Interlude 2
Finding Marketing Moments
,If you are a copy writer – whether you work freelance, for an agency, or inside an e-commerce company – everything in this book is relevant to you. This interlude just adds a few points about marketing online.
Marketing on the web is different: Pull not push
In traditional, paper-based, direct marketing, you start the conversation. You send information to people. When they get it, they don’t have their own need, their own agenda, in mind. You are putting a need in front of them and hoping that it resonates with them.
That’s a “push” technology – you push information out to potential customers.
Of course, push also exists in the web world. You probably have many people who have registered to receive e-marketing from you (e-specials, e-newsletters). You encourage people to follow you on Twitter and friend you on Facebook so you can push ideas and enticements out to them.
But most visits to your web site probably don’t come directly from that e-marketing. Most web contacts are part of a “pull” technology.
People come to your web site of their own choice because they think you might have something they want to buy. And that changes everything. They start the conversation.
As a marketing specialist, you may have been trained to think about how to draw people in to your products. On the web, however, your first worry should be how to not drive away the people who have chosen to come to your site.
Look back:
Case Study 5-2: The site visitor didn’t read the paragraph that starts with “Congratulations.”
Case Study 7-3: The “after” version that got much better conversion gets right to the point. The “before” version starts with a marketing pitch that doesn’t help the conversation.
Because site visitors are usually very focused on whatever brought them to the site, they are very likely to bypass any messages that don’t help them satisfy the conversation they came for – until they’ve met their need. Then, you can entice them to consider more.
Join the site visitor’s conversation
Our gal looking for a service provider got to this provider’s site and immediately saw a tab called Solutions. Opening that tab, she saw the options were For Home, For Business, and so on. She clicked on For Home expecting to get plans, prices, perhaps bulleted lists of what she would get for each plan. She didn’t expect what she got (Figure Interlude 2-1).
Figure Interlude 2-1 On this page, the company just talks about itself. It doesn’t join the conversation the site visitor started. It’s pushing too much marketing too soon.
The site does have what our gal is looking for (Figure Interlude 2-2). But from the screen she’s on, she’ll find it only if she notices the links (in text; no buttons) – and if she’s not turned off by the dense paragraphs of “read about us” marketing.
Figure Interlude 2-2 Successful marketing makes itself part of the conversation that the site visitor started.
Find the right marketing moments
The way to market on a web site is to join the conversation that site visitors bring to you. Then, you can cross-sell and upsell – but only after your site visitors have satisfied at least part of the conversation they started with the site.
I call these times when site visitors are ready to hear what you have to offer, “marketing moments.”
A “marketing moment” is a time and place on the web site when site visitors are ready for a marketing message. A marketing moment is not meant to distract your site visitor. A marketing moment is a natural follow-on or complement to what your site visitor is doing.
Figure Interlude 2-3 shows you how Amazon.com is a master at marketing moments.
Figure Interlude 2-3 Amazon.com and many other online sellers find many marketing moments – within the site visitor’s conversation.
Don’t miss good marketing moments
I’m amazed at how many sites put lots of marketing upfront (too early in the conversation) and then don’t market later when that would be the way to keep the conversation going.
For example, the Founders credit union does a great job of getting people directly to the facts they are looking for. But then it misses the opportunity to market to them from the facts (Figure Interlude 2-4).
Figure Interlude 2-4 This credit union makes the rates easy to see with no marketing fluff before the numbers. But it also strands its site visitors.
Never stop the conversation
The missed marketing moment on the Founders site also brings the conversation the site visitor started to a screeching halt. That’s not a good idea.
Always let your site visitors decide when they have what they need. Don’t let the site stop the conversation.
If you walk your personas through their conversations, you’ll see when you might be cutting off a conversation too early.
You can include many ways to continue the conversation:
• Give site visitors related links.
• Market related opportunities.
• Engage site visitors in your social media.
• Allow them to provide recommendations, comments, or other feedback.
• Give them “contact us” information in the main content area as well as in the global navigation.
You can keep the conversation going – in fact, you can encourage the conversation to continue – as Signal Financial does in Figure Interlude 2-5.
Figure Interlude 2-5 This credit union does not waste people’s time with “we’re wonderful” marketing messages. Instead, it markets well by encouraging site visitors to continue the conversation. It captures the marketing moment.