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

Imagine you’re one of those marketing wizards, speaking to a captive audience and receiving deafening applause. Everyone congratulates you on your incredible insights and groundbreaking (not to mention insanely profitable) work in the complex field of marketing.

Who hasn’t wished to be a guru? Move one step closer to making it a reality by practicing vicariously while listening to the speakers at TED.

If you haven’t heard of TED, understand that TED’s not a single person but a conglomeration of many people, working in the fields of Technology, Entertainment, or Design. TED’s annual conference started in 1984 and its growing library includes (free!) video presentations by some of the most creative minds in those three industries.

One of the best features of the site is the way each talk comes with a recommendation for another talk on a similar topic or theme. The practice of following up on these recommendations is what I call heading out on “the TED trail,” a practice that might lead you to some substantial insights of your own.

Be careful what you wish for, you may get it

I stumbled onto a TED trail analyzing the nature of desire as it relates to marketing success by clicking on a three-minute presentation by Renny Gleeson, Global Strategies Director for advertising giant Wieden and Kennedy (and stealer of my potential blog’s potential name: ouroborous), about antisocial phone tricks.

Gleeson’s brief talk comes with a slide show featuring a series of Kodak non-moments: pics catching people texting with varying degrees of disregard for their surroundings and loved ones, culminating in some seriously reckless multitasking.

But with the jokes come a serious question: as portable, speedy technology makes us ever more available to one another, what are the expectations and obligations that come with availability?

For marketers, this question is relevant both for our interactions with prospects and our interactions with each other. Gleeson cautions that we become not only the stories we tell but the way we tell them. Before marketers dive into the strange seas of new technology, they might consider the adage of medieval map-makers, who indicated uncharted territory by writing, “Here be dragons.”

Dragons aren’t necessarily bad, but before you brought one home you’d want to do some research on its care and feeding. The same applies with any new technological initiative. Before lining up for the next cool thing, consider whether you’ll use it, how you’ll use it, how you’ll troubleshoot your use, and how to bow out gracefully in the case of user failure (known in the Urban Dictionary as PICNIC: problem in chair, not in computer).

When you wish upon a star…

Renny Gleeson’s talk came with a recommendation for me to check out a presentation by writer and consultant Joseph Pine author of Mass Customization, Experience Economy, and Authenticity, three books analyzing the evolution of consumer desires.

Pine argues that as our desires evolve, so do markets to serve them. Back in the day, we wanted things (food, shelter, clothes) and we had a commodoties-based economy. Today, now that we’re pretty full in the things department, we want … drumroll, please … authenticity.

According to Pine, there are two ways to be authentic: you can be true to yourself and you can be true to others. In addition, a large part of authenticity, whether with people or companies, comes from understanding your heritage. Pine believes that for a business to be perceived as authentic, the actions of that business cannot deviate too widely from that company’s previously established persona.

For examples, he cites the latest disastrous media acquisitions of the Disney corporation and takes on the national self image of the Netherlands.

He also sets out three cardinal rules for companies looking to capitalize on the public’s desire for authenticity:

1. Don’t say you are authentic. With apologies to Margaret Thatcher’s theory of power, being authentic is like being a lady. If you have to say you are, you aren’t.
2. Do not advertise what you are not. Try not to create an ad that creates a disconnect.
3. Provide places—not just ads—for people to experience who you really are.

The tastiest wish in the world

Finally, TED’s database recommended that I move from Joseph Pine to one of the most popular speeches in the system: Malcolm Gladwell’s ode to Howard Moscowitz and the development of spaghetti sauce as we know it.

In this speech, Gladwell takes on some fundamental assumptions about the nature of desire. Whether or not his conclusion is fundamentally sound is besides the point. Moscowitz — a psychophysicist and consultant to whom we owe zesty pickles and extra chunky tomato sauce — is an inspiration. His journey to discover the most satisfying sauce “changed the way the food industry thinks about happiness” and should change the way product development is approached in every industry.

Instead of looking for the perfect sauce, Moscowitz searched out the perfect sauces (plural intentional). In food land, this multiplicity of choices led to forty-three varieties and six hundred million dollars in revenue for Prego. For marketers, Moscowitz’s insights might lead you to look at the choices your company currently offers. In what ways are those offerings only imitations of what your competitors offer? In what ways might you be able to refine the choices you offer or create new ones?

(Hint: Cable companies who only offer three packages and don’t allow viewers to customize their channel selection, I’m talking to you…)

Click your mouse three times…

And go visit TED. I recommend it as an antidote to mind-numbing meetings and wallowing in whitepapers. Whether or not it gives you ideas that you can apply directly, TED features people who are thinking deeply about what people want and how people work. And that’s what you, future gurus, marketing scouts and trailblazers, are doing too.

