Tuesday, September 29, 2015
#SocialSkim: Facebook Signal Helps Journalists Find You, Plus More Stories in This Week's Roundup
Learn about Facebook Signal (and how to get journalists interested in your content). Also: Facebook's 360° videos, how the Emmys did on social, Dropbox's new tools for teams, and Atlas, your new charts buddy. Read the full article at MarketingProfs
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Why a Content Hub is Your All-Powerful Media Magnet
Content marketers beware:
- The battle you fight for attention is hard and getting harder.
- Customers don’t know what content they’re looking for (or even that they’re looking for content). They simply want answers.
- While a company blog is a smart content marketing play, it’s probably not enough.
- Consistently creating and publishing great content can be insanely difficult.
What’s a content hub?
If you were to search the phrase “content hub” and begin scouring the results for its definition, you may get confused fast. The term gets thrown around quite a bit and is interpreted in various ways.
The definition for “content hub” we’re going to use (and the proven approach I’m going to tell you about) is:
A content hub is a destination where website visitors can find branded, curated, social media, user generated, or any type of content related to a topic.
You might think… Isn’t that a website? Or isn’t that a blog? It could be. However, a content hub is generally smaller than a website and bigger than a blog. The best ones—and I’ll show you examples—are microsites or branded resource centers published to help visitors find the information they seek in the form they prefer.
6 benefits of content hubs
It’s awfully hard to create a sustainable business today if you’re not pulling people into your website. It’s your main medium—your connection center.
Is your website magnetic? A value-packed content hub is your best bet for creating a digital media magnet.
Let’s examine the benefits (as explained in a blog post and free ebook about content hubs from ScoopIt)
1. Authority
Online buyers put their trust in authorities. Consistently publishing trustworthy content is a proven route to building thought leadership and is amongst the most important benefits of hosting a stellar content hub.
2. Visibility and traffic
Succeeding with search, the largest source of traffic on the web, calls for having great content. Search engines index billions of pages and are very good at determining the quality of content on them. If you want traffic, you need your content hub to be a collection of attractive pages.
3. Engagement
Your website could be ultra-magnetic, but not all that successful. Great sites do more than generate traffic; they inspire engagement. Content hubs foster engagement (as in reading, sharing, signing-up, trying, buying, attending, and so on) more than sales pages ever could—or can.
4. Control
Social networks are ever-changing and the changes don’t always benefit members who rely on them for content distribution. Traffic on your content hub is far more meaningful because you control the experience. You tailor the experience. Your objectives come first.
5. Leads
Content hubs enable you to generate leads and sales. When visitors find value in the information you offer, they’ll invest more time there. You’ll create opportunities to “feed the funnel” with tactics such as lead capture, progressive
profiling, and contextual calls-to-action (CTAs).
6. Marketing insights
Your content hub will give your company detailed analytics reports. The metrics you’ll gather inform your content creation team as to what does and doesn’t excite readers. With more insights into what users deem valuable, you’ll become a more effective publisher.
House a more appealing media mix
Your hub can be 100% blog-based, but a diverse media mix—from a variety of sources—will raise the bar and appeal to a wider range of media consumers.
A content hub is a flexible forum where you can publish whatever you like (or more importantly, whatever your audience likes). The media mix may include video, audio, infographics, slides, articles, papers, or any digital media.
Your hub centralizes all that you publish to provide its visitors a more interactive and valuable experience.
Content may be:
- Homegrown—Content produced by internal resources
- Curated—Content from companies or media sources you deem to be credible and authoritative.
- Social media—Content published on your hub and promoted via social media to drive traffic to your website.
- User generated—Content created by customers and partners
- Advertising—Offers from your company and sponsors
Content hubs look sharp
Content hubs often take a cue from websites like ultra-popular mega-hubs on the social web such as Pinterest and SlideShare. They’re presented “tile style” or magazine-like.
They’re highly graphic with a simple structural form, which makes them easy on the eyes and easy to skim. Content hubs usually present social media share stats at a glance, which tends to promote sharing.
Create an effective content hub
Content Hubs Are Here: The Secret to a Long and Prosperous Life in Publishing, a recently published eBook from ScoopIt, reveals important details for creating a killer content hub. Here’s the short version.
Establish objectives and a mission statement
Get your marketing and sales leaders together to agree on the primary objective. Prioritize secondary objectives and document them.
Document a content marketing mission to clearly articulate:
- Your approach to content creation
- Whom the content is for
- How the content will satisfy the need of those that consume it
Create a publishing plan
Assess your prospects’ needs—The foundation of your editorial plan is to create content to deliver the answers to your prospects’ questions.
