Marketing Logic

Many times businesses are so focused on their own sales and return, that they neglect the very people that provide those sales. I find this on many sites, where there is no information available to make even to slightest decision about the product or about the company.

Contentment for a Dollar
This became very real to me the other day, from the simplest of situations. I went to the store to pick up a few things and saw some Play Dough in the impulse section (where the kids can see and beg for things). It was only a dollar, and they hadn’t played with some for a while, so I picked it up.

No sooner that I got it home than my daughter took it to her playroom, I didn’t see her for the rest of the day. For the next week, she spent hours playing with that Play Dough. Here’s what struck me: That one dollar investment was worth hours of playtime for her and hours of production for me. It kept her busy and allowed us to get many things done around the house. The investment of one dollar provided a massive return on investment for our family.

In a similar situation, Jennifer Laycock told me about a drop-in daycare that she has been using. She drops off her kids and goes to a nearby coffee shop with wi-fi and she can get hours of work done. After she picks up her kids, they eat lunch and are so tired from playing that they nap for 2 hours afterwards, so she gets even more time to herself. Again, the small investment pays off for the entire family.

Do companies realize the return on investment for the consumer?
Information on some sites is so company focused; I have no idea what it can do for me. On other sites, the information is simply presented in a “here it is, now buy it” format, with no persuasive content or helps to convince me to purchase. The winners are those companies that realize that if they sell to the benefit of the customer, they will create a lasting impression.

FisherPrice.com sells parenting advice more than toys. They provide age-appropriate toy selection advice and how you can educate using toys - they help you be a better parent.

Woot.com makes it fun to buy impulse items that you really don’t need. The goal is to buy it first and before they run out. The loftier goal is to buy the elusive Bag O’ Crap.

Wine.com doesn’t just sell wine, they help you become a little more intelligent about wines - you may be able to even hold your own in a discussion about a Pinot Gris.

Can you Learn from a Shower Curtain?
ThinkGeek.com sells fun in the office and products for distraction or enjoyment. Their product benefits often include stress relief or even (gasp) self-improvement. Check out how they sell a shower curtain decorated with the periodic table of the elements.

How many times has this happened to you? You’re showering, lathering up your hair, and as you read the ingredients, you notice Sodium Laureth Sulfate. Of course, you know it’s a straight-chain alkyl benzene sulfonate (I mean, who doesn’t?), but you forgot what Laureth is! The horror!
If only you had paid more attention to your Chemistry professor!
This might not remind you what Laureth is (it’s a contraction for lauryl-ether, made from the sulfation of lauryl alcohol, but you knew that), but it’s hard to deny the Periodic Table Shower Curtain’s usefulness. All the time you spend in the bathroom, you might as well brush up on your transition metals, and your lanthanide and actinide series. Jog those brain cells with some steaming hot water, and a giant six-foot tall periodic table.
The Periodic Table Shower Curtain is 71 inches square, and made from 100% EVA Vinyl (Ethylene vinyl acetate, but you knew that), and is semi-transparent with the Periodic Table of Elements printed in large friendly letters and colors.

What’s the Bigger Picture?

• A family vacation is bonding, memories for a lifetime, and seeing your children marvel at the world, which is invaluable.
• Toys are more than toys, they are educational opportunities.
• Software is a time-saver; relieving hours of stress, work, and increasing productivity
• A hotel is a relaxing and rejuvenating experience - not just someplace to sleep

Obviously, my willingness to purchase more products, buy from a company repeatedly, and recommend to my friends increases as I realize the benefit. Sometimes that realization takes days or weeks, maybe months. I also find that the longer it takes for me to realize the savings or the benefit I received, the greater my personal ROI and the increased perception of the company that provided the product or service. Interestingly, the reverse holds true as well. The worse a product is or is found to be, if it ends up costing me time and money, then my brand loyalty will diminish.

It is obvious that companies make money from selling products, everyone knows that. But how often to you sell value to your customers? How can you help them realize an ROI from their actions?

I have always fielded questions concerning international strategies, primarily that of US-based companies branching into Spanish-language websites or content.
However, the frequency of these questions have increased the past few years, along with the variety of international markets that companies are looking to target.
There are a few levels of international strategies that I have observed and had the pleasure of
consulting and analyzing for the campaigns. They range from the planned to the unplanned, and I have some lessons learned from each.

