I’m getting a group of savvy, smart fun people in tech/media together Thursday night in Santa Monica.
Here are the details…
What: Savvy Folks Meetup Where: Bar Chloe 1449 2nd St. Santa Monica, CA When: Thursday 11/5 at 7:45pm
I bring this group together because I like connecting with smart people who are also interesting good people, and sharing in return. It’s not very formal- more an opportunity to hang with smart folks doing great things at a cool place for the evening.
Focus on technology, marketing, media and startup entrepreneurs.
Networking, helping other people and talking about big ideas highly encouraged.
Our last meetup at the Hotel Erwin rooftop was a great group, and some great connections and friendships were made.
The group I’ve invited so far for this event are smart, successful and generous in spirit… and I want my friends to meet and hang with other good people like them. If you’d like to come and you’ll bring value to the group with what you’re doing, then come by.
Please RSVP so I know how many we’ll have. I have tables already reserved. RSVP by Commenting here on my Blog, or if you’re a FB’er, on the Facebook Event Page.
If you’re interested in online marketing for your business, there’s something important you should know about the people you are looking to become your subscribers or customers.
It’s a process that every single user online is doing, and they’re doing it every day, every time they decide to open up their computer. I call this process the “User Bubble”, and I’m going to explain what it is and why you need to know about it.
First, a few things you need to get before you see what I’m talking about clearly…
Blind Spots As An Internet Marketer
We all have a psychological “blind spot” when we cross over from being USERS of a product or service to being the CREATOR of our own product or service.
Here’s what I mean…
As a USER we’re in a hurry.
We don’t want to have to read all the text on a page. We want to get what we want in 2 seconds or less, and we don’t want to have to give anything up for it.
As a CREATOR… we assume that users should pay attention to us and care.
We want our users to read all the text on our page. We expect to get the users attention and for them to stay engaged and do what we assume they will want to do for minutes on end.
You see the clear disconnect, yet most of us can’t help but fall into this blind spot when we move into being a CREATOR.
Great marketers are often people who think past or overcome this blind spot, and build and design with THE GAP between USER and CREATOR in mind.
Ok. Now that you know a tiny bit about the User/Creator Gap, there’s something 99% of of web/email/mobile users do that we practically all forget about when we go to create and market something of OUR OWN.
The User Bubble
Humans are creatures of habit.
Being creatures of habit, we tend to like or trust things we already know about and have seen before MORE than we like things we haven’t seen or heard about.
We also generally follow the same routes and paths to getting things done on a daily basis.
Examples…
you take the same route to work
you filter and respond to email messages at a given address
you use the same search engine or search bar on your browser
you talk to the same friends
you eat the same things
you watch the same tv shows
you visit the same websites
you log in to the same social networks
you read the same blogs or social feeds
The list goes on.
The process users do day-in and day-out of finding and filtering information from the same people, the same places and doing it in the same ways online is what I call the User Bubble.
Online Marketing Strategy - Understanding User Routines
Now, you might ask why do people do this? Why do we live in “bubbles?” One reason is that we create habits to make our lives more manageable- to find a rhythm in the chaos that is the overload of Information, knowledge, work and entertainment today.
The point is, we largely do the same things in our lives over and over again, including what we do and where we go and visit online and on the web.
This becomes really important to know when you think about how to get your product or service in front of a real life human being you’d like to become your user or customer. It becomes critical to consider if your business and marketing plan calls for you capturing thousands or millions of users.
The reality is that if you want to get in front of users today, you have to get into what I call their “User Bubble.” You have to find a way to get into their bubble or communication “loop.”
This means that you not only have to be using the channels/mediums they’re repetitively using… but you might have to get a real individual talking about you or mentioning you to their network for many users locked in tiny Bubbles of their own to ever hear about you and come across you in their daily Bubble.
Getting Into Your Users Bubble
Knowing about “User Bubbles,” where do you need to be at to get into your users bubble and daily info “loop”?
I’ve acquired several million subscribers in businesses over the last 7 years.
In the Web 1.0 era there weren’t that many options. Banner ads, forums and email. Search used to be much less crowded. Now there are tons of options, and you need to pick and choose. Most importantly, you need to FOCUS.
