29

Get Out of The Way of Your Customer!

This is a true story about a $300 million dollar button on a website. User Interface Engineering, which does usability studies on e-commerce sites, recently had a report about a client who they did some usability studies on. A major e-commerce retailer, this online store had the idea of installing a login feature just before the final step in the checkout process. After  you selected items from their store and went to checkout, you were prompted to either log into the site or register for a free account. The concept was that with an account, you could track your previous orders and make future buying easier. The web designers assumed that past customers returning to the site would know their login information, and the new users wouldn’t mind the extra steps of signing up an account, since they’d probably be returning to buy again in the future. These are very simple assumptions but wound up causing an extremely expensive mistake.

The study concluded that a substantial amount of people right on the cusp of purchasing a product declined to do so because of the registration process. In addition, many past customers had difficulty logging in as they did not remember their user names or passwords and didn’t want to wait for a response from the website telling them what it was. 45% of past customers actually had multiple logins with different passwords. While these factors were not a huge percentage of customers, it was enough to show a significant dent in the loss of business it created. For a company worth $25 billion, even a small dent in their revenues did amount to a significant amount of money? How significant? How about $300 million annually.

After doing this study, the UIE suggested replacing the mandatory registration portion of the checkout with a simple “Continue” button. They also changed the text to reflect that registration was not required but was a helpful option if you planned on returning to the site again in the future. The result? Sales went up by 45% immediately - $15 million in just the first month and $300 million in the first year, simply by adding a “continue” button.

So the lesson here is that so many times when it comes to website design we think about how it makes things more convenient for the designers and not so much for the customers. A great way around this is to have people beta test the website more effectively before having such a feature go live. I remember building a website about seven years ago. The client wanted to have the “buy now” button flash in red and yellow everywhere it appeared on the website. The thought was it would stand out and the customer would never be lost when it came time to place an order. When we beta tested the website, the testers all stated that the button was annoying and distracting when they were trying to read the product description adjacent to the flashing button. As such, they found it motivation enough to stop reading and click off the site. So a feature that was intended to get people to buy more frequently actually wound up driving them away.

So whenever working on your own website, be aware of the experience you have building it may not be the same experience your visitor has when they are on it. Sometimes we have to take off the “Designer” hat and put on the “Customer” hat when it comes to our own e-commerce website. Doing so may result in a much more positive result than you might think.

22

When Good Marketing Assists Good Selling

One of my good friends, Marshall Sylver, once taught me that, “Marketing is the wink, sales is the kiss.” That phrase has always resonated with me for years and years. Today, I had an awesome experience of witnessing how the two go hand in hand.

About a year ago a new grocery store moved into Las Vegas…Fresh and Easy. They seem to be popping up everywhere and one even opened less than a mile from my house. Since they opened, my wife and I have probably shopped at the big supermarkets less than ten times. We’re HUGE fans of Fresh and Easy as they package and price things for people with our kind of lifestyle. Plus they make the buying process a real pleasurable one and definitely push their staff huge on customer service importance.

Wanting to make a nice dinner for my wife this evening, off I went to the local store. One of the cool marketing techniques that Fresh and Easy uses is to have a sampling station in every store which always has tastings of their specific in-house brands. Today it  might be fresh veggies and fruits and tomorrow it might be corn chips and mint infused water. While I’m not usually interested in a sample of something I generally walk on by. Today though, I was wandering past and the woman behind the counter asked if I wanted a drink. Today they seemed to be pushing different juices. A bit thirsty, I obliged. “What’s in that fluorescent orange cup?” I asked. “It’s really quite tasty. It’s Peach Mango Fusio but the name is a bit deceiving as there’s also a lot of vegetable juice in there. It’s really healthy and tastes great. Here, try a cup.” she says as she hands me a sample. “Not bad” I said

Not really that interested in buying any, I was about to walk away. That’s when I noticed the cup sitting next to it with a sludge of a drink that looked like something dredged from the bottom of Lake Erie. “What in the world is that stuff?” I asked, pointing to the green slime in a cup. This is where the conversation got real interesting. She leans over the counter, stares at me right in the eye and says in a near whisper, “You look like a man of adventure! You look like the kind of guy who never says no to a challenge. I’m correct, aren’t I?”

Shocked, I took a step back and laughed. “OK, what’s in it?” I ask. “Pay no attention to the look and don’t worry about what’s in it. It’s juice and it’s good for you. Just drink it!” she commands me. I take a sip and WOW was this stuff good. I immediately finished the cup and asked what it was. “It’s our Mighty Green Superfoods drink. It’s got a variety of different juices in it but it also has Blue Green Algae, wheat and barley grass, and a whole lot more. It’s the healthiest drink we carry. It’s awesome, isn’t it?” Nodding my head yes, I asked where I could find it in the store. The woman replied, “Here is your very first bottle” handing me one over the counter, prepared to make the sale. I took six.

