Unless, of course, you can properly staff it.
I know, I know -- 100 million people use twitter; 150 million tweets per day are sent; it’s a great way to interact with customers, etc.
There are lots of stories about how Twitter has been used to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Additionally, a number of books can be found on the topic of Twitter -- providing everything from the basics, to excellent examples of how to use this powerful tool.
Of course, with the good comes the bad.
This past Sunday, the area in which I live was hit pretty hard by Hurricane Irene. Now, I was prepared for the outage, so it hasn’t had too much of a negative impact. Quite frankly, I’ve enjoyed the peace and quiet that the electrical outage has afforded me.
My power company was quick to direct people to their Twitter feed for updates on restorations. Seeing that they appeared to be responding to people’s tweets regarding the outages, I tweeted them -- 3 days ago -- and never heard back. Come to find out, they were only responding to a small portion of the tweets they received.
I’m using the above as a fairly drastic example (given the extenuating circumstances with the storm) -- but, unfortunately, there are thousands of cases just like this. People have come to expect that if you open an account, they can interact with you. In my case, I’ve essentially been on hold for 3 days, via Twitter. People expect a response just like they would a phone call, email or web form. You wouldn’t let any of those go unanswered, would you?
Don't make your customers work so hard to contact you. Make sure that if you open a Twitter account (or any other social media channel), you are properly staffed, either internally or externally, to make sure the customer experience is at the level it needs to be.
One of the greatest joys in building a marketing campaign is looking at the product, and trying to come up with words that truly exemplify the experience the customer will have with the product. Unfortunately, there is a tendency to return to the same well, and pull out several of the same words. There are plenty of lists out there of overused advertising buzzwords, and we aren’t going to make another one.
Instead of creating a similar list, what we are going to do is help you become more descriptive. If you click on this link, you will find an excel spreadsheet to download. Once you download it, you will see that there are six bingo cards filled out with words pulled from a list of 100 most overused words in Press Releases.
This is one game of Bingo you don’t really want to win.
If you’re reviewing your soon-to-be-released PR package, and it stands a chance of winning a game, you have too many buzzwords. This means that there is a good chance the average reader of your release will immediately think “Sales” and Pitch your copy directly into the cylindrical file.
The solution is to look at each of those buzz words, and examine them from the customer’s point of view. Domino’s Pizza’s brand image relaunch would have gone horribly, if they had said, “Domino’s crust is New And Improved”. Instead, what caught the general public’s attention was “Domino’s crust is cardboard and no one likes it.” Then, they explained that it was new, and improved. The fact that the buzzwords were implied, and not surrounded by bright flashing lights, made this campaign a huge success.
Writing smarter doesn’t mean use bigger, better buzzwords. It means connecting with your audience more effectively, so they have a better understanding. Write in a way that illustrates to the reader that you care about their needs, and are here to serve them, not just to WOW them.
(buzzwords for the cards were taken from a great blog, listed here: http://www.adamsherk.com/public-relations/most-overused-press-release-buzzwords)
Now that each has a name, and we realize the differences, we can begin to understand how to use these definitions to help clarify some of your advertising.
We’ll use an imaginary flower shop, called Rosie’s, as an example. Rosie’s decides to increase its business. Rosie’s pays for print ads, email blasts, and some direct mail. All of this advertising looks good; there are sharp, crisp images, and the language clearly states that large percentages are being discounted for a precise period of time. Unfortunately, sales don’t increase. Is Rosie’s to assume that “Print is dead?” Why did this paid media fail?
This is why having a smart advertising company that understands the holistic approach to marketing is important. A good ad agency doesn’t look at the ad, and say, “This is great!” until they have examined what your competition is saying, what the physical restrictions to your business may be, and what the general population thinks of both you and your product. If Rosie’s is located in a small, hard to find place, a portion of the ad needs to address how to find Rosie’s a little more than, say, a BestBuy would. If Rosie’s was known for having poor quality in the past, the ad needs to address the reputation, and clearly state that there has been a change.
