the same sort of information we might get in face-to-face interactions.”
Behind the Twitter avatars and Facebook updates, the text messages and the Skype conferences, people are the same. They still want to be acknowledged. They want to be heard. They want to cut through that digital distance and get to know you as a person.
Personally, I often struggle with infusing a whole lot of personal stuff into my content, but I do recognize the power of that. How are you doing it? Any ideas or best practices you would like to share?
The link to Dr. Cialdini’s book is an affiliate link.
How do you make your content go viral — offline?
Oct 25th
You’re probably stressed.
It’s likely that you (and your customer contacts) are doing the job that used to be done by three people. The information density of our world is overwhelming. Budgets and resources have been slashed.
It seems that everything is working against our ability to connect with customers and share information that could influence a purchasing decision and close a deal!
On the Internet side of the business, a new model for personal power and influence has emerged. Enabled by widespread access to high-speed Internet and free publishing tools like blogging and Facebook, a new generation of influencers has emerged who have created a niche by being able to create compelling content and move it through an engaged network.
So now I want to take this idea a step further and push this thinking a new way. If you have been immersed in the social web for awhile, this idea of influence probably makes sense. But how do we apply this same model to the OFFLINE world?
How do we establish power and influence by creating compelling content and moving it through a HUMAN network instead of a digital one?
For example, success in sales often depends on your ability to tell the story of your company and the benefits of your product. But that task is more difficult than ever. The competition is fierce, and your procurement contacts have less and less time to learn about what you do … let alone understand it.
So how can we use Web 2.0 communication tools to break through the clutter and move our marketing message virally through Procurement, through corporate gatekeepers, and into the hearts and minds of executive decision-makers?
Here are a few lessons from moving content online that might help move it offline too:
Infographics – While we might be weary of infographics, wouldn’t that be an interesting way to cut through the clutter with a busy purchasing manager? Instead of giving them a glossy brochure or power point presentation, why not a one-page, cleverly-designed picture of your business?
Aggregate content – When I interview customers during my market research activities, I always ask them what they hate about their jobs. I look for activities that my client might be able to take on for them to make them indispensable. The answer usually leads back to something about stress and a lack of time to get things done. How can you use Web 2.0 utilities to help customers solve problems and save time? Can you aggregate industry content in a helpful way so that a message from your company cuts through the clutter once a week?
Make ‘em say wow – Let’s face it. Most company corporate communications are bland. They’re little more than glossy, buzz-laden press releases. Yet the communications that really stand out and get shared ENTERTAIN people! Do you remember the day last year when the Google logo was a little PacMan game? If you saw it, I’ll bet you remember it, played it, and probably shared it. It was a little thing that helped them stand out and make people go “wow!” If you have ever seen an example of a corporate marketing communications that makes you go “wow” I’d like to see it. Rare exceptions … but why?
Visual selling — I don’t know what you call this technique, but many magazines are now doing lists where you can feature the “top 10 of something” by flipping through a picture or graphic and a small amount of text. An example from Inc. is here. This is an effective communincation format when you want to summarize the highlights, yet I have never seen it used out side of this magazine format. Sort of a Flipbook/infogrpahic combination.
I don’t have all the answers, but what do you think about the idea? How can we apply online marketing principles and best practices to the offline world to get to decision makers?
10 ways to use psychology to lure web customers
Aug 16th
I’ve been researching and thinking about the psychology of the social web and our Internet relationships. There are many common psychological techniques you can use in your every day Internet marketing. Here are a few ideas to ”psych” your visitors into spending more time on your website and your blog.
1) Social proof is king
In real life, “social proof” is the trappings of society that impart influence. A person’s height, a fancy car, a diploma … all help determine influence, subconsciously. Since we don’t have those physical clues in the online world, we look to “badges” like Twitter followers and Klout scores to provide a shortcut assessment.
With the density of information in today’s world, these badges are more important than ever. In fact they may be even more important than your real knowledge, experience and accomplishments. Strange but true. Think about your favorite blogger. I’ll bet you notice some of their badges like followers, AdAge rank, or tweets on a blog post, before you investigate their education or level of professional experience.
We make the same assessments about websites and blogs. If you see a lot of tweets and comments, testimonies and awards, you assume something good is going on there.
Another way to accomplish this on a website is product reviews and ratings. Make sure ratings and reviews are clearly displayed on your site or product pages. Allow users to include information about themselves such as their gender, name, location and occupation. This makes the reviews even more compelling since it can create a connection to the demographics of your site visitors.