Not only does your user and where they are online determine where you need to be to get into their Bubble, but your product or service often determines this as well.
Email has been a great way for marketers and brands to try and get themselves into users Bubbles, and stay there. That’s part of the beauty of email. If you have a users “good” email address, you can bet they’ll at least come across your message when you want to push it to them. But email isn’t as effective as it used to be for many businesses, and users are trying to spend less time be “marketed to” via email. (opening and clicking less non-personal emails)
The social web has expanded many users Bubbles. Now many users have 1-2 email addresses, 1 or 2 social “identities” where they share and glance at feeds, and likely several sources of info/news – blogs, newsletter subscriptions, or Twitter for real time news.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that your users will abandon their habits and break out of their Bubble for you. Instead, make sure you’re finding great relevant ways to have them invite you in.
So think about it…
Knowing about how users live in Bubbles, what’s the best way to get into their loop, and stay there with recurring messages, recurring value and give them reasons to continue to interact with you?
Tip of the hat here… I’ve been thinking about writing about the User Bubble phenomena for a few weeks now, and finally got around to it after being inspired by a panel put on by two smart cool folks Tony Adam and Jackie Peters on knowing and finding your Customer at The Perfect Pitch conference.
I spoke on a panel the other night at Jason Nazar and DocStoc’s Startups Uncensored event in SM and met Dan Bliss who was on the panel as well. Dan’s the guy who’s brought this amazing event together.
At this event will be some of the top people to know in for Venture Capital, Angel investors, as well as other startups and entrepreneurs who are making things happen.
If that wasn’t enough, the Keynote for the event will be given by Sir Richard Branson.
It’s at the Ritz-Carlton in Marina Del Rey on October 26th.
Some of the speakers and people to meet at the event include:
Hey… I wanted to give you a heads up about a very cool event a friend and all around cool thoughtful guy Kit Cooper has put together.
It’s called The Quality of Life Forum, and it’s a monthly speaker series in Santa Monica in which well known and inspiring guests discuss the things that contribute to their quality of life.
It’s run by a local non profit Quality of Life Project that interviews people like Richard Branson, Jacqueline Novogratz, Mike Krzyzewski and Tom Skerritt and then shares their best life practices and perspectives with others.
There are real usable tips here that will help you enjoy more of the success you’re working towards, or already have.
The guest at the next event, Wednesday October 21st, is Mark Thornton, author of Meditation in a New York Minute, executive coach, expert on how meditation can improve both your personal and professional life.
Mark helps people and companies including Wharton, McKinsey and Harvard Law School. Mark used to be the COO of JP Morgan London and is now focused on teaching people that they really can have their feet in both the business and spiritual worlds.
Check it out.
How To Attend:
This event is FREE if your Register.
Hey- a quick update on the http://gig.fm startup and the progress we’re making…
GiG.FM Private Beta Launched
We’ve rolled out our private beta and have been getting some great responses and feedback. We’ve driven our first ticket sales and we’re making some improvements to keep testing/optimizing for subscriber and ticket sales conversation, as well as viral sharing of shows.
If you’re not part of the private beta and want in, please Follow @gigfm and I’ll send you an invite as soon as we release more invites. (By the way- it’s best to sign up on whatever computer you keep your iTunes library on so we can read it for you.)
Below is a sneak peak at what GiG.FM looks like at your user Home.
This is your Personalized Concert App that GiG becomes once we’ve read your iTunes to know the Artists you like, and we have your Location from reading your IP or getting your Zip.
From here you see all the upcoming shows in your area by your favorite (iTunes) artists. Each show has simple links where you can buy tickets, “tag” the show to let your friends know you’re going or dig it, or Tweet the show or email it to a friend with a short gig.fm url.
Twitter Integration & Engagement
We’ve done a pretty nice Twitter integration so users can create GiG.FM accounts via the Twitter OAuth and instantly share shows with a short gig url (http://gig.fm/~3VI). It’s part of our strategy to brand GiG as the social tool for sharing and organizing concert going. We’ll also be integrating in Facebook Connect in the future, as we want to include/cater to Facebook users and drive sharing of GiG concerts/urls into Facebook.