As I was leaving the store, I saw the store manager and told her, “That woman you have in the back. The young girl with the tattoos at the sample counter. You really need to give her a raise. She’s awesome.” The manager looked at me and said, “We just did 2 weeks ago. Don’t tell her this, but she’s being promoted to Assistant Manager at the end of the month.” Brilliant.

So, I walked away from this experience recognizing the true difference behind how successful companies operate and how others fail. At some point in time, a marketing person came up with the idea for always offering product samples and possibly even which ones to choose from. For all I know, they had 2 trillion bottles of this stuff sitting in the back that they were having difficulty moving and so they figured offering samples of it might make them sell faster. Ultimately though, it was a marketing decision to put it out there. HOWEVER, pushing a product that the majority of customers would resist means you have to have the right person selling it. The woman who sold me on this juice was VERY creative in her approach. She made me laugh, she made me feel important, and most importantly, she closed the sale! Not every person working in a supermarket has those skills and I’m glad that someone higher up in the chain of command recognized that. Getting the customers to the opportunity is about marketing. Getting them to buy is about sales. It’s important to understand how the two differ and also how they complement one another.

SOME PARTING FOOD FOR THOUGHT…

If the circus is coming to town and you print a big sign that says, “Circus Coming to the Fairground Saturday”, that’s advertising.

If you get some rope and tie the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it down Main Street, that’s promotion.

If the elephant walks bumps into the mayor’s car and leaves a dent, that’s publicity.

And if you get the mayor to laugh and make a joke about it on the evening news, that’s public relations.

If everyone in town goes to the circus, you show them the many entertainment booths, carnival rides, petting zoo, explain how much fun they’ll have spending money at the circus, answer their questions and then ultimately, they spend a lot at the circus, that’s sales.

And, if you planned the whole thing, that’s Marketing!

12

United Airlines Needs to Crash & Burn

For those of you know know me or have read my Blog posts, you will know I’m no big fan of airlines, specficially United Airlines. Their customer service is deplorable, their rates are not competative, their frequent-flier program is terrible, and they clearly are at least two decades behind the times in everything they do. I fly with them out of necessity, not out of choice. Currently I have logged over 50,000 miles with United in just the last 60 days and I wish it were with Virgin, Southwest, or Jet Blue but regretfully, neither of those airlines fly international where I have needed to go recently.

So yesterday, I had yet another horrible experience with United that topped all others. I was flying home from Australia where I was speaking at an awesome SEO seminar in the Gold Coast. It was a great few days and yet I was ready to be home with the wife, the dogs, and my own bed and shower. I had already been traveling for 18 hours and this was my final leg of the trip…Los Angeles to Las Vegas. I had a short layover and I was ready to get it over with. I went through customs, got my bags transferred, and had to go through the security checkpoint again. No big deal.

The checkpoint I was at was surprisingly slow. I’m used to waiting in line for 20 minutes or longer in Vegas so it was refreshing to see just a few people in front of me. A new line opened up and I walked over. There was one person in front of me and you could tell he wasn’t a frequent traveler. He muddled about with his carry on bag, his laptop, his coat, his shoes (which you have to remove to go through X-Ray in the states) and so on. I, however, was ready to go through. Laptop, watch, shoes and cell phone in a trays, bag ready to go through the X-Ray machine, et. The man in front of me said I could go ahead of him while he was getting organized and I told him it was OK, I’d wait.

So just at the moment he put his items on the conveyor belt to go through the X-Ray machine, a very interesting thing happened. Three United Airlines flight attendants stepped in, pulled the man’s items off the conveyor belt and started unloading their items on to it. They went behind me and grabbed some trays, put their purses, luggage, jewelry, and other personal items on the belt in front of the two of us, all the while they were busy chatting away among themselves as if the man in front of me and myself were invisible. They started to walk through the personal X-Ray machine and I looked at the man in front of me and said, “Did I just miss something, or did those three just blatantly cut in front of us?” He nodded yes. So, not being one who likes to sit there and take it, I shouted at them. “Excuse me”, I said, “Am I in the wrong line or something? Is this the line for crew only?” knowing full well that the security agents all waived us over to this line. One of the three women responded, “No, you’re in the right line.” Dumbfounded, I asked back, “Well can you please explain to me why you just cut in front of the two of us? It doesn’t seem like you’re in any big hurry or anything?” This is when I got a real whopper of an answer.

