The Isolated Entrepreneur

A new AWeber posting talks about a new feature in Hotmail. If you are not in the Hotmail user’s address book, no only do images not appear, but hot links to external web pages do not work either.

What is worse… the hot links in the email message show up in blue and are underlined, just like active hotlinks. When you click on them, they just don’t work.

For a great visual, visit AWeber’s post.

There is a of buzz about a new report by a new ScanAlert Study called “Digital Window Shopping: The long delay before buying” (get a free copy).

The study says, on average, a consumer takes over 34 hours to make an online buying decision (up from 19 hours in their 2005 study). This is significantly longer than if a customer were buying a product from a brick-and-mortar store.

E-commerce customers do research online before they make purchases. Not only do they do price comparisons, but they also seek out product reviews by experts and people who have purchased the product in the past.

This may account for some of the 60% shopping cart abandonment rate (MarketingSherpa).

Increase Your Competitiveness

• Excellent customer service reduces negative customer reviews. Bad news travels faster than good.
• Quick turnaround from customer ordering to delivery. The major corporations get products into the “mail” within 24 business hours.
• Regularly interact with your sales/customer service representatives to get feedback on what they need to better serve customers.
• Good exchange/return policy.
• Product web pages give information a customer needs to make a decision. Include product dimensions, product awards such as Consumer Reports Ranking, manufacturing warranty, product specifications/details.

Resources:

• ScanAlert study, Digital Window Shopping 2007
• Online Marketing slow to Generate Sales - new ScanAlert Study, WebMetricsGuru, July 10, 2007.
• E-Commerce Customers Today Taking Longer to Buy, StorefrontBacktalk, July 5, 2007.

This is just a friendly reminder =-P that there are many people who still have dial-up connections to the Internet.  Pew/ Internet’s June 2007 Home Broadband Adoption Survey reveals:

• Among home users, 23% use a dial-up connection.
• 47% of all adult Americans have a broadband connection at home (up 5% from last year)

This is an important statistic if you communicate with residential consumers or home-based businesses.

For websites, limit video and audio files.  Keep image files small so they download quickly.  You may consider working with your web designer to create two versions of your website and having a low resolution website show for those with dial-up.

For emails, communicate with your clients and prospects.  Ask them if they have dial-up or have a message size restriction.   For clients with dial-up, let them know if you are sending a large attachment so they can be prepared.

Last week, this blog was mentioned by AWeber in one of their postings.

The article was about providing email and web content that touches a reader’s everyday life - such as The Isolated Entrepreneur’s postings about postage increases.

Another good example about providing a personalized touch is Google. Periodically the Google logo changes to reflect an upcoming holiday or event.

The Isolated Entrepreneur changes its header to reflect different seasons. Currently the blog shows footprints on the beach. For Easter, it had easter eggs hidden in the grass.

Ideas for your business

There are things you can do to touch your reader’s lives.

• Change the color, images, or logo to reflect changes in season or highlight upcoming holidays.
• Add short notes to your newsletter about upcoming deadlines in your client’s industry.
• Change your phone or voicemail greeting to include such things as “Have a Great Weekend” or “Happy Holidays.”

According to AWeber, it is not a good idea to use Free Email for sending eNewsletters. Why?

• Delivery rate for eNewsletters is lower.  It’s a free account that many people use for illegal purposes  such as spamming.
• Hard to remember.  It is very hard to remember a series of numbers and letters.
• It says you are cheap. It only costs about $10/year at GoDaddy.com to have your own domain name and an email address.
• You are not building your company’s brand. You are building the brand of the company you get your email from.

In Conclusion

If you don’t have the time to build a website, then just get a great email address.

As mentioned above, the cost for purchasing a domain and having an email address is about $10/year (GoDaddy.com).

In most web hosting contracts, your email addresses are included.

Consolidated View

Ok… so now you have to check both your free email account and your business email account.   It doesn’t have to be any more painful than if you have one email address.

With many email clients (Outlook Express, Mac Mail) and web-based email systems (Yahoo, Hotmail), you can view email from multiple addresses in one spot.

AWeber posted a new case study, “Market a Small Business Via Email & eBooks” this week.  It highlights Beginning-Bodybuilding.com, a fitness and body building business focused to beginners.

Marc David, the owner, uses weekly newsletters and a series of autoresponders to keep prospects and paying customers informed about current events and promotions.

AWeber reviewed and made recommendations on Marc’s email and autoresponder campaign.  This case study highlights how autoresponders can be used in a business to respond to prospects.

While the case study talks about email marketing, there are several things for Marc’s company to consider when it comes to his website.

The website is setup as one big advertisement. 

Marc might consider thinking about his intended audience - people who are new to fitness and bodybuilding.  The fitness industry is filled with gimmicks and there are tons of websites like this one - just an ad.

Selling products is about developing relationships especially in a difficult industry such as the one he is in.

