I. The Q3 Strategy Audit & The Website Audit from Aladin and his Internet Genie
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Introduction
Two "do-it-yourself" audits are the points of departure for thinking about how best to grow your business. The first is on strategy. Bridges can help with reflecting on the results in two ways. Either an introductory Q3 Co-Audit can be scheduled, as explained at the lead page of Services. Or one can make an appointment to see whether becoming a Bridges client for strategy coaching is a good mutual fit.
The second is explained below at B. The Website Audit. Our joint venture partner, Aladin, via its Internet alliance network, can assist with your website considerations.
A. The Q3 Strategy Audit
1. Your Business
1) What business are you really in? How do you define it in terms of solutions?
Shoes, bicycles, cars and airplanes are all solving transportation problems, getting from A to B, as different as those industries are from one another. An aspect common to most solutions, including those provided by the transportation industries, is the role premium branding can play - Bally & Gucci, Bianchi & Coinago, Ferrari & Lamborghini, Lear & Concorde.
2) What do you need to do to grow your business significantly in the next six months, year, three years?
3) What frustrates you the most about your business?
3.1 - What strategies have you tried that did NOT work? Why did they fail?
4) What thrills you the most about your business?
4.1 - What strategies have you tried that did work? Why did they work?
5) What is your number one priority to accomplish in the next two to six months? Why?
2. Your Strategy
"Have You Tested Your Strategy" is an article in the McKinesy Quarterly, Feb. 8th, 2011 by Chris Bradley, Martin Hirt and Sven Smit. They write that two-thirds of companies pass three or less of the ten questions. These are reduced below to six questions, re-ordered and summarized. The full questions, with accompanying explanations, are given at the link. Having your team read that article before a meeting to conduct an internal strategy review is strongly recommended. From it one can distill the questions most relevant for your business and use them as a basis for an annual strategy audit.
1) Does your strategy follow trends, or put you ahead of them? Many strategies are based on extrapolating from the past. They are at risk when innnovation shifts the market. A problem with extrapolation is bias: (1) attribution error, (2) failure blindness and (3) received wisdom.
1.1 - Attribution error, also known as the halo effect, means that cause and effect relationships have not been properly understood. Success is attributed to event A, when it really came about because of (fortuitous) circumstances B,C, and D.
1.2 - Failure blindness, or the graveyard effect, is ignoring the data about mistakes, from ventures that no longer even exist. "How best do we throw someone into the water, from what height, into a quiet fresh water pond or a choppy, heavily salted sea, to teach him how to swim?" Ignoring the data about all the folk who drowned with the "throw" method does not lead to a good strategy for the company offering swimming instruction.
1.3 - Received wisdom: "everyone in the industry knows that" is a bias especially common among senior managers, now far away from the trenches, whose entire career has been in that industry.
2) Will your strategy beat the market? To beat the market over the long term, one needs to be ahead of trends, not merely follow them. Over time, FOP (front of pack) leaders become MOP (middle of pack). If a leader is too late to respond to the inevitable market shifts, the drift may well be to BOP (back of pack). As the McKinsey authors put it: "markets drive a reversion to mean performance."
3) Is your strategy based on a real advantage, by positioning, or through special capabilities? Do you know the weakest link in your value chain? What new insights (i.e. above and beyond received wisdom) does your strategy reflect? Data mining generates a lot of white noise. Alone it is not enough, for instance, to solve an old customer problem in a new way.
4) Is your strategy specific about where to compete, which market niches?
5) Does your strategy lead to real commitment - "being on a mission," versus having a mission statement?
Is that commitment balanced with the flexibility to account for uncertainty? For instance, do you run scenarios with a range of best case/worst case assumptions? Focusing on the goal is key to a sustainable competitve advantage. However committing to that goal can lead to tunnel vision, to a lack of flexibility.
6) Is realizing your strategy tied to an immediate action plan with budgets, milestones, and managers held accountable for specific strategic targets?
B. The Website Audit
from
Aladin Video Clip
(the Aladin logo)
Your Very Own Internet Genie
Roaming the Internet are harmless Elves and Sprites, mischievous Goblins and Kobolds, and all-powerful, menacing Googles and Genies. The Internet Genie was released from his bottle some time ago.
*
He is getting more powerful by the day. Neither your competitors nor you are going to be able to put him back into the bottle.
1. The Website Audit
Contents
Part I - Ask Your Staff
Part II - Ask Your Customers
Part III - Website Critique Services
Part IV - Resources
Part V - What Hinders People From Buying On-Line?