With the other two flight attendants still ignoring us, she states, “Well, there are a lot of poeple in the other lines and by cutting in front of you two, there are less people to verbally complain about us doing what we’re doing. Cya!” I looked at the person in front of me and both of us just stood there with our jaws on the ground. I was so fuming with anger I didn’t even think to get their name badges. I looked at the TSA security agent behind the X-Ray machine and he said, “Sorry about that. It’s so embarrassing when they do that. It’s only the United crew who is ever that obnoxious. I don’t know what’s with them but we see that type of behavior from them all the time. Again, so sorry, that’s just obnoxious.”

I’ve been saying for years that you can always tell a successful airline versus a failing one based on the overall attitude of their flight attendants. I’ve held the theory for years now that United actually teaches classes to their crew that they need to treat customers like dirt, give them no respect, and do everything to create a terrible travel experience for them. This incident just confirmed it. I can assure you that from this day forward I will always look for an alternative to flying with anyone other than United.

This yet another example that when companies spend thousands or even millions of dollars in advertising and marketing, it all comes down to the point of interraction with the customer which will either amplify, balance, or counterbalance all the marketing efforts put forward. United Airlines makes brilliant commericals. They really do. They work hard to target business customers (even though their FF program stinks) and in spite of always looking like a tired, old airline, they do try to market their product. Even if they spent billions of dollars instead of millions, it wouldn’t matter. United is just broken. So when I hear sob stories about how some companies are failing, like United, I say let ‘em die. It helps pave the way for their competition, who actually gives a damn, to take their place.

As of the time of my posting this article, United Airlines stock (UAUA) is down by nearly 7% for the day. That’s a good thing!

14

Weak Links in Your Business

Recently I had a funny experience with a Hewlett Packard Webcam Deluxe. The webcam crashed my computer every time I ran their software and when I spoke with the staff at their technical support, they asked me to please read them the serial number on a “big white sticker on the back of the camera.” Perhaps I’m missing something, but I don’t see ANY “big white sticker” on the back of the camera. Take a look for yourself…

They refused to provide any customer service until they got the number, which didn’t exist. Want to learn the lesson in this story as to how it can help your business? Watch our Millionaire Marketing Moment video below:

09

Millionaire Marketing Moment for April 9, 2009

Millionaire Marketing Moment for April 09, 2009

The first in our latest video blog series called the Millionaire Marketing Moment. Be sure to subscribe and comment here and at http://www.youtube.com/millionairemoment

07

Say No To Flash

At least once a week I have the same conversation with one of my clients. “Adam, I really want my website to be designed in Flash because it looks so nice.” Fifteen minutes later, I always hear the same phrase…”I’m so glad you talked me out of it!” In case you didn’t get the memo, Flash is dead.

Now, it’s important to understand that there is a time and a place to use Flash components in your website. In fact, I even use Flash on my own home page. The key to understanding the importance or irrelevance of using Flash to build your website stems from several different reasons.

For starters, search engines, including Google, Yahoo, Excite, Lycos, MSN, etc., all HATE Flash. Why? Because they can’t see it. Most people never stop to think about what makes up a website page from the inside and when you have a better understanding of website construction, it starts to make more sense. A website is nothing more than a programming called “HTML” (short for Hyper Text Markeup Language) which assembles different components together of text, images, etc., into something a human being can visually see on their computer screen. If you ever want to see what an actual web page looks like, on the top menu of your browser, click on View and then Page Source. This literally all a web page actually is. When a visitor to that page views the page with a web browser such as Firefox or Internet Explorer, that browser decodes that mess of code by compiling the code and making into something you can see. This all happens in the blink of an eye, and yet that is the actual process that happens every time you visit a website.

When you ad a third party component to the mix, especially Flash, you had a lot of other variables to what is happening in your browser. These things require a plug-in to make that component work. Flash is an element that was created using a technology now owned by Adobe. In essence, Flash is used for a variety of purposes including animation, games, and so on. It can be interactive or it can just play a slide show of images. The software used to create a Flash component is periodically updated, and when the programmer is using a new version and saves the Flash component, it will require the user, or in this case, the visitor to your website, to update their Flash Player to see that new component. What’s interesting about this, is that a very large population of computer users don’t update their players frequently. So if they go to your website and it has an important component that is Flash based, or if the entire website is in Flash, they can’t see it! So now you are forcing your customer to go and download the latest version, install it, and come back. Ugh.

