Make Every Page a Landing Page

Web site pages that fail to make a connection with visitors may drive them away from your site, possibly for good.

That’s especially true about landing pages, which visitors reach through either online links, paid or otherwise, or specific URLs displayed in print advertising.

eMarketingandCommerce.com’s May/June edition focuses on Landing Page Optimization 101 in an article with the same title.

“So when that clickthrough visitor that you’ve paid dearly for lands at your front door, you want to make sure that she or he feels welcome, and finds compelling reasons to become engaged with your content and stay awhile.”

This is the reason I’ve dedicated a maximum of two hours daily to review each of my sites’ pages, reading the text and looking at the overall structure.

I’ve added large and/or small photographs on the all-text pages to create a more-visual site, something that I’ve realized visitors want to see. How did I realize it? By analyzing my site’s statistics. Visitors stay on the pages with photographs more often than pages without pictures.

One site’s “what’s new” page is very popular, so I treat it as a landing page, updating it at least every two weeks.

Consider every page on your Web site as a landing page so that it encourages each visitor to stay, connect, and buy.

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May 22, 2008 | Filed Under Customer Connections, Marketing News | Leave a Comment 

Marketers are Leaders or Followers. Which One are You?

One of this week’s news stories in Crain’s New York Business is about HarperCollins and their decision to stop publishing their book catalog.

“HarperCollins said it will cease publication of its paper book catalogs - distributed to bookstores and libraries twice a year - and instead make a list of upcoming book releases available online…”

Book publishers, like firms in other industries, are reviewing processes to determine whether or not the “old way of doing business” contributes to profits or if an alternative will provide the same result with less work and waste.

By discontinuing its long-standing catalog, HarperCollins leads the charge (I haven’t read about other industry participants doing this to date) that other publishers will probably follow. Similar effects happen in the airline and banking industries.

What about your business? When you research and launch a marketing initiative, do you lead the charge or follow a leader? You might decide to act first (I often go this route), and other times you watch what another industry player launches and position yourself to go one step better than them so that you reap extra rewards from the action.

I can understand HarperCollins’s decision, especially if customers are frequently online. I’d password protect the access area so that competitors cannot readily view my upcoming publications, and I’d add additional marketing details and support in that section. That’s how leaders stay in front.

In your industry, do you consider yourself a leader or follower?

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May 21, 2008 | Filed Under Marketing News, Saving Money | Leave a Comment 

Promote Your News with Magazine Editorial Calendars

Do you know that many print publications display their editorial calendars online?

This feature is mainly for advertisers who want their ads placed in specific issues, but reading what magazines are planning can be a marketing coup for you.

An editorial calendar details the information, articles, stories, and columns that will appear in each magazine issue. I explain this opportunity in my marketing book, encouraging you to take full advantage of this schedule as part of your own planning.

Here’s an example of how to turn these magazine calendars into your free promotion machine.

Gift Shop Magazine is a popular publication for retail store owners. Its Web site includes an editorial calendar. Anyone who’s interested in promoting their products or services to that industry will:

1. Print a copy of the calendar.
2. Review it for opportunities to send releases to the editorial staff via Email and/or sample products via postal mail before an editorial deadline date.

When I saw Gift Shop Magazine’s calendar earlier this year, it included editorial deadline dates, but the current calendar does not. If this is true for the publications you want to contact, call the magazine and ask an advertising staff member for the dates.

This marketing opportunity has helped me receive publicity in many publications. I do exactly what’s outlined above (in the two-step process), placing editorial deadlines on my calendar, and contacting the magazine’s editor with a news story specific to a forthcoming issue.

You’ll find more information about contacting editors on the press release pages.

Is this a marketing option you’ll add to your calendar?

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May 13, 2008 | Filed Under Marketing News, Online Ideas | Leave a Comment 

In Marketing, Less Equals More Revenue

Some large businesses set practical standards that serve as models, and others make mistakes that are so blatant that you wonder how they became industry giants.

The giant I refer to is Home Depot who, last week, announced that they are closing 15 stores throughout the U.S.

From the May 2nd edition of New Jersey’s The Record:

“Some analysts and large investors have worried that as Home Depot got bigger, it would invariably put new stores in direct competition with existing stores…”

Here in the New York metro area (and probably in other U.S. regions), Home Depot is one of many chain stores that have broken two rules we learned in marketing class: don’t locate your business next to competitors, and don’t cannibalize your locations.

I committed the same infraction that Home Depot suffers from today with the same consequences.

One of my adult school classes is extremely popular, and I decided to offer it at numerous schools in the same region. This was a big mistake. I cannibalized my class, resulting in low enrollment numbers at each session.

Now I conduct classes at three schools rather than 10, and the enrollment fills each class because there’s no overlap.

If your marketing plan includes multiple locations, be sure to avoid cannibalization. As we see, the Home Depot approach does not always work.

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May 6, 2008 | Filed Under Marketing News, Revenue | Leave a Comment 

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