MarketingExperiments Blog: Research-driven optimization, testing, and marketing ideas

We’ve hosted a couple of live optimization clinics in the last month or so, featuring audience-submitted search terms, PPC campaigns and landing pages for analysis and optimization.

I was reviewing the live audience Q&A recently and a comment from frequent clinic attendee Jerry E. caught my eye: “The findings are repetitive. Maybe that is because so many are still doing so many things wrong?”

Jerry is on to something here.

While there are many ways to look at a landing page and an endless combination of elements to be tested, we see a lot of similar problems in the pages we review. Mainly, lack of a strong, clear value proposition and way too much going on with pages (competing objectives, calls to action, the “kitchen sink” approach). And we tend to focus on those same areas because that’s where you can find the biggest impact from testing.

Stake your claim

Many marketers are afraid of defining the one thing that separates their company or offer from competitors — and putting that stake in the ground. We worry that we’ll alienate some of our visitors and send them to the back button. Keep in mind that your potential customer clicked through to your page because something in your search results or PPC ad caught their attention.

Figure out each page’s value proposition and stick with it on the page, as well as in the corresponding PPC ad and search results. If we try to be everything to everyone, we end up being nothing to anyone. Specificity converts.

Choose one ball

Another issue we see often is way too much content on a page, and it’s not unique to landing pages. It’s a big problem in traditional advertising too, and it reminds me of Rethink Communication’s Ping Pong Ball Theory: If I throw one ping pong ball at you, you will probably catch it. If I throw five ping pong balls at once, you probably wouldn’t catch any of them.

It’s the same thing when several marketing and advertising messages are thrown at you all at once. Most landing pages we see have more ping pong balls than any visitor can catch. You are far more likely to absorb the most important message if it’s the only thing coming at you.

This may seem simplistic, but it’s something we all encounter so regularly it’s worth reminding ourselves when we’re at work on our own sites and campaigns. For each page, pick your ping pong ball carefully, and throw just that one.

Clinic Notes, Marketing Insights, Marketing Q&A

Are you all Microhoo’ed out yet? Here’s a shortlist of cool, helpful posts from the past week, covering a range of online marketing topics.

• Social media: Our colleague and B2B pro Brian Carroll shares his thoughts on how to generate leads with LinkedIn without alienating your network.
• Email: ClickZ reminds us that Christmas is just around the corner (sort of) and provides a “must-do now” e-commerce checklist to help you get ahead.
• SEO: Winning the Web provides a list of don’ts to keep you from landing in SEO purgatory.
• Copy: Karen Thackson at Marketing Words Copywriting explores how an effective call-to-action is more than just using call-to-action words.
• PPC: Search Engine Roundtable notices that more advertisers have been granted access to Google’s bid simulator tool in the past week.
• Design: A catalog of e-commerce buttons and iconography from Checkout Optimization to inspire and delight e-marketers.

Note: In August, we’ll be returning to our regular schedule with more frequent blog posts. Look for that starting next week, with upcoming posts covering PPC, lead generation, testing and analytics, new landing page critiques, and more …

Internet Marketing News, Internet Marketing Strategy, Marketing Insights

Need a shortcut to your weekend marketing reading? Our favorite articles of the week will get you started on your review of online, search and social media marketing. These made it through our feeds and into the idea bin.

Stuck In A Rut? 20 Places to Find Entrepreneurial Inspiration — A roadmap of motivation for when you need a boost. Alyssa Gregory of SitePoint pulls from her list of favorite blogs, success stories and magazines for when your inner entrepreneur needs a shot in the arm.

Top 3 Google Gadgets to SEO Your iGoogle Home Page — Download the tools and gadgets that you’re probably already using to your iGoogle Home Page for quick, easy access. Search Engine Journal points you in the right direction — and I agree with Ann Smarty that the general lack of great iGoogle gadgets is surprising.

33 Ways to Use LinkedIn for Business — LinkedIn is much more than an online resume, and Web Worker Daily shares ways to use LinkedIn more effectively for your business. (The MarketingExperiments LinkedIn group has been growing steadily thanks to tips like these.)

Gmail Offers to Automatically Unsubscribe You from Mailing Lists — Gmail is offering an unsubscribe option for even authenticated mail from reputable senders; Life Hacker has the details.

Beware of Low Bids and Low Budgets When Setting Up Your Google AdWords Account — PPC Hero asks Google about keywords not showing up due to a low keyword bid.

If you’re looking for more PPC advice, join us for our PPC Live Optimization web clinic on July 29. Submit your campaign for review and the chance to win a seat on our Optimization Training Tour.

Internet Marketing Strategy, Marketing Insights

With hundreds of lists of Twitter tips and tools, and dozens more popping up each day, it’s getting impossible to keep up unless you work for Mashable.

So in advance of today’s Twitter Experiments: Getting beyond the “now what?” web clinic, we wanted to share some of our favorite tips, tools and articles related to the business side of Twitter. Instead of a laundry list of 87 tools or 143 people to follow, here are seven of the most valuable articles and resources we’ve seen lately. Enjoy …

• 10 ways Twitter will change American business: A look at how businesses can drive hyper-local marketing, conduct marketing research, and charge for goods and services on the large independent economy that will emerge on Twitter.

• Twitter brand smackdown: The winners and losers: Reviewing several sets of competing brands across various vertical categories and comparing the effectiveness of their overall Twitter strategies.

• 12 Twitter Tools, Tips, Tricks, Techniques and Twoubles: See what 12 search engine marketing industry leaders have been saying about the best and worst of Twitter. Featuring video clips from SES London and SES New York earlier this year.

• 10 ways to decide if your business should tweet: How a breakdown of your specific business goals, sales cycles, and target audience can help you decide if – and how – you can make Twitter work for your organization.

• 5 Twitter marketing experiments: A look at 5 companies and how they are using Twitter in unique ways to improve company performance.

• 3 ways a small business can use Twitter: How small businesses can maximize Twitter in just a few minutes a day and without adding more staff.

• 10 Twitter Tools to Organize Your Tweeps: Mashable selects the best of the many third party apps designed to help you take control of Twitter and organize your followers.

We hope you’ll find this list particularly useful because you can skim all the articles fairly quickly.

Let us know what you think in the comments field — or @MktgExperiments — add your own favorite articles, and Tweet this post yourself. Then join us for today’s free Twitter Experiments web clinic and look for a special announcement.

UPDATE– Follow-up Twitter eWorkshop on June 30:

Due to the overwhelming response to our Twitter Experiments web clinic [and the ensuing system crashes with the free clinic] we are pleased to announce that we’ll be conducting a special eWorkshop: How to use Twitter to boost your business results.

We’re teaming up again with our featured presenters, Jason Breed and Marc Meyer, to help you get from the “why” to the “how” with hands-on guidance on using Twitter to drive revenue, build equity and decrease costs. Join us on Tuesday, June 30 for this virtual training session.

In this interactive Twitter for business eWorkshop, you’ll learn:

• Where to start (or restart) and how to plan your Twitter presence
• How to develop the right strategy for your organization
• Ways to build and engage a following that’s more than just numbers
• Which tools can help you maximize your efforts

Take advantage of this opportunity to accelerate your knowledge, reduce the learning curve, and capitalize on this rapidly expanding business community. (Attendees from today’s web clinic will receive a special code to save $30 off this eWorkshop. Today’s clinic will be freely available on our site, as always.)

Note: This eWorkshop is limited to 400 participants, and spaces will fill up quickly, so register today and secure your spot for this special eWorkshop.

Internet Marketing Strategy, Social Media