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55 new people interested in your company – guaranteed

Posted in Uncategorized by Tony on 30 Sep 2011

You can follow us on Twitter @HHMailings

Would you like 55 people to be newly interested in your company this month?

It’s easy.

Below I set out how.  And although I don’t like to say, “I told you so,” on this occasion…

Two surveys have confirmed that websites and blogs run by businesses are the most important source of generating new leads.

In a survey by Demandbase the percentage of respondents to the survey citing that the business web site is their top source of leads is 64% higher than those citing email (which is the second most popular online lead source).

A mere 3% of companies cite social media.

This finding is similar to that from Eden Platform which found the same: that a standard web page can deliver more advertising value than many companies realize.

In August this year Eden Platform measured pages and visitors for a sample of more than 100 small business websites.

They found that each page on a small business website produced 55 unique visitors during the month.

Now let’s proceed with this logic: adding one new page of content to a business website each week can be as effective as having a £50,000 advertising budget, the study concluded.

Of course there are some complexities and technicalities.

The Demandbase survey points out for example that many visitors to sites are often not fully engaged with.  So some businesses, realising the importance of the web site, then ignore the audience they have worked to get.

They don’t make enough of an offer, give enough encouragement to get people to phone, buy, ask questions, email or in some other way engage with the company.

In other words, what often happens is that the companies spend money on the razzamatazz of making a web site look good, but then don’t add to it with new articles regularly, and don’t give the customers reasons to come back and talk with the company.

As I hinted at the start, this is an issue that I have been talking about for some time.  Indeed the Hamilton House experiment 3 years ago in setting up a couple of web sites from scratch, totally away from our core business, to see if we could make the theory work, has proven a huge success.  Last month they got just under half a million page impressions between them.

Their design work is very basic – everything is to do with putting up new content all the time.

If you would like to talk about this approach, please do call 01536 399 000.   The programme in which we work with clients to integrate their email marketing, postal campaigns and their web sites and blogs is Velocity (www.velocity.ac)

The main Hamilton House site is www.hamilton-house.com – as you will see throughout we are very relaxed about the zap and pow of design.  But we keep adding new text.

Tony Attwood

 

 

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB.  Phone 01536 399 000.

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What’s in a web name?

Posted in Uncategorized by Tony on 29 Sep 2011

Hamilton House owns about 120 web sites – some of which turn up high in the rankings, some of which don’t – although it all depends on what search words you put in.

But positioning, is not, in my view, everything.  Having a web address that people can remember is good too.

For example we own www.emails.gs – something that invariably leads to a conversation of what “gs” means, and how did we get something as fundamental as “emails”.

I mention this because the Corporation of the city of London has announced it will apply for its own web domain for the city.  New York, Paris, Sydney, Rome and Berlin are all apparently doing it too.

This is all part of the change of approach from the American Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) which is now allowing firms that replace .com with their own name.   So you could, if you wanted to, go out and get .Money

What it probably won’t do however is help those people who buy such names to get up the rankings.  It will all be down to memory.

Which then takes us back to site like www.velocity.ac and www.theory.bz – sites that HHM owns.   These cost far less than the new types of name being offered.  I really wonder if the new names are a step too far.

You can follow us on Twitter @HHMailings

Tony Attwood

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No brainer

Posted in Uncategorized by Tony on 16 Sep 2011

I was writing the other day on the Education Marketing news group about how some companies like to try and sell lists which, how shall I put it….  are not quite what they seem.

Here’s an offer I got by email today – not for UK education lists, as I was discussing earlier this week, but even so, my point about being cautious is the same…

CONSUMER LISTS -  3 lists with over 4 million emails -> JUST $99!

These are all quality OPT-IN lists sold with UNLIMITED USE RIGHTS!

The simple rule is: is it possible for someone to get this number of opt in addresses, and then sell them for this price, all while making a profit?

In this case the answer is obviously no.  In some cases the maths is more complex, but all I can do is quote the old adage: if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Tony

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB.  Phone 01536 399 000.

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We interrupt your thoughts to shout at you

Posted in Uncategorized by Tony on 15 Sep 2011

Way back in the ancient days in the USA adverts on TV were preceded by a statement along the lines of ”we now interrupt your program to bring you this important message.”

People accepted that, because that was how it was done.   Zap Pow I am the advertiser and I want to shout at you.

Now it is not like that – disruption of MY personal activities and MY personal space does not work.

Instead you need to grab attention and work from the notion of what the customer is interested in, not what you want to say.

So we come back to two eternal questions that the customer will ask:

Why should I buy this

Why should I buy this from you.

The best advertising answers these points before the customer asks them, by using the interesting question technique…

“What is the most effective way of…”

etc etc.  Alternatively tell a story, share a laugh, and answer their needs.

Don’t tell them how important you are, just tell them how important they are.

Tony Attwood

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB.  Phone 01536 399 000.