Here’s a quick example of how GiG users who’ve logged in with their Twitter profile can instantly Tweet shows via GiG and it will post a short gig.fm url for that show where their friends can go and get tickets or say if they want to go too…
GiG.FM - Tweet A GiG
And here’s what it looks like when a concert is posted to Twitter via GiG…
The gig.fm short url for that show is used. This makes it easy to drive a GiG users Twitter Followers back to GiG to check out the show details, sign up for GiG and get tickets if they want to go.
Data & Multiple Ticketing Sources
GiG has nearly 500,000 artists in it’s artists database now. We’re covering all of North America and our content on our site/pages cover 75,000 cities and neighborhoods in the U.S. and Canada, as well as roughly 3,500 venues. This content and data is part of our content strategy for SEO and driving traffic/subscribers, as well as providing a personalized and targeted service for our users.
GiG pulls in concerts information from it’s partnerships with several leading ticketing companies. This puts us at roughly 20,000 concerts on sale via GiG in a given month. Lots of ticket sale revenue opportunities.
Email Follow Up
GiG automatically emails you when new shows by your favorite artists are booked at a venue near you. That way you don’t have to be searching the web hoping you don’t miss great shows or tickets before they sell out. These are the automated Concert Alerts GiG sends to you based on your iTunes/favorite artists.
Here’s an example of an automated email alert letting me know 2 of my artists have an upcoming show…
Social Interaction Around Shows
Users can invite their friends to GiG, and Follow them, and be Followed. GiG users can also “tag” shows they are going to as “I’m Going”, and shows they’re interested in as “I Dig It.” Their Followers on GiG see the shows they’ve tagged, and soon this activity can automatically be posted out to Facebook or Twitter so their friends can know about the show and know about the show and join in.
In the future we’ll be doing some really cool stuff as we aggregate all the users talking about shows in your area, of your favorite artists, and let you follow what’s going on at a given concert or be a part of the conversation around it.
Next Near Term Milestone
Our next major milestone will be getting out for our public opening/launch, and beyond that we’ve got some biz dev opportunities in the works that could drive our subscriber base growth quickly. We’ve got some development to finish first though, including upgrading our infrastructure and shoring up our data handling. And even though we love the Twitter API and how it lends itself so well to real-time stuff like concerts, we’ll be integrating Facebook Connect as well to encourage signup and sharing via Facebook.
Beyond that, the rest of our strategy we’re keeping under wraps.
Hope you enjoy GiG and find some great shows to go to.
It’s something that came up the other day while working on copy and design around a critical conversion point in my new venture http://gig.fm (follow @gigfm)
Here it is…
The most successful business and marketing plans I’ve seen and watched grow have been those aimed not at a broad group of “everyone” but at a very specific type of person.
So specific, in fact, that it seemed in most of these cases that there wouldn’t be many people (a large market) who matched that description or would fit into that group that was the intended market.
But the incredible part is that, time and time again, it’s the very well-defined and targeted strategy that works.
When you try and market and sell to everyone, you often get no one.
It’s not what EVERYONE will like about your product that will lead individuals to buy it. It’s what ONE INDIVIDUAL will light up when hearing that will create your success in marketing.
Many people forget that you aren’t communicating One-to-Many in todays world. Instead, you’re communicating One-to-One in almost every context… even when the One-to-One dynamic is spread across thousands or millions of users and you.
So think about it. This principle of Specificity is an important design principle, but it’s also VERY important in marketing and copywriting and most forms of communication. The more specific your communication, the more people can grab on to it.
Tip of the hat to John Weir for sending me the image and the design conversation and learnings shared.
I had some thoughts that I wanted to share of my own and posted a Comment with one possible solution to what could keep growing into an even bigger spam problem for Twitter.
Crowdsourcing.
I think that if Twitter introduced a small button to allow users to tag a Tweet as spam, it could help. Enough tags and a Tweet is deleted and/or the account is frozen.
I love the elegance of letting the community do the work.
I also shared in my Comment on Search Engine Land why I compare Twitter Search to “A Free Google AdWords System.” Go check out the article if you want to read more.