When companies most often fail with paid media, the failure is caused by thinking that the ads will run in a vacuum. Remember, everything needs to tie together, to have a full message. Just because you have the ability to say whatever you want with paid media, you still need to have ads based in reality, of what the customer should expect from both you and the product. Obviously, you cannot break the law, with false advertising. Beyond that, the ad must also have a certain level of credibility. How many businesses have put together ads that are too good to be true, only to have no customer participation? How many times has the phrase “tons in stock” actually meant “just a couple”? Bending the truth will eventually catch up with you, and your paid media will become less effective.
The easiest of these to repair is the most tangible; your owned media. By “Easy” I don’t mean “Inexpensive”. Get your websites under control. Make your physical location pleasant, clean, and accessible. Stock the products your customers want. Provide customers with a pleasant place to do business.
The hardest to wrangle is the earned media. Earned implies that a company cannot simply go out and buy it. You get it from the customers. In order to have a successful earned media presence, you need your customer service spot on. You need to give the customer avenues to talk to your company about any service issue that comes up, as well as an experience that they would want to share with others. Although websites fall under owned media, the comments from customers on your social media channels are most certainly “earned” media. Complete transparency and a way to discuss any issue that may occur is your primary concern. Building some loyalty through some fun, innovative ways, whether it be Facebook contests, loyalty cards, and rewards programs all have the potential to increase your positive earned media. Referral plans work to build word of mouth for some businesses. You can try to influence earned media, but a lot of it has to happen organically, and over time.
Do you know the difference between Owned, Paid and Earned Media? Beyond the differences, do you understand the relationships of them; as well has how to direct each one in a manner that is most useful to your organization?
Although all three are fairly obvious in hindsight, it is probably best to take a moment and define them.
Paid- Stuff you bought. Radio ads, PPC, TV spots, print ads, banner ads, corporate sponsorships, etc. You spent money on these with the sole purpose of bringing in business through the door (or online). In summary, they are what you want people to think of when they examine your brand, and the message may not be 100% accurate to reality. For example, you could say you have the greatest prices ever with paid advertising, but it certainly does not make it true.
Owned - Stuff you own. Your website, your social media channel and presence on the social media channel, your inventory, the uniforms of your employees, the actual brick and mortar of your establishment, etc. All of these carry your company branding, and work as advertisements for your business. They are static, and relatively unchanging. In their totality, they most accurately show your audience or customer what you are really all about. Although there can be some manipulation of the owned media, people can examine your owned media for themselves, and make judgments.
Earned - Stuff you have little real control over. Word of mouth, the responses on your social media sites, reviews from news agencies and critics, your customer satisfaction indexes, your reputation, etc. These are what your market thinks of you. You can have the greatest facility in the world, and all the advertising you want, but if your reputation is bad, you are going to struggle with repeat business. You influence this, but you don’t control it.
Each of these areas is extremely important, although they function very differently. The overlap of some aspects, and how they share the same space, is proof positive that it is impossible to pay attention to only one of these types of media. For example, you cannot have reactions on your Facebook wall (earned) without having a Facebook Page (owned). Excellent reviews on Yelp (earned) won’t bring some customers into a store with bars on the windows in the wrong part of town (owned). Paying for a great radio spot to bring people into your horribly staffed, badly organized store (owned) can result in no new sales, and could actually hurt your word of mouth (earned). So you can see how they are all related, even though they are not the same.
As you work your way down the list, the level of control shifts from your hands to others. For example, you can say whatever you want in your paid ads, based on as much fantasy as you want. They are your words. When you get to owned, there is a certain level of control. You can redesign your website however you want, you can paint your store, and you can dress your employees up in wonderful attire, but if your shelves are empty, you can’t fake it. There is some control. Bad reviews, based on misinformation, virtually destroyed Audi (the 6000 debacle) Ford (saddlebag gas tanks) and others. Your earned media can be influenced, but don’t think, even for a minute, that you can truly control it.
There are over 80 million people accessing the Web via their Smartphones. That audience is WAY too large to ignore.
Smartphones outsell PC’s. That was true at the end of last year. The gap between the two platforms is only going to grow.
