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

“We believe that people buy from people, that people don’t buy from companies, from stores, or from websites; people buy from people. Marketing is not about programs; it is about relationships.” If you have not taken our training courses before, that is Article One of The MarketingExperiments’ Creed and a central tenet of Transparent Marketing.

But, you say, I am a multi-national conglomerate (or perhaps small business that depersonalizes marketing like a multi-national conglomerate), how can I possibly communicate like a person?

On our free June 9th web clinic – One-to-One Marketing at Four Levels: Strategic ways every marketer can enter into an online conversation with customers – we’ll explore this topic and give you actionable advice to communicate with (instead of “marketing to”) your prospects. In the meantime, here is a look at how your peers are engaging in one-to-one (aka 1:1) marketing…

Find and tap into deep relationships

One of the biggest disappoints of early Web implementations has been the lack of effective consideration of one-to-one strategies within all aspects of digital marketing – email being a singular exception.

In a nutshell, what 1:1 means for our clients is to be relevant each time they engage with a consumer on their website, in their media buys, and increasingly in social outreach using transmedia, Facebook et al.

What that means in real terms has been the ability to apply 1:1 strategies that have worked so well in email, etc to display.

For example, an electronics retailer was able to see that it had a relationship with 40% of its users and segmented these dynamically. The retailer learned that 63% of its response was coming from 11% of users – the ones they have a deep relationship with (basic 1:1).

By segmenting based on behavior, the retailer also found a high affinity to specific products which helped with more relevant merchandizing and seasonal planning. It was able to do this at no more cost than it paid for ad serving. It was then able to translate this to media planning and buying and include relationship in determining media effectiveness.

We are just at the start of this process and 1:1 will only really get going when:

1. We remove ambiguity around privacy – consumers want relevance and choice with companies they have relationships with but do not want to be stalked
2. We manage data efficiently – this is critical so we don’t exponentially increase cost and negate value
3. We get past this generational thing – many “digital marketers” have not been schooled in the value of 1:1 techniques or are overly invested in product substitutes such as re-targeting when 1:1 is about re-marketing. Maybe it takes a few grey hairs to know the difference. Thankfully my colleagues have plenty of them (I’ll pay for that comment later).

– Martin Smith, Chief Technology Officer of TruEffect

Personalized communication based on prospect type

Our company is setting up a relationship marketing process for a business coach to generate qualified leads. We are creating a custom HTML-coded Web form consisting of a series of qualifying questions. Specific email content will be created.

Response data is housed in a database. Based on the answers, each prospect will be automatically funneled into one of several tracks and receive a series of timed, customized and personalized emails specific to the “prospect type” defined by the responses on the Web form.

The objective is to create customized and personalized email communication relevant to the individual’s needs – thereby driving increased conversion rates.

– Eric Mohr, Principle at EBM Direct Marketing Services

Use social media (with extreme caution)

One way to be incredibly relevant and relational is to reference personal information from someone’s social profiles – a favorite movie, for example. I DO NOT recommend this for most brands or entities. You don’t want to scare anyone. Also, it can take a TON of time – so again, it’s not for everyone.

It DOES work well if the audience wants to feel a personal connection with you. Say you are a musician (as I was) and you get a positive comment on MySpace, Facebook, etc. from an obvious influencer. It’s not hard to glance at their profile and find something you have in common with them and then relate to that. It can create a real evangelist if done right.

This could potentially work for politicians, company figureheads, or local business owners – as long as it is done in a friendly, non-Big Brother way. This is just one way to close the gap between

“that organization” and a “real person.”

– Kennedy Pittman, Radically Epic Uber Strategic Visionary at Square Hat Media

Related Resources

One-to-One Marketing at Four Levels: Strategic ways every marketer can enter into an online conversation with customers

One-to-one Marketing: The true promise of Dynamic Offer-Content Customization

Transparent Marketing: How to earn the trust of a skeptical consumer

Photo attribution: bensonkua

Internet Marketing Strategy

Editor’s Note: The MarketingExperiments community is an interactive group with a great deal of questions and answers between marketers and their peers as well as with the MarketingExperiments staff. Occasionally we publish these interactions on the blog when we think there is a particularly good question that our readers can benefit from…

QUESTION:

Hi, I completed the MEC Email Certification course a while back. I misplaced the MEC optimization formula. I want to share it with some internal people.  Can you please send me the formula?

