There’s a new generation of snooping tactics on the web, offering new ways to interact and get a second chance of selling. But it will only work if you handle the conversation carefully...
When you visit a website, you’re just an anonymous statistic. That’s something we all love as consumers, but in business it’s been a source of anguish for a whole web generation.
As webmasters, we go to the ends of the earth to drive in traffic – paying Google, or endlessly building links and carefully optimising – so it’s painful to sit back and watch as visitors leave, like the in-store customer who refuses help because they’re “only browsing”!
We want a second bite of the cherry!
OK, a handful might leave a name and email address, but opt-in rates have been in decline for a good few years now:
(1) Because “Join our newsletter” has become meaningless – and most sites that offer an extra bribe are pedalling the same old resources.
(2) Because Social Media and all those newsletters are giving us info overload.
(3) Because to quote Bill Gates, “People hate, hate, hate to subscribe to things on the Internet!”
So if the visitor won’t co-operate, we’ll have to smoke them out!!
In the last few years, boffins have been hard at work, developing new widgets that identify the visitor in one form or another. Examples being:
Live Chat: plenty of tools out there, letting you track the visitor in real time and initiate a conversation. It’s all slightly Big Bro, but if you set parameters (like waiting a minute, and only bothering people who hit transactional pages), it can boost conversion without scaring the proverbial pants off the visitor.
Re-Marketing: Google’s own miracle, that puts a mark against the visitor when they get to your site. Then as they move around the web, dropping into Google’s Content Network, they see your ads, as if by accident – thinking you’re a ubiquitous brand instead of a new-age cyber-stalker!
Lead Forensics: my personal fave will ID the (business) visitor’s IP address and tell you who they work for! You don’t get names, but you see what they searched for and which pages they viewed...more than enough for intelligent follow-up to the relevant department.
So the big question is...
How to exploit all these new-fangled (or in some cases mid-fangled) gadgets?
And the answer is, learn from the last generation of visitor intelligence.
Mail Servers have used “smoke ‘em out” tactics since the dawn of spam. When someone clicks on a link from your email or newsletter, you can see where they went and when. And that’s info that’s been handled well by some, disastrously by others!
Right approach – ring fence people who click through and send a more detailed follow-up message, building on the info you’ve already given. Or invite them into an inner circle, like a Social Media group where they can ask questions or join in discussions.
Wrong approach – get straight on the phone and say “I saw you’ve been on the website, what do you want?”
Obvious, I know, but we all know it happens! But no-one wants to think there’s someone out there who can crack the code and work out where they’ve been online! It’s a sure-fire way to make the visitor feel uncomfortable - and chances are they’ll never darken your virtual door again.
So what does that mean when it comes to the new generation of snoopers?
Well, it means be subtle! Use the technology for opportunity and intel, without spurring the prospect into taking out a restraining order:
...Using Live Chat, don’t jump on the visitor before they’ve found their feet.
...Re-Marketing, make your ad relevant to the product or service viewed...but stop short of reminding them they've seen you somewhere before.
...And if you get the visitor’s company details, wait as long as you can before contact - then spark a gasp of “coincidence” via a phone call or follow-up letter.
Ultimately, with all these tools, you can act on two things: the fact that the visitor is interested here and now, and your knowledge of the product or service they’re looking at.
Use that to your advantage, and keep your surveillance tactics under wraps, and you can finally get that second bite.
In other words, be subtle...and you can enjoy the cherry!
Thursday, 5 January 2012
Tuesday, 13 September 2011
So, did you get mauled by the Panda?
Now the dust has settled on Google’s divisive Panda Update, and the nightmare stories of overnight ranking dips have fizzled back into the ether, it’s a good time to take a discreet peek at the aftermath, and what it all means for SEO in the long run.
Bit of history first: ‘Panda’ (if you didn’t know) is the name affectionately given to a sweeping change Google made to its algorithm back at the start of this year.
Don’t ask me why they called it ‘Panda’. Pandas are cute and cuddly, and this algorithm can do the business equivalent of ripping your head off and using it as a novelty serving bowl for bamboo shoots.
Still, they had to call it something, and maybe ‘Rottweiler’ was already taken?