It is important to understand that visitors to your website have a shorter attention span than ever before. Current studies say it approximately nine seconds or less. NINE SECONDS! So think of this logically, as if your website were a conventional, brick-and-mortar type of store. Imagine a customer walks in the door of your bakery looking for the product you are selling and you FORCE them to watch a video and take a tour of the kitchen just to buy a loaf of bread. Assuming you make the sale at all, your customer will unlikely return again because of the hassle of the buying process. The same thing holds true for your website. Forcing visitors to sit through a lengthy animation cycle or download a plugin will likely result in the loss of a sale. Now, think long and hard about the reason you built your website. Before you answer, I can answer for you…to make money online. So why do something to get in the way of that process when you have a hot prospect wanting to give you their money? You wouldn’t do it in a brick-and-mortar business do don’t do it on your website!

This isn’t to say that having an attractive website is unimportant. It’s VERY important to keep up with the latest Internet design trends. The key is to not sell your visitor on how gorgeous your website is, rather than to sell them on the product that you are selling! Just recently I was talking with one of my business parterners, Rebecca Avalon, about just this topic. She is in the process of redoing her website and asked me for some advice. The top header of the site used a lengthy 30 second animation made in Flash. It looked really nice and on a basic level, it didn’t interfere with all of the rest of the text content on the site. The issue was that the animation looped over and over again. It had a lot of bright colors and every time you refreshed the page, you had to wait for this animation to load again. It slowed down the entire website! Not only that, but because this animation kept looping, while you were reading the text below it, it didn’t take anything more than 20 seconds before your eyes started to hurt. So, after some coaching, she understood that her banner animation time should be shorter and should end on a still frame. Also, all subsequent pages in the site don’t play the animation…they just display that last frame of the video as a graphic image. This speeds up loading times and becomes less of an annoyance. Lastly, all crutial information to the business (ad copy, bullet points of importance to the service of the business, etc.) is removed from the Flash animation. This is in case the visitor is looking at the site from an Iphone or a browser without the latest plugin, so this way they can still see all the important features the business has to offer even though they can’t see the animation on top of the home page. The only down side to this, is if a visitor can’t see that animation on top, they may conclude that something important is up there and may leave out of discouragement. Again, another reason against the use of Flash! With an attractive still image on top, you alleviate all these problems while still accomplishing the same task. Remember, when in doubt, K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid!)

This leads me to the next major reason not to build your website in Flash…a search engine can’t see any of it. You have to realize that when search engines like Google arrive on your website, they scan through all of your content looking for (primarily) text that they can use to rank your website. They want to know if you are selling snow mobiles or aluminum siding. When your website is constructed in Flash, especially if you have any of your website text in Flash (a MASSIVE mistake), the search engines can’t read it. Remember, this is not a human being looking at your website, it’s a computer. It can only interpret HTML code, not Flash! Flash is designed for human beings to look at…it can’t be interpreted by a computer that is looking for HTML code. It would be no different than you walking into a room expecting everyone speaking English and all they speak is Japanese. If you don’t speak Japanese, you’ll be lost in the conversation. The same thing holds true for search engines and Flash. They can’t interpret it, so, as a result, they rank your website lower. While there are tricks to getting a Flash-based website ranked higher, ultimately websites compared side-by-side with identical content, the non-Flash based site will always rank higher.

So remember, use Flash conservatively in your website. If you want to have a cool animation to drive a point home, Flash may be an alternative to a static image. Ultimatley, the use of Flash is best done when you need to make a presentation or interractive element on your website that HTML cannot handle but when you are building your entire website with it, don’t be upset when your sales drop well below expectations. FYI, approximately 10% of the clients currently on retainer with us are ones who had a Flash-based website they spent a tidy sum in constructing that looked GORGEOUS but couldn’t convert to income. They came to the Millionaire Marketing Group to redo the website in a non-Flash based environment and consistently all of their sales went through the roof.

Don’t believe me that changes like this will amount to massive revenue shifts? Keep an eye out for my next blog on the $300 million “Continue” button!

06

The Rich & The Middle Class

I just got through reading a fantastic book called The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class by Cameron Smith. In the book, Cameron explains the differences in the patters that lower, middle, and upper class people do in their lives that either escalate their financial status, leave them stagnating, or even lower their financial position. In this Blog, I want to focus on three primary topics the author discussed in depth that are so vital in understanding how different types of people think.

The book follows the concept that in a financial class system you have five general categories:

Super Rich (multi-millionaires and billionaires)
Rich (solid 6-figure income to low millionaire)
Middle Class (the majority of income levels in America)
Poor (poverty-level / minimum wage income)
Super Poor (homeless with no source of income)

There are three primary reasons why some people are in a higher financial level than others. Short of having major financial catastrophes (life debilitating illness and the like), it comes down to the amount of risk someone is willing to take to become more successful and the average block of time someone plans in their financial endeavors. Lastly, it comes down to delegation of time and multiple streams of income.