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Advertising on the rise

Posted in Uncategorized by Tony on 14 Sep 2011

You can follow us on Twitter @HHMailings

—–

Reports from the US show total advertising expenditures in the first six months of 2011 increased 3.2% from a year ago.  The feeling is that a similar rise is being experienced here.

Newspapers continue to fall, and radio seems to be having a tough time, but the rise of digital advertising continues – both in terms of straight email advertising and advertising in terms of internet.

It is the latter where the growth is coming through the exploitation of new ideas, ranging from the ones that I often mention such as implanting links and blogging, as well as other areas such as Facebook, Twitter and the like.

Tony

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB.  Phone 01536 399 000.

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Longer word searches add value to blogs

Posted in Uncategorized by Tony on 12 Sep 2011
The most recent analysis of the way search engines are used show that search queries, averaging five to eight words or more, increased by 3% month-to-month.  Shorter searches (one to three words) are down.

The figures below show that while most searches are still one to three words, people are getting more and more used to longer searches.  This means that the results they get tend to be more specific.  (The detailed figures below are from the US but there is no reason to think UK figures are any different).

Such results aid those companies that have posted the most, because whereas there will be millions of results for ”choosing coffee” there will be fewer that meet all the criteria of “choosing coffee for the office”.   Anyone who has written a web page or blog on “choosing coffee for the office” is likely to find themselves nearer the top of the list of hits.

Naturally the writing of such articles doesn’t in any way reduce your chances of getting near the top of an enquiry even if the reader is searching for one or two words – it is just that the more you put up, the more you are likely to be found by exactly the right person.

If you don’t have a blog and would like to put one up, we can help – there is information on http://www.hamilton-house.com/blogs – or call 01536 399 000.

Meanwhile here’s the full analysis of the current findings.

Hitwise search data

You can follow all our commentaries @HHMailings on Twitter.

Tony Attwood

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB.  Phone 01536 399 000.

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Do you block social networking at work?

Posted in Uncategorized by Tony on 7 Sep 2011

The number of businesses that are blocking social networking sites in their offices is rising rapidly. According to research by Clearswift, 20% more companies are blocking access to social media sites, mostly because they are concerned about security and data loss. These figures come from a survey of employee and managers in the UK, US, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands and Japan.

But on the other hand many companies see social media as critical to business success, although few see it is a key to growth.

So we have interesting contradictions – banning its use in the office, seeing it as critical, but not seeing it as a key element in the growth of the company.

The big problem of course is the lack of control of social media has made businesses wary of it. Everyone can do it, and can use it in any way they want. The growth of fake accounts (where someone pretends to be someone else) is huge and hacking is beyond any doubt now out of control.

Worse, the research also found that the majority of managers believe employees are ignorant of security concerns with the view expressed that “Companies do not do education. People are oblivious – a lot of the time the IT policy is seen only when you join the firm.”

Personally my biggest worry about social media is what happens when one employs a young employee who thinks that updating her/his Facebook entry with rude comments about her employer is a reasonable use of company time. If ever there was education needed it is in the zone of “You work, I pay” – but some youngsters don’t get that.

(You can tell I’m getting old can’t you).

Tony Attwood

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The problem with website reviews

Posted in Uncategorized by Tony on 2 Sep 2011
How much is a good on-line review worth?

In recent surveys  around 60% of shoppers say they use customer reviews as part of their purchasing behaviour.  It might be for a hotel, a book, a holiday, a CD, anything…

But nothing on the internet stays still so now people are selling reviews – the going rate for writing a glowing piece is about $10 in the US according to the New York Times.

Likewise people who get great reviews for their product or service (especially hotels) are starting to thank the writers with discounts, gifts and the like.  And when there’s a bad review they are trying to get that taken down.

I can confirm this latter point personally.  If you buy from a third party via Amazon you are asked to rate the seller.  I have three times given a third party seller a bad rating and all three offered me something to change that rating.  The ratings in fact are now useless.

Unless of course you want to get something out of the supplier, by giving a good or bad review.  There’s a difference of opinion as to which one is most likely to bring a result quickly – I get the feeling that bad reviews will give you something more quickly than good, but there’s no scientific coverage of this.

But nothing stands still on the internet, and Cornell University is working on a program to detect fake reviewers.  I would imagine this is quite easy, as I have the job of removing fake commentaries on the Hamilton House blogs that we run (including our blogs in the world of football, which do get a lot of comments each day).   After a few days it is easy to spot the fakes – normally because they have no detail, because the writer simply has bought it, been there, used it, or whatever.

So it goes – the world moves on.

Analyses like this are just part of what we do for clients of our Velocity programme.  If you would like to know more please do have a look at www.velocity.ac or give us a call on 01536 399 000.

You can follow us on Twitter @HHMailings

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Elaboration theory – not half as complex as it sounds

Posted in Uncategorized by Tony on 31 Aug 2011

The Elaboration Likelihood Model is one of the best theoretical bases that we have for the argument that direct mail and email to your existing customers should be different from direct mail and email to people who have never bought from you before and who may have negative views on your company or your product.