For all its ferocity though, Panda was a big fat necessity. It was all about downgrading the trashy 83rd rate content that’s been littering the web in the name of link-building. Google is about relevance and user experience as much as popularity, so the boffins had to do something to end the frenzy of synthetic ‘voting’ that came from directories and article hubs.
Any website with genuine, useful content supported by relevant backlinks might have felt a slight wobble post-Panda, but defo not the Richter-shattering tremors reported by the spam-happy link-stuffing brigade.
So, how did Panda change the rules?
Clearly, the big casualty has been Article Marketing. It’s no longer ‘good practice’ to write an article and syndicate it to 300 article hubs, and the industry has been quick to point this out.
A few caveats, though: (1) multiple links can still send you multiple visitors, who follow through from the article site direct to yours; and (2) a well written article placed on a good article site (without mass syndication) can still give you a valuable SEO boost.
Here’s an example: a few months ago, I optimised a page of my main website for the keyword direct mail copywriter. Initially, the page made it to something like 93rd on Google (despite ticking all the boxes for on-page optimisation).
My next move was to write an article about direct mail, and post it to Article Base (one of the better article sites IMO). The article included a footer credit with an anchor text link back to the target page. A week later, I’d made page 2 of Google, and I’ve now graduated to page 1, with no other links from any source.
(Except the one I’ve just added above!)
I’ve seen dozens of other cases just like this, so if you’re reviewing your article strategy, I’d be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. There is still value there – just know that the rules have changed.
And the other casualties are...?
Scatter-gun link building is out, full stop. Google’s emphasis is firmly on quality over quantity – so if a link is relevant and adds value to the visitor, it’s brownie points all round. But if it’s one of 12 dozen links on a page or a fish out of water content-wise, the spiders will shrug it off like never before (and laugh at you behind your back).
Of course, this all points to one large hairy question:
With so many opportunities to manipulate the linking process, can links be taken seriously now as a measure of popularity?
For the time being, the answer seems to be a tentative Yes, qualified by the new Draconian steps. But other displays of social proof (Facebook likes, retweeted links etc) are suddenly the young pretenders, likely to dethrone links as the big boss arbiters of genuine popularity.
OK, so what does it all mean in practice?
To put it succinctly, it means quality rules - and any site that plays the SEO game nicely (that means putting the user first) is unlikely to suffer significant knock-backs.
Here are 5 steps you could take:
1. Take a fresh look at your content. Make sure it’s user-focused, intuitive and a handy source of info.
2. Add some video. As you probably know, Google owns YouTube, so best to import it from there...pretty soon, they’ll be analysing the audio track of every video, and factoring in the transcripts when they place you for given keywords.
3. Get blogging. These days, blogs are a big and much under-used opportunity. Choose your keyword, then optimise a quality post and see what happens...
4. Write some guest articles. Team up with people who target the same market as you and worm your way into their contacts by sharing some expertise. You’ll only get one link, but with the right partner, it’s one worth having.
5. Add social media icons. Invite people to join your facebook page, ask them to share a link or just click the ‘Like’ button. This could make a massive difference somewhere (not too far) down the line.
OK, there are lots of other things too, but that’s enough to be getting on with!
And if you’ve had an Apres-Panda experience, feel free to share it below...
Bit of history first: ‘Panda’ (if you didn’t know) is the name affectionately given to a sweeping change Google made to its algorithm back at the start of this year.
Don’t ask me why they called it ‘Panda’. Pandas are cute and cuddly, and this algorithm can do the business equivalent of ripping your head off and using it as a novelty serving bowl for bamboo shoots.
Still, they had to call it something, and maybe ‘Rottweiler’ was already taken?
For all its ferocity though, Panda was a big fat necessity. It was all about downgrading the trashy 83rd rate content that’s been littering the web in the name of link-building. Google is about relevance and user experience as much as popularity, so the boffins had to do something to end the frenzy of synthetic ‘voting’ that came from directories and article hubs.
Any website with genuine, useful content supported by relevant backlinks might have felt a slight wobble post-Panda, but defo not the Richter-shattering tremors reported by the spam-happy link-stuffing brigade.