I. Ask Your Staff
The first question is how important is the website for your business anyway? Is it a key business driver, or is it merely a calling card one has, because nowadays one is expected to have a website?
If the website is critical, then one should audit it periodically as part of reviewing one's marketing strategy. The audit would begin by asking for feedback internally. An excellent document to use to give that feedback structure is Web Site Review Procedure, written by Gary Polson, an engineer and market researcher. (He is also the author of "Market Research, Industry Research, Business Research, How to Learn about an Industry or a Specific Company," as referred to in the subpage A. Market Research Basics at V. Marketing Strategy of Services.)
I. Ask Your Customers
The more specific your questions are, the better will be the answers you get. Do not ask: "Did you like the meal?" ( = do you like our website?) Rather ask about their purpose (business meal, celebration), their general dining preferences (usually eat at home, at fast food chains), how often they have been there, the menu (foods offered, ease of reading), the prices, the taste and presentation of each dish ordered, the wine, the waiters, the time from ordering to receiving the dish, the tablecloth, napkins, silverware, glasses, porcelan, the table and chairs (how comfortable), the decor (paintings on the wall), the cleanliness - especially of the bathrooms, the general noise level, the background music, the room temperature, their impression of the other diners (for their level of comfort - the Hell's Angel feels threatened surrounded by tuxedos), the ease of making a reservation - and how (telephone, computer), the area, the building, the parking lot, the advertising.
The combination of these factors, among others, makes for the total restaurant experience. That experience determines whether one returns, and whether one recommends the restaurant and to whom. Similarly a variety of factors make for the total website experience, including the browser the viewer uses. Of course one should not ask too many questions all at once. Instead organize them into a series of short surveys. Consider what incentive to offer for completing each one, perhaps a coupon, free pdf download or a prize for the best suggestion.
A survey could be devoted to only:
- the landing page (including how one came upon it)
- product/service descriptions
- the website videos
- the payment procedures
- on-line customer service
- content, specifically helpful information on the website, and navigating to it
- only the English, only the German, etc. version of the website
Conducting the surveys could be a good task for a computer-savy student intern.
II. Website Critiques
1) Forum critiques
There are many forums where one can ask for a free website critique, beginning with those relevant to one's own industry, as well as marketing forums. Just two examples are given below.
1.1 - PHP Freaks is a forum devoted to free website critiques. Again, one gets the best feedback by asking specific questions.
1.2 - MarketingProfs offers a brief informal website critique as one of 19 question categories. To obtain it, one opts-in by joining the MarketingProfs, which is free. The know-how exchange of this marketing site is the most active English language one in the world. Upon joining, one receives 250 question points, which one can use for the website critique. As a member, one earns points by answering questions, and spends points by asking questions.
2) Google Tools
These should be supplemented by other sources as a cross-check. However the Google services are an excellent beginning.
2.1 - At Google Webmaster Central submit your XML sitemap in order to receive website diagnostic data.
2.2 Use the Google Analytics tools to examine your website traffic.
3) Modestly priced critiques
Google the phrase "website critiques" to find current offerings. Below are three results, July 2011, by way of example. Be sure to conduct due diligence before spending any money. As a minimum, verify the testimonials and check the guarantee.
3.1 - Soleil Web Solutions offers website critiques for $50 and $200.
3.2 - CGMK Consulting offers a website SEO analysis for $200.
3.3 - Darren Slaughter offers website critiques for $200 with two outstanding features, and one marketing blunder. Outstanding is that his service is only for the construction industry. He uses a 38 item checklist about your website, and, again outstanding, sends you a video about his findings. The blunder is that not only does he not offer a guarantee, he states that the payment in advance is non-refundable.
You want to find a website professional who concentrates on your industry. Another example would be Kathleen Allardyee, whose firm Build Real Estate Results offers website services for real estate brokers and agents.
IV. Resources
1) Continuing education
Consider sending someone on your staff to a continuing education course on website design, SEO, etc. These are offered by community colleges, by, in Germany, the IHK and the Volkshochschulen, etc.
2) Books
2.1 - Web Marketing All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies, 2009 was written by a team: John Arnold, Ian Lurie, Marty Dickinson and Elizabeth Marsten. This 850 page reference book includes a section on what to look for when hiring an SEO professional.
2.2 - Search Engine Optimization for Dummies, 2011 by Peter Kent is one of the better introductions to SEO.
V. What Hinders People From Buying On-Line?
Six main reasons are:
1) Understanding the need: They do not really understand how the product or offer satisfies their needs. Their doubt ranges from "What is it anyway?" to the more common, "Do I really need that?"
