20? tips to improve your web marketing

for

Cambridge branch of CIM, 10th July, 2008

Dave Chaffey

www.davechaffey.com/presentations

2

guru ‘a religious leader or teacher in the Hindu or Sikh religion or, more generally, a person who is respected for their knowledge of a particular subject and who gives advice’

About Dave ChaffeyAn e-marketing “guru”!

www.davechaffey.com

Recognised by the CIM in 2004 as one of 50 people who have ‘shaped the future of marketing’ and by DTI in 2005 as a key contributor to the development of UK E-commerce in the last 10 years

Author of 6 best-selling business books

► E-marketing Excellence, Internet Marketing► E-business and e-commerce Mgt► Total E-mail Marketing

E-marketing trainer and consultant

Clients include 3M, BP, CIPD, Euroffice, HSBC, IDM, Intel, Siebel and Tektronix. Analyst at www.e-consultancy.com.

E-marketing consultant at www.cScape.com.

Visiting lecturer at leading UK business schools

► Cranfield School of Management E-commerce► Leeds University Business School► Warwick (E-business)2

► Previously Birmingham, Derby

3

How long do you have to engage a site visitor?

► 50 milliseconds

► 2 seconds?

► 7 seconds?

Source: www.clickdensity.com

4

2008 : Top 20 web design tips

Tips Watch out for…

1. Strategy OVP

2. Analytics GA, Bounce rates

3. Findability AB, MVT

4. Persuasion Cialdini, GCO

5. SEO GWT, SEOMoz, GT

5

Case study -► One of the UK’s leading nationwide laser eye

surgery clinics treating over 100,000 UK patients► One of the biggest advertisers on the UK Internet

Web site

Database

Online adverts

Consultation booking

Consultation

TreatmentAwareness

Brand favourability

Purchase consideration

Maintain share of voice

Drive purchase intent

Engage with brand personality

Product reassurance

Email

1. Strategy

7

How do you measure website marketing success?

Chaffey et al., Internet Marketing, 3rd Edition © Pearson Education Limited 2007

8

Tip #1 - Defining your OVP

► Core brand proposition = Marketing Mix:►Who you are►What you do►Where you do it►What makes you different?

► OVP - Online Value Proposition ► Reinforces core brand proposition and credibility, but

messaging shows:► Value that a site visitor get from your online brand or

campaign that…► They can’t get from you offline?► They can’t get from competitors?

► Communicate message forcefully: online and offline

9

Does your message stand out?

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/banner-blindness.html

10

Examples of Nielsen’s tests

11

What do you notice?

Source: Etre (www.etre.com)

12

Amazon exploits top-left, top-right

Source: Etre (www.etre.com)

13

Ultralase home page

Outcomes+

OVP

Run-of-SiteSignup

Customer-centric copyQuestions answered

14

Tip #2 answer the visitors questions

Ad

Interstitial landing page

Standard landing landing page

15

Tip #3 Use run-of-site Sign-up and OVP messages

OVP = Online Value Proposition

16

Tip #4 – target using personasFor each persona, assess preferences for: Platforms

(web, email, mobile) Platform usage (hours) Content consumption:

General site types &

category-specific Social media - content

creation & participation Search behaviour Trusted brands

Analytics

18

19

Tip #5. Reduce your bounce rate

► “Percentage of visitors who enter the site and who then immediately exit”

► Should benchmark for different:► 1. Digital channels (Search, ads, direct, email)► 2. Different sites, placements or search terms ► 3. Creative► 4. Different landing pages

20% = Great

40% = OK

60% = Spam

20

Tip #6 - tune your www.google.com/analytics setup► 1. Define conversion goals (including value) & funnels► 2. Define unique pages (e.g. remove Session IDs from URLs)► 3. Setup filters (e.g. new visitors only, paid search, campaigns)► 4. Put campaign tracking tags in place

http://www.epikone.com/landing_page.php?utm_campaign=fall-sale &utm_medium=banner&utm_source=boston.com&utm_content=text-only

Variable Meaning

utm_campaign The name of the marketing campaign, e.g. Spring Campaign.

utm_mediumMedia channel (i.e. email, banner, CPC, etc). What is the ‘distribution method’ that is used to get our message out to our clients?

utm_sourceWho are you partnering with to push your message. A publisher, or for paid search Google, Yahoo, Live Search,

utm_contentThe version of the ad (used for A/B testing). You can identify two versions of the same ad using this variable.

utm_termThe search term purchased (if you’re buying keywords). This is not always used and is NOT included in the above example.

Findability

22

Tip #7 - Use Scent trails

Do you have the right scent?

Tip: Use customer-centric language, Especially in nav labels and page headings

23

Tip #8 AB Test

Which is best? - ‘Clean’ or ‘Cluttered’

24

Tip #9 Use Multivariate testing?