A person who is searching the Internet about fitness and body building is looking for information, not another book, cd, or program.  Mark might want to draw visitors in by adding informational content to his website.  He already has some content - his archive of newsletters.

Some suggestions:

• Add a searchable newsletter archive.
• Change the home page to look like an information portal, not an advertisement.  Tell visitors what you are about - body building for beginners.
• Place products under a “Product” section.
• Create a resource page.  Exchange links with complementary websites.
• Make subscription form for newsletter and autoresponders more prominent.

Reduce the length of the webpage.

Web pages differ from a physical book or newspaper.  You have more horizontal space than you do vertical.  Web links within the text and on a menu allows a user to find the information he or she is interested in quickly.

For this reason, visitors read a web page differently from a newspaper or book.

• Make your web pages shorter in length so visitors don’t have to scroll so much.  Split your content up into multiple pages.
• Use a two column layout.  One column for your page content; the other column for links.
• Put your product graphic in the column of links with a link to the product page so visitors can quickly go to the product information.
• Put a newsletter form in the column of links so a visitor can subscribe at any time.
• Use links in your content to related pages.  Every time you use the product name in your content, have it be a hyperlink to the product description page.

Adverisement Pages

A website that looks like beginning-bodybuilding.com does have it’s place.

This type of website is great if you are using it for supplemental information only.  This means you are using other forms of advertising to build the relationship with a prospective customer and the web page is a link for them to find out about your product only.

Did you know that a person gets bombarded anywhere between 300 to 3,000 ads a day through the Internet, magazines, newspapers, junk mail, TV, etc? (see source below)

We have developed mechanisms and products (TiVO, spam filters, pop-up blockers) to avoid and ignore these advertisements.  When I surf on the web, I use a pop-up blocker and very rarely do my eyes stray from the actual article I am reading.

If a website is so cluttered with ads that it is hard for me read the information I came there for, I go elsewhere.

When I watch TV, I channel surf or turn off the sound during commercials and talk with family members until the program starts again.  People with TiVo or recorded programs fast forward past the commercials.

So What Kinds of Ads Stand Out?

Ads with a new twist.  People are likely to take notice if a commercial is edgy or something unexpected happens.

Interestingly enough many of these commercials get panned in focus groups.  =-) So if you are going for something different or extreme, don’t use them.

Source: “In a Cluttered Mediaverse, Some Ads Stand Out.” Elizabeth Blair, NPR’s All Things Considered, May 22, 2007.

Superbowl commercials year round.

Ahh… the Superbowl.  People look forward to more than the game.  They expect very funny or edgy commercials.   Why wait until the Superbowl?

You probably already know this, but there are some steps you need to take in order to make sure your mass email or newsletter is mistake free. I know I have hit send several times and realize later that I have made an error.

1. If you handle multiple mailing lists, make sure you are sending to the right list.
2. Make sure the from address works. Email services such as Constant Contact, EZine Director and AWeber do this for you.
   
3. Make the subject line accurate, short and compelling. The subject line should allow a reader to easily recognize what the message contains.
4. Publish your newsletter online and provide a link for reading it in the browser. This is not necessary, but it directs traffic to your site and some readers prefer to read the newsletters in browsers.
5. Check all images. Make sure they are displayed and there is alternative text so something shows up when images are blocked.
6. Check all links.
7. Check the newsletter date. This is especially important if you copy your previous newsletter and make updates to the content.
8. Include a working unsubscribe link. This is done automatically with email services.
9. Include a physical address (required by SPAM laws). This is done automatically with email services.
10. View the email through different accounts (AOL, Hotmail, etc.) and email clients (webmail, Eudora, Outlook). If you have access, check your email on both Windows PC and Mac.

Sources:

“8 Steps Email Quality Control,” Above the Fold Email Marketing.
“Don’t Hit Send Yet!” AWeber Blog Posting, Justin Premick, May 22, 2007.

It is important to get your email address added to an AOL user’s address book.  You can do this by requesting your new subscriber add your email address to the address book.

Make sure you use the email address that your newsletter gets sent from.

Read AWeber’s “Not in the Address Book?” to see exactly what message an AOL user gets when you are not in the book.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is different if you are business that seeks clients in a localized region.  The value of being in the top 10 of a general search in your field is not worth the investment.

You want to be in the top 10 results when someone in your local area does a search.  Some techniques to use are:

• If you do not have a web hosting company, choose a local one so that you’re IP address ties you to the local area.  This is probably not worth it if you already are hosted with someone.
• Investigate how people in your local area look for your type of business.  Keywords used in the United States are different than those used in Europe or Australia.
• For pay-per-click, select keywords that include regional qualifiers.
• Invest time building local links.  Get listed on community portals and local newspaper websites.

Source: “Homestyle SEO: How to Cater to a Regional Audience,” Dan Skeen, MarketingProfs.com, May 15, 2007.