Results: Clientwell's Online Marketing Blog

First Ever Banner Ad Revisited

Check out the world's first banner, which appeared on Hotwired.com in 1994. It's an ad for AT&T, the American version of Eircom (I think), and it's god-awful.

There's no rhyme, rhythm or purpose to this banner. For a start, the AT&T logo isn't mentioned anywhere, there's way too much colour, and it's all done on a black background. Also, the prescient "You Will" is quite ironic nowadays, in the sense that nobody clicks on banners.

But back in the day, this would have been clicked on a lot, probably because nobody had seen anything like it. Today of course, we've got Flash, video and interactive banner advertising. And banner ads are now seen as an integral branding tool in the marketing mix.

Direct Marketing Alive and Well on the Web - Article in this month's IMJ

This is an article of mine that was published in this month's Irish Marketing Journal:

All of this talk about the internet having revolutionised the way we do (and get) business has, mercifully, calmed down a bit. Superlatives were clouding the issue, making the Web appear to be an unfathomable quagmire of buzzwords where traditional business rules no longer applied.

Not so. Marketers are finding that a lot of conventional techniques work perfectly online. As a result, more and more are digging out the time-honoured direct marketing manuals. Armed with the techniques that traditional direct marketing espouses, we are discovering the truth about the Internet: that most businesses, in most industries, can be successful online. It’s just a matter of listening to your forefathers.

In fact, the Web and direct marketing make the perfect couple. Let’s look at a couple of real-life examples that prove this point.

The first lesson learned by budding direct marketers is that the offer is all-important. Giving away a free trial, sample, or complimentary report can increase the response rate exponentially. A discount works as a good incentive too. Visit a few of the better-known travel and hospitality websites – they’re all doing it. With a bit of creative thinking, you can adapt it do your industry.

Then you’ve got to get your offer, and your product, across with your copy. Headlines, subheads, indented paragraphs, the PostScript (P.S.), and so on. Internet users are used to scanning pages quickly – no-one likes reading too much on a monitor, so copy needs to be written for users who glance over it. Headings, bold text for emphasis, and different colours make it more likely that visitors will get your key selling points. Headlines to work on include the main heading of your homepage, the subject line of outgoing emails, and the headlines in your pay per click campaigns. Another factor to consider is that, just as with the headline, almost 100% of Google users will see the top three results – and will probably click on the one with the best headline. If your site isn’t in front of them when they search for it, you’ve got work to do.

The advent of the customer database revolutionised direct marketing. Customers and prospects can be targeted by gender, area code, previous purchases, and demographics. Treat email marketing with care – for a start, you have to work with a database of users that have given permission to receive your emails. Within this framework, smart email marketers segment their databases. Amazon send me emails with offers on Pacino films and Paul Weller CDs because they know that I’ve bought these in the past. Audible.com send me offers on business books, because they know I’m more likely to buy those than Dan Brown’s latest novel.

And you can be sure that Amazon and Audible’s success is based on solid testing. All direct marketers know the value of testing, while realising that it’s potentially the most difficult part of the process. The Internet makes this process very easy. Tracking visitors through campaigns to purchase can be done cost-effectively, and you can easily run A/B split tests on different ad creatives, email subject lines, landing pages and pay per click campaigns. In fact, high-end tracking software can automatically optimise your campaigns in real-time, ensuring you get maximum ROI from your online spend.

Most importantly of all, Web marketers need to learn the simplicity of direct marketing. Direct marketers are obsessed with return. They want to see sales, orders, enquiries, trials, new customers. For them, it’s more about acquisition and retention, less about brand awareness. The dotcom meltdown taught us that, while branding is necessary in marketing, actually increasing your sales and market share can be quite nice too if you want to stay in business. So try some of these suggestions – they may not be sexy, but they’ll work.

A Quick Note on Click-Through Rates

Just in case you didn't already know, we manage the Google AdWords campaigns for a lot of clients. These campaigns get a much higher click-through rate than banner advertising. Banners are much-vaunted for their branding abilities, and while research on that is mixed, that's not the issue here. We're looking at click-through rates from Google campaigns. And I just want to tell you a few of the figures that we're seeing from our work with clients.

Click-through rate [definition] is basically the percentage of people who saw your ad that actually clicked on it to visit your site. Banner advertising click-through rates have settled at 0.2% or thereabouts - this equates to roughly two people clicking on your ad for every thousand that see the ad.