Hey- if you’re interested in learning about how to get your online business off the ground and convert visitors to your site into customers, then you need to check out a video interview I did with Andrew Warner over at Mixergy on How To Ensure Success Before You Launch.
Now, I also want to share some things I didn’t share on the call- one of which is an easy Landing Page Formula. With the theory and insights and tips I gave about Positioning your business, finding your market online and “framing” your product to a hungry crowd… when it comes to actually sitting down and deciding what’s on your landing page, it can be a challenge knowing where to start.
Before I show you where to start, you should remember what I said in the interview-
Creating a great landing page (given time) is not all about being a great copywriter or designer. It’s also a function of being a great tester. (Although talent and experience are the ultimate time savers and leverage – considering time and expense)
So… with that, here’s a quick formula to follow as you’re developing your landing page and the elements to include and test within:
Element #1: Lead With “Finished Story” Benefits
Every page needs a place where the visitors eyes are initially drawn that focuses their attention. Traditionally this is a headline, image or tag line. Make sure that you have this initial element be an attention grabber that let’s your visitor know what they’re going to get out of staying and engaging with you. Remember, you only have a few seconds for a user to decide if your page (and your site/service/product) is or isn’t for them.
The way to make sure that this initial attention element has the result of making your visitor stay and then convert is to talk about what I call “Finished Story” Benefits. These are benefits about what the finished story will be for the visitor after they engage and/or take the action you’re suggesting with your product.
Making your visitor visualize and imagine what they will get and how they will feel after using your product is your goal.
Again, on our call I talked about the company I helped with their business plan template marketing. The “finished story” here wasn’t the obvious – a finished business plan. It was farther removed than that. It was having raised money successfully with the polished and professional business plan.
Long story short, make sure you’re not talking about all the work that might go into your visitor getting the result they’re after. Make sure you’re getting them to connect then ultimate end goal – the finished result and REWARD.
Do this well, and you end up tying the purchase of your product directly to their desire for that end result. Once this happens, most resistance and objections from your visitor will have been removed.
Element #2: Social Proof
I’ll run through these quickly. There are LOTS of examples out on the web of each of these you can find if you just do some Google searched and click on the Paid Adwords ads and see the landing pages there.
“As Seen On” – get your product or service talked about or reviewed on trusted sources and piggy back on the trust and credibility these sources already have with the masses. Present the image of these sources (CNN, Newsweek, etc.) early on and prominently on your landing page. And the images don’t need to be big. Just there next to the language “As Seen On.”
Testimonials- these are the tried and true workhorses of the direct marketing and copywriting world. Use them. Don’t get generic ones. Get specific ones of your customers talking about actual steps or tips or action taken from your product or material and the end result (finished story).
User Count or Comments – it’s amazing, but simply displaying how many other people are using or have signed in or commented on your site or business raises the perceived value and credibility.
Element #3: Credibility
If you didn’t know, most people online are very very hesitant to click on links that they don’t know where they’re being taken… and they’re even more hesitant to share their email.
When it comes to buying and pulling out their credit card number, it’s a whole other ballgame.
As I’ve talked about before, for a visitor to your site, everything you want to ask them to do represents something very “risky” to them. For more on this check out some of what I wrote about removing risk in online marketing , along with some thoughts about how this applies to the current state of marketing music online.
Anyways, how can you reduce this risk? In short, start by demonstrating your Crediblity (building Trust)
There are a few simple ways I’ve tested, and that lots of other people have tested to this end.
An easy thing you can do and test along these lines that are likely to increase your clicks, signins, and sales is getting approved by some of the institutions that protect consumers and make users feel safe.
Examples:
Sign up with the Better Business Bureau and add the “BBB” approved logo
Get on one of the verified Safe Sender programs if you’re driving emails subs and sending emails… and display this programs logo close to your email sign up form
Simply tell your visitor that you’ll never spam them or share their email (and mean it!)
Bottom line- new visitors to your site don’t know who you are. Make it easier for them to take the risky move of sharing something with you and inviting you into their world.
Element #4: Offer/Value
You can write great copy on your landing page, and design a great layout… but if what you’re asking for and offering on your landing page doesn’t boil down to a great offer then you’re wasting your time.