Examine the competition—Dive into the content your competition delivers to determine how you can do things better or differently.
Audit existing content—Closely review existing assets such as email, FAQs, presentations, webinars, RFPs, case studies, research, sales pages, and brochures. Look to find what might be revisited and turned into helpful articles, blog posts, infographics, videos, eBooks, podcasts, etc.
Tap search and social—Focus on things your target market does and says online. Try the following:
- Research search activity with the free Google Keyword Planner tool.
- Examine website data with Google Analytics.
- Look at questions posed on Q&A sites, online forums and LinkedIn Groups.
- Conduct hashtag searches on relevant social media.
- Monitor conversations about your market on social networks and setup Google Alerts based on your important keywords.
- Consider changes soon to affect your industry.
Hire the right talent—Consider hiring a content strategist to take the lead and a managing editor. Hiring freelancers is a practical strategy to fill voids, round out the team and maintain a steady publishing schedule.
With a content hub, a single person with editorial skills may be capable of writing, editing and curating content to manage all your needs.
Design an attractive hub—Your content hub should be user-friendly and smartly branded. Bring a graphic design professional onboard to give your content hub a branded look and feel and serve its audience well.
Create promotion plans—Make distribution and promotion part of your plan from the get-go considering paid, earned and owned channels.
Get the tools you need—To host a content hub, you’ll need a couple of tools:
- Content management system (CMS)—A CMS platform makes creating, publishing, optimizing and maintaining web pages simple. WordPress is by far the most popular CMS.
- A content hub manager—Scoop.it Content Director is the most affordable and simple platform I’ve discovered for delivering a turnkey approach for planning, sourcing, and distributing content.
Feeling like toast?
I should now confess (or disclose), I wrote the ScoopIt eBook I’ve mentioned a few times. In it I wrote a dedication to every content marketer who feels like toast.
See, every day thousands of companies join the content marketing parade and thousands more bail. Do you know why? They don’t have the resources to stay the course.
Like most, they understood if they consistently published the valuable content readers actually want to read, watch, listen to and look at, the content marketing dream would be realized. And like most, after awhile they’re toast. Burnt.
You don’t want to suffer the same fate.
Consider creating a content hub and populating it regularly not only with blog posts or homegrown content, but with curated, user generated, co-created and various types of media your prospects find relevant and useful.
Want to learn more about content hubs? Content Hubs Are Here features a detailed explanation of the ingredients of a killer content hub and 13 examples of the hottest content hubs on the web.
About the Author: Barry Feldman operates Feldman Creative and provides clients content marketing strategies that rock and creative that rolls. Barry has recently been named a Top 40 Digital Strategist by Online Marketing Institute and one of 25 Social Media Marketing Experts You Need to Know by LinkedIn. Visit Feldman Creative and his blog, The Point.
Content Moderation: Who Needs It and How You Can Use UGC Successfully
Putting your brand in the hands of the public can be dangerous, but the power of user-generated content (UGC) is real. If done correctly, with precautions in place, it can be highly beneficial for your brand. Read the full article at MarketingProfs
The Art of Low Competition Business Ideas (FS129)
What if you could start a business today that actually interests you? Not a lame business, not something your parents would say sounds like a decent idea, but something that only excites someone like you?
What if I told you that working on that crazy, "just for you" business idea might lead to more success faster than a more generic, "this will probably work" kind of business idea?
In this episode we tell the story of a Fizzler who literally did both and share what happened in each. The results are like a punch in the gut.
In this hour of the podcast we share Chris' story, the reasons behind the results and several eye-opening examples of non-obvious business ideas.
(You know you should subscribe and listen to it on your podcast app on the go, right?) Enjoy!
It’s better to listen on the go! Subscribe on iTunes
The Art of Low Competition Business Ideas—incredible real world results.
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Chris' story
I've been running Online Passive Income Journey for 10 months. The Fizzle crew always roll their eyes when somebody else shows up with a follow your passion or make money online blog, and with good reason. It's an over-crowded niche full of experts and a newbie will have a heck of a time being heard.
Well, I didn't listen either. I mostly created the blog as a record of what I'm doing and a way to practice so I don't feel like a complete noob when I start blogging in a niche where I can make an impact and where I actually know what I'm talking about and have some level of credibility that I could squander with too ham-fisted a launch.
So I finally launched Sail Mentor a month ago. What a difference!