To calculate a click-through rate, you divide the number of clicks by the number of 'views' (also called 'impressions') of the ad. Views/Impressions is the number of times an ad is viewed by internet users.

So, if your ad is seen 100 times and 2 people click on it, that's a click-through rate of 2%. If 8 people clicked out of 100, it's 8%. If 1,000 people viewed the ad and 22 people clicked on it, that's a click-through rate of 2.2%.

Now, onto blowing our trumpet. Only joking. These are actual figures from client campaigns. Let's go:

• 18.3% for a popular mis-spelling of a client's brand name. 173,000 views, 32,000 clicks.
• Exactly 17% for a targeted keyword. 600,000 views of the ad, over 100,000 clicks. Irish users only.
• 15.4% for the keyphrase "mortgages ireland".
• 14.8% for an extremely popular autos search term. Irish only.
• 12.4% for a business-to-business technology operation offering a free white paper for download as a sales leads gatherer.
• 9.9% over three years for an extremely popular hotel term, targeted to US and UK users.

Checking actual conversion rates [define] on each of these terms shows an average of 4.1%, from a low of 2.9% to a high of 11.2%.

This is hard proof that online is working for a wide variety of industries. In terms of actual business, each of these clients is adding to their bottom line by investing in online marketing.

Broadband & Cheltenham: Real-Life Effective Banners

“Twas the day before Paddy's, and all through the house,
Everyone was getting ready for a big session.”

Okay, so it's not Keats, Shelley or Plath, but you get the idea. St. Patrick's Day means many things to many people. Beer, pretending to be Irish when you're not, parades, American cities doing daft things to show their Irish heritage, and so on. I'm still not sure whether I'll be 'celebrating' the Feast of St. Patrick, whether it'll be Galway, Dublin or somewhere else, but I know how I'll be celebrating it. Same as every year, with pint after pint of Guinness.

Right, brass tacks. There are two very good examples of online 'banner' advertising in this week's post. One I really like, the other I'm sure is effective.

Firstly, Virgin Broadband is advertising on Amazon.co.uk and other websites with this ad. There are four essential differences between this ad and 90% of the other banners that are going around.

1. It's very simple and to the point: “no funny stuff.” Like the positioning, the ad itself is very direct.
2. It doesn't use Flash™, which is just rife on the Internet at the minute.
3. It's a non-standard shape, which is known to be effective (or at least less likely to be seen as a banner ad).
4. It's being shown right in the middle of content. Users who visit Amazon.co.uk currently see the ad just underneath the 'Search' box. It's not in the usual banner position (top of the screen or right-hand side), the areas that people just don't look at anymore.

Now I didn't click on this banner, but I did see it. And that's the point. Banners aren't really geared towards getting clicks and orders - pay per click is more effective at that. Banners are for building brand awareness. In fact, studies are now showing that banner ads, when done well, are as effective as TV ads in building a brand.

Now here's another example of online advertising that works. And when I say "works", I mean that it gets the brand and the message across. It may also get clicks, and that's probably the objective of this campaign, but the branding is inescapable.

I visit what used to be called PlanetFootball.com a bit. Now it's owned by SkySports.com, but I still type in www.planetfootball.com every time (old habits, etc.).

Anyhoo, I was there yesterday and came across this (click the image to see it in full size). Boyle Sports have four banners on the homepage!

Now the first thing to be said about this is that it was noticed by me. And I'd say it was noticed by more people on the Sky Sports Ireland website yesterday. So, by that measure it's effective. Also, it's Cheltenham at the moment, so gambling is a big thing at this time of year.

But some people might think of this as overkill. The ads took up just over 40% of the homepage that is viewable on my screen without scrolling. But whatever your opinions on it, you'd be hard pressed not to get the Boyle Sports message when you visit.

Have a great Paddy's Day!

The Scramble for Europe

Registration for the Domain .eu began on 7 December 2005 with a 4-month “sunrise” period during which existing trademark holders and public companies were allowed to register their trademark.

The domain names are being given out on a first-come-first-serve basis. Applicants then have 40 days to provide proof they hold a trademark in that name (to avoid the risk of cybersquatters taking names which are not legally theirs).

Seems like a simple enough process, especially for the Goliaths of industry, right? Well... PricewaterhouseCoopers - official validation agent for all .eu applications - made a clerical error in its own application for pwc.eu and pricewaterhousecoopers.eu and had to re-apply!