1. The “Hey! We have international traffic!” level.
This is primarily from the website owners that did not set out to target foreign markets, but have had their sites do well in search engines in various regions. This has been particularly interesting when a company ranks well for a term that is well-focused in a specific language, yet does not rank at near the same level in the English language.

International Website Marketing Principle #1
Typically, some of the smaller business websites that are gaining traffic from international users need to be sure that they do the following:

• Create an internationally usable address form. International addresses are much different from US-based contact forms. The US is the only country that uses a 5-digit numerical zip code. Everywhere else uses postal codes.
• If you have an ecommerce site, be sure to show shipping options prior to the sale. Shipping costs can be a deterrent to the sale if Air Cargo is the only option available.

2. The English/Spanish website level. (Or French/English for my friends up North)
I was on a panel discussion in Toronto when the question came up about duplicate content and foreign-language versions of a website. Adam Lasnik from Google confirmed that there is no duplication “penalty” for a having a page in English and a translated page in Spanish/French/etc. This was not surprising though, as translation is not character for character or word-for word. But it did help assuage many fears in the room.

International Website Marketing Principle #2
There is NO reason that a translated version of the website should be a word-for-word translation. Languages cannot be translated word for word – they should be translated concept for concept, as a word for word translation is misleading.

Language Strategies
My best advice for companies in this market is to retain a native bi-lingual speaker to translate the content for their native market. Most businesses should have regional sales representatives or consultants who can assist them in marketing to another country, so this resource should be used for more than just corporate communications and sales, but also for the website.

Government Language Regulations
Many regions, such as Quebec, are forced to offer both English and French versions of their websites, which adds unique circumstances to any business. The website cannot default to either language in order to refrain from showing any preference. This situation creates an interesting conflict as the choice must be available to the user, without the “influence” of a default (or preferred) language.

The web is one area that exposes these government language regulations as outdated. The search engines are language and country focused, but the job of the search engine is to return the most relevant result. There are search options for returning results only in the language of that country, or only websites from that country, but a user will search for a website that answers their question. Add to this the fact that most users will not enter at the homepage for a website. The search engines will show the most relevant pages, which may not include the website, so the choice to change languages will not be as noticeable as on the homepage, where many websites are required to present the choice.

Similar situations are happening in Spain, where I had the amazing opportunity to present to an international group of senior-level direct marketing executives. Within the country of Spain itself, there are regions that speak different dialects, and even languages, making direct marketing a divided undertaking. Concerning Latin America and South America, simply having a Spanish language website may not be enough, as there are multiple differences in each country: by region, dialect, slang, and even words. (I was not comfortable speaking what little 3-year-public-school Latin American Spanish in Spain, as there were many works and phrases that were not the same, however “¿Dónde esta el baño?” still got me where I needed to go.)

3. International Direct Marketing level.
Marketing in Europe requires sensitivity and awareness of different cultures and groups. For example, German users may be more wary of a product offering or a company based in another country than a user from the UK market. A uniform approach in marketing a website will simply not work. As a result, many multi-national companies have extensive country and regionally-based websites. They understand that there has to be a different sales proposition in Spain than in France, as people respond differently to marketing messages.

This is also true in website design. Not only should the content be focused to a particular culture or region, but the design will tend to change as testing reveals different preferences and needs of that specific region. Primary examples are the designs of a U.S. based websites not performing well in the Chinese market. (See Gord Hotchkiss’ fantastic Chinese eye tracking study and the principle of ‘hot and noisy‘.)

International Website Marketing Principle #3
Simply translating your website is not enough. Since when is persuading your audience the same for everyone? Just as your web analytics need to be segmented based on user groups, your marketing needs to be segmented based on countries, culture, and customs. Is the content compelling to the new market? Does it connect properly? The content should be well-written specifically within the context of that culture and country.

Marketing to a different culture and country will create additional requirements for your website marketing. The images, the flow and the content should all be specifically focused and coordinated approach, constantly adjusted by user feedback and analytics. The content and design may be completely different for each new market.