I wrote a short post with a table to compare the results of months 3-10 (combined) of Online Passive Income Journey vs the 1st month of Sail Mentor. Sail Mentor blew the doors off my older site. In fact, I already have 6 times as many subscribers and I made my first dollar on launch day.
Now, Sail Mentor isn't some sort of huge success or anything, but it's getting real traction and I can actually promote it on social media without being shouted down by all the others doing the same.
I thought it was a really interesting case study in the difference it makes to be credible in your niche and choose the right niche.
Summary:
| OPIJ (7 months) | Sail Mentor (1 Month!) | |
|---|---|---|
| Unique Visitors | 388 | 3101 |
| Email Subscribers | 11 | 59 |
| Gross Income | $0 | $34.45 |
A fraction of the time in a non-competitive space yielded 10x visitors and 6x subscribers.
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Other low-competition business examples
- Queen Of Snow Globes | Incredible Hand-Made Snow Globes
- Ok! Kimonos — Home
- Illustrated Children's Moments – Bringing the Bible to Life
- Mess Hall Cocktail Company – The cherry your cocktail deserves
- Fly fishing resources and information – Scout & Cast
- Clean Pits Company
- Hooray Mail
Show Notes
Google AdWords: Keyword Planner
Deconstructing Expertise: Why You Need it & How to Get it
Obi – A Smart Laser Toy for Cats by Dan Provost & Tom Gerhardt — Kickstarter
Thoroughly Considered – Relay FM
Want to get advertisers on your blog? – YouTube
“How do I monetize my blog?” Easy, you grab it. ~ Gary V.
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4 Ways To Get Out Of Your Blogging Slump
Blogging can easily become just a repetitive task. Something you do, have to do, because... because.
4 Sure fire ways to prevent getting into or help you egtting out of a blogging slump.
Post from: Search Engine People SEO Blog
4 Ways To Get Out Of Your Blogging Slump
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Written by Alvina Lopez,
The post 4 Ways To Get Out Of Your Blogging Slump appeared first on Search Engine People Blog.
Friday, September 25, 2015
Three Key Legal Issues Online Marketers Need to Know About
Editor’s Note: For any issues or questions regarding the law, please contact an attorney.
Marketing can be extremely beneficial for your business. It consolidates already-existing client relationships and builds new ones.
However, there are several key legal issues you need to be aware of before you start contacting customers or potential customers. The three main legal areas you need to consider are privacy and data collection, intellectual property issues, and rules and regulations of the FTC and other consumer protection bodies.
Let’s begin by looking at privacy and the online collection and storage of data.
1. Privacy and Data Collection
It may seem simplistic to point out that before you can send marketing emails or messages, you need to collect the contact information of your customers or potential customers. Yet, the actual process of collecting the information is far more complex than it seems, particularly if you’re trying to collect it in a legally compliant manner.
Laws and Your Privacy Policy
Most jurisdictions around the world have privacy legislation in place that requires you to notify people before you collect their personal information. This includes someone who is already a customer, although the UK has some slightly more permissive laws for people who have already purchased something from you.
In the US, there is no overarching privacy law that applies to the collection of data, but California has a piece of legislation that covers online privacy – the California Online Privacy Protection Act (OPPA). It requires that you need to disclose:
- The kinds of information your website or online marketing tactics collect
- How the information may be shared
- The process your customers can follow to review and change the information you have about them
- Your policy’s effective date and a description of any changes since then
If you have an online store or if you’re marketing to people online in the US, you’re quite likely to have customers or potential customers in California, so you should take care to comply with this law.
The easiest way to comply is to set up a Privacy Policy on your website and require your customers or website users to agree to it when you collect information from them.
To make sure your customer’s or user’s agreement will stand up legally, use a clickwrap method. A clickwrap method is where your customer or user has to click “I Agree” to your Privacy Policy in some way. This could be when they sign up to receive your marketing messages or when they make a purchase on your website. Here’s an example of what a clickwrap method looks like:
In this example, the customer or user is required to tick the box to agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy of The Weather Channel before they can receive the newsletter.
Security and Cloud Storage
It’s also important to reassure your customers that once you’ve collected their information, you will keep it secure. Your users need to feel they can trust you. You can show them you are trustworthy by informing them about how you will protect and store their information.
Take a look at this example from Google that lists the protection mechanisms they have in place:
One simple way to protect customer privacy when you collect information is to use security mechanisms such as SSL. SSL means that the connection between your website and the user’s browser is secure when data is transmitted. Ensure that any websites you use with your customers have SSL enabled.