Mobile Web sites reach all audiences, while apps do not. Sure, the idea of having a shiny new app is all sorts of exciting. But, focus your efforts on cleaning up your mobile Web presence first.
Most Web sites mobile traffic grew by more than 50% this year. More Smartphones means more traffic. Mobile Web use more than doubled in 2010, and there’s no reason to think the increase won’t be even greater in 2011.
In 3 years, more people will access the Internet via their Smartphone, than they do through a desktop. Over 80 million users and counting!
Desktop sites are sometimes difficult, and often impossible to use on a mobile device. Pinching to zoom in on desktop sites stinks. Mobile browsing is all about offering up a quick loading and easy-to-use experience.
43 Million people check email from their mobile phone daily. When your customers click on a link to your website from a mobile e-mail client, it should be visible, accessible, and optimized for mobile.
Your competitors have a mobile web site. And you don’t. I hope I didn’t scare you.
Reach your audience on the go. Good customer service means being there to assist them at all times. If you don’t have a mobile website, you aren’t truly there for them at all times.
After taking a good, long, honest look at your business’s online identity, you have come to the realization that it is lacking. Maybe the look and feel is reminiscent of an Atari game. The only emails you receive from your website are from Nigerian Princes or offers to rebuild your website. Even though your site is old and out of date, trying to load up your website on a Smartphone is an impossibility with all of the flash navigation you have on it. Not to mention, the name of your site is www.2beornottoB.net, for all of your Shakespearean needs. How do we fix this without completely starting from scratch?
First, we’ll conquer the domain name issue. Your domain name is a main part of your branding. If you cannot line up your business name with your web name completely, you’d better have something close. Buying multiple domains, and pointing them all at the same site, is one way to help organize this. Just for fun, type in www.coke.com. Notice, it brings you to www.coca-cola.com. Try www.cocacola.com. Same thing, right? If your name could be confusing, or if there’s a chance that someone will type it in wrong, go out and buy yourself some extra domain names, and point them all at your site. Do your best to make sure that you have all of the possible names customer’s may accidentally put when looking for your name.
Next, if your website design hasn’t changed in the last couple of years, you probably need an overhaul. For one thing, any pictures you have of people may seem dated, due to their outfits. Even something as simple as blue jeans and a T-shirt can appear dated. Colors have come and gone out of style. Even your font choice may cry out “New, Inexperienced Company Here”. Keep your site current, with new graphics and style cues. Hint: there’s more than 16 colors allowed on computers now.
If you’re trying to get email from your website, have a form, not just your email address posted there for the world to copy. A form will help to limit some of the junk mail. Understand, there are still desperate people that will go and fill out your form, trying to sell you things, but at least they have to do it on your website. They can’t simply copy your email address into their mass email program and pepper you over and over again. It also makes things easier for your customer. For example, if a customer uses a web-based email system, like Yahoo, they have to copy your email address and LEAVE YOUR SITE to contact you. Do you really want them going off, onto a different site to contact you? Or do you think that they could be distracted when they leave your site, and go to their email? Who knows, maybe that Nigerian Prince has contacted them, too...
In case you didn’t know, people don’t want to read about your business. How many “About us” categories does one business need?(about us, our history, our goals, what we do, how we do it, when we do what we do, our beliefs, meet our staff, meet our staff’s family, meet our pets, our pet’s history and goals, etc.....) The primary subject of your website is your customer. Your website needs descriptions of your products, FAQ’s on how to use them best, contacts for sales or customer service, and a limited amount of social proof. Your website is a sales tool, to either directly sell your product or service right online, or to increase off-line sales. Make sure the point of your website is one click away at most. If you are selling goods, make the sales process easy. Don’t force the customer to fill out 20 different forms before they buy, or they won’t bother.
Remember, it’s about ease for the consumer, not for you.
We’ll tackle mobile websites tomorrow.
What would you consider the most basic defining character of a website? I would say that it is to share information. The quality of the information, and the ease at getting this information from the website determines how good the website is. Because the ease of getting to the information is what determines the usability of the website, if the user can’t get to it, your site just doesn’t perform.