2) Value: Even if they need it, they may not particularly value your offer, or believe they can afford it.
2.1 - The price/performance ratio is not convincing.
3) Alternatives: They see themselves as being able to solve the problem or build the product on their own, or with another provider.
4) Trust: Value (price/performance) is there, but they do not really trust you.
4.1 - Risk: There is too much risk. For instance, you are an unknown provider.
4.2 - Track record, testimonials and guarantee are not convincing.
5) Urgency: Both value and trust are there, but urgency is not. The purchase is not a priority.
6) Call to Action: They are ready to purchase, but the website does not have a clear call to action leading to a smooth and easily navigable way to place an order.
2. Website Videos
Contents
Part I begins with some introductory video questions.
Part II sets these in the context of on-line marketing. The completely feasible do-it-yourself video option is briefly explained.
Part III briefly presents the Alladin website video services, including an SEO option billed on the basis of results (CPA, cost per action).
Part IV gives some technical video information.
Part V discusses seven video launchpads, including sample lists of sites to submit a video to.
I. Introductory Video Questions
1st Question - Why Video?
The impact of a video on the landing page and for sales is widely accepted. Yet as soon as one departs from the Fortune 500, the majority of businesses do not use website videos. The estimate for the U.S., as of 2011, is 4 out of 7 companies do not! Why?
1) Viewed as complicated, do not even know how to load a video onto the website.
2) Concerned that an amateurish video would detract from the professional appearing website.
3) Do not know all that much about SEO for the website in general and nothing at all about SEO for a video on it.
4) Assume a professional video would be exorbitantly expensive.
Therefore many companies view a website video as a "someday, nice to have" but not as a priority. No formal analysis of the options is ever made. Interestingly, these thoughts are similar to those businesses had when the telephone was introduced, the computer, websites, and now, website videos. That represents an opportunity to get a step ahead of one's competitiors.
The Answer
Take a hard look at the different options to improve one`s website, specifically including the use of video. A frame of reference by looking at video in the context of on-line marketing is provided in Section 2 of that name below.
2nd Question - Capturing Attention
The classic U.S. sales acronym is AIDA: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. How long does one have to catch someone's attention, ten minutes, one minute? What really gets the attention of customers nowadays anyways?
Before the industrial revolution and mass media, the pace of life was slower, attention spans longer. People on a farm in Western cultures have been estimated to have had attention spans of 15 minutes or more. With radio, TV and now the web, attention spans have become shorter and shorter. As far as Internet surfing is concerned, our attention spans have been reduced from that of a curious cow to about that of a goldfish.
Sally Hogshead explains exactly how long that is, and the implications for your marketing campaigns, in "How to Fascinate," a presentation at TED.1 Her thoughts make an excellent point of departure for considering one's marketing campaigns and how best to use an advertising and PR budget in general, and one for the web in particular.
Quandry - Have video, will travel?
You have read that a video is a powerful sales tool for two reasons. First, it captures people's attention, drawing them into your website. Second, it can be set up to be an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) magnet, attracting viewers to the website. How exactly do you make your video travel to your customers and all over the world?
The Short Answer
Optimizing SEO for the video(s) on your website entails a little more than downloading to YouTube. One needs to use (1) Video Sharing Sites, followed by script entry with backlinks to the video(s) at: (2) Blogs, (3) Article Directories, (4) Bookmarking Sites, (5) Forums, and (6) Press Release sites. Some comments about each of these with lists of starter sites are given below at Part V - Six Launching Pads for Your Video.
II. On-line Marketing Introduction
Introduction
Internet marketing has become increasingly important for just about all businesses. The on-going transition from "bricks and mortar" to "bricks and clicks" is global. The single most powerful entity in the on-line world is Google, referred to by many an Internet guru as The People's Democratic Republic of North Google. They whisper in awe of its dreaded neutron bombs, nicknamed "the Google slap." These are launched with cause, but also arbitarily, apparently at mere whim. A single "slap" can vaporize a thousand, or ten thousand, websites -- or, if not making them disappear completely, banish them to page 50, 100 or even lower in the rankings on a Google search.
Multinational corporations have the resources to negotiate with the politicians of North Korea and the managers of North Google. However even they are wary of the effort it will take. Smaller companies that venture into the domains of these power mongers are pretty much at their mercy.
Three on-line sub-categories rapidly gaining momentum are (1) social media, (2) mobile clicks and (3) website videos.
