It’s not all balloons, confetti and fun.
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| No smoke and mirrors! |
In response to Kendall’s post this week sparking the discussion regarding justifying
social media efforts, I say “just add it to the list of items marketers have
to defend”.
Our in-house marketing department, consists of a lively hard- working, talented team of people who make
executing our marketing strategy look like a lot of fun. On any given
day there can be branded cupcakes, selfie sticks and sometimes balloons. I can sympathize with outsiders who view our job as fluff or fun. Do I get defensive - of course- my marketing integrity and character is being questioned. No one seems to mind when we offer them t-shirts or free pizza, but the minute the talk get serious, it's difficult to get some respect!
I say let the numbers do the talking. It's because of this stigma, marketers are called upon to show results even more so than other departments. With any advertising channel, it’s necessary to track the
results. I am often called upon to show results for traditional marketing efforts with data on new business. Digital advertising integration with social media provides tracking
and tools to help state your case and show the results. When we first started our Facebook
account there was a process where our CEO and Board of Directors had to get on
board with the concept. This was not an easy process, after all, this was a new and frightening foray into the
unknown. To prepare for Facebook, we developed procedures, established goals for
content and conducted risk assessments.
There was little or no expectation that Facebook would help with new business. Our
goal was to have a minimum number of posts of two per week. We were concerned
about posting enough content to meet the two day minimum. We have so much content now we are allocating more time to our page. I have been asked to justify the added costs for Facebook ads, and more employee resources. Presently I use Facebook analytics, as well as some build-in website /mobile analytics all which report robust web insights, page views, engagement data and adoption metrics. I use the dynamic statistics to provide valuable statistics to help justify, not only cost, but time and resources spent on the Facebook and digital platforms.
It didn’t work for Hansel and Gretel1 – it will work for your site visitors.
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The birds ate the breadcrumbs left behind by Hansel and Gretel, but “breadcrumbs ensure more convenience for users " according to Google ( p 10) . "A breadcrumb is defined as a row of internal links at the top or bottom of the page that allows visitors to quickly navigate back to the previous sections of the root page" This navigation method is similar to the navigation inside many Microsoft Windows platforms. I love this analogy.
According to Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, one of the important aspects of using search engine functionality, is to “make your site easier to navigate” (p 10) When we were redesigning our webpage, I needed to visualize how each page related to the “root” or home page. So I set up a huge navigation plan made up of giant "post –it" paper around my office to visually plan out how people would navigate the site. I am sure there are methods to digitize this process with software, but this approach it worked for me. It took a great deal of time to configure the pages, and organize the content so that the experience was optimized for the site visitor. The everyday visitor would not take note of how the pages flow, until they can't find what they need! "A good site structure means a great user experience. When you take away the colors, the fonts, the kerning, the graphics, the images, and the white space, good site design is really about a great structure." (Patel, n. d.). The number of pages of our website was decreased from 368 to 250 when we redesigned the site. The removal of the unnecessary pages made the navigation cleaner, and the flow more logical. My goal over the past few years has been to create a home page hub, which serves as the launching off point for the other major site pages. This is done by setting up a limit on the number of clicks. I strive for 1- or 2-click navigation. This configuration provides for simpler site navigation, and less frustration for the site visitor. There is nothing is more frustrating than trying to find one that one piece of information and being linked from page to page, with giant links delving down to get the page you need.
This short video below, provides an easy explanation of snippets. Audio is a little spotty
Google suggests as part of its best practice, to “Avoid creating complex webs of navigation links, e.g., linking every page on your site to every other page, and avoid going overboard with slicing and dicing your content so that it takes twenty clicks” (p 12). Exactly!! That is why my rule is one or two clicks away for the most relevant information. I did not realize until I read the materials this week, how important navigation and landing pages were.
I especially like the graphic, and concept of “Hub-and-Spoke system” offered by 60 Second Marketers, An In-Depth Guide on How to Calculate the ROI of a Social Media Campaign, states “The hub-and spoke system is at the center of a well-run social media campaign” I intend to use this method to continue to build my social media program
Quote of the Week:
| Thinkstock |
1 Hansel and Gretel Brothers Grimm ( n d)
Retrieved February 25, 2017, from http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf
Retrieved February 28.2017, from https://blog.kissmetrics.com/site-structure-enhance-seo/
Retrieved February 25, from http://60secondmarketer.com/blog/2013/11/17/in-depth-guide-calculating-social-media-roi/
Proper page navigation is so important! Many people do not do an adequate job thinking of how other people look for information. Some people search (jumping directly to what they want), some navigate (click through logically), and some like to browse (click through and follow interest). I've participated in market research for ease of website navigability, if it's hard to find what you're looking for, users are likely to bounce and go to another site. Sauro did a study of how users interact with websites, we can use this information to think about how to provide information that works for different people (2012).