You thought I was going to go technical there, didn’t you?
In order to determine if your site is ready for today’s world, we need to look at it in three different ways. The first is the most obvious: on a desktop or laptop computer. Chances are, you’re reading this blog on one of these devices. If you go from this blog to your website, you will see what we like to call the “traditional” website.
Now, before we go any further, you need to remember why your potential customer visits your website. If they can’t get to the primary purpose quickly, with one or two clicks, your website needs some major work... So, stop what you’re doing and fill out the “Feedback” page located on the side of the browser window. Your traditional website needs to be usable, and needs to provide the answers to any questions your customer may need before doing business with you. Once again, we can help with this, if your site is not up to par. Chances are, if you haven’t updated your website in the past two years, you probably have a problem.
The second place we need to look at your website is on a Smartphone. Load up your website on your phone, and see how long it takes. Before you start playing around with zoom features, can you read it? Can you find the link to answer your questions, without squinting or zooming? Basically, is your mobile website built?
A mobile website is not simply your traditional website, but smaller. It should be completely different website. It should have nice, big buttons, that are easy to read. It should have menus that are obvious. You shouldn’t have to start by figuring out which way to best zoom your screen. Your content should be different, legible, and instantly available to the user. You don’t need to be able to answer every possible question your customer needs before doing business with you; but rather any question your customer needs to do business with you RIGHT NOW. Setting appointments, buying services, hours of operation, etc.
Go to Amazon.com on your phone, and you can buy things. You can search the entire store. Does it look anything like Amazon’s traditional website? Yes, it does. It carries the same brand messaging, and it has a similar feel, but it is obviously not the same exact page you see on your computer screen.
That’s two places, and I said, we needed to check three. The third is your URL. If I like your site, or your services, can I tell a friend your site? Can it be passed along easily? When you want to tell someone your website, do you need to say, “Here, let me spell it for you?” You need to stay away from certain words, like 2 and to and two. I’ll be too confused after trying to remember which type of TWO that I’m not going to go 2 ur site. (be careful of strange abbreviations, too!)
If you’re in good shape for all three places, Good job! If you aren’t, stay tuned for suggestions on how to turn it around without starting from scratch.
What was the last small to medium sized business website that you visited online recently?
Why did you visit it?
Often times, when small to mid-sized businesses begin the design of their websites, these two questions don’t come up. The businesses worry about the questions of, “How are we going to present our content? What are the colors going to be? How can we best highlight how up to date we are? Do we want a graphics and video heavy site, or go with something more basic?” The questions are geared towards WHAT the website will be, instead of WHY.
Why have you visited a small business website? Was it to contact the business? Shop? Look for support on some issue you had after making a purchase or obtaining a service? Was it something as basic as “Where are they located?” or “What time are they open?”
Design elements are extremely important, and using your website as a platform that explains both your projected brand image and is visually pleasing is obviously such an important part of website design that sometimes the usage is negatively affected. Here are some solutions to making sure your website is functionally up to par.
- Look at the emails you have received.
- How many of these are asking questions that the customer should have been able to answer easily from reading your website?
- Are there usage questions of your product that you could create additional pages/videos for? Perhaps a “How to” section?
- Count the number of clicks to get to your main reason for having a website.
- Do you sell online? How complicated is this process for the customer? Is there a one-click method for returning customers?
- Do you take some form of application? How many clicks is it to reach said application? Is the application worth doing online, or would the customer find it too complex?
- Simple usability.
- How many different pages is your “About Us” spread over? (About us, What We Do, Our Story, From the Desk of, etc.)
- Does your customer have to search for contact information? Business hours? Store location?
- How’s your beautiful site look on a smartphone? Is it still usable?
- How many levels down does your website go? Can you get back to your main menu with a couple of quick clicks of the “Back” button?
- There are questions that your cashier/ service technician may hear all the time, that could be answered on your site. Be proactive.
Aesthetics count. No one goes to your business web page simply to see how pretty a website you have built. Make sure it delivers on content, and on functionality.
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