A lot of people these days are trying to build their list, or build their social friendships or “followers.” If you’re asking for anything like this, let alone asking for a sale, on your landing page, you better make you’re visitor feel like they’re getting the better end of the deal.
So what do I mean by a great offer, and what does one look like?
A bad offer, if you’re looking to drive email signups from your page, is essentially offering nothing but the chance to “sign up” in exchange for the visitor giving up their precious email and expose their inbox to you.
Arguably, that’s not an “offer” at all. But the crazy thing is, most people’s email sign up forms on their landing pages are framed in this manner.
Instead, what can you create and provide in exchange for a user putting in their email? And how can you tie this directly into their “finished story.”
This question is exactly what I love the “free report” give away or white paper type free line content. It creates an instant “offer” that makes a visitor feel like simply sharing their email address in exchange for this information is giving them the better end of the deal.
Element #5: Call To Action
This is what inexperienced copywriters and marketers have the most problems with. They either don’t even use a call to action, or they make it so weak and passive that they might as well not have one.
A great call to action does the following:
Gives specific instructions on exactly what action you want the visitor to take
Tells the visitor exactly how to do this
Uses the already “anchored” benefits you’ve put in your visitors mind and reminds the visitor of what they’ll get by taking this action
Here’s a bad call to action if you’re trying to drive email subscribers-
“Sign Up Here And Get Our Emails.”
Just what we all want, more email. No thanks!
Ok, now go out and get on the web and look at 30 or more landing pages by doing all kinds of searches and clicking on paid ads. This will start to bring some of these 5 elements into your awareness and give you ideas on how to go about writing and designing your landing page.
And don’t forget to test, test, test.
Let me know how it goes.
And here’s some Recommended Reading:
To better understand how and where to “frame” and place your business in your market, read Position by Al Reis and Jack Trout.
For a great overview of the psychological principles and operators to be aware of and use in your landing page copy and offer read Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Cialdini
For design guidance and insights, go get Universal Principles of Design (design insights with the psychology behind them) by Lidwell, Holden & Butler.
For your copywriting bootcamp, get all 3 of these books and study them regularly as you’re writing copy: Ogilvy On Advertising, Tested Advertising Methods and The Ultimate Sales Letter.
Hey- just wanted to let you know that I’ll be interviewed by Andrew Warner at Mixergy and sharing over an hour of my best stuff on marketing and developing content that attracts and converts.
Andrew asked me to do this interview and I decided to make it my goal to share with viewers how to move from a site that “chases traffic” to a thriving business that consistently drives engagement (email, social, subscriptions) and repeat sales.
The secrets I share are all about honing your ability to understand your visitors/prospects, deliver real value that engages them in the form of on page written and designed content, and create a system that allows your results to happen repeatedly and to be improved and optimized over time.
Do you have a system and a way to automate some portion of your business/work? Then how to do plan on getting out of the “trading your time for money” conundrum?
In this video interview I’m going to share some of my best tips for marketing online and creating automated systems that will allow you to scale your success and results.
I’ll share why most successful entrepreneurs fail at attracting and converting paying customers… and what your business or idea needs for people to both find you, engage with you, and buy from you.
If you’re not 100% sure how to start with your online business or idea, and you don’t have tested and proven experience writing and designing marketing that works… then watch my video interview Mixergy.
Let me put it to you bluntly, in case you didn’t already know…
The days of the destination site are over.
The days of thinking about indiscriminately scaling traffic, and then working to “monetize” are over. (were a long time ago)
And the days of finding a model “after the fact” are over too.
And for you and I that’s all a good thing… if we’re able to adapt.
Will you adapt?
There’s been a shift over the last year or more driven by fundamentals of the internet environment, the sheer mass of content out there, the collective evolution of competition in niches, and the realities of the economics of marketing and advertising online.
It used to be that online companies could find traffic sources, buy it, and hope that it converted.
For every company that didn’t have a clear strategy on Where traffic would come from, What the traffic cost, and How Much they’d make back over X amount of days… there was still a funny way of hanging in there for a while and fumbling their way through to enough customers and revenue (unprofitable) that an exit or additional financing could materialize.