First, let’s look at the risk factor. For most middle class Americans, high-risk is considered quitting one job to go for another one which is of lateral or slightly higher status. Unfortunately, many middle-class business owners fall into this risk trap too. They don’t want to create new things or go in directions with their business outside their own realm of understanding. They fail to risk so they stagnate where they are. Virtually all of the Super Rich were people who started with just one store or selling one item somewhere. It’s not until they ballooned their one store into 1000 until they hit that high financial status. It was the risk to say that, “one store just isn’t good enough.”

Many entrepreneurs get stuck in the middle-class because of their unwillingness to want to take more risks. For some, the huge risk was quitting a j-o-b and they just aren’t willing to go any farther. As a result, the wealthy status they rarely hit. They expect opportunities to just land in their lap and rarely, if ever, does that actually happen. Opportunities are created; they don’t just appear by luck. The troublesome issue is that fear is what creates a lack of risk. The fear of losing one’s house, the fear that the new opportunity won’t work, and the ultimate fear of failure. It is BECAUSE of fear, not in spite of it which causes people to become super rich. I can guarantee you that people such as Donald Trump and Bill Gates have failed in more business deals than most people could even fathom, and yet it’s those failures that makes them better, not hinders them to go for more. If you truly want to succeed in anything you do, understand you’re going to fail a lot. That’s just how the game is played. Remember, Michael Jordan has missed over 9,000 shots in his career. 26 times he was trusted to make the game-winning shot and missed. It’s for that reason he succeeds.

As for the time commitment, studies have shown that the wealthier someone is the farther out in time they look at their life. As the book breaks down the different classes, they see time as:

Super Rich: Looks at business ventures in a 5-10 year period out from today. They set plans in motion that will make them money years from now in a huge way. They build hospitals, hotels, etc. that all take large risk and monetary commitment over long periods of time and create massive returns when they cash-in.

Rich: Tend to look at their life in yearly increments. They often are heard saying, “My plan for next year is to have this new business launched that will…..”

Middle Class: Look at their life in month-to-month. Typical issues are how the bills are getting paid this month, how they are investing their retirement money right now, a new small project they want to start in a few weeks, etc. They often live paycheck to paycheck and work hard with little long-term rewards. Their lives are planned around vacation times and monthly budgets. When asked what they see in their financial future in one year, rarely can they come up with a good answer.

Poor: Lives day to day. Often have no expendable money, need some sort of financial or government assistance program to get them through the month. Are never worried with next month because, “I just have to get through today.”

Super Poor: See their lives in an hour by hour basis. Primary issues are where the next meal is going to come from.

So looking at this, where do you fall-in? It might be worth examining how you strategize and organize your professional life to see how you can start going for more.

Lastly, it’s about delegation of time. They have shown that typically the wealthier someone is, the more hours of work they expend in an average day. Typically they work weekends and plan their down-time rather than just expect it. The difference is between the rich and middle-class is that while the rich and super rich spend more time working, the time they do commit to is much more efficient. They clone themselves through staffing and use that staff to accomplish tasks to free up time so that they can focus on more important tasks. A typical issue with middle-class entrepreneurs is that they think, “If I don’t do it, it won’t get done” and as a result, they work many hours inefficiently. If you fall into this category, the first thing you should do tomorrow is hire a personal assistant. Many people see this as a financial liability because you now have to pay someo
ne. The issue is, if you are paying your own bills, running your own errands, answering your own phone, you are literally working your life as if you were working a minimum wage job. You truly cannot afford to be doing it all yourself. Delegate tasks that you can train people to do and you will be astounded at how much more money you make.

As for time management it’s about being able to work time more effectively too. Rich and Super Rich people all have multiple streams of income. They don’t own one business they own two, or four, or a hundred. They all have these individual systems working to create them money. The easiest thing for them to do this is to create activities that make them money in their sleep. The most effective way to do this? Own your own POWERFUL website. Use the strategies and systems of advanced Internet marketing experts at your disposal to get you on track to leap-frogging out of your middle-class environment into one which will reap the rewards you truly want.

At the Millionaire Marketing Group, we can do that for you. Website design, makeovers, E-Mail campaigns, landing pages, Youtube and MySpace marketing and more. E-Mail us today at
support@mmglv.com and we will be happy to brainstorm with you about how we can launch your next stream of income for you and turn the Internet into your own, personal cash register!