1) Facebook now has over 700 million users (2011), and with other similar sites, such as Twitter, and also Linked-In, is an advertising medium that should not be overlooked. Associated with that is the popularity of group purchasing, such as via Groupon.
2) Mobile clicks refers to the increasing amount of Internet surfing done on smart phones. Searches for local businesses are especially common. The offers of electronic coupons by local businesses are increasing correspondingly.
3) Websites have become ubiquitous, as common, and as necessary, as having a business card. Most business cards are o.k., get the job done. Some are pretty bad, and a few are really great, elegant and memorable. The same three categories of bad, o.k. and great apply to websites. However the percentage of websites that really "get the job done" is much smaller than for business cards. First, there is a little more involved in designing a website than a business card. Second, most websites serve a much larger purpose than merely providing contact information. The website is a key sales driver. That is true for both B2B and B2C sales.
A key requirement for a website which does, in fact, "get the job done," is that it capture the visitor`s attention -- and then holds it. The initial "accept or reject" decision takes place in less than a minute, in fact, in much less (cf. the video by Sally Hogsworth, linked above). Accept means the visitor (prospective customer) decides to stay on the website and learn more. Reject means he leaves the website. "Bounces" is the term used in website analytics.
The empirical evidence from sources such as Google Analytics supports the statement repeated by a variety of Internet gurus: a short, well-done video on the landing page, front and center, is by far the best introduction, best attention-getter, a website can have. Just as the website has become a key marketing tool for bricks and mortar businesses, in the transition to "bricks and clicks," videos have become a key driver for a successful website, i.e. one to which visitors "stick." The "stickier" the website, the more likely a visitor is to become a customer, or, if already a customer, to make another purchase -- and to recommend the website, forward a link, mention it on Facebook or Twitter.
Do It Yourself Option
This option is absolutely legitimate and viable. It can lead to excellent results, not, however, through "point and shoot" with your smart phone camera. Yes, one can "point and shoot" a video for friends and family, but it is unlikely to be adequate for a TV documentary, or a website either. Of course amateurs can do much more than "point and shoot."
An analogy is to a serious hobby photographer with good equipment and experience. He too can take award-winning photographs. Naturally there is a little more involved to shooting a video, let alone a film, than a still photograph. That is why the admissions for a leading film school, such New York University (NYU's Tisch School and Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film & Television) is so fiercely competitive, even though the six years from freshman to a graduate degree will run you, just for tuition, $47,000 a year. (Furthermore living expenses in New York City are high, and the course materials are not cheap either.)
Granted, one learns much more than one needs to know to shoot a website video. A more relevant option would be the excellent course for website videos periodically offered by Andy Jenkins. A graduate of the NYU film school, he has worked on Hollywood films. The on-line courses he offers as The Video Boss run 9 weeks and cost $2,000. (The one for 2011 is sold out.) They are considered the best value for money in the U.S., quite possibly world-wide. Someone already interested in photography and film who takes that course (or an equivalent one) and follows up with "learning by doing" should definately be able to shoot high quality videos for your firm. Furthermore, he will also know a great deal about SEO for videos.
The Professional Option
The obvious advantage is known quality -- one can view samples of the firm's work on its website. The obvious disadvantage is cost.
Hollywood films cost millions. Twenty hours of film simultaneously shot by 10 to 20 cameras (for different perspectives) can be edited down by a team in a week at a studio to a 5 minute scene -- or eliminated entirely, just cut and discarded. There is a trickle down effect for videos for business as well. Four hours of film shot by two cameras can be edited (e.g. with Magix software) into a 5 minute video in two days. That is not the millions of a Hollywood film, but can still easily run in the thousands.
Consequence
Before one goes down the video road, whether it be a simple dirt path or an eight-laned superhighway, one should consider the marketing, branding and sales objectives. How does the video reflect marketing strategy? How does it support branding? How can one make it a useful tool for the sales force? What other purposes could it serve, for instance in support of the business plan in seeking debt or equity capital? In the preceding link using a video instead of a written business plan is suggested by Jeffery Gitomer, discussed in Eminent Referrals. The idea has merit. However if one goes to the trouble of organizing it as he suggests, taking the further step of quality shooting (not with a smart phone camera) seems reasonable.
All too often videos are created in a marketing void. After the video is produced, one then decides how to incorporate it into the existing strategy and campaigns. (1st - "Fire!" 2nd - "Aim!" 3rd - "Check to see if it's loaded???") Examine some of the questions associated with A. The Q3 Strategy Audit as a catalyst to your own review.