Other trademark holders weren't so quick off the draw. There was a race between Ralph Lauren, Nestle and Volkswagen for the domain polo.eu. Apparently all three applied within 5 minutes of each other and Ralph Lauren, owner of Polo.com, missed out by only three minutes and 24 seconds to Volkswagen... German efficiency eh!

If you want to apply to get yourself a pan-European identity on the net, registration will be open to the public from 7 April.

7 Tips for writing content for the Web

1. Know Your Objective
Do you want to sell through your website? Do you want to develop a reputation for being a knowledgeable service provider? Do you want to inform and educate? When you understand what the objective of your site is, your content will reflect that objective. This applies to different section of the site. For example, if you wish to get people to download your brochures, your content should qualify visitors and incite action.

2. Make it Scannable
People scan web pages and pick out highlighted keywords, links, sub-headings and bullet points. Paragraphs should deal with one idea, and it's a good idea to use the "Tell them what you're going to say, say it, tell them what you've said" structure to pages and paragraphs. Alternatively, the "inverted pyramid" style of writing (starting with the conclusion) is a good idea for the Web. A call to action early in the content works better, as most users will not read all of the content on a page.

3. Keep it Short
In line with the above point, short copy always works best. Use (at most) half the word count that you'd use in offline writing. Edit out buffer words and phrases. Aim for economy and immediacy when writing. For a good primer on this, see "The Elements of Style" (Strunk & White) - it's a short book, and well worth a read.

4. Direct Marketing
Certain techniques from traditional direct marketing translate well to the online arena. A good headline will guarantee a higher readership. Sub-headings, bullet points (see point 1), and bold text for emphasis is also recommended. Talking personally ("I", "You") is recommended - that goes for B2B as well as B2C marketing. In addition, font is important. Research has shown that a sans-serif font (such as Arial, Verdana or Tahoma) reads better on a monitor than does serif fonts such as Times New Roman.

5. Avoid Marketing-Speak
While certain terms may be bandied about regularly in your office, they may not be understood by your target market. Don't talk about your "turnkey solution", your "valued customers", your "paradigm-shifting" consultancy, or how your service can "achieve our client's objectives". Don't start your home page with "Welcome". And don't say "We believe". Remember, you're marketing to humans here. And most of these humans are too busy to sift through blurb and filler. Get to the point.

6. Provide Real-Life Examples
I'm on your website to book a hotel. Or get a mortgage. Or buy your software. Or enquire about your services. I'm a human being. And I want to see what you're doing for other human beings! So hit me with the testimonials. Hit me with the case studies. The more specific, the better. I want to know how your hotel inspired people, how your mortgage helped make dreams come true, how your software increased revenues by 22%. This is what matters to your target market. Credibility is important on the Web, so testimonials and case studies are a really good way of strengthening your position.

7. Use the Call To Action
I've read your copy, and I'm impressed. But...what should I do? Sometimes, it helps to spell out the next step to users. What is the next step?

• For a free brochure, send an email to [email protected]
• To speak with one of our travel consultants, call 1800-XXX-XXXX now.
• Clicking this link will take you directly to our order page.
• To read the rest of this article, click here to become a subscriber.

It's the call to action that will cause users to make a conscious decision. Do I want to email/call/click? Some will, and some won't. But excluding a call to action will mean that most of these users will leave your site, never to return. Ask for the order.

Ultimately, copywriting for the Web is not all that different from offline copywriting. Good copy need not be floral and boastful, but it does need to do the job of selling.

3 Tips For Better Conversions

Your new website has just gone live. You've invested quite a bit in it - money, hours, sweat, etc. It's been project-managed perfectly; the brief has been adhered to perfectly.

And it's been worth it. Beautiful Flash design, swirling animations, all the bleeding-edge technologies that your designers advocated, a shimmering Java applet of your office's reflection on the Liffey...beautiful. Just beautiful.

You sit back and wait for the enquiries.

Nothing.

Three months later, you're wondering where it all went wrong. Where has your target market disappeared to?

The likely answer is they've gone down the road to a competitor with a website that they can use. 

If you're planning a web project, these tips will give you a bit of a background to usabililty. Your website needs to CONVERT visitors to customers and qualified sales leads. Usability is the science of doing this.

A recent study found that users decide whether they like a website or not within half a second. Yours needs to appeal from the start. So read these tips and use them.