Another potential security issue is the storage of customer data. A popular way for many online businesses and marketing companies to store data is to use cloud storage providers. To reassure your customers that you are keeping their data safe, always choose a reputable provider.
And, preferably, choose a reputable provider within your own jurisdiction. This is because some jurisdictions have legal requirements that data should either not be transferred out (or must be accessible even if it is stored overseas) or should be transferred only to jurisdictions with similar legal protections for the data in place. If you overlook this fact and store data with a cloud storage provider in another jurisdiction that has inadequate protections, you may be in breach of your local laws.
If you use a cloud storage provider, you need to ensure that your Privacy Policy and/or your website Terms of Use cover the situation in which a cloud storage provider has a privacy breach and your customer data is released. Here’s an example from Amazon of that type of clause:
You can see that the clause limits Amazon’s liability and includes no liability for loss to any files. You want to ensure that you are not liable if a third party (the cloud storage provider) has a data leak. To maintain customer trust, use only reputable providers and be transparent about whom your customer data is stored with.
How to Comply
- Set up a Privacy Policy on your website
- Require your customers or website users to agree to it when you collect information from them
- Once you’ve collected the data, keep it with a reputable cloud storage provider
- Protect yourself from liability in the case of data loss
2. Intellectual Property Issues
The next legal issue to consider as a marketer is intellectual property. First, you want to protect your own intellectual property, such as trademarks and copyright. Second, you want to ensure that you don’t infringe on the intellectual property of others. Let’s take a look at the main types of intellectual property protection you may need.
Trademark
If you are sending out marketing emails or contacting people with flyers or advertisements, the first thing you will need to protect is your brand or logo.
Registering a trademark gives you the exclusive right to use a specific word or words, name, design, or logo in connection with specific goods or services. It is valid for 10 years and is renewable if certain requirements are met.
Before you register yours, check that you are not infringing on anyone else’s trademark and that your logo is not too similar to someone else’s. The easiest way to do this is to have your lawyer check whether your proposed mark is similar to any other marks. The lawyer will search an intellectual property register, namely the US Trademark Database. They may also search international registers or registers in other jurisdictions, depending on how broadly you plan to market using your mark.
You can search the US Trademark Database yourself, but an intellectual property lawyer will have a better idea of what you need to search for. Sometimes you need to search for the same trademark in multiple categories of goods; for example, a trademark that you want to register for marketing relating to a supermarket roadshow may come under categories relating to food, alcohol, other beverages, supermarkets and retail stores, marketing, and many more.
When you’re ready to file your trademark application online, in the US, you can use the Trademark Electronic Application System.
Copyright
If you use original marketing language on your website or text in emails, you may want to copyright that text. Copyright relates to authorship of original works, including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, architectural, and a broad range of other works.
If you work with any third parties who write your marketing copy or text for you, ensure that their work is checked for plagiarism. You don’t want to infringe on someone else’s copyrighted work when sending out your emails or newsletters.
Here’s an example from Ads Direct of what you might include in your Terms of Service to protect your intellectual property:
You can see that they list a number of different types of intellectual property (names, graphics, logos, etc.) and that they also claim they do not own any third-party names, trademarks, or service marks that may appear on their website. If you partner with any other organizations or use quality assurance marks on your marketing materials, this may also be worth covering in your clause.
How to Comply
- Check that your proposed branding is not infringing on anyone else’s
- Get your intellectual property registered
- Hire a lawyer if you need help
- Set out your intellectual property use expectations clearly in your Terms of Service
Rules and Regulations of the FTC and Other Consumer Protection Bodies
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has dominion over several key areas relevant to marketers: privacy, anti-spam legislation, and truth in advertising. We’ve already covered privacy above, so let’s take a look at some of the FTC’s rules on advertising and anti-spam practices.
3. Advertising
The FTC requires that advertisements and marketing messages must not mislead consumers or unfairly affect consumers’ behavior or decisions about the product or service. Unfair or deceptive advertising is prohibited, which means that any marketing must tell the truth and not leave out any relevant information that a consumer would be interested in.
Be careful with any comparative advertising or marketing. If you don’t compare products fairly and transparently, you may be breaching advertising standards. Check the wording of your marketing messages carefully and ensure that someone outside of your marketing team (such as someone from your legal team) has a quick look at what your message is saying. A fresh pair of eyes may notice claims that aren’t quite true or descriptions that overemphasize a product’s abilities.