III. The Aladin Approach
First, Aladin builds a bridge to cross the gap between the video as "idea" to its being a practical, powerful image and sales tool. This marketing dialogue is between Aladin and the client. Aladin also has a "bridge architect," viz. Bridges-EC, should creation and usage of the video raise larger questions about marketing strategy. The initial dialogue is based on first considering the W´s, as elaborated upon below.
Second, precisely because clients have different video goals, three distinct services are offered: Bronze, Silver and Gold. Bronze creates a sequenced video effect without the actual shooting and editing of a video. It is an excellent alternative for split testing and for clients with a limited budget. Silver is a video or trailer film. Gold is a video with initial SEO (Search Engine Optimization). The Gold service is also offered with on-going SEO on a performance basis. One may choose to pay per lead or per sale (CPA, Cost per Action).
The W's: Why, What, Who, Where, When, Wherewithal
The video project should be planned in the context of one's marketing strategy.
- "Why do you want to shoot this video?"
- "What are you trying to accomplish?"
- "Who is the audience, the targeted viewers?"
- "Where are they - culture (language)/country?"
These are the strategic questions: the video goals and how they fit into the overall marketing strategy. Note that implicit to these questions is the role of SEO. A wonderful advertising campaign or compelling video is irrelevant if only a handfull of people view it, having stumbled onto it by accident.
The strategical questions are followed by tactical ones: how best to make -- and distribute -- the video.
- "When should the video - as part of the on-line marketing campaign - be ready?"
- "Wherewithal - which marketing resources (management time, budget) should be allocated?"
Aladin Services
1) Bronze - the almost video, base price 800 €
2) Silver - professional videos, base price 2400 €
3) Gold - videos + SEO, 15.000 € to 50.000 €
With on-going SEO + CPA (performance based billing) the base price can be as low as 6.000 €. The on-going SEO + CPA option is ONLY OFFERED TO ONE CLIENT PER MARKET NICHE. Or would you want your on-line sales optimzed by a firm that was also doing the same for your fiercest competitor?
Note: the actual base price depends on the video specifications, including its length. Visit the Aladin website for details and sample videos for a variety of industries.
IV. Some Technical Information
Split Testing
A tremendous advantage of the Internet is that it so easily - and cheaply - allows split testing. One can target specific pages of one's website to split test, or put up parallel websites. Four of the main sites to assist with split testing are:
- google.com/ads/displaynetworks (but the templates are not easy to use)
- advertising.microsoft.com
- advertisingcentral.yahoo.com
- MyDisplayAdvertising.com (a customized offering by John Arnold, one of authors, with Ian Lurie, Marty Dickinson and Elizabeth Marsten of Web Marketing, a book in the Dummies series which is linked above in IV. Resources of 2. The Website Audit.)
Mobile phones
The U.S. is signficantly behind most of Europe in mobile phones. Yet even in the U.S. about 19 out of 20 people have a mobile phone, one third of which are "smart" phones. For B2C marketing optimizing the landing page for mobile devices is therefore important. One should also consider the use of mobile coupons such as the Starbucks gift card.
V. Seven Video Launching Pads
1) Video sharing sites besides YouTube
YouTube accounts for about one third of all video viewing on the Internet. The other two-thirds is done over sites such as the following:
- blib.tv - megavideo
- bofunk - photobucket
- daily motion - sevenload
- ecoup TV - veoh
- graspr - viddler
- kewego - viewtube
- livevideo - vimeo
- mediacafe
N.B. The video script, with a link back to the video, should be entered at sites such as those listed in the next five categories.
2) Social media sites
3) Blogs
4) Article Directories
5) Bookmarking sites
- Connectedy - Spotback
- Digg - Spurl
- Feedmaker - StumbleUpon
- Folkd
6) Forums relevant to the video
One finds these with a Google search.
7) Press release sites
1 The quality of Sally Hogshead's 18 minute presentation "How to Fascinate" at TED reflects the 100 hours she spent preparing and practising it. The first TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference was held in California in 1984, and since 1990 it has been an annual event. It is run by the non-profit Sapling Foundation.
Speakers are given 18 minutes to present "ideas worth spreading." Among them have been Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Al Gore, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and a slew of Nobel Prize winners. The events are held in Long Beach and Palm Springs in the U.S., as well as in Europe and Asia. Over 700 speeches are available for viewing on-line. These have been seen more than 500 million times (June, 2011).
*© Virginia Frances Sterret, "Aladin finds the genie in the cave," Arabian Nights, 1928, Public Domain, age; Gyan Web Design 2010