From Matt Cutts:
Google Chrome continued its upward marketshare march in March. I was looking at my browser breakdown tonight. Here’s what I’ve got from the last 30 days in Google Analytics:"
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Weblog/blog
Chrome marketshare for March 2009
Google Chrome continued its upward marketshare march in March. I was looking at my browser breakdown tonight. Here’s what I’ve got from the last 30 days in Google Analytics:"
Google Chrome continued its upward marketshare march in March. I was looking at my browser breakdown tonight. Here’s what I’ve got from the last 30 days in Google Analytics:"
Short Sentences Sell:�How to Make a Big Bang with Little Words | Search Engine Journal
When was the last time you read your own copy and set about cutting out any words larger than three syllables? It sounds like a drastic measure, but these days, even corporations are starting to see the light: words like synergy, sustainable and assessment are being sliced out in favor of more direct, simplified language. What’s the deal here? Have we all gotten dumber?
Not at all. But we have gotten more used to the instantly-ready, on-demand world. That means we want to get to the good stuff in language we can understand immediately. Words like teamwork, wholesome, and report.
Prevent Junk from Seeping Into Your Copy
Junk words and phrases like “It seems like” and “Possibly” and “Actually” are all working together to clutter up your copy. They seep in so innocently and then, before you know it, you’ve started writing just like you talk. Sure, a conversational tone is great – but it also creates a lot of needless words that detract from the real meat of your writing.
Go ahead. Strop out words like “very”, “just” and “maybe”. It might seem awkward at first to edit out everyday words like that – but in no time, you’ll find that your words flow much more easily while making your message clearer.
Not at all. But we have gotten more used to the instantly-ready, on-demand world. That means we want to get to the good stuff in language we can understand immediately. Words like teamwork, wholesome, and report.
Prevent Junk from Seeping Into Your Copy
Junk words and phrases like “It seems like” and “Possibly” and “Actually” are all working together to clutter up your copy. They seep in so innocently and then, before you know it, you’ve started writing just like you talk. Sure, a conversational tone is great – but it also creates a lot of needless words that detract from the real meat of your writing.
Go ahead. Strop out words like “very”, “just” and “maybe”. It might seem awkward at first to edit out everyday words like that – but in no time, you’ll find that your words flow much more easily while making your message clearer.
Yes, More Are Seeing A New Google Look-And-Feel
We’re getting more and more reports from readers who are seeing a “new” Google look-and-feel for its search results. This is a three column design that Google’s actually been testing for some time. That testing appears to be accelerating.
Google Tackles Its “UI Jazz” Problem, Tests Streamlining Search Options Feature is our story from last November that takes an in-depth look at the new user interface and the features it offers.
So who sees the changes? About 1% to 3% of Google users, who will be randomly selected. The test will probably run for about six weeks. If successful, expect to see the changes — altered to take in account test feedback — show up across Google soon after that.
That six week period has long come and passed — but the testing continues. Google tells me a variety of slight variations are live in the wild, still being shown to a randomly selected group of people. There is no expected launch date."
Google Tackles Its “UI Jazz” Problem, Tests Streamlining Search Options Feature is our story from last November that takes an in-depth look at the new user interface and the features it offers.
So who sees the changes? About 1% to 3% of Google users, who will be randomly selected. The test will probably run for about six weeks. If successful, expect to see the changes — altered to take in account test feedback — show up across Google soon after that.
That six week period has long come and passed — but the testing continues. Google tells me a variety of slight variations are live in the wild, still being shown to a randomly selected group of people. There is no expected launch date."
Google adds Facebook to real-time search | Marketing/Ecommerce Research
"Google recently announced it is now incorporating Facebook Pages status updates in its real-time search feature.
The announcement wasn’t exactly detailed - it consisted of a brief message on Twitter (go figure), so not much is known about the ins and outs of the arrangement at this stage.
Google’s real-time search feature is something I have never really taken much notice of. It consists of a scrolling box updating in real time that appears in the first search engine results page (SERP), usually in relation to breaking news or very popular topics.
For example, if you were to run the following search query at the moment: Winter Olympics - you will likely see the real time results section embedded somewhere on the first page of results.
Real-time search draws from all sorts of sources - newspapers, blogs, Twitter and even MySpace. From what I can gather, the Facebook inclusion will be limited to Facebook Pages - profiles set up by businesses and organizations, or individuals such as politicians. These pages are a little different to general Facebook user profile pages."
The announcement wasn’t exactly detailed - it consisted of a brief message on Twitter (go figure), so not much is known about the ins and outs of the arrangement at this stage.