Re-branding to a different language and expecting the same results is an insult. It clearly shows when a company has not taken even the simplest steps to understand the culture that it is attempting to reach.

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While browsing websites for gift ideas, I am constantly seeing the awesome potential of multimedia. Now that there are multiple social websites for almost every kind of media, the potential for customers to be exposed to your experience is limitless, and really inexpensive.

My wife loves wind chimes, and I found some very interesting and different types of chimes. However, as most ecomm sites go; there is usually a picture and a small description of the product. This is hardly enough to go on when looking for a gift that goes beyond a static visual image. The chimes I found were made of ceramic bells rather than metal or wood, so I was very interested to hear them. This is one product where the lack of sound is a deal breaker – I can’t imagine that many people purchase wind chimes based solely on looks. I wanted to hear what they sound like before I place them permanently on my patio.

How many other websites are taking advantage of the amazing technology that is available to them right now and at no cost?

Think You have a Boring Product?
Who says pens are boring?
A pen maker who creates wooden, turquoise and malachite pens created a humorous video using Statler and Waldorf from the Muppet Show.

He uploaded it to YouTube and the clip received 800 views in three months. Unfortunately, he did not add a link in the video description or in his YouTube user profile to help users find his website, www.woodenpenworks.com.

How many more product could engage a user by showing them the manufacturing process? Online video is no longer expensive and having it posted to YouTube can also increase exposure in ways never imagined by some marketing departments.

Where Customer Experience is the Sale
After this year’s Annual SiteLogic 4th of July Celebration, my shopping for fireworks has taken on a whole new level.

How do you shop for fireworks when all you see at the store are brightly colored boxes? Well, you go to the website and see a video of what the box will produce:

One of the favorite displays of the night was a box called “Guns of Navaronne” which we were able to preview on the Phantom Fireworks website. Sound and Video! All of which resulted in a very happy viewing audience.

Guns of Navaronne - Windows Media
I also know that I will be getting the “Strategic Air Defense” display next year!

For selling a product that cannot be seen until after the purchase, these videos are critical. At the fireworks store, it was obvious which people were buying based on researching the website and which were simply wandering the store.

In another instance that I learned about in Europe, The Royal Theater in Madrid, Spain mapped the entire theater for seating views.

Now, prior to purchasing tickets online, a guest can see the view from their seat prior to visiting the theater. Many felt that this would harm ticket sales, as many of the seats with bad views would go unsold. However, it increased sales as well as the average ticket sale! People knew what they were expecting when choosing the less expensive seats, which were available as others upgraded their tickets .

Image and Multimedia Optimization
Once a company begins to develop audio, video, and pictures to help sell the products, the standard website optimization rules still apply. Each media file contains information that is critical for search engines to find, index, and show in search results. The file itself needs to be named appropriately, containing a specific description of what is contained in the file. Use keywords naturally.

Each type of media also contains author information, such as title, subject, author, category, keywords and comments. Use each of these fields to adequately describe the content and link back to the website, preferably to the specific page in the website that is relevant for the media file.

It Might Be Happening Right Now - Without You!
How much more can you create a customer experience by adding additional audio or video of your products, production process, or the products results? In many cases amateur video uploaded to YouTube has created a demand and an awareness of a product long before a company was able to produce the same results. Bloggers who review products have all written about amazing reactions by people who purchase the product after they have seen someone use it and can see for themselves the benefits of how to use it properly.

Not only bloggers with video, but the travel trade has been turned upside down since the 90’s with the internet and social sharing networks. Currently on Flickr, I can view hundreds of photos of Mount Rushmore from almost every angle. Visitors to Mount Rushmore upload their photos and then add geotags, even down to the square foot they were standing upon!

In my own case, I uploaded video of a tree mower that was being tested back in January; As a result, the company that makes it has been receiving requests for the machine from all over the country, even before it was released. How’s that for an inexpensive marketing campaign?

There are multiple stories of everyday people filming products they have either enjoyed or experienced disappointed. Those consumers have been far ahead of corporate marketing departments, and have had a greater reach. They are setting the stage for the customer experience rather than the company that produces the product.

What are you doing to be a part of that experience and how can you create your own?

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