Other regulators on the advertising front that you may need to keep in mind are the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council, which governs the National Advertising Review Board and the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU). If any of your marketing is targeted at children, ensure that you are fully aware of CARU’s guidelines.
Anti-Spam Law
The main anti-spam law in the US is called CAN-SPAM. The FTC enforces CAN-SPAM and has issued guidance on how to comply.
We’ve covered this previously. To recap, CAN-SPAM requires that you:
- Don’t use false or misleading header information
- Don’t use deceptive subject lines
- Identify the message as an ad
- Tell recipients where you’re located
- Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you
- Honor opt-out requests promptly
- Monitor what others are doing on your behalf
The FTC also has a great guide that provides a checklist and guidelines to help you make your business “consumer friendly” overall for international ecommerce. Before you begin marketing your business, be sure that you’ve incorporated some consumer friendly business tips so that you don’t run into trouble further down the line.
If you get into trouble with the FTC or any other consumer protection body, be prompt and clear in your communication with them. Aim to work together toward a solution right away, as it may help you avoid prosecution.
How to Comply
- Be aware of what regulations and laws the FTC and other regulators cover
- Educate yourself on what you need to do to comply
- If you get into hot water with any regulator, work with them to solve the problem
Conclusion
To comply with the law, the key things to remember are: get consent to send your marketing material; ensure that your customers are aware of and sign up to your Privacy Policy when you originally obtain their information; protect your intellectual property and don’t infringe on that of others; be honest and clear with all marketing messages; and allow your customers to opt out of your messages if they wish.
As a marketer, you may be wary of legal pitfalls, but by keeping the issues of privacy and data protection, intellectual property, and consumer protection laws and regulations in the forefront of your mind, you can ensure that you won’t run into any problems.
About the Author: Leah Hamilton is a qualified Solicitor and writer working at TermsFeed, where businesses can create their Privacy Policies and Terms and Conditions in minutes.
Now That’s What I Call Marketing: Optimize your website to hit the right notes with prospects
Optimizing a webpage, let alone a website, can feel like a daunting task. With so many areas of opportunity, you may wonder where to begin.
To help guide you in the discovery of your perfect landing page, I present “Now That’s What I Call Marketing!”
Each track represents a different page element to be considered when optimizing your webpage, pitfalls to avoid and tips on reaching your potential in these areas of opportunity.
Read on and learn how to tune up your site.
Track #1: Give me one reason to read your headline
“Give me one reason to stay here, and I’ll turn it back around. Because I don’t want to leave you lonely, but you got to make me change my mind.” -Tracy Chapman
Tracy’s words ring true when it comes to headlines.
Headlines are your first impression. Better make it count. A bad headline can confuse and worry a visitor or, worse, cause them to hit the back button. A good headline is the golden opportunity to initiate a conversation. Catch your visitor’s interest enough to continuing reading your content and set the expectation for the rest of the online experience.
To help you do that, check out last month’s MarketingExperiments Web clinic, How to Write Headlines that Convert, and keep in mind some advice from Flint McGlaughlin, Managing Director, MECLABS, on headlines. To sum up, a really good headline should answer three questions for every visitor:
- Where am I?
- What can I do here?
- Why should I do it?
Track #2: Use body copy to usher in your value proposition
The purpose of body copy is to communicate your value proposition to customers.
When distilled down, your copy should answer one of the most important questions every customer has: “Why should I buy from you and not your competitors?”
You want the customer to understand what you can offer them that others can’t. Not a sales pitch, just the facts.
Ideally, your offer should be superior to others in at least one way. Tell your visitors how by creating content that focuses on the appeal and exclusivity you bring to the marketplace.
Track #3: Reducing anxiety can make lead gen forms more than a maybe
“Hey I just met you, and this is crazy, but here’s my number, so call me maybe” -Carly Rae Jepsen
If you are asking a prospect to give you their private information right up front, it is a bit crazy to expect a visitor to comply without hesitation.
A great way to approach your forms is to look at them from a value/cost perspective by first asking yourself one simple question: “What’s in it for the customer?”
Whether it’s a free trial, download or a contest, the incentive has to match (and hopefully exceed) their motivation. What they are getting has to be perceived to be of more value than the cost of their time or the anxiety surrounding any privacy concerns they may have.
To learn more about effective lead capture, be sure to check out next month’s Web clinic, Optimizing Email Capture.
“And please say to me, you’ll let me hold your hand” –The Beatles
Every page has a desired outcome of some sort. The key is strategically guiding visitors to that outcome by giving them enough value on the way so that they respond positively.