So, how did Panda change the rules?
Clearly, the big casualty has been Article Marketing. It’s no longer ‘good practice’ to write an article and syndicate it to 300 article hubs, and the industry has been quick to point this out.
A few caveats, though: (1) multiple links can still send you multiple visitors, who follow through from the article site direct to yours; and (2) a well written article placed on a good article site (without mass syndication) can still give you a valuable SEO boost.
Here’s an example: a few months ago, I optimised a page of my main website for the keyword direct mail copywriter. Initially, the page made it to something like 93rd on Google (despite ticking all the boxes for on-page optimisation).
My next move was to write an article about direct mail, and post it to Article Base (one of the better article sites IMO). The article included a footer credit with an anchor text link back to the target page. A week later, I’d made page 2 of Google, and I’ve now graduated to page 1, with no other links from any source.
(Except the one I’ve just added above!)
I’ve seen dozens of other cases just like this, so if you’re reviewing your article strategy, I’d be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. There is still value there – just know that the rules have changed.
And the other casualties are...?
Scatter-gun link building is out, full stop. Google’s emphasis is firmly on quality over quantity – so if a link is relevant and adds value to the visitor, it’s brownie points all round. But if it’s one of 12 dozen links on a page or a fish out of water content-wise, the spiders will shrug it off like never before (and laugh at you behind your back).
Of course, this all points to one large hairy question:
With so many opportunities to manipulate the linking process, can links be taken seriously now as a measure of popularity?
For the time being, the answer seems to be a tentative Yes, qualified by the new Draconian steps. But other displays of social proof (Facebook likes, retweeted links etc) are suddenly the young pretenders, likely to dethrone links as the big boss arbiters of genuine popularity.
OK, so what does it all mean in practice?
To put it succinctly, it means quality rules - and any site that plays the SEO game nicely (that means putting the user first) is unlikely to suffer significant knock-backs.
Here are 5 steps you could take:
1. Take a fresh look at your content. Make sure it’s user-focused, intuitive and a handy source of info.
2. Add some video. As you probably know, Google owns YouTube, so best to import it from there...pretty soon, they’ll be analysing the audio track of every video, and factoring in the transcripts when they place you for given keywords.
3. Get blogging. These days, blogs are a big and much under-used opportunity. Choose your keyword, then optimise a quality post and see what happens...
4. Write some guest articles. Team up with people who target the same market as you and worm your way into their contacts by sharing some expertise. You’ll only get one link, but with the right partner, it’s one worth having.
5. Add social media icons. Invite people to join your facebook page, ask them to share a link or just click the ‘Like’ button. This could make a massive difference somewhere (not too far) down the line.
OK, there are lots of other things too, but that’s enough to be getting on with!
And if you’ve had an Apres-Panda experience, feel free to share it below...
Thursday, 28 October 2010
Incredible...25% of Welsh SMEs have no website!!
As a Web Copywriter based in sunny Wales, I don't know how to react to Google's latest revelation. I don't know whether to dance on the table and shout "Kerching!" at the prospect of what's to be done, or slump over my keyboard in despair of an economy that needs a boot up its proverbial jacksy.
Frankly, I don't know how any business - even a local corner shop - can refuse to get up to speed with the web and all it has to offer. Whether you're acquiring new customers, retaining, upselling, building loyalty or just promoting word of mouth, you can do it more efficiently - more effectively - online.
And yes I know I'm not making any great revelation there - it's what the whole world has known for the last 15 years or more.
So why is Wales falling so far behind the UK? I'm sure there'll be extensive, costly and inconclusive studies to follow, but just to throw in my tuppence I'd say there are three issues here:
1. A publicly-funded economy. Wales has stifled the entrepreneurial spirit by getting SMEs hooked on European cash - to the point where investing in anything without the cushion of grant funding is counter-cultural.
Outside Wales, I'm sure that'll raise a few eyebrows, but that's what we've become. We're clinging to Europe's apron strings - and now the funding's drying up, a £5-10k budget for a half decent website feels like a billion pound decision.