2) Give web tourists a reason to become residents
In the first few seconds you have a visitor on your site, are you giving them a reason to stay a little longer to learn about you? This is commonly called a “call to action.” On my website, you can click to see free materials, download an eBook, watch videos, read case studies, listen to a podcast, read my blog … basically I give people lots of reasons to hang around by providing valuable material that would interest my target customer.
On my blog one of the most effective devices I have to help people stick around is the “Linked Within” app at the bottom of each post suggesting further reading. This dramatically increases time on the site and increases page views on my blog by about 8 percent.
3) Put the most important action at the top
When you’re plotting out your call to actions, put your most important one first. The idea behind this is simple: what comes first is unconsciously regarded as the best. I’ve been experimenting with this myself. One other consideration — if you’re stacking your calls to action down the right side of your page, keep in mind that the top right corner of your website is a blind spot. This is spooky but it really is true.
One time I was offering a free download at the upper right corner of my site. I was in a meeting with a web designer and was talking about the problem in front of a huge display screen of my website. I said “Without looking at the screen, can you tell me if I have a free download offer on my landing page?” Although we had been looking at the page all morning, he completely missed this element. So, highlight your best offers first, but watch where you place them!
4) Provide instant gratification
When deciding to make a purchase, we are often influenced by how fast we can have the product. Reduce or eliminate fields required to purchase or engage. The other day I was required to register to comment on a blog. FAIL!
In a famous experiment participants were asked to choose between getting $5 now or $40 at a later date. MRI scans showed that when people thought about getting the money right away, the mid brain, or emotional center of the brain fired up. Even if you’re not selling something, use words like “instantly” or immediately in your content and headlines.
5) Illusion of scarcity
When something has a limited amount to it, its assumed value increases. We will want it even more. Make your product/offering limited by showing a limited stock quantity or limited time frame. This is a common tactic that most Internet marketers and offline/online retailers use. And it works. Because we feel good when we gain objects of value.
6) Build reciprocity
Reciprocity is a big deal on the social web. I’m not sure it created influence, but adding up all these little low-impact “likes” and “tweets” can certainly create leverage over time. This is one of the oldest sales tricks in the book. When you give something away on your web site, it triggers a sensation of indebtedness in your visitor’s mind. You can give away things like free product add-ons, guidebooks, content, downloads, free shipping etc.
Studies show visitors are twice as likely to complete a survey form after they were given access to free useful information.
7. Be sexy
Sex sells. Always has. Always will. Even Zappos the online shoe store is using pictures of naked people in their ads. This is a powerful human motivator but I haven’t quite mastered this on my website! I’m not sure sex is what comes to mind when you read my blog. If it does, please let me know. I’d like to hear about that!
8. Speak to your visitor by using the word ‘You’
Let’s compare this simple website copy:
“This new web service has many built-in features that allow for photos to be uploaded, organized, and stored. Photos can be searched for with only a few steps.”
“You can upload your photos quickly, organize them any way you want to, and then store them so that they are easy to share with your friends. You can find any photo with only a few steps.”
Write as if you’re talking to a person sitting right next to you. She is your prospective customer. She is your blog reader. And she is your friend. Don’t be afraid to use slang or community lingo to connect to their thought processes. Communicate about what she needs, not what you sell. There’s a difference.
9) Get your visitors to make a commitment
Your goal is to drive people to take some action: buy, download, register, etc. And to do that, you need to convert visitors from lurkers to engaged participants. Even the simple act of writing, typing or signing something strengthens commitment to your website/company/brand. The more public the commitment, the stronger it will be.
Getting your visitors to commit to your website can be as easy as getting them to comment on your blog. Polls and surveys work equally well too because they make your visitors interact with you.
10) Use images that demonstrate similarity and attractiveness
Use images of attractive people who are similar to your target market’s demographic profile. People are most influenced by people they deem to be both attractive and similar to them. The brain is unconsciously sizing up people you see and their attractiveness can rub off on your website itself, much like how an attractive person in a cellphone ad makes the cellphone look more enticing.
This doesn’t just apply to images. Most Internet marketers know that in order to appeal to a certain group of people, you need a human face that will be the focal point of their empathy and connection. Hence, the widespread use of marketing personas.
I hope you’ve benefited from these ideas. If the article made you think, please consider sharing it with others and commenting below. Thanks!
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