Google’s real-time search feature is something I have never really taken much notice of. It consists of a scrolling box updating in real time that appears in the first search engine results page (SERP), usually in relation to breaking news or very popular topics.
For example, if you were to run the following search query at the moment: Winter Olympics - you will likely see the real time results section embedded somewhere on the first page of results.
Real-time search draws from all sorts of sources - newspapers, blogs, Twitter and even MySpace. From what I can gather, the Facebook inclusion will be limited to Facebook Pages - profiles set up by businesses and organizations, or individuals such as politicians. These pages are a little different to general Facebook user profile pages."
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Social Media is Here to Stay
Twitter and Facebook can be great for boosting your online sales; but many merchants use it for sales messages only and often defeating themselves in the process.
Taking a look at a few Twitter profiles and Facebook fan pages belonging to online merchants it is noteworthy that the ones who seem to generate the most interest and followers don’t push a sales message with every tweet or update.
Everyone likes a bargain and a tweet/post to showcase special offers is a good idea, but if the tweets are simply “we’re the best”; it’s hard to maintain follower and fan interest, or attract new followers as it becomes immediately apparent you’re only interesting in making bucks.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that per se.
However, people’s time and attention is becoming an increasingly valuable commodity - and so many sources are competing for it. Merchants need to extend themselves a little and perhaps make their forays into social media offer a little more value to their readers.
This doesn’t mean to say you need to chat with everyone of your followers or fans, but provide them with more in terms of interesting content. Selling vegetable seeds? Tweet brief planting tips. Selling motor oil, post some nuggets on engine maintenance. You can also tweet about news from your industry.
It’s not all that mentally taxing to do and the extra time you’ll take will see you increase your follower or fan count and see better engagement with the followers you already have. They’ll start paying more attention when you do post your offers.
Related
An introduction to Twitter as a marketing tool (click)
Saturday, January 23, 2010
7 Tactics to Improve Your Email Performance
They used 7 basic tactics to improve their results
Tactic #1. Mix it up
They might send HTML messages for weeks before delivering a text-heavy message that features long copy and fewer images. They aim to keep their audience interested in product offers by creating messages that catch their eye, he says.
"After a while, we decided to use different templates and not get stuck in a rut. An underlying base strategy is to keep things fresh."
Their approach goes against what some marketers accept as "conventional wisdom" -- that consistency in style is always an asset for an emailer. Audiences may react differently to the same message delivered in varied formats.
Tactic #2. Personalize subject lines
Part of the inspiration for an optimization push was declining open rates among their audience of 25-to-35-year-old male subscribers. They decided to test personalized subject lines by including the recipient’s first name in the copy -- a best practice according to many email professionals.
The A/B split test pitted a first-name approach against a generic subject line:
o Control subject line -- "Don’t be this guy, try Preferred Installer!"
o Test subject line -- "[First Name], is this you? Try Preferred Installer!"
Results:
o The personalized email achieved a 22% open rate
o The non-personalized email came in at 16.9%
The test convinced the team to use personalized subject lines as their standard approach. But their overall "mixing it up" tactic is applied to their subject lines, as well.
Sometimes they’ll send a non-personalized message. "We’ve discovered that overuse of the customer name in the subject line dilutes its effectiveness over time."
Tactic #3. Test days of the week
Next up was testing days of the week. Here’s how Barney describes their approach before the test:
"We are primarily dealing with weekend warriors, and the industry data told us to go for Mondays, so we did," he says. "But we thought we could do better."
The team tested sending messages on Thursdays. The result: Open rates went up.
However, they found that sales dropped significantly during weekends. In other words, sales fell for the Thursday email sends even though the opens were higher.
In the end, the test results provided key information about sales conversions -- not just about opens and clickthroughs. Mondays and Tuesdays once again became their send days.
Tactic #4. Segment according to behavior
Segmentation was not in the mix before the team's email program makeover. They implemented a now-irreplaceable tactic involving five key customer segments in their email list.
They used the following criteria to establish the segments:
o Products abandoned in the last few weeks while in shopping cart
o Click activity in terms of products interaction
o Purchase history
They identified five segments:
o Dirt bikers
o Sport bikers
o Cruisers
o ATV
o Scooter
They examined the impact segmentation has had and liked the results. "We experienced an average increase of over 25% per email directly related to these additional dynamic merchandising [segments]."
Tactic #5. Clean list regularly
They were not diligent about scrubbing their list in previous years. But they have since changed that practice. Now, if an email subscriber has not purchased for one year, they are removed from the list.
"We saved $30,000 the first year in incremental spend by removing those people," Barney says. "When they aren’t responding to the most-aggressive re-engagement offers, well, it’s better to get them off the list."