25

Tip #10 TIMITI = Flexible web layouts

26

Tip #11 Use secondary navigation to highlight next steps

Persuasion

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cialdini

Credibility +

6 “weapons of influence” • Reciprocity• Commitment and

consistency• Consensus• Affinity

(Liking & credibility)• Authority• Scarcity

28

Persuasion principle 1: Credibility

► 1. Presumed General assumptions in the mind of the perceiver

► 2. Surface Simple inspection or initial first-hand experience

► 3. Reputed Third party endorsements, reports or referrals (Tip #12)

► 4. Earned First hand experience that extends over time www.euroffice.co.uk

29

2. ReciprocityTip #13

Offer valuable, exclusive content or

offers and your audience will

remember you and be

indebted to you.

30

4. Commitment and consistency

“Get initial commitment”

“Set their alarm clock”:

Tip #14Provide reasons

to Regularly

Return

Q. How can you highlight reasons to return to the site (which labels)?

31

Apply RF(M) analysis

Loyalty(Number of Visits)

Recency(Date of Last Visit)

88% of “Loyal Stars”Use the forum

“Fresh”(Been in last 3 weeks)

“Rotten”(> 3 months old)

“Stale”(3 weeks – 3 months)

“Regulars”(2-5 times)

“Loyal”(More than 5 visits)

“Tried It”(Once or Twice)Proportion using

community tools

32

5. Consensus and social proof

Tip #15

Use independentaccreditation

Your audience will believe others more than they

believeyou!

33

Social media can help with conversion and SEO

www.addthis.com

34

6. Affinity (liking)

People are

persuadedby

otherpeople

theylike

35

36

5. Authority

Show off

your

Authority,

Expertise

and

Status

37

38

7. Scarcity Loss is more

powerful than

gain

Show site

visitors what

they could miss

39

Tip #14 Webify your copyThe most common online copywriting mistakes► Copy not customer-centric (Use the “You Test”)► Not appealing to diverse audiences

► Not highlighting your unique benefits► Making copy too long

► Not chunking copy ► Not engaging at start of para

► Not using sub-heads► Not highlighting related content

► Not integrating hyperlinks► Hyperlinks at start, middle and end

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

41

Tip #16 Controlling your messaging in the search results page

Paid listings - Pay Per Click (PPC)

Natural or organic listings -Search engine optimisation (SEO)

<title> </title> tags<meta name=“description = > tags

Or Snippets from pageOr www.dmoz.org

42

GoogleSERPS

Visible page

.HTMLSource“ViewSource”

Controlling messaging through document meta data

<meta name> description tag + snippet

<title> tag

3

12

4

5 - <h1><h2>

43

Practical tipTo evaluate use search syntax:

site:domain.com + <keyphrase>

44

Tip #17 Analyse target keyphrases

Source: OneStat.com

Tip: Use the Google keyword tool to inform copywriting:https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

45

Which SEO ranking factors should I focus on?

► On page:► 1. <title> tag = 4.9/5► 2. Meta name description = 2/5► 3. Meta name keywords = 1/5► 4. Keyword frequency and density = 3.7/5► 5. Keyword in headings = <h1> = 3.1, <h2> = 2.8► 6. Keyword in document name = 2.8

► Off-page► More backlinks (higher PageRank)= 4/5 ► Page assessed as a hub = 3.5/5► Page assessed as an authority = 3.5/5► Link anchor text contains keyword = 4.4/5► Link velocity (rate at which changes) = 3.5/5

See http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors

46

Tip #18 Use footer links and primary nav for SEO

Current accounts page

Home page

Tip: Ensure primary and secondary Navigation labels include keyphrases

within anchor text

47

Tip #19 Create link-bait?

48

Are you using Google Webmaster tools?

► Reasons for using and distributing diagnosis:► Crawl errors ► Search query performance ► Internal and external link reports

Practical Tip:Essential to use:

relevant anchor text for linking pages

within copy

49

Are you answering these questions through Psyma?

How satisfied are my visitors? What are my visitors at my website to do? Are they completing what they set out to do? If not, why not? If yes, what did they like best about the online experience?

So… is your site successful?

Tip #20 – Answer the 4 key customer questions

Is the content what you want?

Can you interactas you want?

Will you makerepeat visits?

Are yourneeds anticipated

Can you locatewhat you are

looking for?

50

Thank you!

►Download this presentation from:►www.davechaffey.com/presentations

►Any questions, do e-mail me:►dave.chaffey@marketing-insights.co.uk

►Subscribe to my E-marketing Essentials, monthly briefing on what‘s new in E-marketing ►www.davechaffey.com