2. Broadband coverage still ain't what it should be. True, the Assembly is tackling this (one of its few worthy measures) but until Rural Wales joins the rest of the world with a super-fast connection, we'll always have dial-up companies who don't believe the internet myths they have to read in yesterday's newspaper.
3. A dogged attitude of "This is how we've always done it". Bizarrely, Wales is home to some of the UK's best web developers, but so many local companies - including some in the Wales Top 300 - are attached to old business models and just "not getting" the internet.
And that goes deeper than companies who refuse to set up online...it's an attitude that plagues thousands of firms who've reluctantly made the transition.
Soz if that offends, but it's true. Roam through Wales' top companies and you'll see a massive disparity online. At one end of the scale, you've got companies like Admiral who play the web for all its worth - but at the other end, you'll see token websites that were clearly built in 1996 from one of those 'Build It Yourself' CDs that should have been destroyed in the interests of taste.
These companies are succeeding now in spite of themselves, but it'll only take a handful of web-savvy competitors to knock them off their perch and send Wales' fragile economy further down the swanny.
OK, so that's the problem - what about the answer? I've got to say, for the most part it's not about government...it's all about hearts and minds.
It's about appreciating the full potential of the web. Even if you're stuck in a broadband blackspot, the web is still out there and it can only become more important to your customers as time moves on.
Like it or not, the web has changed the face of marketing - and there's no going back. Grant money or not, no business is going to survive the next 5 years without a considered presence online.
If you're struggling to make your mark online, join me and a team of marketing ninjas at The Growth Circle's next Media Summit in Swansea - a chance to learn some vital new tricks and tap into a whole new way of thinking. See http://www.4thnovember.com/
Frankly, I don't know how any business - even a local corner shop - can refuse to get up to speed with the web and all it has to offer. Whether you're acquiring new customers, retaining, upselling, building loyalty or just promoting word of mouth, you can do it more efficiently - more effectively - online.
And yes I know I'm not making any great revelation there - it's what the whole world has known for the last 15 years or more.
So why is Wales falling so far behind the UK? I'm sure there'll be extensive, costly and inconclusive studies to follow, but just to throw in my tuppence I'd say there are three issues here:
1. A publicly-funded economy. Wales has stifled the entrepreneurial spirit by getting SMEs hooked on European cash - to the point where investing in anything without the cushion of grant funding is counter-cultural.
Outside Wales, I'm sure that'll raise a few eyebrows, but that's what we've become. We're clinging to Europe's apron strings - and now the funding's drying up, a £5-10k budget for a half decent website feels like a billion pound decision.
2. Broadband coverage still ain't what it should be. True, the Assembly is tackling this (one of its few worthy measures) but until Rural Wales joins the rest of the world with a super-fast connection, we'll always have dial-up companies who don't believe the internet myths they have to read in yesterday's newspaper.
3. A dogged attitude of "This is how we've always done it". Bizarrely, Wales is home to some of the UK's best web developers, but so many local companies - including some in the Wales Top 300 - are attached to old business models and just "not getting" the internet.
And that goes deeper than companies who refuse to set up online...it's an attitude that plagues thousands of firms who've reluctantly made the transition.
Soz if that offends, but it's true. Roam through Wales' top companies and you'll see a massive disparity online. At one end of the scale, you've got companies like Admiral who play the web for all its worth - but at the other end, you'll see token websites that were clearly built in 1996 from one of those 'Build It Yourself' CDs that should have been destroyed in the interests of taste.
These companies are succeeding now in spite of themselves, but it'll only take a handful of web-savvy competitors to knock them off their perch and send Wales' fragile economy further down the swanny.
OK, so that's the problem - what about the answer? I've got to say, for the most part it's not about government...it's all about hearts and minds.
It's about appreciating the full potential of the web. Even if you're stuck in a broadband blackspot, the web is still out there and it can only become more important to your customers as time moves on.
Like it or not, the web has changed the face of marketing - and there's no going back. Grant money or not, no business is going to survive the next 5 years without a considered presence online.
If you're struggling to make your mark online, join me and a team of marketing ninjas at The Growth Circle's next Media Summit in Swansea - a chance to learn some vital new tricks and tap into a whole new way of thinking. See http://www.4thnovember.com/
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