Is Your Blog Or Web Site Really Ready For Traffic?
One of the pleasures of writing this blog is scouring other blogs and web sites for marketing news and information that will be useful to you, my readers. Eager to find the “good stuff,” each week I end up reading dozens of blog posts and visit as many web sites.
Now and then I run into a blog that tries to get it right but stumbles here and there. “Stumbling here and there” is what we humans do. To err is human, right?
Most of us with blogs have had this experience: we edit, proofread, spell check, read it again, and feeling we’ve covered all the bases push that “publish” button. Only then do we see the mistake, the name we didn’t get right, the link that isn’t working, etc. So, back we go, hoping we can correct our errors before anyone sees it.
Today I found a blog post that seemed perfect to discuss on Marketing Taxi: “The Important Rules of Business Coaching.” We all want to know what the rules are, how they might complement whatever “rules” we currently follow, or if — as some might suggest — there are no rules.
Here’s the link– the actual blog post is useful. I don’t know if it is original material, but that’s not why I mention it. The problem is that the blog itself is not ready for prime time. In the header it reads, “Let us healp you Earn Some Wealth.” Beneath the blog name, “Earned Wealth,” we have those ubiquitous Latin fill-ins “Lorem/Ipsum/Dolorem.” Not exactly the way to build confidence in the author or the wisdom he/she is trying to share with us.
Certainly this is an egregious example of not being ready for one’s readers. However, it makes a point worth making: sometimes the most glaring mistakes are the ones we miss.
For several weeks I had a blog sidebar that was getting pushed down to the bottom of the page. I never saw it because I always used my main desktop computer to work on the blog. Only when I loaded the blog into my laptop did the error show up. Goodness knows how many readers also saw it. So now I review all my web sites and blogs on both computers, each with a different OS and web browser.
In the spirit of ”what are friends for,” perhaps it would be proper to drop a friend a carefully-worded note if we do see something out of kilter on their blog or web site. Besides being a good reason to touch base, your friend will appreciate your thoughtfulness — after the initial embarrassment wears off.
Why Are Customer Testimonials So Effective?
Some marketing pitches are so over-loaded with testimonials from “satisfied customers,” one wonders if the business is really that good, or if the owner has a long list of friends and family members who are willing to say nice things about the company.
In fact, most testimonials do create a favorable impression — that’s why we use them! The question is: why are they so effective? A recent article in Scientific American gives us an answer.
“How Anecdotal Evidence Can Undermine Scientific Results” explains why clients sometimes reject the “facts” you might mention during the course of a consultation and instead adhere to unscientific, subjective stories they have heard or experienced, such as customer testimonials. According to the authors, this tendency to reject factual evidence in favor of personal anecdotes has its roots in our primitive survival instincts:
“We have evolved brains that pay attention to anecdotes because false positives (believing there is a connection between A and B when there is not) are usually harmless, whereas false negatives (believing there is no connection between A and B when there is) may take you out of the gene pool. Our brains are belief engines that employ association learning to seek and find patterns. Superstition and belief in magic are millions of years old, whereas science, with its methods of controlling for intervening variables to circumvent false positives, is only a few hundred years old.”
In other words, this behavior reflects a primitive survival instinct. That’s not likely to change anytime soon.
There are several lessons here. If you are a consultant or coach trying to help a client “get real” about their business or personal circumstances, don’t take it personally if the client rejects your factual “evidence.” When they balk at letting go of attitudes or beliefs based on personal experiences or stories, they are just being insanely normal!
Second, you can alert your client to this very human behavior. Explain that your information might seem to contradict what the client has come to believe anecdotally. Having this explanation upfront might at least open up the client to considering information that contradicts what the client already “knows” to be true.
The third lesson actually uses this primitive instinct in a positive way.
There’s a reason why so many effective marketing programs rely on testimonials to “make a case” for a product or service: they engage our basic human instincts. We tend to pay attention and give high value to stories from other humans. That’s just the way most of us are wired.
Even though our rational, logical selves tells us that four or five positive testimonials from satisfied customers are not scientific proof that the service is good for us — perhaps there are, unknown to us, two hundred dissatisfied customers! — our primitive emotional side tends to place greater weight on the positive, anecdotal evidence we read in an ad or on a web site.
Although this Scientific American story seems to contradict other studies about the way humans process information — for example, high-risk, high-involvement decisions often drive consumers to seek factual information before they make a purchase — it explains a human characteristic that most of us have experienced as consultants (at least, anecdotally speaking!).
Bottom line: you can use this lesson to help clients come to terms with facts they might otherwise be reluctant to accept. As for all those testimonials on your web site or blog saying what a great business you have — keep them! Now you know the real reason they are so effective.
Great Reasons To Market With Newsletters.
With unlimited advertising options and very limited marketing budgets, small businesses have some tough choices to make. Here are ten great reasons why small businesses should consider using newsletters and email newsletters.
1. Increase sales from your current clients. 80 percent of your sales come from the top 20 percent of your clients. A marketing newsletter is an effective way to reach top buyers in a non-intrusive style and inform all clients of any new services your offer.
2. Keep current business coming in. This is the “bathtub” theory. While expanding your customer base — filling the tub with new clients — you want to make sure that existing clients don’t escape down the drain. A newsletter shows people that you value their business.
3. Add value to your services. In a rapidly changing world, newsletters are a vital part of keeping people up to speed. Make getting the newsletter a prime benefit of using your services from you. Give clients “subscriptions.” Place a cover price on the newsletter but send it free to top customers.
4. Lock down your niche. Most businesses survive because they offer specialized products and services not provided elsewhere. A newsletter with specialized content locks in your expertise.
5. Educate prospects. Newsletters work well when people must be educated about your products or services before they will buy from you.
6. Establish expertise and credibility. New companies find newsletters a great way to overcome first-time buyer resistance.
7. Save selling time. People who respond to your newsletter are better informed because they already know more about what you offer than someone coming in from other advertising.
8. Spur word-of-mouth referrals. Newsletters have pass-along value. A good newsletter will be shared with an average of three other people.
9. Network though news. Keep in touch with everyone who can help your business — your local government, the press, recruits, and peers within a related industry.
10. Draw readers to your web site. A helpful newsletter can do double-duty as content for a web site. Or, the newsletter can advertise additional information available only on your web site, pulling in online traffic.
Let the world know who you are!