Thanks,

Karen
Customer Communications Manager
Cleveland, Ohio

ANSWER:

Ahhh, yes. You’re probably thinking about the “Optimization Sequence,” which applies to all channels.  See if this looks familiar…

MarketingExperiments Optimization Sequence:

… meaning that when approaching an optimization initiative, you should first optimize the product factors of your offer – ensure you have the best product available, for at least one significant, describable customer segment.

Only after doing that should you optimize the presentation factors of your offer – ensure you have the best, most compelling offer value proposition available, for at least one significant, identifiable customer segment.

You do this by applying the relevant conversion heuristic (e.g., for a landing page: C=4m+3v+2(i-f)-2a; for an email offer: eme= rv(of+ i) – (f + a) ).

Only once you have confirmed a reasonable level of optimality of both the product and presentation factors of your offer should you embark on optimizing the channel factors – driving as much profitable demand to your optimized conversion process as you can.

This is done by channel identification, selection and optimization, using techniques such as channel mapping, paid search optimization, SEO, affiliate blueprinting, etc.

All the best,

Bob Kemper
Director of Sciences
MECLABS Group, LLC

Related Resources

Optimizing Your Landing Pages

Email Optimization

Optimizing Offer Pages

Internet Marketing Strategy

Editor’s Note: Research Manager Adam Lapp is reviewing the battle between common Internet marketing practices to help you determine which optimization strategies are most effective and give you ideas for new tests. On Monday, we published Part 1 in this series. Here is Part 2…

Flash Banner vs. Headline

The Breakdown: That was interesting, wasn’t it? Flash Banner entered the ring pumped up and ready to go and then, all of a sudden, his corner guy came flying into the ring bringing the bout to an abrupt halt. A very disappointed showing for all of the fans. Colors and images got tangled with each other, the message slipped to the canvas, and the product offering went flying between the ropes. And just like that, the fight was over and the fans never got a chance to understand what was going on.

Even though it looked good in concept, if the visitors don’t have a chance to understand who you are, what your best move is, and why you’re a better fighter, then what’s the point? Flash Banner didn’t even get a chance to show his patented left hook. He didn’t get a chance to show the audience all of the hard work he put into training. On to the next fight before bets could even be taken.

But there was a clever marketing pitch, some rhyming, a slogan. Flash Banner should have had a better showing. What happened? His objective eluded him. There should have been a click, a purchase, something. But can such a big decision really be made in a flash?

The results say no.

Does the Flash Banner on Adobe.com really convince me to buy Creative Suite 5? Does it even compel me to click forward? Well it was above “The Fold,” and we all know how that fight turned out.

Standing there in the middle of the ring and clearly the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world is Headline. As the flow was interrupted by Flash Banner, the headline spoke clearly to the audience telling them in just three to five short seconds why he was their best choice. He told them he has won 14 fights in a row, that he has trained non-stop for six months, and that he could match any fighter in the world’s offer.

Immediately the crowd stood and cheered for Headline to be given the next fight. The visitors decided that what Headline said that evening was worth the effort to continue on and not exit the arena.

Headline is the first text a visitor will see, so it has much potential for a large impact. The post-modern consumer sees through the Don Kings of the world. They are inundated with email, TV commercials, and even in-your-face displays at the grocery store. They have limited time and are deeply skeptical of salespeople whom they can’t even speak to.

The Bottom Line: With this in mind, it’s much more important to be specific and transparent about your fighter’s talents and unique abilities than “flashy.” Flash can be very useful when used appropriately, but it can only get you so far. Clearly communicating what you have to offer and why you are the best choice for your market is much more enduring strategy for increasing revenue.

ADAM LAPP’S UNOFFICIAL SCORECARD:

Flash Banner – 55

Headline – 89

Lead Quantity vs. Lead Quality

The Breakdown: Standing toe to toe staring each other in the eyes, it’s easy to see that the fierce battle of Lead Quantity vs. Lead Quality shows no signs of letting up. In the time since their last bout, Lead Quantity has racked up 12 favorable decisions. But many of those were all far lesser opponents. He defeated a fighter with no budget for a trainer. He knocked out a fighter who was a fill-in for someone who became ill. The odds makers couldn’t attract any bets with fights like these.

In the mean time, Lead Quality has only fought two fights. But each was a pay-per-view spectacular. He defeated the fifth and seventh most qualified fighters in the world. Lead Quality trained mercilessly for each fight. He didn’t just fight anybody, his opponents were required to take Olympic-style drug tests. They had to be a certified member of at least two boxing organizations.