Tactic #6. Optimize landing pages
Not surprisingly, landing page optimization also has been a core element of the team’s email marketing progress. They started doing A/B landing page tests to see which creative elements provided the biggest improvement.
This process was a major contributor to the 72% revenue lift in 2009. "The most important question is whether or not the landing page fulfills the expectations of the value proposition of the link leading into it."
Tactic #7. Use Facebook icon
Six months ago, the team had approximately 3,000 fans on their Facebook page. Now, at press time, they have 11,159 -- a boost triggered by embedding a Facebook icon in their email messages.
People who click on the icon are taken to a specific Fan page, where they can follow the brand's news and activity. Not only has email helped grow their Facebook Fan group, but Barney suggests that the association also has helped email conversion rates, as well.
"We are still in our infant stage with [social media]," he says. "We are learning what the benefits are. It’s definitely adding to our overall success. It’s a great interface for us to communicate with our fan base."
Tactic #1. Mix it up
They might send HTML messages for weeks before delivering a text-heavy message that features long copy and fewer images. They aim to keep their audience interested in product offers by creating messages that catch their eye, he says.
"After a while, we decided to use different templates and not get stuck in a rut. An underlying base strategy is to keep things fresh."
Their approach goes against what some marketers accept as "conventional wisdom" -- that consistency in style is always an asset for an emailer. Audiences may react differently to the same message delivered in varied formats.
Tactic #2. Personalize subject lines
Part of the inspiration for an optimization push was declining open rates among their audience of 25-to-35-year-old male subscribers. They decided to test personalized subject lines by including the recipient’s first name in the copy -- a best practice according to many email professionals.
The A/B split test pitted a first-name approach against a generic subject line:
o Control subject line -- "Don’t be this guy, try Preferred Installer!"
o Test subject line -- "[First Name], is this you? Try Preferred Installer!"
Results:
o The personalized email achieved a 22% open rate
o The non-personalized email came in at 16.9%
The test convinced the team to use personalized subject lines as their standard approach. But their overall "mixing it up" tactic is applied to their subject lines, as well.
Sometimes they’ll send a non-personalized message. "We’ve discovered that overuse of the customer name in the subject line dilutes its effectiveness over time."
Tactic #3. Test days of the week
Next up was testing days of the week. Here’s how Barney describes their approach before the test:
"We are primarily dealing with weekend warriors, and the industry data told us to go for Mondays, so we did," he says. "But we thought we could do better."
The team tested sending messages on Thursdays. The result: Open rates went up.
However, they found that sales dropped significantly during weekends. In other words, sales fell for the Thursday email sends even though the opens were higher.
In the end, the test results provided key information about sales conversions -- not just about opens and clickthroughs. Mondays and Tuesdays once again became their send days.
Tactic #4. Segment according to behavior
Segmentation was not in the mix before the team's email program makeover. They implemented a now-irreplaceable tactic involving five key customer segments in their email list.
They used the following criteria to establish the segments:
o Products abandoned in the last few weeks while in shopping cart
o Click activity in terms of products interaction
o Purchase history
They identified five segments:
o Dirt bikers
o Sport bikers
o Cruisers
o ATV
o Scooter
They examined the impact segmentation has had and liked the results. "We experienced an average increase of over 25% per email directly related to these additional dynamic merchandising [segments]."
Tactic #5. Clean list regularly
They were not diligent about scrubbing their list in previous years. But they have since changed that practice. Now, if an email subscriber has not purchased for one year, they are removed from the list.
"We saved $30,000 the first year in incremental spend by removing those people," Barney says. "When they aren’t responding to the most-aggressive re-engagement offers, well, it’s better to get them off the list."
Tactic #6. Optimize landing pages
Not surprisingly, landing page optimization also has been a core element of the team’s email marketing progress. They started doing A/B landing page tests to see which creative elements provided the biggest improvement.
This process was a major contributor to the 72% revenue lift in 2009. "The most important question is whether or not the landing page fulfills the expectations of the value proposition of the link leading into it."
Tactic #7. Use Facebook icon
Six months ago, the team had approximately 3,000 fans on their Facebook page. Now, at press time, they have 11,159 -- a boost triggered by embedding a Facebook icon in their email messages.
People who click on the icon are taken to a specific Fan page, where they can follow the brand's news and activity. Not only has email helped grow their Facebook Fan group, but Barney suggests that the association also has helped email conversion rates, as well.
"We are still in our infant stage with [social media]," he says. "We are learning what the benefits are. It’s definitely adding to our overall success. It’s a great interface for us to communicate with our fan base."
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