ReplyDeleteAt work, we like to play a game where we look at a website or print piece and try to figure out what information someone forgot to include. The "winner" was a website that didn't include the name of the business, address, or hours of operation. Making sure you provide the information visitors need where they can easily find it is a big part of having the relevant content that search engines value for their results as well.
Sauro, J. (2012, June 19). Search vs. browse on websites. Retrieved from https://measuringu.com/search-browse/
Hi Victoria,
ReplyDeleteI like the game approach. That format can really get people involved and engaged in the process. Much better than sitting in a meeting. One of the points I was interested discussing was the “follow up” step provided by the readings/ blog posts this week.
I’ve done web searches and ultimately linked to pages that had little or no relevance to my search topic. Once I found an interesting landing page, the company’s call to action was lengthy or annoying. For instance, if you wanted to download a whitepaper, you had to provide a laundry list of your personal information. Following the download, I was barraged almost instantly by emails and phone calls. As expected, I received a phone call and email. But it didn’t stop, the first few days the calls were constant followed by emails to “touch” base. It was similar to an aggressive used car salesman!
On our classmate’s Kerstin Marzullo’s post, The Perfect Landing Page, she discusses guidelines for an effective landing page. This includes timely follow up. “Follow up on any engagement consumers had on the landing page, send an email if they signed up to follow our brand or if they took interest in a product or service” (Scott, 2015).
Do you think that overly aggressive follow up tactics may scare prospects away? Is there such a thing as too much follow up where the consumer becomes annoyed? Many times, people conduct their online search anonymously for this reason.
Works Cited
Marzullo, K. (2017, February 28). The Pefect Landing Page . Retrieved from Kerstin's COMI 610 Blog: Kmarzullo.blogspot.com,
Scott, D. M. (2015). The New Rules of Marketing & PR. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
I completely agree that aggressive techniques often drive people away. There's an episode of King of the Hill that I always think about for that (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x21w3y8_716-the-miseducation-of-bobby-hill_na). There's a sales competition at Strickland Propane, and Bobby helps Joe Jack sell based on flashy gimmicks and lies, but that plan backfires. However Hank always wins because "I educate the customer so they can make an informed decision." I think that one line from a cartoon fifteen years ago sums up most of what we've covered in this class about quality content.
DeleteI think many people try to be anonymous online to avoid the sales harassment you reference. I have an email address just for cases when I don't want a company to have my "real" email. There's a difference between generating real leads... and getting fake emails from people or driving people away with pushy tactics. Kerstin has a great example of the difference between a home page and a landing page, but even the best landing page is only as good as how a company acts.
A press release for the museum went out with my contact information, and I've received dozens of cold-calls and emails trying to sell me services. They all mention seeing the press release, and then go into a long spiel about how awesome they are and why I should hire them. Why would an art museum in a town with only a regional airport want to be featured in a business segment targeted to airline customers in-flight? And after the first six times I ignored them, why do they think I would want to do business with them the seventh time? Or when a company sends me four emails with the exact same text from four different names?
This is a personal pet peeve of mine - that you have to "give to get" philosophy. Having been through the multitude of emails that have followed after I have downloaded something, I do think twice before I set myself up for the annoyance. I like, Victoria, have set up a separate email so I can bypass any aggressive tactics.
DeleteI'm pretty sure we are not alone in trying to operate somewhat anonymously. Do you have any great examples of lead nurturing campaigns that have not turned you off?
Hi Monica,
DeleteThank you for your response. To answer your question, I did recently experience a positive lead generation campaign. It was through HootSuite. I downloaded a free planning guide. I did not get barraged with calls and emails. I did notice that they showed up on my Twitter feed more frequently, but I can live with that. I may have had a different experience if I downloaded from my pc, where I may have been prompted to add more information.
Hi Judy!
ReplyDeleteThanks for continuing the conversation this week.
I love the breadcrumbs example. We recently had to explain the importance of them to the staff of our Health Club when they were frustrated our website was built a certain way. They didn't like the aesthetics of it but our department emphasized how important it is for users to know how to get back to a page instead of leaving our site for another.
I also think your rule for one or two clicks away is a good rule to follow. I think the best websites are simple and make it easy for users to find the information they are looking for. Today people can easily tell the difference between a good website and a bad one and because your website could be the first impression you make on a customer, it has to be good!
Kendall
Hi Kendall,
ReplyDeleteThere are many times when the two-click rule is a hard rule to enforce. This is especially true when there is a large amount of content. I was told by our website creator/host that the average webpage is about 250 pages. This amount of pages sounds like a lot, until you start configuring pages, and sub pages. So, if your goal is one- or two-clicks away, the more pages and sub-pages you have the less likely the rule will be enforced. This is not even taking into account any links to urls, or documents! We recently added a quick launch bar to our homepage. It contains one click accessibility to the top 5 most frequently viewed pages. This simple formatting change was done to hold us over until we redesign our website to a more modern format.