Sure there was a lot of friction in the process, but he didn’t waste the time of the viewing audience with meaningless fight cards. Lead Quality benefited from the strategic application of friction in his pre-fight requirements, but is Olympic-style drug testing too harsh? Undoubtedly so. He actually would have been able to schedule a bout with the number three fighter in the world if he relaxed his qualifications.

Now arriving here on two different paths, Lead Quantity faces down Lead Quality yet again. These fighters don’t seem to get along. But why? Both fighters could benefit so much from each other.

Decreasing, or “dialing down” friction, results in increased Lead Quantity.

Increasing, or “dialing up” friction, creates increases Lead Quality.

A perfect fighter would be a one-two combination of both lead generation strategies. He would test his way into the fight scene to determine the appropriate balance between increasing volume while also increasing Lead Quantity. Increasing both requires a fighter with versatility in his striking repertoire.

At last the bell rings. The fighters trade punches. Jab, cross, hook, upper cut. After six rounds, the score cards are equal at three rounds a piece. Lead Quantity appears to be pulling out in front in the seventh as he unleashes a flood of punches, however few are connecting.

As we near round ten, both Lead Quantity and his team are tiring. So much effort with little result. However it appears he does have a five to four advantage over Lead Quality. But wait! Lead Quality has just connected a big one that equals the efforts of Lead Quantity. All of his patience has paid off.

The Bottom Line: Marketing wants a flood of leads. Stacks and piles of business cards and new contacts. This is their core metric. It can be an impressive sight. But it falls on the sales team to call Fred, the plumber, to see if he wants to buy new parts for his commercial lawnmower, a dead-end that could have been eliminated by adding one simple field to the form.

Oversimplified? Sure. But this is how the battle over Lead Quantity vs. Lead Quality plays out in many organizations.

So how do you determine how many fields, which information request, or how many steps will strike that balance between Lead Quantity and Lead Quality. Well, this answer is simple. It’s testing.

For example, if you have a one-page lead generation form, try running a test that delays the phone number or address request until the second page. Your lead generation will undoubtedly go up on the first page, that’s not rocket science. But what’s the impact on the quality of complete leads you receive (both steps completed)? You may find that you receive far less complete leads, but the leads you do get are extremely qualified.

You will also be able to score leads based on quality, assigning visitors who completed two steps as “A” leads and visitors who only completed the initial step as “B” leads. Then your sales team can only move on to “B” leads after they have exhausted time and effort with the “A” leads.

ADAM LAPP’S UNOFFICIAL SCORECARD:

Lead Quantity – 65

Lead Quality – 65

It’s a draw.

Related Resources

Tricks vs. Testing: The Battle for Internet Supremacy

Lead Generation Optimization: Finding the right amount of friction

Optimizing Your Headlines: How changing a few words can help (or hurt) conversion

Five Dials To Tune In Your Lead Generation Process

Flash in a Pan: Do loops of creative on home pages deliver ROI or higher bounce rates?

Internet Marketing Strategy

A 302% increase in projected profit in a challenging economy is driven by simple changes to PPC ads (with zero net new marketing spend). A brand-battering string of safety recalls is announced by an auto company built on quality. What can we learn from these dream and nightmare scenarios?

Toyota’s image problems have already been written about from every imaginable PR and branding angle. So I’ll avoid the obvious lessons and focus on that thin line between the success we started this piece with and the failure that has sent Toyota scrambling. Namely, what went wrong in example 2, what went right in example 1, and what does it mean to today’s CMO?

The world’s-largest automaker is well known for its practice of kaizen, a.k.a. continuous improvement, a.k.a. “the relentless pursuit of perfection.” Any worker is empowered to stop the assembly line because he spots a flaw. Yet, as Matthew DeBord writes in The New York Times, this system may have allowed Toyota’s executives to become overconfident in the system itself and its front-line practitioners.

Creating a culture that leverages the testing-optimization cycle

Overconfidence may have been Toyota’s problem, but you might be tempted to accuse the B2B marketer that drove that 302% increase of the opposite – they tested some of their most profitable online marketing campaigns. Not only did they challenge what already worked, their culture of testing forced them to constantly reevaluate every assumption they made for their entire marketing campaign – from the PPC ads to the landing page to the checkout process right up until recognized revenue.

And in the end, they made changes to some of their most profitable campaigns. They didn’t stop at what one would call “marketing kaizen,” continuous small experiments that challenge the model; they brought in a traditional “command and control” function to oversee the entire testing process and make sure each piece worked together for a greater whole. The solution, you could say, is kaizen and control.