With so much content crammed on websites, how do we help clear the path?
By testing and optimizing our way into finding the clearest route possible for prospects to be intrigued by our offer, want to learn more and reach our call-to-action at peak interest.
From layout of information to the colors used, every step should deliver the visual cues needed to guide prospects to the final step you want them to take.
Track #5: Deliver an experience that is customer-centric
“You know it’s true, everything I do, I do it for you.” –Bryan Adams
When we create pages or funnels we tend to look at them through a business lens, making decisions from a business-first mindset, which can be distorted from how a customer perceives the same process.
For example, a company might explain its new product using unfamiliar jargon. Despite how well received the value proposition may have been by the marketing department, a prospect can’t take value from something they don’t understand. Speak their language; speak to their concerns.
Also, never assume the customer knows your product and why it’s “special.” You live and breathe your company or product, but do your prospects really have the same understanding?
These types of decisions, often based on revenue impact or sales goals, do not always translate to wins with the consumer. Analyze the pages and processes from the perspective of a customer. How can you see your site through the eyes of a customer? By uncovering their motivations.
Only by understanding your customers can you provide an experience that matches their motivation.
“I always feel like somebody’s watching me” –Rockwell
Marketers of today have been given a “crystal ball” to help us glimpse into the minds of our customers. What gives us this ability?
Data and analytics.
With tracking and analytics platforms, marketers are able to gain a better understanding of where prospects are coming from and what they are doing on your site.
First we need to understand where our customers are coming from. Whether it’s direct traffic or a PPC ad, the source of the visit can provide great insight into what the visitor is looking for in the first place. Were they searching certain keywords? Did the language of a specific PPC ad resonate with them and encourage a click?
Tie this information in with prospect’s behaviors on your site (looking at things such as bounce rate, conversion rate, pages viewed) and you’ll start to see connections.
The overall goal is to match the experience on your site to the prospect’s original motivation for arriving.
Understand why prospects are coming to your page, and then look at performance metrics to see how well you are delivering what they want.
We could spend days talking about analytics, but here’s a blog post with a few simple steps to help you get you started.
Track #7: Use social media to give them something to talk about
“People are talking, talking ‘bout people.” –Bonnie Raitt
According to Forbes, 72% of U.S. adults were on social media in 2013.
This also means that building brand awareness, engaging with customers and taking advantage of this largely free and powerful resource at your disposal should be hardwired into your marketing strategy.
Not to mention, using the channel to satisfy disgruntled customers can separate you from the pack as an organization that owns their mistakes and lives to serve its customers.
Track #8: Use cart retrieval email campaigns and stop throwing away easy sales
“And another one gone, and another one gone, another one bites the dust.” –Freddie Mercury
A prospect has selected a product and is about to purchase when they disappear. He was motivated enough to make it this far into the process, but something at the last second hindered the conversion.
Should you count your losses and move on?
Only if you like throwing away potentially easy conversions.
According to a survey for MarketingSherpa’s 2012 Email Marketing Benchmark Report, of all the automated emails delivered, shopping cart abandonment was last at 11%. As demonstrated in this MarketingExperiments blog post, triggered retrieval emails can lift conversion rates dramatically.
To allow yourself to take advantage of a cart retrieval campaign, consider placing email field early in the checkout.
There are many different theories around timing of email messaging, but it is widely agreed upon (and has been tested) that sending a retrieval email immediately is imperative. The longer you wait, the more you lose. Many companies also leverage incentive here — 10% off to complete your order.
A cart recovery campaign is a super simple and cost effective way to squeeze out a few more conversions.
Track #9: Create a CTA that makes prospects want to “Push it”
“Push it real good.” -Salt’N'Pepa
The call-to-action (CTA) is the main ask of the page — the “ask” is whatever action you’re requesting the visitor to take. So your copy needs to set the right expectations for customers to take that action. In short, your call-to action copy should clearly answer what a customer gets for their click.
If they are getting a free download, for example, try swapping out “submit” with a “get guidebook now.”
Not only is the expectation set for what comes next, but the customer is reminded of the benefit received. This both helps assure customers they are proceeding down the proper path and relays the value in doing so.
Future album: Your optimized page
With these tracks in mind, now is the time to start optimizing your pages and creating a website that rocks. Want our feedback? It’s not too late to submit a page for today’s MECLABS live optimization webinar.
Sources
You might also like
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Copywriting: See immediate lifts by applying these 5 principles to your headlines
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