TIP #1: Visit the following websites: Google, Yahoo, Amazon, Ireland.com, DAFT.ie and RTE.ie Spend a few minutes on them. This is the Internet to millions of people, and these people want all websites to work like this. The more your site is like these websites, the better your site will convert. Simplicity is key.

TIP #2: If you want visitors to do business with you, make it as simple as possible to do business with you. If Dunnes Stores made you run an obstacle course with shopping basket in hand, would you keep shopping there? People don't have much time these days - make it easy for them. Don't make them have to open an account before they can purchase anything. Don't make them have to click six times to get to their product. Don't use long, unwieldy forms to collect personal data. This is an extension of TIP #1. Keep it simple!

TIP #3: "Speak to the dog, about what matters to the dog, in the language of the dog" (Jeff Eisenberg, 'Call to Action'. Your copy needs to be geared towards your target market. People don't want to know that:

• they're welcome to your website.
• you are a total solutions provider.
• you empower global communications providers with real-time data.
• they are visitor number 538.

People do want to know that:

• there's a 40% discount on blue widgets until Friday.
• your site is on a secure server.
• you offer free delivery.
• you guarantee the cheapest widgets in Ireland.

Remember, unless the first impression is favourable, visitors will leave your site and never return. A few simple changes can make a big difference. And if you're planning a re-design, make sure you take these tips on board.

Have you seen any of the above design mistakes? Leave a comment below.

BMW Germany and Scattered Thoughts

The Times has an interesting article on what can happen when SEO goes too far. Although BMW.de has been exonerated, the story has caught on like wildfire. The problem was that BMW (or whoever was working on their search engine rankings) had crowded a 'doorway page' with the German equivalent of "used cars" - "gebrauchtwagen", I'm told.

Now 'doorway pages' are a lazy way of increasing rankings in the first place, and many agencies have used them simply as an extra service to charge for. But it's interesting that Google has taken umbrage at this being done by such a large brand.

At least BMW are trying, albeit by unethical means. Too many Irish sites these days just aren't appearing for what the terms that they should. It's pretty simple to get started - some good page Titles, text on your homepage, and go looking for links from suppliers, partners, customers, etc. There are too many Irish sites who seem to be living in a pre-Internet world where search engines is an encyclopaedia of locomotives. Or something.

According to ENN, Ireland has yet again been slated for its low take-up on broadband, while Ireland's broadband companies have been slated for their poor customer service. All this slating could roof the country, no? Then we could forget about the weather, focus on the real issues.

Which is, why are broadband companies so slow in getting back to you? I won't name the company I dealt with (they'd be a good client, and in any case probably have a bigger legal warchestt than we do), but it took about 4 months for them to respond to an email I sent. When will companies? It's certainly taken ****** (name omitted) enough time! Oh wait, I still haven't received an email from them and it's been...ooh...7 years?

Now on to football. The big event of the weekend. We are playing Sunderland. Away. Now, whatever your feelings on the McCarthy - Roy Keane spat, poor old Mick's got it tough oop north. They're pretty much relegated, and his job could be on the line. Meanwhile old Keano's just got his first goal in a Celtic shirt, and Celtic are ten points ahead. Now Spurs' grip on reality away from home is tenuous to put it mildly, but I think we're a good bet for tomorrow. What do you think, Robbie?

First Post on the Bugle

This is the first post on the new Clientwell blog. We'll be writing a weekly article, and will talk about issues that are relevant to online marketing. There are lots of definitions of (and names for) online marketing, but it basically boils down to:

1. Bringing visitors to your website
2. Converting these visitors to customers/clients/advocates/enquiries/repeat visitors/whatever
3. Connect with these people on an ongoing basis

The ways that you do this are:

1. Search engine marketing, Pay per click, online advertising, sponsorship, and so on
2. Website usability, tracking, measurement and good web design
3. Email marketing, mobile marketing, eCRM, loyalty programs, etc.

All online marketing should be focused on results and growing brand awareness. An integrated online marketing strategy is a crucial part of any organisation's marketing strategy.

Okay, now that's the lists and bullet points out of the way. Now let's talk about us.

Clientwell Online Marketing has been in business since 2002, and provides all of the above services, with a strong focus on return on investment and brand.

This blog will focus on the above issues, and how they are evolving on an almost daily basis, with an emphasis on Ireland, which is where we are based. Links to the best articles on these topics will be posted, and I hope that you can bring your own ideas to the table!

David Mahon