This begs the question…how are you guiding the testing-optimization cycle occurring right now in your marketing department? And how are you using these tests to improve your overall marketing spend?

If you can’t answer these questions, and are unsure of how to leverage the strategic advantage of the testing-optimization cycle’s ability to generate fast, flexible, and accurate insights into how your brand is performing in real-world conditions, read on. I’m going to give you three quick reasons to schedule a meeting with your key marketing managers today.

Strategic Advantage #1: More return on investment

ROI is a dirty word to some marketers who aren’t able to come up with real, solid numbers. And in one sense, can you blame them? Who really knows how money spent on media that does not have measurable results moves the needle? Branding works because, well, because it just does.

And branding is just the tip of the iceberg. How well do you understand the real-time performance of your marketing campaigns?

The online testing-optimization cycle produces fast, scientifically validated results to continuously monitor how all marketing spends change interaction with your brand in the actual marketplace. Beyond that, it helps you track, measure, and improve every penny you spend for a fraction of the cost of your overall marketing budget.

A key word above is – improve. As the name “cycle” suggests, testing and optimization used in tandem drive real gains. For our B2B marketer referenced above, the huge ROI increase came in part because it did not involve one extra dime in media spending. The testing-optimization cycle helped them follow the Peter Drucker maxim of “…doing better what is already done.”

Strategic Advantage #2: A real-time competitive advantage

As the economy emerges from a massive recession into a possible growth pattern, behavioral economists have been breathlessly discussing the emergence of a “new normal” in enterprise and consumer purchasing patterns. The implicit underlying threat to CMOs is, “What worked yesterday is now obsolete. Adapt or perish.”

For the CMO that has already embedded strategic use of the testing-optimization cycle in her organization, this new challenge is nothing…well…new. She realizes that the marketplace is an ever-morphing beast that she must constantly tame. And she relishes the advantage that real-world, real-time data gives her over “predictive” focus groups and surveys (what consumer really contemplates the color of a logo that deeply?)

I don’t use this CMO as an example of what I think you should do, I’m suggesting that this is what your competitors are already doing. Since our marketing research laboratory was established in 2001, testing and optimization have grown explosively. Your organization is likely doing this somewhere – whether it has risen to your level of attention or not.

The challenge is to gain the flexibility from this wealth of real-time information to strategically shape your marketing plan as it unfolds.

Let’s go back to our B2B marketer that more than tripled profits using the testing-optimization cycle. A key point to remember is that they didn’t simply do some research on the front end and then launch this campaign. They dynamically tested and changed every element of the campaign while it was live and real customers were interacting with it. Continuous improvement comes from continuous testing and optimization, not one-time research that lets you “set it and forget it.”

Strategic Advantage #3: Clear justification for your existence

This last point is meant to hit you in the gut, and I’m sorry if the blow is a bit harsh. According to a SpencerStuart bluepaper entitled CMO tenure: slowing the revolving door – “It’s jarring to note that the average tenure for CMOs at the top 100 branded companies is just 22.9 months. Compare this to CEOs, who are in their positions, on average, for 53.8 months.”

The executive search firm goes on to state, “Even when CMOs and the top management teams share the same expectations, CMOs who are unable to clearly articulate their goals and then post results in a public scorecard will make themselves a target for elimination.”

The testing-optimization cycle is a great base for that public scorecard. You gain direct line of sight into how your campaigns are performing and have data to show how changes you make throughout the process generate ROI.

Not only do these metrics justify your decisions and provide credibility to your organization, they boost your viability at budget time as well. The testing-optimization cycle helps you determine the greatest opportunity for your campaign, how to take advantage of it, and, when done right, arms you with persuasive summary profit analyses and ROI projections to show how marketing is truly an investment…

From MarketingSherpa: CMOs face a considerable challenge if marketing is viewed as an expense rather than as an investment – especially at budget time. Tony Barr, a marketing consultant who has spent the past 13 years in B2B marketing leadership positions, says he’s faced that challenge. “You really have to frame marketing as an investment, and the way to do that is to develop a set of metrics that help you demonstrate that marketing is delivering a return,” he says.

How to gain control

As long as every board of directors in the country expects never-ending growth, every CMO will have to deliver continuous marketing campaign improvements. By gaining control over the testing-optimization cycle, you take the keys and sit in the driver’s seat of your marketing campaigns, steering and accelerating as your campaigns unfold in real time.

And beginning is easier than you might think. Someone, somewhere in your organization has likely already started putting the testing-optimization cycle to use. So start by conducting a survey of your organization to see exactly what’s being done and how fragmented it is. Then call your key leaders together and focus on a strategy that uses this initial work as a launching point for a holistic approach to generating marketing campaigns driven by financial performance.