But it certainly wasn’t sustainable. Just hustling and hype. Short term faux-sustainability.
The real numbers of these traffic and destination businesses told a grim story that the founders tried to reframe with misleading charts and press releases. They didn’t want you to see and understand the numbers, because the fundamentals were flawed.
This was what was going on during The Age Of Traffic.
That age is over.
Next came a wave of smarter businesses marketers that understood the value of targeted Quality Traffic over traffic for traffics sake.
These people knew how to spot and identify market niches online, they knew how to read the tea leaves of keyword research, and they knew how to create compelling content or products to meet the desires or needs of real individuals that made up a niche of targeted traffic.
Hundreds and thousands of businesses have prospered and jumped to the ranks of a 2, 3, 20 or 30 million dollar a year businesses in this way, and they did it through a relatively simple formula-
Create a service or product of real value that solves a real and existing need
Find your real target market through testing
Invest the time and effort it takes to create real value in content and products for this real target market
Find a way to convert your real target market in some way (subscribe, buy, use)
Follow up, often, and don’t be afraid to market and ask people to come back, try and buy
This formula was some of the focus of The Age of Conversion.
That age is largely over too, but the fundamentals of the Conversion formula are still as important now as they were then.
By the way, I talked about some of those old conversion fundamentals for internet marketing as they relate to the very first impression people have of you and your site/service on this quick ditty about Landing Pages. (*Hint- note the more “social” elements I’m testing and thinking about)
So, what’s happening now? Where are we going?
I see that we’re moving into a time I think of as The Age of Attention.
For most companies starting today online, the Conversion Age is over because of the rising cost of marketing and advertising online, and the added challenges of standing out in the crowd of existing products and businesses in most markets and niches makes competing very hard.
Building a large email list isn’t as straightforward as it used to be.
Driving traffic and getting it to convert at or above the minimum you need it to isn’t as easy as it used to be.
And prices are still generally rising in online ads, even with the downturn in the economy. (although Google Adwords hasn’t grown the same 5-8% this year in average CPC that it has steadily risen other years, from what I can tell across lots of different areas)
We’re now moving into a different time where existing companies who already have significant brands and audiences have a real advantage over companies that don’t and are starting out.
The barrier to entry for real online success has grown significantly over the last 5 years- both because of the Price of trying to compete, and because of the challenge in trying to grow your audience and the amount of Attention you can get.
Attention here meaning Qualified Traffic or Views of your message that were either referred, posted or bought.
Here’s a quick example of a barrier to entry for new companies, and the challenges in gaining Attention…
Google’s algorithm looks to favor bigger existing brands in a variety of search categories and keywords, where they didn’t before. The simple existence of Site Age in obtaining ranking in search results shows this… although age and audience awareness/attention/links can often go hand in hand.
Sites that alread have more Attention will be getting more Attention. And Attention seems to lead to more Attention.
Here’s an interesting article related to the value of links that older sites and businesses build up online. I found this quote particularly insightful:
“[There is...] the law of “preferential attachment” as it is also known, wherein new links on the web are more likely to go to sites that already have many links, proves that the scheme is inherently biased against new and unknown pages.”
Now, considering this, and consider the fact that even some of the more well-funded, experienced, web savvy people who used to be of the Conversion crowd are now changing or augmenting their methods of communicating, promoting, and growing their businesses.
Traffic and Conversion aren’t the game anymore. Everyone, even the Internet Marketing crowd, now wants a Brand, a Community, and an SEO strategy.
I found this article about the Two Tribes by Sonia Simone on Copyblogger a great insight into those still Traffic Age-minded, and those still Conversion Age-minded.
Here are some things I’m seeing as important and true in the new Age of Attention:
Brands used to be a bad word to Internet Marketers. Now they’re essential.
Great content alone, now matter how great, won’t win you enough Natural Search traffic to make it
People online are starting to want and trust “in network” information, not interruptive ads and marketing
Google is changing, can make or break you in a day, and can’t be depended on
There are starting to be some cool ways to build attention directly in social media. Especially Twitter
What changes are you seeing?
What’s stopped working that used to work for you and your business?
How has social media, and thinking about Brand and Attention become more important to you, and changed your approach?