General, Marketing Insights, Video

Our follow-up live optimization clinic on PPC campaigns drew another great response and several questions from our participants. Thanks again to all those who joined us and submitted their campaigns for review.

You can now access the clinic here: Optimizing PPC Ads, Part II.

Two of the questions that we touched on in the clinic, but are worth expanding on at greater length, concerned effective eye paths for landing pages, and using the word “free” in your copy.

What are the five elements that control the eye path?

Size, color, motion, shape, and position. For optimal results, ensure that your pages are designed with the most important decision elements in the most important places along the primary eye path. Use these five elements to guide visitors to the call to action, keeping in mind the typical “F-pattern” that most people use to scan web pages.

Previous research briefs that covered this topic include:

Landing Page Confusion

Optimizing Site Design

When, if ever, is “FREE” a bad word?

There’s no doubt that FREE is still a powerful word. Despite the awful reputation it’s gotten from SPAM, bait-and-switch offers, heavy overuse, and the growing skepticism of post-modern consumers, the word “free” works and will continue to work for generations.

Yes, we all know there’s a catch and “there’s no free lunch.” But when we’re shopping online, we gravitate to free shipping or delivery. With ecommerce, commodity sales, and small-ticket items, we practically expect something for free. And the word often gives a nice boost to PPC campaigns.

B2B and large-ticket items are a little different, but free offers are ubiquitous there as well. How often have you seen free price quotes, e-books, research, consultations?

That said, “free” by itself does not guarantee an improvement. You don’t just plug it into a headline, or ad and page copy, and expect results to skyrocket. The usage has to be appropriate to the context: the offer, the channel, the audience. If that’s not the case, a “free” or two, or several more, especially in all caps and/or bold, can turn people off.

Instead of making a hard and fast edict, or pointing to tests where “free” did and didn’t work, here are some questions to consider when you’re drafting your copy:

• Would the offer and copy still be compelling without “free” — or is the “free” a crutch?
• Will your target audience perceive the value of the product/service and offer with the freebie, or might that tarnish the perception?
• Is the word prominent but not overbearing (bold, caps, exclamation points, every other line) in the copy and call to action?

That actually brings us to the topic of our next, ahem, free web clinic: Optimizing Your Headlines: How changing a few words can help (or hurt) conversion on August 27. Learn more and reserve your spot here.

Clinic Notes, Internet Marketing Strategy, Marketing Insights, Marketing Q&A, Paid Search Marketing (PPC), Practical Application, Site Design

Our July 30 live optimization clinic on PPC ads and landing pages was our most successful webinar to date. Thank you to everyone who participated, especially those who submitted their campaigns for a real-time review.

You can access that clinic here.

Much of the feedback from the session revolved around the high level of interaction among our presenters and the audience. Although we reproduce and post our clinics in three formats (flash, audio, and text), that interactivity is one key element you only get from the live session.

Due to the positive response, we’ll be presenting a follow-up session: Optimizing PPC Ads, Part II (LIVE) — August 13.

Part II will essentially pick up where we left off, as our team of optimization experts will:

• Expand on the two types of relevance vital to paid-search success
• Optimize a new slate of search ads and landing pages
• Address your specific PPC questions with an expanded Q&A

This will be our final clinic for the year on this topic, as we are gearing up for our new Landing Page Optimization Workshops.

Even if you attended the first session, you’re sure to come away with practical ideas and strategies that will help improve your paid-search efforts. Also, if you have specific questions about PPC campaigns, please post your comments here, and our team will try to answer the best of the bunch here and/or in the live clinic.

Clinic Notes, Paid Search Marketing (PPC), Practical Application, Site Design

Would you like to quadruple the conversions from your PPC campaigns? What if you could also cut your cost per conversion by 69% at the same time? Find out how one of our recent workshop participants did just that.

Join us for our free webinar on PPC ads and see what this firm did to revive a moribund AdWords campaign.

You’ll also have the chance to have your own pay-per-click campaigns critiqued in real-time by our optimization team: Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, Director, MarketingExperiments; Jimmy Ellis, Director of Optimization Research; and Aaron Rosenthal, Director of Channels Research.

If you’re new to our live optimization clinics, here’s what you need to know:

• This one-hour webinar will provide you with specific tactics and strategies you can apply immediately to improve your PPC ad clicks and landing page conversions.
• You can submit your PPC ads and landing page for consideration when you sign up for the clinic (optional).
• Even if your page is not selected, you’ll come away with powerful ideas that can boost your campaigns. Some submitted pages may also be critiqued and posted here on the blog.
• Attendance is limited to the first 1,000 who join the call, so please dial in promptly at 4:00 to secure your spot.

Please join us on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 4:00 p.m. EDT and put our methods to the test with your own campaigns. Reserve a spot now.

Clinic Notes, Paid Search Marketing (PPC)