The, most importantly, keep at it. This is a cycle. It allows you to continuously monitor and continuously improve all of your efforts. Each new success you achieve is not an end in itself, but a new base camp to climb from.

Related resources

The Business Case for Testing: How one marketer convinced her business leaders to start testing and drove a 201% gain in the process

Super Chief Marketing Officers: Ensuring Survival of the Fittest in the Online World

Online Marketing Optimization: Does my 95-year-old Grandmother Understand Split Testing Better than your CMO?

Photo attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/61417318@N00/ / CC BY 2.0

Internet Marketing Strategy

It’s the time of year when I’m preparing the annual sojourn to Salt Lake City to gather with my fellow digital marketers at the Omniture Summit, and it makes me a bit nostalgic. No, not because I grew up in Utah, or because I miss the cold mountain air (as a former Montana-resident-turned-Florida resident, nothing could be further from my mind), but for my navy days. Years ago, when I was just out of high school, I joined the navy and the first boat I served on was USS SALT LAKE CITY (SSN-716). It’s tough to make a visit to SLC without thinking about these days.

I remember being a scrawny high school kid, band geek, 97 lbs, and hearing over and over that I would never make it through boot camp. By the time I got there, I actually started to believe it myself. But, nine weeks later, I had finished all the trials, gained 25 lbs, and was marching with the rest of my class in the pass-in-review ceremony. I had done it, and (to borrow a popular phrase from that year) thought I was the king of the world.

What does being in boot camp have to do with online marketing?

Well, let me say that when you first get to boot camp, your mind does wander to thoughts of quitting and getting back home to a comfortable life where all you really had to worry about was next Friday’s math test. However, you can’t just quit when you get to boot camp; no, they make you persevere. And by the time it’s done, you’re very glad you stuck through the tough times and accomplished something remarkable.

I think that my experience at boot camp can be a lot like the experience we marketers go through when starting to test online, except it’s MUCH easier to quit testing than it is boot camp. There is a large temptation to think that it will just be too much work – first figuring out what to test, designing alternative creative, selecting a testing tool, getting your boss to sign off, then moving mountains to get the IT work prioritized. It’s easy for a marketer to just stick to the status quo and quit the fight before it’s even begun.

Why the mountains are worth moving

I’m not going to deny that testing, like boot camp, has challenges we must persevere through and overcome. But just like boot camp, testing also has significant rewards that we might miss out on if we are jumping ship in fear. Rewards like the incredible feeling of accomplishment when you actually get that first test done, and one of your treatments won! Rewards like knowing you’ve discovered how to stop the leaks in your funnel and contribute directly to your company’s bottom line.

At MarketingExperiments we’re lucky because we get to feel this all the time with our research partners. We get to see our partners grow and establish the culture of testing in their own organizations, which really breathes new life into the old marketing routine that many of us know all too well – “Hey guys, St. Patrick’s day is coming up, let’s trot out all our old shamrock creative and talk about finding a pot of savings at the end of the rainbow.” You won’t ever have that conversation again.

So my message to you is this: don’t give up

The good news is that if a 97lb band geek can experience the reward of surviving boot camp, then there is much hope for the marketer out there starting to online test. You can survive; you can make it.  Just hang in there, don’t give up, and know that the rewards will far outweigh the struggles.

If you are like me and are going to be at the Omniture Summit this year (currently sold-out), consider spending a day with the MarketingExperiments team learning how to optimize your online marketing campaigns. We will be teaching our Landing Page Optimization Workshop during the Omniture University training day in Salt Lake City this year. I’ll be there with the MarketingExperiments team helping your fellow peers learn how they can apply a decade of marketing discoveries to their own campaigns.

Photo provided by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/78428166@N00/ / CC BY 2.0

Analytics & Testing, Internet Marketing News, Internet Marketing Strategy

When we asked for your 2010 Internet marketing predictions, you told us that local is going to be huge this year. And I wholeheartedly agree. I can’t wait for the day I can simply search for a product on one site and find the best price of an in-stock item at a small business or major chain store near me.

But in our fervor for the new opportunities cropping up at a micro level in our own hometown, let’s not overlook the macro possibilities. So today I’d like to take our focus off of local and discuss, well, the entire world.