The original model set out in the 1980s is fairly limited in its approach and had nothing to say on direct mail.  Here I have attempted to take it a stage further and see its implications for direct mail.  In doing this we find that the model fits exactly with the three fundamental laws of direct mail.

In essence, the model suggests that there are two ways in which a person is persuaded to take a particular course of action through an advert: the central path and the peripheral path – one suitable for the motivated reader (i.e. the past customer) and one for the unmotivated or negative recipient of your message..

Advertising works in different ways according to whether the person getting the message is motivated or not – this theory takes that awareness in a new direction.

Elaboration theory says that the “central path” is the path to use when the recipient of the advertisement is motivated to think about the message.   In my most common examples – if you talk to me about Arsenal FC or Bob Dylan I listen, because they are favourite topics of mine; talk to me about the relative qualities of various wine vintages that cost £100 a bottle and you lose me after 5 seconds and you are going to have to approach me in a quite different way.

If I care about the issue then I will myself elaborate on the message by thinking more about it, for example, by thinking of the tactical implications of my favourite football team buying a new player, or whether I can cancel a dental appointment in order to get to the Bob Dylan concert.

If I think positively about the issue raised in the message, and churn the matter over and over in my head, then I elaborate on the message I  have received in a positive way.  So in this way all that has to be presented to me are the opportunities – the possibilities – and my mind does the rest.

But a boomerang effect can occur if I think unfavourable thoughts about the message – so if you try to put this central path approach to a person who has negative feelings about your product or service, all that happens is that those negative feelings are enhanced..

Also, if I am not that motivated to take note of the core message that the advertiser is putting across then I might start looking for what are known as “peripheral cues” which leads us to the peripheral pathway.   In looking at the peripheral cues my brain might try to link the advertising message with things I already have a positive idea about – the obvious examples being chocolate, sex, money, food, drink, having fun, having the company of good friends, being popular, feeling secure and so on.

In short, what I need to be given are benefits that directly relate to my position in life.

So, the argument here is if the reader is already motivated and will elaborate on the message then  the central route is best.  But if the person getting the advertisement is unlikely to elaborate the message, or if the available arguments are weak, then the peripheral route to persuasion should be used.  Forget the product or service for a moment, and focus on the benefits of use by a non-believer.

This is just one example of the way in which we approach marketing for companies that are part of our Velocity campaign programme.  If you would like to talk about this, do call 01536 399 000 or alternatively take a look at www.velocity.ac

Tony Attwood

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Home page vs. Landing Page

Posted in Uncategorized by Tony on 31 Aug 2011

I have become aware of late that sometimes when I ramble on about “landing pages” and “home pages” on web sites and in emails, not everyone is clear what I am talking about.

Obviously that’s my error – because my job is to write and speak in a way that those who are kind enough to spend a moment reading/listening know what I am going on about.

So, here’s a clarification both of the meanings and why I think these points are so important.

Home pages on web sites are the entry point – the basic page that says “hello” to anyone popping in. As such the pages is there to be used either to give a flavour of who or what you are (through fancy design or straight text) and to give links to what you do (either through headlines of latest offers or just links to your general sections).

If you want to see an example of a home page try www.hamilton-house.com – or indeed any other web page that is just the address with no extra bits on the end.

Landing pages are set up for a different reason – they relate totally to a specific campaign. So, for example, if I am advertising the mailing lists that we sell, I won’t link to that page above, but to a page about our mailing lists. Or to be more specific I might link to a page about business lists, or one about consumer lists, or one about education lists.

(Some people argue that they like to send readers always to the home page because then the reader can see all that the company does. But I can find no evidence anywhere to say that such an approach works. Rather, the more specific the landing page, the better it works).

So with a landing page the approach is:

The email or sales letter develops excitement and interest in the product or service and links to the landing page which gives the detail, the features and so on.

The landing page should then explain how an order might be placed, how the reader might get more information etc. It leads the reader along a seamless route.

One of the great benefits of having an individual landing page for an advert (whether the advert is via the post or via email) is that it enables you to see how effective the advert is at getting interest.

Thus if you send out an advert and have a unique landing page you can see how many people hit that unique landing page immediately after the advert is received. (If the advert is an email you do this through tracking the email, if the advert is postal, you measure the number of hits on the specific page).

Now if you are getting few people onto that landing page, you know your advert has failed. If you get lots of people onto the landing page, but no direct sales or phone calls, you know the landing page has failed. If you get hits on the landing page plus lots of enquiries but no sales, you know the problem is in the office.

Either way, you know exactly where the problem is, and you can put it right and get the sales going. It is in fact the ideal selling situation – either the advert works, or you know exactly where in the process the selling has broken down and you can put it right.

Home pages and landing pages are just part of the work we undertake with our Velocity campaigns for clients. If you would like to know more please call 01536 399 000 or take a look at www.velocity.ac

You can stay up to date with all our commentaries via Twitter @HHMailings

Tony Attwood

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