After all, you are reading the MarketingExperiments Blog International Edition. Sounds fancy, and I loved seeing the International Edition of American publications when I was in Montréal (très chic!). But, of course, everything on the Internet is essentially an International Edition. After all, our readers include Stephanie from Canada, Meraj from Singapore, Inna from Germany, Gabriela from Argentina, and Gavin from the UK.

How well do you know your audience? For Americans at least, sometimes I worry we have a view of the world similar to Saul Steinberg’s famous cover for The New Yorker. But let’s not forget that this is the World Wide Web. Your customers are, or at least have the potential to come from, anywhere in the world.

So here are some thoughts to consider and ideas to test when appealing to an international audience:

Where in the world?

Now that the world is your oyster, where should you begin? Most analytics software, such as Google Analytics, will break down your traffic by country of origin (and drill down even deeper than that). Understanding where your current audience comes from can help you shape your message.

But don’t just limit yourself to where your audience is coming from today, consider where they could be coming from and think about how you can target content to that potential audience. In addition, if you have an ecommerce or even lead generation site, look at how your traffic compares to actual orders and leads. If you get a big chunk of traffic from a certain nation, yet they very rarely order or become a lead, what in your conversion process is stopping them?

Understand when it pays to habla Español

While you don’t necessarily need an entire website for every possible language, it is always a good idea to delve into proper segmentation of your current and possible audience. And if you find a big enough potential market, that commonality of language may significantly help your conversion rate.
You don’t even necessarily need to look beyond your borders to find that opportunity. For example, according to the U.S. Census, the buying power of Americans of Hispanic origin is projected to exceed $1.2 trillion by 2014. If that segment could generate a significant amount of business for you, you should probably consider testing custom Spanish-language landing pages to see if they are worth the investment.

Shalom means hello…and goodbye

If you do choose to test custom foreign-language pages, keep the word custom in mind. Don’t just settle for poor translations of your current pages, but truly put the time and investment into understanding that segment and its motivations…as you would with any other segment.

Marketing history is littered with funny (and costly) cross-cultural blunders – such as the introduction of the Chevy Nova in Central and South America. It doesn’t take a major blunder. Even simple bad translations can turn away potential customers. I probably would not shop in the “Exciting Dressy Fashion zone” or want to eat “Desktop bacteria rice.”

It’s easy to laugh at these snafus, but if we do not truly understand the cultures of global and bilingual markets we seek to enter, we may be making these same mistakes. We can’t be transparent marketers if our audience doesn’t understand what we’re talking about. And far from welcoming new customers, we may be turning them off to our message.

You can still spreek het English…

While custom foreign-language landing pages are worth testing if the segmentation is right for your organization, don’t feel like you necessarily need to invest resources to customize your site for every possible language. As French is la langue de l’amour, English is currently the international language of business and the Web (after all, ICANN is still an American organization).

Also, services like Google Translate and Babel Fish enable your non-English-speaking visitors to instantly translate your page into almost any language for free. So here are a few other ideas to test in your native language…

Ciao bello world!

As I said above, there is an entire world out there. Just make a right at the Atlantic or a left at the Pacific and you’ll likely find untapped markets. So acknowledge it…as I did in the intro to this post when I mentioned our readers from across the globe or as Boris Grinkot did in a recent post where he simply mentioned regulations to consider in India.

The first step to profiting from an international audience is recognizing that you have one. Test how often to mention different cultures and which cultures to mention and see how that affects your traffic.

6,809 ways to say “customer service”

Even better than acknowledging the existence of other cultures, show them that you truly cater to their needs. If you’re looking for some good examples, Israeli websites tend cater to a global audience well (a combination of state subsidies that makes international shipping cheap and the global interest of a nation that holds importance to three major religions).

One good example from that country is TheGreatShofar.com. This site clearly illustrates how it serves other parts of the world by, for example, having an American phone number and a testimonial from someone in America right on its homepage (leading us to believe that either America is one of its most important, sought after segments or this is a landing page optimized for Americans).

Also, the site clearly spells out in its FAQ that it ships around the world:

I live in Timbuktu.  Will you ship to me?

Yes.  We ship to Timbuktu as well as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, China and pretty much anywhere that has a postal service.

To find out how much it will cost to ship to your location, just add your desired products to the shopping cart and our shipping estimator will display your shipping costs.

One way we try to cater to our international audience is through live training and speaking engagements around the world. Dr. Flint McGlaughlin will next be teaching and speaking about email response optimization at Email Marketing Germany 2010 in Munich from March 8-9, 2010. Register (in English) today. Or, if you prefer, register (in German) today.

General, Internet Marketing Strategy